Chapter 14 – Another Survivor

A shabby hospital uniform with a pale complexion. A face without makeup.
Even so, there was an unconcealable whiteness on his face.

This kid who was spying on me and his mother kissing.
Seeing that face that seemed somehow familiar, a name popped into my head.

“… Han Seung-hee?”
“Uh? Do you know me?”

Seeing that response, my doubt turned to conviction.
This was Han Seung-hee, the sister my successor, Seung-pil, praised her until she drool.

“Don’t move.”

However, I did not reap the bamboo spear aimed at Han Seung-hee. No, rather, he held out his bamboo spear as if threatening.
Just because she was a woman, and because she was Seungpil’s younger sister, there was no guarantee that she would be okay. No one could be trusted here.

Han Seung-hee looked at my face and the bamboo spear in her hand, turning her fly-like face even more blue.

“Oh, brother! Come quickly! There are people here!”

Han Seung-hee gestures toward her cave entrance.
Her voice is all urgent. A soldier points a weapon at him and threatens him. It was natural to have such a reaction.

“Ah! Really! That’s why I don’t go alone!”

Seung-pil’s familiar voice is heard outside the cave.
I wonder if Seungpil was here too.

“Brother! Quickly!”

Han Seung-hee urges Seung-pil in a frightened voice.

“Uh…”

Seung-pil, who came running in a hurry, froze at the sight of me and his younger sister facing each other with a bamboo spear pointed at them.

“Go, Corporal Kang Chang-jae!?”
“Uh. Seungpil.”

I turned the bamboo spear I was aiming at Han Seung-hee at Seung-pil.

Seungpil was startled and raised his hands as if surrendering. And Han Seung-hee, who was next to him, also raised both hands following his brother.

“Han Seung-pil. Where did you hide your weapon?”
“Uh, you mean the weapon? What weapon do you mean?”
“You don’t have any weapons?”
“Yes. There were no weapons or anything like that.”

Seungpil answered with a puzzled expression.

Seungpil was wearing the same combat uniform as me. He seemed to have nowhere to hide large weapons like spears or axes.

The same goes for his younger sister, Han Seung-hee. Indoor slippers in a hospital uniform. She was dressed as sloppy as my mother.

“Then how did you catch the hyena?”
“Hey, hyena? What is a hyena? What hyena are you talking about?”
“Did you not meet the hyena?”
“Uh~…”

Seungpil began to ponder with a stupid expression on his face.
… Was this child such a fool?

Just as I was about to start getting irritated, Seung-pil, who was worse off, shouted loudly instead of his younger brother.

“Weasel! There was something like a weasel! His brother kicked him off!”
“… Weasel?”
“Yes! Weasel! Even on the phone, they said it was just a mission, but it was pitiful to kill them, so I just kicked them out.”

When I heard about it, I kind of understood it.
While I was fighting to the death with the hyenas, these guys were playing with the weasels.

What. Didn’t everyone fight hyenas? Am I the only one who almost died?
A sigh came out at the unfairness of this world. Even the system oppresses me.

… So, did these guys walk around here without weapons? What would you have done if you met someone else first instead of me?

I let out a deep sigh at the layer of stuffiness that came over me.

“Uh, you seem to know my brother, can you put down your weapon?”

Han Seung-hee smiled awkwardly and said.
I flatly refused.

“No.”
“Uh? Why?”
“Because I don’t trust you.”

As if threatening, I gently held out my bamboo spear.
Seung-pil and his younger brother wince in surprise. I want you to know that I can seriously stab you.

“Seungpil, take you and his younger brother and go back to the hideout where you were first. And don’t come back Don’t be fooled around here. There’s nothing good about bumping into each other.”
“Uh, Corporal Kang Chang-jae?”
“You know how to survive. I know I will survive. Here, I am not your senior and you are not my successor. Did you understand?”
“I can’t… Corporal Kang Chang-jae… !”

Seungpil looks at me with an expression like an abandoned puppy.
But that doesn’t shake my heart. Because I decided to make up my mind just like my mother.

The same is true if you are sure that these guys are not dangerous. I didn’t know when or what kind of accident these guys were carefree enough to walk around without a weapon.

Of course, even if you learn how to get coins (do naughty things with your partner), you won’t. After that, I could clearly see the future of trying to cling to me and my mother. Harvesting these guys was only a penalty for us.

“Come back later when you’re having a hard time. I will help you once.”
“Ugh…”

At this point, I think I’ve done my due diligence.
Seungpil knows my personality, so he should know that I don’t change my words. He hoped that he would go back and find a way to live on his own.

… However. My wish like that was dispelled in the wrong form.

“Does anyone know Changjae?”
“Mother. Don’t come out.”
“Still, if your son knows someone, you should say hello.”

This.
Seeing his mother come out, Seungpil’s complexion changed.

“Oh oh! Mother! It’s me, I’m Han Seung-pil! I am the successor to Corporal Kang Chang-jae!”
“Hello. I am Kang Seol-ryeong, Chang-jae’s mother.”
“Mom?”

Seung-pil makes a fuss lightly. His mother, on the other hand, bowed politely.

It was embarrassing.
I was going to send it back like this and stop caring about it. It seemed impossible.

“Are both mother and son Mr. Kang? It’s not a common last name. You are very special.”
“Hey! Han Seung-hee!”

– Right.
Seungpil slapped his younger brother in the back of the head.

“Ouch!”
“Oh my goodness.”
“Where are you talking nonsense? Hurry up and say hello to your mother!”
“Miss Lee! Why do you hit me!”

Seung-pil, who was stabbed in the back of the head, and his younger brother started arguing with Seung-pil.

“Mother. Wait a minute.”
“Huh?”

In the meantime, I went inside the cave to talk with my mother.
At this rate, I will join them without hesitation. Operation time was needed.

“Mother. Just let them go.”
“Why? Aren’t you Changjae’s junior?”
“The successor is right… Having them is nothing but a burden.”
“But how can you just let those young kids go? It must be dangerous outside.”
“They are not young. Even if Seungpil is the successor, he is older than me. He came late to the army.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The younger brother next to me is also a college student. Both of them are adults, so never mind. I have to take care of myself.”
“Still…”
“Mother. If we’re with them, we’re in danger too. Didn’t you decide to survive with me?”
“… Huh.”

Her mother barely nodded her head.
Same goes for me too. That said, I couldn’t live with two bombs that didn’t know when they would explode.

When I came out with my mother, Seung-pil, who was standing upright as if salty, took a step forward.

“Mother! I look forward to! Just ask me to do anything! Stone work, shoveling, driving, working as a farmhand, I’ll do anything!”
“Oh my goodness.”

Seungpil loudly appeals to himself with a measured salute.
I sighed and said.

“Hey. Seungpil. Just go back when you say nice things. Huh?”
“Corporate Kang Chang-jae! Where did I go? It’s simple! Didn’t you come to work with me! Then you should go with me until I return!”
“… This bastard, only the horse’s feet survive.”

I was at a loss for words.

Seungpil’s younger brother went one step further. The matchstick, on the verge of freezing to death, began to appeal to her mother with a girlishly pitiful expression.

“Mother, I am so scared. There are also hyenas outside, and if we get kicked out like this, we might die from being bitten by the hyenas.”
“Oh my goodness.”
“Hey. Do not lie. You guys haven’t seen anything like that before.”
“I am very hungry. I haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. Sobbing.”

I was dumbfounded by the absurd acting, so I couldn’t even speak.

Even if your attitude is different from before, isn’t it too different?
These must have been planned while my mother and I were having a strategy meeting. There was no separate sibling scam.

“Mother. Don’t be fooled. They are acting now.”
“Black… Mom, I miss you… ! I’m so scared… !”
“Seunghee, be patient… ! My brother will somehow find something to eat… !”
“Hey! Do it in moderation!”

Now even Seung-pil has joined the acting.
These aren’t even kidding now. Do you think that kind of smoke will work?

──, I thought.

“Changjae, wouldn’t it be nice if we could help each other? You don’t even know each other.”

… The smoke seems to work for my mother.
Even my mother was looking at me with a tearful expression, and I couldn’t pretend not to know.

“Ha.”

I sighed toward the ceiling of the cave until it collapsed.

Even if Seung-pil assumed that the brother and sister were absolutely harmless beings, joining the two would do more harm than good.

The good thing is, at most, that the labor power of Seung-pil is created. You will be able to stand up alternately even during night shifts. Whether I can trust my mother’s life and entrust it to her is another matter, though.

On the other hand, the downsides were countless. First of all, two mouths are stretched. I need two more beds and more daily necessities. And when you might get stabbed in the back.

More than anything… I can’t do dirty things with my mother.

This was a big problem.
It’s not that I want to do dirty work. It’s because you have to do dirty things in order to supply and demand coins.

But you can’t do that in front of them. Then we will definitely be blocked by a wall and there will come a situation where we have to take risks.

I barely made up my mind to do it, but never thought I’d be interrupted in this way. Shit.

But if I just send them back like this, my mother will definitely keep caring about me. If you get it, it’s a problem, if you don’t, it’s a problem. It was going to fire.

More than anything, my heart was leaning toward it. I was already thinking in my head how to use Seungpil.

… At least, I don’t know if there’s even a guarantee that these things are safe…
The moment I think so.

『Teeling♪』

As if they had waited, alarms went off in Seungpil’s pocket and me at the same time.

『I joined a group of other survivors. Would you like to party? If you attack a party member, you will receive a heavy penalty.』

Still, the party members are safe…

I gave up.

“I got it! You can do it!”