The falling snow was stained with dirt as soon as it hit the ground. Sarin had been watching it fall at her feet, but soon, she turned her gaze away from the pile of snow that was now nothing more than just muddy filth. As she slowly raised her head, what appeared before her was the main entrance of a luxurious hotel. It was the total opposite of the block paved with unruly sidewalks she had just been on. She hesitated to even step inside.
Eden Hotel.
In this strange place where black and white clearly coexisted with one another, she stood like a foreign object.
[T/N: Black and white means the good and the bad.]
Many hotels shine brightly during the dark nights, but when one takes a step back from that brightness, the reality is unveiled and what they see is just a garbage dump.
It was no longer news that dozens of bodies were found on the streets frozen to death overnight. Streets where people addicted to drugs, alcohol, and gambling would wander and freeze overnight since they were unable to withstand the below zero temperature.
Eden City.
Was the name derived from the paradise built on the passage from Russia to Europe or is the hotel named after Eden City?
Sarin was still looking up at the hotel with a cloudy gaze.
Eden City was modelled after the city of pleasure, Las Vegas. It is said to be the capital of the Red Mafia because it borders Russia.
It was like a small principality created by Russia and Belarus holding hands and providing the land its independence. The name of the place where no territory was governed was Paradise, Eden City.
It was named after Paradise to make it more tourist-friendly, but that was not the case from the start.
The casino became a route for drugs, prostitution and illegal immigrants, which caused difficulties for travellers to travel to Europe to see a second Las Vegas.
That word circulated like a joke. Once you enter Eden City, you can’t get out. It is because they live in darkness to lick even the soles of their feet with pleasure.
[T/N: It means that once you enter, you would be addicted to all the bad shits.]
Where the money comes and goes, there will always be a shadow. As public security became unstable, this place became a lawless zone. It gained credibility by saying that the purpose of establishing the city in the first place was for the purpose of laundering money with Russia.
At some point, Eden City was called the evil city or ruined city.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
One of the hotel staff stationed outside kindly told her with a service smile as he saw Sarin wandering around in front of the hotel’s entrance.
“…Sorry.”
Sarin’s eyes were quickly lowered.
“If you’re here to use the hotel or casino…”
The voice of the staff was kind, but his intention was implying that if that was not the case, to get away from the entrance. His gaze was cold as though he was looking at one of those gamblers. Sarin seemed to understand the employee’s intentions without raising her head, so she eventually turned back.
A week’s rent was provided in advance for a small and shabby hostel where gambling addicts mainly stay.
The staff seemed to remember Sarin when she came here for three days just to look up blankly at the casino entrance she dared not step foot in.
The hotel door was open to everyone, but it also quickly identifies people like Sarin. In cases like hers, employees or guards often scare them out with some overbearing words.
The largest casino in Eden City, ‘Hotel, Eden’ is a place that’s full of mayhem and lit up very brightly during the night. The faces of those who passed by the hotel and entered it were full of hope, but those who left the hotel late at night seemed to have no souls.
Perhaps they may have left a part of their soul in the casino.
Sarin slowly walked out of the hotel while mingling with them. It was when she stepped into the icy road leading down the streetlight road.
She put her hand down on a cold lamppost to control her slipping body. At the same time, the headlights of a black and smooth car flashed as it had stopped at the signal right in front of them.
Sarin frowned at the light as she tried to take her hands off the lamppost. Her palm, which had been cold the entire day, was stuck onto the lamppost and did not budge at all.
“Idiot..”
She laughed out loud at the thought that she was going to do something stupid. Her fingers were frozen by the cold air and it would almost certainly hurt her skin if she pulled them off like this.
The person inside the car that had been next to her waiting at the traffic light, distractectly looked at her hand without knowing the signal had already changed. As the car passed by, like stepping on a puddle, black water splashed all over her body in an instant like a wave.
It was like adding insult to injury.
“Ha…”
A second disheartened voice came out through Sarin’s mouth. She felt like she was coming to her senses. Without looking down, she knew that the muddy water that was splattered on her clothes under the light was starting to freeze quickly.
She thought she had gotten used to the cold, but this is too much.
“Are you okay?”
When she barely turned her head around, the car that she thought had passed her was right behind her. The man in the black coat in the backseat of the car caught Sarin’s eyes first.
Standing past the streetlight lights, he looked like a huge shadow. When he moved one step toward herself, she almost stepped back. If he hadn’t spoken to her, she would have believed him to be a giant brown bear living nearby.
“It’s okay.”
The man was speaking impeccably smooth English. He stretched his feet carelessly over the frozen path under his feet. The man looked down at Sarin’s head as he walked in a big stride.
“I think I should at least pay for laundry.”
She felt his gaze looking at her hands. There was a faint mixture of laughter in his voice. She felt as if he had seen everything she was doing while waiting for the signal. If she didn’t look up, all she could see was his broad chest.
Her bangs that had not been trimmed were blocking her view.
“…Just go.”
Jiik.
The feeling of her flesh peeling from her palm was awful. With a terrible sound of her hands tearing apart, blood started dripping onto the pile of snow next to the sidewalk. Sarin clenched her fist and hid her hand behind her back.
“Can you do that?”
She thought the man’s voice contained unspeakable cruelty. Suddenly, as she raised her head up, a face that was subtly twisting his thin lips entered her view.
Her eyes fell over his pale skin with his black hair neatly pulled back in pomade. His shimmering golden coloured eyes were looking down at Sarin without breaking any eye contact.
The man then proceeded to slowly take what was in his hand to his mouth.
Only then did Sarin realise he was holding a cigarette at his fingertips.
A man who smoked his cigarette deep enough to poke his cheek, laughed.
The light flashed red over the black leather gloves. The man was well over 190cm with a peremptory build, and he was the most frighteningly attractive person she’d ever met. She vaguely wondered if that’s what the devil looks like if he looks like a human being.
He wouldn’t know her, but she knew him.
He was called the Serpent of Eden City, the devil who took Eden City into his hands and bought people’s pleasures.
Owen Doberman.
“ … O … oo….”
Some say that he is called Doberman because his dogs are Dobermans, another saids he got his nickname because he threw the people he killed as dog food. Even Sarin, who flew a few days to meet him, never thought she would actually be able to meet the man.
It didn’t come out properly. It seemed like it was her lips that were stuck and not the palms of her hands.
Does the man know that the faint sound that barely came out of her mouth was his name?
Once again, a big whiff of cigarette smoke spat out at her like a sigh. A cloud of smoke passed in front of her eyes.
“At least let me pay for the laundry.”
He threw the cigarette on the floor. He then took some bills out from his wallet.
Sarin shook her head.
“Hand.”
He pointed his chin at her hand as he opened his mouth.It was a high-pressure attitude that did not leave space to refuse his words. One word that had a heavy echo made refusing unthinkable. It was an arrogant way of speaking that would only come from a person who had never failed in everything he wanted to do.
His golden eyes froze her, so she couldn’t even say his name properly, let alone reach out to him.
She was reminded of her sister warning her to never get involved with him.
But she ignored it, and she came here. The moment she saw him, she realized that she would eventually get on a plane again and have no choice but to return to her home country.
Sarin swallowed her breath and extended her good hand. The right hand that was hidden behind her back was in pain and slippery due to blood.
The man was holding the money in the air without saying anything. The snow fell over the bill making watermarks. Sarin reached out with her other hand as if she was possessed.
The correct answer. The man put the bluish-tinted banknote on her blood-stained palm.
“Right.”
The bloodstained fingertips were a little grazed. The man was wearing gloves, so he wouldn’t know anyway.
She felt as if she had become one of his dogs as she heard that she did well. His cold eyes looked down at her. A face that no one expected any humanity from only made her realise that he pulled over and got off here on a whim.
Sarin crumpled up the bill that the man had dropped on her palm.
It was also a stupid choice. She did not just rob people of money and came into this country with no connection. The man had already turned his back and walked to the car. Soon, with the sound of the door closing, the car departed. The car gently swerved into Eden, where Sarin just came from.