A More Human Presence
8 a.m.
Yu Seong-un blinked his mint-colored eyes at the black-cloaked figure that had appeared before the frame.
“…….”
Huh.
This feels a little different.
It wasn’t his imagination. The pitch-black silhouette standing in front of the portrait no longer carried the same eerie atmosphere as before.
It was as if a monster had become human.
“Ji-oh.”
“You’ve arrived?”
“Did I come too late?”
“No. I simply came out early.”
“Is that so?”
Yu Seong-un answered evenly while thinking to himself.
…Even his voice is different from usual.
Unlike before, when their conversations had been so meticulously composed that they felt uncanny, the Ji-oh of now only struck him as “a bit excessively polite.” There was nothing strange about it. It was the kind of atmosphere you might expect from someone of an innocent disposition.
Maybe his grade changes depending on whether he’s inside the portrait or outside of it…
But if that were the case, the eyewitness accounts he’d received until now didn’t quite add up.
“…….”
After rolling his eyes for a moment, Yu Seong-un smiled and asked,
“Are you in a good mood, by any chance?”
“Yes. I am.”
“Mm… You just seem lighter than usual.”
“I’ve always been light.”
“Then let’s go with that.”
He really was different from usual.
I can barely feel any pressure from him either.
Yu Seong-un had only seen his back so far, but he knew perfectly well how terrifying Ji-oh normally was when he stepped outside the portrait.
That sensation of your breath catching in your throat and your mind spinning, even when you felt no hostility or killing intent, was not something you encountered lightly.
And that’s in a world already overflowing with every kind of monster—human and otherwise.
He’d heard the feeling grew even worse when you faced Ji-oh head-on, which made this all the stranger. Right now, Ji-oh simply felt like an ordinary human being.
“…….”
“…….”
As if sensing that unspoken doubt, Ji-oh spoke first.
“I took measures.”
“Measures?”
“I adjusted my resolution so that others wouldn’t be startled by me. Judging by your reaction, Mr. Yu Seong-un, it seems my attempt wasn’t entirely unsuccessful.”
“Ah, so that was it. I thought something felt off.”
He seemed remarkably human.
Yu Seong-un nodded as if it were nothing, though his inner thoughts were anything but calm.
Which means… he can regulate the grade of his own soul at will?
In the past, Ji-oh’s grade had been twisted beyond anything the human system could express. Right now, though, it felt about on the level of an A-class hunter.
The idea that he could freely adjust the grade of his soul sounded like an especially bad joke.
“…Is it straining your body at all?”
Forcing your grade down would exact an enormous toll.
It’s basically the same as placing a curse on yourself.
He had softened the question to “is it straining you,” but regulating grade this way would produce far more pain than mere fatigue.
At the question, Ji-oh looked down at his own hands, then shook his head.
“I’m fine.”
“Well, that’s a relief, but…”
How could anyone pull a stunt like this and remain so composed? Yu Seong-un quietly blanched.
For someone who’s just mutilated himself, he’s way too calm. If he wants to play at being ordinary, he needs to sell it better.
Even a ten-year-old would grasp the severity of the situation. In civilian terms, it was like cutting off all four limbs and gouging out both eyes.
No different from putting a leash around the neck of someone crawling on nothing but a torso and hanging weights from it…
Of course, Ji-oh wasn’t thinking about any of that.
I’m hungry.
Until recently, he had lived in a state that felt like that of an ordinary human. A body that never grew thirsty, never needed sleep, never felt hunger or fullness was certainly convenient… but he felt no resistance toward his current condition either.
This was how he had always lived. What was there to resist? If anything, it felt familiar.
“…….”
“So where should we head now?”
“…Ah, right.”
Yu Seong-un answered while carefully keeping his expression neutral. Making worried faces at someone who had come out specifically to enjoy himself would only be rude. With a being of the Source, even a single reaction like this had to be handled with care.
“Since it’s morning, I thought we’d start with a meal.”
“What kind?”
“The place I’m recommending is a baekban restaurant.”
Ji-oh had once introduced himself as “Seo Ji-oh,” using the Korean style. Whether he had truly modeled it after Korean customs was unclear, but given how well he seemed to know Korea, Yu Seong-un had chosen a baekban place for breakfast.
Just in case, he added an explanation.
“It’s the kind of meal where you get a full spread—side dishes, rice, and soup. You can order fish or spicy pork, too.”
“…….”
“It won’t be all that stimulating overall, but since it’s morning, I looked for somewhere gentle on the stomach.”
“That sounds good.”
Ji-oh would eat just about anything, but he had grown up under a grandmother who always prepared baekban for him, and he genuinely preferred this kind of mild, comforting food. Both body and mind settled into ease.
Yu Seong-un nodded.
“Glad to hear it. Shall we move, then?”
Ji-oh fell into step behind him.
…I can hear his footsteps.
Before, he had seemed to go barefoot, but the Ji-oh of now was wearing shoes. Separate from that, though, Yu Seong-un was a little startled to hear the sound of actual human weight in those steps.
He really did lower his grade to a human level. I still can’t believe it.
Starting from how such a thing was even possible, and then wondering why he would do something so terrible to himself, left Yu Seong-un with a strange feeling.
He probably did this deliberately out of consideration for other people…
Yu Seong-un had been busy calculating how to make excuses if anything went wrong, and before he could even feel embarrassed about that, a peculiar guilt settled over him. This absurd kindness—carving away at his own limbs and soul—was almost too much to accept.
Though the very fact that he could offer such otherworldly kindness so casually only made him feel less human still.
“Mm…”
Collecting himself, Yu Seong-un led Ji-oh toward the elevator.
“Let’s ride.”
“I believe this is my first time.”
“First time for what? This elevator?”
“I usually travel through paintings.”
“So you really were moving through paintings.”
He had already suspected as much, but this finally explained the mysterious portraits the night guards sometimes discovered in the hallways.
Not that it would do anything about the “Black Cloak” ghost stories that had already taken root in the guild.
“I even gave you an access card. Why didn’t you use the elevator?”
“I thought it might become problematic if I ran into other people in such a confined space.”
“…I see.”
Fair enough. Just crossing paths with him in those wide corridors had been enough to force the guards to take leave. In a space this narrow, they might have foamed at the mouth and collapsed on the spot.
Ji-oh, however, had not meant it that way.
As if I’d share a tight space with people when I have no idea what kind of people the staff here even are.
Ji-oh knew when to be cautious, and he was thoroughly cowed. Thirty-one years of fantasy layered over his homeland had been more than enough to make even home feel like an unknown terror.
I don’t even know how much the culture has changed. For a haunted portrait, carelessly stepping forward is dangerous. Moving through paintings is faster anyway.
So the choice had been made for his own convenience on several levels, but…
“…….”
To Yu Seong-un, it could only be interpreted differently.
…Isn’t this a little too kind? Have I been worrying about the wrong things?
He was starting to get anxious.
He moves through paintings instead of elevators because he’s worried other people will be crushed by his grade, and he carves away at his own grade because he’s worried something unpleasant might happen during the trip…
There were other suspicious details, too.
Come to think of it, the way he especially loves giving gifts is, in hindsight, an unsettling trait.
This sightseeing trip had been prepared under the assumption that the portrait might cause an accident. But if, instead, Ji-oh were the one who came to harm at human hands, that would be an accident of an entirely different kind.
I think I’ve been watching the wrong party. Instead of fretting over the sudden impulses of a gentlemanly Ji-oh, I should have been fretting over the humans who might provoke him…
Yu Seong-un lamented whether this was even the right direction for his worries, yet he couldn’t bring himself to discard the suspicion.
“…Alright, let’s get off.”
“It takes quite a while.”
“The gallery is deep underground, after all.”
Yu Seong-un explained with a small smile.
“The works in the Guildmaster’s gallery come from all over the world. Some the Guildmaster bought himself, some the guild members identified and purchased for delivery, and some so dangerous that people entrust them to us for safekeeping…”
In short, it was a den of monsters.
“The restricted access to the gallery isn’t just about preventing theft. One wrong move and a dozen people could die easily. The Collector Guild’s gallery, where every kind of bizarre artwork runs rampant, is a famous story. If people say ghost tales spring up somewhere, the gallery is usually the source.”
“I see.”
“That’s why the gallery was deliberately built deeper than necessary. So that even if some unidentified bomb goes off down there, we can contain it more easily—or at least minimize the damage.”
Having said that much, Yu Seong-un looked back at Ji-oh.
“Mm. Right.”
“…Is there some problem?”
“Keep the hood on.”
Lowering his grade had lessened the oppressive presence somewhat, but it was nowhere near harmless. More importantly, Ji-oh’s face was far too assertive. If he walked around with it fully exposed, he would get tangled up in every sort of troublesome business.
If we just keep the face covered, we can pass him off as an unofficial hunter. The Collector Guild has an unusually high number of unofficial hunters, so no one will look twice.
A staff member at the first-floor lobby entrance greeted Yu Seong-un.
“Heading home already?”
“Hardly. It’s a business trip. I just got in—there’s no way I’d be leaving already.”
“I was about to get jealous. Glad I don’t have to. Let’s both work hard.”
The guard, joking with easy familiarity, glanced at Ji-oh standing behind Yu Seong-un.
“And this is…?”
“A guest of the Guildmaster.”
“Coming in as a new recruit soon?”
“Possibly.”
Apparently blessed with strong social skills, the guard struck up a friendly conversation with Ji-oh as if they already knew each other, even though this was their first meeting.
“In that case, it might be fine to change the color of the cloak a little. We’ve got a new ghost story going around the guild these days, as you well know… and we’re the sort of people who get easily rattled by that kind of thing.”
At that, Yu Seong-un asked,
“Are people still jumping at the black-cloak stories these days?”
“With this many witnesses, what can you do? It seems the thing actually exists, so everyone’s kept a certain level of wariness.”
“Well now, that’s inconvenient.”
Yu Seong-un murmured with a dry smile and gave a slight bow of his head.
“Then I suppose I’ll see you in a few days.”
“A long business trip, is it?”
“Well, I won’t know until we get there, but…”
“Then take care.”
After the polite farewell, the guard quickly lost interest in Yu Seong-un and Ji-oh.
The lobby’s massive glass doors opened, and once they were outside the Collector Guild, Yu Seong-un spoke.
“As you can see, some rumors about you have been spreading. I already spoke to the Guildmaster about the inconvenience you’re dealing with, but it’ll take a little time before anything’s reflected…”
Yu Seong-un said it almost like an excuse.
“I’ll put the word out that you’re a guest of the Guildmaster. How does that sound?”
“I understand.”
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“I’m curious why the guard was so certain I would become a colleague.”
“Ah, that.”
Yu Seong-un nodded.
“Picking up strays is a habit of the Guildmaster’s.”
“Picking them up? The Guildmaster has quite an uncommon philosophy.”
“He even tries to scout the subcontracted staff who come to assassinate him.”
“Recruiting people who tried to kill him—how bold. He seems to have excellent capacity for inclusion.”
“His tastes are so unique that if there’s someone in the guild you’ve never seen before, the odds are high they’re a guest of the Guildmaster. He’s invited people to the guild just to sweet-talk them more times than I can count.”
“…….”
There was only so much you could dress something up.
Unaware that this particular packaging only made him seem more inhuman, Ji-oh quietly resigned himself to the endless saga of Bi Sa-beol’s eccentric exploits.
With the limited stamina the gods of heaven and earth have granted me, this is a presence too vast for me to handle.
He didn’t seem like a bad person, but the complete unpredictability of where he might bounce next made him type number one on the list of people Ji-oh absolutely did not want to talk to.
If we ever got close, he’d drag me out of my corner and plant me in the middle of some social gathering as a party sacrifice…
Horrifying.
“Alright, next we need to take the elevated railway. Will that be okay?”
“…The elevated railway?”
Not the subway?
Thanks to the lowered grade, Yu Seong-un could read Ji-oh’s confusion more clearly, and he explained right away.
“Mm, it’s a railway that runs above ground. The routes are fixed like a bus, but it’s a little faster, and it operates at a pretty high altitude.”
As he spoke, Yu Seong-un raised a finger and pointed at the sky.
“See that over there?”
Rails that pierced through high-rise buildings or ran between them. You couldn’t see the entire length of the rails—only portions of them.
It looked as if special measures had been taken to make some sections transparent, perhaps for the sake of the cityscape. The sight stirred Ji-oh’s sci-fi sensibilities.
“Quite high up.”
“In building terms, it runs at about the sixtieth floor.”
Ji-oh nodded inwardly.
They say even mountains and rivers change in ten years, and the world has certainly changed in thirty.
The metropolitan area probably intensified the effect, but even accounting for that, the buildings and facilities had advanced considerably. Ji-oh was truly beginning to feel like he had become an ancestor.
Buildings routinely exceeded thirty stories, and the elevated railway weaving between them almost looked like a roller coaster.
The rail routes and speeds won’t be as extreme as that, of course…
The futuristic design filled him with a sense of romance.
“Ji-oh, this way.”
“…….”
People’s fashion was also quite different from before. There were those in armor, those with enormous greatswords strapped to their backs, and even people with wings or tails.
Trends came and went, but clearly some ecosystem-disrupting species had inserted itself into the cycle somewhere along the way. Everyone’s individuality was so strong that Ji-oh, wearing a cloak, looked downright ordinary by comparison.
Here and there he even saw people exchanging jewels or weapons. Jewels were one thing, but weapons with edges that looked viciously sharp…
“…….”
Ugh.
Ji-oh discovered himself shrinking like thinly sliced pork belly over a high flame.
The sight makes a mockery of my earlier worry that I, a haunted portrait, might look harmful.
Contrary to his thoughts, some of the more perceptive people were glancing at him.
Heavy presence… A hunter? The disciplined movements suggest a knight, or maybe… a priest?
At least A-class, I’d say. Never felt this one before, so probably an unofficial hunter.
All black. Either a skill that prioritizes color, or the whole outfit is a set item…
Yu Seong-un was aware of those occasional stares as well.
Please just don’t talk to him.
It was as expected, but thanks to Ji-oh’s help they were drawing fewer eyes than they otherwise would have.
He was earnestly praying that no one would strike up a conversation with Ji-oh, who had only just stepped into human society, and create an incident.
“This is the elevated railway entrance.”
Yu Seong-un drew Ji-oh’s attention so that his gaze wouldn’t land on anyone else.
“See here? You can pay the fare by tapping a card on this.”
“You pay the fee in front of an elevator?”
With his hands clasped behind his back out of habit, Ji-oh looked at the elevated railway entrance with interest.
It resembled the elevators you found at subway stations or certain overpasses. Instead of being tucked inside a building, it jutted out and stretched high, connecting to the elevated railway’s route.
No separate station, then?
Looking at the bare rails without any buildings, it seemed there were no stations at all. At best, small spaces appeared here and there like bus stops. They were probably using it much like a bus system.
“I’ll give you my card. If you want to buy anything, use this—there’s no limit.”
“…….”
Ji-oh shrank again.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve shriveled up today alone.
Outside the blanket was dangerous.
Why are you giving a no-limit card to me.
I’m so scared I’ll just call you hyung for now, hyung-nim.
Of course, as a selectively introverted person, Ji-oh never actually called Yu Seong-un “hyung” after knowing him for only a few months. He continued to maintain his manners as he used the card and boarded the elevated railway’s elevator.
“…….”
“What’s wrong?”
“I have a question.”
Ji-oh asked,
“I don’t understand why there’s only one elevator when the speed isn’t particularly fast. Won’t operations get delayed when a lot of people gather?”
“Ah…”
Yu Seong-un laughed awkwardly.
“Not many people ride it anyway, so they only installed one, it seems.”
“It looks like a useful means of transportation. Why don’t more people ride it?”
How could anyone leave such an interesting new invention alone?
“No particularly grand reason.”
Yu Seong-un delivered the reality of the situation.
“It’s expensive.”
“…….”
Aha.
I see how it is.
Capitalist society was a creature Ji-oh knew very well indeed.
Wait, is that guy still alive?
What longevity.
(To be continued)