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Late night.

Seoah returned home with a very tired face.

As she showered, she began to drift into thoughts about the Sehee Research Institute.

“I’m so tired….”

The Gray Reaper showing up in Siberia, Russia had made her workload skyrocket.

There were piles of documents to be submitted to the Object Association.

Yerin Oh, the researcher in charge of the Gray Reaper, was always a beat behind on reports, and Director Lee Sehee was currently more focused on real estate investments than actual work.

On top of that, the scale of the Sehee Institute had significantly grown, leaving Seoah with far too many tasks to handle.

“Guess I need to hire someone new.”

Not long ago, a researcher affiliated with the Object Association had sent in a resume, so she figured she should at least conduct an interview.

From what she heard from the association staff, they said this person handled mental pollution well and was quite capable, which made her pretty excited.

She hoped they wouldn’t be like Kim Jungrwi, who was easily enchanted by the Mini Reaper.

Looking to her side, she noticed the Sprout Reaper imitating her posture while being sprayed with water from the faucet, perfectly in sync like a mirror image.

“You don’t have to do that, you know?”

Ever since the Sprout Reaper accidentally broke the only mirror in the bathroom while playing around, it had been doing that every time Seoah entered.

From Seoah’s point of view, it wasn’t so bad seeing the Sprout Reaper, usually just laughing and playing, looking apologetic.

“Alright then. Time for you to get soapy too, Sprout.”

Seoah finished her shower, lathered up a lot of soap in her hands, and called for the Sprout Reaper.

The Sprout Reaper stopped imitating her, closed its eyes tight, and covered them with both hands.

Since that one time when soap bubbles got in its eyes, it always reacted that way.

An object afraid of soap bubbles?

Seoah found it a bit cute and chuckled.

Hearing her laughter, the Sprout Reaper puffed up its chubby cheeks.

Seoah patted the Sprout Reaper’s plump cheeks and carefully soaped it up.

With its squishy cheeks and tiny body, it looked so small and fragile that it seemed like it would break if touched too hard.

But no matter how delicate it seemed, it was still an object.

And being part of the Gray Reaper’s entourage, it had to be incredibly strong compared to a human.

Once they finished showering, the Sprout Reaper was now sitting on Seoah’s pillow, patting it repeatedly.

Alright, it’s time for bed.

As Seoah lay down on the bed, the Sprout Reaper started humming the melody from the TV like a lullaby.

“♩♩♬”

Hearing that soft sound, Seoah mumbled quietly.

“Goodnight.”

*

In the house, the Blue Girl and the Muscular Man took out various documents and started talking in increasingly incomprehensible terms.

“But why does the ‘cult’ keep this jade plate as a holy artifact?”

“I don’t know. But the cult seems to worship something closer to that erased existence than to the external being.”

Their conversation gradually shifted to alchemical jargon, becoming dull to listen to.

Thud, thud.

So, I walked to the window to enjoy the peaceful view outside.

There, sitting by the window, was a familiar-looking crab.

An already deceased object.

It was the same purple crab shell I’d seen on the snowfield.

Upon discovering the crab that led me here, I reached out to pick it up.

Then, a faint sound started to emanate from the shell.

[Head toward the land filled with mirrors and glass.]

The moment I pressed my ear against the shell to listen, it vanished into thin air as if it should not be here.

“Perhaps this is a hint about the location I need to go to in order to meet the correct ending.”

As I sorted out my confused thoughts caused by the sudden crab, I began to admire the landscape outside.

The mystical purple moonlight shining down on the alley created a unique atmosphere, unlike modern times.

Smooth pebbles reflecting the moonlight.

Glass crafts and windows shimmering in violet hues.

‘There sure is an abundance of glass crafts for a fantasy setting.’

Just as I was thinking about the glass crafts, the atmosphere on the serene street slowly began to shift.

Objects caught in the moonlight began to float as if they were drifting in the air, and the reflections in the glass of various things and people started to warp into grotesque shapes.

Seeing the distorted reflections due to the objects, I recalled the hint from the crab.

I needed to hurry to the hint’s location.

Gathering my thoughts, I turned to the Blue Girl.

After more than a year of silence, I’d grown comfortable with it, but now was a moment to speak.

I conveyed the current situation in as serious a tone as I could, trying to appear nonchalant.

“Um, things outside have become strange. The whole city looks different.”

However, the Blue Girl’s reaction to my words was rather odd.

She sparkled her eyes with excitement and came closer, as if she had discovered something astonishing.

*

With a serious expression and content, but mismatched pronunciation.

“I, uh… things have become weird in the city.”

The girl in black and white clothes made a valiant effort to speak with a lisp, which made her all the more adorable.

I had been worried about her not speaking at all, but as it turned out, she simply struggled with speaking.

The Blue Girl smiled down at the cute girl.

But due to the Blue Girl’s excessive excitement, the little girl became sulky and zipped her lips shut.

I felt an urge to poke her chubby cheeks, but that was probably a bad idea.

The girl in black and white insisted they needed to go to a place filled with mirrors and glass, but luckily my master did know of such a place.

“There is a ‘Glass Craft Street’ in this city where they create and store glass crafts.”

Seeing the reflection in the glass distorting wildly, the girl in black and white’s guess seemed plausible, so I decided to search for that street first.

As I proceeded to find the magical book, the city appeared to be in total chaos.

People assumed any incomprehensible phenomena they witnessed were the work of magic or the powers of the magical book.

Like ‘spells’ from martial arts novels, everything that was hard to explain in this world was attributed to the magical book.

The situation unfolding in the city was both incomprehensible and fascinating, a genuine ‘magical book’ crisis.

As the alchemist tasked to protect humanity from such threats, I hurried on my way.

Meanwhile, the little girl was looking around much more curiously than anyone else.

But she didn’t seem frightened; rather, she appeared confident.

It was odd, as it wasn’t just curiosity driving her but something even more peculiar.

*

Thud, thud.

Hand in hand with the Blue Girl, I followed the Muscular Man as we navigated through the complicated city.

Eventually, we reached our destination.

A land filled with mirrors and glass, the Glass Craft Street.

“I’d be more comfortable if we could bring the White Hungry Ghost, but they’ve forbidden entry to the city. How annoying.”

The Blue Girl, standing beside me, grumbled with a slightly twisted expression.

Beautiful and colorful glass decorations filled every direction, but it felt unsettling and bizarre.

The reflections in flat mirrors warped like fish-eye lenses, with things that should have been reflected not showing up, and things that shouldn’t be reflected appearing.

Uncomfortable.

“Why can’t humans see with their skin?”

I twisted my neck too much and felt sore.

‘Disgusting.’

As I cautiously moved my feet, the grotesque form of a monster briefly flashed on the glass surface, sending shivers down my spine.

Instead of hair, fingers sprouted, a mouth where the eyes should be and a nose in place of the mouth—a truly grotesque face.

I could tell an enemy was lurking somewhere in this street.

Using my ‘eyes’ to scan the area meticulously, I found no sign of the object.

In that moment, all the distorted mirrors around me returned to normal.

‘…’

A quiet moment where no one made a sound.

As I nervously gripped my hands and turned around, I saw that dreadful face smiling directly at me in every mirror.

It was such an unsettling sight that I instinctively activated my spatial cut ability.

Ignoring the blood pouring from my hands, I shattered all the mirrors.

But at the same time, the world began to collapse.

‘Time reversal?’

An occurrence I had seen nine times before, where the time in my dreams flowed backward.

Why?

In a panic from the sudden time reversal, I quickly turned to the Blue Girl, only to witness the monster slicing off her head in the mirror right before my eyes.

The 10th failure had occurred.

And the 11th round began.

The purple moon was now on the brink of shattering.

In the blink of an eye, I closed and opened my eyes again, and I found myself back at the entrance of the Glass Craft Street.

‘?’

I was bewildered.

I had assumed I’d start at the ‘cult.’

But there was something I needed to do before entering the craft street, so I quickly gathered my thoughts and looked up at the Blue Girl.

Suppressing my embarrassment, I shouted for her to give me a ride on her back.

“Give me a ride! Hurry!”

With my awkward pronunciation as Yerin from another world, I thought I wouldn’t speak again!

But not having eyes in the back of my head left me with no other choice.

*

Was riding her back a wise choice ahead of the battle with the magical book?

The Blue Girl hesitated for a moment but decided to accept the little girl’s proposal.

Although her way of speaking seemed somewhat cute, her expression was infinitely serious.

Moreover, she was confident that she could easily eliminate most magical books with her white flame.

Of course, the Blue Girl also had a small desire to give the little girl a ride.

‘Her soles are really squishy.’

After placing the little girl on her back, a strange sensation arose.

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‘Squishy?’

Checking under the little girl’s feet, I was stunned to find she was truly barefoot.

The Blue Girl hadn’t realized because the little girl’s clothes were long enough to hide them.

Despite walking around barefoot, her soles looked pristine without a speck of dust.

With that, the two of us headed for the Glass Craft Street.

The magical book hiding in the craft street appeared to be using mirrors, repeatedly appearing and disappearing in the glass.

And like the calm before a storm, all the mirrors returned to normal.

The traces of the magical book vanished, leaving a dead silence in the bustling craft street.

Amidst this quiet, the Blue Girl gripped the Alchemist’s Sword tightly, remaining alert.

Just when the tranquility seemed to be loosening its grip, a horrifying face suddenly emerged from the mirror.

And unsurprisingly, a presence of the magical book emerged in the air, entirely unrelated to the mirror.

‘Not a chance!’

The magical book wickedly targeted the girl riding on her back.

‘The Alchemist’s Shield!’

As the Blue Girl waved her hand, white flames expanded around her, forming a protective barrier.

But the blade dyed in purple easily pierced through the barrier.

‘The power of the moon? Why?’

Blood sprayed across the sky in thick droplets.

“No!”

As the Blue Girl shouted in shock, the little girl’s head was cleanly sliced off, spraying an immense amount of blood all around.

Yet, the headless little girl wore a joyful smile.