WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 114: ≠
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“......”
He wasn't here.
Jeon Yeong-gwang wasn't here.
I couldn't hear any prayers.
“Eek!”
“Ugh, urk......”
All that kept silent was the bloodied corpse of a man lying there with his chest torn wide open and empty.
“Wh-what is that......?”
“......It looks like his heart is missing. Have you ever been diagnosed with angina, or are you currently on medication?”
It seemed Prajna had gone after Jeon Yeong-gwang the moment this new loop began.
Apparently, someone recognizing Jeon Yeong-gwang's true identity was some kind of trigger. From the moment I realized it, his fate had likely become irreversible.
I thought it was a pity.
Then who would restore Bae Seo-woo's name outside the Labyrinth?
How could I, with no evidence at all, get it back?
Who could engrave a name onto that empty urn?
This was why I believed the Labyrinth held no malice.
Because it held no goodwill.
Even when it punished “evil.”
Just as nature had no boundary between good and evil to begin with.
Someone who died unjustly? An unsolved case with no known culprit?
To the Labyrinth, they were nothing more than problems to be solved, and its methods showed not the slightest respect for people.
Humans had human rules.
‘Those who commit crimes must be punished through due process.’
And the Labyrinth didn't care about human rules.
‘Unsolved problems must be solved.’
‘Resolution’ and ‘liberation’ were the same phenomenon.
Only liberation could stand above the Labyrinth's supreme rules.
* * *
―――――――――――――――
#Kim Hee-sook
Overall Result｜Pass
#Seon Yu-han
Overall Result｜Pass
#Yun Geon-min
Overall Result｜Pass
―――――――――――――――
When I came to, another letter from Children’s Hospital had arrived, and the three of us who had passed went back upstairs.
[𝟘𝟘𝟙]
[𝟘𝟘𝟚]
[𝟘𝟘𝟛]
To the Agent Team 2 office on the sixth floor, which had become the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories.
Riiing......
“It’s coming from Room 1.”
We already knew the answer to Yun Geon-min's room, so it would be easier if that was the one that appeared.
I took hold of the doorknob and looked at Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min.
My gaze lingered longer on Kim Hee-sook.
“You remember what I said earlier, right? If it’s your room, you need to honestly say where you don't want to go and where you do want to go. Someone else can go somewhere you don't want to.”
“O-okay......”
“Mm. I will. I should.”
Swish.
I opened the door to Room 001.
* * *
The cool night air brushed my cheek, and light from the streetlamps fell over my head.
“This is......”
“A hospital......?”
A white general hospital stood before us.
We were in its parking lot.
It didn't seem to be my room.
Nor was it Yun Geon-min's.
Then......
“N-no......”
I looked at the owner of this memory.
“Ms. Kim Hee-sook?”
“This...... is this your memory, ma'am?”
Kim Hee-sook's face had gone pale.
Her eyes held bewilderment and something like shame.
She must not have expected this memory to appear.
Everyone had different standards for what counted as an unforgettable, painful memory, and there was no rule saying there could only be one.
Besides, the Labyrinth had no reason to follow those standards.
Riiing......
The ringing came from inside the hospital.
“Just tell us where we need to go.”
“C-can't we just not go......?”
Kim Hee-sook stammered, her face red as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
“I’m really sorry, but...... there are still two more left......”
“Ma'am, I understand, but...... so we’re supposed to show you our memories instead?”
I swallowed a sigh.
“Ms. Kim Hee-sook.”
“I-I’m sorry, I’m sorry...... But I...... please......”
Kim Hee-sook trembled as though terrified of something.
“I understand. You don't have to tell us.”
I respected her feelings.
“Really......?”
“Yes.”
“No, Seon Yu-han, why are you the one deciding th-”
“I’ll find it myself.”
“......What?”
But there was no reason her feelings should come before mine.
Thud.
I immediately ran toward the hospital.
“No, hey! Ah, damn it......!”
Yun Geon-min hesitated, then ran after me.
Behind us, I heard Kim Hee-sook scream through her tears.
“Ah, aaah......!”
Riiing......
“You don't even know where you're going, do you?”
“Not exactly.”
When Yun Geon-min and I entered the hospital, we found a fairly quiet lobby.
Since it was nighttime, most of the people around were staff.
“We'll find it if we search the rooms.”
This was probably a memory related to her dead husband, who had appeared as a prisoner on The Executioner’s Stage.
Maybe her husband had died at this hospital.
“The wards......”
I checked the floor directory first.
The wards occupied the second through sixth floors.
“Let's split up. I'll take the odd-numbered floors, and Yun Geon-min, you take the even-numbered floors. If you find the phone, answer it right away. Listen carefully to the recording, press the number for other inquiries, then say you’re checking out of Room 001.”
“Y-yeah, okay......”
Clunk.
I was already starting to like this hospital.
Even if I ran up in a panic and got tired enough to stop and rest, the emergency staircase didn't collapse.
And when I opened the third-floor emergency exit, there was actually a third floor. When I opened the fifth-floor emergency exit, there was, incredibly, a fifth floor.
This was how an emergency staircase was supposed to work......
Clunk.
Riiing......
The third floor was a dead end, but when I reached the fifth floor, the ringing was much louder.
If the fifth floor was another dead end, maybe I should just go all the way up to the roof.
Clunk.
“Hah, hah......”
Ah. No need.
It was on the fifth floor.
I stopped in the hallway and waited for the woman who came rushing out of the emergency stairwell, gasping for breath.
“......”
Kim Hee-sook, who had been walking toward me while struggling to breathe, shot me a glare before walking straight past me.
I quietly followed.
Kim Hee-sook stopped before a room at the end of the hall as if nailed to the spot.
The arm she stretched toward the doorknob trembled uncertainly.
[Song Su-heon]
One name among those written on the patient nameplates caught my eye.
Su-heon.
‘Su-heon's dad......’
‘Su-heon will really be alone if I die too......’
So this was a memory of her living son, not her dead husband......
Riiing......
I didn't push past Kim Hee-sook and barge ruthlessly into the room.
“Please open it.”
I only asked and waited.
For Kim Hee-sook to open the door and enter on her own.
It was true that Kim Hee-sook's feelings could not come before mine.
That did not mean they weren't worth even the smallest courtesy.
“......”
Ten seconds passed, as long as ten years.
Creak.
The hospital room door opened.
Riiing......!
The hospital room was dark, as though everyone inside was asleep.
Beep, beep......
The faint beeping of the patient monitor and the sound of the humidifier could barely be heard beneath the ringing.
No. Not everyone was asleep.
Someone stood beside the bed, alone in the darkness.
I knew that person was Kim Hee-sook.
There was no need to make out the silhouette.
“Hk, ugh......”
Kim Hee-sook beside me finally couldn't bring herself to step closer. She collapsed and began to cry.
I looked down at her for a moment, then raised my head again.
The Kim Hee-sook from the past was crying too.
She looked even older than she did now, utterly exhausted as she stared at her sleeping son.
Kim Hee-sook's small hand hovered above her son's head.
As though she didn't dare stroke her sick child.
“......”
Ah. No. That wasn't it.
The moment I realized where Kim Hee-sook's trembling fingertips were headed.
I covered my mouth out of habit.
Kim Hee-sook didn't want to stroke her son.
“Ah, hngh......”
She wanted to kill him.
“My baby...... I’m sorry, Mom's sorry. Hk, I’m sorry......”
The Kim Hee-sook sitting on the floor kept muttering apologies in a choked voice, like prayers that would never reach anyone.
The instant I saw her face stained with guilt, the corners of my mouth returned to normal.
......So it wasn't that she suffered because she couldn't kill him.
She suffered because she had tried to.
That was the fundamental difference between us.
“......”
Click.
The hand covering my mouth reached for the dial telephone on the bedside table.
「Welcome, valued guest.」
A mechanical voice, much like the one from before, continued on and on.
“I’d like to check out of Room 001.”
「......」
「Thank you for staying at our hotel. We hope it became an unforgettable memory. Goodbye.」
Bang!
“Huh, what? What was that? The phone was still ringing, wasn’t it......?”
Yun Geon-min, who had been thrown into the hallway without knowing why, began rambling in confusion. Then he saw Kim Hee-sook sitting on the floor crying and trailed off.
“I answered the phone.”
[𝟘𝟘𝟙]
[𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐔𝐏 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌]
A sign appeared on the Room 1 doorknob, and a new door appeared at the end of the hallway.
[𝐄𝐗𝐈𝐓]
“Go out first. I’ll take care of Ms. Kim Hee-sook.”
“Uh, mm.”
Yun Geon-min's eyes darted nervously as he read the room. After hesitating, he quickly left.
“Ms. Kim Hee-sook.”
“Ah, ah...... I, I...... it was so hard...... Su-heon's father left so suddenly too......”
Far from shaking off my hand, Kim Hee-sook clung to it as though hanging from it and rambled on.
“I really...... what was wrong with me then...... It was just money...... It wasn't like the child had only been sick for a day or two...... I, I was a truly awful person...... How could I do that to my own child......”
Well.
I thought Kim Hee-sook was foolishly kind.
If she had truly been a bad person, this memory would not have appeared in the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories.
“I understand.”
“No, no...... Seon Yu-han, you don't know......”
Right. I didn't know.
I wasn't this person, and I didn't know what she had gone through.
But......
“Why do you think I wouldn't know?”
I lowered my head and met Kim Hee-sook's eyes.
Her wet, bloodshot eyes looked into mine.
“I know.”
The feeling that you'd die if you didn't kill.
“I know.”
A life that could only be freed through death.
At least that much, at least I......
“......Th-”
“Let's go now. We shouldn't stay in a resolved Labyrinth for too long.”
“Ah, y-yes......”
Kim Hee-sook, who had been about to say something, thankfully chose to close her mouth.
Just as I had not asked her anything.
* * *
“Ah...... Hello. I’m Hyeon Je-won. The ‘je’ is ‘eo, i,’ not ‘a, i.’”
We arrived at the eighth floor again.
“Ah! Come this way with me. There’s something I want to show you!”
Once again, the artifact-obsessed Hyeon Je-won invited us into the Artifact Management Room with a mischievous expression.
After that, I received another eleven or so invitations.
Which meant I died ten times.
“I think this works like a puzzle. You write the Requesting Entity Name from the request details into the Recipient Entity Name field on the management sheet!”
Right.
Because of that damn Artifact Management Ledger and Artifact Request Form.
Footnotes:
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