Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 518

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 517: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (3)

──────

- Cleanup Agent, Kim Min-a

As I walked down the hallway, I thought things over.

If the call hadn't connected at all, I could've assumed some unknown demon had used magic to block even the powerful communications network used by agents.

But the call had connected. The network was working fine, and someone had deliberately cut off contact with me.

...

The Inquisition Bureau must've somehow learned that a Demon Disaster had occurred at Hotel High!

The problem was that this disaster twisted human minds, so they couldn't be sure whether the Cleanup Agent's mind was still intact.

They avoided speaking with me directly in case a demon had taken control of my mind.

Instead, by answering the call and then hanging up, they conveyed two pieces of information that I could understand if my mind was still my own.

First, the Holy See was aware of the situation at the school.

Second, since the communications network was working, they would be able to intervene soon.

* * *

In no time, the school had become a complete mess.

The cafeteria lady, English teacher, gym teacher, student affairs teacher, Korean teacher, some student from Class 3, another from Class 5, and more than ten people in total went on rampages and terrified everyone.

Soon, people everywhere began saying that their phones had stopped working.

Unlike mine, which was specially made by the Holy See, other people's phones couldn't make calls normally.

At that point, a few students began uttering the word “demon,” their faces pale as paper.

To ordinary people, a Demon Disaster was probably something they only saw in world news, something that supposedly happened somewhere on Earth but would never happen to them.

As an agent, I knew the crueler truth.

Demon Disasters happened dozens of times more often than ordinary people imagined. The only reason no one knew was because the Holy See somehow kept the information under control.

The cases that made the news were ones where even the Holy See had failed to control the information, or cases they thought were safe enough to reveal.

...

Still, as I watched students mutter “demon” at their dead phones, an entirely different possibility came to mind.

What if it wasn't a demon? What if the Inquisition Bureau was quarantining the Hotel High area?

After all, the first priority in preventing an epidemic was isolating the infected from ordinary people.

As I walked through the hallway, I spotted my classmates.

“Min-a! Y-you came back?”

“Ji-eun, are you okay?”

“Y-yeah! It somehow worked out... Everyone's still scared, though.”

As I listened to Ji-eun, one of my closest friends, ramble on, I understood what had happened in the classroom.

Apparently, the students had gathered their courage, using desks and chairs as both shields and weapons to push back the gym teacher and escape.

Of course, a teacher from the neighboring class and others had helped too.

Even if the gym teacher had once been a baseball player, there were more than ten hot-blooded male students in the classroom. It wasn't as though they couldn't subdue the teacher.

It wasn't like a baseball bat could cut a desk cleanly in two, either.

What amazed me wasn't their strength, but their courage.

They'd seen the gym teacher beat a student to death with a baseball bat right in front of them, yet they found the courage to stand together against the teacher...

Had the bravery they inherited from their ancestors, who had survived the harsh wilderness, suddenly boiled up in the face of death?

Just then, the class president, Lee Ho-jin, I think, came over to me.

“You came back? You ran out so fast that I thought you'd gone outside. We're going to stick together and head for the main gate now.”

The class president calmly organized the group and even assigned roles to the students.

“You, carry a chair and block anyone who comes near. You, grab a mop and hit them. The girls, stay in the middle,” and so on.

The delinquents who usually laughed off everything teachers said strangely followed the class president's orders, even if they grumbled. Kids like them were sensitive to what people called the pecking order among their peers.

“Min-a... Why did you come back? You should've gone out and b-brought some adults.”

“Ji-eun. Don't be scared.”

“O-okay.”

If there was someone like the class president, who seemed like they would've been a chieftain if born in the Stone Age, then it was only natural for someone at the opposite end of the spectrum to exist too.

On the food chain, Ji-eun was exactly a rabbit.

“Let's go!”

* * *

As we walked out of the classroom, confused rumors reached us from all directions.

Strange people were blocking the way to the main gate.

No, you could get out through the main gate.

Apparently, the back gate was still okay?

I told you, the back gate's blocked too!

The information was completely muddled.

I thought the people saying it was blocked were right.

If they had cut off the communications network to contain an “epidemic,” it would be stranger if they allowed people to physically escape.

The claim that we could leave was nothing more than wishful thinking.

As the mood grew stranger, a quiet nerd who had blended into the background cautiously raised a hand.

“C-class president!”

“... What? Say it.”

“W-why don't we go to the chapel?”

“...”

“I mean, they say the main gate is blocked...”

A few delinquents immediately snapped at them.

“Ah, you dumbass. Hey, it takes five minutes to run from here to the main gate! What church are you talking about?”

Surprisingly, some students were tempted by the nerd's suggestion.

“Didn't you hear that the main gate is blocked? W-we need to go beneath a cross so God can protect us!”

God protecting us out of nowhere?

It sounded insane, but think about it.

Demons were real, and the Holy See was out there every day invoking God the Father as it exterminated demons.

This was an era where 70 percent of humanity and 80 percent of Koreans were Christians.

By ordinary standards, it was perfectly reasonable for some students to hope for God's protection.

Of course, plenty of students thought it was stupid to choose prayer over escape when they could clearly see the way to the main gate.

In the end, the group split in two.

...

I joined the chapel group for a simple reason.

The Inquisition Bureau would stop anyone from escaping anyway.

In my opinion, there was only one way to survive.

Before the Inquisition Bureau made a “painful decision,” I had to find and kill the demon or magician.

* * *

I felt sorry for them, but they couldn't go to the main gate.

What if it was blocked?

Then going somewhere they couldn't leave from was a waste of time.

What if they could escape through it?

With the school in this state, there was no way the Holy See didn't know.

The moment they escaped, the Holy See would take away the students and teachers. If that happened, recovering the Grimoire would become difficult.

In short, whether they could escape or not, they couldn't go to the main gate.

That meant the possible culprits had to remain at the school.

Until I recovered the Grimoire.

* * *

The way to the chapel was darker than I expected, and strange sounds echoed from somewhere, as if ghosts were crying.

Normally, I would've just thought the hallway was old.

Eventually, the terrified students began fighting.

“Fuck, seriously! Hey, Lee Ho-jin! I told you we should go to the main gate!”

“Then go. You heard that the main gate was blocked too, didn't you?”

“Fuck, then go check for yourself. We came in some fucking weird direction...”

“Hey. Why do you keep swearing?”

The next moment, the delinquent's eyes flew wide in a fierce glare.

“You piece of shit...”

In an instant, everyone tensed up and watched.

We'd already experienced this several times.

Someone would get a little angry in a situation that should've ended there, then suddenly try to kill someone. That had been the pattern of this Demon Disaster so far.

“... Huh? Huh? W-what? No. It wasn't me!”

The delinquent, finally realizing what was happening, hurriedly protested that it wasn't them.

As the nearby students sighed in relief, I found it strange.

Looking at everything that had happened so far, wasn't this exactly the right timing?

Was the demon or magician not nearby?

Had they escaped through the main gate, or joined one of the other groups wandering the school?

That would be fortunate for these students.

It was troubling for me, since I needed to find the demon.

* * *

What were the Grimoire's weaknesses?

The first was that the range of its Possession wasn't very wide.

It depended on condition and proficiency, so I couldn't say exactly how many meters. Still, the target had to be clearly visible to me.

Let's look back on what had happened so far.

The cafeteria lady, the English teacher, and the gym teacher.

All three had gone berserk after getting involved with students from our class.

The student affairs teacher, the Korean teacher, and the students from Classes 3 and 5.

At first glance, they seemed unrelated to our class. But the first two had come to stop the gym teacher after seeing the rampage, while the students from Classes 3 and 5 had come to watch after hearing the noise from our classroom.

The culprit was a student from our class.

...

The second weakness was that the physical Grimoire had to be summoned whenever its power was used.

Of course, the Grimoire wasn't as large or heavy as an encyclopedia, and it could be dismissed at any time. With even a little cover, it was easy to summon it in secret.

In places like the cafeteria or classroom, the culprit could simply summon it beneath a desk, which was why I hadn't found them yet.

...

Just in case, I created a situation where the culprit might make a move.

There was no cover in the hallway, so if they summoned the Grimoire, I could spot them immediately...

Unfortunately, they weren't stupid enough to use the Grimoire in a place like this.

I'd settle things at our next destination, the chapel.

...

Then a thought crossed my mind.

Why had the Hotel created such a strange event?

Maybe it was asking me, “If someone else obtains a Grimoire, how will you deal with them?”

Of course, as with everything that happened at the Hotel, that could just be my imagination.

* * *

The earlier confrontation had subtly divided the group.

If I had to put it into words, there was the class president's group and the delinquents' group.

All the quiet kids gathered around the class president, while the rough kids who liked sports clustered together.

They whispered so the other group couldn't hear them, though everyone could hear every word. Still, the two groups hadn't moved completely apart.

They were too scared to travel separately.

Which group did I belong to?

Somehow, I was with the delinquents.

Kim Min-a, an eighth-year high school veteran and master of school life, was one of the delinquents.

I-I couldn't help it!

In the ecosystem of high school, girls like me, who were ridiculously pretty and bad at studying, though I only got answers wrong on purpose so I wouldn't stand out, automatically ended up with the delinquent group!

What was I supposed to do when the rowdy kids naturally came over to stand beside me?

The funny thing was that Ji-eun, who belonged among the “rabbits” or “shrews” of the classroom ecosystem, was with the delinquents too.

Of course, it wasn't because the delinquents had accepted Ji-eun. Ji-eun was simply standing beside me.

...

School was like a jungle where fierce struggles for rank took place every day.

Lions and wolves enjoyed glory and abundance, while rabbits struggled just to survive each day.

Even weak rabbits had their own survival strategies.

If you couldn't become a wolf or lion yourself, wasn't pretending to be close to a wolf who seemed nice another way to survive?

“M-Min-a! We're here!”

“Okay, okay. Let's go in. From now on, God will protect everyone.”

At that moment, every student looked relieved.

Not only the unnoticed nerd, but even the delinquents who spat filthy curses whenever someone met their eyes.

* * *

The moment we reached the chapel, everyone sat down with expressions of deep devotion.

Honestly, it was funny in a lot of ways.

How many of these kids even went to church regularly?

Especially that delinquent over there, who looked like he'd never stepped into a church in his life...

“H-hey, James 4:7. Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you...”

“P-Psalm 23:4! The Lord is with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

The kid who looked least likely to study suddenly rattled off Bible verses, startling the surrounding students into staring at him.

Soon, the class president muttered in disbelief.

“Hey, Park Min-seung. Weren't you saying we should forget the chapel and go to the main gate earlier?”

“Y-you asshole! G-God doesn't only protect us if we're in a chapel. I-if there is space in our hearts for His mercy, He bestows infinite love anywhere...”

What nonsense.

Anyway, if even a delinquent was like that, there was no need to look at the others.

Soon, everyone knelt down and began praying, reciting whatever prayers they knew.

“Father in Heaven, we earnestly pray that You protect us from the demon's wicked hand...”

“C-children, you belong to God, and have overcome them...”

“In the name of Jesus Christ...”

“Amenamenamenamenamen...”

“Is that supposed to be a fucking prayer?”

“I-I only know ‘amen’!”

At that point, I cautiously stood up and looked around.

Was the demon or magician somewhere in here?

--- Bang!