WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 506: Room 207, Gate Room - Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (8)

──────

- Kim A-ri

“Ugh!”

My ankle buckled, and I forced myself to keep from tipping to the right.

--- Pshhhh!

This time, my whole body nearly fell backward, but Mook-seong, who was beside me, caught me at once.

“You okay? You've been making a lot of mistakes.”

“It’s been a while since I used them. Give me another couple of hours to practice, and I'll get used to them.”

“Honestly, Wing Boots are such finicky tools. They're called shared tools, but everyone except you struggles to even get off the ground.”

“I think anyone could use them if they practiced seriously for about a month.”

Assuming we had that kind of time.

Either way, I spent more time getting used to controlling the Wing Boots.

Sophia, who had been watching with fascination, spoke up.

“That’s amazing.”

“...”

“I saw those boots whenever I went into the storage room, but I had no idea they were so special.”

“...”

“Even my master couldn't use them. Why can only you use them?”

How was I supposed to explain that?

Shared tools like Wing Boots and Protective Suits could only be used by the Hotel Party?

That her master was something like a half-companion without the “qualification of a participant,” so they couldn't use them?

That wouldn't work.

So I answered with silence, and Sophia didn't press the matter.

To change the subject and verify the information, Mook-seong went over a few details again.

“So, Miss Sophia, your mother's name was Lee Eun-sol?”

“Yeah.”

“You lost her to the Black Knight, then fled with your aunt, um, Valentina?”

“That’s right. She was an ordinary human, so she passed away a long time ago.”

“While fleeing with Miss Valentina, you met your master. Around that time, your master also took Lucas in as a disciple.”

“Exactly.”

Sophia seemed to think meeting her master had been some mysterious coincidence, but it didn't look like a coincidence to me at all.

We had known before entering Room 207 that the second trial was set in medieval Europe and involved witch hunts.

Sophia’s master must have wandered all over Europe, searching for Eun-sol and Elena, who would someday appear.

It was only because transportation was poor and there was no internet in that era that the master failed to find them in time.

“My master was truly a mysterious person! Though if we’re talking about that, Mother was incredible too, since she saw the future and commanded Pero...”

“...”

“My master could switch bodies and was proficient in all kinds of magic.”

“Only Lucas was publicly known as the dean. Why was that?”

“Lucas always handled outside affairs. I mean, look at me.”

The dean became famous because Lucas, an adult man, handled all public activity.

It made sense. Sophia looked like a young girl, and Yumi changed bodies, so neither could easily step forward.

“To get back to magic, my master specialized in handling life. Lucas and I never properly learned Life Magic.”

Life Magic was a power we knew well.

Proficient in all kinds of magic?

That was probably an ability the master had acquired after enduring an unimaginable length of time.

The power to switch bodies.

Among the Hotel Party, only Yumi and Ga-in could do something like that, and the latter hadn't even begun the trial yet.

Therefore, Sophia and Lucas's master was Yumi.

That cleared up many questions, but it also raised a new one.

“Wasn't your master with anyone else?”

“Someone else... You've kept asking about ‘the boy,’ but no. There wasn't anyone.”

By the time Yumi took Sophia and Lucas in, Seung-yeop was already gone.

Considering the gaps in time between the trials, it wouldn't have been strange if he had died of old age.

Given Yumi’s nature as a kind of mental parasite, though, even if Seung-yeop had died, he could have survived by endlessly copying and pasting his mind.

That was how Yumi had joined the group in the first place.

“B-but!”

“But?”

The next moment, Sophia actually blushed a little, like a girl.

“My master sometimes spoke of a ‘lover’ from long ago.”

A lover...

Seung-yeop, you were so desperate for Yumi, and you finally got what you wanted?

If Yumi remembered him after hundreds or even thousands of years had passed, then once we escaped the Gate Room, they might show us something sickeningly sweet.

“Pfft!”

“Is that lover the boy you're looking for? I'm curious. Who was it?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Something to think about after we got out.

As I sorted through the things Sophia had been telling us for hours, she asked me a question.

“There’s something I want to ask you too.”

“...”

“Who are you? Who could you be that Mother foresaw you appearing hundreds of years later, and my master waited for you too?”

Mook-seong and I both clamped our mouths shut.

There was no way to explain without telling her about the Hotel, and there was no way we could tell her about the Hotel.

As I wondered how to get around this problem, Sophia said something strange.

“Actually, I know. I can roughly guess.”

She could guess?

No, what exactly could she possibly be guessing?

“When I put together the information my master let slip over the years and my memories of Mother, an answer emerged. Lucas and I talked about it for a long time, and we reached the same conclusion.”

“What conclusion?”

“You're Horus’s true priests. Right?”

“...?”

For a moment, I nearly fell from the Wing Boots in shock.

Mook-seong, who had been drinking coffee, stared at Sophia with his mouth half open.

We were whose priests?

Horus? Wasn't Horus Ga-in?

So I’m Ga-in’s priest now?

“...”

After thinking it over, I understood why Sophia had reached that conclusion.

Horus, who had supposedly seen the future.

Eun-sol and Yumi, who had seemed to see the future.

Mook-seong and I, whose appearance they had foretold.

That chain of events couldn't be explained by magic.

Even Sophia and Lucas, who had reached the heights of supreme magic, couldn't see the future.

Of course, Eun-sol and Yumi had never actually seen the future, and Ga-in hadn't seen it through magic either!

Since magic couldn't explain it, there was only one possible explanation.

A god.

“...”

Like Mook-seong earlier, I gently steered the conversation in another direction.

“Your master was also, um, a priest or believer of Horus, right?”

“Similar, but different.”

“Could you explain that a little more?”

Sophia thought back over old memories before answering.

“My master kept spreading the worship of Horus, so I suppose you could call my master a priest or believer. In front of laypeople, my master would sometimes preach, like a Catholic priest or Protestant minister today.”

“...”

“But my master was different in front of Lucas and me.”

In front of ordinary laypeople who knew nothing, her master acted like a priest.

But in front of Sophia and Lucas, who were more trustworthy?

“... My master used to say it like a mantra. ‘What could Horus possibly be thinking? Horus is an utterly incomprehensible being.’”

“...”

Mook-seong and I nodded quietly at that.

Ga-in hadn't been this bad before, but after gaining Insight, he really didn't seem human anymore.

He was far worse now than when he brainwashed thousands with an Inheritance and fired heat rays with a flick of his hand.

“My master didn't seem to think of Horus as a god. It was more like she was talking about someone she had actually met.”

That was because she had actually met him.

“And... my master resented Horus.”

Huh?

“Resented him?”

“My master said Horus ruined everything.”

“... Tell me more.”

“My master muttered that the seeds Horus scattered had horribly twisted the Gate.”

I was confused.

What had Ga-in done in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago for Yumi to resent him for thousands of years afterward?

“Lucas learned ‘anger toward Horus’ from my master.”

“...”

“So don't say that you're Priests of Horus in front of Lucas. He probably suspects it too, but don't provoke him unnecessarily. He won't be as friendly toward you as I am.”

Silence hung between us for a long time. After emptying his teacup, Mook-seong asked one final question.

“Miss Sophia, your feelings toward Horus seem complicated, so I won't press you further. Still, you must suspect that we are companions of your master.”

“Probably.”

“Can we meet your master?”

“My master is...”

“I heard your master is still alive. Though she doesn't seem to be in a normal state.”

“Huh? Did I tell you that?”

“... Earlier, when you spoke of your master, you seemed to imply it.”

“I did? That’s top-secret information... Did I make a mistake?”

Sophia tilted her head in confusion.

In the past, when Lucas had been rampaging, he had said this while talking to Sophia.

「“Master, that damned master! Sophia, do you still respect that fool who searched only for Horus until the very moment of death?”

“Lucas, Master isn't dead yet...”」

Looking at it that way, Yumi was alive, but she didn't seem to be in a normal state.

That information had come from before time was reversed, so it made sense for Sophia to be confused.

We already knew something she had never told us.

Mook-seong had made a small mistake, but fortunately, Sophia didn't question it further.

“That’s right. My master is in a very ‘strange’ state.”

“A strange state? I’d like a more detailed explanation.”

Sophia looked troubled for a moment.

It seemed hard for her to explain something she didn't fully understand herself.

“Wreckage. Fragments. Debris.”

“What?”

Wreckage, fragments, debris.

They were strange words to use for a person.

Soon, Sophia asked us a question instead.

“A-ri, let's say a person is a plate.”

“Is this an analogy?”

“The plate shatters.”

“...”

“As it shatters, it breaks into hundreds, thousands of pieces, which scatter all over the world.”

“...”

“If Lucas and I somehow gathered some of those pieces and put them back together, could you call that the original person?”

Several thoughts flashed through my mind.

Yumi had been torn into hundreds of pieces and scattered throughout the world?

What kind of power could do that to a person?

Unlike me, who was flustered, Mook-seong answered relatively calmly.

“Miss Sophia. I don't care whether they are your master's wreckage or fragments. Could we meet your master?”

“... All right. I’ll take you there. My master must have been waiting for you too.”

* * *

The Port of New York, the endpoint of the transatlantic route to the New World.

--- Hooooonk!

With a thunderous horn, the enormous steamship Pathfinder began to pull into port.

Edgar Hoover, captain of the passenger ship, had the crew bring the passengers the joyful news that their long voyage had finally come to an end.

Of course, as was the way of the world, not all passengers were the same.

How could those who had barely secured a corner in third class with their hard-earned savings be the same as the gentlemen seated in first class, giving off the scent of expensive cigars?

And among special passengers, there were always those even more special.

What if they were a delegation of priests sent directly by the Holy See?

Even the captain, whose thick belly made it hard to rise, had no choice but to move.

“Ha-ha, Fathers! Welcome to the New World!”

“Captain, thank you for your kind consideration during the voyage. Will we be able to disembark soon?”

“Of course. Once we finish a little paperwork.”

Edgar smiled and pulled back the curtain by the first-class window.

Soon, the majestic skyscrapers of New York appeared beyond the Hudson River.

Even proud European gentlemen had to bow their proud heads before those skyscrapers.

For the captain, moments like this were a necessary ritual, one that rekindled a love for a great homeland and made one proud to be an American.

“... What do you think?”

Unfortunately, instead of giving Edgar the reaction Edgar wanted, the delegation of priests displayed only the same emotionless expressions they had worn throughout the voyage.

“Captain, you have worked hard. All right! Everyone, gather your luggage and...”

“Wait.”

A low, quiet voice.

Yet it was a voice that commanded everyone present.

The young man who had made every priest sit back down with that single word leaned against an elegant wooden chair, looking somewhat dazed.

An elderly priest soon approached him carefully.

“Are you all right? Did you perhaps receive a ‘Revelation’...”

“No. It’s just... I had a few thoughts. Just thirty minutes.”

“I understand. Captain! It will be possible to disembark in thirty minutes, correct?”

“O-of course.”

It wasn't the first time Edgar had seen this.

Even so, it was incredibly difficult for Edgar Hoover, a sensible American, to understand why senior priests of the Holy See were so deferential to an Asian young man who looked no older than his late teens.

Just before the delegation disembarked, the captain gathered the courage to speak for the first time.

“Excuse me, Father!”

“Hmm? Did you have something to say?”

“Could I ask that gentleman’s name?”

“...”

“Ah, no. Forgive me. I spoke out of turn...”

“Fortuna.”

“Pardon?”

“Take care. Thank you for your kind consideration during the long voyage.”

Footnotes:

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