WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 500: Room 207, Gate Room - Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (2)
──────
- Kim A-ri
Professor Robert's lecture began soon after.
The content of 「Introduction to Demonology」, a course with such a grand title, was different from what I'd expected.
I'd thought it would teach something like ‘how to defeat demons’...
“The Holy See claims that every mystery filling this world is a demon. Werewolves are monsters who enjoy eating people, vampires drink human blood like wine, and witches are born cruel.”
Honestly, wasn't most of that true?
“But did you know? The beings the Holy See lumps together as demons aren't all members of the same race.”
Werewolves weren't related to vampires.
Vampires and witches had entirely different origins.
Witches were far closer to humans than they were to strange monsters like yetis, thunderbirds, or Shadow Humans.
“That is why the word ‘demon’ is utterly ridiculous. Isn't it like a cat putting every feline except itself, lions, cheetahs, tigers, and leopards alike, into a category called ‘non-cats’ and calling them demons?”
I felt a little conflicted.
Going by the circumstances, the Holy See seemed to be this world's equivalent of the Management Bureau. Perhaps that was why criticism of the Holy See felt like criticism of the Management Bureau.
Of course, I wasn't stupid enough to raise my hand and argue in the middle of all this.
“There were wise people who recognized the Holy See's contradictions. According to old records, our origins stretch all the way back to Ancient Egypt.”
Ancient Egypt?
The time when the first party had begun.
It felt like I understood something, but not quite...
“Personally, I don't believe it goes back that far. I hope all of you students understand this point. You know how everyone you meet in the New World insists they come from a European noble family? It's something like that.”
“Hahaha!”
“Pfft!”
Professor Robert's words must have been quite funny, because laughter briefly filled the lecture hall.
Even Professor Robert seemed to find the claim that the history of Miskatonic University's Department of Occult Studies began in Ancient Egypt rather absurd.
What was the truth, then?
“For many long years, people of conviction in the Old World pooled their strength. Those born with mysterious destinies wished to live freely, while those who studied mysteries themselves wished to conduct their research freely.”
Those born with mysterious destinies probably meant Chaos Entities born that way, like witches.
And those who studied mysteries themselves meant scholars researching Chaos Entities?
“But there was no hope in the Old World. The Holy See's influence had spread across the entire continent like a spiderweb! Even the great Dean could not protect everyone from the Holy See's tyranny.”
The great Dean?
“A miracle occurred! Christopher Columbus, the great explorer, discovered the New World!”
Strictly speaking, Christopher Columbus wasn't the first person to discover the American continent, and he was even less deserving of being called great.
“Some sought gold in the New World, while others established farms. The great Dean saw an entirely different possibility. Freedom! Rights! A land where those who are not human can live freely, where everyone can enjoy the destiny they were born with!”
The atmosphere in the lecture hall gradually heated up.
Robert's voice was full of passion, but beyond that, the story seemed to truly move the students around me.
...
I was beginning to get a sense of what kind of beings the professor and the surrounding students were.
“Students, welcome to Miskatonic University. Now then, shall we all reveal our ‘true forms’?”
--- Riiip!
Robert's clothes swelled from front to back as he stood at the podium.
Hard, bristling black fur burst through the gaps in his clothes, while bulging muscles made their presence known.
Most startling of all was the change in his face.
His snout jutted out like a beast's maw, and bluish, saw-like teeth sprouted from it.
Professor Robert was a werewolf!
Soon, the classroom began reacting.
A female student in the back revealed sharp horns, while a male student across from me began to develop skin like bricks.
Some transformed into hideous forms that looked like a mixture of amphibian and human, while others revealed astonishingly beautiful appearances.
Not every student was a Chaos Entity.
If anything, there seemed to be more ordinary human students.
Yet even the human students weren't shocked by the strange monsters. They looked fascinated!
Were they from families of scholars who studied occultism?
As I leaned back in my chair and carefully controlled my expression, someone tapped my shoulder.
“You're A-ri, right?”
I turned and found eyes as blue as the sea.
Golden waves of hair cascaded over the girl's shoulders like a painting.
She was an unbelievably beautiful girl.
“I heard the rumors!”
Rumors?
There were rumors about me?
Was I supposed to be a fairly famous figure in this setting?
“They say you're a vampire! I've never seen a vampire before, so I'm really curious. Can you show me something?”
So that was my identity in this setting.
They'd said Old Blood was the Inheritance Mi-ro obtained after killing a vampire at the Hotel of the Deep Sea.
“Um, if I get the chance later...”
“Come on! Can't you show me? I'm Emily! Nice to meet you!”
As I watched Emily smile innocently, I realized the surrounding gazes had turned to me.
The reactions of the other people, or monsters, were much the same.
They all wanted me to show them something.
“...”
I casually snapped my fingers, placed a drop of blood on the desk, and made it trace an S shape on its own.
It felt like I was performing in a circus.
“Wow! That's amazing!”
“Is that some kind of blood magic? I've only heard about it!”
“The Dean may have blocked out the sun a little, but she's still doing far too well.”
“Hey, haven't you heard that High Vampires can withstand sunlight?”
“Really?”
They were openly evaluating me.
So the Dean was the reason for this gloomy weather.
Perhaps the weather was kept dark even during the day out of consideration for the students, since many monsters besides vampires were more familiar with darkness than light?
“...”
Though Miskatonic University was only a limited domain, possessing enough power to control the weather was no small thing.
Was the Dean also a monster rather than a human?
Or a grand mage who had attained ultimate wisdom?
Either way, this wasn't someone I could let my guard down around.
When I awkwardly smiled and looked up, I saw a very familiar ‘young man’ giving me a bitter smile.
“Ah.”
I was a little surprised.
As far as I remembered, I'd last seen that appearance nearly fifty years ago.
* * *
After 「Introduction to Demonology」 ended, I moved somewhere quiet to talk alone with the familiar young man.
“Congratulations!”
“... What are you talking about?”
“Congratulations on your rejuvenation! Wow, you look like you're in your twenties now.”
“...”
“Wow! How long has it been since you looked like this? I never even saw you like this in the Curse Rooms. The last time was almost fifty years ago, by reality's standards...”
“Senior, stop showing your age.”
--- Crack!
“Ah, ow! A low kick out of nowhere? No, A-ri, you're the one who started saying weird things!”
“... Let's stop there.”
Once we'd settled down, we began speaking seriously.
“So, you've roughly figured out what Miskatonic University's Department of Occult Studies is, right?”
“More or less. It feels like people driven out by the Holy See in the Old World are trying to seize an opportunity in the New World.”
For many years, the Holy See had called Chaos Entities demons and exterminated them, while branding scholars who studied mysteries as corrupted and burning them alive.
Naturally, those on the receiving end must have resisted with everything they had.
It was a story of those born as Chaos Entities, like werewolves and witches, joining forces with scholars born human who wished to study mysteries.
Their races might have differed, but their interests aligned in wanting to escape the Holy See's oppression.
Still, they could do nothing but suffer before the Holy See, which controlled the entire Old World.
Then one day, a sea route to the New World was opened, changing the situation.
Even the Holy See had limits to how far it could project its influence into the New World.
“So these people openly took over a university and built up their power... Hmm. What are we supposed to do about this?”
“...”
“Should I speak as a Management Bureau agent? Monsters are building up their power across the ocean. It feels like the two of us should become terrorists and wreck the university.”
“Don't speak as a Management Bureau agent. Speak as a Hotel participant.”
“Then I don't know. As you know, A-ri, the Hotel doesn't always create human-centered scenarios...”
“I've been thinking. It doesn't seem like we're human in this setting either.”
“That's right. You seem to be a High Vampire, and I took out the Arm of an Abras Warrior for the first time in a while and showed it off.”
“Then shouldn't we take the university's side?”
“...”
Should I sabotage this den of fallen monsters as a Management Bureau agent?
Or should I stand with Miskatonic University as a High Vampire and destroy the Holy See's scheme?
“This is difficult.”
“Difficult indeed.”
“Don't talk like that. You sound like a grandfather.”
“It's difficult, you know.”
“... Have you set the return point for One More Chance?”
“I set it as soon as we started.”
Mook-seong's Inheritance, One More Chance, could only be used after setting a return point within a one-month range.
“The Dean.”
“...”
“I think they're no ordinary being. You heard the lecture, right?”
According to Professor Robert, the Dean of Miskatonic University's Department of Occult Studies was truly an incredible being.
They had lived for at least several centuries, and only they knew their exact age.
No one even knew whether they were human.
Apparently, no one knew their name either.
“Before coming to the New World, they were called the Antichrist.”
“It's a disparaging name given by the Holy See, so apparently they didn't like it. After arriving in the New World and founding the university, everyone began calling them the Dean.”
The Dean had fought the Holy See in the Old World and gathered allies for at least three hundred years.
The professors and supporters of Miskatonic University's Department of Occult Studies were the forces gathered since those days.
“Doesn't seem like they're strong enough to take on the Holy See, though...”
“Of course not. Didn't they flee to the New World because they couldn't win?”
“Still, if we think of the Holy See as this era's Management Bureau, holding them off alone for centuries makes the Dean no ordinary monster.”
“Look at the sky. See those dark clouds? I think the Dean made those too.”
“Ugh... Senior, do you think the Dean is the boss?”
“I don't know yet.”
Was the Dean the boss of the third trial?
Come to think of it, the role the Hotel had given us was that of a Chaos Entity. The Dean might be an ally.
Looking at it that way, perhaps the boss wasn't the Dean but someone on the Holy See's side...
“...”
“...”
Mook-seong and I both fell silent in thought, and silence settled around the table.
Soon, the young man, still unable to adapt to his youthful appearance, got to his feet.
“Ahem, rather than sitting around, let's move for now. There's something I want to show you too, A-ri.”
“Huh?”
“I found something shocking.”
* * *
The place Mook-seong took me was somewhere we'd passed that morning.
“What? Isn't this the place with all those strange skeletons on display?”
“More precisely, it's a paleontological exhibit. There are dinosaur bones too.”
“You liked things like this? I thought Jin-cheol was the only one who liked dinosaurs.”
“...”
“I'm joking.”
“I happened to find it this morning, so you probably missed it. Take a look.”
The young man reached out and pointed at a rather convincingly restored taxidermied specimen when -
“Eek!”
I was startled!
I hadn't even been startled when the professor transformed into a werewolf in the classroom, but this time I was so surprised that I collapsed to the floor without realizing it.
“W-what, what is this?!”
“A-ri, I was shocked too, so I brought you here. This ‘bird’ is the bird we know, right?”
It was Pero!
No matter how I looked at it, it was Pero!
If Pero had been in parrot form, I might have mistaken it for another parrot that looked similar.
But there was no room for confusion because it was in its Grotesque form.
It was a taxidermied specimen of Pero in Grotesque form!
“Ah, ah, ah...”
Without realizing it, I stepped closer and reached out.
Pero, what happened to you?
How did you end up taxidermied in a place like this...
--- Tap!
Someone grabbed my arm.
“Be careful.”
“...”
It was an old man I'd never seen before.
For an instant, Mook-seong and I met eyes and exchanged our thoughts.
‘When did he appear?’
‘He appeared without any sign of his approach!’
“Student, you were about to touch the specimen, weren't you? This doesn't seem like a time to remain silent.”
“... I'm sorry.”
“Be more careful from now on. This is... a very ‘precious being.’”
A precious being.
“Excuse me, are you a professor?”
“Something like that.”
“May I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
“Could you tell me where this specimen came from?”
“...”
The old man, whose age was difficult to judge, was silent for a moment.
He didn't want to tell me?
No, it didn't feel like that...
His attitude seemed somewhat sentimental.
“The source... Why do you ask that?”
“Personal curiosity. I was surprised because this is the first time I've seen such a, um, beautiful specimen!”
“Beautiful? It isn't beautiful.”
“...”
That was true.
Parrot form aside, Grotesque form wasn't beautiful.
“Still, when this friend was alive, there were times when it was beautiful.”
“...”
“Let's just say it was an old friend of mine.”
“Did you raise it, Professor?”
“Did I raise it? Haha! No. If anything, this friend protected me over many long years.”
Pero had protected this old man for many long years?
What was that supposed to mean?
Just as I was about to ask again because I couldn't make sense of any of it, Mook-seong and I both fell silent once more.
“That old-looking geezer sure moved fast.”
“Watch your mouth. He might still be listening.”
The old man had vanished without a trace.
Who was he? The Dean?
I didn't know.
* * *
I wandered around Miskatonic University until late, but found nothing of note.
It was nearing lights-out, so I had no choice but to return to the dormitory where we'd begun.
“Whew...”
As I sighed quietly and sat on the bed, something hard poked my butt.
“Huh? What's this?”
There was a stiff piece of paper on the bed, engraved with a strange image.
“... The Eye of Horus?”
A symbol depicting the Eye of Horus, with Horus being one of the most famous gods in Egyptian mythology.
A short sentence was written on the back of the letter.
‘Father, why have you forsaken us?’
Footnotes:
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