WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 494: Room 207, Gate Room - Second Trial ‘Witch’ (2)

──────

- Elena

Early in the morning, at what felt like five o'clock.

I woke to a loud commotion.

“Miss! Miss Elena!”

“Mmm, what-”

“Judge Thomas has already left!”

It was like being splashed with cold water. I was wide awake in an instant.

He already left?

At this hour?

Without even telling me?

“No! The Duke told him to go with me... This isn't the time, Valentina! Get me ready to go out right now! And bring Pero!”

For a young lady from a noble family like mine, preparing to go out normally took at least an hour.

There was no time for that today. I shouted orders and was in a carriage within fifteen minutes.

Ominous thoughts kept flooding my mind.

Thick smoke, the stench of corpses.

Screaming people, stakes rising everywhere.

Eun-sol burning atop one of them!

“Faster! Hurry!”

“Miss, the road is rough-”

“Hey! What if twenty people get burned to death before we even reach the city?”

“... Hyah!”

--- Screech!

“We've arrived!”

* * *

Fortunately for everyone, my ominous imagination hadn't become reality yet.

“Hmm? My lady. I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. You could've slept a little longer.”

“...”

“Ha ha, I've heard about the parrot on your shoulder. They say it's quite a mysterious bird...”

Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada spoke with a casual ease that felt like mockery.

I was irritated for a moment, but nothing had happened yet, so it was hard to confront him.

More than that, I wanted to know what he was doing.

“What is this?”

“As you can see, it's an official notice. We must open a Witch Court as soon as dawn breaks, so notices have to be sent throughout the city first.”

“...”

According to the information I'd gathered until late the previous night, there were two kinds of inquisitors.

The first were secretive.

They sent underlings into suspicious regions, or hid there themselves, looking for proof of Corruption.

The second were public.

They held Witch Courts in the center of a city and investigated by making people accuse one another.

Naturally, the latter caused far more innocent casualties.

And Thomas was the second type.

“...”

I recalled the knowledge I'd memorized at the Hotel before entering Room 207.

How did witch hunts, one of the darkest chapters in human history, usually work?

People commonly blamed religious madness, and they weren't wrong.

The Holy See had certainly provided the justification for witch hunts.

Still, money was behind much of the motivation for witch hunts in individual regions.

If someone accused another person of being a Witch and succeeded in having them burned alive, the accuser received the Witch's property as a reward.

That was why wealthy widows were one of the main targets. They had money worth taking, but no power to defend themselves in court.

That's right.

Ninety percent of humanity's problems always began with money.

Even in this medieval era, before capitalism had even been born, money was what all humanity worshipped.

Because I knew that, I spotted the problem the moment I saw Thomas's official notice.

“Erase number twelve.”

“That clause concerns the reward for reporting a Witch-”

A subtle clash of nerves and wills hung in the air.

“That's why you should erase it...”

“... Those who strive should be rewarded. It's a very old saying.”

His words sounded convincing enough.

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Those who chase it stray from the faith. You've heard that verse, haven't you?”

“First Timothy, chapter six, verse ten. I know it well, but a trial must be practical. Without a reward, who would step forward to report anyone?”

“Have you not considered that rewards will lead to false accusations?”

“What is the problem with that? There may be some false accusations, but true accusations will come out in the process!”

For a moment, I couldn't speak.

This lunatic knew people might make false accusations for money.

He knew, and still thought the sacrifices were unavoidable!

For an instant, I seriously considered it.

Should I just let him start hunting Witches?

Once he began putting people on stakes, I could use Justice too.

“...”

Should I just use Justice, kill the judge, and be done with it?

It didn't seem like that was how this would work.

The Hotel would never give us such an easy trial.

Think rationally.

Judging from the circumstances, this man was an ordinary human, even if he was a deranged madman.

In other words, he probably wasn't the boss.

The boss had to be something with transcendent power, something that Eun-sol and I would struggle to handle even at full strength.

Maybe a false god's priest or something?

I considered what would happen if I killed him.

Cha Jin-cheol's grotesque death had already proven the existence of Corruption to the locals.

Surely a report about it had reached the Holy See too.

Would killing the judge here end everything?

That was as stupid as saying a trial ended when the judge died.

The next judge would simply come.

Maybe an even worse lunatic, or one accompanied by a powerful Temple Knight.

Maybe that Temple Knight would be the boss.

“...”

Thinking about it that way, should I kill him instead?

The trial would only end once we dealt with the boss, and if Thomas's death was the condition for the boss to appear...

This was giving me a headache.

I wasn't normally the type to worry this much.

I could kill Thomas whenever I wanted.

So for now, I'd proceed without killing him.

Have mercy on the people. Minimize innocent casualties.

Thomas was the kind of person who wouldn't listen to such obvious words at all.

That meant I had to come up with logic he could accept.

“It was the year I turned fifteen.”

“... Hmm? What are you suddenly talking about-”

“One day, as I prayed beneath a cross as I always did, I heard the voice of our great Lord.”

“...”

I raised my gaze slightly, as though I were listening to a voice from the heavens.

This was a scene where I recalled an old memory, even though I was making it up on the spot, so closing my eyes would be better.

Lower my voice a little. That would make it sound more emotional.

“Elena, my beloved daughter. I bestow upon you a Talent. Establish righteous justice upon this land.”

“...”

“From that day on, my life rested wholly in the Lord's embrace.”

Surprised?

Moved, weren't you?

I'm on a completely different level from you.

God directly granted me a miracle, while you're a lunatic who just reads the Bible diligently. We're fundamentally different!

--- Tap!

When I tapped him a few times to give him a hint, the inquisitor sighed.

“Whew... A moving story. I understand well how dearly the Lord cherished and loved Lady Elena.”

“Then you understand what I'm trying to say, don't you?”

“...”

“Erase the reward clause. In the first place, deciding what to do with property confiscated from criminals is the authority of House Gray!”

“The Duke delegated that authority to me as well.”

“My father may have permitted it, but I haven't.”

“Your authority was also granted by the Duke-”

“You are mistaken! The one who set me upon the rock was the Lord, not the Duke.”

So do as I say!

I've received God's Grace.

Does that sound ridiculous?

Then does it make sense for you to burn hundreds or thousands of people alive without evidence?

“... You're being unreasonable. Very well, I accept.”

In the end, the inquisitor yielded to my words, backed by the authority of God.

Of course, I sensed that this was not the end of the conflict, but its beginning.

* * *

By the time the sun was high in the sky, a large crowd had gathered at the Witch Court erected in the center of the city.

Rich people, poor people, men, women, the elderly, children. People of every sort had come.

Among them, I spotted Eun-sol's familiar face.

“...”

“...”

Our eyes met.

There were too many people watching for us to acknowledge each other, so I only gave a slight nod.

“Ahem! Citizens of Erenheim, I am Tomás de Torquemada, inquisitor of the Holy See.”

The people murmured among themselves.

Here and there, I heard the ominous phrase, “Master of the stake.”

It proved just how infamous Thomas was.

“From this moment, the Witch Court shall begin-”

“Wait.”

I stopped Thomas at that moment on purpose.

I wanted everyone to see me stopping him.

“...”

I took two steps forward and looked down at the crowd.

Fear or awe toward the daughter blessed with Grace.

Sticky gazes full of longing for beauty, or lust.

Well, it didn't matter.

What mattered was that all eyes were on me.

“Anyone who speaks a lie in this court.”

The atmosphere tightened with tension.

“Remember that you will leave behind one of your limbs. Thomas, begin.”

“... The Witch Court is now in session!”

--- Bang!

Court in session.

* * *

Even now, getting rid of rewards for accusations seemed like an excellent decision.

If this had gone as it did in actual history, countless people would have jumped up and shouted that this person was a Witch and that person was a Witch. Instead, many of them sat quietly.

Of course, not everyone stayed silent.

“It, it was two months ago. My cow made a strange cry late at night, so I went outside to see-”

Late at night, the person heard their cow crying and went to check, only to see a beastly-looking man running away.

It was surely their neighbor, who must have been attempting some wicked trick.

“... Wasn't that just a cattle thief?”

“Miss, if you had seen that beastly state-”

“He was rolling around in a barn trying to steal a cow, of course he looked like that. Do you remember his face?”

They brought in the suspect and questioned him. Just as expected, he was only a cattle thief.

--- Bang!

“Verdict. Cut off his little finger and ring finger.”

“...”

It was harsh, but he was a cattle thief. Maybe that was the proper punishment.

The common people couldn't clearly distinguish ordinary crimes from the work of Witches.

Or perhaps, since court had opened anyway, they wanted to settle every grievance they'd been carrying in their hearts.

With the Lord's daughter who could detect lies and a human barbecue expert in the same place, most suspects confessed to their crimes the moment we looked at them.

“Please hear me out! My name is Matthias. I speak without a single lie. I've been married to my wife for thirteen years, but-”

Matthias was a merchant who had amassed great wealth selling salt and married Isabella, a woman famed for her beauty since childhood. He had lived a life anyone would envy.

Then, more than ten years ago, a troubling concern began to eat away at him.

For over a decade, his wife Isabella had acted strangely.

Every week, or whenever her husband went out of town, she left home and went somewhere.

He had confronted her many times and demanded an explanation, but all he heard were nonsensical answers.

Clearly, some wicked demon had bewitched his wife!

“...”

“...”

Thomas and I were both speechless.

A moment later, Thomas brought in the accuser's wife.

“M-my husband has always been strangely suspicious! I only enjoy going out to feel the night breeze-”

“Lie.”

“Eek!”

Lie Detection activated!

When I warned her with golden light shining from my eyes, not only the wife but all the ordinary people looked frightened.

“We don't have time, so tell the truth.”

In the end, tears streamed down her face as she told her heartbreaking story.

A hazy first love from her teenage years, an unforgettable encounter with an innocent boy who smelled of mint.

Then an unexpected marriage arranged according to her father's will.

She accepted it as fate.

She believed she had accepted it.

Then one day, that hazy first love returned as a respectable banker-

“Ugh! That's adultery!”

“...”

This woman was way too good at telling stories.

It was just an affair, but I almost got caught up in it and shouted that she was innocent!

“Whew...”

The inquisitor sitting beside me sighed deeply, as though he'd aged ten years.

He looked exhausted as case after case had nothing to do with Witches or Corruption.

Just as he was about to wave them away, the salt merchant, who was half out of his mind, shouted.

“Isabella! Isabella! Answer me clearly!”

“Matthias...”

“The children, the children! Who is the father of the children?”

At that moment, the whole court froze.

Not only the city people watching with fascinated expressions, but even the inquisitor, who seemed to have flames instead of blood in his veins, widened his eyes and focused on Isabella's mouth.

“Th-they are your children! I swear to God, all three-”

Naturally, everyone's eyes turned to me.

“...”

Everyone silently begged me for an answer.

Even the inquisitor.

“... Lie.”

“M-maybe not the second. But the other two-”

Ah...

Please, Isabella.

Don't make this hard for me.

“... Lie.”

“Eek!”

“Aah! Is there, is there even one child who is mine?”

“... Ah, m-maybe the first-”

I finally lost my mind.

Wasn't this supposed to be a Witch Court?

I was so dumbfounded that I let out a sigh.

“Miss!”

“... Valentina?”

“The person you sent a letter to the other day sent a note!”

A note from Eun-sol?

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

Wasn't this supposed to be a Witch Court?

It was entertaining, but I hadn't expected it to go like this.

“...”

The inquisitor, looking exhausted, ordered Isabella and her lover to be tied up in the square.

Elena, standing nearby, looked just as tired.

After watching the trial for a while, I understood what Elena was thinking.

She was wary of the inquisitor running wild and wanted to spill as little blood as possible.

Well, unlike the locals, who saw Cha Jin-cheol's remains and became convinced that “there is a Witch,” Elena and I knew that lump of flesh had nothing to do with a Witch.

So Elena was trying to make the Witch Trial itself meaningless, wasn't she?

“...”

I understood what she was thinking, but...

Elena was fundamentally mistaken about one thing.

Unlike me, she wasn't mingling with the people in the city. She only stayed in that old mansion, so she seemed slow to learn this kind of information.

* * *

- Elena

I unfolded the note Eun-sol had sent.

「Elena, Witches or devil worshippers really do exist.」

“...”

My head began to ache again.

As if waiting for this, a cold-looking man raised his hand.

“I have an accusation!”

“Your name, the accused, and the reason. Speak in that order.”

“I, Bruno, make sausages for the nearby Philita Monastery. And the person I accuse is!”

“The person you accuse?”

“Lee Eun-sol! She is a Witch!”

At last, it had begun.

Footnotes:

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