Seoul Object Story

When I woke up in the morning, a strange sound was echoing inside the containment room.

Whimper-!

It was the sound of Cotton Candy Puppy being eaten by the mini reapers.

A round body made of pure white cotton candy and eyes and nose made of shiny, hard chocolate chips.

It was a well-decorated Cotton Candy Puppy that looked like a well-managed pet.

For some reason, the mini reapers seemed a little angry and were gnawing on the puppy.

At that moment, I picked up a Golden Reaper who was aggressively eating the puppy.

Why are you doing that?

When I asked so, I got a lot of answers.

Bad puppy!

It attacked a human!

It tried to break mom’s golden statue!

After listening to the Golden Reapers’ brief explanations, I realized.

Oh, that guy was the Cute Puppy…

In an instant, I understood why it was happening.

The ‘Cute Puppy’ who alwasyd had anger management issues was probably snapped at some point.

As I watched the puppy with pitiful expression being eaten after being caught by the Golden Reapers, a funny thought suddenly occurred to me.

Hihihi!

All they did was eat it.

Since they were such good children, they seemed to be clumsy when pranking others.

Such a boring punishment was no fun.

I got up from my seat and looked down at the mini reapers to convey my intention.

There is a punishment more suitable for the Cotton Candy Puppy.

The mini reapers tilted their heads, but after receiving my intention, they all backed away from the Cute Puppy.

When I picked up the Cotton Candy Puppy and laughed happily, it trembled all over as if it was scared. Then I put the Cotton Candy Puppy in a large water container. The Cotton Candy Puppy was startled and tried to get out of the water, but its limbs melted in an instant and it couldn’t get out properly.

Whimper-!

The front paw that barely got out of the water grabbed the railing of the water tank, but it melted and dissolved. The Cotton Candy Puppy looked at its crumbling paw and dove back into the water with a sad expression.

Even though it was constantly regenerating, the speed at which the cotton candy was dissolving in the water was so fast that the regeneration couldn’t keep up. Because of that, the puppy which had melted and regenerated here and there struggled in the water like a half-melted zombie.

Whimper-!

The Cotton Candy Puppy that barely got out of the water let out a pitiful sound with only its head remaining.

The traces of the slightly melted chocolate chips in its face looked like tears.

How’s it? Ain’t it fun?

I turned around and asked so. But for some reason, the Golden Reapers were looking at the puppy with expressions of pity.

Huh?

*********In the conference room of Sehee Research Institute, people gathered for a meeting after a long time.

What was written it the whiteboard in the conference was:

< Emergency meeting regarding Cute Puppy. >

They were discussing what to do about the tragic situation where the Cute Puppy had turned into Cotton Candy Puppy.

Kim Jungrwi  was the first to speak.

“First of all, fortunately, there was no damage caused by the ‘Cute Puppy’ that escaped. And I already got the workers to sign a confidentiality agreement.”

It was fortunate that the workers, who must have been shocked, smiled and signed right away.

Kim Jungrwi thought that getting the signatures would not be easy, but the workers were much more friendly than he had thought.

“That’s really fortunate. If word got out, public opinion would be much more heated than the case of the Seoul Research Institute.”

Sehee nodded in relief and said so.

Kim Jungrwi continued talking while turning the report to the next page.

“First, in order to prevent a recurrence, I think we should punish the security staff who opened the door of the containment room.”

Sehee looked very uncomfortable upon hearing that.

“Hmm, I don’t think a big punishment is necessary. There weren’t any casualties.”

Sehee was against punishment, perhaps because she also worked carelessly.

Did she think she could be subject to the punishment someday?

“Then let’s just deal with it with a salary cut…”

While Kim Jungrwi nodded with a helpless expression and spoke, Seoah interrupted.

“We absolutely should not do that!”

Seoah rubbed her temples as if her head hurt and continued.

“We absolutely cannot let it go with just something like a salary cut. First, let’s start with general security training again. And let’s talk about the level of punishment later.”

Then Seoah brought up an even more urgent issue with a dark expression.

“In fact, the bigger problem is that the ‘Cute Puppy’ has disappeared.”

Seoah calmly told the truth with a dark expression.

“The average number of Objects that the Cute Puppy finds per month is about 5, so if that number decreases immediately, the association will naturally audit us.”

Even though the Cute Puppy was managed by a private research institute, it was actually a major axis of Seoul’s defense against Objects, so it would be a natural flow of things.

When a problem that could not be solved was raised, the conference room fell into silence.

“Ah!”

Sehee, who had been frowning as if she was annoyed, suddenly exclaimed as if a good idea had come to him.

“As expected! The only thing left was the method I used last time.”

“What kind of method are you talking about, Director?”

Kim Jungrwi asked Sehee with anticipation, and Seoah noticed something strange in Se-hee’s words.

The method she used last time?

Was there a similar incident before?

While Seoah was thinking about this and that, S-hee spoke with a triumphant expression.

“Let’s bring the cotton candy puppy here and paint it red!”

“Pardon?”

When Jungrwi and Seoah looked at her as if she were talking nonsense, Sehee crouched in the corner of the conference room and became sullen.

Ye-rin agreed to my method!

We’ve even succeeded before!

Many words ran through Sehee’s mind, but since the Gray Reaper audit was a secret, Sehee decided to keep her mouth shut even though she was sad.

The meeting continued, but in the end, they found no special solution.

Knock-! Knock-!

Just as they were starting to agree to report the truth as quickly as possible, a knock rang out in the conference room.

And then Yerin, who had received permission and entered the conference room, said with a bright expression.

“The Cotton Candy Puppy can also track an Object’s location!”

It was news that the Cotton Candy Puppy could bark to tell about Object’s location just like the Cute Puppy.

At the same time, it was something which made the meeting come to an end.

*********After the ‘Cute Puppy’ incident was resolved due to the news I gave, the Research Institute continued to have peaceful days.

The Reaper was quiet and didn’t disappear to somewhere, and the other Objects in Sehee Research Institute were also in containment without any problems.

It’s peaceful.

I was lying leisurely in Reaper’s containment room, holding its small hand.

Squeeze-!

When I pressed Reaper’s soft palm, the grim reaper’s hand slightly closed. It was a magical palm that I habitually pressed because it was fun to see the small fingers wiggle.

There were a few other visitors in Reaper’s containment room besides me.

“Who should I give it to, I wonder?”

A certain girl who was holding a spoon with a pudding in it was surrounded by Golden Reapers and Black Reapers. The girl looked around at the mini reapers who had their mouths open toward the sky like baby birds, smiling slightly and making a worried expression.

The girl, who was wondering who to choose with her fingers, chose a Golden Reaper and held out the spoon towards.

Chew-! Chew-!

The Golden Reaper, who ate the pudding with its small mouth, smiled happily. Judging from the fact that the Golden Reaper liked it so much, it seemed to be a homemade pudding.

In the meantime, the death row inmate who seemed to be the girl’s older sister was poking the fluffy white Hungry Ghost with her finger and writing something in her notebook.

The death row inmate had been visiting the reaper often recently.

The first few times, he talked to the Gray Reaper about something. But recently, he had shifted to observing and analyzing the mini reapers, the Gray Reaper, and the white Hungry Ghost.

By the way, there was something a little strange about her.

The mini reapers liked all kinds of people, but for some reason, they didn’t show much interest in the death row inmate. The Golden Reapers in particular would always run towards people they saw for the first time with a bright smile.

Was it because she’s a death row inmate?

But I heard that the death row inmate wasn’t someone who would intentionally repeat murders to the point where the reapers would avoid her

And somehow the reapers’ attitude seemed like they were dealing with an Object.

Could it be that the death row inmate wasn’t human?

Judging from the attitude of the mini reapers who almost unconditionally give affection to humans, it didn’t seem impossible.

*********I was staring blankly at the TV in the warm and comfortable embrace of Yerin. I was so bored because there was nothing special going on.

Maybe because there had been so many incidents lately, I felt a little bored because nothing happened.

I’m sure that just a little while ago, I was happy just lying in the containment room all day…

Maybe, being able to lay happily in the containment room was because I suffered some burnout?

The listlessness came as a reaction because I had worked endlessly at the Seoul Research Institute and risked my life to collect abilities in Seoul Forest.

But since something would definitely happen, if I just wait a little, something fun would surely come.

Now that I think about it, the Golden Reaper who was seriously injured in the US was still away from home. What kind of attachment did it have to its precious human that it hadn’t come back yet?

Well, it would surely return when it got tired of it. I occasionally checked the firewood of the Golden Reapers who had run away from home, just to check if there was any danger.

The TV that I was watching blankly suddenly changed to breaking news and started showing a video that shook violently as if it had been filmed in a hurry.

A pretty famous park was on the screen. It was an even more unforgettable park for me. It was the park where the bomb terrorism against Seoul Research Institute took place. It was the park where I died.

The footage, which seemed to have been taken by a drone, showed a huge collapsed pit. A large hole had appeared under the large memorial monument honoring the victims of the terror attack.

And then there were large Objects that were as white as marble moving around.

They looked like marble statues that elaborately depicted muscular men.

But their faces were not distinct that they looked a bit like white Hungry Ghost.

[ Guardian? ]

The doll-headed woman who saw the TV screen muttered ‘Guardian’ with a surprised expression.

Did she know what those insignificant marble statues with indistinct faces were?

Were they related to alchemy?

They look interesting.

I guess it’s because the incident happened in a park that I have a deep connection with, but I was strangely interested.