The sharp smell of disinfectant suddenly became harsher.
The reaction of the familiar female reaper, Tessa, left Ian completely baffled. He was already starting to wonder whether he had mistaken her for someone else and whether the woman in front of him was actually Tessa's twin sister.
There were quite a lot of reapers.
They existed all over the world, scattered across every place where life could be found. They were a kind of higher life-form that wandered the human world, and their duty was to guide the souls of the departed to wherever they were meant to go. A place like a hospital was naturally somewhere reapers would appear often.
Every soul on the verge of death would meet a reaper.
There were also theories, with evidence to support them, that reapers might be a special kind of angel. Their duties were simply different from those of the angels in Heaven. Under that interpretation, life itself could be viewed as a special angelic form. No matter which theory one followed, the undeniable fact was that all reapers derived their authority from Death, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
He was the most special among the Four Horsemen, one of the oldest beings in the universe, second only to God. Like Lady Death, he was an embodiment of the very concept of death.
And because of that,
the identity of [Deathrider's Thrall] really could bring Ian enormous benefits.
Of course, it could also bring an enormous price.
Either way, it was something Ian had no power to refuse right now.
What a being like that was thinking,
Ian could not guess.
He only knew one thing. If there were benefits, then he would go along with it. If there were downsides, then fighting back was definitely the correct move.
And from the look of things, being able to see reapers still counted as a fairly good benefit.
"Tessa?"
Ian saw the female reaper walking toward him.
"Hm?"
Her expression turned even more surprised. Clearly, Ian had not mistaken her. She really was Tessa. And yet, the way she looked at him was full of the same unfamiliarity as if they were meeting for the very first time.
"Seriously, you're not pretending not to know me just because I used your blessing, no, your curse, in the bathroom to slack off a little, right?"
Ian's first reaction was that this moody super old woman had a tiny heart.
However,
"I don't understand what you're talking about, child. You should not be able to see me. That violates the rules." The female reaper looked deeply suspicious, and her confusion did not seem fake at all.
"You're sure we've never met?"
Ian's throat bobbed.
He was nervous.
Not just because of the reaper drawing closer, and not just because of her unfamiliar attitude, but because as she approached, he could not smell that pleasant scent.
That made the situation much more terrifying the more he thought about it.
If the female reaper Tessa in front of him was not the same Tessa he had met before, then who exactly had the fake Tessa been?
[Temporary Curse: You are immune to death for the next twenty-four hours.]
Aside from a reaper,
who else had the authority to grant a curse like that?
Cold sweat
began to gather on Ian's forehead.
Perhaps some part of his mind had already made a guess, but his will and soul clearly had their own opinions. He refused to think too hard about why he was breaking into a cold sweat.
If he did not think about it,
and rounded things up once, then lied to himself four or five more times, then that more or less meant the whole world was still perfectly peaceful.
With his flawless internal logic loop, Ian gradually regained his composure.
"Have we met before?" The female reaper stopped in front of Ian. The two of them stood close together, one taller and one shorter. She studied him carefully, then shook her head.
"You are completely unfamiliar to me. I believe this is our first meeting."
She could find not even the slightest trace of any memory involving Ian in her long existence.
Gulp.
The sound of the boy swallowing was even clearer now.
The lights in the corridor suddenly flickered.
The female reaper abruptly turned to look toward the room where doctors were trying to save a patient. On the monitor connected to the patient's chest, the line showing signs of life was almost flattening into a straight line.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have much time. I don't know why you can see me, but this is not right." The female reaper slowly raised her pale right hand.
"Relax. It won't hurt at all. You need to forget that we ever met. I think a special bond like this will guide us to meet again when you leave this world in the future."
Her voice was very gentle, even warm and kind. Just as her hand was about to touch Ian's forehead, she found that Ian had actually leaned toward her on his own.
Except,
her hand never reached his forehead.
Instead, the boy suddenly opened his mouth and bit down hard on her wrist.
Caught completely off guard, she froze on the spot.
"What are you doing?"
The female reaper Tessa looked utterly lost. She could feel Ian's teeth actually straining against her skin.
A moment later,
"Sorry. Faced with your underhanded sneak attack, I just wanted to test something." Ian awkwardly let go of her hand and even politely took out a tissue to wipe the saliva off her wrist.
"Looks like Einstein's theories still have their limits."
Ian looked deeply troubled. He really did not want to believe science had limits. He would much rather think his teeth just were not good enough yet.
"??????"
This new Tessa was still completely lost. She could understand every word Ian said, but she had no idea what he was actually talking about. Still, she noticed something that left her stunned.
"The teeth marks."
She raised the hand he had wiped clean. Sure enough, clear bite marks were visible on the place where he had bitten her wrist, and they were producing a physical sensation she had never experienced before.
Pain.
That should have been absolutely impossible. Reapers were supposed to be immune to all physical harm in the mortal world. As for the female reaper's confusion, Ian, who knew something about how reapers worked, could mostly understand why she was reacting this way.
"I think it's because of this. Can't you see it?"
Ian raised the back of his hand. The mark from the Horseman of Death was glowing there.
"Is there some kind of magical force on it?"
The female reaper could neither see it nor sense it. She only frowned faintly, then suddenly spoke into the air beside her.
"Andrew, I need some help over here."
The words had barely left her mouth when,
in the very next moment,
a slick-haired man in a black suit appeared behind Ian without a sound. He was obviously another reaper. His sharply defined hand came down directly onto the top of Ian's head.
"Tessa, you can't even handle a little boy with spirit sight?"
The male voice behind him sounded lazy, and the owner of that voice even went out of his way to squeeze Ian's head hard.
"Brother, you're messing up my hair."
Ian was startled at first, but then he spun around without hesitation and struck the reaper behind him with a direct counterattack.
A perfect hit.
The handsome reaper named Andrew went rigid, then dropped to his knees, clutching his crotch with both hands in disbelief and letting out a nearly heart-rending howl.
"It shattered! It really shattered! It wasn't supposed to shatter!"
The pain only got worse,
driving the male reaper into frantic writhing on the floor.
People passed by all around them, but none of them could see the reapers. They only cast strange looks at the unusually dramatic boy.
"That's impossible! You really can hurt reapers!"
The female reaper Tessa saw the miserable state of her companion and instantly felt her legs tighten. She hurriedly backed away several steps to put distance between herself and Ian.
Ian did not answer her question.
After discovering that he truly could harm a being like a reaper, he simply raised the fist marked with the glowing sigil and fell into thought.
"This should be the candy you gave me, right, boss?"
Ian pulled out the mysterious pendant from inside his clothes and held it to his mouth like a phone.
"If this really is your doing, then could you at least make a little sound for me, boss? Otherwise I'm going to call you godfather."
Ian's tone was not exactly fawning.
It just carried a very strong desire to improve, and to keep farming bugged experience every single day.
Maybe the call did not connect, because Ian did not hear any whispers from some ancient being.
However,
[Deathrider's Thrall]
On the status panel,
the original icon began to twist.
Warp.
Change.
[Deathrider's Favored]
The icon had changed.
And so had the name.
(End of Chapter)
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