Hotel Mortis - Chapter 1 Part 12

Part 12

As if instantly understanding Se-oh’s thoughts, Guwon lowered his body and lightly tapped Se-oh’s forehead.

“I didn’t say it with ill intentions, so don’t get hurt by it. It’s thanks to your deep attention to detail and thoroughness that we managed to survive countless life-threatening situations.”

Then, he walked towards the closet and forcefully opened its door. Se-oh turned his head to see what he was doing. What he saw inside the opened closet left him astonished.

“… 304?”

Inside the closet, there was something crouched down, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a person. Yes, it was the middle-aged man from room 304.

His appearance was pitiful. His head seemed to have suffered a severe blow, with blood stains still fresh on his temple, and he lay unconscious on the floor. The slight movement of his chest indicated that he was still breathing. Despite being unconscious, he was tightly bound within the closet. A gag covered his mouth, and his arms were tied behind his back. His ankles and knees were tightly bound to prevent him from escaping.

Se-oh looked at Guwon who opened the closet door.

“Are you… the one who did this?”

“Yeah. It was me.”

He surprisingly appeared calm and nonchalant, as if he had just done what needed to be done. It was hard to believe that this was the same person who was making cheesy remarks towards Se-oh just a while ago. A cold dread rose in the pit of his stomach.

“… Why?” 

He tried to calm down, but his voice trembled. He could feel his injured body trembling. Guwon clicked his tongue as he looked at Se-oh’s state, and then brought another blanket to cover him.

“It was self-defense.”

“So you left him half-dead and tied him up tightly?”

“He was trying to harm you, and I had to survive. I treated him the same way he treated you. If that man had tried to help you, I might have helped him once, and if he had been kind to you, I might have treated him kindly too.”

It was an absurd excuse. If he had no resentment towards 304, then that would also be a lie, but it seemed a little odd that 304 would end up in such a state just because he didn’t help him. Se-oh tried to justify 304’s actions.

“He was kind to me.”

“But he led you to death.”

“He didn’t do it on purpose.”

“He stood by and watched. That was intentional.”

“No, when a person is scared…”

“Se-oh.”

The depths of Guwon’s dark eyes sank deeper. Se-oh was momentarily taken aback by his seriousness that seemed almost frightening. Then, he realized that Guwon, too, could also make him like that.

Guwon easily read Se-oh’s thoughts. He smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“Se-oh, this place is not an ordinary hotel. It’s a place where things happen beyond our common sense. This hotel operates according to its own rules, and people have to quickly grasp the survival methods within it.”

He pointed at the man inside the closet.

“And that man is one of those people.”

“… Aren’t you a survivor too?”

In response to Se-oh’s question, Guwon spoke up after a moment of silence.

“I won’t claim to be a different kind of human from that man. But you are precious to me, and he is someone who tried to survive by using you as bait.”

“What does it even mean to use me as bait? You keep insisting that 304 used me, but there’s no evidence to support that.”

“Se-oh, 304 used you to survive according to the hotel’s rules. I can swear to that.”

Guwon asserted and flopped down on the floor, at the foot of the bed. As a result, his eye level matched with Se-oh lying on the bed. He glanced at Se-oh once and then looked blankly at the air.

“I’ll tell you about this hotel from now on. Then you’ll understand the meaning of my words.”

And then, he slowly began to speak. His words went on endlessly, as if he was reading a boring scripture.

“We call this place Hotel Mortis. I’m not entirely sure how it should be pronounced, but in the past, you and I called it that…”

It didn’t take much effort for them to find out the hotel’s name. As they searched through the rooms, the hotel’s name was subtly engraved on the amenities and supplies.

<Hotel Mortis et Vitae>

This was the hotel’s full name. 

However, the name was too long to pronounce at once, and the pronunciation was uncertain. So, they simply shortened it and called it ‘Hotel Mortis.’

In this Hotel Mortis, there were some rules that were different from the laws of the humans. 

When the conversation reached this point, Guwon emphasized his words with strength in his voice.

“The core of the rules is 3:33 AM.”

Se-oh had heard Guwon explain this before. The man from room 304 had also mentioned the same thing.

“At 3:33 AM, the layout of the hotel rooms changes completely, and for a day, no person can open and enter the same room door more than once…”

Guwon quirked an eyebrow.

“You heard that from that man?”

“Yes. Is it not true?”

“Well, it’s partially correct, but he didn’t tell you everything.”

“Partially correct? And he didn’t tell me everything?”

“Let me first correct the part he got wrong. It’s not ‘opening and entering the room door twice,’ it’s ‘opening the room door twice.'”

“What’s the difference?”

“There’s a big difference. Whether you’re inside the room or outside, you can only turn the doorknob and open the room door twice. Perhaps that’s the excuse he used to ask you to open the door for him? Is it not?”

Se-oh remembered what 304 had said.

‘If the other person doesn’t come out for a long time, we’ll knock, so please open the door.’

‘We never know, I might need to open the door to the room again today.’

There was no doubt that Guwon’s prediction was correct. As Se-oh nodded, Guwon chuckled.

“It was an obvious trick. If you had opened the door for him, he would have closed the room door again.”

If Guwon’s words were true, then Se-oh would have been completely trapped inside the motel room. He had exhausted both opportunities to open the door.

Quickly, questions arose in Se-oh’s mind.

‘Why would he go to such lengths? Was it related to the monster that attacked my ankle?’

As Se-oh got lost in deep thought, Guwon provided the answer.

“He wanted to trap you inside and wait for you to be eaten by the creature.”

Se-oh blinked his eyes a few times, staring into the void.

“… For what reason?”

He had some expectations, but the answer was shocking.

“There’s one rule that guy didn’t tell you about.”

“A rule?”

Was there something even more important to be revealed? Se-oh turned his head slightly to look at Guwon’s side profile. In response to his look, Guwon glanced at him briefly before speaking again.

“There are creatures inside the hotel rooms. Those unknown entities similar to the monster you saw. Not all rooms have them. Occasionally, if you’re lucky, you might find a safe room with nothing in it. However, such rooms are very rare. So… the people here are essentially playing a game of avoiding a bomb with over a 90% chance of exploding.”

To think that those monstrous beings he encountered a few hours ago were now lurking in countless rooms… It was a horrifying revelation. Se-oh furrowed his brow in distress.

“Then wouldn’t it be safer to have several people rather than being alone?”

Just like how Guwon and Se-oh teamed up to survive, if multiple people work together to eliminate these ‘creatures,’ it would be much safer.

“That’s just an idealistic approach.”

Guwon replied as if it was out of the question but then added after noticing Se-oh’s reaction.

“… Of course, some groups do cooperate that way, and you and I survived by doing so.”

“We were in such a relationship?”

“Yes. We were always together, protecting each other.”

It was a time Se-oh couldn’t remember. Guwon looked at him with a deeply longing gaze and spoke again.

He pointed with his chin to the middle-aged man lying unconscious inside the closet.

“Do you know how to avoid being caught by the creatures inside the rooms?”

“Perhaps by first getting rid of the creature…?”

Se-oh remembered Guwon’s actions of stabbing the creature with a knife. Perhaps it died and vanished.

‘So, that’s why that man named Guwon is spending time with me without worry.’

In response to Se-oh’s answer, Guwon nodded.

“And there are a few more methods.”

Se-oh instinctively perked up his ears. It was precious survival knowledge that only those who had lived a long time would know.

Guwon began explaining, one finger at a time.

“First, you eliminate the creature. That’s the method you mentioned earlier. Second, you chase the creature out of the room and then close the door. The creature can move beyond open doors, but they can’t open them directly. And the last method.”

He raised three of his fingers.

“… Sacrifice one human inside the room to the creature.”

He emphasized the word ‘sacrifice.’

“Sacrifice?”

“Yes. The room where one person is sacrificed remains safe until just before the next day’s 3:33 A.M. The creature inside the room disappears without a trace once it claims a life.”

“Why?”

When Se-oh asked for the reason, Guwon shook his head.

“I don’t know either. It’s just a rule we discovered.”

“Then…”

At that moment, Se-oh understood why Guwon referred to himself as a ‘bait.’ If what he said was true, 304 would not have entered room 712 and would have simply waited for him to die in this hotel room.