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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 18: Room 102, The Cursed Room - ‘House of Horror’ (4)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 6

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

The church was cleaner than expected. The butler had said it was half in ruins, but perhaps that was only by the standards of the impeccably clean mansion.

It was not very large, either. With half a day's cleaning, services could be held there again.

Following the butler through the chapel and out the back door, we found a boat and the lake.

The storm had caused the water level to rise sharply, and the water lapped almost at the door. The boat had been carried close enough to the back door that it looked ready to knock against it.

Naturally, the boat was in terrible shape. It had been left exposed to the storm and may have struck the surrounding terrain as the water rose, leaving it caked in mud.

"It certainly isn't clean, but it's not in such bad shape that it can't be operated."

"Just in case, you do know how to operate a boat, don't you?"

"Of course, miss. Still, I don't think this boat can be used right away."

The butler silently extended a hand and pointed to the boat's outer hull.

Had it been damaged when it struck something during the sudden rise in water? Water was leaking into the boat. It was only seeping in slowly for now, but it clearly needed repairs.

"There are tools in the mansion for repairing boats. If we bring them and plug that hole, it should be able to cross the lake. The motor should still work."

After Eun-sol and I exchanged a look, she answered, ‘All right.’

"Cough, cough, achoo!"

"Are you all right? You've been out in the rain and wind for far too long."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. We can head back."

"No, I think you should warm yourselves up for a while. The road back to the mansion is not short. I'll bring a heater."

When the butler left to fetch a heater, we relaxed somewhat and sat scattered across the chapel's long pews.

Clunk, clunk.

Creeeak.

An eerie sound. Suppressing my discomfort, I looked up to see one of the doors across from us shaking.

"What room is that...?"

"It's probably the priest's room."

Suspicious.

The butler had insisted we rest even though we said we were fine, then left us alone. Now a door was opening as if it had been waiting for us.

"What, is it telling us to search the place?"

"I'll check it out."

"Let's go together. It'll be easier if one person holds the lantern."

"No, I think you should stay near Eun-sol. The butler will return."

The butler.

From the first day, Jin-cheol had said the butler was quite strong and remained wary of him.

When I said we needed to prepare for the butler's return, Jin-cheol agreed and sat back down.

Of course, we were wary of the butler, but...

Dangerous places meant one person at a time. Even if someone died, one person at a time.

Just as you should not put all your eggs in one basket when investing, we must not all enter a dangerous place at once.

I entered the room with a lantern in one hand.

A table that looked half-rotted away. Various documents scattered everywhere.

I gave them a quick look, but most were excerpts copied from the Bible.

They had probably been used during services, or were passages the priest had found moving.

I shuffled through the papers, tore apart a half-crushed Bible despite feeling sorry for it, and tapped at the rotting desk. Just as I began glancing toward the door, wondering whether the butler would return soon, I found an unusual document.

Documents concerning a lawsuit between the church and the mansion.

The contents of the lawsuit were as the butler had explained yesterday. Both sides claimed ownership of the church and the nearby land for various reasons.

When I searched more carefully, I began finding letters they had sent each other.

At first, the letters began with phrases like "To the Reverend Father" and "To the devout believer Lee Se-hyeon," revealing the Elder's name. They had been exchanged in a polite tone, but harsh words eventually began to appear.

The legal grounds and arguments in the middle letters were difficult to understand, but one thing stood out.

At some point, the names they called each other had changed to "a rotten priest mad for money" and "a Satanic bastard steeped in wicked heresy."

Mad for money.

That was within the range of ordinary insults people might exchange during a lawsuit over land.

"A wicked heresy," though. That did not sound like an ordinary insult. With occult incidents happening one after another, it was not a phrase we could simply overlook.

We needed to suspect the Elder.

Having reached that rough conclusion, I left the room. I could not see anything else worth investigating.

The butler still had not returned, and Jin-cheol and Eun-sol were visibly shivering.

"He still hasn't come back? He said he was bringing a heater..."

"Exactly. Where is he even getting a heater from? It's been well over thirty minutes. It feels like an hour."

"That old bastard's definitely trying to kill us here. That's why I said we should-"

"Please be quiet. I'm begging you."

I remembered what Eun-sol had said earlier. Jin-cheol had lost his mind.

I was beginning to understand. Jin-cheol clearly had not been able to control his emotions since Elena died...

The butler did not return until more than ten minutes later.

He was carrying a heater, but by then, nobody wanted to remain in that eerie church any longer just to warm up by it.

So the moment the butler arrived, making his trip for the heater pointless, we set off for the mansion again.

The butler raised no objection when we said it was time to leave and immediately started walking.

As though warming us up had never been his purpose in the first place.

Only after we arrived at the mansion did we rest together and warm ourselves.

We spent the time worrying about one another, so Seung-yeop and Song-i, who had remained at the mansion, came out anxiously. Even A-ri joined them, bustling about as they boiled water and heated the bathtub.

After quickly taking care of dinner just as we had lunch, we put the plan we had made on our way to the church into action.

"Butler, give me the key to the study."

"Pardon?"

"The study key. I want to go look for something."

"Ho ho, miss. As I told young Master Seung-yeop, the Elder earnestly instructed us not to enter the study. There are many legal and financial documents in there, so..."

"Butler, then call my uncle."

"Miss..."

"I need to see the study. This mansion has been full of strange things for a while now, hasn't it? Who knows? Maybe my uncle hid something in there. So go get the key. Please."

"Eun-sol, regardless, the owner of the house did tell us not to go in... Aren't you getting a little too worked up all of a sudden?"

"Why don't you shut up for a minute? We can't even contact that so-called owner if someone dies here. If we keep listening to him, there'll be two more corpses before long."

After putting on a little show and arguing for a couple of rounds, I turned around and saw the others staring at me with wide eyes.

I had worried our acting might seem obvious, but perhaps we had acted too well.

Or maybe their fear had grown because we had begun fighting in such a frightening, gloomy atmosphere.

Even Jin-cheol was looking at me in surprise. It felt awkward to explain now, so I silently took a seat.

It was funny, but everyone's excellent reactions meant we probably would not arouse any suspicion.

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

The study was exceptionally neat and ordinary. “Lee Eun-sol” found that very point the most suspicious.

Since Elena's death, the mansion had begun going mad. In the mirror, I saw myself mocking me; the cuckoo clock busied itself exploding every hour, and the doll had developed an interest in people.

I did not even need to go that far. While we were getting by on sandwiches and coffee for dinner, had I not snatched up the cup with legs when it tried to move on its own and pour hot water?

Yet this study...

It felt completely separate from the mansion's atmosphere.

It was far too comfortable.

I stood still and considered the information Ga-in had given me.

The Elder had fallen into heresy. That information had to mean something.

Since yesterday, the butler had been determined to drag us to the church. He had finally taken us there, then made us stay inside for an hour.

He must have wanted us to find something. If what we found was proof of the Elder's heresy, then there had to be something related to it somewhere in the study.

I searched the room. I opened every book and checked the desk drawers.

Why me?

It was something I had wondered ever since the mansion's situation began unfolding. Elena had said in the car that our current situation felt like some kind of play.

We had each been given a role, so to speak.

No matter how I looked at it, my role was the most important one in this House of Horror.

Everyone else had only come to the mansion because they were Lee Eun-sol's university friends.

I was the mansion owner's niece, and because of that status, I was in a position to order around the mansion's suspicious employees. My role was clearly the most important.

But why me? Why had I been given the most important role? What did I have that the others did not?

A chaebol heir? It was not like I could use the money in my bank account, so that probably was not important.

Was I a little smarter than most? From what I had seen, Ga-in was no less capable in that regard. He had enough sense that I would like to put him to work under me if we ever got out of the hotel.

I...

I could speak quite a few foreign languages.

When I reached into the awkward gap between the second and third drawers of the desk, my hand found a thick envelope.

The envelope contained documents in various languages. Spanish, French, German, English, and more.

Not only were the languages different, but the handwriting, formats, and paper were all different as well.

It looked as though someone had gathered fragmented information from all over the world. Every piece of information described one subject.

The moment I read the final line of the fourth document, I knew. I had prepared myself, but I could not stop trembling.

Now, it was time for me to make the sacrifice.

Footnotes:

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