WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 91 - At a Hotel with My Girlfriend (3)

Princess Cavaletto looked down at me, wearing an utterly relaxed smile. A frown spread across my face.

Now that I knew I wasn’t in the White Room, my temper was slowly starting to come back.

"You’ve got some nerve. You ruined someone else’s dinner and you’re acting like nothing happened.”

“Hmpf, you still have some spirit, little one. But in the end, you will kneel before time itself.”

Princess Cavaletto lifted her chin proudly and raised her fan to conceal half her face. The violet eyes that shone like stars were as unsettling as ever.

"Spend a thousand years, or ten thousand trapped within that cage. Time flows differently here. You shall neither die nor escape. You will simply remain. In the end, your will shall break. And you will beg me to let you take my hand.”

She pointed at me as though scolding a foolish child.

"Know this. Because of your stupidity, you have thrown away the chance to make me your wife and stand beside me. You will regret it more deeply than you can imagine. The next time we negotiate, you shall beg to become one of my retainers. If that fails, then a servant. Then a slave. And in the end you will be treated as nothing more than livestock.”

Her determination to break me completely was unmistakable.

"I thought your proposal was simply for me to sell Suyeon? Are you after something more?”

"Indeed. You shall serve me. The sooner you submit, the better it will be for you. So take your time and think carefully inside that tiny cage.”

With that, Princess Cavaletto left the room, taking Seol Suyeon with her.

* * *

The corridors of Le Soupir, where restaurant after restaurant stretched on endlessly. Countless antique paintings line the walls.

They existed as decoration. But for someone, they also served as the perfect hiding place.

No matter how obsessively Princess Cavaletto’s severed mouth patrolled this world, it was impossible for her to remember the ever-changing appearance of every painting. Then one of those paintings began to tremble.

-Vrrrrm.

The surface of the canvas slowly bulged outward. And then, something extraordinary happened. Something emerged from inside the painting.

It was a woman’s right hand.

It was so elegant that the phrase "a hand as beautiful as jade" would have suited it perfectly. But because it was only a severed right arm, the sight was profoundly bizarre.

-Tremble.

The detached arm quivered slightly. Then, using its fingers, it began to walk like a spider. It moved so quickly that it almost resembled a scurrying rat.

-Tap, tap, tap, tap.

Occasionally, it encountered a mannequin Faceling working throughout the restaurant floor. Whenever that happened, it immediately hid behind a corner or beneath a piece of furniture.

Fortunately, this floor reflected its owner’s extravagant tastes. Decorations filled every inch of the place, providing countless hiding spots.

The right hand could have hidden inside the paintings, of course, but doing so consumed anomalous power and took time.

-Tap, tap, tap!

The mysterious right hand seemed to have a clear destination. Without the slightest hesitation, it raced onward. Eventually it arrived outside the room where Princess Cavaletto had imprisoned Park Minho.

The door had been tightly sealed with powerful anomalous energy.

Breaking through it would not be easy. More importantly, if anyone forced it open, Princess Cavaletto’s mouth would notice immediately.

Fortunately, the right hand possessed a rather useful ability.

It could travel through the paintings of this floor.

There was undoubtedly at least one painting inside the room where Park Minho was imprisoned. If so, getting inside would be entirely possible.

The right hand leapt into the painting near the locked door.

* * *

The room left behind was deathly silent.

"What an absolute bitch……”

Just moments ago, I had been enjoying a wonderful date with my stunning girlfriend. And now here I was, trapped behind bars like a monkey in a zoo.

After Princess Cavaletto disappeared, I waited for a while, keeping an eye on my surroundings. Once I was sure everything had gone quiet, I immediately tried to escape.

'Cut.'

First, I activated the anomalous ability I had absorbed from the Grinder entity.

-Whiiiiiiir!

A shadowy grinder blade appeared and noisily tore into the bars. Sparks flew, but they were not fragments of metal. They were blue flames, unmistakably shards of anomalous power.

I kept the Cutting ability running until I was exhausted, but the bars did not budge.

"You’ve got to be kidding me. Why is this thing so damn hard?”

I clicked my tongue as I lightly touched the overheated bars with my fingertips. I had barely managed to leave a scratch.

The bars themselves had to be a high-ranking anomalous object.

"This isn’t going to be easy.”

There was clearly a reason Princess Cavaletto’s mouth had left so confidently without even posting a guard.

My shadow rack was still intact. That was why I could use the Grinder’s Cutting ability.

Even the King’s Noose was still with me.

Perhaps Princess Cavaletto’s mouth was unable to interfere with my shadow or the King’s Noose.

Whatever the reason, however, I soon realized that from her perspective, it simply didn’t matter.

I immediately put on the noose.

"Ghk!"

As my vision began to blacken from the pain, I activated Reality Manipulation.

'Disappear!'

Nothing happened.

'...?'

I lowered the intensity of the Reality Manipulation and tired again.

'Bend!’

It still didn’t work. I tried several more times, compromising by lowering the amount of anomalous power each time, but the result was always the same. Eventually, I could no longer endure the pain and had to remove the noose.

"Ugh! Cough!”

I spent a long while rolling across the floor, coughing violently. I had pushed myself far too hard.

It took nearly an hour before I managed to pull myself together, and by then, despair had already begun to set in.

I didn’t understand how it worked, but this entire space seemed to be immune to Reality Manipulation.

I had finally met my match.

This overwhelming ability, powerful enough to imitate a God-class entity, had encountered what could only be called its hard counter.

No matter how powerful an imitation was, it could not compete with the original.

"I’m screwed..."

I had overcome all kinds of impossible situations before, but this time, things looked truly hopeless.

"Haah……”

I let out a long sigh and slumped against one corner of the cage.

I didn’t even have the laptop with me. If it had been a smartphone or some kind of status window instead, it would have been a huge help in a situation like this.

For some reason, I could almost sense the malice of the Backrooms’ creator, as though they had deliberately chosen not to make it that convenient.

"What do I do......?"

As I sat there hugging my knees and staring blankly into space, my eyes happened to fall on one of the paintings hanging on the wall.

It was a portrait of a woman seated elegantly in a chair, perfectly suited to the atmosphere of Le Soupir.

What stood out was the unusual hobble skirt she was wearing. A style that had been fashionable during the Belle Époque.

I recognized it because the outfit often appeared in illustrations from newspapers and postcards of that era.

But something about it seemed strange.

At first, I couldn’t tell what was wrong. I only felt an instinctive sense of unease. But after studying the painting more closely, I realized it.

"Hmm...?”

The woman had two right hands. The grotesque sight immediately sent a chill down my spine.

But the real surprise was only beginning.

The surface of the canvas suddenly bulged outward, and one of the woman’s right hands began emerging from the painting.

"Wh-what the hell?!”

Her fingertips pierced through the canvas first. Then her palm emerged, followed by her wrist, until the entire thing dropped onto the floor with a soft thud.

It was nothing more than a severed right hand. Then it began crawling toward me, wriggling its fingers grotesquely like a spider.

"Ugh!"

At that moment, a cool, beautiful voice echoed inside my head.

[Be Quiet.]

The right hand stopped in place and raised its index finger as though warning me.

"What? Was that you talking to me?”

[Yes. Stop making such a fuss.]

Come to think of it, this was the Backrooms. A crawling right hand capable of telepathy was hardly unusual. I had seen far stranger things before. I quickly regained my composure.

"Who are you, and why did you come here?”

[I am Princess Cavaletto.]

"What...? There seem to be quite a few of you princesses."

[Princess Cavaletto’s body was cut into pieces, so naturally there are several of us. I am her right hand.]

"Now that you mention it, I think I heard there were four body parts… Her eyes, her hair, her right hand, and her mouth. Probably.”

Were the other parts simply lacking anomalous properties? In any case, those seemed to be the four important pieces.

But the hand corrected me.

[To be precise, it’s not the mouth, but the tongue.]

"Is that so?"

[The tongue is the true body. Nothing you do will matter unless you strike the tongue itself. That also makes it the strongest of the remaining body parts in terms of defense. Once the mouth closes, there is no way to attack the tongue.]

"That’s the first I’ve heard of it. But you feel quite different from the tongue.”

Princess Cavaletto’s tongue had given off the impression of an arrogant villainess from some noble family.

The right hand in front of me, however, seemed calm and almost cynical.

Even their voices were different.

[It’s only natural that you would feel that way. Princess Cavaletto was a woman of many contradictions. She was righteous, yet deeply vain. She was a creature of desire, and despite that, she also possessed a noble side. When her body was severed, those aspects were divided as well. The tongue represents her desires.]

"Then what are you…?”

[I am the right hand that pulled the lever of the gallows. Therefore, I am justice in its coldest form.]

"Justice?”

[Believe it or not. It makes no difference to me. The will of Princess Cavaletto, the will that sought to end the Hanged King’s tyranny, is the right hand before your eyes.]

One question immediately came to mind.

"Don’t tell me…the severed body parts don’t get along?”

[You’re perceptive. They couldn’t possibly. The tongue and I, especially, are bitter enemies. You could even call us mortal foes.]

I never would have imagined that Princess Cavaletto’s severed body parts each possessed their own personalities and were actively at odds with each other.

If that was true, then perhaps there was hope.

"They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The fact that you appeared now has to mean something. I doubt you came all this way just to mock me.”

[Correct. I have no intention of wasting precious time on petty ridicule.]

"Then why are you here?"

[To stop you from being manipulated by the tongue and reduced to nothing more than a tool for its ambitions. That must never happen.]

"What exactly does the tongue want?"

[Resurrection. Not the restoration of the original Princess Cavaletto. It intends to subjugate every other remaining body part and resurrect itself as the sole, dominant personality.]

According to the right hand, the tongue was by far the strongest of all remaining body parts.

To avoid being captured, the right hand had spent all this time hiding within this floor.

"How did you stay hidden? Inside the paintings?”

Remembering what I’d seen earlier, I asked. The right hand responded by making a circle with its thumb and index finger.

[Correct. I can live inside paintings, and I can travel through them.]

That was how it had managed to avoid capture all this time.

[However, once a human bearing the King’s Noose entered Le Soupir, I could no longer remain hidden.]

"So you’re going to help me escape?”

[Correct.]

"But I'm not running away alone. I have to save Suyeon.”

[I have no objections. She is an indispensable tool for the tongue.]

According to the right hand, Seol Suyeon was safe. Since she served as the essential vessel for the resurrection, the tongue wouldn’t harm her. That was at least one small relief.

“But something doesn’t add up. If the tongue wanted Suyeon that badly, why bother asking me to sell her? She already kidnapped her. Couldn't she have just taken her by force?”

[An excellent question. To possess her completely, a proper contract of sale is required. If she simply steals the vessel, the later stages of the ritual would suffer backlash from karma. More importantly, the tongue’s plan absolutely requires your cooperation.]

I pointed at myself to make sure I’d heard correctly.

[Indeed. Despite how things currently appear, the tongue cannot resurrect without your help. It is a being bound to this subfloor. To gather the remaining body parts and properly install them within the vessel, your assistance is indispensable.]

"So that’s why she tried to persuade me, then tempt me, and finally threaten me?”

[Exactly. Even the proud tongue was willing to offer you itself as part of the bargain. That should tell you just how desperate it truly is. However, if things continue like this, you will eventually lose. Just as he tongue said, time is a terrifying weapon.]

Before time everything eventually crumbles. If this continued, I might ultimately agree to an utterly unfair bargain simply in exchange for getting out.

[But if I free you here, the tongue’s entire plan will be thrown badly off course.] 

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