WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 115: Room 107, Gate Room - Second Trial (6)
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Episode 115: Room 107, Gate Room - ‘Witch’s Forest’ (6)
- Han Ga-in
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 37
Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (Gate Room)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
The atmosphere shifted suddenly, followed by those words.
‘You’re a mage.’
It wasn't hard to understand what she meant. I had the Grimoire.
The strange part was that the hotel had placed the Grimoire under Sealing.
I hurriedly asked through the Chat Window.
Han Ga-in: Seems like it’s because of the Grimoire? How does she know when it’s under Sealing?
Kim A-ri: Traces of Possession may have remained in your body or soul.
Han Ga-in: I’ll play along for now.
Think. I wasn't some movie star, and that witch wasn't an idiot. There was no way she'd fallen in love with me at first sight.
Besides, wasn't the witch an utterly vicious being?
She was acting this way because she wanted something from me.
Thinking of the journal we'd seen in the mansion basement and the Grimoire's power, a vague picture emerged.
The witch wielded the power of evil, and the backlash was turning her body into a monster.
Did she want to gain the power of Possession from me so she could move into someone else's body?
I relaxed my expression, straightened up, and stepped toward the witch.
“I haven't exactly gone to great lengths to hide my identity, but I didn't expect milady to recognize me at a glance.”
Kim Mook-seong: Milady? Miladyyyy? Have you been drinking?
“Oh my! I may be a humble witch from the mountains, but I'm not blind. The traces of your spirit leaving your flesh are so obvious. How could I not know?”
“Haha! It seems I have much to learn from you. By the way, may I ask your name, milady?”
“My name is Arima Nitracera. And yours, Mage?”
“My name is Han Ga-in, Miss Arima.”
Kim Mook-seong: What exactly are you trying to learn? How to make human sausages?
Lee Eun-sol: Oh, shut up. Focus on the conversation. This is important.
Han Ga-in: Please stop using the Chat Window.
“Mage Han, we could become excellent partners. I understand the mysteries contained within the human body, while you have mastered the hidden arts of the human mind and soul. If we combine our knowledge, we may reach the pinnacle of magic.”
Kim A-ri: The atmosphere is great! You two could get married. Calling her milady was a little funny, though.
“It's an appealing idea, but my companion's condition is worsening by the moment. I can't help but be concerned.”
“Of course, I can heal him. But... surely you can show some sincerity as well?”
Yoo Song-i: Can we trust her?
Elena: We’ll have to keep watching her.
After talking with the witch, we reached a sort of agreement, and she left the mansion.
1. The witch would treat Cha Jin-cheol periodically.
2. I would teach the witch how to use Possession magic.
3. The treatment and lessons would proceed at the same time.
There were more detailed terms, but those three clauses were the core of it.
Even to someone who knew nothing about contracts, the agreement had an obvious flaw.
Eun-sol looked dumbfounded as she pointed it out.
“This is a ridiculous agreement. If someone brought something like this to my company claiming it was a contract proposal, I'd fold it into a paper airplane and throw it at them immediately.”
“Why would you throw a paper airplane at them? Daeyang Group gets criticized because you pull stunts like that.”
“Grandpa, why are you bringing that up all of a sudden? Anyway, this agreement doesn't say anything about how either side will be punished if they break their promise. It practically invites betrayal.”
A-ri answered indifferently.
“Do we need an anti-betrayal clause? Both sides are fully prepared to punish betrayal with their fists. After fighting us once in her monster form, the witch must think we're nothing special. Meanwhile, unlike during our first clash, Elena can fight now, so we think we can kill her. Both sides are already planning to kill the other soon, so the contract is simple.”
Grandpa Mook-seong still sounded regretful.
“I still don't know if letting the witch go was the right call. She didn't look very strong in human form. I'm afraid our desire to heal Jin-cheol made us make the wrong judgment.”
“I thought about it a lot too, but we can't assume she's weak in her human form. Would she really have appeared before us alone if she were that weak? Besides, there are still many trials left in the Gate Room. If we lose Jin-cheol and the star here, progressing afterward will be difficult. Elena?”
“Yes?”
“Can you use Justice?”
“Anytime. It's hard to explain, but every time I look at the witch, I feel my blessing boiling inside me. It's like I'm barely holding myself back from crushing her right now. Holding back is hard, but I'm confident I can use it whenever I need to.”
That was reassuring.
A-ri cut in.
“Looks like killing the witch is possible, so think about how we're going to handle this damn ‘lesson.’ She said she'll return in a few hours with materials for the treatment, so we need to prepare before then. She won't treat him unless we at least pretend to teach her.”
A lesson...
I had realized the witch wanted Possession magic and promised to teach her, but what exactly was I supposed to teach? I could use the Grimoire without understanding it myself.
Eun-sol asked a question.
“I got curious while listening. Can you take out the Grimoire? They said the Inheritances were under Sealing, so I thought they'd taken them away entirely.”
Song-i and A-ri answered at once.
“No. The bracelet is still on my arm.”
“Old Blood is fused with my blood, just as the name suggests. If they took it away, I'd die immediately.”
Listening to them made me curious too.
The moment I summoned the Grimoire, it appeared. When I opened it slightly, its distinctive demonic energy was still there.
Only that sensation from using Possession, that indescribable feeling of my mind floating free, had disappeared.
“I think they only placed the supernatural powers of the Inheritances under Sealing. The physical objects are still here. The function that keeps anyone but the owner from seeing it is still active too.”
Eun-sol continued.
“Then can you teach what’s written in the Grimoire?”
“How could I teach anyone? I don't use it because I understand it either. I've tried reading it sometimes, but it just looks like an alien language. It's not just difficult. It's like quantum mechanics written in Arabic.”
“Quantum mechanics written in Arabic... That's beyond me.”
A-ri interrupted.
“Waaait! What are you people thinking? Don't tell me you're actually planning to teach her?”
“Of course not.”
“Obviously. Even if you could teach her, you shouldn't. We need to think about how to fool her.”
“Can we fool someone who has studied magic herself?”
“I think so. We need to approach it as a field of expertise. Even an astrophysicist would be no different from an ordinary person if you dropped them into a semiconductor factory, and an IT expert wouldn't be able to say a word if you took them to a GMO research lab. We should go with that kind of approach. It'll be easier since the witch can't read the Grimoire herself anyway.”
After spending quite a while figuring out how to deceive the witch, we established each person's role.
Near dawn, the witch, Arima, returned to the mansion with a large group in tow.
* * *
- Han Ga-in
“You've returned, Miss Arima. We've been waiting for you.”
“Oh my! Am I terribly late? I needed to prepare for the treatment, of course, but I thought I should also bring you a little ‘hospitality.’”
I looked behind Arima.
Nine well-built men stood there, wearing high-quality armor and carrying melee weapons. They were probably Arima's guards.
The more than twenty people behind them were slaves, no matter how I looked at them. They were barely clothed, their bodies mutilated in various places. Some had no arms, while others had no legs.
Blood dripped from their bodies as they walked through the harsh forest in that condition. Even so, they were so frightened of the witch that none dared look at her.
...Once Jin-cheol woke up, I would definitely smash that witch's head in.
But today, we had to be as cruel as the witch.
“Miss Arima, may I ask a favor?”
“Yes?”
“It seems the ‘pet’ I brought in recently is rather hungry. One person should be enough.”
“What? What are you-”
Han Ga-in: Please do it now.
Yoo Song-i: Do we really have to?
Kim A-ri: We can’t let her get the upper hand.
Song-i's quiet voice rang out.
“Lucca!”
---Crash!
The bull-sized two-headed wolf that had been crouching behind the mansion leaped into the group the witch had brought.
Before Arima and her people could react, the wolf opened its jaws and tore apart the upper body of one guard.
A moment of silence.
Then screams filled the area.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
That brief reaction was enough to judge the group's level.
The witch's nine guards, eight now, calmly drew their weapons and gathered around her even in that moment. They were fairly skilled. Not some motley crew.
The slaves, on the other hand, collapsed shrieking, yet they didn't even dare try to run.
A bull-sized two-headed wolf had appeared right before their eyes, but they were still more afraid of the witch.
I calmly watched Arima's reaction.
Sparks flew from the witch's eyes.
“You insolent-”
I quickly grabbed her hand and spoke.
“My apologies. I happened to meet and tame that creature in the forest, but it was so hungry. I never expected it to lunge at someone immediately. I apologize for that.”
“...You could have simply asked me for a slave. I would have gladly given you one.”
“I apologize. It is because of my own inadequacy, trying to show Miss Arima one of my humble talents.”
“A humble talent?”
She took the bait.
“There are quite a few ferocious animals in the Witch’s Forest. The power to tame them and command them like one's own limbs! What do you think? Can those shabby guards you command compare?”
The witch's expression softened in an instant.
I could see it now. Whenever this witch began to covet something, she acted like this.
“Oh my. So the mage has mastered such mysterious arts as well? Can you teach me this too?”
I smiled slightly and gestured to Song-i.
Song-i approached me and modestly lowered her head.
“She is my disciple. She's still lacking, but taming a single dog isn't difficult.”
The witch's eyes curved into crescents.
“Shall we begin by treating Mage Han's companion?”
“Thank you. I hope our exchange will be of great help to us both.”
The fact that someone had just been eaten by a wolf had already ceased to exist between us.
Holding Arima's hand, I entered the mansion.
After Song-i's initial show of force, Seung-yeop and A-ri appeared with polite expressions to continue the deception.
Whenever I saw news reports about scams outside the hotel, I often wondered something.
What was the greatest cause of human stupidity?
Among socially troubling fraud cases, there were fewer than expected where a con artist had devised some brilliant trap that victims could not help but fall for.
Many victims fell again and again for obvious schemes that newspapers, news broadcasts, and banks had warned them about hundreds or thousands of times, losing the wealth they'd spent their whole lives building.
Why did they fall for such obvious tricks?
The cause was greed. When gains that couldn't be easily obtained flickered before our eyes, we lost our reason and became tempted. We even forgot that a con artist was casting a line behind it all.
Gate Room, Second Trial.
I would become the world's most mysterious mage, one who concealed endless secrets.
Until the witch lost her mind to greed for the mysteries I possessed!
Footnotes:
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