Chapter 81

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 81

One day, the young mermaid said,

“I’m going to eat you up.”

“...”

Giovanni laughed awkwardly.

“...Is that something you say to someone who just went to the market?”

“I’m going to eat you.”

“It seems you didn’t like that I went to the market leaving Aria alone.”

“Yes, I don’t like it.”

“It was you, Aria, who got absorbed in a book and said you’d stay home alone.”

“I’m going to eat y—.”

“Understood.

Next time, we’ll go together.”

Giovanni patted Iser, who kept watching Giovanni’s face from behind as if wondering whether his sister was angry, and passed a bag of groceries into the child’s hand.

It wasn’t that heavy.

“Can you take it to the kitchen?”

“Ah, yes, I will.”

“Thank you for always helping, Iser.”

Watching Iser head to the kitchen, Giovanni sat down beside Aria.

“Looking at you like this, it doesn’t seem like you’re very angry.”

“Do humans call this being angry?”

“As expected, mermaids are dull about emotions.

Is it because you live among sea creatures, where there’s usually hardly any communication?”

“Sea creatures do communicate, properly.

It’s just that stupid humans can’t tell.”

“Is that so.

Still, it will be of a different grain from land creatures.”

The bright blue eyes curved.

“Perhaps what you are feeling right now, Aria, is anger.”

“It’s rather unfamiliar to hear that a mermaid is angry.”

“It’s my first time seeing an angry mermaid, too.

Even when mermaids fought humans, they were always expressionless.”

“That must be so.”

Even when humans killed a mermaid’s young, the mermaid did not grow angry.

She merely punished them with a cold face without expression, and people, seeing that, said they were monsters who didn’t care even if their own children died.

“Come to think of it, I heard humans and mermaids fought again in the neighboring village.

Did you see it, teacher?”

“I did not see it, but the mermaids I have seen throughout my life always had no expression of emotion.”

He smiled.

“As you know, Aria, the conflict between humans and mermaids is so old that no one even knows who started it first.”

Even they did not know who began this conflict.

Humans saw mermaids as eerie monsters of the sea, and mermaids regarded humans as stupid, threatening beasts.

The conflict was steadily escalating.

Now mermaids drowned and killed innocent humans, and humans dried innocent mermaids to death in the square.

Watching that, they shouted at each other.

“Everyone says this.

We must kill mermaids.

We must kill humans...

They say that only a devil could have created such a horrible situation.”

“...”

“I have watched the conflict between mermaids and humans with my own two eyes.

I lived as the son of the sun, wandered here and there, and in that process I encountered many mermaids.”

“So you pride yourself on knowing mermaids well?”

“Perhaps it was confidence inappropriate to show in front of a mermaid.

But even for me, Aria’s angry 모습 is unfamiliar.”

“You may see it often from now on.”

“Oh dear...”

Giovanni carefully stroked the deep navy hair.

“As far as I know, the idea that mermaids eat humans is only a superstition that has spread in some regions, so why did you say you would eat me?”

“Because when I said that, everyone listened obediently.”

“So it is a product of learning, then. I understand.”

Giovanni understood that learning of a mermaid.

The mermaids’ indifference—so indifferent that they did not even feel the need to choose methods, since they could get the result they wanted—only fueled humans’ fear all the more.

But Giovanni hoped that this mermaid, who was curious about humans, would grow into a more friendly, social adult, so he wished it would not remain merely the result of simple learning.

Giovanni continued.

“Then that must be a joke.”

“A joke?”

“You don’t truly intend to eat me, do you?”

“Mermaids don’t eat humans. It upsets the stomach.”

“Then let’s call it a joke, as expected.”

He did not want to put too much weight on the mermaid’s cruel learning.

Hadn’t humans—and mermaids—ended up in such a deep conflict because they gave excessive meaning to the other side’s ‘incomprehensible actions’?

He merely advised her.

It was an exceedingly light piece of advice he could give as her teacher and friend.

“Making people afraid so they obey your commands will certainly be convenient.

But if you only frighten them, a great many people will try to run away from your side, Aria.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“At the very least, it wouldn’t be a good thing for Aria, who wants to learn humans.

Humans are not creatures that show diverse reactions only in fear.

Rather, when they are happy and joyful, they show far more reactions.”

Giovanni hoped this mermaid would not be left alone someday.

So, as her younger brother wished, he wanted a day to come when sea and sun became one.

Mermaids live for a very long time and remain within a single memory.

Perhaps this young mermaid, who liked her current daily life, would grow as she was and someday become a mermaid who helped humans.

The beginning of peace.

Whether it could truly become so was unknown, and he did not want to force it.

Still, he certainly wished that this mermaid, who would have to live a lifetime carrying his short life, would become gentler.

“If you keep playing such jokes, no one will remain by your side.”

At that, the arrogant mermaid asked,

“What about my younger brother?”

“...”

“And what about you?”

“...We will probably always remain by your side.”

“Always?”

“If I do not die, that is.”

“You’ll die.”

The mermaid complained.

“Humans’ lifespans are too short.

The sun that made you was stupid.”

“Is it not also true that because your lifespan is short, you show even more diverse aspects?”

“I don’t understand.

If your lifespan is long, isn’t it natural you can learn more?”

“If you spend time, you will come to understand, little by little.”

“What?”

“Desperation.”

Giovanni knew humanity’s limits.

And he also knew the infinite possibilities born from them.

“Because we are creatures with short breath, we strive with all we have—that is what humans are.

A lazy human is easily weeded out, and that situation easily worsens, and humans cannot welcome such a situation.”

“So because you’re more desperate, you struggle?”

“Perhaps that is so.

Is there a point we can think further from here?

What might that be?

Aria, think about it.”

“...”

The mermaid princess, pondering with her small head, asked,

“Then if a mermaid is desperate as well, does she become diverse like you?”

“Of course.

Mermaids are merely more familiar with water than humans, and their lifespans are a bit longer.

It is not so different.”

“But very many things look different.”

“If a human gained gills to breathe underwater, and could live a life closer to eternity, people would look at him and call him a mermaid.”

“Are you saying we are the same?”

“No one is wrong.

We simply have differences.

If there is something I have felt living with you, it is that in the end, Aria, you are the same as I am.”

Giovanni did not doubt that fact.

“Mermaids, too, are creatures that create precious things, are they not?”

“What does that have to do with diversity in the future?”

“Any living creature develops in order to protect what is precious to it.”

“Any living creature?”

“Even four-legged beasts that cannot speak, and even fish that are often eaten by us, use all kinds of tricks and grow strong power in order to protect their young.”

“That is instinct to maintain the species.”

“Inborn instinct can also be called something precious, yes.”

The mermaid did not seem to understand well.

“Then is human greed the same?”

“If protecting that greed is precious to oneself, then yes, it is.”

Everyone becomes diverse because they have something precious to them.

Only, because humans’ lives are shorter than mermaids’, they show a greater effort to achieve their goals.

“So mermaids will be the same.”

“...Then what on earth is different between humans and mermaids?”

“In truth, it isn’t different.”

They simply do not understand each other.

“So there is no need for something grand.

If only the number of people who understand each other’s differences increases...”

“...”

“If the number of people who speak with understanding and concession increases, this long conflict will someday end.”

With an expressionless face, the mermaid complained.

“That’s strange.”

“I suppose it sounds that way.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Is that so?”

“I’m going to eat you.”

“You won’t, and yet you’re so spiteful...”

“I’m going to eat you.”

“Of course. I understand well.”

But there was something she had to remember.

“Aria, if you are going to frighten someone by saying you will eat them, you must know this.”

“What is it?”

“Whatever Aria’s purpose was, humans will each show different reactions, and Aria must take responsibility for those reactions.

A creature that does not take responsibility cannot learn anything.”

“...”

Responsibility.

“...Yes.”

The mermaid readily affirmed.

“I will take responsibility.”

“Splendid.”

“I will eat you.”

“Oh dear... what displeased you this time.”

That is, it was a joke.

“I’ll put you on my table.”

“This priest does not taste good.”

A thoroughly light joke.

* * *

“...”

“...”

The mermaid blinked and saw an intoxicatingly brilliant light.

It was the sun’s.

“...I...”

Why am I wavering.

The moment your heart shakes, you have already lost.

I waited so long—I didn’t want to lose, not ever.

My stomach churned.

A seasickness came over her that she had never felt, not even in the deep, dark abyss, not even on the storm-tossed surface.

“...I don’t really understand.”

“What do you not understand?”

“Well, this is...”

Is this, too, desperation.

Then desperation toward what.

Soon, the mermaid found words she could say.

“Why do you think I would want you not to die?”

“Aria, because you did not create me.”

Giovanni’s voice was no different from thousands of years ago.

“I saw the laboratory.

You attempted to create and combine countless lives.

Your skill at dissecting living things and putting them in order is something I taught you, at the very least, so of course I could recognize it.”

Aria suddenly thought it felt too strange.

It was a voice she had chewed on and remembered for an uncountable length of time, and yet, knowing why this voice had been absent all this while, it felt unfamiliar.

You ran away to the side of the sun.

Or you melted into the cold sea.

How can someone who returned to nature come back alive and speak to me as he did then.

“Some of it succeeded, and some of it you intentionally ruined.”

“...”

“I suspected it was so you could give a life that does not feel like living even if it lives.”

The sun’s priest, as if taxidermied at his most beautiful age, asked,

“Then why did you not do that to me?

Why did you not bring me back?”

“...No matter how I tried, I couldn’t succeed.

I couldn’t bring you back.”

“Then why did you bring yourself back?”

The answer came back, still gentle.

“I did not bring myself back.”

“...?”

“Humans did.”

“...Humans?”

“Yes.”

His voice remained soft.

“And because humans did that, I have no intention of letting humans die in front of me.”

“...”

She couldn’t understand.

“Even though you hate them?”

“I resent and hate them.”

“...Then why do you not drive me?”

“Because I do not resent them to the point of taking responsibility for their deaths.”

It meant that even if he resented them, he did not wish for them to die.

It was an answer only Giovanni could give, Giovanni who thought that if you affect someone in any way, you must take responsibility for all responses that follow.

He said,

“Choose.”

“Choose what?”

“Human, or mermaid?”

“...What...”

It was a difficult question to understand.

A sharp light of the sun could be seen.

It was ready to pierce Giovanni at any moment.

“Taking a hostage—how cunning.”

“Since I am using myself, won’t the responsibility be lighter to bear?”

“You’re right.”

There was nothing with better cost performance than consuming yourself.

Aria knew that too.

That was why she had used herself until now to plant fear into countless humans.

It was not her first time seeing a human make such a choice.

Humans who bargained using themselves were only countable in number, and only... they were not Giovanni.

So she tormented him.

“...”

Of course, she did not regret it.

Aria knew from the start that what she and her younger brother had done was merely venting built atop favoritism and unfairness.

She only vaguely wished that someday their teacher would return alive, scold them harshly, punish them, and end this long life.

Only Giovanni could do that.

If it was not him, it meant nothing to these mermaids.

‘...But in the end, it came to this.

How is it that nothing has changed?’

He rarely let himself be swayed by his disciples.

The scolding of the mentor she had truly reunited with took a form quite different from what she had imagined, leaving her speechless.

“To be honest...”

“You may speak honestly.”

“I don’t know what I should say.”

“My, how pitiful.”

“I was full of confidence, too.”

It felt empty.

Even up until she forced Giovanni to choose, she had been certain that an ‘ending’ had come right up close.

“...Now I’m not sure what I should do.”

Kwaddeuk—!!

A spear fell.

“...”

“...”

Blood flowed from Giovanni’s shoulder.

Whether because she had been his disciple, or simply because Aria was clever,

she instantly found the meaning of that action.

It meant it was not the correct answer.

“What should I do?”

Kwaddeuk—!!

A second spear fell.

“Should I apologize for my rudeness...?”

Kkwajeujeuk—!!

It was the third spear.

“Don’t die.”

“You’re wrong.”

Bang!!

“Don’t die in front of me.”

“You’re wrong again.”

Kkadeudeuk—...!!

“I...”

“Do you feel like respecting me now?”

“...Are you angry, Giovanni?”

“Did you expect I would not be angry?”

His voice was still warm and soft, yet Aria realized he was very angry.

No, more than that.

“Did you expect I wouldn’t be disappointed?”

He seemed disappointed.

“...”

“...That’s rather chilling.”

With only a few gestures, Giovanni became drenched in blood.

There were many holes, and many places were cut away.

It was a frail body unworthy of the honor of the new sun god.

So it was frightening.

Before the sun’s fire, there was a foul smell of flesh roasting.

A stench that announced that the mermaid’s old friend was becoming nothing but a lump of meat.

“...Was it like this then, too?”

Seeing him so wounded beneath the sun’s light, that day came to mind.

“I heard you were tortured.”

“I was.”

“Did it hurt as much as now?”

“Now seems to hurt more.”

“Then you should stop.

It isn’t wise.”

“A human who becomes emotional is not wise to begin with.”

“That’s...”

“You are the same, aren’t you, Aria.”

“...”

“That is why you have done such cruel things.”

It was absurd, and it left her at a loss, so Aria could only laugh.

“...Why do you...”

“...”

“You still see me as human...”

But she was crying.

“How can you do that?”

Pearls fell to the floor, onto the hem of her dress.

“Why haven’t you changed even a little.”

When we have changed like this.

“Isn’t this a deception toward the humans who died because of me, because of my younger brother?

How can you be so kind?”

“I do not see you as human because I am kind.

I treat you that way simply because it is the truth.”

“That’s truly ridiculous.

It’s a ridiculous story.

No one sees us as human.

So you really are still kind.”

Perhaps because of the pearls falling from eyes that did not redden and remained pale like wax, she did not look particularly sad.

It only seemed like decoration.

“I’m not human, Giovanni.”

Aria thought that was a little unpleasant.

She didn’t like it.

She wanted to be comfortable, even if she had to swallow everything.

“But you might be human.”

“It’s only natural for a monster to eat humans and torment them.”

“Calling yourself a monster and saying it is natural to commit monster-like evil deeds is nothing but an excuse.”

Giovanni still wore a smiling face, and his voice was gentle.

Even though he was broken and in disarray, the smile that did not crumble looked like a stuffed picture, and it felt chilling.

It was like looking at a portrait that did not change its expression even as it burned.

“I don’t spend myself on such emotional consumption.

We don’t have the resources to put even monsters who aren’t criminals on the stand.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it.

Most humans purge monsters because it is a mission, without emotion.

I, too, have killed because I hate humans.”

Aria looked at Gio.

“Why should someone like me take responsibility?

Giovanni, you taught me as a human, but... what I am now is only a monster.”

“Then this priest’s heart truly hurts.

I taught a human who loved the sea, and you say she was a monster.”

Giovanni said,

“You know this is all just venting.”

“It’s not that I don’t know.”

She knows very well.

“I didn’t want to justify what I’ve done with your death.”

“Thank you.”

“That’s because you were... too merciful.

You wouldn’t have wanted this.”

“I see.”

“It just wasn’t appropriate to use as an excuse.”

As if to confirm, he asked,

“Do you still resent them?”

“I resent and hate them.”

“Then why do you not pressure me?”

“Because I do not resent them enough to take responsibility for their deaths.”

She resented them, but she did not wish for them to die.

It was an answer only Giovanni could give, Giovanni who believed that if you influence someone in any way, you must take responsibility for every response.

He said,

“Choose.”

“Choose what?”

“Human, or mermaid?”

“...What...”

It was a question difficult to understand.

A sharp light of the sun could be seen.

It was ready to pierce Giovanni at any moment.

“Taking a hostage—how cunning.”

“Since I am using myself, isn’t the responsibility lighter to bear?”

“You’re right.”

There was nothing with better cost performance than consuming yourself.

Aria knew that too.

That was why she had used herself until now to plant fear into countless humans.

It was not her first time seeing a human make such a choice.

Humans who bargained using themselves were only countable in number, and only... they were not Giovanni.

So she tormented him.

“...”

Of course, she did not regret it.

Aria knew from the start that what she and her younger brother had done was merely venting built atop favoritism and unfairness.

She only vaguely wished that someday their teacher would return alive, scold them harshly, punish them, and end this long life.

Only Giovanni could do that.

If it was not him, it meant nothing to these mermaids.

But she also knew.

For a very long time, Aria could not defeat her teacher.

“...”

Now that she had come this far, Aria could not lie and say she did not love Giovanni.

For for some reason—whatever that confidence was—Giovanni was certain of the mermaids’ love, and regrettably, it was true.

“Ah...”

From that moment, victory and defeat had already been decided.

Aria knew it too, and because she knew it, she had placed her end wholly upon Giovanni’s hand.

And yet, rather than pulling that leash, her mentor chose to torment himself.

Because he knew that was more effective in punishing Aria.

That was surely so.

“Why do you have to be this cruel?”

To her reflexive question, an answer returned as it was.

“Why were you that cruel?”

“...”

“To me, as well, and to the countless humans you have met.”

“...I’m angry.”

“Then you must take responsibility.”

She knows.

“I know too.”

He told her to take responsibility.

“For a very long time, you kept telling me that.

To act only after preparing yourself to take responsibility for everything you do.”

No matter how much time has passed, how could I have forgotten your teaching.

But she took responsibility for nothing.

Because she did not want to take responsibility for the death and pain of mere humans.

If she were going to weigh the burden of her venting, she wouldn’t have even begun.

“If I take responsibility for what I’ve done, doesn’t that mean the point of venting disappears?”

Ah, she hates humans.

She hates them.

Even this emotion of anger was so precious to Aria that she could not bring herself to soften it.

“...”