WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 235: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (13)

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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 101

Current Location: Level 2, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 0]

- Han Ga-in

The moment I left the room, I broke out in a cold sweat. I thought I’d already had more than enough bizarre, horrifying experiences from repeatedly entering Curse Rooms, but I never imagined I’d experience becoming a fish!

Just as I was about to check whether Elena, whom I’d met at the end, was all right...

“Ah! A-are you okay?”

Elena suddenly collapsed. Song-i, who had been right beside her, caught her immediately, but everyone rushed over in alarm.

With everyone staring at her, Elena said awkwardly, “Until just now, I was floating in water, so I wasn’t using any strength at all. I’m fine.”

What kind of form had Elena’s body taken until just moments ago?

I decided to forget about it.

I was mentally exhausted. Everyone looked tired as we headed to Room 105 and briefly exchanged information. I had thought everyone else had died when Kadarudah rose from the sea, but Song-i had apparently gone through several things afterward.

* * *

After resting for a while in Room 105, we gathered around the table and began our meeting.

Elena had obtained the most information about Room 202, so she began laying out the events in chronological order.

“From now on, I’ll call the Elena in the scenario the Second Daughter. The incident began with the relationship between the Second Daughter and Lee Su-ho. They were lovers, and they often had constructive discussions about the island’s future.”

A-ri slightly raised her hand.

“I’ll ask questions from time to time. Did Cheongseong Group know those two were dating? It’s important information, so it’s strange they didn’t tell us.”

“I think the Second Daughter believed Cheongseong Group didn’t know. Lee Su-ho told me so. But I see it a little differently. The Second Daughter didn’t know much about affairs on land, and she wasn’t familiar with how chaebol families worked. In my opinion, they hadn’t been dating for just a day or two. Could the people around them really not know when someone practically from the Merfolk royal family and the eldest son of a chaebol family had been dating for years?”

“That’s a good angle. Cheongseong Group may have known, contrary to what the Second Daughter believed. If they did, we need to consider why they hid it from us. Go on.”

“Because of her Ancestral Memories, the Second Daughter suffered terrible nightmares every day. Seung-yeop probably already heard this from Riringanor, but the ‘nightmares’ the Daughters of the Sea God have are far beyond what ordinary people would imagine. They experience things like being sliced into sashimi or fried alive, with no filter at all. Those of you who are quick on the uptake may have found it strange that all three leaders of the island, the Daughters of the Sea God, were so young.”

Eun-sol’s mouth fell slightly open.

“Don’t tell me... they couldn’t endure it until they grew old?”

“Exactly. Most lose their minds before they even reach forty. In the basement of the hospital you visited, former Daughters of the Sea God who have already lost their minds are recovering. Anyway, after learning this, Lee Su-ho fell into despair. He couldn’t ease his lover’s suffering, but he at least wanted to share it himself.”

“So he decided to become a Merfolk?”

“Yes. A Daughter of the Sea God has a way to enter the cave that holds Haesin Island’s greatest secret. Inside that cave is a means of turning people into Merfolk.”

Elena looked at me as she said that.

Having experienced that means firsthand, I let out a sigh before answering.

“There was a huge, pale creature that vaguely looked like a snail. I think you become a Merfolk if you shove it into your body.”

“That’s right. It’s called Rudah.”

“What kind of creature is it?”

“I don’t know much. The information related to Rudah is far too old. All I know is that it’s something like one of Kadarudah’s retainers, and that putting it inside your body turns a human into a Merfolk.”

“I see.”

At that point, the Doctor spoke.

“I did find it strange that the Merfolk were said to be a species separate from humans.”

“Come to think of it, you mentioned that from the beginning, didn’t you, Mr. Sang-hyeon? Why did you feel that way?”

“It’s nothing much. How did Haesin Island distort its history again? They said the Sea God remade the Merfolk who had lived beneath the sea in ancient times into human forms and sent them onto land.”

“That’s how I remember it too.”

“It’s typical intelligent-design theory. The logic that a great god created intelligent life. I can accept that much in this insane world, where there are plenty of gods capable of kneading stars with a single finger. But why would such a great god recreate the Merfolk in human form while also reproducing the human body’s imperfect flaws?”

“Imperfect flaws?”

“There are too many to point out one by one, but the human body has many imperfections. Blind spots in the eyes and herniated discs are good examples. These weaknesses exist because evolution itself depends heavily on chance. The Merfolk had the same problems. If a truly great god had recreated them, there would have been no reason to reproduce those flaws in their descendants.”

It was interesting and persuasive.

If the Merfolk truly were creations of a great Sea God, there would have been no reason to recreate the flaws of the human body, even if they had been remade to resemble humans.

Everyone turned to Elena again.

“That was how Lee Su-ho became a Merfolk. The problem came after that. He reached Primordial Memory that no Daughter of the Sea God before him had ever touched, memories from prehistoric times. He even reached memories from before eight hundred years ago, when the first Merfolk was born.”

I asked immediately.

“I’ve been wondering since I first heard this. What exactly are memories from before the first Merfolk was born?”

“I don’t know. Lee Su-ho only said that he had read them. We’re almost done, so I’ll continue. When Serenade learned that Lee Su-ho had become a Merfolk and touched unknown memories, she tried to capture and kill him. During that process, the Second Daughter, who had caused a ‘major incident,’ was also locked in a mental hospital as punishment.”

Elena stopped explaining there.

We knew what happened afterward. We found Elena in the hospital and woke her up. As she awoke, Elena realized Kadarudah’s Awakening was imminent. To escape, she took me to the undersea cave and turned me into a Merfolk.

Seung-yeop, who had been quiet until then, asked, “Why was Riringanor driven out? According to her, Serenade drove her away like a tyrant without giving any explanation...”

Elena gave a convincing answer.

“Riringanor was especially young among the Daughters of the Sea God, so she was usually excluded from important matters. The ‘major incident’ the Second Daughter caused was shameful from Haesin Island’s perspective. I don’t think Serenade wanted to tell the youngest one, who was still young, everything about that shameful matter.”

We could understand Serenade’s feelings, since we sometimes treated Seung-yeop in much the same way.

As we sorted through what we had heard from Elena, Song-i added her own account.

“I’ll tell you what I experienced too. I was lucky enough to escape and drift through the sea until I boarded Lee Su-ho’s yacht. Lee Su-ho was still alive at that point, and we talked about various things. The meaningful information was that the Merfolk had committed grave sins.”

“Grave sins?”

“Yes. The first Merfolk committed some kind of sin eight hundred years ago, and the modern Merfolk committed another sin afterward. Oh, and Lee Su-ho said Serenade pursued him to capture and kill him.”

“Serenade lied to us. If she was pursuing Lee Su-ho, that means she knew he was alive.”

We had gained a great deal of information from the first attempt.

The Source of the Curse was Kadarudah’s resurrection by Lee Su-ho and the resulting catastrophe. The Merfolk were humans who had made some kind of contract with the god of the deep sea and transformed into another race. The in-scenario reason Elena had been Sealed was Serenade’s punishment.

What was the reason outside the scenario?

I thought I understood now. It was likely a combination of factors, including Lie Detection, Clear Mirror, Still Water, and Justice.

It was clear from the circumstances that quite a few people had lied to us. Cheongseong Group was suspicious, and Serenade was certainly one of them. If we had possessed Lie Detection, we wouldn’t have been deceived in the first place. Also, the Daughters of the Sea God inevitably suffered from their Ancestral Memories, while Clear Mirror, Still Water provided resistance against that. Considering that Justice would also be effective against someone like Lee Su-ho, there were more than enough reasons to Seal Elena.

Still, learning that Lee Su-ho was alive thanks to releasing the Sealing was a major achievement. If we had not released Elena’s Sealing, it would have been difficult even to notice Serenade’s lies. Until we heard it from Elena, we had never once considered that Lee Su-ho might be alive.

But there were still gaps in our information.

There was one question that had been bothering everyone from the beginning. What exactly were the two Great Sins committed by the Merfolk? And how were we supposed to find Lee Su-ho, the source of this entire situation?

The room fell silent for a long time as everyone thought deeply.

After a while, Grandpa spoke.

“In the end, there are two things we need to do on the next attempt. Gather the rest of the missing information and drag Lee Su-ho in so we can beat the hell out of him. Everyone’s thinking along the same lines, right?”

Everyone nodded.

“But we have one very serious problem. We’ve been given far too little time.”

He was right.

On the first attempt, we entered in the morning, met with the chairman of Cheongseong Group, entered Haesin Island in the afternoon, and met Serenade. Around evening, we visited the basement of the government office, then released Elena’s Sealing after midnight.

We had thought it was incredibly fast progress to release Elena’s Sealing before one day had passed, but even that had been too slow. Kadarudah resurrected at dawn the very next day!

“So, in my view, searching the island for information or trying to find Lee Su-ho is impossible. The Sea God will awaken while we’re searching. We need a faster route.”

A faster route.

I was beginning to understand what Grandpa was getting at.

“There’s someone who should know the answers to our questions. Serenade, isn’t it? We beat that woman up and...”

A-ri cut him off.

“Not beat her up. Recruit her. I don’t think Serenade is our enemy. Remember that she pursued Lee Su-ho. We should assume she was also trying to stop the Sea God’s resurrection. She’s in the position of protecting the island, and the Sea God massacred the Merfolk as soon as he resurrected.”

“Fine, recruit her. Anyway, let’s get information from Serenade.”

Eun-sol asked with an uneasy expression, “Let’s say we get the missing information from Serenade. How do we find Lee Su-ho? Even Serenade couldn’t find him.”

The room fell quiet again.

Ultimately, our goals for the second attempt were gathering information and finding Lee Su-ho. We could recruit Serenade to gather information. Of course, we would have to figure out exactly how to recruit her from now on.

But how were we supposed to find Lee Su-ho? Search an entire island in one day? An island larger than Jeju Island?

It wasn’t an easy problem. My companions’ silence stretched on.

Then Song-i spoke again.

“This has nothing to do with our current problem, but I have a personal question. A-ri?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know what the Terminator is? You do, right?”

Footnotes:

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