Chapter 6 - Daycare #5
Daycare #5
Translator : Elizabeth
The Director of Sunshine Daycare.
I don't recall hearing any proper information about this entity.
During the Administration Bureau's training course, the response method for when the Director of this Daycare appears was practically nonexistent.
"Di, Director."
The agent who was half out of his mind suddenly snapped back to reality at the guide's voice.
'Th, This crazy bastard...!'
I'm not normal either, dangling three entities around, but this man is truly an idiot whose intelligence is suspect.
To think he really pressed the escape button without submitting a 'coin' to the donation box...!
"Ung-aeee!"
Even then.
The gathered Crying Children were sounding a red alert toward us all at once.
A catastrophe where they took out tentacles and hacked us to pieces from all sides did not occur.
As if to show us a more terrible and bizarre phenomenon, they were surrounding us so we couldn't leave this spot, waiting only for the 'Daycare Director' approaching from the 3rd floor.
"Ugh, ah."
My legs tremble uncontrollably again.
G- get a grip...
If I don't get a grip here, I might really die.
It's already late, and the Daycare Director, whom even the Administration Bureau gave up on responding to, is approaching.
But they say even if you enter a tiger's den, you can live if you just keep your wits about you...!
- The Director has arrived at the 2nd floor 'Cafeteria'.
I stood slowly in place and racked my brain.
My whole body trembled due to the imprinted fear, but I decided to think hard while putting strength into my stinging eyes.
'The stage where I get attacked by Crying Children has already passed.'
It might be partly due to my own traits, but it would be correct to see it as a result of that agent's foolish action right now.
"My, my Ung-aes."
Zzz. Zzz.
The three Crying Child entities sticking to my body were still in a deep sleep.
"....?"
Wait, they're still sleeping?
「▶ The entities in question seem to like your embrace more than the Daycare rules. Perhaps you could ask them a 'small' favor?」
Favor...?
A favor to an entity.
It's a word that feels like I'd get cursed at from here and there again if I told the gallery.
However.
'I have to try any method...!'
"Ung-ae! Ung-aeeee!"
Numerous Crying Children still crying their lungs out toward this direction.
Because they gathered so densely, it's hard to even grasp a movement path to escape.
'Fi, First I have to get out of here.'
I don't know about anything else, but I know at least that if I get caught by the Daycare Director at this stage, I will walk a path of no return.
"U, Ung-aes. By any chance... could you stop the other Ung-ae friends from crying...?"
Like that, I asked while carefully supporting the small head of the Crying Child dangling at the very front—the one I encountered first—with both hands.
"...."
And at that moment.
I saw eyelids within the pale complexion that had been firmly closed slowly opening.
"...!"
"Ung-ae."
Capturing my face in white eyes where pupils did not exist, it answered quietly like that.
"Wh, What on earth are you doing right n—"
The agent watching that eccentric behavior from the side asked with a puzzled expression, but I couldn't hear his words anyway.
"Hmph."
Instead, after looking at him with pathetic eyes, I turned my head sharply, revealing my current feelings.
"...Surely, is it communicating with them?"
'What's it to you.'
Ignoring the agent's words with that mindset, I faced the Crying Child still looking at my face.
"Ca, Can you do it...?"
"Ung-ae! Ung-aeeee!"
And at that moment.
As if answering my question, the Crying Child held in my arms opened its mouth and cried loudly enough for everyone to hear.
"Ung-ae, ung..."
"...Ah."
Then, like a lie, the echoes of the Crying Children filling the space began to fall silent one by one.
'Th, This really works...?!'
Not only communicating with an Anomaly, but to really come to a compromise with them.
Thump! Thump!
Unknown bizarre goosebumps flowed down my spine.
It felt like I was stepping onto a path of no return gradually.
"It, It became quiet."
The agent watching the situation also froze literally, only looking back and forth between me and the Crying Children stupidly.
For now, the Crying Children's alarm mode has ended.
Item No. 14 of the 【Daycare Graduation Guide】.
I recalled the item for when one happens to meet the 'Daycare Director'.
'Normally.'
Escaping from a pursuing Daycare Director is impossible.
Because due to the Crying Children continuously tagging along, one ends up in a state where their location is known in real-time.
To prevent this, it was necessary to stop the crying of the Crying Child, but that required using the Audio-Visual Room on the opposite side of the entrance.
"...But right now, since it stopped for free."
With a proud heart, I stroked the Crying Child who granted my 'favor'.
At first, it was disgusting like looking at a bloodless corpse, but now there was no ally like this.
"Ung-ae..."
Leaving the Crying Child, who closed its eyes again as if satisfied with my touch, behind, I looked around for the next step.
- The Director has passed the 2nd floor Living Hall.
"....!"
2nd floor Living Hall.
Now it has really gotten close to where I am standing.
It was clear that it would encounter us immediately after passing the stairs right behind that corner.
"E, Escape."
Now that the Crying Children sounding the alarm fell silent all at once—
The agent, convinced that an opportunity had come to him, showed signs of leaving the spot immediately.
However, I approached right in front of him and blocked the agent's retreat.
"Why, why..."
Shake shake.
When I shook my head with a firm expression, only then did the expression biased by emotion regain a little intellect.
'Avoiding the spot blindly won't work.'
As long as the bell rang without paying the coin, the Director of this place will track them to the end.
The worst case was that there was a probability of blocking the entrance itself.
So.
Point.
I pointed at the donation box and looked at the agent quietly.
...Gulp.
Put the coin in.
If you don't, neither of us can escape.
Escape, escape, escape...
Thoughts about a bad future tried to torment me again, but I pushed them away forcibly and conveyed the meaning to the agent.
"...Since earlier, just what is your identity..."
Was my attitude, seeming to know the rules accurately, that bothersome?
I'd move in the time spent worrying.
I suddenly miss the refreshing urging of the gallery members.
If they faced this situation right now, curses upon curses would have poured down on that agent all day long.
"Are, are you telling me to find a coin? Understood. Right now..."
Belatedly grasping the meaning of my action, the agent took a stance and showed signs of exploring the Daycare.
'Right.'
That is correct.
Joining up is something to do later, and for now, after avoiding the Director's eyes and taking shelter.
Finding the coin again is the priority.
The Crying Children paid no attention to the agent, who was flustered even then.
Those pale gazes were directed only at me from beginning to end.
"It, It's burdensome..."
Even if communication is possible, I d, don't want to receive this kind of attention...
"Phew..."
For now, it is right for me to move in the opposite direction from the direction the agent intends to explore and take shelter.
It was the moment I was about to move into action as soon as my thoughts reached there.
- The Director has arrived at the 1st floor Lobby.
"Huh?"
The guide's voice broke the silence and dug into my brain.
The location of the Director was heard. Clearly, 1st floor, and the Lobby at that.
'Why, why?'
Clearly, just a moment ago it said 2nd floor.
It's not a long distance, but considering the time coming down from 3rd floor to 2nd floor, enough leisure to take action should have been given...?
"Uh."
Likewise, the agent who heard the announcement broadcast looked back at me with a disbelieving expression.
Why. Why are you looking at me...?
Why is he looking at me with an expression like grasping at the last rotten straw.
I was desperately finding a way after getting hit by the shit you spread...!
But, if the Director arrives quickly like this—
"Ung-ae."
At some point, a Crying Child who woke from sleep was looking at me.
"Ah?"
Why did it suddenly wake up? I haven't said anything or asked any favor yet.
My gaze slowly turned to the other entities surrounding me.
Everyone was looking at me.
Precisely, they were looking at 'something' beyond me.
Breaking their small necks with difficulty, to a point far beyond the top of my head.
"Uh...?"
They were staring at the arrived existence.
Hmm hmm hmm.
A humming sound is heard.
A voice that wasn't human, sounding like it was forcibly imitating a person's voice, was coming from right behind my back.
"Uh, oh, ah."
The agent, facing the existence behind me faster than me due to his position, froze tall in place.
He saw something.
Trembling legs, and a pale complexion losing color in real-time.
As if intuiting something, he took something out of his bosom with trembling hands.
Click.
"Ha, haha."
Equipment basically granted if one is an Administration Bureau agent.
Suicide pistol.
The agent, aiming it at his own temple, laughed with an insane expression and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
A huge gunshot ringing through the entire Daycare instantaneously.
A lump of meat that lost life collapses helplessly in place.
The head, hit directly by large kinetic energy, tilts first, and following that, the body fell diagonally to the floor.
Splat.
Blood, blood, and blood spurting from the hole grazed by the bullet, wetting the floor.
Even with a steaming corpse created in an instant, there was no existence that was agitated.
I intuited.
"Ah."
That the one in really big trouble in this place now is myself.
"Uh, ah, eh...?"
Too late. It's already too late.
At the arrived presence, my gaze turned semi-forcibly.
To where the existence that made the agent decide on suicide is located, right behind me.
I saw someone's feet stepping on the desolate floor of the Daycare.
Blackly dead skin reminds one of a corpse like the Crying Child.
No trace of life could be found in it.
At the place climbed up along the skinny feet, a heavily tattered dress hem was fluttering.
Where I looked back, the Director was there.
Above a body with bizarrely twisted and stretched arms and legs that one couldn't even imagine as human body proportions, the entity's head dangled from the end of a long neck, looking down at me—
"Hic, hup."
The entity was smiling. The owner of the Daycare and the Director who appeared to grant a terrible time to uninvited guests was laughing.
Positioned above lips torn wide as if to touch the ears, were eyes with traces of being sewn with a needle.
The face comes closer.
As if wanting to properly look into the scapegoat's face, it thrust its face at me even though it was a structure that couldn't see.
"S, S, Save—"
"Hmm, hmm."
"I was wrong. Please save me. Ah..."
The Director was still smiling.
Filled with malice as if anticipating the scapegoat's pain, it approaches to cut off my breath where the Crying Children are watching.
As expected, I shouldn't have done something like being a damn Administration Bureau agent.
It would have been a life where it would be enough to just live ordinarily and die.
Dying like this, terribly, rolling in a lonely and scary place.
'Meaning.'
It's too pathetic and futile...!
My two legs don't move as if pierced.
The body that already faced transcendental fear did not allow turning eyes away from the Daycare Director.
'If it's going to be like this, I'd rather.'
I should've just ignored whether he died or not.
Just why did I try to help the agent there.
If there was more time, the enraged Director might have torn that agent to death on its own and returned to its place again.
Then, I.
Only then could I have belatedly put the coin in the donation box and left.
To die like this, there were too many things I still wanted to do.
There were too many things I haven't achieved in this life yet.
Among them, what made my heart sting the most was, after all, the absence of family.
I didn't have what others all had.
A warm home, mom and dad who hug me warmly.
"Ah, M, Mom."
I wanted to try calling that name properly at least once...!
"Hmm?"
At that moment.
The bizarrely shaped arm that was being extended toward me stopped in mid-air.
「▶ Go outside the room and discover lower entities five times (42/5) (Complete!)」