Chapter 78

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 78

There was a reason Yoo Sungwoon always stuck close to Gio.

‘Once you snap out of it, he’s always saying and doing absurd things.’

If he were just a mimic-type monster with clumsy human imitation, that would have been fine.

Because no matter how it acted, you could tell it was a monster.

But ‘Gio’s Portrait’ was strangely skilled at imitating humans.

‘That only confuses people more.’

In your head, you can clearly tell it doesn’t seem human, and yet your heart is certain it’s human—so that gap makes you feel a chill.

That was different in kind from the fear you feel from monsters or children of the Origin.

‘You could call it a ghost story, really.’

Making it so Gio could blend well among humans was Yoo Sungwoon’s role.

“Whoop.”

Squelch.

Yoo Sungwoon stepped onto the soft, squishy ground.

“Feels kind of like jelly, this.”

“It certainly does.”

Kang Seodam, who entered the dungeon after him, nodded.

“It feels like seeing a low-viscosity slime, but for something like that, it supports weight quite well.”

“If you scoop it with your hand, it’s just seawater, though.”

Flicking the water off his hand, Yoo Sungwoon looked at Gio and Cha Ara, who had entered with him.

“Oh, you’re in?”

“Yes, yes... yes.”

“Don’t be so tense.

There are three A-rank hunters here—surely we can protect one Hunter Cha Ara.”

“Three...”

“It is three.”

“Ah... r-right.”

Maybe she’d eaten her share of staring at people’s moods; Cha Ara quickly caught Yoo Sungwoon’s meaning.

As she did, she stole a glance at Gio—she probably remembered the rule, ‘Don’t point out in front of Gio that he isn’t human,’ too.

‘Well, Hunter Cha Ara got the official notice too.’

Even in that official notice, there were repeated recommendations along the lines of ‘Don’t doubt Gio’s identity.’

It seemed Cha Ara had also decided there was no need to cross Gio.

‘Anyway...’

If his guess was right, this dungeon would be practically Giovanni’s hometown.

“...Gio, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s your first time entering the dungeon properly, so I was worried.”

“I’m a little nervous, but it’s not as shaky as I expected.”

Platinum-blond Gio pushed back his black hood and gave that uniquely gentle smile.

“The scent of the sea is quite pleasant.”

“Come to think of it, did you like the sea?”

Saying that, Yoo Sungwoon looked down.

“...”

A single nation, sunk deep into the sea, came into view.

“...Getting down there is going to be a job, but Gio, can you swim?”

“To be honest, I can’t!”

“Why are you so proud about it?”

Since its very name was ‘The Country of the Deep Sea,’ hunters who visited here were basically people who could swim.

To begin with, among hunters it was rare to find someone who couldn’t swim.

“I didn’t think of that...”

With an awkward face, Yoo Sungwoon turned to the other two.

“What about Hunter Cha Ara or Priest Kang Seodam?”

“Huh?

Ah, I can, but... I’m F-rank, so...”

“I can without issue.”

“Good grief.”

Yoo Sungwoon looked at Gio again.

“Then it looks like me or Priest Kang Seodam will have to help you—are you okay with that?”

“No?”

“Oh...?”

“There are plenty of ways to go without swimming.”

“Why are there ‘plenty’??”

“I learned a good skill from the elder at our home.”

“...”

No, hold on.

“...The elder at your home?”

“Yes.”

“Th-that elder, that’s that.

That...”

“I will serve you comfortably.”

“What, exactly??”

Without answering Yoo Sungwoon’s question, Gio put his hand to the ground.

In that moment.

“...”

—Kuuurururuk!!

“...”

“It’s done.”

With a loud rumble, a path formed into the sea.

“Now we can walk.”

“...”

“Let’s walk.”

The hunters, Yoo Sungwoon included, stared blankly at the tunnel that had opened through the sea.

“Uh...”

Inside the long straw-like hollow, stairs had even been kindly built.

The path continued quite deep, and with a hunter’s sharp eyesight, they could confirm it reached all the way to ‘the Temple of the Deep Sea.’

Yoo Sungwoon, who prided himself on being the human Gio cherished most, asked,

“How did you do this?”

“Seawater is still water, so if you heat it, doesn’t it evaporate?”

“So you evaporated it?”

“Yes, convenient, isn’t it?”

“Because you didn’t want to swim?”

“It’s not that I dislike it—I just can’t.

It’s not a matter of preference.”

“So you remodeled the dungeon...”

Because you can’t swim, you changed the shape of the sea.

Yoo Sungwoon turned to Kang Seodam, the child of the sun.

“...”

“I can’t.”

“Of course.”

Please, Gio.

‘What hunter remodels a dungeon because they don’t want to swim.’

In the first place, the fact he could remodel a dungeon was already beyond the realm of hunters.

That hunter had no reason to come to a dungeon.

The dungeon’s existence and the meaning of hunters’ visits would vanish.

‘It’s like Guildmaster Bisabeol, the representative rich man of Korea, making part-timers pick up scrap to earn five thousand won as his pocket money.’

If it’s like this, then why does he even have the identity ‘Seo Gio’?

Does he really have no will at all to imitate a human?

Is it a warning not to pull laughable tricks?

Yoo Sungwoon fell into a deep mire.

‘The fortunate thing is that Priest Kang Seodam and Hunter Cha Ara are doing their absolute best to avert their eyes and pretend not to know...’

After confirming the two’s cooperation, as if vowing to keep silent about everything that happened today, he looked back at Gio.

“Gio, everyone here is trustworthy people, so I’ll speak openly.”

“Please speak comfortably.”

“This is... a bit too much to call within the realm of humans.”

“But I am an ordinary human...”

“Ah, I know, I know.

Everyone knows very well, so you don’t need to worry about that.

Just...”

Yoo Sungwoon took a deep breath.

“Other people might be afraid of you or misunderstand you, so I’d like you not to show your abilities too much in front of anyone besides us.

Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“I understand. Thank you for your consideration.”

“Yeah...”

Cha Ara looked at Yoo Sungwoon as if she pitied him, desperately persuading him while staying calm.

And even Yoo Sungwoon thought his own situation felt a little pathetic.

‘To be giving social-skills education to an Origin existence whose identity I don’t even know, with nothing but a human body.’

Outside the collector, ‘Seo Gio’ has his rank lowered to human level, so it’s at least this manageable—but even so, even now, it felt like his whole body might burst from the pressure.

‘It’s only because Gio thinks he’s human...’

You could say the plan to separate ‘Seo Gio’ and ‘Black Cloak’ had succeeded.

It wasn’t a bad situation.

‘It definitely feels less oppressive than when he’s inside the company building, so... yeah, this much, at least.’

If it came to it, he could compare him to S-rank hunters.

At that point, they were close to human calamities.

The problem was that Gio wasn’t even human, and Yoo Sungwoon would need to work hard on that.

“Usually, hunters can’t just change other people’s dungeons like this.”

“I see. That sounds inconvenient.”

“...Yeah...”

“You all have me, so you need not worry.”

And Gio wasn’t thinking about anything.

It wasn’t as if he had done something unethical by changing the dungeon a little, was it?

No one died, no one was hurt, no one was wounded.

Gio’s ultimate positive mindset did not buckle before the mere limits of humans.

Limits exist to be overcome.

Giovanni overcame the limit of not being able to swim with the power of the sun.

He proudly considered it remarkable growth.

“Let’s go now.”

This is something to welcome, if it makes my concept even firmer.

‘Ta-dah.’

Anyway, good is good.

* * *

Giovanni died.

“...”

And if you ask whether he was in his right mind after that, he wasn’t.

The farewell Iser had been preparing was a little warmer.

In Gio’s old age, his hands would thin, wrinkles would form at the corners of his eyes, his back—once straight like a new product—would bend, and his sturdy body would grow endlessly slim.

Watching countless people be grateful for his life, Gio would die.

Slowly, his breath would grow faint, his eyelids—always gently lowered—would close, his heart that had beaten, however sluggishly, would sink into quiet...

“...Where was Teacher’s corpse?”

“In your stomach, I suppose.”

“...”

“And in the sea.”

Nothing had been accomplished.

“...How old was Teacher?”

“He lived a little over thirty years after being born.”

“How long is that?”

“If humans are managed well in a good environment, they can live past a hundred.”

“And in an ordinary environment without good management?”

“If they aren’t under sustained abuse, maybe around eighty, ordinarily.”

“Teacher did not even enjoy half of my life.”

He was too young.

“Only thirty years.”

“Yeah, only thirty years.”

“I thought it was longer than that.”

It was empty.

“A hundred years, or two hundred.

To say all of that happened within only thirty years—it’s so dizzying.

So much happened...”

Giovanni saved people his entire life.

“Why did no one defend Teacher?

He truly saved countless lives.

He preserved dying breaths and saved cursed lives.

The people Teacher saved... didn’t they clearly say thank you at the time?

They even cried tears of joy at his touch.”

His older sister affirmed it.

“That’s right, Gio was a very gentle person.

He saved many humans and mermaids.”

“But when he died, no one remained by his side.”

He wasn’t someone who should die like that.

“Teacher should have had an older body, lying in a warm bed, and closed his eyes with many people beside him.

Shouldn’t he?

He lived so devotedly for others.

That kind of human should die warmer, under sunlight...”

“The death you imagined must have been something that only existed in fairy tales.”

“...It didn’t have to be a fairy tale...

What I said was a situation that could have been realized at any time even without being a fairy tale.

That was, at most... only that much.

I didn’t ask for a miracle.

I didn’t hope humans would live as long as mermaids, and I didn’t try to revive the dead, either.”

What’s so great about that.

“Humans die anyway.

No matter how good the environment, no matter how well managed, their lifespan is so short they die quickly.

If in such a short life they lived without rest, sweating blood and toil, then they should be allowed at least that much benefit—this is what I mean.”

“So did you receive that benefit?”

“...”

No.

“...No...”

He respected Teacher—Giovanni.

Gio was a priest and a doctor.

Iser learned a priest’s character from him, and Aria learned a doctor’s ability from him.

Because they learned from Gio, both of them treated humans quite well, too.

“No.

In the end, it was just...”

But no human knew how to be grateful.

“...In the end, they are the sort who will cast aside even Gio’s gentleness in an instant.”

“Humans are truly fickle.

They are different from mermaids in many ways.”

Mermaids live over a thousand years.

Perhaps because they are born to be long-lived, mermaids are indifferent to approaching stimuli, not sensitive to emotion, and do not change easily.

And because of that, when a mermaid gains a single stimulus, an emotion, a change, it holds it for a very long time.

“...Ah...”

Iser already knew that ‘that’ would become Giovanni.

“Please, why... why... this... this can’t...”

“...”

“This can’t be, Aria...”

That’s why I hoped he would meet a very sweet, soft death.

“Why do I have to carry this memory for my whole life...?”

That person who resembled sunlight—the warm, fluffy person like a blanket—every moment of his short life would, in the end, be what I must hold.

So he felt at ease.

At the very least, if it was someone as wonderful and great as Giovanni, then he believed a mermaid could rightfully hold such a human.

“Aria, I ate him.”

A mermaid ate a human.

“Why?

Because I was hungry—the vulgar humans locked me and him in a narrow tank...!

Gio could not die!

Giovanni was rotting in pain and cold, and I was hungry!

I ate him!!”

And watching that, the children of the sun laughed.

“In the end, even if a mermaid imitates a human, it’s still a mermaid—a monster that eats people...!!”

“...”

“...Are we monsters?”

His only sister answered.

“Everyone is a monster.”

“...”

“Except Teacher... everyone was a monster.”

“...I see.”

Gio was human.

That much was certain.

“...I miss Teacher...”

“So do I.”

For a very long time, Iser could not open his mouth.

It felt like if he opened it, the Giovanni he had swallowed would spill out.

His guts he had chewed and swallowed would flee, his eyes would weep, his mouth would scream or spit resentment at the mermaid.

And what Iser held when he finally opened his mouth—after it all—was still Giovanni.

“Sister.”

“...To be honest, I think I hate you.”

“It feels like the first time I’ve seen you hate someone.”

“I don’t even know if this emotion is certain.”

“I will accept it gladly.

Even that is a change Teacher created.”

“I will cover the sun with the sea.”

Her words were mad, yet Iser knew they would soon be realized.

“When the whole world is covered by the sea, Gio can keep remaining in the sea, too.”

“...”

“And mermaids, too... in the end, they are part of the sea.

Like the paintings of mermaids he always drew...”

“...”

“...You know.”

Aria was wearing a pure white coat.

“...I don’t know what I want either, Iser...”

It was Giovanni’s.

“...”

“...”

After that, a long time passed.

A very, very long time...

* * *

“Another nightmare?”

“...”

Round black pupils.

“...Priest Cha Isol.”

“I’m not a priest yet.”

“I am not human.”

“Why not?”

“...I don’t know...”

Why wasn’t he.

“If I were human, what would it be like.”

We had a future.

“...I sometimes have those delusions.”

“You’re human even now.”

“I am a mermaid, as I said when I brought you here.”

“But you’re human.”

“...”

“What’s the difference between humans and mermaids?

I don’t really know.”

“That is...”

There were countless differences, but perhaps because it was the day he would meet Teacher, his mouth wouldn’t open.

“...You’re right.”

What difference was there, after all.

How big a difference.

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons

Fantasy, modern,