chapter 127

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 127

It was a tranquil world.

“...”

Isn’t it?

My mentor, who died a horrific death, is alive and breathing just fine, and he, waiting for Aria to come, always prepares a meal.

He comforts me in the same voice as then, and with his new children he laughs, chatters, and enjoys himself...

I had no desire to chip away at this dreadful peace.

“...Giovanni.”

No matter what happens from here on, Aria has decided to cherish this tranquility.

“My teacher.”

“Yes, Aria.”

When the short meal ended, Gio returned to his blunt face.

With a calm face that looked as though it had never once formed a smile, and yet carrying familiar affection, my mentor asked.

“Do you need dessert?”

“Is it a dessert with lots of sugar in it?”

“Yes, it is very sweet.”

“The cake I ate last time was really delicious.”

“Just so happens that what Aria wants is here.”

“Here, there was always what I wanted.”

“You’re clever.”

He brought a small cake.

“Is this what you wanted?”

“Exactly.

You gave it before to the human called Yoo Seong-woon who visited here earlier too, didn’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right, and in return I received fish-shaped pastries.”

“That’s a rather modest price...”

The word “price” coming from that mouth felt like children playing house.

“To leave aside a cake this delicious.”

That thing, resembling a small round cake, had a very light texture.

First of all, the sponge was like that.

A fragile crispness like chewing a well-baked meringue cookie, and a soft texture that seeped in as is.

The outside was smooth, and there was sweet sugar powder sprinkled on top.

It was divided into four layers.

Vanilla cream, green tea cream, and mascarpone cream cheese.

He said it had lots of sugar in it, but perhaps because the harmony was exquisite, it felt lighter than expected.

“I didn’t know my teacher had talent in confectionery too.”

“Since my baking skill isn’t bad either, I suppose it’s because of that.”

“That could be.”

Even though there’s a definite crispness as you bite, the weight and texture are so light you don’t even notice it going down your throat.

It was an intoxicating mouthfeel at a level humans could never create.

“Even if only the taste feels human, you won’t be able to hide the sense of incongruity.”

“I don’t know what you mean.

Do you have advice for me?”

“I just said it once.

I can’t tell what you want to become, Teacher...”

The taste was fairly familiar.

When I spied on Earth, I saw that this kind of sweet, soft cream was popular.

Perhaps ‘Seo Gio’ wanted to imitate it.

Even so, Aria, an excellent analyst, knows what kind of eccentricity this is.

She can tell it with just one bite of cake.

A human who could imitate this mouthfeel would not appear so easily.

“I respect you, Teacher.”

Gio was clever, but not someone who got caught by those around him.

He was even a person who could bestow even his own death with gentle mercy.

Ah, how arrogant a man.

“You can even make cake like this, can’t you?”

“I’m embarrassed to receive excessive praise over just one cake.”

“With dessert this delicious, there’s no such thing as too much praise.”

“Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Had I not been drinking tea yet?”

It was so delicious I forgot for a moment.

“Will you give me a cup of what you’re drinking now too?”

“Let’s do that.”

A fragile, clear sound, like beads cut from jewels knocking together.

Sunlight that crossed the window broke apart in the pale-green tea.

It seemed like what was inside should have been jewels, not liquid.

And yet what Aria received was tea at a comfortable temperature.

“...”

As she drank it, she looked around.

“...I cherish this place.”

“I can tell without you saying it.”

“But if you ask whether I like it, I’m not sure.”

“I know that too.”

“...Yes, Giovanni...”

Aria smiled as if grimacing.

“This must be sorrow.”

It was different from anger.

“This must be longing.”

“...”

“And it’s the emotion called regret.”

In this tranquil place, Aria felt such emotions.

“I thought about why I feel those emotions in a world this peaceful and silent.

A place where I can meet you again at any time, Teacher, a cabin filled with sweet honey and fruit, with the chirping of beautiful birds.

A wooden house full of warm air.”

It’s only good.

“Yet every time I come in here, my stomach churns.”

Aria asked.

“Why does this place feel like a grave to me?”

“I am alive.”

“It feels like you’ll go somewhere again.”

“I will keep staying here.”

“It’s so unfamiliar to say such an eternity.”

Giovanni never put “eternity” in his mouth.

That was proof that we had walked too far.

The one before my eyes has already died once, and will experience countless more deaths in the future.

And he will show even more changes than that before those he loves.

That would be so.

“A human who longs for the dead is a failure.

Since they can never bring them back, they will be buried in the past for life, and one who rebelled against fate can no longer be called human, so they become a monster.”

That is what the current situation was.

“And I became that monster.”

“You don’t need to think so complicatedly.”

“Gio, what about you?”

Are you human?

“Can you regard yourself as human?”

“To ask back, how could I not?”

“Who knows.”

Aria couldn’t bring herself to say “no” to him.

“You’re always right.”

The existence drinking tea with me before my eyes is not human.

It might be able to become human, but its essence itself cannot be called human.

In the end, the conclusion comes out that my only human teacher is here, and yet not like that.

Giovanni is alive while dead.

‘Preserved.’

Like a faded portrait painted of the most beautiful season.

‘How many more most beautiful seasons will be preserved from now on?’

She feels dizzy at that brief, diverse life and the endless changes.

Gio will not stagnate for even a moment, and Aria will each time be busy chasing his changes.

Even while drinking the same tea together, it hurt inside.

It felt too distant.

“...Longing is such an absurd emotion.”

Aria continued.

“It feels good, and yet it turns the inside into a swamp.”

“You’re not immune to emotion.”

“Have humans grown used to emotions like this?”

“Everyone lives feeling longing, no matter what they recall.”

“If I think I’ll live like this for my whole life, it’s horrible.”

“It isn’t so horrible.”

Gio’s voice was so quiet it was like it had no sound.

“Because we long, we can have memories.”

“Do you call this a memory too.”

Then Aria, now—

“I’ve fallen into that memory.”

It felt like she would suffocate.

It felt like becoming a fish that entered freshwater instead of the sea.

It felt like becoming a human trapped in a world full of nitrogen, not oxygen.

It felt painful, and it also felt peaceful.

It was a truly strange feeling.

“How should I define this peace?”

“Why not simply enjoy it without worrying?”

“It sounds like a devil’s temptation—more cunning than the devils I’ve seen.”

“Oh, you have met devils.”

Perhaps trying to soothe his student, warmth entered his voice that had been blunt.

In a gentle voice and smile, he asked,

“What were they like?”

“Who knows, their quality was far lower than yours.”

In many respects.

“Honestly, I don’t have confidence in acknowledging this peace.

Even while knowing all of it is true, I think it’s false.

Even while knowing it’s real, I treat it as a mirage.”

“Aria has too many thoughts, that is her flaw.”

“From what I see, rather, it’s you, Teacher, who doesn’t 고민 deeply.

How on earth can you decide without the slightest hesitation that you are human—what kind of temperament is that?”

“Is there any reason my changes would make me not human?”

“There are many reasons.

There are many, but you’ll probably think they aren’t valid reasons.

That stubborn persistence of yours—should I call it reliable...”

Or should I call it ominous.

“You can achieve everything you want, can’t you.”

But compared to that ominousness, Gio was an existence she could not control or possess.

Even if this longed-for peace were to vanish one day, Aria could accept it.

And on that day she would learn despair.

The long road we have already walked proves it—after all, it was fate that had been scheduled.

“I already learned fear.”

“How did that happen?”

“Because you weren’t in my dungeon.”

When I lived as a monster thinking you wouldn’t be there, already thinking you’d left my hands, I could laugh it off.

But now that my mentor, who can’t even be grasped, is circling by my side with a smiling face, it’s so frightening.

Once is enough.

I couldn’t lose you twice.

There’s no way I could endure such loss again.

“A person called Giovanni is like that.

He comes up with ideas ordinary humans would never even consider, and yet he gives enough to peel off his own share, and he even understands a mere tiny creature—his patience is beyond imagination.”

He was a person who tried anything.

“But now, it isn’t just trying—you’ve gained the power to truly do it.

I’m not sure whether you were like that from the beginning or became like this later... even so, in the end you are my teacher.”

“...”

“You’ll change again and again.

Someday you’ll disappear.

You might die before me, or live longer than me.

If you want it, it’ll be so, and even if you don’t want it, you’ll only enjoy fate.”

“...”

“I acknowledge that.

But Gio, you know, don’t you?

We realized hatred at your death and killed and harmed so many humans.

We endured that long time.

And now what is this.”

Aria looked at Giovanni.

“To reassure that long time of ours, you are too...”

It soon dyed black.

“...”

“...”

And dyed red again.

“...Too fickle.”

“You understand me well.”

“That makes me very uneasy.”

It was too long a time.

“I lived enduring that long time with hatred and rage, and then, unexpectedly, the teacher I met again does not satisfy that desire.

In my heart, I want to put you in my dungeon, never take my eyes off you for even a moment, admire you, and share with you all the time that flows.”

At that greedy desire of a mermaid, Argio smiled slyly.

“That’s too boring.”

“Knowing you wouldn’t be caught easily, and that trying would only fail, I didn’t do it.”

Because Gio had not forgiven them, and therefore would not accept them.

That couldn’t wound Aria.

She thought it was obvious and natural.

But because of that, the mermaids could not wholly take their mentor into their hands.

“How do you know what kind of way Teacher will disappear in the meantime.”

“So that is what makes you uneasy.”

“In that the only thing I acknowledge and love is also my only variable.”

Aria smiled similarly.

“How do I believe this peace?”

“That, I think, is the homework left to you.”

“Indeed, it’s something you would say.”

The fact that a mere human was invited to this place, the future where Gio’s colors will change countless times, the enormous responsibility of mermaids that won’t fade even if tens of thousands of years pass.

All of it was, in the end, no different from homework Aria had to bear.

Homework to believe the current peace.

“I wish I were a stupid human.”

Then I would have believed.

“Isn’t it?”

“But it’s not a wise choice.”

“...Is that so?”

“Keep pondering and doubting without end.”

Golden eyes curved with affection.

“That will prove you.”

“Just as I thought, you are...”

Aria smiled weakly.

“...My teacher.”

A human with no limits in strange places, always speaking of realistic futures, always busy teaching something.

When she recalled that the one before her was the person who had been the only one to love us mermaids...

“I love you.”

“Me too.”

Only then did she feel at ease.

Today, too, we are in our daily life.

* * *

Giovanni always said, ‘While I am here, learn as many emotions as you can.’

“They will become proof of your mermaid life.”

“Proof?”

“Emotions are proof of memory, of learning, of all those recollections.”

He said it would make you, a mermaid, grow.

“The emotions you feel now will show you the road forward.”

“Gio, wouldn’t it be enough if you tell me?”

“I am not completely the same as Aria, so at any time I can be erased from that life and disappear.”

“I won’t erase you or let you disappear.”

“In the end, even now, aren’t we drawing different futures?”

“...”

“...Whether I’m by your side or not.”

Gio always said,

“I hope that proof will let you understand more.”

But before understanding so much, Giovanni died.

Death took away more than expected.

It meant that when you wake in the morning, there is no one left to smile brightly at you, it meant the one who would urge you to eat at a set time for no reason vanished, and it meant that even though night had fallen, no one would pull the blanket up to your throat.

Each and every one was truly ordinary, and yet so large.

Small, and yet so many.

“...”

We have always learned about death.

So today, too, it was a day not particularly different.

Fantasy, Modern,