WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 466: Room 206, Curse Room - The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days Re (25)
──────
- Yoo Song-i
Tobias was an old man in a suit, a Second-Class Citizen and Master Enforcer.
Despite the lofty title, he couldn't hide his utter confusion.
The mayor had been assassinated out of the blue.
“So... an Apostle of the Demon King Cult infiltrated the Floating Mansion?”
“Sniff!”
“Song-i. You need to tell us exactly what you remember.”
“It isn't something I remember. That demon, A-ri, must have been caught on the Floating Mansion's security cameras!”
“Understood. You there! Escort Song-i!”
It wasn't entirely a lie.
While I was observing the mayor at work, A-ri really had wiped out the Cult. Then she'd left Paradise, used Wing Boots, and joined me at the Floating Mansion.
The only difference was that the mayor had already been a corpse by the time A-ri arrived.
“We've checked the security cameras!”
“We're examining the scene!”
Enforcers shouted from all around.
Oddly enough, none of them suspected me.
There were two main reasons for that.
First, A-ri, who'd joined us at the mansion last night, had already ruined the scene.
According to A-ri, it was ten times easier to ruin a crime scene and make it impossible to be certain of the culprit than to gather evidence and find them.
Second, my public image was that of an immature young girl.
After I spent half a day observing Leon's work, the mayor had thought highly of me.
In other words, I normally never did things like that.
Besides, I looked like, ahem, a cute high school girl.
Nobody would suddenly suspect that I'd assassinated my father.
More importantly, there was absolutely no reason for me to kill him if you thought about it “reasonably.”
A-ri had removed the physical evidence, and there wasn't even any suspicion.
On top of that, a suspected Demon King worshiper had appeared on the security cameras.
It was the perfect crime.
What about A-ri, whom the Enforcers would risk their lives to hunt down?
She'd handle it.
I still had something important to do.
* * *
Toward evening, I was looking out at the garden from the edge of the Floating Mansion when I sensed someone approaching.
It had to be the Progenitor.
The mayor was dead. It would be stranger if this woman didn't show up.
I wasn't confident I could act surprised as well as Ga-in or A-ri, so I'd been worried about how to fake it. Fortunately, I didn't have to.
The Progenitor suddenly appeared out of thin air.
“Eek! Ah! E-Enfor... Mmph!”
May flashed over and covered my mouth in an instant.
“Stay quiet. I have questions for you.”
Then she looked me over for a moment.
Messy hair: I hadn't washed it since yesterday.
A face soaked in tears: I'd regularly rubbed onions over it.
Shabby, disheveled clothes: It had taken effort to find clothes in bad condition in the wardrobe.
How was it? You got the idea, right?
Didn't I look exactly like a girl whose parents had suddenly died and who'd fallen apart mentally?
“...”
“Mmph!”
“My child. I am May, an old friend of your father's.”
“...”
I knew her well because we'd met several times already, but she acted as if today were the first time she'd met me.
It had happened plenty of times in the Hotel, but it still felt strange every time.
“According to the memories I examined from Leon, you were with him shortly before he died.”
What did she mean, “the memories I examined from Leon”?
Don't tell me she read the memories from the mayor's corpse?
I hadn't anticipated that, and my breath caught.
We couldn't do anything like that.
“Not long after you said good night to him, the mayor was murdered.”
“... I, is that so?”
Of course it was.
I said that, then shot him!
“In other words, the time of the mayor's death and the time the Demon King Cult intruder entered the mansion are different.”
“...”
The tension was enough to stop my heart!
It looked like the Progenitor had figured out the truth, that I'd killed the mayor.
This was already our fourth run through Room 206, and she was showing an ability she'd never used even once at this point!
Then again, she'd never had a reason to examine a corpse before, had she?
Yoo Song-i: It looks like the Progenitor figured out the truth! Come now.
Cha Jin-cheol: Damn! What is this now?
Kim Mook-seong: I'm coming right away! Hold on.
“I believe Leon's killer may have been a servant who maintained the mansion or an Enforcer assigned to guard it. So I would like you to grant me permission to interrogate the mansion staff using your authority.”
Huh?
“Sorry? Could you, could you say that again?”
Perhaps my flustered reaction made her think something, because May quietly stepped closer and stroked my hair.
“...”
“Yes, I understand. You're in the most difficult situation, so your mind must be confused. But aren't you a descendant of the Kadyrov Family? At times like this, you must steady yourself.”
...
Yoo Song-i: Stop! Stop! Don't come in, stop!
Cha Jin-cheol: What are you talking about now?
Kim Mook-seong: What is it?
“My status within Paradise has been handled somewhat ambiguously. It isn't easy for me to appear publicly. So I intend to appoint a representative, but you are the only one who can grant that person the proper authority.”
“...”
The Progenitor slowly explained it to me as though she were a kind older sister.
Leon had fallen, so someone needed to manage the city and uncover the truth behind his death.
The Progenitor had someone who could act as her representative and handle the relevant matters, but the legal authority belonged to me, the mayor's only daughter.
As I listened to something along those lines, I naturally realized something.
This woman didn't suspect me at all!
I think I understood.
She'd read the mayor's memories from his corpse, but even until the moment he died, Leon had never imagined that I would kill him.
So she hadn't learned that I killed him. She'd only seen information about the “last happy time” he spent with his daughter.
Kim Mook-seong: How did it go?
Yoo Song-i: I'll explain later. Doesn't seem to be a big problem.
I'd felt this before, but despite her wide variety of supernatural abilities, the Progenitor was strangely airheaded.
What about the mayor?
In past runs, he'd shown completely unpredictable behavior. He accepted me as his successor even after learning I'd brainwashed him, yet he still killed my grandfather.
That was why we'd chosen the Progenitor instead of the mayor as the person who would manage the city for us.
“Please.”
“Yes. But, May!”
“Is there something you wish to say?”
“Would it be all right if I recuperated somewhere for a while? At the home of a friend I know personally...”
“A friend?”
“Her name is Elena. I don't know if you know her, but-”
“Ah, yes, I know her. Isn't she a famous actress? Of course. You need time to heal from your pain as well.”
We eliminated the unpredictable mayor and placed the relatively mild, more straightforward Progenitor in control of the city.
My role was over.
* * *
- Elena
I was very rich.
My status was only that of a Third-Class Citizen, lower than Eun-sol and Teacher, who were Second-Class Citizens, but status and wealth were separate matters.
More specifically, even if you combined the salaries of Lee Eun-sol and Kim Sang-hyeon, both high-ranking officials, with those of Cha Jin-cheol and Kim Mook-seong, both Enforcers, it wouldn't amount to even part of one of my appearance fees.
Mr. Ga-in, a Fourth-Class Miner below them?
Sorry, but Mr. Ga-in's monthly salary couldn't even buy the cosmetics I used every day.
A-ri, Mi-ro, and Seung-yeop, who didn't even have proper status, weren't worth mentioning.
Song-i was a little different.
As the mayor's daughter, her “nominal wealth” was greater than mine.
Still, Song-i's status was highly political, so she couldn't freely spend that wealth.
In that sense, I had the most “wealth I could use as I pleased” in Room 206.
That was why, on the fourth attempt, I took on a somewhat unusual role.
“W-wow! It really is Miss Elena!”
“...”
“Sorry. Where should I put these?”
“Please put them in this room.”
An enormous amount of preserved food and water began to pile up in my home.
Of course, this was only part of the supplies we planned to stockpile.
“Wow! What is all this?”
“...”
Even after I gave him a look, the delivery worker, Ranton, couldn't contain his curiosity and kept asking questions.
“There's so much water and food that can be stored long-term without a refrigerator. Are these tools? Miss Elena, are you preparing for the end of the world or something?”
“Who knows.”
I'd need some sort of excuse to avoid unnecessary suspicion.
“Mr. Ranton. These are actually preparations for the drama I'm filming next.”
“Ooh! I, I knew it! Your next project must be a survival story?”
“You know it's a secret, right?”
“O-of course. This Ranton will take the astonishing story I heard today to the grave.”
The grave, my ass!
Seeing how loose-lipped and careless he was, I could already picture him rushing home, sitting in front of his computer, and typing frantically.
Something like this?
「Anon (111.111): News about Elena's new project!
Anon (222.222): Pics or it didn’t happen.
Anon (111.111): Photo of Elena's front gate. I'm the delivery guy for the ~~ district, and ~~」
It didn't matter.
It wasn't something we could hide until the end anyway.
More importantly, now that we'd started talking, should I ask him a few things?
“Are you interested in survival stories?”
“Ha ha! My favorite genre is survival stories or apocalypse-”
“If the world really ended, what preparations should you make?”
“Hmm...”
Maybe he hadn't lied about liking survival stories, because he seriously looked around the room.
“Since you've gathered food, you'd need to prepare to protect it from looters, right?”
“...”
“If the setting is Miss Elena's home, you'd probably need to fortify the house itself. If you have a basement-”
It was a surprisingly helpful conversation.
Perhaps because of that, near the end of it, Ranton blushed and said,
“Um, c-could I get an autograph? My wife is a huge fan of yours-”
“Of course.”
As I watched the happy man, I recalled the first thing he'd said.
‘Are you preparing for the end of the world or something?’
He got it right.
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 554
Current Location: Room 206, Curse Room - ‘The Demon King Who Revives After 100 Days’
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
The first evening after entering Room 206.
The others, especially A-ri and Song-i, would be quite busy from the first day, but not me.
There was no need to start a revolution like the first attempt, nor did I need to establish a religion like the second attempt.
Making trouble for no reason would only complicate things.
So I spent the day pretending to be a slacking miner.
... That absolutely didn't mean it was comfortable.
“Huh? What? At this hour-”
I sensed a commotion outside, and soon a familiar man in a suit appeared.
--- Click!
“Ga-in, let's go.”
Sang-hyeon had come to pick me up.
* * *
Fourth-Class Miners suffering in the Mirconium mine dream of freedom every day.
They pray desperately for the pain of endless labor to stop, even for a single day, and for peace to come to their lives as cogs rather than human beings.
There was no hope in the life of a Fourth-Class Citizen.
Their meager salaries weren't enough to put food on the table, and the tiger-like foremen and mine managers cracked their whips the moment they suspected the miners of harboring other thoughts.
Even if they miraculously escaped, it would mean nothing.
There was nowhere to run in Paradise.
Of course, all of that only applied when there was no outside intervention.
It had nothing to do with Second-Class Citizens, who seemed as high as the sky to the miners.
“Did you rest well today?”
“Rest? In the Mirconium mine? You're joking, right?”
“Ha ha! I'm glad if it made you laugh.”
“After just one day, I already felt like starting a revolution.”
“...”
“A red flag was waving in my heart, and I could hear the voice of a bearded man.”
“A bearded man?”
“A specter is haunting Europe: the specter of communism!”
“...”
“Anyway, how did you get here, Sang-hyeon?”
“I simply came through the main gate. I told Rupert, the mine manager, that I was taking you with me.”
“Didn't he ask why?”
“I'm a Second-Class Citizen and an agent. Second-Class Citizens don't need to explain their actions to Third-Class Citizens.”
When the upper class told you to do something, you did it.
That was Paradise's simple, clear law.
“Hearing that reminds me. All human history is a history of class struggle-”
“It's not funny, so let's stop there.”
“...”
That hurt a little.
“How are the others doing?”
“Song-i handled the mayor. It seems there was a little disturbance involving the Progenitor midway through, but it was taken care of. The mayor's death will probably be officially announced tomorrow or the day after.”
“What about Elena?”
“It seems she's stockpiled quite a lot of supplies. Eun-sol, the Second-Class Director, is actively cooperating, so they should be able to make a decent shelter.”
I didn't bother asking about A-ri.
I was about to meet her myself.
* * *
--- Splash!
“...”
“There are a lot of puddles, so it would be better to walk on top of the pipes.”
“Or just fly. Ah, can't use supernatural abilities yet?”
“...”
The underground of Paradise, where the Demon King Cult stayed, or rather, where it had stayed.
The pools of blood and corpses everywhere made me nauseous.
A-ri and Sang-hyeon didn't seem bothered at all.
Then again, it would be funny if the people responsible for making the corpses felt disgusted by them.
“You all have strong stomachs.”
“Hearing that from you makes me feel a little bad.”
“What are you talking about? Where else would you find someone as human as me?”
“... The Sacred Domain is this way.”
Soon, we reached the entrance to what could be called the source of the Demon King Cult.
“Ga-in.”
“...”
“I explained this outside, but there is a strange place within that can only be seen as a pseudo-Curse Room.”
“I know.”
“As you proceed, a truly strange being will appear in the final room. At the time, we didn't know who it was, but after coming outside and gathering information-”
“It must be the Ipsissimus. You said that bastard wanted to see me?”
The leader of the Order and the first Demon King worshiper.
“He must have something planned.”
I spoke confidently to reassure my companions.
“At this point, he won't be able to threaten me. The Sacred Sun has finished charging.”
“That's a relief.”
Just before I entered, A-ri grabbed my arm.
“We don't have much time. You know we need to go to the depths as soon as you return, right?”
“I know.”
“Check it and come back as quickly as possible, within a day or two if you can.”
“I'll try.”
Until yesterday, I hadn't had much to do. Starting today, I was busier than anyone.
--- Click!
The door to the Sacred Domain opened.
Footnotes:
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