WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 237: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (15)

──────

- Park Seung-yeop

“That’s strange. I thought she said it was here?”

“...”

During the second attempt, the Doctor and I had been assigned to find Riringanor, who had been exiled by Serenade and was staying in Busan. But finding the “house where she usually stayed,” which I’d heard about while talking to Riringanor, was harder than expected.

Honestly, it wasn’t my fault. Riringanor hadn’t given me a detailed address in the first place. While we were riding Kong-i, the giant Ragworm, she’d only pointed at a ruined building and said, “That building!”

Finding a building I’d seen in a city devastated by a tsunami in an intact Busan was no easy task. Then the Doctor beside me spoke up.

“Seung-yeop! Could it be that apartment building over there?”

“Huh?”

The moment I looked at the apartment building the Doctor pointed to, it all clicked. My vague memories of wondering whether it was this place or that place suddenly became clear.

“How did you find it? Even I was confused, and I heard it directly.”

The reason was simpler than I expected.

“Despite it being broad daylight, every balcony and window is tightly shut, making the place look like a darkroom. They probably thought that, as Merfolk, they needed to avoid being seen from outside, but that only made them stand out more.”

“Ah!”

Still, it was a relief that we found it so quickly.

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

“Mm-hm. Mm-hm. Good work!”

A report came in from Seung-yeop. It sounded like they’d finished quickly.

“Did they find the Third Daughter?”

“Yes. They found her quickly, and it seems they’ve already convinced her to go to Haesin Island.”

“They persuaded her that quickly? I thought she’d stubbornly refuse to return after her sister threw her out.”

“They told her the island was facing an enormous crisis.”

“That isn’t wrong. Then this side is the problem now.”

Sang-hyeon and Seung-yeop’s role was to find and recruit Riringanor. Grandfather and I were supposed to investigate the situation surrounding Cheongseong Group and find a way to locate Lee Su-ho.

How were we supposed to find Lee Su-ho? Have nine people search an island larger than Jeju Island for half a day? Impossible. Even Serenade, the island’s ruler, had failed to find him. There was a strong chance that Lee Su-ho was hiding through supernatural means.

That was why our idea was simple. Request support from the Management Bureau!

If we could use more people or deploy reconnaissance satellites, there had to be some way to find him. Still, A-ri and Grandfather, the people who knew the Management Bureau best, said it probably wouldn’t be easy. Once we had a plan, Grandfather began repeatedly calling people at the Management Bureau.

“Did they say it would be difficult again?”

“It won’t be easy. The reason is the same. They say there isn’t enough evidence.”

We already knew from the first attempt that if we failed to find Lee Su-ho today, Kadarudah would descend and cause a Great Disaster.

But how were we supposed to explain that to the people inside this scenario? We couldn’t exactly use, “Actually, we’re from the outside world!” as evidence.

The Management Bureau possessed personnel and material resources beyond comparison with most organizations in this world. That didn’t mean its resources were overflowing.

It also had to protect the entire planet. Resources were always scarce, so any request for additional support needed evidence.

Just as Grandfather and I were lamenting that the second attempt might fail because we couldn’t find Lee Su-ho, help arrived from an unexpected direction. Grandfather suddenly received a call. It was from Chief Park Jin-seong, who was in charge of the Management Bureau’s Busan branch.

“So you’re saying twenty-two Reconnaissance Drones and one Assault Team can be deployed?”

“That’s right, Agent Kim Mook-seong. It may not be enough, but this is the best I can do.”

“I should be the one thanking you. It couldn’t have been easy to pull together this many resources... When can they arrive?”

“The drones can launch immediately, but the Assault Team won’t be able to enter Haesin Island until evening. And I’ll be going too.”

“Hm?”

Even I was startled as I listened beside him. The chief himself was coming to Haesin Island? He didn’t seem like someone who should be running around in the field.

“Agent Kim Mook-seong, the evidence for your support request is very weak. It is little more than your own intuition and speculation with some details added.”

“... I admit that.”

There was nothing we could do. To the NPCs inside this scenario, the information we had obtained through the first attempt was no more than a story spun from our imaginations.

“But I once had a similar intuition.”

?

“You wrote in your request that there was a possibility Lee Su-ho was alive, correct?”

“That’s right, but...”

“I met Lee Su-ho about four times over the past few years. Every time, I felt an urge I’d be embarrassed to tell anyone about.”

“An urge?”

“Agent, I pride myself on being a good judge of character.”

That made sense. That was probably why he was a chief in an organization like the Management Bureau.

“I felt the urge to kill that Lee Su-ho bastard about fifteen times. I endured it again and again, then one day I received word that he had suddenly died. I was relieved, but at the same time, the back of my neck went cold. No matter how I thought about it, he didn’t seem like the sort who would die so easily. Hearing your report just now has made the back of my neck go cold again.”

With that, Chief Park Jin-seong promised his support and hung up.

“Grandfather, what do you think that meant?”

“He’s trying to resurrect an Evil God, so it seems he’s been twisted somewhere in the head for a long time.”

“High-ranking Management Bureau officials seriously consider killing someone just because that person seems strange?”

“Hmm... To be honest, I’ve felt that kind of intuition a few times in my life too. The feeling that some bastard will definitely cause trouble someday. Still, it’s surprising that the chief himself is coming. Maybe he has some personal grudge?”

They said experienced detectives could sense a criminal just by watching how someone walked down the street. The intuition of field experts like that was probably less a simple feeling and more an instant judgment based on all kinds of circumstantial evidence that was difficult to list one by one.

Had Chief Park felt a similar intuition? Or perhaps, as Grandfather guessed, he had a personal reason.

At least I learned one thing. Even before becoming the Saint of the Sea God, Lee Su-ho seemed to have had a hint of madness about him.

Either way, it felt like our work was done. Sang-hyeon and Seung-yeop had succeeded in finding and recruiting Riringanor. We had succeeded in investigating Cheongseong Group and securing the Management Bureau’s support. Now only the people with the most important roles remained.

Could Han Ga-in, Cha Jin-cheol, Kim A-ri, and Yoo Song-i persuade Serenade and free Elena from Sealing?

Grandfather urged me from beside me.

“It seems Sang-hyeon has arrived in front of that building. We should leave for Haesin Island too. I have the limousine waiting.”

This time, Seung-yeop was on his way to the Management Bureau branch in Seoul, using the excuse that he needed to report the information Riringanor had given him so we could truly escape. That was the place we considered “the safest place in South Korea.”

But would it still be safe when an Evil God was resurrecting? There was no way to know.

* * *

- Han Ga-in

“Eun-sol just sent a secure message.”

A-ri, who was beside me, perked up.

“What did she say?”

“They found Riringanor, and the Doctor is bringing her over. It seems they’ve also investigated Cheongseong Group to some extent. More importantly, the Management Bureau said it would deploy Reconnaissance Drones and a special forces unit.”

A-ri had already taken out her phone and checked the message Eun-sol had sent.

“They actually got Reconnaissance Drones. There are fewer than two hundred of those in all of South Korea.”

“They’re different from ordinary drones, right? I was wondering if only twenty or so could search Haesin Island in half a day.”

“More than enough. Though if Lee Su-ho has used some insanely powerful concealment magic, that’ll be another problem...”

The others seemed to have already finished their missions, but we hadn’t even begun. We hadn’t even arrived at Haesin Island yet. The limousine had only just entered the Sea Highway leading to the island.

I tapped the front seat.

“Jin-cheol, be careful.”

“I know.”

Soon, the limousine stopped around the middle of the Sea Highway. Just like before, ominous fog stretched toward the center of the road before disappearing.

“Who do you think did this? Lee Su-ho? Serenade?”

“I don’t know... We’ll have to find that out too.”

The limousine soon began racing down the Sea Highway again. The people in the back seat fell silent. We’d made a rough plan for how to persuade her, but could we really pull it off? Honestly, even I found these stories hard to believe.

Maybe my expression looked uneasy, because A-ri added from beside me.

“Act confidently. With things like this, confidence is half the battle.”

“What’s the other half?”

“Luck. That’s why I wanted to bring Seung-yeop along with us.”

Around noon, we arrived at Haesin Island much earlier than during the first attempt.

* * *

“Welcome, Management Bureau personnel from the mainland.”

“Hello. It is an honor to meet the Saintess of the Deep.”

“Please just call me Governor. That is my public title.”

So far, this was exactly the same conversation as before. But now it began.

“Governor, our visit must have felt sudden.”

“... It did, actually. I set a time for our meeting, but you insisted so strongly that you had to see me immediately that I had no choice but to cancel my earlier schedule. I hope you have a good reason.”

Without a word, I stepped forward and shifted my gaze slightly toward the space between the ceiling and the window. I did my best to create an air of mystery. This was the special skill I had developed in the hotel.

The moment Pero saw my movement, it flew over as if it had been waiting, landed on my shoulder, and even put on the expression of a sorrowful parrot. At the same time, Jin-cheol moved behind us and slammed the door shut.

“What on earth are you trying to say-”

“Governor, listen carefully to what I’m about to say. This is the second time we have met. I used a special method possessed by the Management Bureau to turn back time. In the erased timeline, Haesin Island was destroyed by Lee Su-ho.”

Serenade’s eyes widened.

“And you entrusted the island’s future to us and promised we would meet again someday.”

Footnotes:

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