The grim reapers were wearing pitch-black durumagi robes, pitch-black gat hats, and pitch-black masks, with both arms tucked into their wide sleeves as they floated in midair.
“Oh? Take a look at this.”
They quickly spotted the straw doll lying on the entryway floor.
“There was a mass of yin energy gathered in this doll. Looks like Ha Jisuk put in some effort to avoid dying.”
“Shamans really need to study and keep up with the times. What era do they think this is, assuming we’d still fall for a straw doll these days?”
When the 17th Grim Reaper picked up the straw doll, the straw immediately decayed and rotted away, leaving not a single trace behind.
“Where is Ha Jisuk…… huh?”
The grim reaper, who had stepped further inside while searching for Jisuk, tilted his head and stretched out his arm.
With his pale hand spread wide, he grabbed something invisible in midair.
“This is….”
“What is it? What’d you find?”
“It’s the ashes of Ha Jisuk’s soul. Looks like another grim reaper has already collected it.”
The ashes were, in fact, the remains of Jisuk’s hair that Dojin had burned using a special spell.
After grim reapers collect a soul, ashes linger in the air briefly, and he had imitated that phenomenon.
Another grim reaper examined the ashes and cursed roughly.
“Ah, fuck. It’s definitely soul residue. Which bastard skipped a check?”
“I seriously hate having to work twice because of a coworker’s incompetence.”
“Same. I’m sick of it.”
Muttering complaints about their incompetent colleagues, the grim reapers turned around and drifted out.
Noryang waited with eyes full of emotion, and only after Dojin dropped the okay signal did he finally speak.
“It worked! This time it really worked! Jisuk is alive! She’ll live long enough to see her grandchild’s grandchild’s grandchild’s grandchild!”
“Don’t sneak in an extra generation. And don’t celebrate yet. There’s still the third group.”
“Why do they cross-check like this? Can’t they just live life doing a half-assed job? They should focus on catching bad people instead.”
Dojin stared silently at the grumbling Noryang.
“You know you’re dying today too, right?”
“I know. I’m prepared. As long as Jisuk lives, I have no regrets.”
“…….”
There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in Noryang’s voice. He met Dojin’s gaze head-on. Dojin didn’t have Iri’s ability to discern lies, but even so, he could tell that these words weren’t false.
“Get up. There’s something we need to do before the third set of grim reapers arrive.”
“Order me to do anything!”
The straw doll had already been erased by the grim reapers, so there was nothing left to do there. What remained was to erase the traces of “soul collection” scattered throughout the apartment.
Dojin and Noryang gathered every last speck of the ashes from the burned hair drifting all over the house. After using sorcery to restore the ashes and confirm that none were missing, Dojin disposed of them completely and reactivated stealth arts.
Then the time finally came.
“8th Grim Reaper, is this the place?”
“Yeah. It’s definitely checked on the registry, but the box is empty.”
“Doesn’t look like anything special, but let’s go in anyway.”
Like the previous grim reapers, the two knocked three times, called the name three times, and entered the apartment.
And what entered their field of vision was……
“T-this—what is this…!”
“My word. Was there some kind of banquet held here?”
A feast so lavish the table legs looked ready to snap under its weight.
From beef soup to seasoned vegetables, every dish was something grim reapers loved.
As if entranced, the grim reapers sat down in front of the table. Naturally noticing the clothes and shoes prepared beside it, they removed their masks and old robes without a word and changed into the new ones. They also swapped their footwear for fresh leather shoes.
“Living-world clothes really are the best. Soft and light.”
“It’s been forty-one years since I last wore new clothes.”
“Same here. 8th Grim Reaper, that deep crimson robe—looks amazing on you.”
“5th Grim Reaper, that dark green robe suits you too.”
After complimenting each other, the two sat side by side and naturally lifted their spoons, starting with the beef soup.
“Khh—this is the taste.”
“I haven’t had food this good in a hundred and twenty years. 5th Grim Reaper, did I ever tell you? When I was alive, my mother ran a gukbap restaurant.”
“8th Grim Reaper, my father made gukbap unbelievably well too. It reminds me of when I was human.”
Aside from looking a little pale, the two grim reapers—who looked like ordinary young men—continued eating.
Dojin and Noryang, hidden between the sofa and the living room wall, kept track of the time.
Five minutes……
Ten minutes……
Twenty minutes……
If just ten more minutes passed, it would be thirty minutes total, and then the name Ha Jisuk would disappear from the underworld registry.
The principle of cancellation upon delay.
One of the underworld’s fundamental rules stated that if soul collection was delayed by more than ninety minutes, it would be canceled.
In the past, even delays of ninety hours or ninety days required grim reapers to pursue the soul to the very end, but as workloads increased, the laws were revised.
As the timer ticked past twenty-one minutes, Noryang was clutching his chest in anxiety, while Dojin was busy imagining himself bragging about his accomplishment to Iri.
That was when—
Duuuuung—!
A strange vibration rang out, different from when the grim reapers had appeared before.
Goosebumps erupted across Dojin’s body. Even the grim reapers, who had been moved enough to savor each bite, froze as if sensing something ominous.
A chilling fog thick enough to see breath spread before them, and from within it emerged a grim reaper bearing a massive sword and another with his hands clasped behind his back.
“What do you think you’re doing here, you lot!”
“Eeek!”
“Hhk!”
At the bellow of the sword-bearing reaper, the grim reapers panicked and threw themselves flat on the floor. Unlike the others, the newly arrived reapers weren’t wearing masks.
The one with his hands behind his back had a slender, elegant build and a refined, smooth face, while the sword-bearing reaper was massive and muscular, with a fierce, intimidating visage.
“G–G–Gangnim Herald. We greet Monthly Duty Grim Reaper.”
“We greet Gangnim Herald and Monthly Duty Grim Reaper.”
Noryang stared at Dojin with his mouth hanging open. Dojin, completely drained, collapsed to the floor.
He had never imagined, even in his dreams, that Gangnim Herald himself would appear here.
Yama King, the ruler of the underworld, commands three groups beneath him: the Great Kings, the Ten Kings, and Gangnim Herald.
Gangnim Herald—the direct subordinate of Yama King and the one who commands the forty-nine grim reapers—had personally descended here.
Things had gotten far too big.
While Dojin’s mind raced with countless thoughts, Gangnim Herald listened as the grim reapers explained that the banquet, new clothes, and new shoes had all been prepared in advance.
“……Someone wants Ha Jisuk to live.”
Gangnim Herald took out a brush and the underworld registry from his sleeve. For a moment, it seemed like he might erase her name—but instead, he extended the soul collection deadline to one thousand hours.
“Reveal yourselves.”
Gangnim Herald looked straight at Dojin and Noryang’s hiding place. Noryang fidgeted, glancing back and forth between Dojin and Gangnim Herald. When there was no response, Gangnim Herald reached out his hand.
Dojin, offended at the thought of being exposed, released stealth arts himself.
As the two figures appeared, the grim reapers who had been eating were shocked. Dojin greeted Gangnim Herald calmly.
“Hello, Gangnim Herald. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“G–g–g–ah, ah—h–hello.”
Noryang greeted him as well, but he was trembling so badly it barely formed a sentence.
“Who are you?”
“I’m someone with a bit of expertise in this sort of thing, and this here is Noryang, who commissioned me.”
Gangnim Herald cast a cold gaze toward Noryang.
“The Bokbaebari is scheduled to die soon.”
“Yes. In roughly thirty-something minutes. He doesn’t care about his own death, though—he begged and cried for me to save just one human. That’s how this happened.”
“…….”
Gangnim Herald narrowed his eyes and studied Dojin. It was a probing, evaluative stare. Dojin squared his shoulders and met it without flinching.
Perhaps thanks to being tempered by Immortal Iri—the owner of the most terrifying gaze in existence—he didn’t feel shaken at all.
Gangnim Herald scanned Dojin’s solid physique and muttered, “Not a Taoist,” then swept over his handsome yet arrogant face and added, “Not a yokai either.”
Beside him, the Monthly Duty Grim Reaper also leaned in with curious eyes.
“What could he be? An exorcist, perhaps?”
“If he were an exorcist, his yin energy would be stronger.”
“But his aura’s strange. Feels familiar, too.”
“…Enough. All we need to do is collect the soul.”
Gangnim Herald abruptly turned his back.
At that moment, Dojin stirred the air with sorcery, sending a gust of wind that made Gangnim Herald’s sleeves flutter.
“You insolent human bastard!”
The Monthly Duty Grim Reaper swung his massive sword, severing the wind. Even before that, the air had already scattered from Gangnim Herald’s grasp, and the attempt to snatch the registry failed.
Gangnim Herald turned back again, wearing an amused expression.
“Are you an exorcist?”
“I’m a shaman.”
“Judging by how easily you lie, you’re definitely not a Taoist.”
Unlike other Taoists, who chose their words carefully to avoid losing virtue, Dojin believed he could simply accumulate more even if it scattered. As a result, he didn’t hesitate to curse or lie.
“You know who I am, and yet you still refuse to give up on Ha Jisuk?”
“Saying ‘I admit defeat, please take Ha Jisuk’s soul’ doesn’t really fit my personality. So I’d like to make a proposal.”
“A proposal?”
“We settle this with a match. The winner decides. The event is wrestling. Monthly Duty Grim Reaper, what do you say?”
Dojin said this while looking at the burly Monthly Duty Grim Reaper. Provoked, the reaper snorted.
“So you’re fairly strong in the human realm. But if you face me, your arms might end up shattered.”
“Well, whose arms get shattered is something we won’t know until we try. If you’re scared, we can switch to a different event.”
“Hah! Fine—let me personally show you just how wide this world really is! Gangnim Herald, let’s accept the match!”
