chapter 138

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 138

Last winter, a humanoid monster first sighted in the S-rank dungeon ‘Kingdom of the Deep Sea’ and listed on the Hunters Association website.

It is famous as a monster that harasses bad humans and gives gifts to good humans.

Its distinguishing traits are that it is very tall, wears a black cloak, is dressed in a suit, and is barefoot.

“...”

In her dorm room all alone, the new curator, Park Juhui, clenched her teeth.

“...Come to think of it, it’s all similar...”

She recalled the first time Curator Yoo Seong-woon explained the person called ‘Seo Gio.’

‘He said he has features similar to the Black Cloak, so he often gets misunderstood.’

It wasn’t that Park Juhui had never thought Seo Gio had similarities to the Black Cloak.

It was just that Seo Gio was too kind, too human, and wore an extremely gentle smile to think like that.

But now that she thought about it, it made her dizzy.

‘He was excessively ideal.’

She should have suspected it.

‘How could someone who smiles as if perfectly preserved in the best possible form be ordinary.’

Seo Gio smiled, conversed, and showed consideration like an ordinary person, but there was no fluctuation in his actions and expression.

She clearly knew Seo Gio had an atmosphere like an existence that didn’t truly exist.

“...Th-this... is this really okay?”

She was confused.

Because the other party felt too human, she couldn’t imagine he might be a monster, and she doubted whether she had been bewitched or deceived by something.

At a high probability, the ‘Seo Gio’ the Black Cloak showed was a kind of mask.

‘It’s not like we’ve known each other long enough for me to feel betrayed or anything.’

They’d only met twice so far. Even if someone she’d known for over a year had been deceiving her, she’d probably have just let it go—there wasn’t even room to feel betrayal toward someone she’d met only twice.

‘I’m not angry.

It’s not like I’m disappointed or anything.

There wasn’t that kind of trust between Mr. Seo Gio and me.

But it’s true that I’m confused...’

What should she do about this?

“...I’m not in a position where I can take measures, am I?”

The Collector’s gallery was a place where all sorts of dangerous works gathered.

That meant there would be many response protocols for abnormal phenomena, and there would also be safety devices and information control.

“Besides, the other employees all looked like they already knew.”

Only the new hires didn’t know the fact that ‘Seo Gio’ was the Black Cloak.

“But... it’s not like they’re even hiding it thoroughly...”

It was only because Park Juhui herself had been so dull, but with this many common points, there must already have been classmates who’d realized it.

For some reason, the Collector was simply tolerating the existence of the Black Cloak.

“...”

After worrying for quite a long time, she soon knocked on another dorm room door.

“...What is it?”

“Um, sorry.

There’s something I want to talk about.”

“To me, another new hire?”

“Binarie 씨... you’ve met Mr. Seo Gio, right?”

“...”

Binarie, one of Park Juhui’s classmates, nodded.

“Come in.”

“...Excuse me.”

In the deep dawn, the conversation was growing long.

* * *

Curator Binarie, the only one among this round of new hires at the Collector’s who was in charge of a 3rd-floor work.

“I knew.”

“As expected... so I was the only one who didn’t know?”

“That isn’t it.”

He was one of the people who had realized long ago that ‘Seo Gio’ was the Black Cloak.

“In my case, I had an intuition from the moment Curator Yoo Seong-woon warned us about the person called Seo Gio... and aside from that, Jeong Eunbyeol 씨, who introduced herself as a B-rank hunter, also suspected it.”

“Ah...”

“It looked like Curator Yoo Seong-woon also roughly noticed that we’d realized something.

And yet he never gave us a separate hint.

It seems that within the Collector’s, the fact that the person called ‘Seo Gio’ is the Black Cloak is common knowledge.”

Binarie added,

“To begin with, the Collector’s doesn’t have a dawn shift.”

“...It’s true the website didn’t have an introduction like that, but I thought they were hiding it because he was important manpower.”

“When I asked the seniors around, they said Seo Gio was the only one who belonged to a dawn shift.”

“But it could have been a measure for the sake of a pretext.”

“Right, you could think of it as a special privilege to accommodate extremely special manpower.”

He shrugged.

“Just like the other classmates are thinking right now.”

“...That’s true.

I still think it’s being hidden too sloppily, but...”

“I think they judged that, as you just realized today, it would still be hidden enough from new hires.”

“Then what happens to people like us who figured out Mr. Seo Gio’s true identity?”

“I think, at the very least, there won’t be any disadvantage.

It could be that they’re watching how we adapt.”

“Why... why is this...”

Stumbling over her words, Park Juhui let out a short breath, then opened her mouth again.

“There are too many things that don’t make sense.

Why didn’t they tell the new hires the fact about the Black Cloak?

It’s a humanoid monster, of all things.”

“Certainly, there was no mention of ‘Mr. Seo Gio’ in the basic training we received.

Maybe it’s because we’re interns who can be made to leave the company at any time.”

“Interns... so, they didn’t tell us for the sake of, like, keeping it secret?

Because they can’t tell important circumstances to interns who can be kicked out anytime.”

Park Juhui pondered.

“But if we don’t receive safety education and cause an accident, isn’t that a bigger problem?

The gallery seniors keep emphasizing it, don’t they—that if people are going to die, it has to end with only the curator dying.”

She heard that if dangerous works cause an incident, it can sometimes grow out of control.

“The important thing, whether it’s works or monsters, should be rules.

If we, who don’t know anything, don’t know ‘Mr. Seo Gio’s’... conditions and end up angering him, wouldn’t that be a bigger disaster?”

“I, and Jeong Eunbyeol 씨 I just mentioned, also had similar thoughts for a moment.

And we reached a conclusion: if you treat Mr. Seo Gio as an ordinary employee, rather, it seems there’s no problem.”

Binarie let out a sigh.

“The Collector’s must have thought it through too.

So, if he’s treated as an ordinary employee, the Black Cloak doesn’t cause any problems, and even if an abnormal phenomenon occurs, he isn’t an existence that causes a huge accident.”

“...Is it the kind of problem where it ends with just us dying?”

“That’s what I was guessing.

So I thought it might be a kind of test.

Whether we’re qualified to become a collector’s collectible, qualified to become a Collector’s employee, qualified to become the Black Cloak’s workplace colleague...”

“Just the fact that we’re here means we have the qualifications to be collectibles.”

“To the Collector’s, it doesn’t matter.

If we keep thinking of him as just an ordinary dawn shift member, that also won’t violate the conditions, and if we realize the Black Cloak’s existence, they can check how well we adapt.”

He laughed awkwardly.

“So we were thinking that the faster we realize Mr. Seo Gio’s true identity... the faster we might be promoted to full-time.

It’s only a guess, though.”

“...Ah, that makes sense.

If all the other employees already know the Black Cloak’s identity, then, like...

The essential condition for being a full-time employee is... that you have to know the Black Cloak’s identity.”

They also knew how devoted Visabel was to his collectibles.

Once promoted to full-time, you can no longer leave Visabel’s collection, and you are not expelled from the Collector’s.

“But if, during the internship period, you already know the Black Cloak’s identity and still show that you adapt well...”

Wouldn’t they be able to accept you with peace of mind in many respects?

“It means not only us, but the Black Cloak also doesn’t dislike this batch of new hires.

Right?”

“That’s right.

So this sloppy security looks like a device to confirm the intentions of two people: the guildmaster and Mr. Seo Gio.”

“I still wish we could know exact information... like the monster’s allowed conditions.”

“Our position isn’t what matters.

And it’s not something that will happen just because we try—only if Mr. Seo Gio permits it can we become full-time employees, isn’t it.”

“...”

Park Juhui’s expression twisted subtly.

“...So... why is that?”

“...It definitely feels like the Collector’s sees the Black Cloak as one basic component.”

“By ‘basic component,’ it would mean they can’t absolutely exclude it...”

“...”

“...Ah.”

She lifted her head.

“No way.”

“Who knows.”

“In the gallery?”

“...Who knows.”

“As a work?”

“...Whew...”

Binarie sighed, then opened his mouth.

“To begin with, even ordinary civilians know the Black Cloak is a portrait.

A certain layer of enthusiasts who covet the portrait series painted by the portrait has also formed.”

“Did the guildmaster bring him in thinking of that as a work?

When Curator Yoo Seong-woon explained ‘Mr. Seo Gio,’ I think he also said he’s one of the collectibles.”

“The Collector’s gallery also has quite a lot of monsters in the form of works.

Raising monsters is clearly illegal, but once they’re brought into the gallery, they’re treated as objects...”

“So the Black Cloak, too, is treated as the guildmaster’s collectible like that?

Really?

Does that make any sense?”

“I think it does.

Maybe the guildmaster brought him in because Mr. Seo Gio didn’t want to leave the Collector’s and kept hanging around—well, there are many possibilities.”

But those weren’t things new hires needed to know.

“Anyway, what’s important is that the Collector’s is no different from Guildmaster Visabel’s gallery.

No matter what damage happens, no matter what changes they accept, I’ve heard the collector is quite greedy... there’s no way he’d want to throw away a peculiar collectible like the Black Cloak, who periodically produces works.”

Binarie made a subtle expression.

“And even if he did throw it away, it’s questionable where he could even throw it.”

“Ah, true...”

“One thing is certain: the Collector’s has already adapted to Mr. Seo Gio’s existence.”

“...Should we think of him as, like, an executive, or a potted plant...”

“A potted plant?”

“Like a potted plant placed in the corridor...”

“Wouldn’t it be better to think of him as a work hanging in the corridor?”

“That’s more accurate, since he is a work.”

Park Juhui finally organized her thoughts.

“So, in the end, the work that should be in the gallery is walking around the company building.”

“It’s possible there are many works besides Mr. Seo Gio that we just don’t know about.”

“If I think of this as not a gallery but a manual inside the company building, I’ll feel more at ease.”

The Collector’s gallery had separate internal manuals prepared because activity differed by floor.

For example: knock three times before opening the 39th door on the 2nd floor, drink water before passing through Corridor 1 on the 4th floor, and so on...

“Well, I’ve roughly gotten a feel for humoring works.”

All those manuals were rules to avoid angering the gallery’s countless works.

If you thought Mr. Seo Gio, who was hiding the fact he is the Black Cloak, was similar to that, it wasn’t so difficult.

“Thank you for helping me understand.”

“We should help each other as fellow new hires.”

“True, they say classmates are important.”

“Because there are many times you need help...”

Even so, she still felt uneasy.

“...”

“...”

“...No matter how I think about it, isn’t this too complacent?”

“...That seems to be the Collector’s motto...”

“Love the works?”

“Yes, that.”

“This...”

It was a humanoid monster walking around, and yet the Collector’s was being run with a mindset of ‘If an accident happens, it can’t be helped.’

There was no safety education of any kind, and no coercive secrecy maintenance, either.

“...Even if we don’t know it, surveillance and evaluation will be happening at all times.

And the moment we leave the company, there will also be measures regarding secrecy.”

“That’s probably true.

There must be countermeasures and all that, but I’m not sure whether within that there’s a means to protect interns like us.”

“Even if we aren’t full-time employees yet, we’ve still stepped into Guildmaster Visabel’s collection, so...

They say the treatment for collectibles is pretty good, so let’s look forward to it.”

Binarie asked in turn.

“But you don’t seem as flustered as I expected?”

“Uh... about finding out Mr. Seo Gio’s identity?”

“Since it’s not like you’ve never met him, and you said you talked with him twice.”

“Well, there’s also the part where it doesn’t feel real enough to react...”

Hesitating, Park Juhui continued.

“...I don’t think he really felt like a person from the moment I first saw him.”

And their conversation also made its way into the Collector’s internal safety management department.

* * *

The safety management department, the only department that works twenty-four hours a day.

After finishing the wiretapping, the employees murmured.

“They realized faster than I thought.”

“It’s because Mr. Seo Gio has been walking around the company a lot lately.”

“He used to come out only in the late dawn...”

“Yeah, lately we see him often even during working hours, don’t we?”

“Did he have some change of heart?”

Sip.

An employee who drank coffee asked.

“Three already realized it—should we just promote them to full-time?”

“That’s not something we decide.”

“Hasn’t the guildmaster confirmed it yet?”

“We also need to check the Black Cloak’s intentions.”

“Well, still, it looked like he liked this batch.”

“Just the fact they weren’t dragged into the portrait right away is a pass.”

“Seems like only polite and nice people gathered among this batch of new hires.”

“In the end, it’s going to depend on Mr. Seo Gio’s standards, though.”

“Even just that means they pass as human...”

Sipping coffee the color of lethal poison and staring fixedly at the CCTV, an employee spoke.

“Still, Mr. Seo Gio’s activity has definitely increased lately.”

“He comes out often even when there are lots of people.”

“Did Curator Yoo Seong-woon say anything in particular?”

“There hasn’t been any report or request submitted separately—he just said to keep an eye on things.”

“I heard that too.

Mm, he said to keep an eye on things, and there’s no submitted document...”

“But we do know what topic Mr. Seo Gio has been interested in lately.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

The safety management chief sighed.

“He’s going around asking about wicked gods.”

“Why wicked gods all of a sudden?”

“More precisely, he was asking about the definition and qualifications of a wicked god.”

“Could it be about Mr. Seo Gio himself?”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Well, it’s still a work we can’t even test, so we can’t be sure...”

An employee who was about to say something stopped short.

“Uh.”

“Hey, Gyeongu.

That gentleman is looking at the CCTV.”

“Pausing Screen 14, No. 53.”

Just before the Black Cloak walking the corridor looked back at the CCTV, the employees cut off the broadcast.

As a black screen fell, other employees watching other screens also let out sighs of relief.

Then the chief spoke.

“You know that employee who eye-kissed Mr. Seo Gio passionately through the screen last time and collapsed?”

“It wasn’t collapsing... more like fainting?

Right?”

“Isn’t that the same thing?

Anyway, yeah, Ha Ryuseo.

When is she coming back?”

“They say she’s still going around the counseling office.”

“Hasn’t it been a while?

Damn it, we’re short-staffed...”

“They said they still can’t send her back because it looks like she might make a cult if they do.”

“My god, that serious?

This is bad.

We can’t use our annual leave.”

“Why are you acting like that’s new—just take it as money.”

“I want to take time off without taking money.”

“Me too.”

An employee turned the screen back on, and in the place the Black Cloak had disappeared, only a single portrait remained.

Looking at the portrait alone in the empty corridor, the chief said,

“Damn, what an atmosphere.”

The screen warped.

Inside the portrait, Mr. Seo Gio beyond the black paint was meeting their ‘eyes.’

Fantasy, Modern,