WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 684: The First Wish, Yoo Song-i (1)
──────
- Yoo Song-i
After reporting it to the Management Bureau, I thought about what might happen next.
They were a race that specialized in Possession, Body Theft, and Physical Control.
What if they suddenly took over my friends’ or teachers’ bodies and attacked me?
With that thought in mind, I kept my eyes peeled as I watched the people around me.
Nothing unusual happened until class ended.
The other kids only seemed uncomfortable and gradually began avoiding my gaze.
Just as I was feeling a little disappointed and wondering what to do next, the Management Bureau contacted me.
“Miss Song-i, we’re calling regarding the report you made.”
“Yes! Um, what happened?”
I put on the voice of a frightened girl, only to receive an absurd answer through the receiver.
“You’re saying I was mistaken?”
“That is correct. We conducted a thorough investigation of both your parents and the hospital, but found no signs of a Chaos Disaster. It seems the reporter was mistaken about something.”
Thinking back, I’d kept my voice in the tone of a frightened teenage girl throughout the report.
Was that why? They seemed to think I’d made the report based on a vague feeling rather than any real certainty.
In other words, it felt like they thought they could put the matter to rest by invoking the Management Bureau’s authority and saying, “You were mistaken!”
“...”
When I thought about it carefully, it was a reasonable response.
The one certain that my parents’ bodies had been stolen by the Yith race was the me of the present, not the me of the past.
Back then, I didn’t have Diverse Perspectives or the blessing of Affinity.
So if they invoked the Management Bureau’s authority and said, “You were mistaken!” like they had now, there was a high chance the old me really would have thought, “Oh! I was mistaken.”
It sounded like I was making excuses for myself, but it wasn’t because the old me was stupid.
It was the Management Bureau speaking. How could I not believe them? Of course I had to believe them!
After thinking that far, I started walking home.
…
When Blue Damien Apartments came into view in the distance, I suddenly felt that something about the surrounding scenery was off.
I stopped and looked around, then spotted a gray dog and a crow.
At first, I didn’t even understand why I found them strange.
The dog didn’t have three heads like Cerberus, and the crow didn’t have an iron beak.
It didn’t take long to realize that the source of my discomfort was their behavior, not their appearance.
“... What?”
Something about the way they moved was strange.
If I had to put it into words, the dog looked unfamiliar with walking on four legs, while the bird moved similarly to how Ga-in acted when he borrowed Pero’s body.
The moment I frowned, certain they were animals inhabited by human souls!
Rumble!
Thunder roared inside my mind.
This was the trigger that awakened my ‘First Wish’!
The memory of the moment I chose the Hotel, and the Hotel chose me.
The moment I felt the greatest despair of my life.
* * *
.
..
…
“Oh my! Oh my! What are you doing there?”
I’d seen plenty of stray cats in Seoul, but it had been a while since I’d seen a puppy without an owner.
Had it not been washed properly? Its fur was completely filthy.
“Grrk!”
“Did you just bark? Are you hurt? You can’t even bark properly.”
Where had its owner gone, leaving such a pitiful little thing alone?
It didn’t have a name tag, so finding its owner wouldn’t be easy. Oh!
“Ah! Where are you going? Stop!”
Until just a moment ago, it had been clinging to me as if I were its owner...
Then the puppy suddenly turned and ran off in a panic.
As I stood there flustered, a familiar voice called from behind me.
“Song-i.”
“Dad! Huh? You’re off work already?”
Dad spoke with a slightly tired expression.
“There was no choice today. Management Bureau employees suddenly showed up, investigated both your mom and me, and caused a huge commotion at the hospital. I’ve been under investigation from this morning until just now.”
“...”
My heart skipped a beat.
My parents had been investigated because I’d fallen into some strange delusion and reported them!
D-Did the Management Bureau tell them I was the reporter?
I’d heard they were supposed to protect the reporter’s identity, though...
“I don’t know who reported us. It seems one of the patients has a grudge against us...”
“Th-that’s a terrible person!”
“Ha! I’ve dealt with every kind of nuisance while working at a hospital, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone make a false report to the Management Bureau!”
There was unmistakable irritation in his voice.
Feeling deeply guilty, I cautiously glanced at Dad.
“...”
An instinct so intense it was hard to put into words struck me.
It felt like I was standing at the crossroads of life and death, gripped by a violent sense of danger!
It sounded ridiculous, but I had the feeling Dad might strangle me to death.
My next action came from instinct rather than thought.
Smiling brightly like an innocent, cheerful girl, I rushed over and threw my arms around him.
“Dad!”
“... R-Right. You startled me, hugging me out of nowhere in the street.”
“So what? I’m happy you came home early today.”
“... Shall we go home?”
“Yes.”
I didn’t feel that tension again on the way home.
Thinking back, that strange sensation I’d felt earlier was probably a delusion created by my guilt.
Dad trying to kill me? There was no way that could be true.
For the next week, I’d be a good, cute daughter!
.
..
…
Time flew by like the wind.
Had it been last week that I fell into a strange delusion and reported my parents?
After causing that incident, I planned to be more careful from then on...
Lately, things that made no sense at all had begun happening.
I was sitting in the classroom with a stiff expression when So-jin, my friend since middle school, approached me.
“What’s wrong?”
“...”
“What is it? Did your parents fight again?”
“No, it’s not that. They’ve been getting along lately.”
“Then what?”
“... Strange animals.”
“What?”
“Would you understand if I said two strange animals were lurking around me?”
“What are you talking about?”
“For about three days now, a strange dog and crow have been watching me every morning and evening.”
“Song-i, I saw online that symptoms of schizophrenia...”
“It’s not that!”
“If it’s really that strange, report it or something.”
“Th-that’s a little...”
“Why?”
“Forget it!”
How could I tell someone that I’d reported my parents because I fell into a strange delusion?
It was a secret only I knew. No, only the Management Bureau and I knew.
That evening, after all the classes had ended.
As I was walking across the field, the dog I’d grown familiar with over the past few days appeared again.
“Hey! Still haven’t found your home? You don’t even have a name tag. Seriously! I’ll register your photo on the Pet Care app and...”
The moment I casually said I would find its owner, I felt so uneasy that my breath caught.
“W-What?”
Another animal appeared alongside the dog, as if it too had been watching me.
The crow was sitting primly on the dog’s back.
It was a scene that could be called mysterious if described nicely, or grotesque if not!
Th-this had to be an abnormal phenomenon!
Everything I’d learned in school since elementary school, like the three-step Chaos Disaster response procedure, rushed through my mind.
I instinctively pulled out my phone, ready to make a proper report this time!
Then I heard a sound so chilling that my entire body froze.
Words came from the crow’s beak, harsh and scraping like metal!
“Song... i!”
“... Ah.”
I had never imagined a situation where a crow by the roadside, not even a parrot kept at home, would call my name.
As I stood frozen and half out of my mind, the gray dog pressed itself tightly against my leg.
Its eyes were desperate... so desperately pleading.
If the dog could speak, it felt like it would say this at once.
“Please, just hear me out.”
“Please, watch what I do for just a moment.”
Half-dazed, I watched the filthy gray dog’s actions.
Before long, the gray dog began scratching crooked letters into the dirt of the field with its paw.
Was this dog the first in history to write Hangul?
Dog dad, bird mom, house monster
The message was extremely brief and simple.
It would have been hard for a dog to write a long sentence with its paws anyway.
“What is this...?”
* * *
Flash!
The tremendous shock briefly interrupted the vision related to the ‘First Wish’!
“W-What is this!”
So that gray dog and crow were my parents?
Their movements had been awkward because they weren’t used to animal bodies yet!
The moment I ran toward my “parents” in shock!
“... Ah.”
The next memory surfaced, and an indescribable, crushing despair seeped into my soul.
A thought I had during the first attempt at Room 301.
“No one but an idiot would take a talking dog to a hospital.”
“One hundred out of one hundred people would report it to the Management Bureau.”
“That is common sense.”
That was the “common sense” I knew.
The me of the past had acted according to “common sense,” too.
…
The memory, which had been cut off by the shock, began again.
* * *
“I’m home!”
I greeted them after returning home and was about to head to my room when Mom smiled gently and blocked my way.
“You’re home.”
“Mom?”
“Song-i, you reported something to the Management Bureau earlier, didn’t you?”
“What? Ah, yes. I met some really strange animals at school. You’ve never seen a talking crow or a dog that writes, right? It was fascinating, but...”
I was speaking excitedly, unable to hide my fascination, when something suddenly felt wrong.
That was it!
How did Mom know I had reported it to the Management Bureau?
“Huh?”
“...”
“How did you know? Ah, the Management Bureau told you, and... wait?”
There were supposed to be rules about protecting the reporter’s identity!
Even when I reported my parents before, they didn’t know I was the one who reported them.
My body moved faster than my realization.
My mind was still going, “What is this?” but my body immediately tried to run back out through the front door!
The moment I instinctively tried to flee outside, my body rapidly grew heavy.
“Ah... Ah!”
Mom was still smiling gently.
“What was so strange?”
“Ah... Ah...”
“You’re not a dog, so why can’t you talk? What was strange when you reported me before?”
She spoke as though it were obvious that I had reported her to the Management Bureau before.
I was utterly confused. Had she learned about it today? Or had she known from the beginning?
If she knew from the beginning, why hadn’t she said anything to me back then...
“Don’t you intend to answer?”
My mouth opened against my will.
“Th-that... You two were getting along far too well compared to usual...”
“That’s one. And?”
“Y-Your attitude toward Happy was too awkward...”
“Ah, so that’s two?”
Soon, Mom, no, the “other side,” nodded and smiled gently.
“There were two major problems. First, we should have prioritized the relationship between your parents over that of an average married couple. In other words, we should have pretended that he and I fought.”
“...”
“Second, our imitation of behavior was insufficient, considering not only the Transference target but even the local species.”
“Gasp... Haa...!”
“Thank you. You taught us a lesson.”
Only then did I realize the devastating truth.
Every instinctive sense of discomfort I’d felt toward my parents had been real!
I thought it was a delusion.
Or maybe I wanted to believe it was a delusion.
The Management Bureau said I was mistaken, and deep down, I wanted there to be nothing wrong with my parents!
My body hadn’t been moving properly for a while.
The terror that stopped my breath, the pain of some unknown force pressing down on me with crushing weight.
... I muttered in a trembling voice.
“W-Who are you! Who are you?”
“What a rude child. You should call me Mom.”
She smiled gently and raised her hand.
Screech!
A pitch-black mass shot through the gap in the half-open window like lightning!
It was the crow that had imitated human speech earlier.
It was the creature that had claimed to be my “mom.”
It was also the thing I had reported to the Management Bureau as a monster.
The black mass attacked the other side violently, pecking at it with its beak, but it was meaningless.
Mom, or the evil spirit that had stolen Mom’s body, only laughed.
“Ha ha! I heard the dog had already been dealt with, but you were still around?”
Even with blood running down its face from the crow’s vicious attack, it didn’t seem bothered.
As if it didn’t feel pain at all, as if damage to a human body meant nothing.
As though the situation were hilariously funny, the evil spirit grabbed the crow in one hand.
Crack!
The fragile bird’s neck twisted in an instant, and sticky blood dripped from the crow onto the floor.
Then the evil spirit brought the crow’s corpse before me.
“What does this look like to you?”
“...”
“Ha ha! You still don’t know? Your mother worried about you and came to save you even after becoming a beast, but you can’t even recognize her!”
“...”
“I find this so funny. Don’t you?”
As I watched the hand slowly approaching me... I thought I was breaking apart.
Overwhelming terror, sorrow that surpassed even that terror, despair beyond words.
I just wanted to die.
Rather than become a toy for that evil spirit to torment, I wanted to die and end it all.
I surely would have, if not for the footsteps that sounded behind me.
Click!
“You’re here? I have the situation under control...”
Once again, my body moved faster than my thoughts.
My mind had already given up on everything and was in a state of “Please kill me,” but my instincts sensed that there was still a way to survive!
“... D-Dad!”
“...”
“Please save me... Please save me...”
“...”
“Please, please...”
Even as I spoke, I knew it made no sense.
The other side was an evil spirit that had stolen my parents’ bodies, a heartless demon...
There was no way begging something like that to save me would work.
It worked.
“Enough! That’s enough.”
“What...?”
“I said from the start that I would handle the situation. I don’t know why you stepped in.”
At “Dad’s” words, “Mom” tilted her head from side to side and stared at him as if he were strange.
“... You already made one mistake.”
“A mistake?”
“In principle, this human specimen should have been disposed of after the first report. But you...”
“Field command authority belongs to me, not you. Does it not?”
“...”
“This specimen is highly observant. Despite not being a particularly high-order being, it saw through our disguise.”
“...”
“It will be useful if we keep it alive. I’ll manage it from now on.”
So I had survived by relying on a demon’s mercy.
... I prayed, and prayed again.
If there was a god in heaven, please give me a chance as well.
Even a deer is given horns so it can strike once before it dies, is it not?
Then please give me a deer’s horns, too.
Give me a clear mind that will never again be deceived by the demons’ cunning tricks.
And give me the power to show eternal suffering to those vermin-like monsters!
Footnotes:
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