Another Survivor
The girl had a pale complexion and wore a shabby hospital gown. Her face was bare of any makeup. Yet even so, an undeniable beauty peeked through. This was the same girl who had just witnessed me kissing my stepmother. The moment I saw that strangely familiar face, a name surfaced in my mind.
“……Han Seunghee?”
“Huh? You know me?”
Her reaction turned my suspicion into certainty. This was the very younger sister that my former military junior Seungpil had praised endlessly, to the point his mouth went dry. Han Seunghee.
“Don’t move.”
But I didn’t lower the bamboo spear I had pointed at Han Seunghee. If anything, I thrust it forward more threateningly. Just because she was a girl, and just because she was Seungpil’s sister, there was no guarantee she was safe. In this place, I couldn’t trust anyone.
Han Seunghee looked back and forth between my face and the spear in my hand, her already pale face turning an even sicklier shade of blue.
“O-oppa! Come quick! There are people here!”
Han Seunghee waved frantically toward the cave entrance. Her voice was urgent. It was only natural for her to react this way when a soldier was pointing a weapon at her and threatening her.
“Ah! Seriously! I told you not to go alone!”
A familiar voice—Seungpil’s—echoed from outside the cave. So he was here too.
“Oppa! Hurry up!”
Han Seunghee urged her brother in a frightened voice.
“Uh……”
Seungpil came running in a panic and froze the moment he saw me pointing a bamboo spear at his little sister.
“C-Corporal Kang Changjae!?”
“Yeah. It’s me, Seungpil.”
I swung the spear away from Han Seunghee and pointed it at Seungpil instead. He flinched in shock and immediately raised both hands in surrender. The girl beside him quickly copied her brother and lifted her hands too.
“Han Seungpil. Where did you hide your weapon?”
“Weapon, sir? What weapon are you talking about?”
“You don’t have one?”
“No, sir. I didn’t have anything like a weapon.”
Seungpil answered with a dumb look on his face. He was dressed in the same combat uniform as me. There didn’t seem to be anywhere on him to conceal a large weapon like a spear or axe. The same went for his sister. She was wearing a hospital gown and indoor slippers. Her outfit looked just as inadequate as my stepmother’s.
“Then how did you deal with the hyena?”
“H-hyena? What’s a hyena, sir? What hyena are you talking about?”
“You didn’t run into a hyena?”
“Uhh……”
Seungpil began pondering with a vacant expression. ……Was this guy always this slow?
Just as irritation started building inside me, his sister—who clearly couldn’t stand it anymore—shouted on his behalf.
“Weasel! There was something like a weasel! Oppa kicked it and chased it away!”
“……Weasel?”
“Yes! A weasel! The phone kept saying something about a mission, but since killing it seemed too cruel, we just kicked it and drove it off.”
Now that I heard the story, it made sense. While I was fighting a life-or-death battle against a hyena, these two had been playing around with a weasel. What the hell. Weren’t we all supposed to be fighting hyenas? Was I the only one who almost died? The unfairness of this world made me sigh. Even the system was screwing me over.
……But did these guys really wander around this place without any weapons? What if they had run into someone else instead of me?
A wave of frustration washed over me, and I let out a deep sigh.
“Um, excuse me… since it looks like you know my brother, could you maybe put the weapon down?”
Han Seunghee smiled awkwardly as she spoke.
I flatly refused.
“No.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Because I don’t trust you two.”
I thrust the bamboo spear forward threateningly. Both Seungpil and his sister flinched. I wanted them to understand that I might actually stab them.
“Seungpil, take your sister and go back to wherever you were staying. And don’t come back. Don’t even loiter around here. There’s nothing good that can come from us running into each other.”
“Uhh, Corporal Kang Changjae?”
“You take care of your own survival. I’ll take care of mine. Here, I’m not your senior and you’re not my junior. Got it?”
“No way…… Corporal Kang Changjae……!”
Seungpil looked at me with the eyes of an abandoned puppy. But that kind of look wasn’t going to sway me. I had decided to be as ruthless as my stepmother. Even if I were certain these two weren’t dangerous, it wouldn’t change anything. Anyone carefree enough to wander around without weapons could cause an accident at any moment. And of course, even if they learned the coin-earning method (doing lewd things with a partner), they probably wouldn’t do it. I could already see the future where they tried to leech off me and my stepmother. Taking these two in would only be a penalty for us.
“If things get really tough later, you can come find me. I’ll help you once.”
“Ugh……”
I figured I had shown enough loyalty at this point. Since Seungpil knew my personality, he would understand that I wasn’t going to change my mind. I hoped they would just leave and find their own way to survive.
……However.
My wish was shattered in a completely unexpected way.
“Changjae, is that someone you know?”
“Stepmother. Please stay inside.”
“Still, if it’s someone my son knows, I should at least greet them.”
Damn it. The moment my stepmother stepped forward, Seungpil’s expression changed completely.
“Ohhh! Ma’am! It’s me, Han Seungpil! I was Corporal Kang Changjae’s junior!”
“Hello. I’m Changjae’s mother, Kang Seollyeong.”
“Mother?”
Seungpil was making a fuss in his usual frivolous way, while my stepmother politely bowed her head in greeting. This was getting awkward. I had planned to send them away and cut ties, but that seemed impossible now.
“Both mother and son have the surname Kang? That’s not a common last name. How interesting.”
“Hey! Han Seunghee!”
-Smack.
Seungpil smacked the back of his sister’s head.
“Ow!”
“Oh my.”
“What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Hurry up and greet Mother properly!”
“You jerk! Why did you hit me!”
The sister who had just been smacked on the back of the head started bickering with Seungpil. I took the opportunity to pull my stepmother deeper into the cave.
“Stepmother. Just a moment.”
“Hm?”
If things kept going like this, we would end up merging groups with them. I needed time to come up with a plan.
“Stepmother. Let’s just send them away.”
“Why? Isn’t he your junior?”
“He is my junior, but…… having them around would only be a burden.”
“Even so, how can we just send away such young children? It’s dangerous outside.”
“They’re not that young. Seungpil may be my junior, but he’s actually older than me. He just enlisted late.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The girl next to him is a college student. They’re both adults, so please don’t worry about them. I have to take care of myself.”
“Still……”
“Stepmother. If we stay with them, we’ll be in danger too. You promised to survive with me, didn’t you?”
“……Yes.”
My stepmother finally nodded. I felt the same reluctance, but I couldn’t live with two ticking time bombs whose explosions I couldn’t predict. When we stepped back outside, Seungpil—who had been standing ramrod straight like he was waiting for us—took a step forward.
“Ma’am! Please take care of us! Just give me any order! Rock breaking, digging, driving, menial labor—I’ll do anything!”
“Oh my.”
Seungpil gave a crisp salute and loudly appealed to her. I let out a deep sigh and said,
“Hey, Seungpil. I’m asking you nicely. Just go back, okay?”
“Corporal Kang Changjae! Where would I go? Didn’t we come out on duty together? Then we should return together too!”
“……This bastard, only his tongue is alive and well.”
I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even speak. His sister took it even further. She put on a pitiful expression like the little match girl on the verge of freezing to death and began appealing to my stepmother.
“Mother, I’m so scared. There are hyenas outside, and if you kick us out like this, we might get bitten to death by one.”
“Oh my.”
“Hey. Stop lying. You just said you didn’t see anything like that earlier.”
“I’m so hungry. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. Sob sob.”
Her ridiculous acting left me speechless. The change in attitude was way too drastic. While my stepmother and I were having our strategy meeting, these two must have come up with their own plan. They were practically a brother-sister con artist duo.
“Stepmother. Don’t fall for it. They’re acting right now.”
“Sob…… Mom, I miss you……! I’m so scared……!”
“Seunghee, just hold on a little longer……! Oppa will find us something to eat no matter what……!”
“Hey! That’s enough!”
Now even Seungpil had joined the performance. These guys weren’t even joking around. Did they really think that kind of acting would work?
—That’s what I thought, but.
“Changjae, wouldn’t it be better if we all helped each other? We’re not strangers, after all.”
……It seemed the acting had worked on my stepmother. She was looking at me with teary eyes, and I couldn’t possibly pretend not to notice.
“Haa.”
I sighed so heavily toward the cave ceiling that it felt like it might collapse. Even assuming the Seungpil siblings were completely harmless, the disadvantages of joining forces with them far outweighed the benefits. The only upside would be gaining Seungpil as extra labor. We could take turns standing night watch too. Whether I could trust them with our lives was another matter entirely.
On the other hand, the downsides were endless. For starters, two more mouths to feed. We would need two more sleeping spots and that much more daily necessities. And there was always the risk of getting stabbed in the back. Most importantly…… I wouldn’t be able to do lewd things with my stepmother. That was a huge problem.
It wasn’t that I wanted to do lewd things. It was because we needed to do them to obtain coins. But we obviously couldn’t do that in front of these two. That would leave us completely blocked, and we would eventually be forced to take risks. I had only just resolved myself to do it, and now this kind of interference.
Damn it. And if I sent them away now, my stepmother would clearly keep worrying about them. Accepting them was a problem, and rejecting them was also a problem. It was a lose-lose situation. Most of all, my own heart was leaning in that direction. I was already thinking about how to make use of Seungpil.
……At least, if there was some guarantee that these two were safe…….
The moment that thought crossed my mind—
Ding♪
You have joined another survivor’s party. Would you like to form a party? Attacking party members will result in severe penalties.
So at least party members were safe from each other…….
I gave up.
“Fine! We’ll do it!”