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In an open lot, there was a pile of abnormally large white teeth, shaped just like human teeth but far too oversized.

A faint scream echoed, as if someone were nearly gasping for breath.

“Ugh… ack.”

The butler hungry ghost, all its teeth extracted and now as crumbly as parched sand, disintegrated and vanished like dust.

Simultaneously, the mountains of teeth began to crumble as well.

Unfortunately, it was the last butler hungry ghost.

Though I had pulled enough teeth to fill the open lot, it had failed.

The plan to turn the tooth hungry ghosts into cute hungry ghosts was a bust.

Perhaps due to its regenerative abilities, no matter how many teeth I yanked out, it just kept regenerating.

And the butler hungry ghosts, having exhausted all their regenerative powers, turned to dust.

What a pity.

Without those teeth, it might have been quite cute…

Come to think of it, I had inadvertently done something akin to torture; I wondered if the mini reapers would be okay with that.

I thought they might look at me like garbage, but the mini reapers only stared at me with blank expressions.

In fact, when I sent a glance their way, they merely tilted their heads in question as if to ask what was wrong.

Indeed, children known for being merciless against harmful objects are just that.

Suddenly curious, I crouched down and picked up one of the golden reapers.

I poked my finger into the golden reaper’s mouth and felt little teeth at my fingertips.

Being the size of a palm, the mini reaper had very tiny teeth.

The mini reaper’s teeth were really cute, but why did it look gross when those same teeth belonged to a hungry ghost?

Is it really a size issue? The hungry ghost’s teeth were enormous.

Absolutely, they were disproportionately large compared to the ghost’s head too, so that might be part of it.

As I fiddled with the tiny teeth of the golden reaper lost in thought, I noticed it was all tense and taut.

Thump-thump.

Though the golden reaper doesn’t have a heart, it felt as if a little heart was pounding nervously.

How strange.

Is there really something to be worried about here when all the bad objects have turned to sand?

Moreover, the golden reaper was typically pretty relaxed even in battle.

Could it be?

Tap-tap.

Every time I touched the teeth with my finger, I could feel the golden reaper tense up.

Wait, is it worried I might playfully pull out its teeth?

The mini reaper really had low trust in me.

I had the feeling I might accidentally yank out a tooth.

Hehe.

Just then, the golden reaper suddenly started thrashing in my grip.

Wondering why, I looked down and saw my reflection grinning mischievously in its eyes.

I didn’t intend to hurt it with my pranks, but the way it reacted was a bit amusing.

‘Pulling out just one tooth should be fine, right?’

As I playfully conveyed my intention, the golden reaper began wriggling even more fiercely.

But no matter how weak I was, I was still stronger than the golden reaper, so there was no way for it to escape my grasp.

Just as I was leaning closer to its face, trying to create a horrifying atmosphere,

The black reaper jumped at me like a rocket and head-butted my abdomen.

Perhaps due to the strength of the black reaper, the impact was strong enough to lift its feet off the ground!

In the chaos, I lost grip of the golden reaper, who made a dash to escape, fleeing in all directions.

Everyone covered their mouths and scattered away.

Then came the mini reapers, peeking out from the shadows of the bookshelf, observing me.

I found their appearance amusing and lunged at them with both my hands outstretched.

‘If I catch you, I’ll pull out all your teeth!’

Seeing the mini reapers frantically run away in surprise brought me a bit of joy.

*

After some time passed through the iron gate, the tattooed woman finally sat down on the ground, thinking it was now safe.

“It seems the guardians can’t pass through the iron gate. Thank goodness.”

With a pale face, she removed her blood-soaked coat.

Once the coat was off, she found the gaping wound on her arm where the butler hungry ghost had bitten her had already healed, and a normal hand had regrown.

Being a magical book was indeed very convenient in this regard.

Her body could continuously regenerate until her neck was severed.

However, the hand she sacrificed to summon the green serpent was still gone.

Considering she had offered it as a tribute, it looked unlikely to regenerate naturally.

Her younger sister gazed at the missing hand as if it had evaporated, looking glum.

“Sis, are more dangerous objects going to appear from here on? Do we really have to keep going? Can’t we go back?”

She had certainly sustained more injuries than expected.

Still, these injuries weren’t really that dangerous.

Even when she was still human, she regularly faced this level of injury, and with her body now automatically regenerating, it was really just surface-level wounds.

“It’s fine.”

She kept comforting her sister until she calmed down.

“I’m an object now, so I won’t die so easily.”

And there was something the woman urgently wanted to get here.

‘The Alchemist’s Sword’

A blade forged to kill anything related to a magical book while soaking in reagents.

It was an essential tool for the alchemist, who was closer to a human butcher than a practitioner of magic, devoted to slaying magicians obsessed with the magical books.

As objects spread across the Earth, it would become increasingly dangerous, so the time to need it would definitely come.

If the alchemist were still alive, she would have thought of trading to obtain it.

Now, however, it was almost certain that he was dead, so she planned to visit a workshop to pick one up.

After all, there probably wasn’t a single alchemist without a sword.

Upon seeing her younger sister becoming a bit calmer, she squeezed the blood-soaked coat and threw it back on.

“Alright, there’s not much left. Let’s go.”

With those words, she held hands with her sister and proceeded forward.

*

The white object resembling a reaper slowly descended the stairs.

Beyond the personal room, it entered the dark workshop.

The long-unused workshop was buried under thick layers of dust and oppressive darkness.

Inside the workshop was filled with the smell of lead.

Following the scent of lead, she turned around to see dolls resembling gray reapers filling the walls.

Dolls made of lead.

Dolls crafted in the likeness of a master who had already passed away.

Soulless, will-less, just empty dolls created through alchemy.

The master had cherished those empty dolls until the moment of death.

Until breathing ceased, the owner had relied on those useless dolls.

As she walked past the dolls, she spotted a large mirror.

It felt alive, as if it had snatched up time and transported that moment intact.

Beyond the mirror stood a girl with blue hair, her face lit with a mischievous smile.

It was the owner from when she was alive.

[Now, stand properly here!]

She was adjusting the pose of the expressionless lead doll here and there.

Though the lead doll reflected in the mirror was still gray, it was completely devoid of metallic properties compared to the dolls remaining in the workshop.

Reborn through alchemy, it appeared almost human-like with skin.

The owner looked genuinely delighted as she issued commands to the lead doll.

[Now, hold this tightly.]

And she placed a tiny white guardian into the lead doll’s arms, so small it could fit in her embrace.

With a round body and short limbs, the only thing impressive was its light material, allowing the lead doll to lift it.

The slightly dissatisfied white guardian was gazing into the mirror.

[Alright, then just look into the mirror properly.]

With a playful giggle, the owner uttered some nonsensical words like ‘Kimchi!’, and the scene in the mirror faded away, returning to an ordinary mirror.

Inside the mirror, there was nothing but an ordinary guardian, but it reflected her youthful self during happier times.

However, what was now mirrored back was her solitary figure crying in the dust-filled workshop.

She was weeping, gazing at times that would never return.

‘Owner.’

As she looked towards the direction of her owner, who had fallen into eternal slumber from which there was no return, the guardian shifted its gaze forward.

The white guardian, resembling a reaper, stepped away from the mirror and slowly began to proceed outside.

Each step was heavy, as if forcibly removing feet that felt impossible to lift.

Just as her owner had said, the ‘lead doll’ had returned.

She needed to prepare for the welcome.

‘The scenario my owner crafted is completed with ‘my death.'”

*

As the tattooed woman and her sister walked through the dark, long corridor, the surrounding environment began to shift.

The passage that had once looked like a rough cave gradually transformed into a hallway finished neatly in wood.

Although it was dusty, the walls were carved with elegant wave patterns.

A vintage lamp had already extinguished.

It felt like a corridor of a mansion.

Especially, the tattooed woman found it oddly familiar, as though she had returned to her hometown.

Thanks to the familiar style of the corridor and its decorations.

At the end of the hallway lay a spacious room waiting.

A reception room furnished with lavishly decorated tables and chairs.

But there was no time to spare to examine such a reception room.

Because there was an object emanating an overpowering aura.

Even the woman, who had taken down various magical books as an alchemist, found herself feeling tense.

“The White Reaper?”

Her sister spoke as she looked at the object that had its back turned to them.

As if responding to her words, the object turned around to face the sisters.

“Kyuuu.”

It was an object with a sorrowful expression.