WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 183: A Prayer for Mi-ro (2)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 92
Current Location: Level 2, Frozen Hell - Resurrection Room
Sage’s Advice: 2]
‘Prayer for Rest.’
At last, another possibility besides resurrection with a Ticket was beginning to reveal itself.
“Guide, tell us what a Prayer for Rest is.”
“A Prayer for Rest is a series of steps in which you pray to Buddha for a former participant to be granted peaceful rest. Of course, worldly matters cannot be resolved through prayer alone. In the end, you must save the former participant from Hell yourselves.”
“Save them from Hell? Isn't this place Hell?”
“Why not try it and find out?”
It felt like the Guide had no intention of telling us any more about that. A-ri, who had been studying the ice imprisoning Mi-ro for a while, spoke.
“Her body is here, but it seems like her mind is somewhere else. Maybe it means we're supposed to save her mind...”
After hearing that, I looked again and began to understand. The bodies trapped in the ice statues were clearly right in front of us, but they only groaned with their eyes shut, as if they were trapped in terrible dreams.
Did we have to go where their minds were trapped?
“They look like they're having horrible Nightmares. What do you all think?”
“That's how it looks to me too.”
Eun-sol, who had answered my question, turned to the Guide.
“So this isn't something we all do together, right? Explain this part in more detail! Our Sponsors already told us bits and pieces about it!”
“Hell is a place the living cannot enter. Yet Buddha's compassion is boundless, and an incense candle for salvation has been prepared. While the candle's flame remains lit, the living may enter Hell as well. However, the flame will only remain lit while those left behind pray.”
Put simply, we had to split the group. Some would pray to keep the candle burning, while the rest entered Hell and saved Mi-ro while the flame remained lit.
A-ri, who had been quieter than usual, asked another question.
“What happens if the Prayer for Rest ritual succeeds? Does the former participant leave the Hotel? Can they still be resurrected afterward?”
“Rest and escape are separate matters. The former participant will escape the cycle of suffering, but will not leave the Hotel. Likewise, rest and resurrection are separate matters. Just as resurrection is possible regardless of prayer, it remains possible after prayer as well.”
It was easy enough to understand that resurrection through a Ticket would remain possible regardless of the prayer's outcome. But what did it mean that they would escape the cycle of suffering without leaving the Hotel? That part was harder to grasp.
Still, one thing was clear. Mi-ro's suffering would end.
Life returned to A-ri's expression. She turned awkwardly toward us and muttered in a quieter voice than usual.
“We agreed on this before. Resurrection would be too dangerous until we found a way to restore Mi-ro's mind. I still agree with that. In a place this dangerous, having someone who isn't in their right mind join us would be more than anyone could handle. But...”
Unlike resurrection, the Prayer for Rest did not consume a Ticket, and it wouldn't create the danger of mentally unstable Mi-ro joining the group. From A-ri's perspective, it was the perfect option.
Eun-sol answered before A-ri could continue.
“Let's do the Prayer for Rest.”
“...”
“We have to. Like you said, we should decide whether to resurrect her after we find a way to restore her mind. But we need to end her suffering. We came here to restore the second floor in the first place, didn't we? Whether through resurrection or prayer, it seems like we need to do one of them for the second floor to return to normal.”
I agreed, so I quickly joined in.
“I think so too. According to Scenario Understanding, the Hotel froze because of ‘the resentment and suffering of those who died in the Hotel.’ Whether we pray or resurrect someone, we'll need to soothe that resentment and suffering for the Hotel to return to normal, right?”
“Right. And...”
“And?”
Instead of answering, Eun-sol stared at Mi-ro's ice statue, which continued to groan endlessly, then looked back at A-ri.
I understood what she meant.
Could A-ri really continue through the Hotel in her right mind after learning that Mi-ro was suffering like this?
One day, she might steal a Ticket, sneak into Frozen Hell, and resurrect Mi-ro herself. If A-ri started acting that recklessly, how would Mook-seong respond? Could he ignore the suffering of a companion he had worked alongside for a length of time we couldn't even imagine?
For A-ri, the Prayer for Rest was a ritual to end her mother Mi-ro's suffering. For everyone else, it was practically a ritual to prevent A-ri and Mook-seong from leaving the group.
A little later, preparations for Mi-ro's ritual began.
* * *
“Ga-in!”
“Eun-sol?”
“Let's split the group. I think what the Sponsors have told us so far, along with the contents of your advice, are directly related to how we should divide up.”
“Right. It looks like some people have to enter Hell while others stay behind and pray.”
“The ones going to Hell will probably...”
Eun-sol trailed off.
The side entering Hell was probably the more difficult one. Based on everything we'd learned, she likely meant that A-ri, Mook-seong, and I should go.
“I think I should go. Elena and Seung-yeop were plainly advised that this wasn't something they needed to do, while I was told to go. When we don't have enough information, we should follow our Sponsors' advice.”
“Good! You thought it through well. And there's something I have to tell you.”
Eun-sol glanced toward A-ri. A-ri and Mook-seong were some distance away, looking over the incense candle and asking questions about it.
“Is there something you need to tell me?”
“It's about Mi-ro. I don't know where you'll go or what you'll do, but judging by the situation, you're going where Mi-ro is, right?”
“Probably.”
“If you can, get a good sense of what kind of person Mi-ro is. It doesn't look like today's prayer will solve all of Mi-ro's problems. The prayer only ends her suffering, doesn't it? It won't let her leave the Hotel or resurrect her. A-ri will definitely want Mi-ro to be completely free in the end.”
“... I'll do my best.”
“Don't just do your best. You have to make a firm judgment. I can't trust anyone but you. Can her daughter or a former companion view her objectively?”
“...”
“See her with your own eyes. Find out what kind of person Mi-ro is, and whether she's someone we can resurrect. Focus on her mental state if you can.”
“Understood.”
Soon, an unfamiliar incense candle rose from the middle of Frozen Hell, and a mat and a small dark chamber formed around it.
“Do we go inside that dark chamber to pray?”
The Guide confirmed Jin-cheol's question. Eun-sol muttered anxiously.
“Do we have to start praying right away?”
“Eun-sol, let's eat first. We need to fill our stomachs before doing something dangerous.”
“The food's all gone cold, but let's eat. We need something.”
As I chewed and swallowed clumps of rice that were barely chewable, A-ri, Mook-seong, and I gathered separately to begin our own discussion.
“A-ri, I don't know what exactly ‘saving Mi-ro from Hell’ will involve, but we'll probably meet your mother, right?”
“Probably. It seems like we're going to where Mi-ro's mind is trapped.”
“Tell me everything you know about Mi-ro. What kind of psychic ability did she have?”
“Hmm... It's not easy to explain.”
“Not easy?”
A-ri thought for a moment before answering.
“Don't trust my explanation too much. I never met Mi-ro when she was in her right mind. If we're talking about simple strength first, then it would be physical ability. She was definitely stronger than an ordinary person. About this much, maybe?”
As she spoke, A-ri reached out and gripped my arm tightly.
... Tightly.
I could barely move at all. I'd suspected it for a while, but despite her size, A-ri was stronger than me.
“How does that compare to when you're going all out?”
“Since it comes from the same Inheritance, it's similar. Still, it's nowhere near Jin-cheol's strength, and even weaker than Mook-seong's arm. More important than that physical strength was her other ability. It wasn't something easy to understand, like telekinesis or your Teleportation. If I had to describe it, maybe incredible charisma?”
“Charisma?”
Mook-seong answered this time.
“She was the kind of person who easily persuaded others and swept everyone around her up in things, like she was always the protagonist.”
“Is that really a psychic ability? Aren't there lots of politicians and celebrities like that? Or did she control people's minds?”
“Control their minds? It felt a little like that, but it wasn't quite that either. Think of it as charisma and leadership amplified to a supernatural level. It's hard to describe clearly. To put it roughly, she was the kind of person who could slip into a group of strangers and become its leader in an instant. That's why she was sent to infiltrate the Hotel.”
Someone who could become a leader among strangers in an instant could only be called perfect for the Hotel.
For all that, though, it looked like she'd made a spectacular mess of things.
A-ri, who had been quiet for a while, spoke.
“I didn't find out Mom had that kind of psychic ability until after we escaped the Hotel. I knew about her Inheritance and Blessing, but not that.”
“If her ability involved leadership or charisma, it probably became difficult for her to use properly after she mentally regressed to a childlike state. It seems like the kind of ability that requires intelligence.”
“I just remembered something. There was a nickname people used for Mom.”
“What was it?”
“‘Princess from a Fairy Tale.’”
“That sounds kind of cute...”
Mook-seong gave a bitter smile.
“Half of it was because she was pretty. The other half was because she was selfish and autocratic, like someone from an old royal dynasty.”
“Hearing that makes me uneasy again. You said she had other abilities too, didn't you?”
“She had some other unknown powers. The problem was that those abilities seemed separate, but from another perspective, they all pointed in the same direction. People wondered whether they might all have come from a single power.”
“You said she was a Management Bureau agent, but the information about her abilities is pretty vague.”
“To learn more clearly about an ability, you usually need to conduct experiments of some kind. But due to the nature of Mi-ro's powers, she had a great many ‘followers’ even within the Management Bureau. Because of them, proper research into Mi-ro could not proceed. And despite everything, Mi-ro was loyal to the Management Bureau, so the leadership didn't want to treat her too harshly.”
The moment Mook-seong mentioned that Mi-ro had been loyal to the Management Bureau, A-ri reacted.
“It sounds like we've only talked about bad things, but no one ever doubted Mi-ro's loyalty to the Management Bureau. Most of the negative stories were about her personality. If you judge her by her actions, she spent her entire life saving countless people from evil beings.”
That was reassuring.
At the very least, it sounded like Mi-ro had adapted to organizational life well enough when she was mentally sound and possessed basic morality.
I listened to the two of them talk about Mi-ro for a long time, but all I learned was that she had a bad personality and vaguely defined abilities.
With a thunk, a door appeared, just as the incense candle and dark chamber had.
I didn't need to ask what that door meant. A-ri, Mook-seong, and I exchanged glances before heading toward it.
It was time to enter Mi-ro's Hell.
* * *
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
We wish you a merry Christmas
And a happy New Year!
The cheerful carol jolted me awake.
The scenery around me looked strangely familiar. A neat bed, a bookshelf filled with books, and an expensive wooden desk. It was a space of about fifteen pyeong, small but still quite roomy for one person.
Just as I'd sensed the moment I heard the carol, snow was falling outside the window. It wasn't a blizzard like on the Hotel's second floor. Despite this place being called Hell, quite a few children were happily running around outside.
After checking my surroundings, I looked myself over.
...
The person reflected in the mirror looked at least two or three years younger. At best, I looked around fifteen, with a youthful face. I was clearly wearing a school uniform.
Judging by the scenery and my appearance, it seemed I had become a boarding school student again, like in Hotel High...
Questions slowly began to build.
Why was this place called Hell? Where were A-ri and Mook-seong? And where was Mi-ro?
Just as those questions grew louder, the Chat Window appeared.
Footnotes:
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