Chapter 74: This Is Not a Murder Case

Aren’t there many such scenes?

The kind where people who have business in a room see two people sharing passionate affection, feel awkward, and just back off.

Maybe I should’ve done that instead of boarding the Nightmare Queen into RiceCookerMan.

“Huh? The young man was home? Came back worried about the baby?”

The landlord grandpa picks my room’s lock with the master key and barges in.

I’m dumbfounded.

Here I am, holding back the easy method of memory-erasing with a stone out of concern for an old man’s head, and this?

Furious enough to blow away old man or not with a fist wind, I gripped my fist and the stone tight.

“Are you entering without permission? I clearly said I’d see you later!”

“Sorry, sorry, young man. But I called a lady over, can’t just send her back empty-handed.”

“202 and 204 are also suspected of leaks. I didn’t say I wouldn’t open, I asked you to check there first—what gives you the right?”

“204 won’t talk. Can’t enter. And 202 is a lady—using the master key to enter a woman’s room would be trouble.”

Even more absurd.

I’m doing all this for their safety.

It’s all for everyone’s safety. Please…!

If something like King Slime pops out again and suffocates the workers and landlord, I can’t resurrect them, can I?

“So a man’s room is fine to enter? Get out.”

“No rush, really. Thought you were urgently playing that computer game or something, but no. Hey, let me look around a bit. Handsome young man, don’t be so angry. Hm? Won’t take long. Right, knight sir?”

“Ah, really sorry. If not today, my business trip will delay things—let me check quick and go.”

“Get out now.”

“Hey, young man, don’t be like that.”

“Can’t you hear ‘get out’? Unauthorized entry without tenant consent is clearly trespassing.”

“Well, truly. You’re usually not like this—what’s wrong today?”

Still, compared to the stubborn landlord grandpa, the knight sir at least tries manners. One guy holding a leak detector enters awkwardly with him.

[Air raid alert! Air raid alert! Blackout.]

RiceCookerMan’s air raid alert keeps ringing in my head.

I’m extremely anxious right now.

No one knows what’s happening inside that rice cooker.

I planned to just charm them out with the skill.

Then it happened.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

BANG!

“Ugh!? What’s that sound!?”

KABOOM.

[HOTTTTT! My belly is burning!?]

They probably can’t hear, but I hear RiceCookerMan whining in my ears.

Ah, I’m losing it.

Something came out of the gate and is fighting the Nightmare Queen?

“Young man! Why’s the rice cooker like that?”

“It’s shaking hard. What’s inside?”

The gate.

“Ah, I’m running a white rice reaction experiment in the cooker—get out! It’s dangerous, that’s why I blocked entry. If this goes wrong, it explodes!”

“You’re doing explosive experiments? Science teacher? How can you do that in a room…”

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM?

“Hey……go?”

The rice cooker lid lifts slightly, revealing crimson heat rays inside.

At the same time, the cooker flips over.

Precisely, it doesn’t fly out from the explosion caught on the gate—it bounces up, gets caught on the gate, and the power cord holds it.

It flips.

KABOOM!

“What’s this noise? Earthquake? Explosion? Why’s the rice cooker like that!?”

“City gas……!”

“I told you to come later!?”

I’m panicking—what about the onlookers?

Of course, something seems to be happening only inside the cooker, so nothing is visible yet.

Then the fairy princess, sitting on the bed and watching from the flower pot, points.

“Hellfire!”

“He-Hellfire?”

[Spirit’s vitality decreases.]

“Whoa!?”

Is RiceCookerMan dying?

[M-my belly is a sea of fire—kugh, rice cooked with this heat won’t need steaming at all……argh!]

Steaming is the problem right now? You lunatic.

BANG!

Finally, the shaking rice cooker lid opens.

Ah, no!

I rush to close the lid and shield the gate with my body, but nothing comes out—only black soot-like stuff.

“What’s this burnt smell? Ugh?”

As the lid opens, something shoots up like corn in a popper.

I was about to swing at the trespassing landlord armed with a back scratcher and the accomplice with weird machinery, but luckily the glowing gate stops shaking.

“Isn’t this corn? But why so burnt?”

“No, you burnt it by coming!?”

The lid opens, and along with black ash piles, the Nightmare Queen is pushed out.

“I wondered why a fine young man was acting strange today—must’ve messed up popping corn. I get you blocked entry for danger, but what if a fire starts? Don’t do this at home from now on.”

“Yes, yes.”

How did they mistake that for burnt corn?

I sneak open the cooker—besides the burnt ashes and a cooker that needs washing, nothing more comes from the gate.

You suffered, Nightmare Queen.

I gently brush off the soot-covered Nightmare Queen blinking only her eyes……huh?

Where did her clothes go?

<Level increases.>

The Nightmare Queen turns her head with a shy expression.

No, I didn’t mean this, but why does the level rise so much again?

“Where’s the baby? Why did you leave the baby and go out? You gotta care for that. I saved you from getting beaten by big sis.”

No big sis, but glad he believes it’s a nephew.

“Just detect the pipes, sink, and bathroom. Won’t take long. Excuse me. Bathroom first.”

The leak detection guy starts in the bathroom.

For now, the Nightmare Queen is small, the monsters that crossed over are charcoal (whatever they were), and RiceCookerMan is……

[*I’m dying…. *]

Seems fine, so I close the lid again to avoid the gate.

As long as the wall isn’t exposed, it’s okay. Sigh.

“The baby’s so well-behaved. Aigoo, like seeing my grandson. Let me see. Grandpa give allowance?”

“What’s that!?”

“Heh heh heh, the little one doesn’t know honorifics yet. Being with kids makes adults feel young like friends—feels good? Here, buy yummy with uncle.”

The fairy princess, perhaps feeling bad for forced entry, takes out a 50,000 won bill for her.

The fairy princess stares blankly holding it, then snaps her fingers.

“Ah!”

“Why? Seems you know. This is Shin Saimdang. 50,000 won.”

“Cat food!”

“Huh?”

The landlord grandpa turns his head again and asks.

“You……feed money to cats?”

It’s not a slot machine.

“Money goes in.”

“No? Don’t do that. That’s animal abuse.”

“It’s not real feeding, don’t worry.”

I said no, why look at me like that.

“Bathroom side seems fine. Excuse me. Sink once.”

“Yes, well, look.”

He even gave allowance—if no monsters pop out of the gate right now, a home inspection is fine.

“It’s not for eating. It’s to buy food. Ask uncle for toys too. Heh heh heh, hey young man.”

The landlord is super kind to the fairy princess, then asks me again.

“What?”

“You have a nephew here, but did you strip a lady doll naked and stuff it in the rice cooker? I get a young man wants to see women’s bodies, but not in front of the kid. Be careful. Now I see you hid the doll?”

“……”

“But teacher young man’s room doesn’t seem to leak. Bathroom fine, no sound from sink. Is the wall the problem? The 202 side wall……”

THE……

Uh-oh?

That damn bromide.

I knew it was uneasy—the heat and wind from RiceCookerMan must’ve been too much.

One side peels slightly and tilts.

“Huh? Wait. What’s that?”

No, no!?

The landlord grandpa finds the Sultan Boys Amin bromide wallpaper strange.

At that timing, the tape holding the bromide below falls off and it flutters.

Inside is a giant mosquito-shaped hole I roughly patched—of course, no wallpaper.

“Why isn’t wallpaper here? Hey young man. Tore the wallpaper and stuck bromide?”

“……!!”

Can’t speak because it’s not just torn wallpaper.

“Why tear wallpaper. Did water flow from 202 wall? But tearing wallpaper doesn’t help? Let me see. Wall color weird. Plywood seems dented too.”

This is an emergency.

If I don’t stop now, no answer—I immediately place the stone on the old man’s smooth bald head.

<Memory deletion activated. Complete the memory and perception to erase in a sentence.>

‘Erase the misunderstanding of my room leaking, seeing my wallpaper peeled, and seeing the leak!’

At the same time, the landlord nods.

“No problem!”

But this memory deletion is more amazing than thought.

The landlord sees the plaster wall inside the Sultan Boys Amin bromide with his own eyes and recognizes ‘no problem’ and moves on.

I breathe a sigh of relief, but the landlord’s expression turns cold.

That is.

“But why is your hand on my head?”

The problem was separate.

That I have my hand on the landlord’s bald head right now.

“Sink side no signal either. Then other houses’ pipes or……uh?”

“No need. Not a leak, wall. But what are you doing? Why hold a stone……wait?”

Suddenly all eyes in the room pierce me, extremely flustered.

Petting the old man’s head, holding a stone to his head—all look suspicious.

Ah, the stone contact isn’t auto-erased.

The stone isn’t smart……

What to say?

Say it’s a Jeju specialty stone that grows hair on bald heads? Hiding the stone, I awkwardly smile and answer.

“Th-that…… Bald head, shave it!?”

Panicked and cut off mid-sentence.

At those words, the technician holding the leak detector’s expression changes completely.

“……Isn’t that too much to the elder?”

“Ah, no, that’s not……”

“No, young man thinks you won’t age? My nickname in youth was Terius! Know? Young man what’s your name? Thinks hair won’t fall……cough.”

The landlord grandpa almost cries in rage, so I think it’s ruined and immediately crack his bald head as is.

Thus the landlord grandpa collapses face-down on my bed.

Whoa.

<Memory can be deleted.>

‘Bald head shave it and memory of me touching head.’ Erase this too. And hitting with stone.

The problem is……

The leak detection worker who came along witnessed the whole scene.

“Wh-what are you doing? Ugh!?”

With raised speed, I grab behind and crack the leak detection worker’s head too.

The leak detection worker also collapses face-down on my bed.