WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 21: Reunion

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"Ugh, aagh...! Urk, why..."

I wasn't sorry.

"Keck! I'm, so, sor..."

I wasn't sorry.

"Ghk, urgh..."

There was no reason to be sorry.

"Ugh, urk..."

So this was just a physiological reflex. Nausea, directed at a disgusting monster wearing a human face.

"Ha. Ah..."

3:50 PM.

The reading circle had not begun. Not a single person had died. No one had been forgotten.

At last.

Quiet settled over the library.

* * *

"Oh my? Hello!"

"Ah, Seon Yu-han-ssi...! You made it out safely!"

"What took you so long? God, I really thought you ditched us!"

When I stepped into Uri Saennal Daycare, a doll monster and two humans greeted me one after another.

I looked over and confirmed that Jeong Ji-ho was safely resting against the wall, then let myself breathe again.

After that I went to the lockers and retrieved the bag with Ji-ho's spare clothes.

"......"

Behind a partition, tucked inside a toy box, the "fired" teacher had been crumpled up and packed away. Just as I'd expected.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi, what are you doing over there?"

Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon had both arrived well before me, and from the look of things, neither of them knew about the teacher. Which meant it had probably happened right after the Labyrinthification.

"Get over here! Stop standing around! Can't you see I'm running myself ragged?"

Having been recognized by the goose teacher as an associate of the other two, I joined in on the ragged-running.

The activity turned out to be an upgrade from my earlier action-song performance, now combined with a ball game.

The basic idea was simple soccer-style play, but whenever Hwang Ju-yeon's piano accompaniment started up in the middle of it, everyone had to freeze on the spot and do the actions that matched the lyrics.

"Whew, this, back when my niece was little I used to keep her busy like this, kids have seriously insane energy. If you want them to fall asleep even a little bit faster you really have to..."

The sound of creaking joints, human and toy alike, filled the daycare.

Two grown men in dark clothes were dancing along earnestly to children's songs alongside a crowd of toys, and somehow not a single part of it was funny.

"But was there really no one in the library...?"

When Hwang Ju-yeon paused the accompaniment, the ball game started back up.

"Right. I was a bit late because I checked some other places too, not just the library."

"Ah... I wonder where everyone went, then..."

The piano instructor's hands rested still on the keys, and her expression was dark.

"My guess is they weren't erased, exactly. More like relocated somewhere else."

"What does that mean?"

"I was in the middle of my interview when it happened, so I was with the Interview Administrator, and they just vanished right in front of me."

Thwap.

I gave the ball a light kick as it came my way and kept talking.

"There are no other people here either, so I'm thinking it probably happened to most of them at once, right after the building became a Labyrinth."

"What do you mean no other people?"

A goose doll that looked thoroughly unimpressive cut in with a sharp, high-pitched voice.

"Our children are right here, playing in plain sight!"

Everyone's expression went rigid, like cold water had been thrown over them.

Hwang Ju-yeon, Chae Jae-ha, Jeong Ji-ho. All of them went pale.

"Don't tell me these toys are all..."

"Don't believe it."

I wasn't particularly bothered. I took the ball from the robot and passed it to Chae Jae-ha.

"There's no need to take everything a Labyrinth monster says at face value. Lying is their hobby."

"Hey, hey. Why would you say something like that right to its face..."

Chae Jae-ha looked a little spooked. He tapped my shoulder and shot a nervous glance at the goose teacher.

"Ah, I think this level of talk is fine. Still, sorry if that startled you."

Last time I'd said something along those lines, the goose teacher hadn't made any move to stop me.

Hadn't argued back, either.

So as far as this place's rules went, the toys had no way to kill me right now.

Rubbing the goose teacher the wrong way wasn't a problem.

In that case, the conditions for clearing Uri Saennal Daycare were probably...

Don't be a complete outsider with no connection to the daycare. Play with the toys in a safe, wholesome way until they tire themselves out.

That seemed about right.

"So those children aren't all, um, you know, d... they're not, right?"

Hwang Ju-yeon's fingers started moving again.

The accompaniment was mournful, at odds with the bright and lively lyrics.

"I don't think so."

I stood there listening quietly to the nursery rhymes the toys were singing, then started moving my arms and legs.

"Labyrinths aren't particularly fond of people dying."

"What? What do you mean..."

"What kind of nonsense is that?"

The accompaniment stopped for a moment, and the ball bounced around.

"What a Labyrinth likes is people getting lost inside it. And to get lost, you need to be alive first."

The goose doll's black pupils were fixed on me.

"So it doesn't do the wasteful thing of killing a huge number of people all at once, without even giving them a chance to wander."

Chae Jae-ha nodded like that made sense, then swung his head toward me.

"But. What exactly do you do, that you can say that so confidently? You said you were here for a Uiwi Guild interview, but are you actually a Red Thread? Wait, do Red Threads even apply through interviews? Like office workers?"

"No, I'm just."

It was so absurd I almost laughed.

"Someone who's won the lottery twice."

"What? For real? No way!"

"Right. I'm lying."

"Oh my god. What is wrong with you."

A stifled laugh slipped out nearby.

I turned and saw the freelance magician trying to hold back a smile.

Chae Jae-ha pouted for a moment, then his mouth gave in too, pulling at the corners, and Hwang Ju-yeon wiped the amusement from her face and pressed on the keys.

Labyrinths are strange places.

No, humans are the strange ones.

Even when stuck in a situation that clearly offers nothing to laugh about, something funny comes along and they laugh anyway.

So when I realized what expression I was wearing, my heart seemed to freeze, and I went still.

A Labyrinth shouldn't be somewhere you can smile.

A Labyrinth should only leave bad memories.

Because if there's laughter here.

If there are happy memories.

Wouldn't you stop wanting to escape?

Wouldn't you start wanting to come back?

So I have to...

"...the child is left alone..."

The toys stopped the ball game. To the gentle melody of a lullaby, they lay down on the floor and swayed.

Before long, soft snoring drifted through the air.

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

And with that, we escaped Uri Saennal Daycare.

* * *

9. If you must play with the children, engage in active play such as ball games or action songs.

* * *

"Let's try going down. It's possible that rescuing Ji-ho was the condition."

The moment we stepped out of the daycare, I naturally guided the group toward the emergency stairwell.

I'd cleaned up after myself, but not well enough to withstand any real scrutiny, so I had to keep everyone's attention away from the library entirely.

"Oh, right. That could be it."

"Ji-ho, are you all right? Can you walk?"

Jeong Ji-ho gave a small nod in response to Hwang Ju-yeon's question.

Watching that, something came to me.

"Do you need to use the restroom? Going now might not be a bad idea. You could change clothes too."

Unless the floor directly below was the first floor, there was no telling how much further we'd have to go.

The fact that the floors had gotten shuffled and the first floor had moved away was itself a reasonable sign that the first floor was the exit from the Labyrinth.

The problem was not knowing whether going up or going down would get us there.

For now, the plan was to head steadily in one direction, and if the first floor didn't show up, try the other way.

"Come on, can't you just use the restroom after we're out?"

Well, if it was urgent, there was nothing to be done about it. Chae Jae-ha added that defensively.

Jeong Ji-ho shook his head as if to say it was fine and pointed at the emergency exit.

Just from the look on his face, it was hard to tell whether his unease was purely from being trapped in a Labyrinth, or whether he was simply reading the adults' moods.

"Um, I don't want to dampen things, but..."

"Then don't."

"Pardon?"

"Every time you suddenly get dead serious and start to say something now, I feel like I'm going to die of fear. I think I've developed a trauma response."

The big accountant clapped both hands over his ears and started shaking his head.

"La la la la la, I'm not listening, la la la."

Wow.

I was genuinely impressed. By the absolute shamelessness of a fully grown man.

This really was a different caliber of person. Someone who exchanged business cards in the middle of a Labyrinth.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, then quietly looked away, turned to Hwang Ju-yeon and Jeong Ji-ho, and pressed on.

"The floor below us isn't necessarily... the first floor."

I had to dampen things anyway.

Better to take the blow in advance than to expect the best and walk straight into a pitch-dark basement five floors underground.

"Given the scale of this Labyrinth... just to be safe, it would be good to steel yourselves."

But looking at their faces, it felt like pronouncing a death sentence.

Hard to meet their eyes directly. Like it was somehow my fault.

Was this what the police officer who delivered the news about my parents felt like?

"Ha..."

Hwang Ju-yeon let out a slow breath and was quiet for a moment.

"Well, it is an invasive type, so... it won't be easy. I understand what you're saying. No harm in preparing ahead. If the first floor shows up, that's just a bonus, right?"

The freelance magician nudged Chae Jae-ha, whose hands had finally come down, and that sullen face crumbled.

"Hah, oh no no no no... what is this, out of nowhere... actually, wait."

Chae Jae-ha jerked his head up.

"Nothing's certain yet, right? We won't know until we go down and look. Right? Isn't that right?"

The accountant lightly patted Jeong Ji-ho on the head, fishing for agreement.

The kid, who had been rolling his round eyes back and forth, tilted his head in a noncommittal way.

"See? You think so too, don't you? That guy is just way too pessimistic."

And so the four of us opened the emergency stairwell door to the first floor together.

"Basement five? No, come on, this can't be right..."

The optimistic Chae Jae-ha denied reality.

* * *

"But the power's out so it's just dark down here, right? Even with all our flashlights on it feels suffocating."

"Ji-ho, hold my hand tight."

"Tell me if walking gets too hard. I'll carry you on my back."

We stepped into basement five, each of us with our phone flashlight on, and had barely taken a few steps when.

"Kgh, urgh..."

"Wha, what is that. Who's there?"

Somewhere nearby, a small sound reached us, like a stomach that didn't have much in it emptying itself out anyway.

I thought I knew who it was.

"Um, is someone there? Are you all right?"

"Ahem. I'm fine."

We moved slowly toward the sound, flashlights sweeping ahead, and the beam fell on a man shielding his eyes with one hand.

"Oh, that person..."

Just as I thought.

Co-representative Yu Hyun-jae.

"Let's finish introductions and then keep the lights to a minimum. With this many people, turning them all off would actually be dangerous."

Yu Hyun-jae said that the moment he met the four of us.

"Understood, Representative-nim."

I answered promptly, and Yu Hyun-jae's reddened eyes settled on me, steady and unhurried, as if carving out a sliver of time, making even a brief moment feel stretched long.

Like...

"Have we met before?"

Like he was searching his memory, trying to find me in it.

Footnotes:

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