WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 632: The Oldest Wish (13)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 234
Current Location: Searching...
Sage’s Advice: 0」
- Han Ga-in
--- Splash!
The sound I heard when the vision began!
A moment later, the scenery around me warped, and my sight returned to reality.
“Aleph, how do you feel?”
It was a boy’s voice, carrying even a trace of familiarity.
I opened my eyes through a wave of dizziness and saw a boy with dazzling blond hair.
“...Prince.”
“Familiar memories, right? Do you remember the past a little better now?”
According to the Status Window records, even when looking directly at the Prince’s face, it had been impossible to discern his appearance.
That was no longer the case.
I remembered the terrified boy I had seen in the vision.
That boy had become a tall young man with dazzling blond hair, smiling broadly at me.
Judging by the atmosphere, he didn’t seem ready to start fighting right away.
It felt like he had something to say, and I needed a little more time too.
Time to recall memories from a very long time ago.
“This is just pure curiosity, but what did your last words mean?”
“...”
“‘To save myself from hell.’ That line. I still don’t understand it.”
“I lost all memories from that time. I only just learned that I said something like that. How could I know what it meant?”
“That’s true too.”
The Prince accepted it readily.
My words made sense, and he seemed capable of seeing through a lie at once.
The Prince soon got to the point.
“Your memories still seem hazy, but I’ve never forgotten that day.”
“...”
“It’s been a while since we last met - Ah, no? Did we meet once before time was turned back?”
“...Who knows.”
“Ha ha! Even for the Hotel, I never imagined there would be a tool capable of turning back the time of the universe!”
“...”
“Anyway, I’ve never forgotten the kindness you showed me. Actually, there’s more to the story after that.”
“More to the story?”
“It was nothing special. You took me in and taught me all sorts of things.”
“...”
“For a time, I saw you as both my teacher and my father.”
The Prince was being excessively friendly.
I didn’t think it was all a lie.
According to the records from the vanished timeline, the Prince had called me the Holy Son the moment he awakened.
There was also the fact that he had invited me inside the Moon without any safety measures, such as taking my companions hostage.
Even after I betrayed him by attacking the Holy Mother, he accepted my excuse and forgave me the instant I brought him Elder Wisdom’s head.
In short, it was undeniably true that the Prince considered me an ally.
“Aleph, I’ve had two, perhaps even three chances to kill you.”
“That differs from my understanding.”
“Ha ha! You think you could have endured even if I’d tried to kill you?”
“...”
“Let’s say that’s true. Even so, it doesn’t change the fact that I gave up several opportunities. Why do you think I did that?”
“...”
“Why do you think I showed you that vision just now?”
“Did you want me to return to being Aleph?”
“It’s the same even now! If you come to your senses, I can forgive anything that happened in the past.”
He carried himself like a ruler offering one last chance to a foolish subject.
Even now, the Prince believed Aleph was on his side.
Why did I oppose the Prince?
He seemed to think it was because I had lost my memories from my time as Aleph.
That was why he had shown me the vision.
He thought that if I recalled the past and became more like Aleph, I would return to his side.
But I remembered the records I had left behind in the vanished timeline, records that felt completely different.
The horrific future that my past self had seen with complete Insight!
My body scattered into millions of pieces of flesh in an instant.
With no body left, only my brain was extracted and trapped in a glass tube.
A future where only my soul remained, caught in an eternal dream.
At best, the Prince cherished Aleph as a beloved pet. At worst, Aleph was no more than a somewhat expensive object.
His attempt to win me over now wasn’t simply because he valued me. He believed that if he succeeded in bringing me in, he could easily dispose of the Management Bureau, the Pillagers, and the others pressuring him.
The moment that thought crossed my mind.
“Ah...”
The human form the Prince had taken vanished without a trace!
--- Rumble!
A huge tremor echoed through the entire Sacred Domain, and the scenery in every direction changed.
The Sacred Domain, which had seemed beautiful at first glance, became ruins in an instant. The closed ceiling opened.
The warmth and light that had illuminated the surroundings were gone.
All that remained was a pale, frozen domain.
「What a pity. Did you think something would change if you came here yourself?」
A storm-like voice mixed with mockery, ridicule, and a hint of regret!
--- La-a-a...!
As though they had been waiting, hymns to the Moon began to echo from all directions.
Amid the unending song, the Moon’s form expanded without end!
「While you died and died, wasting eons of time, I have only one step left before I reach the great realm.」
Even as the Prince spoke, the attacks continued without pause.
I was too busy holding Elder Wisdom and dodging the grayish-white light raining down from the sky!
Ridiculously enough, what was happening now wasn’t even an attack in the Moon’s eyes.
It was only expressing a slight regret over having turned against the Mortal it had once considered its teacher!
This was a space where the boundary between imagination and reality was blurred.
That feeling in the Prince’s heart itself was an attack I had to frantically avoid by borrowing the Sacred Sun’s power!
「Have you perhaps fallen prey to this misconception?」
The entire Sacred Domain came to a stop as a softly glowing Crown appeared in the air.
「That all you need to do is take the Crown from me?」
The instant I saw the Crown, my breath caught.
I even set Elder Wisdom, whom I had been carrying, on the ground and walked toward it.
An intense greed, fierce enough to set my soul ablaze, swallowed my reason in an instant.
What was the Crown to me, to Aleph?
It was a treasure I had wanted even if it meant casting the hundreds of lives ahead of me into hell!
When I approached it in a daze and touched the Crown, one cold truth became clear.
Nothing happened.
Nothing changed.
To me, the Crown was nothing but a beautiful lump of metal.
「My foolish teacher, only someone qualified to ascend the throne can wear the Crown.」
“...”
「Do you think someone who is not of Royalty can become a king simply by putting on ceremonial robes and sitting on the throne?」
The Primeval Civilization, which had first discovered the principle of the Soul Convergence Entity, revered Regressors as Royalty.
Here, Royalty referred only to Regressors who belonged to the Primeval Civilization.
Not Regressors who emerged after that civilization’s destruction!
「You thought every Regressor was qualified to be Royalty! Aleph, Aleph, my foolish teacher!」
Neither I nor Aleph, whom one might call the first me, came from the Primeval Civilization.
That meant I wasn’t qualified to wear the Crown.
--- Whoosh!
At that moment, someone grabbed me as I stood there and began fleeing at tremendous speed.
It was Elder Wisdom!
“The plan has failed, failed!”
“...”
“The Crown only obeyed the Prince...! This was a fight we could never win this way from the beginning!”
“...”
“We have to escape somehow. If we aim for the next, next chance -”
After using a tool that blocked the water pressure, Elder Wisdom brought out another tool, something like a carpet that moved at tremendous speed.
It seemed at least as fast as a typical car.
Unlike Elder Wisdom, who was consumed by fear of defeat, I knew because I was looking behind us.
“Look behind you.”
There was no point in running away like this.
“What - Ah, ah...!”
The distance between us and the Prince had not increased in the slightest.
This entire domain was a dream-like realm created by the Prince from beginning to end.
Could we possibly escape by running?
The Prince was simply mocking Elder Wisdom’s final struggle.
Soon, a distant hand began to reach toward us.
「Do not be afraid.」
“Ah, ah, ah...!”
「You are exceedingly useful Mortals. Death is not the end.」
“Han Ga-in, you bastard!”
「I shall remake you. You will forget all your useless pasts and be reborn as servants who serve only me....」
“Did you seriously come here trusting in nothing but a Crown?”
That was why the Prince was certain of victory and Elder Wisdom was certain of defeat.
The core of our strategy against the Moon was to obtain the Crown and seize control of the Moon from the Prince.
At the final moment, it became clear that the plan had been twisted at its roots.
We couldn’t obtain the Crown, and even if we did, we had no way to use it.
I, Aleph, and Elder Wisdom, none of us came from the Primeval Civilization.
If we couldn’t wear the Crown, it was impossible to seize control of the Moon.
Our plan had been impossible from the start.
...
Elder Wisdom and the Prince were mistaken.
I knew the Crown’s nature. I knew that only a Regressor from the Primeval Civilization could use it.
I had discovered it twice, once as Senior Researcher Aleph and once as Hotel participant Han Ga-in.
I hadn’t come here unaware.
I came despite knowing.
I didn’t come to take the Crown.
...
In the fleeting instant when all things seemed to stop, a memory from the distant past crossed my mind.
Was it a vision shown by Insight?
Or was I returning to Aleph, just as the Prince intended?
I didn’t know.
From here on, it might be a meaningless story.
The day the storm raged.
The memory of the day I despaired as I listened to thunder.
...
I was born human and gained mysterious knowledge. It wasn’t a blessing, but a curse.
Because I learned that there were countless stars in this universe.
Because I learned that I wasn’t a star.
I became a promising talent of the Human Protection Bureau and rose through the ranks.
Praised by everyone, I enjoyed unparalleled happiness.
At last, I discovered even more mysterious knowledge, the principle of soul convergence.
What came immediately afterward was even greater despair.
It wasn’t simply that I wasn’t a star. I could never become one.
I wasn’t born a Great One.
Nor was I born as Royalty qualified to wear the Crown.
Such a life. Such a fate.
A squirming larva, born in hell, returning to hell, and being born there again and again.
...
I wanted to become a star.
I wanted to become a Great One, shining eternally in that sky.
I wanted to change my fate, born in a hell that could never become heaven.
That was why, on the day the storm raged, I made a wish.
The Oldest Wish.
“...Great Buddha.”
“What are you saying?”
“If you are truly a being of great mercy and compassion, if you dream of salvation for all ages.”
“This is no time for nonsense -”
“Please grant even lowly beings like dust in the universe a chance.”
Buddha!
I resented you, and resented you again.
Why did you bestow it only upon those chosen for the path to Nirvana?
Why could only those born from Chaos, or born as Regressors of the Primeval Civilization, attain Nirvana?
I ask for a chance.
May I, born at the very bottom of the Six Paths of Rebirth, in the Hell Realm, also have the chance to attain Nirvana!
Therefore, I shall make a wish.
If I cannot enter Nirvana myself...
Grant me the power to steal the fate of those who can attain Nirvana!
Immediately afterward...
A book opened.
A single golden sentence revealed its light.
“Know that beneath heaven, there is only you.”
Footnotes:
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