WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 655: Room 301, Curse Room - ‘The Origin of Species’ (2)
──────
- Yoo Song-i
“Song-i? Where are you going?”
“I’m meeting a friend!”
“Huh? Why are you taking Pero - Song-i!”
The moment I finished breakfast, I took Pero and headed out.
Of course, my primary reason was to advance the scenario...
But I also felt terribly uncomfortable being face-to-face with Mom.
“...”
Uncomfortable.
Flustered.
Awkward.
After learning the truth about the world, I never imagined I would see my actual parents again.
I thought they had long since disappeared in the endlessly repeating Loops and the flow of time.
What exactly was this situation?
Could this be the very Loop I lived in before coming to the Hotel?
If so, maybe the third floor's concept was time travel.
Return to the very Loop we had lived through in the past and resolve the crisis of the End Times?
One question led to another.
I wasn’t the only one who entered Room 301. Eun-sol had received the same judgment as I had.
Was this world also the Loop Eun-sol had lived through?
Had Eun-sol and I lived in the same Loop?
But if that were true, I didn’t think our memories of the world matched completely.
I didn’t know.
Question marks kept rising in my mind, but none of them came with easy answers.
In the end, I had to make up my mind and cut off those confused thoughts.
“... Song-i. This isn’t the time. We can work out the questions with our companions once we’re outside!”
Right now, I had to focus on resolving the Curse Room.
That was the way for both me and everyone else to survive!
* * *
The first thing that came to mind was how to contact Eun-sol.
If I had known we would return to a past Loop, I could have exchanged phone numbers from before we came to the Hotel!
I never expected this, so I hadn’t done anything like that.
As a result, we didn’t know each other’s phone numbers, email addresses, or anything else.
--- Beep! Beep!
“Be quiet. I’m busy.”
Unlike me, Eun-sol was the youngest daughter of a chaebol family, so she was well known. When I searched for her, all kinds of information came up.
“Her home address? No, this won’t work.”
Even if I went there, would I be able to meet her?
It would also be awkward if Eun-sol’s family found out I existed.
“The secretarial office’s email address? This is better.”
--- Beep!
The parrot answered as if it agreed.
I was grateful to have someone to talk to, but I felt like Pero had made me talk to myself more often.
As I was about to send the email, it occurred to me that Eun-sol’s secretary might ignore it.
So I sent something they couldn’t ignore.
--- Ring-ring!
“Done!”
Now that I had contacted her, it was time to learn about Room 301 in my own way.
* * *
I stood in front of an animal hospital with a flashy interior in the middle of Gangnam.
「Yoo Happyhappy Animal Hospital」
Did people know?
The “Yoo” before Happyhappy referred to customers as “you,” but it was also veterinarian Yoo Jeong-ho’s surname.
In other words, it was a double meaning. The customers, “you,” should be happyhappy, and the doctor himself, Yoo Jeong-ho, should be happyhappy too.
I never thought much of it when I was little, but looking at it again now, the hospital’s name was kind of awful!
Was this Dad’s crowning achievement in naming?
“...”
--- Ding-dong!
After opening the front door and walking a few steps inside, the counter staff came into view.
“Do you have an appointm...”
“Oh my! Song-i!”
I vaguely remembered visiting Dad’s workplace a few times, so maybe that was why one older employee recognized me.
That person was so warm toward me, while I, who had gone through so much in the Hotel, couldn’t even remember who they were.
It made me feel strangely bitter.
“Is Dad in?”
“If you mean the director, he’s seeing a patient right now. Oh my!”
Without another word, I entered the examination room.
I knew it was rude, but this place was both the world I had lived in and, according to the Hotel, a Curse Room.
In other words, it was a world where the End Times were approaching.
I didn’t have time to worry about the hospital’s schedule.
A few employees were startled and tried to grab my arm, but...
If I got stopped over something like this, wouldn’t all the experience I gained at the Hotel have been wasted?
I didn’t even need to use an Inheritance.
--- Bang!
When I abruptly opened the door, a middle-aged man sitting in front of a computer looked up in surprise.
“Who? Huh?”
“Dad.”
“S-Song-i? What is this? Did something happen at home?”
From Dad’s perspective, his daughter had suddenly burst into his workplace without even calling.
It was so unexpected that, instead of scolding me, he seemed worried something serious had happened.
“Please make sure the employees don’t come near us.”
“... All right.”
Interestingly, Dad immediately started doing as I said.
It seemed he had already come up with his own explanation for the situation. It was completely wrong, but I didn’t bother correcting him.
“Whew... Song-i. It seems you learned something shocking...”
“Be quiet and answer my questions.”
“Hm?”
“Have you had more patients than usual lately?”
“Why are you suddenly...”
“Just answer me. Just answer!”
Dad couldn’t hide his confusion, but he answered as though overwhelmed by my tone.
“Th-There have been a few more.”
“Were there any strange animals? Animals that were sick in body or mind!”
“Song-i, this is a hospital. Of course animals that are sick in body or mind come here.”
“I mean animals that were different from usual... Were there any unusual patients?”
This was why I came to Dad’s hospital.
The only information I knew about Room 301 was that, when I was young, an old Golden Retriever spoke human language.
Wouldn’t a successful veterinarian be among the first to notice strange phenomena involving animals?
“Tell me a little more.”
“Like an animal that spoke like a person?”
“Are you talking about parrots?”
“It could be a dog or cat.”
“If there were an animal like that, they’d report it to the Management Bureau instead of bringing it to a hospital.”
That was true.
No one would bring their dog to an animal hospital if it suddenly started talking like a person.
Every single one of them would report it to the Management Bureau.
And after that?
“Animals taken by the Management Bureau would usually die, right?”
“Huh? Well, once it talks, it’s no longer a normal animal. Wouldn’t culling be unavoidable?”
Dad spoke of culling as though it were obvious.
That was common sense in this world.
Once I realized that, a thought came to mind.
Even if an animal somehow gained human intelligence, most of them would hide it!
The moment they revealed themselves, the Management Bureau would take them away, perform all kinds of experiments on them, and eventually kill them. They would never carelessly speak human language.
Like Som-i when I was young, they would only speak when they were old and near death, unable to endure their resentment any longer.
“Have you seen any animals that behaved unlike animals?”
“Hmm...”
Dad looked as if he was trying to remember something.
“Behavior unlike an animal. One of the employees, um, feeds the stray cats.”
“Yes.”
“They mentioned seeing a peculiar cat several times. They said it stuck in their mind so much they couldn’t forget it...”
After hearing a few more things, I stood up.
“I’m sorry for showing up so suddenly.”
“It’s fine that you came, but is something really wrong? Just in case, has Happy or Ringring been acting strange?”
“... No.”
“And why did you bring Pero? Pero isn’t sick, right?”
It must have been a strange situation for Dad, but he kept asking questions, which was getting a little annoying.
I was considering using my bracelet to deal with the situation.
Then Dad opened his mouth, unable to hide his hesitation.
“I, um, thought... since you told me to send the employees away...”
“...”
“I thought you saw something, um, shocking.”
My head started to ache a little.
Unpleasant information I had forgotten began stirring in the back of my mind.
An inexplicable heat surged inside me.
“When the time came, um, I was going to tell you everything...”
“That you’re preparing to divorce?”
“...”
“Or that both of you are seeing other people?”
“Th-that...”
“It’s fine. That already happened a long time ago for me.”
Leaving Dad behind as he failed to understand what I meant, I walked out of the hospital.
Something from a long time ago.
I barely remembered it now, and it wasn’t even that big of a deal.
It didn’t bother me.
It really didn’t bother me.
...
Afterward, I met the employee Dad mentioned and heard what the “peculiar cat” looked like and where it often appeared.
Thankfully, it wasn’t too far from the hospital.
* * *
It was already around noon.
When I first heard about the peculiar cat at Dad’s hospital, I thought I would find it quickly.
But even after wandering around with Pero for at least three hours, I hadn’t seen it.
“It looks like a British Shorthair, gray all over. One ear is missing, and it limps on its left hind leg... Seriously, how am I supposed to find it with that?”
--- Beep!
“You think so too? But Pero, even if I can’t find it, shouldn’t you be able to? You can fly through the sky!”
Should I have simply reported it to the Management Bureau and asked for their help? I don’t know!
It was always like this. The beginning of a Curse Room was the hardest part.
I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do!
At times like this, Ga-in oppa would point me in the right direction, or I would follow Seung-yeop around!
I was doing nothing but sighing when...
--- Beep! Beeeep! Beep!
Pero suddenly began frantically pulling my hair.
“That hurts! Why are you... Ah.”
A strange sight suddenly caught my eye.
A gray cat stood still in the middle of the road.
The driver of an oncoming car spotted it in time and honked, so the cat stepped aside. A moment later, it went back into the middle of the road.
Then I heard a voice like a fleeting hallucination.
‘I’m scared. It hurts. I’m suffering. Get me out of here.’
“...”
How painful would it be for a human mind to be trapped inside an animal’s body?
To a filthy animal rotting away on the streets, even the most miserable human would be someone to envy.
If it were a real animal, it wouldn’t even be able to recognize its own misery.
Because it had a human mind, its suffering was all the more vivid.
Could it ask for help?
Revealing its intelligence through speech or action was incredibly dangerous.
There was a high chance the Management Bureau would immediately capture it for “research followed by culling.”
An endless chain of despair and pain.
The conclusion many intelligent beings would naturally reach in that situation.
“... Suicide.”
That cat was trying to kill itself.
It ran into the road because it wanted to die, but when it saw the car coming, it couldn’t overcome its instinctive fear and backed away.
Then it gritted its teeth and ran into the road again.
Once I understood that, I gave Pero an order.
“Bring it here.”
Pero shot forward like lightning and grabbed the gray cat by the scruff just as it was about to run into the road again.
The cat panicked and tried to flee - then the eyes of two intelligent beings met.
I felt Telepathy activate!
* * *
The agony of clutching an empty stomach every night and digging through food waste.
The memory of taking a bite of maggot-filled meat and feeling sickened by it.
The scorching heat of the sun during the day, and the bitter cold at night with no way to ward it off.
No one under heaven was on my side, and people treated me like an insect.
A life more miserable than that of the most miserable human in the world.
Why did this happen?
If I became like this because of sins I committed in a past life...
Please, give me just one chance.
There was only one way out of this prison: death.
* * *
I heard a voice filled with despair.
At the same time, an entirely different voice came to me.
A lovely being.
An angel descended from heaven.
My salvation and goddess, a lifeline out of this miserable fate.
The only being who could understand me.
“... I found you. Come here.”
A voice reaching me.
The other being’s intense affection for me.
Affinity and Telepathy were working!
‘That individual’ was the very individual I had been searching for.
I held the miserable creature, trembling all over as though struck by lightning.
At that moment, I was someone’s goddess and savior.
“Let’s go. We have a great deal to talk about.”
* * *
- Lee Eun-sol
I was frantically going through documents and gathering information when the door opened with a knock.
“What?”
“E-Executive Director!”
“I told you not to interrupt me...”
“It was such a strange email that I had no choice!”
“A strange email?”
“At first, I thought it was an ad for agricultural products, but the contents...”
“Agricultural products? The contents?”
“... There were several lines of sensitive information about the chairman’s slush fund.”
“Is it blackmail?”
“You’ll understand if you read it, but it says the email must be delivered to ‘Eun-sol unni.’ It says that if we don’t forward it, it will be sent to an ETS reporter...”
The moment I heard the phrase “Eun-sol unni,” I had a rough idea who it was.
But when I checked the email’s contents, I couldn’t help laughing.
“Pfft!”
“E-Executive Director?”
“There’s nothing to worry about. It isn’t the blackmail email you think it is.”
010 - xxx - xxxx
+ Please make sure this reaches Eun-sol unni.
Footnotes:
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