On the desolate land, stretched endlessly by snowfields, a black city stood tall.
The sharp rocks around it seed to reveal their jagged teeth, as if to protect the city.
No matter how much the Red Reaper scanned the area, there were no signs of humans.
Only the humans of this city seed to be the only ones living in the surrounding area.
At the center of the city stood a massive steam tower.
It pulsed regularly, like a giant heart, breathing life into the entire city.
Countless pipes extending from the steam tower snaked through the city, like veins of a body.
The chimneys that jutted out from the city constantly belched black smoke.
The acrid sll of this smoke covered the sky, creating the illusion of an eternal night.
The Red Reaper ascended against the flow of the smoke and hid in the shadows of the city.
Hidden from sight, it began to watch the humans.
“Even with all this stuff burning, it’s still so cold.”
The heat generated by the steam tower spread through the pipes across the city, but due to the bitter cold, the warmth didn’t reach every corner.
As soon as one moved a little away from the center, the streets were covered in ice, and massive icicles hung from the building walls.
People wrapped themselves in thick coats, hurrying along as if always busy.
Their breath turned into white steam and vanished into the cold air.
Workers shuffled into the massive mines dotted around the city.
Children squeezed their bodies into narrow rock crevices that adults could never fit into.
And the humans erging from the mines, whether adults or children, all carried large amounts of "blue stones," which appeared to be Objects.
“They look tired.”
The Red Reaper, now a Mini Reaper, thought as it watched them work.
However, this thought wasn’t one ford by the Mini Reaper's perspective, but rather by the mories of its past human life.
Indeed, the feelings from the people didn’t seem to convey weariness, but rather a faint glimr of hope.
A faint hope for a better future.
If the ordinary Mini Reapers had felt this emotion, they might have patted them on the back, encouraging them and bringing them snacks.
If it were the human-desiring Golden Reaper, it would have rushed over to help the humans, even if only to carry a piece of the blue stone debris with its weak strength.
The Red Reaper, who had once been human, didn’t want to just pass by after offering so words of encouragent like the Mini Reapers.
Spreading its arms, tiny sparks, like specks of dust, scattered around the area.
These sparks attached to the people, giving them a slight warmth.
At least, they would be able to stay warm for the day.
Of course, if “Mom” were here, she could have solved all the problems by simply transporting these people to the Sehee Research Institute.
But “Mom,” the Gray Reaper, didn’t want that.
“You only call for when you’re hurt.”
“Mom” had said to only call her in tis of danger.
“I’m not a ‘god’ who grants the wishes of all humans.”
The Red Reaper didn’t quite understand those words, but it had given up on calling “Mom.”
She was truly like a cat—if you asked for sothing, the more you asked, the less she would do it.
Looking down at the people who seed a bit warr, the Red Reaper moved towards the central steam tower.
“No matter how much I search, I still can't find my attachnt human…”
There were many more people in the black city than the Red Reaper had expected, yet it still couldn’t find its attachnt human among them.
“!”
Then, near the central steam tower, the Red Reaper spotted a human and was startled.
A man was standing next to a large speaker, making announcents to the people.
An unpleasant energy was radiating from his body in all directions.
“Bad... human...!”
The Red Reaper felt like it was going to vomit.
Of course, now that it was a Mini Reaper, it couldn’t actually vomit.
Since becoming a Mini Reaper, everything had beco so enjoyable—snacks tasted incredibly good, and even the smallest things were incredibly fun.
Just playing rock-paper-scissors with the Mini Reapers was enough to bring joy!
And being with humans made the Red Reaper happy.
On the other hand, seeing bad Objects and bad humans filled it with disgust.
However, the Red Reaper thought that the definition of “bad” was rather vague.
Murder? There was a Mini Reaper who had an attachnt human who was an assassin.
Appearance? Since becoming a Mini Reaper, it had beco difficult to distinguish beauty or ugliness in humans.
Everyone looked handso.
Personality? Occupation? Interests? None of those seed to matter. It didn’t really know.
“….”
The Red Reaper wanted to burn the bad humans right away, but it refrained, holding back with mories from its human days.
“Just seeing them makes want to throw up. Killing soone just because they make feel uncomfortable seems too much…”
The Red Reaper attached a monitoring spark to the man's body and turned its gaze away.
“If they do sothing bad, if I really see them doing sothing bad, then I’ll kill them.”
To the Red Reaper, who had once been human, committing murder without reason was still difficult.
The Red Reaper, as if to avoid the sight of the central tower, headed toward the outskirts of the city.
Into the cold and dark place where warmth did not reach.
Sehee Research Institute, Flask Workshop.
I sat on a bench in the corner of the workshop, observing the busy movents of the research institute’s staff.
The staff mbers were seated at their stations, focused on their tasks.
They held various types of glass containers in their hands.
From long-necked flasks to round aquarium-like ones, their sizes and shapes were all different.
A small handful of soil, so carefully selected pebbles, and delicate plants were sequentially placed into the glass containers.
It looked like they were creating a small world inside the bottles.
“Everyone’s so skillful…”
Even though the tasks they were doing seed unrelated to their work, the staff mbers appeared quite adept.
Or perhaps they were good at it precisely because it had nothing to do with their work?
“It's so hard to get back to work after such a long break.”
One staff mber muttered as they stretched their back, and the Golden Reaper, sitting on top of the staff mber’s head, patted their head with a look of encouragent.
Since the Mini Reapers judged things based on emotions, it seed they truly thought the human was struggling.
In my eyes, it seed like they were just having fun and only starting to work.
The staff were working on Sehee Research Institute's new product.
The so-called Mini Reaper Flask!
It was a product where a Mini Reaper was placed inside a well-decorated terrarium.
Since fewer people were visiting Sehee Research Institute due to the the park, Sehee had co up with a new product.
The “Mini Reaper Flask” beca quite popular, and the number of visitors to the research institute started to increase again.
The price was several tis that of an ordinary terrarium!
The condition for purchase was that the Mini Reaper inside had to greet the custor!
Though it was expensive and had conditions, it was a popular product that sold as soon as it was made.
Even those who said they wouldn’t buy it ended up purchasing it if the Mini Reaper inside made a slightly sad expression.
The fact that the Golden Reaper wandered around the store likely contributed to such overspending.
Because when you slled the sun-like fragrance, it made you feel calm and happy.
Sehee was trying to create a new product, attempting to place the Golden Reaper into a fragrance pouch.
“Ugh! The human is torturing !”
But the Golden Reaper, flailing its limbs, expressed with its whole body that it didn’t want to go into the pouch.
“Looks like the Golden Reaper fragrance pouch is a failure.”
Sehee let the Golden Reaper out with a slightly disappointed expression.
I turned my gaze away from Sehee and started admiring the completed Mini Reaper Flasks one by one.
“There’s more variety than I thought? I thought they were just simple products to make a quick profit...”
There were flasks designed with nature, and others designed like dieval castles.
The Mini Reapers inside wore various outfits.
So, like the Golden Reaper, wore nothing, while others wore elaborate dresses against the backdrop of castles.
As I wandered through, I noticed a particularly cheap flask.
It was a fairly large glass container with a small white anglerfish happily lying inside.
“Hmm.”
Seeing the white anglerfish with a happy expression made feel a little uneasy.
I made the necessary adjustnts to the flask and, giggling, left the Mini Reaper Flask workshop.
“It’s a Mini Reaper Flask, so there should be a Mini Reaper inside.”
Heh heh.
The rhythmic sound of drops hitting pipes reached the coral-haired girl’s ears.
The rhythm, like a ticking clock, gradually awakened her consciousness.
When her eyelids slowly lifted, the horrid cold enveloped her.
The crude walls of the abandoned steam engine room couldn’t block the cold or retain warmth properly.
The cold air seeping through the cracks in the walls felt like a thin blade.
The coral-haired girl instinctively curled up her body and hugged the worn blanket tightly.
It seed that the blue coal, which could barely keep her warm through the night, had burned out a bit early.
Just as she was about to get up, unable to sleep, a warm energy suddenly enveloped her body.
It felt as though soone had covered her with a warm blanket.
The girl opened her eyes wide in surprise.
And there, she saw a small match fla-like object glowing red.
The red object was smiling at her like an old friend.
The smile was full of warmth and friendliness.
The girl’s eyes grew wide.
Fear? No.
Rather, there was a sense of fulfillnt and curiosity, as if sothing had connected between them.
It was the first eting between the coral-haired girl and the Red Reaper, between an attachnt human and an attachnt Reaper.
And at that mont, a massive snowstorm was slowly approaching the city of ‘Frost,’ far beyond the horizon.
The sky darkened, taking on a leaden hue, and the cold wind whipped through the city streets, carrying ominous ons.
The snowstorm, resembling a wall of snow, squird like a living creature, advancing forward.
It looked like a moving white mountain range, and its sheer size made everything on the ground seem tiny.
Yet, the residents of the black city did not notice the approaching disaster.
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