WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 20: Empty Hands, Empty Return

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"This floor is, ugh!"

I shone the flashlight in Yu Hyun-jae's eyes and threw a punch with everything I had.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi...? Why..."

I ran like my life depended on it.

Toward the spot where Yu Hyun-jae had first been standing.

"Don't tell me. No. No, please..."

Which zone was it, exactly?

C07? G01?

"It's a misunderstanding. Stop."

Right. Judging by the entire line being C-zone, C07 sounded about right.

"Don't go there, Seon Yu-han-ssi. Stop. Stop running. You shouldn't see..."

Yu Hyun-jae had apparently gotten up and was coming after me.

Whether from the fall earlier or a twisted ankle, it didn't sound like a full sprint.

"Ah."

Here.

Zone C07 had a midsize sedan and an SUV parked in it.

Behind the sedan, on the wheel stop and the wall, was what looked like stomach acid, like Yu Hyun-jae had been sick there.

Behind the SUV, on the wheel stop and the wall.

"Ah, ah..."

Red blood that hadn't even begun to clot, splattered across everything.

No. This can't be. That's impossible.

I grabbed the car frame for support and staggered around to the driver's side of the SUV, half-hidden behind a pillar.

Thud.

The phone slipped from my hand before I even understood what I was seeing.

"Ji, Ji-ho...?"

No. This isn't right. This is not fair.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi...?"

It looked like a scene from a play.

Soft white light curling up toward the ceiling.

A pure, innocent child and a blameless woman, fallen with their hands clasped together.

Bodies drenched in dark red blood as though washed clean of sin. Faces pale as glass.

Exposed rib fragments. Red flesh crushed and running down. And in the center of it all, an empty space.

The missing hearts.

The cruelest kind of tragedy: only the most blameless meet a senseless, permanent death, while only the most undeserving claw their way through and go on suffering.

"How, how did... Why, like this..."

"Seon Yu-han-ssi..."

"You, Yu Hyun-jae, what did you do?"

Crack.

My body shot forward on instinct.

"Ugh..."

"Tell me what happened!"

"Calm down. It wasn't me, ugh, I didn't do this. It wasn't me."

Yu Hyun-jae raised both hands as if to prove it.

Dirty with dust and grime, but no trace of blood.

"Don't play games. I don't think you tore them apart with your own hands."

The arm I had pressed against Yu Hyun-jae's throat bore down harder.

"I think you fed them to a monster as bait."

"That's not it. I just..."

Pinned against the wall and gasping, Yu Hyun-jae made no move to resist. Just lowered their head, the look of someone with nothing left to say. The shadowed corners of their eyes were red.

I couldn't understand any of it.

Not how both of them had ended up like this in such a short window of time, and not how Yu Hyun-jae could have hidden it while wearing that infuriating expression.

"I'm sorry for lying earlier. I thought Seon Yu-han-ssi was someone who meant to hurt those two..."

"...What?"

"I was going to attack you and run if things went wrong..."

"What are you, what are you saying..."

My chest seized, like something pressing down from inside.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, please... Calm down and listen to me."

Both of Yu Hyun-jae's hands covered my forearm and my clenched fist.

The quiet warmth spreading across the back of my hand steadily drained the tension out of me.

"When Seon Yu-han-ssi first asked about those two, the way you spoke sounded exactly like a hunter who'd lost their prey... I misread the situation."

My head was spinning, but I forced myself to piece that earlier conversation back together.

"Did you happen to see anyone else down here?"
"Anyone else?"
"Yes. A child and a woman, two people. They must have come down this way."
"Are they family?"
"No, nothing like that. I ran into them upstairs and, well. I lost them."
"Do you need to catch them?"

Ha.

While I'd been wary of Yu Hyun-jae, Yu Hyun-jae had been just as wary of me.

And from Yu Hyun-jae's side, there had been more than enough circumstantial reason to see me as a threat.

"And even though it was only for a moment, those two looked genuinely like they were being chased when I came across them."

My breathing went shallow.

Like I was hearing something I wasn't supposed to hear. The voice unraveled into a murmur I could barely follow.

"The woman screamed the second she saw my face, before she'd even gotten a proper look at me. And then not long after, she ended up like that... Ah, Seon Yu-han-ssi, no. Don't. Breathe. Breathe slowly."

So because of me.

All of it, because of me.

Because of me.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, slowly."

Someone grabs my wrist.

Someone is talking, I think. I can't quite hear them.

Thud, thud. My heart feels like it's right inside my ear. Thud, thud. My heart. Their hearts. The portions belonging to the dead. Thud, thud. Beating somewhere inside me. Thud, thud. Mine. The ones I stole. Thud, thud. Mine. The ones taken from me. Thud, thud.

"Look at me. Calm down-"

-Clank.

"Ah, it heard us after all. Two minutes or so..."

Clang. Splash.

Something moved closer through the dark, beyond the reach of the faint flashlight.

Metal on metal in a steady rhythm, clacking and grinding.

The faint sound of gears meshing, teeth catching teeth.

A wet, squelching sound, like flesh being crushed underfoot.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi."

A monster.

"Stop thinking about the dead and get yourself together, first."

A monster that ate people.

"Breathe. That's how you survive."

And still hungry after all it had swallowed. Coming anyway.

"My guess is that fake Buddha wants the heart-"

"-One who cannot escape craving does not know that 'I' is empty, and 'you' is empty, and 'we' is empty."

Crack.

"Isn't that exactly what a monster of the Labyrinth is?"

That flat, toneless voice echoed at the edge of my hearing.

"The Tathagata is one who comes according to the dharma, one who goes according to truth, one who purely awakens to nirvana."

Crunch.

"Willingly listening to the afflictions of sentient beings who cannot sever the hundred and eight earthly desires."

The compassionate Buddha statue entity's fingers tore through my chest like paper, crushed through my ribs, and reached inside.

"And guiding the pitiable sentient beings to the world of true thusness by hand."

Cold mercy pierced through my entire body like a revelation.

"However, rebirth in paradise is not a sufficient condition for liberation."

Yu Hyun-jae held my wrist through all of it.

Until I left this world of suffering behind.

...You could have just run. Idiot.

* * *

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

"Heart."

A phantom of terrible, searing pain surged across my chest like a mirage.

Just my imagination.

"Hearts are. The hearts."

"Pardon? Seon Yu-han-ssi, are you feeling unwell?"

The Interview Administrator looked at me with concern as I clutched my chest and muttered to myself.

"I'm fine. I'm all right."

"Ah, um. Yes."

I walked over to the Interview Administrator, who answered with visible skepticism.

"Please get up. This building has become a Labyrinth."

"Pardon?"

Dragged out into the corridor, the Interview Administrator first looked at me like they were genuinely worried I might be ill, then watched me rattle off the Labyrinth's precautions like a list of prayers and gave a slow, serious nod.

"Ah, and the librarian. We have to kill the librarian..."

The moment I thought of that revolting thing, words started tumbling out of my mouth in a mess.

"To get down from the second floor, but the floors are all mixed up so the next one is basement 5, anyway we have to kill the librarian in the library, that, it'll be hard but we have to kill it. That damn...! That thing. That thing is not human."

"Hold on. Just a moment, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

The moment I felt hands grab both my forearms, my lurching vision locked onto a single point.

No monster wearing a human face. No human bleeding to death because of one.

"Look at me."

Just the Interview Administrator, looking straight back at me.

"Yes. I'm looking."

"You did well."

When I steadied myself, the Interview Administrator finally smiled.

Or had it been the other way around?

I'll probably never be as good a Red Thread as this.

"That said, when you say library, you mean Chaekbang Ollae, don't you? That place runs a self-checkout system, so there's no librarian there..."

"Ah, shi-"

I really almost couldn't stop myself that time.

"...isn't easy."

"Pardon?"

"I said it isn't easy. This whole Labyrinth business, really..."

Heat rose from somewhere deep in my gut.

To think that every single time had been that much chaos, all because only people who'd never set foot in Chaekbang Ollae kept ending up here.

"Well, see you again later, Seon Yu-han-ssi. Stay safe."

"Yes. Don't wait for me. I hope you make it out safely."

I finished what I had to say and the two of us parted ways quickly.

3:31... 3:32.

Press.

Br-r-r-r-r-r-r-ring!

I hit the fire alarm and sprinted down the corridor at full speed, jamming the elevator button.

4... 3... Ding!

Just barely made it.

The panic had cost me time. Almost missed the window entirely.

"The doors are opening."

The elevator doors split apart on both sides, like a chest being cut open.

The sullen face of a brown-haired accountant in a neat suit looked back at me.

"You're actually getting in? I was about to get off because of the alarm, you know."

"...It's been a while, Chae Jae-ha-ssi."

Really.

* * *

"It's not going to work, I'm telling you..."

"Look, how do you know if you don't even try-"

"-Oh, um...?"

We'd been going back and forth on the second floor about whether to smash a window with a fire extinguisher when Hwang Ju-yeon stepped out of the infinite stairwell and ran straight into us.

If I set off the fire alarm just before the blackout at 3:33, I could get Chae Jae-ha off on the third floor and run into Hwang Ju-yeon in the corridor, too.

A little chaotic, but it worked out: I'd found a way to meet Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon outside of Chaekbang Ollae.

The three of us gave each other a quick rundown of our situations and exchanged names.

"I was here to do a magic show at the daycare upstairs, you know? Thought I'd catch a quick nap in the library afterward and, ha, well."

Should've known better. The bitterness in her voice as she added that was clear.

"Oh, right! The librarian!"

Hwang Ju-yeon suddenly cried out.

"Where are they? How did I not run into them? Are they still in the library...? Ah, no, wait, I woke up because of the alarm and headed for the entrance and the librarian was there. I didn't see them when I first came in, they weren't at the desk, but..."

The freelance magician trailed off from her own muttering and explained, a little sheepishly.

"Anyway, so I asked what was going on, whether it was a real alarm. And they told me to go on ahead. Said they'd check in with the management office and come right out. But thinking about it now, if they did come out, they should still be on the second floor, right? Since you can't get down to the lower floors no matter how far you go."

"Ah, just a moment, Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi."

I stopped Hwang Ju-yeon, who had already turned toward the library.

"I'll go check the library, so why don't Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi and Chae Jae-ha-ssi head to the daycare first?"

I couldn't let anyone into the library.

Not Hwang Ju-yeon, not Chae Jae-ha. No one but me.

I couldn't make the same mistake twice.

"Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi already has some familiarity with the kids, so they'll be a little more comfortable with her there. I'll bring the librarian straight to the daycare."

"You're not just trying to ditch us and run off on your own, are you?"

Chae Jae-ha gave me a sideways look.

Half joking, by the sound of it, so I shook my head without much energy.

"If there were somewhere to run to, that would've been nice."

Hm.

Apparently not that funny. I thought it was.

"Anyway, if nothing goes wrong in the library..."

3:41.

I checked the time and kept going.

"I'll be at the daycare in ten minutes, at the absolute latest."

"Fine. Go get the librarian and come straight back. Don't do anything weird."

I left behind the accountant whose trust in me hovered somewhere around zero and the freelance magician watching me with worried eyes, and headed for Chaekbang Ollae.

If my guess was right, the reading circle checked occupancy in ten-minute intervals and started whenever even one person besides the librarian was present.

So I had nine minutes until 3:50.

"Wh-what...? The door, how did you open it? I was, ugh, I was stuck because the door was locked..."

Nine minutes was enough.

"Um, excuse me...? Why are you looking at me like that..."

To kill a monster.

* * *

8. Kill the librarian. There is no librarian here, and it is not human.

Footnotes:

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