The elevator doors closed completely.
Vesper's beautiful, unreadable face vanished behind them.
Inside the narrow space, only Eve, Vera, and Udon remained.
Eve pressed the button for the first floor.
The needle began its slow descent.
Seventh floor.
Sixth floor.
Fifth floor.
Beneath the low hum of the machinery, no one spoke.
"What should I ask it?"
Vera broke the silence first.
She stood in the corner of the elevator, her face still pale.
"Vesper said it would answer, but that it could dodge the question."
Eve watched the descending needle.
"We're not trying to get an actual answer out of it."
Vera didn't follow.
"Then why ask at all?"
"To make it stop moving."
Eve turned to look at her.
"Once it starts answering, it can't move. I'll use that time to get close and throw the liquid in its face."
"But it can answer quickly."
"That's why you can't ask just one question."
Eve continued,
"No matter what it says, you have to keep asking."
"Try not to ask anything it can answer with just yes or no. The longer its answer, the longer it has to stay still."
Vera lowered her head, seemingly trying to think of questions.
"What if it turns the question back on me?"
"Then ask the next one immediately."
"Don't argue with it. And don't let anything it says get to you."
Udon crouched between them, his tail brushing lightly against the floor.
"Easier said than done."
"The Name-Taker's already stolen part of her memories. It knows exactly what to say to shake her."
Eve looked at Vera.
"Can you do this?"
Vera was silent for a moment.
Her fingertips were still trembling.
But in the end, she nodded.
"I'll keep asking."
The needle passed the second floor.
Finally, it stopped at 1.
Ding.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
The corridor was silent.
Dim amber wall lamps cast their light over the dark red carpet, while the doors on either side remained tightly shut.
But from the direction of the staircase came a faint, rhythmic sound.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Like someone leisurely tapping their fingernails against wood.
Vera's entire body went rigid.
"It's here."
Eve kept her voice low.
"Isn't it supposed to be in the lobby?"
Udon stepped out of the elevator and listened for several seconds, his ears pricked forward.
"Looks like it got tired of waiting."
"It knows we're back?"
"No."
Udon looked toward the staircase.
"It's testing the barrier."
"To it, there's no difference between waiting on the sofa and waiting at the bottom of the stairs."
The closer they got to the stairs, the clearer the knocking became.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
At the corner, They stopped.
The Name-Taker stood only a few steps from the guest room floor.
One hand was raised.
Its pale fingernails tapped again and again against the invisible barrier.
The moment it sensed them, the motion stopped.
The Name-Taker slowly raised its head.
A rigid smile appeared on the face identical to Vera's.
It looked at Vera.
"I thought you'd hide until dawn."
Vera stepped back half a pace, instinctively.
Eve reached out and steadied her by the arm.
"Don't be afraid."
She said, in a voice only the two of them could hear.
"It can't touch us right now."
At least not until they willingly went down the stairs and entered its reach.
The Name-Taker's gaze shifted to Eve.
"What did you find?"
Its eyes drifted slowly down to her coat pocket.
The smile faded from its face, bit by bit.
It recognized that liquid.
Eve felt a wave of certainty settle in her. Vesper hadn't lied to her.
"Let's start."
Eve said quietly to Vera.
Vera took a deep breath and stepped forward.
"Where were you, the first time you heard my voice?"
The Name-Taker's body stiffened slightly.
A few seconds later, it answered.
"The room you rented when you were twenty-two."
Eve noticed it immediately—
the fingers that had been tapping against the barrier had gone completely still while it spoke.
Vesper hadn't lied.
Vera pressed on.
"What was I doing at the time?"
The corner of the creature's mouth curled up slightly.
"Crying."
Only one word.
The instant the answer ended, its fingers began moving again.
Bang!
The Name-Taker slammed against the invisible barrier.
Vera flinched backward.
"Don't stop!"
Eve immediately reminded her.
"Why did you choose me?"
The Name-Taker froze again.
It stared at Vera across the remaining steps.
"Because back then, you believed no one in this world loved you."
Vera's face went white.
"You thought that even if you disappeared, no one would notice."
"So—"
The Name-Taker's smile widened.
"I wanted to live for you."
"You didn't want to live for me."
Vera couldn't stop herself from arguing.
"You just wanted to steal my life."
The Name-Taker didn't answer.
Because that wasn't a question.
The restraint was broken.
It lunged upward.
Its body slammed heavily into the invisible barrier.
Bang!
This time, the entire corridor seemed to tremble.
Eve looked at the stairs.
The Name-Taker couldn't cross the last few steps.
But if she wanted to throw the liquid on its face, she'd have to step within its reach herself.
She slid her hand into her coat pocket, gripping the jar.
"Keep asking."
Vera forced herself to stay calm.
"Which did you copy first—my voice or my face?"
"Your voice."
"How long did it take you to look the way you do now?"
"One year."
The answers were too short.
Each one only bought a single heartbeat of stillness.
Eve stepped down onto the first stair.
The Name-Taker's eyes snapped to her immediately.
"You think that liquid can save her?"
Vera immediately asked,
"What did you say to me the first time you used my voice?"
The Name-Taker froze again.
"I said—"
"You don't have to struggle anymore."
Eve took the second step down.
Only five steps separated her from the Name-Taker now.
The corner of its mouth twisted into something grotesque.
"Because no one cares how hard your life has been."
The answer ended.
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It lashed out, hand flying toward her.
Eve flinched back just in time.
Its pale fingertips grazed her sleeve, leaving faint black streaks across the fabric.
Just barely.
That hand had almost caught her.
"When you looked through my memories, what was the loneliest day you found?"
Vera's voice rang out again.
The Name-Taker went still.
It looked at Vera, undisguised malice surfacing in its black eyes.
"You really want them to know?"
Vera clenched her jaw.
"That's not an answer."
The smile on the creature's face deepened further.
"Your twenty-third birthday."
It began to answer.
"You had just finished your last dance of the night at the club and gone back to your rented room alone."
Eve seized the moment to take another step down.
"You gave the money you'd worked so hard to earn to a man who claimed he would take care of you."
"He took all your savings."
"And when he got drunk, he hit you."
Vera's fingers began to tremble.
Eve was almost directly in front of the Name-Taker now.
Two steps away.
"You hid in the bathroom, bruises on your face, still wearing the dress you'd performed in."
"You remembered being abandoned by your family when you were young."
"You remembered every man you'd met at the club."
Using Vera's own voice, the Name-Taker continued gently,
"Some cheated you out of your money."
"Some only wanted your body."
"And some told you they loved you while putting their fists on you."
Vera's eyes slowly reddened.
"Stop..."
"You looked into the mirror and asked why no one in this world had ever truly loved you."
"You kept working. Kept earning money. Kept trying to survive—"
"without knowing what the point of staying alive even was."
Vera's breathing turned ragged.
The Name-Taker could have answered far more briefly than this.
But it wanted, badly, to hurt her.
Wanted, badly, to drag her back into that memory.
And so, by its own choice, it prolonged the very time in which it could not move.
Eve tightened her grip on the jar in her pocket.
One step left.
"Enough!"
Vera finally broke, cutting it off.
The creature's answer stopped short.
The binding lifted in the same instant.
It spun toward Eve.
Damn it.
Five pale fingers shot toward her throat.
Eve threw herself backward, but her shoe slipped on the edge of the step.
Her balance vanished in an instant.
Udon leapt down from the railing.
His claws raked viciously across the creature's eyes.
"Screeech—"
The Name-Taker's scream tore through the air, layered and echoing, each copy of the sound slightly out of sync with the last, a distorted noise that felt like it was splitting their eardrums.
The creature swung a hand at Udon.
Bang!
Udon hit the wall and dropped hard onto the steps.
"Udon!"
Eve reached out, trying to grab him.
But the creature was already lunging at her again.
Vera looked at it.
Tears still clinging to her eyes.
But this time, she didn't step back.
"What are you most afraid of, right now?"
The Name-Taker 's movement seized up abruptly.
Less than half a step now separated it from Eve.
That pale hand hovered just in front of her throat.
The Name-Taker didn't answer.
Its black eyes stayed locked, unblinking, on the pocket where the liquid was hidden.
Vera raised her voice.
"Answer me!"
The corner of the creature's mouth twitched slowly.
"I'm not afraid of anything."
Eve's eyes went straight to that face.
No change.
That was the truth.
It genuinely wasn't afraid.
But the question had still made it freeze — if only for an instant.
That was enough.
Eve pulled the jar free and pushed the stopper open with her thumb.
The creature's eyes went wide.
The answer had ended.
Its fingers snapped shut, closing in on her throat.
Eve didn't retreat.
With everything she had, she flung the clear liquid straight into its face.
Splash—
The liquid struck the Name-Taker's skin.
At first, nothing happened.
It still wore Vera's face, unchanged.
Eve's heart plummeted.
Had Vesper lied to her after all?
Then—
A thin wisp of white smoke rose from the corner of its eye.
Then its cheek.
Its lips.
Its forehead.
Fzzzz—
Like a red-hot iron plunged into cold water.
Thick white smoke billowed from its face.
The face identical to Vera's began to melt.
Skin peeling away, downward.
Its once-delicate features warped and twisted, like paint dissolving in water.
"No—"
The Name-Taker let out a shriek.
It released Eve, clawing wildly at its own face.
But everywhere its fingers touched, the corrosion only spread faster.
"My face..."
It stumbled backward.
"Give my face back to me!"
Vera stood on the stairs.
Watching the face that belonged to her dissolve before her eyes.
She was still afraid.
Her body still trembling.
But for the first time, she didn't run.
"That was never your face."
She said firmly.
The Name-Taker's head snapped up.
Vera's features, once stolen, had already vanished — leaving only a churning mass of black mist.
"It's mine!"
It shrieked, lunging at Vera.
But it had barely taken a step before its entire body began to collapse.
Its arms dissolved into black mist.
Then its legs.
Its chest.
It could no longer hold any human shape at all, writhing in agony across the stairs.
"I'm Vera..."
Countless voices, tangled together.
"I'm the real Vera..."
The real Vera walked slowly down the stairs.
She looked at the mass of black mist, moments from dissolving entirely, and spoke, word by word.
"No."
"You're not."
The last word fell.
the Name-Taker's body went completely still.
The next second—
The black mist tore apart, as though ripped by some invisible force, scattering in every direction.
And before it ever touched the ground, it vanished, without a trace.
The stairwell fell silent.
The empty glass jar rolled slowly down the steps.
Ting.
Ting.
Ting.
Finally coming to rest on the wooden floor of the lobby.
Eve sat down on the stairs, gasping for breath.
Her legs still wouldn't stop shaking.
Udon lay sprawled nearby, his black fur a tangled mess.
Eve scrambled over to him.
"Are you okay?"
Udon lifted its head.
"Still alive."
"Are you hurt?"
"Worry about yourself first."
Udon stared at the red scratches along the side of Eve's neck.
"A little slower, and your head wouldn't still be attached to your neck."
Eve touched the side of her throat, only now registering a sharp sting of pain.
"So — it's really gone?"
Udon glanced toward the spot where the creature had disappeared.
"Gone."
The instant he finished speaking.
A telephone began ringing, from the direction of Room 101.
Ring—
Ring—
The three of them exchanged a glance.
Eve scooped Udon up and headed back to Room 101 with Vera.
Eve picked up the old telephone by the bed.
A faint hiss of static came first.
Then the same cold, genderless voice slowly spoke.
"Unregistered entity. Removal complete."
"Guest Vera. Check-in status: confirmed."
"Manager's first removal assignment—"
A brief pause.
Then came the final word.
"Passed."
The call ended.
Eve stood there, receiver in hand, saying nothing for a moment.
"That's it? Just 'passed'?"
She stared at the phone, incredulous.
"I nearly died on those stairs!"
Udon hopped onto the low cabinet, licking its paw over his tangled fur.
"At least it didn't say you failed."
Eve set the receiver down.
She raised her wrist.
[04:34]
Three hours and twenty-six minutes until eight in the morning.
She looked at Vera.
"You can stay here in 101 and rest."
"That thing isn't coming back."
Vera stood in the middle of the room.
A long moment passed before she gave a small nod.
"Thank you."
Eve looked at her and said quietly, "Get some rest."
She didn't linger any longer, taking Udon with her as she left Room 101.
The corridor fell quiet again.
Eve walked back down the stairs toward the lobby.
The empty glass jar still lay beside the bottom step, a few drops of clear liquid clinging to its mouth.
She wrapped it in thick cloth and picked it up carefully.
The Name-Taker was gone.
No body on the floor. No trace left behind at all.
As though the whole harrowing fight had never happened.
Only the wound on her neck, Udon's tangled fur, and the empty jar in her hand proved that any of it had been real.
Only now did it truly sink in—
she had just destroyed a monster.
She looked down at the empty jar.
"I should go back to 707."
Udon's head shot up.
"What for?"
"This belongs to someone else."
"We took it without asking. The least I can do is explain."
Udon was quiet for two seconds.
"I'd suggest pretending none of this happened."
"Why?"
"The guest in 707 doesn't like people touching his things."
"Then that's even more reason to leave an explanation."
Udon looked at her, a trace of pity appearing in his palm-green eyes.
"Let's hope he's in a good mood when he gets back."
A few minutes later.
Eve arrived back at Room 707, the empty jar in her arms.
Still no one inside.
She set the jar back in its place on the wooden cabinet and found a pen and paper on the desk.
She began to write.
—Borrowed one jar of the clear liquid; used it to remove a Name-Taker. The liquid is gone now. I'm very sorry. If you need compensation, please come find me at the manager's room.
She'd meant to sign her name underneath.
But the moment her pen touched the paper, she remembered Udon's earlier warning — not to let anything in this hotel learn her name so easily.
So instead, she simply wrote:
—The new manager, Long Night Hotel
Eve placed the note beneath the empty bottle.
"That should be fine, right?"
"Hopefully."
Udon stood by the door.
"Let's go."
"Where now?"
Udon turned toward the elevator.
"You still have one last task tonight."
Eve stopped dead.
"There's more?"
"Don't give me that look."
Udon's tail gave a small flick.
"I'm just taking you to your own room."
Eve blinked.
"My room?"
The elevator doors slid open in front of them.
Udon glanced back at her.
"The manager is part of this hotel too."
"You weren't planning to sleep behind the front desk every night, were you?"
The elevator returned to the first floor.
Eve followed Udon through the corridor and back down to the lobby.
Passing the front desk, Udon suddenly veered around behind it.
Eve followed a few steps, then slowed to a stop.
On what had been an empty wall, a dark black door now stood — she had no idea since when.
Eve stared at it.
"Was there a door here before?"
"No."
Udon walked up to it.
"Only someone who passes the hotel's first trial is allowed into the Manager's Room."
"That Name-Taker — that was the trial?"
"The hotel said you passed, didn't it?"
Eve suddenly realized that perhaps the word passed hadn't only meant that she'd successfully removed the monster.
She looked toward the pitch-black door.
Only two words were engraved on the brass plaque:
[MANAGER'S ROOM]
Eve hesitated, then reached out and took hold of the handle.
The instant her fingers touched the metal, a cold sensation spread slowly across her palm.
On the handle — which had been completely blank a moment ago — a line of small text began to surface
[Identity Confirmed: Eve Lam]
[Manager Access: Activated]
Eve's breath caught, and she let go without meaning to.
The two lines vanished at once.
The handle returned to its original, blank state, as though nothing had ever appeared there.
"Don't worry."
Udon crouched by her feet.
"Only a manager the hotel has confirmed can see her own name there."
At that moment, the lock turned on its own.
Click.
The dark door swung open a narrow crack.
Eve stared into the darkness beyond it.
"What's in there?"
"Everything you'll need to know, from now on."
Udon slipped through the gap first.
"Come on in, new manager."
Eve stayed where she was, just outside the door.
For some reason, she suddenly felt—
that passing the trial might not have been something worth celebrating at all.