Chapter 53

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 53

Meanwhile, the collectors’ guild employees who received the same official notice as Cha Ara were very flustered.

“...?”

“What is this?”

“Did the guildmaster pull a prank or something...?”

“He’s not the type to joke around with an official notice.”

It was true that Bisabeol played pranks with high probability, but surprisingly, he was a person who clearly separated public and private matters.

Unless it was a problem related to his collecting obsession, Bisabeol, who always maintained a gentlemanly attitude, had no reason to play a prank in an official notice.

“Is it some kind of ghost story.”

“This is that black-cloak story, right?”

The employees fell into confusion.

“So is this ‘Gio’ a person or a ghost...”

1.

The name of the man wearing a black cloak is Gio.

2.

Gio is a dawn-shift employee.

Do not ask about his identity.

3.

If Gio wants to exchange names, tell him your name.

There is no problem at all.

4.

No matter what conversation Gio initiates, respond kindly and politely.

If the conversation was successful, you will receive a gift from Gio.

5. Since Rule 4 is exaggerated, you do not have to follow it.

6. Ignore Rule 5.

Let’s become employees who are always polite to customers and colleagues.

7.

You may give a gift to Gio.

In this case, be sure to receive a return gift from Gio.

8.

If there is a frame hanging inside the building that you have not seen before, ignore it.

It will be removed before daybreak as an experimental installation by the dawn shift.

Do not touch the work or scratch it.

9.

Bad people cannot go before the portrait on Basement Level 5.

Especially, be careful not to visit the portrait at dawn.

The official notice said to treat him like a person, but judging by the nuance, it carried the meaning of, ‘This bastard is absolutely not human, but don’t let it show—everyone, use your common sense and handle it well.’

“...”

“...”

The employees foresaw a future where they would be tired.

They exchanged looks with one another.

“How should we interpret this?”

“...For now, let’s have each team gather and figure out the situation.”

“Oh, Guildmaster...”

As befitting the collectors’ guild, where only cynical people gathered, they didn’t cling any further and coolly gathered among themselves to discuss.

Because they knew nothing would be accomplished by staying confused.

“First, the very first discussion is: is this a joke or is it serious.

If you have an opinion, I’d appreciate it if you tell us without holding back.”

“First off, I don’t think it’s a joke.

Our guildmaster is someone who knows very well how much he can sway employees with a single official notice.

When it comes to works and art, people often get ruined, but in everyday life, he’s someone who maintains a neat attitude, too.”

“I think the same.

However, I think Rules 4 and 5 are a joke.

It’s formatted like someone pulled a prank on the rules the guildmaster organized...”

To that, an employee said,

“Couldn’t it be that someone really did mess with the rules the guildmaster organized?

The most likely one is the ‘Gio’ written in these rules—so, the ‘black cloak.’

That ghost suspected to be a humanoid monster.”

“Ah... that’s included in what I meant by it being a joke.

This official notice isn’t being shared in real time, and it could have been edited 충분히, but they still sent it like this.

It seems the guildmaster is enjoying this ghost-story atmosphere, so...”

“That’s a valid point.”

Whether Bisabeol organized these rules in a format where two selves check each other, or whether ‘Gio’ tampered with the rules Bisabeol organized, Bisabeol didn’t fix it and still distributed it, so either way it was a prank.

“However, in that case, we can define that these rules are sufficiently worth familiarizing ourselves with.”

“Looking at it, they sent the official notice to all employees except temporary staff under six months.

If you see that they took measures so the official notice doesn’t leak outside the guild, you can tell this incident is quite important.”

“Then we’ll conclude the first discussion as ‘it’s serious.’”

“I agree.”

“I agree as well.”

Second, the employees examined the contents of the rules.

“Certainly, these rules do seem to be targeting the ‘black cloak’ we knew.

Thanks to several sightings, it was also known quietly that his name is Gio.

However, introducing his identity like this in the first sentence seems to be for the sake of informing us of that existence.”

“It says he’s a dawn-shift employee and not to ask about his identity.

This is certainly because the black cloak dislikes being asked about his identity.

I don’t know the reason, though...”

One employee asked,

“To begin with, is the black cloak human or a monster?

Shouldn’t we confirm that before moving on?”

“But they even sent an official notice like this in an ambiguous ghost-story format.

It seems like the guildmaster is indirectly saying he has no intention of telling us the black cloak’s exact identity.”

“Still, we can make guesses.”

“No, think about it again.”

The employee shook his head.

“The more we know, the more likely it is we’ll end up taking on a troublesome job.”

“You’re wise.

Then it would be best to treat the black cloak as Schrödinger’s human.

Until we open it ourselves, everyone should regard the black cloak as a dawn-shift employee the guildmaster secretly brought in.”

“Right, isn’t the official notice’s nuance also that we should treat ‘Gio’ as human.

If the guildmaster told us to do that, it’s a subordinate’s virtue to follow.”

Virtue or whatever—employees who didn’t want to take on extra work all nodded.

It really was a guild running precariously.

But whether it was a ghost story, a human, a ghost, or whatever, there wasn’t a single employee who wanted to know the details of the incident that Bisabeol was taking this much pleasure in and paying attention to.

“The more you know, the more work they’ll dump on you.”

“Still, they pay you more, don’t they?”

“I’d rather not take it and not work.

I have to go home and walk Choco.”

“Well...”

They were sincere about work-life balance.

“Anyway, doesn’t ‘don’t ask about his identity’ mean that the employee named Gio dislikes questions probing his identity?”

“This keeps getting more and more like, human or whatever, he’s just a monster...”

“Hey, if you don’t want extra work, be quiet.

Still, since it says there’s no disadvantage when exchanging names, at least he isn’t an existence that messes around with contracts.”

“You’re treating him like a monster right now too, Team Leader.”

“I said be quiet.”

Unless it was an especially special situation, there was no way Bisabeol would do something that would damage one of his collections—in this case, employees.

So it seemed true that there was no disadvantage in exchanging names.

“But the fact that the word ‘exchange names’ appears in an official notice—doesn’t that mean the black cloak tries to exchange names that often?”

“Everyone exchanges names.”

“Even so, if it appears in an official notice, it means the black cloak conducts name exchanges in a pretty unnatural way, and no matter how you look at it, this is a monster imitating humans...”

“Quiet.”

“Sorry, it’s just too absurd.”

The analysis continued.

“It says to respond kindly and politely no matter what conversation he initiates.”

“After that, it also says, ‘Let’s become employees who are always polite to customers and colleagues.’”

“Since it was emphasized twice, it seems the black cloak dislikes rude people.”

“And bad people too.”

An employee pointed at Rule 9.

“‘Bad people cannot go before the portrait on Basement Level 5.

Especially, be careful not to visit the portrait at dawn.’”

“...”

“Seeing as it blocks access entirely, it seems the penalty the black cloak places on ‘evil’ is greater than on ‘rudeness.’

It would be best to prevent hunters with criminal records from entering as much as possible.”

“No, ah, seriously.”

A young employee who had been grumbling from earlier rubbed his face dry.

“Fuck, even if I try to treat him like a human, the way this guildmaster talks is really...”

“Calm down. He’s still the guildmaster, and he’s always been like that.

You may not have known and signed the contract, but anyway, now everyone knows.”

“You’re right.”

“But it’s now certain that the black cloak has a deep connection with the portrait in Basement Gallery Level 5.

From what I heard, recently the Level 5 gallery has a portrait of some man the guildmaster bought at auction—mm, yes.”

“...”

“Let’s stop here.”

No matter how much they figured out the identity, the truth was useless to employees who hated extra work to an extreme degree.

Even while analyzing the official notice to avoid mistakes, they clenched their teeth and ignored Gio’s identity.

“Let’s go back to Rule 4.

It doesn’t just emphasize manners—it says afterward, ‘If the conversation was successful, you will receive a gift from Gio.’”

“Then if you have a conversation that doesn’t satisfy Gio and you don’t receive a gift, is there a separate punishment?

Like being sick all day...?”

“Seeing as the guildmaster seems to be simply leaving the black cloak alone, it doesn’t seem like there will be a problem severe enough to greatly interfere with life or daily living.

However, the black cloak seems to loathe rude counterparts, so a ‘conversation that isn’t satisfying’ could also be judged as a kind of rudeness.”

“Then rather than not receiving a gift that day, those ‘rudenesses’ could pile up and provoke the black cloak’s hostility.

That could definitely become dangerous, so we should be careful so there isn’t an incident where you don’t receive gifts three times or more.”

“I don’t know if the black cloak’s patience will even last three times... but for now, understood.”

The employees exchanged glances after seeing Rule 5.

“This is, as expected...”

“The black cloak wrote it, right.”

“‘Since it’s exaggerated, don’t follow the rule.’

What does that mean?”

“It could be that it’s waiting for us to let our guard down by following Rule 4.”

“Creepy.”

There were many monsters like that.

Monsters that deliberately let humans break the monster’s rule, then use the rule-breaking as a pretext to attack or harass them.

“Then it means he knows Hangul, at least, right?”

“According to the night guards’ sightings, he introduced himself as ‘Seo Gio.’

It seems he copied Korean form, and if so, maybe he’s also familiar with Korean culture.”

“You said we should treat him as Schrödinger’s human, Team Leader.”

“Ah, um... yes, there are humans who are ignorant of other cultures too, right?”

The team leader waved his hand as if telling them to just gloss over it.

“Rule 7 isn’t hard to understand either.

If you want to give something to the black cloak, be sure to receive a return gift.

This part is probably the black cloak’s rule.”

“So this is just a monster...”

“Shh.

There are people who value rules everywhere in the world.

We don’t know how directly we’ll be interacting with the black cloak going forward, but if you do give the black cloak something, make sure you receive a return gift.”

“He must really like repaying kindness with kindness.”

“Seems so. He’s quite kind, too.”

They were still gritting their teeth and avoiding the truth.

“Isn’t Rule 9 hard to happen in the first place?

The last floor, Basement Level 5 gallery, is restricted in who can enter.

Is this a rule for curators?”

“That seems likely.”

Once they had roughly organized things, the employees dispersed on their own.

“Sometime soon, I should buy the curators a meal or something...”

They sympathized with the curators who managed the gallery.

At that time, countless curators were holding back tears.

“Please don’t let it be me.”

“Anyway, ‘Gio’s Portrait’ isn’t our assignment.”

“If Mr. Yoo Sungwoon can’t come because he’s busy, we have to do it.”

“Ah...”

It was the same for the dawn guards.

“...They say it’s that scary.”

“...We just have to be careful, I guess...”

Anyway, if we follow the rules, it won’t interfere with our lives, right.

Then that’s enough—employees accepted it calmly.

* * *

“...So it ended up like this again...”

Yoo Sungwoon nodded.

“It seems you chose your employees very well.”

“They’re all so indifferent.

As expected of our collectors’ guild members, who hate extra work more than death.”

“In any case, they’ll adapt well.”

Bisabeol said there was no way to confine ‘Gio’s Portrait,’ and he himself also didn’t want his work to be abused that harshly.

With the opinion of Yoo Sungwoon, the gardener, added in, they devised a way for the ‘black cloak’ to blend appropriately into human society.

You could call this a kind of vaccination.

Bisabeol laughed, saying that even on a pan-human level, it wasn’t a judgment that would be a loss.

The way he looked as if, even if a few people died, so what, was brazen in a way befitting an S-rank.

“And about Hunter Cha Ara you saw last time.”

“Oh, does that friend have a problem?”

“Well...”

Yoo Sungwoon scratched his neck.

“It seems Gio will soon meet that family.”

“My goodness.”

Bisabeol’s face brightened.

“Is Gio going out again?”

“I reported in the last report too that he seems likely to watch the Sun Church initiation ceremony.”

“I thought, since he doesn’t like noisy things much, he might change his mind.”

“I was worried about that too and asked again, but he still says he’s thinking of going out.”

“It seems the first outing went very smoothly, but I don’t know if the second one can be the same.”

“Strictly speaking, isn’t it the third outing?

Gio already met Hunter Cha Ara in ‘Jewel Ley Lines.’”

“To be exact, we can call that the portrait’s official human imitation.

A joyful thing.”

“...Joyful...”

“Has the sea been noisy lately.

You said Gio’s personality is changing too... hmm.”

“...”

Yoo Sungwoon felt uneasy.

“...The way you’re speaking like this is a bit strange—did you perhaps see something?

Like the future?”

“My skill is Emotion.

Please refrain from strange tall tales, Curator Yoo Sungwoon.”

Bisabeol smiled.

“Still, it sounds like it’ll be fun.”

“...”

Yoo Sungwoon clenched his teeth.

Bisabeol, rumored to have good eyes, saying ‘it’ll be fun’—that was truly something that shortened his lifespan.

Fantasy, modern,