Escaping the Mystery Hotel Chapter 88

『Translator: RainTL』

  ༺ Room 102, Cursed Room – ‘Mansion of Fear’ Re (1) ༻

* Second Attempt

– Han Kain

It was confusing but I soon pulled myself together.

“Now! Let’s calm down for now, and talk about the roles that were given to all of us. I am a probationary exorcist dispatched by the Vatican, a deacon, which seems to be right below a priest.”

“And I’m the exorcist training you and helping the cardinal,” Jinchul-hyung replied. “A wonderful priest that doesn’t know anything about the bible.”

Elena followed up.

“Songee and I are sisters. It says we are very spiritual but doesn’t look like we were given any other abilities. It’s just another way to put our blessings.”

Next up was Grandpa Mooksung who took out a box with a shout.

“I’m the cardinal dispatched to punish evil! Although I haven’t been to a cathedral before, but anyway, inside this box is the ‘Bell’. This must be a crucial item to advance with the room, so keep that in mind.”

Lastly, it was Eunsol-noona.

“I have changed from the niece of the owner of the mansion to a younger sister. My role is that of a younger sister skeptical about her brother being possessed by a ‘demon’.”

I was about to write them down on the note but… I remembered that I didn’t need to write it down on the note.

After all, I had the system window, which I could control and view any time at will.

In curiosity, I wrote ‘1’ in front of the number of Sage’s Advice to change it to [13]. What if this allowed me to have an infinite supply of advice?

…

Unfortunately, the ‘1’ was removed immediately.

It gave me the feeling that the system window was of a much higher status and class than the pen. It wasn’t something that I could edit with the likes of this pen.

I pulled one of the sides of the system window like what I did when applying it as a filter, and wrote letters on it. This time, the letters weren’t erased.

It seemed that I got myself a new notepad.

Before writing down the roles of everyone on the new ‘notepad’, I checked where Seungyub and Ahri were.

Village near the mansino? Were they not inside the mansion this time?

I wrote down everyone’s name based on their roles.

This was everything for now, and I could make edits to it once I figured out what Ahri and Seungyub’s roles were.

After writing everything down, I told everyone inside the car that Ahri and Seungyub were inside the village next to the mansion.

Soon, once everyone settled themselves down and we talked about our roles, we shared what we knew with each other and started contemplating our next course of actions.

“I wasn’t expecting us to be the exorcists, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think that changes anything.

Our objective is probably to figure out the truth behind ‘Lee Sehyun’, the owner of the mansion. First of all, let’s go to the village as ‘exorcists’ and gather some information.”

Eunsol-noona raised a question.

“Before we do that, we first decided to have someone escape, didn’t we? What should we do?”

Our original plan was for everyone to head to the mansion while one person drove the car away from this region for an escape.

However, there was a problem.

We thought we would be traveling around the mansion, or the rear mountain and the cathedral at worst, but it seemed that we would have to travel to and from the village and the mansion several times to gather information.

The team needed a car as well, and it would be troubling for the escaper to leave with the car.

Did they have to walk out then?

But we didn’t know how far they had to go for an escape. The stage was no longer just the mansion and its nearby surroundings – it included the village nearby as well, so how far did we have to go for an escape?

That was when Grandpa shared his opinion.

“Let’s change our plans. What was our reason for having someone escape? Wasn’t it because that ‘Lee Sehyun’ guy was so powerful from the start in the first attempt that he could possess Songee in a flash?

Right now, not only do we have the bell but also Songee’s bracelet to resist mind attack. On the other hand, Lee Sehyun is much weaker and is at the start of his corruption phase.

First of all, let’s all advance together to acquire information, and then have someone leave.”

*

We followed the road in the car for about 30 minutes and finally found the actual village. Unexpectedly, it was very different from the countryside village that we were expecting.

The houses located here and there looked imposing like the ones you would see in tourist attractions, and there were more houses than we thought.

It was like a scene straight out of a drama.

“Is this like a village of retired rich people?”

Jinchul-hyung said, summarizing my evaluation of the village in one sentence.

He was right, and that was exactly how it felt.

I couldn’t see any of the greenhouses or fields that you would expect from a countryside village, and all the houses around the entire village were very large.

The townspeople out in the streets looked at our car with interest, and I found out that all of their clothes were very high-quality.

Off in the distance, I saw the familiar ‘mansion’.

Wasn’t this set in Korea? How could such a big and imposing mansion exist like this?

As soon as we entered the village, Eunsol-noona spoke to us as if she remembered something.

“There’s no need to hide the fact that you are priests. Everyone thinks that I used my connections to bring you guys because of the strange incidents happening inside the village.

But of course, you need to hide the fact that Lee Sehyun is the prime suspect.”

“Noonim. Isn’t it weird that they’re calling a priest and not the police when something strange is happening around the village?”

“Who knows…” Eunsol-noona replied. “I’m going through my memories right now, but this place is slightly different from the Korea we know. It’s as if the Vatican is acting the role of the ‘Administration Bureau’ here. And also, we need to be careful from here onwards.”

“Sorry?”

“With our manner of speech, of course. Everyone, please refer to me like you would to a normal believer, even when there isn’t anyone around. So that we don’t make a mistake when there are people around us.”

She was right. From now on, I was the ‘Deacon’, and it was important to keep the roles in mind while we were inside this room.

We parked the car next to what seemed to be the village hall and separated into three groups.

‘Miss Lee Eunsol’ and ‘Cardinal Kim Mooksung’ went straight to the mansion to meet Lee Sehyun.

‘Sister Yu Songee’ and ‘Sister Elena’ headed to the west of the village hall, while ‘Deacon Han Kain’ and ‘Priest Cha Jinchul’ were dispatched to the east of the village hall.

*

– Cha Jinchul

“Kain. What should we first—”

“Priest Cha. Please be mindful of your speech. There will be people coming around very soon.”

“Ah, right. Deacon Han, what do ya think we should look out for first?”

“If you could be more well-mannered like an actual priest.”

Damn it. I shouldn’t have come with this guy; he was like a mother-in-law.

“…I’m regretting the fact that I’m grouped up with you. So, Deacon Han. What is your opinion on our course of investigation?”

“We should first investigate the incident of missing children that is happening around the village, and find out about Mr. Lee Sehyun’s reputation. Also, we need to look for Ahri and Seungyub.”

“Yeah, right. I mean, I see.”

It was true that we had to be mindful of our manner of speech, so I decided to be more thoughtful with how I spoke.

We were walking forward when I realized that Kain was diligently reading off of a piece of paper from who knows where.

“Deacon Han. What is it that you are reading right now?”

“This is a prayer that was inside the car.”

…A prayer?

“Why do you seem so surprised? Do you think it is normal for a priest to not know a single line of a prayer? We would have to meet various people from the village throughout our time inside the room.

Once I am done, let me underline a few of the lines for you to remember. And please say them after we talk to the villagers. While you are at it, it would be great if you could look into the sky with deep emotions in your eyes.”

Please! I want to run away. Why was he so caught up in this exorcist cosplay?

*

– Han Kain

Going around the village with Priest Cha, we focused on gathering information.

Just like our first impression, most of the people inside the village were moderately rich people planning for a second life after a retirement in the city.

There were two main pieces of information that we gathered.

Firstly, about people going missing.

It was mainly kids in early teens that were going missing. Most of the people inside the village were retired and the average age was therefore quite high, but there were naturally some young couples and kids.

There were already 4 young children that had gone missing. They were the source of happiness and energy in the village, and the people of the village were therefore very disheartened and depressed.

After hearing about the circumstances, it made sense why they would contact priests instead of the police.

Apparently, the children were inside the house like usual before disappearing all of a sudden, and in some cases, they just vanished from the surveillance camera that they were on.

Besides, kidnappers would generally call the family after kidnapping the child of a rich household for ransom, but there hadn’t been any of that.

The villagers were certain that some supernatural powers were in play.

Secondly, about Lee Sehyun’s reputation.

Unlike us who knew about his suspicious circumstances and his corrupt self in the future, Lee Sehyun’s reputation was very good among the villagers.

He was well-known as a young yet amazing entrepreneur that acquired wealth in various industries, and appeared to have contributed significantly to the building of this village.

Essentially, he was the representative of this entire village, and it was by no coincidence that his younger sister was sent off to represent the village and seek external help.

Simply hearing me ask skeptical questions about Lee Sehyun was enough to put the villagers in a bad mood. Priest Cha had to apologize to them that it was a mistake from his junior deacon.

How were we supposed to show the correlation between the missing incidents and Lee Sehyun?

Where were the missing kids? Were they locked up inside the basement of the mansion? Or were they dead already?

Before anything, we had to go to the mansion.

We headed back to the village hall and found Sister Songee and Sister Elena, who had already gone through the other side of the village.

“Dear sisters. Is there anything you have figured out?”

“…Oppa?”

“Please refer to me as ‘Deacon Han’.”

I warned Songee about her way of calling me, but that was when Priest Cha lamented from the side.

“Seriously! This guy is so into it right now. He’s probably going to keep telling you off until you fix up your way of referring to him.”

“I think Deacon Han has the right approach.” That was when Sister Elena intervened. “We have to move around like detectives and there are many eyes on us around the village and the mansion. Please be careful too, Priest Cha.”

It appeared that Sister Elena understood where I was coming from unlike Priest Cha who still couldn’t be serious.

As expected, Priest Cha dropped his head after that one sentence from Sister Elena, who then continued on to explain what she found out.

“There was a cathedral in the direction we went to. It was different from how it was almost in ruins during our first attempt. I also met the father there.”

“Did the father know anything?”

“Nothing. He wasn’t someone experienced with exorcism, grimoires or anything supernatural.

He was a normal person and seemed quite nervous around us. He asked us to take care of the serial missing incidents, but not much else.”

Sister Songee then said, “We found Seungyub and Ahri. They were turned into children of the village. The villagers were all trying to hide their kids due to everything happening and it was hard to even see them.

We barely managed to meet them after introducing ourselves as sisters from the Vatican.”

“Children of the village?” I asked. “Did they become younger by any chance?”

“Yes. They both looked barely 10. Both of them were so cute!”

“Have you talked to them?”

“Seungyub seemed very frustrated and wanted to help us at the mansion. Ahri just said she was doing okay.”

Both of them happened to become children in a village where kids were going missing. There was no way that this was by coincidence.

Priest Cha, who seemed to have thought the same thing, said from the side.

“Deacon Han. What if they are the next targets? Should we bring them in and protect them?”

“Hmm. Priest Cha, it’s something we thought of immediately after hearing that, so I am sure that Ahri is thinking the same thing too. She has enough power to protect herself, so there’s no need to be too concerned.”

“I’m not that concerned about Ahri either. I’m more worried about Seungyub.”

“In any case, it’s hard for us to do anything about it. Their parents are there, so priests can’t suddenly show up and take the kids away. First of all, let’s head to the mansion. It’s time for us to meet Lee Sehyun.”

It was time to go to the mansion.

As soon as she heard that, Songee voiced her concern.

“I was possessed immediately after touching the statue on the first attempt. What should we do?”