If You're Oppa, You Have to Do It
I looked down at her with a dazed expression. “...Huh?”
Even if I just slightly turned my head, the sight before me wasn’t a cute girl—it was a place littered with corpses. The extreme difference in atmosphere made my brain short-circuit.
The girl stood on her tiptoes and reached out her hands. It clearly meant hurry up and hug me.
“Oppa.”
Her yellow eyes gazed at me steadily. It felt like I could no longer look away. No—my instincts screamed that I must not look away if I wanted to survive.
I nodded blankly. “...Y-yeah. I’ll hug you.”
“Okay, good.”
The girl smiled brightly again. I bent my knees and awkwardly wrapped my arms around her.
She feels... surprisingly human?
Soft skin, warm breath. It was hard to believe she was the same being who had just committed that massacre.
But still.
She caused all this and she’s completely calm. I can never let my guard down.
The girl closed her eyes and nestled into my chest. Her gentle breathing tickled my ear. The metallic stench of blood vibrated all around us. I had no idea how I was supposed to act in a situation like this.
The girl slowly lifted her eyelids. She looked at me with puzzled eyes.
“Why are you shaking?”
“...It’s cold.”
I made up an excuse quickly. The girl blinked a few times, thinking, then suddenly slipped out of my arms.
“Ah, is that so? You should’ve said so sooner. I’ll make you warm.”
She nodded with a blank expression. She turned around, the click of her footsteps echoing as she started to walk away.
T-this is my chance to escape…
But the girl suddenly whipped her head back. Her yellow eyes were ice-cold.
“If you leave while I’m gone.”
“Y-yeah?”
“Even if it’s you, Oppa, I’ll get mad.”
Get mad. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve just laughed at a little kid saying something like that. But the chill that ran down my spine was anything but normal. Maybe it was because of the headless corpses scattered around us.
I nodded quickly. The girl gave a small nod of her own and disappeared somewhere.
…This is my only chance!
Now that she was completely out of sight, I had to move. Even if I imagined her getting angry and killing me, there was no guarantee she’d spare me if I just stayed put. None at all. For all I knew, she might say “Time to die now, Oppa” and my head would be gone in an instant.
I ran back the way I came, trying to make as little noise as possible.
“Oppa, where are you going?”
The moment I heard that voice, I had no choice but to stop. Trembling, I looked toward the source.
The girl was staring at me with freezing eyes. And not just any stare—it was a direct, unmistakable one.
“Are you abandoning me?”
“...”
She tilted her head. I met her yellow eyes, which were filled with a mix of disappointment and resentment. What was I supposed to say? It had been an act of survival, yet for some reason, guilt washed over me.
I-I need some kind of excuse…
It was obvious what would happen if this girl got angry. I’d die. And maybe, because she was angry, it would be even more gruesome than what happened to those headless guys.
“No way… How could I ever abandon my little sister?”
I shook my head. The girl narrowed her eyes. Her suspicious gaze scanned me up and down.
“I’m suspicious. I said I’d get mad. That’s the exit over there. Don’t go out of my sight.”
“...Huh?”
Had I just made things even worse?
“I warned you. I’ll be watching. Got it?”
The girl trotted back over. My dazed eyes fell on the “something” she was holding in her hand. On her small, pale palm, a heart was still beating.
“Hwaaaaaaaaack!”
I jumped in shock. I nearly fell over, but the girl quickly rushed over and caught me. She supported an adult man like me with just one hand. Then she gently helped me stand.
“Dangerous.”
“T-t-t-that’s a heart…!”
I could barely speak now. A pulsing heart was right in front of my eyes!
The girl tilted her head with a curious look, as if she didn’t understand. Then she glanced down at the heart in her hand.
“Heart. Not a human one.”
“...T-then what is it!”
“It’s warm.”
She nodded as if that explained everything. For a moment, I met her pure eyes and wondered if I had seen wrong. I looked again. It was definitely a heart. The strange part was that it wasn’t bleeding—it was just pulsing.
While I was staring blankly at the bizarre organ, the girl suddenly held it out to me.
“Take it. It’s warm.”
“Y-yeah…”
I had no choice but to accept it. Whether I lived or died, I could tell from her eyes that there wasn’t a single impure intention behind the gesture.
It really is warm.
I still had no idea why it was a heart, but it was definitely warm.
“It’s warm.”
“Right. It’s warm. I did good, didn’t I?”
The girl smiled contentedly and nodded to herself. The way she looked up at me with sparkling eyes, clearly hoping for praise, was almost overwhelming.
I nodded. “You… did good.”
“Hehe.”
The girl laughed brightly.
F-for now, it looks like I survived?
No matter what, I was still breathing. The problem was that I had no idea what kind of being this girl was. And on my own strength, there was no way I could escape from this place.
Maybe the best way is to earn this girl’s trust and escape?
For some reason, she called me Oppa. And even though she noticed I was trying to run away, she didn’t kill me. As long as she didn’t find out I wasn’t really her brother…
I can live! No—I have to live!
I swallowed dryly and looked at the girl with trembling eyes. She grabbed my hand tightly and started pulling me somewhere.
“Oppa, let’s eat now.”
I would build up her favorability like crazy!
…And that resolve completely shattered in less than an hour.
“...”
This was supposed to be food?
On the white plate sat something grotesquely black. Just… black. I couldn’t even describe it beyond that. The instinctive revulsion it caused was even stronger than what I felt looking at the corpses.
I slowly lifted my creaking head. The girl was sitting right across from me, watching. She was swinging her legs cheerfully, eyes sparkling. It looked like she was desperately hoping I would eat it.
I-I have to eat it.
The best way to raise favorability was right in front of me. Eating the black thing. But!
“Aren’t you eating?”
“I don’t need to eat. Hurry up and eat.”
The girl cut off my question instantly. She even urged me with a pouty expression. What a high-level move. Maybe it was a skill only a child could have.
I stabbed it with a fork and brought it to my mouth. I squeezed my eyes shut and shoved the black thing in.
Just swallow it!
The moment it touched my tongue…
It was… better than I expected. Way better. It tasted kind of like a baked potato.
If I couldn’t see it, it was fine. Even as I chewed, a question rose in my mind.
Is this really that black thing?
It was just a baked potato. The visuals were extremely shocking, though.
“...Is it good?”
The girl asked hesitantly, her eyes full of equal parts expectation and anxiety.
It’s less that it’s good and more that it’s surprising.
If she had just put charcoal on the plate, it probably would’ve looked better than this black thing. Maybe the contrast made it edible.
“It’s good.”
“R-really?”
The girl’s eyes widened. The emotion of I’m so happy! came through so clearly.
So is this the end?
I swallowed and was about to drink some water when—
“Eat this too!”
“Pffft!”
I spat out the water. This time, she brought an eyeball.
…I somehow managed to force down all the food. Only after I begged her, saying I was full, did the bizarre meal course finally stop.
The girl looked strangely happy. The smile never left her lips.
“What’s got you so happy?”
“The other kids all threw up.”
“...Other kids?”
I couldn’t help but open my eyes wide. Goosebumps rose all over my body. I instinctively realized that the words “other kids” didn’t just mean she had a lot of older brothers.
Did all the other kids die?
Maybe I was nothing more than a toy to this girl. I already had over ten thousand reasons to escape, but now I had one more. I’m so glad! Now I have even more reasons! I’m so happy I could curse!
I need to raise her favorability as quickly as possible.
There was one crucial thing I hadn’t done yet. People generally feel more favorable toward someone who calls them by name rather than just “you” or “hey.” Of course, calling someone only by name can sound stiff, so once you get close you use nicknames or just “hey,” but this was still the beginning. I needed to know her name.
“By the way… what’s your name?”
“Me?”
The girl looked at me with slightly surprised eyes. No, it was more like she was flustered.
“I don’t remember it well. I need to think. What’s your name first, Oppa?”
“I’m…”
“Ah, that’s right! I remembered Oppa’s name! It’s Haily, right?”
“...”
I had been forcibly renamed Haily. I was stunned for a moment.
It would be weird to say that’s not my name.
It might give her a reason to think I wasn’t really her brother, and she might slice me up right then and there. Besides, I had already thrown away my original Korean name anyway—what did a name matter at this point!
“Yeah, you remembered?”
My speech was a bit stiff, like I was reading from a textbook, but it was fine. The girl was frowning and groaning, so it seemed there wasn’t any big problem.
“My name… is.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Ah! That’s right! It was Leviart.”
“Levi… what?”
Leviart? Fuck, wasn’t that the final boss from the web novel I was reading?!