Escaping the Mystery Hotel

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 93

Current Location: Miro’s Hell

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

I explained what I had realized to Grandpa, who seemed puzzled as to why I had stopped him.

“The Santa that appeared earlier wasn’t real. It was just an illusion.”

I pointed to the pristine, untouched snow without footprints, and Grandpa immediately understood.

“Not a single footprint, huh? Has Santa mastered the realm of walking without leaving a trace?”

“…Just a joke. Anyway, he was so realistic that it’s hard to believe it was just an illusion.”

“It’s not just the footprints. There was no ‘presence’. You know, when a person moves, you usually hear their clothes rustling or the sound of their limbs moving, but there was none of that.”

Ahri, who had returned after sending Miro away, looked at me curiously.

“Rustling clothes? Wait, is your hearing that good? I thought it was strange earlier too. How did you hear a reindeer’s breath from 10 meters away, especially with all the Christmas carols playing everywhere? Are you a rabbit?”

I had no real response.

I couldn’t easily explain how I had sensed the reindeer’s breath amidst the carols.

Though Ahri described it as me having a good hearing, the sensation I experienced wasn’t just about having sharp Hearing.

It was as if… once I caught onto the faintest hint of something unusual, all my senses focused in on that subtle sound, like when you start to notice your heartbeat in a silent room.

I had experienced something like this a few times before…

While I was lost in thought, the group led me to the back of the school, where we had previously discovered traces of an old ritual.

“This place still looks the same as it did yesterday, or was it today? Anyway, it still looks like the same ol’ pile of junk to me.”

“Well, it is junk now. We don’t know when this ritual took place.”

“Why did we come back? To destroy it?”

“That’s one reason, but I wanted to see if there’s anything else we can learn from it first.”

“Should I use the Advice? You know how it goes—”

“I know. You don’t always get useful answers when the information is lacking. But try it anyway.”

After a brief pause, I decided to choose a suitable question.

Is there any information we can learn from this ritual?

Advice: 3 → 2

It’s already over. Move forward six steps.

“…”

“What’s with that face? Did you get a weird answer?”

“It says it’s already over, so there’s no point in breaking or leaving it. And then it says to walk six steps forward.”

“Then walk.”

“…If I walk, I’ll probably end up destroying all this debris though.”

“Didn’t the Owl say the ritual’s already over? Go ahead and break it.”

Following their instructions, I began walking.

One step, two steps, and on the sixth step—

- Thud!

“What’s this?”

As soon as my shoe touched the pile, something solid and distinct from the crumbling debris caught my foot.

It was a small metal plate with strange markings etched on it.

A reward for a good boy and a punishment for a bad boy.

“It’s written in English. This must be some kind of magical inscription, right?”

Ahri spoke up bewilderedly, “‘A reward for a good boy and a punishment for a bad boy.’ Sounds like something that crazy Santa would like. So, what do we do now?”

“I think we need to use Advice again.”

Grandpa offered his advice from behind me, “Don’t ask about the ritual this time. Ask about Santa directly. The ritual seems to be long over and meaningless now, so it’d be a waste to ask more about it.”

“I’m a bit anxious about using it before a fight, but we shouldn’t be fighting until midnight, right?”

“Probably. Santa will show up around midnight again, and by then, your Advice will reset, so it should be fine.”

Ahri chimed in with another opinion, “Save one just in case. We might have other questions later, and I can’t be sure we’ve seen all the dangers in the first attempt. What if a man-eating reindeer jumps out with a ‘Yaungg’?”

“A… Yaungg…?”

“Yaunggg!”

I decided to leave one use for later just to be safe.

Who knows what might come up?

“Give me a hint on how to deal with Santa.”

Advice: 2 → 1

This is not a Cursed Room. Those who fall into Hell must save themselves.

I was momentarily speechless.

When I relayed the answer to Ahri and Grandpa, they too were left with their mouths half-open.

Looking back, it made perfect sense, but we had unconsciously overlooked it.

This place wasn’t a Cursed Room!

The solution might differ from what we’re used to.

Ahri muttered in a flustered tone, “I get it, I guess. We’re not in a Cursed Room, so we need a different approach.”

“That ‘different approach’ seems to be in the next line, ‘Those who fall into Hell must save themselves.’ For the owl’s answer, that’s pretty direct.”

“I get that too. It’s unusually clear for the owl. The person who has fallen into Hell must be Miro and she must save herself. Of course, she can’t do it alone, and we’ll have to help but…”

Grandpa summed it up for everyone, “But, what does that mean? Are we supposed to tell Miro to go fight Santa herself?”

“Unless Miro’s hiding another ten superpowers, I doubt that’s the case.”

“This is getting frustrating. First, we thought we had to stop Santa before Christmas, but he’s just an illusion until then, so that didn’t work. Then we thought we had to destroy the ritual, but it’s already over and just a pile of debris. Now it seems we have no choice but to face Santa when he shows up at Christmas.”n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Based on the information we had so far, Grandpa wasn’t wrong. We hadn’t found a way to stop Santa’s appearance on Christmas.

It seemed like we’d have to deal with him after he showed up.

Amid the confusion, I checked the clock and noticed it was already past 7 PM.

“Less than five hours left until Santa appears.”

“…”

“Instead of overthinking it, let’s act on what we know.”

“What are you talking about? We haven’t learned anything useful. What should we do?”

“We did learn something important. We need to involve Miro.”

“Huh?”

“Here.”

“Huh?”

“Take this too. Miro might recognize it.”

I handed them the strange metal plate with the inscription found at the center of the ritual debris, something that seemed right up Santa’s alley.

‘A reward for a good boy and a punishment for a bad boy.’

There wasn’t much time left before midnight. I began to feel the pressure of needing to explain all of this to Miro in a way that made sense.

…An idea came to me.

Why does Santa Claus come to schools?

To give out presents.

***The time of Santa’s arrival was drawing near.

The atmosphere on the first floor was quite different from the previous day.

Yesterday, the kids had been filled with excitement at the prospect of Santa bringing presents.

Today, they were all giddy, thinking they were in for a fun prank.

Will the plan work?

I was certain that this was the right approach.

We couldn’t stop Santa from showing up, and he was an exceptionally difficult foe to face head-on.

Lastly, Miro had to save herself in this hell.

Combining all these factors, I came to the conclusion that we needed to break the twisted scenario of “the evil Santa Claus’ arrival at Christmas” in a way that didn’t involve fighting.

“Kain! Kain! Kain! Kain!”

“Miro? What’s wrong?”

“…Will this really work? I’m a little scared.”

Most of the kids on the first floor only thought of this situation as a prank.

Since we couldn’t let them start fearing Santa, I had no choice but to lie.

Thanks to convincing Miro, who had absolute influence over the other kids, we had been able to control the situation to this extent.

However, Miro, the only one among the kids who vaguely understood what was happening, couldn’t hide her anxiety.

“It’ll be fine.”

And if it doesn’t, we’ll just try again.

“It’s just… too weird! Santa’s suddenly going to kill us all?”

When I used the last Advice to convince Miro, the owl had given me this:

[Seeing is believing.]

When it comes to supernatural phenomena, nothing convinces people more than witnessing powers firsthand.

Despite doing my best to properly explain things to Miro over the course of a 30-minute talk, she reacted as if I were crazy.

But after one display of “teleportation”, she was immediately convinced.

Now, I wrote “Don’t worry” in the air with my pen for Miro to see.

She finally calmed down.

Date: Day 93 → Date: Day 94

…

<Jingle bells, jingle bells

Jingle all the way.

Oh! What fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.>

The carol echoed through the air.

Despite telling Miro not to worry, I couldn’t help but feel a deep, primal fear bubbling up inside me.

- Thud!

Santa arrived.

At the same time, the kids cheered.

“Merry Christmas!”

Santa’s eyes widened in surprise before he broke into a broad grin.

“Merry Christmas! Thank you, everyone! It seems there are many good children here. That makes me very happy. But…”

Santa’s mouth tore open—vertically.

The kids in the back didn’t seem to notice, but the ones in the front were clearly horrified.

“But only good kids can receive Christmas presents. Are you all really sure you’re good? Because—”

At that moment, Miro stood up.

“Santa! We’ve already received our presents! Everyone, show him!”

As if on cue, the kids pulled out the boxes they’d been hiding behind their backs. Inside were all sorts of gifts the teachers had spent hours scrambling to find and collect!

For the first time since we entered Miro’s Hell, Santa looked visibly taken aback.

This was the moment for the final blow.

“Hey, who are you? I’ve already given all the kids their presents. Looks like you’re a bit late, don’t you think?”

A friendly old man appeared, dressed in a plush red suit, holding a large sack of presents in one hand.

He looked far more like the classic Santa than the monster with a vertically split mouth.

Santa Mooksung had arrived.