WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 60: What Happened to You?
──────
Whoooosh.
Splash, splash.
An amusement park beneath a torrential downpour.
An escapee struggled forward through the overflowing streams of water.
The baby bird, with blue down and a single white feather standing upright on its crown, deeply regretted its choice.
It had been fine when it first escaped the zoo.
No, it had even felt triumphant.
Having overcome the obstacle of its cage, it had believed nothing could stop it now.
But that had been a mistake.
The rain that had suddenly begun pouring down.
Its body, soaked through and heavy with rainwater, and its rapidly dwindling stamina told it just how rash this escape had been.
Cheep...
The baby bird thought it should have waited a few more months.
Birds grew quickly. By then, its feathers would have fully grown in, and it could have flown away.
In that sense, this escape had been a mistake.
It would have been better not to attempt it at all.
But it had had no choice.
In that situation, enduring any longer had not been an option for the baby bird.
If anything, it only regretted not making its decision sooner.
Cheep!
Still, it could not turn back now.
Letting out a short cry to spur itself on, the baby bird dashed through the pouring rain.
Splat!...
That lasted until it tripped and slid across a puddle before it had even taken twenty steps.
Who had said the mind could overcome the body?
Unfortunately, that saying was useless to the baby bird.
No matter how much it encouraged itself or burned with determination, its body had already reached its limit from forcing itself to wander through this rain.
Cheep...
Perhaps its spirit had finally broken.
Or perhaps it simply no longer had the strength to stand.
Lying sprawled in the puddle, the baby bird let out a feeble cry.
Even so, it looked resentfully at the sky.
As if thinking things would have been different if only it had not rained.
If the weather had been better, it would not have fallen into a puddle or wandered around soaking wet.
More than anything, the fact that everyone had gone inside to escape the downpour, making “them” harder to find, left the baby bird despondent.
Shiver.
As if fanning that despair.
A chill seeped into its entire body.
It was more than mere cold. Feeling an icy chill that seemed to rake its bones with needles, the baby bird thought this might be dangerous.
Even a fully grown bird would be likely to fall ill from running about in this kind of downpour.
Considering that the baby bird was still covered in soft down, if it continued wandering through the rain, it would not end with just a cold.
Cheep!
If it had known it would die this pathetically, it would never have been reborn.
The baby bird was lamenting its own birth when it happened.
Giiiing...
Cheep?
It heard “that.”
Even amid the rain, it came through with startling clarity.
A smooth melody, clear and brilliant, as though it used the pouring rain itself as accompaniment.
The sound was so beautiful and captivating that the baby bird, lying facedown in the puddle, unconsciously struggled to its feet.
Then it slowly followed the melody.
As if bewitched.
Crossing through the pouring rain.
Half dragging its cooling body along.
The moment it reached a shabby, warehouse-like building with a sign that read:
[Magic Hall]
Cheep?
The baby bird’s eyes widened.
It was not only because it had finally found the children it had been searching for.
At the source of that fantastic melody.
In the middle of the darkened Magic Hall.
Under its soft lights, a white-haired man played the violin. He was unmistakably recognizable, yet somehow seemed impossible to recognize.
And the sight of a translucent girl floating in the air above him left the baby bird dumbfounded.
...???
As if doubting its own sight, it rubbed its eyes with a wing.
Yet when the scene remained unchanged, a question mark seemed to hover over the baby bird’s head.
As if it could not believe what it was seeing was real.
As though it wondered where that violin had speakers attached that could make it sound so much like a real performance.
But only for a moment.
The baby bird collapsed with a splat.
It knew it should not fall asleep like this, but it could no longer keep its eyes open.
Its stamina had already been pushed past the limit.
The relief filling its heart.
And the melody, all too clear.
They severed the tension the baby bird had maintained so tightly and gradually clouded its consciousness.
“Oh? A bird...”
That was when it heard a young voice.
“Birdie, sleepy■? Want to get in my ba■■ ■?”
Perhaps because its consciousness was already hazy.
The baby bird could not properly hear even those words.
It only felt something rustling, then something wrapping around it.
Enveloped in that warm comfort, the baby bird used the violin’s melody as a lullaby and fell asleep feeling cozy for the first time since it had been born.
And time passed.
“Huh? What did you say was in the kid’s bag?”
“That... maybe...”
“Whoa?”
“...shall we?”
“Ugh, for now...”
The occasional whispers it heard in its half-conscious state.
Voices too faint and echoing to be real, yet too dearly missed to be a dream.
That faintness was as deep as death.
That longing was as sweet as honey.
They drew the baby bird deeper into its dream.
Yet even as it wandered through that quiet dream, which seemed as though it would last forever, time continued to pass.
Time passed, and passed, and passed...
When it finally opened its eyes.
The first thing the baby bird saw was a naked body.
...
Cheep?
Perhaps it was not fully awake yet.
Or perhaps the sight before it was simply too shocking.
For several seconds, the baby bird froze with the expression of a pigeon struck by a slingshot. Then it finally let out a scream-like cry.
Cheeeeeep?!?!
“Hmm?”
Rimon, his lean upper body completely bare as he wiped away sweat with a towel, turned his head.
Seeing the baby bird in the cage covering its eyes with both wings, he spoke indifferently.
“What? You finally woke up?”
As if it had startled him for nothing, Rimon clicked his tongue lightly and continued wiping off his sweat.
“You took so long to wake up that I thought you were going to croak. You’re persistent for such a tiny thing.”
Cheep, cheep...
Though the words sounded like mockery, the baby bird could not even get angry.
It could not gather its wits at all.
Where was this?
Why was Rimon in front of it?
What exactly was going on?
Having only just awakened from a long sleep, the baby bird could not understand any of it.
Yet even as he watched the confused bird, Rimon did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
He merely pulled over a nearby chair, sat on it backward, and rested his chin on the backrest to meet the baby bird at eye level.
“All right, then. Let’s hear what you have to say.”
Cheep?
The baby bird blinked as though it did not understand.
Rimon’s attitude was strange, as if he intended to interrogate a bird rather than a person.
“There’s a lot I want to ask, but... let’s start with this.”
Unlike the hesitant baby bird, Rimon remained calm throughout.
Or at least, he seemed calm on the surface.
But the moment their eyes met.
The baby bird realized it.
Rimon’s composure was only outward. He too was deeply troubled by this situation.
The complicated light in his golden eyes.
The hand that had somehow already gripped his sword.
More than anything, the absurd question that followed.
They told the baby bird that Rimon did not understand the current situation either.
“Why did someone who died come back looking like that?”
...
Cheep?
Whether it could even be called its former life.
Not a trace of the way it had looked in its previous life remained.
Yet the baby bird’s wide-eyed expression of surprise was strangely identical to the expression it had worn when it was human.
Rimon reluctantly spoke its name.
“Yoo Na-gyeong.”
* * *
“Oh ho, I see.”
At the amusement park Rimon had visited.
A braided-haired man standing at its highest point nodded as he looked down at the park below.
“So, to sum it up, we’re the only fools here.”
“What do you mean?”
“It means we were too late and made a wasted trip.”
“A drum, played while walking? Traditional music in this country?”
“...The target has already disappeared. If I say the mission has failed, will you understand, you crazy comrade?”
“Ah, okay. Got it.”
Only then did the blonde woman nod as if she understood. She smiled brightly, then tilted her head again with an expression of confusion.
“Target, why disappear? Bad information?”
“How would I know, Crazy Comrade? You should ask the bastard who brought us the information.”
With a gentle voice and a smiling face, the braided-haired man freely hurled insults.
Hearing him, the blonde woman turned her head toward the other young man beside her.
“Comrade, mistake again?”
“Why’s everyone always picking on only me? This time, the intel was definitely solid, I tell you!”
“Then why target gone?”
“I want to know that myself. It was definitely there when I checked last time. Unless someone tampered with it, it could not have suddenly vanished.”
The moment the narrow-eyed young man protested indignantly, the blonde woman’s eyes lit up.
“Information leak?”
“Do you mean someone knew we were coming and hid or moved the target beforehand?”
“Timing fits too well.”
“If Crazy Comrade is right, that person knew of a plan we have not even reported to headquarters yet, then acted just before we arrived.”
“Can be if internal spy?”
“Then who would that spy be? At the very least, I do not believe it is me, the commander of this operation.”
The blonde woman’s gaze turned back toward the narrow-eyed young man.
“Don’t look at me. If I was going to do something, I would’ve done it secretly. Why would I, the one who gathered the information, screw myself over alone?”
“Because Comrade dummy?”
“Stop treating other people’s brains like bowls of udon noodles! If you keep this up, next time I’ll just run the operation alone!”
“...Sorry. On second thought, probably coincidence.”
Perhaps because the narrow-eyed young man’s reaction was so fierce, the blonde woman sincerely lowered her head in apology.
Seemingly somewhat appeased, the young man stopped fuming and looked toward the braided-haired man.
“What do we do now?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Why not withdraw for now and investigate again? Whether it was a coincidence or deliberate, we need to find out.”
“Hmm, that is a reasonable suggestion, coming from the stupid comrade.”
“...Leave out that irritating part.”
“Understood. That is a reasonable suggestion, coming from a stupid person.”
“That is not the part I told you to leave out!”
“Keep your chin up. Even if screw loose in head, Comrade still Comrade.”
“Of all people, you’re the last one I want to hear that from!”
The narrow-eyed young man grumbled unhappily even as his hands moved busily. The blonde woman patted his back in comfort.
Watching his two comrades, the braided-haired man, who had been lost in thought, spoke seriously.
“Fine. Let us identify everyone who visited this place yesterday and today.”
“So we are doing it after all?”
“It is a rare mission, after all. We cannot simply give up because things did not go smoothly.”
As he ordered the blonde woman and narrow-eyed young man to continue, the braided-haired man wore a gentle smile.
“For the sake of Comrade Kang Seok, who willingly died like a dog so we could operate freely in this country.”
“Oh? That, sacrifice?”
“So that comrade did not know anything after all?”
“Of course, Comrade Kang Seok did not know he was going to die. But he willingly carried out the mission without knowing, so he is the very model of sacrificial spirit.”
“...Isn’t that not sacrificial spirit, but saying he was used as a throwaway pawn?”
The Ferris wheel turned, then stopped, then turned again.
The three people whispering atop the roof of one of its cars when it rose to the top vanished shortly afterward.
Footnotes:
The phrase rendered as “we were too late” is dwitbuk, literally a belated drumbeat, prompting the blonde woman’s confused question about playing a drum while walking.
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