[ WP ] You always thought your grandfather 's stories about goblins were fake until you started to see them too .

`` We are n't alone. At least, not in the sense that aliens live out there, somewhere. There are others already among us. I am one of them. 
 
 Growing up in the royal family was a priviledge, and yet a pain. Piles of rules, tons of ancient traditions designed to `` honour the gods above'' and a thousand other rituals my father drilled into my head when I was but a boy. 
 
 Perhaps it was the death of my mother that forced him to become this overprotective, overdisciplined drill sergeant. Or maybe it was just my rebelious teenage years. The only comfort I had was through the tales of my grandfather. Those nightly visits when I would sneak past the palace guards to the small thatched house where he lived, banished from my father's presence after my mother's passing. It was then that he told me tales of goblins. 
 
 `` I knew a goblin,'' he used to say. `` Not so different from us humans, but you could feel the aura of majesty he displayed. The experience of a hundred, nay, a thousand years foisted upon him, thrust unwillingly onto his shoulders. So young, and yet so ancient. So powerful, and yet so helpless. An immortal mortal, he seemed.'' 
 
 The stark contradictions of my grandfather, I used to laugh off as the ravings of a senile man. But in hindsight, I can now see that every word he spoke rang true on those quiet summer nights. But I did n't realise the truth of those words, and the warning that came with them until much later. 
 
 Much, much later. 
 
 The tale of my father's demise, I will not bore you with. How his brother, my uncle beguiled me with tales of treachery and deceit, how I could trust no one's advice but his own. But I can tell you of how I met the goblin my grandfather spoke of. 
 
 Shin was his name. It meant god in the ancient tongue, a symbol of power, dignity and the markings of a deity. By then, I had grown into manhood. Although sickly and pale, I had some semblance of nobility, a mere shadow of the imposing might my father possessed. Helped by my uncle and now top advisor, I at least felt secure in my position of power. Shin would come to change everything. 
 
 Rising swiftly through the ranks of my army, he quelled rebellions, stopped invaders, expanded borders for the glory of our nation. By all accounts, he was a deity on the battlefield, a whirlwind of batte-rage and bloodlust, hero worshipped by the people. 
 
 If only I had listened to Sun Hee. Everything would have been different. But in the heat of the moment, what could a lowly serving maiden do or say to change a ruler's mind, especially when he was egged on by the top advisor of the kingdom? 
 
 No, she could only watch. Watch and weep as her brother returned from the battlefield, only to see his men collapse in a shower of arrows around him. To see his entire family standing before him, the only thing standing between them and death being but a command from my lips. How ironic indeed that while I was king, I thought I controlled death. But now, I am but a deity controlled by death. The reaper of wars and victories, now a reaper of souls. 
 
 I digress. Shin was defiant in the face of adversity, encouraged to stand up and resist by his sister, supoorted by his second-in-command. His only miscalculation was that I was desperate enough to order his entire family to be put to death. Including the young, beautiful Sun Hee, all severed from life by the sword. Last of all Shin himself, the one who lived by the sword and died by it. 
 
 But that is not the end of the goblin's tale, because if it were, it would be a happy tale compared to this. I was soon overthrown by a rebellion of the people, something I should have seen coming from a mile away. Injustice fuels something deep down in the minds of people. Something had to be done to right the scales, and indeed they did it. 
 
 I will not tell you how I ended up as who I am now, for it is not my place to tell. Instead, I will tell you of the goblin. Blessed with power far beyond that of humankind, he was also cursed with the gift of immortality. People lived and died all around him, every single passing, every tear wept for them etched forever in his memory. Perhaps by telling you this, you can understand his pain, the weight he has had to bear for a very long time. 
 
 There has been an entire generation of servants around to serve him, to keep him tethered to humanity. All dead, except for the current successor. All those deaths, he has seen and remembered, a lifetime of sorrow that can be lifted only by pulling out the sword in his chest. `` 
 
 The Reaper sighed as he paused, sipping from the cup in front of him. The girl opposite him wore a look of sadness, too shocked to say a word. `` I-I thought-'' 
 
 `` The wisest eyes have seen the most tragedy, and his eyes have seen more tragedy to fill ten libraries, me being the cause of this, I am sorry to say. But all is not lost. I now understand what he feels for you, his bride, as I felt when I first saw the sun in my life on that bridge. But know that this goblin is not what you think he is.'' 
 
 Putting down the cup of tea, the Reaper stared the girl dead in the eye. 
 
 `` Take care of him, Eun Tak.'' 
 

