WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 433: A Family with Deep Roots (9) Fin
──────
- Han Ga-in
I touched the jar's lid and thought.
The final variable in this whole matter, and the tagger in the second game.
My great-grandfather trapped inside the jar, the soul of the real Han Jin-seong.
“...”
What kind of person was he?
Through the recurring dreams, through seeing my great-grandfather fall into the abyss with me again and again, I had realized something.
The sane Han Jin-seong had never been an evil man. He could be somewhat spiteful, but he was closer to a kind old man who cared for his descendants.
Besides, the Management Bureau, which he had devoted his youth to, was fundamentally an organization that protected the world.
--- Creak!
The moment the jar opened, the employees began to panic at the Name Tags that had suddenly appeared.
“Good heavens! W-what is this?”
“They look like Name Tags. Elder, are you all right?”
I calmed everyone in a firm voice.
“Settle down! This jar is sacred by nature, so there’s nothing to be startled about. Seung-chan!”
“Yes!”
“You’ve got Ga-in secured, right?”
“He can’t move a muscle.”
After half a day of harsh corporal punishment and military-style drills, Han Min-sang was on the verge of passing out.
Though he knew the game had begun again, he couldn’t even twitch a finger.
All he could do was lift his head slightly, his face filled with despair.
“...”
Seeing that bastard possess my body like that gave me complicated feelings.
--- Thud!
When I peeled the [Han Min-sang] Name Tag from my body’s chest, it slumped to the floor like a machine that had lost power.
“...”
Now all that remained was to have an employee move the [Han Ga-in] Name Tag that had appeared on my chest to my original body.
“Can everyone hear me?”
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
“It’s nothing serious, so don’t worry. Go to the next room. You won’t be able to leave the house anyway, so don’t waste your effort trying.”
“Understood.”
The employees left for the next room as ordered, though they looked utterly confused by the situation.
Only the jar, my body collapsed on the floor, Han Min-sang’s Name Tag in my hand, and I remained in the room.
“You can come out now. No, please come out.”
...
“Grandfather, everyone has been cleared out. I have nothing but your younger brother’s Name Tag in my hand.”
...
“If you don’t say anything, I’ll put your younger brother’s Name Tag back in the jar and close the lid.”
As I began speaking to my great-grandfather, my manner of speech quickly returned to normal.
Soon, amid a phlegmy rattle, I heard a familiar voice.
“Child... Stop for a moment.”
“...”
“Listen to me.”
“I’ve stopped.”
Before long, a pale, smoky shape appeared in the air.
It was my great-grandfather’s soul. Though he had lost his body, the jar’s magic had kept him from departing for the world of the dead.
“Thank you. How long... have I been in the jar?”
“You were trapped last night. It’s been about sixteen hours.”
“Only that long... I was trapped for only sixteen hours, yet it was so cold and cruel...”
“...”
“Min-sang, my younger brother, is such a pitiful child.”
I had no intention of denying that.
“Grandfather, I have a question. Please answer honestly.”
“I will. With things having come to this, what secret could I possibly have left?”
Who had started the second game now in progress?
Me.
I was outside the jar. I brought it over and opened its lid, starting the second game.
Once I recognized that fact, a question naturally came to mind.
Then who had started the first game?
Han Min-sang inside the jar?
“No matter how I think about it, I don’t believe a Sacrifice trapped inside the jar could escape on his own. If that were possible, why would Han Min-sang have remained trapped for decades?”
“...”
“Someone brought the jar over and released him.”
“...”
“You’re the only one who could have done it. Why did you let him out?”
The person who had started the first game was my great-grandfather.
When I pointed that out, the drifting pale smoke suddenly twisted.
Not long after, smoke began rising from the black hollows where something like a face’s eyes should have been. I understood at once.
My great-grandfather was crying, even in his state as a soul.
“... Grandfather.”
Thinking back, the evidence that he had started the first game had been obvious.
He was the only person who knew about the jar, and every time the first game began, he had been found collapsed beside it.
“Why did you do it?”
Because he pitied his younger brother, who had suffered inside the jar?
That much was understandable as human emotion, but I couldn’t understand what came next.
Why had he specifically released him when his young descendants were gathered in this house?
“Did you pity your brother because your time was near? Were you worried that no one would release him after you died?”
“Child...”
“Then why did you release him here, when we were all gathered together?”
Then I heard the old man’s hollow voice.
“You’re a very clever child, but you’ve misunderstood one thing about this old man.”
“What is it?”
“I never intended to release my brother... Think about it. Min-sang was my kind younger brother seventy years ago, wasn’t he?”
“That’s right.”
“You subdued Min-sang, so you know better than I do. What sort of being does he seem like to you?”
“... An evil spirit. A demon. Something that shouldn’t exist in this world.”
“I worked for the Management Bureau for decades. Do you think I didn’t know that?”
My great-grandfather had spent his youth with the Management Bureau.
Even if someone had once been kind, he knew full well that being warped for decades by such an evil Magical Artifact would leave behind nothing but malice.
“Then what happened?”
“I... intended to break the jar.”
“...”
“Break the jar! Release my brother for good! Then contact the Management Bureau and tell them to take the property.”
For a moment, I was impressed.
What my great-grandfather had intended to do was exactly the same as the plan I had made.
Even if he broke the jar, the only way for his descendants to avoid the curse was for the Management Bureau to take the property.
“Then you all would have lived well without anything happening.”
“Even so, you would have been cursed, Grandfather.”
If the Management Bureau took all the assets worth over a hundred billion won after the jar was broken, his descendants might be released, but my great-grandfather couldn’t escape that way.
He had already lived off the wealth created by the jar for a long time.
“What is there to fear? I enjoyed blessings I never deserved for decades. Then I can just die!”
“How did you fail?”
“... The devil held my hand.”
The devil?
Had Han Min-sang inside the jar used some kind of trick? Was that even possible?
“I can tell just by looking at your eyes. You’re wondering whether Min-sang interfered with me, aren’t you?”
“Didn’t he?”
“No. There was a real devil, one who couldn’t even be compared to Min-sang.”
The real devil who had prevented my great-grandfather from breaking the jar.
The pale mist made a motion as though extending an arm, pointing around the room.
“Do you know how much this house is worth?”
“...”
“Do you know the value of the green tea field where your father is picking tea leaves?”
“...”
“The Seryuk Building in Gangnam is worth twenty-two billion won right now.”
“...”
“Grandson. Do you know what it means to have a lot of money?”
“Grandfather...”
“Do you think this land of Joseon is truly equal?”
“...”
“Of course not! There are clearly those above and below, and I lived above others my whole life. That was my fortune.”
My great-grandfather explained in an agitated voice what it meant to possess more than a hundred billion won.
“To hand all of this... over to the Management Bureau. When I thought of that, my hands began to shake. It meant I couldn’t share the blessings I had enjoyed my whole life... with you all.”
“So you couldn’t break the jar?”
“I tried to break it, but then this hanok suddenly caught my eye, and strength left my hand. Before I knew it, I fumbled around and only opened the lid.”
The truth of what had happened last night was absurd in many ways and, in a sense, even anticlimactic.
“If that’s the issue, it’s already resolved. I contacted the Management Bureau through Attorney Park. Someone will arrive tomorrow or the day after.”
“What? You already contacted them?”
“What good is a hundred billion won or any of that shit if it’s cursed wealth? I was going to tell them to take it all.”
The pale smoke trembled and pulsed.
Even without a body, I could feel just how shocked my great-grandfather was.
“How can you... at your age, at your age, how can you do that? Don’t you know what a hundred billion won means? How can you just...”
“...”
“No. I, this old man, was truly pathetic! There is nothing more precious than a human life, whether it’s a hundred billion won or anything else. How could I, at my age, fail to know what even a child like you knows...”
It wasn’t as though I lacked greed.
I was simply detached because I knew all of this was nothing more than an illusion of the past.
“I’ll return to my body now.”
“... I’ll help you. You’ll faint the moment you remove the Name Tag, so it won’t be easy to move it.”
“You’re right.”
...
...
...
When I regained consciousness, I was back in the body of a handsome, smart, kind boy.
... The moment I returned, I screamed.
“Argh! T-this hurts like crazy!”
“Hah! You acted so clever a moment ago, but getting hit with a switch hurts that much?”
My great-grandfather had also recovered his original body.
“It really hurts like crazy!”
“Who are you blaming? This happened because you tormented poor Min-sang.”
“...”
That was true.
At some point, my great-grandfather was looking down at the jar with a bitter expression.
He was now holding the ‘Han Min-sang’ Name Tag in his hand.
“... Grandfather.”
“I just had this thought again.”
“...”
“What if Min-sang’s Name Tag were put back in the jar and the lid closed?”
“...”
“I’ll die soon, but you all will live above others your entire lives, and die above them too.”
“...”
“People... can be this cruel. If that isn’t a devil, what is?”
“Shall I break it for you?”
“... As expected.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re better than I am.”
“...”
My great-grandfather stepped back two paces with a gloomy expression.
I endured the pain and approached the jar.
“I’ll break it.”
“Don’t ask. Do it. Didn’t I say you were better than I am?”
I picked up the wooden headrest lying nearby and raised it.
--- Click!
The surroundings suddenly darkened.
A firm hand that appeared from within the darkness grabbed my arm.
“You must be hurting. How about sitting back down?”
“...”
“Elder, it’s been a long time.”
Countless thoughts swirled through my mind.
Who was this? He wasn’t an employee, so was he an outsider?
The game was still in progress. The space around us should have been sealed by the jar’s magic, so no one should have been able to enter or leave freely.
His height and build suggested a reasonably well-trained adult man, but I couldn’t clearly see his face in the dark.
“... KD. Ga-in said you would come tomorrow or the day after.”
“Are you disappointed that I came early?”
“Of course not. I’m grateful, if anything.”
KD, the person Attorney Park had called?
He was a Management Bureau contact my great-grandfather knew personally.
If so, it made sense that he could break into the enclosed space created by the jar.
He couldn’t be an ordinary person either.
“I’ll take the jar.”
“I was originally planning to break it.”
“To release the soul of your younger brother trapped inside? Ah, his soul is outside now.”
“... Is there anything you don’t know?”
“Please give me Han Min-sang’s Name Tag.”
My great-grandfather handed over the Name Tag with an uneasy expression, and KD tore it apart without hesitation.
“Urgh! S-suddenly-”
“Your younger brother is now released from suffering. I’ll take the jar.”
KD walked over without hesitation, picked up the jar from the floor, and closed its lid.
At that moment, the Name Tags on my great-grandfather’s and my chests disappeared.
No Name Tag had been placed inside the jar, yet the game had ended!
Rather than joy, I felt dumbfounded in that moment, and even a little anticlimactic.
The man before us ignored every rule of the trial we had struggled to learn, yet settled the whole situation without any problem.
My great-grandfather spoke with a stunned expression.
“T-the property...”
“I’m sorry, but this property cannot be inherited. You know why, don’t you?”
“... I do.”
“The company will send people soon. The cleanup will be thorough, so you needn’t worry.”
“...”
No one.
Not a single person had explained the jar’s rules or the cursed property to KD.
Yet KD understood the situation more accurately than anyone present.
“Congratulations!”
“... Congratulations?”
“Of course. The matter that has tormented your heart for so long is over now, isn’t it? I hope you spend the rest of your life in comfort.”
“My, my children...”
“Why are you worrying so much? They’ll all do well on their own without that hundred billion won. Ga-in’s father works for a major company too.”
“...”
“Congratulations.”
“... Thank you.”
And so, this confusing trial came to an end.
Then the firm hand in the darkness grabbed me again.
“Huh?”
“Let’s have a talk somewhere bright.”
Footnotes:
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