Chapter 47
It was clear that this man's explosion technique wasn't an invincibility skill.
That was because he had vomited blood under the Treasure Keeper's grip.
It had to be nothing more than a desperate measure activated to stop an attack.
On the other hand, I had an invincibility skill.
Death Mark.
If I cut my neck with this scythe, I become invincible.
And if I attacked simultaneously with that motion, I could attack while invincible.
I could kill this bastard while ignoring the explosion's damage.
There was no hesitation.
Had killing someone once made me completely cast off my guilt?
The only thing I'd hesitated over was Death Mark's danger.
“You must never use Death Mark again!”
My master's warning.
I had become a wanted criminal in the Reaper Realm, and I'd heard that if I set foot there again, the other reapers would attack me.
But it was fine.
Because I didn't need to remain in the Reaper Realm for long, unlike last time.
I wasn't going there to find my name on the Great Stone Tablet and obtain an instant-death skill.
I only needed to become invincible for a very brief moment.
Because I only intended to avoid the instant of the explosion.
The man would die after the explosion.
Therefore, all I had to do was smash the hourglass as soon as I entered the Reaper Realm.
Last time, I had wasted time in confusion because it was my first time, but this time was different.
The moment I entered, I would break the hourglass immediately.
I'd made up my mind.
I put that plan into action.
“Death Mark.”
Slaaaash-!
Void Scythe cut through the nape of my neck and the man's neck in a straight line.
My field of vision flipped, and I was plunged into darkness.
All sound was muted, and a sensation of floating enveloped my entire body.
The boundary of death.
I crossed the line of death.
*
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*
*
An ash-gray sky and a plain of bleached bones.
The place where I always slept.
My resting place.
Everything that had happened until just before was a dream.
Me climbing the Demon King's Tower from the first floor.
It had been a strange and exhausting dream.
Though I'd never left the Reaper Realm.
I rubbed my eyes and tossed and turned atop the white bones.
Thinking back over my memories, I seemed to have woken up once a few days ago, too. I couldn't remember clearly.
In any case, I didn't seem to have been sleeping well lately.
“Mmm…”
And today… for some reason, there were so many people disturbing me.
“Why is it so noisy…”
An enormous number of reapers were moving around.
It was extremely rowdy.
It had been a long time since I'd seen this many of my kind gathered in one place.
But my sleep was more important than that.
“I want to sleep more…”
It was too noisy for me to sleep any longer.
What had they gathered for?
They all looked busy for some reason.
‘What is everyone doing?’
Tap. Tap.
Just then, a reaper passed right in front of me.
That reaper was walking around tapping the ground in front of him with his death scythe.
Tap. Tap.
He walked along, lightly tapping every inch of ground beneath his feet.
It was quite irritating.
Why did he have such a noisy habit?
“Excuse me, it's noisy. Could you stop doing that?”
“……”
“I need to get some sleep.”
When I snapped at him so curtly, he stopped tapping and turned his head this way.
I saw his face.
That alone was enough of an answer to my question.
The reaper's eye sockets were nothing but wide, empty holes.
I softened my voice and apologized.
“Ah… I'm sorry. I didn't realize you couldn't see.”
Even though the reaper turned his head toward me, he said nothing.
I blurted out a question to break the awkward silence.
“Uh… but what is everyone doing? Why are so many reapers gathered here?”
The eyeless reaper answered quietly.
It was a very faint, low voice. An aged voice.
“The Watchers have gathered because there is a criminal who violated the Great Stone Tablet's laws.”
“A criminal?”
“Yes. We are searching for that reaper. I, too, have been assigned the role of a Watcher and am helping with the search as best I can.”
So someone had violated the Great Stone Tablet's laws.
“What did they do that was so serious that hundreds of reapers were called out?”
“They say that reaper arbitrarily erased an apprentice reaper's name and took away the Great Stone Tablet scribe's authority.”
“……”
Ugh.
So all these reapers had been summoned and my sound sleep disturbed because of that one bastard?
“Good grief, I can't believe there's such a nuisance…”
“Everyone thinks so. That reaper was notorious for viciousness even before, and is said to work under the Demon King.”
To think they'd even mobilized an eyeless reaper like this as a Watcher to catch that vicious criminal…
Feeling sorry for him, I said,
“Why don't you rest? You can't even see… Surely one of these many reapers will find them.”
But he shook his head.
“I cannot rest. A reaper must, as is proper, serve the will of the Great Stone Tablet.”
I was dumbfounded. He wanted to help the Great Stone Tablet? That made no sense.
“Didn't you lose your eyes after devoting yourself to the Great Stone Tablet?”
Sight.
During this old reaper's active years before retirement, he had clearly used [Death Sentence—Sight] too many times and lost his vision.
“What has the Great Stone Tablet ever done for you that you obey it so completely? Why don't you just rest, like me?”
At my suggestion, the eyeless Watcher smiled lightly.
“I envy your youthful impetuousness.”
“What?”
“The Great Stone Tablet is the one that gave our reapers' lives meaning. That is why we follow its will.”
I tilted my head and said,
“Well… it seems a little foolish.”
The Watcher gazed at me with empty eyes.
“Even lowly humans have such things, do they not? Parents, children, friends, or a king. Humans sometimes even throw away their lives for them.”
“That sounds stupid.”
“Devoting and sacrificing oneself to the very foundations of one's life is never foolish. It is beautiful.”
I couldn't understand.
“I will never live that way.”
At my words, the eyeless Watcher was silent for a moment, then lightly nodded.
“I understand. That is how you think.”
“Yes…”
Just as I was about to lie back down, the Watcher suddenly held out a hand.
“I will have to inspect you to see whether you have an hourglass.”
“Haa…”
A sigh escaped me.
I'd shown concern for him for nothing, and this was how it turned out.
“Are you suspecting me? I told you I've been sleeping this whole time, so what… Besides, those hourglasses are carried around by reapers who leave the Reaper Realm and operate outside. I've been sleeping here the whole time, so there's no way I could have one.”
“I know.”
“I've never left the Reaper Realm…!”
“It is a formality, so I ask that you cooperate.”
“…”
I'd realized it when we'd exchanged words, but he really had not an ounce of flexibility.
There was no way a cute reaper like me could be a criminal.
“Do as you please.”
I spread my arms and allowed him to search my body.
‘Let's get this over with and go back to sleep.’
It was because I decided that arguing for no reason would be more troublesome.
His fumbling hands brushed over the hem of my clothes.
Tap.
Swoosh.
He felt around in various places.
‘This is a little unpleasant…’
Perhaps because he was blind, he seemed less hesitant.
And he didn't seem to know anything about the sensitivity a lady might feel.
Just as I was holding my head high and enduring my discomfort.
The Watcher's hand stopped around my waist.
‘Why is he grabbing my waist…’
Swoosh-
Then he soon withdrew his hand.
The body search seemed to be over.
“We're done, right? There's nothing, right?”
As I said that and looked down,
I saw that something had caught on the Watcher's fingertips and been pulled free.
I worried that he might have torn off some ornament while carelessly touching my dress.
But it wasn't that.
“Huh?”
Since the Watcher couldn't see, he felt over the object, carefully confirming its shape by touch.
I, too, needed that much time.
Because I couldn't believe it.
“Huh…?”
My mind went completely blank.
That was an hourglass.
An hourglass filled with blood.
No matter how I looked at it, that was what it was.
“Why do I have this?”
“…”
Silence descended.
It was at that very moment, as my lips fluttered in confusion.
The eyeless Watcher turned around and let out a shriek that seemed to tear the air apart.
The feeble voice from a moment ago was nowhere to be heard.
As though squeezing out the last strength of his life.
“The heinous criminal is here!!!!!!!”
His resounding shout shook the plain of bones.
Pop-! Pop-! Pop-!
Then, in an instant.
The gazes of hundreds of Watchers all locked onto me.
It was at that moment.
“…That's right.”
Forgotten memories came flooding into my mind.
The Demon King's Tower.
The gallery.
Floor 100.
Treasure Keeper.
Intruder.
Death Mark.
“Fuck…!”
Only then did I come to my senses and remember what I had been trying to do and why I'd come here.
“I was just about to leave, so why…!”
The eyeless Watcher was running away after stealing the hourglass from me.
He seemed intent on making sure I couldn't return.
“Stop right there!!”
I kicked off the pile of bones and shot forward.
“Black Shift!”
Crack!
I teleported after him, caught up, then kicked him in the back and knocked him to the ground.
“Give it back!!!”
I snatched the hourglass from his grasp.
At the same time, the reapers surged toward me.
Dozens of scythes were flying toward my neck.
I didn't even consider dealing with them.
I hurriedly swung my scythe at the hourglass.
Clang-!
The hourglass shattered, and blood splashed out.
At the same time, my vision returned, and the weight of reality descended over my entire body.
*
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Fwoooooosh-!
The moment I returned, the remnants of the thunderous roar and the heat of the explosion swept across my skin.
It seemed the third explosion had just gone off.
My body was perfectly fine, without a single injury.
And I was still floating in midair.
Thud-
After landing, I panted heavily.
“Huff…! Huff…!”
It had been a close call.
‘So… when I go to the Reaper Realm, my memories become strange.’
I got goosebumps.
This had happened last time, too. But since it was my first visit, I'd thought it was merely confusion caused by that.
Just now in the Reaper Realm, I had been acting on the memories this reaper girl had from before I possessed her.
They seemed to be memories from before she was assigned to the Demon King's Tower, since I'd believed she had never left the Reaper Realm.
‘If that Watcher hadn't been blind, I would have…’
‘I can go back to the Reaper Realm again, right…?’
‘The reapers will mark my last location…’
I shook my head as those thoughts crossed my mind.
The situation wasn't over yet.
The man whose neck I'd cut at the same time I activated Death Mark.
I had to find his body to check whether he was truly dead.
…There was no need.
The message on the hologram window announced my success.
[You have gained a large amount of experience!]
[Level Up! 100Lv -> 101Lv]
[Level Up! 101Lv -> 102Lv]
…
[Level Up! 109Lv -> 110Lv]