Escaping the Mystery Hotel

『Translator: RainTL』

༺ Party Time (3) – Sanctum of Blessings (2), What the rest went through ༻

– Elena

I was a little confused. What did she mean by ‘a child trying to guide me down the wrong path’?

“Sorry?”

“I’m talking about the child that came to the Hotel a second time. Like a blind man touching an elephant, that girl has only experienced parts of the Hotel and was lucky to leave alive, and yet is under a severe misunderstanding that she is knowledgeable about the Hotel and blessings.”

…Was this about Ahri? It seemed that my sponsor had a negative view on Ahri.

“Do not be shaken. The true power of the Balance Scale of Justice shines only when your standards are upright. Though you may become strong temporarily with a wilful use of the scale, such ways will quickly hit a ceiling.”

I couldn’t understand what she meant. Becoming stronger by wilfully using the scale? What did she mean by that?

“Seems that you cannot understand what I mean. That is fine. There is no need to try to understand the wrongful ways.”

She didn’t seem interested in giving further explanations. After finishing her tea, the lady conveyed her final sentence.

“I will give you the power to differentiate true and false.”

…I thought to myself as my consciousness began to fade.

There were several questions that popped up from this conversation, but would me thinking about them by myself lead to any answers?

Let’s just ask Ahri.

I decided to have a thorough conversation with Ahri.

*

[Elena – Justice -> Has acquired ‘Lie Detection’]

*

– Kim Ahri

The door clicked open, leading me to a place resembling an office filled with enormous vaults.

My sponsor, whom I was meeting for the first time, appeared like a man wearing a suit.

.

.

.

We had a long conversation. He gave me a warning right before we left.

“‘Wisdom’ is growing at a rapid rate. Do not forget. If Wisdom outgrows ‘your blessing’, then the owner of ‘Wisdom’ will find out every truth you have been hiding to yourself.”

“…I am aware of that.”

“If you are, then don’t you think maybe you shouldn’t have been as passive as you were in ‘Common Sense Renovating Media’? Although Wisdom has yet to acquire an Inheritance, he has made contributions and grown his blessing.

On the other hand, you have done practically nothing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

My mind returned back to earth immediately after his warning.

*

[Kim Ahri -> Allusion -> Has acquired ‘Compass’]

*

[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 25

Current Location: Floor 1, Sanctum of Blessings

Sage’s Advice: 3]

– Han Kain

I came to myself with a flash. When I woke up, I was met with a curious question.

“Huh? How did you wake up so fast, Kain?”

Looking around, I noticed that Jinchul-hyung, Elena and Ahri were on the ground unconscious, as if in a deep slumber.

It seemed that they would be unconscious for another day, like how I was back when I empowered my blessing.

From the looks of things, it appeared that I woke up straight away because I didn’t enhance mine.

I talked about my situation, and how the ‘sponsor’ recommended that I save up the contribution points for ‘A very powerful empowerment’.

Eunsol-noona responded in surprise.

“A very powerful empowerment? Understand the scenario? I can’t tell what it is just based on that, but it sure sounds like a big deal.”

“That’s why I chose to save it as well.”

Grandpa Mooksung said after a nod.

“Interesting. Sounds like it would be very helpful. On another note, it’s fortunate that you woke up straight away.”

“Sorry?”

“We have to carry the three of them back. You carry that pig.”

“…”

I silently gave him a stare, which forced him to respond.

“What? Are you telling me to carry him? Surely not, right? I’m so old that my knees hurt just by walking!”

Wasn’t he flying around in the mountains just a while back?

In the end, Grandpa carried Ahri, and Eunsol-noona and Songee took turns to carry Elena, while I half-dragged Jinchul-hyung on the ground back to Room 105.

He had a tough body, so he should be fine.

That was how we spent the first morning of our Party Time.

*

During lunch at Room 105, it felt rather empty without Cha Jinchul, Elena and Ahri. We naturally started talking about our schedule during the meal.

“We’ll probably go to Safari tomorrow afternoon, right?”

Eunsol-noona replied, “Yeah. It’s a place where you practice using your Inheritance, and the person in question is going to be asleep until tomorrow afternoon, so we have no other choice.”

“There won’t be much to do from this afternoon till tomorrow then.”

Grandpa Mooksung said in a flash.

“What do you mean, Kain? Your schedule is packed. You, Songee and Seungyub will be going with me to train on stamina.”

…Were there any excuses I could give?

“No matter how I see it, I don’t think four days of exercise is going to lead to any results. Instead, how about we focus on exploring the Hotel? I’m sure there are still some unrevealed secrets.”

“Why are you differentiating exercise from exploration? We’re not going to be doing calisthenics in the corridor, okay?

As you know already, there are plenty of weird places in the basement of the Hotel. What I want to focus on are the ‘Hiking’ and the ‘Park’.”

“Didn’t Eunsol-noona try out ‘Hiking’ already?”

“Yeah. You’ll see a mountain when you open the door – not like a small hill, but an actual mountain like Mount Paektu*.”

“See a mountain when you open the door? That’s the weirdest expression I’ve heard.”

“Shh! Quiet! Now, my suggestion is simple. Why bother differentiating exercise from exploration?

I’m sure there are some secrets hidden inside that enormous mountain. We can figure out what that is while we exercise.”

Did we really have zero excuses? Did we seriously have to climb a mountain like Mount Paektu?

Songee finally found a valid excuse.

“If the mountain is that tall, wouldn’t we need special hiking items like clothes or walking sticks? If we were to go there in our current outfit then—”

“Don’t worry! Like how the Hotel has swimsuits in the swimming pool, you’ll find hiking-wears that are a perfect fit for our sizes when we go in.”

Eunsol-noona’s cheery response was met by three sharp gazes.

After looking at her with a sharp glare for five solid seconds, I replied.

“As expected of an experienced veteran. Why don’t you lead the way for us then, noona? I’m sure we would benefit from having one more person when exploring through that enormous mountain.”

“…”

In the end, it was decided that all five of us, excluding the three that were empowering their blessings, would be climbing the mountain after lunch.

*

“Ah! What a clear sky and a fresh breeze! A wonderful place to be in!”

“…”

Four of us remained silent.

The moment we entered the basement room called ‘Hiking’, we were met with a mountain like what Eunsol-noona said.

It didn’t feel like a whole new world, like how it did inside the Cursed Rooms. Instead, it felt like the large piece of land was dedicated solely to hiking – there was nothing but a mountain and hiking-wears inside the room.

Soon, I decided to let it go.

We would have needed to come here to explore the Hotel anyway, and it was just a matter of when. Therefore, I decided to think of this as an exploration plus exercise.

Of course, no-one would have ever suggested that we explore the entire mountain and none of us would have taken the initiative to do it, if Grandpa Mooksung hadn’t been so adamant about it.

There was a building next to the foot of the mountain that had all the hiking equipment prepared.

I wasn’t even surprised at this point.

There were all sorts of hiking outfits that were the perfect size for me, along with hiking shoes, a walking stick, a bag, water bottles and energy bars. Everything was already prepared.

Plus, there were even more tools dedicated for advanced hikers, but I just took the bag.

Seungyub, who was trying to be as slow as possible, was dragged out by Grandpa Mooksung and that marked the start of our hiking journey.

As expected, Seungyub and Eunsol-noona were the first to drag behind.

Grandpa Mooksung had pointed it out several times already, but Seungyub was a typical thin boy, who spent all his time playing games without eating much. As for Eunsol-noona, she herself asserted that she went to the gym a few times, but there was a limit to an office lady’s stamina.

Unexpectedly, Songee was the one who climbed the best out of those three without any complaints.

And as for Grandpa Mooksung… there was no need to even talk about him. He could probably run all the way to the peak of the mountain by himself.

In the end, due to the speed, we got divided into three groups with Grandpa in the lead, Songee and I in the middle, and Seungyub and Eunsol-noona at the back.

“You’re walking quite well. Have you done hiking before?”

“We have a few dogs at home after all. Maybe it’s because I walk them regularly.”

I remember Songee falling way back during the triathlon in Hotel High School but… it seemed that she hadn’t been trying back then.

“I wonder why Grandpa suddenly decided to take us to a place like this,” I said.

“Didn’t he say it was to explore and build our stamina in the process?”

“We’re working hard everyday though, so why do we need to build our stamina on top of that? Besides, there are more places to explore. We didn’t have to come here of all places.”

“I think so too but… Don’t you think there really could be something on this mountain?”

Songee asked, so I spent more time observing the surroundings.

It did look slightly strange. There weren’t any monsters or animals, and yet the scenery of the mountain itself looked unusual.

Although I wasn’t knowledgeable in terms of plans, weren’t there different types of trees? Conifer trees, broad-leaf trees… I recalled these different types of trees living in different areas based on the climate, and yet this peculiar mountain had all sorts of these trees.

Was there really something hiding here?

If there was, shouldn’t we explore more of the surroundings instead of just following the walking trail? We probably shouldn’t ravage through the entire mountain, but maybe we should look around a bit more?

Like that, we walked through the serene mountain.

It would have been really boring if I had been walking alone, but it was quite interesting thanks to the various conversations I had with Songee.

For one hour, that is.

…

After about an hour, the mountain was covered in silence.

Each and every step was exhausting, so let alone conversations, I had to focus as much as I could on walking forward.

In the end, Songee also fell behind and was no longer in sight.

Grandpa Mooksung, who had been speeding through, finally controlled his pace and let me catch up to him.

“How is it?”

“I feel dead.”

“Sometimes, it’s good to have moments like this.”

“Sometimes? I feel like dying everyday after I’ve arrived at the Hotel though…”

“Inside the Cursed Rooms, it’s not a question of being exhausted physically, and it’s more like a question of life and death, isn’t it? It’s like a battlefield.

What I’m talking about, are moments where you can relax yourself, calm your mind down while sweating out your concerns.”

“It doesn’t really feel relaxing though.”

“But walking like this got rid of some of your worries about the Cursed Rooms, trials and the Gate Room, hasn’t it?”

“…”

He wasn’t wrong. It was so tiring that I couldn’t even think about anything.

“Are your parents well?”

Starting with that conversation, Grandpa and I talked about how our everyday life had been. Throughout the conversation, I got a feeling that he wasn’t asking because he was interested in my family.

Instead, it felt like his goal was to have these conversations themselves.

It was a little strange, how we were having normal conversations in this strange Hotel filled with supernatural anomalies.

“It’s weird,” I said. “These stories would have been normal conversations outside, but it feels really unusual and odd to talk about them here.”

“But these are very really important topics.”

This time, it really felt relaxing. Even though my body was still fairly exhausted, it was weird how my mind felt a lot more peaceful.

Blankly, I turned my eyes to the sky before turning to the unique trees in the surroundings.

I saw a girl looking at me with a smile among the trees, so I gently gave her a wave.

…

?

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a calming interlude? What was it this time?

Why was there a girl in a place like this?

In sudden fright, I quickly turned towards the trees. The girl was still smiling at us, and Grandpa also turned towards the same place after seeing my sudden reaction.

The girl appeared like a teenager, and was wearing a strange outfit that did not suit this rugged mountain. Was that like some traditional eastern clothing?

Grandpa Mooksung shouted out loud.

“Who is it!”

The smiling girl tilted her head before… turning around and running away!

That marked a sudden beginning to a mountain chase.

[TLN]

*Mount Paektu: Highest mountain in the Korean Peninsula; roughly 2,700 meters tall.

***

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