WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 139: Doubt

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If scales suddenly began growing on a person's body, then the reason had to be...

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3 I know you haven't found water yet, but don't just drink something like dew because you're thirsty. The safest thing is to find a stream and drink from it, okayy.

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That stream from earlier was the only one.

"Ha..."

This was why I shouldn't trust anything from the Labyrinth carelessly.

But that was also what made the Labyrinth so troublesome. I couldn't be certain that everything else in the note was a lie.

Of course, I didn't know how much time I had left to check each thing one by one.

"Urk, hhk..."

The skin around my neck tore open with a rip, and I began to suffocate.

Instinctively, I started running toward where the stream had been.

Damn it.

I'd run too far away earlier.

"Hhk, ah..."

My whole body was drying out, and the gills on my neck opened and closed with difficulty.

My legs gave out.

Just a little.

Just a little farther.

Suddenly, I remembered drowning in the Mechanical Room.

Back then, I'd died because I inhaled water.

"Hngh, hhk..."

Now, I was dying because I couldn't drink it.

Humans couldn't survive without water.

I had no desire to learn that fact in a more extreme way.

"Ha..."

I let out a hollow laugh through my fading vision.

At least, that was what I'd meant to do.

"Ah..."

It had been a while since I'd suffocated to death on dry land.

* * *

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?"

"Ha."

I gasped for breath at the sound of a voice I felt like I hadn't heard in a very long time.

"Seon Yu-han?"

The Interview Administrator looked puzzled, but also concerned for me.

For some reason, that gaze put me at ease.

Thank god.

Even if they disappeared, it wasn't forever.

The people who vanished when the building lost power had only been transferred to another Labyrinth.

I'd had that confirmed for certain in the last loop.

"Interview Administrator."

Which meant that maybe, someday...

"This building has undergone Labyrinthification. Please listen to me."

Maybe I could help this person get out of the Labyrinth alive.

"If you're going to the daycare first..."

I hated people who risked death to save things that were young and weak.

But if you could save the young and weak and still make it out alive.

* * *

Crash!

Rumble, craaash, bang!

Crash, thud!

The elevators fell one after another, shaking the entire building.

"Ah, right."

Maybe I should've let Chae Jae-ha get off here.

It would be better than leaving him alone on the ninth floor.

...No. Forget it.

I wasn't trying to clear the arcade with the minimum number of people. I only needed to reach it.

Tap.

Before heading down the emergency staircase, I paused for a moment.

"Ha..."

I rubbed my face, feeling as though my thoughts had become tangled.

To organize my current situation, it went like this.

My fundamental first objective was to find the Labyrinth's exit.

'This number of eyes is the floor where the exit to this Labyrinth is located!'

My match with Doi had proven that the Labyrinth's exit was on the first floor.

The floors were all mixed up, so I just didn't know where the first floor itself was.

That was why I'd originally planned to stick to one route.

'It looks like you've been heading straight down from the starting point, haven't you? You've never gone up even once.'

'Yes.'

If I kept going down from the third-floor interview room until there was nowhere lower to go and still didn't find the first floor, that would mean the exit was above us.

But I got blocked while heading down.

'Something burst somewhere we weren't again.'

'That rule does seem certain for now. It only bursts things outside our field of view.'

On basement level two, in the Mechanical Room, where something burst vessel tanks and pipes to drown people.

'Could it be avoiding light?'

After concluding that the entity bursting the pumps in the darkness of the powerless Mechanical Room moved to avoid light, I'd been heading upward to resolve the blackout.

'The electrical room...?'

'There should be an emergency generator there, as far as I know.'

I wanted to find the electrical room that could restore the building's lights.

Then, while I was continuing upward, I learned that a clue related to the Sales and Marketing Division on the ninth floor was in the arcade below.

'Oh! The anonymous buyer purchased 545.'

So I was turning around again and heading down to the arcade.

"..."

With the paths twisted into a complete mess, I felt like I was getting even more lost.

...Which was why it was a Labyrinth, I supposed.

Clunk.

After taking a short, deep breath, I opened the emergency exit door.

'Come down anytime you need help. Seon Yu-han, you know better than anyone where to find us.'

It was time to meet my old companions.

* * *

"Hwang Ju-yeon, please go straight to the daycare. I'll check the library."

Without waiting for Hwang Ju-yeon's question, I continued.

"The children will calm down quickly if it's you, since they're at least somewhat familiar with you. Don't worry. I'll bring the librarian and come right away."

"Uh... Okay."

Hwang Ju-yeon was still extremely tense, so I could push her along by force of momentum.

We split up, and I entered the library alone.

"Ah! Uh...? How did you... open the door? I couldn't get out because it was locked, khk...! Cough..."

There was no point wasting time.

After dealing with Kim Gilyeong, I entered the daycare, where a ridiculous-looking goose doll greeted me.

"Oh my! Hello! What brings you here today?"

"Yeah. Hi, Teacher. I'm a colleague of Hwang Ju-yeon over there. It's okay if I come in, right?"

There was no need to wait for an answer, either.

"Hi, Ji-ho. Rest there for now."

Leaving the half-exhausted Jeong Ji-ho alone, Hwang Ju-yeon and I wore down the doll army's stamina, then put them to sleep with a lullaby.

"Thank you for playing so nicely with our children. Goodbye, guardians. Goodbye to you too, Ji-ho."

Holding Jeong Ji-ho in my arms, I started to turn away, then paused.

"Teacher."

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｜Name｜Teacher

｜Facility in Charge｜Part of Floor 2 (Uri Saennal Daycare)

｜Notes｜The ‘children’ or ‘friends’ are attachments of ‘Teacher’ and are not listed separately. ███████

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"What is it that I still don't know about you, Teacher?"

The goose doll's black, bean-like eyes stared straight up at me. Then its white neck bobbed.

"Oh my, the only ones I can bestow a teacher's grace upon are the children of Uri Saennal Daycare."

It meant Teacher wouldn't tell me.

"Fine."

But that was enough.

"...Let's go, Hwang Ju-yeon."

Ignoring Hwang Ju-yeon's strange look at Teacher and me, I led the way toward the emergency exit.

"..."

Patting the back of the Uri Saennal Daycare child in my arms.

* * *

Clunk.

"Gasp..."

Hwang Ju-yeon inhaled sharply at the bleak darkness of the powerless basement level five parking garage.

"Ugh, ngh..."

Then a faint sound of retching came from the darkness ahead.

"Are you all right?"

I readjusted the still-dazed Jeong Ji-ho in my arms and approached, shining my phone's light ahead.

'It was nice to see you again after so long, Seon Yu-han. And it'll be nice to see you again, too.'

I saw a face that I wasn't particularly glad to see, but didn't hate either.

"Ahem, I'm fine."

Yu Hyun-jae approached with a picture-perfect smile, acting as though they hadn't just retched and nothing had happened.

"Oh? You're Yu Hyun-jae... the representative, right?"

"Yes, that's right. And you are...?"

"Ah, I'm Hwang Ju-yeon. This is Ji-ho, Jeong Ji-ho."

"It's nice to meet you, Hwang Ju-yeon. Ji-ho as well. And this is...?"

As I stared at that fake face pretending not to know me, I suddenly realized something.

...This bastard.

They'd been retching on purpose?

'That vomiting, well, anyway, it does make them seem a little more human.'

They were trying to lower our guard.

Trying to look like an ordinary person anxious in a disaster like this.

No wonder they were always dry-heaving the moment we arrived at the parking garage, even when the timing changed.

Then again.

Yu Hyun-jae wasn't someone who'd get sick to the stomach just because they were trapped in a Labyrinth or their escort had their heart taken and died.

"...I'm Seon Yu-han."

I kept my expression under control as I introduced myself.

"Do you happen to remember me?"

Then I beat Yu Hyun-jae to the punch.

"We went to the same middle school."

Yu Hyun-jae's lips curled up gently.

That somewhat teasing smile reminded me of their younger sibling.

"Did you want to be remembered?"

For a moment, I couldn't speak. It felt as though my throat had been squeezed shut.

Yu Hyun-jae really knew how to gouge into someone with a single remark that sounded like a joke.

The shame I felt toward myself for having unilaterally felt such dark kinship and sympathy for those children once. The surprise that I could still feel something like shame...

"...A little."

Yes. I think I wanted them to remember me.

No, maybe I still wanted these people to remember me, too.

"That's good, then. I remember you."

Too bad. You'd forget anyway.

Nobody who was here, right now, could remember me.

"But it looks like you changed your name? I wasn't sure. Your face was familiar, but your name wasn't."

When we met again, they would learn my name anew once more.

"Yes. I changed my name."

"Mm. I like your current name."

...What exactly had they done to make them look so satisfied?

"Ah. Yes. Thank you."

Honestly. It felt like I gave a little and got a lot back.

'I'm Seon Yu-han.'

'Huh? Why are you talking formally?'

Maybe that time had been better.

'We're friends, aren't we?'

Back when simply introducing my name was enough to get called a friend...

"..."

A small question suddenly crossed my mind.

How did Yu Mi-rae remember me?

'...Because of congenital hyperthymesia...'

Yu Mi-rae's memory was undoubtedly extraordinary.

'If someone's style suddenly changes a lot, I can't recognize them even if I just saw them. Sometimes even a slight difference makes them look like a completely different person.'

It was only a problem because it was too extraordinary.

That was why I couldn't help wondering.

'I hardly ever confuse people I'm close to, though.'

So how did someone who occasionally confused even the faces of people close to them...

Remember the face of a classmate they hadn't seen in over ten years, someone they had never even had a conversation with?

Even someone who had changed all three syllables of their name?

Footnotes:

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