Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 585

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 584: Eve of the Storm - New Year’s Gathering (3)

──────

- Lee Eun-sol

Looking back, hadn't Ga-in's trip to Jeju Island been a kind of turning point?

Once Ga-in, who had enough drive to half-ignore the Hotel's recommendation to “stop running around and rest,” collapsed, the rest of us actually rested like docile sheep.

That didn't mean we lazed around like unemployed people.

I devoted myself to running the hotel, Elena returned to being the owner of the Esper, and Jin-cheol threw himself into his work as an agent.

Of course, that was more like doing our best in the roles we'd been given, so it was a little different.

...

Time flew by, and the year changed. It was already mid-January.

By my count, it had probably been 172 days since we escaped the Hotel.

The “six months later” when we were supposed to act wasn't far off now.

Would the real disaster begin soon?

We decided to put aside our individual activities and stay together from now on.

That was why Jin-cheol and I were riding in a limousine to pick up the others.

* * *

“Wow, Jin-cheol, you've gotten a lot better at driving. Honestly, you were really terrible a few months ago.”

“... There was someone who gave me hell over my driving, wasn't there?”

“Who? That other agent who was supposedly your mentor?”

“Don't get me started. Anyway, is this Song-i's school?”

“Yeah. It's right over-”

“...”

The moment we looked toward Song-i's school, Jin-cheol and I both fell silent.

Stalls filled the entire area, starting from the schoolyard.

The students were running them, all smiling happily as they made fish-shaped pastries and grilled scallion pancakes.

There were places for dice games and card games everywhere, too.

Even local residents had braved the cold to come out, laughing cheerfully.

Jin-cheol stared blankly at the scene before muttering, “Is this some kind of winter cultural festival? Wow! Korea really has gotten better. When I was young, only universities could hold festivals as extravagant as regional festivals. High school festivals were mere formalities-”

“They still are.”

“...”

“Ordinary Korean high schools don't have the money to make that kind of mess, and every parent is obsessed with college admissions. What festival? If they did something like this, there'd be an uproar. They'd make everyone sit through another College Scholastic Ability Test prep class instead.”

“...”

I'd never seen it myself, but I'd heard about it several times from the other companions who had visited Song-i's school.

They said Song-i's life had turned into something like that of a “Japanese manga protagonist.”

I'd never read that kind of manga, but I'd heard that Japanese high schools in fiction held incredibly elaborate cultural festivals.

“Don't any of them find this strange?”

“Apparently, it's a school full of rich kids, so they don't care about college or anything.”

“Ah, one of those schools from dramas? So that's why-”

“That's a ridiculous setting.”

“...”

A school full of rich kids didn't care about college admissions?

Speaking as a former third-generation chaebol heir, that was a strange fantasy that only existed in fiction.

In reality, whether through donations or studying abroad, they'd use any means necessary to get their children into prestigious universities with impressive credentials.

Even my late father, who had been crushed in the Loop, was no exception.

“There was probably a setting like that in some drama or manga Song-i watched.”

“... Let's go get her.”

“She told us to wait outside.”

“She isn't coming out, so we should go get her.”

After entering the school to get Song-i, Jin-cheol and I saw an even more absurd sight.

“Say hello to your beloved big sis!”

“S-Song-i! Are you really not going to attend school next year?”

Song-i was receiving everyone's love and attention like some kind of school idol.

Her hair had grown past her shoulders at some point. She let it flutter as she struck poses and met the eyes of the students around her.

“... What is she doing?”

“She's having an emotional farewell.”

“No... I'm asking what that show is.”

“Don't think of her as a student. Think of her as an idol. She might be retiring, so her fans are sad.”

“H-How is there an idol at school?”

“Just accept it.”

The more I watched, the funnier it was, but I was also a little jealous.

Song-i had really spent six months having fun without caring what others thought!

Her life really was like that of a manga protagonist.

Maybe I should've made a wish like that too.

“Oh, Song-i, honestly, what is all this-”

“You still have a Dream left, don't you?”

“...”

“When peace comes, why don't you use a Dream like Song-i did?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Agent Cha Jin-cheol, whose body and mind have been worn down by a chaotic world, walks through a cold city and finds true love.”

“S-sis!”

“His destined partner is a beautiful actress in her twenties, exhausted in body and mind by entertainment industry scandals. When she meets the dependable Agent Cha Jin-cheol, she finds peace of mind-”

“Aaargh!”

As we passed the time trading jokes, Song-i soon climbed into the limousine, her cheeks slightly flushed.

“Oh, come on! I told you to wait outside the schoolyard!”

“Jin-cheol wanted to go in.”

“Jin-cheol!”

“... I-I didn't know you were going to be making such a spectacle of yourself.”

“Song-i, what's wrong? Don't tell me you're embarrassed by your Dream?”

“Eun-sol!”

“You should always be confident. I am Yoo Song-i, Empire High's idol.”

“Eek!”

As amusing as it was, another thought crossed my mind.

Song-i didn't take the world seriously.

It felt like she treated ordinary people around her less as people and more as props for her own enjoyment.

Then Jin-cheol asked a somewhat uncomfortable question.

“Song-i. The way you treat those people now, um, feels very different from how you treat us.”

“Of course it is.”

“...”

“You, Eun-sol, and all the other companions are my family. They aren't.”

The word family warmed my heart, but it also made me wonder.

Did that mean ordinary people weren't family?

Or that they weren't people?

...

I had no intention of criticizing Song-i.

How could I point fingers at her over such a small issue when the one most of us would agree was our leader, still lying in a hospital room, had gone so far as to create the Cult of the Material God just to charge an Inheritance?

* * *

“Oh my! Eun-sol, thanks to you, I get to ride in a limousine, something I never imagined I'd experience.”

“Didn't you ever ride one while working for the Management Bureau?”

“Why would we advertise that we were special people? I hardly ever did.”

“Ah!”

After picking up Seung-yeop and Mi-ro first, then Mr. Sang-hyeon and Grandpa Mook-seong, the limousine became quite crowded.

“Mi-ro, I heard you caused a commotion at school?”

“What commotion?”

“You brat! I heard it all from Seung-yeop. What did you do at school? Summon a monster?”

“Wow! Seung-yeop, you're such a snitch. It wasn't even a big deal, but you tattled to Mook-seong?”

“... What do you mean, it wasn't a big deal? Ghost Story Mi-ro almost cut my arm off that day.”

“Your arm is fine.”

“I-I dodged it well!”

“Then it's fine!”

Listening to the absurd conversation behind me, I couldn't help but laugh.

After A-ri went missing and Ga-in was admitted to the hospital too, Mi-ro had truly become a girl with nothing in the world to fear.

Well, I didn't think she'd crossed the line yet.

After all, Seung-yeop's arm hadn't actually been cut off.

“Hey! Aren't you going to apologize even once?”

“Why? Didn't I help you train your martial arts?”

Mi-ro, that's a little shameless...

“Now, now, let's all calm down. We need to see Ga-in as soon as we arrive at the hotel, don't we?”

“...”

Sure enough, Mi-ro quieted down the moment Ga-in's name came up.

In many ways, it was such pure love.

“I think Ga-in would want Miss Mi-ro to apologize for what she needs to apologize for.”

“...”

“What do you think?”

“... Sorry.”

Mr. Sang-hyeon knew how to make use of that purity.

“Agent.”

“Doctor, I told you, I'm a former agent now.”

“Did your children arrive safely in Texas?”

“I heard from them last week. It's thanks to you, Doctor. Thank you.”

“Not at all.”

Grandpa was being uncharacteristically polite, even bowing, so he must have been truly grateful.

Some of the companions had created families through Dreams, and after a meeting, they decided to send all of them to America.

I understood wanting their families to be somewhere safe.

But was America really safe?

I didn't know.

Grandpa and Mr. Sang-hyeon probably couldn't be certain either. Perhaps they were simply holding on to a vague hope.

...

Sometimes, I wondered about this.

How long would my companions be able to regard ordinary people as their true families?

I heard Grandpa's career as an agent had been short, at least by an agent's standards, so he still sincerely saw his children and grandchildren as family...

But what about the distant future, after we'd gone through the Loop over and over?

I thought that by then, we would no longer try to create families made up of ordinary people.

“Doesn't anyone have some kind of trump card?”

“I still have a Dream. Mi-ro has one left too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Jin-cheol and Mi-ro have Dreams? What about the rest?”

“Ha ha! I have ‘Greatest Martial Artist Under Heaven Awakening’! It's one-use, though.”

Seung-yeop's Greatest Martial Artist Under Heaven Awakening...

Not bad.

It might save everyone once.

As for me, I had Greedy Hand.

The problem was that it was hard to use while companions were nearby.

“We're here! Everyone out.”

Thinking that we'd all live together from now on brought back many old memories.

Really, didn't it feel like we were all challenging a Curse Room again?

* * *

- Han Ga-in

--- Sssss...!

In a mental world as deep as the abyss, I sensed the outside.

“...”

There was a blind superhero I liked as a child.

He had lost his sight, but his brain developed superhuman hearing to compensate for it. Using that power, he could perceive space in three dimensions.

I'd thought it was comic-book exaggeration at the time...

But after spending over a month in a half-comatose state, it wasn't entirely wrong.

Just as people who lose their sight develop their hearing, after letting go of my entire body, a kind of Spirituality or sixth sense had grown sharper.

It was making up, at least a little, for the loss caused by my weakened blessing after returning to reality.

Perhaps this, too, had been the Owl's wish.

「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 174

Current Location: Hotel Delight, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul

Sage’s Advice: X」

The Status Window had started appearing again about three days ago.

It meant the Punishment was nearing its end, and recovery was approaching.

In other words, the time of disaster was arriving.

And...

「Scenario Understanding has been activated!」

「Scenario: The Stolen World