WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 508: Room 207, Gate Room - Third Trial ‘Miskatonic University’ (10)

──────

This is a story from a very long time ago.

Not a hundred or two hundred years ago, but at least several thousand.

A memory that almost no one remembers anymore, and perhaps all the more precious to someone because of that.

...

At some point, I had sunk so deeply into the memory that I could no longer tell whether I was ‘A-ri’ or ‘Yumi.’

* * *

A refreshing breeze blew through a deep forest, and warm sunlight filtered through ancient trees.

Then a voice broke the peace.

“Hi-yah! Yah!”

A sharp metal blade flashed, splitting a tree in a single strike.

“Yes! I did it! Wow, I did it! Yumi, I did it!”

“... Good work.”

Seung-yeop wore a happy expression before the split tree.

Well, it wasn't bad progress, but...

As a master of magic, I thought this power called ‘martial arts,’ which Seung-yeop honed every day, had too many weaknesses.

It took five to ten years of training before it could show meaningful power in a Hotel-level fight, yet its potential felt low for something that demanded so much time.

In the end, even if he trained himself to death, all he'd gain was a little more strength and agility, wasn't it?

So I told him honestly.

“I think it's a waste of time.”

The boy who had been grinning happily made an awkward expression.

“You know now, don't you? We've been given a very long time. At least three thousand years, maybe more, until the next companion arrives.”

“That's incredible. I heard Teacher and Ga-in spent hundreds of years in Room 203 too. You might be fine because you're a Witch, Yumi, but...”

“That's a misconception. Even by my standards, three thousand years is absurd. If you can endure that much time without being affected, you're not human. You're a transcendent being.”

“I-I see.”

“I'm planning to enter Hibernation to endure the long years. You don't need to worry about that. Let's return to what we were discussing.”

At that, the boy shook his head.

“Are you going to waste all that time throwing punches?”

“It's not throwing punches. It's martial arts. My master, Yi Ja-seong, an Absolute Master, taught me...”

“It's primitive either way. Learn magic from me instead of wasting your time on that.”

“...”

“You can manipulate your body with magic and gain explosive strength and agility too. So...”

“Can it split the sky?”

“...”

“Can it split the sky and reveal the Prisoner hidden beyond the Veil?”

Yi Ja-seong, the Greatest Swordsman Under Heaven, who in some ways had seemed even more like a ‘protagonist’ than the Hotel Party.

The final sword strike he showed before his death in Room 205 must have left a huge impression on Seung-yeop.

“And magic, magic...!”

“Magic what?”

The boy suddenly began stammering, his face turning slightly red.

“You can use magic for me! From now on, um, always...”

“...”

We never had a conversation like that again after that day.

I wasn't confident I could persuade him, and I thought Seung-yeop had a point in his own way.

* * *

So Seung-yeop never learned magic and only trained in martial arts.

* * *

Time passed like the wind.

I built the Temple of Horus for the distant future and became a new focal point for Egypt, which had fallen into chaos after losing its Pharaoh.

During that process, I learned an unexpected truth. I had more of a desire for power than I thought.

Building a temple, being praised by commoners as the daughter of a god, choosing a reasonably intelligent yet cowardly human as Pharaoh, and ruling Egypt through them was surprisingly fun.

Whose influence was this side of me?

I am now a being formed from Arima, the Witch from Room 107, the first Gate Room, and Aurelia, the Saintess from Room 104.

Arima had built a gloomy mansion and lived alone, so my desire for power probably came from the Saintess, who had led a Cult.

At first, I worried that Seung-yeop and I would end up in some kind of power struggle.

When it was just the two of us, I could toy with him, but he had companions approaching the realm of gods. I worried about future repercussions.

...

As the years passed, I realized how useless that concern had been.

He was about a million light-years away from anything resembling a desire for power.

Rather, he often apologized for leaving all the ‘troublesome’ work, like running the Cult and governing Egypt, entirely to me.

That was when I first realized something.

Seung-yeop and I made a surprisingly good pair.

* * *

It took her this long to realize that?

Yumi was more oblivious than she looked.

* * *

There was another, more serious problem with Seung-yeop.

For the first few years, he had enjoyed training in martial arts. Then, at some point, he fell into severe depression.

The Gate Train had departed toward the future, leaving him behind in the distant past.

At least three thousand years until the next companion arrived.

Only later did Seung-yeop truly feel the crushing weight of that time, and it gradually became harder for him to endure.

Sometimes he trained in martial arts for an entire month like a madman. Other times, at the request of the people of Memphis, he risked his life over things as trivial as killing wild beasts.

It didn't matter if he died.

Or perhaps he simply wanted to get into a fight and die.

It was an anxious time, when I got that impression from him.

I worried that if it went any further, Seung-yeop might say something like, “Yumi, kill me.”

Well, it wasn't as if I couldn't kill him if he asked.

After all, I could continue existing inside the Gate Room regardless of the Soul Box.

Still, I had no way of knowing how the demigods who would arrive in the future would react to my killing Seung-yeop.

Fortunately, the Hibernation Nest was completed before it came to that.

* * *

Yumi killing Seung-yeop?

In that situation, it would've been euthanasia of a sort, wouldn't it?

I don't think we would've held it against her...

She seemed to fear us more than I expected.

* * *

The first Hibernation Nest was inspired by hibernation.

You, who are looking into this memory, did you know that humans can hibernate too?

Of course, that doesn't mean humans can survive with their body temperature dropping to five degrees or with their breathing per minute reduced to five percent or less, like animals specialized for hibernation.

Still, humans can slow their metabolism to an extreme while barely moving, like bears do. The early Hibernation Nest made use of that phenomenon.

At first, we couldn't sleep for hundreds of years at a time. At most, it lasted a year or two.

Even that was a great comfort to Seung-yeop.

“Wow! Yumi, can you believe eighty-two years have already passed?”

“...”

“Let's just round it up and say a hundred years have passed. If we endure this thirty more times, Eun-sol and Elena will arrive!”

“That's a relief.”

“Thanks!”

“...”

“If it weren't for you, I probably would've... killed myself.”

Seung-yeop had begun to show a degree of dependence on me, but that wasn't bad.

I could survive inside the Gate Room without a Soul Box, but I needed one to go outside.

Therefore, maintaining a friendly relationship with Seung-yeop, the owner of the Soul Box, was essential to my survival.

“It's fine. You know you need to stay awake for around three months from now, right? I've found something for you to do during that time.”

“Haha! So there's something that requires the disciple of the greatest master under heaven?”

“... Yes.”

“Y-You're not reacting at all. It was a joke.”

“Yes.”

Everything came to an end.

Even my desire for power, which had seemed like it would last forever, came to an end.

I felt empty and tired.

Not only was my affection for the kingdom that would crumble meaninglessly in the passage of time fading, but so was my greed for power.

At some point, I stopped involving myself so deeply in the power struggles of Memphis.

At some point, I left the management of the Church of Horus to my successors.

At some point, Egypt began slipping from my hands.

* * *

This was a memory from one day, around four hundred years after the trial began.

Snow fell from the sky, turning all of Memphis white.

Koreans in the distant future might wonder what was so special about snow that came every winter, but in Egypt, snow might fall once in a hundred years, if that.

The nobles of Memphis caused a stir at the Temple of Horus, insisting that it had to be an ominous sign. The priests were frantically trying to reassure the people.

I only had a moment to sigh at the foolishness of people seeking a god over a mere weather phenomenon before intelligence arrived.

“...”

“High Priest! Everything I'm saying is true! Kwanate...”

“I understand. I suppose I must show someone who has forgotten their place what reality is.”

“Great Horus!”

The Pharaoh was preparing to purge me.

I found the foolishness of that human, who didn't know their place, amusing.

If I acted even now, I could replace the Pharaoh whenever I wanted. Still, I wanted to see it.

Yes, what could a human possibly have prepared?

A thousand royal guards?

No, that couldn't be it.

A human bold enough to purge the immortal High Priest of Horus couldn't have prepared so little, could they?

Perhaps they had acquired some bizarre Chaos Entity somewhere.

For the first time in a very long while, I was looking forward to something.

Toward evening, Seung-yeop woke up for the first time in thirty-two years.

* * *

“Hi-yah! Yah!”

With a whoosh, a snowball flew in and struck my shoulder.

“...”

“Hi-yah!”

This time, my thigh.

“Come on, Yumi. Isn't that too boring?”

“... How old are you now?”

“Ugh! W-Well, when I look in the mirror, I still look around seventeen.”

“That's the Hibernation Nest's power. Your actual age.”

“... What matters is an unbreakable childish heart.”

I let out a hollow laugh.

Just moments ago, I had been in a dark room discussing the Pharaoh's purge and the extermination of their bloodline.

Then I came here, and there was a boy completely absorbed in a snowball fight. He was over four hundred years old, even if much of that time had been spent in Hibernation.

It was more than just a difference in mood. It was a different genre.

It felt like the story had suddenly jumped from alternate history and a political thriller into a comedy.

I had so much to deal with, but he was still living so carefree.

I felt a strange mix of irritation and envy.

“Yesterday, I received a report from the priests.”

“Huh? If it's about Egypt...”

“Listen. You need to listen sometimes too.”

“Okay.”

The Pharaoh was trying to purge me.

Based on the intelligence we had gathered, the Pharaoh possessed no Chaos Entity or anything of the sort and seemed to be planning something with eighteen hundred royal guards.

It could be suppressed without difficulty, and I could kill not just the Pharaoh but their entire bloodline to set an example...

“Stop, stop.”

“I haven't even started on the important part.”

“Yumi, I'm usually the one who always listens to you, so today, let me talk.”

“... Go ahead.”

The boy holding a snowball moved to a spot overlooking Memphis, then stretched out a hand and pointed at the capital.

“Don’t let yourself get too caught up in their pace.”

“What?”

“I felt it every time I woke up from Hibernation. The people around you changed every time, Yumi. Yesterday, there was a little girl there, but after one period of Hibernation, she'd become an old woman past sixty.”

“...”

“It was too fast. For me, it was one sleep, but for them, it was their entire lives. So what I'm saying is...”

“...”

“Egypt, Memphis, the Cult, all that stuff feels empty, doesn't it? They'll disappear the moment you sleep and wake up anyway...”

“... So I don't need to get too invested?”

“Are you going to spend eternity involved in Memphis politics? Purging every Pharaoh who doesn't listen to you for three thousand years? Can you endure that?”

“...”

“Can't you just leave them alone? You've done enough...”

For the first time, I realized something.

Just as I had changed over four hundred years, this boy had changed greatly too.

Pointing down at the capital of Great Egypt from a mountain and calling it ‘empty,’ he was no longer the boy he had once been.

“Lately, I've been thinking this. Egypt, no, everything in the world feels fake.”

“...”

“Like sandcastles that disappear after one sleep. It's all fake and futile. It has no meaning.”

“...”

“Only one thing matters.”

“What is it?”

Perhaps I was more vulnerable than usual because I was moved by this subtle feeling.

His next words were a critical hit.

“It's you, Yumi.”

“Huh?”

“You're the only real being in the world. Everything else is sand and bubbles, but you're the only real person.”

I was surprised.

It wasn't the first time he had playfully confessed over the years, but these words felt a little different.

Perhaps it was because the listener's heart had changed more than the speaker's.

“Uh, uh, uh...”

“What do you think?”

Before I could answer, my soul resonated.

It was true.

This stage, this entire world, was nothing more than an utterly futile Model Garden. Only two real beings existed here.

Only the two of us, unchanged through eternity, were real beings.

So, in a sense, perhaps what happened in Egypt didn't matter at all.

--- Thwack!

“...”

Once again, Seung-yeop threw a snowball while I was off guard.

This time, I didn't want to hold back either.

“Take that!”

“Huh? Aah! Y-Your arm suddenly got bigger! Yumi...!”

“Catch this! Snow Uppercut!”

“Hey, that's cheating!”

“The disciple of the greatest master under heaven can't dodge this?”

As I threw the ultimate Snow Uppercut, I thought to myself.

It was about time I retired from being High Priest.

Egypt had originally belonged to the Pharaoh, so wouldn't it be fine to return it to the Pharaoh?

Making a suitable guardian, then entering Hibernation with Seung-yeop, didn't sound bad either.

...

A long time passed once more.

One day, a seed Horus had sown returned to Egypt.

“Hello. Daughter of Horus, we've met before, haven't we?”

Footnotes:

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