WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 562: A World That Cannot Be Remembered (1)

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- Lee Eun-sol

I had been losing sleep for the past few days.

I was terrified of the repercussions of the Empty Wish I had made on impulse in the Otherworld: ‘Please make Hotel Delight the number one hotel in Korea!’

How exactly was it planning to grant that?

Was it going to cause earthquakes at the so-called three major hotels ranked above Hotel Delight?!

If thousands or tens of thousands of people died in the process, would that be my fault?

Aah!

What if the Management Bureau got furious and came to dispose of Lee Eun-sol, the mass murderer?

If I had caused that much trouble, shouldn't I quietly offer up my neck and say, “Please kill me!”?

“Director, you haven't looked well lately. You seem unwell. Shouldn't you go to the hospital?”

My expression must have been awful if even my secretary was saying that.

“... I'm still fine.”

I was still fine.

Because nothing had happened yet.

“...”

Was it really fine?

Was it really normal for nothing to happen after making a wish?

At the very least, shouldn't the stock price have risen for some ridiculous reason?

This couldn't be right.

Something had definitely happened, something that would dramatically raise Hotel Delight's ranking in Korea!

I just didn't know what it was.

One day, after spending night after restless night consumed by anxiety, I arrived early at work and opened my office door.

An unfamiliar man was waiting inside.

“Participant Lee Eun-sol. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am from the Management Bureau Korea Branch.”

The Management Bureau had sent someone.

I wasn't surprised.

Once an unidentified oddball who knew I was a participant had appeared, further contact had been expected.

“I didn't expect you to suddenly show up in my office.”

“My apologies. Given the nature of my job, I tend to stay out of ordinary people's sight.”

“Are you an agent?”

“No. To put it simply, I am an employee with a high security clearance.”

His polite, courteous attitude rubbed me the wrong way for some reason.

Of course, I would've disliked it even more if he'd acted threateningly like that man from before.

“Participant Lee Eun-sol, Director Park Hyun-min of the Korean Branch wishes to see you. Shall we leave now?”

He was openly calling me a participant.

It made me uncomfortable, as if he were emphasizing, We know about you.

“...”

I considered it, but the answer was already clear.

If I had been alone in the world, that would've been one thing. But now that I was running a business, I couldn't just avoid them forever.

I had proven through the clash in the Otherworld that I wasn't someone they could take lightly, so they wouldn't cross the line carelessly.

“Let's go.”

* * *

A tired-looking middle-aged man with glasses.

That was my first impression of Park Hyun-min, Director of the Management Bureau Korea Branch.

Judging by his appearance, he was indistinguishable from an ordinary person in the outside world.

Then again, A-ri, who looked more conspicuous than anyone despite being an agent of a secret organization, was probably the strange one.

“Participant Lee Eun-sol, I heard about the recent ‘unavoidable contact.’ That is regrettable.”

Unavoidable contact.

Was he referring to the clash in the Otherworld?

“Regret isn't enough, is it? It seemed like they were trying to brainwash me.”

“Brainwash? Ah, did you think the Book of Covenants was that kind of item?”

The Book of Covenants.

Given the circumstances, it seemed to refer to the scroll summoned by the Former Participant I had met before.

The name was so straightforward that I could immediately guess its effect.

“If you write a contract on that scroll, you can never break it. Is that right?”

“As expected of someone who escaped the hotel, you're quick to catch on. That is exactly right.”

“I don't think that's all it does.”

“...”

“Doesn't it have some hidden ability? For example, maybe the owner can break the contract.”

“There's no need to test me. I don't know either. If you have a way to detect the truth, feel free to use it.”

He seemed to be accounting for all kinds of supernatural abilities.

“If I have one, I can use it?”

“I believe that would help you trust me, even if only a little. Go ahead.”

--- Click!

Butterfly Dream opened, and a butterfly gently flew over to land on the Korean Branch director's arm.

The power to detect truth?

Elena has that, not me.

Still, wouldn't he feel nervous if I let a mysterious butterfly flutter around like this?

“You're bluffing. You don't have an ability to detect the truth?”

“...”

He saw through me immediately.

“If you have a companion with such an ability, feel free to bring them here. I want there to be at least a minimum of trust in the conversation we're about to have.”

What was his intention?

Was he trying to locate companions who were in hiding? That seemed too obvious, though-

“There is no hidden intention. If you wish, I can have Agent Kim A-ri sit in on this conversation.”

“...”

I hadn't said a word, yet it felt as though he had read all my thoughts.

For a moment, I even suspected he had learned to read minds.

“If you suspect that I can read your mind, you are mistaken. There is no need for that.”

“... What do you mean?”

“This is not the first time we have dealt with people who escaped the hotel. Though it is my first time personally.”

Experience accumulated as an organization?

Either way, I felt as though I had been outplayed in a psychological battle.

“I'll be direct. Miss Lee Eun-sol, would you consider joining the Management Bureau?”

“I'll be direct as well. I'm willing to cooperate where necessary, but I have no intention of going beyond that-”

“Here is your agent identification.”

What was this?

No, when had he even made an agent ID with my photo on it?!

“Hey, mister, didn't you hear me?”

“You said you were willing to cooperate where necessary, did you not?”

“What does that have to do with becoming an agent and being loyal to the Management Bureau?”

“You have a misunderstanding about agents.”

“What?”

“Agents are not loyal to the Management Bureau. They simply make use of it.”

“What-”

“Think about it. Agents are chosen people who regard even the destruction of all things as nothing more than a ‘long sleep,’ beings whose very existence is a miracle.”

“...”

“They are little kings with bloated egos. What loyalty could kings possibly have in their hearts?”

For a moment, I was speechless.

If I wasn't mistaken, Park Hyun-min, Director of the Management Bureau Korea Branch, seemed jealous of agents.

His comparison of agents to little kings seemed to be Park Hyun-min's personal opinion.

If I asked A-ri, wouldn't she tell an entirely different story?

Either way, I understood something at the same time.

The Korean Branch director's jealousy was real, but showing that jealousy to me was also intentional.

“I have no intention of demanding loyalty.”

“...”

“Make use of us. Just as those who came before you have done, just as other agents do, make use of the Management Bureau.”

“...”

“My hand is starting to hurt. Are you truly that afraid of this tiny badge?”

--- Thump!

The badge labeled ‘Agent Lee Eun-sol’ landed in my hand.

“May I ask one thing?”

“Anything, if I know the answer.”

“The person I met a few days ago, the Former Participant.”

“Unfortunately, I suspect there is more I don't know than I do. Still, ask.”

“There are many Former Participants besides that person, right? I would imagine quite a few of them are among the Management Bureau's leadership.”

“That is correct.”

“That person tried to subdue me and put me in shackles, but failed.”

“That is unfortunate.”

“Now, you're asking me to cooperate without any means of controlling me...”

“And?”

“Can you trust me?”

That was what I wanted to know.

“An easy question. If you prove untrustworthy and betray us, that too will be important information.”

“What?”

“In the next world, we will not repeat the same mistake. So, Agent Lee Eun-sol, if you ever consider betrayal, remember this. You are no longer a Mortal, and neither are we.”

It was a conversation that weighed heavily on me.

Just before we parted, after he said he would contact me again, I asked one more question just in case.

“Um, I have one more question.”

“Ask.”

“What would it take for Hotel Delight to suddenly become number one in the industry?”

“...”

For the first time, the Management Bureau Korea Branch director, who had seemed to know everything, looked flustered.

It didn't answer my question, but it was satisfying to see.

* * *

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 35

Current Location: Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

Sage’s Advice: 3」

- Han Ga-in

I took a sip of Americano and thought.

Things that had already happened.

We had escaped from reality.

Chaos Disasters had occurred around several companions, and they seemed to be part of a Former Participant's scheme to find and test us.

The hotel Merchant had foreseen this, which was why he gave us the guideline to “act like ordinary people.”

A few of us had been exposed in the process, but fortunately, thanks to the nature of my wish, I still hadn't been discovered.

Things that would happen in the future.

Based on the Merchant's advice, something big would happen in six months or a year.

After that, there would be no need to keep trying not to be discovered as we were doing now.

At some unspecified time, the Light That Calls the End would also appear. Stopping it was A-ri and Grandpa's goal.

Would the cause of that phenomenon be the same as Room 207's? I couldn't be sure of that.

Then what did I need to do from now on?

“...”

Close my eyes and cover my ears while holding out for five months like a completely ordinary person?

It was harder than I had thought.

How could it be easy to rest when I knew something terrible might happen later?

But if I went running around, I had a bad feeling that some Former Participant out there would try to use me.

“Those guys really can't be trusted.”

An answer came immediately.

“Who are you talking about?”

It was Grandpa Mook-seong.

A few days ago, after I had forcibly cut off contact with A-ri, she passed along an interesting message through Eun-sol.

“If you don't want to stay in touch with me because you're worried about the Management Bureau, fine. Stay in contact with Mook-seong instead. Mook-seong isn't a Management Bureau agent anymore.”

Grandpa had retired from agent work.

I heard he had used a wish to erase all the Management Bureau's information about him. In a sense, he was a companion as free as I was.

“The Former Participants. Think about it. Could decent people have escaped a place like the hotel? They probably saved only themselves and came out, so they're likely the worst sort of people...”

“Good grief! Hearing you say that makes me sigh!”

“Why?”

“Wouldn't those people be thinking exactly the same thing about us?”

“...”

Trust was impossible, but they were also too ambiguous to call outright enemies. That was what Former Participants were.

Eventually, we would have to break this vague deadlock and establish a relationship with them...

“So, Ga-in, this is what you mean, right? If you take action, you're afraid of getting caught up in the scheme of an ominous Former Participant. But if you stay still, you're afraid of the Light That Calls the End, which will begin someday.”

“That's it.”

“You're afraid to act, and you're afraid to stay still. You're caught between a rock and a hard place.”

“Exactly.”

“What does Sage’s Advice say?”

“It's less helpful than I expected. It looks like at least one of the Former Participants has ‘Wisdom.’”

Because of that, every useful question brought up a warning that it was a ‘rule violation.’

“Hm...”

After a brief silence, Grandpa gave his opinion.

“Why don't you go on a trip with me?”

“What? All of a sudden-”

“The things you're worried about, especially the Management Bureau's surveillance and their schemes, I know better than you do. You understand, right?”

“I suppose so.”

No matter how much Insight I had, someone who had worked for the Management Bureau would know more about the Management Bureau.

“Trust me this time. I came up with a good idea.”

“What is it?”

“Let's gather information outside the Management Bureau's territory.”

Outside the Management Bureau's territory.

“Is there a place like that in the world?”

“Not in the ordinary world.”

“What?”

“Right, I heard you worked as an exorcist for a few weeks too. That works out well.”

Footnotes:

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