Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 499

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 498: Room 207, Gate Room - Second Trial ‘Witch’ (6) Fin

──────

- Elena

--- Rumble!

Once again, the spiraling scales moved with enough force to tear down even the rocky walls.

It was this fast. Could the opponent dodge again?

The opponent reacted late, taking half a step to the side.

It was clearly movement beyond human limits, but compared to the scales delivering Justice, it was pathetically slow.

They shouldn't have been able to dodge.

They should have been crushed before they could react.

Yet the scales missed again.

“...”

I couldn't speak while Justice was being carried out, and neither could the opponent.

The battle between superhumans continued in silence.

After dodging two attacks, the opponent gained the chance to attack and closed in to a position where they could cut me down in a single breath.

There was a flash, then the sword shot forward so fast I could barely see it.

--- Clang!

The instant the red sword struck my body, the opponent was flung back with a metallic sound.

I'd suspected it, and I was right.

With Justice activated, my body might not have Regeneration, but it was extremely durable. The opponent's attack couldn't easily bring me down.

The chance to attack returned to me.

It was worth noting that I didn't control the golden scales moving at incredible speed one by one.

I only gave broad tactical instructions. It felt as though the scales handled the finer details themselves.

Both attacks had missed, so I needed to change tactics.

The opponent had a strange, incomprehensible ability to evade.

Wouldn't it be better to spread the force over a wide area instead of concentrating it at a single point?

With a click, the scales vanished, and hazy, glowing ripples, or perhaps waves, filled the space they had occupied.

--- Raaah!

With a sound like an angelic choir, the surging waves swallowed the space.

Then.

“Urgh!”

The black knight groaned and staggered back several steps.

No matter how strange their evasion ability was, a wide-ranging attack that eliminated the possibility of dodging would work!

Once, twice, three times!

As I struck with wave after wave, red liquid finally sprayed from beneath the knight's helmet.

It meant I'd landed a solid hit, but honestly, I was confused.

The scales had turned into waves, expanding their range, so the force concentrated at a single point had clearly weakened.

Still, the scales had originally held enough power to demolish a concrete building in one blow.

Even weakened, how could a human take three hits?

That thing was so tough that I doubted it was human.

--- Dash!

The opponent endured all three waves, regained the chance to attack, and charged again!

Was that really a person?

It wasn't some ogre or troll, was it?

Was this how the Martial World masters from Room 205 moved?

No matter how durable I was now, engaging in close combat didn't seem wise.

So I kicked off the ground.

The earth rushed away in an instant, and the opponent shrank below me!

With that one movement, the opponent's sword lost its target, while my waves could still strike them.

This was the greatness of flight!

Fine, what were you going to do now?

You were quite strong for a human, but you weren't Ga-in, and you didn't have Wing Boots like A-ri, so-

The next moment, the black knight stepped on empty air and charged at me.

“...!”

I was startled.

Really startled!

If I'd been able to scream, I might have shouted loud enough to shake the heavens.

You could fly too? What the hell were you?

Even the Management Bureau, an organization from much further in the future, couldn't mass-produce superhumans!

One fortunate thing was that my role in delivering Justice was giving tactical orders, not controlling the scales in detail.

Even as I froze in surprise, the scales, transformed into waves, intercepted the opponent without hesitation.

--- Rumble!

The knight advanced with bloodshot eyes blazing.

The waves of Justice struck the knight again and again!

After two clashes, I vaguely understood the principle behind the opponent's ability to fly.

It wasn't like the Wing Boots, which flew by releasing thrust downward.

It was more like creating solid stairs in midair and climbing them!

The moment I understood the principle, a way to counter it came to me as well.

It wasn't easy to crush someone standing on stairs with vertical pressure from above.

A solid support was holding them up.

I needed to push them backward or sideways.

--- Whoosh!

The waves intercepting the opponent shifted, wrapping around them like a whirlpool.

Backward, forward, right, left!

I shook them violently from side to side, and the opponent finally lost balance, slipped from the stairs, and fell toward the ground.

The moment I saw them fall like Icarus after losing his wings-

I knew.

This was my greatest opportunity!

No matter how strange their evasion ability was, they couldn't dodge while falling through the air, could they?

The power of Justice, which had spread thin and wide as waves or a vortex, contracted once more into a single point.

Enough force to crush even a twenty-first-century concrete building like tofu rushed toward the dark red knight.

The instant the thunderous force struck the opponent...

--- Boom!

Once again, the energy of the universe saved him.

Strictly speaking, I hadn't been wrong.

No matter how great his Luck was, it couldn't make him dodge my attack in that situation.

But it could make his helmet come off before the Scales of Judgment crushed his entire body!

“Ah... Ah... Aah!”

My voice returned.

Justice, which had stopped carrying out judgment, faded away, and my body slowly descended toward the ground again.

Dazed, I stared at the face beneath the fallen helmet.

He looked no older than his late teens or early twenties.

His build had grown considerably, but considering he'd been in his growth years, that wasn't strange.

Teenage boys could grow beyond recognition in just a few years.

“W-What is this?!”

The knight was Seung-yeop!

I was flustered.

Confused.

At least several thousand years had passed since Ancient Egypt. How was he still alive, looking as though time had never passed, still in his late teens?

That alone made no sense, but the next question was even more serious.

Why had he attacked me?

Was he out of his mind? Why?

Where was Yumi, and why was he alone?

Had his Inheritance been Sealed, preventing Yumi from coming out?

What the hell was going on-

--- Slash!

Once more, his sword flashed toward my neck without mercy.

In the past, wouldn't that attack have killed me instantly?

「‘Justified Self-Defense’ activates.」

Rotating golden power knocked the sword away.

Justice, which had stopped carrying out judgment after recognizing him as a companion, declared Justified Self-Defense in response to his renewed attack.

Ah...!

Ahh...!

I wanted to stop.

I didn't know what was happening, but I didn't want to kill Seung-yeop with my own power!

Yet Justice, activated once more, didn't seem willing to spare him simply because he was a companion.

In a sense, Justice, which surpassed even my will, seemed to believe that one act of mercy was enough.

--- Crunch!

It looked as though a god in the sky had brought down an iron fist.

The black knight's entire body was crushed in an instant, leaving behind only scraps of flesh.

I wanted to cry.

If Justice hadn't been suppressing control of my body, I might have collapsed and sobbed.

Once the judgment ended, I had to find out.

How had he survived all this time? Why hadn't he recognized me before attacking?

If I searched through Seung-yeop's remains carefully-

Once the judgment ended?

“...”

No tears fell, and my mouth wouldn't open.

Even though Seung-yeop, transformed into the black knight, had become a handful of bloody pulp!

The judgment hadn't ended?

Then a box appeared in midair.

A pale spiritual body rose from the scraps of flesh.

Soon, an incomprehensible force began assembling the scattered pieces of flesh and metal!

He'd put his own soul in the Soul Box.

Then had Yumi disappeared?

...

Maybe not.

Unlike ordinary humans, Yumi's essence was neither her soul nor her body.

Wasn't Yumi something like a mental parasite?

She might have transferred her “data” into another body.

“...”

I thought.

During the second turn, Eun-sol and I had our Inheritances Sealed.

What about the companions during the first turn?

Jin-cheol had clearly died right after it began because of the backlash from the Time Lender, which meant he had been able to use an Inheritance.

That meant their Blessings must have been Sealed.

“...”

So it wasn't strange for Seung-yeop to use the Soul Box and resurrect again.

What was strange was that he'd used the power of Luck until just moments ago.

Could they use Inheritances from the beginning, while their Blessings became usable after the first trial ended thousands of years ago? Had the Hotel's Sealing been lifted?

“...”

An opponent with Luck, immortality, and Aksha’s Soul honed to the extreme.

A being like that had lost his mind for some reason and was now hostile to us.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

--- Clank!

The black knight revealed his fighting spirit once again.

...

I could win if we fought again.

Seung-yeop in that state was extremely strong, but he was no match for activated Justice.

I could defeat him twice, and I could defeat him three times.

What about four times?

Five?

Six?

Justice would eventually run out of power.

The Soul Box, on the other hand, gave Seung-yeop endless chances.

“...”

I needed one of two things.

The power to bring the insane Seung-yeop back, or the power to overcome the Soul Box's immortality.

The Flute of Rest or the Spear of Mortality.

Or a substitute with similar power.

I had none of them.

--- Rumble!

I felt Justice release its anger against the knight who radiated fighting spirit.

Calmly, slowly, I breathed and “persuaded” Justice.

“Phew... Hah...”

I wasn't trying to stop the judgment.

I wasn't giving up Justice either.

It was one step back to take two steps forward.

Even if I beat him to death with the scales, he was an opponent I couldn't judge anyway, wasn't he?

“... Right. Right.”

My voice returned.

For the first time since entering the Hotel, Justice, unable to find a way to pass judgment, returned autonomy to me.

I approached the boy, filled with madness and unable to recognize me, my longtime companion.

Even if this boy couldn't come to his senses today...

I wanted to give him a chance.

“Can you hear me?”

* * *

- Lee Eun-sol

After Inquisitor Thomas was murdered, not a single person in Erenheim dared to pursue or harass me.

Thanks to that, Sophia, Valentina, and I wandered through the wilds of medieval Europe together.

How was that time?

I'd say it wasn't bad.

Honestly, it was fun and happy.

It was physically exhausting at times, but that was common in the Hotel.

Compared to the prehistoric age in Room 203, the Middle Ages were cutting-edge civilization.

--- Meow!

“Sophia, did you make another talking cat?”

“Mhm, I still need to teach it more words! But Mom, why can't your bird talk?”

“...”

Good question.

In a world where even cats talked, Pero, why couldn't you?

--- Screech!

“Sophia, Mom's bird can't talk, but it can transform.”

“Hmph! My cat can transform too!”

“But Mom's bird wins whenever they fight.”

“...”

Sophia looked a little deflated at that, while Valentina, who was cooking porridge beside us, looked dumbfounded.

“Eun-sol, do you really have to put Sophia down like that?”

“She needs to be raised with her ego kept in check.”

Seriously!

A girl who killed commoners like she was crushing ants just because they picked a fight with her needed to have her ego thoroughly kept in check while growing up.

“Mom! Mom! When did you start using magic?”

“...”

I'd come out to Sophia and Valentina, in a way.

I'd revealed that I was also a Witch hiding my identity.

With the power of Pero and Butterfly Dream, pretending to be a Witch wasn't difficult. Valentina, shocked at first, soon accepted it.

Maybe she thought that if the daughter was a Witch, the mother could be one too.

Sophia was incredibly happy.

She'd thought she would have to hide her magical powers from the mother she loved for her entire life. Not only did she no longer need to hide them, but she had learned that Mom was a being much like herself. Of course she was happy.

“...”

I taught Sophia every day.

What she could and couldn't do while living in this world.

It wasn't easy, but I thought it had meaning in its own way.

Why, even that Holy See book, Malleus Maleficarum, said so.

The biggest reason most Witches went mad and ran wild was because they never received proper education from childhood.

If I taught her well, couldn't she at least pretend to be an ordinary person?

“Mom, what's this picture?”

“...”

I'd drawn a picture.

Unfortunately, I wasn't much of a painter, but I managed to draw portraits that were recognizable.

“Someday... they'll become Sophia's friends.”

“Someday?”

“Sophia, I've told you many times, right? Mom can see a little of the future.”

“...”

Sophia always looked confused when I said that.

Even if she was the same kind of Witch, was it hard for her to believe someone could see the future?

“One day, a vast land across the sea will be discovered. When that happens, people will talk about colonizing the New World and things like that. You must cross over there.”

Could Sophia live until A-ri and Grandfather's era?

They said Witches lived longer than humans, but I didn't know.

I only thought this was the best I could do at this point.

“Mom, don't you have any other stories?”

“Let's see... Be careful of tulips?”

“Huh? Tulips are pretty, though?”

“They're pretty, but they're not something you should invest your fortune in. Oh, and in a similar vein, be careful of a place called the ‘South Sea Company.’”

“... I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Yeah. I don't know what I'm talking about either.”

That was how it was.

The days passed in relative happiness, but they were also full of an unspoken anxiety.

...

Then one day.

--- Screech!

I woke to Pero's cry, filled with unease.

It was early morning, and Sophia and Valentina were asleep.

“Is it time?”

I'd spent so long with this parrot that I could tell just by looking into its eyes.

It was time.