WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 165: Why They Became a Witch
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The shack looked less like a house than a small storage shed thrown together in a hurry.
I stopped as soon as I saw the padlock on its door.
“I’ll go check first.”
“Trying to have all the fun alone?”
Fun Hunter narrowed their eyes, as if about to snap at me.
“That’s not it... Please keep watch outside, CEO. Just in case.”
Whatever Yu Mi-rae was thinking, they slowly rolled their eyes once, took a deep breath, then shook their head.
“That won’t be a problem.”
“...What do you mean?”
“It means we’re too late.”
Yu Mi-rae ran straight toward the shack.
Right. I’d expected too much...
Thwack!
Yu Mi-rae reached the shack and brought the shovel down on the padlock.
“...Please step aside. I’ll do it.”
I helped anyway.
There was no stopping Yu Mi-rae.
If they ever did stop, it would be because they had changed their mind, not because of someone’s persuasive skills or fighting ability.
Crack! Crunch!
Clunk, creeeak...
After another couple of blows, the padlock fell away and the shack door opened slightly.
“...”
A stale smell leaked through the narrow gap.
Creeeak.
Yu Mi-rae threw the door open without hesitation.
“There’s nothing here.”
The interior was empty.
No furniture, no belongings, nothing. It was just a small shack.
It really was closer to a storage shed.
“Ah, figures.”
Yu Mi-rae grinned and began driving the shovel into the wooden floor.
“...What are you doing?”
“I’m going to tear up the floor.”
“But why...?”
“There was a basement.”
“Here?”
“In the girl’s story.”
“...You said it was a love story.”
Yu Mi-rae did not answer.
Crunch, thwack!
They were so focused on hacking at the floor that I wondered if they simply could not hear me.
So I helped beside them again.
Crack, crunch, craaack!
I should have brought a hammer.
Thwack!
Craaaack...
The moment part of the wooden floor gave way with a crumble, a familiar smell and sound crept up from below.
The stench of rotting corpses stabbed at my nose, while the sound of gnats tickled my ears.
Thwack, crasssh...
After a few more strikes, there was a hole large enough for one person to fit through.
“Hm? No stairs. It’s not that deep, though. Three meters at most?”
Yu Mi-rae shone their phone light down into the black pit and muttered to themself.
It looked like they might jump in at any second.
I glanced outside the shack, remembering the gaze that had watched us from the mansion before we entered the woods.
If something happened after we both went down there...
“You don’t need to keep watch.”
Yu Mi-rae spoke as though reading my thoughts.
“You still haven’t smelled it?”
“If you mean the smell of corpses...”
“No, not that.”
Yu Mi-rae frowned impatiently.
“Someone set fire to the forest.”
“...What?”
“I can smell something burning.”
“When... Since when?”
“Since we arrived.”
I hurried to the doorway and took a deep breath.
All I could smell was the unpleasant stench inside the shack and the scent of the forest.
The flow of the wind did seem a little strange, that was all.
I would not even have noticed that without Yu Mi-rae saying anything.
“...I can’t smell it.”
“That’s nothing to brag about.”
“Ha...”
With a sigh, I looked back at Yu Mi-rae.
They were already getting ready to climb down.
“You must have had a reason for not telling me.”
“Because it’s already too late, if they were targeting us.”
Of course.
We had walked too far. Even if we ran now, by the time we reached the edge of the forest, the area would already be engulfed in flames, making it impossible even to breathe.
“They must not want us finding what’s down here. Enough to burn down a forest.”
“...Yes. I suppose so.”
I took a short breath and approached the hole.
If I was going to die anyway, I should at least find out what was down there.
“CEO, excuse me for going first.”
I braced myself against the floor, lowered my body into the hole, and hung there.
A pleasant shiver ran through me when my feet failed to find the ground.
Whoosh.
I let go.
Thud.
The fall was short, as expected.
The stench grew even stronger as soon as I landed.
The reek of rotten blood filled the air.
I held my breath for a moment and looked up at the hole.
“CEO, you can come down now. No, please don’t jump... You’ll sprain your ankle...”
“What does that matter? We’re going to die anyway.”
“There’s no need to make it hurt more.”
I barely managed to catch Yu Mi-rae safely and lower them to the basement room floor.
Thud...
Yu Mi-rae immediately looked around the basement room and tilted their head.
“Did they summon a demon? Is there something like that in the setting?”
A huge geometric pattern of unknown meaning had been drawn in the middle of the basement room floor.
It had clearly been drawn in fresh blood. Bugs swarmed along its lines.
“I don’t remember any setting involving demons, but maybe that’s because I’m not originally a character in this book. All I know is the layout of the mansion and the roles of the servants. I don’t know anything about those children.”
“Human sacrifice, maybe? There aren’t any bodies, though.”
As Yu Mi-rae said, there were no bodies of the children, nor anyone else.
The basement room was empty.
“There are ropes. And nails.”
Other than two ropes tied into nooses and nails driven into the pattern.
By a strange coincidence, tracing lines along the nails formed the shape of a person.
At the head lay a rope tied in a style also called a hangman’s knot.
“An Evans knot.”
Yu Mi-rae picked up one of the ropes, shook off the bugs, and pretended to put their head through the loop.
The loop was too small for that.
It was almost small enough to be a bracelet.
“I guess they really did use these on children.”
“With the nails in place?”
Yu Mi-rae tossed the rope to the floor and shook their head.
“They’re awful. I’d come back to life too.”
To avoid imagining that scene, I focused on something else.
“But is there even a witch?”
“It could be a metaphor.”
“A metaphor for what?”
“For something we can’t understand.”
What we did not know was something we could not understand.
What we could not understand was something to fear.
I quietly studied the face cast in shadow.
“Did they sacrifice children to placate something because they were afraid of it? Nature, or perhaps an actual demon.”
“Maybe. Or maybe it was an excuse.”
“An excuse for what...?”
Craaaack...
From above, I faintly heard something, no, a tree, break and collapse.
The fire had finally spread close to the shack.
“I don’t want to burn to death.”
Yu Mi-rae’s shoulders drooped.
“...Would you like me to kill you?”
“Don’t cross the line, Seon Yu-han.”
...What line?
My thoughts tangled for a moment, and I stood there blankly.
Was killing someone crossing the line? Strictly speaking, it was the last line a person could cross, but...
Then.
“I have the right to die...”
Crack.
“...when I want, and...”
Crack.
“...how I want.”
The reflection cracked.
Yu Mi-rae was breaking apart.
“CEO.”
“I can’t die at your hands. Something about you makes me uncomfortable.”
“...You know I’ll remember you said that. Next time, too.”
A perfectly symmetrical smile returned.
“That should make it fair.”
The right hand wearing a ring wavered.
“We’ll meet again nex...”
I couldn’t hear the rest.
Shatter.
The shards of the broken mirror glowed.
Could these count as remains too?
Between such pointless thoughts, I began sorting through my mind piece by piece.
This time, that damned unlucky bastard Yu Hyun-jae had died in Happyland...
Should I send the Jaelae Diary through Chae Jae-ha?
...No.
Yu Mi-rae’s death might be a problem, but Yu Hyun-jae’s death was not.
Even after seeing Yu Hyun-jae’s corpse, Yu Mi-rae had only said not to show them “this crap.” They had not tried to kill me and start over.
Yu Hyun-jae could not possibly be unlucky every time, so maybe Yu Hyun-jae would be alive next time...
It would not be too late to arrange a reunion for the Yu siblings after I found the location of Floor 1.
What was the point of letting them meet when I did not even know how to escape?
Running around picking people up without knowing where the exit was, without any kind of plan, was the true waste of time.
‘It’s safest to leave unnecessary things behind. Including me. Taking everyone with you is just your greed.’
I needed to find Floor 1 first, then properly clear a path.
The path that could save at least a few more people.
For now, then, I would ignore the group on the lower floors...
I spent my time repeating everything I needed to do next.
Until hot, acrid smoke finally seeped into the shack.
There was a lot to do next time, too.
Go all the way up and meet Yu Mi-rae, leave the people on the upper floors in the safest place, the Legal Affairs Office, go down to the arcade and preemptively claim myself, climb back up, get through the audit meeting, jump from the rooftop...
“If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?”
Maybe I should catch the arsonist, too...?
“But why are you being so formal?”
First, I picked up Kim Hee-sook, Yun Geon-min, and Hyeon Je-won one by one and arrived at the Legal Affairs Office.
As always, Yu Mi-rae was there, sentenced to confinement for assisting Manager Kim’s suicide.
“We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Yu Mi-rae always switched to casual speech like that.
Whether it was a left-right reversed mirror image or the original, there was not much difference.
Only the direction of the parting and the hand wearing the ring stood out a little.
“CEO, I have a favor to ask.”
“Hm? Now? What favor?”
“Could you stay here and wait, even after your sentence is over?”
“No. Why would I?”
Yu Mi-rae refused casually, without a moment’s hesitation.
‘So when you meet me, make me wait right there.’
‘...If I ask you to wait, will you?’
‘I’ll say no.’
It was truly remarkable self-awareness.
But that meant it would work out the same way if I followed the next instructions.
After hesitating for only a moment, I spoke again.
“I know what happened to the two of you the day before Fissure Day.”
At that moment.
Yu Mi-rae’s lips curved smoothly, like a sharpened blade slicing through skin.
Without the slightest surprise. As if they were delighted.
“Fine. I understand. I’ll do as you say.”
That smile felt chillingly similar to Yu Hyun-jae’s.
And I knew, down to my bones, that nothing could be a worse omen.
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