WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 123: Normal
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[5:58]
There was still plenty of time until midnight, and I was stuck in this Legal Affairs Office.
It wasn't as if I was physically restrained or forced to do labor.
In short, I was bored.
Until the collapsing building crushed me to death, all I could do here was read the piles of documents scattered around.
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2. Determination of Sentence
Considering the following mitigating circumstances, as well as the defendant's age, conduct, intelligence, environment, relationship with the victims, motive, means and result of the crime, circumstances following the crime, and so forth, the court imposes the sentence stated in the order.
○ Mitigating circumstances: No prior criminal record up to the age of twenty-nine, efforts to recover the victims' bodies immediately after the crime, severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and irreparable damage to frontal lobe function caused by persistent physical and psychological abuse by a guardian during childhood and experiences in the "D" Labyrinth, and the defendant's ordinarily unstable mental state appearing to have influenced the crime to some extent.
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The rest of the page was filled with aggravating circumstances against me.
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○ Aggravating circumstances: Once a life is lost, it can never be restored. Life is an absolute value, precious and dignified beyond exchange for anything in this world, and crimes that seek to violate it can never be tolerated. The victims were cruelly and grotesquely......
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"Ha! Ha......"
I laughed for a long time as I read it.
Those were human rules, not the Labyrinth's.
Rustle.
After that, I didn't even read properly, just turned the pages.
There was plenty of absurd nonsense about how I hadn't turned myself in and had fled.
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For the above reasons, the court renders judgment as stated in the order.
Presiding Judge Judge ██████
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After setting down the verdict I had finished reading, I picked up a sheet of paper from another desk.
It was Yu Mi-rae's verdict.
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JUDGMENT
Case Aiding Suicide
Defendant Yu Mi-rae
VERDICT
The defendant is sentenced to 37 minutes of confinement.
―――――――――――――――
When I ran into Yu Mi-rae earlier, she must have just finished serving those thirty-seven minutes and been on her way upstairs.
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REASONS
CRIMINAL FACTS
The defendant and victim A, male, age thirty, were customers visiting the employee cafeteria "Haruda Dining" (hereinafter, "the cafeteria"), operating on the first basement level of Jaelae Building. The defendant and victim ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
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The sentence had been blacked out.
It wasn't a sign of censorship by the Labyrinth itself, but marks left by someone pressing a pen down hard enough to punch holes in the paper.
It looked like Yu Mi-rae had erased it personally.
If it followed the same format as my verdict, it was probably the part explaining the relationship between the defendant and the victim.
The erased passage was long enough to fill more than two lines, so it didn't seem like their relationship could be summed up in a single word.
Then again, one had owed the other their life since high school. It made sense.
The criminal facts that followed were obvious.
Manager Kim had knowingly eaten the food despite knowing it would kill him, in other words, committed suicide. Yu Mi-rae hadn't stopped him. That was considered aiding suicide.
Logically, it wasn't entirely wrong......
Still, it felt forced.
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○ Mitigating circumstances: No prior criminal record up to the age of twenty-nine......
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I laughed a little at that part.
Yu Mi-rae didn't have a criminal record, at least.
Assault is an offense that cannot be prosecuted against the victim's wishes.
So the two of them hadn't pressed charges against each other and had gone back to living as if nothing had happened, amicably ignoring each other's existence.
In the end, only third parties wore out the footage from that day, analyzing and arguing over it.
Since the mutual assault had been so severe, there was even debate over whether it had been attempted bodily injury or attempted murder.
Of course, neither of them had intended to kill the other.
At least, that was what they testified, so it must have been handled as assault.
Uiwi Guild's owners were something of a liability, considering it had two time bombs who exploded whenever they met.
Compared to other corporations committing every kind of illegal act under the sun, it was practically cute. Yet people were strangely uninterested in those matters and wildly fascinated by the violent family brawl between those two.
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▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ Severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and irreparable damage to frontal lobe function, an emotional state that could not help but be extremely unstable due to congenital hyperthymesia, causing dreams and imagined events to be mistaken for real ones, or past events to be recalled as vividly as though they had happened recently......
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......Ah.
Only then could I understand Yu Mi-rae a little.
"Our Father was like a Labyrinth. In the way he was so good at trapping people."
Yu Mi-rae was a survivor of abuse.
Just before graduating middle school, Yu Mi-rae debuted as the lead in a famous singer's music video. A young actress blessed with remarkable looks and talent naturally drew the attention of the whole world.
And naturally, some kinds of attention were violent.
Especially toward a young female celebrity.
Yu Mi-rae's life had been stained by violence.
"Isn't it less fun if you know everything? I think so, anyway."
Not being able to forget was a curse.
There weren't many legal ways to endure a cursed life like that.
It was impossible to hold on.
Not without using even Yu Mi-rae's own life as a game piece.
It was impossible to keep living.
In this world that was like a Labyrinth......
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○ Aggravating circumstances: ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓, having deliberately rescued the victim in preparation for an emergency like the above incident, and despite knowing the feelings of the victim, who intended to commit suicide out of gratitude and affection for the defendant despite fear of death and resentment toward the defendant, the defendant did not actively stop the victim.
For the above reasons, the court renders judgment as stated in the order.
Presiding Judge Judge ██████
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Rustle.
After I finished reading Yu Mi-rae's verdict, I checked my diary to organize my thoughts. Even then, there was time left, so I tore through the Legal Affairs Office all over again.
[11:52]
Time passed quickly as I looked through the cases Uiwi Guild's in-house lawyers had actually been handling.
Crack, scrape......
It had gradually started cracking around eleven that night, and midnight was finally approaching.
I lay still on the floor with my eyes closed and waited.
Psssh......
I felt gray-white powder falling onto my face.
For some reason, I felt like I could fall asleep.
[12:00]
Boom, craaash―!
If only I didn't have to wake up again like this......
* * *
"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?"
......First, I needed to get my appetite under control.
* * *
"Ha......"
Appetite wasn't so easily controlled.
Whether it was mine or someone else's.
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JUDGMENT
Case Murder, Inducing Suicide
Defendant Seon Yu-han
VERDICT
The defendant is sentenced to 8 hours and 27 minutes of confinement.
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I got the maximum sentence again.
At first, I tried to find another solution in the cafeteria, so I persuaded the group to eat first.
Hyeon Je-won stepped forward, received a tray first, and began eating.
But Hyeon Je-won's appetite wouldn't stop. While I was trying to knock them unconscious, food must have gone down the wrong way, because Hyeon Je-won choked to death.
That part was ruled murder.
"I knew this would happen! Don't come near me, you crazy bastard! I'm never eating! If you want to die that badly, then you, you eat it! You and that lady dragged me all the way here in the first place!"
Right after that, Yun Geon-min threw a fit, shouting that I had killed someone and that he would never eat.
Then Kim Hee-sook, who had been completely drained ever since visiting her room in the Corridor of Unforgettable Memories, stepped up next as if she had given up.
"I...... This time, I'll try eating it, I......"
"No, ma'am, are you really insane? I told you, you'll die if you eat it, why―"
"―We have to try something, anything! I'm frustrated too, okay? If you're not going to help, then just stay quiet......!"
Yun Geon-min practically went mad again, but Kim Hee-sook received a tray in the end.
Kim Hee-sook's appetite didn't stop either, and this time I didn't bother stopping her. I watched until she died.
That part was ruled inducing suicide.
"Ugh, urk...... Hic, fuck...... Why am I in a place like this......"
After failing to persuade Yun Geon-min any further as he cried in a corner of the cafeteria, I received a tray too.
That action ended in murder again, just like last time.
I didn't even get to see Yu Mi-rae this time.
The timing had gone wrong because I was busy watching both Hyeon Je-won and Kim Hee-sook eat and die.
So once again, I had to stay locked in the Legal Affairs Office until midnight.
[11:59]
For hours, I thought through every possible scenario.
The first basement level, where Haruda Dining was, was a floor each person had to clear on their own, just as someone had said.
If you couldn't overcome your own appetite, there was no choice but to die.
Then what was I supposed to do?
More than the most delicious food served in the cafeteria, I wanted real "happiness."
But I didn't touch amusement rides without blood and flesh.
In other words, if the others were alive when I received my food, I would inevitably commit the crime that gave me the harshest sentence.
Then I......
[12:00]
* * *
"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?"
I needed to persuade them better, so the judgment would be for no more than inducing or aiding suicide.
I wasn't expecting to get out without committing any crime anyway.
* * *
There was some good news.
First, I succeeded in persuading everyone to eat together at the same time.
And because everyone had turned into skeletons, I confirmed that even without a toy to make me happy, I could take my tray to the return counter myself.
The most delicious food alone couldn't satisfy me, so eventually I lost my appetite and put down my spoon.
"Give it to me. I want to read it too."
The co-representative of Uiwi Guild naturally took the verdict from my hand.
Yu Mi-rae was still locked in the Legal Affairs Office with me because she hadn't finished serving her thirty-seven-minute sentence yet.
There were only a few minutes left, though, so Yu Mi-rae would soon leave me behind.
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JUDGMENT
Case Inducing Suicide
Defendant Seon Yu-han
VERDICT
The defendant is sentenced to 5 hours and 49 minutes of confinement.
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Three counts of inducing suicide still carried a heavy sentence.
And I received the verdict at 6:13.
With a sentence of five hours and forty-nine minutes, I couldn't get out before midnight.
It looked like I would die before I could finish serving my sentence again.
"Yu-han, you won't get out until tomorrow......"
That didn't even qualify as bad news.
"Yeah?"
Yu Mi-rae, who had been reading through my verdict, tilted her head as though she didn't understand.
"You didn't drink Nectar?"
Now this was genuinely bad news.
"......What? Nectar?"
"You know that vending machine by the elevator. It had Nectar in it. The apple Bonbon was gone."
I didn't need to commit any crime.
Footnotes:
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