I Am Not the Final Boss's Older Brother
The floor shook with a heavy thud.
When the cloud of dust settled, what appeared was a writhing tail. It had scales, and it was enormous…
‘Is that a dragon’s tail?’
The girl stared at the twitching tail with a completely indifferent expression. She had just accomplished the monumental feat of dragon hunting, yet she showed no emotion whatsoever.
She lifted her head. As if checking for my reaction, her reverse eyes scanned my face with an unblinking stare.
“Y-yeah! I love dragon meat!”
I had no choice but to nod with an awkward smile.
“Right? If you spit it out like last time, I’ll smack you.”
“Y-yep, that’s right.”
I agreed with fervent nods. Of course. Getting smacked by her felt like having your organs crushed into paste. Absolutely.
‘Besides, even though it’s physiologically repulsive, the stuff she brings actually tastes pretty good.’
The girl smiled.
“Alright, let’s eat.”
“Yeah…”
I swallowed dryly, my face stiff. It was for my survival, but I also didn’t want to wipe that smile off her face.
‘Fuck…’
I stared at the writhing tail. A curse slipped out in my mind. How the hell did I end up becoming the older brother of this insane kid?
“So, you’ve been selected for the reconnaissance team.”
“…Pardon?”
I made a dumb face. I asked back in confusion, but the Prison Warden remained utterly indifferent. Her eyes never left the documents in front of her.
‘Are you fucking kidding me? I woke up in another world, in a prison, and that was already unfair enough to make me want to die.’
And now they were sending me to die in an unexplored dungeon. This level of bad luck was ridiculous. Plus, today was a special meal day with a tiny bit of meat, but they dragged me out anyway.
I wore an expression of pure injustice. The Prison Warden shot me a sharp glare with her piercing eyes.
“So you’re refusing to go?”
“Yes! Of course I’m not—”
“Then you die right now.”
The Prison Warden gave a slight nod. One of the guards swung a massive halberd.
Whoosh!
The axe blade flew toward me. Closer and closer. I couldn’t even scream.
The halberd’s blade stopped dead right in front of my neck, hovering dangerously close.
‘…’
With trembling eyes, I glanced at the halberd, then at the Prison Warden. She asked in a voice mixed with a sigh.
“Will you go?”
“…Yes.”
There was no need for persuasion. I nodded immediately. Anyone would agree with an axe blade dangling in front of their throat. Especially since this was the same Prison Warden who had killed several people right before my eyes.
Beneath the brim of her warden’s hat, her cold red eyes flashed.
“Really?”
She asked again. With eyes like she was about to devour a person, of course I had to answer.
“Y-yes, I will.”
“Good.”
I had no choice but to agree. The Prison Warden jerked her chin toward the door. It meant get out.
Throughout the entire process of rising from the chair and walking to the door, her icy gaze followed me.
‘Making sure I don’t run?’
I have no intention of running. I need to at least keep this pathetic life of mine going, don’t I?
I opened the door. Following the guard’s orders, I trudged along and found a crowd of prisoners with deathly pale faces.
‘…Ah.’
So there were comrades to die with. Tears welled up. Probably… tears of emotion. No, I was just sad.
I boarded the transport carriage with the other prisoners who were going to die together. The Prison Warden had said that if we successfully scouted and reported back, she would pardon our crimes. But the prisoners only trembled harder.
Of course they did. Pardoning prisoners made no sense. She was ordering us to do something impossible.
‘She calls it reconnaissance, but it’s basically telling us to go die.’
Dungeons—especially unexplored ones—were dangerous. That’s why they sent prisoners in first. To check how many died, what kind of monsters were inside. Strangely enough, the data was quite accurate, so the empire, obsessed with dungeon exploration, kept feeding prisoners into them.
‘Fuck…’
The problem was that I was one of them now.
I sighed and rubbed my face. Some conversation had started inside the damn carriage, but the guard ordered everyone to shut up.
‘Talking might lead to rebellion or something.’
What nonsense. Honestly, it sounded somewhat plausible, but I still thought it was ridiculous.
The carriage arrived. Prisoners began getting off one by one.
‘…What is this place?’
I looked around in bewilderment. The prisoners were murmuring among themselves. It was understandable.
A massive ancient castle stood before us. A torn flag fluttered at the very top. The carriage hadn’t traveled far, yet here was this enormous castle.
‘This is weird.’
The prison was near the city. Even by carriage, it was only about two days’ travel. I had never heard or seen anything about a castle like this. I thought it was because I’d possessed someone, but listening to the others, that wasn’t the case.
“Quiet. We are now entering the unexplored dungeon.”
“H-huaaah! I-I want to live!”
One prisoner fell into a panic. His face turned deathly pale as he screamed and tried to run.
“Haa.”
The guard sighed. With practiced movements, he pulled a dagger from his pocket.
Swish—thunk!
The dagger flew and struck the prisoner squarely in the back of the head. The man staggered and collapsed. Blood poured from his skull.
“…!”
I watched in horror. He died instantly. The dagger had pierced straight through his skull.
The guard clasped his hands behind his back and spoke.
“Pay attention.”
“…”
The prisoners turned their creaking necks to look at the guard. He swept his cold eyes over them, then pointed at the ancient castle.
“I don’t want to get any more blood on my hands. Go inside. Order doesn’t matter. Go as far into the dungeon as possible, then return.”
At that command, everyone had no choice but to obey. It was absurdly simple.
The inside of the ancient castle was cleaner than I expected. And the fact that I could even think that meant only one thing.
‘There’s something insanely scary in here.’
It was such a cliché line that it might as well have been a classic monster entrance phrase.
I kept walking, trembling. There had been a runaway who screamed and bolted out, but he would’ve died outside anyway. There was only one entrance. The guard would probably ask, “Didn’t you go all the way?” get the necessary information, and kill him.
‘So escaping really is a matter of intelligence, huh?’
Looks like my intelligence stat is pretty bad. Damn it.
When we reached nearly the end of the ancient castle, an ominous sound came from ahead.
“Huh, it’s cleaner inside than I thought? Maybe it’s safe?”
A voice that should never have been heard rang out—louder than any scream.
Crunch—!
Immediately after, a sickening sound of flesh being torn swallowed the voice. The prisoner’s head had vanished. His body dropped to the floor with a thud. Blood gushed from the torn stump.
A stunned silence filled with horror followed.
One prisoner shook violently and ran backward.
“I-I only stole one loaf of bread! I can’t die here!”
“Long-hair…!”
The prisoner who slapped my shoulder and ran past me.
Crunch—!
His head disappeared too. The same fate.
The prisoners screamed and scattered in terror. I was the only one who stayed still, trembling.
One by one, the prisoners’ heads vanished.
“W-what the hell is…”
My pupils shook. I breathed raggedly and looked around. Only a few who hadn’t moved were still alive. Even those few had pale faces and no will to fight.
“Be quiet… please.”
In the silence made of death, a young voice rang out. I couldn’t bear to look. It was a girl’s voice, but it could just as easily belong to some grotesque monster.
Tap. Tap.
The slow footsteps tightened around my throat.
‘Fuck…!’
The head of the prisoner next to me was ripped off too. Even though I widened my eyes as much as possible, I couldn’t see how or why. Something had simply brushed past.
Crunch. Crunch.
Heads disappeared one after another. In the end, only I remained.
‘S-still, I should at least see the face of the thing that’s going to kill me.’
I ought to see the face of the bastard who kills me so I can curse it properly from the afterlife. I slowly turned my head. I opened my tightly shut eyes.
‘Huh?’
There was a girl. She held a massive scythe in one hand. Her white hair flowed down to her waist, and her eyes were reverse eyes. Within black sclera, yellow irises stared at me.
The moment her emotionless, utterly cold gaze turned toward my face—
‘…!’
My head wasn’t ripped off. What? Why am I still alive? Everyone else died after looking at her.
The girl stared at me expressionlessly. Then she tilted her head.
“Oppa?”
“…?”
“O-oppa… right?”
The girl slowly approached. The scythe she had been holding in one hand vanished somewhere. Because I was too tense to do anything, before I knew it, she was right in front of me.
She looked up at me with wide eyes. I stared back at her in a daze.
“U-um…”
She tilted her head again. With a puzzled look, she scanned my body.
“Oppa, why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Y-yeah?”
“You can talk. The other weird humans I brought here just stayed quiet, but they were too noisy. I made them be quiet. Did I do well?”
The girl smiled brightly. Even though the words were ridiculous, the smile was so beautiful. I nodded blankly.
She giggled. It was pure and innocent. For some reason, she looked incredibly pure. Even though the surroundings were drenched in blood and corpses, that contrast made my skin crawl slightly.
When my face instinctively twisted a little—
“…”
“Ah.”
The girl’s face hardened.
‘D-did I do something wrong?’
I was about to open my mouth to say something when she reached out her arms.
“Ah…”
“…Gulp.”
“Hug me.”
“…?”
What kind of situation was this? I looked at her in utter confusion. The girl made a sullen face.
“Hug me. Hurry.”
What?