WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 277: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (1)
──────
- Elena
How strange.
I'd thought that countless times since entering ‘Taming the Crown Prince.’ About ten minutes ago, I woke up in bed and put on a gorgeous dress for the party. Up until then, everything had proceeded normally.
The strange part came afterward. Even as I left the mansion in my dress, I expected to get into some kind of carriage. But that wasn't it at all. The moment I stepped outside the mansion gates, I arrived at the imperial palace!
The sudden teleportation startled me badly. If I hadn't built up so much experience in the hotel, where strange and mysterious things happened every day as naturally as breathing, I might have screamed.
After thinking about it for a moment, I understood. This place wasn't reality. It was ‘inside a film.’ A film had to fit an entire story with a beginning, middle, and end into a short period of time, as short as two hours and only around three at the longest.
The scene where the heroine changed into a dress was gorgeous and beautiful, something viewers would want to watch, so it had played out in real time. On the other hand, riding in a carriage to the imperial palace or chatting with an extra maid along the way wasn't entertaining or meaningful, so those parts had been skipped, bringing me straight to the palace.
The moment I arrived at the ballroom, a servant's booming voice rang through the hall.
“Lady Elena Crosibel has arrived!”
Elena ‘Crosibel.’ So that was my name. As though they'd been waiting, noblemen in old-fashioned clothes approached me to ask for dances and brag about themselves. I smiled and brushed them all off. Thanks to that, though I wasn't sure I could call it thanks, I naturally learned that I was a count's daughter.
Where was the Crown Prince? My prey! Come out!
* * *
「My prey! Come out!」
“Is she really the heroine of a romance film? That line sounds more like a hunter out hunting boars.”
“If there weren't any narration, she'd fit the role perfectly.”
* * *
Finding the Crown Prince wasn't difficult.
A large group of nobles dressed in strange outfits like peacocks had gathered nearby. Among them was a broad-shouldered, confident, handsome man with strong features, laughing heartily as he tossed jokes around. That had to be the Crown Prince.
Still, I hesitated a little. Should I just walk up to him?
Romance was a constant push and pull. When fishing, if you shoved bait right in front of a fish's mouth, it would only run away. I needed to lure him into approaching me.
I moved to the window and raised my head to check the lighting. After taking two steps forward and finding the right spot, I straightened my back and cast a subtle glance around the ballroom with as much emotion as I could manage.
Wouldn't it be better to look a little more melancholy? A character with the air of a count's daughter carrying some hidden sorrow would be good. This part was difficult, but I'd go with my instincts.
I undid my brooch and moved closer to the window. The outside wind swept through my hair, making my waist-length golden hair flutter and sway.
--- Tap!
Someone was approaching. A small smile formed on my lips, but I didn't turn around. A heroine was supposed to make the other person ache for her. I couldn't be the one clinging to him!
* * *
In one corner of the splendid imperial palace, Elena stood leaning against the swaying window, her hair fluttering in the wind. Her quiet figure shone as if gold had been ground into powder and scattered through the air, and it seemed as though the world's focus had shifted from the dancers in the palace to the window.
No, the film's focus had actually shifted there. At the same time, many of the viewers watching ‘Taming the Crown Prince - Elena's Part’ were left spellbound.
“Wow...”
“Is that some kind of CGI? How is her hair glowing?”
“Ga-in, you're drooling.”
“W-What do you mean, drooling?”
Kim A-ri looked over her companions, who seemed ready to climb into the screen as a group, and inwardly thought this wouldn't be easy.
‘How could anyone copy that?’
All Elena had done was let down her hair and stand by a window.
It only became a picture-perfect scene from a romance film because Elena looked the way she did. It wouldn't be easy for anyone else to imitate. Even if Elena failed and someone else entered, that method would be impossible.
“I wish Elena would show us something other people can copy.”
Or Elena herself could succeed in one try!
* * *
“Lady Crosibel, is something troubling you?”
When I turned around, the handsome man with the confident build I'd seen earlier was standing there. Just as expected. After that, we exchanged some casual conversation, drank a glass of wine each, and began moving toward the center of the ballroom.
“Today, I, Pendleton, realized that I had lived my entire life blind.”
“Oh my! I have no idea what you mean.”
“How could I claim my eyes worked when I had never once seen such a precious sight as Lady Crosibel?”
Honestly, that line was a little much. But he was a handsome Crown Prince, so I'd let it slide.
“You were staring out the window for a long time. Is something troubling you?”
I was wondering how to make you fall for me in one shot.
“The weather has been getting colder. You may have heard that my father left to handle affairs in the northwest of the empire. When I think of how much he must be suffering, my heart grows heavy.”
My father(?) really had gone to the northwest, right? I'd heard that setting while changing clothes earlier, but I wasn't sure how accurate it was.
“Haha! Count Crosibel must remember that his beautiful daughter worries for him day and night! I, Pendleton, have met the count now and then. If I get the chance, I'll be sure to tell him.”
‘Count,’ sir? ‘I, Pendleton’?
“Um... are you perhaps Young Duke Pendleton?”
“What? Hahaha! Surely you didn't fail to recognize me? Lady Crosibel, I had no idea you were so fond of jokes.”
* * *
「This bastard isn't the Crown Prince! Who told him to look so much like a Crown Prince?!」
The viewers soon clutched the backs of their necks as they heard Elena's furious narration.
“Ah... He said ‘Pendleton’ from the beginning of the conversation! The Crown Prince is ‘Persson’! The maid said both names at the start too!”
As Ga-in grew frustrated, Song-i cautiously defended Elena.
“Honestly, Ga-in, anyone could make that mistake in that situation. It's only because you've never watched a romance film or read a romance novel. Usually, the Crown Prince is the most handsome one. I thought the young duke was the Crown Prince until just now too.”
“What does that have to do with anything? He's the Crown Prince because he's the emperor's son, not because he's handsome.”
“Ga-in, don't say things you know nothing about. If he's the male lead and the Crown Prince, it's common sense that he's the most handsome man around! The casting in that film is weird.”
When Eun-sol started nagging him from behind too, Ga-in finally shut his mouth.
‘Was this my fault?’
* * *
Calm down! Stay calm! It's not too late yet. There's still plenty of the party left!
After pushing aside that young duke who looked unnecessarily like a Crown Prince, I finally found the ‘real Crown Prince,’ Joshua Persson, seated with his attendants in one corner of the ballroom. The feeling I had when I found him could be summed up in one sentence.
The hotel had set a trap!
No, there was an age range people normally imagined for the male lead of a romance film! Mid-twenties, or early thirties at the latest. Wasn't that common sense?
What was I supposed to do when they'd put a kid Seung-yeop's age in front of me?
For a moment, anger surged inside me, but when I considered the alternatives, I felt relieved too. If the hotel had been more vicious, it could have brought in a grandfather in his sixties and called him the ‘Crown Prince.’ In reality, one country's crown prince inherited the throne after turning seventy.
After correcting my position, I repeated my earlier ‘performance’ in a suitable spot where the Crown Prince could see me. What excuse should I use this time? A devoted daughter worried because her mother had begun coughing more often?
It took less than five minutes for the second ‘fishing attempt’ to succeed. I heard tapping footsteps behind me again, and then a kid who looked one or two years older than Seung-yeop approached.
“L-Lady C-Crosibel! Is something troubling you? T-Today, I, Persson-”
“Realized you'd lived your whole life blind?”
“Hic!”
Who started making that line popular?
“Pfft! I'm sorry. I heard something similar twice in a row today...”
“I-Is that so?”
The boy seemed embarrassed at first, but he soon began chatting naturally about all sorts of things. A yacht he'd recently received as a gift, his beloved horse that kept trying to throw him off, and even his subtle jealousy of Pendleton, who was far more popular than him at parties despite being “only a young duke.”
After listening for a while, I realized what type of character this Crown Prince was.
* * *
「He's basically Seung-yeop if he'd been born into royalty. He'll be easy to win over. I'm worried about the empire's future.」
“E-Elena! What on earth did you mean by that?”
“Ahahahahahaha!”
--- Crash!
Eun-sol sighed when A-ri laughed so hard that she slipped out of her chair. Honestly, Eun-sol completely agreed with Elena's analysis. He couldn't even breathe loudly in front of a pretty woman. Despite being the Crown Prince, he was too timid to take the lead at a banquet, and he had an obvious inferiority complex he couldn't hide.
He really was a bit like Seung-yeop.
“I-It means you're young and cute, Seung-yeop.”
“She said I'd be easy to win over! She said she's worried about the empire's future!”
Eun-sol thought it would be better for Song-i to say nothing rather than offer meaningless comfort.
* * *
The conversation drifted further and further off course.
This young Crown Prince probably wanted to show me how ‘impressive’ he was. He started talking about heating measures for the capital, despite it not suiting him at all, then got stuck and struggled to continue.
Don't forget! I'm the heroine of this film, so I needed to help him, right?
“The concern Your Highness shows for the citizens of the capital, I hope others will come to understand it as well. Even an emperor cannot stop winter, but if Your Highness's warm heart, which cherishes all the people, reaches the heavens, surely even a god will be moved.”
“R-Right!”
Something like that. Either way, it seemed to be going smoothly. The age difference worried me, but thankfully, the young Crown Prince was obviously infatuated with me.
Judging by the circumstances, the ‘duke's party’ seemed to be the event where the heroine captured the Crown Prince's heart, and I'd succeeded so far. The next event was...
“Oh, Miss Elena!”
“Your Highness, did the lady give you permission to call her by name? By etiquette, you should address her as Lady Crosibel.”
“... L-Lady Crosibel!”
Seeing the Crown Prince get scolded by the attendant beside him so soon afterward made me feel sorry for him, so I decided to help a little.
“Oh my, didn't I say earlier that you could call me by name?”
“What?”
“Would you call me that?”
“Of course! Miss Elena! You know there will be a New Year's Fox Hunt next week, right?”
The next event seemed to be the ‘Fox Hunt.’ Still, seeing that clumsy Crown Prince immediately become proud and confident over a single word from me made me sigh. It was only a film, but this empire was doomed to end with the next generation.
* * *
“Seung-yeop, I told you to govern well! She said the empire will end with the next generation at this rate!”
“... It's okay. I'm not the Crown Prince.”
Ga-in giggled along as he watched Seung-yeop lower his head at A-ri's teasing, barely able to hold back his laughter. Then he suddenly realized something.
‘This isn't the time to laugh!’
Elena didn't know that her thoughts were being exposed through narration! She'd thought of Seung-yeop just now, but who would be next? What if she thought about me...
His breath caught in his throat.
Across from him, Song-i's mind began to race.
‘There's no way a scenario made by the hotel will go this smoothly! A villain should be appearing soon...’
Footnotes:
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