The room I entered was an extremely peculiar place.

A room with no windows.

Emaciated monsters scattered on the floor.

On the floor were snacks, drinks, and food items strewn about haphazardly.

The monsters were muttering with drool dripping from their mouths and hazy eyes.

Even when I dispelled the invisibility and waved my hand in front of them, monsters just lay there with their hazy eyes, seemingly no longer in their right mind.

There were numerous doors locked with chains and padlocks, and without fail, there was at least one monster behind each of them.

'What kind of place is this? Why are there so many monsters, and why are they confined in each room?'

Scratch, scratch

As I walked around the house, I heard a faint sound of scratching wood coming from somewhere. It was a small sound, but it continued without pause.

Straining my ears, the sound seemed to be coming from the second floor. The staircase leading to the second floor was covered in a thick layer of dust, as if it had not been used in a long time, and each step creaked unpleasantly.

Looking back, I saw small footprints trailing up the dusty staircase.

If I had known, I should have turned invisible before coming up.

The scratching sound that had been continuous earlier had now stopped.

Fortunately, there was only an attic on the second floor, so it was clear that the source of the sound was the attic.

The attic, where I entered in an invisible state, was slightly different from the rooms on the first floor. In the dark room with no light, a monster was slumped against the door. The monster's glowing red eyes were the only source of light in the dark room. It was clearly different from the hazy monsters.

Scratch, scratch

The monster with glowing eyes began scratching the door. It was a weak effort, but it continued without pause, its fingertips bleeding and staining the door, yet it did not stop. Among the confined monsters, this was the only one moving, and it seemed to be making a desperate attempt to escape.

Wanting to see if this monster would react, I dispelled the invisibility, and a faint sound of feet hitting the floor was heard, barely audible under the scratching sound.

The constant scratching sound stopped.

Sudden silence.

The monster, who had been staring at the door and scratching it, had now turned its head to look at me. Its dry, withered skin contrasted with the vivid light in its eyes, which clearly held a spark of intelligence.

"Who are you?"

The monster, which had only turned its head 180 degrees, now rose and slowly approached me. Though it had been hunched over, its height now seemed to exceed 2 meters.

"You're not breathing. Are you not human?"

"How did you get in here?"

"It seemed like you suddenly appeared in the room, do you have the ability to ignore physical constraints?"

The monster paused in its speech and suddenly opened its mouth wide, frantically scratching the area where its ears should be. Its once-vivid red eyes became hazy, resembling the other monsters on the first floor.

The area where its ears had been was now just a horrific, scratched wound, with no trace of the ear-like organ left.

"Then, then, then, you can get it, you can get the fire, I need the fire, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I need food, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."

Spewing incomprehensible words, the monster then curled up and began slamming its head against the floor. It continued until the withered skin on its forehead split open and bled, then it stopped and rose again.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I couldn't help it, I was so hungry."

Hungry? There were plenty of canned goods and snacks scattered around the room. I picked up a snack from the floor and offered it to the monster, but it shook its head.

"My hunger can never be satisfied by such things. I see, since you have no lungs, you cannot speak, How fascinating, that an Object that cannot speak would be given the ability to understand speech."

So he can't eat it. I took a bite of the snack the monster had refused.

It's delicious, but it's like a curse that I can't fill my stomach with this kind of food.

Anything would taste good to me if I were hungry enough to have a seizure, I should be able to eat anything deliciously. Has it become difficult for me to empathize with hunger and thirst since I was born as an Object and haven't felt them for about a year?

"I'm sorry, but could I make a rude request? If you can, I would be grateful if you could help me."

"Could you go down to the basement and bring me some fire?"

'Aaargh, no!' he shouted loudly, and the monster began frantically rummaging through the walls all around. The walls and doors reinforced with iron easily injured the monster's body, and even though it was covered in blood, the monster's frenzy did not stop.

The monster's seemingly unstoppable frenzy continued until it collapsed on the floor.

Of course, since it looked dangerous, I had evacuated in a ghostly state a long time ago.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. By the way, I can't see you."

"Ah, I see. Were you a ghost-type Object like a specter?"

When I stepped back into the attic after dispelling the ghostly state, the monster nodded.

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"While I'm in my right mind, I'd like to make a request. I wish you would take my life. For some reason, I feel like you could do it easily."

The monster seemed to be mentally unstable at a glance.

Has it been affected by an Object? It is a well-known fact that the answer in such cases is ultimately to eliminate them, since the methods of dealing with Objects affecting the mind are hardly known. However, the fact that it directly suggested it felt desperate.

The monster closed its eyes after saying that.

'Hmm, this is troublesome.'

I may be called the Gray Reaper in the world, but I don't have the ability to directly kill something.

Then why am I called the Reaper? I have the ability to learn how to easily kill a target. But that's only useful when the target is not an Object. When the target is an Object, it's just a hint.

Unfortunately, the monster in the attic, who was wishing for death, was already too close to being an Object, even if it was human. That's why its death looks like this to me.

[Destroy the source of the fire-made mochi]

Fire-made mochi? What's that?

In fact, all the monsters in this house have the same condition of death. Even the monster rampaging outside is the same. They must be derivatives of the same Object.

Even though I want to grant the wish of the monster in the attic, I don't know what the 'source of the mochi' is, so I have no way to do so.

I searched this suspicious mansion thoroughly, leaving the attic behind. What I learned wasn't much.

There are a total of 8 monsters in this mansion.

The mansion has two floors and no basement.

The rooms where the monsters are confined are always full of food. But no one eats it.

The monsters are all emaciated. But they don't seem to be dying.

I'm sure Sehee is in this house, but I couldn't find her anywhere. Now that I think about it, when the monster was babbling, it mentioned something about fire, didn't it?

Wasn't it asking me to go to the basement and get it?

But there's no basement in this house, is it hidden somewhere?

***

Sehee POV :

---

I can smell it.

A very delicious smell.

Even though the situation is clearly horrifying and unsettling, there is a delicious smell that makes me forget all of that. The smell coming from the burning pig.

As an Object researcher, one should never be captivated by the alluring aspects of an Object.

This is a well-known fact among Object researchers.

But even knowing that, the smell was truly delicious. I forcefully closed my eyes and sat as far away from the pig statue as possible.

If I let my guard down even a little, I could see myself reaching my hand out through the bars. Even a little thought would tell me that it's out of reach.

Grrrrr

A rough sound of stone scraping echoed. Did the old man come in again? But a completely different set of footsteps began to sound.

The sound of stone and bare skin colliding. Shuffling footsteps echoed.

'This sounds somehow familiar...'

It had a familiar rhythm, a sound I had heard many times a day.

No way.

Nononono.

I stretched my head towards the stairs while gripping the bars.

The faint shadow cast by the dim lantern on the stairs drew a familiar silhouette.

"Reaper!"

I shouted in delight.

I don't know why the Gray Reaper, who should be at the Research Institute, is here, but I'm just glad to see it. If the Reaper is here, it must have escaped the Institute's isolation, but the joy of being able to survive outweighs the obvious fact that this could be a big problem.

Hearing my voice, the Reaper's footsteps began to sound faster.

'The Reaper is here!'

Filled with anticipation, my heart started beating faster as well.