Chapter 57

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 57

No matter what religion’s initiation ceremony it is, they don’t stop spectators even if they aren’t affiliated.

Because the more members an initiation ceremony has, the higher the chance a god will come.

“Thanks to that, we got seats too.”

“There are more people than I expected.”

“It’s hard to receive a god’s gaze with just one or two people gathered.”

Of course, there are cases like Gio’s.

‘Not every god will be like you.’

Even though Gio’s identity had not yet been confirmed, the fact that he was the subject of some divinity had become certain.

It had only become more confusing as more elements were added, but there was no reason to deny the facts.

The Cha family had already moved to the section for event-related parties.

After sweeping them with his eyes, Sungwoon recommended a seat to Gio.

It was a table at a moderate distance from the murmuring crowd.

“Shall we sit here?”

“Sounds good.”

Perhaps being too close to humans was bustling, or burdensome.

Gio went and sat in the seat Sungwoon offered, looking pleased.

Thanks to that, it was easy to talk.

‘...Most of them aren’t hunters but civilians, so they probably won’t hear what we say here.’

After wetting his throat with the water on the table, Sungwoon opened his mouth.

“Can you handle divinity?”

“By divinity, do you mean a god’s authority?”

“You could say it’s similar.

Or, how should I put it... you could also call it a certificate.”

“Ah, so it is a certificate.”

“‘It is,’?”

He was briefly puzzled, but soon Sungwoon added,

“Putting it that way isn’t strange.

Since you could see it as a god’s certificate.”

Divinity is different from what people commonly call holy power.

The power a human chosen by a god handles with that being’s help is holy power, and divinity refers to the godhead itself that a single god possesses, and the authority derived from it.

They were entirely different in grade.

“...”

Gio, as if recalling something, said,

“If you meant a certificate, then yes, I received one.”

“...You received it?”

“Because I was the only believer.”

“...”

Sungwoon realized instinctively.

‘...This is related to that blond, blue-eyed Gio I saw at Cheonggyecheon.’

He had been guessing that when Gio’s personality changed especially, his outward appearance also changed.

The sight of Gio’s hair dyeing platinum blond like a fallen leaf changing color when he dipped his feet into water still came back vividly.

‘But since he was especially tied to water, I thought it would be something like a sea god, or rivers or ponds...’

For the sun to come out out of nowhere was quite interesting.

Even if Bisabeol were here, he would probably feel similarly.

What had happened?

“To receive a god’s certificate—impressive.

That isn’t usually something you see.”

He admired it as if it were no big deal, but as far as Sungwoon knew, it didn’t exist at all.

No god gives their rank to a mere human.

‘Why would either god or human do something that would make them both suffer for nothing.’

But Gio’s voice remained blunt and businesslike.

“He said he no longer wanted to be alone.”

“...The previous sun god?”

“Yes.

As the only believer, I interacted with him, ate with him, spoke with him... as the time we spent together like that grew longer, he seemed to feel fear at being alone like before.”

“...”

“And then he gave me this certificate.

He said he wants to share what I see and hear, and that half of it is a gift.

Even if it’s a certificate, it doesn’t seem to be something with a physical form.”

Sungwoon chewed at his lips.

‘Should I say the previous sun god is too weak, or that Gio is amazing...’

It was probably the latter.

Usually gods are unique existences, so they don’t feel lonely while alone; perhaps in that process of communion, Gio made the god feel those emotions.

That meant Gio really was amazing.

‘And if he were an ordinary human, he wouldn’t have been able to pass on such a burden in the first place.’

If you think in the same vein, it makes more sense to say that from the start Gio is an existence close to a god’s rank, so that sun god recognized him as an equal, felt lonely, and gifted godhead as a present.

“...”

Which would only make it harder and harder to know what Gio really is.

If the god of the sun judged him an equal, doesn’t that simply mean he’s another kind of god?

At the very least, it means he is an existence of such a high rank that he can contain divinity.

What are you supposed to define that as?

‘What the hell are you, exactly.’

The more he dug, the more unknown stories came out, so he really wished someone would organize it into one thing for him.

* * *

The pre-briefing session proceeded quickly.

“It didn’t take as long as I thought.”

“Is the schedule tight?”

“It could be. They need time to educate the preliminary priests.”

A simple hierarchy.

A definition of priests.

How those priests should act, what virtues they need...

After a light explanation about those who serve gods, they moved on to talk related to the initiation ceremony.

It mainly covered the education and benefits the preliminary priests would receive.

“After you have all spoken with your families, the preliminary priests will move by following me.

Preliminary priests who do not have guardians should come to me in advance.”

As the priest with deep blond hair spoke, some children hesitantly walked toward him.

A thick-featured priest who looked like he could come out of a fantasy film led the children.

His Western facial lines and wavy hair were striking.

In today’s Korea, you can easily find faces like that, but perhaps because he was a priest, his atmosphere was unusual.

Gio’s gaze, which had been examining the chief priest, reached the children beneath him.

“Those children must not have their families here.”

“Well... family is the most common form of human organization, but in this era, there are more cases of humans who can’t form blood-related groups like that.”

Sungwoon nodded as if he knew what Gio was curious about.

Gio, who had a vague side to his knowledge about humans, would know that ‘humans form family communities,’ but there are always exceptions.

“Don’t you see how most of those children are especially not very clean?”

“I see.”

“They’re probably carnation kids who awakened as priests.”

“What is a carnation kid?”

“Orphans who actively go out looking for guardians, I guess.”

On the outskirts of the city there are slums of Grade 4 citizens, and there are quite a few kids who are intentionally abandoned.

They even say there are trash cans that throw away humans.

“Among them, carnation kids are children who promote themselves on the street to find a guardian who will take them in.”

“They promote themselves?”

“Yeah.

A child who wants someone to take them in holds a flower.

A child with slightly better circumstances holds a real carnation.

If not, they fold a flower out of tissues or paper... as long as it looks right, the meaning will get across.”

So-called ‘carnation kids’ were a culture created right after the Great Catastrophe, when there were many orphans.

“The Great Catastrophe happened in spring, and after that, a day called Parents’ Day came—a day when children give their parents carnations.

So they made carnations with a heart that mourned their parents who had died, but there was no one to give them to.”

Adults who felt sorry for the situation began, one by one, to take in children holding paper carnations.

Smart orphans who saw that folded carnations they hadn’t intended to make and went out to the streets holding them, and that became the start of ‘carnation kids.’

“Honestly, I don’t know well either.

It was something that happened a generation or two above mine...”

“I see.”

“Anyway, since it started there, even now, among orphans, kids who want adoption prepare carnations like that.

Whether they fold a carnation out of tissues or colored paper, pluck a flower blooming on the street, or work hard to gather money and buy a single carnation... it means ‘please take me in.’”

“It doesn’t seem like they go through proper adoption procedures—aren’t they at risk of being disowned again?”

“Of course they are.

It’s one of the social problems even elementary school textbooks cover. They say that right after the carnation kid culture formed, there were many children being disowned again like that, so it was noisy for a while.

There’s no way things would be better now.”

No one seriously intends to adopt carnation kids.

“The carnation kids themselves too.

Right after the Great Catastrophe, maybe people adopted them out of pity to treat them like family, but now it’s just... hiring free labor?

That’s closer to how it feels.”

“...”

He didn’t know why this homeland kept delivering such shocking news every time he came.

‘The world has become very scary.’

If you’re not careful, it felt like you could get your nose cut off while wide awake.

Physically.

“But isn’t it possible those children aren’t carnation kids, but just ordinary orphans?”

“Even if they awakened as priests, usually only the carnation kids are what temples take responsibility for.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re good labor?”

“...”

Where did children’s human rights go?

“...Don’t look at me like that—if you condemn with your eyes, it’s scary.

In the first place, Grade 4 citizens left abandoned with no poverty relief policy aren’t easily hired by normal businesses.

Unless it’s some back-alley production labor or something.”

“Is it hard for Grade 4 citizens to get formal employment?”

“From the start, Grade 4 citizens have a bad label stuck to them: ‘pests that can’t afford it but mindlessly come into the city, plant their ass down, and refuse to leave.’

Not everyone is like that, but usually they also don’t have the will to work.”

“...”

“Even if you hire them and pay properly, efficiency drops, and citizens’ stares are bad too, so unless you want to be cursed at by customers, there aren’t many places that want to take them. Grade 4 citizens’ perception is that bad.

It’s because they’re receiving the city’s protection despite making no suitable effort.”

A company that hires Grade 4 citizens gets bad stares from citizens.

Why give opportunities to parasites who lounge around like bedbugs doing nothing but trying to share in the city’s interests?

“In a similar sense, usually a temple doesn’t take in a slum child just because they manifested as a priest.

Their chances of receiving a god’s choice are low, and they don’t have the leeway to steadily take care of a slum child while taking on bad stares... that kind of context, I guess.”

“The calculation is firm.”

“Unlike other Grade 4 citizens, carnation kids’ will to work can be confirmed through the ‘carnation,’ and since they’re still young, citizens’ stares aren’t entirely bad either.

Unless they’ve already been chosen by a god, if a mere awakened orphan is in a place like this, there’s a high probability they’re a carnation kid.”

“...”

Gio decided.

‘I’ll just watch the initiation ceremony and then hop back into the frame.’

What a harsh world this is.

It was too scary and sad to live.

He didn’t feel no sympathy, but Gio was just an adult who had merely grown older, not someone who could decide to overthrow this social atmosphere alone.

Wishing the world would grow warmer, Gio looked around.

It was meant to distract himself, but his heart grew comfortable faster than he expected.

“...”

“Why?

Is there something that resonates because it’s the same sun god line?”

“I was thinking that it feels good because it’s warm.”

He didn’t know why, but it felt like he was being welcomed.

“Especially that idol...”

“...”

“...?”

He felt like he’d clearly met eyes with the idol shaped like a goddess.

Gio blinked twice.

‘What is it, a ghost story?’

His judgment was quick.

‘Nothing happened.’

He decided to write it off as seeing things.

“The idol is impressive.”

“I felt like there was a blank just now, but I’m going to let it slide. I don’t want to get involved in gods’ circumstances with the body of a mere human.”

“Thank you.”

He hadn’t understood Gio’s burden, but as a mere human, Sungwoon grit his teeth and avoided the miracle that had arrived.

He too was a guild member of a collector.

Sungwoon had clearly seen it.

The gaze that had poured down openly when Gio praised the temple atmosphere and the idol’s beauty.

Sungwoon had never felt such a direct god’s gaze.

‘Please make miracles like this when I’m not around.’

He didn’t want to get tangled up in it at all.

“Our beloved Cha family seems to be talking too—how about we join them?”

“Sounds good.”

The two pretended not to know the god’s gaze with their whole bodies, but the priest serving her could not.

There was a priest staring wide-eyed at the two who were about to head toward the Cha family.

‘We’re screwed.’

Sungwoon thought that without realizing it.

The deep blond priest was clearly one of the high-ranking priests overseeing this event.

If he was showing up to a place like this, he had to be one of the priests who served a bishop up close.

In other words, it meant he was someone who could not fail to notice where the sun god’s gaze was headed.

“...”

“...”

A strange tension drifted through the air.

“...”

Then, with a face as if he’d noticed something, the blond priest faintly bowed his head.

Perhaps because his impression was strong, the motion looked especially sacred.

Sungwoon realized the meaning of that bow.

‘He caught on.’

It seemed he had realized Gio had divinity.

“Gio.”

“Yes, speak.

I am listening.”

“Should we go back even now?”

“If that would fix the problem.”

“...Probably not...?”

Sungwoon wanted to go home.

Fantasy, modern,