Ch.6Gin and Tonic

Warm meat stew.

Soft bread.

With each swallow, a warm sensation spreads throughout my body.

Watching me hastily eat in the corner of the kitchen, Jiwook gives me a pitying look.

He’s a tall young man with curly hair and the only cook at Moment Inn.

Since the inn owner abandoned the place, he’s been handling everything by himself.

“What have you been doing for a month to only show up now? Were you living on the streets or something?”

He asks while handing me a cup of warmed milk.

“…”

I considered what to say to Jiwook but ended up keeping my mouth shut.

Maybe it was because this was my first meal in three days, but my mind wasn’t working well, and I didn’t want to reveal this girl’s gloomy past.

After staring at my troubled expression, Jiwook finally let out a deep sigh.

“Fine. It’s something that you’re back at the shop at all.”

Wiping his hands with a dry cloth, he told me to take care of the hall once I finished eating.

I nodded and stuffed the remaining bread pieces into my mouth.

Now that my body has some food, I finally start to feel a bit of strength returning.

Following that momentum, I put on an apron from the corner of the shop and smoothly made my way to the hall counter.

This place was indeed the Moment Bar my sister had always talked about.

But due to severe financial difficulties and the owner’s neglect, it was on the verge of collapse and seems to have converted from a bar to an inn.

Although there are only three available rooms…

Even those aren’t fully occupied, so there’s hardly any income.

Still, the hall boasts ten tables, as if showing off its past glory.

Yet in this vast establishment, there are only two customers.

The customers are relatively quiet.

A middle-aged man and a girl in a Hunter Academy uniform.

They seem to be father and daughter.

They chat cheerfully, apparently satisfied with Jiwook’s cooking.

Indeed, even though I’d been starving for three days, his food was truly delicious.

I wonder why such a decent inn has no customers.

I silently wiped the tables with a cloth.

The tables were so old that the grease stains were hard to remove, giving me trouble.

Each time I press down hard to remove the black grease, my chest feels compressed too.

In movies and novels, those who experience possession or regression usually gain dramatic abilities or embark on new adventures.

Yet here I am, just a part-timer wiping tables…

Come to think of it, this is worse than my previous life.

My body is smaller and weaker now, which puts me at a disadvantage in raids.

After finally removing the grease stains, I straightened my hunched back.

Every task feels like hard labor, probably because I’ve been lying down for three days straight.

I stare at the entrance of the shop.

Should I just throw down this cloth and leave?

At this sudden thought, I frowned and shook my head.

No.

I decided to live tenaciously.

Am I going to run away again?

First, I’ll earn money here to pay the rent.

Then I’ll get equipment and register with the Association.

“—.”

Dark shadows fall across the entrance I’ve been staring at.

Soon, the door opens and five men in black enter the shop.

They’re all dressed in identical black suits, like a single unit.

They’re all huge, with dark, lifeless eyes.

The man at the front stands out.

With narrow, long eyes, he holds his hands behind his back, wearing black leather gloves.

There’s a snake tattoo on his neck, so vivid it looks like a real viper coiled around it.

The unpleasantness of that tattoo makes my hair stand on end.

The other two customers seem to feel the same way, avoiding eye contact with them.

The warm atmosphere of the shop instantly turned as cold as the outside world.

“How many are you…?”

I mustered the courage to ask.

But despite my effort, my voice trembled and cracked.

“…”

He looked at me briefly, then ignored me and sat at the counter table.

The other four silently took seats at nearby tables.

“Is Manager Lee absent again today?”

Manager Lee…?

He must be referring to the inn owner.

“Yes… he’s not here.”

“That’s troublesome. It’s been three months since we received any payment.”

He removes his gloves and looks at his fingers.

They’re so white and long that I doubt if he’s human.

The strangeness sends chills down my spine.

“Would you like something to drink…?”

When I ask, he answers casually while caressing his fingers.

“The usual.”

How am I supposed to know what your usual is…

“I’m… I’m new here, so I don’t know. If you tell me, I’ll get it right away…”

When I speak as clearly as possible, the man stares at me intently.

Meeting his snake-like yellow eyes, I’m struck speechless.

Soon he narrows his eyes and smiles.

The sharp, uniform teeth revealed when he smiles are extremely creepy.

“Yes, of course. I’ll bring what you always have right away…”

I mumbled and fled to the kitchen.

With a choked voice, I complained to Jiwook, who was cooking.

“A strange person came to the shop asking for his usual drink. What should I do? He won’t tell me what it is even when I ask…”

“Don’t tell me Jeoksa is here? Damn, why now of all times…”

He pauses stirring the wok and wipes his forehead.

“Just grab any alcohol for now. Whatever he drinks, he’ll occupy the shop all day anyway.”

Even Jiwook, the veteran of the inn, sighs nervously.

Did this place even borrow from loan sharks…

“Hah… I should just quit soon.”

His sigh reveals the seriousness of the situation.

So this is why there are no customers in this otherwise good restaurant.

I might lose the job I just got.

I need to somehow turn this atmosphere around…

“I’ll… try to make something.”

“Make something? Do you know how to mix cocktails? Jeoksa is one of the worst villains in Geumcheon. If you upset him…”

He asks with a worried tone, as if he doesn’t trust me.

It’s understandable given Siho’s poor image at the shop so far.

But it’s okay.

This time will be different.

“I know how to make a few things.”

I secured my apron firmly.

That’s right.

What’s the point of being scared of him? He can’t be worse than the Counters, right?

Come to think of it, I even knocked one of them out once.

When I return to the hall, the yellow-eyed man stares at me intently.

Meeting his gaze, the courage I had just mustered vanishes.

He’s still scary…!

I took a deep breath.

Then I calmly survey the bottles displayed in the shop.

What should I make to satisfy this intimidating person?

Still, I’m quite familiar with alcohol.

Liking to drink and liking to make drinks are two different things.

Since Jisoo was so fond of alcohol, I tried making various cocktails for her several times.

Imagining someday handing her a drink directly…

Someday…

That’s impossible now.

Thinking of her makes my heart ache.

That wistful feeling flows through my fingertips, creating a subtle light.

“You.”

Jeoksa’s cold voice pierces through me.

At his single word, my shoulders tense up.

“Give me a knife.”

“A… knife. Of course.”

I picked up a small knife from the counter.

Why is he suddenly asking for a knife, it’s scary…

When I hand the knife to Jeoksa, our hands touch.

At that moment, the small light flowing from my fingertips transfers to him.

「Angelic Hand.」

Jeoksa’s image begins to form in my mind.

Like a scene from a movie, the events he experienced today play like a film.

He enters a restaurant.

Opening the door, he finds numerous hunters waiting to kill him.

But Jeoksa merely smiles at them.

He evades the charging hunters, slipping past them like an animal without bones.

Simultaneously, he inserts his long fingers into their sides, chests, and shoulders.

The hunters collapse, their bodies twisting grotesquely.

Their skin turning purple with decay, they can’t even scream.

And so, all the hunters, numbering over a dozen, died after just ten minutes of combat.

In the now silent restaurant, only Jeoksa remained standing.

He staggers and picks up a beer bottle from a table.

As if feeling suffocated, he pulls at his turtleneck sweater and gulps down the bottle.

But despite drinking the cool beer, his expression sours.

“I wish it was sweeter.”

Jeoksa carelessly drops the beer bottle to the floor.

The loud sound of breaking glass echoes through the blood-soaked restaurant.

“Beer really isn’t my style.”

With his final words, the memory shatters.

I rub my throbbing head.

That’s all I could see from his past.

Probably events from earlier today.

This person… is more brutal than I thought.

He meticulously trims his nails with the knife I gave him.

That knife is definitely ruined now…

He might be as strong as the Counters.

Having witnessed a scene from a horror movie, I swallowed hard.

But it wasn’t without benefit.

Thanks to it, I learned he dislikes beer and prefers something sweeter.

Something cool and flavorful like beer.

There’s just one thing I can make that fits that description.

I take out a familiar bottle from the display.

Alright.

Let’s give it a try.

A clean glass filled with clear ice.

One ounce (30ml) of crisp gin.

Fill up with cool tonic water.

Finish by gently coating the rim with fresh lemon juice.

<Siho’s Gin and Tonic>

Grade: ★★★

Effect: Restores 10% of the consumer’s energy.

Info: A flawless gin and tonic made according to the recipe.

The refreshing and tangy taste is exquisite.

Perfect after a hard day’s work.

Received a bonus ☆ due to the effect of Angelic Hand.

“Here’s your usual.”

I hand him the glass with a calm voice.

Jeoksa’s eyebrows twitch as he receives it.

“You’re saying this is what I usually drink?”

“It’s what you’ll be drinking regularly from now on.”

I forced a smile while brushing my hair.

Jeoksa finds my answer amusing and gives a menacing smile.

His smile really is menacing…

His long fingers wrap around the glass.

I clasped my hands together, anxiously watching him drink.

“Please…”

The snake coiled around his Adam’s apple moves as he swallows.

After drinking half the glass, Jeoksa stares at me intently.

The corners of his snake-like mouth twitch.

It worked…

I clenched my fist under the counter.

Eventually, he flicks the fingers holding the glass.

The glass falls to the floor, just like the beer bottle in the vision.

The sound of breaking glass fills the previously quiet inn.

Everyone in the shop freezes.

“Not impressed.”