WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 246: Room 202, Curse Room - ‘The Little Mermaid’ (24)
──────
- Elena
--- Yoooo! Rayleee!
A strange melody tickled my ears.
A moment ago, my ‘Second Creation’ swallowed the writhing Rudah whole. It was a Conductor variant that turned every human body it entered into slime, but it did not seem capable of harming my ‘Second Creation’ at all.
The music continued. An odd scale with no discernible pattern filled the Research Lab.
The screams gradually died down. The Aberrant Waves that had been irritating my skin also stopped. The people rolling across the floor returned to peaceful expressions, as if they had fallen into a deep sleep.
I looked around, quietly relieved when...
“Eek!”
D-Don't suddenly stick your head in like that! I made you, but you're still terrifying!
...
The moth that resembled a girl silently watched me. Before long, unfamiliar dust began drifting through the air.
“What is this?”
The girl did not answer. I was not even sure she could speak in the first place.
Still, I immediately understood what the dust did.
The strength drained from my entire body...
* * *
“Achoo!”
Cold drops of water slapped my face as I finally came to.
Was that the smell of the sea? Had she brought me near the coast? More importantly, why had she put me to sleep earlier?
I could not move a single part of my body. A massive clump of fur wrapped around me, leaving only my head exposed. I was trapped inside a Cocoon as large as a person.
“Hey... you?”
...
“Could you let me out?”
There was no answer. Maybe she really could not speak.
With no other choice, I turned my head, the only part outside the Cocoon, and examined my surroundings.
This was strange.
I'd seen countless bizarre and grotesque sights since entering this room, but the current situation was truly strange.
At the front of the procession, my ‘Second Creation’, the moth girl, slowly flew ahead as she writhed through the air. Behind her, too many Living Flutes to count at a glance walked along just as slowly.
It felt like a hellish version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, the monster girl piper of Busan.
Dust drifted through the air. For a moment, I thought it was snow, but it was dust. Powder leaking from the moth filled the air all around.
Then the whole world began to rot.
It was as if murky paint from a rotten brush had been splashed carelessly over everything. The ground touched by the drifting powder turned gray. Grass rotted, water dried up, and even the sky lost its light.
What kind of monster had I created? What was that girl even thinking?
I did not know. I truly did not know.
I was simply afraid. Terrified.
In the middle of the sandy shore by the dark sea, with night slowly settling in, stood a huge wooden pillar. The girl standing before it was someone I knew well.
“Elena, you're still alive?”
“... Hi.”
“What is that clump of fur? Are you wearing it because you're cold? A fur coat will not help in weather this cold, you know?”
At her words, the Cocoon melted away and vanished. What kind of trick was that? It seemed Riringanor had removed it.
The moth took a step forward.
At the same time, Riringanor took a step back.
“Ugh... Sis, isn't this a bit much? Why did you make such a monster?”
“I know.”
“Honestly, I do not want to fight her. It's fine, though. Time's up anyway.”
“Time?”
Instead of answering, Riringanor set the pillar on fire. Had she soaked it in oil beforehand? In an instant, the flames engulfed the entire pillar.
Only after the fire lit up Riringanor's surroundings did I see the shocking sight.
The girl's face had no eyes, ears, or nose.
“Your facial features are...”
“Have you ever heard of minimalism, Sis?”
“What?”
“The secret to happiness is not having more things...”
“No! What kind of crazy person applies minimalism to their own face?”
“Me.”
With that, Riringanor snickered and walked toward the burning pillar. What was she trying to do?
It did not take long to realize.
She had offered herself as a living sacrifice.
The girl's body caught fire...
Perhaps it was a fitting end to this long, dark night. A booming sound came from the sea.
--- Goooo!
A huge form rose from the endlessly deep abyss. I felt the Judge of Room 202, the Sea God, rising.
Ironically, what happened next was no longer in my hands. It rested with the creation I had made.
The moth rose into the air.
--- Roooh~!
An unknown melody filled the sky. At the same time, the Living Flutes that had followed behind while singing their strange song began to sing in unison.
Busan's night sea beneath a raging storm, flames burning people lighting the darkness, and monsters singing to prevent destruction.
Ah...
It was becoming hard for me to endure too. It was really hard.
Now, I wanted to see this through somehow.
Have you ever felt yourself gradually fall apart? Have you felt a mind as firm as a taut steel cable unravel thread by thread and scatter in every direction? Have you felt each fragment of that scattered mind turn into a writhing piece of flesh?
Even so...
At this moment, I felt myself drawing closer to a place higher than ever before.
I was growing.
My mind, my soul, or something that could not be described with words like those, was hatching from an egg.
The Sea God's true form, which had seemed like a hazy silhouette, was sharply imprinted on my retinas. The strange melody tickling my ears was branded deep into them.
Only then did I understand why the Sea God had given the Flute to his followers, something the Management Bureau had been so curious about.
Why had the Sea God bestowed a holy artifact that weakened his own influence upon his followers?
It was nothing special. The interpretation that the Flute weakened the Sea God had been wrong from the start.
It was only a lullaby.
A lullaby that let the Sea God, who had suffered from a long Nightmare, sleep peacefully. Just as humans drink to forget painful memories, the Sea God had given the Flute to his followers.
The sea's anger, which had raged like stormy waves, slowly subsided...
A dark shape wandered in the distance. At its center, a burning light turned toward me.
Strangely, I could clearly tell that that eye was different now.
He had found his ‘reason’!
One more time
?
Y o u ' r e a l m o s t t h e r e. W h y a r e y o u a m e r f o l k?
??
Had the Sea God just spoken to me?
Why did this have to be done one more time? Was it because this was not a true resolution, only a way to calm his anger?
No, if he was going to tell me something, could he not be more specific?
While I stood there in confusion, unable to do anything but stammer, the Sea God's massive body slowly began sinking back into the ocean.
Then the dust grew so thick that it blocked my vision.
--- Krrrik!
An unknown sound rang out.
A long, unfamiliar stinger suddenly burst from the moth's body. Overwhelmed by an intense disgust I could not put into words, I stepped back.
“Uh? Hey... what's wrong all of a sudden?”
The stinger wriggled.
At its tip, something swarmed.
“Aaaah! Kyaaaah!”
Threads shot out from every direction and held my body in place as the stinger slowly approached me.
The moment I saw the countless ‘forms’ writhing at its tip, I swore I would never create this insane monster again!
/You have escaped!
The Research Lab, imbued with the dream of creating Advanced Humans, should have been a place full of hope at first glance, yet in truth, it was an astonishingly demonic realm! By creating an even more grotesque demon in the Research Lab filled with demonic power, you have successfully obtained the card prepared by the Management Bureau.
Still, it may be best to summon monsters that are a little more controllable from now on.
You have escaped the curse. However, you can feel that the Source of the Curse remains.
A companion has successfully escaped! Congratulations! Since an escapee has emerged, all members will return safely./
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 106
Current Location: Level 2, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
“Ugh!”
I woke up in front of the familiar corridor.
Those Management Bureau bastards were seriously ruthless. Fine, they shot my original body to death. But I'd possessed the body of someone who had been their companion only moments ago, and they killed that body without even hesitating?
Thanks to them, I realized a weakness of Possession that I'd never considered before.
Every time I switched bodies, I felt my consciousness float up and transfer between them.
That process itself was a kind of delay. In other words, it took a little time to move from one body to another, and if I died before that time passed, it would be over.
Still, I did not think it was a major weakness. Unless I was fighting enemies like those insane Management Bureau bastards, who could kill their own companions without hesitating for even 0.1 seconds, I'd usually have time to switch to another body.
More importantly... if I was out here, someone must have escaped, right? Maybe they even resolved it?
“Ughhh! This one was pretty hard too. Right?”
With a cheerful expression, A-ri stretched out a ‘finger’ and poked Elena beside her.
Elena immediately kicked A-ri and ran away!
“Kyaaaah!”
“Huh?”
Even as A-ri rolled across the floor, she could not understand why she'd just been kicked.
Footnotes:
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