WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 34: Haunted Head Gallery (5)
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The golden staircase shuddered like a living thing and withdrew a little higher each time we stepped onto another carpeted tread.
The enormous crystal chandelier that had overwhelmed my entire field of vision and destroyed all sense of perspective receded into a dizzying height.
The meticulously painted vines suddenly took on depth, pushed through the wallpaper, crawled up the walls, and writhed as they breathed faintly.
By the time we had climbed what felt like more than three stories, the stairs finally stopped.
An unidentified light scattered in every direction beyond a door fashioned from delicate, geometric glasswork.
Creeeak. Creeeeak.
Despite looking like a glass door, it opened with the unpleasant grinding sound of unoiled metal scraping together.
“Hngh...”
The sickly sweetness of fruit so overripe it had rotted to mush on the floor mingled with the watery scent of damp moss where snakes that had shed their skins crawled.
Though glass walls and a glass ceiling surrounded us, the place was abnormally vast, crowded with countless plants and animals.
None of them remained whole by themselves. They had grotesque forms, as if evolution had reversed, leaving them clinging to their own differentiated forms.
On closer inspection, the plants were colonies of thousands of green insects crawling in a mass, while the willow branches were indistinguishable from deer antlers.
At the center of the garden stood an enormous tree.
It looked like headless people tangled together into one body, reaching out their arms. Countless hands stretched toward a single apple, forming the tree’s massive shape.
And hands rising from the ground cradled and held up countless heads.
“This... this is all...”
There were pale faces that would never rot. One head wore a jeweled crown over flowing blond hair. Another had bright red curls decorated with a bohemian ribbon.
One face had its eyes covered by a velvet blindfold embroidered with gold thread. There were dark-skinned faces, young faces, and old faces. Faces with mouths open, faces frowning, faces with their eyes shut or open.
And every one of those faces was watching the person who entered. Whether their eyes were open wide or closed, all of them stared with pain and joy, hope and despair, sorrow and tenderness.
Aaaaaahhhhhh...
A chorus began to rise from places with no mouths.
A sound like paper being crumpled burst out all at once. Thousands of butterflies beat their wings, scattering scales in every direction.
Langwidere’s Princess appeared as though she had risen from the earth itself.
Butterflies tinged blue and violet layered themselves over the Princess’s body in place of a dress. At even the slightest movement, they took flight and settled again, changing the dress’s color and shape.
The necklace adorned along her collarbone was less an accessory than an extravagant display stand for the head resting atop it.
And that head.
The most precious head. The head she cherished most.
A golden laurel crown carved with fruit and leaves rested on a thick silk veil that trailed down at length.
A viscous golden liquid, like wax or pus, continuously flowed from the edge of the veil and soaked the ground.
His knees felt ready to buckle. He could not bring himself to step any closer. All he could do was force out a cracking voice.
“A trade... I came to purchase an exhibit.”
Trembling hands searched through his clothes, spilling out countless objects. Human bones, jewels shaped like eyeballs, and dozens of employee ID cards so soaked in blood that their names were almost impossible to read.
A total of thirty-four lives rolled across the dirt. Documents detailing employment contracts and chains of command poured over the ID cards.
“This proves that ownership of the heads your Curators collected belongs to us! Sell me your head!”
Beyond the veil, the Princess tilted her head. At her gesture, the butterflies encircled the ID cards and took flight. Thirty-seven heads piled in her palms spun round and round.
Ohohoho. Hohohohoho.
The sticky golden liquid ran thickly down her chest. Every living thing in the garden began to laugh in whispers.
Ahahaha! Hohohoho!
I missed you! I missed you! I missed you!
“Wh-what? What is this?! What is happening...?!”
Aren’t you curious? Aren’t you curious, Team Leader?
A voice that should never have been heard here rang out clearly.
You never said you were buying something like this.
You never said you had to buy something so expensive.
“N-no... That can’t, that can’t be...”
You never told me why you had to leave me behind.
“N-no! Shut up! This is an illusion! It’s a cognitive contamination phenomenon!”
No. No.
Team Leader, look.
Team Leader, you already had it. You knew.
Come here, Team Leader. Don’t go alone this time. Don’t go. Don’t go.
The Princess slowly raised both hands.
The heavy veil that had covered her face flowed down to the floor.
“Hh, ah, uh... ngh...”
The proud head supported by the necklace spilled out. Dozens of rotten apples, blackened and decayed, and heads shriveled like walnuts after losing all moisture hung together in a huge cluster.
Gold flowed endlessly like honey from that graveyard of rotten meat and fruit.
At the center of the bloated mass shaped like a human head, where a human mouth should have been, thick red rotten vines like blood vessels crawled out and tightly gripped one intact head.
A fresh head, blood dripping from the severed surface as if it had just been cut from a neck.
The head of a young woman smiling brightly, broadly, with her eyes curved like crescents.
Team Leader. I became that head. Did I do well? Can you buy me now? Will you buy me back?
Team Leader!
“L-Lee Daeun...”
Lee Daeun’s head, clutching a rotten apple, lunged at the team leader. Thorny vines shaped like fingers pierced his eyes, tore through his cheeks, and burrowed into the gaps in his skull.
“Aaaaargh!”
Gold flowed into his open wounds. His skin melted away, his muscles went slack and turned waxy. Tens of thousands of butterflies swarmed him at once, plunging their sharp proboscises into his skin.
Fresh blood and marrow were sucked away in an instant. The strong man’s body shriveled like a deflating balloon. His voice cut off, and his rolling eyes lost their light and dried up like straw.
Ah, Team Leader! Look! We’re the same now!
Team Leader, Team Leader, Team Leader, I don’t resent you. You didn’t run away, did you?
You did it so we could become the same. You did it for me, really. Come live here with us!
Don’t worry about the company. Everyone is here anyway.
Team Leader,
Team Leader,
Why aren’t you saying anything?
The vines collapsed, and the butterflies flew up.
Thud.
A solid thing shaped like a human, like the fried shell of a cicada, fell onto the floor.
Today’s gallery hours have ended. All visitors, please follow your Curator’s guidance to the exit.
Thank you for visiting. Today’s gallery hours have ended. All visitors...
❖ ❖ ❖
‘Was he really human?’
That was Lee Daeun’s impression as she looked at Seon Jaehyeon.
Her companion, who called himself a civilian despite wearing a strange hedgehog mask that hid his face, was calmly spouting madness with the polished, trustworthy patter of a home-shopping merchandiser.
In Lee Daeun’s common sense, civilians were usually the sort who crawled on the ground, begging to be saved, or lost their minds in terror.
Even if they held themselves together, civilians tended to panic or make terrible choices. That was why the foremost virtue for Da’at employees was pretending not to notice people in danger. Or at least selling them off and making a profit.
At minimum, he had to be an ultra-elite employee from one of Da’at’s competitors. Otherwise, he was some surreal being wearing human skin.
She was still wondering whether to cut ties with the thing in front of her and run, or trust him.
“I know this is a difficult request. You can refuse.”
Huh? What, what had he said? Right. The plan. A plan only Lee Daeun could carry out.
She should refuse. Of course she should.
But then their eyes met. Beneath the mask, Lee Daeun saw the human eyes of Seon Jaehyeon. His black eyes, faintly tinged green, belonged to someone who had not the slightest doubt in his own plan.
Lee Daeun swallowed. Right. Compared to a company that hired people and ground them down into currency, she and Seon Jaehyeon had at least saved each other once. That made trusting Seon Jaehyeon the rational conclusion.
“...I’ll do it. Let’s try.”
“Thank you. Then I’ll need your help too, Mr. Gangmin.”
Baek Gangmin stuck out the bug once, then swallowed it like a toy straw. On one side of the scales Seon Jaehyeon had set out, Baek Gangmin’s declaration was placed. The weight of the blood and tongue he had lost, the value of language, hung from the scale.
Clang.
The scales, which had tipped to one side, leveled out and filled with a handful of currency. They resembled, but were not the same as, the things Seon Jaehyeon had obtained at the Twilight Market.
“Good. If I add the money I already have to this, we should be able to buy at least something.”
Seon Jaehyeon held out an unwrapped candy to Lee Daeun. More precisely, it was an eyeball about the size of a human eyeball, its iris and pupil expanded without end.
“Don’t swallow it.”
“Yes.”
Without hesitation, Lee Daeun accepted it and put it in her mouth. The eyeball rolled around inside, sticky as tears, then settled against the inside of her cheek.
They were ready. When Seon Jaehyeon pulled the bell cord, a Curator appeared and bowed elegantly.
- How may I assist you?
“I would like to experience a Not for Sale exhibit.”
- Not for Sale exhibits cannot be purchased.
“But you said all exhibits could be experienced and enjoyed. I am not buying it. Surely that means I can still experience the exhibit?”
The Curator’s neck rotated a grotesque 360 degrees. It seemed to be verifying whether Seon Jaehyeon’s reasoning was valid. Then, at last,
- Of course. Please wait a moment.
The Curator disappeared. Lee Daeun immediately settled onto the cushioned floor and tied up her own hands and feet.
“The moment the heads are switched, Ms. Daeun will probably be trapped inside the Director’s body. You may lose your mind. But you have to endure it.”
“We’ll hold onto your body and make sure it doesn’t get hurt.”
“Please take care of me.”
- Guest, what you desire to experience is ready.
The Curator returned, carrying a head on a silver tray. It was the dazzlingly beautiful head of a woman with radiant blond hair. The name Princess suited her perfectly.
- Which guest wishes to experience it?
“Me. I’m the only one here with a face good enough to suit it, right?”
- Then I will assist you with your experience.
The Curator brought a hand to the back of Lee Daeun’s neck.
Snap.
Lee Daeun’s view spun once. First she saw the ceiling, then the floor, and then she saw her own body with its head cleanly severed. Seon Jaehyeon and Baek Gangmin held down her convulsing body.
The Curator placed Lee Daeun’s head onto the tray. Lee Daeun rolled her eyes around. It was like a magic show with no trick behind it.
Then the Princess’s head was placed atop Lee Daeun’s empty neck. With the sound of flesh and muscle knitting together, the severed surface vanished completely.
“You filthy creatures! Whose body do you dare lay hands on?!”
The Princess’s eyes flew open. Then she began screaming with her eyes wide. Her irises blazed gold, and her skin gave off the scent of roses mixed with the fishy smell of blood.
“I’ll kill you! You skull-headed bastard! Release me from this lowly body at once!”
The Princess’s head thrashed about in Lee Daeun’s body, screaming and throwing a fit again and again. Though it was clearly a small woman’s body, even two adult men clinging to her were not enough to restrain her tremendous strength.
“Let go! Let go! Put me back! Filthy! Vulgar! Aaaah! Put me back!”
“I’m not sure this was actually a good idea!”
Baek Gangmin pinned down Lee Daeun’s legs, drenched in sweat. Seon Jaehyeon was no different.
Would Lee Daeun, attached to Langwidere’s body, really retain her sense of self? Had she spat out the Unsleeping Eyeball in her mouth?
‘Please, just a little longer. Just a little longer...!’
“Aaaah!”
The Princess screamed again. Her rolled-back white eyes stared at the ceiling before her body collapsed to the floor like a broken doll. White foam bubbled up once more from the severed surface.
- Your experience has ended.
The Curator was holding Lee Daeun’s head on the tray again. The Princess’s head was removed, and Lee Daeun’s head was attached to her body again.
‘Please, please, please.’
Lee Daeun’s eyes flashed open. Baek Gangmin and Seon Jaehyeon flinched and moved to restrain her again.
“Mr. Jaehyeon, the gallery exit has opened.”
With a broad smile, Lee Daeun proudly pushed the eyeball and ornament out of her mouth to show them.
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