---

In a dream where a faint light cluster enveloped the space,

I was looking down as if I were a wandering soul in the void.

The place my gaze fell upon was one that remained vividly in memory.

It was the workshop where the last breath of the blue girl lingered, and where her whole corpse was discovered.

The workshop I encountered in the dream looked just like when I first found it.

As if time had stopped, or someone wanted to eternally preserve this moment, everything was placed exactly in the same spot.

It was as neat as a room organized by someone approaching death, yet there was an unspeakable loneliness seeping into the air.

On the bed, the blue girl was slowly but surely approaching her death.

Beside her was a white hungry ghost.

The little creature struggled to move her to the bed, wearing an expression filled with panic and despair.

The white hungry ghost ceaselessly poured a healing potion between her lips.

It was a powerful alchemical product that was almost touching miracles, but it was utterly useless.

The blue girl’s death wasn’t simply triggered by physical wounds or diseases.

Somehow, my vision became hazy, and I could see her soul drifting like fog.

It was a form of death I had witnessed before.

A way of dying that couldn’t even be avoided by a special “contract.”

Just like the man of the lamp who disappeared without leaving a trace, unable to join the mini reaper garden— an irreversible, eternal annihilation.

‘!!!’

I was quite surprised while watching this scene.

The blue girl’s death was altogether different from what I had imagined.

It was not merely a physical demise, but a complete annihilation of the soul.

That fact raised even more questions.

‘If that’s the case, the blue girl won’t be able to reincarnate, right?’

‘The blue girl’s soul has completely vanished, so how could the contract terms with the man of the lamp have been established?’

‘Is it because I am the blue girl’s reincarnation that the terms were validated?’

As these thoughts chased each other in my mind, the blue girl’s life kept flowing like grains of sand in an hourglass.

The white hungry ghost, in a desperate attempt, was ready to pour all the potions in the workshop, but when the blue girl weakly shook her head to refuse, he sat down beside her with tears in his eyes.

The blue girl stared blankly at the ceiling with eyes devoid of focus, as if her vision had completely faded.

“If only we could have met….”

“If I could live just a little longer… If only we could have met…”

The blue girl’s faint voice echoed in the air.

“It’s also the ending befitting a magical book of contracts… To be unable to meet just because of a few years difference…”

“If only we could have met, even if just from afar, I could have stolen a glance at you. At least I could have reminisced about our memories…”

Her words grew weaker and weaker.

Though she spoke as if regretting it, her expression strangely appeared relieved.

Now, even blinking seemed like a difficult task.

Her soul had already faded too much.

The blue girl gathered her last strength to look at the white hungry ghost who had moved her onto the bed.

And she let slip her last words.

“I’m sorry…”

However, the words she intended to follow, the words of encouragement, never turned into sound.

‘And please take care. I believe you will do well.’

That final message didn’t reach the white hungry ghost, and the blue girl froze like a doll with its energy drained.

*

When I awoke from the dream, I sat dozing off on the chair beside the blue girl’s bed.

‘Must be because I fell asleep near the blue girl that I had another headache dream. If not the reincarnation of the blue girl, then what am I?’

As I thought for about ten seconds, I pushed the dream of the blue girl into the corners of my memory.

No point pondering over what I don’t know while seated!

And I began to trace back the tasks I was doing before falling asleep.

‘Right, I had just left the dream garden and was conducting a new ability test….’

The halo test of the mini flower reaper I tested in the dream garden was a great success.

As I expected, the mini flower reaper used the halo of time much better than I could.

With the halo activated, the mini flower reaper could implement time reversal even more powerfully than the sprout reaper!

Moreover, it showed tons of fragmented future possibilities, granting even weak foresight abilities!

The mini reapers may be dumber than I, but they sure excel in this kind of thing…

But unfortunately, the item restored through time reversal was the trampoline that burned and vanished, so I ended up making it a ‘mumble.’

Was it that I didn’t foresee the future where restoring the trampoline would turn into a ‘mumble’?

Hehe.

Right now, I was processing the magical book of contracts and testing the newly acquired abilities.

“Mom! I did it!”

Still feeling a bit dazed from the dream, I was giving my cheeks a little slap to wake up when a golden reaper approached me with a bright expression.

The golden reaper held a spear piercing the white hungry ghost in one hand and a contract made from a stone-like snack in the other.

Upon checking the contract, I noticed it had a checkmark.

[White Hungry Ghost Hunt (1/1)]

[Reward: Mom’s Praise and Star Candy]

“Good job.”

Transmitting my will, I patted his head and gave him a star candy. The golden reaper smiled happily.

At the same time, the contract burned and vanished due to the termination of the agreement.

Om nom nom.

Then the golden reaper plopped down near me and began munching on the star candy.

‘This new ability seems somewhat useful, yet not quite.’

After acquiring the magical book of contracts, I gained the ability to form contracts with followers.

While it could potentially be quite a useful ability depending on the situation, it was useless since my followers were mini reapers.

After all, mini reapers diligently followed orders without needing any incentive.

Well, it might come in handy when I give tasks to the sometimes ‘busy’ orange crowned reaper, aside from the obedient golden one.

As I shifted my gaze, I spotted the blue girl lying quietly on the bed.

She didn’t appear dead but rather looked as if she were simply asleep.

‘Hmm…’

I supposed it would be time to test the blue girl’s alchemical abilities, but I felt lazy.

Even though it was an overwhelmingly different person with powerful alchemical skills compared to what I saw in the dream of the purple moon…

Entering would be uncomfortable, hungry, suffocating, and painful, hence I hesitated to step inside.

Moreover, a slight contrarian mindset made me not want to go in.

Kyu…

Looking down, I saw the hungry ghost hanging on to my feet with a sad expression.

As soon as I returned from the dream garden, it had been clinging to me, requesting to possess the blue girl.

No matter how much I shook my feet to shake it off, it seemed stronger than me, and wouldn’t budge at all.

‘So annoying….’

I wondered, ‘What if I made it a hybrid so it might stop insisting on possessing me and just wander around?’ but then shook my head to cast that dreadful thought aside.

If it clung to me even as a hybrid, that would be even worse.

*

In the mini reaper garden at the Marshmallow Plains, the grave of the blue girl who was left by the gray reaper.

There stood a lead doll and a saintess doll that had escaped from the Sehee Research Institute.

Surrounded by mini reapers, the saintess doll was diligently writing something in a book.

[Hello.]

The saintess doll was scribbling Hangul in a shaky handwriting on a practice sheet.

Beside the saintess doll were many lead dolls, but only one of them moved its hand to pet the mini reapers.

‘The other lead dolls don’t move, but this one does.’

When the saintess doll first saw the moving lead doll, she was startled, thinking it was the gray reaper.

Although they looked completely alike, there was a presence that somehow felt divine.

But upon closer inspection, the presence seemed too faint compared to the real gray reaper, so the saintess doll decided it was just a moving lead doll.

The saintess doll pulled out a green jade tablet from her clothes.

It was the lost sacred relic of the cult received as a wish from Junior No. 2.

‘Hope the sect members are all doing well.’

The saintess doll looked at the jade tablet with a slightly wistful gaze, silently speaking to it.

Though the chance of the sect members hearing was slim, she hoped her thoughts would reach them through the sacred relic.

Whenever she missed her sect members, the saintess doll would offer up prayers to the jade tablet.

Knock knock.

Suddenly feeling a sensation poking her shoulder, she turned to find a lead doll staring at her with bright yellow eyes.

[Jade Tablet….]

And a faint magic spoke to the saintess doll.

[Do you want this jade tablet?]

It was the first time a lead doll addressed her, causing the saintess doll to widen her eyes in surprise.

The lead doll then slowly nodded its head.

In those golden eyes of the lead doll, a tiny desire could be seen.