Escaping the Mystery Hotel - Chapter 429
Only Krnovel
EP.429 Episode 429 – A Family with a Backbone (5)
Episode 429 – A Family with a Backbone (5)
– Han Ga-in
That day, after finishing work at the coffee shop, when I returned home with Ari, my mother was crying.
“Gain… Ariya… Huh!”
Soon, the shocking news came out of my mother’s mouth that my father had terminal liver cancer.
I was so shocked that all the strength left my legs and I could no longer stand.
At that moment, Ari smiled bitterly.
“Let’s stop here.”
“…”
“This ending is definitely a hit. It looks like endless misfortune will continue to strike.”
Ari silently grabbed a kitchen knife from the kitchen.
“… Finish it quickly.”
“Of course. How many people have I killed? How could I make a mistake by killing you?”
That was a very credible answer.
— Phew!
*
…
…
…
— Shhhhh!
As a soft breeze caressed my cheek, I could hear the leaves rustling in the nearby bamboo forest.
Tickling the nose –
— Mate!
I turned around in surprise at the sound of clapping that came out of nowhere.
My sister, Elena, was there.
…your sister is white with blonde hair and green eyes?
At that moment, when a strong sense of discomfort almost made me laugh, new information came to my mind.
This is my younger brother, whom my parents adopted when he was young.
Since they were adopted, their appearances can be different like this.
…
No, this is just too fucking crazy.
Isn’t that a bit too insincere?
“Mr. Cain.”
My younger sister suddenly called me Ga-in and it felt very natural.
“Ah, in this situation I should also call myself a bread person!”
“Just say Ga-in.”
“Ahem. There are other people too, so I’ll call you oppa. Ga-in, you can also speak comfortably. It might be confusing, but listen to me carefully.”
“…”
“From what I’ve seen of Ari from outside, it looks like he’s in a bit of a daze right now. He’s half conscious and half in a dream.”
“…”
“So, try to come to your senses.”
“I’m starting to wake up already.”
It’s a strange expression, but I feel more and more ‘awakened’.
Memories of previous dreams that were slowly recurring began to surface.
Ari had black hair and an oriental look, but was it because Elena’s overtly white appearance made her feel too uncomfortable?
“You’re waking up? That’s not a very good sign….”
“What are you talking about?”
“Other people are watching my brother’s dream in fast forward, using the artist’s blank canvas as a kind of screen.”
“…”
“There were some things we found difficult to understand as we watched.”
“What is it?”
“Why do I keep failing?”
While I was momentarily speechless, Elena continued talking.
The children of my cousins looked at me with interest, even though they didn’t understand Elena and I’s conversation at all.
“This dream is a dramatization of something that happened to you when you were young. At that time, you overcame all the difficulties on your own without any help and finally arrived at the hotel.”
“…”
“My brother in the past overcame it, so why is my brother now failing? Surely it’s not because he became stupid over time.”
“…”
“This is how we analyzed it.”
“how?”
“Isn’t it that you’re acting too ‘adult’ right now? That’s why I think we’re reaching a conclusion that’s different from the actual historical events.”
I’m acting so adult these days. Why?
To borrow Elena’s expression, it’s like being in a daze.
Because I’m half a middle school student and half an adult who vaguely knows that all of this is a dream.
“Oppa. The artist made the decision a little while ago. You have two more chances left. If you fail, you won’t die or anything, but you won’t be able to receive the reward the artist is giving you.”
“…”
“This time, rather than stepping in recklessly, I’ll just point out when my brother is acting in a way that isn’t typical of middle schoolers.”
“…”
“Remember, from now on, Ga-in, ahem, oppa is a first-year middle school student. Act accordingly.”
I am a middle school student.
“I am a middle school student.”
“Yes.”
“First year middle school students are essentially elementary school students.”
“Right… right?”
“I’m practically an elementary school student and have no concept.”
“Mr. Cain?”
“I’m a crazy middle schooler with no sense of propriety!”
“yes?”
I realized it.
I am a crazy, unbridled middle school student, Han Ga-in.
*
As soon as I returned to the country house, I heard a loud voice.
“Jeong-ho, you! You never set foot in your grandfather’s house -”
“What’s different about my uncle? Anyone who sees him would think he’s a great filial son!”
“Why does this kid talk like this? Minseung has made a mess of his children’s farming!”
“Hey~! Brother, take good care of that little brat!”
“This son of a bitch -”
“No, my brother and I came from the same boat, so if I’m a bastard, what about you -”
— Crazy!
“…”
I looked at Elena and thought.
In this situation, how did I act in the past?
I waited for the adults to calm down while playing in the back mountain, trying to calm my stone-hard younger cousins.
“Hey~ Now that I think about it, it makes no sense.”
“…Brother?”
“What middle school student in the world is that kind? Is this something that should be in a morals textbook?”
“Mr. Cain?”
We need to show adults what a ‘real middle school student’ is.
“Elena. Can you cry right away when you’re ready?”
“Huh? Suddenly?”
“Get ready.”
I immediately looked at my cousins behind me.
“Hey guys!”
“Huh?”
“Hey, brother?”
“Let’s play in the water with my brother!”
“Munori?”
“Yeah. Water play!”
As I looked around, I saw several sprinklers for garden maintenance and water hoses installed here and there, so I gave each child one.
“firing!”
Soon, the children began to laugh and spray water all over the garden, regardless of whether the adults were fighting or not.
I aimed the hose at the Hanok.
“Eek! Brother! What the -”
“This is a middle school student.”
“yes?”
“This is it.”
“yes?”
“firing!”
— Kwaaaaah!
The moment the stream of water, stretching out like a rainbow in all directions, hit the country house, the fragile window paper unique to Hanok was mercilessly torn and the inside of the room was in chaos.
“Eww!”
“What, what! What is this!”
“Who are you!”
“I’ll go out and check -”
When the adults started yelling, I quickly put down the hose, transformed into a ‘good middle school student’, and started to stop my younger siblings.
“Guys~ I think we need to play in the water moderately~”
Of course, the younger siblings were already busy spraying water everywhere in excitement.
Elena, who was watching the sight, opened her mouth halfway.
“What on earth does this mean?”
“I don’t know either.”
I don’t know either.
But if you think about it, most of the nonsense kids do is basically meaningless.
“These guys!”
When the adults finally came running out of the hanok, I quickly signaled to Elena.
“Cry!”
“…”
“hurry!”
“… Euaaaang!”
An accident that will make your mouth drop open.
If you feel like you’re going to get in trouble, cry first.
Isn’t this the right behavior for children?
*
When my great-grandfather saw the mess the Hanok had become, he made a dumbfounded expression and said that it was because the adults had not managed the children well, so he kicked them all out into the tea fields.
That’s not wrong.
If you had taken better care of your own children in the first place, this mess wouldn’t have happened.
Elena, who was watching the situation, muttered.
“The adults were kicked out a day earlier. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“…”
Adults who were kicked out a day earlier than in the past, and children who were able to act more freely.
What does this mean?
…
It means I have some free time.
It’s time to find out the secrets hidden in this damn Hanok and jar!
“I know what to do now, guys~!”
Elena looked very anxious as she moved to the warehouse with her siblings.
“Oh, just in case, if you break the jar -”
“Elena, I have a great idea. Listen carefully.”
“…”
Elena, who heard my plan, smiled awkwardly, but made a face as if she wondered if this would work.
“Is this really the behavior of a middle school student?”
Honestly, I don’t think so.
However, there is an aspect that cannot be helped because Elena came to her senses at the moment she entered.
“Don’t obsess over whether or not middle school behavior is appropriate. What’s important is to somehow end this dream with something resembling a happy ending.”
“That’s true, but….”
The employees of Hanok looked very embarrassed when they saw me and the children running to the warehouse.
If they were thieves, I would have beaten them up to stop them, but since they were the great-grandchildren of the landlord, it was worth seeing their bewildered expressions.
As soon as I entered the warehouse, I shouted firmly.
“Okay! Now, touch and play to your heart’s content!”
Soon, children like unbridled calves began to freely touch expensive items everywhere.
Elena and I started looking for the jar, and unlike me who had difficulty recalling the specific details of my previous dream, Elena, who had a clear memory, quickly found it.
“…You know you can’t break it, right?”
“I told you I know you well.”
Meanwhile, the children began to behave in increasingly destructive ways.
“It’s here! It’s here! The plane! The plane!”
The painting that Minseok threw, calling it an ‘airplane’, was quite an expensive painting, but it had just been torn in two, so its identity was now unknown.
“What is this? Why is it round?”
Mina threw the golden toad-like object on the floor, making the round toad into a square one.
In a short period of time, collectibles worth at least tens of millions of won were turned into trash.
At that moment, the grandfather and the servant supporting him came in together, along with a loud noise from outside.
“Oh, my goodness! What the heck is this?”
“Grandpa~!”
The cute great-grandchildren laughing and smiling, and the warehouse behind them becoming a mess.
At the moment when my great-grandfather was bewildered by the absurd sight, Elena and I appeared holding jars.
“Grandpa~!”
“Ugh!”
different.
Until a little while ago, he was calm even when the kids were making a mess, like a billionaire, but now he looks so flustered that he’s sweating profusely.
Because this jar is ‘real’.
“Go, Gain! Elena! Put that down!”
“Huh?”
He raises the jar high in the air, acting as if he has no idea what he is talking about and acting like a crazy middle school student with no concept of meaning.
Grandfather’s expression became thoughtful.
“Gain! Joe, you have to be careful! Hang, there’s something very dangerous in the jar!”
“Is it dangerous? I like that kind of thing.”
I shake it slightly as if I’m going to throw it.
“Eww!”
— Ting!
I even tried hitting it with my finger.
“Oh my! What kind of kid raised you like that! Whose son are you!”
“My grandfather’s great-grandson.”
“Oh my! It’s time for me to die!”
In an instant, my great-grandfather’s expression became thoughtful.
He moved the jar around wildly in front of everyone.
In reality, I adjusted the angle so that it would never open, and the clicking sound was just coming from my hand.
What would it look like to an onlooker?
A situation in which one might suspect that the jar is open or cracked.
My great-grandfather believed that if there was a problem with the jar, ‘bad things’ would happen, and this was true.
therefore….
Now it’s time to find out the secret that your great-grandfather is holding.
I poked Elena.
“…”
“hurry!”
Elena, who had been smiling bitterly, soon began to ‘act’.
“Woooooo!”
Suddenly the blonde girl rolled her eyes and started making ghostly noises!
The moment her great-grandfather looked at Elena in great bewilderment, Elena spoke this time with a sound like scraping metal.
“Haaah…! Jinseong hyung. It’s been a while… Right?”
“Ugh!”
“How long has it been? How have you been?”
Han Jin-seong collapsed on the floor in shock.
I want to know.
What on earth happened between Han Min-sang and Han Jin-seong, who were trapped in the jar?
And what does the jar demand in return for its wealth and honor, and how can that price be avoided?
There is only one person who knows the answer to this question: Han Jin-seong.