Side Story 01 – A Certain Innkeeper’s Reception
The side stories will primarily be from the perspective of other characters, and unlike the main story, the tone will be more serious and more horrific.
However, having already read the main story and knowing full well how things are actually progressing, I think that the readers will instead read the stories with a grin and find them fluffy instead.
…I can’t imagine that there are any people out there with weird reading habits like reading the side stories before the main story, but if you do exist, you were beyond my expectations, so please go ahead with this in mind.
There will be 11 side stories in total, and the length of each one varies.
Let’s start with a bit of a jab.
“Oh, a guest? Welcome, this is an inn.”
Around the time when the sun was about to set, hearing the sound of the door opening, I turned and greeted the customer. They looked suspicious; clad from head to toe in a black robe, but having worked in an inn for many years and having seen countless customers before, I could immediately tell from her figure that she was a young girl and so I wasn’t particularly suspicious of her. If a young girl walks around with her face showing she’ll meet a lot of trouble after all, so it’s natural to protect herself.
Now then, for some reason it feels a bit colder in here but… Well, I’m sure it’s just my imagination.
“How much is one night?”
“One night is 1 silver, breakfast is 5 coppers, dinner is 10 coppers, and a tub of hot water is 5 coppers.”
It’s a little more expensive than other inns, but I think our rooms and food make up for it. We aren’t connected to a tavern so it isn’t noisy, and there aren’t any rough customers either, after all.
“Five nights, with the food and water too please.”
With those words, I was handed some silver coins. One, two, three… Mn, there are certainly 6 here. Most customers pay by the night, but she seems to be quite used to spending money. I hadn’t even told her how much it was yet, and she’d already calculated it herself after all. She must be the daughter of some major merchant, right?
I don’t think it’s the case, but it couldn’t be that she’s a noble, right? The robe she’s wearing is quite well made, though. No matter how much better our inn might be compared to the others, this isn’t a place that a noble would stay.
“Got it, your room is on the second floor, the final door on the right. This is the key. Do you want to eat straight away?”
“Yes, if that’s possible.”
“Right away. I’ll prepare it now so wait in whichever seat you’d like.”
After handing her a key attached to a wooden plate, I went to the kitchen to tell the innmaster to prepare a person’s share of dinner.
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Because the girl I mentioned didn’t seem to be a very talkative person, we never even chatted so I didn’t know her name. Seeing as she always keeps her robe on whether she’s going out or eating dinner in her room, I’m sure she has some circumstances. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested, but it isn’t good to pry into the business of the customers after all, so I’m not going to ask.
But still, although she told me not to clean the room or change the bed sheets while she was staying there, she isn’t doing anything weird in there, is she? I’m a little worried.
Eating breakfast, going out, and then returning at night. The girl continued to repeat this, but after a few days, there was a time when she came back earlier than usual. Although she was silent, she would at least reply when you called out “Welcome back”, but that day for some reason as soon as she entered the inn, she immediately headed for the stairs. Wondering what was wrong, I looked towards her, and through the gap in her robe, I saw her face for the first time────
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──────!? W-, What the heck was that!?
Her face was more beautiful than expected, but more importantly what was with those eyes!?
Anger, hatred, disgust, disdain, bloodthirst, resentment, anguish, grief, despair; those black eyes were filled with every negative emotion imaginable. In my years working here I’ve seen the eyes of all sorts of customers, but this was the first time in my life that I’d seen eyes like those.
No, those aren’t eyes that a human would make. They’re the eyes of something much more sinister and terrifying. The moment I saw them, it was like my heart was in a vice-grip. Aahh, how terrifying…
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Aahh, just what kind of customer are we hosting.
If possible I’d like them to leave right this instant, but they’ve already paid for two more nights. If I could return that money then I would do so this instant, but if it flew into a rage and attacked…
There’s just two days left. Just two more days. It’s been fine so far, so it should be fine for two more days. That’s right, isn’t it?
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After that one day that was different, the thing that looked like a girl went back to normal. Fortunately it seems that she didn’t realise I had seen her face.
I was so afraid that I almost couldn’t do it, but so that it didn’t show its true colours, I had to talk to it like normal, after all. If it knew that I had suspected its true form, I can’t even imagine what it’d do to me. Please deliver me from evil.
And like that, I somehow managed to pass the two days.
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Aahh, it’s finally gone…
That thing that looked like a girl was talking about extending its stay, so after pleading with it, I somehow got it to accept my refusal. To be honest, the whole time I was afraid running a cold sweat from worry of being attacked, but it seemed to have sensed something because it obediently left.
Completely exhausted, I collapsed backwards into a chair. There’s no doubt that these last two days have taken three years off of my lifespan.
I took a rest on the chair for a little while, but pulling myself together, I decided to go clean the room. If possible, I want a decent customer next.
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Wai-, what is this!? What’s this black canopy bed!?