Hotel Aristocrat
It was ten years ago when the world’s first dungeons appeared and the hunter’s supernatural powers were awakened.
Since then, Jeong-Hoon has had a dream. He had a dream that one day, he would also become a hunter and attack the dungeon.
After that, he would become immensely rich and live in a palace-like mansion.
“Congratulations. You have achieved your dream.”
“…And exactly how did I achieve it?”
It certainly was not a palace-like mansion, but it was splendid enough to call it one.
Although the building is 13 stories above and 8 stories below the ground, it gave the impression that it is long and stretched horizontally rather than just being tall.
It was a building that was constructed with a futuristic design done by numerous designers.
Hotel Lumen. A five-star hotel located in Seoul.
As the headquarter of the hotel chain, it is also currently the best hotel in the world that has been created ever since the world changed.
Jeong-Hoon, who occupied the royal suite in such a hotel, shook his head while looking at the butler who stood in a polite posture.
“You have become incredibly rich, yes? Your dream has come true.”
At the butler’s words, Jeong-Hoon glanced at him and let out a short sigh.
Of course, it was important to be rich, but it was also the process of awakening supernatural powers, hunting monsters, and accumulating fame that were part of Jeong-Hoon’s dream as well.
“Well, it’s not like that was the purpose in life, so let’s move on.”
Shaking his head, Jeong-Hoon recalled an orphanage where several people shared a small room.
When the world changed, Jeong-Hoon’s parents had awakened their supernatural powers and became F-Class hunters.
However, that didn’t last long. Both of his parents died in a dungeon, and Jeong-Hoon was sent to a state-run orphanage.
This was back during the days when hunters were killed in battles inside the dungeon day by day, and people were frequently dying from monsters that managed to escape the dungeons.
As a result, the orphanage was always at its max capacity, and Jeong-Hoon’s childhood was spent in destitute.
By the time he left the orphanage at the age of 20, the amount of self-reliance he received was so small that he stayed in a PC-bang or a jjimjil-bang.
T/N: Jjimjil-bang means korean sauna / korean steam room.
E/N: PC-bang is an internet cafe designed entirely for gaming. Both ‘bangs’ are low-cost so many people who are in need of a temporary place to stay spend most of their time there.
“May I ask what it is you find so funny?”
“Ah, it’s nothing. Pfft!”
Before he came to this hotel… Jeong-Hoon recalled the time he first met Joo Young-Chul, the butler who is standing in front of him right now.
As the butler smiled unknowingly at him, he tried hard to hold back his laughter.
***
The first time he met the old butler in his 70s was at a jjimjil-bang.
At that time, Jeong-Hoon was in bad shape.
Thanks to the dungeons and hunters, this is an era in which daily labor is overflowing.
It was thanks to that that Jeong-Hoon, who had just left the orphanage at the time, was able to survive.
However, his body would be so exhausted and fatigued that he had to take a day off for every other day he worked.
If the labor wasn’t as hard on a day, he would stay in a PC-bang, and if the labor was hard, he would resort to a jjimjil-bang.
On that particular day, he was so tired that he went to a jjimjilbang.
After a simple shower, Jeong-Hoon soaked his body in the hot bath and let out a long breath in the feeling of relieving all his fatigue.
Just as he was about to let himself immerse in the comfort of falling asleep, an old man entered the bath.
His body was so well-built that it was hard to believe he was an old man.
At the moment, I thought he was a hunter, but there was no reason for Hunter to come to such a local dry sauna, and it was hard to see the old man as a hunter.
First of all, the job of being a hunter was only 10 years old.
If an old man was a hunter, news or whatever would have come out. Oldest Hunter, like this.
So Jeong-Hoon only thought of the old man as someone who had done some sports in his youth.
Their meeting meant to end there.
However, when Jeong-Hoon entered the sauna, the old man followed in, and when Jeong-Hoon left, he also came out.
Even when Jeong-Hoon sat down to wash himself properly, the old man took a seat right next to him and began to wash himself as well.
There was no way it was a coincidence, so Jeong-Hoon simply thought it was because the old man was bored.
But no matter how much he thought about it,it wasn’t right for the old man to keep following him around in the jjimjil-bang.
Jeong-Hoon walked away and lied down on a spot to sleep.
“What a strange old man.”
Feeling a sense of liberation, he tried to sleep, but Jeong-Hoon, who felt a similar presence next to him, opened his eyes.
It was the old man.
Holding a plate of sikhye and boiled eggs in his hand, the old man started peeling the egg shells under Jeong-Hoon’s gaze.
E/N : Sikhye is a sweet rice punch. In a jjimjil-bang, they are normally served in clear plastic containers in colored lids with straws.
“Hey, what are you…”
“If you don’t nourish yourself properly, you will be sick. Why don’t you have some?”*
*E/N: The old man is speaking quite formally to Jeong-Hoon.
When the old man suddenly offered the sikhye and peeled eggs to Jeong-Hoon, Jeong-Hoon couldn’t overcome his hunger and received them.
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
Jeong-Hoon just thanked the old man for the unexpected gift and ate sikhye and eggs.
They were especially delicious, because for Jeong-Hoon, he never had enough money to buy himself food.
“Would you like some more?”
“Oh, no. Thank you for the food.”
When the old man politely asked after seeing Jeong-Hoon who ate in a hurry, Jeong-Hoon shook his head.
Perhaps it was because of the small-sized clothes the people at the counter had given him due to his small physique, for they looked like it was about to rip open because of his muscles.
Although the old man looked ridiculous to look at, his act of kindness made him seem like a god who came down from heaven in the eyes of someone who received such grace.
“You have worked hard today, so you will need to eat more. You don’t have to decline.”
“…Sorry?”
Jeong-Hoon looked at the old man with eyes full of suspicion at the old man’s words.
“It’s not just today and yesterday that the work Dungeon Logistics Center gives out is hard. Isn’t it even more tiring to sort the guild’s coalition raid supplies?”
“Excuse me?”
What Jeong-Hoon did for a job wasn’t exactly a secret, but it was still suspicious that the old man knew exactly what Jeong-Hoon did.
The fact that both of his parents were hunters, that they were F-class, and were killed in combat. And the fact that he’s a day-to-day worker.
The old man came to him, a person from the bottom of society, with an intentional approach, so there was no choice but to be suspicious.
“Are you from the Guild Association?”
“What makes you think so?”
“As this dungeon attack is large-scale, we need a lot of porters, so I heard that recruiting people is difficult.”
E/N: Porters are people who carry bags of supplies and enter the dungeon together with a party. It’s not a very respected job.
When most people think of dungeon raids, they think of some hunters forming a party and fighting monsters like an RPG game.
That’s what the word feels like in the first place.
However, the reality is that military operations are entrusted to the civilian population.
Although they are called hunters with superpowers, firearms, a modern weapon rather than superpowers, are used to hunt monsters more often.
The Dungeon Logistics Center is a Hunter specialized delivery center that serves to supply the guild with supplies needed to attack such firearms or dungeons.
Even though it is a time when the government has delegated dungeon attacks to the civilian sector, it cannot force military weapons to be rolled by the civilian sector.
Therefore, the government established a dungeon logistics center and controls the logistics center to crack down on supplies to hunters.
Jeong-Hoon, who thought so far, assumed that the old man was a person from the logistics center.
“I did a lot of work at the distribution center, so you didn’t come here because you thought I was perfect for luggage and supplies, right?”
Jeong-Hoon, who was about to say ‘porter’ instead, hurriedly changed his words.
It is commonly referred to as a porter, but its official name is Supply Unit.
What you do is support the Hunters.
A porter carries all kinds of equipment, including bullets and food, supplies them to hunters when needed, and collects monster bodies.
Considering Hunter’s abuse of power in the dungeon, it is the worst thing you can do after a part-time delivery job.
In addition, it is an occupation with a high fatality rate.
“I never intended to go into a dungeon, just so you know. Oh, I enjoyed the sikhye and the eggs, thank you.”
Before the old man could say anything, Jeong-Hoon said what he wanted to say, shook his head and turned away.
His parents died in the dungeon, but there is still a sense of revenge.
It’s an era where successful hunters are treated like celebrities, and Jeong-Hoon admires those hunters too.
He has had a dream that one day he will awaken his supernatural powers and become a hunter, and become rich by attacking dungeons.
However, it was no good to be recklessly thrown into a dungeon and killed.
“Your deduction wasn’t too bad. However, that isn’t the case. Why would I endanger Jeong-Hoon-nim?”
Jeong-Hoon frowned at the old man’s kind attitude and the way he faked cluelessness.
If his deduction was wrong, it cannot be explained why and how the old man knew about him and is speaking to him so politely.
“My name is Joo Young-Chul. Please feel free to call me as the head butler.”
Seeing Jeong-Hoon in deep thought, the old man, the head butler, politely bowed his head towards Jeong-Hoon and introduced himself.
He had followed Jeong-Hoon from the bathhouse, but he introduced himself to Jeong-Hoon for the first time.
“And I will be serving Jeong-Hoon-nim from now on.”
“What? Me?”
Jeong-Hoon didn’t even think those words to be a scam because it sounded just so absurd.
***
It was Jeong-Hoon who thought he had no relatives.
But there were. He found out that his grandfather’s younger brother, or Jeong-Hoon’s father’s cousin, existed.
His grandfather’s family is said to be very rich. However, his grandfather rebelled against his family, so he cut ties and left the house.
However, after Jeong-Hoon’s uncle, there was no one to succeed the family.
So his uncle secretly released a man to find Jeong-Hoon, and appointed Jeong-Hoon as his heir after his death
As a result, my life changed from being worried about where to find food, to becoming a chairman of a chaebol.
Whenever I think back to that time, when the old man, Butler Joo, told me such an important story at a jjimjil-bang, wearing overly tight clothes, it makes me laugh.
“You could’ve come to pick me up in a dramatic or cool way. Why was it a jjimjil-bang?”
“That’s because the deduction you made was half right that day, my Lord.”
“Deduction? What did I say that day… ah, the porter?”
I thought Butler Joo was a person sent by the Dungeon Logistics Center, so I had changed my way of speaking from ‘porter’ to supply carrier.
Since that wasn’t the case, Jeong-Hoon openly mentioned the word.
“Yes, that’s right. There were certainly people moving with the intention of hiring day laborers like your grace because, as you said, there were difficulties in hiring porters for parties that are attacking the dungeons.”
Therefore, although he wanted to pick Jeong-Hoon up in a mannerly fashion, Butler Joo had no choice but to rush to retrieve him, and that just so happened to be at a jjimjil-bang.
He had stayed close to Jeong-Hoon on purpose to prevent the person who was sent to hire a porter from approaching him.
“But who would come all the way to a jjimjil-bang in order to hire a porter?”
“When we are talking about a Guild Association, it looks grand, but when you look at the reality, it’s actually nothing. If you tell the logistics center workers you’ve already hired an incentive to bring in a porter, they’ll take care of the rest.”
There was a high possibility that Jeong-Hoon would have rejected their offer, but Butler Joo wanted to hurry and bring him in out of cautiousness.
“And as you may have known from the hospital, within three days in that state, your grace would have either collapsed from overwork or malnutrition.”
“Oh, yes. That was a bit of a shock. I didn’t know my condition was that bad.”
He thought he was okay, but Jeong-Hoon’s body was in a quite dangerous condition.
Because of the numerous ailments stemming from malnutrition, Jeong-Hoon had no choice but to focus on treatment.
After meeting the head butler and staying in the hospital, I came to Hotel Lumen, which can only be called the family’s stronghold today.
“Jeong-Hoon-nim is the first to rise to the position of family head at hospital.”
At the words of the Butler Joo, Jeong-Hoon smiled bitterly as he recalled that the inauguration ceremony to announce him as the head of the family was cancelled because Butler Joo wanted to resolve the matter right away.
“…I can’t really say that was the best idea… but do you have to call me the lord?”
“I understand it sounds a little unnecessary, but it is a tradition.”
Jeong-Hoon smirked at the word ‘tradition’.
“If there’s a lot of people I would understand, but I’m the only one so isn’t it too much to call me that?”
“What do you mean there is only one. Of course, the head of the family refers to you, my Lord, but there are people other than I who work for this family.”
In response to Butler Joo’s objection, Jeong-Hoon looked around the royal suite he was staying at.
This is a luxury room that costs billions of units per day.
However, Jeong-Hoon has no reason to worry about such money.
Lumen is one of the businesses that Jeong-Hoon inherited.
He heard that the family has several such businesses, but Jeong-Hoon has yet to get the full picture.
One thing is for sure–
“Butler Joo, what am I supposed to do as the head of the family?”
“You can do whatever you wish, my Lord. This family exists for your purpose.”
Numerous businesses, including Lumen, and the never-ending stream of money all belonged to him, and him only.