WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 300: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (22)
──────
- Theater
The moment a Nine-Tailed Fox suddenly appeared on the screen, murmurs spread through the theater. Jin-cheol stared with his mouth half-open, looking dumbfounded.
“What the hell is this? The protagonist is suddenly a Nine-Tailed Fox?”
Elena tilted her head in confusion.
“How does this connect to the coffee shop part at the beginning? Is the Nine-Tailed Fox really going to reveal her identity? They said this scenario might air on television?”
Kim Sang-hyeon looked flustered too.
“That makes no sense! You all watched the first story, right? That world has an organization called the Holy See that hunts monsters. A Nine-Tailed Fox going on television and revealing her identity? Is she begging to be killed?”
Song-i muttered as if trying to make sense of it.
“W-well, if we're going to question it, the first story was a little strange too. We accepted it because it was a movie, but wasn't it basically a wife telling the story of how she murdered her in-laws and husband?”
Kim Sang-hyeon immediately refuted Song-i.
“Miss Song-i, that's completely different. It was a case of one person killing another, so it would be a matter for the government's judicial system. But it happened twenty years ago, and she burned the entire house down right after the murders. There wouldn't be any evidence left now. Even if the truth came out, it was self-defense. It isn't a problem anymore.”
Ga-in nodded.
“Right. In the Nine-Tailed Fox's case, simply being one would be enough to get her killed. Those bastards from the Holy See would come and burn her alive...”
A-ri, who had silently listened to the confused discussion, sighed.
“You're all making this too complicated. It's a simple story.”
Ga-in was startled.
“What?”
“It's not that I'm ten times smarter than you and immediately knew the answer. Similar things sometimes happen in reality, so it came to mind because it was familiar.”
“They happen sometimes? I really don't get it.”
Everyone turned to A-ri.
“First, you need to distinguish between the story within the frame and the conversation outside it.”
Kim Sang-hyeon answered as though he understood that much.
“If the story within the frame, where we became the characters and played it out, is what actually happened, then the characters talking to the writer outside the frame are sharing their memories.”
“Exactly. Park Su-mi, the first character, was confessing nearly twenty years after going through Newlywed Memories. Several years have passed for Han Yu-ri too.”
The others still looked at A-ri as though they had no idea what she meant, so she answered simply.
“Han Yu-ri had forgotten everything about her past as a Nine-Tailed Fox by the time she entered the coffee shop. She probably only remembers that people around her died strangely, one after another, during her school days. That's what she came out to tell. So through the second story, we need to create Han Yu-ri's current situation.”
“We need to create Han Yu-ri's current situation through the movie? What kind of situation is she in?”
“Do you remember when Mook-seong played through it and Han Yu-ri was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher by that loser? In Eun-sol's version, Han Yu-ri had no idea she was a Nine-Tailed Fox until she left the school.”
Ga-in's mouth fell open.
“There's a way to erase even the memory that you're a Nine-Tailed Fox? Well, she's a Nine-Tailed Fox, so let's say she used some mysterious spell. Why erase it?”
Song-i tilted her head.
“Eun-sol said in her inner monologue that it was to suppress her urge to eat people, didn't she?”
“Even so, suppressing everything to the point where an ordinary person can beat her to death seems too dangerous, doesn't it?”
“Suppressing a Nine-Tailed Fox's mind was probably meant to control that urge too. But there is another, real reason such a spell was created.”
“What is it?”
“Washing away the past. By erasing even her own memories, she ensures that the Holy See can't uncover anything if they investigate her after she becomes human.”
Ga-in gaped.
“After she becomes human?”
--- Bang!
A-ri slammed the table, stopping the conversations around them.
“It'll take a while, so just listen. And don't only listen to me. Watch the movie too.”
Everyone kept their eyes on the film, but their ears turned toward A-ri.
“You've probably all seen a movie or read a novel about a Nine-Tailed Fox who wants to become human at least once. How does one become human? The conditions differ from story to story, but they're usually pretty difficult.”
...
“Nine-Tailed Foxes in folk tales usually fail. The cliché is always similar. They have to consume the vital energy of a hundred people, but they meet a passing scholar at the ninety-ninth and die.”
...
“But have you ever thought about this? Why do they all fail? Aren't there any Nine-Tailed Foxes who succeed?”
“... Sis is saying something similar right now.”
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
As an even more ominous Yokai inside an ominous abandoned house, I thought.
After recalling the bright, lively Han Yu-ri from when the movie began and combining that with my current situation and the information in my head, an urban legend emerged.
Yu-ri, you're seriously incredible.
You gritted your teeth and showed determination and persistence! You wooooorked hard! You ate a hundred people and became human!
Is this really something I should praise you for?
Maybe it was the movie's consideration or something, but there was a diary written by Han Yu-ri on the table. It recorded the number of human livers she had periodically eaten, along with what she went through while disguising her identity.
And...
I blankly read through the bucket list of things she wanted to do once she became human.
‘First, let's erase the unpleasant memories! I have the Oblivion Spell. Once I become human, I can forget all strange memories forever.’
...
‘I want to find a good man. When I find him, I won't kill him. Money... It'd be nice if he had a lot, but money isn't everything! He should be handsome and tall too, right? Most of all, he has to love me. More than anyone else in the world!’
...
‘Someday, I definitely want to be on TV. Honestly, I'm prettier than those actresses! I bet I can be even more entertaining than them!’
...
‘I want to live in a nice house. This shabby abandoned house... I really hate it now. I want to sleep in a warm, soft bed too. I want to take a hot bath every day and fill my whole house with S Electronics appliances.’
...
‘Daseol died yesterday. A hunter sent by the Holy See burned Daseol's head. Saerom and I ran without even having time to cry.’
...
‘Someday, I'll burn this diary. When everything is over. When the pain ends and happiness comes... When that day arrives, let's burn it all.’
“Don't do this to me...”
I sighed. Reading this poor, pathetic story even made me feel sorry for her. But every time I saw the number written at the top of the pristine white paper, my heart froze.
‘Remaining number: 28’
“She needs to eat a hundred livers, and there are twenty-eight left. She's already eaten seventy-two.”
This Nine-Tailed Fox had worked really hard. She had even achieved her dream after all that effort.
She became human, erased her memories with the Oblivion Spell, unknowingly washed away her own past, and even half fulfilled her dream of appearing on television. It was a triumph of humanity, no, a triumph of foxhood.
...
--- Pheee!
An unbearable urge rose within me.
I tried playing the Flute just in case, but it had the exact opposite effect from what I expected. Rather than suppressing my urge, the Flute completely shattered the faint remnants of the Oblivion Spell.
Thinking about it, that was only natural.
The urge I felt right now was hunger. Just as humans feel hungry when their stomachs are empty, Han Yu-ri's body, as a Nine-Tailed Fox, simply craved human flesh.
Hunger was a natural urge created by the body, not an evil spell or mental illness. Of course, it wasn't something the Flute could erase. If anything, the Oblivion Spell that suppressed that hunger was the unnatural spell.
That was why the Flute of Rest completely destroyed the Oblivion Spell rather than removing my hunger, perfectly awakening the Nine-Tailed Fox's identity.
In other words, I had become hungrier, and I remembered various pieces of knowledge.
...
“Ha! Ha! Hahaha!”
I laughed. Not because I didn't know what to do from now on, but because it was so clear that I had no choice but to laugh.
“So I just need to eat.”
I just needed to eat people.
I could kill twenty-eight humans, rip out their livers, and eat them. Then I could become the lively girl from the coffee shop, ‘human Han Yu-ri.’
And after becoming human?
I only needed to pour all my remaining magical power into the Oblivion Spell. This time, I wouldn't need to set it up so the spell broke whenever I left the school. The last Oblivion Spell I used after becoming human would never need to break.
Of course, I did wonder how I could obtain a proper human identity. Still, Han Yu-ri, the Nine-Tailed Foxes' role model and the one who had turned her life, no, her fox life around, had survived for ages in the darkness of human society.
She probably had a way. Honestly, I didn't think the movie would demand that much from me.
...
--- Click!
I thought as I walked outside. Was this really the proper course of the story?
A Nine-Tailed Fox killed and ate twenty-eight more innocent people, became human, washed away her past, and lived happily as human Han Yu-ri?
Was that really the only ending? Even if this was a movie, did I have to create an ending that was only convenient for the Yokai?
... Maybe I was getting lost in pointless thoughts.
Things inside the hotel were different from reality anyway, weren't they? This was even a movie within a movie. Did I need to think of the people in this world as real people?
An evil voice constantly brushed against my ear. It sounded very much like Han Yu-ri's beautiful voice.
“Sis.”
Pushing away the stray thoughts, I turned my head. Under the neon signs of the dark city, a thin girl walked toward me.
“... Saerom.”
“Have you come to your senses now?”
“Yeah.”
“Why did you cast the Oblivion Spell so strongly today? It was dangerous. That idiot nearly put you in danger this morning too.”
“...”
“Is it because you're having a hard time? Just endure a little longer. We're almost there. You already have nine tails, and you've filled seventy-two...”
“You have... seven tails, right?”
“Yes. If I gather twenty-two more, I can become eight-tailed.”
The moment I heard that, information about the ecology of Yokai foxes passed through my mind.
“Every time you eat a hundred people, you gain another tail.”
“Huh? That's right.”
“You make nine that way, then eat another hundred and achieve your dream.”
Saerom's eyes shone wistfully at the word ‘dream.’ The girl seemed so happy just thinking about it.
And I...
I made my decision.
Footnotes:
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