Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 644

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 643: The Path of Ascension (5) Fin

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「User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 362

Current Location: Mount Taebaek, Taebaek City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province

Sage’s Advice: 3」

- Han Ga-in

Next came the information the Manager had conveyed.

“The first question was about party size. The third floor often leaves people short-handed, so we asked how we were supposed to proceed in that case.”

“... That concerns me deeply as well.”

“Have you given it any thought?”

The moment Elder Wisdom told me that a third floor of the School had formed separately from the Hotel’s third floor, I realized it.

It seemed Elder Wisdom and we would be tackling different third floors.

If so, would he proceed through the third floor alone?

“Well, I wasn’t particularly worried.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think the Hotel would assign a task that was impossible from the start. I figured it would handle things somehow. New companions might appear, or perhaps...”

“Perhaps?”

“It might combine me with another participant in a situation like mine and form a new party. Or perhaps not.”

“Perhaps not?”

“Who knows? Maybe having no companions is simply my fate, and the Hotel means for me to proceed alone and die.”

“...”

Just look at Elder Wisdom’s attitude, as though none of it mattered.

Even if the Hotel drove him into a place certain to kill him, he looked ready to walk in thinking, So this is my destiny.

It caught me a little off guard, but I vaguely understood his reasoning.

To Elder Wisdom, reality was an empty space with no meaning, while the Hotel alone was real.

Therefore, even if the place the Hotel led him to was a death trap, he had to accept it.

Looking at it another way, people might find it just as hard to understand why several of my companions and I were preparing to go to the third floor without hesitation.

The Holy Mother had also asked me why I wanted to go there.

Longing for greatness?

Pursuing the path of a hero?

The salvation of all things?

They all sounded like plausible reasons, but perhaps they were excuses I had attached after deciding on the answer first.

Maybe we thought like Elder Wisdom deep down.

That the world was an empty illusion, and the Hotel was the one and only truth.

I didn’t know. They said you could fathom ten fathoms of water but not one fathom into a person’s heart. The heart was always the greatest mystery.

“... They say there are advantages whether a party is small or large. They tell us to choose an appropriate number.”

“Oh?”

“It seems you can proceed even with fewer people. Or perhaps new companions will be waiting for you.”

“That’s a relief.”

“What do you think?”

“Hmm... My first thought is that we can choose who enters.”

“Exactly.”

On the first and second floors, everyone entered the Curse Room the moment its door opened.

It seemed things would be different from the third floor onward.

“My second thought is what advantages come with each party size.”

“Hmm...”

“Isn’t the advantage of having more people obvious?”

“Yes. The party’s overall strength becomes greater and more varied.”

“The important part is the advantage of having fewer people. I think we’ll need to make good use of that.”

--- Tap!

I laughed and lightly smacked the table.

“What is it?”

“That’s exactly the conclusion my companions reached after discussing it.”

“I reached the conclusion your companions came to after a meeting just sitting here?”

“I suppose you did.”

“Then do I seem a little smarter than your companions?”

“Ha ha!”

“Hah! I’m older than all of you put together. I should be able to manage this much.”

“That’s true.”

“Ask me another question. It looks like you came here because you wanted to hear my interpretation.”

“What are you talking about? I came to see whether you were doing well.”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“It’s always in the news. They say lonely deaths among elderly people living alone are a social problem...”

“Don’t tease me either.”

I spoke while drinking another glass of whisky.

“The second question was about the relationship between the third floor and reality. A few of my companions have family in reality.”

“Ah, did you ask whether you could see your families while progressing through the third floor?”

“Something similar, but we wanted more information.”

“What did they say?”

“‘What is the relationship between the Upper Realm and the Lower Realm? Water flows from above to below, not from below to above. The relationship between above and below is the same. Your concerns are truly unnecessary.’”

“...”

Elder Wisdom drank his whisky without saying anything for a long time.

This time, he seemed to have much more to think about.

“I don’t know whether what I’m about to say has anything to do with what you heard...”

“I’m listening.”

“I believe the School exists to cultivate heroes.”

“To cultivate heroes?”

“Think about the name, ‘School.’ Doesn’t it sound like a school that literally trains heroes?”

“Hmm...”

“I know. Sometimes its name is Hotel, sometimes Tower, sometimes Apartment. Back then, I didn’t know the School periodically changed its name.”

“I understand. Though this is the first I’ve heard of Apartment.”

“Still, names clearly have meaning. School, Hotel, Tower, Apartment... They all mean something. They are words that reveal the many traits of the place we know.”

“So the word School has meaning as well?”

“Exactly. I believe the School, or the Hotel, is a place that raises heroes.”

“...”

It was an interesting thought.

I felt like I had sometimes thought something similar myself.

“I also think this. The training of heroes ended on the first and second floors.”

“...”

“By the time we broke through the second floor and escaped, we had all become superhuman, world-shaking heroes whose momentum covered the sky.”

“Then what is the third floor?”

“We tempered fine blades on the first and second floors. Shouldn’t we use them properly?”

“...”

“That is the third floor. A place to wield us properly, now that we are complete!”

“...”

“That is why I wanted to go to the third floor. I was born human, received a great destiny, and became the blade of a supreme being. A fine blade belongs on the battlefield.”

“A fine blade belongs on the battlefield... Is that why we get to choose whether to go to the third floor?”

“Because a blade that takes the field by its own will is a true blade. You know this too, don’t you? A heart that does not waver is a weapon greater than anything else.”

“...”

“Someone forced forward and someone who chooses the fate of confronting the End Times themselves are completely different. To the School, only the latter is a true hero, a fine blade. That is why only those who choose the third floor receive the Next Chance. It is only natural.”

Elder Wisdom’s interpretation of the third floor was strange, yet somehow convincing.

If the Hotel truly was a place that created heroes, then it was only natural for us to choose whether we entered the third floor.

How could someone pushed forward by another’s hand be a hero?

A hero had to step into the whirlpool of calamity by his own will.

Elder Wisdom had longed for the third floor longer than anyone else.

Perhaps that was why he had thought about it more deeply than anyone.

“I’m only going where I belong.”

“...”

“Even as I say it, I’m not sure what it has to do with the information you received.”

“Whether it’s related or not, it was worth considering.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

Another long silence passed.

Only one question remained.

“You have more to say, don’t you? It looks that way.”

I felt a little regretful as I prepared to ask the last question.

It felt like this conversation would be our last.

“... The last question was this. We asked for the overall theme of the third floor and a question worth contemplating.”

“That’s two questions.”

“I wanted a one-person serving that felt like two.”

“Pfft! So what did they say?”

“‘Remember the First Wish you held.’”

“...”

“They disappeared after saying that.”

The First Wish.

“A wish... Yes, there was something like that.”

“A-ri told me you seemed to know something about wishes, so I should make sure to ask you.”

“Ha ha! Yes, I remember. I spoke about wishes with that cheeky young lady, didn’t I?”

Elder Wisdom took a large bite of his kebab and continued.

“But I said everything I knew back then. Every participant made a wish in the beginning.”

“...”

“We made wishes to the Hotel, yet we even forgot that we had made them. Sadly.”

Once again, memories of Hotel Cinema crossed my mind.

* * *

“A few years ago, I occasionally had dreams. Dreams about my past self, who endlessly pursued a goal that was far too difficult to achieve.”

“I could do anything for that dream. No matter how hard or painful it was. Though now, I don’t even know what that dream was.”

* * *

I hadn’t understood what that meant then...

But now I knew what wish my past self had made.

“If I cannot attain Nirvana myself, grant me the power to steal the destiny of someone who can attain it.”

“Was that your wish? It sounds rather vicious.”

“It seems my past self wished to become a god.”

“Hmm?”

“But I wasn’t qualified to become a Great One back then.”

“That is an interesting story. This is the first time I’ve heard the details-”

“So I freed the Prince of the Primeval Civilization from the Containment Zone.”

“W-What did you say?”

“Then my past self kept dying in reality for a long time before the Hotel took him away at some unknown point.”

“No-”

“I returned after gaining the power to steal destinies. By then, the Prince had become half a god.”

“So you stole the destiny of the half-divine Prince? Was that how you defeated the Prince?”

“It seems you understand the details now.”

“...”

Elder Wisdom opened and closed his mouth like a fish for a long time before finally speaking.

“... So you caused all this mess just to become some damn god?”

“More precisely, my past self did.”

“...”

“... Do you have anything to say?”

“You are the biggest son of a bitch in human history.”

“That’s all?”

“Go spend about a hundred thousand years reflecting in Avici Hell.”

“Anything else?”

“Do you have no intention of apologizing to me? Do you know how long I suffered in reality because of that damn Moon?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll grill the kebab this time. And?”

“... Forget it. It looks like your personality has practically changed, so what’s the point of blaming you further?”

“Ha ha...”

“It is my fault for being born too late.”

Silence fell again.

Elder Wisdom kept drinking whisky and eating lamb skewers, as though he was sorting through his complicated feelings.

He did not show any hostility toward me.

He seemed to think Aleph and I were different people. It would probably be easier for both of us if he kept thinking that way.

“Come to think of it, my other companions must have all made wishes too.”

“I must have made one as well.”

“Do you remember it?”

“I forgot it long ago. I cannot remember it at all... Perhaps that is also why the third floor of the School meant for me did not appear for so long.”

“...”

“I may not have as many means as you, who has borrowed the power of many companions, but I have quite a few of my own.”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Thanks to them, I heard various things... Would you like to hear them?”

“Of course.”

“World After the End Times.”

“Pardon?”

“That is all I obtained concerning the third floor. Six syllables. I’m sorry it is so little.”

“... No.”

There were now two pieces of information about the third floor’s theme.

One came from us, and the other from Elder Wisdom.

First, remember the First Wish.

Second, World After the End Times.

“...”

For a long while, the two men sat at the table, drinking and thinking.

Countless thoughts came to mind, but that was the problem. There were too many.

I could not tell which guesses were right and which were wrong.

Around the time all the kebab and alcohol on the table had run out, Elder Wisdom rose.

“I should be going.”

“Already?”

“Already? It is far too late.”

“You’ve learned a lot. You’ll need time to think it over...”

“I don’t think thinking any longer will produce anything. It will only multiply my delusions. At times like this, the answer is to face things directly.”

“I wish you luck in what lies ahead.”

“It was good meeting you.”

There was a subtle regret, and a slight bitterness.

My time with Elder Wisdom had been short, and even in that short time, I had never fully let down my guard...

Yet I felt as if he were a companion, and he seemed to feel the same way.

What was the reason for that sense of closeness?

Because we shared the same blessing? Because we communicated well?

I didn’t know.

Watching Elder Wisdom’s back as he walked toward the School, I spoke.

“Elder, do you think we will meet again?”

The old man turned slightly, smiled warmly, and answered.

“Who knows? If there is one thing I have learned after living this long, it is that anything can happen in the Hotel.”