Chapter 7

She narrowed her eyes at the hotel, which probably wasn’t thinking about this place at all.

Although she was occasionally annoyed by the fact that the hotel manager, Chun-rok, smiled at her from time to time, she had to admit that the hotel hadn’t actually done anything wrong.

Right. They’re just following the rules too.

She was just about to feel sorry for having been unnecessarily angry at them when Chun-rok, sensing her gaze, met her eyes.

He gave her a beautiful, gentle smile before naturally shifting his gaze toward the empty entrance of the motel.

……?

Was he mocking me?

It had only been a brief moment, but she had definitely seen the corner of his mouth lift.

Even from that distance, she could tell!

He’s obviously looking down on me!

So-hee glared at him, but Chun-rok acted as though she wasn’t even there and smoothly welcomed his stream of incoming guests.

So-hee abruptly turned her head away.

It’ll be better for my mental health if I just don’t look at him.

“Sir Moon Jar.”

“What.”

“I’ll definitely succeed. I’ll make this place so successful that I’ll leave my mark on the entire history of the Reincarnation Motel.”

“Do as you wish.”

So-hee clenched both fists.

His answer had been curt, but somehow the Moon Jar felt a pang in his heart.

He found So-hee admirable for constantly burning with determination, yet at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

In truth, compared with the managers who had come before her, So-hee was one of the less troublesome ones.

There had been managers who spent months drowning in depression.

Some constantly nitpicked the motel, finding fault with every little thing they disliked.

There had even been one who refused to send anyone through reincarnation at all and decided to stay here for the rest of their life.

At least So-hee wasn’t dissatisfied with the situation she herself was in.

All her concerns were about the standards governing the reincarnation of the clients.

Even so, the Moon Jar had no choice but to toughen her mentally.

They didn’t know how long she would have to remain here.

And the more dissatisfied she became with the world, the harder things would become for So-hee herself.

A tilted scale.

An unavoidable fate.

The absolute order of things.

If she understood these unfavorable conditions surrounding reincarnation, then even if she failed to send someone through the process, she could at least blame the rules.

The Moon Jar hoped that the responsible So-hee wouldn’t fall into deep guilt.

---

So-hee opened the drawer beneath the front desk.

Inside, three lucky pouches lay neatly side by side: red, green, and white.

Red for regression.

Green for possession.

White for reincarnation.

Each pouch was meant to contain the new story of the person undergoing the process.

When they left this place and returned to their fictional world, they absolutely had to carry the pouch with them.

So-hee stared intently at the lucky pouches.

Then, as though she had made up her mind, she took out the red one.

“I’ll satisfy every one of these conditions and send Elder Tang Je-ik through regression.”

And so, exactly three days later, So-hee climbed the stairs to Tang Je-ik’s room.

In her hands were the red lucky pouch and a folder containing his story.

---

“Miss Manager, is this… really right?”

Tang Je-ik stared at the regression story So-hee had prepared with a bewildered expression.

“Read everything first. We’ll talk after you’re finished.”

Tang Je-ik looked at So-hee before lowering his eyes and reading through the material once more.

Tang Je-ik, head of the Tang Clan of Sichuan, from the web novel I Became the Immortal Heavenly Demon.

He regresses to twenty years before his death in the Great Battle, to the time when the Heavenly Demon experiences his first death and is reborn. Immediately after being born, he takes in the abandoned protagonist and raises him under his protection.

Up to this point, he understood.

It was what Tang Je-ik himself wanted.

What confused him was the next sentence.

His purpose in regressing is one thing: to become the master of the protagonist destined to become the Heavenly Demon and prevent the destruction of the world…

A master?

To prevent the destruction of the world?

He had clearly said that his only concern was the safety of his family.

He patiently continued reading.

At last, his eyes settled on the section describing Tang Je-ik’s purpose for regression within I Became the Immortal Heavenly Demon.

“Hong Seon-ah.”

“Yes, Elder.”

For Hong Seon, who had once ended his life as the Heavenly Demon, Elder Tang Je-ik had been his only pillar of support.

He had endured and endured because of that feeling.

But after being reborn and fully recovering his memories, the terrible rage embedded within his soul according to the contract began erupting again and again.

Now, he could no longer endure it.

His sister had taken her own life after being humiliated by an old nobleman.

The people who had tormented his parents like beasts.

Those who had simply insulted him, trampled him down, and treated him as their plaything.

He had even been caught while trying to flee from them and nearly beaten to death several times.

In the end, even his parents, who had tried to protect him, were sold away and met their deaths.

From that moment on, Hong Seon’s life no longer belonged to him.

Because someone came to him.

Someone who was filled with revenge and rage.

[I’ll make sure no one can ever stand above you. All you have to do is make a contract with me.]

Though he didn’t know what this ominous thing was, Hong Seon couldn’t refuse the contract.

He was consumed by nothing but the desire to kill everyone.

He never knew that this would become the fate that would turn him into the Heavenly Demon for countless eons…

‘Even if I’d known, would I really have refused that contract? Back then, I was willing to sell even my soul if it meant I could trample those bastards beneath my feet.’

Hong Seon knew that something inside him—something that was both himself and not himself—was violently churning.

His eyes, already resembling those of the Heavenly Demon, were gradually turning yellow and red.

Tang Je-ik quietly watched Hong Seon, who was suffering alone.

An emotion too complicated to put into words passed through his eyes.

He had known the boy’s fate, yet he had raised and cared for him since infancy.

At first, he had taken him in with the intention of persuading him to abandon his path.

But by now, it was impossible to say that his feelings remained the same.

“You have to walk that path, don’t you?”

“……”

“It seems there’s no way to stop it.”

Hong Seon fell to his knees.

Then he held out the long sword at his side toward Tang Je-ik.

It was the sword Tang Je-ik himself had bestowed upon him when he had become one of the Tang Clan’s most outstanding guards through his exceptional skill.

“Please leave for Maeamsa Temple. That is the one place beyond my control. So please, take your family and go there…”

“Hong Seon-ah.”

“No. Just kill me! Otherwise, I will kill everyone according to my fate.”

I can’t endure this torn-apart heart anymore…

Hong Seon pounded his chest with his fists.

Fate.

Tang Je-ik couldn’t say anything.

The Heavenly Demon’s contract, that fate, was once again driving Hong Seon toward a path of death.

By now, every clan must have received the sign announcing the Heavenly Demon’s return.

Tang Je-ik’s throat bobbed heavily.

“Kill you…”

He stared intently at Hong Seon.

“I have no intention of adding weight to your resentment.”

Hong Seon raised his reddened eyes and looked at him.

His normally gentle and dependable elder looked unusually haggard today, and Hong Seon clenched his fists.

Tang Je-ik withdrew the warm gaze he had been giving Hong Seon and stared toward the distant mountains.

“I can no longer protect you. Today will be the last day I can turn my back on all the righteous clans to protect you.”

Hong Seon closed his eyes.

Tears dripped down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry. For all those countless lives, I didn’t realize it sooner and failed to embrace you. When you were drowning in the mud and wanted to die, it wasn’t me who reached out a hand to you. It was that wretched contract.”

“……!”

Hong Seon, who remembered his past lives, stared at him in shock.

He knew about this cursed fate too?

Hong Seon’s breath caught.

He knew that one day I would kill every clan and all their families, yet he still took me in…?

Why? Why in the world?

“Just remember one thing.”

With reddened eyes, Tang Je-ik gave him a smile that was clearly his final one.

Then he held out a dagger symbolizing the members of the Tang Clan.

“Remember that someone once tried to become the sword that would cut through that tenacious fate of yours.”

So-hee looked at Tang Je-ik’s face after he finished reading.

He still seemed confused by the thought that he would become so closely connected to the person destined to become the Heavenly Demon.

“Your purpose for regression is ‘regressing to save your family from the Heavenly Demon.’ You’ll protect the protagonist and raise him from childhood.”

“…That’s right.”

So-hee let out a short breath.

“But a personal goal like that makes regression difficult.

“So I twisted it just a little.

“Instead of ‘your family,’ we’re going with ‘an attempt to prevent the destruction of the world.’

“Even if that isn’t your true purpose, from this moment onward, this is our purpose.”

So-hee’s gaze hardened.

From now on, there couldn’t be even the slightest deviation.

Tang Je-ik’s mind and heart had to firmly accept regressing to save the world as his purpose.

“So it means the Heavenly Demon’s emergence can’t ultimately be prevented.”

“That is the author’s intention.

“We can’t interfere with the larger framework of the Heavenly Demon reincarnating dozens of times.

“So we have to find a way to accomplish our goal within that framework.”

Wrap the true purpose—returning to save his family—in the grand cause of saving the world.

It seemed Tang Je-ik had also understood the intention she hadn’t said aloud, because he nodded.

“……”

Tang Je-ik took a moment to steady his breathing.

It was still difficult for him to accept the idea of forming such a deep emotional bond with the Heavenly Demon, someone with whom he had previously had no connection whatsoever.

Even so, Tang Je-ik thought this direction wasn’t bad.

If it meant protecting his family, what wouldn’t he do?

After reading the document once more, Tang Je-ik asked So-hee,

“Isn’t it possible that this could be the Heavenly Demon’s final reincarnation?

“So if I return and help him, perhaps…”

He left the rest unsaid.

Perhaps I might really be able to save the world.

So-hee smiled.

“Perhaps.

“Who knows what kind of breakthrough the Heavenly Demon, after reincarnating dozens of times, might achieve in this particular life with you?”

“I see.”

He read the story again and again.

Before he knew it, he was gradually becoming immersed in it.

Eventually, he nodded.

“You are right.

“I will take in the Heavenly Demon and guide him onto the right path.

“And through that, I will prevent the destruction of the world…”

With those words, Tang Je-ik unconsciously closed his eyes.

Seeing this, So-hee opened the mouth of the red lucky pouch she had brought with her.

In an instant, the surroundings became deathly quiet.

Silence descended as though only the two of them existed in the entire world—Tang Je-ik with his eyes closed, and So-hee sitting before him.

So-hee looked directly at Tang Je-ik.

“Within the novel I Became the Immortal Heavenly Demon, Tang Je-ik, head of the Tang Clan of Sichuan, wishes to regress.”

The low voice of So-hee echoed through the room.

Then she began reading aloud the purpose for regression that she had established.

“Head of the Tang Clan, Tang Je-ik, wishes to regress in order to prevent the hellish war against the Heavenly Demon.

“He will risk his life to return and sincerely care for the protagonist, cleansing him of the injustices and grievances he suffered so that the seed of the Heavenly Demon within him will never bloom.

“I do not know whether this will definitely save the world, but he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to contribute even the smallest amount of strength toward achieving that goal.”

It was the moment when So-hee’s voice strongly implanted the purpose she had established into Tang Je-ik’s mind once again.

The essence of reincarnation and transmigration was to establish a firm purpose from the very beginning.

And through that purpose, it was crucial to give the person about to regress a powerful sense of certainty and suggestion.

So powerful that even he himself would be deceived by it.

“…That’s right.

“I must return to save the world.”

Tang Je-ik slowly opened his eyes.

A faint red light gradually appeared in his black eyes, which had been dark and lifeless.

It worked.

So-hee opened her mouth slightly as she tightly closed the red lucky pouch containing the entire story.

As the pouch swelled plumply, So-hee rose from her seat and stepped aside.

“You should go now, Elder.”

---

Tang Je-ik stood before the Reincarnation Door.

It was called a door, but in reality, it was a transportation space in the shape of a rectangular frame, its interior opaque and impossible to see through.

“Elder, please take this.”

So-hee handed the red lucky pouch to Tang Je-ik, who was staring at the door.

“It is proof that you chose regression.

“Everything you need is inside, so don’t worry and go.”

Everything.

It was an incredibly vague statement.

But Tang Je-ik didn’t ask any further questions.

If she said that was how it worked, then he supposed that was how it worked.

He gave a small nod.

“I will never forget this kindness.”

“I hope that in the life you’ve been given once again, you achieve what you desire.”

Tang Je-ik stepped through the square door.

A red light shimmered inside the opaque doorway.

It gently pulled Tang Je-ik inward, and before long, he completely disappeared.

The door became quiet again as though nothing had happened.

So-hee pressed her dry lips together and turned around.

The die had been cast.

Soon, the result of the reincarnation process would appear.

With her heart pounding as though it might burst, she hurried toward the front desk.

One minute.

Two minutes…

She couldn’t sit still.

She paced back and forth while staring at the gourd hanging above the front desk.

Why was five minutes taking so long?

By the time her repeatedly bitten lips were beginning to sting, the gourd finally reacted.

Vwoong—

A faint golden glow appeared inside the translucent gourd, where its contents could be seen through the surface.

Then—

Trickle!

With a cute little sound, about a spoonful of water appeared inside.

It meant the regression had succeeded.

“Haa…”

Only after seeing it did So-hee finally relax her tense shoulders.

She placed both hands on the front desk and let out a long sigh, as though all the strength had drained from her body.

“He must have gone safely.”

At that moment, a breeze came from somewhere and brushed across So-hee’s forehead.

And, as expected, a disapproving lecture followed.

“Why bother getting so. tense.”

Despite the curt tone and the insignificant little breeze, So-hee somehow felt reassured.

“He’s just a character in a novel.”

“Yes, I know. I know that. But…”

“Then what is this place? Is this reality? And what happened to me?”

So-hee’s head began to grow complicated, and she tapped the top of her head repeatedly as she tried to defend herself.

“If it’s a novel, I can just read it and close the book.

“But this time I actually met him and listened to his story, so I keep…”

“Keep. what.”

“Nothing.”

Feeling as though she was about to say something foolish, So-hee pounded the top of her head a little harder.

“His fate was already over anyway. If the reincarnation failed, there was nothing we could do.

“If you did your best, that’s the end of it.

“You got the money’s worth out of it, at least.”

The Moon Jar clicked his tongue internally.

It was obvious how worried So-hee had been that Tang Je-ik might fail to regress.

Her reincarnation routine was always the same.

After sending someone through the process, she immediately ran toward the gourd sitting on the front desk.

Then she would stare at it for about five minutes.

If the reincarnation succeeded, water would begin filling the gourd.

Naturally, if no water appeared even after a certain amount of time, it meant the attempt had failed.

The first few attempts had inevitably ended in failure.

And whenever that happened, So-hee’s condition for the rest of the day would hit rock bottom.

“You only increase the probability. There is no such thing as a one-hundred-percent success rate for reincarnation.”

The Moon Jar had told So-hee this countless times whenever she became discouraged.

But knowing something intellectually didn’t mean she could simply make herself accept it.

She was too responsible.

She immersed herself deeply in the stories of those scheduled for reincarnation, examining every detail.

She even spoke directly with them and exchanged emotions with them.

So-hee had that much passion and talent for this work.

Unfortunately, her heart hadn’t yet matured enough to comfort herself simply by saying that she had done everything she could.

“Anyway, he went safely, so that’s enough.”

“Why didn’t you tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

So-hee looked at the Moon Jar with a puzzled expression.

“That you cannot remember anything that happened here.”

“Oh…”

It seemed that Tang Je-ik’s final words had reminded her.

I will never forget this kindness.

So-hee shrugged.

“He won’t even remember saying that.”

So-hee dropped heavily into her chair.

Then she leaned back against its soft cushioning.

She had already gone through this process several times before.

She would tell them that they wouldn’t remember anything about what happened at the motel, and that they should simply live happily with the life they had been given.

But the result was always the same.

The farewell was unnecessarily prolonged, and both sides’ emotions would only swing wildly.

No matter how much reincarnation and transmigration was simply a job she was being paid to perform, once she had listened to and accepted another person’s story and emotions, cutting off that relationship cleanly was never easy.

The same was probably true for the other side.

A supporting character would never have a chance to open up about their innermost feelings like this anywhere else.

It’s better if they leave without knowing anything.

So-hee quietly stared at the gourd.

The level had risen by the tiniest amount.

The only way to retire from the Reincarnation Motel and return to reality.

She widened her eyes for no particular reason and stared at the gourd.

“Ah! My water drops!”

Not long after she first arrived here, So-hee had seen the completely dried-out gourd with not a single drop inside and screamed in despair.

Fortunately, it had only contained a few drops at the time, so the loss had been minimal.

“You crazy motel manager!”

“……”

*“You’re the first manager ever to pour bottled water into the gourd.

“You think the water drops received as payment for reincarnation could possibly be the same as ordinary drinking water?”*

“But can the original reincarnation water drops disappear too?”

“Of course they can, you idiot. This place isn’t that easy to cheat.”

“I thought maybe it would work.”

“Then why did you haul water from the well?”

“…I thought I’d try the village spring water if bottled water didn’t work.”

“You’re very creative when it comes to causing trouble. I’ve lived a long time and seen all kinds of things.”

She had tried every possible method because she wanted to return home quickly.

But in the end, none of it had worked.

There was nothing she could do except diligently send supporting characters and extras through reincarnation and steadily accumulate the precious reincarnation water drops.

+105 days. 1:55 p.m. I Became the Immortal Heavenly Demon, Tang Je-ik. Regression successful.

Beside Tang Je-ik’s name in the guest ledger, So-hee left a short note.

It was almost two o’clock.

Soon, everyone would be taking their afternoon nap.

There were hardly any guests anyway, but during the official hours when she could comfortably close the motel and rest, So-hee leaned back in her chair with a much lighter heart and closed her eyes.

---

“This goes here.

“Hmm… this one is perfect over here.”

One of only two employees at the Reincarnation Motel, Riri’s eyes sparkled as she neatly arranged the dyes and fragrances inside the cabinet.

There still weren’t many people looking for the motel.

So for now, Riri had organized the most popular fragrances and colors by type and arranged them inside the cupboards.

Including Tang Je-ik, who had just left, a total of six people had successfully completed the reincarnation process so far.

All of them had been delighted to experience once again the exact colors and fragrances of rooms filled with memories from their lives.

Some had spent their final moments resting peacefully.

Others had spent their remaining time laughing and crying before leaving.

“I thought I’d never be able to smell this fragrance again.”

Those words had made Riri’s heart pound as though it might burst.

Here, for the first time, Riri’s innate talent had been recognized.

So-hee, the manager, had showered her with praise.

And so had the guests staying in the rooms.

I have to do even better.

So they can be even happier because of me.

She was smiling as she looked fondly at her precious cabinet when slanting sunlight slipped through a gap in the curtains and fell upon the rows of glass bottles.

The colorful dyes inside the transparent bottles glittered beautifully.

“…Pretty.”

Unlike the village around her, which was filled with dull, colorless shades, her own workshop here was dazzlingly beautiful.

But despite her words, she hurried to close the blackout curtains tightly.

If sunlight entered, the dyes could fade and the fragrances could also deteriorate.

“That’s done.”

She took a deep breath.

The scent of the lily she had sampled that day still lingered at the tip of her nose.

With a warm, contented feeling in her heart, she finished organizing everything and was just about to leave the workshop when she heard a light knock.

“Riri, can I come in?”