WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 154: A Brother and Sister on Good Terms
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The two similar faces touched at an angle.
Close enough to share each other’s breath, they stopped where their noses brushed the other’s cheek.
“Our promise...”
Holding Yu Mi-rae’s cheek, Yu Hyun-jae whispered something.
With lips wet from the bloody tears that had run from his own eye.
“Again...”
When the whisper ceased, he pulled their barely touching faces apart and gently stroked his sibling’s hair with his bloodied hand.
The gesture looked almost reverent, as though he were performing an ancient rite.
I was confused because I could not understand any of it.
Yu Hyun-jae slowly rose and looked at me.
“I really am lucky.”
Something was wrong.
Well, of course something was wrong. One person was dead, and another had gouged out his own eye.
But it went beyond that.
“I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you.”
One of Yu Hyun-jae’s cheeks, the one not stained with blood, was wet.
But I could not find sorrow in that one remaining eye.
What I found there was...
“I’m suspicious by nature. You can’t trust the Labyrinth.”
Fear and joy.
He was trembling.
He was smiling.
“So... you did that because you couldn’t believe Representative Yu Mi-rae was dead...?”
Only then did I take a step back.
“Yes. I can’t trust myself either. That child died thanks to you. At last.”
Yu Mi-rae’s brother came toward me, saying things that made no sense.
One step. Then another.
“Mi-rae is dead.”
Yu Hyun-jae stopped in front of me.
His right hand rested over his chest, as if feeling his own heartbeat.
“What will happen to me now?”
He looked at me with eyes that did not seem tethered to the present at all.
His left hand, holding my body like a trap, trembled.
“Then. So. We...”
The trembling suddenly stopped.
“How lucky I am to have you.”
It happened in an instant.
With the sound of flesh being pierced, I felt gravity pulling me underground.
“Someday, if we meet again, we will kill each other.”
Bright-red arcs scattered through my flickering vision like fireworks.
I realized my carotid artery had been stabbed precisely.
“So until that day, we will remain alive.”
That had been our rule...
The low, gloomy voice scattered into tiny fragments like bone dust.
“What would you do, Seon Yu-han, if it were possible to turn back time?”
“Mi.”
Crazy bastard.
“Weren’t you on bad terms with Representative Mi-rae?”
I reflexively touched my neck and blurted out whatever came to mind.
The Interview Administrator’s eyes widened in confusion.
“Huh? Who? Me?”
“No, Representative Yu Hyun-jae, that cra...”
The crazy bastard who pulled a fountain pen from his breast pocket and killed some innocent person because his own younger sibling had died.
My pierced, torn throat burned.
No. That was an illusion. There was no need to cover it with my hand.
When I hurriedly calmed myself and shut my mouth, the Interview Administrator tilted their head for a moment before speaking.
“Ah... It’s no secret that the two of them don’t get along, but Seon Yu-han, is that relevant to this interview?”
“Maybe. It might be.”
At that moment, I saw displeasure cross the Interview Administrator’s face.
So they could make an expression like that too.
But it was only for a moment.
The Interview Administrator stared at me as if we were having a staring contest, then spoke.
“Is it really, truly related to this interview?”
“Yes. What if those two are only pretending not to get along?”
The head of Agent Team 4 in Uiwi Guild’s Red Thread Liaison Department sighed, then smiled with a faint frown, like a counselor faced with a difficult client.
“Didn’t you see the video of them fighting? No matter how often it got reported and taken down, people kept uploading it.”
I had seen it. Of course I had.
Was there anyone in this country who had not seen that video?
The siblings had fought as if trying to kill each other.
That was neither exaggeration nor metaphor. They had literally fought as if trying to kill each other.
For the entire few minutes of that short video.
“I’m really good at fighting. Dirty good. You know that, don’t you?”
They fought very dirty.
They climbed on top of each other, slamming the backs of each other’s heads into the floor, ruthlessly going for vital spots, strangling the throats they gripped with all their strength, biting at flesh...
At the end, one of them even bit around the other’s carotid artery, blood smeared around their mouth, looking more like an animal than a person.
It was no surprise people argued it had been attempted murder.
“Of course... Since they wear matching rings and live near each other, there are plenty of strange people claiming that fight was all a performance too... But they really do have a bad relationship.”
Those siblings really hated each other enough to want each other dead.
But...
“Someday, if we meet again, we will kill each other. So until that day, we will remain alive.”
That was not a rule that could be built on hatred alone.
...I understood that feeling better than anyone.
Only I should be the cause of that person’s death.
Somehow, I felt like I could understand those two now. At last. Barely.
“...Seon Yu-han? This is neither a joke nor a game.”
Maybe there was something wrong with my expression, because the Interview Administrator’s face hardened.
“I heard that their secretaries normally check each other’s schedules and make absolutely certain their routes never overlap. Even when they’re on the same floor. It seems there was some kind of communication error only that day.”
Half listening to the Interview Administrator’s voice, I went over my memories.
Maybe the Yu Hyun-jae who discovered Yu Mi-rae’s body was the truest version of himself.
Violent and self-destructive, afraid and delighted in the face of a family member’s death...
“What good would pretending not to get along do? It would only tank their reputations and stock prices... Seon Yu-han? Are you all right?”
Thinking of Yu Hyun-jae made my body shudder.
“I really am lucky.”
That was when I realized it.
“I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you.”
That man had been happy because of me.
Because if he killed me, he could start over.
And if he started over, Yu Mi-rae would be alive again.
If Yu Hyun-jae retained memories from the previous loop, he would surely act differently from this loop onward.
He had confirmed where Yu Mi-rae was and how they died.
But if he did not, Yu Hyun-jae...
That bastard was truly insane.
He had effectively declared that if Yu Mi-rae was not kept alive, he would kill me and start over.
Even if he did not remember the previous loops, any number of times. The moment he recognized Yu Mi-rae’s death.
No, wait. Then...
“Can you let me out?”
If I kept Yu Hyun-jae and the others together in the “home,” Yu Hyun-jae would kill the other children.
“How lucky I am to have you.”
If I kept Yu Hyun-jae and Yu Mi-rae’s corpse together, Yu Hyun-jae would kill me.
“Someday, if we meet again, we will kill each other.”
If I kept Yu Hyun-jae and Yu Mi-rae together, they would kill each other...?
“Ha...”
Why did I have to solve such a ridiculous river-crossing puzzle?
Bang!
Rumble! Crash, crash! Bang!
Crash! Thud!
Even after the entire building shook and the Interview Administrator vanished, I had to sit there clutching my head for a while.
For now, I had confirmed that Yu Hyun-jae did not remember the previous loop.
“Seon Yu-han, would you like to make a preemptive claim?”
If he had remembered, he would have followed me all the way to the arcade to check whether I made a preemptive claim on Yu Mi-rae.
“Yeah. 446.”
“Yes. ‘Seon · Yu · han’ has made a preemptive claim on 446. The moment 446 enters the ‘pen,’ payment will be automatically processed and the purchase completed.”
Fortunately, I made a preemptive claim on Yu Mi-rae this time.
I even made one on 475, Yu Hyun-jae.
My luck with the dice had been good.
Considering I had died around six times in Happyland after losing the wrong body parts, and wasted two loops because I failed to make a preemptive claim on myself.
All I had to do later was keep their spaces separate so they would not meet in the “home.”
〔Ah...〕
Just as I arrived in front of the conference room where the others’ special seminar was being held, I sensed 446 enter my “home.”
446 seemed confused by the sudden change in environment.
『446. Home.』
〔Home...?〕
If I had met 446 directly, I could have explained it in words.
Communicating in such an incomplete way was not easy.
『Life. Children. No death.』
〔Ah...〕
Then 446 sat down, curled up, and began muttering.
〔Ah. No... No, it can’t... This place... No, I...〕
This was the first time I had seen this child so frightened.
〔Ah... Father... Surely... A mistake...〕
Ah.
“Our Father was like the Labyrinth. In the way he was good at confining people.”
I had made that child remember their trauma.
Being forced to remain indefinitely in a space called “home.”
That was probably why Yu Hyun-jae had tried to get out, even if it meant killing the other children.
Of course, I was absolutely not imprisoning the children. I only wanted to care for them safely until they died rather than leave them loose in a dangerous place, purely out of concern for them...
Still, it seemed hard for children to understand.
『Dream. Imagination. Wrong. Now.』
I kept telling 446 that this was not that home, that they were not in the past but here in the present, yet they did not even seem capable of reading the walls.
“No!”
That child, who had been dazed, began hurting themself.
“Don’t... Please...”
“Seon Yu-han! Are you okay? Why... Does something hurt? What’s wrong all of a sudden?”
I did not want to let 446 out.
『Stop.Stop.Stop.Stop.Stop.』
I did not want to let them leave.
“Stop... Why do you keep...”
Why did everyone keep trying to escape from me?
They were mine. My child. My children.
Why did they refuse even to die by my hand?
I should have had at least your death.
You said you were coming home.
I told you to come back safely.
I kept waiting.
Why did you not return home?
Why did you not come back to me?
Was it because I could not become your home?
“What did I...”
“Mr. Seon Yu-han. Take a deep breath, slowly.”
“What did I do wrong...?”
“Well, I’m not sure. Is something wrong?”
“That woman... No, Yu Mi-rae... They...”
I realized my mistake and hurriedly shut my mouth, but it was already too late.
Yu Hyun-jae seemed to understand what he had to do from that fragment alone.
“What would you do, Seon Yu-han, if it were possible to turn back time?”
I really could not take this anymore.
If I rolled the dice badly, Yu Hyun-jae killed me.
If I rolled them well, Yu Hyun-jae killed me.
But there was still a possibility.
Meeting Yu Mi-rae before going down to the arcade.
Meeting them in the Legal Affairs Office, as I always had before.
If I kept Yu Mi-rae alive and let them meet Yu Hyun-jae, their reactions might be different.
Of course, according to Yu Hyun-jae, they had made a rule that they would kill each other if they met.
“Someday, if we meet again, we will kill each other.”
But that was a rule made outside the Labyrinth. It was not made on the assumption that both of them would be trapped in the Labyrinth.
Besides, that rule was practically...
“So until that day, we will remain alive.”
Was it not closer to a plea that said, even if we never meet again, please stay alive somewhere?
Yu Hyun-jae killing me to bring Yu Mi-rae back to life could be explained in that context too.
Of course, considering that mutual assault video, it was not as though they had no desire to kill each other with their own hands...
Either way, I had to see what would happen if I put two living people together.
I could not chart the path without first seeing where it led.
In other words, I would meet Yu Mi-rae and talk to them.
I would tell them they could not go up to the Sales and Marketing Division now. Why? Because we had to go down there together. Why? Because if we did not buy ourselves, we could not move higher up. Why? Because I had to find the electrical room. Why? Because I had to pass through the path blocked by darkness and water below. Why? Because I was looking for a way. Why? Because I had to get out. Why?
“...And Representative Yu Hyun-jae is there too.”
“Really? Okay.”
Representative Yu Mi-rae, who had kept asking why like a four-year-old child, finally agreed.
Far too readily, enough to irritate me.
I looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.
They had questioned me for all twenty-one minutes of Kim Hee-sook’s sentence.
Yet just one mention of Yu Hyun-jae...
“Let’s go down. Hurry.”
...They really must want to kill him.
Yu Hyun-jae’s faceless corpse was found in the Neosoft office.
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