WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 303: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (25)
──────
- Park Saerom
--- Ding-dong, ding-dong!
“Saerom, where did Yu-ri go?”
“... I wonder.”
“Didn't she leave with you earlier?”
Stop asking me. I don't know where Sis went either.
...
The seventh period was already over. Regular classes had ended, so it was time for self-study.
Sis Yu-ri had gone out to the athletic field during lunch, saying there was suddenly a problem with the spell, but she still hadn't returned.
Of course, neither of us was human, so I wasn't about to make an issue of us not diligently keeping up with school life. Still, schools made by humans had a more thorough system than you might think!
If a student left early without permission or skipped school, the teachers would likely look through related documents, like Sis's school records, for one reason or another. If that happened repeatedly, there was a greater chance our identities, which we'd concealed through various means, would be exposed.
That's why a Nine-Tailed Fox had to live even more carefully than humans, so no one around us would grow suspicious. Sis Yu-ri was the one who had drilled all that into my head until my ears hurt! Why was she suddenly acting like this?
For now, I should at least come up with an excuse.
“Yu-ri said she had a headache?”
“Yes. She said her head hurt reaaally badly, then staggered out of school.”
“Hmm.... The teacher didn't hear anything about that.”
“Maybe Yu-ri was in too much pain to come see you first?”
“That may be. Saerom, thank you for telling me.”
I gave the teacher a suitable explanation. See? Sis Yu-ri would be in real trouble without me!
* * *
--- Ding-dong, ding-dong!
The bell rang, announcing the start of the evening period.
Had she really gone all the way home? Sis Yu-ri still hadn't come back to school by then. Thanks to that, I had something extremely annoying to deal with.
“U-Um, Saerom! Y-Y-Y-Yu-”
“Yu-ri. Han Yu-ri. Say her name properly.”
“Yu-ri t-t-told me to come to the r-rooftop at eight.... W-Where is Yu-ri?”
I don't know either, you idiots! Why did Sis tell them to meet at eight if she was going home? These idiots kept asking where Yu-ri was every break!
...
Something definitely was strange.
Before disappearing, Sis seemed to have told quite a few boys to meet her at school at eight that evening. Maybe the rumor had spread, because a lot of students were still hanging around at this hour, giggling among themselves. Some were already guessing that Yu-ri had gathered all the boys together to dump them at once.
Night self-study wasn't mandatory at this high school, so there usually weren't many students left this late, and quite a few teachers had already gone home. Yet because of the “big event” Sis had created, three times as many students as usual had stayed behind to watch.
What was she thinking?
Was she planning to return to school that evening? Why? Was she really going to gather all those boys and dump them at once? What would she gain from making such a spectacle?
The more human livers we ate, the closer we became to humans in mind. Sis had eaten hundreds of people over the years, gathered nine tails, and even after becoming a Nine-Tailed Fox, she had eaten seventy-two more people. She was only one step away from becoming human.
Was that why she had changed?
“Eek!”
The scream from below startled the dozing students awake.
“What was that? What the-”
“Fire!!!”
Something, something was happening!
* * *
The moment I threw open the door and ran out of the classroom, I gaped in shock. Fires had already broken out throughout the school, and the flames were growing stronger.
Right in front of me, I grabbed a lunatic who was splashing oil around from a container and setting fires.
“You! What the hell are you-”
“Fire. Fire. Fire.... I have to start a fire.”
One look at their eyes told me everything. This human wasn't sane. They had already been swept up by a powerful charm, lost all reason, and were doing nothing but starting fires like a puppet.
As I ran through the corridors in a panic, the situation was no joke. Several adult men who had appeared from who knows where were setting the school on fire with vacant expressions. A few students and teachers tried to stop them, but flames had already risen everywhere. It was far too late.
“Aaargh!”
“Fire!!”
“R-Run for the front gate!”
“W-Who the hell did this?!”
... Actually, I thought I knew who.
The person who spread the rumor that she would dump all the boys that evening.
The person who made the school crowded with students at this hour.
The person who charmed multiple people and made them burn down the school.
I knew someone capable of all this. I just couldn't understand why she had done something so insane!
“... Sis.”
My only family, the great Nine-Tailed Fox who stood just one step away from becoming human, Han Yu-ri, appeared amid the flames.
Both her hands and the corners of her mouth were already stained with blood. Behind her, several shriveled corpses burned on the floor. She had already eaten several people.
Sis had wrapped her face in a strange vortex so others couldn't see her, but I wasn't so incompetent that I couldn't see through something like that.
“Why.... Why...?”
As I stood there, at a loss for what to say, Sis gave me a small smile.
“Saerom, what are you doing?”
“T-That's what I should be asking-”
“You eat too.”
“What? Are you insane? If we eat students at school, we'll draw public attention-”
“You're worried about that right now?”
... She had a point.
The time to worry about getting caught had passed long ago, the moment Sis burned down the school and ate several people. Maybe because I looked half convinced, Sis calmly handed me a chunk of flesh.
“Eat one. This one's a little tough.”
“You're giving it to me because it's tough? What a wonderful sister.”
The heart, still attached to pieces of bone, was fairly tough, but it had its own flavor. Every time I chewed, the fragrant aroma of blood seeped out in alluring little bursts.
Meat cooked over fire, which we often ate while living among humans, was delicious too, but fresh human flesh had a flavor of its own. It was a shame I had no one to share that feeling with. Still, I had Sis, so-
“No! This isn't the time for that!”
“What isn't?”
Even as she spoke, Sis was eating a soft liver with a frown. Strangely, unlike usual, she looked less like she was enjoying delicious food and more like she was forcing herself to swallow it.
Was Sis really getting closer and closer to becoming human?
“Sis! You're openly burning down a school and eating people? Do you think we didn't do this because we can't? Don't you know that if you pull this kind of insane crap, it'll be all over the news in South Korea? The Holy See will definitely send an exorcism squad!”
“Can't you see my face?”
I sighed as I looked at Sis, whose face was concealed by dark, blue-black energy.
“That only works on ordinary people! Do you think it'll work on the Holy See? It doesn't even work on me!”
“Well, I've prepared several things besides this. So we'll have more time than you think before the exorcism squad arrives. Before then, I'll become human.”
“You think becoming human solves everything? This many people died, and there's no culprit? Even the Holy See can't just sweep this under the rug!”
“That would be true if they couldn't catch the culprit. They'll grit their teeth and hunt for one by any means necessary.”
“What?”
“What was the original plan? You were going to slowly kill people over several months, no, years, until you reached the number. At best, one person a week, and preferably even slower.”
Of course. Could we suddenly kill multiple people in a country with good public safety and avoid getting caught? If possible, we would've targeted people no one would care about after they disappeared, killing one person every two or three months.
“How long do you think it would take to kill the remaining twenty-eight people at that pace?”
“S-Sis.... Why are you suddenly like this? It would've only taken three or four years! It's not like that's so long-”
“It is long. It's far too long for me now. Saerom, I've already started this. Decide. Help me finish quickly and run away with me, or run away alone.”
My breath caught in my throat.
Sis's eyes, glowing enchantingly, looked crazier than ever. Was she tired? Had she endured for hundreds of years, then suddenly lost her mind when she was only one step away from becoming human?
I didn't know. I didn't know why Sis had suddenly become like this.
But at least one thing was certain. Sis, Yu-ri, was my only family in this entire world.
We had spent thousands of nights and days together. Sis, who had awakened to the demonic path much earlier than I had, protected me countless times when I was far weaker than I was now. There was no way I could run away alone.
“Run away alone? Don't be stupid. Let's just finish this quickly!”
* * *
Once the two Nine-Tailed Foxes joined forces, the work began to wrap up in less than twenty minutes. Of course, I was still only a Seven-Tailed Fox, but someday I would become a Nine-Tailed Fox too!
Judging by the number of corpses around us, I would probably become an Eight-Tailed Fox today. Though that only mattered if we could survive after causing this much destruction.
We killed more than twenty students, people who had come in from outside, and even several teachers, gathering a huge number of livers. Human flesh was something we usually treasured and ate piece by piece, but there was too much today. Aside from the livers absolutely needed to rise in rank, we left most of it to burn.
Then.... The final liver rested in Sis's hand.
“... This is the last one. If I eat this, will I become human?”
At the moment when a Yokai fox that had eaten nine hundred humans and gained nine tails had eaten another ninety-nine humans, leaving only one liver before it achieved its purpose of existence, complete humanization, tears began streaming endlessly from my eyes.
At this moment, I couldn't even feel the danger of the Holy See's exorcism squad rushing toward us from outside. All I felt was the overwhelming emotion that my family, my sister, my one and only beloved, who had suffered through countless nights and days, had finally reached the completion of her great undertaking.
“Sis.... Congratulations.”
“...”
“Really.... This day has actually come. It really has....”
“...”
“But eat it quickly. The exorcism squad will be here soon. Or will you eat the final liver later? I heard you lose most of your power once you become human. Wouldn't it be better to escape while keeping the Nine-Tailed Fox's power, then eat the final liver afterward-”
“Saerom.”
“Sis?”
“My escape plan is you.”
The strongest Nine-Tailed Fox in the world moved her hand through the air, and jet-black chains stretching from Yu-ri's body bound mine.
“For my sake, take the blame for my sins and die.”
I felt incomprehensible magical power from Yu-ri. As a weak Yokai fox with only seven tails, I could neither understand nor resist the absolute power that twisted and distorted my body and mind.
Until the very end, I couldn't understand what was happening.
... Maybe I didn't want to understand.
* * *
- Han Yu-ri(?)
I suddenly came to my senses.
It felt like there had been an enormous amount of information in my head.... Before I could even remember what it was, I forgot it at an incredible speed, as if an eraser in my head had wiped everything away.
“Raaaargh!”
The moment I looked ahead, wide awake, I realized this was no time to sit there thinking blankly. There was a gigantic monster I'd never seen in my life right in front of me!
“Eek! W-What the hell is that?!”
A dog? No, a wolf? A huge fox? It had so many tails? Seven? It was bound in chains?
As the monster roared and twisted its whole body, black metal chains began snapping off and falling away. The moment I saw that, I started running like crazy to survive!
Aah! What the hell happened? What happened to the school?!
Could I get away? From a ridiculous monster like that? It was obviously much bigger than me!
“‘The Unremarkable Girl,’ activate!”
What? I felt like something strange had just come out of my mouth. Was I imagining it?
There was no time to think things through. I ran and ran in a panic, through the space filled with choking smoke.
Corpses scattered everywhere repeatedly tripped me, and I fell again and again until blood soaked my body. Scorching heat burned my hair and school uniform in places, and I rolled around in a complete mess without even knowing what was happening!
“Raaaargh!”
Maybe because I ran as hard as I could even in this situation, the roaring monster somehow failed to find me despite wrecking the building.
Just as I was about to collapse from exhaustion, the school's outer wall burst open and people dressed in black rushed in. The moment I saw them, relief washed over me. I thought I was saved, then lost consciousness.
...
“We rescued a survivor! The survivor is.... Human, they're human!”
Footnotes:
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