『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Room 102, Cursed Room – ‘Mansion of Fear’ Re (2) ༻
– Han Kain
A threat of being possessed would be looming over us from the moment we entered the mansion, so we needed measures against it.
I shared my thoughts on the matter.
“This time, we have the bracelet of Sister Songee, so we should be able to resist it to some extent. He is still early in his corruption, and as such might not be able to use any significantly powerful abilities.”
“Oppa, I mean, Deacon Han. I can’t get myself used to the way you speak.”
“We need to get used to it. The bracelet is of a high status among powers that can affect the mind, is it not? Can it perhaps cancel the possession?”
“It is possible to find out if one is possessed through the bracelet, but it will be hard to undo the possession,” she replied.
“Why is that?”
Why was it hard?
It’s been quite a while since we acquired the bracelet, but Songee was the only one who had a rough idea of the principles and limitations of the bracelet.
Sister Songee started ruminating over her words, finding the best explanation about the ‘foreign knowledge’ that the Hotel shoved into her mind when she acquired the bracelet.
“This might sound bizarre, but the bracelet is closer to science than occult. Although the abilities of the bracelet are supernatural, the roots stem from science.
It’s not human science but it is still science, whereas possession is completely occult.
But that doesn’t mean it can’t protect us against occult attacks.
For example, we can defend against possession, but we can’t chase the spirit out once they’ve possessed someone.”
I wasn’t sure what difference there was between occult and alien science. It made me feel like a caveman listening to an explanation of a smartphone, but I understood what Sister Songee was trying to convey.
In a nutshell, the bracelet could perceive and defend against possession, but cannot cure someone that was possessed.
*
When we arrived at the mansion and met Miss Eunsol and the Cardinal, I straight away turned to Sister Songee.
She shook her head, signaling that none of them were possessed yet. Only after confirming that did we start a conversation.
First of all, we conveyed what we found out about the serial missing cases, Lee Sehyun’s reputation and what happened to Ahri and Seungyub.
“Have you discovered anything?” I asked.
“Nothing,” the Cardinal replied. “You will tell once you start talking to him. Lee Sehyun, that guy, is something else. He would have deceived me completely if I wasn’t aware of everything from the start.”
Miss Lee Eunsol, who looked even more absorbed in her role than myself, followed suit.
“We could not find any clues through talking to him. He says he is also concerned about what is happening around the village, and has taken several measures against it.
There wasn’t any loophole in his statements. Something else would be that his son, ‘Lee Siwoo’ is also in the mansion.”
Miss Eunsol continued after taking a breath.
“He himself is greatly concerned about his son. Siwoo has been weak from birth and used to have a home tutor, but not anymore because of everything that is happening.”
Priest Jinchul voiced his doubt after thinking to himself for a bit.
“Didn’t you say there was a mysterious book locked up in the basement of the mansion before we came in?”
“That was what Ahri discovered during our first attempt,” I replied. “There’s a mysterious book in the basement that will let you meet the demon when you open it. However, it’s unclear if it would still be there or not now that we are back in time.”
“I don’t know anything about construction,” he muttered again. “But it wouldn’t be possible to build a wide room like that in a day or two, right? I think they would have built the basement when they were building the mansion.”
It made sense. I didn’t know anything about construction either, but it was likely that the basement was still there regardless of the time period.
The Cardinal summed it up for everyone.
“Let’s check if there’s anything we can find out during dinner, and head to the basement of the mansion at night.”
*
– Han Kain
Dinner time.
Having a chat with Lee Sehyun immediately made me understand what the Cardinal meant by, ‘he would have deceived me completely.’
“That’s why I said to the manager back then. How long are you going to be content living as a part-timer, earning 100 to 200 dollars a day? Don’t you wanna at least give it a shot at being confident before your loved ones?”
“Is that how you persuaded him and expanded your business?”
“Haha! Of course it took more than just a few words! But what’s important are not words but a vision. If you consider the political changes that were happening at the time—”
This guy was a master of conversation. If you think about it, he was pretty much bragging about how talented he was and how he made a huge sum of money but it was very entertaining to listen to.
… Were some supernatural powers at play already?
Probably not. He just seemed like a good talker.
Cardinal Mooksung took the lead to cut off his talk and pressured him, talking about the ‘strange things’ that we heard through Miss Lee Eunsol.
It didn’t work.
He was neither flustered nor agitated by our comments and started explaining himself. In regards to the claim that he was gathering occult objects, he took out a few items and said it was his hobby to gather different pieces of art.
Regarding the claim that he met strange people, he said that some people must have misunderstood it, even though they were nice businessmen from overseas.
The most difficult part about it, was that we could not spot any lies despite Elena openly using her lie detection.
There was a need to change the atmosphere a little. After perhaps thinking the same thing, the Cardinal slapped down on the desk.
“Mr. Lee Sehyun. Let me be frank with you and ask some questions.”
“It is very concerning that the Cardinal is doubtful of me. I will definitely be sincerely honest with everything I say.”
“Do you know anything about the ‘Book of Incarnation’? Even if you don’t know the name, tell me if you have ever obtained a strange and mysterious book. Also, is there anything you are hiding from us regarding the serial missing cases?”
“I know nothing about any of them.”
I turned to Elena who shook her head, saying that none of those were a lie.
Things were getting very difficult.
Silence befell the room for a while until a young boy walked inside.
“Mr. Lee Sehyun. Is that your son over there?”
“Huh? Pardon me, everyone. Siwoo? What’s wrong?”
He walked up to his son and asked in concern.
Siwoo looked like a middle-schooler, and was the typical example of a sickly yet good-looking boy. He must have inherited it from his father, who was also on the handsome side.
Lee Sehyun apologized and ended the meal early because of his ill son and took him back to his room.
After he left the room, we continued our chat for a bit more.
“What do you think? It looks like it will be difficult to figure out anything from talking to him.”
The Cardinal replied.
“I think so too. Sister Elena. Was there no falsehood in his words?”
“Yes. The artworks he showed were normal, and he also met the foreigners for business matters. He also didn’t know anything about the book or the missing cases. At least that was what he sincerely believed in.”
“What if he has the power to resist lie detection?” Jinchul-hyung voiced his opinion.
“For now, it is quite hard to grasp,” I said. “But let’s save up on Sister Elena’s lie detection. For some unknown reason, the lie detection isn’t working on him, and we cannot waste it anymore.”
“Sister Elena. How much of the lie detection do you have left?” asked the Cardinal.
“Around 2? Or 3 minutes. It’s almost used up.”
“As the deacon said, we should save up on it. Further conversation won’t be of use, so let’s wait until night and head to the basement.”
That was when we heard the sound of Lee Sehyun’s footsteps echoing down the corridor outside.
We finished forming our plan in silence by shifting over to our conversation tab.
We decided that Sister Songee and I would be the only ones heading to the basement, with the rest staying upstairs.
The grimoire was presumed to have strong mind-related abilities, and there was even the likelihood of being possessed by a demon. It was dangerous to approach the book for anyone that didn’t have the mental resistance.
*
— Cuckoo!
We left the room with the sound of the cuckoo clock. After turning to our teammates and giving them a nod, we headed to the study.
There’s a lever somewhere around the wall that opens the staircase down to the basement, right?
After some looking around, we found the lever, pushed it down and walked down the staircase.
.
.
.
We knew there wasn’t any lighting inside and had a torchlight in hand, but couldn’t do anything about the murky air around the staircase. It didn’t necessarily stink, but it was very stuffy in here.
For the next 30 minutes or so, we continued walking down.
How deep underground was this basement?
Finally, after a long walk, we came across a sturdy steel door.
We said through the conversation tab.
*
Han Kain: Found a door. Going in.
Yu Songee: Nothing unusual yet.
*
— Creak!
We walked inside after opening the door.
…
Sitting at the front was a strange book gleaming in blue.
I turned to Sister Songee, who immediately cast mental protection on me. This was the card we were hiding up the sleeve.
After applying the strongest mental barrier we could by combining the bracelet and my filter, I slowly approached the book.
“Let me tell you out of concern, that you probably shouldn’t touch that.”
!
A voice suddenly echoed from the side. I quickly turned around in surprise and flashed the light at a corner of the room to find ‘Lee Sehyun’.
“You! Weren’t you upstairs?”
“Do you think there’s only one way down to the basement? This place is bigger than you think.”
“We didn’t get anything out of you even with our lie detection before! What kind of tricks did you use?”
“Lie detection? Ahah! I was wondering what it was when that beautiful sister’s eyes were shining gold. So that was what it was, huh!
I didn’t use any tricks. The ‘me’ back then was being as honest as possible.”
While talking to Lee Sehyun, Songee talked over the conversation tab.
*
Yu Songee: This person! He’s not human!
Han Kain: What do you mean?
Yu Songee: Can’t use the bracelet! Run away immediately!
Kim Mooksung: What is going on? We are going down right now!
*
The underground corridor was very narrow and long. It would take a long time until our teammates would get to us.
The man slowly stood up, took the grimoire and said with an easygoing tone of voice.
“Don’t worry too much. I wouldn’t have talked to you if I was planning to harm you guys.”
He was right. We weren’t even aware of him hiding there, so he could have attacked us anytime and taken us by surprise.
“I am instead curious as to why you didn’t attack us.”
“So what if I attack and kill you guys? I would have to kill the rest of your friends upstairs.
Let’s say I do kill the rest of your friends. The Vatican would then send an army, and I am not confident enough in killing an entire army.”
“What is your purpose behind this talk?” Songee interjected.
“I am about to show you an evident proof.”
“Evident proof?”
The man seemed to have considered that to be enough and clicked his fingers. Suddenly, mysterious black chains emerged from the surroundings and restrained us on the walls.
That was it.
He didn’t seem interested in harassing us or anything. Instead of killing us or running away from the cardinal and the priest that could make their way down any time soon, he simply waited on the spot.
What was he thinking?
*
After 15 minutes or so, the door opened with a thud.
Jinchul-hyung shouted in fury.
“You bastard! Keeping them as a hostage!”
Grandpa Mooksung took out his gun and—
— Bang!
He shot it at Songee and me!
Lee Sehyun waved his hand in surprise after seeing where the barrel was pointing and parried the bullets away.
Did this old man actually go senile?
“Sorry guys. I will send you off in peace. We will kill this guy here so don’t worry!”
Like, shouldn’t you at least try to save the hostage? Killing the hostage before anything? What the heck was this?
It seemed that I wasn’t alone in this.
“Haha… People from the Vatican are quite interesting indeed. I haven’t touched a single hair on their body and yet you’re trying to kill the hostages already. In fact, they are not even necessarily a hostage.”
He said that before loosening the chains around our arms.
The Cardinal said in embarrassment.
“Ah? They’re not hostages?”
“Of course I won’t bother keeping hostages against you unsophisticated people. All I wanted was to make several witnesses.”
Witnesses?
After seeing that everyone in Team Exorcists was here, Lee Sehyun left his final remark.
“Make sure to look at me. I have no plans of fighting against you unsophisticated folks, so off I go.”
— Thud!
At once, the chains crushed Lee Sehyun’s head. At the same time, the blue gleaming grimoire rotated in circles before disappearing from the scene.
What was going on?
Everyone was flustered as to what was going on and…
That was when an alarm popped up in our eyes.
/You have successfully escaped!/
There were a few lines underneath that but none of those entered my sight.
It was a very sudden and unexpected escape.
*
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 28
Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor
Sage’s Advice: 3]
– Han Kain
We all stood there looking at each other in stupor.
“What… was that?”
Mooksung the Cardin… Ah, we were out of the room now.
Grandpa Mooksung replied in confusion.
“Does anyone understand what happened just then?”
… What I do understand is that this old man was the one that shot me and Songee with his gun after seeing us as a hostage.
Eunsol-noona replied with an empty smile.
“Let’s go have some tea and calm ourselves down first.”
I thought to myself on the way to the table.
There were three main doubts in mind.
- Why didn’t lie detection work on Lee Sehyun?
- Why did he suddenly kill himself?
- Why was it considered an escape when he killed himself?
… Fortunately, there was something that we could do.
It was time for the Advice. This was different from a blind use of Advice without knowing anything.
Right now, we knew several things and lacked the ‘wisdom’ to connect all those clues. If this wasn’t the time for Sage’s Advice, then when was?
