WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 19: Room 102, The Cursed Room - ‘House of Horror’ (5)

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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]

“Eun-sol! Sob, hic...”

“Eun-sol! Are you all right? Can you see me?!”

The crying, groaning, and screaming that filled the entire mansion made my ears ring. It was enough to drive me insane.

Song-i was crying as if holes had opened in her eyes again, just like this morning. The others weren't in much better shape.

What the hell had happened?

Could it have been two hours ago? I never imagined things would turn out like this when Eun-sol entered the study alone.

Putting aside how ominous the mansion was, when Eun-sol entered, we had all peeked inside from behind her.

The study was neat, and it even felt like a comfortable place with a sense of stability.

So we promised to discuss whatever she found once she came out.

Yet even as midnight approached, Eun-sol showed no sign of leaving the study.

Thinking of Elena, we grew anxious and called out to her every so often.

“I'm busy!”

“This might take a while!”

“Just go to bed first. We'll talk tomorrow.”

Several times, she snapped back that she was too busy to be interrupted.

In the end, everyone gave up. It was late, so we decided to talk tomorrow.

Besides, Jin-cheol and I had gone all the way to the church through the storm earlier. We were exhausted enough that it was hard to stay awake.

The two exhausted people, along with young Seung-yeop, went to their rooms. About an hour after Song-i remained behind alone to wait for Eun-sol...

A tearing groan filled the mansion.

None of us had been deeply asleep in the first place. We scrambled up and rushed out of our rooms.

Song-i was supporting Eun-sol while crying her heart out, and Jin-cheol was too busy shaking Eun-sol around as though he wanted to make her collapse faster.

A sharp awl. Or perhaps a skewer.

Something horrifying was protruding halfway out through the back of Eun-sol's neck. A fountain of blood surged out, and the mansion's screams showed no sign of dying down.

A-ri, who had rushed over at some point, stood there in a panic. The butler tried wrapping bandages around Eun-sol's neck, but...

Everyone there instinctively knew it was useless.

Could anyone survive with a finger-sized hole punched through their neck? Her artery must have narrowly avoided being completely severed, since she was still breathing, but it was obvious that it was only a matter of time.

Then Eun-sol stretched out her arm and pointed at me.

How hard must it have been to make such a clear movement with a hole in her neck? My chest tightened as I hurried over.

She was already in no condition to speak, nor could she even look my way.

She only... gripped my hand tightly.

Had that been the last of her strength? In less than three minutes, Eun-sol's body went limp.

The mansion filled with weeping.

So it still wasn't over. How many nightmares and tragedies had this mansion, and this hotel beyond it, concealed?

Leaving everyone behind, I returned to my room.

My heart felt frozen.

I wanted to cry like Song-i. I wanted to pour out my rage like Jin-cheol. I wanted to hide away, trembling like Seung-yeop.

I couldn't.

It was painfully obvious that the others could no longer think clearly. If I let myself cry, scream, and hide too...

Who would survive until the end? Who would turn this tragedy around and give it a happy ending?

That was why Eun-sol must have held my hand at the very end.

I sat on the bed and opened my hand.

A small note. There wasn't much written on it.

- Creak

C Church, maid, Bell.

Was the lone C a mistake from when she tried to write “church”?

- Creak

Either way, I understood at least two of the words. We'd been to the church, and there was only one maid in the mansion. But what did “Bell” mean?

- Screeeech

If she was going to leave something this dying-message-ish, I wished she'd made it more specific. Still, judging by the extremely scrawled handwriting, she might have written it in a terrible hurry.

First, I needed to figure out what “Bell” meant.

And for tomorrow's schedule...

I needed to sleep.

Elena died this morning. Eun-sol died in the evening.

The mirror was busy having a staring contest with me. The clock had been drenched in blood more than ten times. The dolls tilted their heads whenever they saw someone, and the cups walked around on their own. This mansion was insane.

- Rattle! Whoosh!

Even so...

To survive until the end, to escape this mansion with everyone, to save my strength for tomorrow's investigation and survival...

I had to sleep.

- Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe

“I said shut the hell up, you bastard!!!”

I stabbed beneath the bed with the silver Dagger from my pocket. I didn't hit anything, but I heard the sound of something escaping.

At this point, I didn't even care what had been under my bed or where it had gone.

* * *

“Tell me straight! Do you think I'm an idiot? Did you think I hadn't noticed something was wrong when you kept smiling yesterday?!”

“Sob... Please stop, Jin-cheol. A-ri doesn't know anything either.”

I woke to Jin-cheol's booming shouts echoing through the mansion.

What was it this time? Was there really never a quiet moment in this mansion?

Without even washing properly, I hurried into the living room. Jin-cheol, his face bright red, had grabbed A-ri and was yelling at her at the top of his lungs.

The absurd part was that A-ri looked calmer than expected, while Seung-yeop beside her was the one crying.

Was Seung-yeop really staging Romeo and Juliet all by himself?

Putting Seung-yeop's love life aside, it was clear that this chaos needed to be calmed down.

Suspicious or not, if grabbing someone and shouting at them was enough to make all their secrets spill out, it wouldn't be called the House of Horror.

“Jin-cheol, that's enough. Why are you doing this?”

Deep down, I worried that Jin-cheol, worked up as he was, might charge at me like a boar too. Honestly, that would be scary...

Fortunately, Jin-cheol still had enough sense left to recognize an ally.

“You came at the right time. I'm not holding her for no reason. Do you think I wanted to grab a kid and scream at her? I was going to question that damned old man, but he disappeared out of nowhere!”

“Grandfather hasn't disappeared. I told you already, he's usually out of sight in the mornings because he's tending to the mansion and garden.”

“In this storm? Tending to the garden? Do you really take adults for-”

“Have you never considered that I look down on you because you're stupid? I don't think you'd get out even after ten years.”

?

What?

Just now, A-ri seemed like a completely different person. Sure, she was being shouted at over something that wasn't even her fault, so she had every reason to be angry...

But had she ever been the sort to say something that harsh?

Even her way of speaking and her voice sounded completely different from usual.

Jin-cheol himself looked too dumbfounded to get angry. He didn't know what to do.

- Clunk

“My apologies. With the storm raging, I looked around everywhere in case there might be a side path out. It seems I caused you concern.”

The butler returned at an astonishingly bad time, making the atmosphere painfully awkward.

Jin-cheol, who had said he would question the “old man,” couldn't hide his embarrassment after being caught grabbing and berating the old man's granddaughter right in front of him.

“And A-ri, apologize to our guest at once. I will apologize as well. Since she is still young, it seems she could not control her temper for a moment. Please forgive her.”

Could someone who had just been berating a child in front of her grandfather really say, “I can't forgive you,” because she lost her temper? Jin-cheol wasn't that cruel.

“No... I wasn't trying to get angry at her in the first place. It was just... Well, the situation was...”

This conversation was going to drag on forever without accomplishing anything. I cut in.

“The situation in the mansion has been bad since yesterday, so I think everyone's gotten worked up. Let's leave it at that. Did you find a side path, Butler? I think you mentioned repairing the boat yesterday as well.”

“Unfortunately, I could not find one. I believe we must repair the boat after all. Would you be willing to help me? I have prepared the tools needed for the repairs.”

“Then I'll go change my clothes right-”

“I think you should stay here, Jin-cheol.”

Jin-cheol looked at me in surprise. I pointed at Seung-yeop with my chin. Was he going to leave Seung-yeop alone in this dangerous mansion?

Fortunately, he understood and turned away.

Of course, leaving Seung-yeop alone made me uneasy too...

More than that, I didn't think Jin-cheol could control his emotions if he went with the butler.

And I had something I wanted to ask the butler alone, if possible.

“Tragic events have happened repeatedly since yesterday, so I too am deeply shaken. Yet even at a time like this, Mr. Ga-in, you do not lose your temper easily. Your mental discipline must be remarkable.”

“Mental discipline is a bit much. I just spend all day thinking about how to stay alive. That leaves no room for other thoughts.”

“That is mental discipline. There is nothing else to it.”

Was that an indirect jab at Jin-cheol, who couldn't calm himself? I didn't care about any tension between the butler and Jin-cheol. It was time for my question.

“Butler, is there anything in this mansion related to the Bell?”

“The Bell? Hmm... I do not know where you heard of it.”

Should I tell him? No, it was better to make something up.

“Oh, I think I heard something like a bell while I was sleeping. Since yesterday, things that are practically ghosts have been running wild all over the mansion...”

“A bell... I did not hear one myself, but the mansion has had trouble involving the Bell before.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The church you visited yesterday. In fact, that church had quite a fine Bell. There was once a time when its clear sound, rung morning and evening, was something of a local attraction.

But... at some point, the Elder came to hate that sound intensely. Every time he heard the Bell morning and evening, he would clutch his head.”

“Hmm. Did the relationship between the mansion and the church begin to sour because of that?”

“That is correct. Because of the Bell, the Elder even tried to drive them out by buying the church's land. I am uneducated, so I do not know much about lawsuits, but the dispute did not proceed entirely as the Elder wished at the time.

Still, the church eventually became half-ruined, and no one remained to ring the Bell... In the long run, I suppose the Elder got what he wanted.”

“Then is the Bell still at the church?”

“Of course. The church owns the Bell, so the Elder had no reason to touch a Bell that no one could ring anyway.

If you climb the ladder to the top of the church, there is a small bell tower. As far as I know, the Bell is still inside.”

I learned two things.

The Elder intensely hated the sound of the Bell. The Bell was still in the bell tower at the top of the church.

As I turned over what I had just learned alongside what I already knew, my mind racing, we arrived at the church before I realized it.

Footnotes:

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