WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 309: Room 204, Mission Room - ‘Hotel Cinema’ (31)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 135
Current Location: Level 2, Room 204, Mission Room, ‘Hotel Cinema’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
The movie ended, and the light on the screen went out. A moment later, the screen lit up again, signaling that the next person had to enter. I was the last one with a chance left.
Even now, most of my companions didn't fully understand what had happened on the screen.
“W-What was that? Why did it end? Didn't Seung-yeop escape?”
Jin-cheol's flustered question was met with an equally bewildered response from the Doctor.
“The movie ended instead of showing the coffee shop scene. Does that mean he was taken out in an instant? If so, who harmed Seung-yeop? Surely it wasn't Dollyphant?”
“Sang-hyeon, that elephant was quite far from Seung-yeop. Besides, with its personality, wouldn't it have picked Seung-yeop up with its trunk and messed with him before killing him, rather than ambushing him?”
Elena and Song-i also couldn't understand why the movie had ended the moment Seung-yeop escaped the mansion.
And I...
I'd seen the being that harmed Seung-yeop. I'd realized its identity!
“Everyone, please listen to me.”
After hearing my explanation, my companions' mouths fell open. The Doctor asked in amazement.
“How did you notice? If it had been Miss Eun-sol, I would've assumed she'd noticed with those eyes of hers, but it's surprising that you did, Ga-in.”
“My eyes aren't especially good, as you said. I've just had a similar experience before.”
A similar experience. Once that came up, everyone nodded.
Afterward, I explained the questions that had come to mind while watching Seung-yeop's attempt, along with the better approach I'd thought of. We spent a long time refining the plan.
Song-i asked what I intended to bring.
“Ga-in, are you taking the Grimoire or your blessing? The Grimoire, obviously?”
The Blessing of Wisdom alone only gave me three uses of Advice and a mental-protection Filter. That wasn't bad, but it lacked an active ability, so the Grimoire was normally better. Without the mental-protection Filter, there were limitations on using the Grimoire, but even a restricted Grimoire was more useful than the blessing.
But...
“The blessing. I don't think I should use the Grimoire in the movie I'm about to enter.”
Song-i considered what I meant for a moment, then nodded.
“Ah, right. At the start of the story, Cha Eun-pyo said his story wasn't anything special, didn't he?”
“I could pass off Danger Alert or Advice as luck, or say a sudden idea came to me, but Possession would be too much. It'd already be strange for Cha Eun-pyo to suddenly use Possession, and it'd be even stranger for him to talk as though it were nothing after going through something like that.”
The Doctor pointed out another problem.
“Ga-in, your body and mind have both become extremely strong for various reasons.”
“I suppose so. Recently, it feels like I've developed some kind of extra sense.”
“Thanks to that, you can use the Grimoire for a short time even without the Status Window, Ga-in. But didn't you say an ordinary human dies the moment they open the Grimoire?”
That was true. I'd even used that fact to turn the Grimoire into a mental-attack weapon.
“It seems very dangerous to use the Grimoire while in Kevin's body, as a child.”
After we finished talking, I started toward the screen. Before I even entered, my heart began pounding wildly. I was the last person. There was no one left behind me who could save me.
Perhaps they felt the same, because my companions began trembling anxiously. Elena had started praying silently, while the Doctor beside her clasped his hands in prayer. Song-i was biting her nails, while Jin-cheol couldn't lift his head. Seeing them like that made me feel stifled too.
...
Then I saw the parrot pecking at Song-i's head, demanding sunflower seeds, and a dry laugh escaped me. The tension eased.
This was probably the right state of mind.
I recalled the Primordial Human, which had made even more decisive progress than the real Seung-yeop a little earlier. Sometimes, the hotel was a place where you needed an attitude so reckless it seemed insane.
“I'm going in. I'll choose the blessing.”
The early stages went the same way they had for A-ri and Seung-yeop. After arriving at the coffee shop and apologizing for being late, Cha Eun-pyo soon began his story.
“This is a story from when I was young...”
* * *
- Home Alone
“Kevin!”
After listening to Kevin's mom nag for a while, I raised my hand.
“Mom, I have a question.”
“Hm?”
“Do we have any snacks at home?”
“Of course! Um... But you shouldn't eat too many snacks.”
“Honey, Kevin will be staying home alone this time. We should at least give him some snacks.”
“All right. Kevin, I'll tell you where the cookie box is! You know not to eat too many, right? Make sure to brush your teeth afterward.”
“Okay.”
After my parents left, I took a moment to organize my thoughts.
There was something I simply couldn't understand after watching Seung-yeop's attempt. The ways to deal with the toys in the mansion that Seung-yeop had identified were as follows.
Move with your back against the wall to avoid Happyhappy's attacks.
Move the furniture in advance to places that are easy to jump between, then run over it to avoid Thomas's attacks.
Change the contents of the book on tea-time etiquette to control Dollyphant.
...
How was a twelve-year-old supposed to do any of that?
Those were countermeasures people who had observed the monsters' behavior patterns from outside the movie had come up with by putting their heads together. A twelve-year-old kid was supposed to think of all that in real time? What was he, Einstein?
Even if young Cha Eun-pyo, or rather Kevin, was a genius who miraculously thought of everything, wouldn't that level of quick thinking still seem insane to him when he looked back on it as an adult?
Jokingly put, it felt like the kind of video that could be played at a funeral, yet Cha Eun-pyo had said, “My story isn't anything special.”
That meant the real Kevin had survived in a much easier, simpler way. The real answer was hidden in the kind of actions and thought process a child would actually have.
“Meow!”
As I headed toward the living room where Kevin's toys were, the cat lying on the floor let out a long yawn. It looked like it would soon fall asleep.
“... Come to think of it, your very existence was a hint too.”
After Kevin's parents disappeared, there was a dog named Suzy and a cat named Cassie in the mansion besides Kevin.
When A-ri entered and when Seung-yeop entered, Suzy had held Happyhappy back both times, showing tearful loyalty by dying in place of its owner.
So where had Cassie, this cat, been all that time that it hadn't even meowed once? That alone was another hint.
I went over to the toy boxes and read the descriptions attached to them.
“Make cookies with Dollyphant, lay tracks for Thomas and his friends, and play a fun game of tag with Happyhappy.”
A-ri had noticed the first two sentences immediately when she entered for the first time. She simply hadn't attached much meaning to them. It was hard to think that common phrases like these on toy boxes had any special meaning in the first place.
I tried to think of what a twelve-year-old boy would do.
* * *
「Kevin! I'll begin a New Year's party just for you!」
This was already the third time. With the sound announcing the start of the party, the mansion began to shake. When the vibrations finally stopped, the three toys began moving.
「Happyhappy! Kevin, from now on, we're playing tag!」
「Thomas is departing! Please clear the way because I need to lay tracks!」
「Dolly Dolly! It's Tea Time! Good children, come up to the second floor.」
--- Bang!
With a loud sound, the first toy, Happyhappy, appeared.
What would twelve-year-old Kevin have done when he eagerly opened a gift box and found such a hideous clown doll inside? Wouldn't he have gotten angry and broken it?
“Froooom noooow oooon, we'rrre plaaayiiing taaaag-”
“... You really are talking slower now.”
Happyhappy's neck had been twisted backward when I broke it in doll form, so it spoke painfully slowly. It was similar to the damaged Happyhappy Seung-yeop had met earlier.
Thinking about it this way, A-ri's decision during her first attempt to kick Happyhappy in anger as soon as she opened the box and saw it had been correct. She just hadn't kicked hard enough.
“Take this!”
--- Thud!
I shoved the damaged doll that had appeared behind me. What did it mean that it was speaking to me with its neck twisted backward?
It meant its back was facing me!
Before it could even finish explaining the rules of tag, Happyhappy went rolling across the floor after I touched its back.
“Yooou tooouched myyy baaaack. Keeeeviiiin woooouuun!”
“Keep it down.”
After disabling Happyhappy in three seconds, I moved while listening closely for the horn. What state was Thomas in?
“Thomas, are you having fun?”
“Of course! Kevin, thank you for laying the tracks!”
Kevin's favorite toy was probably Thomas the toy train. So wouldn't it be natural for him to open the box the moment he found it, play with it, and lay down the tracks?
Thomas looked happy as he ran endlessly around the circular track I'd laid in advance.
In truth, a train's purpose was to run on tracks, not lay them. Maybe laying tracks had been unpleasant for Thomas too.
Once I confirmed that the train had found peace as soon as it started, I went up to the second floor to check on the third toy.
「Dolly Dolly! It's Tea Time! Good children, come up to the second floor.」
I moved as quickly as I could to the second-floor drawing room where Dollyphant was.
“Dolly Dolly!”
“Dolly Dolly!”
“Kevin! I didn't expect you to come so quickly! Kevin, you're smart, aren't you?”
“Am I?”
“Good! Come sit here!”
A little earlier, I'd agonized over how to deal with Dollyphant.
The box Dollyphant had been in contained a small booklet titled Tea-Time Etiquette for English Gentlemen. Since it had been revealed that Dollyphant followed the book's contents thoroughly, changing those contents beforehand was one possible method.
But I hadn't touched the book. No matter how I looked at it, opening that book and writing in tiny letters was far from the kind of normal action a twelve-year-old boy would take.
“Kevin, wait a moment. You came very early, so I haven't finished preparing yet.”
“Okay.”
Dollyphant carefully tipped a boiling teapot and began pouring the tea. Its blunt feet clearly weren't much help, so it seemed to be having quite a hard time working with only its trunk.
Once it finished, Dollyphant looked at me happily.
“Drink! I'm sure it'll be delicious!”
I took a sip and spoke.
“It's a little bitter.”
“Whaaaat? Kevin, are you saying my black tea tastes strange?”
“Of course not! Black tea is supposed to be a little bitter. The problem isn't the tea. It's something else.”
“The problem is something else?”
“It's Tea Time, but there aren't any snacks. Black tea is bitter, so you're supposed to have it with sweet snacks.”
Would the real Kevin have said it more arrogantly than this? Or not? Maybe he'd been more timid because he'd been frightened after seeing a talking elephant.
His attitude didn't matter. To children, tea was nothing more than bitter water. Of course, drinking something like that would make them think of snacks.
“Sn-snacks?”
“Shouldn't there be snacks if it's Tea Time?”
Dollyphant stared intently at Tea-Time Etiquette for English Gentlemen, then soon noticed that every illustration in the book had snacks or bread beside the teacup.
“You're right! Kevin, you're smart after all! Black tea should be enjoyed with sweet snacks or bread!”
“Don't you have any snacks?”
“... There aren't any snacks. What should we do?”
“If we search the mansion, there should be snacks somewhere. Want to look together?”
“Okay!”
Dollyphant soon heaved up its enormous body and began rummaging through the mansion. Of course, finding cookies wouldn't be easy for Dollyphant.
Because Suzy and I had eaten them all earlier!
Seriously, what twelve-year-old boy who knew where the snacks were would hold back? Of course he'd eat them all on the spot!
“Now that I've dealt with the toys more or less...”
It was time to uncover the secret of the real culprit behind every strange occurrence, the house itself.
Footnotes:
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