WTRM 08

“Miss So-hee!”

She happily opened the door for her. So-hee stepped inside and, out of habit, took a deep breath.

“I always feel better when I come in here.”

At those words, Riri smiled brightly. It made her incredibly happy to have someone love a space she had created.

Riri dabbed a little of a herb scent known to be excellent for relieving stress onto a piece of cloth and held it out to her. So-hee must have been exhausted both physically and mentally after spending the past few days staying up all night working out stories.

“It should help clear your head.”

“Thanks.”

So-hee buried her face in it and breathed deeply. Just as Riri had said, the refreshing scent seemed to clear away the fog that had been clouding her mind.

Riri was originally one of the villagers from the largest part of Wicheon, the “village.”

“Wicheon’s village is where those who have nowhere else to go gather.”

A few days after becoming manager, the moon jar had explained the village, which made up the largest part of Wicheon.

Since Wicheon was the afterlife for characters from fictional worlds made of written words—novels, poems, essays, and so on—the villagers living there were all also “fictional characters.”

However, not a single one of them had ever appeared in a work.

“They never appeared in a story? Why?”

“The author either abandoned them while creating the character, or finished creating them but decided not to use them because they didn’t fit the story.”

“I see.”

“Those characters gathered one by one, and now there are more villagers than anyone can count.”

In short, the villagers were characters who had been “discarded or kept around just in case.” Naturally, they had never been given names either, so the villagers were simply assigned short, repetitive two-syllable names.

Like Riri here, or Kuku in the kitchen.

When So-hee had first heard that explanation, her heart had been heavy for a long time.

People with no families, no one looking for them, and nowhere or no one that wanted them.

Because that was exactly how she had felt about herself.

But it did not take long for her to realize just how arrogant that pity had been.

After gazing at Riri warmly for a while, So-hee spoke.

“Hey, Riri. There’s a scent I need.”

“Did another guest arrive?”

“No.”

“Then what are you planning to use it for…?”

So-hee looked at Riri with a serious expression and lowered her voice.

“Do you have something like a scent that can seduce someone?”

“Of course.”

“What if we hang some outside?”

Riri tilted her head and asked again.

“…Is it for attracting customers?”

“Yep.”

It was the new promotional strategy So-hee had been agonizing over for the past few days.

If the moon jar had heard about it, it would have scolded her for coming up with another useless scheme, but Riri merely smiled.

As far as she had seen, So-hee was always thinking of ways to run the motel better.

“People feel relaxed just from smelling something nice. So I was thinking we could soak wooden sticks in fragrance and hang them around the entrance. What do you think?”

“Then there’s no need to use an actual seductive scent.”

“…Just in case.”

“Fragrance isn’t some magic potion that makes people fall under your spell, you know?”

Riri playfully scolded her as she stood from the sofa and walked toward the cabinet where the fragrances were stored. She pointed at various bottles one by one, mentally blending scents as she considered them.

“Hmm. Honestly, I can’t guarantee it will help attract customers, but I’m in favor. I think it’s a good idea for creating a positive image of the place.”

“Right?”

“Yes. A pleasant scent leaves behind a pleasant memory.”

So-hee smiled in satisfaction.

“Great. Then pick out the scents that go well together, Riri.”

“Yes. Since we’re doing it anyway, I’ll prepare some for the lobby and consultation room too.”

“Perfect. You’re the best, Riri.”

Riri’s face turned red. And because even this reaction was adorable, So-hee had no intention of holding back when it came to praising her.

The nameless maid Riri had surprised So-hee a little when she first looked into her background. Unlike the other villagers, Riri had quite a lot of character settings.

「The perfectionist maid possesses senses far more sensitive than those of ordinary people when it comes to colors and scents. She is the protagonist of a bleak romance story in which she is hired by a crown prince who can never forget the scent of his first love and longs for it, eventually falling in love with him.」

「She saves the crown prince by detecting the subtle scent of poison in his food, and recognizes the royal jewels that have been switched without anyone else noticing by observing their light and color.」

「She is kindhearted and lively, but becomes extremely meticulous when working, possessing a personality so particular that not even a single needle could slip through.」

「She possesses exceptional abilities but is mistreated because of her low social status.」

In the end, the author had abandoned Riri because the social gap between a crown prince and a maid was simply too great for them to end up together.

Instead, the author created a romance about a foreign princess with extraordinarily sensitive senses, who entered into a contract marriage with the crown prince.

So-hee watched Riri’s back as she happily went about her work.

「She possesses exceptional abilities but is mistreated because of her low social status.」

Why did that particular setting bother her so much?

Ever since bringing Riri here, So-hee had decided that, at the very least, she would make sure Riri’s abilities were frequently acknowledged.

‘She’s this good. Why would I hold back on praising her?’

So-hee carefully left the workshop, leaving Riri to concentrate.

It had been exactly one day since they hung up the scented sticks.

“Miss So-hee.”

So-hee, who had been sitting at the front desk, raised her head. She had been organizing the upcoming payroll and taxes.

“Yes? What is it?”

Kuku, who had just arrived for work, was walking toward her.

His steps were hurried, but his expression and voice remained as low and calm as ever.

Something was clearly wrong.

She slowly rose from her seat.

“Did something serious happen?”

He took a deep breath and spoke.

“It seems we have a guest outside.”

“……!”

She quickly looked at her face in the mirror. After unnecessarily checking her clothes, she hurried toward the entrance.

At the same time, Riri, who had just arrived for work, approached her with an excited expression, lowering her voice.

“Miss So-hee! Outside, right now….”

“A guest came just one day after we hung up the scented sticks. It’s all thanks to you.”

Whether that was actually true remained to be seen, but So-hee winked at Riri and hurried toward the entrance.

Riri followed her with delighted, energetic steps and stood beside the front door.

So-hee took a deep breath, then flung the door open.

With a bright smile, she greeted their visitor.

“Welcome! This is Love’s Reincarnation Motel!”

A woman with dazzling silver hair and a blue-tinted dress.

Unless she was a cosplayer from the world So-hee had lived in, there was no doubt she was a character from a romance-fantasy world.

After guiding the woman into the consultation room, So-hee quickly read through the woman’s life record at the front desk.

Then she took the file containing it and entered the consultation room.

“Miss Elisha Brown? You can have a simple consultation first and make your final decision afterward, so please make yourself comfortable.”

So-hee sat down with a gentle smile.

But the woman, who was still standing, covered the area beneath her eyes with a fan and looked So-hee up and down.

“……?”

So-hee looked up at the motionless woman.

Still, Elisha neither sat down nor said anything.

Wondering if she had not heard, So-hee asked again.

“Um, then perhaps we should start with which type of reincarnation and transmigration you want….”

“Possession. You’re definitely competent at that, aren’t you?”

The sharp voice came from the woman, Elisha Brown.

Facing the guest who hid her expression behind her fan, So-hee smiled.

“We simply maximize the probability of success. Please sit down first.”

“Hah. Probability?”

Elisha’s beautiful face hardened coldly as she looked at So-hee.

“Did I give up dissolution just to increase some pathetic probability?”

Elisha stood rigidly, looking down at So-hee.

How could she not even show basic courtesy or pull out a chair for her?

‘Annoying.’

For some reason, the woman suddenly remembered her beloved Cedric changing his attitude toward her, refusing even to offer her a seat before ordering her to leave.

Her lips pressed together in displeasure.

The irritation she had already felt quickly worsened once that memory was added to it.

‘Does she even know who I am?’

Although she was dead now, she had once lived her entire life under the great name of a saintess.

She had been respected and loved by everyone.

Of course, everything had collapsed when the real saintess appeared.

‘I’m going back and taking everything for myself again. I’ll possess the body of that so-called real saintess, no matter who she is, and make everyone treat me even more preciously.’

Elisha Brown was an important supporting character in the romance-fantasy novel The Saintess with Silver Wings.

She had played the role of the false saintess, only for the real saintess to appear. In the end, she was executed by beheading after attempting to kill the true saintess.

“Hmm. The core of your request isn’t bad, so preparing it should be possible. Then, first, you’ll need to enter the story through regression. After that, you’ll perform the possession, but whose body are you planning to….”

“Who else would it be? The real saintess!”

Elisha Brown glared fiercely at So-hee, breathing heavily as though she could no longer contain herself.

Her black eyes had lost all their light. Her skin was pale, her long silver hair fell to her waist, and her slender figure and overall presence were so beautiful that she seemed almost untouchable.

And because she even possessed a small amount of holy power, everyone had believed she was the real saintess.

But somehow…

So-hee slightly furrowed her brow, lowered the papers, and stared at her.

People actually believed this woman was the real saintess?

So-hee opened the file again for no particular reason and asked her:

“Then why?”

“Why do I want possession? Isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to reclaim what was originally mine.”

So-hee tilted her head in confusion.

Taking the body of the real saintess made no sense.

“You weren’t originally the real saintess, so what do you mean by saying you’re reclaiming what was yours?”