WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 567: Two Strategy Meetings
──────
A stately mansion beneath a gray sky.
Arthur Reynolds was enjoying his noon coffee as he waited for news from outside when he suddenly clutched his chest.
- Twitch!
“Urgh!”
“Arthur?”
“Arrgh! M-my heart-”
An indescribably intense pain shot through his heart!
Olivia hurried to bring emergency medicine, and even the children panicked, not knowing what to do. Yet Arthur’s screams would not stop.
Fifteen minutes? Twenty?
Only after enough time had passed for the sound of an ambulance to be heard in the outside world did Arthur’s screams finally stop.
Not because the pain had ended.
There was simply no longer anyone named Arthur left to scream.
“Eek! Aaaah!”
“Dad! Daaad!”
A horribly smiling old man burst out of Arthur Reynolds’ body as if it were a balloon.
“Ha...! That was quite a struggle!”
“M-monster! You did something to Arthur-”
Ryan Reynolds gave Olivia and Joshua a bitter smile as they screamed at him.
Weren’t they his daughter-in-law and grandson, when you thought about it?
Yet neither recognized Ryan.
--- Clap!
With a light clap, Olivia and Joshua collapsed, and the room fell silent.
His daughter-in-law and grandson, even his own son, no longer recognized him.
It was not strange.
As the ‘young man’ had realized earlier, The World That Cannot Be Remembered was an Imitation Hotel Ryan had created through a lifetime of effort.
Think of a Curse Room.
Just as the Hotel freely manipulated the memories of NPCs, Ryan had merely tampered with the NPCs’ memories for this ‘play.’
Strictly speaking, it was Ryan’s own fault that his family did not recognize him.
“...”
Ryan suddenly thought to himself.
How could ‘things like these’ be family?
He had meant what he told the ‘young man’ through Arthur’s mouth: illusions created by Dream were not real family.
“...”
Long ago, the old man had loved them too.
They had been his real son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.
When had that stopped being true?
Even Ryan did not know.
The human heart was like a lake. One day, you came to your senses and found its surface frozen over.
Still, Ryan had always needed blood relatives connected to him by genetics.
That was the condition of his second Inheritance, Father-Son Affection.
As Ryan bridged the gap between death and resurrection, someone’s voice echoed in the old man’s mind.
‘You acted carelessly this time.’
“... Thank you for helping me.”
‘There is not much time left until the Ark is complete. I told you not to act rashly.’
“What do you mean, I acted rashly? I was staying put, and that brat entered my territory first!”
‘Stay put. The other side will remain quiet for a while as well.’
A one-sided order.
A gaze looking down on him from above.
Ryan had always disliked that attitude.
‘Ryan, review the battle you just fought.’
“What?”
The old man tilted his head, wondering what that meant, then froze in shock.
He had clearly fought desperately, using his treasures and Inheritances without holding back...!
Yet many of his memories had vanished.
The young owner of Wisdom.
His name, appearance, and Inheritance had all grown hazy.
Ryan often tampered with the memories of others himself, but being on the receiving end left him breathless.
“H-how could this happen-”
‘Do you still not understand? This is not an opponent you can take lightly.’
That brief meeting, or perhaps ‘delivery of orders,’ came to an end.
“...”
Ryan suddenly thought of something.
Everyone who obtained the Blessing of Wisdom seemed alike.
He had interacted with his counterpart for so long that even several ordinary lifetimes would not have been enough...
Yet Ryan still did not know the name or even the face of the person he spoke to.
That person always appeared with the light of reason.
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
A week had passed since Hotel Delight collapsed.
After putting out the immediate fire with the help of many people, everyone agreed that we should hold our first proper strategy meeting since escaping.
“Song-i, hi!”
“Eun-sol, it’s been ages!”
“Grandpa Mook-seong, are you all right? I heard you were held captive.”
“It’s nothing. The embarrassment is the bigger problem.”
「Agent, what is there to be embarrassed about?」
“What’s this? A video call?”
“Sang-hyeon lives in the United States.”
“A-ri, hello!”
“It’s been a while. Is Mi-ro doing well?”
“... She hasn’t been going to school much lately.”
“...”
After exchanging brief greetings, I looked over the companions gathered in the secret meeting room.
Six of us were there in person: me, Yoo Song-i, Elena, Kim Mook-seong, Park Seung-yeop, and Kim A-ri.
“Chirp! I’m currently handling something, so I had no choice but to appear in this body-”
“Ugh! Ga-in, it’s scary when you speak so fluently with a beak.”
Ga-in had come using Pero’s body, while Sang-hyeon, who lived in the United States, joined through a video call.
The only people missing were Mi-ro, who had unavoidable circumstances, and Jin-cheol, who was training with the Management Bureau.
Naturally, we would tell both of them what was discussed at the meeting.
Seeing all my companions gathered together again felt strangely poignant.
We had kept in touch separately, but it had truly been a long time since we had all gathered like this.
“All right, let’s begin!”
* * *
First came the account of a serious clash with the previous owner of Communication and his companion.
“Wow... He manipulated the display name and even spread horrible information through the Chat Window?”
“The memory editing is even more amazing.”
Song-i and Elena sounded impressed.
I had never realized that the Blessing of Communication could be used so aggressively.
“Mook-seong, what have you been doing all this time?”
At A-ri’s teasing question, Grandpa Mook-seong simply asked, “Want me to? Should I put something up in the Chat Window right now?”
Everyone immediately fell silent.
A Blessing’s direction of growth was influenced by its participant’s tendencies.
Manipulating display names and contaminating the Chat Window proved that Ryan Reynolds had actively used Communication to keep his teammates in check.
Perhaps an ability like Memory Editing had developed in that process.
“Memory Editing must be the result of a powerful enhancement, right?”
“Definitely.”
In many ways, that was a power Grandpa Mook-seong would have found hard to obtain.
“The treasures he had were the Blink Lighter and three mobile drones?”
“They were called Noble Guardian,” A-ri cut in.
“Don’t forget how his heart was twitching at the end. He has another Inheritance for regeneration or resurrection.”
“Anything else?”
“The World That Cannot Be Remembered. It’s his base, and it’s an Imitation Hotel.”
I organized Ryan Reynolds’ information on the whiteboard.
「Ryan Reynolds
1. Blessing (Communication): Vivid Communication (1), Memory Editing (2) -> Estimated Stage 3
2. Inheritance: Noble Guardian, ??? (Regeneration or Resurrection)
3. Base: The World That Cannot Be Remembered - Imitation Hotel」
Ga-in, still in Pero’s body, spoke as if he found it absurd.
“Was everything a lie?”
“What was?”
“I mean, he said through his lackey, Arthur, that he had escaped to the beginning of the second floor. But both his Blessing and Inheritances are still intact.”
“Hmm... Then did he make it as far as Room 207 too?”
“I don’t know.”
As always, there was more we did not know about the Hotel than we did.
“What about the other one?”
“Chirp! You mean the other owner of Wisdom?”
“Why do you keep going chirp, chirp?”
“Why are you flapping your wings like that?”
“... I guess imitating a parrot has become a habit.”
How often had he been using Pero’s body for flapping his wings and chirping to become habits? Still, I let it go.
“He seems to have an Inheritance similar to Indomitable Reason. And...”
“Until we learn its real name, let’s just call it Indomitable Reason. And?”
“... He has Insight, or a power like it. He immediately realized that the Sacred Sun had been emptied.”
「???
1. Blessing (Wisdom): Estimated Stage 4
2. Inheritance: Indomitable Reason (Imitation)」
I wanted to write more, but there was nothing else to add.
“We have too little information.”
Pero Ga-in answered again.
“Very...”
“Very?”
“I think he may be a very old participant.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I obtained Insight, Owl told me that I was a participant who had gained the possibility of obtaining a fourth enhancement, one that appeared extremely rarely.”
Even in the Hotel, a fourth Blessing enhancement occurred only very rarely.
“If a fourth enhancement had occurred in the immediately preceding Hotel, or two or three Hotels back, Owl would not have said that, right?”
“That makes sense.”
“He must be from a very... very long time ago.”
A-ri then muttered with a sickened expression.
“Then just how old is that old man?”
Everyone’s expressions darkened slightly.
A participant who had obtained a fourth enhancement in the Hotel surely had more than one Inheritance as well.
It was difficult to imagine the depth of a monster’s strength after accumulating power through countless Loops in reality.
At least he had not immediately turned hostile toward us.
“Let’s summarize what we know about the person I met too.”
“The one who threatened Eun-sol in the Otherworld?”
“I found out his name. I could because he’s a participant from the Management Bureau.”
Only one person among us could provide information from the Management Bureau.
A-ri naturally nodded, and everyone gestured as if to say she had done well.
「Patrick Biederman
1. Blessing (Courage): Mutation Ability -> Estimated Stage 3
2. Inheritance: Book of Covenants
3. Affiliation: Management Bureau」
“Blessing of Courage?”
A-ri answered.
“Yeah. It was hard-earned information.”
Pero Ga-in tilted his head and continued.
“He’s the tall person, right? When I used Insight to see the past aboard the Esper, that person spoke to ‘future me,’ so I was sure he had Foresight.”
“Maybe he was not the one who saw it.”
Sang-hyeon reacted to that.
[That is strange. If I understand correctly, Ryan Reynolds and the ‘other Wisdom’ are on the same side.]
“Right.”
[Ryan left the Management Bureau, correct?]
A-ri nodded.
[Ryan, who left the Management Bureau, and the other Wisdom are on the same side. Yet Patrick, who belongs to the Management Bureau, heard information about the future from the other Wisdom?]
Ryan Reynolds had left the Management Bureau.
Patrick Biederman was still an important figure within it.
Yet the mysterious other Wisdom had connections to both of them.
At first glance, it was a strange relationship.
“What’s strange about that?”
A-ri’s voice cut in.
“Look at us if you want to see strange people. I’m a Management Bureau agent, Mook-seong is retired from the Management Bureau, and Jin-cheol is set to become a new recruit.”
Then A-ri pointed at the display.
“Someone who hates the Management Bureau.”
[... The Management Bureau is a necessary evil.]
“Two clueless middle schoolers.”
“Sis?”
“A strange high school student turning Japanese manga into reality.”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“Two businesspeople leisurely enjoying themselves with a hotel and a cruise ship.”
“Leisurely? Do you know how busy we are?”
“And on top of that! A parrot man who has started doing crazy things again!”
“...”
Looking at us one by one, we really were a strange bunch.
There was even a Management Bureau hater and a Management Bureau agent in the same room.
“If people like us can gather in one place, do you think the ‘other party’ would be any different?”
That was true.
That was what the Hotel Party was like.
* * *
As the discussion about the Former Participants came to an end, a few personal requests were exchanged.
Most were requests for A-ri and the Management Bureau.
I started.
“I asked the Korean Branch Head to support the restoration costs for Hotel Delight.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked why. He said Management Bureau resources could not be used freely for personal reasons.”
“I’ll handle it.”
“Oh!”
“The reasons can be made easily enough.”
“What about the Korean Branch Head’s opposition-”
“That person will soon be under me.”
Now that’s what I’m talking about!
Park Hyun-min, you bastard! Your superior is on my side, so how dare you throw your weight around?
Did that mean Hotel Delight becoming the best hotel in Korea would be funded with Management Bureau money?
It sounded convincing, but something about it was vague...
“Sis! Sis! Sophia made her decision.”
“Really?”
“Can you prepare a body in reality for Sophia to move into?”
“It’s possible, but it’ll take some time. And... you understand what that request means, right?”
“... Yes.”
“Then that’s enough.”
Seung-yeop’s request passed too.
Next, the ‘strange parrot man’ opened his beak.
“Chirp! I have a request too-”
“That’ll be difficult.”
“... I haven’t even said it yet.”
“I know what you’re going to ask. You want us to turn a blind eye, don’t you?”
“...”
“I can’t do that, but I’ll grant it another way.”
Ga-in’s request was for the Management Bureau to overlook the ‘business’ he was currently running.
A-ri said she could not turn a blind eye to it, but she would grant the request another way.
“Another way?”
“I chose the agent assigned to your business.”
“You chose them? No! Don’t tell me!”
“Jin-cheol will go.”
“Oh, A-ri! Lady A-ri! I knew I could count on you!”
The parrot flew over with a flap, perhaps wanting to give her a grateful kiss, and pressed his beak to A-ri’s cheek.
It was so absurd that Song-i, Elena, and I could not stop laughing.
“Seriously! Stop that!”
A-ri’s reaction made it even funnier.
...
Still, Ga-in’s new business was something I had heard about before, and it was quite a strange idea.
I understood its purpose.
After fighting a Former Participant, the Sacred Sun had been completely drained, so he needed to gather power again somehow.
Now that things had come to this, though, the wish for oblivion he had made with Dream was an obstacle.
If his believers turned away and forgot Ga-in, how could he build a cult?
“...”
Surprisingly, there was a solution for everything.
Maybe he had made the wish for oblivion while seeing this far ahead.
“Ga-in.”
“Yes?”
“... What did you say the name of your current business partner was?”
The parrot’s beak twisted slightly.
“Ictus. He’s a very reliable business partner.”
To my ears, that sounded like, ‘a very reliable sucker.’
“... Didn’t the god he served die?”
“You can change gods.”
What in the world did that mean?
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
