Escaping the Mystery Hotel

Chapter 142: Room 107 - The Gate Room, The Final Trial (33)

Classes. More classes, and even more classes after that.

Despite all the world-changing events around me, I still can't seem to escape the confines of school.

With a sigh, I half-heartedly went through yet another class at this new school, and then we gathered in a corner of an empty classroom.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Finally, Ahri was the first to speak, "We've all gotten pretty cute, haven't we?"

"Right now, Oppa looks even younger than me, doesn't he?"

"Both of us do. But seriously, how did we end up like this?"

"..."

As expected, Ahri broke the silence again, "We missed an important detail. Elena is much more deeply immersed in this illusion than we thought."

"Why is Elena-unni so deeply caught up in this? We woke up relatively quickly, didn't we?"

"Well, it's the Final Trial, but honestly, things have been a bit too easy until now."

An idea came to me.

"Compared to Songee and I, Elena seems to have a much stronger desire to achieve something she couldn't in real life. So maybe her psychological drive to fulfill that wish is much stronger. And unlike Ahri..."

"She's less trained than I am. I'm from the Administration Bureau, so I'm mentally tougher when it comes to these things."

In summary, it seems that Elena's mental state is more fragile than Ahri's, and she has more regrets about her life compared to me and Songee.

Songee sighed and started talking with Ahri, "What should we do? If we break it down, the method we used was to strongly trigger a sense of 'incongruity’, leading her to recall memories of the Hotel on her own, right? But Elena, even after recalling the Hotel memories, seems to have gone back to the illusion."

"It's a clichéd situation. She chose to bury herself in a happy illusion rather than face an unhappy reality. Our first plan didn't wake her up; it just made her start a new illusion."

"It seems like even if we remind her of the past again, it won't work. No matter what we say, she’ll probably just change the content of the illusion rather than wake up."

"If we keep provoking her, she might start to see us as 'annoying' and lock us away somewhere."

As the two of them talked, my thoughts drifted back to the past.

The process by which the others woke up, and the method we used on Elena.

There was one crucial element missing from our approach.

***At least in the second illusion, it was easy to understand the nature of Elena’s wish.

As revealed in our earlier conversation, it was to create a happy childhood.

Elena was attending a peaceful school, surrounded by friends.

In this place, Songee, Ahri, and I were Elena's close friends.

It seemed that the hazy memories she had regained at the end of the first illusion had once again disappeared.

Maybe even erasing those memories was part of her wish.

“…”

"Haaa!"

- Thud!

As I was lost in thought, a powerful smash hit me square in the head with a tennis ball that came flying at lightning speed.

"Ugh!"

"Oh? Oh no! Kain! Are you okay?"

During gym class, Elena, who had accidentally hit me with the tennis ball, hurriedly rushed over to help me up.

After letting out a chuckle, I stood up, and Elena soon smiled as well.

We continued to play tennis, having a good time.

...Not bad at all.

Honestly, the current Elena looked incredibly cute and happy, almost unbelievably so.

***Lunchtime came.

"Elena."

"Hmm?"

"Are you happy right now?"

"Hmm? What are you talking about all of a sudden? Of course, I'm happy! Oh, by the way, did you hear about the performance at Vakhtangov Theater tonight?"

"It's the first I've heard of it."

Elena handed me a ticket with a somewhat shy expression.

"My dad said to invite some friends! Let's go watch it together."

After accepting the ticket, I asked her, "Am I the only one getting this?"

"W-what are you talking about?! I gave the others their tickets earlier! Don't get any weird ideas."

My seat was right next to Elena's.

***The evening was a time for walking with animals.

Once again, the other kids pulled out Samoyeds and Norwegian Forest Cats that seemed to come from who knows where and started walking them.

Thankfully, unlike music class, we had Perro with us, so we could at least fit in.

Perro's flamboyance was in no way lacking compared to the other animals.

Of course, Perro's ferocity surpassed that of all the other animals combined.

"Ahh! Perro! You can't pluck the Samoyed's fur!"

"Just let it be. Perro needs time to gather materials for his nest too."

"Ahri! The Samoyed's owner is crying!"

"So what? The animal kingdom is all about survival of the fittest. It's the Samoyed's fault for being weaker than Perro."

I couldn't help but laugh in disbelief.

In the end, I had to step in and pull Perro away from the Samoyed, whose fur he was trying to burrow in.

***At school, Elena was genuinely a happy child.

In every class, she was the first to raise her hand and answer the teacher's questions, always receiving praise.

All the kids liked her.

At home, she had warm and loving parents, and her life was filled with joyful performances, happy trips, and kind people.

It was, in every sense, a "Perfect Life”.

The ideal life that everyone has dreamt of at least once.

In the current world, I could no longer sense the darkness that Elena had seemed to half-recall in the cafe.

There was a subtle feeling that the "genre" of the world was shifting.

A beautiful girl, a radiant world.

A life always filled with excitement and joy.

.

.

.

No.

That's just a meaningless delusion.

On the first night we were thrown into the Hotel, the genre of the world was already set.

Elena, I'm sorry, but the Hotel's genre isn't a romance comedy.

***"Hey, Han Kain! What was that earlier? I thought this was Elena's illusion, not yours."

"What?"

"You were playing tennis with Elena-unni with such a happy expression."

"And you were playing the violin alone, ignoring Songee and me. We felt like we were from a different world."

"How old are you that you still don't know how to play an instrument?"

"I can play the recorder."

"Even Perro can probably play the recorder."

"..."

"Ah~ let's stop joking around. What are we going to do? I have no idea how to wake up Elena. I have a feeling that even if we kill Elena, it won't matter. She'll just move on to the next illusion."

"I think I understand now. And I know what we did wrong."

Songee and Ahri both looked at me.

"Sorry to say this, but we’re catering way too much to Elena. Think back to how we woke up. Ahri was confused until she tried to jump off a building, right? Songee almost had a fight with Ahri. And I woke up when I was about to be fried in hot oil."

"So?"

"None of us woke up in a peaceful manner. Just triggering a sense of incongruity isn't enough. If all you feel is that something is off but it's still a happy illusion, you won't want to wake up."

Songee looked worried.

"Oppa? So you're saying..."

"We need to make her feel like this illusion isn't happy. Only then will she want to wake up."

Ahri, who had been pondering, nodded with a resolute expression.

"You're right. That's how we woke up too. It's not enough to just feel that something is off; she needs to feel that she has to wake up. Now I see what was missing from our plan. It was 'spice’."

"Spice?"

Reading the unease in the word "spice”, Songee responded with a slightly gloomy expression, "I get the idea, but shouldn't we try to ease her mind a bit more? Maybe help Elena-unni unburden herself..."

"The more we cater to her, the deeper she'll sink into this illusion."

"I understand. But if we try to bother her carelessly, she might just trap us somewhere."

"What are you worried about? You two already tried it on me, right? We just need to proceed without getting caught. We tried Songee's 'peaceful' plan, but it didn't work well, right? Let's try it my way this time."

Our original plan lacked one crucial element.

"Spice."

It was time to set the alarm clock on Elena's sweet dream.

***- Elena

With a pounding heart, I waited under the clock tower in Cohort Square.

When will he arrive? When will he arrive?

After about 20 minutes passed, the person I was waiting for appeared in the distance.

As soon as Kain saw me, he shouted in surprise, "Elena! You look like you came straight down from heaven!"

"Ah~! Don't say that. Did you bring the theater tickets?"

"Yeah. But where are your parents?"

"We're not kids anymore. Why would we need parents to watch a play?"

I turned away happily.

Behind me, Kain mumbled something like, "But we are kids right now."

As always Kain felt both cool and strange, smart and clumsy, and kind yet harsh.

…?

Have I ever had such complex thoughts about Kain?

I tilted my head slightly in confusion before entering the theater.

The performance was very enjoyable.

Listening to the songs sung by people dressed as cats, I found myself humming along several times as the happy time passed.

Kain, sitting next to me, was silent.

As the performance neared its end, Kain spoke to me, "Elena."

"Hmm?"

"Are you having fun?"

"Yeah! It's so much fun."

"That's good... I'm glad you're happy."

His tone was unusually cheesy, but his expression was cold.

Strangely, Kain was different from his usual self.

Ah! Could it be... Is Kain feeling weird because we came to the theater together?

As soon as that thought crossed my mind, my heart started pounding.

- Thump! Thump!

Why is this happening? It's just a play, it’s nothing special—

- Thump! Thump!

“…”

- Thump! Thump!

What is this?

It's not my pounding heart; the ground is actually… shaking?

Panicking, I lifted my head slightly, and people started to murmur.

Suddenly, Kain grabbed my hand and pulled me.

"K-Kain?"

"Let's get out of here. I smell something strange."

"A strange smell? I don't smell anything..."

Ignoring what I had to say, Kain pulled me up from my seat.

Not even 10 seconds later, a loud voice filled the theater.

"Fire! Fire!!!"

In an instant, the theater was thrown into chaos!

The entrance was narrow, and as everyone in the theater tried to leave at once, we were stuck in the middle, unable to move.

What is this?

What's going on?

Why did this have to happen today of all days?

- Thump! Thump...! Boom!

Suddenly, the theater floor exploded!

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhh! It's a monster!"

In the blink of an eye, the theater descended into pandemonium!

A black-cloaked, dinosaur-like bird appeared in the middle of the theater, tearing everything apart.

I stood there, dumbfounded, watching the monstrous bird wreak havoc everywhere.

What am I supposed to do?

Why did such a monster appear in the theater?

Why today, of all days?!

Resentment overfilled my heart.

Something, something to punish that bird—

"Ah!"

"Elena, what are you just standing there for? Let's get out of here."

Something was about to happen!

But before it could, Kain grabbed my hand again and pulled me along.

I had no choice but to follow Kain and start running out of the theater.

As we fled the theatre, thick smoke began to fill my vision, and the smell of smoke in the air stung my nose.

For some reason, I had a feeling that tonight would be a very long night.