The kneeling pig and the staircase descending to the ground.

It was a sequence of events I hadn’t anticipated at all.

The jelly pig was so large that even while kneeling, the staircase felt as if it were reaching toward the sky.

The butler creatures began transporting the alchemist on a stretcher up those stairs.

With a sense of anticipation, I followed them, stepping onto the marvelous mobile jelly pig fortress.

Climbing the steps behind the butler creatures, step by step.

With each step up the delicious-looking cookie staircase, step by step.

As I started climbing, the alchemist’s younger sister and the Golden Reapers, seemingly fascinated by the scene, followed as well.

Hmm, it seemed like even the Golden Reapers had never seen this jelly pig fortress before.

At first, I felt a little left out, as if the Mini Reapers had kept this secret from me, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Boing, boing.

The feeling under my feet was a bit strange.

It was soft, bouncy, and springy.

The staircase, made of jelly and marshmallows, pushed me upward with a curious, buoyant sensation.

Normal jelly and marshmallows couldn’t create something like this; there must have been some magic from the Blue Reaper involved.

The railings, which looked like they’d crumble with a touch, were made of cookies.

And as decoration, sugar-coated strawberries dangled from them.

The structure looked fragile, yet it was surprisingly sturdy.

The railing looked so tasty that I tried to take a nibble, but no matter how hard I bit, it wouldn’t break.

Hmph.

Even the Golden Reapers, who were just as sweet as I was, clung to the railing and tried to bite it, but even with their strength, they couldn’t damage it.

Squeak.

Taking advantage of a moment when the butler creatures weren’t looking, I used a spatial cut to break off a piece of the railing and began nibbling on it.

I shared bits with the Golden Reapers, making them accomplices.

At first, the Golden Reapers seemed unsure if this was okay, but once they saw me crunching away, they squeezed their eyes shut and started munching too.

It looked like a cookie, but the texture was unique.

Fortunately, once detached, the railing pieces lost their steel-like hardness.

“!”

The Golden Reapers seemed to find it delicious too; their eyes grew wide, and their antennae shot up to the sky.

They reacted as if tasting James Pudding for the first time.

I figured I might take a large piece of this railing back for my beloved human when we returned.

Chewing on the railing now and then to pass the time, I climbed the long staircase all the way to the top.

The climb felt like scaling a mountain, but the view at the end was worth it.

A vast marshmallow landscape stretched out endlessly.

A sea of hot chocolate surrounded the land.

Beyond it, a brown sugar desert.

Mountains of candy and forests of cookie sticks.

It was a vast and charming panorama.

Though it looked a bit too warm, perhaps a snowy field of milk shaved ice could fit in well here.

If I destroyed enough snow-related objects, would such a place appear?

Turning my gaze, I saw a large building set against the backdrop of this candy garden.

It looked somewhat like the Sehee Lab and also resembled a nearby general hospital.

From the white entrance of the building, which appeared to be made of rice cakes, Golden Reapers wearing nurse hats came rushing out.

“Patient!”

“Transport!”

So, it really was a hospital.

The younger sister, after carrying her sister up the exhausting steps, finally reached the Mini Reaper Hospital.

It looked like a scene out of a fairy tale, with stairs and buildings made of sweets, filling the air with a sweet aroma.

At first, the scene felt so unreliable that she wondered, “Is this really the right place to find the Gray Reaper?”

But perhaps her sister was right.

Now that she saw the hospital facilities, they looked genuine enough to give her hope that her sister might recover.

The design of the building looked sleek, much like the Sehee Lab.

Instead of a hospital stretcher, a giant alpaca-shaped creature started carrying her sister into the hospital.

Perhaps to minimize the impact of their steps, the alpacas wore roller skates.

Of course, they didn’t move like a wheeled bed. A Golden Reaper in a nurse hat led them, tugging a leash as if guiding them along.

The hospital had a peculiar structure.

It felt like a place built for cats.

Beside the main paths for alpacas and humans, there were countless Mini Reaper-sized paths.

Mini Reapers were bustling along the small paths, which were about the height of the railing.

It felt like a hospital for fairies treating human patients.

With a Blue Reaper in a witch hat and a white coat, and a Golden Reaper in a nurse hat, it all felt even more whimsical.

As I wandered through the hospital, following the alpacastretcher carrying her sister, we arrived at what seemed to be the destination.

Inside the room were a blonde girl and a man in a black suit, both lying down.

Could they be suffering from the same symptoms as her sister?

The moment her sister was brought into the room, the hospital erupted into a commotion.

Countless Golden Reapers holding cookie-shaped clubs were running somewhere.

Beep! Beep!

Could that be the sound of a Black Reaper?

A strange, cheerful sound that didn’t fit as an alarm blared regularly, echoing throughout the building.

Had something happened?

Come to think of it, I didn’t see the Gray Reaper who was usually by the younger sister’s side.

The more I explored the Mini Reaper Hospital, the stranger it felt.

How could I not have known about such a large facility?

Unless it had been intentionally hidden from me, it didn’t make sense that I hadn’t seen it before.

Suspicious.

Moreover, the building had a structure that made it easy to seal off.

It seemed like it could even submerge into the sea of hot chocolate.

Could it have been hidden underwater this whole time?

In search of answers, I slipped away from the group using my ghost form.

As I wandered around the hospital, I stumbled upon a very suspicious room.

It was a room adorned with what looked like yellow-black eyes, as if made from Black Reapers.

Unlike the other doors made of cookies, the door made from Black Reapers looked incredibly sturdy.

In front of the door was a signpost.

It was a simple design, like a road sign, with a picture of the Gray Reaper and a red X over it.

This must be a Gray Reaper restricted area, right?

The Mini Reapers had made a room like this!

A restricted area with security walls made of Black Reapers—could this be a revolution?

With thoughts of revolution in my mind, I couldn’t help but imagine a Red Reaper with a mustache inside.

It seemed possible, especially since the Red Reaper had been getting a little smarter lately from watching TV.

“Moms come and go. But the Mini Reapers remain. Only Mini Reapers are eternal.”

It felt like a Red Reaper might be in there, saying something like that.

Even if that wasn’t the case, there must be some major secret hidden inside.

I had to get in and catch them in the act!

But finding a way inside wasn’t easy.

Space-tearing?

A mother tearing apart her own child would be too much….

But without another way, there was no way to break through the strong Black Reaper barrier.

After much consideration, I chose to use the Maze Halo as my method of infiltration.

It hurt a lot, but it was the most reliable method.

By twisting reality with the Halo, I created another door.

A cookie door that didn’t clash with the hospital scenery.

As I quietly opened the door and stepped inside, an unexpected scene unfolded before me.

A cotton candy dog was ferociously chewing on a marshmallow in the shape of the Gray Reaper.

Like a wolf shaking its prey, it was savagely biting into the marshmallow Gray Reaper.

And then, the dog noticed me entering the room.

“…”

“…”

The dog’s eyes widened, and it started running away, its paws tapping in haste.

I chased after the dog, aiming to catch it and throw it back into the sea.

As I sped toward the dog, I heard the Black Reapers let out a shrill “beep!” while the Golden Reapers scurried around in a frenzy.

With the chaotic noise in the background, I raced after the dog with time acceleration, and a thought suddenly popped into my mind.

Why do they chew on each other, but treat that dog specially?

The hospital that had been in an uproar quickly quieted down once the Gray Reaper returned.

One change stood out.

The previously empty-handed Gray Reaper now carried a large water jug and the cotton candy dog made from marshmallow.

The Gray Reaper would occasionally dunk the dog in the water and then take it out again, repeating the process.

The younger sister, who watched this, found it pitiful, and the Golden Reapers, apparently thinking the same, clung to the Gray Reaper as if trying to stop it.

Turning away, the younger sister shifted her gaze to her sister and the two other patients lying as still as corpses.

A man in a black suit lay there, not even breathing.

Yet, somehow, she didn’t get the impression he was dead—it felt as though he were still alive.

Then, a Blue Reaper in a doctor’s coat and a Golden Reaper entered the room.

The Blue Reaper clutched a piece of paper that looked like a chart, while the Golden Reaper carried something strange and utterly unsuited to a hospital.

It wasn’t plastic, but it looked like a blunt white plastic bread knife.

The Blue Reaper approached the man in the black suit and carefully examined him.

With such a serious expression, the younger sister held her breath.

Then the Blue Reaper pointed to a spot on the man’s arm.

The Golden Reaper nodded and plunged the bread knife into the man’s arm.

“!”

The younger sister jumped out of her chair in shock.

But instead of the massive bleeding she expected, not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound.

“!!!”

And the exposed cross-section of his arm looked just like a roll cake.

The scene was so surreal that it felt like a nightmare.

Exhausted from everything that had happened, the younger sister, feeling like she was trapped in a dream, grew dizzy and fainted on the spot.