Eve took hold of the handle and pushed gently.
The dark door let out a low, hoarse scrape as it swung slowly inward.
She'd assumed the manager's office would be something like Room 101.
Warm lighting, a neatly made bed, soft clean carpet — at the very least, somewhere a person could briefly forget about the monsters outside.
What lay beyond the door was nothing like what she'd imagined.
The room was certainly spacious.
A bed, a sofa, a wardrobe, a writing desk — everything was there, and the wall sconces gave off a warm yellow glow. If you ignored the clutter covering the floor, this place might genuinely have counted as comfortable.
But black cat fur was, quite literally, everywhere.
On the sofa. Across the carpet. All over the bedsheets. Even the low cabinet by the door wore a thin layer of it.
Scattered across the floor were balls of yarn, feather toys, and several stuffed animals clawed so thoroughly they no longer resembled anything at all. Mixed in among the clutter were stranger things: a length of bone tied with a cute little bow, a perfectly ordinary pair of black-framed glasses, and a name tag faded almost past reading.
The writing on the tag had blurred; only two characters were still barely legible.
Udon.
In the corner sat a soft black cat bed, a food bowl beside it.
Eve stood in the doorway, silent for a few seconds.
"This looks more like your room."
Udon strolled past her feet and stepped inside, entirely at ease.
"I've always lived with the manager."
It slipped into the cat bed in the corner with practiced familiarity.
Its black body sank into the equally black cushion until only a pair of palm-green eyes hovered in midair. When It closed them, the cat all but vanished.
A voice drifted out of the darkness.
"Besides, there hasn't been a manager in a long time. All that empty space was going to waste."
Eve glanced at the bed, nearly buried under cat fur, and couldn't stop herself from complaining.
"So you just took over the entire room?"
She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.
The moment it shut, the cold of the corridor — and those faint, half-heard sounds out there — were sealed away.
It was the first time since arriving at the hotel that Eve genuinely felt, even briefly, safe.
But she didn't let herself relax.
Ever since she'd stepped into this hotel, everything had happened too fast for her to even think.
The fog and the awful weather. The rule about not leaving the hotel after two in the morning. A talking black cat. That strange hotel telephone. And the creature that had tried to steal Vera's name — the Name-Taker.
And somehow, in the middle of all that, Eve had become the manager of this hotel.
She looked toward Udon, already curled up in its bed.
"I have a lot of questions."
From inside the black cat bed, only a pair of palm green eyes remained.
"I can tell."
"What exactly is this hotel?"
"The Long Night Hotel."
"I know it's called the Long Night Hotel." Eve reined in her temper. "I'm asking why it showed up in City A. And what those creatures are."
Udon was quiet for a moment.
"The hotel didn't show up in City A."
Eve froze.
"What do you mean?"
"This isn't City A."
"Then where am I?"
"Longnight."
"Longnight?"
"The name of this world."
Udon lifted his head from the cat bed.
"You're not in your original world anymore."
Eve's fingers tightened unconsciously.
She'd half-suspected it already. But hearing the answer out loud still made something drop hard in her chest.
"How did I get here?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was heading home from work, and I got lost somewhere along the way. By the time I saw this hotel, there was no one else around."
"That was you entering Longnight."
Eve's brow creased.
"What kind of explanation is that?"
"Everyone enters Long Night differently."
Udon's tail draped over the edge of the cat bed.
"Some push open a door that shouldn't exist. Some board a train that was never scheduled. And some just take a wrong turn on a road they've walked a hundred times."
"Why me?"
"Don't know."
"Did the hotel bring me here?"
"Perhaps."
"Do you answer every question with 'don't know' and 'perhaps'?"
Udon looked at her.
"I'm not going to invent an answer just to make you feel better."
Eve was silent for a moment.
"Then how do I get back?"
This time, Udon didn't answer right away.
The room went quiet.
"I don't know how to return."
"Has no one ever left successfully?"
"Some disappeared. Some died. Some are still searching."
Udon's voice remained calm.
"As for whether anyone's ever actually made it back to their original world — no one's ever returned to tell us."
Eve's heart sank, degree by degree.
"So I might never get home."
"I didn't say that."
Udon met her eyes, calm.
"What you can do now is stay alive."
Eve didn't answer.
She thought of her apartment. The unanswered messages on her phone. The desk that was permanently buried under work.
Only a few hours ago, she'd been thinking that if she could just get through this one project and collect the bonus, she could take leave and go home to see her family.
Now even the words go home had become something impossibly far away.
A long time passed before she managed to force down the tears and grief rising in her throat and speak again.
"Then back in City A... am I considered missing?"
Eve looked at Udon, her voice trembling despite herself.
"My family can't find me?"
"They can't."
The answer came short and direct.
Something pressed down hard on Eve's chest.
She could picture it almost too clearly — her family calling her phone over and over after realizing she was gone, contacting her company, eventually filing a report with the police.
And she could do absolutely nothing.
"Is there any way to let them know?"
"Longnight isn't connected to your original world."
"Can my phone make calls?"
"They won't go through."
"Messages?"
"Same."
Eve instinctively reached for the dead phone in her pocket.
It was still there.
Yet it could no longer connect her to anyone she knew.
"Then they'll keep looking for me."
The words sounded more like something she was telling herself.
Udon watched her quietly.
"As long as you're in Longnight, they won't find you."
Eve lowered her head and gripped the phone tightly.
The edge of the device dug painfully into her palm before she finally loosened her fingers.
She was alive.
And her family would never know it.
To them, she had simply vanished one evening on her way home from work.
Without warning.
She used to find her parents' constant reminders exhausting — especially the way her mother always brought up other people's children, the pressure it put on her.
That was why she had moved to City A for work so early.
Her family probably wouldn't realize immediately that she was missing.
There should still be some time.
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She still had a chance.
Calm down, Eve. Calm down.
She repeated the words silently to herself, forcing the panic in her chest back down.
At the very least, she had to understand exactly what kind of place she was trapped in.
"So what is the Long Night Hotel, really?"
"A place that takes in those who come to Longnight and need somewhere to live, or shelter."
"And now that I'm the manager, what am I supposed to do?"
"Verify guests. Complete their registration. And deal with anything that shouldn't be inside the hotel."
Eve thought of the fight that had nearly killed her.
"By 'deal with,' you mean personally killing monsters?"
"Depends on the situation."
"Is there other work?"
"Learning the guests' own stories, and the relationships between them. If guests come into conflict, the manager mediates and keeps order in the hotel."
"Beyond that, you also have to make sure the hotel has enough energy to keep operating."
Eve's headache seemed to grow with every word.
"Wait. What do you mean by the hotel's energy?"
"You'll find out eventually."
Udon extended one paw from the cat bed, pointing toward the wooden desk at the far end of the room.
"Start with the simplest thing first."
Eve followed where he pointed.
A thick black book sat on the old wooden desk.
It was completely out of place among the surrounding mess.
There wasn't a single strand of cat hair on the desk. No clutter, either. The book sat alone in the exact center, three words embossed across its cover in silver:
The Guest Record
Eve walked over and opened it.
The sound of turning pages seemed unusually clear in the quiet room.
[Level 1]
[Guests: 1]
[Room: 101]
[Name: Vera]
[Species: Human (previously deceased, since revived)]
[Occupation: Dancer]
[Check-in status: Confirmed]
[Reason for stay: Evading a Name-Taker]
[Threat status: Resolved]
[Additional information: N/A]
Eve studied the writing on the page.
"It knows everything about the guests?"
"It only records what you've already confirmed."
Udon lay in his cat bed, only those palm-green eyes showing, his voice heavy with sleep.
"What counts as confirmed?"
"If what a guest tells you is true, or if you investigate it yourself, whatever belongs to that guest will appear on its own."
"What if the guest lies?"
"The Guest Record won't show anything."
Eve looked back at the page.
"So if something isn't shown here, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist or isn't true?"
"It only means you haven't confirmed it yet."
In other words, the Guest Record wouldn't hand her any answers. It could only confirm whether what she'd already learned was the truth.
Eve kept turning the pages.
The second floor was blank. No guests at all.
Not until the third floor did the words checked in appear again.
No name. No occupation. No reason for stay. Apart from the check-in status, every field was empty.
The fourth and fifth floors were likewise unoccupied.
The sixth floor showed two rooms marked checked in.
Soon enough, another familiar name appeared on the page.
[Level 7]
[Guests: 3]
[Room: 70?]
[Name: Vesper]
[Species: Unknown]
[Occupation: Unknown]
[Check-in status: Confirmed]
[Reason for stay: Unknown]
[Additional information: N/A]
Beyond that, the remaining entries were still blank.
Room 707 showed the following:
[Room: 707]
[Name: Unknown]
[Species: Unknown]
[Occupation: Unknown]
[Check-in status: Confirmed]
[Reason for stay: Unknown]
[Additional information: N/A]
The Guest Record was divided by floor.
At present, the first floor had only Vera in Room 101.
The second floor was empty.
The third floor had one guest.
The fourth and fifth floors were unoccupied.
The sixth floor had two guests.
The seventh floor had three — one of them Room 707, which she'd already been inside; another presumably Vesper's. As for who occupied the last one, she had no idea.
Counting Vera, who had only just checked in, this enormous hotel currently held a total of seven registered guests.
Far fewer than Eve had imagined.
Udon yawned before lazily adding,
"That's part of the manager's job. Make contact with the guests. Work out who they are, why they came here, and whether they're going to cause trouble for the hotel."
Eve thought of the two identical Veras from earlier.
"Every single one of those sounds like a nightmare."
"That's why the hotel needs a manager."
"Why are most of the guests on the sixth and seventh floors?"
"Anyone who can stay in this hotel long-term without a manager around has a certain amount of power in their own right."
"What does that mean?"
"The higher the floor, the stronger the guest. The hotel assigns floors according to their strength, so that guests too far apart in power don't end up living side by side and causing unnecessary problems."
Eve couldn't help thinking of Vesper.
If the hotel assigned floors by strength, then Vesper was considerably more dangerous than she'd assumed.
Which meant the deal she had made with him tonight carried far more weight than she had realized. The thought left a faint unease sitting in her chest.
After a moment, she drew a deep breath and closed the Guest Record.
"Can you tell me what kind of world Longnight actually is?"
Udon lifted his head from the cat bed and looked at her quietly for a few seconds.
"Longnight isn't a normal world."
"I've already noticed."
Udon continued calmly.
"Humans aren't the only things that exist here. The dead. Monsters. And things you aren't capable of understanding yet—they can all appear here."
Eve thought of all those nameless rooms in the Guest Record.
"Did they all end up in Longnight by accident, like me?"
"Some did. Some didn't."
"Meaning?"
"Some got lost. Some were pulled into Longnight. Some were born here. And some deliberately searched for a way in."
Eve tilted her head.
"People actually choose to come to a place like this?"
"There are things in Longnight that you could never obtain in your original world."
"Like what?"
"Power. Longevity. A chance to change your fate."
"Of course, getting those things usually comes with a price."
Eve didn't press further.
What she needed most right now wasn't why other people had come here on purpose. It was how she was going to survive.
"The hotel's rules say I can't leave after two in the morning. Does that mean before two is safe?"
"No."
Udon answered fast.
"From eight in the morning until two a.m. is Longnight's daytime. The sky gradually turns gray-white. There's no sun, but it isn't completely dark either. That period is only relatively safe. We call it the Grayday."
"What's the difference?"
"Most monsters fall dormant during that period, and the rules outside are more stable. You can leave the hotel, explore nearby areas, and search for food, supplies, and anything else that might be useful."
"And after two a.m.?"
"That's when Longnight truly begins."
Udon's voice dropped slightly.
" Every clock stops at two. Some of the rules change. Things that were sleeping wake up. And places that don't normally exist start to appear."
"So as long as I stay inside the hotel after two, I'm completely safe?"
"As long as everyone is properly registered, follows the rules, and nothing that shouldn't be here manages to slip inside, then for the most part, yes. Every guest room is protected by the Long Night Hotel's barrier."
Udon paused.
"If a new guest arrives that night, the manager is responsible for checking them in after two a.m."
Udon turned itself over lazily in the cat bed.
Its black shape melted back into the equally black cushion almost immediately and it closed its eyes.
"If I were you, I'd get some rest while I could. Who knows what kind of danger tomorrow might bring."
Eve's gaze drifted instinctively to the clock on the room's wall.
Its hands were still frozen at 2 a.m.
She raised her wrist.
Her own watch was still running normally.
5:30 a.m.
Somehow, their back-and-forth had eaten up that much time without her noticing.
Then something occurred to her.
Her eyes sharpened as she turned back to Udon.
"Why is my watch still running when every clock in the hotel has stopped at two in the morning?"
"Because what stopped is the hotel's clocks. Not time itself."
Udon's muffled voice came out of the darkness.
"Being able to know the exact time is a major advantage."
Eve looked down at her wrist.
"Knowing the exact time counts as an advantage?"
Udon opened his eyes again, clearly displeased at having his sleep interrupted.
"After two a.m., every clock in the hotel stops. Outside, some places can even distort time itself. Being off by a single minute can be enough to decide whether you live or die."
Eve looked down at the watch again.
The second hand continued moving steadily around the face.
Tick by tick.
A sound she had never paid attention to before now seemed unusually clear.
"Can someone steal it from me?"
"It wouldn't matter if they did."
Udon's voice had grown muffled again. He was clearly about to fall asleep.
"They couldn't use it."
"Why?"
"Anything you bring into Longnight from your original world gains a mark that belongs to you. That watch has already recognized you as its owner. Even if someone else took it, all they'd get is an object that no longer works."
Eve frowned slightly.
"Can the mark be removed?"
"No. And if you die, anything you brought from your original world—anything that doesn't belong to Longnight—will disappear with you."
Udon yawned, speaking as casually as though he were discussing the weather.
"So yes. Knowing the exact time is an advantage."
He paused, then added,
"Just like earlier. If you hadn't known the time, you might have missed your best chance to remove the Name-Taker."
Eve suddenly felt that what she wore on her wrist was no longer just an ordinary watch.
In a world where even time could lie to her, it was a resource belonging solely to her — and a tool that could keep her alive.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the phone that wouldn't turn on.
No matter how many times she pressed the power button, the screen stayed black.
"What about my phone? The battery's dead. Is there anywhere here to charge it?"
"The hotel doesn't have what you need."
Udon continued,
"There are plenty of abandoned buildings outside, and some shops that are still usable. You can explore during the day. You might find charging equipment."
Eve tightened her grip around the phone.
"If I charge it, can I contact people in my original world?"
Udon slowly opened his palm-green eyes.
He was silent for a moment.
"Longnight can't normally connect to your original world."
"But nothing here is ever absolute. You can try making a call."
"As for who might answer on the other end—I can't promise you anything."
Eve looked at the black screen.
At least it wasn't a complete no.
As long as even the smallest possibility remained, she would find a way to turn the phone back on.
She put it away and walked over to the bed.
Black cat fur was scattered across the sheets.
She glanced back at Udon, already curled deep into his cat bed and fast asleep, and finally gave up on the idea of cleaning it off.
She was simply too tired.
Her clothes had already been through dust, blood, and being dragged across the floor by a monster. Compared to all that, a few strands of cat fur seemed considerably easier to accept.
Thinking this, Eve lay down on the bed.
The soft mattress took her weight, and all the exhaustion she'd been holding back finally crashed over her at once.
But she still couldn't sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, the Name-Taker's warping face surfaced again in her mind.
And then she thought of her family.
When would they realize she was missing?
Would she ever be able to go back?
Eve rolled over and forced herself to stop spiraling.
She needed rest.
Udon was right.
She didn't know when the next guest would appear. Or whether the next thing she had to face would be a person — or another monster.
She closed her eyes and counted the ticking of her watch.
One.
Two.
Three.
She lost track of how long it took before the tension finally blurred, and she sank slowly into sleep.