WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 496: Room 207, Gate Room - Second Trial ‘Witch’ (4)
──────
- Lee Eun-sol
The moment I stepped outside to gather information, I was met with a situation that left me speechless.
Bruno, who had been accusing me of being a Witch, had been brutally murdered. At the scene, a talking cat wore a broad grin as it advised me to leave. It was bizarre.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, my experiences in the Hotel had taught me to stay calm.
“I said you need to run.”
“... Who killed Bruno?”
“Meow!”
“Don't suddenly start meowing.”
“Meeow!”
“...”
Its murky red eyes gleamed eerily.
It looked at me as if to ask why I was asking such a stupid question.
Then its grotesque claws lengthened, looking capable of carving through even rock.
“Was it you? You killed him? Why?”
“Because I didn't like him.”
“What?”
“I don't like him. Do I need a reason to kill someone I don't like?”
“...”
There was cruelty in its childish tone.
This thing, this monster, had killed Bruno, and it wasn't even trying to hide it.
The Witch's Familiar had killed Bruno.
Who would the townspeople suspect?
Obviously me.
The Witch had set a trap for me.
Then why was the Witch's Familiar warning me that people were coming and telling me to run?
“I can hear people coming. This is your last chance.”
“...”
First, I needed to get out of here.
* * *
About an hour after I returned home, things began to grow noisy outside.
The sun had already set, and the night sky was pitch-black. This wasn't an era with streetlights, so people normally wouldn't be this active at night...
Torches blazed all around the house.
And an emotional tide hotter than the flames, hatred, surrounded it.
“W-What's going on? What is this?”
Valentina went outside in a panic to check the situation, then came back.
If I had gone out, the excited mob would have tied me to the stake immediately. Valentina was different.
“Lee Eun-sol! B-Bruno... Bruno is dead! His entire body was torn apart while he was still alive.”
“...”
“You... you...”
For a moment, she looked at me with a confused expression.
Did she really think I had killed him?
“...”
“...”
I could read Valentina's thoughts in her eyes.
Unlike the excited crowd outside, Valentina knew me well. That was part of her setting.
Nearly ten years of knowing me told Valentina this.
Lee Eun-sol was undoubtedly the unlucky woman who had caused her brother to die young, but she wasn't a Witch who cursed people to death.
“Do you think I killed Bruno?”
“... Don't be ridiculous. Is there anyone more timid than you? You can't even kill a chicken properly, and you tortured and killed someone? What nonsense. Just stay here. I'll go calm them down.”
Soon, Valentina's calm voice could be heard outside.
Of course, it wasn't as if she had some remarkable talent for calming an excited crowd.
All she could do was remind them that the next Witch Trial would be held tomorrow.
That the Inquisitor and Elena would execute the Witch then.
If they had complaints, they should testify in court tomorrow.
“Hmm...”
It was a pointless effort.
The immediate danger would pass, but there wasn't even half a day left until the next Witch Trial.
--- Click!
The door to the next room opened, and the doll-like girl ran toward me.
“Mom...! Mom...!”
“...”
“Why... why...”
“Sophia, you should go back to bed.”
“Why are people picking on Mom? Mom... Mom hasn't hurt anyone!”
“Sophia, if we explain everything properly to the Inquisitor tomorrow, it'll be fine.”
“Really?”
“Of course. At the first trial, Judge Tomás said Mom wasn't a Witch.”
“Phew... What a relief...”
Reassured, Sophia closed her eyes and began dozing off on my lap.
“...”
There would definitely be a flood of accusations against me at the next trial.
Would the Inquisitor take my side again?
No chance.
“Hmm.”
Was it because my fate of being accused as a Witch was already set?
I actually felt relieved.
The commoners of Erenheim couldn't truly put me in danger anyway.
A Witch?
Fine. Even if I really were a Witch, what could they do about it?
They had no guns. Could medieval people running around with scythes and pitchforks possibly threaten me?
If I knocked out just five or six people with Butterfly Dream, the rest would get scared and run away.
So I needed to take a step back and think.
From the perspective of the trial itself, I didn't need to get trapped in the concept of the “widow falsely accused.”
The townspeople accusing me of being a Witch were nothing but a distraction.
They didn't have the power to threaten me in any meaningful way.
Then who was my real enemy?
Did I need to find and kill the real Witch?
...
If the boss hadn't appeared yet, what was the condition for its appearance?
“...”
A vague feeling came to me.
I thought I understood how the second trial's scenario had been arranged, and what role “Tomás” played.
--- Creak!
“What? You should be asleep. Why are you in my room...”
“Valentina, I have a favor to ask. Something you need to do right now.”
“... At this hour?”
“Deliver a letter to Elena.”
“...”
“Don't open it.”
“What do you take me for?”
Just as Valentina believed Lee Eun-sol wasn't a Witch, I didn't suspect that she would read the letter.
She was the personal maid of a high-ranking noble, after all. She would have received at least that much training.
Even if she did read it, she wouldn't understand it.
Before leaving, Valentina looked at me.
“... Eun-sol.”
“Yeah?”
“You love Sophia, don't you?”
“...”
“What a stupid question. What mother doesn't love her daughter... I'll be going.”
* * *
- Elena
The atmosphere of the second Witch Trial was completely different from before.
There hadn't been any casualties at the time.
Livestock were sick, people had fallen ill, and a cat had talked.
Those were strange events, but the first two were common even without a Witch, and people could assume anyone who heard the last one had been drinking and hallucinating.
But someone being horribly murdered was a completely different matter.
“That woman, it was her!”
“Honorable Judge Tomás, that Witch, faithful Bruno-”
“Sniff! Please, kill that Witch!”
“I can't live like this when I'm scared every night!”
The people were wildly excited, demanding that Lee Eun-sol be burned at the stake.
--- Thump!
Tomás lightly struck the table with his gavel and shouted.
“Quiet, all of you! I've heard enough!”
Then he looked at me and asked,
“What do you think, Lady Elena?”
“... I believe Lord Tomás is the expert on matters concerning Witches.”
Tomás's eyes widened, as though he took that to mean I would leave it to him.
“Hmm? It is true, but I didn't expect you to say that.”
“...”
“Since you are from House Gray, I thought you would try to settle this quietly and cover it up somehow.”
“...”
“Ahem, three thoughts come to mind.”
Three?
“Lady Elena, have you finished reading the Malleus Maleficarum you borrowed the other day?”
“I have.”
“Do you understand what kind of disposition Witches have?”
“They usually have unhappy childhoods. As a result, even after growing up, they often remain childish and are extremely cruel.”
“You understand them well enough. Then what do you think of that young lady?”
“... She looks remarkably calm for someone who could be burned at the stake.”
“She has a personality far too different from an ordinary Witch. That is my first thought.”
Normally, Witches were childish and cruel.
They grew up hated by everyone around them, had never received a proper education, and possessed only immense power.
Eun-sol didn't feel like that at all.
“The opposite thought also comes to mind. She is far too calm even for an ordinary person.”
“...”
“As Lady Elena said, she may be burned at the stake. In a situation like this, even an innocent person would normally shout in anger or cry out in fear.”
“...”
“Perhaps that calm attitude comes from confidence. ‘With my magical power, I can overcome this difficulty easily.’ ‘Even if Lady Elena judges me, I am confident I can escape.’”
His first thought was that she was far too calm and mature to be a childish Witch.
His second thought was that she seemed far too unconcerned about the danger to be an ordinary person.
“What's the third?”
“I don't like this situation itself. At this rate, won't it end with only that woman being burned?”
“What?”
He didn't like it because it looked like it would end with only Eun-sol being burned?
What was that supposed to mean?
“If everyone were accusing one another, we could ‘purify’ everyone who seemed suspicious. But right now, everyone is only accusing one person-”
I understood what this madman meant!
He was saying that if everyone accused one another of being Witches, he could use that as an excuse to burn around three hundred people. But since everyone was accusing only Eun-sol, he was disappointed that he could only burn one person!
My blood pressure spiked.
I'd had this thought at least ten times since the first day.
Couldn't I just beat Tomás to death, since all he thought about was burning people, and shout that this was God's will?
I was supposed to be a holy being blessed by God's Grace.
Even the Inquisitor Tomás couldn't deny my authority in front of me. Couldn't I use that?
...
I held back.
I held back, and held back again.
This was a trial given by the Hotel. It didn't seem like the answer could be that simple.
The situation itself was strange when I thought about it carefully.
‘What kind of being is Tomás?’
A cruel fanatic.
Like the Management Bureau agents, he had his own logic, but he was fundamentally an extremely violent person.
More than anything, he wanted to kill Eun-sol.
Up to that point, he was an ordinary villain I had seen countless times in Curse Rooms, but there was one very important point mixed in.
“Someone I can kill anytime I want...”
“Hmm? Lady Elena, did you say something?”
“No.”
I could kill Tomás anytime I wanted.
What he called justification was nothing but absurd madness to me, and the moment he sent Eun-sol to the stake, I could use Justice.
That was why I was confused.
...
The letter Eun-sol had sent last night deepened that confusion.
「The Inquisitor himself feels like a trap. There's something I need to confirm, so don't interfere with the trial.」
“...”
I understood the first sentence.
I had felt from the first day that Tomás himself seemed to be some kind of trap.
But what did she mean by telling me not to interfere with the trial?
If I actively stepped in, there were plenty of ways to save Eun-sol!
For example, I could use Lie Detection and have Eun-sol say, “I'm not a Witch,” in front of me. Then I could declare that testimony to be “true.”
It was simple, but powerful.
In this setting, my power was God's Grace, so even the Inquisitor couldn't insist that my ability had malfunctioned.
What if I also brought Lee Eun-sol into my estate and said I would keep her close and watch her?
That would ease much of the townspeople's anxiety and hostility too.
...
Eun-sol said she wanted to confirm something, so I shouldn't offer that kind of help.
What did she want to confirm?
--- Thump!
“I have heard the witnesses' accusations! Now, I will deliver the verdict of the second Witch Trial!”
“...”
For the last time, the Inquisitor looked my way.
His expression seemed to ask whether I intended to object.
I gave a slight nod, telling him to do as he wished, and Tomás smiled faintly.
Maybe, in his own way, he was thinking, ‘As expected, the young lady blessed with Grace understands a thing or two!’
--- Thump!
“Verdict! The Sinner Lee Eun-sol is a Witch. The Witch's crimes are as follows. Using wicked sorcery to sicken thirty-two sheep, six donkeys, nine horses, and fourteen cows. Cursing a faithful young man and making him ill, spreading wicked fog every night, and frightening everyone with a talking cat!”
The more I listened, the more ridiculous it sounded.
Was he going to claim that all the livestock that died or fell sick in Erenheim had been harmed by Eun-sol?
“Finally, the crime of harming sausage maker Bruno with a vile curse! The sentence is death by burning. Bind her!”
Soon, the Inquisitor's attendants brought thick ropes and began tying up Eun-sol.
“...”
My breathing was starting to grow ragged.
Eun-sol, what are you thinking?
You aren't really planning to burn to death at the stake, are you?
Rather than watch that happen, trap or no trap, I would just kill that Inquisitor bastard first and-
--- Meow!
“Huh?”
A cat's meow?
A cat had entered the courtroom-
--- Drip!
A wet liquid brushed against my cheek.
When I felt the texture of the thick red liquid I had seen countless times in the Hotel and looked to the side, I saw the Inquisitor collapse, blood pouring from every hole in his body, from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
Tomás's end was so anticlimactic.
Footnotes:
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