Chapter 8

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons — Episode 8

Gio had no thoughts at all.

People, because of his stiff expression and gloomy atmosphere, and his excessively polite way of speaking, imagined all sorts of things.

That he must have lost someone he loved, or that he must have done dangerous work in the past...

A misunderstanding.

‘What should I eat today.’

Seo Gio was just a pig-potato.

“...Cheese fondue...”

A spring breeze drifted softly over the bed.

Stretched out like a cat in drowsiness, he got up.

“Cheese fondue sounds good.”

Today’s content was fondue.

Before a meal, a pig does not hesitate.

Gio went down to the ice storage and chose the cheese he would use for this dish.

“What should I do.”

Cheese fondue was something anyone could make easily as long as you had the ingredients.

Of course, if you say that, there will be people with clumsy hands who object, but Gio wasn’t clumsy-handed, so it didn’t matter.

But cheese fondue wasn’t a dish that required especially complicated technique, and accordingly, there were many different cheese fondue recipes.

“The base should be brie.”

Brie was the most safe, all-purpose choice among the ingredients used to make cheese fondue.

“Is this brie.”

The brie wrapped in white paper had white mold spread over its surface like silk.

As if someone had sprinkled the sticky cheese surface with a generous amount of sweet sugar powder.

There wasn’t any name written on it, so he sniffed it and split it in half, and it was indeed brie.

“Mild and nice.”

Brie is not a strongly scented cheese.

It’s soft, with a faint mushroom aroma and nutty notes, making it perfect as a fondue cheese.

It paired extremely well with bread or fruit.

“If I only put this in, it’ll get a bit cloying.”

Brie’s drawback is that if you eat a lot, it becomes greasy and burdensome.

Brie melted into a mushy state has a cream-like quality that melts in smoothly without elasticity; since both the aroma and texture are gentle, it had a side that made you tire of it easily.

“...”

Gio blinked, then soon murmured.

“I want it a bit salty.”

He was drawn to a cheese with a strong aroma, salty, with a sharp bite.

Since brie is on the mild side.

“Parmesan would be appropriate.”

Its formal name is Parmigiano Reggiano.

‘Parmesan cheese’ is usually known to Koreans as a seasoning sprinkled over pizza.

But that is an inferior version of Parmigiano, and the two have almost nothing in common.

“Here it is.”

Gio found the portioned parmesan.

“It’d be a burden to cut a whole wheel...”

This cheese is an extra-hard cheese that requires over a year of aging.

Which means it’s very hard, yet even so, its grain is distinct.

If you don’t cut it along that grain, it crumbles into pieces.

In that sense, the fact that it was already portioned was very welcome.

A whole wheel of parmesan is bigger than a tire and very expensive, so Gio had never tried portioning it himself.

‘Good thing I won’t have to waste precious cheese.’

Gio put the cheese cut into a suitable size into his basket.

“...”

The aroma was already strong.

“Nice.”

Parmesan, which gives off a sharp scent, has just as diverse a flavor.

First of all, it’s extremely salty.

Even if you tear off only a pinky-nail-sized piece and eat it, your tongue stings and the aroma rushes up into your head, and the flavor is intensely powerful.

At the same time, a honey-thick sweetness lightly moistens the tongue like a soft peach, then disappears without a trace, leaving a pleasant feeling.

‘That’s why it’s tasty to eat it raw, too.’

Hard cheese that isn’t heated keeps a far milder aroma.

If you’re new to cheese, you eat it raw, and in that state, between the parmesan, there exists a pinnacle of flavor called crystals.

“...”

Gio liked that small but crisp texture.

‘It has a nutty aroma too.’

If you put in too much, it would be burdensome, but if you add only a small amount, it was suitable for bringing out the fondue’s flavor.

“And...”

If he were to add one more.

“Gruyère.”

Gruyère would be appropriate.

This cheese is a hard cheese like parmesan, but it’s a little more pliable than parmesan, which is aged for a full year, and it’s saltier than brie and much sweeter.

‘The fact that it has a faint walnut aroma is one of its fun points, too.’

It was attractive in many ways, in that it had a rich nutty scent.

Such a sticky, deep fragrance would surely match well with the cheeses he’d gathered earlier.

“...Should I stop at this much cheese.”

If he put in too much, the aroma or taste would get strange.

Gio went up to the first-floor kitchen.

“Then now...”

Clatter.

Gio found a thick earthenware pot in a drawer.

“Let’s start cooking.”

The cooking method was simple.

First, prepare the ingredients you want to eat with the cheese.

Anything is fine.

Cherry tomatoes, asparagus, sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, broccoli, zucchini...

Besides those, things like soft sliced bread, crunchy croutons, chewy ciabatta.

You could even eat it with fruit.

‘But I’ll pass on that.’

Since this was for a meal rather than a snack, he wasn’t drawn to sweet and tart things.

“Should I roughly stir-fry them.”

Putting bite-sized ingredients into a wok and heating them once, Gio then put all of these ingredients into the hearth oven.

He would sear the outside briefly and intensely with strong heat, then take them out.

Ingredients roasted in the hearth oven would carry a faint smoked aroma.

It was worth it to have prepared fragrant firewood in advance.

“That’s ready.”

Next was the cheese.

Chop the cheeses into small pieces.

All the cheeses have to melt at the same time for them to mix well without separating; if the chunks are too big, each one melts at a different rate and the oil and fat layers separate.

‘The first time I made it, I melted it whole and a river of cheese oil formed.

Even thinking about it now, what a disaster.’

In the warmed earthenware pot, drizzle olive oil once, and put in a clove of garlic to draw out its aroma.

“And wine.”

A cheat key that tames the cheese’s funky scent and enriches the flavor.

In Gio’s underground storage, there were also wines kept only in bottles with no labels.

Among them, he used the cleanest-tasting white wine; it blended well with the garlic and olive aroma and gave off a pleasant fragrance.

“...”

Closing the wine stopper, Gio thought.

‘Someday I should try brewing alcohol too.’

With time to spare, something being a tedious process wasn’t a big deal.

Starting with wine, Gio vowed to try making everything from spirits to distilled liquor, flower wine, and fruit wine.

An unemployed person had the right to waste time.

When the alcohol had all evaporated, Gio brought the cheese he’d cut.

“Put it all in...”

He dumped all the crumbly cheese into the earthenware pot warmed over low heat.

“Then stir.”

When it had melted to an appropriate degree and the cheese oil began to rise to the top, he added a little of the starch water he’d prepared in advance.

It served to meld together the oil and fat layers that would otherwise separate no matter how well you melted it.

“One spoon of liquor.”

A high-proof liquor with deep flavor, like whiskey or brandy, was good.

“...”

And so, like porridge or soup, smooth yet somehow chewy cheese fondue was completed.

“Ta-da.”

He liked it.

Gio brought the cheese and various ingredients and sat at the dining table.

So the cheese could remain stretched out in a warm state, he lit a small candle beneath it.

‘This part is a bit troublesome.’

If you leave cheese cold, it hardens again, so you have to keep heating it like this.

So in order to eat cheese fondue, fondue tools were essentially required.

“Good thing I made them in advance.”

Anyway, the meal began.

“First...”

Gio picked up the well-cooked asparagus first.

“...”

Dipping it deep into the cheese and pulling it out, the cheese—softened with alcohol and starch—stretched along in a long strand.

The asparagus that had been seared in the hearth oven still maintained a deep green color.

The fragrance unique to fresh vegetables and asparagus’s own soft, faint aroma rose up.

In particular, it looked like the fresh flavor of asparagus, which pairs well with fat, would be something to look forward to.

“Mmm...”

Crunch.

The stem bit back with springy elasticity.

‘Delicious.’

The sweet juice of the asparagus that flowed out like the juices of well-grilled meat carried a subtle bitterness.

Not to the point of bothering the nerves—exactly like the astringency of yuzu tea, asparagus’s bitterness showed excellent harmony with the other ingredients.

The surface, once strongly charred, was like a thin leaf that crumbles.

The stalk just beneath it, heated on the pan and in the hearth oven, was soft yet full of juice, squishy, and beneath that, the living plant stem still vibrantly alive crunched as it was chewed.

‘It goes well with the cheese too.’

The cream-soft brie provided the foundation.

It could have become cloying, but parmesan’s sharp aroma held it in check, and between them, the rich walnut-scented gruyère connected it all.

Asparagus’s delicate flavor pairs especially well with fat.

Meaning things like cheese, fresh cream, and butter; and this fondue, whose aroma had been caught once by garlic, meshed perfectly without any awkwardness.

And thanks to its juicy, crisp texture, it felt like eating well-matured spring greens.

“...”

This is life.

“...A life where you get sleepy even while eating... it can’t get more ideal than this.”

With the soft spring breeze drifting in through the wide-open window, eating fondue that gently soothed his insides—this was heaven.

“When I’m done eating, I should go out and take a nap.

Where should I sleep today.”

Next, he chose ciabatta.

“It’s baked well.”

Ciabatta was bread famous for its fluffiness and chewiness.

The surface dusted with a bit of flour had been swept over by butter, giving a flavor like soup roux.

Because it had been baked in the hearth oven, the outside was very crisp, and the side heavily coated with butter boasted a texture that was crispy yet soft, like croutons in soup.

“Then now the cheese...”

Plunk, dip it in.

“...”

Gulp.

He put it into his mouth.

“...”

It was very good.

‘This is it.’

Gio put a well-cooked potato on top of the cheese-coated bread.

“Mmm...”

As expected, fondue was great because of the fun of combining things.

Crisp-chewy bread, cheese with a diverse texture, and fluffy potatoes with a strong flavor, cooked in butter.

From texture to taste, there was nothing you could fault in this combination.

‘Rinse my mouth once with tomato...’

Pop!

“...Ah, this is good too.”

Cherry tomatoes heated briefly and intensely so the flesh wouldn’t overcook were still crisp, while holding a faintly warm broth inside.

Their surface had a delicate snap, like a well-cooked sausage.

“It would go with cheese too.”

Eating it with cheese like that made him happy with the diverse flavors.

“This time, should I add croutons.”

Gio ate whatever he grabbed.

Once with crunchy croutons dipped deep into chewy cheese, once with soft broccoli cooked so it wasn’t too mushy and cheese that spread like cream, once with sweet, fluffy sweet potato and salty, savory cheese...

It was quite a lot, enough to pile into a basin, but Gio quickly ate it all.

“...”

He marveled at the miracle his stomach had shown.

At this rate, if it couldn’t become Noah’s Ark, it seemed it could at least become Gio’s Ark.

“Did my capacity increase?”

He was certainly a big eater, but even so, it didn’t seem like he’d been to this extent before entering the painting.

“...”

Gio’s ultimate positive mindset activated.

‘It’s fun, so it’s fine.’

Ta-da.

His rationalization was successful.

Even after eating that much, his stomach didn’t feel heavy.

For Gio, a gourmet and big eater who truly found joy in eating, this was a welcome thing.

“People these days even breathe fire from their mouths—compared to that, I’m a gentleman.”

If you live as a person, you might evolve and all that, isn’t that how it is.

“Now I should take snacks and go out for a nap...”

Gio put well-dried mangdung berries, baibameunil tea leaves, and a glass bottle filled with warm water into a cleanly washed basket.

The mangdung berries, tinged a deep golden color, had become as small as raisins and served as a useful snack.

‘The ones dried outside have become completely hard.

Soon I’ll be able to make mangdung berry medicine too.’

Gio draped himself in a black cloak.

‘I want to upgrade this later too.’

The cloak he made when he came to his senses inside the painting was still usable.

It was both to avoid catching the sight of any scary beasts, and because he’d made it so his body wouldn’t brush against poisonous plants or his clothes wouldn’t tear.

For something clumsily stitched together from cloth that had been in the cabin, it was decent.

‘Light, thick, and well-ventilated.’

His body wasn’t very sensitive to cold or heat, but no matter what, when you lay on bare ground, your back getting sore couldn’t be helped.

In such situations, the cloak would become quite a decent blanket, as he expected.

After straightening his clothes, Gio headed for the spring.

Walking slowly, he soon arrived; the spring was still beautiful, quiet, and yet varied with the murmuring sounds of all sorts of living creatures.

So what does that mean?

“...”

Alright, alright.

“Nice.”

He was sleepy.

Chewing a few tough-dried mangdung berries, Gio soon fell asleep just like that without taking even a sip of tea.

The cloak, large enough to wrap his whole body, became an excellent blanket, just as he’d expected.

“...”

Snrk— snrk—...

Soon, butterflies that resembled sunlight perched on top of him.

“Peep.”

“Brrr...”

“Grrh.”

Five or six rabbits with round bodies.

One deer with long legs.

Plump cats that resembled leopard cats, and a few small and large birds that had been chirping, too.

Gathering together like that, they fell into a deep sleep.

“...”

“...”

It was a peaceful nap time.

Fantasy, modern,