WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 242: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (20)
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- Elena
“Elena, are you all right?”
I suddenly came to my senses. Someone I dearly missed was sitting in front of me.
“Ah. Su-ho... My head suddenly started hurting.”
“Is it that damned Nightmare again?”
“I don't think so.”
Where was this...? A restaurant. Information surfaced in my mind. It was an exceptionally luxurious restaurant catering only to VVIP customers. Beautiful music filled the elegant space, and the dishes on the table were arranged with impeccable care.
“You need to take good care of yourself. You're someone who'll do great things for the island, aren't you?”
“My sister is the one doing great things.”
“That may be true now, but who's to say it'll stay that way? Taejong Yi Bang-won wasn't the eldest son either-”
“That’s enough. It really isn't funny.”
There it was again, his terrible sense of humor. Did he think Serenade and I were political rivals or something? This wasn't the Joseon era.
I should be harsher with him today.
“Every time I hear bullshit like that, I want to slap you and walk out.”
“...I'm sorry. I've often heard that I'm not good with words.”
“The problem isn't that you're bad with words. The problem is that you think you're funny.”
“It’s been a while since I heard you insult me like that. It feels strangely nostalgic.”
“I didn't say it so you'd feel nostalgic.”
“I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I think today will be the last time we have a conversation like this.”
“What?”
What was he talking about now? Another strange joke-
“Elena, I'm sorry, but there’s no time to dwell on memories. Could you pull yourself together?”
“...”
“Calmly remember what happened just before this.”
What happened today?
I woke up in a hospital where I'd been drugged for a long time. Unable to even stand properly, I was taken away by my Hotel companions-
My Hotel companions. That was when I fully came to my senses.
Crash!
I shot to my feet in alarm, sending plates and forks scattering everywhere. At the same time, the space around us collapsed, and an old-fashioned café appeared in its place.
“Ha ha! I miss this place too.”
“What... what is going on?”
“It’s nothing much. Miss Elena, you were knocked unconscious by the Management Bureau, and I’m using the power of the Primeval Characters to deliver a message to you just before I die.”
“Just before you die?”
“I’m sorry. I’ll die soon. I don't think I can avoid it. My opponent came far too well prepared.”
After saying that, Lee Su-ho wore a hollow expression.
Strangely, intense sorrow surged up from somewhere deep in my heart. Was this what the Second Daughter of the Sea God felt? From her perspective, the man she loved had just declared that his death was inevitable. Of course her heart would be shaken.
I drank the ice water on the table and regained my composure. From my perspective, he was no different from an NPC inside Room 202.
“Is there something you want to say? You didn't come just to say goodbye, did you?”
“Of course not. Please listen to me for a moment. Every problem began twenty-one years ago, at the hands of Imelda, the former Saintess of the Deep.”
What were the Daughters of the Sea God?
Politically, they could be considered the rulers of Haesin Island. Haesin Island had accepted mainland culture and become part of South Korea. In this era, even the Saintess of the Deep officially held the position of provincial governor.
Biologically, or in a supernatural sense, the Daughters of the Sea God allowed the Merfolk to remain people. Without a Daughter of the Sea God, a Merfolk would naturally become unable to live on land and turn into a fish of the sea. In that situation, what kind of resistance could the Merfolk possibly offer a Daughter of the Sea God?
The title of governor was no more than a label attached to imitate democracy. The Saintess of the Deep, who stood above the other Daughters of the Sea God, was effectively Haesin Island's queen.
They were also among the unhappiest people on Haesin Island.
The moment every Daughter of the Sea God awakened to her fate, she had to accept one thing: the grim future of enduring unbearable, brutal mental torture every night for the rest of her life. There was no way to avoid it, and there was a limit to how long one could endure it.
Few Daughters of the Sea God lived past forty amid that pain. Most lost their minds along the way and were committed to hospitals, or killed themselves.
That was the secret behind Serenade ascending to the throne of Haesin Island at the absurdly young age of her late twenties. Only a Daughter of the Sea God, who held the biological leash of the Merfolk, could take the throne, and no Daughter of the Sea God could ever live long. Being in her late twenties was more than old enough.
Twenty-one years ago, Imelda, the Saintess of the Deep, despaired over the miserable fate she had been given. Then salvation came from the mainland. And the greatest sin since the birth of the Merfolk was committed.
* * *
“...That’s what happened. Do you understand? Time passes differently here, so think it over carefully and ask if there’s anything you’re curious about.”
I understood. It wasn't a particularly difficult story. What I found hard to understand wasn't what he'd told me, but something else.
“I wonder what you're thinking. And what do you want me to do?”
Rather than answer, Lee Su-ho gave a crooked smile. As he smiled, his body gradually began to fall apart. The scales that had covered half his body spread across his entire body, then even his form itself began to twist.
That was enough of an answer.
...After awakening as the Saint of the Deep, he had touched memories far too ancient and lost his identity as a person. Now, he was only a Rudah that had vaguely inherited the memories of Lee Su-ho, the human. He was asking me to avenge his kin.
I woke up. Three days had passed.
* * *
“Elena, don't be nervous. Take it slowly. You shouldn't force it. You need to relax instead. Shall I demonstrate it again?”
“...No.”
“Don't say that. Watch my hand carefully.”
Imelda's hand, touching the tank before me, was remarkably delicate. A strange wave that seemed to make my heart resonate spread quietly from her hand.
“Did you see?”
“...Should I do it like this?”
“Oh? That's a little better than before. That's how you do it.”
During my last conversation with Lee Su-ho a few days ago, he had assured me the Management Bureau wouldn't harm me. He'd predicted that they would instead do everything in their power to recruit me, and he was right.
Strictly speaking, I'd been kidnapped by an unidentified Research Lab, but I was treated with exceptional courtesy. From the staff to the researchers, no one took me lightly.
After the morning's Rudah management work ended, I sat in the break room for a while.
Despairing over the miserable fate imposed upon the Daughters of the Sea God, Imelda had made a deal with the Management Bureau and handed over every secret the Merfolk possessed. In the process, the Management Bureau learned of Rudah, supernatural creatures that transformed humans into Merfolk, and found tremendous inspiration in them.
Infinite potential that could transform anyone into a fish, regardless of age, sex, or physical strength! If they could turn people into fish, was there any chance they couldn't cure trivial things like diseases?
That wasn't all. Couldn't they overcome the innate frailty of the human body? Couldn't they become a little faster and stronger? If memory and the speed of thought could be improved even slightly, how much progress could humanity make?
One essential being was needed for this inspiring ‘Leap.’ A Daughter of the Sea God, the Host of a Queen Rudah, who could commune with Rudah and control the speed of their growth and the direction of their mutations.
Of course, to borrow Chief Park's words, this great Leap, comparable to the conquest of space, had a few obstacles.
The first obstacle was, naturally, the god of the Rudah, Kadarudah. The Management Bureau, and especially the Control Faction, believed that a few mysterious snails dying in the course of experimenting on Rudah for humanity's great Leap was no serious problem. Chief Park did admit that the Sea God’s opinion might differ somewhat.
The second obstacle was people's pathetic prejudices. Growing scales for the sake of a great Leap, suffering a little pain every night, or having one's mind connected to an unknown god of the deep sea, those were all minor issues. Still, because some people were sensitive to such minor issues, strict security had to be maintained until the plan was complete.
...
“Ah, even thinking about it again, these bastards are completely insane.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing. Get back to work.”
“Um... I’m an employee assigned to attend to you, Elena.”
“Attend to me? Not watch me?”
“I’m sorry.”
There was no point taking it out on some innocent Research Lab employee. More practical thoughts came to mind. I had a few questions.
First, why hadn't an escape or resolution appeared? The Management Bureau's grand ideals aside, wasn't the Sea God the Source of the Curse?
Whatever the reason, the Management Bureau had eliminated Lee Su-ho in time, stopping the Sea God’s Descent. As a result, I was left watching pitiful sea snails get tortured all day in a Management Bureau Research Lab, but this wasn't some Great Disaster threatening the world, was it?
I couldn't understand why neither an escape nor a resolution had appeared.
Second, I didn't know what I was supposed to do from here. Smash the Research Lab and escape?
Honestly, if I wanted to escape, I could have left long ago. The only ability the Management Bureau knew I possessed was Ominous Imagination. In terms of the scenario, Ominous Imagination was an ability I'd awakened as a Daughter of the Sea God, so the Management Bureau knew about it too.
Yet they clearly knew nothing about Justice. I might have been unsure in the past, but I'd only recently fought the Prisoner from Room 104, who knew Justice all too well and had tried to counter it. I could tell the difference.
For example, there were numerous soldiers in this Research Lab who had gunned down the Hotel party. Each of those soldiers was a trigger for me. If the Management Bureau knew about Justice, they would have removed every soldier who could become a trigger for Justice and surrounded me with minors instead, wouldn't they?
But what would be the point of leaving? If leaving the Research Lab would trigger an escape, shouldn't it have appeared already? My head was starting to hurt again. For now, I decided to remain at the Research Lab a little longer and gather as much information as I could.
Third, were any of my companions alive?
When I asked one of the soldiers who had taken part in the Hotel party's ‘execution,’ they casually told me that everyone present had died. To them, I was a Daughter of the Sea God, and the Hotel party had been Management Bureau agents. They had never considered that I might feel any desire for revenge or anger over their deaths.
I also subtly asked about Seung-yeop and Pero. From what I could tell, Seung-yeop had gotten out beforehand and didn't know the truth about the ‘Project,’ so he didn't seem to be a target for purging. As for the parrot that had been at the scene, it had apparently disappeared at some point.
“Elena, you forgot to drink your ‘Comfortable Sleep.’”
“Thank you, Imelda.”
I drank the medicine from the small cup Imelda offered me in one gulp. Ever since I started taking it, I hadn't had a Nightmare.
Watching Imelda warmly hold my hand as she gave me the medicine, I realized something anew. Lee Su-ho, whose identity had become more Rudah than human, had called Imelda a witch for the ages.
To me, Imelda was simply human. I could understand her desire for the brutal mental torture repeated every night to end. Selling the mysterious sea snails to the Management Bureau as research material to escape that torture, well, humans had always survived by sacrificing other living creatures.
She even felt a powerful kinship with the other Daughters of the Sea God who had endured the same pain as her, Serenade and me.
In other words, if this woman were the only one left, I thought I could act however I wanted. The problem was Chief Park Jin-seong, the true commander of this Research Lab. If I could deal with him somehow, I could probably turn this Research Lab upside down as I pleased...
The next day, I heard that Park Jin-seong had died for an absurd reason. I knew the time had come.
Footnotes:
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