WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 619: The Stolen World (34)
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- Kim A-ri
A fertile plain filled with waves of ripe golden grain.
That was my first thought when I boarded Elder Wisdom’s Ark and saw its interior.
I knew every Ark had a different internal structure, but seeing one for myself was still quite fascinating.
“Huh... It’s beautiful! What do you think, A-ri?”
“Same.”
After Ga-in finished some sort of negotiation with Elder Wisdom, Dominion and I boarded Elder Wisdom’s Ark to avoid the Stone Tablet.
As planned, I would get off midway and enter Hotel Delight.
Dominion, Oswald, murmured.
“This is confusing.”
“...”
“In such a short time, so much incomprehensible information came pouring in. By the time I came to my senses, I was dismantling the Ark I thought was our salvation with my own hands.”
“It was a reasonable choice.”
“Yes. A decision reached after the most logical consideration.”
Silence fell again.
It did not last long this time.
“Do you truly think your companion can suppress the Moon?”
“...”
“We have no Ark. If we fail, there will be no next chance.”
“That’s true.”
“Can you turn back time again?”
“Well...”
In the worst case, it was not impossible that we could turn it back one more time.
The first Price of Defying Heaven was Mook-seong’s return from a Regressor to a Mortal.
What would the second Price of Defying Heaven be?
Permanent death?
One Ticket remained from the reward for clearing the second floor.
Even if Mook-seong died, we could use the Ticket to bring him back.
... Let’s avoid that ominous possibility if we can.
“It seems doing it twice would be difficult. Then again, there’s no way you could use such a tremendous miracle as turning back time twice in a row...”
Soon, Oswald walked through the wheat field and gestured for me to follow.
As I walked behind him, I suddenly remembered the day I was first promoted to The Silent.
That day, I learned many truths about the world, including the Moon’s existence.
Oswald had been the one who took me underground back then, hadn’t he?
“A-ri.”
“Hm?”
“Do you remember what I said when we first met?”
“What are you talking about?”
A small white sheet of paper slipped from inside Oswald’s clothes.
“This. It used to be a photograph. It was still a photograph seven or eight months ago.”
“...”
“The photograph turned into a blank sheet of paper right around the time you returned.”
We had discussed this once before.
“There was originally someone in this photograph. I don’t know who. I once knew, but now I’ve forgotten.”
“...”
“Do you know who was in the photograph?”
“The Traitor to Humanity. Someone you killed countless times across the repeating Loops.”
“That’s what I told you. I’m asking what you know.”
Oswald, who had been walking through the wheat field, slowly turned and looked into my eyes.
“A thought occurred to me. We are currently inside Elder Wisdom’s Ark, correct? Once I get off here, I think I’ll forget everything about ‘younger Wisdom,’ including their appearance and name.”
So this moment had finally come.
Oswald had finally realized that the Traitor to Humanity was Ga-in’s distant past.
Considering when the photograph changed, Oswald must have guessed from the beginning that the Traitor to Humanity was someone who had left the Hotel alongside me.
Oswald simply had not known exactly which of my companions it was until today.
“Phew...”
Instinctively, I summoned the Irregular Polyhedron and met Oswald’s gaze.
Would I have to kill this guy here if things went wrong?
Dominion’s gaze slowly shifted toward the Irregular Polyhedron, but he did not seem to have any intention of fighting me.
“I lied to you about one thing.”
“What?”
“I was not the one who killed the Researcher. One member of The Silent inherited the task of continuously erasing him, generation after generation.”
The Researcher.
Ga-in’s first life, a being like a living embodiment of secrets.
“I thought you’d react more if I said I had killed him.”
“So?”
“After the photograph became a meaningless sheet of paper, I searched through every remaining record. I thought I had to find the Researcher and kill him again.”
“...”
“Thanks to that, I learned quite a few things about him.”
The information Dominion had uncovered about the Researcher.
“A person who regarded nearly all humans, except for a tiny few, as tools.”
“Sounds like an ordinary Management Bureau agent.”
“A person who found words such as belief, trust, and conviction laughable.”
“...”
“A person who explored the world’s secrets more deeply than anyone.”
“I’m curious about plenty of things too.”
“A person who gained the power to resist Soul Extinction.”
“... That’s pretty impressive.”
“There were many other negative records as well. Nothing good.”
In the end, I let out a long sigh.
“Phew... So what? Are you trying to drive a wedge between us?”
“Do I look that shallow to you?”
“Then what?”
“Drive a wedge between you? I have no intention of pulling such a trick. It wouldn’t work, and more importantly...”
“More importantly?”
“Isn’t Young Wisdom more likely to stab me in the back than I am to stab Young Wisdom in the back?”
I had to give him that.
After a brief silence, Dominion murmured as if whispering.
“After living so long, one develops an eye for people.”
“...”
“It’s not some sort of supernatural power. To borrow a popular expression these days, it’s big data.”
“So?”
“Young Wisdom is not an evil person.”
“What?”
It was the opposite of everything he had said about the Researcher, so I was a little surprised.
“Of course, I can guess that Young Wisdom hasn’t told me every truth.”
“...”
“Young Wisdom hides many things and surely has ulterior motives.”
It was obvious when I thought about it again, but Dominion was also one of The Silent who had supported the Management Bureau for a long time.
He was not someone who would know nothing about Ga-in’s schemes.
“That’s fine. At some point, I became certain. Young Wisdom does have ulterior motives, but they are not malicious.”
“...”
“I feel that Young Wisdom is charting a path for everyone.”
“I’m glad you believe that.”
I meant it.
“At the same time, I feel uneasy.”
“Uneasy?”
“Young Wisdom is not an evil person, but what about the Researcher?”
A strange way of speaking.
Even though Dominion knew the Researcher was Ga-in’s distant past, he spoke as though the Researcher and present-day Ga-in were separate.
“A-ri.”
“...”
“A-ri.”
“I’m listening.”
“I do not think the Researcher was simply replaced by Young Wisdom and vanished without a trace.”
“What do you mean?”
“I do not know. It’s only a feeling. Still, my feelings tend to be quite accurate.”
“...”
“There is something more to the Researcher.”
“...”
“Do not let down your guard until the very end. That is what I wanted to tell you.”
With those words, Dominion left for somewhere else.
He had decided to dismantle the Ark and restore the Management Bureau, so he likely had much to do as well.
* * *
After I was alone for about thirty minutes, someone else appeared before me.
A white man in his early fifties.
The instant our eyes met, I instinctively knew this was Elder Wisdom’s true appearance.
“We have arrived at Pioneer. If you enter the Hotel immediately, you should be able to avoid the Stone Tablet’s Judgment. What happens afterward is up to you.”
Elder Wisdom had brought me here safely, so I should at least thank them.
“Thanks.”
Elder Wisdom gazed quietly over the plain.
“I overheard your conversation with Dominion earlier.”
“Oh my, isn’t it bad manners to eavesdrop on private conversations?”
“The conversation was not private in the slightest. More importantly, this is my home.”
That was true.
What Elder Wisdom said next was rather sudden.
“Did you know? They say every participant made a wish to the Hotel.”
“A wish? You mean when we used Dream to escape the second floor-”
“I am not speaking of when you escaped the second floor. I mean the Empty Wish from before everything began.”
Not during the escape, but the Empty Wish at the very beginning.
Had there been such a thing?
“We made wishes to the Hotel, yet we have forgotten even the fact that we made them. It is sad.”
An old memory flashed through my mind.
What Ga-in had heard after resolving the final film in Hotel Cinema.
The answer to why the Hotel’s third floor existed.
「“For the past few years, I’ve occasionally had dreams. Dreams about my past self, and back then, I endlessly pursued a goal that was far too difficult to achieve.
“I would have done anything for that dream, no matter how difficult or painful it was. Yet now, I can’t even remember what that dream was.”」
“What are you trying to say?”
“Listening to you and Dominion gave me a thought. Think about it.”
The individual desires every participant had harbored before entering the Hotel.
What wish had Ga-in made to the Hotel?
First, let’s reconsider the premise.
Was Ga-in the one who made that wish? Or was it the Researcher?
Did the distinction even matter?
“...”
What wish had I made?
Ordinarily, I would think it was Mi-ro’s revival or the world’s stability.
Then a thought came to me.
I had surely wished for those things, but there had been something else too.
A somewhat personal wish.
Not something for the world or Mi-ro, but something for myself.
It felt as though there had been a moment even I had forgotten.
* * *
--- Rumble!
That was the first sound I heard upon entering the first floor of Hotel Delight.
At least several hundred concrete blocks were flying through the air at incredible speed!
Watching the shocking sight of Hotel Delight being rebuilt in real time before my eyes, all the complicated thoughts that had been giving me a headache vanished at once.
Ga-in had explained it roughly, but did this really make any sense?
--- Crash!
Startled by the tremendous vibrations, as if thunder had struck, I rolled away in a panic when a rough voice called out.
“Come toward the elevator!”
After running frantically to Pioneer’s first floor, I sat blankly at the refreshment table and looked around.
Cha Jin-cheol and Park Seung-yeop had arrived before me.
Unlike me, they had not wasted time boarding Elder Wisdom’s Ark to avoid the Stone Tablet.
“Where is everyone else?”
“I heard the people from Australia are already on a plane. They’ll arrive tomorrow.”
“What about Eun-sol?”
“She got a call from Sophia and stepped out for a while.”
Sophia?
It seemed she had somehow survived and was doing well.
“A-ri, when is Ga-in coming?”
“Yeah. I thought Ga-in would come with you.”
“Ga-in negotiated with Elder Wisdom, then went somewhere else. From what I heard...”
“From what you heard?”
“It sounds like Ga-in is going to meet Patrick, make some sort of contract with the Book of Covenants, and come back afterward. Oh, Seung-yeop.”
“Yes?”
“Ga-in said you used Awakening before time was turned back?”
“D-did I?”
“Do you still have uses left?”
“Yes.”
The number of times Seung-yeop could use Awakening had recovered when time was turned back.
That was a relief.
...
The next morning, the companions who had been in Australia returned one by one.
When I met Mook-seong’s eyes as he smiled and asked whether I had been well, I could not bring myself to speak.
Could I even explain this strange feeling to anyone else?
It felt as though the person themself had grown smaller.
As though he had slipped out of the world’s focus.
As though his fundamental standing had fallen, in a way that could not be compared to mere physique.
Mook-seong’s fate as a Mortal had returned once more.
When I faltered, momentarily lost for words, Mook-seong grinned.
As though telling me nothing had happened, so I should not worry.
“A-ri, you brat! Why are you standing there like a statue? I’m hungry, so let’s have some Hotel food for the first time in a while!”
The meaning behind that wink was clear.
Do not say anything unnecessary to the others.
Mook-seong had probably brushed it off as simple aging to the other companions.
He must have said it could be easily resolved with the Management Bureau’s help.
We could not deceive them forever.
The companions’ intuition was growing sharper, and in time, they would notice Mook-seong’s change.
Still, that day did not have to be today.
* * *
Around evening, Ga-in finally returned after completing every negotiation.
--- Clap!
“Now, this is the agreement I made with those Pillager bastards.”
Everyone stared only at the whiteboard with their mouths tightly shut.
It was not much of an exaggeration to say the agreement amounted to handing Earth over to the Pillagers!
Why was Ga-in saying it as though it were something to be proud of?
If you weren’t Ga-in, I would have chained you up immediately and demanded to know why you had betrayed humanity again!
In the end, Eun-sol could not hold back and asked whether Ga-in had really made such an insane agreement.
--- Screeech!
When Ga-in smiled and drew a black line across the whiteboard, I scoffed inwardly.
Yeah, yeah, Ga-in!
I know you’re smart and have a bigger plan, but do you really have to make everyone’s heart drop before saying it?
Isn’t that too much showmanship?
You make it look like you betrayed humanity!
“...”
Calm down.
Whenever I looked at Ga-in, the words “Traitor to Humanity” kept coming to mind.
It was because Dominion and Elder Wisdom had said such chilling things.
Ga-in stood before the whiteboard and explained the real plan for a long time.
“So, what do you think now that you’ve heard the real plan?”
Seung-yeop, who had been listening with his mouth half open, was the first to ask the question on everyone’s mind.
“So... the Moon has to eat all the Pillagers?”
“Yes.”
“H-how can that possibly benefit the Pillagers?”
“The pain will only be temporary.”
It was a strange plan.
Still, in one sense, it truly was a happy ending for everyone.
Footnotes:
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