Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 131

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 130: Room 107, Gate Room - Fourth Trial (21)

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Episode 130: Room 107, Gate Room - ‘The Secret of the Esper’ (21)

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 46

Current Location: Level 1, Room 107 (Gate Room)

Sage’s Advice: 1]

- Han Ga-in

Getting down to the Esper's first floor wasn't difficult.

All we had to do was follow the stairs, referring to the ship's layout diagrams posted here and there. None of the crew tried to stop us either.

After walking for a while, we stopped. According to the rough location of the underground prison we'd noted down, this should be about the right place.

We were between a coffee shop and the swimming pool on the first floor. If we went straight down from here, we'd reach the underground prison.

Still, it wasn't as though we'd figured out the route to the prison. How had they known that going straight down from this particular spot would lead there? Had someone punched a hole through the ship or something?

A-ri spoke.

“There should be stairs leading underground somewhere around here...”

“Could there be a secret passage?”

“I think it'll be a surprisingly ordinary passage.”

“An ordinary passage?”

“It's hard to alter a ship's internal structure however you want after it's built. If they wanted a secret passage, they'd have had to include it from the design stage. But look at the size of this ship. It's far too large to have been built in secret. In real history, it was probably made at a world-class shipyard. I don't think it would've been easy to build a secret passage with a complicated mechanism into it.”

“Now that I think about it, there wasn't any need to make a secret passage in the first place. Unless someone was a strange passenger like us, they wouldn't go snooping around the ship. A simple Employees Only sign would be enough to keep ordinary people away.”

As I said that, I pointed to a door on the left wall.

‘Employees Only’

Wasn't that it?

We looked at one another and nodded.

It was time to begin our second Make a Feint to the East and Attack in the West operation.

--- Peeyooooo!

At Song-i's command, Pero immediately transformed into a grotesque and began smashing up the area!

Most of the crew had gone upstairs to put out the fire, leaving only a few people on the first floor. Even those few were horrified by the grotesque and began running away.

We took that chance to open the door and head down the stairs.

* * *

As I descended the dark stairs, I was reminded of the past.

A harsh smell gradually stung my nose.

It was the smell that came when all manner of secretions, blood, and pus mixed together and rotted on a dying person's body.

The same smell I'd experienced when entering the guard room during Common Sense-Altering Media began drifting up toward us.

How had I ended up being able to distinguish smells like this...?

A-ri, who had also noticed the smell, gripped her gun tightly, her expression tense.

Once we reached the basement, Song-i shone the flashlight she was carrying around the area.

“Ugh! What is this?”

Only gloomy groans filled the entire space.

They were in such horrific states that it was impossible to recognize them as human, yet eight people were still alive.

They rolled around behind rusting iron bars, dying. It was hard to imagine what they had gone through.

Song-i couldn't move, disgusted by the sight, so I took the flashlight from her.

They were probably the ‘reserve sacrifices.’

I shone the light on each of them to check, but they seemed to have completely lost their minds. They only drooled and showed no proper reaction.

A-ri finally raised her voice.

“Can anyone understand us?”

“Over here.”

It was a rough, hoarse voice, but there was a clear strength of will behind it.

There was a white-haired elderly person where the voice had come from. The elderly person's lower body had merged with the ship.

I didn't know what it meant for a human body and a ship to merge, but that was the only way to describe it.

They must have been left there for a very long time. Their hair and beard were nearly touching the floor.

The closer we got, the more the awful stench made my head ache.

Paradoxically, the traces of excrement left around them proved one thing. Every result had a cause.

The presence of excrement was also proof that food had been supplied consistently.

“Who are you?”

“I should be asking that. Who exactly are you people?”

A-ri, who had come up beside me, answered.

“We're guests invited onto this ship too. We boarded thinking it was an ordinary cruise, but something strange happened. While looking into things to escape, we ended up finding a place like this.”

“That's a lie.”

“...”

“Say something that makes sense. Ordinary guests sensed something ominous about the ship, investigated it, and found their way to a place like this?”

“Well...”

“Whatever. It doesn't really matter. You must have many questions, right?”

After saying that, the old man slowly explained the secret of the Esper.

“When was it...? I can barely remember now. The Esper was a 120,000-ton luxury cruise ship, second to none in the world! When this ship departed, every daily newspaper in Paris ran articles about the Esper setting sail. It was a glorious moment.

“Was it the second voyage? The third? Forgive my uncertain memory. It happened nearly forty years ago. As the Esper sailed through the North Sea, it began to sink after suffering an immense, unknown impact. Did it strike an iceberg? Or was it the work of the demon, the source of all despair? Who could say?

“The ship sank slowly. We had no way to survive. Everyone waited for death in despair...

“Then the demon's hand reached out to us. No, it would be more accurate to say that we longed for the demon's help. The Captain worshipped demons! Perhaps the Captain had planned every tragedy from the beginning and sank the ship personally.

“The Captain summoned Marcas by offering more than ten people. Marcas made us an offer. We would present eternal feasts and sacrifices to him, and Marcas would grant us immortality.

“Not everyone on the ship agreed. What kind of ship was the Esper? One hundred and twenty thousand tons! France's greatest luxury cruise ship! It carried countless distinguished intellectuals and wealthy people of the age, people who were like pillars supporting the nation. Would people like that easily sell their souls to a demon?

“...

“I admit it. Even so, far more people sold their souls. Death is that frightening. As I recall, nearly ninety percent took the demon's hand, while fewer than ten percent chose death instead. They suffered and died endlessly down here... Then many years passed. Those who made a contract with the demon neither aged nor died, wandering the ocean forever with the ship, while the Captain, who wielded magical power, endlessly procured sacrifices from somewhere.”

After his long explanation, the old man introduced himself as First Officer Harrison, then lowered his head wearily.

A-ri spoke.

“I think you left out one fact.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hey, Harrison. Great First Officer of the Esper. You're one of the ninety percent who sold their souls too, aren't you?”

“...”

“Your beard and hair are such a mess that it was hard to tell, but looking closer, you don't even seem to be sixty yet. You said the Esper made its contract with the demon forty years ago, right? If you were innocent, you would've aged normally. That means you were around twenty when the contract was made, so there's no way you could've been the first officer of a ship this massive. You made a contract with the demon too, didn't you?”

“Hehehe...”

“Besides, all the other sacrifices have gone mad and are dying, but you're the only one still lucid. Isn't that strange? The truth is, you have no choice but to remain lucid, right? You can't go mad even if you want to?”

“...”

“Then why did you end up like this? Did you betray the Captain or something?”

“You don't know. You don't know! You have no idea how deeply we were consumed by despair back then. Have you ever put your hand into the North Sea in winter? Before your hand even touches the surface, the bone-chilling cold rising from the sea pierces your very bones. We were destined to be thrown into that water. I lived diligently. I devoted myself to the world. I was never meant to die in a place like that-”

“Enough. Shut up and tell us why you ended up like this.”

“... You're exactly right. I wanted to stop. I spent decades wandering this frozen sea, unable to set foot on land. Was there any value in a life spent feeding a demon while wandering frozen waters forever without ever setting foot on land? I said we should rest now. I said we should terminate our contract with Marcas and rest.”

The moment I heard that, my eyes widened.

‘Termination of the Contract.’

The second I heard it, I understood.

This was it.

The solution to this ship, whose immortal crew couldn't be killed and which wandered the sea forever while even turning back time!

I immediately asked, “How do we terminate a contract with a demon?”

“I don't know exactly. Only the Captain would know for certain. But wouldn't sinking this ship again solve the problem?”

A-ri tilted her head.

“Sink the ship?”

“Yes. If we ram this ship into an iceberg and sink it again, this entire nightmare should end.”

Ram the ship into an iceberg and sink it. Would that do it?

Song-i, who had stayed far away because of the smell, came over and asked.

“The people on the Esper are obsessed with the Dinner Party. Is that because of the contract too? Because they promised to offer sacrifices and feasts?”

“You know a great deal. There's nothing strange about it. Since ancient times, dance and song have been unavoidable parts of ritual ceremonies.”

“Leaving the party aside, why do they ask about age and place of origin?”

“Marcas, the Deep-Sea Demon, hates everything on land. He enjoys seeing us brutally kill and offer humans from the surface. Just as the gods worshipped by ancient humanity preferred young lambs, Marcas prefers young humans.

“But it doesn't really mean much. He's fairly generous about age as long as they aren't on the verge of dying from old age, and every human was born on land anyway. At this point, learning a sacrifice's age and place of origin has no meaning beyond a simple ritual procedure.”

I asked another question.

“What does the clock at the place where the sacrifices are offered mean?”

Harrison's eyes widened.

“You found out about that too? I don't really know either. Only the Captain knows its exact meaning. But I heard that when the clock hand reaches three, we'll fall into hell forever.”

We had learned most of the broad details about the ship.

Our next goal had taken shape as well. First Officer Harrison, who had participated in evil rituals for many years, had an idea. We should ram the ship into an iceberg and sink it.

We looked at one another and nodded.

A little later, A-ri walked around and made the suffering victims “comfortable.”

Finally, A-ri appeared before Harrison.

“You don't seem like you'll die even if we kill you. Is there anything you want?”

“Take me with you.”

“Your lower body is merged with the ship. How are we supposed to get you out?”

“You can cut off my upper body. Please.”

“Hmm. That's too much. Sorry, but-”

As A-ri was about to turn away, Harrison hurriedly spoke.

“Do you know how to operate a ship? This isn't some little boat. It's a 120,000-ton cruise ship. Surely you don't think you can operate it without specialized knowledge?”

“...”

I had to stop too. Harrison had a point.

Could we really operate an enormous ship weighing over 100,000 tons and ram it into an iceberg without any relevant knowledge?

Song-i, who had been listening beside us, gestured, and Pero flew over.

“When did you get here?”

“A while ago.”

Song-i seemed to whisper something to Pero, and Pero soon transformed into a grotesque.

Despite transforming, Pero didn't move. Song-i gave another command.

“Pero!”

Pero still didn't move. I felt like I could read the giant bird's thoughts.

Song-i had probably told Pero to tear Harrison free, but Pero seemed unwilling to go near Harrison because of the horrific stench coming from him.

After Song-i spent nearly five minutes persuading Pero, Pero finally tore Harrison's body free, clicking its beak as if it could barely stand it.