WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 565: The World That Cannot Be Remembered (4)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 38
Current Location: Reynolds Research Lab
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
My conversation with Arthur afterward wasn't very productive.
Was it because even the bare minimum of trust had fallen apart over that damn coffee?
No. The coffee wasn't the cause. It was the result.
There had never been any trust between us to begin with.
“How old are you, Mr. Ga-in?”
“It's difficult to answer because of the time I've spent in the Hotel.”
Pointless small talk.
“Arthur, the Management Bureau knows nothing about you. How did that happen?”
“My father probably erased all information related to this place. I don't know much.”
Another answer claiming he didn't know.
We just kept repeating meaningless questions and answers, while both sides scrambled to avoid the important ones.
“...”
That didn't mean we had gained nothing.
At least, we learned what each side wanted to know most.
I wanted information about the other participants and the purpose of this Research Lab.
Arthur wanted to know the identity of the treasures we'd acquired to stop the Light That Calls the End, as well as information about our party.
“Whew... How about you two take a break and clear your heads for a while?”
“Let's do that.”
* * *
I walked through the lavish mansion, with deadly security systems hidden throughout it, and thought.
At some point, the conversation had stopped being productive. More importantly, it was getting harder and harder to trust Arthur.
He had readily exposed his family, who could be considered his weakness.
He had also willingly revealed the important fact that he'd escaped early on the second floor.
At first glance, it all seemed unbelievably foolish, which made it even more suspicious.
“...”
What if revealing his weaknesses so easily meant they weren't really weaknesses?
Had he shown me false weaknesses to make me lower my guard because I underestimated him?
What if he didn't care about his family at all?
“Grandpa.”
“Hmm?”
“Should we leave now?”
“It's starting to feel like a waste of time. But we don't know how to get out, so...”
“Hmm.”
Should I just take over his body with the Grimoire and get the information from him?
He should know how to leave too.
As if he'd been waiting for it, Grandpa moved close and whispered.
“I don't think we need to hold back anymore.”
“...”
“Let's subdue Arthur and get the information from him. You can do it, can't you?”
“...”
“What’s wrong? Being cautious all the time isn't always the answer.”
He had a point.
Arthur couldn't resist the Grimoire's power.
Besides, it wasn't like I always avoided a fight.
We had several safeguards in place, including Grandpa's One More Chance and A-ri's rescue.
Normally, this would be the time to make a move.
“...”
I didn't want to.
And vaguely, I knew that reluctance was the result of Insight.
Some other participant somewhere in this world was sharing Wisdom with me, weakening Insight as well...
Even so, Insight was warning me through an intuition that went beyond logic, just as it was doing now.
“You little punk! Don't come any closer! We're scary people, you know?”
Grandpa suddenly shouted.
I looked where he was staring and saw Arthur's son, who had appeared briefly earlier.
What was his name again? Joshua?
He was much younger than Seung-yeop, but he already looked handsome.
Considering Arthur wasn't particularly good-looking, Olivia's genes must have done some serious work. She had been quite beautiful.
“Don't bully my dad.”
“...”
“...”
Grandpa and I both fell silent at those innocent words.
Honestly, I didn't think I was a particularly good person by ordinary human standards, but it felt wrong to openly act like a villain in front of a little kid.
Still, he was a foreigner, yet his Korean was incredibly good.
“Ahem. Well, your Korean is really good.”
I awkwardly tried to smooth things over with a compliment.
“Shut up! You idiot!”
“...”
It was so childish that I didn't even know how to respond.
Anyway, he was a white boy who spoke Korean incredibly well...
“Wait.”
Come to think of it, Arthur and his whole family were typical white people.
Usually, it was uncommon enough for them to speak Korean at all. Even if they'd learned it, there would normally be some awkwardness in their pronunciation or phrasing.
“What’s wrong?”
There wasn't a single error in his pronunciation or grammar.
I could have believed he had been born and raised in Korea.
It was strange.
At the very least, I should have found it strange and asked why they spoke Korean so well.
Why hadn't I questioned it?
“...”
Paradoxically, it was because of my experiences in the Hotel.
The Hotel had allowed us to communicate even in places where Korean should never have been heard, even with alien Chaos Entities.
I'd become so used to that consideration that I stayed under that misconception even after returning to reality.
“Grandpa, this place, the World That Cannot Be Remembered...”
“Did you realize something?”
Just like in the Hotel, we could communicate without any problems even if we'd learned different languages.
I felt that Arthur and his family were speaking fluent Korean, but from their perspective, I probably seemed to be speaking English or another foreign language.
“It's like the Hotel.”
The moment I realized the similarity between the World That Cannot Be Remembered and the Hotel, a realization struck me like lightning.
“What?”
The instant I reached out my hand, Joshua began strangling himself.
“You knew, didn't you? Is that why you called me an idiot?”
“Ghk!”
“W-wait! Ga-in, why are you suddenly...”
Arthur's actions had been hard to understand from the beginning.
Why had he exposed his family, who could become a weakness, before us?
Why hadn't he hidden the fact that he'd escaped early on the second floor?
Was he pretending to be weak so I would lower my guard?
Even then, hadn't he gone too far?
There was one simple answer to all those questions.
It didn't matter if he exposed his weaknesses.
This place, the World That Cannot Be Remembered, was an Imitation Hotel recreated through the Mirror and Management Bureau technology!
Add to that the fact that agents and employees who had infiltrated the World That Cannot Be Remembered in the past had lost their memories, and there was only one conclusion.
Arthur could turn back time within this area!
“Talk.”
“It's, it's already too late! You idiot-”
As if it had been waiting for that moment, a sound rang throughout the mansion.
--- Rumble!
It was familiar.
I'd heard similar sounds countless times in the Hotel.
At the same time, a hollow laugh escaped me.
How many times had I already fallen for Arthur's tricks?
Three? Four?
Maybe even more.
My past self probably hadn't noticed Arthur's trick until the very last moment.
Only after the Loop began had I realized something was wrong, scribbling a vague message like, “My memories have been altered. Be suspicious,” in the few seconds I had left.
This time was different.
From the moment I realized it until now, my right hand hadn't stopped moving the pen for even one second.
“Joshua, I'll admit it. I got played like an idiot. But things will be different from now on.”
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 38
Current Location: Reynolds Research Lab
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
I woke up in a soft bed.
The moment I woke up, I saw writing packed so densely across the bottom of the Status Window that it made my head spin.
“...”
They were records I had left before losing my memories.
It didn't take long to understand the situation.
I could also roughly guess what I needed to do next.
Still, the final record was somewhat strange.
「No further conversation necessary. Escape immediately.
+ Do not use Possession on Arthur (Insight)」
There was nothing to gain by continuing a battle of nerves with someone who could turn back time.
So I understood why it told me to stop talking and escape.
“Don't use Possession? That's a conclusion from Insight?”
This was the one part I found difficult to understand.
But if I didn't trust myself, who would?
* * *
When I came out of the room, I found Grandpa drinking tea in the old-fashioned mansion.
It looked like he had woken up before me.
“Oh, you're out?”
“Do you remember anything?”
“I met a guy who said he owned this mansion.”
“What?”
“What? Oh, memories? What memories are you talking about?”
Grandpa's memories had been completely wiped.
Unlike me, he didn't have a Status Window, so there was nothing we could do about it.
I continued the conversation naturally while waiting for Arthur to appear.
Soon, the unwelcome guest appeared above us on the railing.
“You're both awake.”
He was a white man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties.
He was about my height, in the mid-to-upper 170-centimeter range. Judging by his build and the muscles visible through his clothes, he seemed well-trained.
As for his other physical features...
“You're examining me rather openly, aren't you?”
Now that I knew the truth, it all seemed painfully careless.
How could he openly reveal himself when he had no way to resist my Grimoire?
Because he had guessed our goal.
Since we wanted information, he must have assumed we wouldn't attack him recklessly.
Instead of answering, I looked at Grandpa.
“What’s wrong?”
According to the records, there was a high chance surveillance devices were everywhere, and Arthur might even be able to spy on the Chat Window.
That meant I had no way to tell Grandpa my plan.
But did I need to explain it all?
We understood each other without needing words, didn't we?
“Let's subdue him.”
--- Flutter!
I immediately summoned the Grimoire and used the Power of the Avatar to restrain Arthur's entire body.
Without hesitating for even a second, Grandpa drew his pistol like lightning and aimed it at Arthur's head.
“What is this?”
Grandpa's habit of drawing his gun first and asking questions later felt especially dependable right then.
“This guy can turn back time in the mansion.”
“What?”
That explanation was enough.
“We should just get out of here. Ah, but we should get information first. Ga-in, use Possession on this guy and-”
“It says not to use Possession.”
“What?”
“It looks like he has some special trick.”
“...”
Grandpa thought for a moment, then said something cruel.
“Then we'll have to hear directly from him how to get out.”
“... You've tortured someone before, haven't you?”
“Do you think I can’t?”
There was no need to describe what happened next in detail.
Let's just say blood and flesh flew everywhere, and Olivia, who had been watching, fainted.
Arthur didn't last as long as I expected.
I didn't want to mock him.
I wasn't confident I could last long either if I went through something similar.
Just before we escaped, I asked the panting man one final question.
“Just one thing. What your father was trying to achieve through the Mirror... was it the recreation of the Hotel?”
“...”
The turmoil in his eyes was answer enough.
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 38
Current Location: Taebaek City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
“Wow... It really has only been one day.”
“Even so, I sure am unbelievably tired.”
“That's understandable.”
The results weren't bad.
We'd learned a little about participants who existed in reality, as well as the bizarre fact that the Management Bureau had once tried to recreate the Hotel.
Considering we'd also gained some information about the third floor, it had been worthwhile.
Still, one thing bothered me slightly.
“Why do you think that was?”
“What?”
“The first memory alteration. The Owl told me to just let it happen once.”
“Hmm... If we hadn't let it happen that first time, maybe he wouldn't have tried to talk to us?”
If we hadn't fallen for it once, Arthur would have simply driven us out?
It made sense.
“So where are you heading now?”
“Hotel Delight.”
“Really?”
Just in case, I should have Eun-sol play the Flute once, then wrap this up.
“I still don't understand.”
“What don't you understand?”
“Why wasn’t I supposed to use Possession on Arthur's body?”
“Well, he's a Hotel escapee after all. He probably has some kind of mental protection.”
“Hmm.”
Let's use Sage’s Advice.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
