Chapter 7 - Things That Couldn't Be Conveyed
Things That Couldn't Be Conveyed
Translator : Elizabeth
[Title: But what if in the Daycare]
You seriously do the absolute worst move possible and summon the Director, what happens then?
↳ Sir, why would you go to such lengths to do such a thing.
↳ That idea is truly not easy.
↳ Author: No, not those cliché answers, I'm just curious about exactly what happens.
↳ Does this guy have a gore fetish or something?
↳ Fr lol what are you going to do knowing such terrible things.]
[Title: Daycare Director?]
That's something they don't even teach properly in the Administration Bureau mandatory training.
The moment you encounter it, it's just an instant death ruling, so even at the Administration Bureau level, they treat it as an abandoned piece lol.
Among my Administration Bureau enlistment peers, two encountered the Daycare Director.
One died instantly on the spot, and the other lived hiding in the Daycare for a whole week before committing suicide yep.
↳ Fuck, it is brutal;
↳ Author: Sometimes kids lacking intelligence have hopes like they can survive if they avoid the Director well, but just committing suicide is the smart move.
↳ No, is there absolutely no way? Then why is the Daycare difficulty itself rated as the lowest?
↳ You die so easily, fuck.]
[↳ Lol the guy above must have thought until now that difficulty was determined by entity combat power or something.
↳ It's not?
↳ Author: The Anomaly difficulty rated by the Administration Bureau is about how easy it is to escape, that's it.
↳ SafeToday: Because as long as you act according to the set manual, anyone can get out yep.
↳ Oh, the pervert is here hi.
↳ SafeToday: ?
↳ Lolololol]
[Title: No fuck]
Nickname: SafeToday
Why am I a pervert.
If you don't answer within 3 seconds, I'll terrorize you with gore pics so deal with it.
Of course, I'll send it via DM yep.
↳ Heyyyyyyyy, fuck.
↳ No; You threw the keyword to us first;
↳ Author: How did I throw what keyword 3.
↳ You kept giving attention and flirting with that Ghost-bro who looked like someone you shouldn't associate with just by looking;
↳ Author: I never did that? 2.
↳ Fuck, the counter going down slowly is frikkin scary lol.
↳ Uh-oh, it's exploding.
↳ Moddddddddddd.]
[↳ Author: No, right is right and wrong is wrong, we have to be clear.
↳ Author: Actually, that Ghost-bro earlier really did have some peculiar ability.
↳ Author: According to your logic, shouldn't a kid with such a peculiar ability be prioritized over hopeless F-Rank scrubs?
↳ ?
↳ Sir, fuck, you suddenly hit us.
↳ Seriously so unfair but have nothing to say in rebuttal.
↳ Ghost-bro cried cuz depressed ;^;]
[Title: Anyway, what's certain is]
The moment the Daycare Director appears, it's just Game Over, right?
Don't even be curious about what happens?
↳ If I tell you not to do it, don't do it you fucking bastard.
↳ Author: Why is this guy suddenly cursing?
↳ It was a joke sry.
↳ Wouldn't anyone get angry if a guy who can't understand even after being told several times appears, like our Ghost-bro?
↳ Author: ;;;;
↳ As for what kind of entity bastard the Daycare Director is, there are probably few people who know even if you go up beyond this F-Rank gallery?
↳ Author: Imagining it for no reason makes it scarier;
↳ Author: I'm going to sleep with my mom today.
↳ Ah, she's with you?
↳ Author: ? You SOB.]
A smiling expression approaches.
To get closer with that face of blackly dead skin, it tilted its long-stretched neck bizarrely with all its might and brought its face close to me.
"Ah, hi, hiiek."
My legs, out of control, go beyond trembling uncontrollably to the point of stiffening rigid.
Strength continued to enter the hand holding the Crying Child in my arms.
Right now, I needed something to rely on from this endlessly unfolding terror.
"Hmm, hmm."
But why.
Since earlier, why is this entity of terrible appearance—the 'Daycare Director'—merely observing me as if I were something fascinating without inflicting any harm on me?
「▶ The entity in question seems to feel curiosity toward you. Why is that?」
'If you ask me that...!'
At the absurd question from the status window, rather, a part of my mind that had left home returned.
I tried to grasp the situation by forcibly rotating my thought circuit.
Daycare Director.
Normally, considering a target who didn't submit the 'Old Coin' to the donation box as insolent and trying to eliminate them was the correct reaction.
'That bastard.'
Didn't that agent who committed suicide first also make a quick judgment knowing that?
Even recalling information within the Administration Bureau including the gallery remaining in my memory right now.
Something like how to deal with the Daycare Director who came out of the Director's Office was not properly described.
In other words, encountering the entity itself was considered a 'failed escape'.
Then, should I just give up everything helplessly like this and tremble?
The image of the agent who shot himself with a stupid expression just now flashed through my mind.
I didn't want to place such a death as my next turn.
'The status window does not tell lies.'
This was something like a kind of truth I learned while rolling with my body directly all this time.
At least, like a bad joke, it didn't say things that weren't there.
'Curiosity toward me?'
Why is it positioned as 'curiosity' and not emotions like hostility, anger, or resentment?
"Hoo, hoo..."
"Hmm?"
I took a deep breath once and looked at the Daycare Director still standing in front of me.
The moment our gazes met, a primal emotion that felt like my mind was drifting far away pierced my brain.
Grind.
I put strength again into my body trying to escape control and endured by chewing the inside of my cheek.
Now that my body has changed into something similar to an Anomaly—I stand in a position different from general humans.
In other words, it must mean I have deviated somewhat from the rules of the Daycare that should apply 'normally', like what I experienced at the very beginning and what the agent who died earlier experienced.
'What did I say just now?'
I retraced the words I spat out unknowingly based on instinct.
'Mom.'
The entity clearly, very strangely, stopped its action reacting to the word 'Mom'.
Why?
'No.'
It's an Anomaly, right? Why are you trying to understand?
I corrected my thoughts.
What's important right now is that the word I spat out 'works' on that existence.
"M, Mom."
"....."
At that word, the Daycare Director reacts again.
Following the Crying Child sleeping in my arms, a strong conviction that I communicated with an Anomaly once again remained in my head.
「▶ You have realized that the entity in question reacts to the word 'Mom'. Now you seem to have mastered how to think like an Anomaly.」
How to think like an Anomaly.
This signifies how much I am immersed in the Anomaly called 'Daycare'.
Thump! Thump!
Unknown goosebumps I had felt sometime before flowed down my spine.
Daycare Director.
An existence standing in an absolute unknown territory, including analysis even by that Administration Bureau.
Why is the Director not attacking me right now?
Furthermore, what is it wanting?
Ding!
And at that moment, a clear notification brushed past my ears.
「Quest complete.」
「▶ Go outside the room and discover lower entities five times (42/5) (Complete)」
"....!"
The quest was completed.
A figure far exceeding the number limit of five at the very beginning.
It was due to the sudden surge caused by the Crying Children who flocked all at once due to the announcement broadcast.
Because of the situation rushing in hectically, I hadn't realized it while facing the problem right in front of my eyes rather than the quest.
But right now.
'P, Please be something good...!'
Al- Although it gave me a useless item like a hand mirror at the very beginning, I can be greedy just this once, right...!
As if answering my desperate heart, a faint light rose from the sky.
"Ah, it came...!"
"Hmm?"
My gaze and the Daycare Director's gaze headed toward the phenomenon occurring simultaneously.
Rustle.
"Ah?"
Soon, I ended up discovering it.
A flower crown made by weaving white flowers together, something one would see in a fairytale book.
Really?
Is this really all? Even here?
"Sob!"
Sorrow wells up and wets the edges of my eyes stingingly.
I reflexively received the thing coming down slowly from the air possessing only light mass.
**「▶ Sunshine Daycare's Last Graduation Gift (B)
A flower crown made by the children of Sunshine Daycare for the 'Director'. In their very happy story, the event of this flower crown being delivered to the Director never happened.」**
"....?"
At the description of the item floating in front of my eyes like that, I couldn't help but look blankly at the status window for a moment.
What is this...? Why is this, now—
What is the reason for delivering this prop to me?
Looking down at the flower crown rustling with a soft texture in my hand, I looked at the Director in front of me.
The terrible appearance still looking down at me without movement.
However, unlike before, I felt the air subtly change from the moment the flower crown appeared.
「▶ You think this flower crown is related to the entity in question. Also, it seems you have something you want to say to the entity.」
"...."
Sa, Something I want to say? I don't have such a thing...?!
**「A Quest has arrived.
▶ Gift the flower crown to the 'Daycare Director' (Incomplete)」**
At the quest window floating up in connection as if it had been waiting for the right time, my head became dizzy for a moment.
I looked at the flower crown once, then turned my gaze to the Director again.
Still twisted joints of arms and legs, heavily tattered dress, bizarrely stretched neck, and an intimidating size generally far superior to an adult male dizzied my eyes.
Among them, the highlight was, of course, the form of the terrible face as if it had dramatically painted malice toward people.
"Ah, uh, ah..."
It stopped the action of trying to harm me, but thinking about it now, it's a point where it's questionable if it even had the thought to harm...!
Still, the clear rejection touching the inherent human emotion continued to make me rigid in place.
Rustle.
At the texture of the flower tickling my knuckles, my gaze heads to the flower crown again.
Deep hesitation.
I looked at the Director again.
'Gi, Gift the flower crown...'
"...."
Just how am I supposed to gift it...?!
Do I just say, this is a gift, please accept it and save me...?!
After that? Excuse me, can you let me get out of here? Shall I ask that?
What if it suddenly opens its mouth wide and chomp bi, bites my head...?
What if it suddenly orders the Crying Children to hack my body to pieces...?!
"Ugh...!"
No.
After shaking my head vigorously, I solidified my resolve.
There's no way back anyway...!
If I don't do as the quest says, what am I gonna do?
Sustaining my life until now is, perhaps, thanks to the state of my body related to the quest.
So, luxuries like hesitation after coming this far, I can't afford them anymore!
I glared at the Daycare Director while putting strength into my eyes.
"Hieuuuu... Hic."
My body trembled again due to learned fear.
"Th, This."
I look at the Daycare Director still keeping its face close to me.
With a mindset of 'whatever happens, happens', I lifted my arms with difficulty and placed the 'flower crown' on top of that head.
Plonk.
Onto the disheveled hair, a flower crown made of pure white flowers unsuited for it is placed.
"....."
The Daycare Director was still looking at me without movement.
"Ah."
As expected, this is of no us—
Snap.
The Director really wanted to protect the Daycare. Because she loved and cherished the children, she wanted to see these tiny, small children stand proudly on their own feet in the rough world and live properly.
"What, the?"
It's not my thought. It's not my memory.
The moment I put this flower crown on the entity, unknown thoughts continued to flow into my head regardless of my will, continuously, continuously, continuously—
Sometimes bad people came, but the Director lived only for the children. Among them, the most worrying one was the newborn baby abandoned without a name in front of the Daycare. The Director made up her mind bravely while grieving at that cruel reality. She knew that if she wasn't there, the children of the Daycare could be in danger. So she lived diligently, more diligently.
It's dangerous. My mind is being dragged far away somewhere, flowing endlessly—endlessly into the empty darkness.
The Director loved the Daycare. She loved Sunshine Daycare. Even knowing she had an incurable illness, she tried to cherish us all. Even knowing her body was gradually dying, she lived for us. To raise the children who hadn't grown up yet, the adult Director had to continue to sacrifice.
"S, Stop..."
One day, bad people came again. Since she didn't listen to them, they finally decided to do a bad thing. The Director went outside after a very long time and wasn't there. While the second oldest sisters and brothers in the Daycare were taking care of the youngest newborn babies, someone came.
"...Cough."
When I coughed reflexively, black smoke was rising acridly from my throat.
My throat stung. It felt suffocating like crazy and I couldn't get a grip on my mind, as if standing in a burning building.
There was a fire at Sunshine Daycare. Bad people wearing black clothes set fire to our Daycare and ran away. They beat the sisters and brothers who tried to stop them thinking they were thieves a lot, a lot, and took the money in the Director's room too. We tried to go out the door, but the door was locked. We cried because we were very scared, but suddenly thinking of the youngest ones who couldn't even walk properly, we ran.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry Director, I can't protect our youngest ones. I want to send them out the window at least, but the smoke keeps, keeps stopping me from breathing. I can't breathe. It's hot. It hurts. I miss you. I had something to gift to the Director, but I don't think I can do it. I'm sorry. I love you. Thank you for loving us. It was so good that you treated us like a mom and dad.
I'm dying. I'm becoming not me.
It was the moment consciousness gradually blurred amidst the rushing emotions and memories.
「Quest complete.」
「▶ You have successfully delivered the children's last gift to the Director of Sunshine Daycare. The entity in question no longer considers you an intruder of the Daycare.」
"Kehek! Kek! Hah, haak...!"
Before I knew it, my body was curled up on the floor, gasping painfully.
In the vision blurred by cloudy tears, I saw the figure of the Daycare Director looking down at me.
Wearing the pretty flower crown unsuited for that terrible appearance on her head, she was looking down at me with a still smiling face.
"Hmm, hmm, hmm."
Humming the unpleasant song I heard at the very beginning, the Daycare Director was still looking down at me there.
'No.'
Only then was the Director's voice heard properly.
"Heuk, sob."
She was crying.
She was struggling and crying in the guilt of not being able to protect the children from the bad people in black suits.
「▶ The Daycare Director, having heard the children's hearts from you, realized that she no longer needs to protect this place.」
「Anomaly, 'Sunshine Daycare' is deactivated.」
"...Eh?"
「Unbelievable Achievement Unlocked!」
「Receiving rewards.」
「▶ Title: Lowest-Ranking Prey → Graduate of Sunshine Daycare」
「▶ You have now settled as a full-fledged entity, not a pseudo-Anomaly. How about gradually discarding lingering attachments to your previous life?」
"Re, ally. Crazy, sounds..."
The curse mumbled at the status window was not maintained to the end.
With the image of the Director whose expression seemed brighter than before in the fading vision as the last thing.
My vision was completely dyed in darkness.