The Tailor

“The hotel tailor is waiting for you, Mr. Solomon.”

“A tailor?”

When Solomon tilted his head, the ghost hotelier bowed politely and answered.

“Yes. It is a service provided to guests of Gold membership or higher. Please, come this way.”

In a single day, he had gone from Bronze to Silver, and from Silver to Gold. He had even jumped straight to Gold before he could properly experience the Silver benefits. All he had done was complete one contract.

There was only one difference. That contract target had been a megaguild in Downtown District 1.

‘So this is why people say big corporations are good.’

Unable to hide his self-mockery, Solomon followed the hotelier. Past the first-floor lobby corridor, beyond the Gothic hotel hallway lined with all kinds of artworks, what awaited him was a dressing room.

“Welcome, my darling!”

A woman’s lively low contralto rang out next.

‘Who’s my darling?’

With a dumbfounded feeling, Solomon stepped into the wardrobe room. Inside was a woman with permed hair, wearing an elaborate dress that reminded him of a peacock. She looked like a fashionista with a strong sense of self in more ways than one.

“I hear you cleared a difficult megacorp contract….”

Her low voice carried a strangely androgynous impression.

“You cleared the contract, so you should get your reward, right?”

“……”

“Let’s see, oh my! What is that sack-cloth getup, huh?”

As she spoke, the permed tailor looked Solomon over and made no effort to hide her open contempt.

“I got tossed around a bit.”

Solomon’s outfit was a stealth coat and an integrated armor layer set. It was gear woven from functional materials with various features, including the invisibility spell and impact absorption. Even if it had taken an explosion and a direct shower of blood bullets and become rags.

“Hm, and the accessories you’re wearing….”

At that, Solomon checked the accessories he had on. The useful , and the . The bracelet was one thing, but the necklace cost a full hundred million krona, and yet he hadn’t really felt its usefulness. You could say it couldn’t be helped since it was an unseen passive effect.

“Good. How much do you have in your account?”

“Not sure.”

Come to think of it, he had taken several contracts, but he had never really checked his account. Honestly, while staying in the hotel, there was no reason to spend his own money. And after he had last spent a large sum to kit himself out, he had done nothing but save.

“Good, since it’s your first service, I’ll cut you a break at about five billion krona. With that, I’ll turn your darling rags into Cinderella magic!”

“Five billion krona?”

Solomon asked back, dumbfounded. She called it a Gold membership service, yet she was charging separately. And it was five billion krona.

“I’ll have to think about it, considering my wallet.”

It was just as Solomon grumbled in disbelief.

“You’ll die that way, darling.”

The permed woman spoke in an emotionless voice. As if the fuss from moments ago had never existed, her eyes turned black and dark. Her low contralto rang heavy in the air.

“You won’t get far. You’ll die on your very next contract.”

“……”

It was pressure so chilling that even Solomon felt it. Strangely, it didn’t feel like intimidation or bluster.

“How would you know that?”

“Because knowing that is a tailor’s job.”

The permed tailor answered calmly.

“What you need to wear to survive when you go out, or what you wore when you went out and died.”

“……”

Her words carried weight that could not be brushed off.

“That’s too bad. I want to live, but I don’t have the money.”

When Solomon shrugged, the permed woman laughed and spoke.

“Oh my, don’t worry about that! You’re already the hotel’s Gold member, darling! A five-billion-krona loan is nothing! It’s not a problem!”

“……”

“So, will you take the loan right away? Cinderella’s Magic is waiting from head to toe!”

Solomon was starting to lose track of whether he was in a hotel for assassins or just a vicious loan office.

‘A five-billion loan.’

To be honest, it was no small burden even for Solomon. At the same time, it didn’t feel completely absurd. At least, he knew that as an assassin of Hotel Snark, taking megacorp work and the like, the money to be made was not small. Especially for Solomon, who was about to ride an upward trend.

So as for the risk that scaled with it, it was right to accept the warning before his eyes.

No matter how much you invest, the price of your life is never a waste.

“Let’s do it.”

Besides, Solomon had built up a certain level of trust in Hotel Snark. Even if it wasn’t one hundred percent, to survive in this world, their wisdom and know-how were indispensable.

“Okay, darling! Look forward to Cinderella’s magic time that’ll enchant the prince!”

“Wait. Can you preserve the stealth coat’s 2nd-tier invisibility spell?”

“Sure! Looks like our Cinderella is shy.”

“……”

“Now, strip off everything you’re wearing, accessories and all, darling.”

“…What?”

Solomon gaped in shock at the words.

“I’m going to put magic on those rags and turn them into a princess dress!”

“On my clothes?”

“Yes! And of course, your weapons and accessories too!”

The permed tailor said with a smile. Weapons and accessories. In other words, everything Solomon had. It was more serious than he expected.

“And do you think magic finishes overnight? Go out and wait until it’s twelve! I’ll make sure you’re not late for the ball.”

“…At least give me something to change into.”

“Oh, wear this.”

As she spoke, the permed tailor tossed him a shower gown. In bewilderment, Solomon calmly began removing his gear.

Stealth coat, armor layer, Quick Loader Belt, Ghost Whale Bone Blade, Sun Ruby Blade, the Black Bird Spirit Bracelet, the Ghost Shark Bone Necklace…. Looking back, he realized again that he had become a proper hotel contractor.

“Oh, stop! That automatic crossbow, it’s a Deadlock Workshop piece.”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t need to hand over that automatic crossbow! Unfortunately, it’s a piece that doesn’t need our magic. That one is out of my sight. No magic!”

“……”

So the name of the dwarven master workshop hadn’t been empty boasting after all. Solomon could feel the authority of Deadlock Workshop anew.

Anyway.

Having handed over all his clothes and gear and wearing only a shower gown, Solomon asked again as he looked at the pile.

“So you’re saying you’ll put magic on these clothes and weapons?”

“Of course! You’ll be so pretty the prince will go crazy, darling! I’m already excited for your debutante at the ball!”

“……”

He had no intention of becoming a princess, and in Solomon’s case, he was closer to being the “prince,” if anything.

Anyway, the Cinderella magic she spoke of seemed less like replacing everything with new gear, and more like a kind of . In other words, enhancing or upgrading existing gear.

And it wasn’t just armor. Weapons, belt, even accessories. And the amount was a full five billion krona.

What kind of absurd magic was it for her to make this much of a fuss?

“Now, it’s time to prepare magic for Cinderella, my cuties!”

Chwareureuk!

As she spoke, she flung open the place she had closed off with curtains. The truth of the magic was there. Something like magic in and of itself.

More precisely, a swarm of fairies fluttering golden wings and scattering radiant light.

And… every last one of them sat at sewing machines with dead eyes like frozen fish.

“We’ve already been pulling three weeks of all-nighters….”

“Work… again…?”

“Just kill me….”

“And you still call yourself human… no….”

“Ugh, that cursed Hell-hag….”

[Clue acquired! Hell-hag]

Under their eyes hung darkness so pitch-black that “dark circles” didn’t even cover it.

It seemed the woman before him was quite far from the kind-hearted witch in the Cinderella tale. A “Hell-hag,” in other words, a witch, was the only point they had in common.

‘Wait, come to think of it, it wasn’t a witch, but a fairy godmother, wasn’t it?’’

Looking back, it felt like the same thing anyway. Honestly, it wasn’t Solomon’s problem.

“Oh my, looks like we need a ‘little magic’ for our cuties too.”

As she spoke, the permed tailor took something out and sprinkled it. An exotic radiance you couldn’t believe belonged to this world. Crystal and gold, magic powder filled with elegance and beauty scattered among the fairies….

“Showtime!!”

“Let’s show some fairy magic for the princess!”

“Yahoo!”

“Wheee! I love labor! I love sewing! Designer work is the best!”

“We’re blessed fairies, working for the princess!”

“It’s magic time!”

Light returned to the fairies’ eyes as if life itself was layering over their dead eyes. Solomon thought their appearance felt oddly familiar, but he didn’t bother to say it out loud.

“I… didn’t see anything.”

He turned his back. Like he said, he hadn’t seen anything.

[That’s the setup.]

And he hadn’t heard anything either.

That night. Unfortunately, at midnight that night, no magic happened.

“Excuse me, Mr. Solomon. The five billion you borrowed from Shylock Bank has just been transferred to the tailor. After deducting the seven hundred million you have, you have a total debt of 4.3 billion krona remaining.”

‘4.3 billion.’

And what greeted Solomon was not magic, but the weight of bills and notices so heavy he couldn’t even measure it.

“The tailor’s work is scheduled to be delivered to your room tomorrow at exactly midnight, and as for your schedule in the meantime, under the hotel’s membership service…”

“Is there something else?”

“The leisure facilities have been prepared, such as a spa where you can enjoy an ether bath, and a casino gambling hall. For reference, they’re free, excluding the casino chips.”

“…You guys really have everything.”

Looking at it like this, paradoxically, the grand name ‘Hotel of Assassins’ didn’t seem like much after all. In the end, it was just a bourgeois system that moved for services, discriminated among customers by rank, and pursued profit.

“As for the other benefits available through Silver and Gold membership, we have prepared a separate booklet. Please look through it at your leisure.”

With that, the hotelier gave a formal salute and withdrew. Solomon also started walking toward his room.

Not Room 244 at the far end of the second floor.

Room 319 on the third floor.

‘I’m already on the third floor.’

Looking back, they hadn’t been short days. After first stepping into Hotel Snark, starting in Room 104 on the first floor, he had now become a guest on the third floor.

Even so, the road ahead was still long.

And Solomon took the first step on that road without hesitation.