NOVEL NEXT Hop hop~
tak tak~
The seemingly endless joint work of the Golden Rabbit Reapers soon came to an end.
The Golden Reapers who had been working hard put the completed puddings in the refrigerators, then sat around them, waiting for the puddings to be ready.
The number of those refrigerators was a whopping 5.
The Rabbit Reapers looked satisfied.
And after watching the Golden Rabbit Reapers' work, I tentatively concluded,
The plan to produce Ninja Pudding in the Golden Reaper Garden seemed successful but was a failure.
First, it took too long!
There were 5 pudding refrigerators.
It might be enough for the Golden Reapers, but definitely not for me.
Because the fridge was the size of the Golden Reaper, it only fit one pudding bowl.
In other words, even if I waited for hours, I'd only get 5 puddings at most.
Too few.
Way too few.
No matter how I thought of solutions, none seemed viable.
Move the puddings to other refrigerators?
It seemed impossible since there were only enough ingredients for 5 portions.
Should I hunt more rabbits then?
There were only 5 chef hats now, but would more appear if I killed more rabbits?
Was there a way to secretly take 5 puddings from the Golden Reapers?
As I watched the beaming Golden Reapers waiting for the puddings, my worries only deepened.
***
Yerin POV:
---
While pinching the unresponsive cheeks of a Reaper, I watched the men coming down from the 2nd floor.
A striking pair at first glance.
One was crying loudly.
The other wore an outfit too peculiar to describe in words. A thick full-body swimsuit?
Seeing the Golden Reaper attached to him, they didn't seem like bad people, but they were quite strange.
Perhaps one of them was the owner of this factory mentioned earlier.
Their reactions to the Golden Reapers were also amusing.
The strangely dressed man casually placed the Reaper clinging to him on his head after observing it.
The crying man, startled by the Reaper wiping his tears, gingerly lifted it and placed it on the hallway railing with a disgusted look - as if wanting to throw it away but too afraid of the rabbit-slaughtering Golden Reaper.
The abandoned Reaper sat on the railing, gazing dejectedly at the man before vanishing into thin air.
That man must have heard the grim rumors about Gray Reapers and was scared.
I thought the Gray Reaper dance craze had improved their image lately, but I guess not enough.
I had hoped their adorable dances would make everyone Gray Reaper fans!
The strangely dressed man patted the back of the man who couldn't stop crying, saying
"There, there, stop crying. The crisis has passed, and all you have left is the generous advance payment, isn't it?"
"I suppose? The crisis is over now, right? All I have to do is escape outside?"
Consoled by those words, the sobbing man mumbled "Advance payment, sports car..." and stopped crying.
The oddly dressed man noticed me, came over smiling, and greeted me.
The crying man kept his distance, likely scared of the Gray Reaper in my arms.
"Nice to meet you! I'm James, the owner of this factory. I almost died back there."
"I really thought I was going to die. Thank you for saving me."
James seemed too calm for someone who had just been chased down.
And the man thanking me for saving him started tearing up again, likely recalling the chase.
James looked down, staring intently at the Reaper in my arms.
"So this is what a real Gray Reaper looks like. I've always wanted to see one."
James raised his gaze again and continued speaking to me.
"Its eyes are still closed. Is there a problem? Did it perhaps use too much power when saving us?"
"I don't know why the Reaper is acting this way either. This has never happened before."
I believe there's no major issue, but I don't understand why it's suddenly acting like this.
I hope it's not in pain or anything.
***
3rd Person POV:
---
Ever since planning to set up a factory in Korea, James had been looking forward to meeting Gray Reaper.
In fact, he had been anticipating it even before Gray Reapers appeared in Korea.
The reason he could anticipate this was because of a special book his family possessed.
A book depicting a figure exactly like a Gray Reaper.
It was a special book called Book Zero.
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It couldn't just be a coincidence.
Book Zero was too special to be considered a mere coincidence.
It was a book that contained information so special that James attributed 30 percent of his accomplishments to it.
"Really, it looks exactly the same. If only I hadn't lost my bag, I could compare them."
James lamented.
"Could this be the bag you lost?"
James brightened up seeing the bag Yerin held out.
"This is indeed my lost bag! Thank you so much! Where did you find it?"
"I'm not sure either. The Reaper suddenly brought it and handed it to me."
After receiving the bag from Yerin, James began operating it in a complex manner.
To Yerin, it just looked like an antique bag, but the locking mechanism seemed more complicated than expected.
***
Yerin POV:
---
I watched James diligently operate the bag while holding the unresponsive Gray Reaper in my arms.
"Ah, finally opened."
Inside the opened bag was an extremely old-looking book.
The bag seemed designed to only hold that one book.
It looked quite precious.
From the solemn locking mechanism to using the entire large briefcase solely as a container for one book.
James carefully opened the worn book and slowly flipped through the pages, seeming to search for something.
Then muttering 'here it is', he opened to a page and held it out to me.
"Don't they look exactly the same?"
On the page James showed me was text in an incomprehensible language, and in one corner, a meticulously drawn illustration.
Light blue hair.
Slightly darker blue eyes.
A smiling girl full of vitality.
It was an exquisitely detailed drawing that could have been a photograph, but what caught Yerin's eye more was the subject it depicted.
Wouldn't a grown-up Gray Reaper look like this? It resembled a Gray Reaper that much.
Unlike the completely Gray Reaper, except for the fact that it was properly human.
"Did you imagine what a grown Gray Reaper would look like and draw this? It's really well done."
"Do you think I'd keep a book with such a clichéd illustration so securely? Surprisingly, this illustration existed before Gray Reaper appeared."
"What? Before Reaper existed? Then who was the model for this illustration?"
Someone who looked exactly like a Reaper!
If such a person existed, I'd love to meet them.
"There are many hypotheses about the model for this illustration, but nothing is certain. At the very least, it's a figure from over 100 years ago, so there's no way they could still be alive now."
"Ah, that's too bad. I would have liked to meet them if they existed."
Seeing my reaction, James said with a suspicious expression,
"Your reaction is a bit strange. Don't tell me you don't know about the Object Zero?"
"Object Zero? What is that?"
"Hm? That's strange. I sent an official document to have it explained to the Korean Object Research Institute..."
James furrowed his brow and muttered in a small voice.
I couldn't hear clearly, but it sounded like he said 'Something's fishy'.
Did he say something seems suspicious?
After making that suspicious expression, James wiped it off his face and began speaking.
"Well, let's save the rest of the story for after we leave this factory. It seems we'll have to give up on this factory anyway."
The moment James said that, the warmth cradled in my arms suddenly vanished.
"Reaper?"
The Gray Reaper suddenly leapt forward and snatched James' book from him.
Then, clutching the book with both hands, it simply stared at the book silently.
For some reason, Reaper's light seemed to grow a bit stronger.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
As I was gazing at the Golden Reaper's garden, I suddenly sensed a flame.
Not the flame in my chest, but kindling existing outside of me.
Completely separate flame, not derived from me like the Golden Reaper.
When I opened my eyes, a book was clutched in a man's hand.
What's this?
A book holding the flame?
As if entranced, I dashed over and took the book into my own hands.
The moment I grasped the book, I felt the flame gradually growing larger.
Flames flowed into me from the book, steadily increasing the size of the flame in my chest.
Slowly but endlessly continuing.
---
T/N: I'm not sure what will happen, but judging by the illustrations in the upcoming chapters, the Reaper... Well, anyway, that's it for today (in my timezone).