WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈
Episode 81: Party Time (3) - Sanctuary of Blessings (2), What the Remaining People Went Through
──────
- Elena
I was confused. A child trying to lead me down the wrong path? What did that mean?
“Pardon?”
“The child who entered the hotel for a second time. Like a blind person feeling an elephant, she experienced only a tiny fraction of the hotel. Yet, after getting lucky enough to escape, she mistakenly believes she has gained great insight into the hotel and its blessings.”
... Was she talking about A-ri? My Sponsor seemed to think poorly of A-ri.
“Do not be swayed so easily. The Scales of Justice only reveal their true power when their standard is upright. You may become stronger by wielding the Scales as you please, but that kind of strength will soon reach its limit.”
I couldn't understand where this conversation was going at all.
Wielding the Scales as I pleased to become stronger? What on earth did that mean?
“You do not understand my words. Good. There is no need for you to understand the wrong path.”
She didn't seem inclined to explain any further.
After finishing her tea, the woman gave me one last word.
“I shall grant you the power to distinguish truth from lies.”
...
As my consciousness faded, I thought about all the questions this conversation had left me with. Would I find any answers by worrying over them alone?
I'll just ask A-ri directly.
I decided to have an honest conversation with A-ri.
* * *
[Elena - Justice -> ‘Lie Detection’ acquired.]
* * *
- Kim A-ri
The clinking of metal. A setting like an office.
A space filled with enormous safes.
My Sponsor, whom I was meeting for the first time, looked like a man in a suit.
.
.
.
We spoke for a long time. Just before I left, my Sponsor gave me a warning.
“‘Wisdom’ is growing rather quickly. You haven't forgotten, have you? If the growth of ‘your blessing’ is overtaken by ‘Wisdom,’ the owner of ‘Wisdom’ will learn the facts you have hidden.”
“... I know.”
“If you know, don't you think your passive actions during ‘Common Sense-Altering Media’ were a grave mistake? ‘Wisdom’ did not obtain the Inheritance, but it still performed well in its own way and developed its blessing.
“On the other hand, you gained practically no Contribution at all.”
“I'll have to be careful.”
With that warning as the last thing I heard, my consciousness returned to the surface.
* * *
[Kim A-ri - Suggestion -> ‘Compass’ acquired.]
* * *
[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)
Date: Day 25
Current Location: Level 1, Sanctuary of Blessings
Sage’s Advice: 3]
- Han Ga-in
I came to with a flash.
Once I woke up, everyone around me reacted with surprise.
“Huh? Ga-in, how did you wake up?”
I looked around. Jin-cheol, Elena, and A-ri were asleep as though they had fainted.
It seemed enhancing a blessing made you pass out for a day, just like before.
Since I hadn't received an enhancement this time, I woke up right away.
I explained my situation. I told them my Sponsor had suggested that I gather a little more Contribution before receiving a “very powerful enhancement,” and that I had accepted.
Eun-sol looked intrigued.
“A very powerful enhancement? Understanding scenarios? I can't tell much from that alone, but it does sound grand.”
“That’s why I decided to save it up.”
Elder Mook-seong nodded as well.
“Interesting. It sounds like an ability that could be a tremendous help. More importantly, it's fortunate that at least you woke up right away.”
“Pardon?”
“Three people. We'll have to carry them. You carry that boar bastard.”
“...”
“What are you doing? Don't tell me you expect me to carry him. My knees hurt just from walking at my age!”
I was pretty sure he had practically flown through the mountains before.
In the end, Elder Mook-seong carried A-ri while Eun-sol and Song-i took turns carrying Elena. I half carried Jin-cheol and half dragged him along the ground as we returned to Room 105.
Jin-cheol was sturdy. He'd be fine.
That was how the morning of the first day of Party Time passed.
* * *
Lunchtime in Room 105.
With Cha Jin-cheol, Elena, and A-ri missing, the room felt strangely empty.
Naturally, the conversation turned to our schedule during the meal.
“We can't go to the safari until tomorrow afternoon, right?”
Eun-sol answered immediately.
“Right. It's supposed to be a place to practice with the Inheritance, but the person who needs to practice won't wake up until tomorrow afternoon.”
“Then we have some free time from this afternoon until tomorrow morning.”
Grandfather Mook-seong answered as though he had been waiting for that.
“Free time? Ga-in, your schedule is packed. You, Song-i, and Seung-yeop should build up some stamina with me.”
... Wasn't there some other excuse we could use?
“Would exercising for only about four days even have any effect? Wouldn't it be better to explore the hotel instead? There must be more things hidden somewhere.”
“Why are you separating training from exploration? Surely you didn't think we'd do bodyweight exercises in the corridor?
“As you've heard, there are plenty of absurd places in the hotel basement. The places I have my eye on are ‘Hiking’ and ‘Park.’”
“Didn't Eun-sol say she had been to ‘Hiking’ before?”
“Yeah. When you open the door, there's a mountain. Not some neighborhood hill you find all over Korea, but a huge mountain, like Mount Paektu.”
“A mountain when you open a door. I've never heard a stranger phrase in my life.”
“Quiet! Quiet! My point is simple. Why separate exploration from training?
“Something has to be hidden in that enormous mountain. We can exercise while looking for whatever might be there.”
Was there really no excuse? We were going to climb somewhere like Mount Paektu, not some neighborhood hill?
Song-i found one.
“If it's such a dangerous mountain, wouldn't we need hiking gear like special clothes and walking sticks? Without any of that, the casual clothes we're wearing now...”
“Don't worry! This is a hotel where swimsuits are prepared when you go to the pool, so when you enter Hiking, there'll be hiking gear that fits us perfectly too.”
The moment Eun-sol answered brightly, the sharp gazes of three people pierced her. Pierced her. I pierced Eun-sol with my eyes about five times before speaking.
“It's fortunate we have someone who's already been there. You should come too and show us around. The more people there are to search that giant mountain, the better, right?”
“...”
In the end, after lunch, all five of us except the three who had enhanced their blessings decided to climb the mountain.
* * *
“Ah! The sky is blue, and the air is clear! So there was a place this nice?”
“...”
The other four kept their mouths shut.
When we entered the room marked ‘Hiking’ in the hotel basement, a mountain appeared just as Eun-sol had said.
It didn't feel as though an entire world had been created, like in a Curse Room.
It was a bizarre structure: a mountain for hiking on a vast stretch of land, with only a room filled with hiking gear beside it.
Let's just keep things simple.
Weren't we going to have to search the hotel as thoroughly as possible someday to find whatever was hidden within it?
I decided to think of it as exercising while exploring.
Of course, if Grandfather hadn't stubbornly insisted on going to the mountain, none of us would have thought to search it.
We entered the space where the hiking gear had been prepared.
It wasn't even surprising anymore.
There were hiking clothes, boots, walking sticks, backpacks, water, and energy bars, all carefully prepared to fit me perfectly.
There were even more elaborate items, but I only took a backpack.
The hike began the moment Grandfather dragged out Seung-yeop, who had been packing as slowly as possible.
As expected, Seung-yeop and Eun-sol began falling behind first.
As Grandfather often pointed out, Seung-yeop had a skinny build because he barely ate and had played games for a long time.
Eun-sol claimed she worked out at least a little, but there was a limit to the stamina of a woman who had spent years working in an office.
Surprisingly, Song-i climbed well without complaining much.
There was no point even talking about Elder Mook-seong. It wouldn't have been strange for him to reach the summit alone.
Eventually, our different paces split us into three groups: Elder Mook-seong, Song-i and me, then Seung-yeop and Eun-sol.
“You walk better than I expected. Did you hike often too?”
“My family keeps several dogs. Maybe it's because I take them for walks a lot?”
During the triathlon at Hotel High, Song-i seemed to have fallen far behind. She must have been taking it really easy then.
“Why did Grandfather drag us to a place like this?”
“I think he said it was to explore and build stamina at the same time.”
“We suffer every day already. Why do we need to suffer more just to build stamina? There are lots of other places to explore too, so why choose somewhere this exhausting?”
“I thought the same thing, but... doesn't it feel like this mountain really has something in it?”
At Song-i's words, I looked around.
The scenery was definitely strange. There were no monsters or animals, yet the mountain itself felt so alien.
It wasn't like I knew much about plants, but trees had their own types, didn't they?
Conifers and broadleaf trees grew differently depending on the climate, but this bizarre mountain had every kind of tree mixed together.
Was there really something here?
If this seemed like the kind of place that might contain something, shouldn't we look around instead of only following the trail?
I didn't intend to leave the trail and search the entire mountain, but it seemed best to climb while keeping an eye on the area around us.
Time passed quietly like that.
Walking through the mountains alone would have been really boring, but chatting with Song-i about this and that made it fairly enjoyable.
For about an hour, anyway.
...
After an hour passed, the mountain was filled with silence.
Every step was exhausting. What conversation? I was too busy focusing on walking while sweat dripped down my face.
Even Song-i and I eventually began moving at different speeds, and she fell behind.
Grandfather, who had been striding far ahead, seemed to have adjusted his pace and quietly came closer to me.
“Worked up a sweat?”
“I feel like I'm dying.”
“Sometimes you need this too.”
“Sometimes? Ever since we entered this place, I've felt like I'm dying every day...”
“In Curse Rooms, it isn't a matter of your body being tired. It's a matter of whether you truly live or die. You could call it a battlefield.
“I'm saying you need time to work up a sweat at your own pace and calm your mind.”
“I don't feel very relaxed.”
“Still, while walking like this, haven't you thought a little less about Curse Rooms, Gate Rooms, and trials?”
“...”
He wasn't wrong. I was so tired that I hadn't thought about anything.
“Are your parents doing well?”
That was the start of a long, everyday conversation between Grandfather and me. As we spoke, I realized Grandfather didn't seem truly curious about my family.
It felt like the conversation itself was the point.
Having such ordinary conversations in this strange hotel full of surreal things felt awkward in itself.
“This is strange. These kinds of conversations. Outside, they would have been normal conversations, but having them here makes them feel incredibly unusual.”
“But they're truly important conversations too.”
It felt as though all the tension suddenly drained out of me. My body was clearly exhausted, but...
My heart felt calmer instead. It was a strange sensation.
I absentmindedly raised my head toward the sky, then looked around at the unusual trees.
When I saw a smiling girl looking at me from between the trees, I casually waved at her.
...
?
Wait, wasn't this supposed to be a relaxing break? What was this now?
Why was a girl suddenly appearing in a place like this?
Startled, I turned toward the trees!
The girl was still smiling. Elder Mook-seong saw my reaction and looked that way in surprise as well.
She looked to be around her mid-teens. Her clothes were bizarre, unbelievable attire for someone on a rough mountain like this.
They looked vaguely like some kind of East Asian traditional clothing.
Grandfather's voice rang out.
“Who are you!”
The smiling girl tilted her head, then began to run away!
And so, an unexpected chase through the mountains began.
Footnotes:
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