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The dense fog of the festival enveloped the street.

Within it, the sound of metal being dragged echoed faintly.

The fog swallowed the sound, consuming part of it, amplifying the ominous atmosphere.

The short-haired girl trembled in fear, hidden in the gap between the buildings.

In her mind, the same question repeatedly circled.

“How did they chase me all the way here?”

Her breath quickened involuntarily, and her heart raced wildly.

The monster that gradually revealed itself from the fog amplified the girl’s terror.

A monster drenched in blood, towering over 3 meters tall, with its arms severed at the elbows and replaced by saws.

The monster slowly, very slowly walked toward the girl with its grotesque arms drooping.

Grind. Grind.

The sound of the saws scraping against the asphalt reached her ears.

As it drew closer, the sound became distinct.

Its slow yet certain approach only intensified the girl’s fear.

The short-haired girl covered her mouth with both hands.

She felt that if she removed her hands, she would burst into tears immediately.

Grind. Grind.

The incessant sound surrounded her ears. The closer the saw monster got, the more fiercely her heart thumped.

It felt as if the monster’s saw were about to come crashing down on the short-haired girl’s head, making her tightly shut her eyes.

Just then, the moment the sound of the saw reached her face, something unexpected happened.

Splurt.

With a dull yet sharp sound, warm liquid spilled over the girl’s head.

Terrified, she slowly opened her eyes to an unbelievable sight.

A sharp bone-like protrusion suddenly jutted out from the saw monster’s chest.

“Yikes!”

The girl gasped in shock and almost screamed instinctively.

Only then did she notice another monster standing behind the saw monster.

It was the green lizard monster that had been fighting the saw monster in the open space.

This green-skinned monster had no arms, but instead, a tail sharpened like a spear extended from its body.

It was that tail that pierced the saw monster’s chest.

As the saw monster collapsed limply to the ground, the green monster began tearing into its chest with its mouth.

From the torn chest, it withdrew an orb with its mouth and pulled it out forcefully.

At that moment, something white and translucent that had connected the orb to the monster came out along with it.

It looked like elongated glue or airy cotton candy threads.

Though it seemed simple and trivial, somehow those white things felt important to the girl.

As the orb was pulled from the monster’s body, a human burst forth from the saw monster’s corpse, sprawled on the ground, and seemed to vanish into the space.

Just before disappearing, the image she saw was of a young man wearing a wrinkled dress shirt and suit pants.

Thud. Thud.

Then the green monster slowly turned around and began to walk away.

“I… I survived!”

The feeling of having survived slowly spread through the short-haired girl’s heart.

“Now, I just have to get out of this mysterious fog space.”

Thud.

At that moment, the green monster stopped and muttered in a voice like phlegm bubbling.

[The space doesn’t seem to disappear.]

Then the monster slowly started to turn back.

Thump thump.

Her heart felt like it would explode.

Hah. Hah. Hah.

Breath escaped from her mouth, which she had covered with both hands, like someone in hyperventilation.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound of the green monster’s footsteps grew nearer to the girl.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

It began to pass by the gap where the girl was and moved farther away.

Hah. Hah. Hah.

Even as the monster distanced itself, the girl’s breath remained uneven as she struggled to stand up slowly.

“I have to run away quickly.”

As the trembling girl barely pushed herself up, a pair of yellow, glowing reptilian eyes looked down at her.

“AAAAAH!”

When the girl let out a shocked scream with a pale face, a tail as thick and sharp as her arm flew toward her.

Seeing the bone flying towards her heart, the girl suddenly thought.

“Should I have eaten the orb earlier?”

And just as she was about to shut her eyes to apologize to her older sister.

From the sky, a golden comet fell down.

Against the backdrop of the shattered checkered sky, it was the Golden Armored Reaper that descended before the girl.

*

While lounging in the isolation room, a thought suddenly struck me regarding the lead doll.

“The lead doll that indiscriminately grants wishes was like the old god from the blue girl’s dream.”

For no particular reason, I felt a strange sense of urgency and rose from my spot, heading to the isolation room where the lead doll was quarantined.

Upon arriving at the lead doll’s isolation room, I saw mini reapers sitting on the floor waiting for their turn, and the lead doll demurely seated on a chair.

I quickly surveyed the room and felt slightly relieved.

“There are far fewer mini reapers than in my isolation room.”

Hehe, fake can’t beat real, after all.

As I released my ghosting and appeared on the bed in the isolation room, the mini reapers began to bounce around excitedly.

“Yay! Mom has come to visit!”

“Mommy!”

At the same time, several mini reapers began to edge closer to me.

The mini reapers bounced and clung onto my body.

Naturally, I tossed the mini reapers that clung too closely off the bed.

“Waaah!”

And then I began my experiments on the lead doll.

The lead doll moved powered by firewood and granted wishes, so it injected wishes into the firewood.

When I commanded, “Shake your head up and down,” it nodded while feeding a mini reaper a snack.

Most commands that required physical movement and were quickly achievable could be followed.

Even things like ‘be cute’ could be done.

However, complicated commands or those requiring supernatural abilities, like cutting space, all ended in failure.

“Put all the people in the Sehee Research Institute to sleep.”

“Teleport the Sehee Research Institute to the moon.”

“Solve the P-NP problem.”

“What’s 127 plus 1,452?”

When I directed such things, it just tilted its head or nothing happened at all.

It seemed the lead doll did not have the capability to use firewood.

“Hmm.”

Just as I thought this was sufficient to verify, I felt gazes on me.

The mini reapers, scattered around the bed, were staring at me.

Om nom nom.

The lead doll was still hugging and petting the mini reapers while feeding them treats.

The mini reapers’ stares seemed to say, “Why isn’t Mom doing that?”

Did they want me to do the same as the lead doll?

It couldn’t be helped.

Hehe.

I tried to speak as grandly as possible, conveying my intentions to the mini reapers.

“Your wishes shall come true.”

At that moment, I began to pour firewood into the lead doll.

Of course, that firewood was filled with my wishes.

“Yay!”

“Kind Mom!”

The mini reapers bounced with happy expressions.

And as my firewood reached the lead doll, its actions began to change.

“Waaah!”

The lead doll tossed the Golden Reaper that was sitting on its lap.

Then it stood up and began to roll around toward the mini reapers.

“Waaah!”

“Mom is bothering me!”

“Liars!”

Of course, I joined the lead doll in rolling toward the mini reapers.

Wasn’t it a joyful moment since my wish for the lead doll to become like Mom was granted?

Hehe.

*

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

The pink girl lay on the hill filled with the Black Reaper and Golden Reaper, peering into a book that looked like a textbook.

“They say that once I learn the language used in this country and some knowledge, I can go to a place called school.”

The pink girl looked down at the Blue Idol Reaper and smiled brightly.

“They say school is a kind of academy, and my dream of going to an academy might come true!”

Watching the happy Attached Human, the Blue Idol Reaper smiled back with a similar expression.

The pink girl closed the book and leaned toward the Blue Idol Reaper.

“Want to learn the language together?”

The pink girl assumed she would definitely be willing, but the Blue Idol Reaper shook its head.

“Why? It would be much more fun to learn together…”

But the answer came from elsewhere.

“Mom said no!”

“Korean? She said not to pretend to know!”

“The blue younger brothers got scolded for that!”

The Golden Reapers bounced up from their places, responding eagerly.

Although the Golden Reapers seemed to have no clue what Korean was, they clearly remembered Mom’s intentions.

Of course, the pink girl couldn’t understand the mini reapers’ will, but the Blue Idol Reaper translated for her.

“I see…”

The pink girl felt slightly disappointed but couldn’t argue since it was something the Gray Reaper had ordered.

“If even the amazing Magical Book like the Gray Reaper said not to, there must be a very important reason.”

“It might even be a taboo that affects the fate of the world.”

The pink girl nodded, somewhat convinced.

At that moment, things began to stir among the mini reapers.

“Ah! Someone bit again!”

“We have to find out!”

“Bad Reaper!”

The startled Golden Reapers bounced with surprise.

The sound of the mini reapers marching with their tiny feet.

The sounds of the Golden Reapers jumping all over the marshmallow to catch the culprit.

But by now, the culprit had vanished without a trace.

On the chubby cheek of the startled Golden Reaper, bite marks from a mini reaper were evident.

*

In the fog-filled world beneath the checkered sky.

Not long ago, a space where monsters had killed each other, but now it was empty.

The monster with saws for arms.

The green lizard monster.

The girl who hadn’t eaten the orb.

And the Golden Reaper that descended from the sky.

No one was present.

In that empty space, suddenly a man appeared.

The man looked up at the hole in the sky and muttered.

[That face. Is it the Golden Reaper?]

The man slowly walked, looking down at the blood-soaked ground.

Scattered in the blood were the corpses of the lizard monster resembling the Golden Armored Reaper and the saw monster.

[Is meeting that face at the end of a grand undertaking]

[Fate? Coincidence?]

The man covered his mouth with one hand and spat out words as if he were chewing.

[It must be fate.]

[The Last Alchemist….]