Chapter 01
Goodbye, Everyone
โAlright, towel deliveryโs here.โ
The spirit realm being who claimed he was a dragon dumped the towels heโd been carrying on his short back onto the floor.
Sun-dried towels poured down in front of me, piling up like a small mountain.
Why am I folding towels here, of all things?
Clenching my teeth, I still forced myself to pick one up.
Living by running a hot spring in a quiet place with few peopleโ
that had been my long-held dream, a way for me, Park Su-on, to escape the shackles of a family that had produced nothing but S-rank Hunters ever since the worldโs first Dungeon Break.
So when I first awakened as the owner of a hot spring, I really thought my days of walking the flower-strewn path had finally begunโฆ
The hot spring was in a secluded place, just as Iโd hoped, somewhere people wouldnโt easily find.
After all, it was a hot spring for constellationsโcompletely invisible to ordinary humans and most Hunters.
Up to that point, everything was fine.
With only four baths in total, it also matched my wish not to have many guests.
The problem was that those โfourโ were all complete lunatics.
โOwner, I hurt my back a little, so I was hoping you could apply some medicine for meโฆโ
Right on cue, the first lunatic appeared.
The black-haired man revealing his solid back, his blood-soaked clothes slung over one arm, was Sharenian, the so-called Immortal Slaughterer.
With ink-black eyes like the night sky, he wiped the blood from his cheek while looking at me. Ever since Iโd treated his wounds just once, heโd come here every single day, bleeding profusely without fail.
Is this a hot spring or an emergency room?!
โIf youโre hurt, go to a hospital.โ
โAh, Iโve lost so much bloodโฆ Iโm feeling dizzyโฆโ
Whenever he ran out of things to say, Sharenian would claim he was dizzy and stagger before collapsing.
And whenever he collapsed, he always leaned on me.
Youโre immortalโyou wonโt die anyway, you fraud.
I donโt know why heโs harassing me, but I do know heโs the scheming-type lunatic.
โSu-on, arenโt you curious about todayโs luck?โ
The man who approached and sat beside me, his golden hair still damp and beaded with droplets as if heโd just finished bathing, loosely wrapped in a robe, was the second lunatic.
With his gentle, desert-fox-like looks, youโd think he was harmlessโbut if you showed an openingโฆ
โFor example, your love luckโฆ?โ
Before I knew it, he was whispering right into my ear, having moved dangerously close.
Like a fox pretending to be a puppy.
His name was Unsuโand he really did read fortunes.
โDo you believe in fate?โ
I suddenly remembered the very first words heโd said to me when we met.
Since then, heโd constantly wag his metaphorical tail, pestering me about reading my fortune at every opportunity. It was endlessly annoying.
Calling him a โDo you believe in the Dao?โ-type lunatic would probably explain it best.
โHuh? Letโs throw away this grotesque corpse and go check your fortune.โ
Unsu clung to my other arm and started whining.
I felt my anger rise to my throat, a dull ache forming at the back of my head.
I was already busy enough to die from workโthis was just adding to the chaos.
Part of me really wanted to smack that pretty face with the towel I was folding.
Should I just quit everything?
As I ground my teeth and lifted the towel, I froze stiff at the window that popped up in front of my eyes.
[The Pride of Hot Spring Towels Lies in a Living, Perfect Angle!]
[Fold towels with precise angles (50/100)]
[Completion Reward: 2,000,000 Gold]
Two million gold!
That was more than what a regular full-time employee at a decent company earned in a month.
Earning a monthโs salary just by folding a hundred towelsโno matter how many times I thought about it, it was a mouth-watering deal.
Right. Just fifty more, and itโs two million gold.
Even if I quit, Iโll finish this first.
Iโm happy. Iโm happy.
All I have to do is fold towels, and two million gold will rain down from the sky!
โSu-on, canโt you hear me? Huh?โ
As I was folding the fifty-first towel, Unsu grabbed my arm and shook it, ruining the carefully aligned shape.
[The towelโs current angle (45 degrees) has deviated, so it will not be counted.]
I was almost done, and because of this lunatic I have to start over againโฆ
โAh, I seriously canโt take this!โ
The anger Iโd been holding back finally exploded, and I threw the towel onto the floor.
As if responding to my roar, the door to the Netherworld Bath opened, and the third lunatic appeared.
The man with glossy black hair like fine silk, pale, bloodless skin, was Yama.
Yesโthat Yama King everyone thinks of.
He came to soak his body, worn out from reviewing the ledgers of the dead all day, in the restorative hot spring waterโbut judging by how busy he was, he was still reading documents even here.
Yama, a long smoking pipe in his mouth, exhaled misty white smoke and parted his reddish lips.
โWrite it here.โ
He handed me part of a long scroll along with a brush.
โWhat am I supposed to write?โ
โThe name of the one who angered you.โ
โWhat is this scroll that youโre telling me to write a name on it?โ
At my suspicious look, Yama spoke lightly, like drifting smoke.
โThe register of the dead.โ
If you write a name there, doesnโt that mean they die?
โIf you include the date of birth, itโs even more accurate.โ
What is this, some Eastern version of Death Note?!
โIf you donโt know, I can look it up for you.โ
โNo, forget it. Iโm not angry, so put that away.โ
I hurriedly grabbed Yamaโs arm as he started pulling out birth records.
No matter how powerful a constellation might be, I felt like no one could escape death if their name went into the register of the dead.
And judging by his serious expression, he was definitely not joking.
With visible regret, Yama rolled the scroll back up.
Without even blinking as he thrust the register forward, he was a man who could take lives with a single indifferent brushstrokeโa true embodiment of decadent cruelty.
His red lips and crimson eyes, as if holding camellia petals, gave off a strangely bewitching feeling.
Of course, to me, he was just another lunatic holding a Korean version of Death Note.
Alright. Calm down and start over from the beginning.
With renewed resolve, I spread out the crumpled towel and began folding again.
But then someone snatched the towel right out of my hands.
โI told you from the startโthis place isnโt something a small, sloppy, materialistic brat like you can handle.โ
The man whose every word was irritating yet undeniably true, dressed in a thin robe the color of a midsummer sea, was Haeryeong.
With silver hair and bright, watery eyes, his dreamy, mysterious appearance was worthy of the celestial realmโbut according to me, Haeryeong was the greatest mastermind here, and my very first contractor, the one who controlled the hot spring water itself.
As abrasive as sandpaper, he folded the towel in my place.
Much faster and neater than I ever could, he finished folding it and placed it into my arms.
[Perfectly angled (90 degrees) towels completed with another personโs help are excluded from counting.]
[Because you were caught borrowing anotherโs help, a penalty cooldown has been applied.]
[Penalty Cooldown: 12 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds]
Ahโฆ
If youโre going to be cold, then donโt help at all!
Why did you have to be a tsundere lunatic?!
The penalty cooldown was half a day.
Exactly fifty towels came out per day.
Because that crazy tsundere folded one towel for me, I was now one towel shortโwhat couldโve ended in two days would drag on for an extra day.
As someone with the blood of the โhurry-hurryโ nation, I burned with rage and madness.
This time, I wonโt hold it in!
The one fatal flaw in my dream of living peacefully as a hot spring owner was that these four were the contractors who had awakened me.
If only there werenโt a clause stating that contract termination meant death, I wouldโve liquidated everything immediatelyโฆ
My quick mind spun as fast as a rotating globe.
So as long as I donโt terminate the contracts, thereโs no problem, right?
I sprang to my feet with the momentum of a satellite being launched into space.
As a result, Sharenianโwhoโd been leaning on meโalmost toppled over before hastily catching himself.
Iโd expected it, but sure enough, it had been an act.
Narrowing my eyes at Sharenian, I shifted my gaze to Yama.
โYama, could I borrow that scroll and brush for a moment?โ
Yama readily handed them over.
Taking them, I sat down, unrolled the scroll, and moved the brush with more focus and force than ever before.
I could feel everyoneโs attention snapping to me at my sudden behavior.
Under their stares, I stood up, holding the scroll.
Then I spread it out and hung it on the wooden door leading into the hot spring.
โWell then, goodbye, everyone.โ
I turned to them with the brightest, most peaceful smile Iโd ever worn.
After giving a final wave, I opened the hot springโs exitโone step through it sent you to the location in your mindโand disappeared.
โWhat is this?โ
Yamaโs expression twisted as he looked at the hanging scroll.
Led by him, all four constellations gathered in front of it.
โFrom today, the hot spring will be closed indefinitely.
โ Hot Spring Owner Park Su-onโ
That day was when it all began.
From the moment I declared an indefinite strikeโ
those insane constellation bastards started obsessively fixating on me.
