Seoul Object Story
Chapter 217: The Labyrinth (11)

The girl was dreaming.

Actually, it didn’t seem like a dream at all.

In her blurry vision, the ‘Black Sword’ continued to struggle to protect the girl when spiders were swarming at her from all sides. It extended its blade in all directions to intercept the spiders.

And as the spiders increased, the ‘Black Sword’ had a hard time getting rid of them while protecting the girl. Then, the vicious cycle of the spiders increasing at an even faster rate began to accelerate.

When the moment came when it was impossible to stop the spiders, the Black Sword seemed to be staring at the girl. It was like a puppy trying to sneak a snack and watching its owner’s reaction.

The Black Sword, who had been staring at the girl for a long time, changed its appearance in an instant. It became a cute fairy with shining yellow eyes that were slightly larger than the girl’s palm.

Even though It didn’t have wings, it felt like a fairy to the girl.

At that moment, a certain scene appeared in the girl’s mind.

The unidentified black Object that fell into the flower pot before. That Object also cried with a cute sound. It was letting out a ‘Biii’ sound.

And the dream ended in an instant.

The Black Sword turned from a fairy to a monster in order to protect the girl.

And the dream ended with the Black Sword being eaten by an even larger gray monster.

*********

It was snowing.

No, the weather was so cold that the snow rose to the sky. The girl and the Sinful Reaper were hugging each other tightly as if they were sharing each other’s body temperature.

How should I torment the Sinful Reaper so that the other Mini Reaper would talk about it I wonder?

After looking around as I thought about that concern seriously, I found that the girl’s condition seemed unusual.

I thought the girl would be strong because she looked like half an Object, but her body was extremely hot. Since she was dying, she had treated her.

I tried to call the Blue Reaper to heal her, but I felt a strong sense of resistance as if something was blocking me, perhaps because I was in a labyrinth. However, I still forcibly tore the space apart and created a gate that connected to the Garden of the Mini Reaper.

When the Garden of the Mini Reaper and the labyrinth connected, the Blue Reaper with a shy expression jumped out, followed by the Golden Reapers with bright expressions.

< Heal all the places that hurt! Please! >

The Blue Reaper was surprised to see the sick girl, so it wrote a string of characters wishing for her to get better.

And when it confirmed that the girl’s breathing had stabilized, the Blue Reaper returned to the garden in an instant, as if it didn’t like the labyrinth at all. In the meantime, the Golden Reapers who jumped out through the open gate raised both hands and ran toward me, exuding their will.

Mom!

The Golden Reapers had not been separated from me for long, but they clung to my body with extremely happy expressions.

There, there… It’s mom.

I patted the Golden Reapers one by one and threw them back into the Garden of the Mini Reaper.

!

The Golden Reapers flew away with betrayed expressions and rolled to the garden. However, since their mom said it had to continue her adventure, there was nothing they could do.

I closed the gate to the garden, hoping the Golden Reaper would understand.

Mom!

The Golden Reapers ran desperately toward the gate that was shrinking, but they couldn’t get over the gate that was closing quickly.

Now that the girl was healed, it was time to torment the Black Reaper. I slowly pulled the Black Reaper out of the girl’s arms and rubbed its cheeks until it was swollen, waking up the Black Reaper.

The Sinful Reaper who was hard to wake up, probably because it’s tired, blinked blankly as I continued to rub its cheek. Its eyes were shining like odd eyes, as if the white firewood was still on its body. One side was white, the other side was yellow.

Seems like, if the Mini Reapers ate different colored firewood, it would change like this.

It looked a little unique, so I was curious.

It’s Mom…

The Sinful Reaper laughed with a relieved expression when it saw my face.

Was this a scheme to laugh off the crime it had committed?

However, I didn’t fall for that emotional appeal. I just opened my mouth wide and bit the Reaper, as if I was going to eat it.

The Sinful Reaper was startled and started to struggle. Then, as it struggled wildly, it said things like the weak mother eating us like the strong mother. Before long, it gave up and stopped moving.

Bye bye. Mom.

Suddenly, it gave off such a sad vibe that I took it out of his mouth. There, I saw the Sinful Reaper had its eyes tightly shut, waiting for death.

Thud-!

I banged the Sinful Reaper’s head, which had his eyes closed, and let out a sigh of regret.

I might harassed the Mini Reapers, but I wouldn’t hurt them…

No, I’d hurt them before.

Anyway! I’d never hurt them on purpose, yet the Mini Reapers had so little faith in me.

As I slapped its head, the Reaper opened its white and yellow eyes wide and conveyed its will.

Mom, aren’t you going to eat me…?

I’m not going to eat you!

The Reaper laughed happily at my answer.

What on earth was that big guy lying inside the infinite space doing to the Mini Reapers?

I guess I would stop my prank here.

Strangely, when I pranked the Black Reaper, it always ended in a fail.

When I let the Sinfule Reaper go, the other Black Reapers swarmed around it and started playing with it.

Does it hurt?

It’s okay!

The Black Reapers exchanged worried wills while looking at its shining white eyes.

“Eummm.”

As I watched the Mini Reapers talking to each other, I felt the girl who had collapsed coming to her senses.

Black Reaper Armor!

I quickly stood with my arms spread wide and called out to the Black Reapers. Then, as if in a certain superhero movie, the Black Reapers transformed into armor parts and attached themselves to my body.

The other Black Reaper looked at the girl who was starting to wake up with a happy expression, then dug into her arms. Then, it wiggled and changed its shape, becoming a Black Sword.

I found it a little strange that it could stick to its precious human without using mind corruption, like the Golden Reapers, but my suspicion was answered when I saw it transformed into a weapon.

“Haaaahhh.”

The girl raised her upper body and woke up with an expression that looked like she had been sleeping very soundly.

*********

The first thing the girl saw when she opened her eyes was two things.

The black sword in her arms.

And an unidentified being covered in black armor.

The girl was just half-asleep before, so she remembered quite a few things, although she couldn’t be sure of it.

The struggle and rampage of the black sword, the appearance of the black armor, and the resolution of the rampage.

Even though the girl didn’t see it exactly, she vaguely remembered that the black armor had helped her and the black sword. However, the moment she saw the yellow light emanating from inside the helmet, the girl became extremely nervous and distanced herself from the black armor.

She felt like the black armor was an Object that was incomparably more powerful than the monsters she had encountered in the labyrinth.

Rationally, she knew that she should say, ‘Thank you for saving me,’ but the aura from the black armor was so strong that she couldn’t even open her mouth.

In the meantime, the black armor looked at the girl as if it was expecting something, but when the girl continued to be afraid, it lowered its gaze as if it had let go of its expectations and sat still.

Seeing that, the girl felt that the black armor Object had become gloomy because of some disappointment.

I should at least greet it!

The girl gritted her teeth and tried to express her gratitude, but her mouth wouldn’t open at all.

Rumble-!

Perhaps because the girl was so nervous, instead of opening her mouth, her stomach rumbled.

As the girl clutched her stomach and smiled awkwardly, the black armor clenched its small fist and then opened it.

Pop-!

Then, a large, delicious-looking pudding appeared in its empty palm.

Rumble-!

Pudding, huh? It looks really delicious.

Even though the labyrinth city didn’t lack food, it lacked dessert. The girl had hardly ever eaten a snack since entering the labyrinth. Because of that, she really wanted to eat the pudding, but she was scared.

The battle between fear and appetite continued to rage for some time. But eventually, it ended with the victory of appetite.

As the girl absentmindedly ate the pudding that the black armor handed her, the surrounding scenery changed.

Countless sweets and cookies.

A campfire burning something white, round, and large.

A flamingo torch made of transparent candy.

A cookie bowl filled with hot chocolate with round marshmallows floating around.

A warmth filled the second floor of the cold labyrinth, and a sweet scent began to fill the surroundings.

“Wow!”

The girl looked at the strange things that suddenly appeared, exclaiming in admiration, and began to eat anything that looked delicious.

*********

After eating a lot of food, the girl was no longer afraid of the black armor. She felt intelligence from the black armor that was not like an Object from the yellow glow inside the helmet.

And the yellow light from the helmet and the yellow of the ‘black sword’ felt similar.

“I don’t remember well, but you saved me and this child, right? Thank you!”

The girl shook off her fear and stood up, bowing her head in gratitude.

Although the Gray Reaper could not understand Japanese, it could read the emotion of gratitude and nodded slightly.

The girl thanked the black armor for a long time, then began to speak softly while holding the black sword in her hand.

“This isn’t what it really looks, is it?”

The girl seemed to have already figured out everything.

Seeing that, the black sword melted and transformed into its Black Reaper form. Then, it began to tremble like a small puppy in fear.

It seemed as if it was afraid of being abandoned.

However, the girl hugged the Black Reaper tightly when she saw it and opened her mouth.

“Thank you for protecting me!”

She began to caress the Black Reaper as if she was looking at a cute creature.

The Black Reaper, who was being caressed, smiled as if all of its hard work had been rewarded.

After the baptism of praise and caressing, the Black Reaper turned back into a sword. Then, the girl opened her mouth again.

“I’m going to explore the labyrinth to find the exit now. Do you want to come with me?”

Even though she had no map or experience, the girl asked with determination to explore the labyrinth.

*********

The girl was saying something with a resolute expression.

I couldn’t understand it because it was in Japanese, but I could feel various emotions, so I could roughly guess the atmosphere.

Determination and courage.

Invitation and hope.

It could be my own interpretation, but it felt like she was offering to go on an ‘adventure’ in the labyrinth together.

I finally have an adventure party!

It’s a labyrinth adventure!

I got up from my seat and nodded.

And so the girl and I began exploring the second floor of the labyrinth.

Plop-! Plop-!

I walked out, hearing the sound of my armor hitting the floor.

Ugh, it’s uncomfortable.

No matter how long I wore the armor, the uncomfortable feeling didn’t go away.

If it weren’t for the labyrinth exploration, I would never have worn it.

When I wasn’t wearing clothes, I had a 360-degree field of vision, but now my vision was only open through the holes in my helmet, which was frustrating. Normally, I could sense all directions precisely with the Object-specific sense, but now it wasn’t possible. It would be better if I could at least make the antennae jut out of my helmet, but it would look weird…

Still, thinking of it as a labyrinth exploration, my face inside my helmet naturally smiled. Plus, it was twice as fun because I had companions. Though, It would be four times as fun if I could find more people and fill my party of four!

Hihihi-!

As I walked through the second floor of the labyrinth with these random thoughts, I realized fog began to thicken. When I felt that the fog was a little suspicious, there was already no one left around me.

No! My first companion is gone!

Plop-! Plop-! Plop-! Plop-! Plop-!

I walked quickly through the fog, looking for the girl.

“Kyaaaaaahhhh!”

Suddenly, I could hear the girl’s screams piercing through the thick fog.

When I went to where the screams were coming from, a strange scene greeted me.

The girl was on her knees, holding the Black Reaper sword, crying loudly.

At the same time, I could also see a middle-aged man with a large blade pierced through his abdomen, bleeding as if he were protecting the girl.

I also saw the Black Reaper sprawled on the floor with its throat cut off.

“Mister! Mister!”

The girl continued to scream as she looked at the bleeding man.

And from the black death’s severed neck, a yellow flame flowed like blood.

Something is strange…

***

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