chapter 197

Chapter 197

Gio smiled.

“Did you come to see me?”

“Yes!”

Cha Isol smiled too.

“But where is this? It’s not a beach.”

“One of the rooms in the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea.’”

“What were you doing, hyung?”

“As you can see...”

Clank.

Gio waved his hand.

“I was tied up.”

“Huh.”

“You’ve probably never seen someone tied up before—will you be mentally okay?”

“W-why are you tied up? And it’s not my first time seeing it, I saw it on the news...”

“They’re a bit different in nature from those people.”

Gio hadn’t committed any particular crime and been arrested and sent over.

“If you want to get strict about it, my very existence is illegal.”

“What is that?”

“Yeah, what is it?”

People these days seemed to live in a very complicated way.

“Back in my day, even if an alien showed up, people would just go, ‘Well, okay,’ and move on.”

“Wow, really?”

“Of course.”

Wouldn’t they just dismiss it as nonsense and move on? But this world now, maybe because it wouldn’t be strange even if real aliens appeared, made it hard for a portrait like Gio to live.

“Why did the conversation come all the way here?”

“Why are you tied up?”

“Ah, right. Those nasty mermaids kidnapped me.”

“Eunha?”

“That’s right. Student Eunha did it.”

“Uh...”

Cha Isol was flustered.

“Why did Eunha do that?”

“He said he wants to die with me and live with me.”

“Why would he say that? That’s too much.”

“Right?”

Gio asked with a laugh.

“But—will you be all right even staying here?”

The place he was confined now was one of what used to be the pope’s residences, a place the pope mainly used when he stayed in the temple. Gio thought this place was similar to Joseon’s main throne hall or council hall.

But of course, it wasn’t a safe space like the old temple had been.

“It’s a dungeon, even if it looks like this.”

“It looks like a dungeon no matter how you look at it.”

“Hm, I see.”

The atmosphere had become rather grim.

The temple was lavishly decorated with gold, jewels, and marble, but for some reason it was filled with a chilly air, and with rust and damage everywhere, it was no different from a haunted house. The gloomy atmosphere unique to the deep sea was vivid.

A tight pressure you’d only feel before a gigantic deep-sea creature. Skeletons strewn about along with greedy riches. A temple within a temple, glittering yet reflecting cold water-scales...

Gio was bound to the pope’s throne in the middle of it all.

“Iser and Aria have probably sensed that Student Cha Isol came.”

“I came through that portrait?”

“Yes. Since it happened right in front of my eyes, I know very well.”

“But they still know? The mermaids?”

“This is the mermaids’ home.”

It was the mermaids’ sea, made one with them.

“No matter that you came through a portrait, they aren’t children who wouldn’t recognize my aura.”

Cha Isol drew ‘Gio’s portrait,’ and ‘Gio’s portrait’ accepted Cha Isol. There was a slight problem because it was a portrait without an owner, but with the help of the teddy-bear father who was at home, it became possible.

And remarkably, Cha Isol expressed the intention to meet Gio. Gio wasn’t in a state where he could move, so he didn’t know the situation well up to how it became this way, but anyway, Cha Isol could go back. Right now, at least.

“This is a dangerous place, so it would be best to go back to the safe Sun Temple.”

“But I want to help with something too.”

“My goodness, how can you be this admirable. But no.”

“Ehh.”

“Kids don’t help with things like this.”

“You’re saying the exact same thing as Ruda...”

“Lee Ruda is truly a very clever friend.”

Argio thought a child shouldn’t be in a battlefield like this.

“A child has the right to be protected, but also obligations. The time only children as young as Student Cha Isol can enjoy is extremely limited. I believe that time should be spent enjoying pure happiness.”

But Cha Isol’s stubbornness, coming all the way here to the point of crawling through a portrait, was tremendous.

“Then as long as I don’t get hurt and don’t feel pain, it’s okay, right?”

“Isn’t just seeing me like this mental pain?”

“The more I look, the more I think I’m getting used to it.”

“That’s exactly why you mustn’t get used to it, Student Cha Isol—your purity is being worn away.”

“Being with you, hyung, it doesn’t feel like it’ll be dangerous. Do I really have to go out? I’ll stay quiet.”

“I’d rather you hadn’t gotten involved in this at all.”

“I’m going to sit here and chat with you, hyung. I wanted to treat the injured people at the coast, but I couldn’t even do that...”

“Am I not being heard?”

“Since I already came, I don’t want to do nothing. If I’m alone I’ll be bored, so I’ll at least do this.”

“You’re so admirable and so frustrating it’s driving me insane.”

Gio smiled brightly.

“Go back.”

“No.”

“Hey now, go back.”

Because he was tied up by the mermaids, he couldn’t even send Cha Isol back home. Normally he’d just turn her into paint, but it seemed the mermaids had done some research too—no matter what he did, it wouldn’t come undone.

Realizing Gio couldn’t forcibly send her back, Cha Isol squatted down right by Gio’s feet. With a bright face, Cha Isol asked.

“You can’t send me back, can you?”

“You’re the kind of child who knows ten things without being told one.”

“Then how did you call me?”

“Please speak precisely, Student Cha Isol. You crossed over yourself.”

“But the portrait just opened up?”

“It was a portrait without an owner, so my father accepted you.”

“Ah, so that’s why Grandpa Teddy Bear...”

“More than anything, you yourself opened the frame and came in, Student Cha Isol.”

“Huh.”

Cha Isol blinked.

“You didn’t open it for me?”

“My will was not reflected, and strictly speaking, I only gave you a key so you could express the intention to visit. A house key.”

“A house key...? Ah.”

He stroked her forehead.

“This?”

“Yes, that.”

It was the ‘fragment’ Giovanni, as the sun god, had given Cha Isol.

“It has the function of sharing part of the abilities I can use, but I am a portrait. As my characteristics were shared along with that, Student Cha Isol gained the ability to draw portraits as well.”

“But Grandpa helped me go inside.”

“You’re still unskilled, Student Cha Isol. Since you’re not a perfect portrait like me, it seems you can only create a frame, but coming in is difficult. So my father must have helped.”

“Woooow...”

“I intended to share other abilities little by little, but if I’d known you were this brave, I would have thought harder even about the fragment I gave then. You’re more active than I imagined.”

Cha Isol tilted her head.

“You didn’t know I’d be like this?”

“It’s true I’m smarter than average, but that doesn’t mean I know everything in the world.”

“No, you do. It feels like you’d know everything. Because you’re a god, hyung.”

“Not only am I not a proper god, but then what would I live for, exactly?”

Gio did not want to be omniscient or wise in all things.

“I truly didn’t think you would come all the way here, Student Cha Isol.”

And he also hadn’t thought his father, ignorant of human frailty, would send a child no bigger than a palm right in front of his nose. How could he send a kid, knowing how harsh this place was? A kid.

“My father guided you to the ‘Breathing Sea,’ correct?”

“That frame’s name was ‘Breathing Sea’?”

“If you mean the painting of the sea, then yes.”

“Then I think I’m right.”

“My, I should have hidden it tighter.”

‘Breathing Sea’ and ‘Nation of the Deep Sea’ were connected spaces. Gio also roughly knew it, since he’d often wandered around this temple through it before.

“My father must have placed the ‘Breathing Sea’ in this room because he took Student Cha Isol’s words that she wanted to see me at face value. And Student Cha Isol came to me through that frame, pleased.”

Fortunately, the ‘Breathing Sea’ frame itself still remained. The view from this side was the peaceful scenery of a cabin, but in any case, it meant Cha Isol had an escape route open—if only temporarily.

“If anything happens, run away through there.”

“Yes!”

“I feel very uneasy, so it would be even better if you go now.”

“No!”

“Who did you take after to be this steadfast?”

That integrity and firmness was greater than winter bamboo.

“Fortunately, Iser and Aria also don’t seem to utterly dislike Student Cha Isol, and they are people I can communicate with to some extent, so there shouldn’t be a big problem.”

“Then can I stay here?”

“You already are, aren’t you? Since you’re quite skilled at hearing me with one ear and letting it out the other, I’ll endure it—because there’s nothing I can do right now. But from next time on, you must never do this.”

He could have sent his will to his father to take Cha Isol away, but the sun god didn’t seem like he would welcome that. His cute teddy-bear grandpa, after all, had never been human, so he had no conscience either.

‘He’ll probably just leave Student Cha Isol be, saying it’ll be helpful to both.’

More than anything, Giovanni’s homeland was a world where children’s rights were not established. It didn’t make sense for Giovanni’s father, who had been that world’s god, to now worry about Cha Isol’s safety.

“What a dead end.”

“What’s a dead end?”

“It’s a term used when you enjoy a game called janggi, and it’s also used when you’re in a situation where no matter what you do, you’re bound to lose.”

“Did you lose, hyung?”

“Ha ha, I lost to Student Cha Isol.”

He would have to fix that lack of safety awareness someday. Kids these days were far too bold and precocious.

“Did you properly tell Student Lee Ruda or the other teachers? If you said you were going to see me, who would have been dispatched to the coast with the Black Cloak’s help, it seems like you wouldn’t have been able to come like this.”

Cha Isol blinked.

“Uh... I came as soon as I thought of it, so I contacted them later.”

“It was decided from there that you would be scolded, but how exactly did you ‘contact’ them?”

“I got stationery from Grandpa Teddy Bear and...”

“I would appreciate it if you didn’t just say you ‘sent a letter.’”

“I sent a letter, though.”

“My goodness.”

Gio let out a sigh.

“It probably didn’t get delivered.”

“Huh? Why? I saw it go.”

“As I said earlier, since you are not a portrait, Student Cha Isol, um...”

“So?”

“To put it simply, you can’t pay the call fee.”

“...Call fee?”

“Even if I, who am more proficient with portraits than Student Cha Isol, send a letter, the writing gets smudged.”

It was a problem that occurred in the process of a drawing becoming reality. When something virtual became something of Earth, it was corrupted during interpretation and analysis. Because of that, Gio’s letters had the problem of being essentially unreadable.

“Then what about Student Cha Isol?”

“Ah, so it won’t send...?”

“Even if it does send, there’s a high possibility it will be lost in the process.”

“...Then no reply will come either...?”

“I haven’t received a reply even once yet. For now, only one-way communication is possible.”

“Uh...”

Only then did Cha Isol’s face turn pale.

“I... I came without telling Ruda!!”

Judging that it couldn’t be dangerous since Gio would be there, she’d come running over, but even the message she’d written—something like, ‘I’ll go check first, so if it’s really safe, would you think about coming with me just one more time? Of course, if you don’t want to, that’s fine. I’ll wait for your reply!’—hadn’t even been delivered, meaning the whole situation was outside the discussion.

So she sprang up and ran to the portrait, but—

“Huh?! It’s gone!!”

“O Sun...”

Giovanni sighed.

‘There’s no need to be this childish.’

Of course, even if this would likely become a process where both Gio and Cha Isol would grow, he didn’t want to forcibly make a child develop. If there was an easier road, why reject it? Why would you?

‘I’ll have to talk about this later.’

It wasn’t that the teddy-bear sun god had malice. For example, it was probably the desire to raise a game character’s stats. Like sending them into battle to gain experience and level up.

The sun genuinely believed this path would help the two, and that, too, was based on affection. And if the sun followed human sympathy and the ethics of feeble life, that would be ridiculous.

“I will apologize on his behalf, Student Cha Isol. It seems my father closed the door.”

“W-why...? It was open just a moment ago...”

“If it seems like you might be in danger, he will open it again, but until then, it will likely stay like this. He probably wants you to develop through this process.”

“Development is all well and good, but first, I need to explain to Ruda... I really just need one excuse...! I really only meant to come see you for a moment because I knew it wouldn’t be dangerous...!!”

“Isn’t your intention to sit down by my side far too firm for that?”

“That was because being with you is safe, hyung, so I was going to wait with you until Ruda’s reply came...!”

“My, how pitiful. But Father will not open the door.”

Giovanni laughed. Having served a god, Giovanni had an intuition for how the situation would flow.

“Because there is a fate that can only be obtained if Student Lee Ruda does not know about this.”

If he couldn’t squeeze out even this much fate, it really proved he wasn’t a god after all.

‘So this is the true power of a real god.’

Yeah, I’m ordinary enough.

* * *

“After all...”

The Sun Church priests reached a conclusion.

“It seems a mermaid kidnapped Apprentice Priest Cha Isol.”

“They say Hunter Seo Gio is in the same situation...”

“On top of that, Cha Isol’s siblings had the same thing happen before too.”

“Could it be that the evil god in the laboratory also entered the Sun Church and approached Cha Isol’s siblings?”

“Sancalut’s cult and the mermaids could have joined hands. Of all people, the Black Cloak’s apostles.”

“It may be a hasty judgment, but it seems the mermaids are trying to check the Black Cloak.”

“In fact, they say the mermaid called Iser made a similar remark.”

“What on earth is going to happen...”

Ruda teared up.

“...Give Cha Isol back...”

“We’ll contact them about this soon. Perhaps she’s in the dungeon.”

“Do you know how low the probability is that a kidnapped child victim returns alive...?”

“We know well too, but we haven’t even been given an entry order yet...”

“I want to be dispatched too...!”

With her partner possibly dying at any moment, she had no intention of staying safe alone.

“Send me out!!”

Everything was according to god’s will.

(To be continued in the next episode)