Haron was the first entity to collect souls and escort them to Hell when the war ended. It was part of the deal between Heaven and Hell, and since Haron was one of the few entities back then who could freely travel between the two realms, he was given the job. The name Grim Reaper was given to his weapon, the scythe, by the souls he collected. When he trained his replacements, they were seen as an extension of him, like his scythe, hence the name Grim Reapers.

As they sat in that room and talked, Griffin also noticed the small differences between the two of them that Haron mentioned earlier. First and foremost were the eyes. Griffin had eyes but Haron didn’t; only the darkness from his empty skull filled his eyes. The other major and most obvious difference was their weapons. Haron’s scythe, Grim Reaper, looked exactly like the old scythe humans used to reap crops; it had one long handle with two grips attached to it, one at the bottom and one halfway up. Emma on the other hand has no grips, just a solid meal rod with a blade attached at the end.

Even the blades were different. Grim Reaper is smooth and curves down slightly, like anyone would expect from a scythe. Emma has small pointy teeth on the inside of the blade like a serrated knife. It also curves down way more than a normal scythe, and finally Emma’s blade folds inwards towards the handle when Griffin puts her away. Grim Reaper looks like a normal scythe, built for reaping crops and Haron used it to reap what was considered his crop, human souls. Emma on the other hand looks more like a newer model of the old scythe, one that was purposely modified with the intention of being used as a weapon to kill. It definitely looked more aggressive than the original.

The last thing that set Griffin apart from Haron, was how they moved. Griffin had a lot of human-like features, breathing, moving his jaw up and down and waving his hands when he spoke and so on. He eats and drinks, even though he has no need of it, and he has a lot of mannerisms that one would attribute to humans. Haron, however, was indeed the true escort of the dead. His jaw never moved, and he never breathed. He never consumed mana by eating or drinking, he simply turned mana into a gas form and absorbed it into his body. It was Haron’s lack of movement that set him apart from Griffin. He moved only when he absolutely had to, and he did what had to be done with as little movement as possible. That is why Griffin always felt weird during long pauses between his conversations with Haron. He just sat there, stiff as a corpse, no sound coming out of him, or any other kind of indication as to whether he was a living entity or not. They spent the first quarter of the day talking about what had happened, what led to Griffin’s suspension and why he wanted to come to Haron’s cabin.

“I see why you wanted to come here and meditate, Griffin, but I don’t see how I can help you with any of the questions you have. Despite the fact that I can’t be bothered to answer them, there really isn’t anything more I can tell you. You know everything I know about your past. It took you one hundred years before you accepted the information package and turned into a soul I could work with, which was bloody annoying. After that I trained you and we worked together on missions so I could prepare you, then you became an official Grim Reaper and I once again retired here to my cabin. As far as I can tell, you have always been a curious Grim Reaper.”

“I know Haron, and even if I tried asking you some of the many questions I have, you would answer them all as you always have, the same way everyone else does.”

“You really are like a broken music box with a bad tune. You keep playing the same stupid song over and over again.”

“And if I was to play it once again you would reply with the same boring tune as everyone else does.”

“The rules are there to ensure you do your job right. They are there to guide you as you do your part to maintain peace between Heaven and Hell.”

“Exactly.”

Haron let out a small laugh followed by a sigh, “You do realize that you managed to turn us into you with all these questions, don’t you?”

Griffin just stared back at Haron in silence.

“You keep repeating the same thing over and over again, and that turns us into you. We keep repeating the same answer over and over again.”

“Well, this time I plan to do things differently. I have no intention of asking you any questions during my stay here--”

Haron jumped out of his chair and placed his hand next to his skull, where his ear would’ve been, as if he were trying to listen for something far into the distance. “Can you hear that?” he said and took a couple of steps towards the window, looking outside deep into the woods. “That must be the sound of pigs and cows flying and Hell freezing over. I believe I can also hear fish whistling from the mountain top.”

Griffin ignored Haron and continued. “All I want is to be allowed to stay here, where no one will bother me, and meditate. I’ll search for the answers I seek on my own.”

“As I said in the message I sent you earlier, you have seventy-two hours. You can do with them as you please. I only request that you meditate somewhere outside the cabin, it barely has enough room for me and Grim Reaper. I don’t want to keep bumping into you every time I want to get up to my office or exit the cabin for a walk.”

“I have no problem doing that,” Griffin replied.

“And I’ll send a request to the Council, asking for extra rations of mana for you.”

“That won’t be necessary Haron, you know I can quickly regenerate my mana.”

“Yes, I know that, but why waste precious time to regenerate mana when you can simply be given some and keep meditating?”

“You want to keep me out there meditating for as long as possible instead of sitting here inside the cabin, don’t you?”

“Yeah, well you can’t blame me. I can never be sure with you. If we’re in the same room for too long, there are no guarantees you won’t start firing questions like a loose cannon.”

“I will go out and inspect the area, see if I can find a nice quiet spot for my meditation,” Griffin left the cabin, leaving Haron alone as he preferred.

“What do you think, Grim Reaper?” Haron asked as he observed Griffin from the window, walking around the cabin.

“His kind has always been that way,” the scythe replied, “He’ll never stop, even when all seems lost. He’ll keep searching and most likely, eventually, he’ll learn the truth.”

“You’re right, and that is why I do not envy the one who’ll be charged with restraining him when he discovers it. The Council trusts the Archangels and I see no reason not to trust them. If what Gabriel said in his message is true, he won’t discover anything that will cause any trouble, not for now anyway.”

Haron grabbed a pen and started writing down Griffin’s story; the first Grim Reaper to be suspended. He planned to store it right next to some other notes he had about Griffin. ‘The first Grim Reaper to reject the information package.’ ‘The first Grim Reaper to be demoted.’ ‘Griffin, a curious Grim Reaper or something more?’ As he remembered the list of stories and notes he had about Griffin and ran through them, Haron immediately regretted that last one, just as he did when he first finished writing it and the Council confirmed to him his suspicions regarding Griffin.

The story continues in:
Kingdom of the Red Rose
(Episode 18 of 62)
Chapter Seven: A Question Never Asked
(Part 1 of 2)

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