### Chapter 420 – Room 104, The Curse Room – ‘Preparatory Elite Hotel High School’ Re (19) Fin
—
[User: Han Kain (Wisdom)
Date: Day 374
Current Location: Floor 1, Room 104 – Curse Room ‘Preparatory Elite Hotel High School’
Sage’s Advice: X]
—
— Han Kain
—
Taking a moment to compose myself, I stood up.
“We have a lot to talk about, so let me brew some coffee. What would you like?”
“Huh? Ah, an iced Americano, please.”
I let coffee be my excuse to fall into thought for a bit.
In the past, I sent Aurelia a note telling her not to go to paradise and kept this from myself.
What could be the reason behind that?
The first thought that hit me was it was to prevent Aurelia from committing suicide.
If she were to kill herself, being a saint, her soul would likely get trapped in the Sacred Sun.
What about Arima?
Arima is essentially a spirit parasite without a soul, currently assimilating into Aurelia.
If Aurelia were sucked into the Sacred Sun, Arima would vanish too.
Perhaps, I warned her against suicide to prevent such an event?
It’s a reasonable hypothesis, but it has a crucial flaw.
If that was the case, she had no reason to hide sending that note from me.
Could it be she ran out of time?
There was no need for a long message; just saying something like “Saint, no suicide, note” would’ve likely sufficed.
Suddenly, another possibility struck me.
Previously, the status window showed my writing being soaked with the emotion of ‘fear.’
I sensed a similar feeling from the note’s phrasing.
“This is my last conscience and humanity…”
Such words aren’t typically my style.
It hinted there was a significant emotional upheaval when the note was written.
Focusing further on that, I simply thought,
Why give the note to Aurelia?
She’s a candidate for the potential soul vessel, meaning she’s akin to a potential ally.
So, perhaps, in a way of showing mercy, I told her not to go to paradise.
Why keep it from me?
Because Aurelia didn’t want future me to know why she must stay away from paradise.
As I reached this conclusion, the idea of the ‘secrecy’ surrounding Room 104 came to mind.
The cult does everything it can, risking their lives, to hide their existence from the Administration Bureau.
While Apollyon would obviously hide out of fear of eradication by the Bureau, the main player isn’t that weak.
What if, like the merfolk of Room 206, they openly established a kingdom?
As long as they don’t go overboard with world conquest shenanigans, the Bureau might turn a blind eye.
I conjured a simple answer to all these doubts.
If the lord’s motive for creating the cult is extremely wicked,
and if being discovered would make the Bureau totally unable to tolerate it,
then the nature of paradise is—
— Tap!
“Here’s your iced Americano.”
“Yes.”
I halted my thoughts.
It wasn’t due to lack of an answer but because too many thoughts flooded my mind.
When I encounter thoughts beyond my coping ability, it’s better to stop thinking.
I returned to the idea of obtaining the Sacred Sun, and once I have it, of course, I’d use it.
Realistic thoughts shifted my focus back to Aurelia sitting in front of me.
Over the past few months, Aurelia didn’t seem to care whether we cooked up or boiled the cult.
She had stopped worrying about the matters within the Curse Room.
Her heart was already directed ‘outward,’ and Aurelia was already 50% an ally.
There’s no need to shake Aurelia’s resolve with talk of paradise and such.
“Can I have the note, please?”
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
— Rrip!
As soon as I got the note, I ripped it apart.
“Ah? T-That was sudden—”
“No need to worry.”
“Huh?”
“This was just in case you might suddenly want to commit suicide.”
“…”
I looked straight into her eyes.
“You’re not thinking of committing suicide, right?”
“…”
Three months had already passed since we started cooking the cult.
If Aurelia was the kind to commit suicide, she would’ve already died at least ten times over.
Let’s not forget what happened during the second attempt.
Even when a god openly pierced her throat, Aurelia still managed to escape with gritted teeth.
Han Kain: She’s already halfway skewed.
A short while later, several colleagues, having surveyed the situation outside, walked in.
—
“So, I’m saying Jinchul is really kind of clueless!”
“Big sis, you’re being rather unnecessary—”
“I’m Seungyub, by the way—”
The atmosphere was almost overly raucous.
Everyone was doing their best to persuade either Aurelia or Arima.
It was tough to find anyone superior to her for the soul vessel, so we needed to harmonize with her somehow.
Looking at the atmosphere, things seemed to be going decently.
Aurelia, who’d been quietly sipping coffee for a long time, was starting to chip in naturally.
A fake saint who devoured the cult and the real saint.
At first glance, these two seem like they wouldn’t get along at all.
But if you view the happenings in the Curse Room as a kind of movie, it’s entirely graspable.
The protagonists squabble fiercely with the villains in the film, yet outside of that, the actors can be best buddies.
So, my colleagues began persuading Aurelia.
“When we go outside, there’s no need to stay trapped in this small school anymore! The Bureau will consider you a valuable asset!”
Eunsol-noona emphasized that life outside would be better than the life in Room 104.
“I’ll never be able to escape the soul vessel…. I can’t get far from this kid.”
“W-Wait! Let me know if there’s anywhere you want to go!”
“This kid is a fool, so you can boss him around however you want, think of him as your servant.”
“… Ari noona?”
Seungyub and Ari soothed a visibly anxious Aurelia.
“Don’t worry about the cult. Hardly anyone has died.”
“If Room 104 goes poof, they’ll all vanish, right?”
“Who knows?”
“If they don’t vanish, that’s a problem in itself…”
“There’s probably a way somewhere on the third floor to grant rest to the Room 104 people.”
“…”
“Let’s search together.”
The teacher consoled Aurelia who was about to part ways with the cult in her own way.
—
A moment later, the saint looked at Seungyub.
“If I go out contained in the soul vessel, I’ll end up like a ghost, right?”
Seungyub readily nodded.
“Yes.”
Jinchul-hyung appeared to be confused.
“Wait, you’ll turn into a ghost? What did Arima say before?”
I asked out of curiosity.
“What did Arima say to you?”
“She said Aurelia’s body is pretty—ahhem, has remarkable performance. So, he wants that body.”
Hearing that felt odd.
What’s the point of praising the beauty and talent of a body you can’t even take?
At that moment, Aurelia turned to Seungyub and explained.
“The phantom was fine holding a body even when its spirit was contained in the soul vessel.”
“Isn’t that the power of the ‘Disharmony?’”
“Arima doesn’t possess Disharmony, but there’s magic.”
Arima’s magic.
An old nightmare from the past resurfaced in my mind.
The brutal remnants of horrific human experiments in that haunted house, the sight of a monster transforming into a massive creature.
Witches possess the ability to mold human bodies like clay.
“Isn’t her name Kim Ahri?”
“Yep. I’ve memorized the names now.”
“Can I borrow your thermos?”
“Huh?”
Ari seemed taken aback as she took out a thermos from her pocket.
“The contents inside can traverse in and out of the room, right?”
“If it falls under the category of ‘ingredients.’”
In the hotel’s terms, a human body is seen as an ingredient, so Ahri uses that thermos to store blood like a spare battery.
“I’ll borrow it. Just once should be enough.”
“Huh? Huh?”
The moment the saint casually discarded the blood in the thermos, Ahri wore a disbelief expression.
Then the saint seemed to exude light from her hands and unexpectedly sliced off her own finger!
“Eek!”
“It’s fine.”
“Quick! Grab that! She’s really trying to commit suicide—”
“Not suicide.”
“Kain! She’s taking over!”
“It’s not suicide!”
The saint stressed it was nothing serious three times, then started putting her hair, lots of blood, finger, and other bits into the thermos.
Miro curiously asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to extract my body outside of Room 104.”
From then on, she performed bizarre sorcery, filling the thermos tight.
Watching the grotesque sight, Ahri sighed expansively.
“Ah…. That’s the thermos I use!”
The witch continued her bloody endeavor without batting an eye.
After a moment, Aurelia—or perhaps Arima—looked at me.
“Han Kain.”
“Yeah?”
“You asked me earlier? Whether I was Arima or Aurelia?”
The moment she said that, the atmosphere quieted down.
It’s a question everyone was concerned about.
Just a little while ago, I believed she was Aurelia, but the vision from earlier seemed so witch-like.
“Honestly, it feels silly to even ask the question. Where would gray belong, between black and white?”
Does she mean to say it’s already mixed up and unidentifiable?
When Arima seeped into Jinchul-hyung’s body, there seemed to be a separate persona, but not in this case.
“Gray? Alright. The important thing isn’t the color, but whether we can cooperate—”
“If we really have to pick.”
“…”
“It’s closer to Aurelia now, but once it’s out, it’ll lean more toward Arima.”
“Understood.”
“This is a complicated issue for me too, so don’t ask anymore.”
With a cautious expression, Seungyub then asked.
“So, what should we call you now? Arimarellya? Aurielima? Or, how about!”
“Or?”
“How about Yurelia?”
“Forget it. Instead of something like that…”
After a brief silence, the saint finally spoke again.
“I don’t want to suddenly recall my old name. I want to create a completely new one. From now on, call me Yumi.”
“… Sounds kind of cat-like for a name.”
“What?”
This conversation marked the point where ‘Yumi’ asked Seungyub to contain her.
And this became the turning point.
— Crumble!
The coffee I was drinking, the chair I was sitting on, the concrete building, the people walking around—it all crumbled like grains of sand swept away in a wave and returned to light.
It’s over!
In an instant, the physical laws evaporated into a void, and our bodies began to float.
Our team members, floating around, all flashed bright smiles.
Before long, the entire world began to shake, and our bodies shot up toward the sky.
And then—
The ‘lord’ appeared.
…
…
…
A radiant touch grasped my soul.
Through distant realms, infinite space-time, past endless horizons and beyond.
…
I heard a voice.
“At last, the time has come.”
My cornea ruptured and transparent liquid spilled forth.
A piercing headache struck my mind like thunder.
This existence must be ‘the real lord.’
Not some mere avatar contained within the Sacred Sun, but the true transcendent.
“Today will be the last day I hear your voice.”
“Oh dear, how heartbreaking that is. Our relationship is only beginning, why are you talking about endings?”
In that last moment, I always wanted to ask:
Does he genuinely think the avatar contained in the Sacred Sun is himself?
Perhaps the reality is that this being has no way out of the Curse Room, thus achieving mental victory.
…
In the face of this moment, my mouth was sealed.
Was it because I felt more overwhelmed than a living sun?
“Remember our deal. I have given you much… so you must keep your promise.”
“I am done with that discussion.”
I felt the lord.
No, it’s not appropriate to say I ‘see’ him since my cornea has ruptured.
I ‘felt’ the lord.
The most acute sensation yet, or an intuition whispered to me incomprehensible words.
I wanted to confirm.
Among the bizarre bits of information I once scribed in the status window, is one of the strangest bits actually the truth?
I sensed the dots gather.
A massive dot painting born from countless ungraspable dots.
A million, ten million, a hundred million, trillion—no, counting like this is meaningless as there are unfathomably more dots!
…
“You fulfilled your cursed curiosity, haven’t you?”
“…”
In the fading consciousness, I realized.
The Sacred Sun is the Ark.
An Ark for the lord and his believers to escape the purgatory known as the Curse Room.
Also, the Sacred Sun is the lord’s avatar, his scaled-down version.
Inverting that means expanding the Sacred Sun is tantamount to expanding the lord.
So…
The lord himself is also an ark.
…
“You have succeeded!
A school intent on killing students, the dark unknown group’s conspiracy!
Who would’ve known all of this was the mad god’s plot to escape prison?
By the way, it certainly took a while, didn’t it?
We never guessed the trouble Room 104 would put us through!
While you knew the way to resolve it, I understand that your doubt over the reward held you back.
Of course, the issue of the rewards really starts now!
And it’s all good!
Room 104 is done!
The inheritance-related issues, the contract with this mad god.
That’s all a matter for the future, right?
Congratulations!
…
…
—
Final resolution triggered among the team! Congratulations! Final resolver is generated and all team members safely return!
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