CHAPTER 318: MIRO (3)

0%

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 137

Current Location: Floor 1, Corridor

Sage’s Advice: 3

– Han Kain

I could hear Elena and Miro’s conversation from afar. During the dangerous experiment, only a limited number of people could get close. Fortunately, I was one of those limited people.

“Miro, what do you think when you look at this child?”

“...Why does Elena call such a monster a ‘child’?”

“To my eyes, it looks like a child with a rather cold impression. How about to Miro’s eyes?”

The larva-shaped monster that Elena had created a couple of times in the past was slowly moving around near the table.

Since it was a being that could inflict severe damage to the human mind just by looking at it, those lacking resistance in this aspect, like Jinchul-hyung, went up to the second floor.

“It looks too scary. A caterpillar with a human head?”

“That’s a similar answer to Kain.”

Certainly, the Blessing of Immutability was providing Miro with strong resistance. After Elena erased the monster again, this time she briefly showed my Grimoire.

“Aaah!”

I quickly caught Miro, who staggered and almost fell backwards.

It seemed she felt a nosebleed and a considerable headache in that short moment, but the fact that it ended with just that much was evidence of considerable resistance. Ordinary humans immediately became critically ill if they looked at the Grimoire with the naked eye.

Soon, Eunsol-noona approached and calmed Miro with the power of her flute, and Grandpa came over to summarize the experiment results.

“She has considerable resistance to supernatural powers. But I’m not sure about physical abilities. Should we check this too? It’s a bit difficult to test?”

At that moment, Ahri spoke in a calm voice, “We still have to. She needs to know how strong her own power is. The next room we’ll enter is likely to be Room 203, right? Miro will have to endure the early part alone.”

“Eiyah!”

With an annoyed expression at having to do something again, Miro threw a tangerine. Ahri performed the feat of catching the tangerine flying from behind.

“I’ll eat it well, Miro.”

Shortly after, Grandpa returned with a somewhat worried expression.

“She’s physically no different from a girl her age. She doesn’t have an ounce of strength, and she’s not particularly sturdy either.”

Ahri showed a somewhat disappointed reaction.

“Does the Blessing of Immutability not affect physical abilities?”

“Maybe it will help the body if we strengthen the Blessing.”

“We’re already in the middle of the second floor. There won’t be many opportunities to strengthen it...”

“What can we do?”

Because of problems like these, it seemed difficult to expect much from the Blessings of people who joined during the progression. It was like having a growth-type ability and entering during the trials.

But it was actually fine all things considered.. Miro’s Inheritance seemed ridiculously strong compared to her Blessing!

“Let’s check the Time Borrower. Even from the rough explanation, it sounded absurd?”

Ahri nodded and brought Miro over.

The girl, who had been wearing a disgruntled expression until just now, quickly changed to an excited expression when the Time Borrower was mentioned.

I was worried that Miro might unnecessarily try to hide the power of the Inheritance from us, but that wasn’t the case.

At least the current Miro didn’t have an “Administration agent-like” personality to the extent of coming up with such thoughts, and due to its nature, the Time Borrower could only be used properly if not only the user but also the “other party” understood it accurately.

“I’ll explain it simply again! Can you see the letters written on the pocket watch?”

The appearance of the Time Borrower was similar to a pocket watch, but it was completely different in detail. It had only one hand and didn’t have numbers from 1 to 12 written on it.

Instead, only four words were written: “Midnight” at the top, “Morning” on the right, “Noon” at the bottom, and “Evening” on the left.

“I can borrow your time with this. I can store up to 1 hour of time for one person in each section.”

“And you can call it out when you want?”

“Yes.”

“Miro, I heard roughly earlier, but it would be good to show us once.”

Hearing Grandpa’s words, Miro turned her head and called Seungyub.

“You! Um... You said your name was Seungyub, right? Come here for a moment.”

“Yes.”

“From now on, you have to lend me 10 seconds. Understand?”

“Uh... Yes.”

At that moment, the watch flashed, and Seungyub disappeared somewhere. I had heard roughly earlier, but it was still amazing.

After 10 seconds, the disappeared Seungyub appeared again.

“Wow!”

Grandpa asked, “How did it feel?”

“Just like my body was stretched and then shrunk? I have no memory at all of the time I disappeared.”

“That’s fascinating.”

“Look at this!”

Looking at the pocket watch Miro was holding out, the letters in the “Morning” section had become bold.

“Is Seungyub stored in the morning section now?”

“That’s right. Only 10 seconds, though.”

Eunsol-noona asked a question, “When borrowing time, do you always have to get the person’s permission?”

“Hmm...”

Miro expressed that she wanted to check this part once with a confused expression for a moment.

The results of several experiments were simple. The specific wording wasn’t important, but Miro could only use the Time Borrower if she expressed her “intention to borrow time” to the other party and the other party agreed to it.

Ahri wore a somewhat subtle expression, “It won’t be easy to use it to suddenly send enemies somewhere. It doesn’t seem like it was made for that purpose in the first place...”

“Now I’ll call out ‘Morning Seungyub’!”

As Miro smiled happily and was about to activate the watch again, Ahri immediately grabbed her arm.

“Wait! The ‘real Seungyub’ is here.”

“Huh?”

Miro didn’t understand at all what she meant, but I instinctively felt the danger Ahri sensed.

The Time Borrower was an Inheritance that borrowed other people’s time, stored it, and then summoned it later. If one borrowed 1 hour of Seungyub’s time at 3 o’clock, Seungyub disappeared during that time and appeared at 4 o’clock.

At this time, if Miro activated the watch again at 4 o’clock and summoned “Seungyub stored in the watch”, there would be two Seungyubs.

Two identical people in the same place?

There were so many urban legend-like ghost stories that could occur here that it was enough to give me a headache!

When Ahri gave me a look, I immediately used Advice.

Advice: 3 → 2

What happens if the person from the original time and the person summoned by the Time Borrower come into contact?

Absolutely avoid situations where they meet each other.

“It says we must avoid them meeting each other?”

“In other words, it’s okay as long as they don’t meet. Seungyub, go into Room 105 for a moment.”

“...Okay. It’s been scary since earlier.”

After Seungyub went into Room 105, Miro activated the watch.

Another Seungyub appeared out of thin air. The boy, who suddenly appeared in the center of   wore a dumbfounded expression.

“W-what? My body feels like it’s being stretched—“

Before he could finish speaking, Seungyub disappeared again. It was because the borrowed time was only 10 seconds. But for those 10 seconds, there were clearly two Seungyubs.

After that, we were able to specifically understand the abilities of the Time Borrower by repeating various experiments. I summarized the content we grasped.

First, Miro expressed her intention to “borrow time” to the other party and the other party agreed. The maximum time that could be borrowed was 1 hour per person. Since there were 4 sections on the watch, she could borrow 1 hour each from a total of 4 people.

Second, the person who agreed disappeared during that time. However, this didn’t mean they were judged as dead. According to the Status Window’s companion information, etc., the companion was still shown as alive.

Third, Miro could summon the being who lent time when she wanted. She could call out 1 person at a time, and the maximum summoning time per day was 1 hour.

It was possible to split the 1 hour that could be summoned per day. For example, if she summoned Ahri for 20 minutes to get help and sent her back, then summoned me, I could help Miro for a total of 40 minutes.

“It’s a complex Inheritance, but if you think about it simply, it’s also simple. It’s an object that allows Miro to summon us for a total of 1 hour a day when she wants.”

Noona nodded, “It would be useful in places like Room 203. Because Miro can summon us and get help when she wants.”

Grandpa cautioned, “You all seem to be calling it ‘summoning’ for convenience, but remember. It’s not actually summoning. The real us are in another place, and the being ‘stored’ in the watch comes out.”

“At the moment of summoning, the real us and the us called out by the watch exist simultaneously. And the owl warned that these two must never meet.”

Miro added one thing, “You keep saying ‘us this and us that’, but it’s not a power that has to be used on Hotel companions. I can use it on anyone!”

Ahri affirmed, but pointed out the danger, “That’s true, but use it only on us if possible. Most beings we meet in the Cursed Room won’t understand the power of the watch, so I don’t know how they’ll react.”

“Okay.”

There were a few precautions.

First, as we confirmed, we should avoid situations where the real us from that time and the us called out by the watch meet each other.

Second, Miro couldn’t forcibly control the summoned being. It was because of this point that Ahri advised Miro to use the Time Borrower only on us if possible.

To check a point I was curious about, I asked Miro, “Borrow 10 minutes of my time.”

“Okay. Kain, will you give me 10 minutes for me?”

“Sure.”

“...”

For a moment, my consciousness disappeared and then woke up. As with Seungyub earlier, my companions were looking at me with curious eyes.

“Did 10 minutes really pass just now?”

Elena nodded, “Yes, we didn’t talk about anything important. We just talked about Room 203 for a bit.”

I looked at Miro again.

“I’ll go into Room 105, so summon the stored me.”

“Okay. But what are you trying to do?”

“I’ll check and tell you.”

With that conversation over, I returned to Room 105 and looked at the Status Window.

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 137

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest)

Sage’s Advice: 2

“...”

Sage’s Advice: 2 → 1

I was just looking at the Status Window without doing anything, but the number of uses of Advice decreased. After safely waiting about 30 minutes, I went outside.

When I went out, my companions were looking at a small piece of paper with puzzled expressions.

“How was it?”

Ahri said, as if it was interesting, “Just now, Noon Kain that Miro called out—“

“Noon Kain?”

“We decided to call beings called out by the watch like that. Morning Ahri, Noon Kain. Like this.”

“Okay.”

“Noon Kain used advice and immediately wrote the question and answer on paper. And he said to immediately cancel the summoning because he had to avoid meeting you in Room 105.”

When I unfolded the paper, I saw the question exactly as I had thought.

If a being called out by the watch uses a power with a limited number of uses, is the number of uses for the original also deducted?

It was a simple curiosity. Now I had gotten the answer.

A very brief answer was written.

It differs depending on the type of power, but for Blessings, yes.

On top of this, the number written on the Status Window had actually decreased.

Ahri smirked, “You thought of such a trick already? You tried to use Advice while summoned by the watch, and test if the original you could use Advice separately?”

“Of course. This is a place where tricks are strategy, after all. More importantly, it differs depending on the type of power? That means the trick I thought of works sometimes?”

“We’ll find out as we use it. However, I think I know why it doesn’t work for Blessings.”

“Why?”

“The person Miro borrowed time from is ‘us’, not the Patron. The source of the Blessing is the Patron.”

I understood what she meant. Blessings were powers bestowed by Patrons and their roots lied with the Patrons.

For example, from the perspective of the owl giving advice, whether I used Advice or another me summoned by Miro’s watch used Advice, it was the same as consuming the owl’s power. So the number of uses was shared.

Around 11 PM, everyone finally vaguely understood the functions of the Time Borrower.

It was late, and there were no more Advice uses left. Above all, Miro, who had cooperated earnestly in the somewhat painful experiments, expressed considerable fatigue.

Considering we had to enter the Cursed Room tomorrow, proper sleep was necessary too. In the end, we decided to stop here for today and go to sleep.

“We’ll talk about the next room early tomorrow morning! Understood?”

The tiring day ended.

“...”

“Kain!”

“Hmm?”

“Will you lend me 1 hour of your time?”

“Are you borrowing in advance to use in the Cursed Room?”

“...Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Ahri too!”

***

User: Han Kain (Wisdom)

Date: Day 137

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 105 (Room of Rest) - Miro’s Room

Sage’s Advice: 0

– Han Kain

“What is this...”

“Oh! It worked, it worked!”

When I came to my senses, I woke up in “Miro’s room” in Room 105.

“...”

In Room 105, everyone used separate spaces except during meal times.

“I guess it’s an exception when you use the watch to call us out...”

“It’s amazing!”

We spent time without much meaning. Miro talked about stories from the Frozen Hell, and asked questions she was curious about regarding the Hotel. We also talked quite a bit about Ahri.

“That kid is scary somehow! She keeps teasing me by calling me mom.”

“Rather than teasing, she’s actually—“

– Thud!

I was about to say, “She’s actually your mom,” but Miro suddenly headbutted me and knocked me off the sofa.

“Kain, don’t say bad things either! I’ve never even had a boyfriend!”

“...Okay. I guess it would be funny if someone suddenly said they’re your daughter in that situation.”

“How should I say it?”

“Well, you could say you’re like sisters or something.”

How should we define Ahri and Miro’s relationship!?

I didn’t know either. I assumed they would have a mother daughter relationship when Ahri started calling her mom, but Miro’s vehement refusal makes me think otherwise.

“In the first place, Ahri just calls me mom with words but treats me roughly!”

“She’s not particularly treating only you roughly. Ahri treats everyone roughly.”

“...I didn’t say that much. And earlier Ahri stole all my bacon and ate it.”

“You also stole all of Ahri’s ham and ate it in the Frozen Hell.”

“That’s that, and this is this.”

“The only difference is that was ham and this is bacon?”

– Thud!

She knocked me down with a headbutt again. Is this kid a pachy instead of a human?1

Suddenly, I realized. Just as we had a tiring day with Miro’s joining, for Miro, today must have been an extremely frightening and confusing day. Maybe she called me out at this late hour just because she wanted to spend some comfortable time.

Around that time, Miro approached with the watch.

“There’s... one thing I want to ask.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a very scary story.”

Did she have something to say?

FOOTNOTES

1. ED Note: Short for Pachycephalosaurus