Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 95

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Escaping the Mystery Hotel ◈

Episode 94: Room 102, Curse Room - ‘House of Horror’ Re (7) (Revised)

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* Third Attempt

- Lee Eun-sol

I silently stared at Lee Se-hyeon and gripped his hand tightly. At last, he began to answer.

“Si-woo... It happened when he was little. More than ten years ago. You remember Si-woo’s mother, Yoo-jin, right?”

The man’s confession went on for quite a while.

Ten years ago, he discovered that his wife had been cheating on him. Her affair partner was an old friend and the largest shareholder in the company Se-hyeon had been running at the time.

He tried to punish his wife, but it was too late. Between the documents she had stolen and her collusion with the major shareholder she had been seeing, Se-hyeon was on the verge of losing everything. Around that time, his son also began suffering from illness.

... Right. So he’d gone through something straight out of a morning soap opera.

But I’m really sorry, I don’t care at all.

If I were actually your younger sister, I might’ve shed a tear by now, but I’m not.

More importantly, that moth outside is about to finish its cocoon, so please hurry up and talk!

I urged him on as subtly as I could, and he finally continued.

“Around then, I climbed the mountain behind the house because I intended to kill myself. Back then, it was more of a small house than a mansion, but...”

“So what happened on the mountain?”

Brother, please hurry up. The moth is coating the cocoon with saliva right now!

“... You’re in a hurry. As I wandered through the mountain, I passed through a strange door and arrived at a place where holy light shone down.

“There, in the Sanctuary of Blessings, I met a being like a fairy. A mysterious, beautiful being...”

He looked ready to lose himself in wistful memories again, so I finally hit him.

---Thud!

“Argh! E-Eun-sol?”

“You! If you start rambling again, I’ll take Si-woo out first next attempt!”

“O-Okay, calm down. I’m nearly done. As it turned out, that being was an Apostle of a great one.

“The Apostle gave me a revelation, telling me to serve a new god. It said that if I served that being, all my hardships would disappear...”

The mysterious “Apostle” had proposed that Se-hyeon serve a new god.

It told him that if he faithfully served this new god, every hardship in his life would disappear.

Once Se-hyeon began serving the god, his fortunes mysteriously improved, and he was able to punish his wife and her affair partner.

He recovered all his property, and his business prospered afterward, earning him great wealth.

As if it were only natural, his son’s health recovered to some extent as well.

‘... His fortunes didn’t mysteriously improve. That Apostle bastard probably used its possession ability to shake up the human world and grant your wishes.’

“After that, I built an Altar underground to offer back the wealth I had gained through that being. I prayed faithfully at regular intervals...”

“An Altar?”

“It’s not anything so grand just because I call it an Altar. It’s simply...”

“No, Brother. Where exactly is that Altar?”

Please, Se-hyeon! Stop talking nonsense. I have a feeling about this.

We have to destroy that Altar too!

“Huh? It’s a little difficult to explain the location in words. The Apostle emphasized security so strongly when it was built that the route there is extremely complicated...”

---Rumble!

A sound that shook heaven and earth rang out.

Oh no!

I looked outside. The moth had finally completed its cocoon, climbed inside, and sealed it shut.

...

I should grab Lee Se-hyeon by the collar right now if I have to!

“Hey! Lee Se-hyeon! How do we get to that Altar?”

“It’s difficult to explain in words...”

/You escaped!/

... Those hotel bastards are cutting it off here? It’s obvious we have to destroy that Altar!

* * *

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 30

Current Location: Level 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 1]

- Han Ga-in

I woke in the corridor with the sensation of hitting the floor with a thud.

Looking around, everyone was getting to their feet with blank expressions. It was the familiar sight of all of us after escaping a Curse Room.

On the way to Room 105, we shared what each of us had learned, then began our meeting over a meal.

Unlike usual, Eun-sol seemed to be thinking deeply about something. I decided to speak first.

“We’re nearing the end now. The conditions for resolving this are starting to take shape.

“I think there are two main conditions.

“First, we have to stop the Ritual for the Evil God’s Birth.

“The way to do that is probably to destroy the Sanctuary of Blessings in the Otherworld, accessible through the mountain behind the house, and the Altar said to be somewhere underground.

“Second, we have to eliminate the Adversary.

“We kill it while the Bell suppresses its possession ability.

“According to what A-ri and Seung-yeop learned, at the ‘starting point,’ the Adversary appears to be possessing Lee Si-woo.

“If anyone has other thoughts, please say so.”

Song-i asked a question.

“It’s not so much another thought as something I’m curious about. Why is it possessing Lee Si-woo’s body?

“Lee Se-hyeon controls the assets, so it would’ve been much easier to do all sorts of things if it took Se-hyeon’s body instead.

“It looked like it could take over whenever it wanted, anyway.”

Grandfather Mook-seong answered.

“Se-hyeon had far more dealings outside, so possessing his body would’ve made it more likely for the Holy See to notice.

“If that Apostle bastard had been in Se-hyeon’s body, we would’ve restrained Se-hyeon immediately during the second attempt.

“But because it was in a child’s body, it fooled us completely. Song-i, didn’t you skip checking the child with your bracelet too?”

Song-i admitted it.

“That’s right. During the second attempt, I was so focused on Lee Se-hyeon that I never thought to examine Lee Si-woo.”

Having apparently finished thinking, Eun-sol joined the conversation.

“I thought about it for a long time, but I still don’t know where the underground Altar is. I searched through every bit of knowledge from Lee Se-hyeon’s younger sister that entered my head, but there was nothing about the Altar’s location.”

The Altar had supposedly been built with such strict security that the route to it was extremely complicated.

“How do we get there? Does anyone have an idea?”

Grandfather Mook-seong answered as if it were nothing.

“What’s there to think about? Aren’t Lee Se-hyeon and the Apostle the only ones who know the way? We can’t make the Apostle bastard talk, so we beat it out of Lee Se-hyeon.”

“Then we know how to resolve the first condition. We’ll learn the Altar’s location through Lee Se-hyeon and destroy it, then go to the Sanctuary of Blessings on the mountain behind the house and destroy that too.”

When I looked at Jin-cheol after saying “destroy,” he understood immediately.

“I think my star can handle the destruction. It’s not like we have bombs, and there’s no surer method than the star. It’s an Inheritance powerful enough to twist even the evil god’s wings. It should be able to ruin either a Sanctuary of Blessings or an Altar.”

I continued.

“Next, killing the Adversary, the ‘Apostle,’ should be easy. As soon as we begin, we secure Lee Si-woo, ring the Bell to suppress the possession, and then...”

The words caught in my throat.

When it came down to it, Si-woo was an unfortunate child whose body had been stolen by an evil being. Did we have to kill him?

Before I could speak, A-ri answered.

“Then we kill Si-woo while the possession is suppressed.”

... It couldn’t be helped.

The final plan was complete.

First, destroy the Altar and the Sanctuary of Blessings with the star’s power. Learn the Altar’s location through Lee Se-hyeon.

Second, kill the Adversary, the evil god’s Apostle possessing Lee Si-woo’s body, while suppressing its possession ability with the Bell.

After Grandfather Mook-seong gave us a final warning, that day’s meeting ended.

“Remember this, everyone! The Ritual for the Evil God’s Birth is progressing in real time, so we have to carry out the plan as quickly as possible.

“We can’t get captured in the process. If we’re captured and offered as sacrifices, the evil god’s birth will be greatly accelerated.”

* Fourth Attempt

[User: Han Ga-in (Wisdom)

Date: Day 31

Current Location: Level 1, Room 102 (Curse Room - House of Horror)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

- Han Ga-in

As soon as the fourth attempt began, we went to the village, picked up A-ri and Seung-yeop, then rushed straight to the mansion.

There was no longer anyone whose reaction we needed to worry about. All that mattered was getting things done quickly!

The top priority was to use the Bell to immediately suppress the Adversary possessing Lee Si-woo’s body so it couldn’t pull any tricks.

We stormed into the mansion like lightning, and Lee Se-hyeon tried to greet us.

Before he could do anything, we grabbed him. The Cardinal had the mansion staff summon Lee Si-woo.

Before Lee Si-woo could do anything either...

---Clang!

A harsh metallic sound burst from the Bell in my hand.

Lee Si-woo sensed something was wrong, and his face twisted into something vicious.

“How did you...!”

Black chains rose up around him, but as expected, their power was pitiful under the Bell’s effect.

I could hold them off with my own strength, without even needing Father Jin-cheol.

We tied Lee Si-woo to the bed and began ringing the Bell beside him without pause.

Before long, Lee Si-woo went limp as if he had lost consciousness.

Afterward, we tried to persuade Lee Se-hyeon.

We told him that the evil being possessing Si-woo’s body had been offering the village children as sacrifices and that its goal was the evil god’s descent.

We told him that the being he served was utterly evil and that he had to guide us because we needed to destroy the Altar.

Naturally, Lee Se-hyeon resisted fiercely and refused to believe a word we said.

Of course, we hadn’t come intending only to persuade him peacefully.

A-ri walked over without a word and hypnotized him.

What now? Did we have to kill Si-woo right away?

Before I could do anything, the Cardinal took out a pistol and approached the limp boy.

... Sighing, I looked away.

---Bang!

---Ting~!

What was that sound? Something bouncing off?

Confused, I turned around and saw Lee Si-woo trapped inside a huge crystal that had appeared out of nowhere.

“What is that?”

The Cardinal answered in disbelief.

“It seems it had a last resort for self-protection. When I fired the gun, this absurd lump of stone suddenly appeared.”

The crystal was perfectly intact even though we kept ringing the Bell. If neither bullets nor the Bell worked, what were we supposed to do?

Father Jin-cheol gave a short laugh and stepped forward.

“Well, everyone step back. Something like that, my star can...”

“You idiot! You can’t use the star here!”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean, ‘Huh?’ Can’t you see Ga-in ringing the Bell beside you like his life depends on it? Do you think the Bell can withstand the power of a star that twists even the evil god’s wings?

“The Bell will break before that crystal does. If the Bell breaks, that bastard will return to its original body in the Otherworld. Do you want to see that shitshow?”

Father Jin-cheol looked as though he understood, then punched the crystal several times.

It did not budge.

This time, he brought over stones and chunks of metal from around the area and struck it with them, but the crystal still did not receive a single scratch.

The Cardinal eventually sighed.

“Enough! It doesn’t seem like we can break it through physical force alone. Ordinary methods will have a hard time destroying it.”

What were we supposed to do?

It deflected bullets, and even Father Jin-cheol’s strength couldn’t scratch it. There was no way to break it without something on the level of the star.

If we used the star, the Bell would break. But if we moved the Bell outside the star’s range, the Apostle would likely regain its possession ability.

... While everyone paused, unsure what to do, A-ri made a decision.

“It can’t maintain that crystal forever. It’ll disappear with time. Some of us stay behind, keep ringing the Bell, and hold that thing here. The rest will take Lee Se-hyeon and go destroy the Altar.”

In the end, we split the party.

Jin-cheol, who would destroy the Altar, Song-i, who needed to use her bracelet on him, and A-ri, who had to maintain Lee Se-hyeon’s hypnosis, left to destroy the Altar. The rest of us began watching the Apostle while ringing the Bell.

* * *

- Lee Se-hyeon

... My mind was hazy.

What was I doing?

I didn’t know. It felt strange, as if I were dreaming.

Why was I guiding priests from the Holy See, people I had never seen before today, to the Altar?

...

Open your eyes.

My faithful lamb! My loyal servant, Se-hyeon.

Those who serve a false god are treating you like a pack animal.

...

Open your eyes.