Chapter 74

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 74

Even so, Gio did not wipe the paint off again.

“Even if there hadn’t been paint, everyone was already afraid.”

“Somehow... that’s... true.”

“More than anything, I don’t want to reveal my face.”

Having your personal information exposed was a frightening thing.

Timid Seo Gio, who had no ability to fight back, did not want his face to be sold around.

‘There are already so many problems starting from the fact that I’m a haunted portrait.’

Seo Gio prided himself on having lived a life he could hold his head high about, but now that he had become a haunted portrait, he had to take every possible precaution.

Being sold with your face covered and being sold with your face and name exposed were completely different things.

“Wow, we’re on the same wavelength.”

Because of that, Yoo Sungwoon also felt at ease.

‘He could get annoyed and say, why do I even have to think about humans’ circumstances too, but when you see things like this, Gio really is gentle.

Even if it’s consideration that comes from forcing himself into human specifications, it’s still exceptional.’

You could call it a truly miraculous mystery.

From the standpoint of a gardener, Sungwoon felt gratitude and affection he could hardly endure.

To think there could be an existence of the Origin that felt this rewarding to care for—every gardener in the world would envy him.

‘Well, anyway...’

Now that he’d even obtained Gio’s consent, the range of what the guild could do also widened.

“At the auction house where you were before, there will be records about your face left behind, but as for that part, I or the guildmaster will take care of it.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“We can’t do anything about the memories of the customers who were there that day, but... it’s better than doing nothing, right.”

“Please.”

“Don’t mention it.”

And after leaving the gallery,

Yoo Sungwoon, who began working to erase information about ‘Gio’s Portrait’ that had gone up at the auction house, blinked when he faced an unexpected situation.

“...?”

After checking the monitor, Yoo Sungwoon went up to the guildmaster’s office.

“Guildmaster.”

“Ah, I was just about to call you.”

“...Were you checking too, Guildmaster?”

“Were you also in the middle of erasing records about ‘Gio’s Portrait,’ Mr. Yoo Sungwoon?”

“That’s my job.

I didn’t know you were also working on it, but anyway, if you were checking too, then we’ll be on the same page.”

Yoo Sungwoon, hurriedly organizing and handing over a thin file, said,

“Gio’s face has been erased.”

The records left at the auction house had changed.

Into a portrait with black paint spread over it so the face could not be seen.

“I can’t tell whether only the online information was corrupted, so I even ran around in person, but it’s not just those records that changed.

From paper-documented records to even the memories of the customers who participated that day, everything is in an unclear state.”

“...”

Bisabeol, unusually, wore an expressionless face.

He rolled his vivid gold eyes like a reptile.

“What did Gio do?”

“...I asked if he could also cover his face in the portrait, and after thinking for a moment, he covered the whole image with black paint.

He also said that unless he wipes it off himself, the portrait will remain in this state.”

“This may be one of the portrait’s traits as well.”

“When you say the portrait’s traits...?”

“A portrait is, in the first place, a painting of a person.”

In the file Yoo Sungwoon brought, there was also a printed image of ‘Gio’s Portrait.’

Just like before, it was in a state where the face could not be seen, covered in paint with a thin texture like ink.

“Then if that’s the case, should we not call a photo taken of the portrait a portrait, since it isn’t the original portrait itself painted with paint?

What about a piece of paper printed with that photo?”

“...Since it wasn’t painted directly, you could say it isn’t, couldn’t you?”

“Or you could say it is.

In the end, it’s a ‘painting’ of a ‘person.’”

A painting means, that is, ‘using lines or colors to depict the form or image of an object on a flat surface.’

“So I mean that whether it’s a printed image like this, or a photo of the portrait, or anything, in the end, couldn’t you say it’s all a painting?”

“If you think of it in a very broad range, that isn’t wrong, but...”

“At the very least, Gio seems to think that way.”

Bisabeol narrowed his eyes and smiled thinly.

“To be able to have such a direct influence on the entire world just by thinking—what a truly astonishing portrait.”

“...”

“...Ah, as expected...”

Bisabeol, whose smile faded, murmured lowly.

“This is why art is good.”

The Great Catastrophe came, the world changed, and absurd abilities arose, and the scope of ‘art’ expanded as well.

Bisabeol dared to be certain that if there were the most interesting and diverse field in the world, it would be art.

“It’s certainly a shame that the face was covered.

Later I should go at least look at his face once, but it’s still such a shame.

But when I think of this too as one of Gio’s performance arts, my heart swells up.”

“With such a serious face, you’re saying something kind of perverted...”

“Of course I’ll look serious if I’m serious.

My goodness, performance art done directly by a portrait is something you can hardly expect even from other artifacts.

It’s hard to even call this a fragment of a work.”

“To begin with, there aren’t even that many objects that have a self.”

“My hunch for the new year is good.”

Soon winter would pass and spring would come.

“It feels like something is coming...”

It felt like very interesting things were going to happen.

* * *

“...”

“What are the results?”

“Well...”

Hair that rippled like waves slithered down.

“The tests aren’t going well.”

The mermaid, Aria, adjusted the roomy doctor’s coat and said.

“I’ve been using the hair left behind by the human named Seo Gio as a sample and running various experiments, but the results aren’t consistent.

It keeps changing and moving, so not only is the testing itself difficult... it also won’t fix in place.”

At that, Iser said.

“Then he certainly isn’t human.”

“Right, he isn’t human.”

“...”

“But that doesn’t mean he isn’t not human, either.”

There were times it clearly showed human cells.

Quite literally, it could become anything.

“Interesting.”

Unlike her words expressing interest, Aria’s face was as inorganic as a mineral.

Even though she was smiling just as always.

“And of all things, there are traces of Giovanni in it too.”

“...Then does that mean he really is Teacher?”

“At the very least, there must be a very big connection.”

They hadn’t only run material tests like cells.

Crossing many dimensions, they had thoroughly established themselves as the owners of this place.

Aria’s abilities as a doctor and researcher had long since broken past limits.

‘And yet for the results to be this ambiguous—this is the first time.’

Aria said to her younger brother.

“Iser, my younger brother.

I need your help.”

“Speak.”

“Call him back here again.

I need to talk with Teacher.”

“...”

At the sight of her younger brother Iser falling silent, Aria gave a small laugh.

“Of course, I know how difficult a request this is.”

It was only a few days ago that the ‘Black Cloak,’ presumed to be Giovanni, visited their dimension and spirited away humans.

So quiet that it was hard to catch his presence, and disappearing like a ghost in an instant—holding on to him would be a difficult thing.

“We avoided it on our side too, in the meantime.

Without certainty, we couldn’t speak with Giovanni.”

There were too many uncertain parts to face him immediately without any preparation.

But now, there was certainty.

He was their one and only human teacher in their lives.

It was Giovanni.

Only, for some reason, he had changed a great deal, grown vast, and become so strong he could not be snatched up carelessly.

They couldn’t rashly seize him.

“On top of that, you said the other party doesn’t seem to have much memory of this place either?

You said he couldn’t recall this temple.”

“It seemed like he recalled some of it, but perhaps...”

“Then it’ll be hard to appeal to sentiment.

Well, he did have a cold side even originally.”

Aria murmured.

“Now he won’t even be human.”

“...”

“That part is certainly... I should say it feels a little strange...”

It was Aria and Iser who had been learning knowledge about humans because they could not understand human emotions and ways of thinking.

Now, thinking that Giovanni, their beloved teacher, had lost all of that, a strange sentiment arose.

It was close to a sense of deprivation.

That the memory they had loved most in a mermaid’s life had revived from death and was flowing on in a form they did not know...

“...”

“Still, please.”

The siblings did not lose their smiles.

For hundreds, thousands, or perhaps even more years, they had never once not smiled.

“Somehow, call that person here.”

“...”

“And keep him here.”

“...Yes.”

“I believe you will do well.”

“Do not worry.”

The hunter wearing the black cloak, ‘Seo Gio,’ showed an especially cherishing and considerate attitude toward children.

“There are any number of methods.”

Iser recalled a child who had spoken to him familiarly.

Cha Isol, was it?

* * *

A new entry dungeon, ‘The Country of the Deep Sea,’ was officially opened.

“‘The Country of the Deep Sea’?

The name has ‘country’ in it?”

“It’s an official name even though it was codified by the Association—if ‘country’ is in it...”

“Fuck, it must be filthy huge.”

Among dungeons, the one called the most grindy is the entry dungeon to begin with, and if the Hunter Association used a clear word like ‘country,’ it meant that even among entry dungeons, the map was quite wide.

“But the difficulty on this thing, damn... really...”

“It’s connected to the virtual dungeon that blew up in the Sun Temple last time?

That’s crazy.”

“Sounds like even the Association staff couldn’t properly explore it.”

“They’re lucky they didn’t die and go missing.

It’s the first official entry team, after all.”

Naturally, the difficulty was set very high at S-rank, but.

“Still, they say no one died.

Maybe it’s not that dangerous?”

“Hey, you’re just getting one piece of info.

Isn’t that right?”

The purpose of opening ‘The Country of the Deep Sea’ this time wasn’t a clear, but exploration.

“Got the main list?”

“Yeah, two of them.

They even got names.”

“Whoa... this is a humanoid monster?”

“Isn’t it almost a few years?

That’s worthy of an S-rank label.”

“So what monsters are there?”

“Let’s see...”

The main list the Hunter Association requested had a total of two names.

“Mermaid Iser, and...”

“‘Black Cloak?’”

A freelancer hunter tilted his head.

“Since it only has a nickname with no name, is that them signaling they want us to pay more attention to this one?”

In cases where the Hunter Association judges it won’t be able to wrap it up quickly within the Association, after a certain amount of time passes they open the discovered dungeon entrance.

In that case, it’s called “exploration season,” and they put a bounty on information about the dungeon.

“Been a while since I’ve loosened up.”

“No, even so, it’s S-rank—going out is a bit...”

“So what, it’s exploration season.

If they told us to clear it, S-ranks would have to go, but bringing back info is something we can do too.”

“True, the bounty the Association puts up pays pretty well.”

“And it doesn’t have to be info on these monsters specifically, does it?”

“It’s a newly opened dungeon, so probably, right?”

Even if it wasn’t the information the Association put a bounty on, in the case of a newly opened dungeon, they sometimes provided monetary rewards depending on the importance of the information.

If you get caught by a dangerous monster, getting your head lopped off happens in an instant, but it was worth trying.

“Besides, no one has bought this dungeon yet, right?”

“Honestly, who buys an S-rank... unless it’s one of the top three guilds.”

“And it’s a dungeon with zero clear info so far, so in many ways the risk is huge.”

“You don’t know what resources might be inside.”

“Anyway, if it’s a dungeon no one bought, you don’t even have to pay to enter.”

If a dungeon had some useful resources, or if it was judged to be for affiliated hunters’ self-development, then in the case of guilds with decent money, they sometimes purchased the dungeon’s ownership rights.

Those dungeons required paying a fee every time you entered.

“Compared to that, a dungeon like this one is, well...”

“Fuck, don’t let your guard down.

Do you think S-rank is the name of someone’s house dog?”

“You think I don’t know that?

Don’t worry, you bastard.”

Not all hunters belonged to a guild.

So, dungeons the Hunter Association put bounties on like this also became a major source of income for freelancer hunters.

“Whoa, there’s already a waiting ticket line...”

“Can’t we go raw?”

“They say the entrance is in the deep sea—how are you going to get there.”

“Swimming’s kind of impossible, right.”

“Forget it, it doesn’t cost money to wait anyway.”

No matter how hunters have strength beyond humans, it’s hard to find an entrance located so deep it’s called “the deep sea” with your bare body.

Since they had to move by riding a submersible prepared by the Association, the line quickly grew long.

And not long after, a strange rumor began to spread.

“Hey, you trying to go to ‘The Country of the Deep Sea’?”

“It’s still exploration season.

The bounty hasn’t even gone down yet— I’m going to go earn some money.”

“They say it’s dangerous... then make sure you remember this.”

“What are you suddenly talking about?”

“No, seriously.

They say you can only make it back alive if you do.”

Hunters whispered.

“If you don’t want to die, go in front of the portrait and beg properly.”

“What...?

A portrait?”

“They say Black Cloak likes kind and polite humans.”

『Black Cloak gives gifts to good people』

“...”

“Got it?

Make sure you remember.”

It was the moment the name ‘Black Cloak’ spread among hunters, and.

“...”

“...”

“Ah, we’re screwed.”

The Association, which had announced him as a monster to instill wariness toward the existence called ‘Black Cloak,’ was racking its brains.

Because the image of ‘Black Cloak’ spreading among the public was quite favorable.

“The romantics are going to come out again.”

“Ah, I’m already tired...”

Even already, the Association staff were picturing hunters who would act up relying on a single monster that was favorable to humans and cause all kinds of creative damage.

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons

Fantasy, modern,