WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 638: A Path for Everyone (3) Fin
──────
- Aedia
“Please tell me again. So that I can trust myself!”
Perhaps sensing my resolve, Ga-in looked at me with a complicated expression for a moment.
“... First, the only candidates are me and you.”
“Because of the Crown.”
To control the Moon, the Crown was necessary. Only Royalty, in other words, Regressors from the First Civilization, could wear it.
There were only two such people in the world: Ga-in, who had Unified with the Prince, and me.
That much was simple, so I had accepted it long ago.
“Second, Aedia, you have great potential you don’t even know about.”
I was already a little dumbfounded.
“The ability to cherish and love humanity for at least several thousand years, and endure every hardship and adversity.”
“You experienced a possibility of me that even I don’t know about in Room 207?”
“Exactly.”
It sounded strange no matter how many times I heard it.
I was right here, yet there was apparently another me in a Curse Room. That alone was absurd.
Still, the Hotel itself was a bizarre place, so I could accept that much.
Even if the me in Room 207 was extraordinary, what did that have to do with me out here?
“This may sound strange, but this Aedia and that Aedia were...”
“Extremely alike?”
“That’s it.”
“It’s still difficult to accept because it’s something I never experienced myself... but fine. You said yesterday, though.”
“...”
“You said the me in Room 207 also began to lose control at some point.”
“Ah, I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“Pardon?”
“No, never mind.”
“...”
For a moment, I was too stunned to speak. Ga-in answered with a playful smile.
“What’s wrong? Keep asking.”
“... The great me you saw also eventually broke down after a long stretch of time. That isn’t strange. Humans have limits, and...”
“You’re not human. You’re a Reptilian. No, are you a mineral?”
“... Even minerals start turning to dust when time passes in units of ten thousand years.”
“That’s true.”
“A few days ago, Elder Wisdom told you that if the one wearing the Crown is consumed by madness, no one can stop them.”
“Who watches the watchers? That’s the issue.”
“Who will watch me after I wear the Crown?”
“One, the spoils we took from the Pillagers.”
The Management Bureau watched over the world.
The Silent watched over the Management Bureau.
Then who watched The Silent?
The answer was the Stone Tablet of Silence.
The Stone Tablet had not arisen by chance. It had been created out of logical necessity.
That meant the Pillagers also each possessed items corresponding to the Stone Tablet of Silence.
“‘Unwavering Oath,’ ‘Will of Protection,’ ‘Eternal Jade Seal’...”
“Enough. I saw them with you, so I know.”
“About eight of them were still intact. Make vows to all of them.”
“...”
“Figure out the exact wording yourself. Promise that if you stray from the path for humanity, they’ll punish you.”
“... The wording of the oath isn’t the problem.”
“Then what is?”
“Can they punish me? Can artifacts similar to the Stone Tablet truly punish me after I wear the Crown?”
“They can now, because you...”
“Because even if I wear the Crown, I won’t become as strong as the Prince or you?”
“Right. Contradiction can also serve as someone who watches over you.”
“...”
Contradiction.
An unfathomable consciousness that had naturally arisen within the Moon, where souls from countless ages had gathered.
A being born as a god.
From one perspective, Contradiction was the Moon’s true consciousness.
“Aedia, I guarantee you won’t have time to worry about Corruption or anything else once you obtain the Crown.”
“...”
“You’ll be too busy trying to control Contradiction.”
Wearing the Crown did not make everyone equally strong.
Prince Emilio and Ga-in were proof of that.
While he was alive, the Prince could use only a tiny fraction of the Moon’s endless power.
Because he lacked sufficient Enlightenment, he had wasted most of his strength suppressing Contradiction.
The man before me, on the other hand, had no difficulty controlling Contradiction at all.
What about me?
I could not compare to Ga-in, and I fell far short of the Prince as well.
Just as Ga-in said, I would probably use nearly all my power suppressing Contradiction’s madness.
“Do you understand?”
“...”
The three reasons Ga-in gave.
First, the only people who could wear the Crown were Ga-in and me.
Second, according to what Ga-in had confirmed in Room 207, I possessed sufficient qualities.
Third, I lacked the Enlightenment of Ga-in and the Prince in his lifetime. Therefore, the surrogate Stone Tablets and Contradiction could restrain me.
All three sounded plausible.
Still, as was often the case with arguments made by a cunning person, the most important part was missing.
“You.”
“Hmm?”
“Why can’t you do it?”
“Look at the third point. The surrogate Stone Tablets and Contradiction can restrain you, but they can’t restrain me...”
“Let’s stop here. I may not have your Wisdom, but I have plenty of experience. Those three reasons aren’t lies, and there’s logic behind them. But you made those reasons after deciding on the conclusion, didn’t you?”
“...”
“The most important premise is that you, Ga-in, have no intention of doing this. So someone needs to take your place, and that someone is me.”
“...”
“Why don’t you intend to do it? I think I know now. You...”
“Because I want to go to the third floor.”
“Like Elder Wisdom.”
“...”
“To wear the Crown means remaining in reality as an eternal watcher. You can’t go to the third floor if you do that.”
“That’s right.”
He admitted it honestly, as though he had no intention of hiding it.
He wanted to go to the third floor.
To do that, he needed someone to wear the Crown and remain in reality in his place. That person was Aedia.
“Why do you want to go to the third floor?”
“...”
“At first, I thought you might consider reality meaningless, like Elder Wisdom does. But no matter how I look at it, that isn’t true.”
Feeling that reality was empty was a shared trait among those who escaped the Hotel and Regressors.
Still, there were differences in degree.
Not everyone saw all reality as an empty dream like Elder Wisdom did.
Not everyone considered only the Hotel to be the true world, like Elder Wisdom did.
“The life you remember doesn’t seem nearly as long as Elder Wisdom’s, either.”
“Right. Aleph’s memories have a lot of gaps, and I’ve forgotten most of the lives in between... I have a lot of memories from the Hotel.”
“Also, living a long time doesn’t make everyone think like Elder Wisdom.”
“Like you?”
“Like me.”
The time I had lived was comparable to Elder Wisdom’s, yet I did not think like him.
“Come to think of it, that was another big reason.”
“Pardon?”
“Aedia, you didn’t seem to have any intention of going to the third floor.”
“I really don’t have much interest in it. I find it stranger that you’re willing to risk your life to get there.”
“...”
“You’ve already gained immortality, and you can enjoy all the wealth and glory in the world.”
“...”
“Why do you want to go to the third floor so badly?”
I truly wanted to know.
I could understand Elder Wisdom wanting the third floor. He had been worn down by countless ages of life.
Enough time had passed for him to grow tired of reality’s emptiness.
Why did Ga-in, whose mind was still so fresh, want to climb to the third floor at the risk of his life?
Even as I asked, I did not expect an answer.
I thought he would brush it aside with some vague, riddle-like remark again.
At that moment, Ga-in studied me with clear eyes.
“Ah?”
“...”
“This is Insight, isn’t it?”
I had experienced it several times over the past few days, but no matter how often it happened, the chilling feeling never faded.
“... Aedia.”
“Did you see something? Can you tell me, or can’t you?”
“I’ll tell you one fact that you normally forget.”
“Pardon?”
“Your true body is elsewhere underground. The you here is a kind of duplicate.”
“...”
His sudden revelation left me speechless for a moment.
The most confusing part was how naturally I accepted it.
It was something I had known from the beginning.
Normally, I deliberately forgot it to maintain my sense of self.
“Why are you suddenly telling me...”
The explanation began abruptly.
“The civilization you and the Prince were born into discovered the means of gathering human souls to create a pseudo-divinity.”
“That’s right.”
“The reason they began that research must have been different from the purpose of the Arks today. There was no mention of the Mirror at all in the research records. Elder Wisdom guessed they might have been trying to create a powerful weapon.”
“...”
I was slightly confused.
The story itself was interesting, but I could not see what it had to do with why he needed to go to the third floor.
“Whatever the original purpose of the research was, it eventually became an Ark.”
“That’s right.”
Its original purpose might have been weapon development, or it might have been to turn Royalty into gods.
But in the end, they combined it with the Mirror I discovered and turned it into an Ark.
“What were they running from?”
“...”
“It was a civilization that had reached a realm beyond anything we can grasp today. They fed millions, tens of millions of souls into research on Soul Convergence Entities without hesitation. What does that mean?”
“... Their awareness of human rights was so awful that they used people as research materials?”
“Uh, well, that’s true too.”
For the first time, he looked a little flustered.
It seemed he had not expected human rights to come up in this context.
“I mean their population must have been enormous. Perhaps it exceeded several hundred billion?”
“...”
“They may have ruled multiple stars.”
“Not multiple stars. Multiple dimensions.”
“What?”
“The technology for creating spare dimensions was advanced, so 400,000 people lived in each area only a little larger than an apartment. Living on the real Earth was a privilege for the upper class, by today’s standards.”
“I didn’t know that. Still, what could a civilization that remarkable have feared enough to build Arks and flee?”
“... I don’t know. The Hotel took me before that.”
After a silence, Ga-in spoke of something grotesque, his expression distant.
“The First Ark was not built to go to the next Loop.”
“Pardon?”
“It failed. They lacked the technology, so they only fell into the next Loop.”
“What does that...”
“It was written in the records Aleph saw. They discovered a ‘shipwreck’ containing great technology. Inside, it was filled with terrified souls...”
The original destination had been somewhere far beyond the next Loop.
They had only fallen into the next Loop because their technology was insufficient.
It had not been an Ark.
It had been a shipwreck.
...
...
...
* * *
After Ga-in left the room, I sat alone on the soft sofa, stroking the fishbowl as I thought.
Why a great civilization built Arks and fled.
Why Aleph was consumed by madness and wished to become the Great One.
Why Ga-in wanted to go to the third floor.
“...”
It was not such a shocking story.
It was a collection of ideas one could imagine by piecing together what was already known.
At least some of it was.
Perhaps no one, or very few people, had imagined every part all at once.
Rather than shocking, it filled me with despair.
There was an enormous gulf between a grim fantasy and realizing that fantasy was the truth of the world.
I wished he had hidden it until the very end...
“...”
A dizzying emptiness.
The Prince I had served all my life had ultimately been a person who harbored weakness.
Then Ga-in appeared, refused to wear the Crown, and left.
Who was I supposed to serve in this emptiness?
Fortunately, his explanation contained the answer.
This time, it was a truly great being.
“I pray to the greatest one in the universe.”
I pray for the one who weeps for the Three Thousand Worlds.
Even if all of us fell into hell, may your dream someday come true.
I earnestly hope that Heaven will be born at the very end.
“...”
The prayer made me realize what I needed to do from now on.
Ga-in had said it when he began this story.
“Your true body is elsewhere underground. The you here is a kind of duplicate.”
If the duplicate was destroyed before its memories were synchronized, the true body would not know what had been said in this conversation.
I should separately record the knowledge my future self needed to know.
...
“There, done.”
Some truths only needed to be known by those who needed to know them.
Did Aedia necessarily need to be one of those people?
I decided to grant myself a Paradise of Ignorance.
--- Crack!
* * *
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 255
Current Location: Uisadang-daero, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 3」
- Han Ga-in
--- Shhhhhh...!
On an early morning when cold raindrops fell, I returned to the surface.
A world where both the Pillagers and the Arks had disappeared.
A blue Moon shone in the sky.
Thanks to that, the world looked subtly more like the one I remembered.
As I stared blankly up at the sky, my pocket began vibrating wildly.
“Song-i’s calling.”
The others were probably near Song-i too.
I wanted to hear my companions’ voices right away, but...
I’ll be alone for a little while.
“...”
All the varied, eventful things that had happened in reality!
It finally felt like they were over.
There might be more to come, but at least it was out of my hands.
I was happy, yet at the same time, a little empty.
I could still see the Crown flickering in my mind, as though I could reach out and grasp an emperor’s crown.
Time would ease even this lingering regret.
“...”
I thought of the Aedia shown by Insight.
The Holy Mother, who had always wandered in search of a god, had found one final god: Buddha.
If she was going to serve someone anyway, wasn’t it better to serve the greatest being?
I had not told the Holy Mother, but that was one reason I had chosen her.
Because she served a god, I thought she would not fall all the way into Corruption.
Though who knew.
“Whew...”
Why the First Civilization, Aleph, and then I had each been overcome by unfathomable vastness.
A fish that had lived its entire life in a fishbowl learned a terrifying truth one day.
The first truth was that the world it lived in was a fishbowl...
The second truth was what lay outside that fishbowl.
“...”
Feeling the pouring rain, I fell to my knees without realizing it.
At this moment, perhaps I felt the same way as the Holy Mother in the sky.
I pray to the One above all.
I have lost both my parents in an endless cycle.
The beings I believed were my parents were nothing but hollow illusions.
Therefore, I am an orphan.
Rather than someone whose parents had existed and then vanished, I am someone who might as well have had no parents from the beginning.
I am a result without a cause, a fruit without roots.
Yet after thinking it over, I realized that I did have a parent.
There was someone who had forged my body, mind, and soul again and again.
So...
“For the first and last time, I will call you this. Father in Heaven, great one who weeps for the Three Thousand Worlds.”
Taking a deep breath, I whispered to the sky.
“I will go to meet you.”
When I offered my prayer and stood, I realized something had appeared in the pocket that had been empty moments before.
It was a letter glowing gold.
* * *
We are pleased to bring happy news to our beloved customers.
Construction on Hotel Pioneer’s Third-Floor Connecting Passage has finally been completed!
Do you long for new adventures, new treasures, or true salvation?
Then the third floor is for you!
We will be waiting.
- From all Pioneer staff, always honest and kind
Footnotes:
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