Magic Realm Convenience Store – Ch. 161
I came to look for a house (3)
Right after hearing it, I thought something sounded off. I was just here
to look around the place, what exactly does he mean by ‘explain everything step
by step’?
Still, since he said he would explain, I followed the
landlord into the building with the thought that I could at least hear what he
had to say before leaving if necessary.
Right from the entrance,
there were several things that made the suspicious little goblin in my heart
start peeking out. First, the mailboxes. Out of eight slots (Units 101 to 402),
not a single one held mail.
Second, all the gas meters read 0.
A
two-room apartment building six minutes' walk from the Academy District subway
station, with a monthly rent of just 250,000 won without a deposit has no
residents whatsoever. How does that make sense?
Third was the
two-room unit the landlord showed me itself. While I was walking around the
interior after taking my shoes off, the landlord following me around casually
asked.
“So? Does it look alright?"
That's how it looks to
me. So much so that I can’t even begin to guess why the rent is this low.
I
did quite a bit of research last night trying to find a place. First off, do the
appliances like the washing machine and refrigerator actually work?
I
turned it on and it worked fine. Even the washing machine is a front-loading
one.
Besides that, how's the natural lighting, wallpaper, bathroom
condition, how many windows does the place have, is it a cramped space forcibly
converted into a two-room, and so on...
I was prepared to interrogate
the landlord thoroughly if there was even one defect, but by my standards, there
was nothing to question. Natural lighting? The windows and balcony face
south.
The wallpaper was clean even though it didn’t seem freshly
redone. I was told to be especially careful of places where there are signs of
partial recent wallpapering, as it's often done hastily to hide mold.
In
addition, the water came out well even when I let run the bathroom faucet,
toilet, and shower several times at the same time, and I couldn't check the
soundproofing because there was no way to check it. What floor noise would there
be when there's not a single other species living on the floors above or
below?
Finally, looking around the empty bedroom, I asked the
landlord.
“Landlord, is there an urgent need to rent this out or
something?”
When visible conditions are too good, you start
questioning the invisible ones. Like maybe the landlord has a lot of debt and
can’t afford to refund a deposit…
“There’s no deposit in the first
place, so what would I refund?”
“Then what exactly is the basis for
the price? Even the monthly rent is unusually low…”
I know that
saying this isn’t exactly the smartest thing to say as a prospective tenant.
It's the perfect way to look down on someone. Like, 'Oh, then I guess I don't
need to be shown any other better places—' or something.
But I just
couldn't find any problems without asking. If there really were no problems, I
had half made up my mind to live here.
When I asked, the landlord
instead looked at me like I was the weird one and shot back.
"It’s
cheap because there are many problems. What other reason would there be?"
"So
exactly what kind of problems..."
"That's for you to figure out from
now on."
“For me to figure out? But I came here to look for a place
to live?”
“I know that.”
This is driving me crazy. Is this
conversation actually going in circles?
The situation was
incomprehensible in many ways. Right in the middle of my mental wild goose
chase, suddenly there was a clattering sound of something light falling to the
floor.
When I came out to check, I saw the cover from the ceiling
light had fallen and was lying on the floor. Why did that just fall…?
—Knock,
knock.
Then came the sound of knocking. I walked over to the entrance
and opened the door, but no matter how I looked around, there wasn’t a soul in
sight, not even the sound of footsteps going down the stairs.
—Knock,
knock.
Meanwhile, I heard the knocking sound once more, but I was
right in front of the entrance door, seeing both sides of the door
simultaneously, yet the knocking sound was coming from the door. Those so-called
‘many problems’ here, could it be...
“Do you see the problem now?”
The
landlord who had followed me to the entrance asked behind my back. Judging by
his expression of disgust, he seemed to already know about the phenomenon of the
falling cover and the Bluetooth knocking sound.
Now I was starting to
get it too. The landlord asked me before I came in. He asked if I was from the
Hunter Office. I answered appropriately.
"Yes. I see them. Would it
be alright if I look around a bit more by myself?"
“As long as you
lock up properly, I don’t mind.”
“Then I’ll finish checking things
out and contact you later. Can I have your contact information?”
The
landlord who handed me his contact information disappeared with the final words,
‘The door lock is 1111,’ and now all that remained in the house were me, the
fallen fluorescent light cover, and...
Something unidentifiable
inside the room. While watching the landlord descend the stairs, I heard the
sound of water pouring out from inside the bathroom.
—Splash…
When
I went to check, the showerhead over the bathtub was spraying water full blast
into the tub. Even though the faucet was shut off. I looked at the showerhead
and called Noona.
[Hey, Lee Chan. So? How’s the place?]
“Just
took a quick look, but this looks like a bait listing, Noona.”
[Really?
In what way?]
"In the way that it's possessed by a demon."
There
were knocks on an open door, light covers falling for no reason, and now the
water turning on by itself. What else could this be but haunted?
Even
now, water keeps gushing into the bathtub, slowly filling it up despite the
drain being unplugged. I have no idea how to turn off that water. The faucet is
already closed...
Then I asked Noona again.
"Noona, let me
ask you something I'm curious about. The landlord said to me earlier, 'So you're
from the hunter's office, I see'—what did the landlord tell you about this
place?"
[Huh? Did I not tell you?]
“You didn’t?”
It
was only after this conversation that Noona told me what the landlord had said.
Originally, he hadn’t even planned to list this place. His intention was to
renovate the interior and sell it off at a higher price.
So he called
in workers, but these workers always encountered problems whenever they tried to
start working.
Even if they set up a ladder to remove ceiling
wallpaper, they would fall over just as they tried to climb up, and if they
tried to use electricity, the circuit breakers would trip incessantly...
[Since
these incidents kept happening, the foreman packed up and left, saying they
should exorcise the demon first before calling them back. They called in several
mages and anti-magic specialist afterward to try and get rid of the demon, but
none succeeded.]
"Then why did he contact Noona's office? Does
Noona's office catch demons too?"
[We can if they ask us to, but
that’s not the only reason they reached out to us.]
According to
Noona, the landlord must’ve burned through thousands just hiring mages and
anti-magic specialist over the past six months. But they still haven't caught
this demon. The demon must be quite skilled at hide-and-seek.
As the
landlord couldn’t keep pouring money into a bottomless pit, he gave up on
renovations and came up with an insane alternative: finding a tenant who would
deal with it.
[To put it simply, it's like this: Looking for someone
who will catch the demon inside in exchange for cheap rent.]
“That’s
the message he sent to the office? Since when?”
[We're probably the
second, I think? The first office he called hung up, saying they run their own
dormitory.]
Noona also once hung up on me, saying, ‘No one in out
office wants to work overtime like this’, but she confessed she couldn’t stop
thinking about this case ever since.
Then, by sheer luck, a certain
part-time anti-magic specialist with no home or plans showed up looking for a
place, so she introduced me to the landlord in case I was interested. This is
the current situation.
After hearing all this, I looked around the
house interior once more. The fallen fluorescent light cover had somehow changed
its position and was now repeatedly banging its corner against the veranda glass
window. Hmm...
“Does this happen often, Noona?”
[Possessed
houses are everyday stuff. Some guy stubs his toe on the corner of a desk, holds
a grudge, and bam—the desk gets possessed. Or noise between floors builds up
resentment, and next thing you know, the ceiling's got a demon...]
"Not
that, I'm asking if houses that are livable except for being possessed by demons
frequently appear on the market."
[What? Are you really thinking of
staying there?]
I’m thinking of giving it a shot. Because aside from
the fact that it’s possessed, it’s going to be hard to find another place this
nice. I kinda wanted to try washing my clothes in that drum machine too.
Apart
from all that, the monthly rent is just 250,000 won. Even assuming I pay one
month's rent and run away after a week, the daily accommodation cost wouldn't
even reach 40,000 won.
It’s not like I’m losing much, and if I can
get rid of the demon with my constitution, I’ll be making a killing. How the
landlord will react after I catch the demon is an issue, but setting that
aside...
[I guess the demon there doesn't cause too much trouble?]
"Dunno.
I’ve only been here 30 minutes, not sure.”
But from what I can tell
so far, it doesn’t look like this demon’s trying to wreck the house or anything.
The walls were pristine, for starters.
The bathroom shower turning on
by itself, the door knocking, the fluorescent cover tapping on the veranda. All
annoying things, sure, but none of them actually damage the house.
And
honestly, if things stay at this level, I can probably cover it up with positive
thinking about saving money. Right after thinking this far, the door lock on the
closed front door unlocked and the door flung open.
And then it began
to teeter, and though I don't know exactly, I felt like he was trying to spare
me if I left now. After thinking about it some more, I asked Noona.
“It
might not work out with just my constitution, so come over to my housewarming
party later, Noona.”
[Of course I'll come since it's a place I
recommended, but wouldn't it be more effective to call Unnie instead of me? I'm
not specialized in demons.]
"Yeah. See you in the evening, Noona.
I'll stay here a bit longer before leaving."
[Got it.]
The
call ended, and the front door started creaking again. If I said, ‘Okay, I'm
going out now,’ would the rattle stop?
“...I’ll be out in the
evening, so stop whining.”
After saying what came to mind, the
teetering stopped abruptly and the front door closed. Seeing this, I understand.
Whatever this demon's identity is, it's one with its own will.
As for
what that will was beyond just that, I would have to figure it out little by
little from now on. I went back to checking my phone and saw that someone had
replied to the message I sent earlier in the café group chat to the regulars.
It
was Charlie. The guy with the Chihuahua. His reply was this.
[Fuck
what]
[Moving out of the fucking blue]
[No, Customer,
what should I do if the store is not doing well?]
It's my boss's
decision, so I can't do anything about it, nor do I want to. I sent a reply, but
the little ‘1’ indicating an unread message next to it stayed there for tens of
seconds without disappearing.
After continuing to look, I sent one
more line of text.
[So I'm also thinking of moving to the Academy
District area, any tips or anything?]
As soon as I sent it, the ‘1’
next to both messages disappeared, and a reply came immediately:
[That
place is dog shit terrible so don't live there]
Solid advice. Then
again, the first place I found was already possessed, so…
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