Room 102, The Cursed Room – Mansion of Terror (9)

I made a mistake. The exact same kind of mistake as before.

If I brought a dagger, the other side could bring a blade of their own. If I kept a card hidden, so could they. Because the priest had thrashed in agony from the spray and dropped the skewer, I assumed he was empty-handed.

I was simply too exhausted. Extreme tension, climbing through the rain, the bloody fight—my stamina was gone. While I approached at a sluggish crawl, the priest managed to ride out the pain.

The moment I closed in, a kitchen knife flashed from his waist and stabbed into my thigh. Luckily I was wearing a thick raincoat and he had almost no strength left; the blade skidded free and clattered to the ground before it could fully punch through.

“Hah… uhkk… Father, did you seriously spend ten years rolling around a battlefield or something…?”

He didn’t even have the breath to answer. He simply came at me.

Ah… my body wouldn’t move. I had to dodge somehow, anything—yet every last scrap of strength from the crown of my head to the tips of my toes had been wrung dry. The priest’s hands closed around my throat. Distantly, as if a life review had begun, I heard a bell tolling…

A bell?

The priest’s gaze drifted into empty air. Somewhere—unfocused eyes wandered without locking onto anything.

Someone else had appeared.

It was identical to what had happened with Ari. That time it had been the bell, and again now?

Same body, yet unmistakably different. The old man in front of me was no longer the refined butler, nor the priest seething with suppressed rage. He was… someone I had never seen before.

An expression I had never witnessed. Half-mocking, half-amused—a playful look that neither butler nor priest would ever have worn.

“You made a mistake, didn’t you? No strength left to answer? Heh, kids these days really don’t have the stamina. In the hotel you must never let your guard down. One moment of carelessness is death, you know?

When you’ve got plenty of trustworthy comrades you can close your eyes and rest easy, but… you’re basically alone now, aren’t you? Still, not bad overall. Your body’s a stick, but the head works pretty well.”

Hotel.

The word that left the old man’s mouth just now was not “mansion.” It was “hotel.” This old man… knew that everything we were trapped in was nothing more than the interior of Room 102.

I stared at him, stunned. He gave a short chuckle and rapped me lightly on the head—twice, almost fondly. The gesture carried a strange warmth. Did he not intend to kill me?

“You were planning to take out three or more sacrifices with your own hands before the Elder went on a rampage, weren’t you? Not a bad idea. Decisive, even. But your skill’s still lacking. You’ll need to grow more.

I’m a little worried, but at this rate you should be able to escape. Truth is, I don’t have any clever solutions myself. We started as ‘characters of the mansion,’ so we can’t break free under our own power. I’ll trust you and go on ahead. ‘See you outside.’”

The someone who was neither butler nor priest finished speaking, stepped away from me, walked to the cliff’s edge, and leapt without the slightest hesitation.

My vision was blurring. Slowly, pouring every last scrap of will into it, I descended the mountain. Climbing through the storm, the brutal fight afterward, and now a half-assed knife wound on top of it all… there truly was not a single ounce of strength left in my body.

Whether I was walking down or simply sliding with gravity’s help, I could no longer tell. I half-rolled my way along until, far ahead, I spotted a person. Small frame. Long black hair cascading to the waist. Only when Ari drew near did I manage to force out a single sentence.

“You rang the bell, didn’t you? Thanks.”

“I figured you wouldn’t make it alone.”

“That bell… what is it, really? At first I thought the hotel gave it as a tool to suppress demonic power, but the more this goes on the more it feels like there’s something beyond that.”

“The bell itself is exactly what you think. But for me and Grandfather, let’s just say there’s a separate measure that lets us wake up.”

“Waking up from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠roles the hotel forced on you… can that really happen so freely?”

“You focus on the task in front of you. You know what you have to do, right?”

“Forget ‘what I have to do’—I can’t do anything. I literally can’t move a single finger.”

The instant the words left my mouth, Ari held out a tiny vial.

“Drink. Even your pathetic stamina should recover enough to stand with this.”

A strange taste. Dark crimson, with a faint iron tang. Was this…? Nauseating possibilities flooded my mind and I forced myself to stop thinking. A peculiar sensation followed. Heat began to rise inside me. The liquid that had slid down my throat slowly spread through my entire body. Bit by bit the warmth that started in my throat filled every corner. It wasn’t the refreshment of a proper rest, but just as Ari had promised, enough strength returned for me to stand.

I rose and loosely rolled my shoulders. Ari stepped closer.

“Ahh~ even this loathsome mansion finally has an end in sight.”

“You… who are you, and the Father—no, the person who took the role of the priest?”

“You’ll find out once we’re out. And haven’t you already guessed most of it? Stop wasting time and do what needs doing.”

Looking at the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fairy-like girl, I felt a tight, helpless frustration. Was this truly the best choice? The butler—or the priest—Ari, and probably myself: the three of us dying before the demon could devour us… was that really the optimal path?

I hesitated for a moment. Ari closed the distance until our eyes met.

“You’ve come this far and still can’t decide. I’ll help you.”

Crimson irises rushed in until her nose nearly brushed mine. Panic flared—

Using the scrap of stamina I had clumsily recovered, I forced myself down the mountain and headed for the mansion. The end of this loathsome place was truly drawing near. The rain had almost stopped. Walking slowly, I saw the front gate and the grotesque statue I had first noticed on day one. A familiar face stood in front of it.

“Oppa! Are you okay?”

“More or less. Still not dead, so I guess I’m fine.”

Silence wrapped around us. We both knew everything there was to know. By now even this puppet show was starting to feel laughable. Song-i stretched out an arm and stroked the statue’s heart.

“When you look at this, what do you think, Oppa?”

“The owner’s taste is pure garbage. Worse than the clay dinosaurs I made in elementary school.”

“Ah—kikikik. Sorry about that. I thought it had a certain primitive charm.”

“Enough. Where’s Seungyeop?”

“Where are Ari and the butler?”

“Somewhere on the mountain.”

“Heh. God, this is actually hilarious, right? Everyone who was supposed to die is dead, and only the murderers are left. I never expected the moment I’d waited ages for to play out like this. Who would’ve thought a crazy sacrifice who’d kill the other offerings with his own hands would be mixed in.”

“Murderer? Let’s be precise. You’re the murderer. I’m the victim. Elder, I don’t know how you got into Song-i’s body, but shut that mouth of yours and come out already.”

“The brat’s got a foul tongue. Since you put on a decent show, I’ll let it slide.”

“Cut the crap. I’m genuinely sick of this now.”

“Fine, fine. We’ll settle it between us one way or another. But… let me ask just one thing. Why didn’t you simply kill yourself?”

“Why the hell would I tell a moron like you?!”

The next instant we both moved toward our respective goals. As I sprinted for the cathedral I thought back.

The cathedral’s bell.

I had seen the word “bell” on the note my sister gave me, and when I first asked the butler he had answered that the bell was simply left abandoned in the tower—no one to ring it, ownership belonging to the cathedral, so they left it alone.

Absurd. The Elder’s hatred of the bell wasn’t mere preference about noise. Hadn’t I already confirmed that the supernatural power of a certain bell could shatter the Elder’s strength? Would someone preparing to summon a demon leave an object that could pierce his own weakness lying around because of “legal issues”? Impossible.

Perhaps the Elder and the servants who carried his power simply could not approach the bell in the first place.

I glanced back. Wherever Song-i touched them, the mansion’s statues were rising one after another. Ah. So those were the “defense cards” from the card game I’d played with Ari. For the first time I felt genuine gratitude for the days of relentless storm and rain. I hadn’t planned this far ahead, but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ground was soft and waterlogged. The statues’ feet sank deep; they couldn’t chase me as easily as they might have hoped.

I ran and ran until I reached the cathedral in a daze. Still no time to relax. Even the butler, once a servant of the Elder, had been able to enter the cathedral itself. What mattered was not the building—it was the bell.

I scrambled up the ladder, seized the bell, and only then let out a long breath of relief. At this point my role in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠plan was finished.

From the far side the Elder arrived, statues in tow.

“Planning to hole up with that thing, are you?”

“If you hate the sight of a siege, why don’t you come a little closer?”

“Insolent brat. I’ll grant you this much: I still have difficulty touching that holy object… but does it even matter? If I feel like it I can simply follow you around until you can neither eat nor sleep.”

“My apologies.”

The Elder looked at me with puzzled eyes.

“Thinking it over, even though the Elder has done every evil deed under the sun without dying, there is still a clear age difference. In a country that respects elders, I suppose I ought to answer a question.”

“A question?”

“You asked earlier, didn’t you? Why I didn’t just kill myself. It wasn’t that I particularly wanted to live, nor that I was desperate to beat you. I was simply… waiting for the proper time to die.”

“The proper time to die? Are you speaking in riddles now? At this late hour—”

I heard the sound that shook heaven and earth. From the deepest hole of the mansion, the cry of one not yet born. Only now did I understand that the time had come.

The dagger. This… was not easy. How many times had I steeled myself to die when the moment arrived, yet it was still so hard.

I closed my eyes and thought. I am not dying. I am only falling into a brief, deep sleep so I can wake from this nightmare and meet my comrades again.

The dagger buried itself in my throat. In an instant unbearable agony flooded through me. I prayed only for the moment when the pain would end.

It was my second death since arriving at the hotel.