WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 318: Mi-ro (3)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 137
Current Location: Level 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
From a distance, I could hear Elena and Mi-ro talking. Since they were conducting a dangerous experiment, only a limited number of people could get close. Fortunately, I was one of them.
“Mi-ro, what do you think when you look at this child?”
“... Why do you call a monster like this a ‘child,’ Elena?”
“It looks like a child with a rather cold expression to me. What does it look like to you?”
The larva-shaped monster Elena had created a few times before slowly crawled around near the table.
Simply looking at it could severely damage a human mind, so Jin-cheol and the others, who lacked resistance to that sort of thing, had gone up to the second floor.
“It looks really scary. A caterpillar with a human head?”
“That’s similar to Ga-in’s answer.”
The Immutable Blessing was definitely giving Mi-ro powerful resistance. After Elena erased the monster again, she briefly showed Mi-ro my Grimoire instead.
“Argh!”
I quickly caught Mi-ro as she staggered backward and nearly fell.
She had gotten a nosebleed and seemed to be suffering from a severe headache, but the fact that it ended there proved her resistance was considerable. An ordinary person would be on the verge of death the instant they saw the Grimoire with the naked eye.
Eun-sol soon came over and calmed Mi-ro with the power of the Flute, while Grandpa approached and summarized the experiment’s results.
“Her resistance to supernatural power is considerable. But I’m not sure about her physical abilities. Should we test those too? It’ll be difficult.”
Then A-ri spoke calmly.
“We still have to. She needs to know how strong she is. There’s a high chance the next room we enter will be Room 203. Mi-ro will have to endure the early stages on her own.”
“Ugh!”
Mi-ro threw a tangerine with an annoyed look at the thought of having to do something else. A-ri pulled off the feat of catching the tangerine flying at her from behind.
“Mi-ro, I’ll enjoy this.”
A little later, Grandpa returned with a somewhat concerned expression.
“Physically, she’s no different from any other girl her age. She doesn’t have an ounce of strength, and she isn’t particularly sturdy either.”
A-ri seemed a little disappointed.
“Does the Immutable Blessing not affect physical ability?”
“Strengthening the Blessing might help her physically too.”
“She’s already in the middle of the second floor. There probably won’t be many chances to strengthen it...”
“What can we do?”
Because of problems like this, it seemed difficult to expect much from the Blessing of someone who joined midway through. It was like joining a trial midway through already equipped with a growth-type ability.
That was fine. Mi-ro’s Inheritance seemed absurdly powerful, even compared to her Blessing.
“Let’s check Time Lender. Even the rough explanation sounded unbelievable.”
A-ri nodded and brought Mi-ro over.
The girl, who had been deeply dissatisfied until a moment ago, immediately looked excited when Time Lender came up.
I’d worried Mi-ro might unnecessarily try to hide the power of her Inheritance from us, but she didn’t.
At least, the Mi-ro of today didn’t have the sort of personality that would think like a Management Bureau agent. Also, by its nature, Time Lender required both its user and its target to understand it precisely in order to use it properly.
“I’ll explain it simply again! See the words written on the pocket watch?”
Time Lender looked similar to a pocket watch, but its details were entirely different. It had only one hand, and there were no numbers from one to twelve.
Instead, it had just four words written on it: ‘Midnight’ at the top, ‘Morning’ on the right, ‘Noon’ at the bottom, and ‘Evening’ on the left.
“With this, I can borrow your time. I can store up to one hour from one person in each slot.”
“And call them out whenever you want?”
“Yep.”
“Mi-ro, I heard a rough explanation earlier, but it would be good to show us.”
At Grandpa’s words, Mi-ro turned and called Seung-yeop over.
“You! Um... Seung-yeop, right? Come here for a moment.”
“Yes.”
“From now on, you have to lend me ten seconds. Got it?”
“Uh... yes.”
At that moment, the watch flashed, and Seung-yeop vanished. I’d heard a rough explanation earlier, but seeing it for myself was still amazing.
Ten seconds later, Seung-yeop reappeared.
“Wow!”
Grandpa asked, “What did it feel like?”
“It just felt like my body stretched out and shrank back? I don’t remember anything from while I was gone.”
“How fascinating.”
“Look!”
When we looked at the pocket watch Mi-ro held out, the word in the ‘Morning’ slot had become bolder.
“Seung-yeop is stored in the Morning slot now?”
“That’s right. Only for ten seconds, though.”
Eun-sol asked, “Do you absolutely need the person’s permission to borrow their time?”
“Hmm...”
Mi-ro wore a puzzled expression for a moment and said she wanted to check that.
After several experiments, the results were simple. The exact wording didn’t matter, but Mi-ro had to express her intention to borrow someone’s time, and that person had to agree before she could use Time Lender.
A-ri wore an ambiguous expression.
“It won’t be easy to use it to suddenly send an enemy somewhere. Maybe it wasn’t made for that purpose in the first place...”
“Now I’ll call out Morning Seung-yeop!”
Mi-ro smiled brightly and was about to activate the watch again when A-ri immediately grabbed her arm.
“Wait! The real Seung-yeop is right here.”
“Huh?”
Mi-ro didn’t understand what she meant at all, but I immediately sensed the danger A-ri had noticed.
Time Lender was an Inheritance that borrowed and stored another person’s time, then summoned it later. If it borrowed one hour of Seung-yeop’s time at three o’clock, Seung-yeop would disappear for that hour, then reappear at four.
If Mi-ro activated the watch again at four and summoned the Seung-yeop stored in it, there would be two Seung-yeops.
Two identical people in the same place?
There were so many urban-legend-like horror scenarios that could arise here that my head hurt just thinking about it!
When A-ri gave me a look, I immediately used an Advice.
[Advice: 3 -> 2]
‘What happens if a person in the original time meets the person summoned by Time Lender?’
[You must avoid a situation where they encounter each other.]
“It says they can’t meet.”
“Put another way, as long as they don’t meet, it’s fine. Seung-yeop, go into Room 105 for a moment.”
“... Yes. This has been feeling scary for a while now.”
After Seung-yeop entered Room 105, Mi-ro activated the watch.
Another Seung-yeop appeared in midair. The boy who suddenly appeared in the middle of everyone looked utterly bewildered.
“Wh-what is this? It feels like my body is stretching out-”
Before he could finish speaking, Seung-yeop vanished again. The borrowed time had only been ten seconds. Still, for those ten seconds, there had definitely been two Seung-yeops.
Afterward, we repeated various experiments and were able to understand Time Lender’s abilities in detail. I organized what we had learned.
First, Mi-ro must state her intention to borrow someone’s time, and the other person must agree. She can borrow up to one hour from each person. Since the watch has four slots, she can borrow one hour each from up to four people.
Second, the person who agrees disappears for that amount of time. That doesn’t count as death. According to the Companion Information in the Status Window, the companion still appears to be alive.
Third, Mi-ro can summon the person who lent her their time whenever she wants. She can summon one person at a time, and the total summoning time per day is up to one hour.
It was possible to divide up the one hour she could summon each day. For example, she could summon A-ri for twenty minutes, receive her help, and send her back. Then, if she summoned me, I could help Mi-ro for a total of forty minutes.
“It’s a complicated Inheritance, but it’s simple when you think about it. It’s an item that lets Mi-ro summon us for a total of one hour a day whenever she wants.”
Eun-sol nodded.
“It’ll be useful in a place like Room 203. Mi-ro can summon us whenever she wants and get help.”
Grandpa cautioned us.
“You all seem to call it ‘summoning’ for convenience, but remember this. It isn’t actually summoning. The real us are elsewhere, while the person stored in the watch comes out.”
“So, while they’re summoned, the real us and the version called out by the watch both exist at the same time. And the Owl warned us that those two must never meet.”
Mi-ro added a comment.
“You keep saying us, us, but I don’t have to use it only on hotel companions. I can use it on anyone!”
A-ri agreed, but pointed out the danger.
“That’s true, but use it on us whenever possible. Most beings we meet in Curse Rooms won’t understand the power of the watch, so we don’t know how they’ll react.”
“Okay.”
There were a few precautions.
First, as we had confirmed, the real version of us in that time period and the version called out by the watch had to avoid meeting each other.
Second, Mi-ro couldn’t forcibly control someone she summoned. That was precisely why A-ri advised Mi-ro to use Time Lender on us whenever possible.
To check something I was curious about, I made a request of Mi-ro.
“Borrow ten minutes of my time.”
“Okay. Ga-in, will you lend me ten minutes of your time?”
“Sure.”
...
I lost consciousness for a moment, then woke up. It had been the same with Seung-yeop, but the others were looking at me with fascinated eyes.
“Did ten minutes really pass just now?”
Elena nodded.
“Yes. We didn’t talk about anything important. We only talked a little about Room 203.”
I looked at Mi-ro again.
“I’m going into Room 105, so summon the stored version of me.”
“Okay. But what are you trying to do?”
“I’ll tell you after I check.”
After that conversation, I returned to Room 105 and looked at my Status Window.
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 137
Current Location: Level 1, Room 105 - ‘Rest Room’
Sage’s Advice: 2]
...
[Advice: 2 -> 1]
I hadn’t done anything, only looked at the Status Window, but the number of Advice had decreased. After about thirty minutes passed safely, I went outside.
When I came out, my companions were looking at a small piece of paper with confused expressions.
“How was it?”
A-ri spoke as though she found it amusing.
“Noon Ga-in, whom Mi-ro just called out-”
“Noon Ga-in?”
“We decided to call beings summoned by the watch that. Morning A-ri, Noon Ga-in. Like that.”
“Fine.”
“Noon Ga-in used an Advice, then immediately wrote the question and answer on paper. He also said we had to avoid meeting you in Room 105, so we should end the summoning immediately.”
When I unfolded the paper, I saw exactly the question I’d expected.
‘If a being called out by the watch uses a power with a limited number of uses, is the original’s number of uses reduced as well?’
It was a simple question. Now I had the answer.
[It differs depending on the type of power, but Blessings do.] That very brief answer was written there, and the number in my Status Window had actually decreased.
A-ri snickered.
“You already thought of a trick like this? You were testing whether, after the version summoned by the watch used Advice, the original you could use Advice separately?”
“Of course. This is a place where tricks are strategy. More importantly, it differs depending on the type of power? That means there are times when the trick I thought of works.”
“You’ll find out as you use it. Still, I think I understand why this trick doesn’t work with Blessings.”
“Why?”
“The person Mi-ro borrows time from is us, not our Sponsor. The source of a Blessing is its Sponsor.”
I understood what she meant. A Blessing was power granted by a Sponsor, and its root lay with that Sponsor.
For example, from the perspective of the Owl that granted Advice, whether I used an Advice or another me summoned by Mi-ro’s watch used one, it still consumed the Owl’s power. That was why the number of uses was shared too.
Around eleven at night, everyone finally had a rough understanding of Time Lender’s functions.
It was late, and there were no Advice left. More than anything, Mi-ro, who had diligently cooperated with some rather unpleasant experiments, said she was very tired.
Considering we had to enter a Curse Room tomorrow, we needed proper sleep too. In the end, we decided to stop for the day and go to bed.
“Let’s talk about the next room early tomorrow morning! Okay?”
The tiring day came to an end.
...
“Ga-in!”
“Hm?”
“Will you lend me an hour?”
“You’re borrowing it in advance because you need it in the Curse Room?”
“... Yeah.”
“Okay.”
“A-ri too!”
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 137
Current Location: Level 1, Room 105 - ‘Rest Room’ (Mi-ro’s Room)
Sage’s Advice: 0]
- Han Ga-in
“What on earth...”
“Oh! It worked, it worked!”
When I came to my senses, I woke up in Room 105, in ‘Mi-ro’s Room.’
“...”
Except during meals, everyone used separate spaces in Room 105.
“So us being called out by your watch is an exception...”
“This is amazing!”
We spent some time without doing anything particularly important. Mi-ro chattered about what had happened in Frozen Hell and asked questions about the hotel. We also talked quite a bit about A-ri.
“She’s kind of scary! She keeps teasing me by calling me Mom, Mom.”
“Rather than teasing you, she actually-”
--- Thump!
I was about to say that Mi-ro really was A-ri’s mother when Mi-ro suddenly headbutted me, knocking me off the sofa.
“You too, Ga-in, don’t say mean things! I’ve never even had a boyfriend yet!”
“... Right. It would be funny if someone suddenly said they had a daughter in that situation.”
“Then what should I say we are?”
“Well, say you’re sisters or something.”
How was I supposed to define A-ri and Mi-ro’s relationship?
I didn’t know. When A-ri called Mi-ro Mom, I just assumed they were mother and daughter. Mi-ro strongly denied it, so I could only assume that was right too.
“Besides, A-ri only calls me Mom, then treats me roughly!”
“She doesn’t only treat you roughly. A-ri treats everyone roughly.”
“... I didn’t mean it that badly. Also, A-ri ate all my bacon earlier.”
“You ate all of A-ri’s ham in Frozen Hell.”
“That was then, and this is now.”
“The only difference is that was ham, and this is bacon.”
--- Thump!
She knocked me down with another headbutt. Was this child actually a headbutting dinosaur?
Then I realized something. Just as we had spent a tiring day because Mi-ro joined us, today must have been terribly frightening and confusing for Mi-ro too. Maybe she had called me out late at night simply because she wanted to spend some comfortable time with someone.
Around then, Mi-ro approached with the watch in her hand.
“There’s... something I want to ask.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a very scary story.”
Did she have something she wanted to say?
Footnotes:
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