WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 519: Room 207, Gate Room - Fourth Trial ‘The Fallen King’ (5)

──────

- Han Ga-in

They said the Hotel’s trials were adaptations of events that had actually occurred somewhere in the universe.

What did that mean?

A boy bullied by his peers suffered from mental illness and was admitted to a hospital.

Then it turned out the hospital director was a demon wielding cosmic power.

The boy gained power from the demon and ruined the world.

A businessman lost everything after being betrayed by his wife and business partner.

Just as he was about to give up on life, he received help from a mysterious benefactor and miraculously got back on his feet.

Then it turned out that benefactor was a priest of an Evil God that had died before being born.

In the end, a cosmic moth that hatched after devouring countless Mortals destroyed Earth in a single blow.

It meant absurd things like that could really happen.

The world was like a house of cards. A single gesture from madmen smiling beyond the universe could reduce it to nothing without a trace.

Once I understood that, I had to accept that my belief in the world’s unshakable permanence had been truly childish.

...

Something like that could happen in Room 207 as well.

Before entering Room 207, I had feared the stage would “break” before my turn began.

Of course, since Room 207 had the ultimate overseer known as the Hotel, there had to be some minimum safety net.

For example, I assumed the Hotel would intervene to stop things from going completely off the rails, like Earth itself being destroyed or humanity going extinct.

Put another way, things could still go off the rails to a reasonable degree.

And considering my experiences so far, there was a slight difference between what the Hotel considered reasonable and what we considered reasonable.

Imagine all of humanity becoming slaves to snail aliens.

We’d curse at the Hotel, asking how we were supposed to proceed with the trial in such an insane situation, but the Hotel might seriously advise us, “Please save humanity from this point onward.”

After all, wasn’t the very act of splitting us into four parties and dropping us into different time periods based on the premise that the past parties’ actions could affect the future?

If the past parties made a huge mistake and drove Room 207 toward the End Times, the Hotel could still say it was our fault for being incompetent.

So I wanted to give my companions a kind of baseline.

In other words, minimum guidelines for preventing the End Times.

* * *

--- Tap! Tap!

I hammered away at the keyboard, immersing myself in the sea of information.

I was gathering information on my next target, the Church of Horus.

“This has to be it, right?”

Was the “Cult” mentioned in the note really the Church of Horus?

There was no solid evidence, but compared to my memories of the “real reality,” it was suspicious.

Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam had all existed in reality, but I’d never even heard of something like the Church of Horus.

It was surely the aftermath of historical changes made by my companions in the past.

Since it was a Cult, the Sacred Sun was probably there...

“... Hmm.”

A headache, like a sharp needle lightly pricking my head.

It was because of what had happened a few days ago when I recovered the Grimoire.

At the time, the Holy See gathered every student, teacher, and staff member at the school, administered something called a Grade 3 Memory Erasure Agent, and even conducted hypnotherapy.

They seemed to be trying to control information about demons while erasing memories related to “Agent Kim Min-a.”

I considered resisting, but after thinking it over, I just accepted it.

Everything was already over, and besides, it was medication and therapy given to young students.

The effects would be mild. Wouldn’t I be able to withstand it as I was now?

Just as expected, my forgotten memories naturally returned after about half a day.

The slight headache came along as a bonus, but I could think of it as a medal of victory.

Gulp!

A glass of ice water made me feel a little better.

--- Tap!

It was nothing compared to the so-called four major religions, but the Church of Horus was still global in scale.

The Church of Horus’s structure was closer to Catholicism than Protestantism.

In other words, it had a central archdiocese in the United States and individual dioceses around the world.

The Cult also had a leader equivalent to the Catholic Pope, called Pontiff Sophia.

“She’s missing?”

Interestingly, Pontiff Sophia had disappeared around seven years ago, becoming a worldwide news story.

Could it be related to the trial?

The Cult’s history was a little unclear.

They claimed to have existed since Ancient Egypt, but from an outside perspective, they’d had practically no presence until around the twentieth century.

The academic consensus was that it had suddenly appeared in the United States after the Great Spain Disaster, which occurred in late 1897 or early 1898.

“It appeared in the United States...”

It seemed possible, yet strange.

Its roots were in ancient Egyptian faith, but it began in America?

Then again, Christianity had its roots in Judaism in the Middle East, but its practical history began in the Roman Empire. Maybe it was possible.

The Cult had a good reputation in Korea.

It was large, did plenty of charity work, and seemed to have the mystery and novelty unique to Egyptian mythology.

Its long historical gap could also be an advantage, depending on how you looked at it. It meant there was no history of conflicts like witch hunts or holy wars.

“I’ll have to start attending tomorrow.”

I’d only get more detailed information by going there myself.

* * *

“Oh my, student! I haven’t seen you before. Are you new?”

“Yes. Usually, um, when you go to the Church of Horus...”

Should I sound a little immature?

“Y-yes, I heard there are lots of pretty girls!”

“Hoho! Aren’t you being a little too honest? All right, what’s your name?”

“My name is Cha Eun-ho.”

“I’ve written it in the membership register. Go ahead and find yourself a seat.”

The Temple of Horus was quite beautiful.

It had been decorated with all the elements Koreans tended to think of when they heard “Ancient Egypt.”

Looking at the reliefs of sphinxes and pyramids carved throughout the walls, I felt as if I’d come to a museum.

Soon, a priest wearing bizarre clothing that looked like something someone would really wear in Ancient Egypt appeared and began preaching.

...

I felt sorry for Priest Kim Whatever-His-Name-Was, but honestly, the sermon was boring.

As a result, I was a little disappointed in the Church of Horus’s Korean diocese.

Ahem!

I may look like this, but I’d completely taken over Ictus’s Cult in reality during A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hadn’t I?

From the perspective of an expert in the “religion business,” spending money to build a beautiful, mysterious temple was important, of course, but people were even more important.

They needed to recruit a few “wealth transfer specialists” who could swallow up the lifelong savings of diligent people with nothing but their mouths -

“Could you move aside?”

“Ah, sorry.”

When I stepped back, several people began snapping photos of the nearby sculptures and paintings.

The place felt more like a tourist attraction than a church, but rather than stopping them, the priests were smiling broadly and joining in.

Since it was an emerging Cult expanding its influence, were they attracting visitors with a tourist-attraction atmosphere instead of maintaining a solemn mood?

This strategy seemed pretty good in its own way.

Looking around, I saw a convincing-looking “Horus statue” and “pharaoh’s throne” that had clearly been set up for people to take photos with.

The Horus statue was subtly cute rather than majestic like I’d imagined, probably because its head had changed from a falcon to an owl -

An owl?

“Huh?”

Wasn’t Horus’s symbol in real history clearly a falcon? It had changed to an owl?

“...”

At the Hotel, the Owl was the symbol of my Sponsor.

Could this change be a coincidence?

When I discreetly lowered my gaze to the base of the statue, I saw the following sentence.

「Horus, Avatar of the sun and sky, sees the present, past, and future. He is also the wisest being in the world.」

Horus could see the present, past, and future and was incredibly wise.

“...”

As I stepped closer, I spotted a parrot perched gently on the shoulder of the owl-like Horus.

「The symbol of Horus is the wise owl. When he delivers a Revelation, a parrot is said to convey his will.」

“...”

Hey! This was way too blatant!

It claimed to be a religion that began in Ancient Egypt, but did it make any sense for its messenger to be a parrot native to tropical regions?

People back then probably didn’t even know what parrots were!

「It is said that Horus, who will one day possess the most beautiful and noble form imaginable to humanity -」

“Argh!”

“Hm? Student, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

Seriously!

Think about how Horus would feel seeing this!

And when had Pero ever conveyed my will?

“...”

I acted like a cult leader in Room 206 too, didn’t I?

Why hadn’t I felt embarrassed like this then?

Thinking back, that was when the Sacred Sun had half-devoured my mind.

I’d genuinely believed I was half a god back then, so I’d been fine with it!

Now that the Sacred Sun was gone...

Looking at this grand church and these sculptures devoted to “Horus” made it hard to breathe.

“... This is exhausting.”

Without realizing it, I covered my face with both hands.

There was no way anyone would recognize me, but at that moment, I was so embarrassed that I wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear.

As I spent that painful time alone...

“Take a picture of me.”

“...”

“Can’t you hear me?”

I heard a familiar voice.

The moment I lifted my head and met her eyes, I knew I’d made a mistake.

A few days ago, the Holy See had erased all the students’ memories of “Agent Kim Min-a.”

Naturally, I shouldn’t have been able to remember Kim Min-a’s voice!

It was because of that damned Horus statue.

“Uh, um, who are you?”

“Quit screwing around and just take the picture.”

“... Okay.”

She had a very cold expression for someone asking me to take her picture.

--- Click!

Soon, she and I began engaging in a subtle battle of nerves.

No matter how I looked at her, this girl was either A-ri herself or connected to A-ri.

Her appearance was a little different, but there were plenty of similarities.

Her eerily beautiful features and mysteriously glowing red eyes were both strikingly similar.

When I met her at school, her eye color had been ordinary. Had she been wearing colored contacts?

Her chest seemed a little smaller, but that wasn’t an important point. Even if it was very important.

If she was A-ri, why didn’t she recognize me?

Was it because my appearance had changed too?

Even if someone’s appearance changed a little, people had a recognizable air about them.

Just as I recognized A-ri, it would be natural for A-ri to recognize me too.

A-ri’s starting point was estimated to be around one hundred to one hundred fifty years ago. Had she lost her memories for some reason during that period?

If that were all, though, there was still the “change in her soul” that I had confirmed through the Grimoire.

“Ahem, Min-a. Want to grab a coffee?”

“... Sure. There’s somewhere quiet nearby -”

Just as we were trying to make plans to satisfy our curiosity about each other...

An elderly person’s voice suddenly came from behind us.

“Hoho! Students, dating is nice, but you should also think of those waiting for you.”

Ah, this was a good spot for taking pictures.

Min-a stood up with a slightly flustered expression as the elderly person approached.

“I’m sorry. I was talking with my friend, so -”

“It’s fine, it’s fine! When I was your age, my heart raced just looking at a girl’s face. That’s how it is at that age!”

Min-a was about to explain herself, but the moment she saw the elder’s face, she flinched and took a step back.

“Huh? Bishop?”

“Hm? You know me?”

“... You’re always on TV. I’ve seen you on the news.”

“Oh dear! This is why getting old is no good. I often forget that I’m quite famous!”

Around then, I recognized the elder’s identity as well.

As Min-a said, this was someone who appeared often when searching for information about the Church of Horus.

Hong Go-hak, bishop of the Church of Horus’s Korean diocese.

That was the elder’s identity.

“Are both of you attending from today?”

“Uh, yes. My name is Cha Eun-ho, and I registered in the membership register as well.”

“Good! What about this cute young lady?”

“I haven’t -”

“She’s Kim Min-a. You can add her to the register.”

“Really? Kim Min-a? Excellent!”

The elder smiled and gestured. The woman managing the register wrote down Kim Min-a’s name as if she understood.

Soon, Min-a looked at me as if I were ridiculous.

“I’ll be attending this church from now on.”

“...”

She soon shook her head and left.

I was about to leave with her.

Then I heard the elder’s voice again.

“Your name is Cha In-ho?”

“It’s Eun-ho.”

“Mr. In-ho, I saw you looking at Horus’s statue earlier... What did you think?”

“... I-it’s cool? Handsome?”

“His face is an owl’s, and you think he’s handsome?”

“Ahem, well, he has a majestic bearing that can’t be hidden by the owl symbol -”

“Remember that well.”

“Pardon?”

“He will return soon.”

“...”

I didn’t know how to answer.

I could only sense something indescribably eerie about Hong Go-hak.

Footnotes:

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