chapter 123

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 123

A man clad in beast bones said,

“You’re not the kind of person who worries over such boring things.

You at least have the self-awareness that you are fickle and willful.

You only ever do things you can enjoy.”

“...”

“If a thinking being has no desires, isn’t it a corpse?

I’m faithful to instinct.

I grow greedy for what I want, I rage at those who make me angry, and if I can’t uphold my convictions, I do nothing at all.”

The clothes he wore were primitive, made of bones and feathers, yet he also draped himself in splendid fabrics the humans of noble status might use, giving him an antique air.

The man wearing a mask made from a sheep’s skull smiled.

“What do you think?”

“I think it’s an interesting life.”

“Oh, yes, you and I understand each other.”

“Life should be enjoyable.”

Gio, wrapped in a black cloak, nodded.

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“I’ve killed quite a lot, you know. There were truly many people who got angry at me.”

“Why did those people get angry at you, Argio?”

To that, Gio’s second suitable candidate, ‘Argio,’ answered.

“They said I was the root of all evil in the world.”

Beyond the bone mask, golden eyes deeply curved could be seen.

“They said I’m a monster, you know?”

“...”

Inside the palace of bone and blood, Gio murmured,

“That’s a very abstract metaphor.”

“I think so too, my friend.”

When ‘Argio’ laughed, a sound like a tiger’s growl rumbled out.

“Isn’t it truly troubling?

If they were angry, I wish they’d tell me exactly what they were angry about.

They should tell me what I did to them, and what part of me they were angry at.”

“Why is that?”

“So that I can be angry together with them.

So that I can collide with them with all my strength, exchange emotions, and make the situation better.

Isn’t that what you could call the most powerful strength anger has?”

On the gaudy, disorderly throne adorned with all kinds of silk, feathers, and leather, ‘Argio’ put on an affectedly tired expression.

As if troubled, he said,

“But most people couldn’t do that.

They were only stupid people who couldn’t even control their own anger and got eaten in return.

If they’re swayed by emotion, which is a part of me, how can you say they have the qualifications to be human?”

Soon, he smiled again.

“Which means all those many people were beasts, that’s all.”

“Oh...”

“Isn’t that so?”

“It’s a new idea, but I respect it.”

“Being respected is a good thing.”

With a vivid smile, ‘Argio’ propped his chin.

Long, sharp claws like those of a feline beast or a bird of prey like an eagle came into view.

Gio, bravely, couldn’t hold back his curiosity.

“Do you grow your nails?”

“...Ahahahahahaha!!”

‘Argio’ burst out laughing, then answered in a voice brimming with amusement.

“W-well, yes.

If you say I grow them, I grow them, but it wasn’t particularly for cosmetic purposes.”

“I thought it was intentional, because it suits your current fashion very well.”

“It’s not that I groomed my nails after dressing like this—I dressed like this because my body was originally like this.”

“I don’t have a sense for fashion, so I only wear black. I’m truly jealous.”

“...My, you don’t know how to dress yourself?

Are Earthlings originally like that?”

“Seeing how people who want to dress up do it well on their own, I think it’s my personal problem.”

“...”

The smile vanished from ‘Argio,’ and he looked as if he were gazing at someone pitiful.

“...I believe that if you’re with me, even that plain personality will improve.”

“Do you dislike my current outfit that much?”

“Even if I dragged any beast in at random, it would have more variety than you.”

“They say if you dress in achromatic colors you’re at least average.”

“Unless there’s a cultural reason, you’re not performing a rite, and yet it’s all black—what is this.”

“I couldn’t help it because I like black.”

“Black, being taken advantage of, must be crying. What a pity.”

Clicking his tongue, ‘Argio’ returned to the topic from earlier.

“My nails are one of the abilities I’ve had in my body since I was born.

If you’re with me, in the end you’ll have to use it too, so you’d better listen well to my explanation.”

“I will focus.”

“A good attitude.

To explain simply, the power I have is the power to imitate beasts.

Just like now, I can imitate a predator’s claws, or imitate the great wings of birds that fly the sky, or imitate a prey animal’s keen wariness to avoid danger.”

“How could I desire something this much?”

“I truly cherish this power as well, and yet strangely, my family was very afraid of it.

My clan called me a curse and drove me into a forest filled with dangerous beasts.”

“...”

Gio pressed his lips together. ‘Argio’ asked,

“You look dissatisfied?”

“I don’t understand why every ‘Gio’ person, without exception, brings up a heavy monologue the first time they meet.”

“That, too, is an unusual thought. Wasn’t this place made for that in the first place?”

Amused, ‘Argio’ laughed.

“Or do you want to assimilate with me without any explanation at all?”

“When you put it like that, it seems better to hear the explanation.”

“Good.

From what you’re doing, it doesn’t look like you’ll act stupid and meet a foolish death.”

Nodding, ‘Argio’ introduced himself.

“That being said, I am a nameless curse.

A descendant of a royal family that once ruled a great nation, a nature that grew up making clever and dangerous beasts into family, and in the end a ‘Gio’ who was struck down by humans’ hammer and died.”

He added,

“In the end, ‘Argio’ isn’t my name.”

“Does the word ‘Argio’ have a meaning?”

“In an ancient, primitive language—Ar, cruel.

Gio, beast.

In a word, it means a cruel beast.”

“Beast...”

Gio seriously swept the other party with his gaze.

“You certainly do look strong.”

“That would have been more contempt than pure admiration, but yes.”

“You look like you have a lot of muscles—if you’re with me, can I use that strength too?”

“If you prefer a body like this, why didn’t you exercise sooner.”

“I didn’t want to sweat at anything besides farming.”

“...”

Soon, ‘Argio’ nodded.

“If we assimilate, may I take charge of your body management?”

“Are we assimilating into a different self?”

“No, it wouldn’t be that.

I’m worried I might assimilate into that lazy mind.”

“I think I’m not that lazy—just because I don’t exercise.”

“Then what are you diligent about?

Farming?

Well, I don’t like that much...”

Even though his face was covered by a mask with only eyeholes cut out, you could tell ‘Argio’s brow had furrowed.

“Do you enjoy fighting at all?”

“There’s so much to enjoy in the world—why choose that, of all things?”

“As I guessed from the moment I was called here, my heart truly feels unwell.”

“Why should you buy conflict for yourself?”

“At the very least, shouldn’t you know how to be properly angry at conflict that has already come upon you?”

“I do get angry.”

“Have you ever harvested the tongue and teeth of someone spouting nonsense?”

“On Earth, if you do that, you get arrested.”

“Hm, certainly law and rules are important parts.”

“That’s an unexpected answer.”

Gio admired.

“You’re so belligerent, I thought you weren’t bound by law and morality.”

“It seems I’m not very bound by morality.”

“Huh?”

“But that doesn’t mean I deny the necessity of good and rules.”

In a breezy tone, ‘Argio’ continued.

“I’m quite fickle.

One day I want to get drunk in a village full of smiles, and another day I head, with a clear mind, toward a hell full of screams.”

“...”

“Have you never wanted to act like a beast with no reason?

Never wanted to throw off all your cumbersome clothes?

Never wanted to shout cheers and screams, breathe in sweet bloodstink, and fight until your whole body crumbles?”

“No.”

“I understand your way of living too.

What I wanted to say in the end is this—if a fickle me is to enjoy everything satisfactorily, then the world must have coexistence of good and evil, and peace and chaos together.”

For that.

“In the end, you need those who believe in good and abide by rules.”

So that, on that day and at that hour, I can enjoy what I want.

“That it was inevitable that I came to be called a wicked god, too.”

“Did I come here to become one with a wicked god right now?”

“Very surprisingly, that’s exactly it.”

“Can I leave.”

“You cannot leave unless I permit it, my kindly root.”

“This is unreasonable.

I believe I should have a choice as well.”

“It’s truly pitiful, but your authority ended at entering this place.”

Laughing joyfully, ‘Argio’ continued.

“So why don’t you listen to my story a bit more, for now.”

It will be quite exciting.

* * *

There was a single great family that ruled humans.

In this family there was a curse passed down generation after generation: when one of the family’s children turned ten, they became an evil beast.

“That is why my family encouraged having as many children as possible.

If you have only one child and that child becomes an evil beast, you will surely have to kill them, so it’s a matter of preparing other countermeasures.”

The child who turned ten and revealed their dreadful true nature was thrown into the dirtiest, most horrific hell among the spaces humans could reach.

It was a vast rainforest called the ‘Black Forest.’

“I was praised for my beautiful appearance and outstanding talent for painting, but when I turned ten, horns grew from my forehead.

That was the cause. The story that monsters lived in the ‘Black Forest’ was famous, but they never imagined the monster there would come from my family... I was abandoned without knowing why.”

That abandoned place was indeed dangerous, just as the rumors said.

“In darkness where the sun never rises, dangerous beasts and insects lie in wait for a chance to eat your flesh.

Everything holds poison so strong that you can’t easily drink or eat it, and from time to time, ear-splitting screams ring out as if vengeful spirits are shrieking.”

But I didn’t die.

“Am I not a beast as well?

Once I knew I wasn’t human, I behaved instinctively and greedily like a beast, fought over prey on equal footing with the forest family, and I could make new family without difficulty.”

And I learned a surprising fact.

“Deep within that forest, traces of a worn-out dynasty remained.

I learned that my power wasn’t a curse but a blessing, and that the monsters cast away here had in fact been saints meant to block the Black Forest’s dangerous catastrophe.”

To call it a self-made farce by ancestors who went mad in the dark forest, there was far too much evidence left behind.

“It’s just that too much time passed and people forgot it.

They forgot that the reason they offered children was to block the catastrophe, so they treated our alien power as a curse, and they said the Black Forest’s ominousness wasn’t because of the catastrophe, but something we created.”

Of course, it didn’t matter.

“Even if you know, what changes?”

It wasn’t that I felt no anger toward the family that cast me out, but ‘Argio’ gained a new family.

I drew on the walls of the great old dynasty, obtained what I wanted like a beast, and sometimes shared, spending time.

“In the process, I sometimes dashed out of the forest, but...”

Well?

“I swear upon a warrior’s soul that I never harmed the innocent.

That’s not to say I harmed no one.

How could I just leave those who attacked me alone?”

The problem came after that.

“A rumor began to spread that I was the root cause of a plague.”

Humans were enraged.

“I had to see my home burning before I could even realize it.

Yes, they had no confidence to fight me directly, so they decided to burn down the entire forest.

In that process I suffered severe burns, lived on a little longer, and in the end died in my family’s arms...”

That reckless outpouring of rage didn’t leave ‘Argio’ without anger, but.

“Hey, you remember, right?

The Black Forest originally existed to stop a catastrophe that would destroy the world.

The evil beasts that appeared at least once each generation were forest keepers meant to help that... and also the last barrier.”

Now it had burned away, and there was no forest, and in its place there were no forest keepers to stop it.

“In the end, the catastrophe that had been hidden since the distant past revealed itself.

The beasts came to hold intelligence like humans, they began to speak, and they came to hold more subdivided and more intense emotions.”

Among them, ‘Argio’s’ family even burned with vengeance toward humans.

“What do you think happened to the world?”

For countless long years, humans raised and slaughtered beasts as food.

But now it wasn’t only that their food had vanished—those beasts began speaking to them, hurling curses, and starting a horrific ‘exchange’ with humans.

There was no way humans’ world could hold.

“In that process, I became a wicked god.

To be precise, you could call it a collective of all the evil beasts cast away in the Black Forest, saints whose worth was never recognized and who met horrific deaths.”

It was truly regrettable.

“Almost all humans didn’t even seem to realize that ‘Argio’ was a single crowd.

They simply whispered about the root of all evil and created the existence called me.”

A wicked god who caused catastrophe from the Black Forest and led massacres.

“A cruel beast.”

That was ‘Argio.’

Fantasy, Modern,