Chapter 80
The countdown numbers were decreasing.
As evidence, signs were appearing.
Just as trees folded their leaves and shrunk their bodies before a terrible storm approached, as insects burrowed into their respective hiding places and hid under leaves to protect themselves, and as countless small creatures held their breath to save their lives instead of making noise in hopes of finding a mate, these signs typically manifested in things people took for granted.
Things people took for granted and passed by.
Things that were mere background.
All these things were slowly changing.
Signs hinting at ominous events were visible everywhere.
The air in the hotel had settled.
Employees were rushing to use their vacation days.
The cold air had become heavy.
A chilly feeling lingered in the hotel.
All the pests and vermin that had been lurking around the hotel had disappeared.
The scent of incense wafted from the rooftop.
A faint smell of blood could be detected from the top floor.
A dentist with a house call bag was going in and out of the room where a young Asian was staying.
Noises could be heard from the bathroom.
Scratches had appeared on various windows of the hotel.
But these signs were too difficult to recognize.
If dismissed as nothing, they were infinitely close to superstition, and if one started paying attention, they approached something akin to doomsday prophecies.
So it wasn't strange that the people at the center of what was about to happen didn't notice this.
"Aaaargh! Puma Кореянка! What are you doing!"
"Can't~ go!"
"M-move! Move, I said! My ranking is dropping! Ack! I've become last!"
The cause of the strange atmosphere in the hotel was spending an incredibly peaceful daily life.
Lee Arin and Ella were causing a commotion in front of a large TV that filled the wall, holding game controllers. Inside the TV, cute characters were racing in karts, and a leopard character presumed to be Lee Arin's was blocking Ella's character, preventing her from moving forward.
It was a behavior known as "blocking," considered bad manners.
"You troll-!"
Ella, who had been subjected to this behavior that would make one grab the back of their neck and foam at the mouth, ended up in last place, and as soon as the last place indicator appeared, Ella rose in fury and lunged at Lee Arin.
But unfortunately, Ella was a witch, and Lee Arin was a martial artist.
Ella was easily subdued as if an adult was restraining a child, and she ended up pinned under Lee Arin, screaming in pain.
"Ah, I surrender! I surrender!"
Ella screamed at the pain from her arm twisted behind her back, and Lee Arin, grinning, let go of her arm as if showing mercy. Barely freed from the restraint, she glared at Lee Arin while panting, then shrieked.
"Let's play something else! Something where you can't cheat!"
"Sure, sure, Rabbit. I'll win no matter what we play though~"
So the two started looking for another game by manipulating the controllers.
"How about a boxing game?"
"That's too advantageous for you! Let's do this quiz game!"
"No way! That's more advantageous for you!"
"Then what should we do! Oh, how about this? Ring... Fitness? Fitness Adventure genre? It says it uses motion recognition sensors to measure the accuracy of postures and determine scores and ranks?"
"Alright, let's do that!"
The sight of the two playing games while bickering but sticking close together made them look like best friends.
Lee Serin, watching the two, said to the demon:
They look really close. It was good to self-cancel classes.
[ My contractor, my contractor. It would be more correct to call that coerced-cancellation rather than self-cancellation. ]
The three were students.
And the duty of a student is to attend classes.
Although they were holed up in a hotel room to avoid threats, it was clear that not going to school would cause big problems as students.
So Lee Serin took action herself to get all three of them excused absences.
That's right.
Made it happen.
Gremory's power.
The power to uncover secrets.
I-it's the fault of the person who asked for evidence.
Uncovering secrets and using them as material to demand something.
In general, this was called blackmail.
But Lee Serin, far from feeling guilty about blackmailing, rather shouted at the demon that her actions were right. The demon then purred, its lips trembling, and looked at her as if she were cute.
[ Well, that teacher was indeed negligent. Such people never come to their senses unless someone grabs their leash and shakes it to teach them a lesson, so judging your actions should be based on whether they were efficient or inefficient rather than concepts of good and evil. In that sense, my contractor. My contractor who's in a good mood because you legally skipped classes you were too lazy to attend and even got praised for it. What you did was extremely efficient. ]
The demon said that and then muttered "but" before continuing.
[ If you do such actions to a good person, it would clearly be an evil act. It's said that power makes one want to wield it when one has it, and it's human nature to want to examine secrets when one knows of their existence, but if you're consumed by that, you'll only become a corrupted evil person or a criminal alienated from society. My contractor, my contractor who has not yet fully grown. You must always be wary of this, and be wary again. ]
Lee Serin nodded as she looked at the demon speaking to her seriously.
I know. Th-that's why I'm not committing crimes.
[ Yes. I know. You're just not doing things that would clearly be crimes, but aren't you walking that line? Under the pretext of satisfying curiosity. ]
Ah, I got it...
Lee Serin nodded at the demon's advice.
But while she agreed with and accepted the demon's opinion, continuing to listen to it was another matter.
Like Lee Arin who had escaped to dreamland to avoid nagging, Lee Serin changed the subject to avoid nagging.
B-by the way, that looks fun! Should I try it too?
She looked towards the TV with exaggerated gestures.
[ ...You mean that? ]
At the place Lee Serin had chosen to change the subject, there was one beast-like person overflowing with energy and bouncing around, and a weak human becoming a corpse in real-time.
「 One more---Thing-! 」
"Hee-, heek. S-save me..."
"Rabbit! Isn't this fun? Huh?"
Ella was collapsed on the floor. Her thin limbs were trembling like aspen leaves, and hot breaths were being exhaled along with screams.
On the TV, a fairly good-looking muscular trainer was repeatedly doing squats, and his refreshing expression and unnecessarily bright voice were stimulating Ella, who had collapsed due to her physical limits.
He was urging Ella to do the same movements quickly, and she was ignoring that terrible request with her eyes tightly shut.
And Lee Arin, bouncing next to Ella, was excitedly moving her body as if she had just warmed up.
The scene resembled a large dog with unnecessarily overflowing energy often seen in parks and its owner being dragged along for a walk.
"I-I can't. Kill me..."
Ella's figure, lying on the floor and muttering hopelessly, was truly like a corpse (jin) itself.
The sight of her barely breathing and squeezing out the strength of her muscles to speak evoked sympathy in those who saw it.
[ It's a comedy when seen from afar. But if you participate in it, it would become a tragedy, so do you really find that interesting, my contractor? ]
Lee Serin closed her mouth at the camel's question.
It was obvious that it would become a tragedy if she said it was interesting, given that there wasn't much difference in physical strength between Ella and Lee Serin, and if she said it wasn't interesting, it seemed like she would hear more nagging.
"Hey! Serin! Stop moping on the bed over there and let's do this together. No, do it! Do it!"
But unfortunately, Lee Serin had no choice.
The large dog that had knocked out its owner had designated her as the next sacrifice.
Lee Arin reached Lee Serin's front in an instant, bouncing up and down, and forcibly grabbed her arm and dragged her in front of the TV.
"W-wait. My stamina..."
"That's why~ You need to do things like this to build stamina! Exercise makes your skin better too! Look. What was it, toxin release? You need to release toxins through sweat to improve your skin. Look! Ella's skin is glowing!"
It was indeed glowing.
She was not just coated but soaked in sweat, so how could she not be glowing?
Even the Dol Hareubang (stone grandpa) standing still on Jeju Island would surely shine brightly if it were pickled in sweat to that extent.
「 Welcome! New adventure aspirants are always welcome! 」
「 Let's go on an adventure together! 」
「 Now! Shall we all shout together before the adventure? 」
「 Muscle! Muscle! Muscle! 」
But what could a person without strength do?
Lee Serin was forcibly held and became a new adventure aspirant, and she found herself in a situation where she had to follow the postures specified by the trainer shown on TV. Now she would be putting severe strain on her muscles and suffering from terrible muscle pain the next day, and she would be sweating enough to soak the floor with her heart feeling like it's about to burst.
But was there such a thing as salvation?
「 Let's go on an adventure! Now, let's staa– 」
Aaart----.
Crack-!
Just as the trainer was about to take her to the world of joyful physical training while shouting slogans energetically, a power outage occurred.
Darkness descended on the entire room with a loud sound as if an incandescent bulb had burst.
When the fluorescent lights and TV turned off, the entire room became a situation where one couldn't see an inch in front of them. Only the emergency evacuation arrows made of fluorescent material were faintly glowing, providing the only comfort in the darkness.
"Is it a power outage?"
Ella, who had been lying on the floor, got up when the power outage hit.
"Ignis fatuus!"
Ella, who was accustomed to living in darkness, naturally called her familiar spirit, and a sphere made of white light popped out and circled around her. Then, as if thanking her for calling it, it rubbed against her cheek and circled around her as if it were the moon, illuminating the darkened room with light.
"Huu. A power outage. I wonder how they manage power here."
She sighed and looked out the window.
It would have been less annoying if the entire area had been affected.
Outside the window, the lights of homes and streetlights were shining brightly as if a power outage was a story from another country. They shone like stars, making light spread on the glass, and made the large window glass feel like a wave of light reflecting and rippling.
"Can't be helped! Rabbit, let's sleep together!"
"What?"
"I said, let's sleep together?"
"No, wait. That sounds weird! Are you really a lesbian?!"
As Ella was looking at the beautiful night view, Lee Arin approached her from behind, put her hands between Ella's armpits, and dragged her to the bed. And while being dragged along without strength, Ella screamed in shock at the strange expression coming from Lee Arin's mouth, and Lee Arin grinned as if finding her reaction amusing.
And Lee Serin–
Knock knock.
–heard a small sound of someone knocking on the door.