WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 25: ♥→♡

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Clank, rattle...

"Ji-ho, I'm sorry for waking you, but I need to get to those two."

I lifted the child and carried them on my back, letting their face press into my shoulder.

No matter how urgent things were, I couldn't let them see something they shouldn't.

"Ha, huu..."

Running while carrying a kid who had to weigh twenty kilograms made me breathless almost immediately.

But I didn't stop. I kept running. I had to.

"Haah... Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi? Representative Yu Hyun-jae?"

By the time I arrived, the false Buddha had already vanished into the dark.

I pressed gently on the back of the child's head to keep them from looking up, and I walked forward slowly.

My heart was already hammering, and the dread was threatening to split it open.

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

A shape I'd thought was crouched slowly rose.

Yu Hyun-jae.

"The, Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi is..."

Yu Hyun-jae shook his head, his face worn out.

I shone a light past him. There, on the carpet where something red was seeping through, Hwang Ju-yeon lay with a blotched suit jacket draped over her like a blanket.

Hwang Ju-yeon was sleeping a sleep she would not wake from.

"I thought that clue, the cross, might have been wrong..."

The words wouldn't come out right.

I couldn't breathe.

"Yes... It seems that way..."

It's my fault. It's because of me. Again it's my fault. Again it's me. Because I was stupid. Because I didn't figure it out sooner. I should have caught on earlier that it was a trap. If I'd looked inside from the start. If I'd redirected Chae Jae-ha's attention back then. Maybe they wouldn't have died. Chae Jae-ha. Hwang Ju-yeon. Nobody.

"Though there is something odd. Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi held back her screams, and yet the false Buddha still came... Seon Yu-han-ssi?"

Right. If it weren't for me.

Nobody would have died.

Clank...

At that moment.

The voice that had been spilling out of my head without pause went silent.

A silence that raised the hairs on my skin.

And then the sharp sound of approaching footsteps.

Splat, jangle...

She hadn't screamed.

Click, scrape...

How had I endured it.

"Seon Yu-han-ssi...!"

"What is it that drives you to such desperate craving. Have you forgotten the eighty-four thousand dharma gates. Are you still bound by the hundred and eight karmic transgressions."

Why?

Why?

"This world is illusion, sensation is karma, and memory is suffering."

The Tathagata was drawing near. Toward me.

Why? What did it hear? What had called the Tathagata here?

Thud, thud...

Bracing for the mercy to come, I pressed my hand to my chest. Through skin that had been torn open more times than I could count, I felt something pounding violently, a blood-soaked lump of flesh raging against the truth that awaited it.

Clank, slap.

Keeping time with the footsteps.

Thud, thud...

"The seat of the Tathagata is neither atop a rotted dais nor beneath a burned sala tree."

Oh.

"Ha. I'd suspected, but..."

This false Buddha that ate at hearts did not come by the sound of screaming.

"Not screaming..."

"But only where the blood of those blinded by thirst and attachment boils like a hungry ghost."

The heart.

"I have waited there."

It came by the sound of the heart.

"It was listening to heartbeats."

"At last, I have heard you."

The moment my realization and those two voices converged into one.

The whole world turned to black.

* * *

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

"I need to... stop my heart?"

"Pardon? Stop what? Oh, are you feeling unwell? Should we wrap up the interview here?"

"...Yes. I think we need to. I'm sorry for the interruption."

I shook off the pain that had vanished like a waking dream, got the Interview Administrator to their feet, and stepped out into the corridor.

I sorted through my emotions and information as we went, and passed along what mattered.

"Down on B5, there's some kind of monster mimicking a Buddha. I think it comes when it hears heartbeats getting louder, though I don't know the exact threshold..."

"So in other words, the monster is monitoring people's heart rates?"

"Yes, I think so...?"

"Then a watch... Oh. You're not wearing one, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

The Interview Administrator showed me the smartwatch on their wrist and furrowed their brow.

"If you track your own heart rate on this and try to keep your head as much as possible, it should help..."

"Oh."

So that's what to do.

Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon had probably been using smartwatches, so those two would be fine.

I wasn't sure about Yu Hyun-jae, but thinking back on what I'd seen of him, he didn't seem like the type to lose his composure and panic.

The problem was Jeong Ji-ho.

Though I suppose it wasn't my place to worry, considering I'd died before him.

"Anyway, this was a real help. You should head down first, Interview Administrator-nim. Be careful."

"You too, Seon Yu-han-ssi. Be careful."

The Interview Administrator gave me a slightly worried look, then headed for the emergency exit.

3:32 PM.

Press.

Driiiiiing!

I triggered the fire alarm with just barely enough time before the power cut out.

Time to meet the accountant, the magician, and the child.

* * *

"Urk, ugh..."

After killing the foul thing wearing a human mask in the library.

"...The child is alone..."

After putting the toys to sleep in the daycare with an indoor activity combining action songs and ball play.

"Ugh, ngh..."

I ran into the head of Uiwi Guild, busy vomiting again, down on B5.

"Oh? Isn't that Representative Yu Hyun-jae? Are you all right..."

I was just starting to feel a faint sympathy for Yu Hyun-jae's esophagus, which seemed to be working in reverse every time we crossed paths, when Chae Jae-ha cut in first with a greeting.

"Yes, I'm fine."

Yu Hyun-jae kept his poker face perfectly in place and began introducing himself like nothing had happened.

"It's good to meet you, Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi. And Ji-ho as well. And you, sir..."

"Oh, hello. I'm Seon Yu-han."

"Ahh... Seon Yu-han-ssi. I see."

Yu Hyun-jae gave a polished smile.

"Good to meet you."

This time he didn't bring up anything about finding my face familiar.

Last time, I'd jumped straight in with "Representative-nim" and greeted him before he could say anything, so he'd probably assumed I was one of his company's employees and gotten a head start on me. If I'd actually been a Uiwi Guild employee, I would have immediately stated my department and name the moment the head of the company showed even a hint of recognition.

"You're not with our company, are you?"

"No, I'm not."

I left out the stray detail about having interviewed for the Uiwi Guild Red Thread team.

Yu Hyun-jae didn't press further and simply nodded.

"Well then, shall we get ourselves into some kind of formation. We've all seen each other's faces and made introductions, so let's cut back on the lights too."

"Um, is too much light a problem? Why?"

At Hwang Ju-yeon's question, Yu Hyun-jae paused for just a beat, then explained the circumstances of his escort's death.

He didn't know exactly why, but the escort had suddenly started screaming and rambling incoherently, and not long after, some Buddha-shaped monster had taken his heart and killed him. He thought something might be happening that frightened people out of nowhere.

"So I had wondered if it was responding to screaming, things like that."

"Ahh."

"Oh no, then does the noise from us talking like this..."

"No, it doesn't seem to pick up on conversation at this level."

"Actually."

I'd kept my mouth shut for a while, but when I cautiously spoke up, the attention shifted to me.

"Could it be that it listens for heartbeats?"

Yu Hyun-jae raised an eyebrow slightly, expression neutral, as if inviting me to keep going.

"Well, the monster takes hearts. It just seems a little more plausible to me."

I made a point of keeping my tone purely speculative.

I had no intention of confidently rattling off what I knew backed by the insane claim that I'd died and come back to life.

Besides, what I actually knew as someone who'd looped wasn't much. Just that the creature clumsily imitating a Buddha came when it heard heartbeats rise past a certain point. Beyond that, I knew nothing.

And on top of that...

I knew how deeply a person could empathize with another's pain, but I also knew how numb they could become to it.

In that sense, I didn't trust these people at all.

Not that I thought they were bad people.

It was just that what came out in a disaster like this wasn't character. It was instinct.

Even the gentlest person wanted to survive, and wanting to survive could make anyone hard.

That wasn't a question of good or evil.

I, I was actually...

I had wanted them to live more than me. More than someone like me.

"Hearing you say it, that does make sense. Screaming is itself something you do when you're startled enough that your heart is racing."

"Yes. Though it's just my theory. There's no need to take risks like actually screaming to test it. Either way, the key point is the same, not getting startled."

Whatever the case, I wanted to cut off any possibility that I'd end up as a meat shield just because I'd come back to life.

I didn't want to die. Not even a little.

So I would not talk about the loop. Not unless there was no other choice.

"So if anyone has a smartwatch, it might be good to keep an eye on your heart rate while you move."

Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon started working at their watches.

Yu Hyun-jae, the hand bearing an analog watch worth dozens of times more than any smartwatch, reached over and gently stroked Jeong Ji-ho's head.

"Children tend to have higher heart rates than adults."

At that quiet, worried murmur, Chae Jae-ha and Hwang Ju-yeon both paused.

They stood there with their wrists half-raised, exchanging glances awkwardly.

As the two of them fumbled to unclasp their watches, Yu Hyun-jae stopped them gently.

"That's all right. Please keep them on. Hwang Ju-yeon-ssi's would be too large for Ji-ho anyway. The readings wouldn't be accurate."

Like in the previous round, we found the strange skid marks and agreed to search for the matching tires.

"How about we split into two groups?"

Yu Hyun-jae gestured lightly as if dividing us.

Though this time, the arrangement was slightly different from last time.

This time: Chae Jae-ha and Yu Hyun-jae.

And me with Jeong Ji-ho and Hwang Ju-yeon.

We split into two teams and started searching, and I found the delivery box faster than before.

The sedan with plate number GO1020 was in the same area as last time.

"Oh. You found something."

"Yes. The moment I confirmed the tires matched those skid marks, this box appeared on the hood."

"A box? What's inside?"

I hadn't lost Jeong Ji-ho or Hwang Ju-yeon, and I rejoined the other two safely.

"I don't think the contents are what matters. I think it's the delivery box itself."

"Hm? So you're saying we shouldn't open it?"

"If the contents were the clue, they could've just left the item sitting there on its own. No need to package it up like a delivery."

I held it out so the shipping label was easy to read. Yu Hyun-jae and Chae Jae-ha leaned in and studied it carefully.

"Samadhi Delivery?"

Chae Jae-ha tilted his head.

"I noticed a delivery truck for them earlier."

Footnotes:

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