Escaping the Mystery Hotel-Chapter 238: Room 202, Cursed Room - ’The Little Mermaid’ (16)

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)]

Date: Day 102

Current Location: Floor 2, Room 202 – Cursed Room ‘The Little Mermaid’

Sage’s Advice: 3

- Han Kain

Even during the first attempt, it was clear that Serenade harbored significant suspicion toward us—or more accurately, toward the Administration.

In this situation, convincing her and extracting information would require careful strategy.

What could we say to gain her trust?

Last night, after discussing various possibilities with my companions, we reached one conclusion: Serenade must be informed that the Sea God’s island—and by extension, the entire merfolk race—was on the brink of extinction.

This content is taken from fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm.

The next challenge would be explaining how we knew this.

To address this, we crafted a narrative: “We turned back time.”

Depending on how one looked at it, it wasn’t entirely a lie.

Every time we entered Room 202, the timeline resetted to its starting point.

Serenade’s jaw dropped when she heard this.

“What kind of nonsense is this? Surely the Administration isn’t playing a prank on me—”

We had to push forward before she regained her composure.

“Let me tell you what we discovered before turning back time. For instance, we know that Lee Suho is very much alive and that you, Governor, are pursuing him.”

Serenade’s expression hardened.

“Lee Suho’s goal is to resurrect Kadaru’dah. Moreover, the second daughter of the Sea God, whom you confined to a hospital in the western region as punishment, is—”

“That’s enough.”

A tense silence filled the room.

Serenade paced for a moment before speaking, “I can’t confirm whether you’ve truly turned back time, but it seems you’ve gathered some extraordinary information.”

“…”

“Still, there’s one more thing I need to confirm.”

“Confirm?”

She said nothing, instead fixing her gaze on us.

What is she planning to—

*Advice: 3 → 2**

Body check Serenade!

*

As soon as I saw the notification, I felt my abdomen pull sharply.

Before I realized it, I had teleported myself across the room, slamming into Serenade.

She was sent flying over two meters and collided with the wall!

Both Songee and Jinchul-hyung, in the office with us, were stunned.

“W-what the heck, Oppa?”

“K-Kain?”

I couldn’t answer them—I had no idea what just happened.

Serenade, sprawled against the wall, slowly stood up with a weary expression.

- Bang!

There was a knock on the door.

Security or an assistant, perhaps?

“Saintess! Are you alright? Please, open the door—”

“Enough! I’m fine, but make sure no one enters the office.”

“…Are you certain you’re okay?”

“Yes.”

Moments later, Serenade stood as if nothing had happened, turning to us with a scrutinizing gaze.

“So, there is indeed something going on here. I see… Time? Alright. You’ve apparently already experienced ‘my ability’ before this, haven’t you? That’s curious—my ability gives no warning signs.”

I understood.

Just now, Serenade had tried to use her supernatural powers on us, but I had interrupted her with that unexpected body check.

…The Life Warning only activated in life-threatening situations.

This meant Serenade had just tried to kill me.

My expression stiffened involuntarily.

At the same time, I felt an overwhelming sense of danger.

Serenade possessed a power that could kill without any warning or visible signs.

What exactly is her ability?

“Did you just try to kill us?”

Serenade replied calmly as if it were no big deal, “You said you can turn back time, didn’t you? If that’s true, then one death shouldn’t be an issue. Besides, you clearly know about my ability—you even managed to block it. So, no harm no foul, right?”

I couldn’t decide if she was shameless or just insane.

Before I could respond, Serenade shifted the conversation, “I’ll believe you for now. If you’re sharing such extraordinary claims, you must need my help.”

“There are a lot of questions we need answered.”

“Ask away.”

In our previous attempt, we uncovered plenty of information.

We learned that the curse stemmed from Lee Suho’s efforts to summon Kadaru’dah and that the resurrection would occur at dawn or early morning tomorrow if left unchecked.

However, one critical question remained unanswered.

Ostensibly, Kadaru’dah is the god of the merfolk.

Why, then, does their god slaughter them immediately upon revival?

Lee Suho mentioned that the merfolk committed two grave sins: one by the first merfolk 800 years ago, and another by the modern merfolk.

We needed to know what these sins were.

This would reveal Kadaru’dah’s true motives.

We briefly summarized the issue of the merfolk’s sins.

Serenade’s expression turned complex.

“That’s a difficult question to answer.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean one of your questions I can’t answer. But I’ll address what I do know—the sin committed by the first merfolk.”

Finally, one of Room 202’s greatest mysteries was beginning to unravel.

“You seem to already know that the ancestors of the merfolk were impoverished fishermen. 800 years ago, they discovered a mysterious creature in an underwater cave called ‘Rudah’.”

“The giant slug-like creature?”

“…You’ve seen it already? We consider Rudah a servant of the gods. Kadaru’dah means ‘Father of Rudah’. The ancestors encountered Rudah in the cave and soon became aware of Kadaru’dah. They worshiped Kadaru’dah and physically integrated Rudah into their bodies, forming the first contract.”

The first contract.

Serenade opened a drawer, pulling out a thick notebook.

“This contains records left by a Daughter of the Sea God who accessed primordial memories 438 years ago. According to the notes, the Sea God granted the fishermen ‘the right to become children and participate in the cycle.’”

“What does that mean?”

“Let me explain. The ancestors never fully understood the contract. They interpreted it as something like, ‘If we worship the Sea God, we’ll catch more fish.’ This wasn’t entirely wrong. In exchange for their worship, the ancestors enjoyed bountiful catches. The island was overflowing with fish.”

Where there were benefits, there were always costs.

“Over time, the ancestors came to understand the true nature of their contract. Within ten years, their bodies began adapting to underwater life. Some of them developed gills as their lungs shrank, making it difficult for them to breathe on land.”

“Literally turning into ‘merfolk,’ then.”

“Yes. Becoming an inhuman species that lives eternally in the sea—that was the true meaning of the contract between the Sea God and the ancestors. But the ancestors rejected this fate.”

Ahri, with a curious expression, asked, “What did they do?”

“To understand that, you must first understand the creature known as Rudah. Rudah is, simply put, a ‘colonial organism’. Similar to honeybees, except they live in the sea and possess supernatural spirituality.”

“Supernatural sea-dwelling honeybees?”

“And among the Rudah, there is a ‘queen’ entity. A being capable of controlling the entire colony, much like a queen bee.”

At this point, I began to understand.

“The queen bee entity would be a Daughter of the Sea God.”

“That’s correct. Since the first merfolk accepted Rudah, every merfolk has been born with Rudah embedded within their bodies. If someone is born with a ‘queen Rudah,’ they awaken various supernatural powers and gain access to primordial memories, becoming a Daughter of the Sea God.”

It suddenly felt like I was attending a lecture on the biology of supernatural creatures.

“Among the queen Rudah’s abilities is the power to regulate the ‘growth’ of other Rudah.”

Regulating the growth of other Rudah?

“This ability likely evolved to prevent the emergence of too many queens within a single colony. A queen Rudah would suppress the growth of others to ensure no rival queens could challenge her. Unexpectedly, this power became the ancestors’ salvation.”

Ahri, with a look of disbelief, said, “So, you’re saying the Daughters of the Sea God, who possess the queen Rudah, suppressed the growth of other Rudah, and that’s why the merfolk exist as they do today?”

“Not just others, but also their own growth. As a result, the Rudah within the bodies of the Sea God’s merfolk remains undeveloped, stopping at the larval stage. Consequently, physical mutations are limited to some scales appearing here and there.”

The complex explanation of the “biology of supernatural organisms” boiled down to something simple.

Rudah was like an oceanic version of honeybees, and the queen bee—analogous to the Daughter of the Sea God—prevented the Rudah from fully maturing.

This suppression affected not only other merfolk but also the Daughters of the Sea God themselves.

This might sound oppressive, but this “growth suppression” allowed the merfolk to retain their humanoid forms and continue living on land.

After all, no merfolk would willingly turn into a fish and live in the ocean.

In essence, the Daughters of the Sea God truly saved the merfolk.

“So that’s the first sin—a sin committed from the beginning and persisting to this day?”

“I’ve shared an important truth with you. Now, I’d like to ask you something.”

Serenade turned the question to us, “Why do you think the Sea God is so angry?”

“What? Well… based on what you’ve told us so far, isn’t it because your people accepted the Sea God’s blessings but refused to pay the price? If you had paid the price, you would have turned into fish and lived in the sea.”

Serenade shook her head.

“If that were such a grave sin, why is punishment happening now? The Sea God had 800 years to act.”

Without thinking, I slapped my knee.

She was right.

If staying on land by manipulating Rudah’s traits was a sin, why would Kadaru’dah only now be exacting retribution?

It wasn’t 80 years but 800 years of this behavior.

Serenade answered her own question, “Honestly, on the Sea God’s island, we believe the ‘first sin’ has already been forgiven.”

“Forgiven?”

“It’s more of a hopeful assumption, but we have reasons to think so. First, while we live on land, we still worship Kadaru’dah as our god. Second, the merfolk still live alongside the sea. We live on the island during life, and our bodies return to the ocean after death. Third, apart from the nightmares of the past 800 years, Kadaru’dah hasn’t punished us.”

I understood her point.

Even now, the merfolk live closely tied to the sea and continue worshiping the Sea God.

Kadaru’dah has not directly punished them for 800 years, except for inflicting nightmares.

Therefore, their interpretation is that the first sin—the refusal to live in the ocean—has already been forgiven.

So what is the “second sin”?

As if anticipating my question, Serenade continued, “The issue must lie with the second sin. It’s clear that we’ve committed a new sin. We’re aware of this. But there’s a significant problem.”

“What problem?”

“We don’t know what the sin is.”

“What?”

“I’m not joking. For roughly 20 years, Kadaru’dah has been furiously enraged, and the Daughters of the Sea God have vaguely sensed this anger. But no one has been able to determine the cause of this anger for two decades. That is the core problem of the second sin.”

Songee, who had been listening absentmindedly, suddenly spoke, “Uh… could it be environmental destruction?”

Serenade scoffed, “Do you think we wouldn’t have considered that already?”

Silence fell over the room.

***

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