WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 413: Glory and Transcendence (2) (Final)
──────
- Han Ga-in
“Ga-in. Um... I have something I want to say.”
“...”
I had to admit it.
My heart fluttered a little when I saw Ga-young again after so long.
“About back then... I’m sorry. I wanted to contact you many times afterward, but somehow, I felt too embarrassed.”
“E-embarrassed...?”
“Ga-in. W-would you...!”
“...”
“Would you...! Go out with m-”
“Argh! I really can’t listen to this!”
“Huh?”
I ran away like mad without looking back!
Damn it! What was this supposed to show me?
A scene where Ga-young confessed to me and we started dating?
As I ran down the road, cursing nonstop, Revelation reacted in confusion.
「The happy scene was about to begin. Why did you run away?」
“Happy, my ass! That’s not even the real Ga-young, so what-”
「Of course, this scene is an illusion. Yet an illusion that can be realized means more than a mere dream.」
An illusion that could be realized.
Infinite glory laid out before me.
I knew Revelation’s intentions.
He hadn’t tried to hide them in the first place.
This was an extension of what the Owl had once told me.
「A person’s mind is like water held in a vessel.」
“...”
「Too much black paint imbued with demonic power has mixed into that water. It is not necessarily a bad thing. Great wisdom is mixed into that paint as well.」
“...”
「How should you respond? The Owl bestowed its Guidance upon you.」
The first method was to embrace a humanity that would never disappear.
The Owl described it as freezing the water.
That was A-ri’s state.
She had been born holding a love for Mi-ro that would never melt.
It wasn’t an easy method for me to follow.
The second method was to obtain power that moved in a different direction from the Grimoire.
The Owl described it as pouring white paint into the water.
「The Sacred Sun’s rank is in no way inferior to the Grimoire’s.... The Lord’s glory shall make you shine.」
“... Fine. I get what you’re trying to say, but what the hell does that have to do with Ga-young confessing to me?”
「The Lord’s glory lets you fulfill even lingering desires for time gone by and an unfulfilled first love-」
“Damn it! You bastard! You’re trying to shake me up by humiliating me, aren’t you? You think I’d fall for something like-”
「You misunderstand. If that were my purpose, I would have shown you this.」
--- KakaoTalk!
“...”
The instant I heard that sound, my breath caught.
One possible KakaoTalk message came to mind in a situation like this.
--- KakaoTalk!
“No, right?”
Come on! It couldn’t be that.
No matter how inhuman Revelation was, surely he wouldn’t go this far.
My hands shook as I opened KakaoTalk on my phone.
“Eek!”
Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah! Aaaaaah!
I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die. I wanted to die.
I’m not joking, I really want to kill myself!
The despair I felt then couldn’t possibly be expressed in a few words.
Exaggerating a little, it was comparable to how I felt when I met the Prisoner in a Curse Room.
This was a memory I wanted to shove into the deepest part of my mind and forget forever!
The horrifying KakaoTalk confession I sent Ga-young in middle school!
Someone besides me knew about this?
「Strictly speaking, I am not someone other than you-」
“AAAAAAH!”
Half out of my mind, I tore at the dream with the Grimoire’s power.
More accurately, I tried to tear it apart.
I would have, if someone hadn’t grabbed my arm just before then.
--- Grab!
“...”
He appeared wrapped in darkness.
He was a far more familiar presence than Revelation.
He was the being who had awakened the instant I obtained the Grimoire.
And he had been completed over the long years I spent in Room 203.
The first thing I heard was laughter.
“Hahahaha! Th-this is seriously so funny!”
“...”
“No, wow! Isn’t Revelation completely insane?”
“...”
“Ga-in, you kind of understood too, right? Revelation wasn’t trying to tease you or make you suffer.”
“... I know.”
“He genuinely thought this was a happy scene he should show you!”
“He lacks an understanding of humans.”
“That’s it! He was trying to show you some fairy-tale beauty, like how even unfulfilled love could come true for you, and he pulled this idiotic stunt. Heh! If it were me, I’d have just shown you Elena, A-ri, Mi-ro, and Song-i-”
“Please shut up.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll be quiet.”
“...”
“Wow! But this KakaoTalk message is completely crazy. Seriously, what were you thinking when you sent something like this?”
The number of beings who knew the secret I wanted to hide most in my life had risen to three.
“Wow! The KakaoTalk confession was already idiotic enough, but what was that April Fools’ Day joke? Who the hell taught you something like that?”
What if I shoved this bastard into a truck?
It was a mental world anyway, so would that be meaningless?
“This won’t do. There was something I wanted to show you too, but something more urgent has come up.”
“... Something urgent?”
“As you know, I’m not really a being separate from you. Light Ga-in? Dark Ga-in? Human Ga-in? Distinctions like that mean nothing.”
“...”
“So this is a process where one Han Ga-in considers the direction he should take.”
“...”
“I wanted to show you the path of Transcendence. But now that I think about it, what I’m about to do is similar.”
“What’s similar about it?”
“What is Transcendence?”
“What?”
“It’s when the world doesn’t define me, but I define the world. Isn’t that Transcendence?”
“What kind of vague nonsense is-”
“I’ll show you. This is a kind of psychological treatment too.”
* * *
There was a perfectly logical and valid reason for what I was about to do.
What happened with Ga-young in my memories was a kind of trauma.
I had only forgotten about it because nothing normally provoked it.
But I’d felt it earlier. If someone poked at this wound, it hurt like hell!
「What does that have to do with this bizarre behavior?」
“Will you seriously not shut up?”
Emotional wounds weren’t all that different from physical wounds.
Both hurt, both could become weaknesses, and both had to be healed.
That was why I had to do this.
With my resolve firm, I looked at Ga-young, whose eyes sparkled.
“G-Ga-in! What do you think about what I said earlier? Um, I... I...”
I answered in a steady, decisive voice.
“I’m sorry.”
The eyes of the regional A-tier beauty widened, and she stood there with her mouth half open, unable to say anything.
“Ga-young, I actually have a girlfriend.”
This was it!
“I-I never heard about that!”
“Ah, I guess you didn’t know because I never told anyone else? Here, this is a photo we took before-”
I showed her a photo of myself with A-ri, smiling happily.
Naturally, I had simply created the photo.
This was an imaginary world. Why wouldn’t it be possible?
“Sniff, sob!”
I felt so refreshed!
The corners of my lips rose as satisfaction surged through me, but Revelation cut in as if he couldn’t take it anymore.
「What does this possibly have to do with ‘resolving trauma’?」
The boy who appeared beside me giggled as though he had been waiting for that.
“Hey, hey! Ignore that idiot. More importantly, let’s do it again.”
“Again?”
“Again! Do you think one time is enough to cure it?”
The Grimoire’s self said so, and I had no choice.
This was the process of healing my emotional wound!
「...」
* * *
That was how I dumped the illusory Ga-young three times, at a coffee shop, a university campus, and a high school field.
After doing it a few times, I remembered how Mi-ro confessed to me and then suddenly insisted, “I was the one who dumped you!”
At the time, I wondered what kind of foolishness that was, but it was unexpectedly effective.
And now came the most important moment.
--- Gulp!
Without realizing it, I swallowed as I looked at him.
He was working hard to alter the “image,” and this was the most important procedure of the treatment so far.
“Is it going well?”
“I’m concentrating, so don’t interrupt me.”
He’d seemed unable to stop joking every time he opened his mouth, but he was so immersed in it now that even his tone was different.
“As you know, this isn’t simply manipulating an image. We’re altering the memories inside ‘our’ heads.”
“Gasp!”
“It’s possible because this is a mental world. Ah!”
“Ah?”
“I-it’s finished now!”
The moment the Grimoire’s self smiled happily, the image in my mind was replaced.
“Whew.... It’s done now. Every truth has been buried in history. I’ve never been dumped-”
He gave me a puzzled look.
“What are you talking about? Who got dumped? Ah, are you talking about the time you turned down Ga-young?”
The trauma that had occupied one corner of my heart for years melted away, and someone muttered.
「I wanted to hold back, but I must ask. What does this have to do with ‘Transcendence’?」
“...”
「Did demonic power taint you? Or did you taint demonic power even more than it tainted you....」
And so, that bizarre dream ended.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 274
Current Location: Level 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
As soon as I came out, my companions rushed over with wide eyes.
“W-what was it like?”
Elena grabbed my shoulder with a worried expression, while A-ri examined me closely.
Mi-ro looked like she’d already cried once or twice.
“... Excuse me?”
What was it like?
I suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Song-i’s eyes widened.
“Ga-in! You said you were going to talk to the Lord, or Revelation, or something like that? A-ri said she heard you say that.”
“...”
Come to think of it, I had.
“R-Revelation, you see, is a sort of pseudo-personality created by the Lord. I talked with him.”
“What did you talk about?”
“N-nothing much. You could say we had a deep discussion about the direction I should take from now on?”
A-ri tilted her head.
“Why are you stuttering like that?”
“I-I’m surprised. Everyone’s gathered around me like this.”
“That’s because you suddenly collapsed and kept sleeping.”
“Anyway, it wasn’t bad. I clearly realized the meaning contained in Descent and the Sacred Sun. And...”
“And?”
“I had a little mental growth.”
“Mental growth?”
My companions tilted their heads as though they couldn’t understand.
“It’s nothing. I guess I let go of a little guilt from when I was younger.”
It really was nothing.
So I relaxed and talked with them over drinks at the refreshment table.
“Was it my third year of middle school? There was a girl named Ga-young who confessed to me.”
“Ah! W-what happened?”
The moment I mentioned a confession, Mi-ro blushed and cried out, while Jin-cheol was already chuckling and hitting the table.
“It wasn’t anything special. For one reason or another, I told her it would be difficult for us to date. Then she got really hurt-”
“Ga-in, you bastard! You’ve been doing this since middle school?”
“Ah.... I’m jealous, Ga-in....”
“Seung-yeop.”
“G-Grandpa?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to introduce you to someone your age later.”
“Gasp!”
“Haha, Agent, won’t Seung-yeop meet someone in the Hotel?”
“That brings its own problems....”
“Wahahaha!”
It was a lively atmosphere, a pleasant time.
They say that for people living breathlessly from one day to the next, falling asleep as soon as they lay down is a skill.
As the saying goes, we tried to find happiness, even if only briefly, between trials.
That was our way.
By evening, we finally decided to see the end of the room we had put off for so long.
Tomorrow, we would enter Room 104.
I had also spent Sage’s Advice lavishly on Room 104.
“...”
Just before I fell asleep, a trivial question occurred to me.
Why had I remembered turning Ga-young down for so many years as though it were some kind of trauma?
Who knew?
Footnotes:
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