WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 15: Room 102, The Cursed Room - ‘The Mansion of Horror’ (1)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 5

Current Location: Level 1, Room 102 (Curse Room - House of Horror)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

Rattle, rattle.

“Jin-cheol, drive a little more steadily. My ass is killing me.”

“Come on, Eun-sol. I told you, this is my first time driving an SUV. It feels different.”

Thump!

“Ah! Ugh...”

“Argh! My head... Jin-cheol, slow down.”

“We’re all going to die before we even reach the mansion.”

“Why the hell is this mansion so far down an unpaved road? Eun-sol, didn’t you say you used to visit often?”

“Hmm... I was young, so my memory’s a little fuzzy. My uncle had lived at the mansion even then... Hey, we’re going to a scenic mansion for free. What’s with all the complaints?”

“It’s not a complaint. It’s just really far, and getting there is exhausting.”

“Is the owner of the mansion there?”

“Hmm. Song-i, I called a few days ago, but it sounds like my uncle hasn’t been well lately and can’t come down from the hospital in Seoul. Which works out well.”

“What?”

“I don’t mean it’s good that he’s sick. I mean it’s good that, apart from the staff, it’ll just be us.”

“There are staff?”

“I heard there are only two, a maid and a butler.”

“A maid and a butler? It really is a proper mansion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that old-fashioned back home.”

“And we’re going there.”

Beeeeeeeeeeep...

A broken-radio-like noise blared in my head, and I came to my senses.

At the same time, everyone else came to as well, and we all fell silent.

What had happened?

After entering Room 102, it felt as though I had spent over thirty minutes half-conscious, watching a movie.

It was an incredibly strange feeling, like watching a movie in which I was an actor.

Naturally, the car had come to a stop.

“What the hell... The more time passes, the more bizarre things we experience.”

“What was that just now? I didn’t do anything, but somehow...”

“Something controlled our bodies and made us role-play for twenty or thirty minutes. Probably this damn hotel.”

Only then did we sort out the situation together.

For nearly thirty minutes after entering Room 102, we had lost control of our bodies.

Something had controlled us as we traveled to the mansion, setting up a scenario as if it were a play and forcing information into our heads.

Elena, an aspiring actress, understood the situation first.

“I think we’ve each been assigned a role. Eun-sol, me, Jin-cheol, Ga-in, and Song-i, the five of us are going to the grand mansion of someone called Eun-sol’s ‘uncle.’ The five of us, excluding Seung-yeop, are in a university club together, and Seung-yeop is Eun-sol’s younger brother. That sort of information just came to me. Did everyone get something similar?”

“I got the same thing. Though today is the first time I’ve learned that I even have an uncle. The hotel sure did a fine job making up a family member I hadn’t known about for over thirty years. And university students? I don’t know about the rest of you, but Jin-cheol and I, honestly...”

We all fell silent again.

University students.

Eun-sol and Jin-cheol were both in their early thirties, so they were a little past university age.

Eun-sol could probably pull it off depending on what she wore, but Jin-cheol would be a stretch.

Right now, both of them had visibly become younger.

“You look like university students.”

The words came out in a daze.

“Yeah. About ten years younger.”

“I’ve had all kinds of strange experiences since coming here... Good grief.”

“If I’m supposed to be a university student, I actually got older...”

“Still, it doesn’t look like they made Song-i any older.”

“Elena, Ga-in, and I don’t seem to have changed at all.”

“They needed Jin-cheol and Eun-sol to play university students, so it seems they turned back the clock for them. This place kills and resurrects people. Making them younger must be easy.”

“I wish our ages would stay like this even after we leave the hotel...”

I laughed at Eun-sol’s comment. She was more concerned about her age than she let on.

“But, Eun-sol! Where is Seung-yeop right now?”

“According to the ‘setting,’ it seems he already went to the mansion.”

“He’s probably some kind of hostage.”

“A hostage? Ga-in, what are you talking about?”

“Ah, I looked at the window beside me as soon as I woke up, and the place we’re supposed to go is called the ‘House of Horror.’ I’m sure every kind of terrible thing will happen there.”

“‘House of Horror!’ That title alone sounds brutal!”

“But we all woke up before reaching the mansion, so... I was wondering what would happen if we just didn’t go. Maybe they sent Seung-yeop ahead for exactly that reason. To make sure we go to the mansion no matter what.”

“That could be it, but I think we have to go either way. If we refuse to go, they’ll probably force us there through some ridiculous bullshit. Zombies suddenly appear, we run away, and next thing we know, we’ve arrived at the mansion. Something like that.”

“Jin-cheol, you’ve only been here a few days, but you’re already a hotel expert?”

I thought so too.

“Then let’s head back to the mansion for now. If it’s somewhere they’ll make us go one way or another, we’ll probably suffer less if we get there on our own.”

“Do you know the way, though? You weren’t actually driving before.”

“Hmm... There’s a map posted beside me, but there’s one real problem.”

“What?”

“This is a stick shift. Not an automatic.”

Silence filled the car.

“Jin-cheol, your license...?”

“I got a standard Class 1 license, but I haven’t touched a stick shift in ten years. Does anyone know how to drive manual?”

“I don’t have a license...”

“It’d be strange if a high school student did. I only drive automatics too. What about you, Ga-in?”

“I don’t have a license either...”

“What about Miss Elena... Never mind. This is a problem. Should I try driving it anyway?”

“I’ll drive.”

Silence filled the car again.

“Elena? This is, well...”

“I found this out while getting my Korean license, but Korea is unusual for having mostly automatics. In Russia, eighty percent of cars are still manuals. Move over.”

And so, the manual car that no one else could drive ended up being driven by a young woman from overseas in her twenties, despite a former fighter in his thirties and a career woman in her thirties being present.

Nobody spoke until we reached the mansion.

Jin-cheol maintained the stiffest expression I had ever seen on him.

The closer we got to the mansion, the darker the atmosphere inside the car became.

What kind of place was the House of Horror?

As we approached, the surrounding forest grew increasingly unnatural.

The trees became towering conifers, while birds watched the car with an eerie air.

Was it just my imagination?

In the distance, the mansion came into view.

A huge mountain rose behind it, while an enormous lake stretched out before it, so large I found myself wondering whether Korea even had a lake like that.

A bridge wide enough for cars crossed the lake, and we approached the mansion over it.

It really was a mansion.

It wasn’t shaped like the overturned rectangular matchboxes that made up most Korean homes.

The moment we crossed the lake, we saw a magnificent garden and old-fashioned statues rising here and there.

Then there was the enormous front gate, which looked as though no human hand could open it.

As the car approached, the gate opened on its own, and we got out.

Beside the gate stood the strangest statue I had ever seen.

It had a human shape, but six arms and a grotesquely oversized heart.

Its huge carved heart protruded from its upper body, looking as though it might be writhing. It was, in every sense, a monstrous statue.

As I stared at it, Song-i couldn’t contain her curiosity and lightly tapped at its feet. Eun-sol was stroking Song-i’s hair, apparently finding that adorable, when people emerged from the mansion.

An old man, a boy, and a girl.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the mansion.”

The dignified old man in a suit greeted us with a slight bow.

We awkwardly returned his greeting as we stepped out of the car.

“Hello, I’m, um... Lee Eun-sol...”

“Ha ha, I’ve heard much about you from the master. He told me over the phone until my ears nearly rang that you would be staying at the mansion with your university friends for several days, and that we must see to your every need. Unfortunately, the master is away from his residence due to poor health...”

Were there only two servants here in place of the owner?

“I am Kim Mook-seong, the mansion’s butler. This child is my unworthy granddaughter, Kim A-ri. We will make sure you lack for nothing.”

“A-ri?”

Momentarily startled by the unfamiliar name, I watched the girl standing beside him step forward and bow.

“Hello. I work at the mansion.”

What was this?

When I thought of a maid, I normally imagined someone at least in their twenties.

The girl before me looked no older than thirteen or fourteen at best.

Ah...

I shook off the thought. There was no point.

This was hardly anything new. Hadn’t strange and ordinary become synonyms since we arrived at the hotel?

Even if a five-year-old child claimed to be the butler, this was the kind of place where I could simply accept it.

More than that, the girl possessed an almost surreal beauty.

Her snow-white skin and doll-like features were striking enough, but the most extraordinary thing was her crimson eyes.

Weren’t eyes like that only found in albinos?

This girl clearly wasn’t an albino.

Her hair was pitch-black.

She was an impossibly unreal girl who had appeared in a place openly called the House of Horror. Just as I began to feel both intense suspicion and caution, I spotted the boy standing foolishly beside her.

“Seung-yeop, aren’t you going to greet your sister?”

“Ah, ah. You’re here, Eun-sol. Hello, everyone else too.”

“Oh, look at that. I practically had to force a greeting out of you. Your eyes are about to pop out of your head. You’re impressive even in a place like this.”

Seung-yeop couldn’t take his eyes off A-ri.

He looked at A-ri as though he had felt eternal destiny the instant he first saw her, trembling as he stared. Whenever A-ri turned to him with a faint smile, he could barely breathe and only looked at the ground. Honestly, there was nothing to say except that it was funny.

The girl was incredibly pretty, of course, but...

As Eun-sol said, this was “a place like this.” The House of Horror. In the most suspicious place in the world, she was a girl whose humanity itself should have been in doubt.

Then the butler spoke.

“Have you all decided on an itinerary?”

What itinerary? We had only realized about an hour ago that we were even coming to this strange mansion.

“Ha ha, we haven’t made any firm plans yet.”

“Then, miss, how about you and your friends go inside first, unpack, and rest from your journey? Afterward, you could visit the mountain behind the mansion.

“The mansion is unfortunately far from the city, so it is difficult to enjoy much in the way of culture. Still, I am confident that its scenery is second to none.

“There is also a refreshing valley beyond the hill, and you may enjoy a light boat ride on the lake. Near the mansion, there is even a splendid old cathedral.”

None of us knew what the mansion contained in the first place, so nobody had another suggestion.

We decided to unpack, rest for a while, and then take a light hike up the mountain before dinner.

After unpacking in our extravagantly furnished rooms and washing up, we gathered for a “strategy meeting.”

“Ga-in, where did Seung-yeop go?”

“Uh... That’s strange. He was nearby when I was washing up.”

“Ah! I saw him run off saying he was going to help the maid.”

“That kid has really lost his mind. Does he think this is some mansion from a happy dream? Song-i, you just watched him go?”

“He ran off so suddenly...”

“Come on. Did you really plan to hold a meeting with a middle schooler anyway?

“Let’s continue with those of us who are here. Ga-in, did you learn anything from that window?”

“Nothing has appeared yet besides the mansion’s name. It says ‘horror,’ but there’s no information about what the cause is or what we need to do.”

“Let’s start by setting our goals one at a time. What is our first goal? We can guess from the notice that appeared when we finished Room 101.

“Our first goal is for at least one person to survive. If we achieve that, the rest can be resurrected even if they all die.”

“But... How long do we have to survive?”

“That’s what we need to figure out now. At the simplest level, if we survive as long as possible, something will work out. And to survive a long time, we first need to know what exactly threatens us.”

“Isn’t that pretty obvious?”

Honestly, I agreed. Who would threaten us? An invisible monster might appear, but that was the sort of thing we couldn’t predict yet.

The butler and the young maid we had met earlier seemed to embody everything suspicious in the world.

“The butler and that girl both felt dangerous the moment I saw them.”

“One hundred percent. You know I’ve worked out a bit, right? I could tell the instant I saw that old man. His muscles showed even through his clothes. At that level, we’ll be in trouble if we assume he’s weak because he’s old.

“He could probably beat you at arm wrestling, Ga-in.”

“But the maid didn’t look like someone who could fight.”

“She looks like a child, but we can’t know that.”

“The statue by the front gate was really strange too.”

“The bridge. When I drove over it earlier, it seemed weak somehow. It was like back home when Rasputitsa set in...”

“Rasputitsa?”

“It refers to when the snow melts in Russia and the roads turn into mud. I think Elena means the bridge was in a muddy state because moisture hadn’t been properly kept out.”

“That’s right.”

For about thirty minutes, we discussed which elements of the mansion seemed suspicious and how dangerous each of them looked.

By the time the mansion had transformed into a hell filled with murder traps in our minds, and the butler and maid had become a grandfather-granddaughter pair of serial killers,

someone knocked on the door.

Footnotes:

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