If you ask anyone what they believed would happen to them when they died, there are only a handful of answers. So thought you simply ceased to exist, others suggested you were reincarnated into a new life. But the most famous of these would have to be the one shared across cultures.
"Death cos for you," I muttered in annoyance.
There were a number of films from both East and West that dealt with this the. The Grim Reaper held the role in many fictional stories. The one who led the souls to hell. If you look far enough, you will see that most of the deities associated with death had the sa responsibilities.
Just as before, my outburst caused the rest of the people to wait quietly for . They must have had many opinions, but none of them could express them.
It was not because they were physically or ntally incapable. It was because the decision was not up to them, but up to .
"Let get this straight, you are telling . Every single Reaper who joined the enlistnts was recruited just as they were about to die? Who were the Reapers who did this job?"
"That would be the Recruitnt Division of Administration."
"..."
As always, the naming conventions of the Reapers were straight and concise. But how many could this recruiting departnt actually get in a month?
'Exa, how many people are there in the US?'
[The current estimate is 335,893,238, my lord. Would you like a breakdown by age group?]
'No, how many die in a single day? USA only.'
[For 2023, the U.S. average is 8,091 deaths per day. . Or 337 deaths per hour.]
"Phillip, how many Reapers are part of the Recruitnt Division?"
"I believe there are about 300, my lord."
That ant that each recruiter was responsible for 26 to 27 reapers per day. Considering the distance, ti, and their lives, it was simply impossible to get them all.
This ant that even if there were people who wanted to be reborn as Reapers, if no one beca their parent, they would not co back.
"Aren't they too few?"
"The Revenants believe it is enough. All six continents do not exceed that number."
"Why?"
"They said the number was given by the Graveyard. When the battle fronts all were starting out."
So the reason the battlefronts thought like dieval people was because of the Graveyard?
'Exa, what was the average size of a kingdom in the Middle Ages?'
[I cannot answer such a vague question, my lord].
'Sigh. Ugh, dealing with this crap is tiring. Okay, let start again. Use Europe in the Middle Ages. How many people did they have back then?'
[The High Middle Ages were between 1000 A.D. and 1400 A.D., Europe had 50 million people then and peaked at 84 million].
'So even an entire continent had fewer people than my country has in modern tis. Can you estimate how many people died every day back then?'
[My Lord, the average life expectancy in the Middle Ages was 30 years. But what that really ans is that children under the age of ten die more often than any other age group. Once a person turns 15, they usually live to be 60, so the combination of statistics leads to...]
'I am five.'
[For a population of 50 million, I would put it at 1204 per day].
And 300 recruiters would an that they would only have to et four people. I see, 300 would definitely be enough. But the USA alone in modern tis was at least 6 tis larger than dieval Europe. Their numbers were fucking shit.
If the 300 recruiters in the USA had to deal with 27 people a day, what about Africa and Asia? No wonder Phillip was irritated by their stubbornness.
Then I understood why, Phillip called them outdated. Physically going to each and every dying person was fucking stupid. It was not that the world lacked people to recruit, it was that Administrators were too fucking stupid to say that 300 recruiters were not nearly enough.
Still, that simply ant that whatever they were missing was mine to take.
"Let reiterate, Phillip. Aside from giving the human a choice. Everything else is up to us?"
"Yes, my lord, though there is one caveat."
"Which is?"
"In exchange for a second life, reapers forfeit the right to go to heaven."
"What?"
"Reapers are condemned to serve in Hell for all eternity. This is our punishnt, so to speak. But with the existence of Hell. This ans that there is also a heaven. Any human who chooses to beco a reaper can no longer go to heaven as a result of our choice."
At Phillip's words, I wasn't the only one who reflexively flinched. Everyone else did as well. Yvonne, Cynthia, Connie and I no longer had the option to choose. Lucrecia was different. They all had dark expressions on their faces as they continued to listen.
"..."
What he said made sense. In fact, it made a lot of sense. If you believe that reapers pay for sins, I could accept that. How else could you explain the unfair treatnt of my kind? If it was punishnt, then it was inhumane, but if it was punishnt, then that would explain everything.
However.
If I accepted that fact. That ant I had to accept that every reaper was a terrible person. Then I rembered the saints. The slaves. And finally the Sirens.
We were all just put in positions where we had no other choice.
Only people with the best circumstances could stay squeaky clean. For the rest of us. Life never gave us a chance. By doing what was necessary, we changed our fate.
My girls have the lives they have because of the cards they were dealt. I, on the other hand, willingly chose to go back and live again.
The sa principle applied to my life as a reaper. I killed the Saviors because I wanted to live.
If there had been an option for them to disappear while I kept my hands clean...
'No, I probably would have still killed them all.'
However, that was because I was an evil bastard. In a way, I deserved to be in hell.
But the others? Saints like Yvonne, slaves like Tildi, and children like Pixie. They were not bad people. Pixie in particular was only sent here because she had the blood of a reaper.
'This whole fucking thing is a nightmare. '
Still, instead of debating ethics, all we could do was accept what was in front of us. We could complain until we were blue in the face, but it wouldn't matter. I had the responsibility to close Hellsgate. I needed an army to do it.
Phillip said that because I chose to return as a Reaper, I could no longer go to Paradise. Even if that were true, I could not stop. I didn't know if heaven existed. But I did know that my harem was here with in Hell. And my honeymoon was the closest thing to heaven I had ever tasted.
Instead of focusing on sothing I didn't have, I'll focus on the things I already had.
"Then I will just make my own heaven."
"..." x5
At my words, the whole room was surprised. They probably didn't understand my own words.
"Haha, that sounds just like Patron!" Yvonne chirped happily.
"I know, right? If we can't get into heaven, then we just ca to make our own! Who needs them!" Cynthia declared with clenched fists.
"Heaven probably doesn't have booze or gambling! That sounds really boring!" Connie added with a big smile.
"My goodness, I almost faltered a bit. Indeed. Heaven or hell is what you make of it." Lucrecia explained as she nodded.
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