Chapter 54

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 54

Meanwhile, in the peaceful cabin.

Gio was looking after the new family member.

“Is this little one fully grown?”

“Gyarreureu.”

“Cute.”

It was a cuteness that calmed the heart.

Seeing it flop over and flutter its four paws, Gio lightly took hold of the Anti-cat’s two front paws.

Earth’s cats hated it when you held their paws, but the Anti-cat didn’t seem to dislike it much.

Like playing with a newborn, he held its front paws lightly and waved them a few times.

“Grrreureung...”

“Doesn’t seem like you dislike it.”

“Miak.”

“A cat is a cat, I guess.”

“Mmmmeung.”

“It’s really cold.”

The Anti-cat’s body was cool, like touching a stalactite in a deserted cave.

“Honey, you’re the exact opposite.”

“Ggururuk?”

“You’re warm.”

Maybe because it evolved with lulupu sap grown under sunlight and moonlight, Honey’s tiny bean-sized body was very warm.

It also seemed like its temperature had risen even more thanks to being doted on by the sun god without restraint lately.

“If you’re this cold, would it be hard for you to stick close to Honey...”

He wasn’t sure if there was any scientific basis, but didn’t it feel like if you held creatures that were originally cold-bodied, like fish or frogs, with human hands, you might get burned?

“If it’s uncomfortable when I touch you, say so, little one.”

“...”

“You’re keeping your mouth shut like a ghost.

Good girl, good girl.

Very clever.”

Seems like it isn’t uncomfortable.

“You also seem to understand words.”

That was quite a curiosity.

‘It sparkles like a jewel... like some kind of crystallized thing.’

The Anti-cat’s body was like that of a kitten only a few months old.

Its body held dense glittering light like a well-cut diamond.

Maybe because of that, unlike Honey, whose body was completely transparent, it also looked opaque.

“Cool.”

“Mulk.”

“You can even glow on your own—good job.”

Beside him, Honey stared fixedly at Gio.

“...”

“...Of course, you too are good, Honey.”

“Kung.”

“Aw, you’re pretty.”

“Ggurur.”

Raising kids is really hard.

“Anyway, what does our youngest eat to grow?”

By his rough check, it seemed to live by sucking vitality.

On Earth, they treated it like a kind of ghost, but if it’s a ghost this cute, he felt like he wouldn’t mind having his vitality sucked once.

“I might need to make you a cat tower soon... I do have a knack for making hidey tunnels.”

“Gyarreureu.”

“There are plenty of tall, rugged trees around here, so climbing them would be good, but inside the house too, the Anti-cat will need its own territory.

If it resembles a cat, then being sensitive about its own territory will be the same.”

“Miak.”

“The place our youngest lived was ‘Jewel Ley Lines,’ so an environment similar to that might be fun.

If I make a hidey house like a dark anthill and put some jewels inside... that should be okay.”

Then it was time to choose a name.

“Sparkle...”

“...”

“...Is it déjà vu.”

It was similar to Honey’s reaction when he first thought of the word ‘Gold Nugget’ for Honey’s name.

A reaction as if asking, ‘Are you serious, human?’

Gio tried to wring out a little more creativity.

“...”

After a moment of silence, he muttered softly.

“Dana?”

Among Korean names, it holds the meaning of “a person who is always ahead,” but that wasn’t why he thought of the name “Dana.”

“I kept thinking of diamonds, so I tried to give you a similar name, but ‘diamond’ is too long.

And even shortened to ‘Dai-a,’ it still felt too long.”

But shortening it to “Da-a” or “Dai” felt too shameless.

“So I tweaked it a little from there—Dana. How about it?”

“Mm-eung.”

“Glad you like it.”

He passed the screening.

“Whew.”

Gio dedicated this honor to all name-givers around the world.

As expected, naming is not an easy thing.

“Now let’s go prepare a meal.”

“Ggurururururuk.”

“Naming you made me hungry.”

He also had to organize the bone broth.

“Fortunately, it seems it suited Student Cha Ara’s taste.”

Earth’s bone broth has a lot of things to pay attention to.

The cleaning process was similar, but after that, you had to adjust the fire and remove the impurities that rise up—devotion like that went into it.

“The very first bone broth that comes out has the drawback that it’s excessively greasy and too heavy to eat as-is.

Even when I boiled bone broth at home, it felt a waste to throw it away so I used it somehow, but the fact that bone broth drawn from Earth’s cattle is troublesome doesn’t change.”

“Mmeung?”

“Such a thing exists.”

Even if it understood words, Dana the Anti-cat still wasn’t fully accustomed yet, and as if saying, ‘I don’t understand a single word,’ it sagged over Gio’s shoulder.

It was heavier than he expected, and amusing.

Meanwhile, Honey, who knew Gio enjoyed cooking, calmly listened.

A true gourmet knows the origin of the food they will eat and can enjoy it more deeply.

That was Honey and Gio.

“In that sense, Tree-Antler Deer bone broth is extremely independent.”

If you just leave it over a weak fire for three days, without even having to skim out impurities, the bones and cartilage melt away.

“If you want to be picky, Tree-Antler Deer really has nothing to throw away.”

“Ggururuk.”

Honey, who had eaten every last organ except part of the intestines, showed fierce agreement.

Wagging his tail feathers in a good mood, Honey looked back at Gio from the opposite shoulder from Dana.

“...”

“...?”

Looking as if he’d remembered something, Gio soon realized what Honey meant as well.

“...Ah.”

Come to think of it, there had been that jeweled heart he obtained while dismantling the Tree-Antler Deer.

“I forgot to check it.”

“Kungkungkung...”

“After you finish eating today, if there’s no problem, I’ll give it to you, Honey.”

Since jewels were everywhere and he could make them himself, Gio didn’t covet the jeweled heart.

Even though it was clearly part of a dead body, it somehow felt like it was still alive, which made him feel strange.

“But if it seems like it’ll upset your stomach, Dad will store it.”

“Kkuk.”

Honey didn’t throw a tantrum that far.

Gio smiled happily.

“Good job.”

He was happy to have an earnest and good son.

Gio himself probably wasn’t such a good person, but he still thought it was a great blessing to keep meeting only good families his whole life.

Skillfully fixing Dana’s slumped posture, Gio said,

“Actually, the bone broth itself was complete from when I gave Student Cha Ara rice cooked with it, but still, if we want to keep it in the ice storehouse and eat it for a long time, it seems better if it’s more concentrated, so I boiled it down a bit thicker.

Later, when we need it, we can just add more water.”

“Ggururururururuk.”

“Yeah, you waited a lot too.

I can vividly see you pacing around the hearth because you wanted to eat it, but you really held out well.

You’ve got strong patience, so you’ll become a great bird later.”

Honey originally liked liquid foods.

The waiting so far must have been quite harsh.

Gio acknowledged Honey’s patience and praised him as he went to the cauldron where the bone broth was still boiling.

“Oh...”

When he lifted the lid, a sweet scent hit him at once.

“Nice.”

“Ggurukggurukggguruk...”

“It’ll be hot right now.”

“Kung.”

“If you really insist, I’ll ladle you some.”

Honey had received the sun god’s touch again and again without any problems.

Now, broth simmered a while over firewood wouldn’t be an issue.

Gio was about to ladle some broth into a small bowl and give it to Honey.

And then Gio saw it.

“Honey.”

“Gguruk.”

“It would be good for my mind and body if you came out.”

Honey was dunked—plop—inside the cauldron.

“Kungkungkung...”

“I don’t want to eat broth made by brewing my son.

This isn’t a scene from Greek and Roman mythology—what kind of human scum are you trying to turn me into?”

In the meantime, judging by how much he’d eaten, Honey had expanded from a sparrow to about a pigeon.

If he went to the animal hospital like this, he would definitely hear, ‘Severe obesity, so the guardian needs to pay attention.’

“It’s already concentrated, so the taste will be even deeper—what are you doing.”

“Kungkungkungkungkung...”

“Eating too salty is bad for your health.

Dad can make it taste better, so let’s calm down a bit.”

Grumbling, Honey crawled out of the cauldron.

“...”

“...You too?”

“Aekok.”

Was it because she’d been impressed by the older brother’s antics, boldly crawling into the cauldron to taste it anywhere, anytime?

Dana, who had been drooping on his shoulder like slime without much motivation, plopped down beside the cauldron.

‘With Dana’s low body temperature, it seems like it would be a bit hot.’

Gio cooled the broth he had ladled as much as possible and handed it to Dana.

“...”

Lick.

“...”

“Oh.”

At the sight of it glowing faintly across its whole body without a sound, Gio nodded.

‘Looks like it likes it.’

Unlike Honey, who was chatty, it seemed Dana expressed its mood by making its whole body glow.

As a father and as a cook, Gio felt proud, and warmly prepared the meal.

“There’s rice left from when Student Cha Ara came, so let’s eat that.”

“Gguruk.”

“Mang.”

Dana, who hadn’t shown much interest in eating, seemed to have felt something after tasting bone broth.

Seeing it trail after Honey, meddling in meal prep, was very interesting.

“See, there’s nothing that works on kids like something tasty...”

Gio scraped out rice cooked in bone broth.

After scooping up every last grain of still-fluffy rice, he neatly scraped out the scorched rice left on the bottom.

Maybe because of the greasiness of the bone broth he’d used to cook the rice, it scraped off very cleanly.

“Who wants scorched rice.”

When Gio asked after rolling the scorched rice into simple snacks, both creatures reacted.

“Ggurururuk.

Ggururururuk.”

“Mang, miak, aekok... mmeungmangmangmang.”

“...Let’s cut it.”

Even with the clamor, what choice could be more historic and wise than Solomon’s wisdom?

Gio neatly cut the scorched-rice rice ball in half, and once it came to that, the two companion creatures no longer grumbled.

While they were distracted by the scorched-rice rice balls, Gio finished preparing the meal.

“With bone-broth rice, I should try making one grilled rice ball.”

Even saying that didn’t mean he would really grill just one.

“For side dishes, grilled eggplant with doenjang... and should I boil a soup?”

Gio headed to the backyard, which he called a garden patch but considered a monster patch.

The pea vines still looked like they had a firm sense of self.

“...”

Even to the point of greeting.

“...This is starting to be funny.”

Swish.

“Yes, nice to meet you.

It’s good weather, isn’t it.”

“...”

“Thank you for watching over the garden patch today as well.”

Having received Gio’s greeting, the vine calmly sank back down, shrrrk.

‘...Even if you pretend to be an ordinary bean vine now, it won’t look ordinary.’

But Gio decided to respect the bean vine’s privacy.

He naturally let pass the fact that ordinary bean vines can’t move.

Anyway, Gio picked four eggplants and various other vegetables from the patch.

After washing them clean, he sliced the eggplants to a proper thickness and salted them, and peeled the radish and cut it into nabak slices.

He also shelled the peas and washed them once in water.

“...No matter what, putting jerky in would be a bit much.”

Gio brought sausages.

“Honey, you don’t like spicy things, right?”

“Ggururururururururururuk.”

“I thought so.”

They were mildly flavored sausages.

“Aek?”

“Well, whether you can eat spicy things, we’ll find out later.

I’m only boiling one soup, and if spicy sausage goes in, Honey can’t eat it.”

“Mulk.”

“I’ll grill you spicy sausage later.”

It might be an unfamiliar combination to Koreans, but boiling soup with sausage in it actually tasted better than you might think.

Of course, using ham where you can’t even see the form of the meat bits, like pink sausage or spam, would be a little awkward...

“Then shall we peel it now?”

Gio prepped the sausages.

If you lightly cut the end of the casing and gently push with the back of a knife, the meat filling inside slides right out.

The spices had seeped in well, so it gave off a deep aroma, and Gio cut the filling and casing into appropriately sized pieces.

“Now we just throw it all in.”

He added a bit of water to the concentrated bone broth, then put in radish, peas, and the prepped sausages.

The peas were thick from growing in the monster patch but small compared to the others, and the sausage was already fine to eat even raw, so once the radish softened, it was ready.

“And next...”

He lightly grilled the rice balls, and spread a sauce made from fruit syrup, doenjang, soy sauce, and such over the eggplants and put them into the oven, and by the time the soup was roughly finished, the rest of the food was cooked as well.

“Let’s eat.”

“Ggurururururuk.”

“Aekoooook, mmeungmangmangmangmangmang...”

It was the first time Gio had heard Dana cry this long.

That it liked mealtime this much was very nice to see.

Kids were prettiest when they ate.

“Dad’s going to offer tribute to the sun god, so you two eat first on your own.”

“Mmaeng.”

“Gguruk.”

Gio headed straight to the second-floor work storage room.

A few landscapes were there.

Gio went straight to the ‘Breathing Sea.’

As expected, the sun god was very pleased...

“...”

And gave a gift.

“...What is this, you say?

A certificate?”

“ ”

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t I not accept it?

It wouldn’t be mine to begin with.”

“ ”

“...Yes, I understand.”

He didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t seem like a bad thing, so Gio decided to accept it gratefully.

Fantasy, modern,