chapter 87

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons - Episode 87

With a clear, not-yet-mature voice characteristic of a child, Aria continued speaking.

“Why don’t you even try to imitate?”

“Just because I have black hair, does that mean I am not Gio?”

“Well...”

Aria took him in with her eyes.

Not the golden priestly robe that symbolized the sun, nor the white cape that represented a priest of light, but a person wearing a black cloak.

Unlike the figure she remembered, a man with jet-black hair, a gloomy face without even a hint of a smile.

A chilling presence that could not be called human.

“...”

And yet she couldn’t say he wasn’t “Giovanni.”

“...I still don’t really understand.”

“I do not know what you mean.”

“Do you call this reincarnation?”

It’s truly strange.

“It’s not as though I’ve never seen such a case at all, but it looks like a different kind from that.

It doesn’t seem like it’s simply a case of being deified by receiving divinity from the sun god, either.”

How should she explain the Gio before her now?

“Earth people say this, that they call you ‘Black Cloak’ when they see you, don’t they?”

“I have received such a name.”

“Can that be said to be your identity now?”

“It is only one of my names.”

“Yes, Giovanni.”

The young mermaid moved her bare feet and walked toward him.

“Were you, from the beginning... a portrait?”

“I am human.”

“...”

Only after a long while did Aria answer.

“...That could be so.”

Even Aria, who was rich in knowledge, could not properly define the Black Cloak before her.

He looked like a painting, felt like a god, or else seemed truly human.

“How did you come to this village?”

“I came to dig clams.”

“Well, yes, I can understand. You always liked eating.”

“I also remember that Aria liked my cooking.”

“Then will you invite me to your dinner?”

“If you help me dig clams.”

“...Honestly, you’re a frivolous human...”

Dragging along a large white coat that didn’t fit her frame, Aria wandered around the mudflat.

The magically treated coat did not easily get dirty.

“I’ll help.”

“Thank you.”

In the past, they had often spent time like this.

“It reminds me of the old days.”

“What does it remind you of?”

“Just, this and that... useless things.”

Giovanni used to bring mermaids who were curious about humans to places like this.

Or to a beach crowded with fishermen, or a bustling market full of people trying to buy things, or even places like banks where you could entrust money.

As she rummaged with bare feet, the bright-white mud—different from Earth’s—slowly turned over.

“What are you going to make to eat?”

“I’m going to try grilled clams and Edlen stew.”

“You’re making something delicious.

Are you planning to put clams in the stew too?”

“That would be fine as well.

Since there is meat, I could put that in instead.”

“Hm...”

Gio’s cooking skill was excellent.

“Come to think of it, you would have been a noble—why did you enjoy cooking so much?”

“When you were young, you didn’t even ask. Did something change in your thoughts?”

“Back then, I thought that would be wise.

Human lives are too short and complicated, so I thought if I carelessly poked and asked, they might even bleed.”

“And now?”

“Now I know you aren’t someone who would bleed from being poked.”

“That is so.”

Gio with jet-black eyes came closer and folded up Aria’s sleeves.

A coat made for an adult man’s build had to be folded up large several times before her hands could finally show.

They were the hands of a small, delicate child.

“The reason I enjoyed cooking despite being a noble was simply because I wanted to eat something delicious.”

“As expected, it isn’t some grand reason.

But you could have ordered others to do it, and you could eat delicious things as much as you want.”

“I wanted to see for myself what ingredients went in and how, and what kind of dish came out.”

When Gio lightly flicked Honey from his shoulder, Honey flew up to just beneath the cavern ceiling and brightly lit the underground.

The mudflat, which had already been white, looked far more vivid, dazzling to the eyes.

“I wanted to develop myself further.”

“That’s an answer like you.”

“Where is Iser?”

“Hiding in the temple.”

“Why didn’t he come together?”

“You need someone to watch the house.”

“Who would rob that ominous house...”

“Like the Black Cloak, for instance.”

“...”

Gio felt a little wronged.

Raising one eyebrow, Gio asked,

“Am I frightening, Aria?”

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Why?”

“Black and gloomy, and even oppressive.”

“I have never been oppressive.”

“Now you are.”

“I am wronged, indeed.”

“Well, on top of that...”

Looking up at him with her shrunken body, Aria said,

“...I wasn’t sure what face I should meet you with, so I couldn’t easily come see you.”

“True—when we met again, we started with a fight.”

There wasn’t even time to feel the emotion of reunion.

“From my perspective, it felt like my nieces and nephews whom I raised like my own children when they were young went abroad for a few years, and in the meantime committed a massacre in the country and even went so far as to kidnap a child.”

“If you put it that way, from my perspective it’s like my dear teacher, whom I thought was dead, got reincarnated as a black, lump-like monster that isn’t even human.

And on top of that, you even have that irritating sun god’s divinity, so I wondered if someone was trying to make us furious on purpose.”

At that, Gio nodded.

“It seems I was indeed the more shocking one.”

“I missed that shamelessness, to the point I could.”

The mermaid let out a small laugh.

“Aren’t you angry?”

“Do I need to be angry?”

“At the very least, what we’ve done all this time, Giovanni, isn’t something that suits your heart.”

“I do not think there is any need for me, already dead, to take responsibility and get angry even over the changes in the children I raised.”

“That’s quite cold...”

“That day in the banquet hall, I used up all the anger that was mine.”

With jet-black hair and indifferent eyes, Gio continued.

“The rest is not something Giovanni, who died long ago, has any duty or authority to question.”

“...”

Soon, the mermaid said,

“Then that’s fine.”

Aria was no longer curious either.

“Because you said we have a great deal of time.”

“That is exactly it.”

Above all, Gio was not the type to think deeply.

Gio wasn’t someone who would be frightened because his cherished mermaid disciples had grown into mad mermaids.

“It’s also a bad habit to use your head with food right in front of you.”

“Isn’t that just because you’re strange, Gio?

Why do you like food so much?”

“Why don’t you like food so much?”

“You can’t live only by eating.”

“And you can’t live without eating, either.”

“...Fine, if you’re happy, then that’s enough.”

“You give up more easily than I thought.”

It was unexpected.

“In the past, you would cling to winning.”

“Now I’m an adult.”

“For that, it seems you cried at the dinner table.”

“...You do remember who made me cry, right?”

“You do remember who made you angry, right?”

“...Oh...”

“I won again this time.”

“...You really do have a shameless side...”

“It’s my charm.”

Gio looked at the mermaid who had grown so small he had to bend deeply just to meet her gaze.

“Can you dig clams with that body?”

“I often came to dig when I was this small too, so what are you talking about now?”

“I was asking whether you feel any sense of incongruity about your body becoming younger.”

“That level of mimicry is easy now.”

“Hm.”

After a moment, he asked,

“That clothing is mine as well, isn’t it?”

“...”

The mermaid soon answered.

“This doctor’s coat?”

“Yes.”

“That’s right—now it’s mine.”

“I had been planning to pass it on to you from the beginning, so it is fine.”

“...”

After quite a long time, the mermaid asked, affecting composure,

“Was that so?”

“Did you think you stole it?”

“...”

“Judging by your lack of an answer, you did.”

That really was the case.

Aria couldn’t deny Gio’s words.

“I didn’t know you were going to pass it on to me.”

“I intended to pass the doctor’s coat to you, Aria, and my priestly robe to Iser.”

“It’s unfortunate, but your priestly robe was torn.

By those Sun Church people.”

“I thought it would be.

Fortunately, the doctor’s coat went to its owner.”

“It’s really unexpected.”

Aria kept laughing.

“Because we mermaids ruined the life you had when you were human.”

“All the tragedies of that time were closer to humans ruining it themselves.”

Giovanni could have chosen not to help the mermaids at all.

Humans could have greatly escalated a pointless emotional conflict with mermaids.

This world, once, could have been one where humans and mermaids lived together.

“Aria, you have never taken anything of mine.”

“Is that really so?”

“That is only something I wholly passed on.”

“You’re still kind.”

“Did you wish otherwise?”

“Maybe I did.”

“But unfortunately...”

Gio was Gio in the end.

“I do not change very easily.”

Perhaps it was because he didn’t think deeply in the first place.

“In that sense, shall we dig clams again?”

“You have a talent for ruining the mood.”

“I need to prepare dinner before it gets any later...”

“Hah.”

The mermaid grumbled as she fussed with the coat that kept slipping down even though Gio had folded the sleeves up for her.

“I thought you came to talk with me, but you’re just a pure glutton.”

“It’s good if it’s both at once.”

“You really just live letting things flow, as expected of you, Giovanni.”

“You still do not know that life is most enjoyable when you live it roughly.”

“...”

After a little time passed, the mermaid asked,

“...Are you happy now?”

The answer was not difficult.

“I always was.”

“...How?”

“Because I always did my best.”

“...”

“So now, the clams...”

“Ah, seriously.”

She let out a soft irritation, but Aria diligently joined the clam expedition.

* * *

“We have returned.”

“Coo...”

The teddy bear looked at the four living creatures who had come back holding armfuls of clams.

“Coo?”

“Yes, we also caught Aria and Iser—”

“Coo.”

“—brought them.”

Since there had been no word for a long while from digging clams, Iser also came to Edlen Village to see what was going on.

And he found his older sister squatting in a dress and digging clams.

Gio learned for the first time that a face already pale could turn that white.

And so Iser was forcibly made to attend the clam excavation team as well.

With a subtle face, Iser looked at the sun god wearing a teddy bear suit.

“...”

“Coo-oo.”

“...You’ve become much cuter while I wasn’t looking...”

“Coo-coo.”

“Is it laughing.”

Truly?

‘What am I even looking at.’

Holding a basketful of clams in his arms, Iser was already in a daze.

It was confusing that Aria of all people had dug clams with mud on her hands, and it was confusing as well that Iser himself had been naturally dragged along to dig clams together and then dragged all the way to the cabin.

“Why is the sun god here...?

I did feel the presence of the sun disappear, but this...”

“Even so, it’s Grandfather, so don’t be like that.

You’re showing discomfort toward an elder who’s quietly staying well.”

“No, no, ah.”

Iser was left speechless, but for his older sister Aria, the situation wasn’t greatly different either.

“A teddy bear?”

“Coo.”

“Are you serious?”

“Coo-coo-coo...”

“You’re laughing?”

In the middle of that calm chaos, Honey trotted across the floor and approached the teddy bear.

Then she spewed out all kinds of clams, big and small, in a heap.

“Ck.”

“Coo-oo.”

“Coo-rrr!”

“Coo-coo...”

The teddy bear clapped its plush paws as if an old man watching his grandchild’s antics, laughing.

When Honey proudly puffed out her chest, Dana also stood next to her and struck the same pose.

The sun god liked it very much.

“Good girls.”

Gio liked it too.

“...”

“...”

Gio called the mermaids who had lost their words.

“We have to go clean the clams, kids.”

“...Is he a dad?”

“I’m already the father of two children.

Any more than this is a bit...”

“Then an uncle.”

“Yes, my niece and nephew—shall I give you allowance?”

“Is it fun?”

“It is fun.”

“Oh...”

With a bland exclamation, Aria became a stone statue, and Iser fixed the clam basket he nearly dropped without realizing it, then turned his gaze to Gio.

“Teacher.”

“Yes, speak.”

“By any chance, do you have plans to destroy Earth...”

“Why are you asking such a terrible question so suddenly?”

“Because, somehow, the members—”

“...?”

Gio looked around.

“...”

He could not understand.

“There is only one teddy bear, one bird, and one cat—what is the problem with this adorable and harmless lineup?”

“Ah, so that is how you classify them... understood.”

“It seems you do not.”

It was a truly noisy family even before they had even started cleaning the clams.

The Painter Who Draws Dungeons

Fantasy, Modern,