WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 569: Best Friend (2)
──────
- Ictus (ἸΧΘΥΣ)
There’s no yours or mine between friends.
That meant my assets were that parrot’s assets.
And, “logically,” the parrot’s assets were also mine.
Given the circumstances, the first part certainly seemed true.
But would the second hold true in practice?
The inexpressible anxiety soon took the form of a tangible threat.
--- Crash! Bang! Open the door!
Threatening shouts came from outside.
Just as my “friend” had advised, the Management Bureau had sent a suppression team.
Soon, an urgent voice crackled from inside my jacket.
- Director Yohan! Armed soldiers have barged in without warning!
- They say they’re from the Management Bureau. Wh-what should we do?
- Aah! There are eight, eight of them!
As I listened in silence, the parrot clacked its beak.
“What’s wrong?”
“...”
“No, the people outside are terrified! Shouldn’t the great Director Yohan step out and handle this?”
“...”
“The number is exact too, isn’t it? One agent and seven soldiers. Someone like Director Yohan might be able to deal with them easily?”
The seven soldiers were one thing, but every Management Bureau agent was a monster. I couldn’t be sure.
Even if I could win, that would still be a problem.
This clash was a matter of life and death for me, but to the Management Bureau, it was no more than sending out a patrol.
Even if I killed those eight, next time they would send attack helicopters, hundreds of soldiers, and the real deal, with a demigod-level powerhouse in the mix.
And even that would be no more than a light jab from the Management Bureau.
That endless supply of manpower was the Management Bureau’s true strength.
- Crash!
- Aah! This is just an innocent private company!
- I decide whether you’re guilty or not. Tear the place apart!
Savage shouts came from outside the private room.
It seemed the soldiers were openly using violence against the directors and major shareholders.
Sunrise’s directors and major shareholders were all wealthy people who strutted around outside.
Before the Management Bureau’s tyranny, though, their social standing was completely useless.
At this point, the directors, major shareholders, and I were all at a loss, barely able to breathe.
Yet one woman and one bird remained utterly calm.
“So, friend. What do you think? Want to work together?”
“...”
- You bastard! Aren’t you going to talk properly?
A thunderous voice came from outside.
In the end, some fool who couldn’t overcome their fear spoke up.
- Hic! D-Director Yohan is in the private room over there, next to the pillar on the left!
It had only been a matter of time, but they had exposed my location.
--- Thud! Thud!
I could feel the agent’s heavy footsteps all the way here.
My senses were sharp, but even apart from that, the agent seemed to be enormous.
--- Thud! Thud!
One step.
Then another.
Whenever the giant came closer, my heart clenched and cold sweat ran down my back.
The human heart was like a thin sheet of iron. Once folded, it retained the crease even if unfolded later.
That day, the day I realized Apollion, whom I had served all my life, was not invincible!
A mark called fear had formed in my heart, one that would never disappear.
Could I win if I fought?
Even if I did, could I survive the Management Bureau’s pursuit afterward?
- Hey! Is that the door? It could be dangerous, so I’ll go in alone. Wait in the rear!
- Waiting in the rear!
Soon, the entire door to the private room was ripped off, and a stranger burst in.
--- Rumble!
“Hey! What kind of scheme were you cooking up in a stuffy place like this?”
The agent was a giant.
I couldn’t think of a better word than giant.
Would a human body look like this if it had been swollen in every direction?
The agent was well over two meters tall, less a person than a mass of muscle.
Even if the blonde woman, my parrot friend, and I combined our weight, we probably wouldn’t come close to this stranger’s.
“Can’t you hear me? Huh? That lady over there looks pretty famous.”
“Of course. The Management Bureau confiscated my ship recently, didn’t they?”
“Ha ha! Well, when the time comes, they’ll return it. Right?”
“I certainly hope so.”
I had been caught by the Management Bureau before.
What did that mean?
It meant the Management Bureau knew exactly what I looked like!
I had shaved my beard and tidied my hair, so they might not recognize me at a glance from a distance. Up close like this, though, there was no way they wouldn’t know!
“Hngh!”
Just as I gathered my power, sensing the inevitable final battle, the demon-faced agent stared at me with wide eyes.
The agent’s next words sounded like a quiet whisper, completely at odds with that enormous frame.
“Just stay still.”
What?
“Ha, what an oblivious bastard.”
W-we aren’t going to fight?
“You idiot! How are you going to survive in this harsh world when you’re this careless?”
What was the agent talking about?
The agent suddenly lectured me, then turned around and left.
- That bastard Ictus isn’t here!
- Excuse me? But according to the intelligence!
- I said he isn’t here. You don’t trust me?
- Th-that’s not what I meant.
- Looks like the intelligence was wrong. Let’s go. I need to report this again.
“...”
The agent left me behind.
He hadn’t recognized me?
No!
He had clearly come looking for Ictus, and at the end, he had even looked me in the eye and called me an oblivious bastard.
He recognized me but ignored me?
What was this...?
As I stood there flustered by something I couldn’t understand, my “friend” flicked his beak as though amused.
“How is it? Interesting, isn’t it?”
“...”
“By the way, why are you taking so long to answer? Is my offer to work together really that hard to understand?”
“...”
“I came to help because you seemed to be in trouble... I guess you don’t need help? Then it can’t be helped. Elena, let’s go.”
“Huh? Yes? We’re just leaving?”
The blonde woman looked confused.
I was also taken aback, never expecting them to back down so easily.
“Chirp---! Agent Cha Jin-cheol! There’s something suspicious here-”
“Aaaaah!”
With more desperation than I had ever felt in my life, I spoke.
“Don’t do that!”
“What?”
“My friend, d-don’t abandon me. True friends always stay together!”
The parrot’s beak twisted slightly.
I thought that was the bird’s way of showing emotion.
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 48
Current Location: 281 Gangnam-daero, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
After wrapping up the reunion with Ictus, I sat across from Elena, my precious companion, in a discreet cafe nearby.
The moment we sat down, Elena burst into the laughter she had been holding back.
“Pfft! Ahaha! Hehe!”
“Just laugh your heart out.”
“I can’t! Maybe not you, but I’m famous, you know?”
“Right, you are.”
After her laughter subsided, Elena looked back on what had just happened.
“Jin-cheol’s acting has gotten much better.”
“It’d be stranger if he were still bad at it.”
“When I heard him say, ‘I decide whether you’re guilty or not,’ I got chills.”
“Ha ha! That’s the kind of line a movie villain would say-”
“If he’d acted even better and it had sounded sincere, my blessing might’ve reacted.”
“...”
That was seriously chilling.
There wouldn’t be some absurd situation where Jin-cheol, who had become overly immersed in the Management Bureau’s ideology, fought Elena, right?
I should prevent that in advance.
“Ha ha, Elena. That was obviously acting. You know what he’s like, right?”
“Of course. I was joking too.”
She was joking, right?
I guess I overreacted.
“How did you feel about meeting Ictus?”
“He’s changed far more than I expected.”
“Tell me specifically.”
“He used to be nothing more than one of the usual demon worshippers-”
“... The fact that demon worshippers are common is strange by itself.”
“Now he’s become far too much of a businessman. From what I saw, it seemed like no one but a few directors in his inner circle knew anything about Ictus’s power.”
“Would that be a problem?”
The Sacred Sun’s standards for charging were generous, but there was a limit to that generosity.
Elena and Sang-hyeon were easy examples.
Both were companions who generally listened to me, but there was an important difference.
Elena had nearly been absorbed by the Sacred Sun once, while Sang-hyeon never had.
Was it the idea that the other person was above them?
Or the experience of yielding to supernatural charisma?
I couldn’t say exactly, but there was clearly a line between worship and trust. I needed to understand that difference.
“At the very least...”
“At the very least?”
“They need to show just a little more religious devotion than they do now.”
We needed to change Sunrise’s atmosphere a little.
It felt too much like an ordinary company right now. It needed to lean slightly more religious.
I carefully explained my plan for doing that.
...
At some point, I noticed Elena was only looking at my face with a bright smile.
“You’re listening to me, right?”
“Of course. You said you want to establish a symbol rather than stepping forward yourself.”
Good. She had been listening.
“Ha ha, I was wondering why you kept smiling.”
Elena chuckled again and brought up something from before.
“The Management Bureau confiscated the Esper in its entirety after what happened recently.”
“A-ri told you, didn’t she? They’ll tear it apart for inspection, then give it back.”
“How long will that take? At least six months?”
“...”
“When the Management Bureau confiscated the Esper, I was really disappointed. I was a little upset that A-ri couldn’t stop them, too.”
“W-well, A-ri had her own position-”
“I understand. I’m just saying I was disappointed. I’m fine now.”
“I’m glad you’re fine.”
“This is more fun than holding a party on the Esper every day.”
Was this really that fun?
As I tilted my head, Elena spoke pointedly.
“The work itself is interesting because it feels like something a mysterious Secret Agent would do, but what matters more is who I’m doing it with.”
“...”
The mood became slightly awkward.
This seemed like the right moment to pour cold water on it.
“Um, I think this work is quite dangerous for you, Elena.”
“Dangerous?”
“The fact that you’re nearby while faith is being gathered is dangerous in itself.”
“... I suppose so.”
In the past, the Sacred Sun had tried to swallow Elena.
“So lately, whenever I consciously think of you, Elena, I remind myself that you’re a companion.”
That was my own way of preventing the Sacred Sun from malfunctioning.
But my feelings weren’t the most important part.
“Still, in the end, you need to be careful yourself-”
“Ga-in, I think!”
Elena spoke firmly, with a smile.
“I don’t think we’ll have that problem again.”
From the look in her eyes, she seemed certain of something.
All I could do was hope that certainty was right.
Let’s finish talking about work.
“This is the symbol I prepared. It will turn Sunrise’s greed into sincere devotion-”
“I got curious while listening.”
“Go ahead.”
“Do we need a complicated process? Can’t we just gather the Sunrise employees and have you use the Sacred Sun?”
Did we really need a plan? Couldn’t I just summon the sun in front of the employees?
It was a reasonable thought.
“If I start using the sun to enchant the employees, I’ll have to keep using the sun afterward.”
“Ah?”
“And I’ll have to stay involved with that company, regularly stimulating their Faith.”
“I-is that so?”
The plan I had made this time was far more sophisticated!
“They won’t worship me. They’ll worship a sacred object that symbolizes me.”
“So that’s why you mentioned a symbol? Like the Christian cross?”
“If things go well, I can wash my hands of Sunrise. In other words...”
I spoke to Elena, whose eyes had gone round.
“In other words, it’s an automatic Faith farm.”
“...”
Elena looked literally stunned.
“So what’s the symbol?”
“This.”
“A Golden Toad?”
“It has a long history and tradition.”
For a moment, Elena’s expression turned strange.
“Why did you choose a toad as the symbol?”
Did she not know about the Golden Toad?
“It seems you don’t know much about Eastern culture, Elena. Around here, a Golden Toad is-”
“No, we don’t need Eastern culture or anything! You can tell at a glance this isn’t right! Use Sage’s Advice.”
“...”
“It’s too materialistic! It needs to look sacred.”
Was the Golden Toad really that bad?
[Advice: 3 -> 2]
‘What do you think of a Golden Toad as a symbol for gathering Faith at Sunrise?’
[A Golden Owl would be better than some vulgar amphibian.]
“...”
[Mix diamond dust into its feathers, and fill its eyes with the gleam of wise emeralds-]
This was a demand full of the Sponsor’s selfish desires!
Footnotes:
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