WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 685: The First Wish, Yoo Song-i (2)
──────
- Yoo Song-i
What the alien who showed me mercy said:
“It might be useful if kept alive. I’ll manage it.”
It didn’t take long for me to understand what that meant.
The monsters had trapped me in a cat’s body.
Meow!
The one who mocked me and treated me cruelly, “Mom.”
The one who didn’t want me dead and showed me a sliver of mercy, “Dad.”
In the end, there wasn’t much difference between them.
One saw me as a bothersome wild animal, while the other saw me as a pitiful pet.
...
Time passed as I lived as a pet cat with a human mind.
It was a miserable existence, but because of that, the two aliens no longer pretended to be human around me.
For example, they openly discussed things they never would have talked about before.
Meow!
“You’re noisy. What is it? Not enough food? Can’t we just starve it to death?”
“Feed it. More importantly, the Duke has issued an order. The King...”
As time passed, I gradually came to understand the situation.
They called themselves Counts and Dukes, as though they were some kind of nobility.
They weren’t rampaging evil spirits. They were an alien species with their own order and society.
They had come to Earth in search of their “King,” and the invasion was merely part of the process, not their true purpose.
I also often heard that they had repeatedly tried to obtain information about the King through negotiations and threats against the Management Bureau, but failed.
The King.
The King of demons.
The King of an alien species.
The King of Yith.
The first time I heard that word, my entire body trembled.
I simply knew the moment I heard it.
The King was the source of all evil, the beginning of every problem!
...
My tears had dried up.
Despair had become tiresome, and pain was simply part of daily life.
A speechless beast miserably clinging to life, unable even to die.
The few emotions I had left were a desire for revenge and a longing for a chance.
If only I could have one chance!
Then, one day, as I endured with that thought in my heart, everything suddenly changed in a way no one could have expected.
Grrroooom!
I heard a deafening roar that shook heaven and earth.
It was such a tremendous sound that it felt as though the sky were collapsing!
What was that?
Unlike me, who couldn’t understand the situation at all, the two monsters seemed to realize something.
“Argh! What is this? Th-this is...”
“Grace! It’s Grace! The King is attempting Grace!”
Grace. A word I had never heard before.
“No, no! This is Earth! Attempting Grace here means...”
“Are humans the target of Grace? Why would the King bestow such favor on such lowly beings...”
The King of Yith had begun Grace with humanity as its target?
“Mom” wondered why the King would grant favor to something like humans, but “Dad” focused on something completely different.
“Favor, my ass. There’s no way Grace can succeed!”
“W-What?”
“Think about it! There are so many humans, and their standing is utterly abysmal!”
“Th-that...”
“It can never succeed. It will absolutely fail! Fail, I tell you!”
According to “Dad,” the ritual the King of Yith was attempting, Grace, was certain to fail.
There were simply too many humans, and their standing was too low.
The moment the word “fail” was uttered, “Mom” and “Dad” froze stiff as stone.
As though they had realized something unimaginably terrifying.
Soon, “Mom” muttered in a trembling voice.
“I-If it fails, then...”
“Not Ascent. Descent.”
“I don’t care what happens to humans! I mean, Grace covers the entire planet! The price of failure will affect u-us too...”
“Ah...”
I tried to understand the situation somehow.
Those aliens had come to Earth to find their King.
It turned out their King was attempting a massive ritual called Grace on Earth.
Yet, according to the Yith race, the ritual couldn’t possibly succeed. It was guaranteed to fail.
The reward for success was Ascent.
The price of failure was Descent.
Since the ritual encompassed the entire planet, the price of failure would affect the entire planet as well.
Not just humanity, but even the Yith race currently invading Earth!
Grrroooom!
A second roar erupted.
Unlike the first, this one came with strange, incomprehensible waves.
Soon, an odd tickling sensation, as though something lightly scratched through my fur, swept across the area.
“Grrrk!”
“Eek!”
The next moment, the two aliens who had stolen my parents’ bodies collapsed to the floor with shrill screams.
... Meow?
They flopped around like goldfish. It was such a ridiculous sight that I almost laughed.
At that moment, I couldn’t hold myself back any longer and climbed onto “Mom’s” twitching body.
I tried biting and clawing it.
It couldn’t resist at all.
It couldn’t properly control its body, much less use its mysterious powers.
It looked utterly pathetic, as though it had forgotten how to move.
It was as though the Great Race had fallen lower than even a miserable beast.
...
What filled my heart now wasn’t the thrill of revenge.
It felt utterly futile. I felt hollow and, in a way, even sad.
Even knowing revenge was impossible for me, the thought that I would have my revenge someday had been the final driving force of my life...
What kind of revenge was this?
I hadn’t done anything!
I had only been meowing when they were swept up in an incomprehensible catastrophe.
Would biting and clawing the bodies of creatures that had already become so insignificant mean anything beyond desecrating corpses?
Especially when those bodies had originally belonged to my parents!
Amid that overwhelming emptiness, I realized at least one thing.
Even those demons, monsters, and aliens that had turned my life into hell...
They were nothing more than insignificant creatures.
To compare it to one of my favorite dramas, they weren’t the protagonists. They were thoroughly minor supporting characters.
At that moment, there was only one protagonist in this world.
“The King of Yith.”
Grrroooom!
When I heard the third roar, I finally sensed my fate.
It seemed this Descent wouldn’t spare even me.
Now that even revenge, my final wish, was collapsing into nothingness...
For the first time, not only as human Yoo Song-i but also as cat Yoo Song-i, I thought of something I had never thought before.
I...
I...
I...
I wanted to be at the center of the world.
It wasn’t about being strong or weak. I didn’t want to end so pointlessly like this.
If there was a Demon King in this world, I at least wanted to die by the Demon King’s sword.
I didn’t want to fade away pointlessly in some corner the Demon King never even cared about.
So...
“I want to be the protagonist.”
The moment that earnest feeling burst out as a voice, a miracle happened.
“I’ve been waiting to hear those words.”
The world stopped amid a pale light.
Even the waves of Descent sweeping across the entire planet seemed unable to intrude upon this moment.
An unknown person stood before me.
A woman with an incredibly dignified and elegant air.
That was all I knew.
Sadly, a cat’s eyesight wasn’t as good as a human’s.
“W-Who... Huh? How can I talk?”
“Call it the Hotel’s mercy for this moment. Realistically speaking, I don’t have mind-reading powers.”
The angelic being smiled as she held me in her arms and slowly stroked my head.
“Poor child. You endured until this moment while dreaming of revenge, yet even your final hope has come to nothing.”
While I was dazed in that surreal atmosphere, her gaze turned toward the monsters rolling on the floor.
“Have they even lost the ability to control their physical bodies as the price of Descent? Not even the remnants of greatness remain, so they too have a pitiful fate...”
Soon, she smiled at me.
“Of course, they don’t look pitiful to you.”
“W-Who are you? A-An angel?”
“An angel... If an appendage sent down by the Great One is called an angel, you wouldn’t be wrong.”
“Th-Then, please help me!”
“With what?”
“Th-those monsters aren’t my parents. My real parents...”
Please return Mom and Dad to their original bodies.
Please bring back Mom and Dad, who died as beasts, and erase the tragedy that happened to our family.
Those wishes were about to spill from my lips.
The angel covered my mouth with her hand.
“I’m sorry.”
“...”
“I don’t have the power to bring the dead back to life. Even if I did, I wouldn’t do anything.”
“Why... Why...”
“Because that is the rule of this moment, and the providence of the Hotel.”
The rule of this moment. The providence of the Hotel.
“Save yourself from hell.”
Then a calm voice flowed from the angel’s lips.
“Speak what you desire. This shall be your Original Wish.”
With utter desperation, I clasped my hands and made a wish.
Not a wish someone would grant for me, but one I would obtain myself.
I pray to the Great One who sent this angel.
Please grant me a chance too.
Give me a clear mind, so I’ll never again be deceived by the demons’ cunning tricks.
Grant me the power to inflict eternal suffering on those insignificant creatures who call themselves “great.”
And if I could add just one thing...
Please let me be at the center of the world.
If there was a Demon King in this world, I at least wanted to die by the Demon King’s sword.
I didn’t want to end pointlessly in some corner the Demon King never even cared about!
Rumble!
When a thunderous sound came from somewhere, the angel, no, the Ascendant, smiled.
“Now, let’s depart.”
“... Are you going to the same place as me?”
“The places are similar, but our destinations differ.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re only beginning now, but I’m reaching my end.”
* * *
.
..
...
Flash!
I jolted awake.
The memory was over, and I was back in the present.
My head felt like it would burst.
Too much information was raging through my mind like a storm!
So that dignified woman at the end had been an Ascendant?
It wasn’t strange!
Think about the “memory from when he entered the Hotel” that Ga-in got on Jeju Island.
He said he met someone he believed was an Ascendant too!
Something similar must have happened to me...
“... Ah.”
In an instant, every complicated thought filling my head disappeared.
A filthy gray dog and a staggering crow stood before me.
My beloved, real parents.
“Pfft!”
I was happy.
So happy I could barely stand it.
If nobody had been around, I would’ve wanted to cackle like a madwoman.
Because in Room 301 during this time period...
“Dad” and “Mom” were still alive and well at home!
The great Hotel had granted my wish for a chance.
At that moment, I decided to forget every complaint I had ever held against the Hotel.
“Mom, Dad. Just wait a little longer. I’m coming soon.”
Ahahaha!
Who would’ve thought I’d look forward more to reuniting with my “fake parents” than meeting my real parents?
Could there be a more devoted daughter than me?
Footnotes:
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