WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 395: A Midsummer Night's Dream (11)
──────
- Seven days earlier, Kim Sang-hyeon
“Let's see... Is this the place Ga-in mentioned?”
At the bottom of the hotel elevator control panel was a red button.
“It was so obvious that it probably made it harder to suspect.”
When I pressed the button, part of the elevator wall flipped over, revealing a keypad.
Beside it were small engraved words.
<Escape Route 1, Do Not Tell Others>
“Did the hotel write this down to encourage infighting?”
If so, the interior design was impressively thorough in the worst possible way.
I entered the password, 87439124.
--- Whiiiir! Whiiiir!
「Emergency escape activated! Emergency escape activated!」
The elevator interior darkened, and a deafening noise filled the space. Then, without warning, the elevator began to spin!
“Aaaah! What is this, some kind of spaceship?”
I couldn't get my bearings.
It felt like being a small animal trapped inside a washing machine on a high-speed cycle.
The elevator doors, unable to withstand the impact, rattled before flying open.
Outside was a place that could only be described as hell.
Countless people screamed endlessly in a world filled with lava and flames.
At least I understood why a Protective Suit was essential for escaping through the elevator: lava and flames poured into the elevator.
If I'd been wearing some cheap, makeshift fireproof suit, I would've already been dead by now.
The elevator continued flying endlessly through the burning hell.
* * *
“Hey, are you okay?”
“...”
“Shouldn't you go to a hospital?”
“... Ah.”
“Hello?”
“I'm fine. I was just lost in thought, so you don't need to worry.”
I found myself standing blankly beneath the warm sunlight.
A student passing by had asked if I was okay, so I must've been standing still for quite a while.
Looking around, I realized two things.
First, I had woken up on the outskirts of Austin, the capital of Texas and one of the busiest places in the United States.
I knew the place well since I attended high school in Austin.
Second, this world didn't seem to be my home.
--- Bang!
“Hey! Are you blind? Why are you standing there doing nothing?”
“... I'm sorry.”
The deer’s eyes suddenly turned red.
A police officer patrolling nearby casually fired a shotgun again and again, turning the deer into a lump of meat.
This was that kind of world.
* * *
In my experience, some Koreans had strange misconceptions about public safety in the United States.
They imagined that not only criminals but even police officers were constantly getting into gunfights.
Let me be clear: that's a problem limited to certain slums with the lowest standards of living and income.
It was even less applicable in a state like Texas, a driving force behind economic growth and the heart of the American South.
At least, that was the America I knew.
This place seemed different.
After walking for only a short while, I saw soldiers wearing bulletproof and stabproof vests reinforced with armor plates.
Every one of them openly carried not only shotguns but assault rifles, yet the surrounding citizens accepted it naturally.
In a world where deer suddenly tried to hypnotize people and “predator-type” pigeons flew around, it wasn't strange.
“... This really isn't my world.”
I wasn't surprised, since I had always known this was possible.
Hadn't I felt it several times while talking with my companions?
The realities we remembered were far too different.
Ga-in saw the Management Bureau as a secret organization that rarely showed itself, and he said he only occasionally saw monsters in world news.
Song-i was the complete opposite. She thought it was natural for every home to have Laser Turrets and tactical drones.
I was somewhere between the two.
I often saw news about monsters in the domestic news section.
Still, it wasn't a dangerous place where I was afraid to turn my head, like it was now.
That was when I noticed I was holding a stiff piece of paper.
“An Entrance Ticket.”
Like everything sold by the hotel, I instinctively knew what it was and how to use it.
The Protective Suit had transformed into an Entrance Ticket, and tearing it would let me return to the hotel.
Still, one concern came to mind.
Was I going to lose the Protective Suit forever?
If so, I had caused quite a serious problem...
My companions wouldn't blame me for something I did while out of my mind.
Regardless of whose fault it was, though, losing the Protective Suit was painful.
“Johnny! James complained that there was some idiot spacing out in the street, but I never imagined it was you!”
“...”
“What are you doing here? You came back to Austin and didn't even contact me first!”
“... Mama.”
* * *
“Didn't you say you got accepted into medical school somewhere, New York maybe?”
“...”
“But why... Never mind.”
“...”
“Things happen in life. Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Good. Rest on the sofa.”
Mama Sherry.
She was Black, had lost her husband and child in an accident long ago, and had considerable wealth.
To overcome the loss of her family, she had been involved in charity work for many years.
She brought poor local children of color over, fed them, and helped with their tuition. Because of that, people in the area saw her as something of a godmother, and she was widely respected.
For the record, I was one of the people she had helped.
Yes, that part was fine.
She had shown me kindness when I was young, so I was happy and glad to see her.
But I had no idea what this situation was.
It wasn't as though I was stupid.
To begin with, this wasn't the world I had lived in.
It was strange that someone I knew was here, and stranger still that she knew me.
Could this be some kind of parallel world, where Mama Sherry recognized the “me from this parallel world”?
“Seeing you on the sofa reminds me of the old days! Back when you were a sophomore at Westwood-”
“Is Westwood High School here?”
“Hm? Of course, in Anderson Mill, Austin-”
Mama frowned slightly before she could finish.
“... The school in Anderson Mill was Asterlake, wasn't it?”
“That's right. I saw it earlier.”
“Uh... What?”
“Mama, I graduated from Asterlake.”
“Did you? I must've gotten confused. You'll understand when you're as old as I am. Memories get muddled sometimes.”
“That happens.”
No.
Mama Sherry's memory was accurate, and I had graduated from Westwood High School.
That school didn't exist in this world.
A school called Asterlake, which I had never heard of or seen before, stood where my alma mater should have been.
A moment ago, Mama had remembered a high school that didn't exist in this world, and she had remembered me exactly as I was.
I understood the situation less and less.
There was another bizarre detail: the difference in age between Mama and me.
Mama had already been in her late forties when I was in my mid-teens.
Even excluding the time I spent in the hotel, I was now well over forty.
That meant Mama should have been past seventy, almost eighty, yet the woman before me looked to be in her sixties at most.
There was so much information I couldn't understand that my mind became calmer instead.
The experience I had gained in the hotel taught me something.
When you can't understand something, accept it and don't think too deeply about it.
* * *
Fortunately, Mama didn't seem to notice the contradictions in her own memories.
For example, she dismissed a school that didn't exist as a simple mistake.
She treated the issue of age just as simply.
“Johnny, how much hardship did you go through in New York?”
“That’s what I'd like to know.”
Mama seemed to think I had aged badly because I had suffered so much.
“What on earth happened to a smart child like you?”
“That’s what I'd like to know.”
I didn't know what had happened to me either.
“Stay here and rest for a few days, at least. Are your parents well?”
“They've probably passed away.”
Honestly, I wasn't even sure they had existed in this world.
“Oh! My goodness! I'm sorry.”
“It's fine.”
After that question, she didn't ask anything else about Johnny's unfortunate past.
Of course, it felt like she was writing an entire tragic weekend drama in her head.
Johnny Kim, a smart and talented Asian boy.
After wasting his life among selfish, narrow-minded New Yorkers, he felt empty and returned to his hometown.
Wasn't that roughly the story?
Judging by Mama's range of expressions, the adorable Johnny Kim in her heart seemed to have gone through a major upheaval in life.
I decided to accept this too.
There was no way to explain the truth anyway.
“Is it good?”
“Of course. Your gumbo is even better than it used to be, Mama. I think you seared the chicken before adding it to the soup, and the shrimp are wonderfully firm.”
“...”
“Also, the sweetness of the onions in the gumbo is excellent. It doesn't seem like you just boiled them in the soup. Did you caramelize them separately before adding them?”
“Johnny, did you open a restaurant in New York?”
“I didn't.”
I gradually began to feel at ease.
She wasn't my parent, but she was someone I was just as grateful for, and being welcomed by her felt especially meaningful.
I decided to put my complicated thoughts aside for now.
“Do you have anywhere to go?”
“...”
“I told you earlier, didn't I? You can stay here for a few days. This house is too big for me to live in alone.”
* * *
Late at night.
--- Creeeak!
I woke with a start at the sound from the window.
...
Beyond the window, in the dark space outside, was an unidentified shape giving off a faint glow.
I had no intention of staying still and letting it get me, so I got up and grabbed a golf club lying beside the bed.
Then I heard a hushed voice.
“Johnny, Johnny!”
“... Mama?”
“Stay still and it’ll pass soon.”
It was a scene straight out of a horror movie, yet the old woman's calm attitude suggested a lot.
It meant she was used to things like this, just as I was.
“What is that?”
“I don't know, either.”
“Did you report it to the Management Bureau?”
“I did, but... You know how it is. Those people are always so busy!”
“...”
--- Creeeak!
The chilling sound came again.
“Do you have a gun?”
“Johnny, just wait-”
“I'm sorry, but I know more about these things than you do, Mama.”
“...”
She wasn't telling me to wait because she knew something about that monster.
She was only trembling because she had no way to fight it, and because even if she reported it to the Management Bureau, they wouldn't deal with it.
That helplessness was how someone who was protected responded, not someone who protected others.
“Do you have a gun?”
“... I have one double-barreled shotgun.”
“Please give it to me.”
“I, I haven't maintained it very well-”
“That's fine.”
It looked like it was going to be a long night.
Strangely, I didn't feel bad about it.
Footnotes:
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