WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 165: The Past, The Season When Roses Wither & Intermission

──────

#The Past (11), The Season When Roses Wither (4)

The tyrant’s hound found this hunt intriguing.

Even from a distance, Kang Young-il had thought she was no ordinary woman. It was not simply because she was beautiful.

‘There’s something strange about her.’

She felt like someone who did not exist in reality. Why was that? Because of her mournful eyes? No, that was not it. He had seen plenty of beauties who had suffered sorrow. As a man who had lived roughly, he himself had been the cause of many women’s misery. Han Ga-eul was different from them. She seemed detached from the world. In a gray world, she alone was in full color.

That was the best way to describe it.

As a seasoned intelligence agent, Kang Young-il judged people with a sense different from others. He himself called it an aura. You could call it a sixth sense, but even that was not enough to express it.

What would this woman’s tears taste like?

The dog suppressed the impulse. This prey belonged to his master. The tyrant Kang Young-il served was overwhelming in more ways than one. He had never seen such a twisted aura. He was an agent who inwardly regarded his superiors, his organization, and even his country as laughable, but he considered only the Chairman of Hyeseong Group his true master.

He turned the wheel along a familiar road. They were headed to the group headquarters.

“I told you to wear your best clothes, and that’s all you could manage?”

Their eyes met in the rearview mirror.

Han Ga-eul blinked a few times, then answered in a calm voice.

“If you don’t like it, send me back.”

“Huh.”

That violent impulse welled up again. It was a brutal curiosity. This woman was not suppressing fear. She truly was not afraid. Her voice just now proved it. There had been insolent prey who acted composed on the surface, but they had never been able to hide the tremor in their voices.

‘Deceiving someone that completely is only possible for a seasoned agent.’

There was no way a woman like this had gone through that kind of training.

While Kang Young-il found her fascinating, Han Ga-eul herself was also surprised by her own calm.

I’m strange.

Her own situation came to her with an oddly objective clarity.

The tyrant who had stolen Gyeoul’s body had summoned her. She had no choice, and the man before her was threatening. But her heart had only pounded for a moment. After hearing the purpose, even that small agitation disappeared.

In that unnatural lucidity, Gaeul looked back on herself.

Then she realized.

Ah, I had already been terrified for a very long time.

For a long time, she had not been able to go see Gyeoul. She was afraid she might find resentment and anger toward her in that child. That was the greatest fear holding Gaeul captive. She often felt suffocated. She would wake up gasping even in her sleep. Sometimes her vision would go black in broad daylight. She tried to stay healthy for the sake of another younger sibling who looked only to their older sister, but her weight kept dropping.

She thought it was a life worse than death.

Truly.

So there was no room for any other fear to worm its way in.

Gaeul looked down at her knees.

The hem of a green skirt stuck out beneath her worn parka.

Everything she was wearing today had been a gift from Gyeoul. They had not been new from the start, since he had gotten them at a church bazaar. Even so, Gaeul keenly felt then that what mattered in a gift was the heart behind it.

‘Why did I wear this?’

These were clothes she treasured dearly. Especially the green dress. It was not an outfit suited for a day when the season of falling leaves and the season of falling snow were at odds. Much less something she needed to wear on her way to meet a tyrant. And yet, drawn by something she could not explain, Gaeul chose it.

Perhaps it was to steel her resolve.

Kang Young-il checked the time. If there had been enough leeway, he would have stopped somewhere else and changed her into better clothes, but the time set by the Chairman was tighter than usual.

‘He looked unwilling back then.’

The dog thought it was just the old master’s whim. Just because the body had grown younger did not mean the inside had as well. At that thought, Kang Young-il let out a bitter smile. It was astonishing that that hard, destructive tyrant was going mad over a mere woman.

The car, black as the dog’s heart, came to a stop before the most oppressive building in Korea.

The waiting employees opened the doors. In the dry, frigid wind stood people in uniforms like military dress, waiting for the Chairman’s guest. It felt like watching a lineup of wax figures.

Gaeul stepped out, her breath turning white.

“Follow me.”

The shepherd took the lead.

Leading the sheep to the altar, the dog wondered. Would the tyrant take an interest in this woman?

It would be nice if my turn came.

Tears. I want to taste tears.

The private elevator took them to the Chairman’s office in an instant. With businesslike composure, Kang Young-il announced their arrival. A moment later, the female secretary who had received permission gave a nod. You may enter.

Kang Young-il was about to step in immediately, then suddenly stopped and turned around. Gaeul, who had nearly bumped into him, stared at him as if asking what was wrong.

“Your coat. You’d better take that off before going in.”

There was no need to offend the tyrant’s temper over something trivial.

Gaeul complied without protest. She entrusted it to the secretary stationed in front of the Chairman’s office, saying, “It’s precious to me, so please take good care of it.” The female secretary looked flustered. She had heard this was a VIP, but seemed unable to reconcile the shabbiness of the clothes with the word precious.

At last, Gaeul came face to face with the monster that had taken Gyeoul’s body.

As if all the composure until now had been a lie, tears burst forth.

The expression was different, the shape of the eyes was different, the soul was different. She could feel that clearly. Even so, Gyeoul’s past still remained there. She could not contain the longing that came crashing through like a broken dam.

Chairman Go Geon-cheol’s eyes widened.

What... is this...?

The tyrant was seized by shortness of breath. It felt as though something invisible were battering his entire body. Every part of his flesh was in pain. It rampaged as it pleased, but its direction remained constant.

When his steel-like reason put the brakes on instinct and emotion, the Chairman, in the midst of unconscious motion, was shocked by how close he had drawn. Within arm’s reach was a fragrance fluttering in green.

He had almost reached out and touched it.

The Chairman was furious with himself. He had almost laid hands on merchandise he had not even purchased yet? Without even making a deal?

He had felt something similar before.

A fever that had once seized his soul completely.

It was not the same. It was different, and that made it even more horrifying.

Because he did not know what it was.

Suspicion swelled. Could memories or emotions really have remained in the body? No, absurd. Had it not long been proven that such things were no more than occult nonsense? It could not be possible. But if that was true, then how was he supposed to explain this disturbance?

Fear came over him, the fear that he might lose control over himself.

Again moving unconsciously, Chairman Go Geon-cheol, who this time had been about to retreat, gritted his teeth and forcibly stopped himself. I am my own master. I am my own master. My body, my emotions. What right does a mere feeling have to sway me? This too belongs to me.

Gaeul watched the malice drain from the monster’s face, then rise again.

It was Gyeoul’s old face, drawing near and pulling away over and over.

#Intermission, Enter Through the Narrow Gate

Everyone, do you know the name Pablo de Sarasate?

Who is that, you ask? Your cultural education is lacking. To think you do not know the maestro considered the greatest violinist after Paganini.

Haha, I’m joking. Don’t be angry. It’s understandable if you don’t know. After all, this is an age when no performer can surpass the technique of artificial intelligence anymore. The Trinity Engine has reached a level where it learns each listener’s sensibilities and provides variations optimized for that individual.

Of course, it does not understand sensibility itself, so it repeats trial and error until positive emotional feedback occurs, but let’s be generous about that degree of technical limitation. It is the world’s greatest artificial intelligence, after all.

So why bring up Sarasate? Because this man is what effort looks like. In an age when the efforts of life are rewarded with happiness after death, I thought we might reflect on the meaning of effort.

Sarasate answered like this when someone called him a genius.

“Genius? Me? I practiced fourteen hours a day, for thirty-seven years, without rest.”

In other words, if you work as hard as I did, anyone can become a genius.

Successful people often emphasize effort like this. They say effort is the universal key. That with passion alone, every hardship in the world can be overcome.

But we know that isn’t true. There are problems in this world that effort cannot solve. For example, your love life...

Let me wipe away a few tears for a moment.

Jokes aside, it is certainly true that effort is a condition for ordinary success. People who shine through talent alone, without effort, are rare. Not nonexistent, of course.

But falling seven times and rising eight only becomes an inspiring story when success follows. How common is it to fall seven times, rise eight, and collapse all over again?

It is probably the same for you customers. Everyone dreams of a dazzling highest-grade afterlife, but the reality is that more than half of subscribers receive only the lowest-grade basic coverage.

Ah, in theory, it is possible to raise your grade after death through endless effort. As you know, the validity period of basic coverage is semi-permanent! But in practice, cases of actual grade advancement are extremely rare. Downgrades are another matter.

Then again, effort on Sarasate’s level would be difficult for the average person. That isn’t just effort, it’s effooooort. No, perhaps effooooooooooooort?

In other words, most subscribers eventually let go, blank out, and settle in place. Even while getting angry at some idiot virtual personality and growing tired of repetitive world settings.

This is not a desirable phenomenon for us either. Why? Because basic coverage does not make money.

So, we have prepared something!

For you, who think effort is a talent, and effooooort is a super talent!

Tailored luck for you, who do not even make the effort you can make and instead spend your time rationalizing yourself!

Allow me to introduce "Life Reversal! Pandora’s Box!"

Those of you who are thoroughly sick of me have probably already figured out the identity of this paid product. That’s right. "Life Reversal! Pandora’s Box!" is a random box containing everything in the afterlife. In short, it is a lottery ticket where you wager your life and scratch at life.

It is distinguished from every other random box that has existed until now by both the quality and quantity of its contents. It includes the entirety of all DLC released so far, including celebrity virtual personality packages, access rights to every world setting compatible with Afterlife Insurance standards, the possibility of drawing one million stars, and even the possibility that your Afterlife Insurance grade will rise regardless of your deposit amount!

That means if luck is on your side, you could jump straight from Grade F to Grade S! The highest-grade winning probability is only 0.00001%, but still! Keep your spirits up, dear valued suckers! Fighting!

You must not dismiss it just because the deposit amount does not change. Not only does the quality of Virtual Reality itself improve, but among the services basically provided at Grade S is clone implantation! Quite a surprising number of people do not know that culture facilities for this exist at each regional Afterlife Insurance central bureau.

However, this is only possible on the premise that you have not transferred the exclusive rights regarding use of your body in physical reality. In other words, only if you did not trade your pre-Afterlife Insurance body for the purpose of whole-body transplantation.

Well, it should be fine. Cases like that are rare. Most of the subscribers placed in ossuaries are elderly, after all. Who would buy an old body? What people always want back is youth. In this age, how often do people die while still young, or as children?

In any case, no one with the highest-grade Virtual Reality would want to go outside anyway.

Ah, why did we choose the name Pandora’s Box? You dislike it because it feels ominous?

If I were to compare it, it is like the warning label on cigarettes. You know the one. The stale warning printed on cigarette packs. “Smoking causes lung cancer and various other diseases, and is especially harmful to the health of pregnant women and adolescents.” Haven’t you all seen that at least once?

To me, it feels like this.

“This cigarette is so harmful to your health, but you’ll still smoke it, right?”

Haha. Ominous name or not, the people who will buy it will buy it anyway.

There are plenty of people who think, ‘I’ll be different.’ The feeling that even though you didn’t study for the exam at all, every guess will somehow be right. Baseless confidence. An optimistic premonition that things will simply work out. Dreams of striking it rich overnight.

With that in mind, customers at the basic coverage grade will receive a special discount for one month! You can buy it at half price, you know? If you buy twice as many as other people for the same amount, then in practice your odds of winning are doubled.

What if you have no money? There’s no need to worry about that either. Just like a policy loan, you can convert your remaining coverage period into a monetary amount and use it like cash!

There is a passage in Zhuangzi.

“How can one fill infinite desire with a finite life?”

Now that Afterlife Insurance exists, we know the answer to this question. Yes. It is a very different answer from the era when death was truly the end.

So if you’re going to go for it, go all the way. Even if all kinds of disaster and despair pour out, hope may still be inside the final box you have not opened.

For a better future for the afterlife of the Republic of Korea, and for better profitability, the Paradise Group Virtual Reality Division will do its utmost together with the Afterlife Insurance Authority. Thank you.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#Health

Ugh... I’m suffering from insomnia and body aches. I feel terrible, but I can’t sleep. I feel like I’m dying...

#Happy Ending

I’ve said this many times, but this novel ends happily. I swear on my childlike innocence. I don’t know why no one believes me.

#Q&A

Q. qoewh: @No... this is too much. Why is your childlike innocence developed so abnormally?

A. That’s because I studied mainly from textbooks. Wise Life had an especially big influence...

Q. Hakuryu: @ Author! When you say your childlike innocence is overflowing, do you mean the thing that passes by on the railroad tracks in 5 Centimeters per Second? T_T

A. No. I mean the fish inside fish-shaped bread.

Q. NoblesseBuffer: @No, author, you demon T_T Bad endings are sad, sob sob lol

A. Has there ever been a Makoto Shinkai film that ended with a bad ending? There hasn’t... Look, the backgrounds were always beautiful.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried