Chapter 119 · 11 min
chapter 119
The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 119
A little time passed, and the new curator interns’ initial training ended.
“You have worked with your assigned curators and encountered various works, and you have learned the attitude a Collector curator must have toward works and clients. Thank you for your hard work over these three weeks.”
That didn’t mean they were immediately hired as full-time employees.
“From here on, each of you will be assigned a work. Based on what you have shown over the past three weeks, we have selected the work judged most suitable for you, and if it is judged that managing that work is difficult for you, you will be removed.”
“...”
“Even if we say ‘removed,’ it is removal from the gallery. Unless you cause a serious incident, you will be assigned to office work or field work for the Collector’s.
In other words, we are simply selecting those who can show a stable performance in the gallery, so you do not need to worry too much.”
With five new curator interns in front of him, Yoo Seong-woon continued.
“You were given a period of three weeks, and since you have not raised objections or expressed an intention to transfer, I will assume you all agree to become curators for the Collector’s.
If you wish to continue working in the gallery as you are, please fill out the consent form placed in front of you.”
All five of the new hires filled out the consent forms.
It stated that they would do their utmost for the work they were in charge of in the gallery, and that they would bear responsibility to a certain extent for problems arising from that.
It was similar to a physical waiver, but these were not interns who would be frightened by something like that at this point.
The fact that they did not have to bear full responsibility for every problem was enough.
Having seen the bottom of the barrel in an illegal guild, they wanted to work in one of Korea’s three major guilds, which had at least minimal safety measures, and among those, being a Collector curator carried high honor.
“You have all agreed.”
Yoo Seong-woon nodded.
“Some of you may have already checked, but on the back of the consent form there is information about the work you will be assigned from now on.”
“...Ah...”
“The Collector’s is a warehouse and research institute where the most dangerous and sensitive objects on Earth come in.
Naturally, there are many unidentified works whose nature and response methods have not been determined, but...”
“...”
“For you interns, you have been assigned works whose information has been almost completely determined.
Works that will not cause problems as long as you do exactly as you learned and follow the manual.”
The longer one worked in the gallery, and the more works one managed, the more dangerous works a curator would take on.
But it wasn’t something the interns, who had only just begun to adapt to the gallery, needed to worry about yet.
“For the next year.”
Yoo Seong-woon said.
“I will give you a period of one year.
During that time, some of you may decide you cannot endure it and want to leave, and some of you may find a work that suits you well.
I hope you will work as curators for the Collector’s over that long yet short time.”
“...Th-then... can the work I’m assigned change midway?”
“There are many works with very firm will, so even if we placed you with great care, there may be parts that don’t match.
If it is judged to be harmful to both the work and the curator, the assigned work can be changed even during that one-year period.”
That might not be only the curator’s problem.
No matter how much a curator pays attention, sometimes a work’s state changes.
“Then I look forward to working with you.”
With Yoo Seong-woon’s words, the curators’ basic training came to an end.
“I’d like to say that if we see each other around, we should say hello, but I usually handle the works on the 5th floor, and I travel often, so it will be hard to meet easily.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“Rather, I thank you for following the training well.
Please, all of you, don’t cause an incident.
You must have heard it throughout the training period, but if you cause an incident, not only you, but quite a lot of people die.”
After tossing out those chilling words, Yoo Seong-woon wore his usual unbothered smile.
“Once again, welcome to the Collector’s gallery.”
And so the new curator interns were thrown into the wild.
“...”
“...”
Into a rather chilling kind of wild, at that.
* * *
The work assigned to the man was a set of ceramic dolls.
“...”
Its official name was 『Sweet Tea Party』, and three ceramic dolls smaller than an adult man’s hand were gathered together.
‘Danger level is 6.’
The Collector’s gallery works were categorized on a danger scale from 1 to 10, and the higher the number, the safer it was.
Among them, what the man—who had just finished basic training—was assigned was a work corresponding to the 3rd floor, danger level 6.
‘It’s more dangerous than the other new hires who were assigned works around levels 8 to 10.’
He couldn’t tell whether he should be happy that he was recognized, or scared that it had become more dangerous.
Curator Yoo Seong-yoon also told him in passing, ‘If you really can’t, request that you be assigned a different work.’
But.
“...There’s no need to do that already.”
The ceramic doll set 『Sweet Tea Party』 depicted three girls in lavish dresses.
All he had to do was give them the tea-time treats they demanded at the exact time, and after they finished consuming those treats, prepare in advance the snack they would mention.
‘Aside from having to keep the time precisely, the response method isn’t difficult.’
The margin of error was within five seconds.
If you gave the snack faster than that, or slower, you would become a ceramic human.
It was a terrifying penalty where one mistake could mean death, but it had been the same when he worked in the field as a combat-type A-rank hunter.
“To begin with, for a hunter, five seconds is an extremely generous amount of time...”
Especially since he was an A-rank hunter, he could judge and act even within 0.01 seconds.
Rather than a dungeon where you had to expend a lot of strength and brace for injury, this was a far safer situation.
“...”
『Sweet Tea Party』 was placed in the 28th corridor on the 3rd floor.
Seeing it sitting openly in a public space, the man’s expression loosened a little.
Just by the fact that it was not stored separately and was in a corridor any curator could walk through, he could confirm its safety.
‘Calling it safe is a stretch since it’s a 3rd-floor work and therefore quite dangerous, but even so, at this level...’
He felt reassured.
“...It’s small and cute.”
Ceramic dolls in dresses piled with frills, so white it felt as though white powder would rub off if you touched them.
Their cheeks were painted red like ripe peach, their eyelids a yellow-peach color, and their neatly grown eyelashes stood out.
Perhaps their eyes were made by setting jewels, because each of their eyes glittered purple, yellow, and green.
‘Since the entire eyeball is a jewel, the sclera and cornea aren’t distinguished.
If so, even if they’re looking at me, it’ll be hard to notice.’
If it weren’t for the incongruity that you couldn’t confirm their gaze and the strange atmosphere that rose with it, it would have received a lot of support among collectors who had a hobby of collecting such dolls.
“Today’s snack was star candies, I think.”
Each demanded purple, yellow, and green star candies.
“...”
He waited for the promised tea party time—4 a.m.—and placed the star candies the ceramic dolls wanted on tiny dishes.
The star candies on the very small dishes, matched to the dolls’ size, looked huge.
Then the dolls moved.
“...Oh...”
Scritch, clink.
Using knives with no sharp edge at all, the dolls broke and ate the star candies as if dividing up a cake little by little.
The sight of star candies slicing softly like mousse cake felt quite interesting.
“It’s a good sweetness.”
“It’s a good tea party.”
“It was a good time.”
After the tea party, the dolls each gave an evaluation, and it was said that the day’s fortune would be decided according to how many bad evaluations you received.
Recalling that, the man swallowed a sigh of relief.
‘Today’s fortune won’t be bad.’
Then something abnormal was detected.
“It’s a good crunch.”
“It’s good firmness.”
“It’s a good fragrance.”
“It’s a good dawn.”
“It was a good snack.”
“It’s a good choice.”
“It’s a good gift.”
A total of seven additional statements.
“...”
It was clearly an abnormal phenomenon.
“...The manual doesn’t describe this...”
As the man hurriedly reread the manual, as if the dolls couldn’t see it, they opened their mouths again.
“Godfather.”
“Godfather is coming.”
“Let’s dress sweetly.”
The ceramic girls added statements completely different from the manual.
“...There wasn’t any information like this?”
The ceramic doll set 『Sweet Tea Party』 speaks a total of three times in a single tea party.
All of them are sentences that begin with ‘Good-’ or ‘Bad-’, and there was no existence it would call ‘Godfather’ like this.
“What on earth is...”
It was when he picked up the radio to request help.
“...”
“...”
“...”
The dolls were all looking at the same place.
“...”
When the man looked behind him.
The sea.
The sun.
The deer.
The bird.
The cloud.
The flower.
The fog.
The spring water.
The sigh.
The touch.
The teeth.
The eyeball.
The eye.
“...”
A human?
“...Ah...”
He saw it.
A blond man with a benevolent smile entered his eyes.
“Wh-who are you...?”
Though flustered, the man stood so that the ceramic dolls would not be visible.
It was to prevent any danger, just in case.
‘There was definitely no presence?’
He was confused.
‘...If someone like me, confident in sensing presence, is like this, then below B-rank probably wouldn’t even be able to perceive him at all.
I’ve never heard that a new S-rank appeared in Korea.
It’s a face I’ve never seen either... could he be an unofficial hunter close to S-rank?’
He was already tense.
On a day he was working alone, he had witnessed an abnormal phenomenon from the start, and his mind was in chaos.
Even while confused, the man gradually organized his thoughts and studied the other party, who only smiled silently as if waiting for his flustered self.
A person characterized by softly curved, bright blond hair and a smile that suited it.
Soon, the other party opened his mouth.
“Hello.”
“...Ah, yes.”
At the everyday, gentle tone, strength naturally drained from his body.
“It’s a good dawn.”
“My name is Seo Gio.”
“Seo Gio...”
The man clenched and unclenched his fist.
For some reason, cold sweat seeped out.
“‘Mr. Seo Gio,’ then.”
It was an existence Curator Yoo Seong-woon had warned them about as well.
Someone one of the C-rank new hires had encountered, and someone other employees oddly smiled about and avoided describing in detail.
He was the dawn shift member ‘Seo Gio,’ called the Collector’s unofficial special force.
“I’ve heard about you.”
“What is your name?”
“...”
“I’m curious about your name.”
He’s listening to what I say, right?
‘...His tone is so clipped that it’s confusing in a strange way.’
The man spoke his name.
“...I am Binarie.”
“Narie?”
“No, without a surname—Binarie.”
“I see.”
“You can call me whatever is comfortable for you.”
“Understood.”
Blue eyes curved softly.
“Would you speak with me?”
“...”
Without realizing it, the man checked the time.
“...”
4:51 a.m.
‘...51 minutes.’
The time he had managed the work was exactly 4 a.m.
And now, the current time, 4:51.
A blank gap of about an hour.
“...Yes, talking... would be good.”
The man nodded.
There was no way he could go back right now, anyway.
Even if they talked, there would be no problem.
“I don’t think I can go home right away.”
“It would be good to pass the time while we talk.”
“Yes, that’s right...”
Letting out a sigh, the man turned back to look at the ceramic dolls.
“...”
“...”
“...”
They sat quietly in their exquisitely beautiful posture.
“...Um, Mr. Seo Gio?”
“Yes, please speak.”
“I heard that Mr. Seo Gio sometimes takes on management of the gallery as well.”
“That is correct. This gallery has many wonderful and beautiful works.”
“Then...”
Before any possible issue arose he would still need to file a separate report, but apart from that, he wanted to hear ‘Mr. Seo Gio’s’ opinion.
He recalled the word ‘Godfather’ that the dolls had whispered.
“Could you perhaps take a look at these dolls for me?”
The man shifted his body a little and showed the dolls with their gentle, cute faces.
They were ceramic dolls without the slightest movement, but perhaps because the tea party had just ended, they looked to be in quite a good mood.
The man described the abnormal phenomenon that had occurred just before.
“I understand this work to speak one sentence each per person, three sentences in total, per tea party.
But just now, for some reason, it spoke ten additional sentences—adding seven more to those three.”
“Were they bad words?”
“That was not the case.
They were good words.
They were sentences that seemed satisfied with this tea party.
However, I did not anticipate a case where the speech would become this long...”
“It means that fortune will come that cannot be contained in the scale of twenty-four hours.”
“...”
The man made a subtle expression.
“Isn’t that just a disaster?”
“A new perspective.”
“I like moderate fortune.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“...Ah, yes.”
He was a unique person.
‘His cadence is quite gentle, but... the form is stiff.’
And yet it wasn’t awkward like a foreigner unfamiliar with Korean.
This gentle yet blunt tone suited him very well, and yet, when you thought rationally, it carried a strange sense of alienness.
“May I look at those children for a moment?”
“...Of course. Anything would be better than me, a new hire.”
“Thank you for your permission.”
With quiet gestures, Seo Gio approached and examined the ceramic dolls.
The manual said there was no disadvantage to touching them unless you destroyed them, but he was stroking the dolls with a benevolent touch like an old man cradling his grandchild.
Affection was contained in his touch.
It was a refined, fairy-tale-like scene as if it belonged in a masterpiece painting, and yet...
“...”
It was a little chilling.
‘...The atmosphere itself is clearly gentle, but...’
It was hard to breathe.
As if someone had died, the air was heavy.
Fantasy, Modern,