WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 687: The First Wish, Lee Eun-sol (1)
──────
- Lee Eun-sol
It was evening, and a cool breeze had begun to blow.
“Whew...”
“I’m getting tired.”
As I climbed Seoraksan without end, I remembered something Jin-uk had said before.
‘We traveled a lot when we were kids, didn’t we?’
‘Thinking about it now, a lot of those trips were pretty strange.’
“...Strange trips.”
“What?”
“I was thinking about it. This trip is pretty strange too.”
“What’s strange about it?”
“Isn’t it funny for two grown siblings in their thirties to go hiking together?”
“Hey, hey! If you hadn’t tanked the Shanghai Project, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
“There you go again! You’ve run plenty of things into the ground yourself...”
As I bickered with Jin-uk, a sudden chill ran down my spine. I looked around.
“Huh?”
We had definitely stayed on the marked trail the whole way, but the scenery had changed completely.
A wide plain had appeared out of nowhere halfway up Seoraksan.
“What the...”
I was about to step back, tense, when Jin-uk suddenly pointed ahead.
“Do you see that house?”
“...A plain halfway up Seoraksan wasn’t enough, now there’s a mansion too.”
I thought the Hotel had made me capable of laughing off most absurd things, but every time something like this happened, it was still absurd.
Unexpectedly, my brother remained calm.
“Let’s rest there before we go on. Hiking at night is dangerous.”
“No, why are you so calm? A mansion just popped up in the middle of a mountain!”
At that, the corner of his lips rose slightly. It was the expression of someone who knew something I didn’t.
He was dying to show off.
“You don’t know, Eun-sol?”
“...”
“Haha! Didn’t Father tell you? An old friend of his lives here... Agh!”
Tak!
Unable to hold back, I discreetly summoned the Flute and smacked the back of his head.
“Lee Eun-sol! Are you insane?!”
“Quit showing off and explain. What does Father’s friend have to do with a mansion suddenly appearing in the middle of a mountain?”
His next words explained the situation surprisingly well.
“He’s a former agent. Retired now, apparently.”
A retired Management Bureau agent.
If someone like that had hidden a spaceship in the middle of a mountain instead of a mansion, it would still have made sense.
“Come to think of it, you came here as a kid too, didn’t you? Don’t tell me you forgot. No wonder you tanked your busi...”
Tak!
* * *
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
Soon, a pale-faced man emerged from the mansion.
At a glance, he looked to be in his early thirties and had a somewhat thin build.
There was nothing especially noteworthy about him.
Still, perhaps because I had heard he was a retired agent, he seemed far older than he looked.
“Ahem, it’s been a long time.”
“Jin-uk and Eun-sol. It has been a long time.”
He recognized my brother and me at once.
It felt as though we knew each other, but I had no memory of him.
My memories from before the Hotel had become hazy because of all that had happened there...
Even so, shouldn’t I remember meeting a former Management Bureau agent?
The moment I tilted my head in confusion...
“...!”
A flash of light passed through my mind, followed by a hazy vision.
It was a memory of my younger self coming to this mansion with Father.
* * *
‘How have you been?’
‘Chairman, it has been a long time. Are these your children?’
‘That’s right. Go on, greet him. This person is an agent of the Management Bureau...’
‘Not anymore.’
‘...A former agent, then. An old friend of mine. What are you all waiting for?’
‘H-hello! I’m Lee Jeong-ho.’
‘I-I’m Lee Jin-uk.’
‘I’m Lee Eun-sol. It’s nice to meet you.’
‘I’m Lee Hee-yoon!’
‘Please call me S.’
* * *
“...So it really happened.”
“What?”
Just as Jin-uk said, I had come to this mansion with Father when I was young.
Why had I forgotten that time?
Why were those forgotten memories returning now through a vision?
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to say hello? Haha! Agent, she recently tanked a major business project, so she’s a little out of it these days.”
“It is fine.”
When I had visited this mansion in the past...
I made my First Wish.
Like the others, I lost the memories of coming here while forgetting everything related to that wish.
My brother had never gone through that, so he still remembered it clearly.
“I apologize. You’re Agent S, correct?”
“Come in.”
S abruptly disappeared from sight. As I followed after him, I suddenly felt something strange.
“Oppa.”
“Hm?”
“I only say this because it reminded me of the past, but I think everyone came here together before, including Father.”
“Probably?”
“Now...”
“Yeah?”
“Why are only the two of us here?”
“What?”
“Wasn’t there someone else with us? Shouldn’t there have been?”
My brother shrugged, speaking as though I were being ridiculous.
“Stop saying strange things and let’s rest. We’ve been hiking since morning, and my legs are starting to give out.”
* * *
I unpacked in an empty room, washed up quickly, and stretched my stiff muscles.
Jin-uk was talking with the former agent in a humble yet quick-witted manner.
It seemed he wanted to turn his connection to a former agent from “Father’s network” into “his own network.”
I could understand it. Anyone in business would want a good relationship with the Management Bureau.
Then I heard something interesting.
“Haha! I heard Father mention in passing that he received some ‘delicate care’ from you from time to time.”
“I helped him a few times. I am on a long leave of absence, but the skills I learned from the Management Bureau remain with me.”
“Could you tell me what kind of help that was?”
“...”
S hesitated, drank roughly two cups of tea, then muttered quietly.
“...Perhaps helping him forget painful memories, things like that.”
“Pardon? Forgetting what?”
“Jin-uk, does the Chairman not have a right to privacy as well?”
It was clear S found it difficult to say any more, even to the Chairman’s son.
Only then did Jin-uk smile awkwardly and back down.
“Haha, I’m naturally curious... My apologies.”
That guy was capable of being humble and cautious?
To him, I was just his younger sister, while S was a mysterious agent, so naturally he acted differently...
Still, it was ridiculous.
Let’s be clear. I was a thousand times more mysterious than that mere agent.
At that moment, S, who had been quietly sipping tea, asked Jin-uk, “The path is difficult. How did you end up coming here alone with your sister?”
“Haha! It’s actually quite a funny story. Eun-sol...”
What followed was that same story about the Shanghai Project.
The not-even-funny tale of how his useless little sister had ruined her business, so he, her big brother, had planned an overnight, two-day trip to comfort her.
I was too tired to refute every part of it, so I simply rested in the cool breeze.
Tak!
S set down the teacup hard, interrupting Jin-uk.
My brother couldn’t hide his confusion at the agent’s demeanor.
Trembling hands.
A deathly pale face.
Cold sweat running down S’s cheeks.
Agent S was so tense that even an ordinary person could tell.
“U-um, Agent. If I made some kind of mistake, I apologize...”
“No.”
After a short silence, S spoke as if trying to regain control.
“...Since it is rare to have guests, I will bring you something simple for dinner. Please rest.”
After S abruptly left, Jin-uk looked at me in bewilderment.
“What was that? Eun-sol, did I mess up just now?”
“...”
“It was just a joke...”
“Maybe it wasn’t a joke to that person.”
* * *
Despite saying dinner would be brought out, S was still nowhere to be seen when the sun set.
Of course, Jin-uk and I were not rude enough to search through an agent’s house yelling, “Give us food!”
We simply rested and ate the energy bars we had brought for the hike.
S finally returned around eleven at night.
“Please come this way, both of you.”
S’s face was so pale that it seemed devoid of blood.
Neither Jin-uk nor I could bring ourselves to ask what was wrong, so we followed wherever the agent led.
S brought us to a strange room hidden deep within the mansion.
It was an empty, purposeless room with no furniture.
The only thing that drew the eye was a black stone rising from its center.
Eventually, Jin-uk could no longer hold back.
“Agent, what has been going on since earlier?”
“...Both of you, place your hands on the Purification Stone.”
“The Purification Stone? This black stone?”
“Place them on it.”
My brother looked slightly afraid, but obediently followed the instruction...
A thousand thoughts raced through my head.
Was there any reason I had to obey the orders of this so-called former agent?
Shouldn’t I use Butterfly Dream and get out of this strange mansion right now?
“Eun-sol, place your hand on the Purification Stone.”
I considered two things.
First, what I was doing now was reliving my past life and realizing my First Wish.
In other words, I needed to act like an ordinary person from before I came to the Hotel, not a Participant.
Would the Eun-sol of that time have refused an instruction from a former agent who was even friends with Father?
There was a 99.9 percent chance I would have obeyed.
So I should obey this time too.
Second, if something were truly wrong, the companions at the Observatory would likely have warned me through a Poltergeist. Nothing had happened.
“Understood.”
When I cautiously reached out and placed my hand on the Purification Stone...
Saaaa...
A hazy wave washed over me, as though cleansing my body and mind.
At that moment, I understood roughly what this black stone was.
“You call it a Purification Stone, and it really does have purifying power. It corrects distortions in the mind and body, doesn’t it?”
“That is correct.”
In a sense, it was similar to the Flute of Rest. The Flute was of a far higher order, of course.
“So, what exactly are you trying to tell us?”
Soon, S spoke with a resolute expression, as if he had made up his mind.
“I... devoted four lives to humanity.”
“Pardon?”
Jin-uk looked confused, unable to understand what S meant from the very start.
I, on the other hand, understood these words very well.
The agent before us was someone who had lived through four Loops.
“During that time, I experienced unbearable pain countless times. I... do not think I was made to endure eternal service. In the end, I could not bear it and laid down my noble duty. The Management Bureau tolerated my deviation as well.”
“...”
“Yet I still have a sense of duty in my heart. It may not be loyalty to humanity, but at the very least, I want to protect those within my reach.”
What could possibly require such a grand introduction?
Jin-uk and I both grew increasingly uneasy.
“You must accept my words exactly as they are. Your lives have been distorted by a demon whose identity is unknown.”
“Pardon?”
“...”
“From beginning to end, it is all lies, one enormous fraud. It is no different from a puppet show fashioned for an evil purpose beyond comprehension.”
“No, what are you suddenly talking about...”
“The Chairman recognized this truth, but could not bear it and forgot everything. But... no. You must not forget!”
By then, my brother looked as though he were about to leave the room in disbelief, but S seized his shoulder with a firm hand.
“If you leave this place, you will never come to your senses. You must realize the truth while the Purification Stone protects you!”
Was it the power of the Purification Stone?
I began to vaguely understand the source of the bizarre sense of wrongness I had felt since earlier.
“Oppa.”
“Eun-sol, I think we need to get out of this strange mansion...”
“We forgot someone.”
The moment I said that, S reacted intensely.
“That is right! You have forgotten ‘someone.’”
My brother spoke in great confusion.
“W-who are we forgetting?”
Before S could speak, my mouth opened first.
“...Mom.”
“What?”
“Mom! What? What’s going on? Mom was the reason Oppa and I came on this trip in the first place!”
“...”
“Where did she go? Wasn’t she with us until we got halfway up the mountain? Why are only Oppa and I...”
At the moment Jin-uk and I finally realized the truth and stared at each other with wide eyes, S spoke with a deeply flustered expression.
“Pardon? That is not who I was going to mention.”
Someone else?
“What do you mean, someone else...”
“There are four of you siblings, aren’t there?”
“Y-yes, we are...”
“Where are the other two? Where are Jin-uk’s older brother and younger sister?”
“They’re both at work...”
“Work, work! Please, please come to your senses! Jin-uk, do you know what business your eldest brother is running right now? What is your younger sister doing?”
In the pale silence, S revealed a terrifying truth.
“You two, in the past few months... no, in the past few years, have you seen your other two siblings even once?”
Footnotes:
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