Women Who Are Not in Their Right Minds

Chapter 2

"..."

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a room as bright and sterile as an operating theater. Not a speck of dust marred the dining table. It was as though someone had changed the channel on reality. "Si-hyun? You've stopped eating."

Even the sudden change of scenery paled beside the woman sitting opposite me. "Why aren't you eating?"

Silver hair. Strange, golden eyes. Her beauty was so far beyond anything I'd seen that even the finest computer graphics would have struggled to reproduce it. Surely a woman like this couldn't exist in the real world. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yet—

『Memory inheritance in progress.』

A blue hologram hovered in front of me as a tide of unfamiliar memories washed through my head. 『37... 54... 83...』

Until, at last—

『100%』

Ding!

—"Noona! I wanna eat this!"

—"N-Noona, aren't you buying too many clothes? Y-You don't have to get me any."

—"T-Today, I didn't even talk back when girls spoke to me."

The memories of a hopelessly awkward kid came crashing into my mind. "Ugh!"

I shook my head, trying to clear the flood of recollections, and finally took in my surroundings. The immaculate room was made almost entirely of glass: the chair, the table, even the surface beneath my steaming pasta. Mirrors surrounded us on every side, reflecting Park Ha-rin and me into infinity.

'Holy... shit.'

Cold sweat formed on my brow. When I looked up, my eyes met Ha-rin's. In those translucent golden irises, countless reflections of me seemed to spin like a kaleidoscope. The slightest movement of her eyes tracked every angle. My blood ran cold as I looked back at the mirror.

A breathtakingly handsome boy stared back at me. Even I couldn't deny how absurdly beautiful he was. With a face like that, he could probably insult an elf's beauty to its face and walk away without punishment.

I'd become the protagonist of the dating sim 《Conquering Noonas in My Younger Brother's Tower》.

As soon as I understood that, a cold voice cut through my thoughts.

"Park Si-hyun."

I shivered and turned. Park Ha-rin was staring directly at me, her golden irises catching the light.

And then—

Her fork hung in midair.

Her hand flickered.

The fork struck the table between my fingers.

CRASH!

Glass erupted outward. The impact sent fractures racing across the table and shards skittering over the floor.

Ting.

The fork stood embedded between my middle and ring fingers. A few millimeters to either side, and it would have gone through my hand. The room fell silent except for the sharp crackle of glass giving way beneath us.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

My mind went blank, but one thing was obvious.

No ordinary human could have done that.

She had driven a fork through a glass table with enough precision to miss my fingers by millimeters.

But of course, this was Park Ha-rin. And she was smiling.

"That was close, Si-hyun. What were you looking at while you were eating with your noona?"

Intelligence, reflexes, eyesight, strength, speed—Park Ha-rin exceeded ordinary human limits in every conceivable way. For her, apparently, even that was possible.

"Didn't I tell you not to let your attention wander when you're with me, Park Si-hyun?"

Her voice remained gentle. Her eyes did not. Beneath the silver fringe, they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gleamed with unmistakable menace.

"Well? Aren't you going to answer me?"

I still couldn't tell whether I was dreaming.

"..."

But I knew one thing for certain.

Thump.

Every instinct in this body was terrified of Park Ha-rin.

Thump. Thump.

I flexed my fingers. They brushed against the hot metal of the fork and the broken glass. Five millimeters. That was all the space she'd left between the tines and my skin.

There was no chance to dwell on it.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

Watching her move, hearing her speak, I felt a dizzying sense of déjà vu. "You're acting as though you've never seen your older sister before."

Her brilliant golden eyes followed every tiny movement I made. It was like being watched by a camera that could see through me. 『You only need to think about me.』

The expression I'd seen in the 『BAD END』 flashed across her face. My heart hammered; my vision swam. Before I could make sense of it—

Bzzzt—

The 『Affection Level ∞ / 10』 hovering above her head flickered with static, then faded. As the last of the numbers vanished, I slumped over the table and lost consciousness.

"...Love you."

Light pierced the suffocating darkness. I jolted awake with a gasp. "Gah!"

A magnificent chandelier hung above me. Beyond it lay a bedroom I didn't recognize. "Wh-what?!"

Not my cramped apartment on Earth. Park Si-hyun's bedroom. "...Huh?"

"Are you all right? Are you awake?"

Before I could collect myself, a familiar voice sounded above me.

I was lying at the very edge of a bed, so close that a careless movement would send me falling to the floor.

My head, however, rested on a pair of stocking-covered thighs. "Park Si-hyun?"

Silver hair brushed against my cheek. The owner of those thighs looked down at me with a face of almost unreal beauty.

A beautiful woman was giving me a lap pillow. Under any other circumstances, I'd have called myself lucky. Unfortunately, that woman was a psychopath. When I met her questioning gaze, the last trace of comfort disappeared. "Does anything hurt?"

So it hadn't been a hallucination. The red-eyed Ha-rin from the 『BAD END』 still haunted my thoughts, overlapping with the golden-eyed woman in front of me. Had the transcendent version of her dragged me into this game? Did the Ha-rin here know? 'N-no. That can't be right...'

It sounded insane. Then again, possessing a game character was hardly a reasonable thing to experience.

There was a hologram floating before my eyes, a supernaturally beautiful woman beside me, and nothing around me resembled Earth. Which meant—

'...I can't completely rule out the possibility that Park Ha-rin brought me here.'

I tried to hide my fear as I studied her. She smiled. "Are you all right?"

Her cool fingertips brushed my forehead. The touch was soothing; my thoughts were anything but. 'Fuck.'

Everything felt far too real to dismiss as a dream. I didn't understand how this had happened, but I had to accept that it had. 'I...'

...was trapped inside 《Conquering Noonas in My Younger Brother's Tower》, the infamous game where every route seemed to end in disaster. Worse, I was Park Si-hyun, the impossibly handsome protagonist at the center of it all. 'I have to survive these lunatics. Somehow.'

If I failed—

—You can never escape me, even in death. In three years, Ha-rin or one of the other heroines would kill or imprison me. —Park Si-hyun? Who were you looking at? Of all the routes I'd played, the person responsible for the most deaths was... 'Park Ha-rin.'

The woman smiling down at me. "Hm? Does something hurt?"

Concern shone in her golden eyes. I only felt more afraid. 'You're the one who nearly skewered my hand! And now you're asking if I'm hurt? What the hell is wrong with you?'

Ha-rin's obsession with her younger brother was absolute. If she realized I wasn't the real Park Si-hyun, my chances of being murdered would be practically 300%. I'd seen her kill body-stealing villains in the game before they could utter a word of explanation. 'After ten thousand playthroughs, you stop calling it a theory.'

Memories of his gruesome deaths flashed through my mind. While I sat frozen, Ha-rin's gaze sharpened. She was getting suspicious. And the real Park Si-hyun would never have stayed this quiet around her.

I quickly headbutted Park Ha-rin's ample chest. As my forehead collided with her bust, her F-cup breasts bounced slightly upward. Any normal girl would've winced in pain, but...

"What's gotten into you?"

Ha-rin smiled as though nothing were wrong, but my fingers still trembled around her waist. She was strong enough to smash a glass table and precise enough to read the smallest change in my expression. "U-um... what happened to me, Noona?"

"What happened? You fainted. I've been looking after you, and now you're acting as though something's wrong with me."

For a heartbeat she looked confused. Then her pale brows drew together. "You're acting strange."

Her scrutiny grew more intense. This was bad. "N-noona!"

"Hm?"

I clung to her more tightly, scrambling for a distraction. But—

'Ugh.'

The instant I touched her, my body shook uncontrollably. Si-hyun's lingering instincts seemed to be screaming at me to remember what she was capable of. I forced the words out anyway.

"Y-you brought me here, didn't you?"

It was a dangerous question. Had she brought me from Earth, or merely carried an unconscious Si-hyun to bed? If she knew the truth, her answer might give her away. She only tilted her head.

"What do you think?"

The words were innocent enough. The smile that accompanied them wasn't.

"Who else would look after you? Of course your noona brought you here."

"..."

I'd learned nothing.

"What do you think?"

Her lovely face betrayed nothing.

"..."

What I wanted was for her to confess that she'd summoned me. At least then I'd know who was responsible instead of exhausting myself with speculation.

'If the Ha-rin from the ending really brought me here, I'm screwed no matter what I do. For now, I need to survive long enough to figure it out.'

Yet that was still only a guess. I had no proof the Ha-rin from the 『BAD END』 and the woman beside me were connected.

And yet—

"Pfft."

Ha-rin suddenly giggled.

"Ah, our Si-hyun... How can you be so handsome?"

Her expression melted into a dreamy smile. It was a reminder of just how absurdly attractive this body was.

"..."

"Hehehe..."

And, true to her unhinged nature, she was grinning at me with a look that was downright lewd. What kind of sister makes that kind of face at her own brother? It was absurd.

Why did that smile seem to grow more ominous the longer I watched her?

"..."

I didn't know where I stood in this world or what Ha-rin knew. But I needed information, and I needed a plan before she decided I was an impostor.

'I'm not dying here. I beat games for a living. I can figure this out.'

I tried to convince myself.

"So cute."

Was my terror of Ha-rin my own, or had I inherited it with Si-hyun's memories? By now, I couldn't tell.

So I tried again.

"Noona."

"Hmm?"

"You aren't keeping anything from me, are you?"

Something unreadable flashed through her eyes.

"Hmm? We're family, aren't we?"

Her fingers brushed lightly against my lips in the dim light.

"Family doesn't keep secrets. We shouldn't. Noona can show you everything... do you want to see?"

With a sly smile, she undid a button of her shirt, revealing the deep valley of her cleavage. A sweet, intoxicating scent wafted from her milky skin. Her ample breasts pressed against my cheek, her silver hair spilling over my vision. And then—her gaze, dizzyingly dangerous, loomed over me.

She leaned in, whispering into my ear in a voice any man would crave:

"This is only for you... because you're my little brother."

Her fingers tugged at her shirt, pulling it just enough to emphasize the sinful curve of her chest.

"Don't you want a taste? Like... your noona?"

I wanted to refuse, but the original Si-hyun's reflexes answered before I could think.

"S-sorry!"

The stammer hadn't even been deliberate.

Her eyes narrowed. For an instant, suspicion crossed her face.

"...Oh?"

Her expression turned cold for a heartbeat. Then she stroked my cheek as though nothing had happened.

"What a shame."

Her tone was playful, but I knew better. Her kindness was an act, or at least only one part of a much more dangerous person.

Whatever lurked beneath it frightened me.

"Tell me what you'd like for dinner. I'll take especially good care of you. After all... your body isn't yours alone anymore."

She spoke lightly, as though she hadn't just made a threat.

"Y-yeah!"

And yet, despite the perilous situation, I couldn't help but feel an unwanted thrill.

Even that face was too exquisite to admire alone, let alone those melon-sized breasts larger than her head... I could understand why the protagonist had fallen head over heels for Ha-rin despite her being his biological sister. Though related by blood, she was physically lethal. That dizzying, suffocating toxicity like venom only served to violently stimulate primal urges. "You just need to obey me. That's all you have to do."

"...Yeah."

She was the same person, yet excessively—perhaps dangerously—beautiful. No wonder the siscon Park Si-hyun couldn't break free from his sister. But I wasn't him. 'Only those blessed bastards without sisters get turned on by their own siblings.'

Ha-rin finally lifted my head from her lap and walked toward the door. She paused at the frame. "You're not hurt, but what about school? Do you still want to go?"

"Huh...?"

I considered staying home. Then I imagined spending an entire day under her watchful eye. Going to school was obviously safer. "I-I'm fine. I'll go."

She chuckled, her smile warm enough to be convincing—if I hadn't seen what lay behind it. "All right."

My vision filled with the sight of her shapely thighs and plump backside. Without realizing it, my gaze locked onto her retreating figure, unconsciously trailing after her. Only belatedly did I notice—

'Huh...?'

My crotch had swollen to a size that put even the most well-endowed to shame. This bastard, with this face and these specs? Goddamn, he really had it all...

Unable to tear my eyes away from the sway of her silver hair against her hips, I shamelessly followed the curve of her backside. 'That ass is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠unreal.'

I followed her into a luxurious hallway and passed another room lined entirely with mirrors. The sight brought back the dining room and the fork lodged in its glass table. Whatever else I felt, one thought outweighed everything.

'Survive. Survive. Survive. Survive.'

Si-hyun's memories guided me through the enormous mansion. Cutting-edge technology blended with extravagant furnishings in a way I'd never seen on Earth. Everything looked both familiar and impossible.

'I really got dragged into a game. Fuck. At least I'm three years ahead of the opening.'

Si-hyun's uniform and memories confirmed that he was in his first year of high school. The Tower wouldn't appear for another three years. Until then, I couldn't acquire the skills I'd relied on in the game. How was I supposed to prepare?

Just then, Ha-rin, who had been walking ahead, suddenly stopped. The way her stockings clung to her thighs was downright obscene. No—she wasn't just a sister. She was a walking mental disorder. I couldn't afford to let my guard down.

Ha-rin issued a command to the figure waiting at the entrance. "Take good care of Si-hyun. He's not in great shape today. If anything happens to him—"

Her half-lidded eyes bore into the person, a lethal shadow darkening her icy gaze. The girl visibly flinched under that stare. Her hair, a clever mix of silver and ash—like a blend of mine and noona's—cascaded to her waist, and her middle school uniform was tailored to emphasize her voluptuous figure. She looked like a delinquent, but against Ha-rin, even her tough-girl aura was useless.

"...Yeah. Unni... I'll take care of Oppa."

The girl in the middle school uniform shot me a sideways ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠glare. She had been Si-hyun's younger sister in the game; now she was mine. And she was one of the heroines.

『Park Si-hyun's Third Leading Cause of Death — Park Se-eun』

My third most likely cause of death was coming to school with me.