"One moment, please. I'll come out."
Had he been waiting for the concierge to leave before knocking? Otherwise, he couldn't possibly have arrived so quickly. But the concierge had said the manager was away. Did they pass each other in the hallway? Pushing aside the questions swirling in my mind, I straightened my dress.
When I opened the door, a lamp-post-tall man stood before me with smiling eyes. He placed his gloved hand on his chest and bowed slightly. Despite his neatly groomed curly hair and textbook-perfect manners, his smile somehow resembled that of a mischievous child.
"Pleased to meet you, miss. The concierge told me to visit you immediately, so here I am. Are you finding our hotel satisfactory?"
"Pleased to meet you as well. The hotel is satisfactory. Thank you for preparing such a nice room."
I maintained minimal courtesy before getting straight to the point.
"I know it's impolite to jump right to the matter at hand, but I sought you out so quickly because I wanted to hear about my uncle immediately. The letter I received from him was essentially a last will and testament... Has he really passed away?"
"I'm afraid it's true that the owner has indeed passed away."
I let out a small sigh and clenched my fists at the manager's words. I had still held a sliver of hope. That tiny hope now shattered into despair.
I hadn't believed my uncle's letter was forged, but I had comforted myself with the possibility of some mistake. Even though my uncle mentioned in his letter that the manager never made mistakes with deliveries, anyone can err, can't they?
But seeing the man standing before me, I knew for certain. At least the fact of my uncle's death was true.
The manager's casual demeanor strangely irritated me. He still hadn't lowered the corners of his mouth, and he didn't even blink when mentioning my uncle's death. This went beyond mere professionalism toward a guest—it was disconcerting. Normal people don't react this way.
"Then when and how did my uncle die? He was a healthy man with no chronic illnesses. He wasn't someone who would pass away so suddenly."
"My, my. Let's calm down first, miss. I can't tell you everything while we're standing here, so why don't we take a leisurely tour of the hotel while we talk?"
The manager spoke as if soothing a child, gesturing toward the corridor. Was he trying to distract me from my distress? Or did he simply not consider this matter important? Either way, it was clear we couldn't continue standing here to talk.
I pressed my throbbing forehead and followed the manager out of the room.
"Perhaps seeing the hotel's scenery will improve your mood a bit. The Belvedere has many beautiful spots. Shall we visit the back garden first?"
I nodded once at his suggestion. Honestly, I didn't care where we went. The hotel's scenery would hardly register properly in my current state. The manager, whether aware of my feelings or not, walked toward the back garden with an unchanging expression. Judging by our not encountering any other guests or staff along the way, it seemed like a quiet hotel with few people despite its size. The staff who had been at the front desk must have stepped away momentarily.
Stepping into the back garden revealed a completely different scene from the fountain at the main entrance. The blue roses I had seen earlier also bloomed here, forming a maze together with shrubs. This wasn't a figurative maze—it appeared the vines and grass were deliberately maintained in a labyrinthine structure for guests' amusement. Of course, as mazes go, this one looked rather complex. The structure seemed such that once entered, I couldn't find my way out alone.
The manager stood before the maze and turned to face me. His look seemed to ask if I wanted to go in, so I shook my head. I had no desire to play at maze-solving right now. However, the manager gazed at me for a moment, raised the corners of his mouth, and suddenly entered the maze entrance, murmuring only, "Please follow me."
"Hey! Wait a moment!"
He didn't look back again. What on earth was this about? I hurriedly followed the manager into the maze. I could see him walking ahead. He seemed to know the maze's structure, walking without hesitation. Moreover, as if aware I was following, he began continuing his story as he pleased.
"The owner was such a cheerful and wonderful person. Kind, funny, interesting."
"Excuse me! If you walk so fast, I can't possibly—"
"It feels like I met the owner just yesterday, but nearly two years have passed already. How time flies."
Something was strange. Even if I had less stamina than him, the difference shouldn't be this significant. I was clutching my dress hem and practically running to catch him. Yet I simply couldn't keep up with the manager. He was clearly walking, but I was the one out of breath. I had to continue the conversation while chasing after him, listening to him talk.
"He had become quite frail recently, so I hardly spoke with him, but in the past, he took good care of the hotel staff and told many amusing stories."
"...Please, slow down a bit."
"Lately, he would panic just when I addressed him, which was upsetting. Why was he so afraid of me? I only wanted to be his friend."
Just when I thought I had caught up to the manager at full speed, somehow he was already walking far ahead. When I felt I had completely lost him, he would appear from somewhere nearby and continue speaking. After what felt like ten minutes of wandering the maze, the exit was nowhere in sight.
The blue roses, which had no scent before, suddenly began emitting a headache-inducing fragrance. What is this manager trying to do? The combination of the strange manager and being trapped in this convoluted maze made me increasingly breathless and anxious.
"Why do humans break so easily? Why is the human mind so fragile?"
The piercing floral scent caused me to reach my physical limit faster than usual. Am I about to lose him completely? Just as I thought this, the manager stopped walking and turned toward me. In the blink of an eye, he strode up to me and murmured in a low voice:
"So, in the end, I..."
His blue eyes momentarily gleamed red. Like a monster from a story. Did I see wrong? When I blinked and opened my eyes again, his eyes were blue, but his face had drawn even closer.
As I instinctively stepped back,
"General Manager! Why are you here?"
Someone's bright voice rang out.
"And the person beside you... judging by the unfamiliar face, must be a new guest at the hotel!"
Turning my head sideways, I saw someone with a straw hat hanging at the nape of their neck. Wearing gloves and carrying fertilizer bags and garden shears, they appeared to be the gardener who maintained this back garden. Strangely, the fertilizer bag seemed to twitch slightly. Was I imagining it?
Oblivious to my thoughts, the gardener looked brightly between the manager and me.
"Pleased to meet you, miss! I'm the gardener who takes care of all the flowers and trees in the Belvedere."
When I returned his greeting with a slight nod, the gardener laughed cheerfully. Then he turned to the manager with a puzzled expression, tilting his head.
"I came in to tend to the flower beds in the maze, but I didn't expect to run into you here! Manager, were you perhaps lost in the maze? I don't think I've ever seen that before!"
"...Ah, it's been a while since I came in here, so I got a bit turned around. I've been terribly rude to the young lady as well."
"So even you're just an ordinary hotelier! Haha, it happens. This maze is so complex that I often get lost too. Not that I'm bragging!"
I looked at the two of them and caught my breath. After walking frantically, my ankles ached and my head throbbed. And this flower fragrance—why was it so intensely strong? Eager to leave this garden quickly, I interrupted their conversation, knowing it was impolite:
"I'm sorry, but the flower scent is giving me such a headache that I'd like to leave the maze quickly. If you know the way out, could you please guide me?"
"Flower scent? ...Ah, of course! How thoughtless of me to keep a guest standing here! The exit is this way!"
Following the gardener's guidance, it took less than five minutes to reach the exit. After wandering for over ten minutes, the exit had been this close? I wanted to simply collapse from frustration, but I summoned all my strength to resist.
Beside me, the manager stood smiling as if nothing had happened. So much so that the red eyes I'd witnessed moments ago now felt like my imagination. I approached him and asked:
"May I ask you just one question?"
"Yes, miss. Anything at all."
"Why did you stare at me so intently earlier?"
When the manager suddenly brought his face close to mine in the garden, I felt every nerve in my body stand on edge. It was something beyond mere surprise. It was close to terror.
The momentary flash of red eyes was also strange. Even if the sunlight reflected in his eyes, blue eyes wouldn't suddenly appear red. Perhaps I had hallucinated due to the dizzying flower scent.
The manager answered in a completely calm tone:
"A flower petal had fallen on your hair, and I was briefly trying to help you. I should have asked your permission first—my deepest apologies for the impropriety."
So he's going to play innocent. That leaves me with nothing to say. No matter how I thought about it, that wasn't an action meant to remove a flower petal from my hair, but I had no evidence to refute him. Even as I considered this, a corner of my mind felt uneasy, thinking this hotel and its staff might be dangerous.
I turned to the gardener.
"Thank you for helping guide us. Thanks to you, we could leave the maze."
"Oh, it's nothing! Even without me, the manager would have found the way soon enough!"
Judging by the gardener's guileless face, he seemed relatively normal in this hotel full of oddities. As I tried to engage him in further conversation, the manager naturally interjected, then suggested we tour another location, abruptly taking the lead.
As I quickly turned around to catch up with the manager, the gardener kept waving his hand. When I glanced back without thinking, he was crouched down, speaking to the roses.
"No, hush. Stop it! Don't! She's a guest."
...I stand corrected. On second thought, the gardener doesn't seem entirely sane either.
Aaand done! With this we are done with the first 3 chapters of this novel~~ I'm not so interested in this, but if even just one of you wants me to continue translating this i will i guess~! If not, feel free to pick this up yourself!
