WeTried Translations

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 22: Room 102, The Cursed Room - ‘House of Horror’ (8)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 8

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

Sage’s Advice: 3]

This was even harder than I’d expected.

Climbing a mountain in the rain was obviously difficult, but this was no joke. It had weakened slightly, but only down to storm-level force.

Heavy rain still blurred my vision, and the soaked ground gave way beneath every step. It was hard enough just to put one foot in front of the other.

When I tried to avoid the soft ground by stepping on a solid rock, I slipped on its rain-soaked surface and went tumbling down.

Meanwhile, was the butler using some kind of lightness skill?

Even if he had more hiking experience than I did and knew this mountain’s terrain well, could the difference really be this great? Rain poured down, yet he moved without the slightest wobble.

Once I started floundering, he even kindly helped me up and brushed the dirt off me.

By the time we reached the middle of the mountain, my stamina had hit rock bottom. I was gasping for breath.

“I think we should rest for a while.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I don’t have enough stamina.”

“Not at all. Of course it’s difficult to climb a mountain in the rain. Come under this tree. Its leaves and branches are thick enough to keep off some of the rain.”

The butler, who didn’t look tired at all, said it was only natural to be exhausted and led me beneath the tree.

“You took A-ri to the church yesterday, didn’t you?”

“There were some things I needed to find... and some things I needed to confirm.”

“Did you find them? Did you confirm what you needed to?”

“I found what I needed to find and confirmed what I needed to confirm, more or less.”

I could feel a subtle tension in the air.

“Did A-ri tell you anything?”

That she had changed somehow after hearing the Bell, or that she had heard a “hymn.”

Should I answer?

When I hesitated and couldn’t respond, the butler set off again without pressing for an answer.

“She’s been a good child since she was little. After losing her parents at such a young age, she could have gone down the wrong path... but she never strayed from the right one.”

“She was lively and kind enough that you’d never think she’d lost her parents.”

“Thank you. And I’m not only saying this because she’s my granddaughter, but isn’t she quite lovely? More than her face, though, her heart was beautiful.

“She was an innocent child who believed that if she spoke with sincerity, everyone would accept it.”

“Showing sincerity. There’s no better way to persuade someone.”

“But there are people in this world whom sincerity cannot reach.”

“It sounds like you’ve met someone like that.”

The butler fell silent.

We walked, and walked, and kept walking. Maybe thirty minutes remained until the summit? The rain slowed us down so much that it was hard to say.

More than that... I was curious. The butler seemed to want to tell me something about A-ri.

How could I get him to say more? Should I probe a little?

“Just a little farther. The summit is close now. Once we get there, we can look over the route below and check whether there’s a safe path.”

“That’s a relief. To be honest, my legs are really shaking now.”

“Did you look for the Bell at the church?”

This was a continuation of our earlier conversation. This time, I should answer a little more.

“Yes. It was still up in the bell tower. Like before, the church was remarkably well maintained for a place where no one lived. The Bell was in good condition too...”

“No one lives there, but that doesn’t mean the building has no purpose. The mansion’s boat is moored there as well.”

“So you’ve been maintaining the church all this time? Father?”

Another brief silence descended.

“It’s been a long time since I heard that. Did A-ri tell you?”

“A-ri never said anything like that. I just started thinking about it at some point. The church had supposedly been abandoned for a long time, but it was too clean for that.

“I wondered if someone had been taking care of it. And the only person who could do that was you. But managing the mansion alone must be difficult enough, so why would you maintain the church too?”

“You guessed all that from only that?”

“I went to church as a child too. It may be different from a Catholic church, but honestly, I didn’t find church very fun as a kid. The only fun part was meeting the other children.

“But A-ri had gone diligently to church alone since childhood, in a place where she had no friends. Then I wondered if she hadn’t really attended church at all, but had simply lived there with her grandfather.”

“That isn’t so much a deduction based on solid evidence as a wild guess. In the end, you were just testing the waters.”

“That’s true, but... it seems I was right.”

The rain began pouring harder again. We slowed even more, and my legs were trembling so badly that it was difficult to move.

Then a clear voice cut through the rain.

“The Elder was a cruel person.

“At first, it began with outrageous demands.

“Hand over the land. Ring that Bell one more time, and I’ll tear down the bell tower.

“I didn’t pay it any mind. Even after I learned that the Elder had fallen into corrupted faith, I didn’t pay it any mind.

“The Lord was in heaven, so what was there to fear?

“As time passed, the entire area grew desolate.

“The people near the mansion left one by one, or disappeared.

“A-ri couldn’t bear it.”

“The person sincerity couldn’t reach, could that be...”

“A-ri went to the mansion alone. With all her sincerity, she hoped the Elder would show kindness toward the world.

“Ah. She was young. So terribly young.

“It was my fault for not teaching her beforehand that there were people in this world whom sincerity could not reach.

“From the day after she returned from the mansion, she suffered from a fever. Like someone who had lost her soul, she couldn’t even hold a proper conversation.

“All she said, trembling, was that the Elder had ‘kindly’ shown her something.

“A strange song. A strange poem. That child no longer sought the Lord...”

The summit was drawing near.

The butler no longer spoke to me politely. He was no longer a butler. He was only a priest whose granddaughter had been taken hostage.

“I went to the mansion and begged, over and over. I gave up the lawsuit. I gave up the church.

“I got on my knees and prostrated myself. I only prayed that the Elder would show mercy. Only after I gave up everything could A-ri rise from her bed...

“I must protect my granddaughter...”

“Did you give up being a priest then too?”

“What else could I do? I devoted my entire life to the Lord. When Satan descended upon me and that child, the Lord did not reach out a hand.

“You have quite a strong heart. That is your misfortune. If you’d just cried and waited like the children who remained at the mansion, this would have ended. Yet you insist on making things difficult.

“I agonized over it until the very end. Whether I should deal with you myself, or let the Elder offer you up.

“But six are enough. I’ve already offered three, and two remain at the mansion. In the end, this old neck of mine will be enough. The Elder won’t need to deal with you personally...”

At the summit, the priest turned around.

Ah. Things really had gone the hard way. When we first began climbing, I thought there would be plenty of easy opportunities amid such a dangerous, rain-soaked ascent.

Yet while I was too busy struggling to keep myself upright, the priest had moved far ahead of me without leaving a single opening...

And now that we had reached the summit, I was exhausted and stuck in this situation.

I gritted my teeth and drew my Dagger.

“So you were prepared from the start. Were you wary of me? Or did you intend to harm me? It doesn’t matter.”

The next moment, the priest lunged at me as if he were flying.

[Take three steps to the left immediately!]

Sage’s Advice, which had not reacted once since entering the House of Horror, not even when people were dying, activated for the first time.

The moment I saw the notification, my body took three steps to the left before I could even think.

The rotten tree trunk lying on the ground between my new position and the priest collapsed.

The priest stepped on the trunk as it gave way, lost his balance, and staggered.

Now?

The instant I drew my Dagger and rushed forward,

[Step back!]

Another notification appeared less than a second later, and I instinctively retreated.

Almost at the same time, something like a skewer or an awl shot out from the priest’s clothes and grazed my body.

“What is that?”

“You brought a weapon too. Did you think I came empty-handed?”

The fight had barely lasted five seconds, yet I had already used two pieces of advice. It was obvious. This priest was clearly stronger than me.

But I’d known from the first day that the priest’s physical ability surpassed mine. Naturally, I had prepared another move.

I couldn’t use it in this much rain, though. I had to change positions.

Had I thought for too long? The priest, who had regained his balance, lunged at me again.

I’d been feeling it since earlier, but that old man had definitely mastered some kind of martial art.

How could he run so steadily through a place filled with rotten trees, slippery rocks, and flowing mud?

Slip!

In the end, I was the first to lose my footing. I lost my balance and rolled across the ground.

When I hurriedly pushed myself up, I saw the priest charging at me, having seized the opportunity.

[Pull the rock to your right!]

The third piece of advice. For a brief instant, I was bewildered.

It wasn’t telling me where to dodge, but suddenly telling me to pull a rock?

Yet even in the time it took to think that, my arm moved on its own and pulled the rock. Then something absurd happened.

The rock I grabbed had been supporting a tree to the left whose roots had half rotted away!

The moment I pulled out the rock supporting it, the rotten tree collapsed and fell onto the charging priest.

The priest sharply changed direction to avoid the tree, but this was an environment where anyone could lose their footing simply walking normally.

He completely lost his balance and fell. Should I rush in? I didn’t have to think about it long.

Hadn’t I experienced it earlier? Approaching carelessly was extremely dangerous.

I hadn’t inflicted a fatal wound, and I wasn’t confident I could defeat the armed priest in close combat.

I looked around and spotted a tree with thick branches and leaves blocking the rain.

I could use my trump card there.

As I ran toward the tree, I gripped the object hidden inside my clothes.

The moment I arrived, I turned my head.

The priest, already back on his feet after that short time, was rushing toward me.

Sssssss!

“AAAAAAARGH!!!!! Ughhhhhh!!!!!! What the hell did you do, you bastard?!”

The priest, whom neither the storm, the rain, nor the harsh mountain terrain had brought down, rolled across the ground like a child.

He had dropped the skewer, which looked like it had been made by sharpening a candlestick, somewhere along the way. He could only roll frantically in the dirt, rubbing at his face.

Two days before entering Room 102, when the monster from the pool attacked everyone, Eun-sol showed great presence of mind. She bought liquid Capsaicin from the HP Market and drove the monster away.

Everyone had thought the same thing then. That was an incredible weapon. In a situation where guns were unavailable, liquid Capsaicin was in some ways a far better weapon than a Dagger.

Unfortunately, she had poured it generously over the monster, leaving only a small amount at the bottom of the bottle.

There was only enough to barely fill the bottom of one spray bottle the hotel used for its subtle fragrance.

After somehow making two of them, she gave one to me without hesitation.

Why had she given it to me? Thinking about it now, perhaps she had already trusted me to some extent.

Either way, her judgment had not been wrong.

Finally... it was time to end this bloody struggle on this rain-lashed mountain.

I tightly gripped my Dagger and approached the priest, who was still twitching.

--- Stab!

Something pierced my thigh.

Ah, if I’d had even one piece of advice left, it would have told me to dodge. What a shame.

My body, already at its limit, crumpled.

Footnotes:

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