WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 505: Room 207, Gate Room - Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (7)
──────
- Kim A-ri
“Ah, Miss A-ri! I’m Karl, the eldest son of the Sanders Family, and I-”
“Now, now! Mr. Karl, can’t you see that A-ri is uncomfortable? Please step aside!”
“...”
The young man, his face flushed as if he were about to confess at any moment, meekly stepped back at Emily’s gesture.
Men like that often put on ridiculous bravado and caused a scene when another man, like Mook-seong, tried to drive them away.
But before Emily, a woman of considerable beauty herself, he couldn't even take a deep breath before being chased off.
“How was that?”
“...”
“Aren’t you grateful? I chased those annoying people away for you.”
“... Thanks.”
Emily had stuck to me from the first lecture on the first day of the second attempt, pretending we were close friends.
According to Mook-seong, she'd acted similarly during the first attempt.
Back then, I probably thought of her as just another pretty girl.
Of course, that wasn't the case anymore.
According to the information Mook-seong had learned before time was turned back, this “girl” probably wasn't really a girl.
Her real name was Sophia, not Emily, and she was Lucas’s fellow disciple.
She might even be a disciple of the Hotel Party!
“...”
After hearing Mook-seong’s guess, I thought about it all night.
Suppose I were a survivor of a previous Hotel Party.
What would be most important when leaving behind a disciple or something similar for the companions who would appear later?
Wouldn't the first priority be making sure the disciple recognized us?
That way, they could help us!
Making it possible for them to recognize us was easier than one might think.
You could simply tell them our names, describe our appearances in detail, or even tell them roughly what era Mook-seong and I would appear in.
I hadn't known the exact year was 1897, but thanks to Dinner Party, I'd known in advance that this was America before World War I.
“A-ri, why are you so quiet? You’ve just been staring at my face.”
“Just because.”
Given the circumstances, Sophia had already recognized me.
That was probably why she'd hovered around me since the first day.
I wanted to have a proper conversation with Emily, or rather Sophia, but-
--- Creak!
The banquet hall doors suddenly opened, and people carrying violin cases began to enter.
They were the Holy See soldiers Mook-seong had mentioned.
“... Hmm.”
I wasn't too worried.
It would've been different if we'd been ambushed without knowing anything, but we knew everything.
Mook-seong and I didn't even need to act.
--- Clap!
A single clap from the old man quietly sipping wine in one corner of the banquet hall was enough.
“Urgh! M-my body-”
“Mmgh! Ugh!”
“Argh!”
The Holy See soldiers groaned as invisible, shapeless pressure turned their whole bodies rigid as stone.
The students, who had been carelessly knocking back drinks, stared in shock. Soon, the Department of Occult Studies faculty rushed out.
“Now, now! Students, it’s only a simple magic demonstration, so please don’t worry and head outside. There are things to enjoy out there as well!”
The students looked bewildered, but they followed the faculty’s instructions and headed outside.
As I was about to leave with them, Emily grabbed my hand.
“You stay. You don't need to leave.”
“...”
Oddly enough, another professor reacted to Emily’s words.
“Huh? But the dean said all students should leave-”
“I think otherwise.”
“... I-I understand.”
That brief exchange told me two things.
First, the faculty knew Emily was different from ordinary students.
Second, although the dean was publicly in charge, Emily was in a position to ignore his orders.
If she was the dean’s fellow disciple, they were practically equals.
Perhaps because she'd sent every student except me away, Emily stopped being cautious and began to reveal her identity.
“Phew! What a relief. You think so too, right, A-ri?”
“...”
“The professors were pretty divided. A lot of them wanted to stop the opening party and deal with the assassins first.”
“...”
“The dean thought differently. If we stopped the opening party or started hunting down the soldiers, acting as though we'd noticed something...”
“The soldiers would hide?”
“Exactly. So we only changed the party location to somewhere the dean could easily intervene, and it worked.”
Thankfully, it seemed the first Bad Ending, where the opening party was attacked and the dean went on a rampage, had been prevented.
“A-ri, thank you. Your ‘prophecy’ was a huge help.”
“...”
Even as Emily and I chatted so comfortably, the soldiers were being interrogated.
Before long, the dean called out.
“Sophia, come here.”
Emily, no, Sophia, took my hand.
“Let’s go.”
When Sophia and I arrived at the interrogation site, the professors looked slightly surprised.
They seemed to wonder why a student had been brought along, but since neither Sophia nor the dean cared, no one said anything.
“Sophia, they said something troubling.”
“What did they say?”
“They claim they are only the advance party.”
“Oh? Then where is the main force?”
“They don't know either. I squeezed their minds dry, but nothing came out. It seems they were never told in the first place, since they're only subordinates.”
“...”
“But there was one ominous piece of information.”
“Ominous information?”
“They said rumors are spreading that Fortuna has awakened in the darkness of Spain.”
The instant the name Fortuna was mentioned, the atmosphere around us changed completely.
The professors’ faces went pale in an instant, and several people clasped their hands and began calling for Horus.
Even the dignified dean couldn't hide his tense expression.
Sophia’s reaction was the most interesting.
“...”
It was hatred so chilling it was hard to put into words, mixed with fear so intense that her hands trembled.
Surging hatred and fear cold enough to freeze even that hatred swirled within her.
At that moment, I acted a little calculatingly.
Just as the person I had loved since birth always did.
I reached out and gently took Sophia’s hand.
She looked a little surprised, but she didn't pull her hand away.
“Lucas, are you sure?”
“I don't know. These men only passed along rumors from Spain.”
“Hmm... We should prepare.”
“Prepare... That monster becomes more horrifying beyond words every time it awakens.”
“Lucas.”
“When it appeared 180 years ago, even Master could no longer stop it and fell. One hundred and ten years ago, we had to abandon our base in the Old World entirely. What do you think will happen this time?”
“Lucas, have some patience-”
“Sophia. I am speaking more rationally than ever. I'm saying that we need some way to threaten the Holy See.”
“... Let’s discuss that later, calmly. There’s something else we need to talk about now.”
I frantically pieced together the flood of information.
Fortuna. Given the circumstances, it was some incredibly powerful monster used by the Holy See.
It awakened once every fifty to one hundred years and grew stronger as time passed.
One hundred and eighty years ago, around 1710, even “Master,” who was presumed to have been someone from the Hotel Party, failed to stop Fortuna and fell.
One hundred and ten years ago, around 1780, they had to abandon their base in the Old World and flee to the New World.
In short, they had already been unable to handle it 180 years ago, and 110 years ago, when it had become even stronger, all they could do was run.
Now, another 110 years had passed, and Fortuna had awakened again.
It was no wonder everyone here looked as though they were thinking, We’re all dead now!
At Sophia’s words, “There’s something else we need to talk about now,” the dean turned his gaze toward me.
“Right, right. I forgot. Your name was A-ri, correct?”
“Yes.”
“I have one ironclad principle. I repay kindness with kindness and grudges with grudges.”
Repay kindness with kindness?
Was he talking about a reward?
“Thanks to your ‘prophecy,’ many students were saved. You deserve appropriate compensation.”
The problem that had plagued Mook-seong and me since the other day immediately came to mind.
“The artifact storage!”
“Hmm? The artifact storage?”
When the dean looked somewhat puzzled, a professor beside him added, “The warehouse where old objects are kept. These days, we call it artifact storage.”
“Is that so?”
“Margaret manages it.”
“Hmm. So you wish to obtain one or two useful Magical Artifacts from the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
The dean scratched his chin with a slightly troubled expression.
“I will be honest. That place is simply where we store objects with unclear uses. It is not some treasure vault. You will not find anything grand there that you desire.”
I easily understood what the dean meant.
If it really were a place like a treasure vault, wouldn't they have hidden it somewhere inaccessible not only to students but also to the faculty?
The fact that it was openly kept within the school meant the objects had some value, but weren't what the dean considered true treasures.
Still, hearing that explanation only made me more certain.
The tools we were looking for would be nothing more than strangely shaped objects to people who weren't part of the Hotel Party!
“That’s fine.”
“It is your choice, so I will not stop you. Brian, to this child-”
“I’ll go with her.”
“... Fine. Sophia, give her something suitable.”
“Okay.”
With that, the matter of the opening party was settled for the time being.
* * *
Late at night.
Sophia and I stepped out of the banquet hall into the cold night wind.
Mook-seong, who had been waiting outside, immediately ran over.
“A-ri, did everything work out-”
“...”
“...”
For a moment, silence hung between Mook-seong, Sophia, and me.
Sophia examined Mook-seong as though wondering what exactly this “middle-aged man” and I were to each other.
Then Sophia’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell halfway open.
“Huh? Huh? What? Don't tell me, you too?”
“...”
Sophia suddenly rushed toward Mook-seong, then seized the “middle-aged man’s” face with both hands and inspected him from every angle.
“Urgh! M-Miss Emily, this is extremely rude-”
“Mook-seong, just stay still. She must be checking something in her own way.”
“Checking?”
I was starting to understand what was happening.
The companion who had made arrangements for Sophia might have left behind portraits so that Sophia could recognize us.
Had they not left names behind?
Or had they been forgotten as time passed?
Either way, Sophia had recognized me immediately because I looked like the portrait, but she hadn't recognized Mook-seong.
The person who left the portrait could never have imagined that Mook-seong would suddenly become a man in his twenties, so they must have depicted him as an old man!
During the first run, when Mook-seong was in his twenties, she hadn't recognized him at all.
Then, in the second run, when he was nearing fifty, she had finally begun to think, Could it be?
I walked up to Sophia, whose mouth was half open after finding both “people.”
“Emily, no, Sophia.”
Emily’s blue eyes gleamed like glass beads for an instant.
“I think we have a lot to talk about. Don’t we?”
“... We do.”
That day, Sophia and I talked until dawn.
It was an old story.
A story from hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
The story of a girl born as a Witch, from losing her mother to the Black Knight to meeting her master.
Footnotes:
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