Click-! Clack-! Click-! Clack-!
The rhythmic dance of the Golden Rabbit Reapers finally came to a close. Their synchronized movements had been so mesmerizing, it felt like they could have gone on forever. But before long, the pudding-making session ended.
The diligent Golden Reapers proudly placed their finished puddings into the refrigerators and plopped down around them, waiting for them to be completed.
There were exactly five refrigerators in the Garden of the Golden Reapers. The Reapers sat in a circle around them, their faces beaming with satisfaction from a job well done.
Watching their hard work, I reached a bittersweet realization.
Even though it seemed like our grand plan to churn out Ninja Puddings in the Garden of Golden Reaper was a success, it was also kind of a flop.
For starters, it took forever! Like, seriously, who has the patience for that?! And those refrigerators? There were just five of them!
While that might be plenty for the Golden Reapers, it was nowhere near enough for me. After all, each fridge was only big enough to hold one cup of pudding.
So, after all that waiting, we’d only end up with five measly puddings.
That’s it. Just five. So few. Way too few!
I wracked my brain for a solution, but nothing popped into my head…
Maybe we could move the pudding to another fridge?
But no, from the looks of it, the garden only had enough ingredients for five cups of pudding. So more fridges wouldn’t help.
Should I hunt more rabbits? There were only five chef hats in the garden now. If I kill more rabbits, would more hats appear?
Also, how can I sneakily “borrow” those five puddings without the Golden Reaper noticing?
I glanced over at the Golden Reapers, who were grinning and eagerly waiting for their puddings to chill.
My worries grew deeper and deeper.
The men came down from the second floor while I kept poking the cheek of Reaper, who just sat there unresponsive, no matter how much I poked and prodded.
They made quite the first impression.
One was bawling his eyes out, tears streaming down his cheeks like waterfalls, while the other was dressed in the most bizarre outfit I’d ever seen.
I mean, how do I even describe it? It was like a thick, full-body swimsuit? It was so weird!
Despite their odd looks, the Golden Reapers clinging to them made me think they weren’t bad guys. Just a little… eccentric.
I guess one of them is the owner of this factory.
By the way, their awkward reactions to the Golden Reapers were hilarious!
The guy in the weird outfit calmly picked up the Golden Reaper attached to him, inspected it like it was some rare artifact, and then plopped it onto his head with a calm smile.
Meanwhile, the crying man was startled when a Golden Reaper started wiping away his tears. He looked so conflicted, hehe, like he wanted to fling it away but was too scared to do so.
After deliberating for a while, he instead gently placed the Reaper on the railing, handling it like it was made of glass.
The poor abandoned little Reaper sat on the railing, looking up at him with the saddest, most pitiful expression before melting away into thin air.
Hmm, did he hear all those scary stories about the Gray Reaper?
Even though Reaper’s rep had been getting better lately, thanks to the Golden Reaper Dance going viral, it seemed like we still had a long way to go.
I can’t wait for the day everyone is a Gray Reaper fan!! All thanks to its absolutely adorable dance!
Seeing the sobbing man, who was probably overwhelmed by everything that had happened, the guy in the strange outfit patted his back reassuringly.
“There, there. Come on now, stop crying. The crisis is over, we aren’t in danger anymore. Now you just have to spend all the money I paid you in advance, right?”
“Y-yeah? We’re safe now, right? All that’s left is to get out of here?” the tearful man replied, perking up a little at the thought.
His face lit up, and he started muttering about “request fees” and “sports cars,” wiping away his tears.
After staying like that for a while, the man in the weird outfit finally noticed me and practically bounced down the stairs with a big grin, rushing over to greet me.
The other guy, though, kept his distance, clearly wary of the Gray Reaper in my arms.
“Sheesh! I almost died. That aside, nice to meet you! I’m James, the owner of this factory.”
“I really thought I was going to die! Thank you! Sniff. Thank you so much for saving us!” The other man added, his voice quivering as fresh tears welled up in his eyes.
Mr. James seemed perfectly fine, which was hard to believe given that he was running for his life not too long ago.
While he was thanking me, the other man started crying again, probably remembering his close call with those murderous rabbits.
Meanwhile, James’s eyes wandered down to the sleeping Reaper in my arms.
“I can’t believe I’m seeing the Gray Reaper in person… I’ve always wanted to see it!” James exclaimed, his face lighting up with excitement.
But then his expression returned to his usual curious one. “Its eyes are closed. Is something wrong with it? Did it use too much power while saving us?”
“Umm… I’m also not sure why the Reaper is . It’s never happened before…”
Even though I believed it wasn’t anything serious, I couldn’t help but wonder why Reaper was suddenly so unresponsive.
Was it hurt? I hope not…
James had been itching to meet the Gray Reaper ever since he set up his factory in Korea. Honestly, he’d been eager to meet it even before the Gray Reaper appeared in Korea.
How? Because of this special book his family had—Book 0.
It depicted someone who looked exactly like the Gray Reaper.
Coincidence? Please. Book 0 was packed with such uncanny resemblances and special information that it couldn’t just be brushed off as a coincidence.
This book was James’ secret weapon, it was the reason behind almost 30% of all his achievements.
“Seriously. They’re a dead ringer. Tch, if only I hadn’t lost my bag, I could’ve compared it with the drawings,” James lamented.
“Umm, is this the bag you lost?” Yerin asked, holding out an expensive-looking, old-fashioned leather bag.
James’ face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. “That’s it! That’s my bag! Thanks a ton! Where did you find it?”
“I have no clue. The Reaper just brought it to me from somewhere.”
James took the bag from her and started fiddling with it in an intricate manner.
Yerin had just thought the bag was some kind of antique bag, but the lock mechanism turned out to be surprisingly complex.
While holding the sleepy, unresponsive Gray Reaper close to my chest, I couldn’t help but watch James as he fiddled with his bag.
“Ah, finally, it’s open,” he sighed as he opened the bag.
Inside was an old, old book, the kind that seemed like it should be an antique shop. Hmm, the bag seemed to be clearly designed just for this one book.
Plus with all those complicated locks and the entire bag’s space dedicated to keeping it safe, must be quite the valuable book, huh?
James carefully opened the old book and started flipping through the pages, clearly looking for something specific.
Before long, he found it, and with an excited ‘There you are!’ held the page out to me.
“They look alike, don’t they? Hmm? Hmm?” he said, pointing to the page.
I squinted at the page he held up. It was covered in some weird, ancient language I couldn’t read, and in one corner was a carefully drawn picture.
The girl in the picture had a lively smile, with light blue hair and slightly darker blue eyes.
It was so detailed, almost like a photograph. But what really caught my eye was how much she looked like the Gray Reaper.
It’s like looking at a grown-up version of the Gray Reaper, if the Reaper was a human and not… well, gray.
“Did the artist imagine what the Reaper would look like all grown up? It’s really well done.”
“Nope. Why do you think this book was stored that strictly? This picture was in the book long before the Gray Reaper ever appeared. It’s a bit of a mystery, really.”
“Huh? Before Reaper ever showed up? Then, who’s the model for this painting?”
A person who looks just like Reaper! If there’s someone out there who looks just like Reaper, I definitely want to meet her!
“There are lots of theories, but nothing’s for sure. The person in this painting is from at least a hundred years ago, so it’s not like she’s still around.”
“Aww, that’s a shame. I would’ve loved to meet her.”
James raised an eyebrow at me. “Your reaction is a bit odd. Could it be that you don’t know about Artifact Number 0?”
“Artifact Number 0? What’s that?”
“Hmm? Really? That’s strange. I remember sending an official letter to the Korean Object Association to inform all affiliated research institutes…”James muttered, looking puzzled.
I couldn’t catch all of what he said, but I’m pretty sure he mumbled something like, ‘Something’s fishy.’1
Did he mean something was suspicious? Hehe, that sounded interesting!
Before long, James shook off his puzzled expression and smiled at me.
“Well, we can talk about the rest once we get out of here. Sigh… Looks like I’ll have to abandon this factory.”
As soon as James said that, I felt the warm weight of the Reaper suddenly disappear from my arms.
In a flash, the Gray Reaper darted forward—so fast, it was like it teleported—and snatched James’ book right out of his hands.
Then, it just stood there, holding the book with both hands, staring at it intently.
For some reason, I had this weird feeling that the light inside of the Reaper was glowing even brighter.
While I was happily wandering around the Garden of Golden Reapers, I felt a sudden spark.
But this time, it wasn’t coming from the flame inside of my chest…
No, this was from somewhere else, a piece of my flame that was outside of my body. Just like the Golden Reapers!
I blinked my eyes open, only to see a certain man holding a book.
What even is that? A book that has my flames?
As if I was being pulled by an invisible string, I rushed forward and grabbed the book right out of his hands.
As I held the book in my hand, I felt the flame inside of my chest start to grow, bit by bit.
Sparks from the book flowed into me, slowly making the flame inside of me bigger and bigger.
Slowly but endlessly.