Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 638

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 637: A Path for Everyone (2)

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 241

Current Location: Searching….

Sage’s Advice: 3」

- Han Ga-in

A week had passed since Prince Emilio and Aleph fell.

My companions and Elder Wisdom had long since left the Moon and were making the final preparations for the ending.

Elder Wisdom’s role was especially important because of the Pillagers.

If my Hotel companions and I had needed to deceive the Pillagers ourselves, I could guarantee everything would have been far more difficult.

The Pillagers, or the Alliance, would never have trusted us.

It was only possible because of Elder Wisdom.

He was the one who gathered the Pillager Arks that had wandered the Sea of Chaos and formed the Alliance.

The Alliance could never imagine that Elder Wisdom, who had led them through eons, would betray them.

A-ri was doing something similar on the Management Bureau’s side.

“Holy Son.”

“I’m not the Holy Son anymore, am I? I swallowed the Prince.”

It wasn’t really a betrayal, either.

If the plan went well, those aboard the Pillager Arks would receive new lives too.

Elder Wisdom had cared about that as well. Come to think of it, perhaps he still felt a certain loyalty toward the Alliance he had spent so long with.

Or perhaps he thought this was what he needed to do to gain a chance to challenge the third floor.

“Then, Prince?”

“Just call me by my name.”

“The great god of the Celestial Realm, standing beside all the gods of heaven and earth, ruler of eternity-”

“Since you’re joking around, I guess the preparations outside are done.”

Aedia nodded.

“We received word from the surface. They succeeded in persuading the Management Bureau and the Pillager Alliance.”

“...”

“They’ve begun to believe the Prince is dead, the Crown has been rendered powerless, and the Moon can no longer be controlled.”

“We fooled them more easily than I expected.”

Deceiving the Management Bureau and the Pillagers sounded difficult, but from a step back, it was entirely possible.

Neither faction truly knew much about the Moon, after all.

Elder Wisdom’s political skill was likely a major factor too.

“They say Elder Wisdom made an interesting move.”

“An interesting move?”

“He casually made a remark that could be interpreted like this: the Moon is like an ownerless weapon, and whoever moves first may be able to claim it.”

“Ah?”

“He said something that could be interpreted that way.”

Now that the Moon, their common enemy, had been dealt with, the Management Bureau, the Alliance, and the factions within the Alliance had no choice but to prepare for conflicts among themselves.

“The Moon’s threat has vanished, so they need to gather their forces to compete among themselves. In other words-”

“The pressure on the Moon will soon disappear.”

Forty minutes later, just as the Holy Mother had said, the pressure imposed by the Pillager Alliance and the Management Bureau vanished.

About an hour and a half later.

“According to the message, within three minutes-”

--- Boom!

“...Looks like they meant now.”

A faint vibration ran through the entire Moon.

What kind of vibration was that?

It was the sound of Final Flash destroying the Moon Seal beneath Australia!

The sealing facility beneath Australia had imprisoned the Moon within Earth for a long time.

The pressure from the Management Bureau and the Pillagers, which had begun with the campaign against the Moon.

Both had disappeared.

Now, nothing remained that could suppress the Moon!

--- Whoosh...!

The Crown glowed gently, radiating an auspicious presence.

Aleph had stolen the Prince’s fate, and I had undergone Unification with Aleph!

The Crown no longer rejected me.

“I’ll begin. Watch carefully.”

“Of course.”

I took the final step.

* * *

The first thing I became aware of was the vast expansion of my consciousness.

Imagine a drop of black dye spreading through perfectly clear water.

The mind of a person named Han Ga-in spread throughout the Moon, that immense Soul Convergence Entity.

Michael, Sophie, Carlos, Yoo-jin, Maria, Lucas, Jennifer, Tahir, Elizabeth, Min-su, Daniel, Aya, John, Suzy, Martin, Naomi, Thomas. There were countless more!

Innumerable minds felt like parts of me, yet they were also clearly separate beings.

For a single instant, I was the one star at the center of three hundred billion souls, the Great One born to fulfill everyone’s desires.

At the same time, I was nothing.

I was no more than a current formed within the storming vortex of minds and souls, something more worthless than even the weakest mind.

The greatest being.

The most insignificant being.

Or perhaps something beyond such distinctions.

“...!”

An overwhelming elation, as though I had truly become a star in the heavens!

The Prince’s memories were within me too, so I knew for certain.

This was the strongest the Moon had ever been since its birth!

Prince Emilio?

He lacked the Enlightenment I possessed, so he could not use the Moon’s full strength. He also had to waste much of his power controlling Contradiction.

If I had to compare, perhaps the Prince who appeared before Mi-ro just before time was turned back had been similar to me now.

“Ha, ha! Hahaha!”

I laughed loudly amid that dizzying sense of omnipotence.

At that moment, I understood Aleph, who had endured eons to change fate!

The first thing I had to do was leave Earth.

Even with the seal gone, that was harder than expected.

What would happen if the Moon simply burst out of Earth?

Unthinkable tectonic upheaval would occur, and the world would be destroyed outright.

--- Rumble...!

The shell cracked, and the Boundary between reality and unreality collapsed.

Just as I prepared to Leap into reality!

“Ah...!”

My elation instantly turned into awe.

I had vaguely grasped the true nature of the seal that had kept the Moon trapped within Earth.

Strangely enough, Earth’s inner core, outer core, mantle, and everything else all existed separately.

Then what sort of Otherworld had the Moon been trapped in?

No!

The Moon was physically, unmistakably inside Earth.

There was no space within Earth large enough to contain the Moon, yet the Moon alone physically “overlapped” the same area.

What did that even mean?

I didn’t know!

The Prince didn’t know, Contradiction didn’t know, and neither did I.

Only moments ago, I had thought I had become a god. I had felt as though I knew everything and could do anything!

The elation that had soared high into the sky immediately returned to the realm of humility.

Because of that, I became completely certain where the power that had sealed the Moon within Earth came from.

It was not some nonsense about the greatness of the Primeval Civilization.

It had to be the Hotel, or the School!

Whatever it had been called, it was that place.

Just as my companions and I used the Hourglass and One More Chance to defeat the Prince, someone long ago must have obtained something unknown and used it to trap the Moon within Earth.

Those who achieved that feat had surely Ascended long ago.

...

In the pale, utterly empty expanse of space, I watched the blue planet as a living star.

At that moment, the surface was filled with people screaming in terror and awe.

The sky was full of Pillagers of every shape and color, all startled as they tried to flee somewhere.

It was a meaningless struggle.

--- Whoooom...!

* * *

「Date: Day 241 -> Day 243」

Over two days, I absorbed five Pillagers.

On the first day, a woman with a mysterious air appeared before me as a projection from the first Ark I absorbed.

She seemed to hold a position similar to The Silent within the Management Bureau.

She wore a pained expression. When I asked why, she shouted in a voice full of rage.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“A choice for everyone?”

“W-we clearly made a mutual agreement through the Book of Covenants!”

“Do you think the Book of Covenants can force me now?”

“How can you say something so lacking in good faith?!”

“No, I was sincerely curious just now.”

I wasn’t trying to toy with her. I truly wanted to know.

Could Patrick’s Inheritance, the Book of Covenants, compel me even after I had undergone Unification with the Crown?

Could an Inheritance force a being on the level of a Prisoner?

At first glance, it seemed absurd, but even Prisoners could be helplessly affected by things like the Flute of Rest and One More Chance. It was impossible to know.

The Hotel decided an Inheritance’s limits.

If the Hotel decided it worked, then it would work.

That was irrelevant now, though.

“Do not forget. Our agreement was never a non-aggression pact in the first place.”

“What...?”

“First, until the campaign against the Moon ends, the Pillager forces will actively cooperate with us. Second, afterward, Hotel Party will not intervene in conflicts between the Management Bureau and the Pillagers, or conflicts among the Pillagers. Third, the above terms will be specified in the Book of Covenants. Those who violate them will pay the price with death.”

The second point was the key.

“Hotel Party will not intervene in conflicts between the Management Bureau and the Pillagers, or conflicts among the Pillagers.”

“Are the Management Bureau and the Pillagers fighting each other now? Or have you already started fighting among yourselves? No, you haven’t.”

I declared this to the woman whose eyes had widened.

“This is simply the process of me, having undergone Unification with the Moon, swallowing every one of you. Or...”

“Or?”

“I am the Prince. Therefore, the campaign against the Moon has not ended, and it never will.”

Which logic was being applied?

I didn’t know that much, but one thing was clear. The Book of Covenants exerted no pressure on me whatsoever.

“Y-you faithless devil...!”

“Good faith? Since we’re speaking of good faith, wasn’t the agreement full of loopholes from the start?”

“What?”

“For example, there was no clause saying the Alliance could not attack us after the campaign against the Moon ended.”

For a moment, she was left speechless.

“This must have been what you all intended. Why else would an agreement full of loopholes exist? Because everyone wanted the chance to exploit those loopholes.”

Everyone who took part in the negotiations had intended to deceive each other.

I had simply won.

--- Rumble!

“Ah...”

I whispered one final thing to the despairing woman.

“Do not fear.”

“...”

“Your suffering will not last long. At its end, you too will receive a new life and Paradise.”

After that, there was not much that could be called a grand “fight.”

Throughout the campaign against the Moon, the Pillagers and the Management Bureau had poured all their strength into suppressing the Moon and spent many resources in the process.

It was only the tedious process of pursuing Arks fleeing after losing their will to fight.

* * *

「Date: Day 243 -> Day 254」

At last, I succeeded in confining every Pillager within the Moon.

I silently hovered in empty space, watching Earth.

Only one task remained for me.

To put down the Crown.

“...”

I didn’t want to put it down.

I truly, truly didn’t want to.

So I thought and thought again.

Was there not something else I could do?