Seoul Object Story

Even though the Black Reapers smiled with a bright expression, the will they conveyed to me was filled with deeply ingrained resentment. Because of that, the teeth that were cutely protruding like baby sharks seemed even sharper.

‘Traitor? Why are you calling her a traitor?’

Then the Black Reaper made a sad expression, sending a gloomy will to me.

Mom, did you forget again?

As I felt the Black Reaper’s will, the other Black Reapers that had melted into a puddle also crawled over and clung to my body.

Mom, are you still sick?

Kind Mom. You can’t be sick.

If you’re sick, you can eat us!

The Black Reapers patted my cheek with a sad face, saying that I would lose my memories if fell sick.

Then, the Black Reapers conveyed their will, saying that they would say what their mother had said to me.

That’s what mom said! All humans are traitors!

Mom said we should burn humans with firewood and cut off their tongues!

If we didn’t have enough firewood, mom told us to prick them with needles!

Some Black Reapers even changed their bodies into sharp, stake-like needles.

If the humans were pricked by those needles, they would probably die from excessive bleeding?

A lot of ominous words came out from the mouths of the good children.

Hey you, corpse in the black sphere, how did you educate these children?

A mother who ate her own children when she’s sick…?

Before this, I felt a sense of kinship with the corpse in the sphere, but now I felt distant from it.

This must not go on. Children must grow up to be good like the Golden Reapers.

I gathered the Black Reapers who had been wrongly educated and conveyed my will. I told them that humans were not traitors and that they should not be made to suffer.

They are not traitors?

We aren’t going to cut off their tongue?

If we don’t cut off their tongue, should we just kill them?

We have to cut off their tongue…

The Black Reapers tilted their heads and expressed their doubts, but in the end, the kids accepted what I said.

Truly, they’re really good kids.

By the way, was there a reason why they’re so obsessed with cutting off their tongues?

However, even when I asked them about that in detail, the Black Reapers just said ‘I don’t know.’ with bright faces. It seemed like the Black Reapers’ attitudes and resentments towards humans were all just things they had received from someone else.

After the reeducation was completed, the Black Reapers returned to their human forms and slowly approached Yerin.

I’m sorry…

Let’s play together…

Although Yerin couldn’t receive the Black Reaper’s will, she probably realized something just by them changing their attitude, so Yerin just smiled and hugged the Black Reaper. She held the new mini reaper in her arms and made a happy expression.

On the other hand, the Black Reapers were swept away by that wave of emotion. They also smiled happily and melted.

It’s warm.

I’m happy.

The Black Reapers turned into happy slimes.

Clap-! Clap-!

The Golden Reapers clapped their hands with emotional expressions as they watched.

It was a happy daily routine in the containment room.

*********While the late afternoon sunlight was creeping into the dimly lit detective agency, lighting up  some part of the room, Yellow Detective, looking tired and haggard, entered the slightly dark detective agency. The dust of the city clung to his coat, and his hat was crooked, revealing traces of fatigue on his face.

The detective’s steps seemed slow and heavy.

As soon as he sat on a creaky chair, the yellow detective slowly drank old coffee from a mug on the desk, grimacing slightly at the taste of the overly burnt coffee, his sharp and keen eyes hidden behind deep dark circles.

The Black Agent, who was looking at him with a worried expression, asked.

“Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh, I’m okay, I’m okay. I’m a little tired, but It’s nothing I can’t bear.”

The detective slowly raised his head at Black Agent’s words and spoke in a tired voice.

But those words felt empty, like a self-reminder mantra.

To the Black Agent, the detective looked a little strange lately. The detective had been talking to himself more and more, and he would even go off somewhere alone without saying a word.

It was as if he was being chased by something.

It felt like he was being chased by something invisible while carrying an invisible burden. But when he was being asked about it, he would just evade it or change the subject.

The Black Agent spoke with a serious face.

“If something happens, tell me. I’ll help you.”

The Black Agent spoke softly, concentrating on finding clues or cracks in the detective’s face. But the Yellow Detective only shook his head slowly and smiled faintly.

“I’m really okay. There’s nothing wrong.”

Rather than worry, a firm determination could be seen in the Yellow Detective’s tired expression.

The juniors also looked worried under the slowly rotating ceiling fan, but there was nothing they could do.

“Oh, right. Let’s go find this place with the young lady.”

The detective took out a map from his bosom as if he had just remembered. The map was a map of the vicinity of Mount Odae.

Even though It was near Mount Odae, a place known to be occupied by Objects, the map showed that there was a village in the center of it.

“If we go to this village, I think we can fulfill the young lady’s wish to walk under the sun again.”

“Really?”

The Black Agent said while taking the map, and the detective just answered with a smirk.

“Yeah. But it would be better to leave today. I have a feeling we won’t have much time.”

As the Black Agent looked past the blinded window with gratitude, the city was already dyed in the red of dusk. It was already the time for the blonde girl to wake up. Because of that, the Black Agent hurried out of the detective agency.

*********In the late afternoon, after everyone had left work, I sneaked into the sleeping room of Sehee Research Institute in my phantom form. I came to meet the youngest who was no longer the youngest, the Bud Reaper.

Originally, people rarely used the sleeping room, but these days, there were so many users that everyone had to take a waiting list number to use it. I even heard that there were quite a few people who insisted on sleeping here even though they didn’t have to work overtime or be on duty.

The reason was of course the cute flower pot placed in the corner of the sleeping room. The flower pot, surrounded by transparent and sturdy materials, naturally blended into the surroundings like a real interior of the sleeping room.

Inside that flower pot, the Bud Reaper was soundly asleep, with only its head sticking out of the solid inside the pot.

I broke the lock by overlapping it with my hand and took out the flower pot to observe it. Looking at the Bud Reaper who was sleeping as if it was dead, I felt a sense of playfulness rising up inside me.

How dare it sleep so defenselessly!

I thought it would be fun to fly to Gwanak-gu and throw the flower pot into the black slime.

Without it even realizing I was thinking about that, I poked the leaves of the sleeping Bud Reaper. When I poked the leaves on the Bud Reaper’s head, the leaves squirmed away from my fingers as if it found my touch ticklish.

The leaves moved in a lively manner on their own even though the main body was sleeping. I poked the leaves and even pulled them. However, the leaves were sturdier than I thought.

Maybe because I was bothering it, even though it was still asleep, it narrowed its brows and made a frowning expression.

Hihihi!

*********In the late afternoon, two security staff were working hard in the Sehee Research Institute security room, enduring drowsiness.

“We need to fix the containment room of the Bud Reaper.”

“Who tried to take the flower pot again?”

“No, this time it was someone who we couldn’t even touch.”

The junior employee who muttered, “Could it be the director?” was convinced before he saw the image reflected on the screen.

There, the Gray Reaper was not just violating the law, but completely ignoring it. It was poking and pulling the leaves on the Bud Reaper, and even turning the flower pot over to shake it off the flower pot.

Along with the pouring dirt, the sprout reaper was mercilessly thrown to the floor.

“Why does the Gray Reaper only harass Objects? It specifically plays pranks on the mini reapers.”

“I don’t know. Could it be a sign of intimacy? It cuts off the limbs of Objects that bother it, but when it came to the mini reapers, it’s just playing a prank.”

“But sometimes they looked so pitiful. Even though It doesn’t do it these days, whenever the Gray Reaper stole the pudding, the Golden Reaper looked so sad that I shed a few tears.”

The senior employee nodded his head, saying, ‘That’s true.’

Then, the junior looked at the monitor with a bored expression and talked about a rumor that had been circulating so much recently.

“The deputy director has been acting strange lately.”

“What did she do? Wasn’t she the most sane person in this place?”

“She’s been talking to the air and mumbling to herself lately, so some say she’s mentally corrupted by some kind of Object.”

The senior employee said, ‘No way. The deputy director wouldn’t fall from something like that’ and took out a navy kidney bean from his pocket. The strangely glowing kidney bean had a strange charm that attracted people, so the junior asked him when he saw it.

“Senior, what’s that? It looks like a chocolate-coated kidney bean.”

“Oh, this? It’s something that the Bud Reaper gave me. I’m still debating whether I should eat it or not.”

Upon hearing that it was a gift from the Bud Reaper, the junior jumped up from his seat and opened his mouth with eyes gleaming.

“Senior! If you’re going to worry so much, should I eat it?”

“No.”

At the senior’s firm tone, the junior let out a ‘hmph’ sound and collapsed back onto his seat.

“Haa… Whatever. It’s the Bud Reaper who gave it to me, so I wouldn’t die if I eat it.”

The senior employee muttered to himself in a resigned voice, then put the navy fruit in his mouth and swallowed it.

“How is it? Did something change?”

“No… I’m not sure?”

The junior asked with an excited expression, but the senior employee really couldn’t tell any difference.

“It might be some kind of healthy food.”

“Ah, maybe?”

However, thinking about Bud Reaper sticking its tongue out to him, it didn’t seem like that would be the case. Still, since he didn’t feel any change, the senior employee just took out his cell phone as usual and started to look through the news.

Giggle-!

Then, a faint laughter came to the senior employee’s ear.

“Huh? Did someone just laugh?”

“I don’t think so? I can’t hear anything….”

The junior simply answered with a puzzled expression.

What was it just now?

At that moment, the giggling laughter of a child could be heard again. But this time, it was clear.

When he turned his gaze, he saw the Bud Reaper sitting on the monitor with its eyes open and giggling.