WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 131: Miroa
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“Representative!”
The moment I saw unidentified white smoke beginning to fill the room, I grabbed Yu Mi-rae.
“Your nose and mouth...!”
I didn't need to tell her to cover them.
Yu Mi-rae was already covering her nose and mouth with her left arm. She moved without hesitation, naturally pulling me along as I held on to her.
Yu Mi-rae's room, like mine, had four doors, one on each wall.
Click.
Yu Mi-rae opened the door on the wall immediately to the right of the one I had come through.
Thud!
Beep.
The shrill alarm cut off the moment we crossed into the next room and shut the door behind us. The smoke disappeared without a trace.
As though the rooms were connected by doors but completely separate spaces.
“Ha...”
The room we had entered wasn't much different from the last one.
A prison cell that looked as though it had been built from stone. Doors on every side.
There was only one difference.
“Huh? There's something here.”
A small slip of paper lay in the middle of the floor.
Rustle.
Yu Mi-rae picked it up, read it, then let her shoulders slump.
“This is boring.”
From what I'd seen so far, Yu Mi-rae finding something boring was usually a good sign.
I took the note from her hand.
[Free Time｜5 minutes]
This “owner” seemed to know humans reasonably well.
At least, it was communicating in language humans could understand.
I left the note where it was and tried opening each of the four doors.
Click. Click. Click. Click.
“They're all locked.”
“They'll open in five minutes.”
Yu Mi-rae answered as though it were ridiculous to even check.
Scrape, scratch.
Then she used a shard of stone to draw an X on the door we had come through.
“...Why were you scratching the wall earlier?”
I nodded toward the door.
“Was there something on the wall?”
It wasn't as if she had scratched it because she didn't know how to open a door.
There had to be some special reason...
“No. I was just seeing if I could break through the wall if I kept at it.”
So there was no special reason after all.
I understood even less now.
Though the sound of her scratching the wall had let us meet right away instead of passing each other by.
“The door wasn't even locked...”
“What do you know? It's how I feel.”
The Representative's voice and expression turned frightening again.
“...Understood.”
I decided to change the subject.
“Anyway, Chae Jae-ha and Hyeon Je-won might have come here too.”
“Things that aren't here right now don't matter.”
Yu Mi-rae said as she flopped carelessly onto the floor, drawing shapes like Tetris blocks with the shard of stone.
“What matters is how we get out, using what's here right now.”
Surprisingly, that was exactly right.
Rustle.
I sat beside Yu Mi-rae, leaving a little space between us.
“It seems to be a maze. Since each room has four doors, I think we might have to keep moving through the right ones.”
“I'm good at mazes.”
Of course she was.
She had a good enough memory to confuse dreams with reality.
“But I don't really like them.”
“Oh, really.”
“Why? You don't believe me?”
Yu Mi-rae's gaze snapped toward me, sharp enough to sting.
“No. I believe you.”
“Why? Don't believe me.”
What was I supposed to do with that...?
Their personalities were completely different, but the siblings were exactly alike in one respect. They were exhausting to deal with.
“...Anyway, where should we go once the five minutes are up?”
“That door.”
Still focused on her doodling, Yu Mi-rae pointed at a door with her left hand without looking up.
“Why?”
“No reason. It doesn't matter where, as long as we don't go back where we came from.”
“...Is that so.”
I thought Yu Mi-rae might not have been talking about this maze at all.
“What? Do you have a better idea?”
Well.
There was too little information right now.
I didn't even know whether we had to escape this maze completely before we could be returned to the building alive.
Scritch, scratch.
My eyes drifted down to Yu Mi-rae's doodles.
More and more squares were appearing.
...They looked like a map of this maze prison.
I reached out and pointed to the square in the center.
“We could start from our room and spiral outward, checking every room.”
“Who plays a game like that? That's boring.”
“...This is reality, not a game.”
“It is a game.”
A gaming addict said that with a perfectly calm face.
“We were sold here from the ninth floor. To play a game. So we should play it. Make it fun. That's how we win.”
That was madness.
Still, as though there were paths only those mad eyes could see, I thought there was unexpectedly some sense in what she said.
If the “owner” didn't like seeing us play the game “for fun,” it might kick us out and return us.
“Don't worry. I'm good at games.”
“Yes. Then let's do that. As long as we don't go back to a room we've already visited, we'll just... have fun.”
Yu Mi-rae smiled brightly.
“Yeah. That's it. There's nothing else. That's everything.”
Beep, beep, beep!
Hiss...
Five minutes passed quickly.
Click.
We immediately entered the next room.
“Ah! There's one here too.”
Yu Mi-rae ran to the center of the room, bent over, and reached for the note...
“Representative?”
She picked up the small black thing lying on top of it and popped it straight into her mouth.
I didn't even have time to stop her.
At that moment.
Clunk.
All four doors unlocked, and I hurried over to read the note.
[Meal Time｜5 minutes]
What?
A chill ran down the back of my neck. When I looked over, Yu Mi-rae was chewing with her mouth tightly closed.
I could faintly hear a sickening crunch.
What had she picked up and eaten?
“Spit it out, now! Spit it out!”
Manners be damned, I grabbed her face. Her throat moved faintly.
She had swallowed it. Whatever it was.
“Move.”
Yu Mi-rae slapped my hand away with a cold expression.
Then she said something outrageous.
“Food won't kill you.”
An age-old final line in this country.
“Let's go. It seems like the rule is that the doors open if we do what we're told, even if we don't use all five minutes...”
“...I'll do it.”
I grabbed the doorknob right away, before Yu Mi-rae could.
“From now on, I'll check first.”
“You? What gives you the right?”
Yu Mi-rae let out a humorless laugh, but her expression quickly darkened.
“Yu-han. Get a grip.”
Her voice was chillingly devoid of emotion.
“Do you think I did that for you? What if the next note says something like ‘Murder Time’? What are you going to do then? In that case, the first person to read it wins.”
I stared blankly at that innocent-looking face.
“...Maybe keep thoughts like that to yourself.”
“No need.”
Was it confidence? Weariness?
There was no time to think about it.
“The first reader gets it!”
Yu Mi-rae swiftly opened the door and went through.
Judging by her attitude, she looked exactly like a child on a treasure hunt.
Tap tap tap...!
I followed right behind, but I was one step too late.
Rustle.
Yu Mi-rae picked something up.
“See? This is what I mean.”
A small silver blade snapped out with a click.
It was a folding multi-tool, fitted with all kinds of implements, including a knife, saw, scissors, and awl.
Keeping my distance from Yu Mi-rae, I read the note.
[Diet Time｜5 minutes
Diet Goal｜Lose 100 g]
One hundred grams.
An equation came to mind.
It was fine.
A golden scale rose above the mannequin's neck.
I could endure it.
The sharp smell of blood came to mind.
Now.
The sound of skin, veins, muscle, and bone being sliced apart echoed in my ears.
I could do it.
One hundred grams...
“Representative, if we're doing this, let's start with my ear. Then my fingers. My ring finger would probably be the best...”
Stab.
“...Mi.”
Crazy.
“Rae, Representative!”
“You really take things to extremes.”
Said the person who had just punched a hole in her own left arm with a multi-tool.
“All we need to do is draw fifty milliliters each.”
“...Ah.”
Only then did my heart slowly settle, clearing my head.
“Then couldn't I just empty my bowels? There's no need to bleed.”
“That's boring. You're making it too easy. And you've made it this far, so you know, don't you? Blood is going to be spilled anyway.”
A red line ran down her slender arm, dripping from her fingertips.
“Representative, stop. It's my turn now...”
“Move your hand. We need more.”
Slap!
The instant Yu Mi-rae knocked my hand aside, I snatched the multi-tool away.
Unexpectedly, she didn't get angry or resist.
Click.
I unfolded the scissors.
Rustle, snip.
Just as I began cutting the hem of my pants.
Click.
The locks on the doors released.
The sound that told us all one hundred grams of blood had drained from Yu Mi-rae's body.
“Huh? Already? I got mixed up.”
A lie.
“It's not a lie.”
“...Did I say that out loud just now?”
Yu Mi-rae had been looking down at the strip of cloth winding around her arm like a bandage. Her eyes turned toward me.
“You did. I told you, I don't have face blindness. I'm very good at reading expressions.”
“Ah, yes.”
Ignoring that bright gaze, I finished wrapping the cloth around her left arm.
That was when my eyes fell on Yu Mi-rae's pinky finger.
The ring that had been on that finger until we were trapped in this maze and forced to change clothes.
For a moment, I thought about the thread-thin secret the ring had concealed.
Who could have done that?
Who, and why, had tried to cut off this finger?
...No. Don't think about it.
Wanting to know didn't mean I had the right to know.
“...I'm done. Let's go.”
“Move. I'm first.”
Yu Mi-rae glared at me like a sulky child as she passed.
“I have the knife anyway.”
“I know.”
Yu Mi-rae gripped the doorknob and looked back.
“That makes things more even. Balanced.”
A smile so pure it was almost nostalgic, and so beautiful it was frightening.
For some reason, my chest went cold.
A sudden premonition beyond logic passed through my entire body.
Click.
The door opened.
Maybe I wouldn't be able to beat her.
“Huh?”
Yu Mi-rae entered the room first and quickly picked up the note and whatever had been resting on top of it.
Since it fit entirely in one hand and could be hidden there, it didn't seem as threatening as the knife.
“What is that?”
“Hmm...”
Without answering, the Representative tilted her head and fixed her gaze on the note.
She looked as though she were considering something very serious.
“Representative.”
When I approached, Yu Mi-rae quickly turned away.
I subtly adjusted my grip on the multi-tool.
“Representative. Show me the note.”
If it contained something dangerous, I had to get ahead of her.
“Okay.”
Yet Yu Mi-rae nodded without caring at all whether I was on guard.
“Still, I should ask first.”
Wondering what that meant, I looked at her.
Only then did Yu Mi-rae turn the note around and show it to me.
[Makeup Time｜5 minutes
□ Lips
□ Left eye (eyeball)]
“How much can you give up?”
Click, whoosh.
A flame rose from the lighter in Yu Mi-rae's hand.
Footnotes:
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