WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 109: Lingering Regret

──────

Hey guys, quick announcement before the chapter! We're hosting an original webnovel contest with a $1000 prize pool, a chance to publish your novel on WeTried, and lifetime free reading access for the top two winners!

There's also a participation prize of 500 coins for everyone participating.

If you've got a story sitting in a folder somewhere, or have been wanting to try writing one, we'd love to read it. You only need your first 10 chapters, and you have until 1st January 2027 to submit. New writers are welcome too!

Full details, rules, and how to enter here! https://wetriedtls.com/announcements/webnovel-contest

Feel free to send this to anyone you know who writes. Enjoy the chapter!

If you have any questions, please join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried

──────

The Executioner’s Stage had come to an end.

"Ugh, mm......"

"Doctor, are you conscious?"

Creak........

The theater doors opened on their own.

Dim light from the hallway spilled in through the gap.

It was time to leave.

For everyone but the protagonist.

"I'll help you. Let's head down."

"Ah......"

"Kim Hee-sook, Yun Geon-min. Can you stand? If it's too difficult, I'll get Doctor Jeon out first, then come back and help you one at a time......"

Thud.

As I led Jeon Yeong-gwang down toward the seats, Yun Geon-min, who had been sitting there blankly, was the first to stagger to his feet and walk toward the theater doors.

His face looked as if every last emotion had been drained from it.

I knew that face all too well.

"......Kim Hee-sook, are you all right? We need to leave now."

Kim Hee-sook wore the same expression. Without answering, she sat still and stared at the stage.

"Seon Yu-han, help Kim Hee-sook first....... I can get out on my own......"

Jeon Yeong-gwang let go of my arm and took one step at a time, holding onto the seats instead.

Creak.

I could already hear Yun Geon-min leaving.

"All right. Tell me if it gets difficult. ......Kim Hee-sook?"

I carefully took Kim Hee-sook's hand.

"Ah. Ahh......"

Her eyes slowly focused, like she'd woken from a dream, and she rose unsteadily.

"Sniff, wh-what am I supposed to do......?"

Her legs finally gave out, and I barely caught her as she collapsed toward me.

"What do I do....... Poor Suheon's father, what am I supposed to do....... Ah, ngh....... What do I do......?"

The woman who had lost her husband, then lost him all over again, wailed like a little girl.

"......"

I didn't know what to say to Kim Hee-sook in my arms, so I awkwardly raised an arm and patted her back.

......She had been around this age when she was still alive.

A woman who sometimes laughed, often cried, frequently got angry, and was pitiful every day.

So I was sometimes afraid, often miserable, frequently hurt, and lonely every day.

"It's all right. Even if it isn't...... you can keep living. You have to keep living. So......"

If I could have held her like this.

Would you have cried a little less?

Would I have suffered a little less?

Would we have been a little better?

"Let's go now."

And so, I left the theater with Kim Hee-sook.

"......Yun Geon-min?"

But when we reached the hallway, Jeon Yeong-gwang was the only one there, looking at us anxiously as he approached.

"Doctor, where did Yun Geon-min go?"

"That's exactly the problem....... By the time I came out, he'd already gone that way......"

Jeon Yeong-gwang pointed toward a distant emergency exit.

Ah, no way.

"He didn't go upstairs alone, did he? Please rest for a moment."

I gave Jeon Yeong-gwang a meaningful look, asking him to watch over Kim Hee-sook, then ran to the emergency exit.

Clank.

"Ha......"

It had been a long time since I'd seen this again.

The landing had collapsed, revealing the black abyss below.

If you stood still in the emergency staircase for more than five seconds, the floor gave way.

I'd taught him that rule, and he'd used it to kill himself.

......I should've expected it when I saw his face.

I'd forgotten. People died pretty easily.

Unlike me.

Click.

I quietly shut the door, returned to Kim Hee-sook and Jeon Yeong-gwang, and shook my head.

Kim Hee-sook's expression grew even more devastated, yet understanding flickered across her face.

Even Jeon Yeong-gwang, a Christian, looked the same.

......Next time, I should go into Agent Team 2's office instead of Agent Team 1's.

Not just for their sake, but for mine too.

* * *

26. There are two paths on the sixth floor.

26-1. Go to Team 1, if you're certain you won't kill yourself no matter what you go through.

* * *

Clank.

I opened a different emergency-exit door, away from the collapsed floor Yun Geon-min had left behind.

Somehow, I got the two living corpses up the emergency staircase.

I paid especially close attention to make sure they didn't stop moving.

"Still, we're...... safely continuing upward, aren't we? At this rate, we'll make it out."

"Mm....... Yes. I really hope we can......"

"Mm-hm, that's right....... Yeah. We have to get out. Suheon's really all alone if I die too......"

Fortunately, both Jeon Yeong-gwang and Kim Hee-sook seemed to have some faint will to go on left in them.

Clank.

When we opened the door and came out, a floor number other than six greeted us.

"Ha......"

The eighth floor.

[Red Thread Liaison Department｜Equipment Management Team｜Artifact Management Room]

On the directory, the words "Red Thread Liaison Department" and "Artifact Management Room" were printed in a bolder typeface.

The Red Thread Liaison Department had five teams in total: Agent Teams 1 through 4, plus the Equipment Management Team.

While the Red Thread teams managed the Red Threads, the Equipment Management Team handled the equipment those Red Threads used. Their job was to procure and provide the equipment Red Threads needed.

The agent position I'd applied for linked assigned Red Threads with the Equipment Management Team.

Determining what equipment a Red Thread needed, relaying that information to the Equipment Management Team, then receiving the equipment was also part of an agent's job.

Though I couldn't see what use any of that was now.

"Then, let's start with the left side, over ther-"

"-Uh, over there."

Just as I pointed toward the Equipment Management Team.

A quiet, unfamiliar voice came from the corridor leading toward the Artifact Management Room.

"H-hello......?"

While all three of us froze, a young man cautiously approached.

"Where did you all come from? The floors below? The floors above?"

He carefully fired off questions, but didn't meet anyone's eyes for long enough to make it clear who he was asking.

"......We came from below. Excuse me, but what's your name? I'm Seon Yu-han."

"Ah. Ah....... Right."

When I answered for the other two and asked my question, the man hesitantly turned his gaze toward me.

Even then, he couldn't hold eye contact for more than a few seconds.

I studied him closely.

His black hair nearly touched his shoulders and was half tied back.

He had an oddly ambiguous look, making it hard to tell whether he was a high school student, in his twenties, or in his thirties.

An oversized white shirt with only one button fastened, a black mock-neck shirt underneath, and wide slacks.

If not for the employee badge around his neck, he might have passed for a Red Thread at a glance.

His build and appearance both made that seem plausible.

"My name is Hyeon Je-won."

Perhaps because his surname was uncommon, he put a slight emphasis on "Hyeon."

"The 'je' is written with eo and i, not a and i."

From that smooth yet deliberate introduction, I could read the path this person had taken through life.

At least where his name was concerned.

"Ah, yes. Hyeon Je-won."

It would've been easier if he'd just shown me the employee badge around his neck.

Hyeon Je-won, senior researcher at the R&D Center's Artifact Research Lab.

Senior researcher, so maybe mid-thirties?

He didn't look that old, though.

"These two are Kim Hee-sook and Jeon Yeong-gwang."

"Ah, I see. Did something happen?"

Hyeon Je-won's face didn't seem malicious for prying into it.

It wasn't so much that he lacked tact.

It felt more like he simply didn't pay attention to tact at all.

So I decided to explain briefly.

I kept my voice low so I wouldn't stir up Kim Hee-sook and Jeon Yeong-gwang's memories too much.

"The floor below was the sixth floor-"

"-The floor below was the sixth floor? Ah, it got mixed up. Just like a Labyrinth. So what happened?"

The detached air he'd shown until moments ago vanished, and a spark of life flashed through Hyeon Je-won's eyes.

"......So we went into Agent Team 1's office first, but it had turned into The Executioner’s Stage-"

"-The Executioner’s Stage? Even for a Labyrinth, all kinds of things really can happen. Hm? Wait....... Ah, was it that kind of pattern? You didn't visit Team 2?"

I stared at the suddenly more talkative researcher, then spoke.

"No. We came straight up."

"Ah, that's unfortunate. You had bad luck....... Team 2 might have been a little better, uh?"

I barely managed to grab Hyeon Je-won's shoulder instead of his collar and pulled him close.

This guy knew something.

"When did the Labyrinth Management Bureau start sending Red Threads into The Executioner’s Stage? And when did Uiwi start?"

"Huh, what? No, they didn't. I-it's legally impossible to send Red Threads in there. Let, let go of me!"

The researcher's voice shook so badly I almost felt sorry for him.

He had been avoiding my eyes from the start.

He was someone who couldn't lie.

He also seemed deeply uncomfortable with physical contact.

"......I'm sorry."

I released his shoulder.

I'd snapped without realizing it.

I wasn't entirely free of The Executioner’s Stage's influence either.

"I just saw a rumor about it. Forget it if that's not the case."

It wasn't important enough to press further anyway.

"Still, you can probably guess what happened in there. One of the people with us eventually came out and passed away. So please don't ask these two too much about it."

"Ah. Ah....... That was rude of me......"

Seeing how readily he understood and apologized, I decided he wasn't a particularly twisted person after all.

"Yes, it's fine. Anyway, we......"

We briefly shared our affiliations and introduced ourselves properly.

"But do researchers visit headquarters too?"

As far as I knew, Uiwi Guild's corporate research institute was in Gyeonggi Province.

"Ah, yes, sometimes. I had a meeting with the representative today. I was also going to give a briefing...... and stop by the Artifact Management Room for a little while......"

I thought I'd just heard something strange.

"......A meeting with the representative?"

"Yes! Representative Mi-rae."

At the mention of co-representative Yu Mi-rae, Hyeon Je-won looked at me with bright eyes.

He couldn't sustain the eye contact for long and quickly looked away again.

"Representative Mi-rae is a really good person......! They understand me well, and, and they're incredibly interesting......"

I gave up trying to understand.

This company was way too strange........

"Ah! Right. Everyone, follow me. There's something I want to show you! Come on!"

With a clear, innocent expression, Hyeon Je-won gestured and took the lead.

Perhaps thinking of her son, Kim Hee-sook was the first to follow.

Jeon Yeong-gwang and I followed slowly after her.

[Artifact Management Room]

The artifact researcher grasped the entrance handle and looked back at us.

His expression, struggling to contain his excitement as if something wonderfully thrilling were waiting inside, made him look exactly like an innocent child.

For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this.

"Look at this!"

Hyeon Je-won opened the Artifact Management Room door and spread his arm as though proudly presenting it.

"......Huh."

"Ah......"

"No way......"

Kim Hee-sook and Jeon Yeong-gwang, who had both grown much quieter, wore human expressions for the first time since leaving The Executioner’s Stage.

The Artifact Management Room occupied an entire side of the building.

This vast space resembled a museum exhibition hall.

Display cases enclosed in transparent glass lined the walls, and objects in a variety of forms were exhibited in every one of them.

"Now you see why I wanted to show you, right?"

Hyeon Je-won said, like a mischievous child brimming with excitement.

"These are all artifacts! Real Labyrinth artifacts!"

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried