The Artist Who Paints Dungeon-Chapter 78
There was a reason why Yoo Seong-un was always by Geo’s side.
‘When you come to your senses, you’re just saying and doing weird things.’
It would have been better if he was a poorly imitating monster. Because no matter how he acted, you could tell he was a monster. However, ‘Portrait of Geo’ was strangely good at imitating humans.
‘That’s why he confuses people even more.’
Even though his head clearly doesn’t seem human, his heart is convinced that he is, and that sense of dissonance makes him feel creepy. That was different from the fear he felt from monsters or the children of the origin.
‘It’s like a ghost story.’
Yoo Seong-un’s role was to help Geo fit in well with humans.
“What the heck.”
Cheol-beok.
Yoo Seong-un stepped on the soft floor.
“This is like jelly.”
“That’s definitely true.”
Kang Seo-dam, who entered the dungeon after that, nodded.
“It looks like slime with low viscosity, but it supports the weight well for something like that.”
“If you scoop it up with your hand, it’s just seawater.”
Yoo Seong-un shook off the water he had in his hand and looked at Geo and Cha Ara who entered together.
“Oh, you came in?”
“Yes, yes yes... yes.”
“Don’t be so nervous. There are three A-class hunters here, so how can you not protect one Cha Ara hunter?”
“Three....”
“Three, right?”
“Oh... That, that’s right.”
Cha Ara, who had been treated with some kind of scorn, quickly accepted Yoo Seong-un’s words. As she did so, she glanced at Geo who was looking around the dungeon, probably remembering the rule that ‘you can’t point out that he’s not human in front of Geo.’
‘Well, Hunter Cha-ara also received the official document.’
The official document also included several recommendations such as ‘Do not doubt Geo’s identity.’ It seemed that Cha-ara also judged that there was no need to go against Geo’s wishes.
‘By the way... .’
If my prediction is correct, this dungeon must be like home to ‘Giovanni.’
“...Geo, are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
“It’s my first time entering a dungeon officially, so I’m worried.”
“I was a little nervous, but I’m not as nervous as I thought I would be.”
The platinum-haired Geo, with his black hood pulled back, smiled his characteristically kind smile.
“The scent of the sea is quite pleasant.”
“Come to think of it, you liked the sea, right?”
As he said that, Yoo Seong-woon looked down.
“.......”
He saw a country completely submerged in the sea.
“... Going down here would be a lot of work, but Geo, can you swim?”
“To be honest, I can’t!”
“Why are you so confident?”
Since the name itself is ‘Deep Sea Country’, the hunters who visit here are basically guys who can swim. It’s rare for a hunter to not be able to swim.
“I didn’t think of this....”
Yoo Seong-woon looked at the other two with a troubled face.
“What about Hunter Cha-ara or Priest Kang Seo-dam?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s possible... but it’s an F-class....”
“It’s possible without difficulty.”
“Oh my.”
Yoo Seong-woon looked at Geo again.
“Then Nana or Priest Kang Seo-dam should help Geo, right?”
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“No?”
“Oh...?”
“There are plenty of ways to get there without swimming.”
“Why do you think there are so many??”
“I learned good techniques from the elders of our house.”
“.......”
No, wait a minute.
“...Your elders?”
“Yes.”
“That, that elder, that’s it. That....”
“I’ll take care of you comfortably.”
“What on earth??”
Without answering Yoo Seong-woon’s question, Geo placed his hand on the floor.
At that moment.
“.......”
―Kururururuk!!
“.......”
“That’s done.”
With a loud noise, a path appeared inside the sea.
“Now we can walk.”
“.......”
“Let’s walk.”
The hunters, including Yoo Seong-woon, looked at the tunnel in the sea with blank expressions.
“Uh....”
A staircase was kindly built into the space that was hollowed out like a long straw. The path led to quite a deep place, and with the Hunter’s good eyesight, he could see that it reached the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea’.
Yoo Seong-un, who was proud of being the human who received Geo’s greatest affection, asked.
“How did you do this?”
“Since seawater is water, wouldn’t it evaporate if you heated it up?”
“So you evaporated it?”
“Yes, convenient, right?”
“Because you don’t want to swim?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t. It’s not a matter of my taste.”
“That’s why I changed the dungeon....”
You changed the shape of the sea because you can’t swim. Yoo Seong-un looked back at Kang Seo-dam, the child of the sun.
“.......”
“I can’t.”
“Of course.”
Please, Geo.
‘What hunter in the world remodels a dungeon because he won’t swim?’
In the first place, the fact that he could remodel a dungeon was already beyond the realm of a hunter. That hunter had no reason to come to the dungeon. The existence of the dungeon and the significance of the hunter’s visit disappeared.
‘The richest man in South Korea, the leader of the Bisabae Guild, makes his part-timers collect waste paper and earns 5,000 won for his own pocket money.’
If this is going to happen, then why does the identity of ‘Sergio’ exist? Does he really have no intention of imitating humans? Is this a warning to not do something so ridiculous? Yoo Seong-woon was in a deep swamp.
‘Fortunately, Priest Kang Seo-dam and Hunter Cha A-ra are doing their best to avoid eye contact and pretend not to know...’
He confirmed the two’s willingness to cooperate, as if they were going to keep everything that happened today a secret, and looked at Geo again.
“Geo, everyone here is trustworthy, so I’ll tell you honestly.”
“Please speak comfortably.”
“This is a bit too much for a human domain.”
“But I’m an ordinary human....”
“Oh, I know, I know. Everyone knows very well, so you don’t have to worry about that. Just....”
Yoo Seong-woon took a deep breath.
“Other people might be afraid of you or misunderstand you, so I hope you don’t show off your abilities too much in front of people other than us. Do you understand what I mean?”
“I understand, thank you for your consideration.”
“Okay....”
Cha A-ra looked at Yoo Seong-woon desperately trying to calmly persuade him, as if she felt sorry for him. And Yoo Seong-woon thought that his own situation was a bit miserable.
‘I’m teaching social skills to a being whose identity is unknown in a mere human body.’
‘Sergio’s status outside of the collection was lowered to a human level, so this was about all he could do, no, in fact, he was still so burdened that he felt like his whole body was going to explode.
‘It’s fortunate that Geo thinks he’s human...’
I guess the plan to separate ‘Sergio’ and ‘Black Cloak’ was successful. It wasn’t a bad situation.
‘It’s definitely less stressful than when he was inside the building, so yeah, this much.’
In case of a difference, he could compare himself to S-class hunters. At that point, it was close to a human disaster. The problem was that Geo wasn’t even human, and this was something Yoo Seong-woon had to work on.
“Usually, hunters can’t just change other people’s dungeons like this.”
“I see, that must be inconvenient.”
“...That’s right....”
“You don’t have to worry because I’m here.”
And Geo didn’t think anything of it. He didn’t do anything unethical just because he changed the dungeon a little.
No one died, no one got hurt, no one got hurt. Geo’s ultimate positive mind didn’t yield to the limitations of a mere human.
Limitations are meant to be overcome. Giovanni overcame his limitations of not being able to swim with the power of the sun. He was proud of his remarkable growth.
“Let’s go now.”
If this solidifies my concept, then it’s a welcome thing.
‘Ttaran.’
Anyway, good things are good.
* * *
Giovanni died.
“.......”
If you were to ask if he was in his right mind after that, he wasn’t.
The parting that Isser was preparing was a little warmer. In Geo’s hands that had grown old, wrinkles would appear around his eyes, his back that had been straight like a statue would bend, and his strong body would become infinitely thinner.
Geo would die while watching countless people thank him for his life. Slowly, his breathing would become shallow, his eyelids that had always been affectionately bent closed, and his heart that had been beating slowly would calmly settle down... .
“...Where was the teacher’s body?”
“In your stomach.”
“.......”
“And, in the sea.”
Nothing was accomplished.
“...How old were you, sir?”
“I was born and lived a little over 30 years.”
“How long is that?”
“Humans can live over 100 years if they are well-managed and in a good environment.”
“What if they are not well-managed and in a normal environment?”
“If they were not constantly abused, they would normally live to be around 80 years old.”
“You didn’t even live half of my life.”
He was too young.
“It was only 30 years.”
“Yes, it was only 30 years.”
“I thought it was longer than that.”
I was devastated.
“100 years, 200 years. It’s too crazy to say that all that happened in 30 years at most... There were so many things....”
Giovanni saved people all his life.
“Why didn’t anyone defend you, sir? He really saved so many lives. He saved those who were dying and those who were cursed. Those who were saved by you... Didn’t you definitely say thank you then? They even shed tears of joy at your touch.”
His sister agreed.
“Yes, Geo was such a kind person. He saved many humans and mermaids.”
“But when he died, no one was left by his side.”
He wasn’t the kind of person who deserved to die like that.
“You should have died a little older, lying in a warm bed, with so many people around you. Shouldn’t you? You were someone who lived so devotedly for others. A person like that deserves to be warmer, in the sunlight....”
“The death you imagined was something that only happened in fairy tales.”
“...It didn’t have to be a fairy tale.... What I was talking about wasn’t something that happened in a fairy tale, but it was something that could happen at any time. That’s... that’s all. I didn’t hope for a miracle. I didn’t hope for humans to live as long as mermaids, and I didn’t want the dead to come back to life. I didn’t even want to.”
What’s so great about that?
“Humans die anyway. No matter how good an environment they grow up in or how well they are managed, their lifespan is so short that they die quickly. If they lived such a short life without resting and shedding blood and sweat, shouldn’t they have enjoyed such benefits?”
“So did you receive such benefits?”
“... ... .”
No.
“... No... .”
She respected the teacher, the man named Giovanni.
Gio was a priest and a ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) doctor. Isser learned his character as a priest from him, and Aria learned his skills as a doctor from him.
Both treated humans well because they learned from Gio.
“No. In the end, it was just... .”
But no human knew how to be grateful.
“... In the end, they are a group that throws away even the affection of Gio, who is also a human, in an instant.”
“Humans are truly fickle. “They are different from mermaids in many ways.”
Mermaids live for over a thousand years. Perhaps because they were born to live that long, mermaids are indifferent to the stimuli that come their way, are not sensitive to emotions, and do not change easily.
And that is why mermaids, when they receive a stimulus, an emotion, or a change, hold onto it for a very long time.
“... Ah... .”
Isser already knew that ‘that’ would be Giovanni.
“Please, why... why, if this happens... this is not right... .”
“... ... .”
“This is not right, Aria... .”
That is why she wanted him to die a very sweet and gentle death.
“Why on earth do I have to carry this memory with me for the rest of my life... ?”
I knew that every moment of that short life of that person who resembled the sunlight, that person who was as soft as a warm blanket, was ultimately something I had to embrace.
So I was relieved. At least, I thought that someone as wonderful and great as Giovanni was someone that a mermaid should embrace.
“Aria, I ate him.”
The mermaid ate the human.
“Why? I was hungry. Those shallow humans locked me and him in a small tank...! Geo couldn’t die! Giovanni was rotting in pain and cold, and I was hungry! I ate him!!”
The children of the sun laughed at that.
“In the end, even if a mermaid imitates a human, they are still mermaids, monsters that eat people...!!”
“.......”
“...Are we monsters?”
The only sister answered.
“We are all monsters.”
“.......”
“Except for you, sir... everyone was a monster.”
“...I see.”
Geo was human.
That was for sure.
“...I miss you, sir....”
“Me too.”
For a very long time, Isser couldn’t open his mouth. If he opened his mouth, it seemed like Giovanni, whom he had swallowed, would spill out.
His guts that he had chewed and swallowed would escape, his eyes would shed tears, and his mouth would scream or pour out resentment toward the mermaid.
And now that Isser had opened his mouth, what he was holding in his heart was Giovanni.
“Sister.”
“...To be honest, I think I hate you.”
“It seems like this is the first time I’ve seen you hate someone.”
“I don’t even know if this feeling is certain.”
“I will gladly accept it. Even that is a change that you have made.”
“I will cover the sun with the sea.”
Her words were mad, but Isser knew that it would soon come true.
“If the whole world is covered by the sea, then Geo can remain in the sea.”
“.......”
“And mermaids... are part of the sea, after all. Just like the pictures of mermaids that person always drew....”
“.......”
“...you know.”
Aria was wearing a pure white gown.
“...I don’t know what I want either, Isser....”
It was Giovanni’s.
“.......”
“.......”
A long time had passed since then.
A very, very long time... .
* * *
“Did you have another nightmare?”
“.......”
Round black eyes.
“...Priest Chaisol.”
“I’m not a priest yet.”
“I’m not human.”
“Why not?”
“... Well... .”
Why not?
“What if I was human?”
We had a future.
“...I have such fantasies.”
“You’re still human now.”
“I’m a mermaid, as I said when I brought you here.”
“But you’re human?”
“... ... .”
“What’s the difference between a human and a mermaid? I don’t really get it.”
“That’s... .”
There were countless differences, but since it was the day I met the teacher, my mouth was particularly tight.
“...That’s what it is.”
What on earth could the difference be?
How big of a difference.
A painter who draws dungeons
