WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 148: Rest and Reorganization (4)
──────
- Lee Eun-sol
--- Ring! Ring!
...Click!
It was morning.
I rubbed my sleepy eyes, got up, and washed up.
As I washed my face and hair, a few strands came loose.
The sight of three hairs slowly spiraling through the vortex of air and drifting down to the bathroom floor was etched into my mind like a slow-motion scene.
When I applied lotion to my face at the sink, I could see it seeping into each and every pore in my skin.
“Ah! Let's not take this too far. Do I really have to see even this?”
There was no point saying it. No one was forcing me to see anything. My overpowered eye was simply showing me the true face of a world I'd never known before.
Finally, I looked in the mirror.
My ordinary left eye, which had served me faithfully all my life.
And in stark contrast to it, the monstrous right eye, which looked at least thirty percent larger.
Its pupil writhed constantly, while the three dots above it, below-left, and below-right shifted focus nonstop like tiny lenses, greedily sucking in information from the world.
As I showered, I watched the steam filling the bathroom turn into droplets and gather on the mirror.
After watching a falling drop of water tremble, I left the bathroom.
It was already the fifth day of our rest period. It had also been two days since I got this eye from the Merchant.
At first, I was thrilled we'd been given seven whole days to rest. Now, I found myself wishing we had a few more.
When I stepped outside my room, several companions were already there.
“Eun-sol! Did you sleep well?”
“Good morning!”
I casually returned their greetings and turned my head.
The moment Seung-yeop saw my face, I felt him flinch.
I wasn't particularly hurt by it.
Even I was startled whenever I looked in the mirror and saw my eye. Of course my companions would be the same. They needed time to adjust.
The eye was thirty percent larger than an ordinary one to begin with.
There wasn't room for an eye like this in a normal person's skull.
That was why, on the morning after I got the eye, I realized the hotel doctor, probably, had performed a massive operation on my head.
As mealtime approached, the others gradually gathered near the table in Room 105.
They all flinched for a moment, but soon smiled brightly and greeted me.
As Ga-in smiled, I noticed threadlike scratches only millimeters long on his cheek. Had something scratched him?
I could see every pore on Song-i's face as she tugged on Pero's beak. She must've washed with water that was too hot this morning.
I could sense Elena acting as though there were an invisible wall between herself and Ga-in as she waited for the meal. She'd been like that ever since they came out of the Gate Room. Something amusing must've happened between them.
A scale fell from the mysterious right arm of Grandpa Mook-seong, who was yawning beside me.
And then there was Jin-cheol's strange behavior, which I'd noticed since yesterday.
...I'd seen too much. My head was starting to hurt.
My right eye had transcendent abilities, but my brain was that of an ordinary human.
The human brain couldn't endlessly process this overwhelming amount of visual information.
In the end, I covered my eye with an eyepatch for a while, leaned against the wall, and thought.
This wasn't bad.
I'd paid a great price.
I'd lost my natural eye, my appearance had become somewhat grotesque, and I'd developed chronic headaches.
Still, I'd gained the vision of a superhuman.
An indescribable sense of accomplishment filled my heart.
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
After breakfast, everyone headed off to wherever they wanted to spend time, as they always did lately.
I stopped Jin-cheol, who looked like he was about to head to that damn safari again.
“Jin-cheol.”
“Huh? Yes, ma'am? Did you need something?”
“Come with me for a moment. I have something to ask you.”
A little later, I prepared some simple drinks at the cocktail bar.
Jin-cheol, seated at the table across from me, started acting strangely again.
His eyes looked as though they were focused on something in empty space.
His gaze shifted as if he were tracking something only he could see.
Cold sweat ran down his skin, as though he were afraid.
Until recently, I hadn't noticed those changes. Jin-cheol wasn't the type to make a fuss about something happening to him, so he'd probably hidden it. But that was foolish.
Hiding an abnormality in a place like this wasn't manly. It was stupid.
“What are you staring at so intently? Are ghosts floating around in the air or something?”
“Ah... You noticed?”
“I realized after getting my new eye.”
Jin-cheol took a moment to compose himself, then began drinking his cocktail.
I had an idea of what it might be. The problem that came up while we dealt with the witch in the Gate Room.
Ga-in had warned us. He'd dealt with the witch through some means of his own, but said she would never completely disappear as long as Cha Jin-cheol remained alive.
We'd told Jin-cheol that as well.
After a brief silence, Jin-cheol finally spoke.
“I first noticed it when we came out of the Gate Room. Something I couldn't identify as either a ghost or a shadow was darting around. At first, I wondered if something was wrong with the hotel, but that strange entity was visible only to me.”
“That seems right. I can't see anything with my eye, either.”
“Could they be something like the witch's soul?”
“I don't think so. According to the hotel's description, my eye can see invisible beings too. Even if it were a ghost, I'd be able to see it to some extent. The fact that my eye can't detect it at all means it isn't even a ghost. Isn't it more likely to be a pure hallucination that only you can see?”
“Either way, the important thing is that the hallucination is gradually becoming clearer.”
“Clearer?”
“Yes. I became aware of it two days ago at the Ski Resort. I jumped high into the air to catch Ga-in while he was practicing Teleportation, and I saw something that looked like a person's face as I came back down. Before that, it just looked like a wavering shadow.”
“What about now?”
“It's similar. It's slowly taking on the shape of a person. I still can't tell who it is.”
“Has a trace of the witch remained as a hallucination...?”
“Do you have any clever ideas?”
“Sorry. I don't know much about supernatural things like this. How about asking the Management Bureau team?”
“I already did. The old man wasn't much help in a situation like this. He said he doesn't know what to do right now either.”
“...”
“I plan to wait and see. As the form becomes clearer, there'll probably come a day when I can talk to it. When that happens, I'll ask what it wants.”
It had no substance. It wasn't a ghost. It was a vague hallucination visible only to Cha Jin-cheol, caused by a trace left in his brain.
I didn't know what to do. Like Jin-cheol said, I couldn't think of any response other than waiting.
“When Ga-in comes later, at least ask him to use Sage’s Advice once.”
“I don't expect much. From what I've felt so far, that advice only seems to pretend to help once we're outside a Curse Room.”
“Didn't Ga-in say the Owl doesn't want to help us in the first place? It's only interested in Han Ga-in. So if Ga-in asks for advice for our sake, it can only give a lukewarm answer.”
“That's true.”
“I can't help you right away, but make sure to tell us if anything strange happens in the future. You never met her directly, but I still remember that witch clearly. She was a being filled with madness beyond anything you could imagine.”
“Understood.”
“Anyway, let's call the others over soon. Our vacation is almost over, and it's about time we talked about that subject, isn't it?”
“I'll bring them.”
Jin-cheol rose from the bar, then turned back to ask one question.
“We don't need to bring the kids, right?”
I answered with a small smile. This guy wasn't bad at reading the room after all.
He immediately understood why I'd chosen the cocktail bar.
* * *
- Han Ga-in
I arrived at the cocktail bar after being told to come.
All our companions were gathered there except Seung-yeop and A-ri.
Was it because it felt burdensome to jump straight into a heavy conversation?
Eun-sol made several different cocktails and handed one to each of us.
She said the cocktail she gave me was made by mixing Kahlua, rum, and cola.
...
I still didn't understand the taste of alcohol, so I voiced my honest opinion.
“Eun-sol.”
“Hmm? Is it good?”
“Wouldn't it be better to just drink cola instead of making a cocktail that mixes random things into cola and awkwardly imitates cola? It just tastes like fake cola-”
--- Smack!
I got hit once. Eun-sol said she'd never make cocktails for me again and left.
Still, I honestly believed plain cola tasted better than cola mixed with some random alcohol.
Anyway, the moment we saw who had gathered, we immediately understood today's topic.
It was something we had to address at least once.
It was time to share our thoughts about resurrection.
Perhaps she felt the mood had loosened enough, because Eun-sol spoke first.
“You've probably guessed it, but I gathered everyone to talk about who we should resurrect. We aren't deciding today. We can't resurrect anyone with the ticket alone, after all. We need to find a place called the Resurrection Room. Once we find it, we'll gather everyone's opinions again. Still, I wanted us to organize our thoughts beforehand.”
Elena asked, “We gathered without A-ri because her answer is already decided, right?”
“Right. More precisely, I excluded anyone I didn't think could have this discussion rationally. A-ri can't remain rational because this concerns her mother, and Seung-yeop is young, but I also thought he'd take A-ri's side no matter what.”
Listening to that made me sigh. Seung-yeop...
“First, let's organize the resurrection candidates we've gathered so far. One, A-ri's mother, Mi-ro. Two, Doctor Kim Sang-hyeon, who treated Ga-in. Three, the alien Estavio, who helped Song-i. Four, Cha Seung-jin, the special forces soldier who helped Seung-yeop in the Gate Room.”
“It feels like we've met quite a lot of people, but there still aren't many who could be resurrection candidates.”
“Not yet. We could meet more people later, and there may have been more candidates among the people we've already met. I picked the obvious ones first.”
Jin-cheol spoke up.
“I'll give my opinion first. I think the premise of using our one and only ticket for someone else is strange. Can't we use it if one of us dies permanently?”
“That's right.”
“So I don't want to use it on any of the candidates Eun-sol mentioned. I'm sorry to A-ri, but the people with me in this hotel matter more to me.”
“Save it for when one of us is eliminated. I understand. Let's take that into account as an important opinion.”
Eun-sol wrote Jin-cheol's opinion on the whiteboard, then looked at the others.
“What do you think?”
I began sorting out my thoughts as well.
If we used the ticket on someone, who should we bring back? What factors should we consider when choosing who to resurrect?
Footnotes:
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