The Black Reaper smiled with an innocent expression, but behind that cheerful façade, a deep resentment could be felt.

Their cute, baby shark-like teeth seemed sharper and more threatening somehow.

It was their first time seeing Yerin, yet they were already calling her a traitor?

To gather more information, I poured my intent into the Black Reaper.

"Traitor? What do you mean by traitor?"

The Black Reaper’s expression turned sorrowful, and a wave of melancholy came over me.

"Mom, you forgot again?"

As the Black Reaper’s thoughts reached me, the others, who had been melting away, wriggled over and clung to me.

"Mom, are you still in pain?"
"Kind, gentle mom. You shouldn't be hurting."
"If you’re in pain, you can even eat us!"

The Black Reaper gently patted my cheek, telling me that when mom is in pain, she loses her memory.

As they conveyed their thoughts, the Black Reapers promised to remind me of the things mom used to say.

"Mom said it. Humans are all traitors!"
"She said to burn them alive and cut off their tongues!"
"If there isn't enough firewood, we should pierce them with needles!"

Some of the Black Reapers even started transforming their bodies into sharp, needle-like stakes.

I would die from blood loss if I got stabbed with one of those!

The sweet voices of these innocent creatures were filled with gruesome ideas.

What kind of upbringing did the body inside that black sphere give them?

A mother who devours her own children when in pain?

I used to feel some sense of kinship with the being inside the sphere, but now I felt like we were growing farther apart.

This can't go on.

The children need to grow up kind, like the Golden Reapers.

Gathering the misguided Black Reapers, I projected my intent, telling them that humans are not traitors and that they shouldn't hurt them.

"Not traitors?"
"No tongue-cutting?"
"But humans die quickly if we don’t cut their tongues?"
"We need to cut their tongues…"

They tilted their heads in confusion, but in the end, they accepted my words.

Good kids, after all.

But why are they so fixated on cutting tongues? Is there a specific reason?

Even when I tried asking them, the Black Reapers just smiled innocently and said, "Don’t know!"

Their resentment towards humans wasn’t even their own—it was something they had inherited from someone else.

After their reeducation, the Black Reapers shifted back into human form and slowly approached Yerin.

"Sorry…"
"Let’s play together…"

Though Yerin couldn't sense the Black Reapers' thoughts, she seemed to understand something from their change in demeanor. Smiling, she hugged one of them close.

Yerin, with a happy expression, held the new mini Reaper in her arms, and the other Black Reapers were swept up in the wave of emotion.

They too smiled happily, melting away into a slime-like form.

"It’s warm."
"It feels so good."

The Black Reapers, now grinning happily, turned into smiling blobs of slime.

Clap, clap.

Seeing this, the Golden Reapers clapped their hands in admiration.

It was another peaceful day in the joyful isolation ward.

Late afternoon sunlight streamed into the dimly lit detective office, casting a faint glow on part of the room.

A tired-looking yellow-clad detective entered, his face worn and haggard. His coat was covered in the dust of the city, and his hat was askew, revealing the exhaustion etched on his face.

Each of his steps was slow and heavy, as if every move took effort.

Sitting down in the creaking chair, the yellow detective took a sip from the mug on his desk, grimacing slightly at the overly bitter taste of old coffee.

His sharp, once-piercing eyes were now shadowed by deep dark circles.

Watching with concern, a black-clad agent asked,

"Are you okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I’m fine, just a bit tired, but nothing I can’t handle."

The detective’s voice, though calm, sounded hollow, like a phrase said out of habit rather than truth.

To the black agent, something seemed off about the detective recently.

Lately, he had been talking to himself more and disappearing without a word, as if being chased by something unseen.

It was as though he carried a burden that no one else could see.

Yet, when asked, he always brushed it off or changed the subject.

The black agent spoke seriously,

"If something’s going on, tell me. I can help."

His voice was gentle, but his eyes were focused, trying to find a crack in the detective’s calm exterior.

But the yellow detective only shook his head slowly, giving a faint smile.

"Really, I’m fine. There’s no problem."

Despite his tired expression, a glimmer of determination flickered in his eyes.

The ceiling fan spun slowly overhead, as even the younger staff looked on with worry but remained unsure of how to help.

"Oh, right. You should take the lady and visit this place."

As if he’d just remembered something, the detective pulled out a map from his coat.

It was a map of the Odaesan area.

Though the area was known to be overrun with Objects, this map indicated the presence of a village at its center.

"If you go to this village, it should help her fulfill her wish—to walk under the sun again."

"Really?"

As the black agent carefully folded the map, the detective grinned.

"Really. But you should leave today. It feels like there’s not much time left."

Thanking the detective, the black agent glanced at the window, where the city was bathed in the crimson glow of twilight.

The time had come for the blonde girl to awaken.

The black agent quickly left the detective’s office.

Late afternoon, in the quiet nap room of Sehee Lab.

I slipped into the nap room, fully invisible, to visit the not-so-new-anymore, sprout-sized Reaper.

The nap room, once sparsely used, had become so popular that people now had to take numbers just to sleep there.

Apparently, even people with no reason to nap had started coming, and the cause of it all lay in a cute little flowerpot tucked away in the corner of the room.

The clear and sturdy pot blended in so well with the room’s decor that it looked like part of the interior design.

And inside the pot, the sprout-sized Reaper was fast asleep, its little head just poking out.

I broke through the layered locks on the pot and lifted it for a closer look.

A sprout-sized Reaper, sleeping like the dead.

Feeling a playful urge bubble up inside me, I thought, "How could you sleep so defenselessly?"

Wouldn’t it be fun to fly off to Gwanak-gu and toss the entire pot into the slime there?

Unaware of my mischievous thoughts, the sprout’s little leaf wiggled away as I poked at it.

Even though the sprout was sound asleep, its leaf danced energetically as I poked and prodded it.

I poked and pulled at the leaf a few more times.

It’s tougher than I expected.

Maybe because I’d been messing with it, the sprout-sized Reaper, though still asleep, furrowed its brows and grimaced.

Hehe.

Late afternoon, Sehee Lab’s security room.

Two employees were battling the post-lunch sleepiness as they monitored the facility.

"We need to fix the isolation room for the sprout."

"Did someone try to steal the pot again?"

"No, this time it was someone untouchable who broke it."

The younger employee muttered something like "Was it the boss?" before looking at the screen and nodding in understanding.

On the monitor was a gray Reaper, beyond any legal constraints, poking and pulling at the sprout’s leaf and even flipping the pot upside down.

As soil spilled everywhere, the sprout-sized Reaper lay helpless on the floor.

"Why does the gray Reaper always torment Objects? It seems like they really like messing with the mini Reapers."

"Who knows? Maybe it’s a sign of affection? I mean, it’s not like they’re cutting off the limbs of mini Reapers like they do with annoying Objects."

"Still, sometimes it feels a little sad. I remember when the Golden Reaper got their pudding stolen. That heartbroken expression was so pitiful, I almost cried."

The senior employee nodded in agreement.

The younger one stared at the screen with a bored expression, starting to talk about a recent rumor circulating through the lab.

"I heard the deputy director’s been acting strange lately."

"Really? I thought they were the most normal person here."

"Well, lately they’ve been talking to thin air and muttering to themselves. People are starting to think they’ve been mentally contaminated by an Object."

The senior employee brushed it off, pulling out a strange navy-colored bean from his pocket.

The strange glow of the bean had a curious allure, and the junior employee couldn’t help but ask,

"What’s that? It looks like a chocolate-coated bean."

"Oh, this? The sprout gave it to me. I’ve been debating whether to eat it."

The junior employee’s eyes lit up as he shot up from his seat.

"If you’re not sure, let me eat it for you!"

"No."

The senior’s firm tone made the younger one whine and slump back into his seat.

"Ugh, whatever. I mean, it’s from the sprout, so eating it shouldn’t kill me, right?"

With a resigned sigh, the senior popped the navy bean into his mouth and swallowed.

"Well? Do you feel any different?"

"No… I don’t feel anything."

Despite the junior’s curiosity, the senior employee didn’t notice any immediate change.

"Maybe it’s some kind of health food."

"Maybe."

But remembering the sprout sticking out its tongue made the senior feel a little uneasy.

Since there were no obvious effects, the senior employee resumed scrolling through his phone.

Teehee.

Suddenly, a faint giggling echoed in the senior’s ear.

"Huh? Didn’t someone just laugh?"

"Nope, I didn’t hear anything."

The junior employee looked confused.

What the hell was that?

Then, faint giggling—like that of a child—echoed again.

Turning his gaze, he saw the sprout-sized Reaper sitting on the monitor, wide awake and giggling.