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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 268: Room ???, Curse Room - ‘????’ (6)

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Day 123

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- Han Ga-in

Four days had passed since I met up with Jin-cheol.

On the first day, after a meeting, we concluded that the two of us should combine our strength and head for the mountain range. It might have been a sudden decision, but participants were not given much time in a Curse Room. More than once, death had come for us because we waited around until it was suddenly "too late."

Of course, the tribespeople got on their knees and begged us to change our minds. Old Wolf Tooth even clung to my leg and cried. Still, Jin-cheol and I insisted that we had both had a prophetic dream sent by our ancestors.

There was an old saying, Three Men Make a Tiger. If three people insist on a lie, they can create a tiger that never existed, right?

I decided to add a new four-character idiom to that.

Two Divine Humans Make an Ancestor: If two Divine Humans insist on a lie, they can create an ancestor who never existed.

We did not need evidence. We did not need a logical explanation, either. It was not as if they would understand if we started talking about the hotel.

We just gritted our teeth and insisted. Jin-cheol and I had seen a prophetic dream. There was a Paradise waiting for us in the mountain range, so we had to go. If they did not want to follow, Jin-cheol and I would go by ourselves.

In the end, the tribespeople were persuaded. Quite a few began to believe that we really had seen a prophetic dream, while those who found it ridiculous seemed to follow because they were not confident they could wander the wilderness on their own.

That was how four days passed.

"No matter how I look at it, there probably are not many people in the hotel party who can force everyone along like this."

Jin-cheol had said something similar at least five times already. There probably were not many people in the hotel party who could half-threaten a tribe into following them to the mountain range.

"The power of the Grimoire you have inspires extreme fear on a surreal level. My physical abilities and the Star are more directly powerful. These people are shutting their eyes and following us because it is us."

"Because even if a real demon jumps out of the mountain range, they think the two of us can beat it to death?"

"Something like that. Another reason is that they cannot even bring themselves to resist us. No matter how I think about it, other people, like Eun-sol, old man Mook-seong, or Sang-hyeon, could not do this the way we can. Could Elena or A-ri?"

Elena probably could have pushed them even harder than we had. Of course, only if she was still in her right mind. A-ri could probably do it too.

The forced march had continued for four days, but honestly, it was not all that tiring. That made me even more worried.

"We are moving too slowly. My body feels comfortable because of it, though."

I had never even seen a drop of sweat on Jin-cheol.

"How could we pick up the pace when there are so many old people, women, and little kids in the tribe?"

A somewhat cold thought crossed my mind.

What if we left the tribespeople behind?

If only Jin-cheol and I moved, I was confident we could travel three times faster than we were now. Still, could these primitive people survive in a world crawling with monsters without the help of Divine Humans? Over the past four days, Jin-cheol and I had fought a Flashing Bird and a Blood-Drinking Tree.

Jin-cheol, who had been watching me closely, spoke.

"Ga-in, do not be so impatient. I can tell what you are thinking."

"What am I thinking...?"

"I am not taking everyone along just to act like a good person. I think there is a reason the tribespeople exist."

"A reason for the tribespeople to exist...?"

"I think they must have some role to play in this setting."

Was that really true? Or did Jin-cheol just want to believe it was?

All kinds of thoughts ran through my head, but I let them go. Honestly, I did not agree with him, but even if I suggested abandoning everyone and having just the two of us head to the mountain range, I did not think he would be persuaded.

Somewhere in my heart, it seemed a small triangle remained that did not want the people following me to be eaten by monsters.

That triangle had turned once a moment ago.

Around evening, we stopped marching near a somewhat murky pond. I was about to talk with Jin-cheol about what might lie beyond the mountain range when someone boldly opened the tent and walked in.

"Ga-in! Aren't you bored always being with the Boar God?"

The girl who had boldly entered my tent before, Winter Flower, was practically treated as my fiancée within the tribe. That was why telling the warriors not to let anyone into my tent had done absolutely nothing. How could an ordinary warrior stop God's fiancée?

"...Winter Flower, I am busy right now, so-"

"You are always busy. You were busy yesterday, you are busy today, and you will be busy tomorrow."

Jin-cheol snickered as he listened.

"So you are the young lady I saw before. Sorry, but I think we are going to discuss something really important today. I will wrap things up quickly, so could you leave for now?"

"I'm sorry..."

Unlike when she dealt with me, Winter Flower was rather polite in front of Jin-cheol as she left the tent.

"Why is there even a burdensome 'romance setting' like this?"

I did not plan to spend my whole life alone without dating, of course, but I had no intention whatsoever of building a deep relationship with someone I met inside a Curse Room. There was a one hundred percent chance that we would solve the room and say goodbye "forever."

"If you think about it simply, there was probably someone you were dating in the original history the hotel used as the basis for creating this Scenario. More importantly, have you ever thought about this?"

"Thought about what?"

"Why do ten naked women not enter your tent every night?"

"Pfft!"

I was so startled that I spat out the water I was drinking.

I glared at him, wondering what kind of filthy joke that was, then realized something. There was not a hint of laughter in Jin-cheol's eyes.

"Does what I said sound strange? It seems completely obvious to me. What kind of being do you think you are? To these tribespeople, you are the descendant of a god, a king, an emperor. Your spouse would be an empress, and your successor would be a prince or princess."

"...That's true."

"In a situation like this, should not the girls in the tribe who want to change their fortunes be jumping into your bed every night?"

"..."

"But that never happens. Only that one girl stays around you. Why does no one else covet the place beside you?"

Only then did I begin to wonder.

"It's simple. Divine Humans are not born. They descend."

"Huh?"

Jin-cheol pointed at himself and me as he continued.

"Divine Humans, the role we are playing in this room. What exactly are Divine Humans? I was curious, so I asked around and got some pretty interesting information."

It was an interesting story.

"First, every Divine Human with mysterious powers, including you and me, was not born into the tribe."

"What?"

"You did not know? Did you think Divine Humans were born through pregnancy and childbirth like ordinary humans? Surprisingly, that is not it. Every Divine Human simply falls from the sky when the time is right."

For a moment, I could not speak.

Divine Humans fell from the sky?

"To be exact, one day, the tribespeople wake up and find a child they do not know among them, giving off a sacred aura. That child has no memories of before, and the tribespeople revere and serve them."

"..."

"That does not mean marriage to a Divine Human is meaningless. Divine Humans hold a sacred status in the tribe while they are alive, so anyone who marries one is treated accordingly, and their children are cherished as well. But those children are not Divine Humans. Divine Humans are beings who descend only from the sky."

After our conversation, I confirmed it with Old Wolf Claw, and it was all true. The old man actually seemed somewhat shocked that I had forgotten something so obvious.

Divine Humans were beings who descended from the sky. They could marry humans and have children, but the successors born from them were not Divine Humans. They were just humans.

Divine Humans came only from the sky.

What exactly were Divine Humans in this Curse Room, whose true nature I could not understand?

If Divine Humans descended from the sky, who was creating them and scattering them across the ground, and why?

Questions swirled through my head and left me confused.

...Five more days passed. On the ninth day, we finally reached the area near the mountain range.

We met two companions I had missed dearly.

* * *

- Elena

It just kept getting worse. There really was no better expression for it.

How could the Curse Rooms get more horrifying the farther we went?

In Room 202, I had suddenly become a Merfolk princess, and turning into a fish had nearly driven me out of my mind. This room was even worse.

When I first regained consciousness, I screamed endlessly like a madwoman. The sight before me when I woke up was too horrible!

The entire world was filled with wriggling flesh. The ground was covered in masses of flesh like lips that heaved as if breathing, the sky was purple, and I had been lying on a giant tongue.

Anyone who did not scream after seeing that was not human.

As I screamed, dozens of octopus-like creatures covered in writhing tentacles appeared and surrounded me. I was pushed to the edge of losing my mind.

"It's really scary. What would have happened if you weren't here?"

"Pii?"

"No! I meant it because I'm thankful."

Did people not say humans only grew when they were in danger?

At that desperate moment, Happy Imagination created creatures that shone as beautifully as fireflies. Their eyes held starlight, and their wings resembled lush green leaves.

Had it reacted to my fear?

The Fairies soon began purifying the monsters with their mysterious power. When the Fairies wrapped around the wriggling creatures I had feared might appear in my nightmares, their madness faded and their beauty grew.

That was right. The Fairies were multiplying!

The ugliness filling the world gradually faded away. The shining creatures that bloomed from my hands, like embodiments of beauty itself, returned brightness to the murky world.

"I was still a little lonely. Fairies can't talk, after all. That's why I'm so happy I met you, Seung-yeop."

"Hic!"

For some reason, Seung-yeop had been hiccuping more since he met me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes! I-I'm okay!"

"Seung-yeop, you're not seriously hurt, are you?"

"Sis! I'm really okay."

Something I had been thinking lately was that the human body was really weak and inconvenient. It was not strong or sturdy.

Most of all, it could not fly.

Weaknesses had to be overcome!

"What do you think?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you think your body is too weak?"

"Hic!"

Seung-yeop hiccuped again. When I gently touched his skin, it was as soft as ever. Soft skin was not bad, of course, but if it were hard like a beetle's shell-

"Argh!"

"Hmm?"

Strangely, part of Seung-yeop's skin where my finger had touched hardened.

Then Seung-yeop fainted.

I quietly stood and looked outside. At this pace, we would reach the mountain range the day after tomorrow. Once we got there, we would surely meet our companions!

I was certain of that.

A few days ago, before I made it "beautiful," I got information from a wriggling octopus. It said Grandfather had moved toward the mountain range after "abandoning them." Of course, I did not know why the octopus felt such intense betrayal toward Grandfather.

As I looked back at Seung-yeop, who had fainted, the thought from before came to me again.

This child was too weak.

Shouldn't I help him a little, a little more "actively"?

Footnotes:

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