WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 615: The Stolen World (30)
──────
- Mi-ro
...
It felt like I’d had a very long dream.
A truly endless dream with no beginning or end.
A prison of eternity.
Just before I woke up, I saw another me in a hazy image.
If a soul or mind had a physical form, Ghost Story Mi-ro had become something like slime.
A writhing lump of flesh with no eyes, nose, mouth, face, arms, or legs.
No one had told me, but I knew.
Maybe it was because Ghost Story Mi-ro and I had never been complete strangers to begin with.
I knew the other me had endured unimaginable pain to protect me, and that it would take a long time before I could summon her again.
Just looking at her filled me with such pain and sadness that I hugged the lump of flesh and cried endlessly.
Then, at some point, I woke up to the words, “Go out and do your job.”
“...”
When I opened my eyes, A-ri was right in front of me.
Like the other me, she was my only family, worn down by eternity.
A-ri had died in the meantime.
Had she gone brain-dead from unbearable pain?
Or maybe she’d used the power of Old Blood to kill herself.
If Ghost Story Mi-ro and A-ri had ended up like this, Holy Mother Aedia must have been completely broken too...
Just as I began crying again and reached for A-ri’s hand.
--- Rumble!
Thunder rolled through the sky.
The Moon was trying to kill me!
The first thing I did, seized by terror so intense I could barely breathe, was summon Ga-in.
--- Clank!
I’d told Song-i I would save Ga-in’s time for an important moment, right?
This was that moment!
The second Ga-in appeared, I shouted.
“The Moon’s coming to kill us soon!”
“What?”
“What do we do?”
“Th-That’s a little sudden!”
The look on his face clearly said, What is this mess the second I arrive? It brought me back to my senses.
Right. Even Ga-in couldn’t possibly have a plan if I suddenly told him the Moon was about to kill us.
I had to do this!
That was why Ga-in had entrusted the Hourglass to me, right?
The moment I pulled out the Hourglass, eyes wide, Ga-in grabbed my hand.
“Not yet. Not yet.”
“What?”
He silently pointed into the air.
“What... Ah, the Status Window?”
“It looks like the Moon went after my side before this one.”
Before killing me, the Moon had gone to kill Ga-in in the Research Lab first!
“Th-Then?”
“It says he’ll buy us time.”
“Can he do that?”
“He must have a way. As expected of me!”
Ga-in was secretly a narcissist.
“Let’s focus on what’s happening here.”
Afterward, Ga-in took a moment to assess our surroundings.
He spent a long time reading and writing in the Status Window, as though it contained a great deal of important information.
He also examined Aedia, who was sitting blankly on the ground.
--- Boom!
“Eek! W-We should use the Hourglass now...”
“Stay still. It looks like we have a little time.”
We had time to spare?
How was the Ga-in from this time period holding the Moon off for so long?
My heart was pounding so hard I felt like I would lose my mind, but the Summoned Entity Ga-in in front of me looked completely calm.
“A-Aren’t you scared?”
“I am.”
“Then...”
“Could you be quiet for a second?”
“...”
“This is difficult.”
“What is?”
“What you and I need to do here.”
“...”
“One of the reasons I brought you here.”
One of the reasons Ga-in had brought me here?
“You still have a Dream, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Make a wish.”
“W-What?”
“Wish for Aedia’s mind to recover.”
The moment I dropped to my knees and decided, I’ll use the Dream!
A pale, hazy mass of light appeared before me.
The Dream, a second-floor breakthrough reward given when we escaped the Hotel!
“Aedia’s mind is practically dead right now.”
A-ri had died as soon as we escaped the prison of eternity.
Considering the pain she had endured, it wouldn’t have been strange at all if Aedia had gone brain-dead too.
“She should already be dead, but the Inheritance’s absurd life force is forcibly keeping her alive.”
The Qliphoth Crystal.
Aedia’s Inheritance, which gave its owner life force close to immortality.
“I’ll make a wish! Please completely restore Aedia’s broken mind...”
Before I could finish, Ga-in placed a hand on my shoulder again.
“Not completely.”
“... What?”
“Ask it to fix her just enough for her to be able to talk.”
“...”
“That way, we can persuade her.”
He was telling me not to fully heal the Holy Mother for the sake of our goal.
I understood it logically, but his coldness gave me chills.
How had I ended up falling for someone like this?
“... Please heal Aedia’s mind just a little, enough for her to be able to talk.”
The ninth Dream shone.
I felt the brush of the One Who Weeps for the Three Thousand Worlds drawing near.
* * *
When the Holy Mother’s body began to twitch, I held her hand and looked into her eyes.
A mind clumsily stitched back together.
Memories of indescribable pain.
Ga-in’s utterly calm voice.
“Holy Mother, have you come to your senses?”
“... Holy Son.”
“Now you understand, don’t you? What fate awaits the souls the Moon devours?”
“...”
“Do you still believe the Prince’s promise? Do you still believe in salvation?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Your soul has already been mortgaged to the Moon.”
“...”
“If you die someday, or if the Moon decides it no longer needs you.”
“Th-That can’t...”
“Are you certain?”
“...”
“The pain you experienced today was only a preview of the hell that will come someday. Next time... it will not end after ‘only’ five seconds.”
The corrupted Holy Son told the Holy Mother:
The god you serve promises nothing but hell to its believers.
You stand at the top of the Cult, so you will fall to the deepest part of hell.
I saw unmistakable terror in Aedia’s trembling eyes.
“W-What should I do?”
Ga-in pointed at my Time Lender.
“Say it. Say, ‘Mi-ro, I’ll lend you an hour for your sake.’”
* * *
Aedia lent me an hour, then disappeared.
I thought this was the first time I’d stored someone other than a companion in the Time Lender.
“What do we do now?”
“I think we’re done.”
“What?”
Ga-in pointed to the Status Window again.
“I’ve already found out a lot. I thought we only needed to persuade the Holy Mother somehow, but you practically did that, Mi-ro.”
“Huh?”
“You did well. I’m glad I brought you here after all.”
Could I really say I’d done it?
Song-i, who brought me here.
Eun-sol, who used the Flute.
Ghost Story Mi-ro, who created the crack with the Spear of Mortality and endured the pain.
A-ri, who ended the pain.
And Ga-in, who sorted out the situation at the end!
Hadn’t our companions practically done everything?
All I did was bite Song-i’s hand, right?
Ga-in spoke as though he had read my mind.
“Only the Time Lender can bring the power of so many people together in one place.”
“... Thank you.”
“...”
“What do we do now? Kill ourselves? If we die inside the Moon and our, um, souls get eaten...”
Ga-in tilted his head.
“Two things are strange.”
“Huh?”
“First, if this was going to end like this, why did we bring the Hourglass and the camera?”
“... You told me to bring them.”
“I thought we would need them. Why would we need them?”
“...”
“Second, how long has it been since you woke up, Mi-ro?”
“Maybe five minutes? I’m not sure exactly.”
“That means some version of me is holding the Moon off for as much as five minutes.”
“Huh?”
How was Ga-in in the Research Lab keeping the Moon occupied for this long?
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 242
Current Location: Searching...
Sage’s Advice: 0」
- Han Ga-in
「* Companion Location Information
Lee Eun-sol: ---
Kim A-ri: ---」
I was shocked by the two deaths for only a moment before I realized what had happened.
No matter how strong the Moon was, there was no way it could harm companions hiding in Hotel Pioneer, an “absolute safe zone”!
Mi-ro must be doing something.
It seemed she had summoned Eun-sol and A-ri in a crisis, and they had died almost instantly while Mi-ro herself was still alive!
The moment my thoughts reached that point, the Research Lab vanished without a trace, and the sky began to split apart.
--- Rumble!
A truly ruinous force swept across the area in an instant.
This was the rage of a mad god that had realized its valuable weapon had been destroyed.
A gaze too terrifying to meet looked down at me.
There was no longer any goodwill toward “Teacher” in those eyes.
Only the Prince’s boundless malice after realizing he had been betrayed remained!
「I showed you favor and gave you valuable information without holding anything back.」
Ah, seriously!
Mi-ro was the one who caused trouble, so why did he come after me first?
I could guess why.
The Moon probably thought I was the mastermind and Mi-ro was my subordinate.
It was worried that while its attention was drawn to the subordinate, I, the mastermind, might do something. So it wanted to kill me first!
“...”
Mi-ro’s next target for summoning would probably be me.
If I was still alive, then “Summoned Entity Ga-in” must still be alive too!
I frantically scribbled in the Status Window that I would try to buy time.
--- Crack!
“Ghk!”
An irresistible pressure bore down on me, as though it would crush me in an instant.
Fuck, this was too much!
「Considering our past bond and your contributions, I shall give you one chance.」
“... What do you mean, a chance?”
「Tell me why I should spare your life.」
A sudden chance instead of killing me immediately?
What, was this some careless villain cliché you only saw in comics...
This bastard Moon still hadn’t given up!
It thought I might have learned something related to Stage 3 growth!
“... I had intended to organize my findings further before reporting them...”
「Get to the point.」
“Urgh...!”
The second I tried to drag things out a little, the pressure intensified without mercy.
It was telling me not to pull any useless tricks and to state my research results immediately.
“...”
You fucking moron!
How could there already be research results?
How was I supposed to figure out a problem you couldn’t solve after tens of thousands of years of research this quickly?
If I could, either I would be the greatest genius in the universe, or you would be an idiot...
New information appearing in the Status Window caught my eye.
According to Summoned Entity Ga-in, the Moon was “purifying” the souls it had swallowed.
I should make something up.
If I mixed in the paint metaphor the Owl had used before, it would probably sound convincing.
“The essence of a Soul Convergence Entity is like an ocean formed from countless droplets of water. Prince, you are carefully purifying the souls you have swallowed, which means cleansing each individual droplet...”
「I already know this.」
The pressure that seemed ready to crush my limbs came down again.
I only found that out just now!
“... Which ultimately purifies the ocean. Prince, you are trying to unify the ocean into a single color, ‘transparency,’ through this. But it was not enough.”
「Not enough. It was not enough...」
Why was it not enough?
The answer came out naturally.
As though I were truly an expert in such lofty principles.
“When enough souls gather, a new consciousness naturally awakens. It is the same even if every individual soul has been purified.”
Right now, it was as if several Stage 1 Soul Convergence Entities had awakened inside the Moon.
「How can that problem be overcome?」
I naturally knew this answer too.
“It cannot. The awakening of a great will when souls gather is akin to a law of the universe. There is no way to overcome it unless you, Prince, can cause even a Big Bang.”
Wisdom, brighter than usual in the face of mortal danger, whispered to me.
What I was saying now went beyond the level of the Research Lab’s materials.
How did I know this?
「That is right... The awakening of a higher-dimensional will when souls converge is a law of the universe. There is no way around it.」
Even the Moon had learned this much after researching for countless years.
The Moon did not know what came next.
「Can I never reach Stage 3?」
“...”
「The being you saw in the Hotel crossed the wall. There must be a way to cross it as well.」
At some point, I could no longer feel the pressure crushing my body.
It seemed my current self was no longer hindered by such a “trivial” force.
Suddenly, I felt an intense sense of déjà vu.
The wall before the Moon, the question held by the Moon.
The memory of a great being that had passed through this process long ago.
Soon, words that the old me could never have imagined flowed from my mouth.
“You are a fool with nothing but strength. You gathered so many souls and spent eons of time, yet you still have not reached Nirvana?”
The words were not respectful in the slightest. They bordered on mockery.
Strangely, the Moon did not get angry.
「I hear an ancient voice. Are you a fragment of the greatness left within the Inheritance, or the trace of a Researcher lost in delusion?」
“Ha ha! Prince! With your talent, you could not reach Nirvana even after ten million years. Yet you were lucky enough to obtain the Crown and gain a chance to become a god.”
To the owner of that voice, the Prince lacked the qualities needed to truly reach a lofty realm.
The Prince answered without the slightest hesitation.
「I may possess less talent than you, but the opportunity is mine. Not yours, trapped in a crude tool.」
The voice openly mentioned the Crown, yet the Moon showed no particular reaction.
Perhaps because the pain of craving Stage 3 growth had been far too vast for such petty mockery to shake him.
「Speak. If you reveal the supreme principle, I will not stop your master from escaping.」
A book opened in my hand.
At the end of the book was an empty space.
The First Sentence, accept that an unchanging self does not truly exist.
The Second Sentence, if what belongs to another can be yours, then could you not also be another?
As I spoke the next words, I realized something.
Absurdly, even the being that first conceived the Grimoire had been unable to fully comprehend this realm and moved on to another realm called Sacrifice.
It was a strange situation. The shadow of the Unborn One was bluffing the Moon with an insight that even it could not fully understand.
The Third Sentence.
“Know that beneath heaven, there is only you.”
Like the Unborn One, I could not fully understand those words.
Yet I could understand them.
Because I possessed the Sacred Sun that the Unborn One did not, and the Wisdom granted by the Hotel.
There was only one me in this universe.
That alone was the truth.
Footnotes:
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