WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 341: Time to Choose (2) (Final)

──────

- Kim A-ri

Ga-in turned toward me, opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish.

It still seemed difficult for him to communicate using his own voice.

“Don’t you have a pen? If you can read and write, try writing.”

Before long, I realized my suggestion was pointless.

This was Ga-in, who had borrowed my hand because he struggled even to cut meat with a knife.

Writing with a pen required far more precise movements, so it would be extremely difficult for him in his current state.

Instead, Ga-in began using the method most convenient for him.

“Who are you? I am... Don’t speak through my throat!”

He found it hard to speak with his own throat, but controlling mine to make me speak was easy?

What the hell had happened to Ga-in’s brain?

After saying that, Ga-in leaned against the wall and fell into deep thought.

It seemed like he was trying to recall memories from his “human days.”

Feeling tired, I went back to Sang-hyeon. At some point, he had clasped his hands together and was praying to something.

“Have you made your decision?”

“I have.”

“I told you to speak casually.”

“What I must do now is confess my great sin.”

“Great sin?”

“First, there’s something I should’ve done long ago but haven’t.”

With that, Sang-hyeon turned toward me and bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

“...”

“Miss A-ri treated me as though nothing had happened, so I couldn’t find the right moment. Still, I was entranced by the Prisoner’s voice and nearly harmed everyone. I apologize for that.”

“It’s okay. Anyone else would’ve done the same thing, or worse.”

I meant it.

What Sang-hyeon went through mentally near the end of Room 203 was something anyone else would have suffered too. They might have broken down even sooner.

He nodded, his expression complicated.

“Thank you for saying that...”

“Have you decided? You’re going to keep your memories?”

“That’s right.”

After answering briefly, Sang-hyeon looked out the window and began explaining his choice.

“I considered putting my mind at ease. It would be a shame to lose the abilities I gained through my blessing, but they wouldn’t disappear completely.”

“...”

“It hurts. The memories of people I loved long ago have echoed endlessly in my head.”

“...”

“A thought came to me too late. My family, my people... Not one of them made it out of Room 203. I was the only one who did.”

“It was a Curse Room.”

“If I forget them, all proof that they ever existed in this world will vanish forever. The time we spent loving and cherishing one another, the glorious history of building a city in the wasteland... The only proof of all that now lies in my memories.”

“...”

“I have sinned.”

“If you mean what you said earlier, I really don’t think it was a big deal...”

“I’m not talking about being entranced by the Demon God. That is, of course, a great sin I must remember for the rest of my life, but thankfully, it was something I could undo. In the end, everyone made it out of Room 203.”

“Then what sin?”

At that point, instead of looking at me, Sang-hyeon began staring into the distance.

This wasn’t an apology to me or the Hotel Party. It was an apology to other people.

“I am a husband who deceived his wife, a father who deceived his children, and a king who deceived his people.”

“...”

“I promised them salvation countless times. I promised them there was a Paradise overflowing with milk and honey, that if they could not attain it in life, they would attain it in death...”

“...”

“I knew perfectly well it was a lie. Where is Paradise in this hotel? Where is salvation? I couldn’t even save myself, so how could I save my family and people?”

“You probably had no choice if you wanted them to follow you.”

“That cannot be an excuse.”

“...”

“What happens to NPCs who die in a Curse Room? I know what happens if a participant dies. I experienced it. They are trapped in Frozen Hell and suffer, or they live on as NPCs. Then what happens when an NPC dies?”

I knew participants could become NPCs after dying.

But that did not mean every NPC had once been a Former Participant.

Each room contained an entire star brought into existence. It seemed unlikely that every intelligent being, numbering in the billions or tens of billions, had been a Former Participant.

Then again, who knew?

“I don’t know.”

“If they vanish cleanly, if they disappear along with the Curse Room where they were born... That would be a mercy. But what if they don’t?”

“...”

“What if my wife, my children, and my people have fallen into hell?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know that either.”

“Long ago, Ga-in told me something.”

“Ga-in did?”

“He said there were two ways to help those who died in the hotel. One was ‘resurrection,’ and we have already confirmed that. The other, he said, was Buddha.”

“I remember. The Management Bureau knew about resurrection too. Buddha was something I only heard about for the first time after coming in here, but...”

Then I realized.

The one who had told us there was a second path to salvation called Buddha was...

“I heard that I was the one who told Ga-in.”

Kim Sang-hyeon. Before his resurrection, Kim Sang-hyeon had been the Doctor in Room 105, a hidden NPC of the hotel.

“That’s right.”

“It’s absurd. I don’t even know what it means now, but back then, I knew something.”

“You were a hotel employee then, so you probably knew all of the Hotel Secrets.”

“Where could Buddha be?”

“...”

I wanted to know too.

“We are already on Level 2. There are still many Curse Rooms left, but we have found most of Level 2’s hidden elements! The Mirror Room, the Resurrection Room, the Mysterious Craftsman! Haven’t we found them all now?”

“There are two hidden rooms and two hidden NPCs, so one NPC is still left.”

“I know. I don’t know why, but I simply knew. He, Buddha, is looking down on us from the highest place.”

What did that mean? Was it a faint memory from Sang-hyeon’s days as an NPC? Or just intuition?

“He is the cause of everything. He holds the answer to every question we will reach in the final moment, and he is the creator of every mystery.”

“What are you even...”

“I have a wish. Since entering the hotel, for the first time, I have found a wish more desperate than escape.”

Someone trapped in the hell created by the hotel, at the most painful moment of his life, had found a wish more desperate than escape.

“When I was young, my father was a drunk. Every day, he beat my mother and us children. You have no idea how desperately I wished that bastard would get shot and die on a dark street.”

Sang-hyeon’s words gradually began to ramble.

“Even in that environment, my mother worked hard to raise us. She always told us to live honestly and diligently. She said the world would reward us if we did. After living my life, I learned that was bullshit. I lived honestly and diligently, then came to my senses and found myself in this hotel.”

It felt as though the raging torrent of emotion had swept away his logic, leaving only the flow of his thoughts behind.

“But when I found myself in Room 203, a cult leader and con man, I realized something. No, it wasn’t that my mother had lied. I was being punished because I was not an honest man.”

It was ridiculous.

Sang-hyeon had not fallen into the hotel as punishment for lying. He lied to survive because he had fallen into the hotel.

“I want to undo it. I want to make the lies I have told for hundreds of years... no longer lies.”

“You...”

“That man lurking somewhere in the darkness of the hotel. The one who looks down on everyone from the highest seat. I must meet Buddha. And I will beg, and beg again. Please, let there be salvation for those who died in Room 203!”

I looked at the man, who had somehow fallen to his knees.

He was a husband apologizing to his wife and children, a priest confessing that he had deceived his followers.

He was also a human who had repeatedly broken down and risen again beneath trials he could not bear.

So I knelt across from him and prayed too.

“Please, let there be salvation.”

“... Please, let there be salvation.”

* * *

After some time, we began talking about Sang-hyeon and Ga-in.

“About Ga-in, wouldn’t it be too dangerous to let him leave in that state?”

Sang-hyeon hesitated instead of answering, so I reminded him of reality.

“You seem to feel like you owe Ga-in something.”

“Ga-in gave me a second chance when I was trapped in hell. And in Room 203, while I avoided danger to save my tribe, Ga-in was the one who faced the monsters.”

“I get it. I understand how you feel, but repay that debt properly when it’s just the two of you. Right now, take a step back and tell me honestly, for everyone else’s sake.”

“...”

“You probably understand his condition better than anyone.”

Sang-hyeon leaned against a train seat and considered it for a moment before answering honestly.

“I think it would be dangerous.”

“In what way? Would he suddenly take over our bodies?”

“For example, when we face a Curse Room together, Ga-in, who has become superior to all of us in many ways, might find the way we handle things frustrating.”

“That could happen.”

“The Ga-in from before would have tried to persuade us somehow... But the Ga-in now would probably just move our bodies and handle things in the way he thought was appropriate.”

“...”

“Because he would think that was more efficient.”

“What if we tell him not to do that?”

“There is a gap that cannot be bridged with just a few words between the values of ordinary humans, whose bodies form part of their identity, and someone who sees a body as an article of clothing that can be discarded at any time. To him, we would probably seem foolish.”

I understood what Sang-hyeon was saying.

Values that had fundamentally changed were not something we could persuade him out of with a few words.

Even if we protested strongly, the current Ga-in would not see taking over someone’s body as an evil act.

He might even control us more cleverly and flawlessly so we would not notice.

Management Bureau agents often encountered this.

Civilians who had stepped halfway into the darkness of the world often raged that the Management Bureau was the true great evil of the world.

It would be stranger not to be outraged by people who burned innocent lives as lightly as feathers.

Of course, we had our reasons too.

We simply knew that no amount of explanation would persuade ordinary people, so instead of persuading them, we pointed guns at them.

“Okay. Looking at the catalog, it seems that if we get off when the train reaches the terminal, we keep our memories. If we stay on the train, it’s oblivion.”

“That is what it says.”

“You decided everything amongst yourselves, leaving Ga-in... leaving me out?”

The air froze in the next moment.

Sang-hyeon and I could not even take a deep breath as we slightly turned our heads to the side.

Ga-in had somehow come nearby and was smiling brightly.

“...”

“Why, are you mad? Because I borrowed your voice again?”

This time, the sentence had not come through my throat or Sang-hyeon’s.

It seemed Ga-in had finally figured out how to speak with his own mouth.

“...”

“Isn’t that cruel? You’re talking about me while ignoring my opinion?”

“... Until just now, I’d have been generous to call you childlike.”

“Hey! I just didn’t know how to talk. Oh, and I’ll apologize for cutting meat with your hand. I heard that was uncomfortable too.”

“...”

“You find the strangest things uncomfortable. Can’t I use your hand a little? You can use my hand too.”

“...”

Ga-in studied my expression, then suddenly picked up a piece of cold meat left on the plate and carefully held it out to me.

“Here!”

“What is this?”

“You were angry because I cut meat with your hand earlier, right? This time, I tore off meat with my own hand and gave it to you. You can’t understand even that?”

It was absurd, but he looked ready to put it in my mouth if I waited any longer, so I had no choice but to accept it and eat it.

“There, now it’s settled! Right?”

“...”

“It’s settled. Is this the catalog you two have been looking at? What’s this?”

When Ga-in pointed at the first page, Sang-hyeon calmly explained.

“It is a page for choosing an Inheritance.”

“I guess I can’t choose one. There’s a notification saying I have already lost my qualification as a participant.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? Those are just the rules.”

“...”

An indescribable tension slowly filled the train.

Then a sound broke the silence.

--- Clank!

[This station is Hotel, Hotel. There are no further stops.]

“Looks like we’ve arrived.”

“Miss A-ri, let’s get off.”

Sang-hyeon approached the door with an expression that looked more relieved than anything.

He had felt a considerable debt toward Ga-in since earlier. He seemed to consider this situation a blessing in disguise.

Ga-in understood the situation now, so he could make his own decision.

Just as I was about to walk toward the door, Ga-in reached out and grabbed my shoulder.

“You... I remember your name now. It’s A-ri, right?”

“That’s right.”

“What do you think? Should I get off or not?”

“... It’s up to you.”

“Come on! Your expression already tells me the answer.”

“...”

“Okay. I’ll stay here. Then the me outside will forget quite a lot.”

“... Goodbye. I’ll see you again later.”

Right before the train doors closed, the young man remaining on the other side suddenly grinned.

“A-ri, spilled water cannot be gathered again, and one who has hatched from an egg cannot return to it.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means whether you forget your memories or not is not as important as you think. We will meet again. Goodbye!”

That was my last memory of him.

... Probably.

Footnotes:

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