Chapter 245
Without any lyrics, I simply hummed the melody, but the tired Seoah fell asleep instantly listening to the Sprout Reaper’s song.
‘Good night.’
At that, the Sprout Reaper smiled—not its usual playful grin, but a gentle smile that seemed happy.
Wishing for its attached human’s deep sleep, the Sprout Reaper also snuggled close to Seoah’s cheek and closed its eyes.
“Ugh, no.”
But perhaps the stress from the research institute had been too much lately.
As Seoah slept, her brows twisted as if she were having a nightmare, and painful groans escaped her lips.
‘!’
Seeing this, the Sprout Reaper perked up its sprout on its head and looked worried.
And for the sake of its attached human’s sleep, the Sprout Reaper entered Seoah’s dream.
*
Seoah was dreaming of nightmares at the Sehee Research Institute.
“No! No!”
Reports going missing.
Fire in the facilities.
Embezzlement of research funds.
An Object escaping.
Lost recorded CCTV footage.
A sudden order for Object relocation from the Association, and so on.
No matter how much Seoah worked, problems kept erupting in this horrific dream.
The only employee coming to report was Yerin Oh.
No, it felt like all the staff in the institute were Yerin.
And the people Seoah needed to report to had all been changed to Director Lee Sehee.
Whenever she checked the Gray Reaper Isolation Room, there were always dozens of Yerins lying around eating snacks and stealing salaries, while the director’s office was always empty when she went to report.
In that chaotic research institute, while Seoah stared gloomily at the reports, a tremendous vibration happened as a giant tree shot up outside the window.
A massive tree with golden and dark blue mixed colors.
And the moment the tree rose, the research institute began to function properly.
All the characters appearing in the dream transformed into Sprout Reapers.
Those Sprout Reapers were so competent that it didn’t matter if they did anything or not.
This way, Seoah could experience a vacation she had never spent in reality, even if only in her dream.
When she woke up in the morning, she walked on clouds with the Sprout Reaper resting on her shoulder.
The Sprout Reaper happily held onto Seoah’s hair.
In the morning, they went to the sea to build sandcastles on the beach.
The Sprout Reaper gathered seashells to decorate the castle.
At lunchtime, they enjoyed a picnic in the woods.
As Seoah spread out her lunchbox, the Sprout Reaper excitedly bit into a sandwich.
At dusk, Seoah and the Sprout Reaper lay in the fields, gazing at the sunset.
Seoah hugged the Sprout Reaper tightly in her arms, smiling happily.
At night, under the starlight, the Sprout Reaper sang a lullaby to Seoah.
It felt like a signal that it was time to say goodbye.
“Ah, I’m so happy.”
Surrounded by countless Sprout Reapers in a dream home where no one could visit, she smiled blissfully.
As Seoah fell asleep in her dream, the Sprout Reaper turned its head and began to gaze into the void.
There, a giant tree flickered with golden and dark blue colors.
“Mom is calling.”
At that moment, the Sprout Reapers began to disappear from Seoah’s dream, setting off somewhere.
*
The chopped-off head could be reattached in an instant using firewood.
“Ugh.”
But I sighed regretfully while stroking my neck.
A scar had formed.
The firewood that had healed even burned wounds left a scar, perhaps because it was a wound inflicted by a high-level Object.
It was truly a shame to leave such a large scar on the neck of cute isekai Yerin.
But then again, it’s just a dream reflecting the past, so it might not matter much?
I stopped stroking my neck and carefully observed the Object standing in front of me.
It was completely unlike the horrific appearance reflected in the mirror.
A monstrous being with a huge scythe and its entire body cloaked, with a long spike instead of a head.
On that spike was stuck the dreadful head I had seen in the mirror, crudely formed yet terrifying, made by gluing together human corpses.
Is the Object reflecting the face stuck on the spike in the mirror?
The monster that had sliced off my neck seemed quite confident, even though it had just seen me reattach my neck instantly.
Well, I could understand why.
With its formidable attack power, it wouldn’t be recognized by “eyes” using Yerin’s body.
It seemed that its main tactic was to dissolve into the air and ambush those whose gaze strayed to the mirror.
“Eh… are you okay?”
The Blue Girl jumped in with a white flaming sword, concerned as she stroked around my neck.
She seemed restless as if her own neck had been cut, and upon seeing my scar, her expression grew even more sympathetic.
The man who was the Blue Girl’s master stood with white flames enveloping his fists, protecting her.
“I’m okay.”
I quietly said I was fine and slowly stepped forward.
I gathered a lot of firewood but the Mini Reaper Garden did not appear.
“Can’t summon the garden. I can, however, make a spatial cut.”
It would have been very convenient to summon a bunch of Golden Reapers, but I figured it wasn’t that important.
As I stepped forward, laughter seeped out from the spike-headed monster.
It was a chillingly horrific sound, like countless ghosts laughing.
It sounded like the many heads hidden under the cloak were laughing.
It seemed to mock, as if saying, ‘You will become one of us.’
The monster stretched its dark, long fingers towards my head, as if intending to grotesquely decorate it and pierce it onto the spike.
Using Yerin’s body in this isekai was inconvenient in that manner.
Even strong Objects didn’t fear me.
But surely, showing my strength would change that.
How long could they maintain such confidence?
I used my “eye” to carelessly gaze at the revealing Object.
[To break things in search of a true head.]
Before my eyes burning with golden flames, the destruction condition arose.
*
‘This is bad.’
The Blue Girl’s master thought, clenching his fists tightly.
‘That magical book is of a kind that humans cannot touch.’
The magical book with a spike instead of a head felt relaxed, as if it had already captured the man’s party.
It made sense.
After all, it easily pierced through the student’s alchemy.
Considering the book was born to use perfect alchemy, typical humans would be nearly impossible to contend with.
Suuuu.
The magical book began to slowly carve its way to the ground with its blood-dripping scythe.
It approached as if a reaper were descending to deliver despair.
At that moment, the girl in black and white boldly stepped forward.
She was a mysterious girl.
No, she was an unsettling girl.
If it weren’t for the words from the prescient student, I would never want to be around her.
In fact, I hadn’t even realized her presence at first.
Even after I became aware of her existence, I could tell she only initiated conversation or action directly. At other times, she seemed to vanish from consciousness.
As if the very fact that girl existed in the world should be erased, she seemed to disappear from perception and memory without a trace.
Given that she could cut off a human’s head and instantly regenerate it in a human body, she surely wasn’t an ordinary human.
Then, suddenly, as if shattering the man’s thoughts, golden flames began to erupt from the eyes of the girl in black and white.
“!”
A sensation spread as if a colossal presence descended upon the land.
“Kyhaaaaa!”
At that moment, the monster with the spike for a head began to scream and flee.
Throwing the heads it had gathered in its cloak around in a frenzy.
It was as if it had come across something horrifying.
But the magical book with the spike head, unable to escape properly, was engulfed in golden flames and began to burn fiercely.
The golden flames that emanated from the girl in black and white were incinerating the grotesquely twisted heads.
What on earth had the magical book seen to be so stricken with terror?
When I turned my head, I noticed the student’s complexion had turned quite pale.
*
In the depths of the city beneath the purple moon, a temple.
There, a thick scent of oil wafted ominously.
Once referred to as the purple gem, the large purple pit resembling obsidian had turned black.
And within it, countless purple hermit crabs were rotting away, blackened and dying.
“Haha, it’s just as Master said.”
“It even applies to the moon!”
“After all, just because it’s a moon, it’s nothing but a shabby book.”
Surrounding it, flamboyantly dressed alchemists were making a fuss while looking down at the rotting pit.
Rumble.
And deep within the temple, the purple crystal that shone brightly began to crack and shatter as it floated overhead.
It sounded as if the purple moon were screaming.
To the alchemists, it felt like the sweet scream of the magical book.
Then the magic came to them.
[Why on earth did you do this?]
Once the high intelligence of the purple moon’s magic had been turned into incoherent gibberish.
Then, the mad alchemists raised their heads high and shouted.
“We will stand true! You are not a god, but a magical book!”
“We don’t need any gods!”
[….]
After a brief silence, a magic that seemed to look down on them came through.
[Small, weak, foolish humans. You always make the same mistakes.]
This time, it was a very clear magic, though the purple light of the crystal weakened as if it were burning its last life.
[I will tell you the name of the god you’ve forgotten.]
[Humans will now have to bear the consequences of their own mistakes.]
At that moment, a strange purple light began to pour down over the entire city.
A bizarre light that no wall or ceiling could block.
And on the human bodies that the light touched, unerasable burn marks remained.
Those were the names of the gods forgotten by everyone.
*
The moment the purple light poured down on the city.
The moment the erased name of the god was revealed.
Heavy clouds began to gather in the sky.
Foreboding clouds that could even obscure the purple moon.
Thunder and lightning roared across the earth, and a fierce wind began to rage between the buildings.
And from within that darkness, a massive silhouette began to emerge.
A huge, truly colossal monster’s hand started reaching toward the center of the city.
The Book that Killed God.
The emergence of the Object, ‘Nameless.’