WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 499: Room 207, Gate Room - Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (1)

──────

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day ---

Current Location: Room 207, Gate Room

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

The train raced endlessly along the tracks.

It had been quite some time since we left the second station, where Jin-cheol, Eun-sol, and Elena had gotten off.

--- Clatter! Clatter!

Maybe Grandpa was nervous about the trial for the first time in a while. He said he wanted to be alone for a bit, then moved to the rear car.

Thanks to that, the girl who made my heart race just by looking at her was sitting in front of me.

“I thought about the structure of the Gate Room.”

“...”

“After thinking it over, I came up with two things. First, the party has been split up. Think about the other rooms. Most of the time, we only started in different places, and once we got the hang of things, we could meet up before long.”

“That’s true. Is this the first time we’ve been sent into completely different trials?”

“Second, why did it have to begin on a train? There was no need for that, was there?”

“Right.”

Everyone had to go through different trials, and it was already decided which trial each person would enter.

If this were the usual Hotel, it would have thrown us into our respective locations from the start.

There had to be a reason it created a system where we got off at our own “stations” on a train.

The Merchant had even emphasized it from the very beginning.

“At some point, I realized something. What if, in the bigger picture, we’re solving a single trial?”

“...”

“The first trial took place in the distant past, then the second, third, and fourth trials are connected in time. Each station looks like a different place, but in reality, it’s like one world connected by rails.”

“...”

“If you think of it that way, the party hasn’t been split up. Before, we started separated by space. This time, we’re only separated by time.”

I was a little impressed.

I’d vaguely realized it too, but my conclusion came from gathering the various scenes I saw through Insight.

A-ri had figured it out on her own just by looking at the train setting.

“As expected, you already knew.”

The way she jabbed at me made me smile awkwardly.

“I wasn’t sure. Most of the information I get is like that.”

I meant it.

The information I gained through Insight was all in the realm of possibilities or probabilities. Almost none of it was certain.

Put simply, Insight was the ultimate enhancement of Scenario Understanding.

Scenario Understanding showed the clearest scenario, or the single scenario intended by the Hotel, in writing. Insight felt like it showed countless possible scenarios through images.

Ignoring my excuse, A-ri continued.

“If you saw it beforehand, wouldn’t it have been better to just tell everyone?”

Why didn’t I share the information I saw through Insight with my companions?

The moment I shared it, their actions would change. Once their actions changed, the possibilities I saw would become useless in an instant.

Then Insight would show “new possibilities.”

What if I shared those new possibilities again?

The same thing would repeat.

The new possibilities would collapse, and Insight would show “another set of new possibilities.”

To break that meaningless cycle, I had no choice but to stop sharing information.

A-ri, along with the others, vaguely understood this trait of Insight.

That was why they didn’t press me to tell them everything.

“You know why.”

“I do. I know why you don’t tell us. Still, being beside you makes it kind of irritating.”

A monopoly on information.

A breakdown in communication.

Secrets that couldn’t be helped.

It clearly wasn’t a desirable situation, but there was no good solution for now.

“You really look like a Management Bureau agent now. More specifically, should I say you look like one of The Silent?”

It was a term I’d never heard before.

“What’s that?”

“To put it simply, the Management Bureau’s leadership.”

The Management Bureau’s leadership, The Silent.

“... Can you tell me that? It sounds like the concept itself should be top secret.”

Instead of answering, she quietly leaned against the window.

As if to ask why I was suddenly worrying over every little thing.

“Don’t I get a letter?”

“Hm?”

“You gave one to Sang-hyeon, right? I think you gave one to Elena too.”

“...”

“Don’t you have anything for me? Even a ‘You can do it!’ would be nice.”

“Pfft!”

I spat out the water I was drinking in surprise!

No, how did she know “You can do it!”?

Don’t tell me Elena secretly opened the letter and shared it with everyone...

“Elena doesn’t know.”

“...”

“Only I know.”

“No, why are you the only one who knows about the letter I gave Elena when Elena herself doesn’t?”

“I opened it and checked while Elena was dozing off.”

I was speechless.

“... You’re not even Mi-ro. Why would you do something like that?”

“I’m Mi-ro’s daughter.”

Seeing A-ri smile brightly, I started smiling too, which made it hard to stay angry.

“So, don’t you have a letter or something to say to me?”

“No.”

“Why? Don’t tell me you’re sulking right now?”

Sulking...

Did she think I was actually Mi-ro or Seung-yeop?

I should just tell her honestly.

“I didn’t see anything definite. Whenever I focus on you, A-ri, completely different scenes flash past like a slideshow, but there’s nothing those scenes have in common.”

A-ri asked with her mouth half open.

“What did you see? If it was meaningless information anyway, you can tell me.”

If I saw something valuable, I couldn’t tell her in order to preserve the value of that information.

Turn that around.

Didn’t it mean I could tell her if I saw meaningless, confusing scenes?

Thinking about it, that made some sense.

“Sometimes, you’re walking under a blue sky in a pure white dress. Then, in another moment, you’re covered in dust in ruins that look like a meteor struck them. A little later, you’re sitting in a shabby lecture hall wearing black-and-white clothes. Then there’s...”

“Stop, stop. I get it. A bunch of images are mixed together, so you can’t tell what’s what, right?”

“Exactly.”

A-ri let out a small sigh.

“Why am I the only one who’s such a mess?”

“... Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I thought of this too. Maybe I’m not seeing meaningless information. What if all those scenes are really happening to you, A-ri?”

The moment she walked beneath a blue sky in a pure white dress.

The moment she was covered in dust amid ruins where everything had been destroyed.

The moment she sat in a shabby lecture hall dressed in black and white.

If all of those were “important moments” that could truly happen...

“Ah, I still don’t get it.”

I was confused despite being the one who used Insight, so A-ri, hearing it secondhand, had to be even more confused.

Before long, she gave up and changed the subject.

“Let’s continue what we were discussing earlier. All the trials are connected in time.”

“Yeah.”

“But the gaps between them are pretty wide. The first trial is separated from the next by at least several thousand years, even by a rough estimate. After that, it’s at least hundreds of years each time.”

“Right.”

“Is there a way to cross those gaps and meet up? Even if it’s not everyone, maybe just a few people?”

There was.

I didn’t know what it was, but I was certain it existed.

Because I’d seen a possibility where Mi-ro went through a trial with me!

“I think there is. Maybe there’s one in every trial.”

“...”

“We’ll have to look for it.”

Apparently finished with what she had to say to me, A-ri stood up.

It looked like she wanted to talk about a few things with Grandpa, who would be going through the trial alongside her.

Just as I relaxed and leaned back in my chair.

--- Whoosh!

“Ugh! What’s wrong with you?”

A-ri suddenly moved right up to me!

She was too close.

Her already unreal eyes glowed red, making my head spin.

Instinctively, I tried to enlarge the Status Window to block my vision, but A-ri moved away again as if there was no need.

When I looked at her, wondering what kind of prank that was, A-ri smiled.

“How was that just now?”

“... It startled me.”

“Looking at you like this, you seem human.”

Looking at me like this, I seemed human.

Did that mean I didn’t seem human when viewed another way?

“I won’t say something childish like you need to protect your humanity. I just wanted to tell you this much.”

“I’m listening.”

“You said you attained Enlightenment related to the Sacred Sun near the end of Room 206, right?”

Enlightenment?

Looking back, it hadn’t been anything so grand.

I’d only turned the Sacred Sun, which had become a goal rather than a means at some point, back into a means.

“Remember this. You may have fallen into a similar trap again.”

“...”

“I’ll get going now. I should talk to Mook-seong too.”

Fallen into the same trap again...

Was she saying that Insight was the power that had trapped me this time?

Soon, A-ri left, and I was alone.

Just like when we first boarded the Gate Train, darkness covered the view outside, and I couldn’t see anything.

Because of that, the train window was practically a cloudy mirror.

I looked at the mirror.

I looked at myself reflected in it.

“...”

The possibilities of my companions that I observed through Insight were never just one.

Cases as complicated as A-ri’s were rare, but my other companions also showed many possibilities that couldn’t easily be defined one way or another.

There was only one exception.

“Han Ga-in.”

Everyone possessed a fate as colorful as a rainbow, but my fate was singular.

“...”

In the mirror, I saw myself torn apart, scattered, and broken into pieces.

I saw myself dispersed across an entire star, fragmented so finely that I couldn’t maintain my sense of self.

“Phew...”

Once again, I sat before a Go board I couldn’t share with anyone else.

There was only one ultimate goal.

To change my future!

「The third trial will now begin! Participants, please prepare yourselves.」

* * *

「Third Trial: Miskatonic University」

- Kim A-ri

“...”

I woke to the light pouring in through the window.

Soon, a blurry notification flickered for three seconds.

「The participant's Blessing will now be Sealed. Please take note.」

Just as expected, my Blessing was being Sealed.

Well, Mook-seong got One More Chance, and I got the Irregular Polyhedron, didn’t we?

It would be far too shameless to seal our Inheritances before we could properly use them.

--- Creak!

The room was somewhat shabby, with a creaky wooden bed.

It looked like I was living in fairly poor conditions.

I thought I’d woken up in a fairly decent dress at the Dinner Party, but reality was completely different.

On the table beside the bed was a small booklet.

It felt like it was telling me to understand what situation I was in.

...

The setting was Miskatonic University, located in Arkham, a major city in Massachusetts, United States.

The year was 1897, and according to my assigned identity, I was a university student.

“A female university student in 1897.”

This wasn’t twenty-first-century South Korea.

It was an era when women going to university was rare in itself.

So wasn’t there something special about my identity?

With that much in mind, I left the dormitory.

* * *

Miskatonic University’s atmosphere could be summed up simply as gloomy and eerie.

The sky itself was filled with dark clouds. When I stopped several students hurrying along and asked, they said it had been like that constantly these days.

On top of that, the bones of strange creatures displayed all around, each belonging to a creature I’d never seen before, and horrible paintings that looked as if they had been painted in blood made me frown without meaning to.

Wouldn’t even a normal person go insane after attending a university like this for half a year?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, most of the students themselves seemed like ordinary people.

I could tell from the male students who blushed whenever they saw me.

“Excuse me. Um, sorry, but do you have a moment?”

“Ah! O-of course, milady!”

Milady, my ass!

Was I at some kind of party?

I grabbed the young man by the collar, his face red as a tomato, and gathered some information about the university.

“Th-the university? Miss A-ri! Miskatonic University is a venerable comprehensive university founded in 1797, and...”

As I listened to him go on about this and that, a question naturally came to mind.

“Um... Thomas, which department should I go to?”

Even as I asked, I nearly laughed.

I didn’t even know which department I belonged to, so how could someone else possibly know...

“Ha ha! You’re joking, right? Ah, are you asking me to guess? Easy! Miss A-ri is definitely part of the Department of Occult Studies. Right?”

“...”

The Department of Occult Studies?

Just hearing it made me wonder what the hell that was.

“The Department of Occult Studies is where the world’s strangest and most mysterious students gather. Miss A-ri, um, anyone could see that you belong there.”

“... Is that so? Then please tell me where the department is.”

“Do you see that plane tree over there? Turn right there, then...”

Near the end of our conversation, he said with a blushing face.

“Um, Miss A-ri. If we could get in touch later...”

“Goodbye.”

* * *

As I approached the Department of Occult Studies building that kind Thomas had pointed out, I realized something.

Most of Miskatonic University’s strange, gloomy atmosphere was coming from this area.

Wouldn’t it suit the place if a living skeleton or vampire came out claiming to be a professor?

So I swore I wouldn’t be surprised by anything short of the extraordinary.

“...”

Following the nearby students who seemed to be my classmates, I arrived in front of an unfamiliar lecture hall.

The moment I saw the plaque on its door, I had to stop, unable to hide my surprise.

It read:

「Introduction to Demonology」

Footnotes:

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