The Sealing Stamp

Back at his cabin, Ji-oh finally checked the reward the System had given him after assessing the danger level of the young man he had encountered at Gyeongbokgung.

"……."

"I've been busy."

"Busy eating."

He knew the System had no ego of its own, but the excuse slipped out anyway.

"So I was wondering what a Seal even was…."

Ji-oh studied the stamp, which looked as if it had been carved from marble.

"……."

He held it against Honey's softly glowing back. The light that shone through was as clear and lovely as sunlight filtering through a thin blanket.

It resembled marble, but the mineral quality was different. Looking down at the small pillar that seemed to pulse with a faint, living heartbeat, Ji-oh muttered,

"Where have I seen this before."

"Kkureureuk?"

"It is absolutely not for eating, so do not look at it with those greedy eyes, Honey. No matter how much you love gems, this is going too far. If you're that desperate for marble, go to the spring where trees grow with a similar stone quality."

"Kkung-kkung-kkung…."

"Acting cute will not work either."

This was the same System that had taken an utterly ordinary human named Seo Ji-oh and evolved him into a portrait whose personality flipped on a dime. There was no way a Seal from a creature like that would be ordinary—and he was not about to let Honey gobble it down.

"Hmm…."

After examining it from every angle, Ji-oh reached a conclusion.

"A sealing-wax stamp, maybe."

A sentimental item used when sealing a letter. You melted wax that looked like candle drippings, then pressed it down to imprint a pretty, impressive design. In other words, a kind of seal.

In the era Ji-oh had lived in, it had been an item chosen more for sensibility than practicality—but that was beside the point.

"I don't have any wax."

"Kkuk?"

"And I don't have anyone to send a carefully decorated letter to, either."

"…Kkuru…."

"Tears are clouding my vision."

I'm just a lonely little firefly.

"I have no friends."

"……."

"…Maybe it was meant to encourage me to make a pen pal."

He still had no idea why he had been given a Seal like this, but since he knew nothing, Ji-oh decided to interpret it however he liked.

This had to be the System's thoughtful way of telling friendless Ji-oh to go forge some new connections.

"All right, then. Let's start by sending a letter to Mr. Yu Seong-un."

The easiest target: Yu Seong-un.

And so, once again, the exhausted modern man Yu Seong-un suffered an unexpected calamity as if it were nothing at all.

"……."

When Yu Seong-un came home from work, his heart nearly stopped.

"…Why is there a letter…."

An unfamiliar letter was sitting on the living room table.

"……."

He looked around and muttered,

"No signs of a break-in."

With Guild Leader Bi Sa-beol looking out for his staff's safety, the security on Yu Seong-un's residence was thorough enough that no one short of an S-class hunter could get in. Finding a strange letter sitting brazenly on the table inside a place like that was enough to rattle him.

After a brief sigh, Yu Seong-un calmly sorted through his feelings and sat down on the sofa by the table.

"Let's take a look."

Rustle.

The letter made a sound closer to dried grass than paper.

"……."

Dried grass.

"…Ji-oh?"

Somehow he felt he already knew who had sent it.

I'm not certain, but it feels like him.

The envelope had a texture similar to hanji, but far drier—and far softer. Yu Seong-un's gaze, which had been resting on the outer envelope that was as pitch-black as Ji-oh's eyes, dropped to the wax sealing it shut.

A texture like glittering gemstone.

"Oh…."

Definitely Ji-oh's work.

…It looks like he melted it like candle wax while keeping the crystal structure of the gem intact, then stamped the seal. I have no idea how a stunt like that is even possible, but it's dreamlike and beautiful—like something out of a fairytale.

That kind of uncanny presence was something he felt especially strongly from Ji-oh. You could almost call it a peculiar sense of aesthetics.

"A seal, huh…."

It was a design he had never seen before.

"…It looks a little like… the portrait."

Plants spreading out from a rectangular border, and inside that border a pattern that seemed like a geometric rendering of stars. Somehow the seal brought to mind the Portrait of Ji-oh hanging in Bi Sa-beol's gallery.

"His taste really is consistent."

In the way he acted, too, Ji-oh gave off a strong vibe of some fantasy medieval noble.

A fairytale kind of sensibility, maybe.

He had said he lived in a cabin, too. What a peaceful guy.

"Time to check the contents."

He carefully peeled the seal free so as not to damage something that felt worth studying, and the pure white letter paper inside came into view. Yu Seong-un drew it out and slowly read the pitch-black writing.

"……."

Then he let out a long, deep sigh.

"…I can't understand a word of this…."

If you were going to send a letter, shouldn't you write it in a language from Earth?

…I thought he knew enough about Korean culture that he'd write the letter in Korean, but I guess that was hoping for too much. Ji-oh isn't even actually Korean.

He tried reading it again, wondering if he could decipher it somehow, but it was still a language he had never seen. It didn't even feel like it had any linguistic regularity, which left Yu Seong-un at a loss.

"If this is some kind of curse letter, we're in trouble."

He didn't think Ji-oh would suddenly send something harmful—but beings of the Source were not the sort you could casually assume that about. If it was an item that laid a curse on you for failing to interpret it properly, that would be seriously inconvenient.

"……."

No such ominous energy radiated from it, though, so Yu Seong-un relaxed a little.

"…I was planning to go see him tomorrow anyway. I'll just ask about this too."

As long as it wasn't a bomb set to go off right away, it didn't much matter.

Yu Seong-un carefully resealed the opening so the letter wouldn't crease. The blue gemstone seal had no adhesive feel at all—cold and smooth—but it had enough weight that it stayed put, pressing the flap closed without floating free.

"Honestly, I can't make head or tail of him."

Was this another "fragment of a work," too?

"He really has a talent for scaring the life out of people…."

He wondered when he would ever learn Ji-oh's true nature.

That thought felt a little… distant.

"Ji-oh."

The next morning at dawn, Yu Seong-un came looking for him.

"This letter. You sent it, right?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I figured it was you."

"……."

The portrait's face remained as expressionless as ever, but he asked as if something puzzled him.

"I wrote my name on the letter. Did you not check?"

"Ah, about that…."

Yu Seong-un pulled out the letter paper with an awkward look.

"I'm sorry to the you who went to the trouble of sending a letter, but how am I supposed to read a letter written in a language I don't know? If it isn't a language from Earth, there's no way I can make it out."

"…I see."

Ji-oh paused briefly, then continued.

"But as far as I remember, I sent you a letter written in Korean."

"Huh? Really?"

"Yes. I believe an unexpected problem occurred during delivery. Much like the way all of you feel the resolution of this portrait is misaligned."

"Oh… hmm, that… is possible, yeah…."

It could be.

The letter's language had no sense of regularity at all, either.

Ji-oh's letter was like something typed on a broken typewriter—outwardly the form looked orderly enough, but the fine-grained language and rules were pure chaos.

On that point, Ji-oh might well be right.

If he means "resolution," it's probably that conversation we had before about Ji-oh's rank….

Like the overwhelming pressure and fear he felt especially strongly from the Ji-oh outside the portrait.

Looking at it that way, the frame holding this portrait really does seem to act as a kind of filter… a filter for containing an existence like Ji-oh that humans can't handle?

If the language had gotten scrambled and twisted while passing through that filter, the current contents made sense. A frame that even reined in Ji-oh's rank would warp language all the more readily.

"That's a little sad from the sender's point of view."

"I'm sorry you were put in an awkward position."

"It's fine, really. So what did the letter actually say?"

"Nothing special. Just a light expression of thanks and a greeting."

"…But don't you have rules of your own?"

A sudden doubt made Yu Seong-un add a casual question.

"To take something from inside the painting out into the world, someone has to pay a price, right? But I don't remember giving you anything."

"I thought of that as well, but thanks to the Seal, I seem to have been able to avoid being bound by the rule."

"The Seal?"

"A Seal I happened to obtain. When I stamp a mark with it and send something, it appears I don't necessarily need to receive a price."

"Huh. Is that so?"

So the 1:1 rule hadn't been something Ji-oh wanted, after all.

He figured out a way to sidestep the rule like that.

In that case, Ji-oh's rules were probably a kind of defensive line—meant to keep that immense rank from overflowing and breaking reality. As he had thought earlier, maybe they were the product of the "frame" acting as a filter.

But if he's already come up with ways to dodge that restraint—with Seals and whatnot….

From a fragile Earthling's perspective, that was a little chilling.

…Even if Ji-oh isn't the type who enjoys tormenting people, an existence of that rank can crush others without meaning to. If the rules bound to him exist to protect Earthlings, then this habit of casually ignoring them is something I'll have to watch.

At any rate, he felt a bit more at ease. He had lost sleep over that strangely eerie letter, but as expected, it hadn't been a bomb dangerous enough to actually harm him.

"You startled me. I got home from work and there was a letter I didn't recognize just sitting there…."

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect the letter to travel that way either."

"You don't usually send letters much, huh?"

"Yes. It's just that…."

Ji-oh trailed off, a rare thing for him.

"I thought I might try making a new friend."

"……."

Yu Seong-un took a slow breath and asked in his usual tone,

"…A new friend?"

"It's embarrassing to say, but the only person I converse with is you, Mr. Yu Seong-un. Before forging any new connections, I thought I would try sending a letter to you first."

"That's… a very good idea."

Yu Seong-un might indulge Ji-oh because he was a being of the Source, but that did not mean he was unaware of how dangerous Ji-oh was.

It had gone smoothly because it was Yu Seong-un. An ordinary person would have taken one look at a letter radiating that uncanny aura and fainted dead away—especially a civilian, not even a hunter.

"Other people will be startled, so it would help if you were a little more careful about that."

"I'll be more careful next time."

"I'd appreciate that."

Yu Seong-un rubbed the back of his neck and asked,

"So how are you going to find these 'new connections'?"

How was Ji-oh, who stayed inside the portrait all the time, planning to make "new friends"?

An ordinary person might go out and about or make friends online, but none of that applied to Ji-oh.

"Does that letter just get delivered at random to whoever?"

"No. The recipient has to be specific for what I send to be delivered."

"Which would have been my case."

"I'll need to think a little more about how to make new friends."

"Hmm…."

Was this perfect timing?

Recalling the conversation he had had with Guild Leader Bi Sa-beol, Yu Seong-un asked Ji-oh,

"Ji-oh, can you move into other dungeons as well?"

"Not simply outside the portrait, but into dungeons?"

"Yeah."

"……."

Ji-oh blinked twice as if thinking it over, then answered.

"In the case of the worlds I have drawn…."

"Huh?"

The worlds he had drawn?

"Just now you said the worlds you drew…."

"Yes. In the case of the worlds I have drawn, moving between them is not difficult."

"Uh?"

"But the dungeons you're referring to, Mr. Yu Seong-un, do not seem to mean the spaces I have drawn. Do you mean dungeons that already have entrances on Earth, that Earthlings can visit as well?"

"…Uh…."

His thoughts were a little scrambled, but Yu Seong-un kept his composure as best he could and answered.

"That's right. Dungeons that already have entrances on Earth—ones that hunters like me can visit."

Thinking he would have to raise Ji-oh's danger rating again, Yu Seong-un went on.

"You've been creating portraits here and there and using them to move around inside the company, right? So I was wondering whether your portraits might turn up in other dungeons too. That would mean you could visit those dungeons as well."

"I haven't tried that yet."

Then Ji-oh added,

"But it sounds like it would be fun."

Ji-oh was showing interest.

Good thing I had this in mind beforehand.

The Portrait of Ji-oh pursued a surprisingly interest-driven lifestyle.

He had already anticipated that if he asked a question like this, Ji-oh might get so interested he would try it on the spot.

Because he has intelligence equal to a human's—or higher—his patterns of behavior are a bit hard to pin down, but since he's this interested… I should make a proposal within a range I can still clean up after, if possible.

As Bi Sa-beol had said, some humans—Yu Seong-un included—could not control Ji-oh's actions. Even setting personal feelings aside, that was true.

Objectively speaking, there was no way to stop Ji-oh, who regarded himself as human, from going out into society. He could go anywhere and make anything just by drawing a picture.

In that case, it's better to at least set a direction. I can't stop him from moving, but I can recommend where he goes.

Yu Seong-un took a sheet of paper from his briefcase.

"How about places like these?"

"What is this?"

"I put together a list of dungeons where your visit wouldn't be likely to cause a commotion."

He had chosen locations where loss of life would be as low as possible.

"Places with poor rewards and low recognition, so hunters don't visit much—and nothing so terrifying you'd be in danger…."

"……."

"If you want to experience the environment outside the portrait, something like this might be good. If you get active like that, you might run into other hunters when you visit a dungeon, right? That would raise your odds of making new friends, too."

Apparently the suggestion hadn't sounded unpleasant. Ji-oh nodded.

"Thank you."

"Glad if it helps."

"Yes. I have something for you as a token of thanks."

"A gift?"

"The jerky I made earlier has finished drying properly."

"…Right…."

He hadn't expected jerky of all things.

It won't be ordinary jerky, that's for sure.

Living like this, he was going to die before his time in a completely different sense.

Surely I won't get so healthy that I stop aging altogether and end up immortal….

A chill ran through Yu Seong-un.

Having successfully loaded Yu Seong-un up with jerky and sent him on his way, Ji-oh studied the dungeon list he had been given and considered.

"Honey, let's pick one."

"Kkureureuk."

"We'll go to the dungeon where the gem you spit out lands."

"Kkukku-rurururuk."

"I figured you'd like that."

The dungeon list Yu Seong-un had handed over came with interior photographs as well. It seemed these were dungeons that hunters had already finished surveying.

Before long, Honey spat out a gem with a soft plop.

"……."

"……."

"……."

Gems?

"Gems, of all things."

"Kkureuru."

"…Fine, I get it."

"Kkureururururururururururu."

"I said I get it, so stop…."

"Kkureurururururu…."

"Enough."

Anything that sparkled, and he lost all self-control.

Does this bird even know Korean?

He was starting to strongly suspect that spit had not been an accident.

(To be continued)