A hush fell over the courtyard of the Sehee Research Institute.

The strange phenomenon had been triggered by the lead doll suddenly emitting light and speaking.

“To my ears, it sounds similar to the language used by alchemists,” James mused, a look of intrigue on his face. “Could the objects have learned language? Or is this ‘language of the alchemists’ unique?”

“The lead doll spoke!” Yerin gasped, her expression delighted as she looked at me with hopeful anticipation.

I turned my head slowly, avoiding her gaze.

Even for Yerin, I wasn’t about to start speaking. Besides, without a mouth, I wasn’t even sure how to talk if I wanted to.

That lead doll… how did it manage to speak?

“Senior Researcher Kim Joong-rye, we need to secure the CCTV footage immediately,” Seo-ah directed. “The security office might not preserve it properly.”

After all, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Sehee Research Institute’s security team accidentally erased the footage while having a cup of ramen.

As people gathered in the courtyard, each reacted to the lead doll’s behavior in their own way.

Then, the lead doll spoke again.

[Has that wish been granted?]

The doll, expressionless and looking ten times sleepier than me, tilted its head in puzzlement.

Had nothing actually happened?

True, I hadn’t felt any massive shift in the flow of energy that might signal something extraordinary.

The other Mini Reapers looked intrigued, but when I glanced down, the Black Reapers wore a knowing expression.

I picked one up, tapping its head gently as I asked, “Do you know what’s going on?”

The Black Reaper nodded vigorously.

“Not Mom!”

“Huh?”

As I remained puzzled, the Black Reaper sighed, exuding a patient explanation.

“Not Mom!”

Hmm.

I understood now—this seemed like a more complex issue than anything I’d hear from a Mini Reaper.

As I set the cheerful Black Reaper back down, I turned to see Yerin conducting various “experiments” with the lead doll, though it looked more like she was playing with a pet.

“Alright, give me your right hand!”

Yerin extended her hand and asked for the doll’s right hand. Obediently, the lead doll placed its tiny hand in hers.

She tested a series of commands, asking it to lift its left hand, touch its left cheek, and then its right cheek, which it followed without hesitation.

“Well done!” Yerin praised, her face lighting up as she patted the doll’s head.

“…”

I didn’t particularly enjoy watching this.

A bit annoyed, I turned my gaze to Seo-ah and James, who were conversing seriously.

“This ‘lead doll’ object seems to primarily follow human instructions,” Seo-ah noted, gesturing toward Yerin and the lead doll.

“So far, it only responds to instructions from Researcher Oh Yerin,” James observed, suggesting a simple experiment. He approached the lead doll and spoke.

“Would you mind handing over your right hand?”

Without changing expression, the lead doll placed its right hand on James’s.

“Oh!” Yerin gasped, looking slightly shocked.

Heh heh.

Back in the office at Sehee Research Institute,

Yerin sat at her desk with a slightly gloomy expression, preparing to write her report.

“This is supposed to be time to play with the Reapers!”

She had been assigned the report on the lead doll incident and was also facing a mountain of overdue paperwork.

As she booted up her computer, she prepared a cup of warm tea.

Instead of milk or sugar, she plopped a tiny White Maw into her tea.

Mewhihi.

The White Maw’s soft giggles echoed around the office as it paddled in the tea.

Watching it, Yerin chuckled softly.

Each time she had tea, Yerin liked to put a mini-sized Maw in her cup. She didn’t need to actually eat it; simply letting it swim in the hot tea made it sweet enough.

The mini Maw enjoyed swimming, and Yerin enjoyed the sweet tea—a perfect win-win relationship.

Tap, tap.

As she settled into her desk, typing away at the report, she noticed a Black Reaper wandering around with a curious expression.

“Ah, this must be the new Black Reaper that the Gray Reaper brought in,” she thought.

Having memorized the faces and characteristics of all the Black Reapers, Yerin quickly recognized it as a new one.

“So many people!”

The Black Reaper, overwhelmed by the busy office, jumped each time it saw someone.

Unlike the previous Black Reapers, this one seemed unfamiliar with humans, hiding behind the mouse or peeking out to watch people with wonder.

Yerin carefully approached and gently patted the Black Reaper on its head.

Tap, tap.

The Black Reaper looked up at her and giggled.

“Mom’s precious human!”

“Nice to meet you too,” Yerin replied, waving and lifting the Black Reaper onto her palm.

She petted its head as she returned to her desk, her work momentarily forgotten as she played with the Black Reaper.

“Oof!”

“It tickles.”

She nudged the Black Reaper playfully, tipping it over or tickling its side, then pulled out a cookie.

“Want a snack?”

The cookie was one of many she kept in her desk drawer specifically for Mini Reapers.

Nom, nom, nom.

The Black Reaper, who seemed unfamiliar with cookies, eagerly devoured it.

Yerin watched, amused, as she tidied the Black Reaper’s hair.

Once it had polished off the cookie, the Black Reaper looked up in surprise, as if only just realizing it had eaten the whole thing.

“Oh no, I ate it all!”

With an apologetic expression, it glanced up at Yerin.

“Want some pudding too?”

Yerin chuckled and stood up to fetch some.

The Black Reaper waved at her with a big smile, showing its sharp teeth.

But by the time Yerin returned from the break room with “Gray Reaper pudding,” the Black Reaper was nowhere to be found.

It wasn’t hiding in the drawer where she kept her cookies.

Nor was it in the slime, a favorite toy of the Mini Reapers.

“Where did it go?”

Then, Yerin heard a small whimper.

Mew…

It was the sorrowful sound of her tea-dwelling White Maw.

“Oh, there you are.”

The missing Black Reaper was in Yerin’s teacup, holding the White Maw in its mouth.

Mew…

Late at night in the Criminal Division at the Central Seoul Police Department,

the only light in the dim office came from a man’s desk.

He held a thick file in his hands, his eyes focused intently on its contents.

Inside the file, multiple photos were attached.

People of all kinds, each with different appearances, ages, and occupations.

But they all shared the same hollow gaze, staring vacantly into space.

According to witnesses, they looked as if their souls had been drained.

The man sighed and pulled out a cigarette.

The lighter flickered briefly in the dark before going out.

As he exhaled, the cigarette smoke rose around him like mist, mirroring his complex thoughts.

“Still working?”

The man flinched at the sudden voice.

Looking up, he saw his senior watching him with concern.

“Oh, yes. I just can’t seem to let this one go.”

His senior nodded, taking a seat beside his desk.

“Just leave it.”

The senior spoke quietly, with the confidence of experience.

“This has to be an object-related case.”

The man forced a slight smile in response.

“Even so, I’d like to double-check before it goes to the council. There might be something we missed.”

His senior looked at him for a moment before nodding in understanding.

“Alright, I know how you are. Just be careful. Don’t dig too deep.”

The senior stood to leave, waving once more as he headed out.

“Don’t push yourself too hard. See you tomorrow.”

After his senior left, the office returned to silence.

The man sighed deeply and returned to the report.

Picking up his pen, he started jotting down the victims’ commonalities.

"Displayed unusual behavior weeks before losing cognitive abilities."

He paused, lost in thought as he recalled each victim’s face. Though they were all different, the empty look in their eyes was the same.

“No clear commonalities. Gender, age, occupation—they don’t matter.”

“The only real similarity is that they were all highly active individuals.”

As he wrote this, he felt a sense of frustration.

No matter how he looked at it, no obvious link stood out.

Taking a sip from his coffee, he grimaced at the bitter taste of the cold liquid.

With a determined look, he flipped through the file, examining each victim’s photo.

Believing there had to be a clue somewhere, he stayed late into the night, continuing his investigation.

As the darkness deepened outside, so did the questions swirling in his mind.