Chapter – 08
“Sohee!”
She happily opened the door for her. Sohee stepped inside and, out of habit, took a deep breath.
“I always feel good whenever I come in here.”
At those words, Riri smiled brightly. It made her incredibly happy to have the space she had created be loved by someone.
Riri dabbed a little herb fragrance known for being excellent at relieving stress onto a piece of cloth and held it out to her. Sohee must have been physically and mentally exhausted after staying up several nights working out the story.
“It should help clear your head a little.”
“Thank you.”
Sohee buried her face in it and inhaled deeply. Just as Riri had said, the refreshing fragrance seemed to clear away the fogginess that had lingered in her mind.
Riri was originally a villager from the largest component of Wicheon, the ‘village.’
“The village is a place created by those who have nowhere else to go.”
A few days after becoming a manager, Dal Hangari had explained the village, which made up the largest part of Wicheon.
Since Wicheon was an afterlife for characters within fictional worlds created from written works such as novels, poetry, and essays, the villagers living there were also all ‘fictional characters.’
However, not a single one of them had ever appeared in a work.
“They never appeared in a work? Why?”
“The author either stopped while creating the character, or even after finishing the character, decided not to use them because they didn’t fit the work.”
“…I see.”
“Those kinds of characters gathered one by one, and now there are too many villagers to count.”
In other words, the villagers were characters who had been ‘discarded or kept around just in case.’
Naturally, since they had never been given names, the villagers were simply assigned short, repetitive two-syllable names.
Like Riri here, or Kuku from the kitchen.
When Sohee had first heard that explanation, her heart had sunk heavily for quite some time.
People with no families, whom no one came looking for and no one wanted, people who had nowhere to go.
Because that was exactly what she had been like.
But she soon realized just how arrogant that sympathy had been.
After gazing at Riri warmly for a long while, Sohee spoke.
“Hey, Riri. There’s a fragrance I need.”
“Did another guest come?”
“No.”
“Then what do you need it for…?”
Sohee looked at Riri seriously and lowered her voice.
“Do you happen to have something like a fragrance that can seduce someone?”
“There is one?”
“What if we hang some outside?”
Riri tilted her head in confusion before asking again.
“…Is it for attracting customers?”
“Yes.”
It was the new advertising method Sohee had been thinking hard about over the past few days.
If Dal Hangari heard about it, he would probably tell her she was up to another pointless scheme, but Riri simply smiled brightly.
After all, every time Riri had seen Sohee, she had always been someone who thought of ways to somehow run the motel well.
“Just smelling a nice fragrance makes you feel relaxed, right? So I was thinking of soaking some wooden sticks in fragrance and hanging them by the entrance. What do you think?”
“Then there’s no need to use a fragrance specifically meant to seduce someone.”
“…Just in case.”
“Fragrance isn’t some magical potion that hypnotizes people, you know?”
Riri playfully scolded her as she stood up from the sofa and walked toward the cupboard containing the fragrances.
Then she pointed at various things one by one, mentally blending them together as she considered what kind of scent to create.
“Hmm. Honestly, I can’t be sure whether it will help attract customers, but I’m in favor. At least I think it’s a good idea for giving people a positive impression of this place.”
“Right?”
“Yes. Good fragrances leave behind good memories.”
Sohee smiled with satisfaction.
“Great. Then pick out a suitable fragrance for me, Riri.”
“Yes. Since we’re doing this anyway, I’ll prepare some for the lobby and consultation room as well.”
“Perfect. You’re the best, Riri.”
Riri’s face turned red.
Even that reaction was adorable, so Sohee didn’t want to hold back her praise when it came to her.
Riri, the nameless maid.
When Sohee had first looked into her background, she had been a little surprised.
There was considerably more information about her than there was about the other villagers.
The perfectionist maid has a much more sensitive sense of color and fragrance than ordinary people. She is the protagonist of a dark romance story in which she is hired by a Crown Prince who can never forget the scent of his first love and longs for her, eventually falling in love with him.
She detects the subtle scent of poison in food and saves the Crown Prince, and she recognizes the royal jewels that have been secretly replaced through their light and colors, something no one else notices.
She is soft-hearted and lively, but when it comes to work, she is so meticulous that she seems like the kind of person who wouldn’t let even a single needle through.
She possesses exceptional abilities but is treated poorly because of her social status.
In the end, the author had abandoned Riri because the difference in status between the Crown Prince and the maid was too great for them to become a couple.
Instead, the author created a romance story in which a foreign princess with exceptionally sensitive five senses entered into a contract marriage with the Crown Prince.
Sohee watched Riri’s back as she happily worked on what she had been given to do.
She possesses exceptional abilities but is treated poorly because of her social status.
Why did that particular setting bother Sohee so much?
From the moment she had brought Riri here, Sohee had decided that she would make sure to acknowledge her abilities often.
‘She’s this good at what she does. Why would I hold back on praise?’
Leaving Riri to concentrate, Sohee carefully slipped out of the workshop.
It had been exactly one day since they had hung up the scented sticks.
“Sohee.”
Sohee, who was sitting at the front desk, raised her head.
She had been organizing the salaries and taxes that needed to be paid.
“Hmm? What is it?”
Kuku, who had just arrived at work, was walking toward Sohee.
His steps were hurried, but his expression and voice remained as low and calm as ever.
Something was clearly wrong.
Sohee slowly stood up.
“Is something serious happening?”
He exhaled deeply before speaking.
“It seems a guest has arrived outside.”
“……!”
She quickly checked her face in the mirror.
For no reason, she even checked her clothes, then hurried toward the entrance.
At the same time, Riri, who had just arrived at work, approached with an excited expression and lowered her voice.
“Sohee! Outside, right now….”
“A guest came just one day after we hung up the scented sticks. It’s all thanks to you.”
There was no way to know whether that was actually true, but Sohee winked at Riri and hurried toward the entrance.
Riri followed with even more excitement in her steps and stood right beside the entrance.
Sohee took a deep breath, then threw the door wide open.
With a bright smile, she greeted the guest.
“Welcome! This is Love’s Reincarnation, Regression & Transmigration Motel!”
A dazzling silver-haired woman in a blue-tinted dress.
Unless she was a cosplayer from Sohee’s world, there was no doubt that she was a character from a romance-fantasy world.
After guiding the woman into the consultation room, Sohee quickly read through the woman’s life record lying on the front desk.
Then she picked up the file containing it and entered the consultation room.
“Ms. Elisha Brown? You can have a simple consultation first and make your final decision afterward, so please sit comfortably.”
Sohee sat down with a gentle smile.
The woman, who was still standing, covered the area beneath her eyes with a fan and looked Sohee up and down.
“……?”
Sohee looked up at her, wondering why she wasn’t moving.
Yet Elisha still neither sat down nor said anything.
Thinking perhaps she hadn’t heard her, Sohee asked once again.
“Um, then first, which type of reincarnation, regression, and transmigration would you like….”
“Possession. You’re definitely competent at that, right?”
A sharp voice burst from the woman, Elisha Brown.
Sohee smiled warmly at the guest who was hiding her expression behind her fan.
“We maximize the probability as much as possible. Please sit down first.”
“Ha, probability?”
Elisha’s beautiful face hardened coldly as she looked at Sohee.
“Did I give up annihilation just to merely increase the probability?”
Elisha stood perfectly straight as she looked down at Sohee.
How could she not even show proper manners or pull out a chair for her?
‘Annoying.’
The woman suddenly remembered the time when her beloved Cedric had changed his mind, failed to offer her a seat, and ordered her to leave.
Her lips pressed together in displeasure.
The irritation she had felt toward Sohee rapidly worsened once that memory was added to it.
‘Does she even know who I am?’
Although she was said to be dead, she had once lived her entire life under the glorious title of Saintess.
Receiving the respect and love of everyone.
Of course, everything had collapsed once the real one appeared.
‘I’ll go back and take everything back. I’ll possess the body of that woman, the so-called real Saintess, no matter where she is, and make sure I receive even greater treatment.’
Elisha Brown was a significant supporting character in the romance-fantasy novel The Saintess with Silver Wings.
She played the role of the false Saintess until the real Saintess appeared, and after attempting to kill the real Saintess, she ultimately had her head cut off.
“Hmm. The core of the story isn’t bad, so I think preparation will be possible. Then first, entering the world of the work through regression is the priority. After that, you’ll possess someone, but who are you going to possess….”
“Who do you think? The real Saintess!”
Elisha Brown, breathing rapidly as though she could no longer stand it, glared fiercely at Sohee.
Her pale skin, long silver hair falling to her waist, slender figure, and overall atmosphere were so beautiful that she seemed almost untouchable.
On top of that, she possessed a small amount of divine power, so everyone had believed she was the real Saintess.
But somehow….
Sohee slightly frowned, lowered the paper, and stared at her.
People believed this woman was the real Saintess?
Sohee unnecessarily opened the file again and asked her,
“So, why?”
“Why do I want possession? Isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to reclaim what originally belonged to me.”
Sohee tilted her head in confusion.
Taking over the body of the real Saintess made no sense.
“You weren’t originally the real Saintess yourself, so what do you mean when you say you’re reclaiming what belonged to you?”
