“More assignments?! I thought we were done with them since the last time!”

“Obviously not, considering the fact that I am Shinigami this should have been obvious.”

“But, but I thought…”

“If you thought that your job as my assistant ended with just one failed attempt at reaping a soul then you are thoroughly mistaken.”

“Wait, does this mean you’re giving me another chance at it?”

“You can think of it like that.” Desolai and her sole servant Nur were chattering as they walked through the halls of the mansion towards the window that held an opening which connected Shinigami’s domain with the human world; specifically the place Desolai was going to visit next.

“Of course, this time it is going to be different. I am going to go each location right after the living being passes away so there is no chance for you to make light of the rules…”

“Wait! But what if we encounter someone who doesn’t need to die? Is it so wrong to give them more time to live?”

“Of course it is wrong. Death has to come to everyone equally, regardless of circumstances.” Desolai looked at Nur who seemed to look with sulky expression that just screamed ‘Oh no, no, no!’

Desolai sighed. “If there is a chance to change the original course of person’s fate, you are not going to stand by idly, are you?”

“You make it sound so wrong for me to do something about deaths I can prevent.”

“You are not preventing anything, you are only prolonging the inevitable. It is true it is not a crime for you to change the time of death for a person, there are no rules preventing you from doing that” Partially because he was interference he was exempt from nature’s rules that applied to everything else, meaning he technically shouldn’t even exist let alone be present in reality. The fate of someone with no fate is that he is untraceable and the fact is not even Great Creator knows what he will do next. Desolai wondered why in the world Creator would let such a nuisance walk on earth, perhaps for entertainment or out of boredom, who knows. “But every mortal is destined to die, that is the rule. Even if you extend their time beyond their original frame it will not save them from meeting their demise at a later time.”

“So you are saying it is hopeless?”

“Absolutely.”

Nur sighed and said. “In that case, if I can do something I will consider my options. But if there is nothing I can do I will give up on the spot. Does that sound alright with you?”

Desolai’s human form smiled. A tall, two meter tall beauty with wings was smiling at him. She adjusted her height to be somewhat closer to Nur’s height instead of towering over him; apparently she wanted to be able to see her servant’s expressions from closer distance. Nur thought ‘If I didn’t know she is a Shinigami, I would have thought she was an angel.’ He didn’t know of course that Shinigami and angels were technically of the same kind.

“That sounds perfect. I am glad we have reached an agreement, my servant.” Both Desolai and Nur walked towards the window.

“Before I forget, take this” Desolai gave Nur a scythe that was more fitting for him size-wise. Her scythe was tad bit too big for someone of his height. He only reached up to her shoulder level.

“Thanks, a scythe, huh, what am I going to do with it?” Nur asked.

“Reap a soul, of course.”

“Eh, I should have guessed you were going to say that.” Nur reluctantly took the scythe in his own hands. It wasn’t as heavy as expected; in fact it was almost as light as air. The blade seemed to be sparkling from the sharpness.

Both Desolai and Nur walked into the window.

They no longer were inside Shinigami domain, now they were in a desert.

The sands were everywhere. The land seemed dead, no water was in sight. The dryness of the air was rather extreme. Some skull littered the ground.

“Uhm, Desolai, where exactly are we?” Nur hesitantly asked.

“The location of our next assignment, a mortal soul of a certain king.” She pointed at a pile of bones. It would be more accurate to describe it as a full body skeleton, it still had clothing on, and the flesh seemed to not have been rotted, rather it seemed to have been cleanly removed. Just the bones remained, as if there was no flesh at all to begin with. There were many white feathers around the corpse as well.

Nur wondered how exactly the bones did not have even the scrap of flesh remaining on them. ‘Death is weird.’ He whispered.

“Kind of makes you wonder what kind of person owned these bones, right?” Nur jokingly asked.

“If you are curious, why don’t you ask him yourself?” Desolai said with a questioning look on her skull. She already switched from human form to a skeletal one. Dark red flames were dancing inside her empty eye sockets. Yep, she is as scary as it gets.

Desolai made a gesture with her bony arm.

On top of the corpse appeared a floating entity. Nur could tell that the thing he was looking at was see through, and it looked a lot like a human being, albeit with wings. ‘An angel?’ Nur wondered. ‘Wait, no way, angels don’t die, and his face looks too much like a human face, is he really dead?’

The spirit was still attached to the body; it was connected to it by a thin rope-like extension. The spirit seemed to look at Desolai in fear, but then it looked down and saw Nur. The expression of fear instantly changed to a look full of hate.

“YOU!” the spirit screamed. It lunged itself at Nur. Nur tried to defend himself by blocking with his arms. Turns out he didn’t even need to do that, the spirit’s attempt to attack harmlessly passed through him.

“You caused this to me! You are responsible! You caused me to die like this!” the spirit screamed.

“Nur, do you know this mortal soul?” Desolai asked. She never had a spirit get angry right after meeting her. It was obvious the spirit was angry at Nur.

“Of course not, I think I would remember a whiny spirit like this one.” Nur said with a shrug.

“A whiny spirit! Have you no dignity? Don’t pretend to not know me, Sabgyn Finnerman! I Aldan the Great will make sure you meet your doom!”

Nur looked at Aldan, or at least what was left of him and said. “Sabgyn Finnerman. That’s the same name you called me before, isn’t that right Desolai?”

“Your book of life was titled as such.”

“Huh, the name sounds too much of a mouthful to pronounce.” Nur turned his attention back to Aldan. “Look, my name is Nur, just Nur. I don’t know anyone with outlandish name like Sabgyn, and I don’t think that I ever was called like that.”

Aldan’s spirit looked at Nur with squinted eyes. “Are you truly saying you don’t know me?”

Nur shook his head.

“I see, then you must be someone who just looks a lot like him, yes, that is it. After all, before I died I did kill him!” The spirit was laughing out loud. Nur felt chill run down his spine ‘So if I was him, what would you have done? I am afraid to even imagine. I will just go along with whatever he is saying until he gets sent away. Man, his laughter is so scary!’ Nur silently thought.

Desolai turned towards Aldan. “My duty here is too reap your soul and allow it to move on.”

“I can’t come back?” Aldan asked.

“No, once you die there is no going back. You can try to cling to this pitiable existence of yours and attempt to take over the bodies of the ones with the weaker will, but…” She turned her back towards him and pointed at the desert. “I don’t think you will be finding anyone anytime soon in this place. Besides, you can’t move away from this location.”

“Is that so” Aldan said defeated. “Then am I going to be stuck in this place for eternity?”

“Only if you chose to do so. My job is to aid you to move on. You can no longer move back; you can only move forward or be stuck in your current state.”

“I see” Aldan said after considering things for a few minutes. “Alright, I chose to move forward. I have no regrets left in life. The only thing that kept me here-my hatred for the one responsible for my death seems to be obsolete. It seems I have truly succeeded in killing him. Now I can move on in peace.”

“I am glad you are so reasonable about this.” Desolai answered. “Nur, please use your scythe to detach his spirit from his body.”

Nur approached the spirit with the scythe in his hands. “Alright, heave ho!”

Aldan’s spirit cringed. Nur just cut the thin rope-like thing that was connecting his spirit to his body.

Immediately, his body started to fade.

“It seems this is the end of my existence in this reality” Aldan said while looking at his hand vanishing.

“Do not worry. Your soul will go to where all souls go after death.”

“I see. That is a relief.” Aldan said with a smile. “By the way, who is this guy? Don’t tell me he is a Reaper too?”

“He is my assistant.” Desolai said after consideration. “I hope we were able to help you move on peacefully.”

“Indeed you have, thank you, both of you” Aldan said with uncharacteristically polite bow while having equally out of character smile on his face. Aldan’s spirit now completely faded away after saying that.

Nur scratched his head from puzzlement. This guy seemed to know him for some reason, but Nur never met him before. Still, the way that spirit was speaking was way too polite. He seemed like the type who was angry a lot in life, at least that’s the impression Nur got after meeting him. It was weird to see that in the end he went out with a smile.

Nur followed Desolai who was walking away.

“Uhm, Desolai, don’t you think it was strange how polite that spirit was?”

“Not at all. When they are relieved that they no longer have to be stuck to earth as incorporeal existences, they usually feel thankful for my service.”

“But I at least expected him to use deceit or be rude!”

“Nur, they are already dead. Deceit and bad language are tools for the living. They are utterly useless for the dead.” Desolai said with emphasis. “If anything they will try to be as nice as they can in order to be not stuck in that pathetic plane of existence. That’s where I come in.”

“I see.” Nur nodded. The logic seemed simple. Dead don’t lie, not because they can’t but because there no longer is a purpose in doing so.

“We still have many souls to reap today. So don’t think we are done yet.” Desolai said with what sounded like a chuckle.

“Yes, master Desolai” Nur nodded.

Life as a servant of Shinigami was not half bad!