WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 45: Room 104, The Cursed Room - ‘Hotel High, the Prestigious Entrance Exam School’ (5)
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[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 18
Current Location: Level 1, Room 104 (Curse Room - Hotel High, the Prestigious Academy)
Sage’s Advice: 3]
Lee Eun-sol (Teacher): Come out.
It had begun.
The clock in the dorm room read 1 a.m. At this hour, most people would be asleep, aside from the teachers on night duty and the guards. Tonight, we would escape this place.
* * *
After gathering a few textbooks and a lighter, I left the room.
Tap. Tap.
Footsteps. No matter how carefully I stepped, they echoed through the empty dormitory at night. After a moment's thought, I took off my shoes and walked in my socks.
My room was on the third floor. There wasn't a guard on every floor, so getting down to the first floor was easy. The problem was the dormitory's main entrance on the first floor. A guard stood watch in front of it, and the door was locked.
A fire detector hung above the stairs. The plan was to use it to lure out the first-floor guard, but would it work? First, I stacked three or four books and set them on fire. There had been more than a few times during school when I wanted to burn my textbooks. My wish was finally coming true.
----Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The alarm went off just as I reached the first floor. Watching the guard station from behind a wall, I saw the guard run outside.
While the guard was gone, I made my way to the main entrance.
Han Ga-in (Student): I'm here!
----Beep!
The lock released, and Eun-sol opened the door with her teacher card.
"Let's go. I parked it out front."
As soon as I stepped outside, I found a black SUV. Where were the women?
When I turned around, Elena and A-ri were already in the back, while Grandpa Mook-seong sat in the driver's seat.
The escape of five people had begun.
* * *
"You got out quickly."
"I just followed A-ri, but she confidently walked up to the main gate and looked at the guard. Then the guard opened it on their own."
The hypnosis A-ri had used on me before. She had used it on the guard.
"All three of you, quiet. Don't you know you can't get caught? Go to the very back, cover yourselves with this, and lie down."
Something like a black cloth flew toward us. It was almost the same color as the seats. Since it was nighttime, we would be nearly invisible under it.
The three of us climbed into the cargo space behind the seats and pulled the cloth over ourselves.
"Ah, sorry. I couldn't see very well."
"No, it's okay."
"I said quiet!"
Hiding three people in such a cramped space was incredibly difficult. Our hands and feet kept bumping into something soft. I decided not to think about what it was anymore...
* * *
----Thunk. ----Thunk.
"What brings you out at this late hour?"
"Thank you for your hard work. I have something to take care of in town."
"May I see your card?"
"Here."
"Confirmed, faculty member Lee Eun-sol. But as you know, late-night outings need to be approved in advance."
"It's urgent."
"Urgent or not, I can't allow it."
"Good grief. Young man, I'm going out to pick up teaching materials. Are you really going to be this strict about it?"
"Ah, sorry, but you're picking up teaching materials at this hour?"
"I'm not buying them. Someone I know in town set them aside for me."
"Uh..."
"Good grief. Are you going to keep this up? Didn't you just confirm my faculty ID?"
"A-all right. But please make sure to apply in advance next time."
* * *
It looked like we could get out without much trouble.
Still, even in this bizarre Hotel High, pulling rank because of age worked. Then again, throwing muscle around had worked yesterday too. Korean culture showed up in the strangest places at this prestigious academy.
Once we passed through the school's main gate, the tension eased.
Was this our escape? Now that we were outside the school, there was nothing left to tie us down, was there?
The others must have thought the same, because they removed the cloth and sat up.
"Think we're good now?"
"I don't know. At least we're out of the school. If we keep following the road, does that mean we've escaped?"
"Strictly speaking, we're still on school grounds. I looked through various documents in the faculty office yesterday, and this absurd school owns all the vast land beyond the main gate through its school foundation."
"Then do we have to get completely off the foundation's land?"
"No way to know. It'll take about twenty minutes to get out of it."
"Twenty minutes by car? Step on it a little more."
"This is a piece of junk. It won't even go fifty kilometers an hour. That department head calls this thing a car?"
We had relaxed, chatting about this and that.
Then the crisis began.
-----------Wheeeeee! --------Wheeeeeeee!
???
"Wh-what is that?"
"A pursuit team."
"A pursuit team? What kind of high school has a pursuit team?"
"A high school occupied by a cult that replaces people might have a pursuit team."
"Grandpa! Can't you go any faster?"
"This damn junker won't go any faster! What the hell is this?"
--------- Stop! ----------- Stop!
I looked behind the car. Judging by the number of headlights, there were at least four or five vehicles. They were much faster, too.
"Eun-sol! What do we do? What are we supposed to do?"
"I don't know! It's too late to turn back now. Old man, floor it like your life depends on it. They wouldn't get rough with a car carrying teachers and students, would they? I think something will happen if we can just get off this school's land somehow."
---------Bang! -------Bang! -------Bang!
Gunfire rang out, making a mockery of the claim that they wouldn't get rough with teachers and students! Were they insane?
Something was strange.
If they were a group this reckless, couldn't they have simply threatened us with guns and taken us to the Old School Building as soon as we arrived at the school?
The respectable-sounding title of a prestigious academy. The tests and triathlons, the pretexts they had prepared to take us to the Old School Building.
Until now, they had clearly tried to hide something. Yet now they were taking extreme measures as if none of that mattered anymore. Had A-ri reached the same conclusion? She spoke.
"We touched a nerve."
"Did we do something they can never tolerate?"
"Otherwise, this level of extremity makes no sense."
"Because we tried to escape? Because we're trying to leave Room 104..."
"It probably is because of the escape attempt. But instead of thinking about the cause that way, how about considering it from the perspective of those within the stage?"
The perspective of those within the stage.
Right. The fact that this stage was a world created by the hotel was something only transcendent beings like the Devourer knew. Most of its characters did not.
From the perspective of those within the stage, they were a cult doing strange things to people.
"Are they trying to avoid being exposed to the outside world?"
"Replacing people is their ultimate goal, but to do it, they built an entrance exam school, bought vast tracts of land, and even provide actual entrance exam education. They're trying their best not to draw attention."
They were extremely reluctant to attract the outside world's attention.
If we could use that fact...
A car from the opposing side appeared in front of us.
----Bang! ---Bang! - Bang! Crash!
Screeeeech! Boom!
The car spun around and around. Dancing like a beast completely out of control, it left the road and crashed violently into the hill beside it. My whole body ached from being thrown around and hitting things in that brief instant. Dazed, I looked toward the driver's seat.
Grandpa Mook-seong's head had burst open.
...
I had seen brutal scenes without pause since entering the hotel. Still, I could never get used to something like this. I barely held back the urge to vomit.
A-ri approached without a word and closed Grandpa Mook-seong's eyes. As for Eun-sol... there was a hole through her body too. I closed her eyes.
The teacher team had been wiped out in an instant.
My breath stopped. An indescribable despair washed over me. Was this the end? Would we be dragged back to the school and replaced?
At that moment, something changed in Elena, who had been silent all this time.
* * *
‘Elena’ thought her stomach was churning.
‘Why can't I...’
‘Why can't I do anything?’
Everyone else had found a role through their Blessings, leadership, combat ability, mysterious tools, and more.
Even now, there was nothing I could do. Even while escaping, I had only followed A-ri. And now a pursuit team had come, firing guns to kill us all...
To kill us all?
My mind suddenly cleared, as if someone had poured cold water over me.
Knowledge I had never possessed rose to the surface.
Knowledge? Could this be called knowledge?
It felt more like a sensation.
Deep inside.
My soul? My heart?
In some unknowable place, a set of Scales stood.
Scales that weighed people's sins.
What was Justice? Those who committed sins had to face retribution.
Even the people of far-off ancient Rome had believed there was a god somewhere who could weigh sins and establish proper order. They hoped the Scales of the goddess of justice would bring order to the world.
I knew what I had to do.
* * *
"We've subdued them! The two teachers are dead! What should we do with the students in the back seat?"
"We were instructed not to kill the children. It is too late for corrupt adults, but the children still have a path to salvation. Keep them alive and bring them back."
----Click.
"Come out. Your sins are not small, but the Lord's embrace is boundless. You can still be forgiven-"
----Crunch!
It was as if a massive hammer from the sky had struck the cultist. In an instant, the cultist was crushed like mashed potatoes.
Before I could even be shocked by the brutality, I was too stunned to understand what was happening.
"What is this? What the hell is going on? All of a sudden-"
----Crunch!
Another was crushed. I forced my way out of the half-destroyed car and looked at Elena.
Something, a golden glowing object. Scales? The Scales orbited Elena.
----Thud! ----Thud!
The pursuit team burst apart in moments, as if gigantic hammers were striking down from the sky.
----Bang! Bang! Bang!
Only then did the pursuit team begin firing their guns.
A meaningless resistance.
Elena hadn't even left the car, and the half-destroyed vehicle made an excellent shield.
That was how Elena, staring blankly at the sky from inside the car, blew apart all twenty-plus members of the pursuit team.
A-ri's curious voice rang out, as calm as if nothing had happened.
"Is this the power of Justice?"
"Yes."
"What exactly is the mechanism? I knew it would be powerful because the conditions were complicated, but this is absurd."
"I don't know... I'm still trying to understand it myself. I think we should talk after we get out of here."
"That's true."
"That's enough talking. Let's escape right away. We've come quite far by car, so if we walk for about an hour, we'll be off this damned school's land."
"No."
"Miss Elena? What do you-"
"Justice means fairness. Once enforcement begins, I cannot arbitrarily choose whom to punish and whom to spare. Since the execution has begun, I have to see it through to the end."
"See it through to the end. Don't tell me you mean going back to the school?"
"Sounds like it. Do we have to go back to the school and kill all the other cultists too? Once a Blessing activates, can she not stop it herself?"
"I don't know if I have to kill them all. But I have to go back."
It was a thoroughly exhausting ability. Its power was ridiculous, enough to blow apart dozens of people without lifting a hand. None of the Blessings we had seen so far had carried this kind of impact.
But its conditions were absurdly numerous too.
1. The target had to be a human-like entity.
2. Elena had to recognize their evil actions.
We had known that much, but there had been a third condition.
3. Once execution began, she could not stop it voluntarily.
"What should we do? It seems Elena has no choice, but should you and I at least run away, A-ri?"
You need not worry about such things.
You, too, have no choice.
From the sky, an angel descended.
Footnotes:
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