WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 642: The Path of Ascension (4)
──────
「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 358
Current Location: Hotel Delight, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul
Sage’s Advice: 0」
- Han Ga-in
「A good question. What is the relationship between the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm? Water flows from above to below, never from below to above. The relationship between above and below is the same. Therefore, your worries are truly needless.」
It wasn't an answer I could intuitively understand.
It was the typical kind of cryptic Zen riddle I'd encountered countless times in the Hotel, so I was a little flustered.
Some of my companions couldn't hide their disappointment either.
“Can't you explain that in more detail? What's all this about the Upper Realm and Lower Realm all of a sudden?”
The self-proclaimed Third-Floor Manager gave no response.
It felt as though they were asking, Isn't this enough? What more do you need?
Grandpa casually tossed out a question, as if probing for more.
“Does that mean we can still affect reality after leaving for the third floor? Something like that?”
Unexpectedly, Seung-yeop immediately objected.
“That can't be true! R-Ryan said it, didn't he? No one who went to the third floor ever came back!”
Grandpa looked slightly flustered as he answered.
“Uh, it wasn't Ryan. It was Arthur. Arthur was Ryan's son, but...”
“Anyway!”
It was true that none of the Ascendants had returned to reality.
I knew that well enough, but I was a little surprised that Seung-yeop was the one who brought it up.
It felt rude to say this about a companion, but Seung-yeop honestly didn't have a particularly good memory.
That only meant he'd been sensitive about this subject and had thought about it for a long time.
Then a heavy hand patted Seung-yeop's shoulder.
“Sang-hyeon?”
“...”
Sang-hyeon's mouth had been forcibly sealed, so he couldn't speak. Still, I could understand what he meant just from his expression.
It seemed to say, “This should be enough. I'm reassured, so you should be reassured too, Seung-yeop.”
After seeing his reaction, I thought over the earlier statement again and remembered its final words.
‘Your worries are truly needless.’
It seemed Sang-hyeon had interpreted it as, “I can't tell you exactly how it works, but when you reach the third floor, your concern won't be a big problem.”
I gave my own interpretation as well.
“Seung-yeop, remember this.”
“Yes.”
“No one in the world knows exactly what the third floor is like. Ryan? Even Elder Wisdom, someone above him, doesn't know much about the third floor. What could Ryan possibly know?”
“... That's true.”
“He was only pretending to know based on insufficient information.”
“Then could there be people who returned from the third floor to reality?”
“Water flows from above to below, not from below to above...”
“Ga-in?”
“In other words, Ascendants can affect reality, but reality can't affect Ascendants.”
That was my own interpretation.
Then Song-i carefully joined in.
“Seung-yeop, also, um, you can use Tickets on the third floor. You can get them there too.”
“Tickets?”
“For example, to save Yumi...”
Why bring up Yumi all of a sudden?
It sounded like, “Are you going to abandon the lover you spent far longer with because you're worried about the family you made through Dream?”
Song-i must have felt something similar, because she immediately looked regretful.
“Sorry. I shouldn't have said that...”
“... That's important too.”
Still, I understood how Song-i felt.
Hadn't she told me a few days ago?
‘I hope that whatever we do, we can all do it together. Without splitting apart.’
It was a little provocative, but what Song-i said was extremely effective.
Seung-yeop had been focused on reasons not to go to the third floor, and she'd reminded him of a reason he needed to go.
A conversation Mi-ro had told me about briefly crossed my mind.
* * *
“Why didn't you revive Yumi? I thought you would bring her back through Dream.”
“... Because it can only be used once.”
“What?”
“The Merchant said that overwriting reality through Dream is only possible for a single Loop.”
“...”
“I don't want that kind of revival. If I wake Yumi someday, I want it to be an eternal reunion where we never have to part again.”
* * *
A brief silence settled over the calmer atmosphere.
Everyone seemed to be thinking about the relationship between the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm.
The upper side could affect the lower side, but the lower side couldn't affect the upper side.
A one-way relationship, not a two-way one.
I felt like I understood, but not quite.
Then I heard Eun-sol's voice.
“... I think I've had a conversation like this with someone before.”
“Eun-sol?”
“Wait!”
Eun-sol frowned and fell into thought.
She seemed to be digging through her memories, and that reaction itself was strange.
The Manager had told us mysterious information related to the third floor. Eun-sol had discussed something like this with someone before?
“Ugh...! Why can't I remember? It felt like a similar conversation!”
Her frustration rubbed off on me, while Song-i watched with open curiosity.
“If it was a conversation, there had to be someone you were talking to, right?”
“Right! Good point.”
“Who was it?”
“Sophia!”
“Sophia's in a hospital room right now! She froze stiff as stone too.”
“Of course she froze stiff, since she's not a participant...! That's not the problem. What did we talk about?”
Sophia, all of a sudden?
The others were a little flustered by the unexpected answer.
I was surprised for a different reason.
What was this?
I thought I knew what Eun-sol's conversation with Sophia had been about.
Was I there at the time?
No. If I had been, Eun-sol would have mentioned my name too.
I hadn't been there, but I seemed to have heard it while floating in a hazy state of mind with the Owl's help.
“...”
Just as I was about to fall into thought myself, Grandpa grabbed Eun-sol's arm.
“Then let's ask Sophia later. Even if you've forgotten, Sophia might remember. Right now...”
A-ri picked up where Grandpa left off.
“Rather than digging through old memories, it's time to think about our final question.”
As if it had been waiting, the Third-Floor Manager sent a notification.
「The next question will be your last. Choose carefully.」
After a brief silence, A-ri spoke cautiously.
“What if we ask the final question about the Curse Rooms on the third floor?”
Grandpa answered with concern in his voice.
“That's obviously what I'm most curious about, but would they tell us?”
“Not the details of each individual room. Maybe the overall theme...”
“Hmm, that might work. Everyone agrees, right? What about you, Ga-in?”
“It sounds good to me.”
After confirming everyone was nodding, I raised my hand this time.
Of course, I didn't forget to pay attention to the timing before raising it.
「These participants certainly have something exceptional about them...」
“Third question! Could you tell us the overall theme of the third floor and...”
At that moment, an appropriate word came to mind, so I added it.
“... give us a subject worth contemplating before we climb to the third floor?”
...
* * *
「Date: Day 358 -> Day 362」
Late at night, beneath a brightly shining moon.
I walked near Mount Taebaek in Gangwon Province, feeling the cold air.
Had I been taking a leisurely walk for around twenty minutes?
I saw a flickering light in the distance and approached it, only to find a ‘School’ that didn't belong there.
After another five minutes of walking, I saw a field. At its center were a bonfire and a table.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“It doesn't matter. It's not like time is pressing.”
The mention of time made me curious.
“Recently, a footnote was added to the letter sent by the Hotel.”
“A footnote?”
“It said that if we planned to go to the third floor, we should come within a month. I suppose it means not to waste time.”
“...”
“What about you, Elder Wisdom?”
“There was no mention of dates for me. Perhaps...”
“Perhaps?”
“Perhaps because they think I'll come soon enough even without being rushed.”
Unlike Sang-hyeon or Seung-yeop, Elder Wisdom had no attachment to reality.
So there was no need to rush Elder Wisdom. Elder Wisdom could leave for the third floor at any time.
Maybe even tonight.
“You even cooked out here. Lamb skewers?”
“Looks like you've never been to Turkey.”
“Pardon?”
“It's shish kebab. Well, calling it lamb skewers isn't entirely wrong. Sit here.”
When I sat across from Elder Wisdom, an appetizing kebab skewer was placed before me, dripping with oil and giving off an exotic aroma.
A glass of golden liquor was slid over as well.
“Have a drink.”
I took a small swig of what I was offered, then flinched.
I knew it wasn't beer, but it was stronger than I expected.
It also had a strange smell, somewhere between dirt and grass, which made it unpleasant.
“Ugh! What is this?”
“Whisky. Springbank 21. You don't know it? It's a fairly famous drink.”
“Ah...! Who drinks something like this with lamb skewers? It should obviously be cola or beer.”
“...”
“I almost spat it out.”
Elder Wisdom stared at me in disbelief for a moment, then muttered with a sigh.
“Judging by the way you talk, I'd think you really were twenty. The age when you're just learning to drink.”
“I'll take that as a compliment.”
After chatting for a while longer, I brought up something important.
“Recently, I met an interesting being at Hotel Delight.”
“An interesting being?”
“They called themselves the Third-Floor Manager.”
“Ho... A hidden NPC, perhaps?”
There were two hidden NPCs and two hidden rooms on each floor of the Hotel.
“I don't think so.”
“True. A hidden NPC couldn't appear already.”
“We'll have to find them on the third floor itself. This one seemed more like a guide or an underling.”
“An underling?”
“There were unidentified beings behind them.”
“Not a being, but beings?”
“Their words were visible only to me. They took the form of notifications, but when I spoke to my companions afterward, they said they'd never seen them.”
“What?”
“At the time, I wondered why only I could see them. After thinking it over later...”
“Insight?”
“That must be it. I didn't realize it immediately at the time.”
“Ah!”
“Once I realized it afterward, it did seem strange.”
In any case, the Manager was a being bound by the position of a Hotel NPC.
That was why the notifications everyone could see were written in the polite tone of an ordinary Hotel employee.
Why were the notifications only I could see so provocative?
Because it wasn't normal communication.
Eun-sol had summoned the Manager, so it was strange that there was information only I could see.
Looking back, those were signs that the source of that information had been Insight, not Greedy Hand.
I'd often mistaken visions shown by Insight for other things before.
This time, it had appeared in the form of notifications, so it took me a little longer to realize.
“It happens sometimes. Insight can be as vague as a dream at times, and as vivid as reality at others. I've been confused too, wondering whether something was my imagination, a hunch, or Insight.”
“It would be nice if it announced, ‘Insight begins!’ whenever it started.”
“Ha ha! I've thought that sometimes too. Anyway, that damn bird really is unfriendly.”
“Then let's have a drink to that.”
“Sounds good.”
As Elder Wisdom and I badmouthed the Owl, the kebab tasted incredibly good.
“Once I realized there were beings behind the Manager because of Insight, another interesting thought occurred to me. What do you think it was?”
“Are you giving me a quiz now?”
Elder Wisdom's incredulous words made me laugh without realizing it.
I hadn't meant to, but I really had spoken as though I were saying, “Go on, take a guess.”
Did I sometimes talk like that to my companions too?
Maybe that was why A-ri had teased me a few days ago.
I should keep doing it.
“Ha ha! That's Wisdom.”
“Hah! I know what you're about to say.”
“What is it?”
“Not only did you perceive the beings behind the Manager, you even heard their intentions. That's information you normally couldn't obtain through Insight.”
“Right?”
“Insight isn't Clairvoyance or Foresight. It can't obtain that much information without any basis. In other words...”
“I think the Owl borrowed the framework of Insight to tell me directly. Something similar happened before. On Jeju Island.”
“...”
“Someone is behind the Manager. They'll become a variable on the third floor. Something like that.”
“... They'll be on the third floor I go to, not just the one you go to, right?”
“Probably.”
“Hah! It seems our Sponsor has shown their usual tremendous kindness.”
“Is that so?”
“Then let's drink to that. To the glory of great Wisdom!”
“To great Wisdom!”
We drank again.
The next thing we discussed was the information the Manager had conveyed.
Footnotes:
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