WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 245: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (23)
──────
- Elena
The place Serenade led us to was at the end of a passage directly connected to Imelda’s residence. Only when we stood before its door did we realize we’d made a rather serious mistake earlier.
“...”
“...”
“Sis, I don’t think we should’ve killed Imelda earlier.”
Serenade didn’t answer.
The door concealing the Management Bureau’s final trump card required the biometric data of a living Imelda. Come to think of it, security systems requiring a high-ranking official’s biometric data were fairly common.
A little later, Serenade brought over a terrified man. Fortunately, Imelda wasn’t the only person who could open the door.
Despite holding the considerable position of vice director, the man developing the so-called Advanced Humans was an ordinary human himself. That was why the Aberrant Waves hadn’t affected him.
Sweating profusely, he begged us not to kill him. He must’ve seen Serenade ruthlessly kill Imelda from afar.
Of course, Serenade had no desire to take revenge on some inconspicuous fat man who wasn’t even Imelda, so she promised not to kill him.
At the center of the facility stood a massive tank.
“What is this? A giant Rudah?”
The Rudah I’d seen until now had been no bigger than large snails. They’d been smaller than a child’s fist. The Rudah before me, on the other hand, was nearly the size of a human head.
“What the hell is this? Sis, didn’t you say it was something I knew well? Rudah aren’t objects-”
“I definitely heard it was a flute. This is my first time seeing it myself.”
“It is a flute. It is also an object. Both Daughters of the Sea God, please look up.”
As if he’d been waiting for this, the vice director pressed a button on the wall. Light shone down from the ceiling, and when I looked around in surprise, I was left speechless.
Tanks.
Countless tanks were suspended from strange wires hanging from the ceiling. Inside every tank was something resembling a human.
The vice director’s voice was full of excitement.
“A Flute! You call that thing the Flute of Rest, don’t you? The Flute is truly a remarkable object. Do you understand exactly what its power is?”
“... It weakens the Nightmare.”
That was what Seung-yeop had heard from Riringanor during the first attempt.
“Ha ha! That answer is correct, but it tells us nothing. You’ve left out the question of how. How exactly does the Flute stop the Nightmare?”
Time was short. Fortunately, the vice director didn’t seem interested in playing riddles with us.
“I must tell you something disappointing. I don’t know either. No, nobody knows. There is no being in this world capable of understanding the principle behind the Flute! Why? Because the Flute was bestowed by a god. How could insignificant humans understand the principles of a divine object? Can a house cat understand quantum mechanics? Likewise, we cannot understand a god’s authority.”
“What are you trying to say-”
“But that doesn’t mean we learned nothing. At the very least, we discovered that the Flute weakens the Sea God’s authority! The Nightmare stopping is simply the result of the Sea God’s power weakening.”
The Flute weakened the Sea God’s power. The moment I heard that explanation, it struck me as strange.
“But the Sea God was the one who bestowed the Flute.”
“That’s right. The Sea God gave humans a divine object that weakens its own power. That is the greatest mystery contained within the Flute. Well, enough nonsense. We don’t have time. Look at the ceiling again. What do you see?”
“People trapped in tanks...”
“People? People? No! How could things like those be people? Don’t fixate on appearances. They are nothing more than Living Flutes. The greatest tools we have created! The material of the original Flute you use does not exist anywhere on Earth. That made mass production an arduous problem.”
“No way...”
“Research! More funding! More time! It took over ten years to discover that the human body could replace a Flute. There were years of endurance and immense suffering. But we succeeded. It is a Leap! A great Leap!”
When the vice director pressed the button again, the Living Flutes woke within their tanks and began to writhe.
“Urgh!”
... For the first time, I felt sick. At the same time, a powerful urge rose within me to blow apart the head of the vice director bragging about this ‘masterpiece.’
As if telling me not to waste time on pointless thoughts, the Living Flutes emerging from the tanks began to flail around. They didn’t seem to possess normal intelligence. We needed some way to control them.
Only then did I understand why the giant Rudah was at the center of the facility.
“You’re using that to control those ‘flutes’? How?”
The vice director answered calmly.
“That is what you must research from now on.”
“...”
“...”
What?
Unlike me, who staggered in shock, Serenade didn’t hold back.
“You fat bastard! I let you keep spouting this insane nonsense, and now-”
“Gah! Calm down! The Living Band is still incomplete!”
“Sis, calm down for a second. So, what exactly is incomplete?”
“We created a Conductor Rudah to control the Living Flutes, but we had no way to control the Conductor Rudah.”
“... It’s like making a remote control to operate a machine, only to find you can’t control the remote itself.”
“You understand quickly.”
Serenade, who had been standing there blankly, suddenly laughed.
“What’s so hard about that?”
“...”
“Everyone knows how to control Rudah, don’t they? Our ancestors figured it out eight hundred years ago and passed down the method through generations. Your Management Bureau learned it too and has been making damn good use of it, hasn’t it?”
“...”
“You implant it into a person.”
--- Crash!
Serenade shattered a tank and grabbed the Conductor Rudah inside. The slick Rudah struggled as it wrapped itself around Serenade’s arm. She slowly walked toward the vice director.
“W-what are you doing? Why are you coming toward me?”
“I’m going to put it in your body.”
“Pardon? N-no! There have already been several implantation attempts, but-”
“They all died, right?”
“...”
“No human could survive having a monster like this implanted in them. So how many did you kill? How many people did you kill trying to implant this, you crazy bastards!”
“But you clearly promised not to kill me-”
Before he could finish speaking, the vice director’s body stiffened like stone. Serenade calmly implanted the giant snail into his body. It didn’t take long for his body to begin writhing like jelly.
I didn’t feel sorry for him. No matter how I looked at it, the researchers in this Research Lab had crossed a line no human should ever cross. More importantly, I was relieved that the Conductor Rudah came back out of the vice director’s body unharmed.
What now?
At first, I considered using the escape method used on Mr. Ga-in for myself. The so-called fish transformation. Of course, I soon realized that was impossible.
Within the scenario, Mr. Ga-in was someone who had committed no sin against the Sea God. By transforming into a merfolk in a state of purity, he’d been able to avoid the Sea God’s wrath. I, on the other hand, was the descendant of sinners.
As for my ancestors, there was the theory that the first sin had been forgiven, so that issue could be set aside. But regardless of my ancestors’ sins, I’d even worked in this Research Lab. No matter how I looked at it, I was a sinner.
No easy way to escape the Sea God’s wrath came to mind. Instead of clinging to the fish transformation, wouldn’t it be better to trust this Flute that weakened the Sea God’s power?
If we could somehow control the Conductor Rudah and use the power of the Living Flutes filling this place, we could suppress the madness spreading through the Research Lab. We might even be able to stop the ominous presence stretching toward us from afar, the Sea God’s Descent.
I reached toward the Conductor Rudah and tried to control it, but it was hopeless. The Queen Rudah within Serenade and me could dominate and control weaker Rudah. This Conductor Rudah, though, looked at least several times stronger than a Queen Rudah. Naturally, my commands didn’t work on it at all.
As I leaned blankly against the wall, feeling faint, Serenade went outside and repeatedly brought back humans who hadn’t been affected by the Aberrant Waves. Soon, more things that looked like mixtures of humans and slime began to appear around us.
...
I was surprised I hadn’t thrown up yet. Eun-sol sometimes said that going through the hotel had made her stomach stronger for no reason. That was exactly how I felt.
When there were about four slime creatures, I grabbed Serenade’s arm.
“Sis, let’s stop here. Everyone in this Research Lab will die if we leave them alone anyway.”
“Then what are we supposed to do? Implant it into our own bodies?”
“We already have Rudah inside us. Is it even possible to implant two? Let’s think a little more-”
“Elena, did you time travel too?”
... Did she still believe Mr. Ga-in’s lie? No, thinking about it, it wasn’t entirely a lie.
“...”
“You did. You seemed very different from before.”
With those words, Serenade wore an expression of resignation.
“This time, I’ll try it. If I fail, stop me ‘next time.’ Okay?”
“Serenade...”
“I’m glad. I’m really glad you can time travel. I’m really, truly glad.”
I saw madness in Serenade’s eyes.
The creature she’d believed all her life to be one of a god’s Servants had become nothing more than a laboratory rat. There were countless test subjects made by mixing humans and fish, the Sea God’s Descent drawing closer every moment, and unavoidable ruin.
Even that wasn’t enough. Amid the Aberrant Waves filling the Research Lab and the Advanced Humans sprawled around like insects, I could feel that Serenade had let go of everything. She’d already gone beyond what her heart could endure.
Before long, another slime creature joined them. Now I was alone in this insane place.
I leaned blankly against the wall of the Research Lab. Truly, I was alone. It seemed all the companions I’d trusted and relied on were dead. Forget companions, there wasn’t even a single NPC nearby who still had their sanity.
The miserable atmosphere suited the word ‘hell’ perfectly.
...
As it happened, I had an ability that suited this atmosphere perfectly. Dark imaginings spread throughout the entire Research Lab.
Ironically, the Research Lab was the perfect environment for using my ability. Even the most positive person in the world would feel as though they had fallen into hell in this place.
I simply prayed desperately. I prayed that there would be salvation for everyone and me.
That the child I would create in this hell would be strong enough to accept the Conductor Rudah.
That it would lead the Living Band and calm all this chaos.
Then, a moth awoke in the darkness.
Footnotes:
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