WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 280: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (4)
──────
- Yoo Song-i
A ducal party filled with beautiful music and dazzling dancing.
I walked slowly through the room, taking in my surroundings. Looking toward where Elena had spotted the Crown Prince, I saw a boy with a deeply displeased expression speaking with his attendants. As I quietly approached, I thought,
Why did Elena fail?
The teammates outside had mostly discussed individual ‘scenes.’ What if she had acted this way at the party? At the Fox Hunt, they needed to consider the possibility that the Crown Prince would notice the match-fixing. Those were the kinds of things they talked about.
But I wanted to discuss something more fundamental. Everyone's listening, right?
* * *
「Everyone's listening, right?」
“Song-i is just openly talking to us now.”
“Well, she's probably sharing her thoughts in case she fails.”
“Wouldn't it be a huge problem if Song-i failed? Then there'd be no one besides A-ri who could charm the Crown Prince!”
“Oh my, Eun-sol. Can't you see who's right in front of you?”
“...”
“Ga-in is possessing Lady Evelyn's body, so-”
“B-be quiet!”
* * *
Something more fundamental, namely her ‘attitude’ as the female lead.
From the moment Elena entered the film, she had never once thought of herself as the female lead. The disappointment she'd felt in the Crown Prince from the first time she saw him lasted until the film ended.
That sort of attitude was a ticking time bomb. It was only a question of when it would explode. I thought everyone needed to remember that. They had to immerse themselves more deeply in the film. At least while they were inside, I wanted them to think about what it meant to be the protagonist of the movie.
The Crown Prince turned his gaze toward me. It was time to approach him.
“You are-”
“Your Highness, please mind your manners.”
“... You're Lady Crosibel, right?”
His lack of confidence, his intimidated expression, and that subtle inferiority complex.
I could see why Elena hadn't liked you. Honestly, even if it hadn't been Elena, there probably weren't many people who would like you. Still, this boy was the male lead.
So I put a hand over my heart and swore.
I'll be completely on your side. Until this world falls apart and the film reaches its ending, Yoo Song-i, no, Song-i Crosibel, is on Joshua Persson's side.
“Your Highness, I heard you recently received a Thoroughbred horse bred in the north as a gift.”
“Huh? Huh? How did Lady Crosibel know that-”
“Your Highness, have you forgotten who gave you Motian?”
“Ah, right! Sorry. Please tell Count Crosibel that I received his gift well.”
The film had many devices meant to bring the female and male leads closer together. One of them was Motian, the Crown Prince's beloved horse. The person who had given him the horse was none other than my father in this setting.
I naturally sat directly across from the Crown Prince, blocking the lavish sights of the party hosted by House Verlen from his view. They might have been something others dreamed of seeing even once in their lives, but to him, they were simply unpleasant.
Finding a topic of conversation wasn't difficult. My father had given him a horse, so his daughter had the right to talk about that gift. The moment I brought up horses, the Crown Prince quickly focused on me.
“Motian keeps trying to throw me off! It must've eaten something strange!”
“Should I apologize?”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant. It's a horse of noble blood. If I pay a little more attention while training it, it'll be fine.”
During our brief conversation, I felt it several times. This boy couldn't stand feeling as if someone was above him. He was the kind of person who could only speak comfortably with people beneath him. Looking at it that way, perhaps Elena being taller than him had sometimes made the Crown Prince uncomfortable as well.
There was one more thing. The Crown Prince already liked me. Honestly, I'm not as pretty as Elena- No, why am I even thinking something like that?
* * *
「I'm not as pretty as Elena- Why am I even thinking something like that?」
“...”
“Everyone, forget that sentence about Elena just now.”
“I've already forgotten it.”
“You forgot it? Did any sentence even pass by just now?”
* * *
Ahem! It's only natural that the Crown Prince would fall for me so quickly. This wasn't reality. It was a romance film!
The eldest son of a conglomerate falls in love with an ordinary girl.
An emperor falls in love with a plain-looking maid.
A northern grand duke or the master of a magic tower falls in love at first sight with a commoner he meets on the street.
None of that made sense, but in a romance film, it was a natural development.
That meant they didn't necessarily need an unrivaled beauty like Elena to charm the Crown Prince. Ga-in, possessing Lady Evelyn's body, would be more than capable of winning him over.
Now, focus on the conversation.
The conversation that began with Motian naturally moved to the hawks and parrots the Crown Prince raised. It was only natural for the child of a noble house to have extravagant hobbies. As if it were obvious, the Crown Prince began talking about his personal zoo.
“Lady Crosibel.”
“Didn't I tell you that you could call me by my name?”
“Lady Song-i? Your name seems a little unusual.”
“I suppose so. My mother gave it to me.”
Though that mother wasn't here.
Finally, the Crown Prince beamed as he invited me to the Fox Hunt. Naturally, I smiled brightly and accepted. At the same time, the space began to shake.
It was the event where Elena had made her mistake. What would be the best way to handle it? After discussing it with the others until just before entering the film, I'd reached my own conclusion.
* * *
--- Bang!
“Oh! Lord Pendleton, your aim is truly flawless!”
“Haha! George, it's nothing. The fox stopped in front of a tree as if it wanted to be shot. Wouldn't it be foolish to miss something like that? It reminds me of when I went to the Northern Front two years ago-”
--- Bang!
“...”
“... It seems His Highness is not yet accustomed to shooting.”
The beginning of the hunting event was exactly the same as it had been with Elena.
That insensitive Pendleton fellow was busy sweeping up every fox in sight with his perfect aim. The Crown Prince, who had seemed happy at first to have me beside him, quickly began to look gloomy.
What an exhausting person.
... Stop thinking that. I'd decided to stand on this boy's side until the end.
“Your Highness, shall we go over there instead?”
“There won't be many foxes that way.”
The Crown Prince looked slightly confused at the direction I pointed, but he began moving as I asked.
“I... I'm sorry. The truth is, I don't like hunting very much.”
“... I don't like it that much either.”
“Oh! I'm so happy that Your Highness feels the same way. Don't you think this sort of hunt is far too barbaric? Killing so many foxes for no reason, just for a moment of enjoyment... I find it hard to understand. What could Lord Pendleton find so entertaining that he's laughing like that?”
“Lo, Lord Pendleton has somewhat violent tendencies. I heard that even on the ba-battlefield, he behaved as crudely as a mercenary. Honestly, I don't like needless killing either. Is there any need to kill foxes meaninglessly for people's amusement?”
I gently knelt on one knee and held out my hand. A fox passing nearby circled for a moment, then began approaching me.
A fox coming toward my hand, the mysterious atmosphere. I could feel the attendants and bodyguards following the Crown Prince fall silent as they stared at me. The Crown Prince, too, stood there with his mouth open.
“How did you do that...?”
“Who knows?”
* * *
「Who knows?」
“No, seriously, how did she do that? Did she use Affinity?”
“Bro, Song-i brought the bracelet with her, so she doesn't have her blessing.”
“Right.”
“Even if she'd brought her blessing, it wouldn't mean anything against a fox. It only works on Chaos Entities. It's such an obvious trick. How could you not notice?”
At A-ri's incredulous words, everyone's attention naturally turned to her. A-ri looked baffled to learn that nobody but her had noticed the ‘trick.’
“Didn't you see the bracelet flash? Or how the fox flinched as it moved? She probably made it so the fox could only see the narrow path leading to Song-i.”
Ga-in thought a different part was ridiculous.
“That Crown Prince bastard was grinning while he stuffed fox corpses into the trophy box until it was ready to burst when he was with Elena. What was that about? ‘I don't like needless killing?’ Is that bastard even human?”
* * *
In the illusion of a world engulfed in flames, I was the fox's only way out. It trembled as it climbed onto me, afraid it might fall into the sea of fire. Of course, everyone around us seemed to find the whole sight incredibly mysterious.
At that very moment, an unexpected variable appeared.
--- Bang!
The moment the fox briefly dropped to the ground, someone pulled the trigger and shot it dead!
“Kyahhh!”
For once, that wasn't acting. I screamed and fell to the ground in genuine shock. And that scream was the crowning touch to today's performance.
“Who was that! You, you son of a bitch!”
“Your Highness, please watch your language-”
“Shut up! Say one more word and I'll gouge your eyes out! The crazy bastard who fired in this direction, get the hell out here right now! Rupert!”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“Someone fired toward where Song-i was! Isn't that practically an assassination attempt?”
“Could they not have been shooting the fox on the ground...?”
“What if they missed? If they'd missed, I could've been hit!”
“I will find them immediately.”
The Crown Prince's terrifying rage, his face bright red, swept across the hunting grounds in an instant. No matter what anyone said, the setting of this film was a country with a rigid class system. Once the Crown Prince made up his mind, mere nobles had no way to withstand him.
In no time, several suspicious young nobles were dragged in. They were too busy throwing the blame around, yelling that it wasn't them, that it was that one, no, it was that one.
The hunting grounds were filled with chaos. As I stared blankly at the scene...
The Crown Prince came over.
“Do, don't worry. I'll make sure whoever caused today's incident is punished! Y-you're not hurt, are you?”
This wasn't a bad turn of events. I couldn't help the faint smile that rose to my lips.
“Of course not.”
For the first time, the boy before me became the male lead.
“Um... Lady Song-i.”
“Go ahead.”
“T-today’s Fox Hunt was completely ruined, wasn’t it? That's a bit unfortunate, so... Would you be free next week? Would you like to come see my zoo?”
This was a development that hadn't happened with Elena.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
