A Picnic in the Vein of Gems

How had things come to this?

"Let's go, Honey."

"Kkurrrrrrr."

"We're going on a picnic."

It was nothing remarkable. Ji-oh and Honey had simply stepped out for a picnic against the novel backdrop of a dungeon.

"Think we can pull those gems out?"

"Kkureu."

"You like them, huh."

Among the documents Yu Seong-un had handed over was a dungeon called the Vein of Gems.

Half driven by Honey's relentless badgering the moment it locked onto the word "gems," and half because Ji-oh himself was thoroughly enjoying this fantastical picnic, he had referenced Seong-un's materials, opened a passage, and come straight here without a second thought.

"……?"

Along the way, he noticed something odd.

"The synchronization rate isn't rising at all."

"Kkureureuk?"

"No idea why."

Even when he simply sat still inside the portrait, Giovanni's synchronization rate had kept climbing. For it to suddenly refuse to budge was impossible to ignore.

"Does coming into another dungeon temporarily freeze synchronization? It doesn't feel like it's completely stopped, though."

"Kkurrrruk."

"The frame?"

"Kkung."

"You might be right — it could be a problem with the passage."

Honey asked whether the connection had been cut because they had come out through a passage Ji-oh had made on his own rather than through Ji-oh's portrait. For some reason, that sounded correct.

"Not that it matters."

A person was happiest living in the present.

"Even for a haunted portrait like me, that much is the same."

"Kkureuk?"

"Portraits are people too."

When Ji-oh insisted, Honey stopped arguing. Whether that was filial piety or simply the lure of gems was anyone's guess, but either way, that was the end of it.

Leaving the question as a question, Ji-oh leisurely took in the dungeon that Korean hunters were said to visit from time to time.

"Nice."

Strange and faintly eerie, yet dreamlike under the influence of the luminous stones, the Vein of Gems made an excellent tourist spot.

"It's gorgeous."

"Kkururuk."

"I like it."

He thought he understood why they called this place the Vein of Gems.

"It's made entirely of jewels."

In a form not unlike a cave carved by flowing lava, this one seemed to have been shaped by flowing gems.

Large gems. Small gems. Transparent gems. Opaque gems. Sharp hexagonal pillars of gemstone. Rounded, spore-shaped gems. Gems clustered overhead like a chandelier, glittering…

"Son, don't eat too many."

"Kkung."

"You'll get a stomachache."

All manner of gems jumbled together, forming branching paths in every direction.

Some of the protruding tips are glowing, too.

Ji-oh recalled the description from the materials Seong-un had given him.

"It said this was an extremely dark cave."

"Kkung."

"But it's… brighter than I expected, isn't it?"

The air of this cave was supposedly thick with microscopic monsters that devoured light.

Monsters that lived by siphoning human vitality drifted through the interior without a sound, while others too tiny to catch absorbed every scrap of light.

In a place so quiet it seemed even sound had been stolen, the only things one could rely on were the gem pillars that shone of their own accord.

"Or so they said…"

To Ji-oh's eyes, everything was perfectly visible.

"It's a little dark, sure, but with the luminous stones, your field of view isn't blocked that badly."

"Kkururuk."

"Right — and I've got you, too."

He wondered if this, too, was a perk of being a portrait.

Though I have no idea what kind of perk that even is.

If he alone could see what every hunter on Earth could not, then the strange one was clearly him.

And for a harmless human who didn't even hold a white belt in taekwondo to have gained such an odd ability, the only cause that came to mind was the portrait.

"……."

He was drifting further from humanity by the day.

"…It's funny, so never mind."

"Kkung?"

"What a fascinating life."

"Kkureu?"

"It's because I'm so well made."

Truly well made, that was.

Sometimes, living long enough, a person might end up as a portrait. Sometimes they might drift from the standards of an ordinary human. Was that so strange?

None of it was a problem for Ji-oh in the slightest.

"Life is a series of contents, and contents exist to be enjoyed."

"Kkurrrr…"

"There's no reason I shouldn't enjoy my own life. Even if that life is a portrait's."

He was not about to be crushed by a realization this small. Empty-headed as ever, Ji-oh toured the Vein of Gems in perfect peace of mind.

And he marveled.

"Earth's tourism industry has come a long way in thirty-one years."

From time to time, beast-shaped monsters flickered into view like ghosts, only to offer him a faint show of goodwill before drifting past. It was not so different from the animals of the Painted Forest.

Those ones nuzzle my ankles sometimes too.

"What little lovebugs."

Having reached his conclusion on the grounds of love, friendship, and peace, Ji-oh nodded.

They must have sensed that I'm harmless.

And now that he knew even the monsters were no threat, there was even less reason for caution. With a full heart, Ji-oh wandered the Vein of Gems.

As a result, he was able to enjoy a spectacular tour with his dear son at a solid hundred and twenty percent…

"……."

But there was one thing that displeased him.

There were no people.

"…I should have known from the start when they said it was a dungeon with few visitors."

As if pitying a Ji-oh growing old alone, the portrait had even prepared a letter-communication system so he could make new friends — yet not a single human worth turning into a pen pal was in sight.

I am a firefly.

He had no friends.

You couldn't just greet someone and instantly call them a friend, so making new connections would require multiple attempts. Making pen pals was proving surprisingly difficult.

I haven't even seen a single strand of human hair since I got here…

Seo Ji-oh, a light eater of this age who could feel full on love, friendship, and peace alone, sank into deep sorrow.

"In twenty-nine years of living, I've never once been a friendless loner."

"Kkureu?"

"Family doesn't count. Calling a child I painted into existence with my own paints a 'friend' would be a little weird, wouldn't it?"

"Kkungkkungkkung…"

"Even if you're unhappy about it, there's nothing I can do. However open-minded this dad of yours may be, some things are simply not allowed."

His spirits flagging for no good reason, Ji-oh hung his head — and spotted a cat that had quietly settled near his feet.

"……."

Oh. A cat.

"…When did you get here?"

"Meowng."

"Cute."

Whether it was a longhair or not, its fur was soft and fluffy and long, and yet compared to the pale, translucent monsters he had seen so far in the Vein of Gems, it had a solid, definite weight to it.

"Has the time of selection arrived?"

He checked the surroundings for a mother cat, then wilted all over again.

He had gathered his courage, stepped out into society, and the first new connection he made was a kitten the size of his palm. Was this really okay?

"…Well, there's no reason it wouldn't be."

Anything that made life livelier was good, wasn't it? A person couldn't live life alone.

Having accepted this, Ji-oh asked the cat,

"Is this place always so empty of people, little one?"

"Purrrrr."

"Cute, but no answer."

The kitten simply flopped onto its back and said nothing. Faced with that natural command to pet its belly immediately, the ready-made butler Ji-oh crouched down and gently stroked the tiny stomach.

Hard and cold.

A purring sound reached his ears. If Master was satisfied, then so was he. Ji-oh nodded.

"Cute."

"Kkung?"

"It's small and harmless, so of course it's cute."

"……."

"…For some reason you seem to be disagreeing with your father, but whatever the truth is, I'd rather you not tell me. They say people are happiest in ignorance, and that is truly the case for me. I have no desire to know a cruel truth, so let me enjoy this."

Honey accepted Ji-oh's heartfelt plea.

"But it really is cute."

The tiny monster, no larger than a kitten, was not cleanly transparent the way Honey was. Being made entirely of gems, its body was packed with dense crystals and cracks that made it look almost opaque.

But when he touched it, he could feel soft fur wrapping the surface. The gem body was cold and hard unlike Honey's, yet the way the cat sprawled on the floor savoring the touch of a hand was remarkably precise.

"I wonder if I can appraise a monster like this too."

"Oh."

Ji-oh understood.

"Well, it appraised the monsters at Cheonggyecheon too, so dungeon monsters probably aren't all that different. What a diligent Speedwagon."

And then he understood a second thing.

"…It loathes Earth's living creatures?"

Then what about him?

"Does that mean I don't count as an Earth creature?"

"Grrruk."

"Stop purring and answer me about my identity, little one. I may currently be living inside a portrait against my will after having my status and real estate completely cleaned out, but I'll have you know I am a fine, healthy son of the Republic of Korea, raised on the pure energy of a mountain village in Gangwon Province."

"Purrrrrrr…"

"Is there catnip on my hands?"

Being liked this much was so flattering it was almost confusing.

"So it recognized a ready-made butler."

Monster or not, it seemed to retain a cat's nature — and the hands of Ji-oh, a veteran cat-petter, were working extremely well.

It was a moment that made all those visits to cat cafés amid the busyness of modern life feel worthwhile.

"……."

"……."

Still, there were no people.

"Hmm."

Only the cat was cute.

"How sad."

"Grruk?"

"I came out to make a new friend and I'm going home with a master instead."

Ji-oh was already fully prepared to kidnap this Anti-cat. The appraisal said it acted independently from the moment it hatched from its egg, so it probably didn't have a family living with it.

You can't just mess with Earth's cats, but…

This one was a monster, so the burden felt a little lighter.

"I've got an ice warehouse with a similar environment, and if need be I can paint you a house somewhere like this, so I think it'll be fine. What do you think, little one?"

"Purrrrrrr."

"I'll take that as agreement."

But not seeing a single person still hit hard. Timid as he was, simply coming outside to make a new friend already cost Ji-oh a great deal of mental energy.

"I don't want too many people, but I would have liked at least one."

"Grruk."

"……."

"Grrrrr."

"Hm?"

The Anti-cat, which clearly seemed to have understood Ji-oh's words, quietly got up from its flopped-over position and wandered off somewhere.

"Oh."

Instinctively sensing new content, Ji-oh stayed right where he was and waited.

A friendship brought by an animal — this is like something out of a fairy tale…

As he waited, full of childlike expectation for a pure-hearted meeting, the Anti-cat soon returned, leading a human.

A young, pitiful human who, at a glance, was too terrified to grasp the situation at all and had simply been drawn along like a moth by the Anti-cat's faint light.

"……."

An offering?

A sacrifice?

Nah, no way.

It must have brought them so I could make a friend. What a shame — they look as young as the students I used to teach, so I can't exactly make them a friend…

To the person who had not yet noticed him, Ji-oh spoke in the kindest voice he could manage.

"Hello."

"H-hyaaaaaaaaaaah!!"

That stung a little.

"W-wh-wh-what, what wha…"

"……."

"…W-who are you…"

That really stung.

"Who… who are you…"

"……."

Ji-oh, failing even to notice the other person's perfectly reasonable questions, wilted. His spirits plummeted. Honey, hidden in his hood, seemed to be fuming about someone crushing their dad's morale, but he ignored it.

He had half expected something like this. It wasn't as if he had never imagined it.

Still… I thought I'd gotten used to people being afraid of me, but I guess that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

Besides, the security staff at the Collector's didn't fear him this much. Whether thanks to recent rumors about the "Black Cloak," most people no longer overreacted and would actually talk with him.

In short, this was the first time he had met someone this terrified of him.

…And I went and startled a kid who looks like a high school student…

The heart of Seo Ji-oh, former high school teacher, ached in an instant. If this had been one of his own students, he would have soothed them with a sweet snack — but doing that now would only frighten them more.

As if it knew exactly how he felt, the Anti-cat rubbed against Ji-oh's leg like a job well done. Extremely cute. Ji-oh looked down at it.

"…An Anti-cat…"

"……."

"Ah, um, are you… a t-tamer, by any chance? That is…"

"……."

"Which guild's hunter are you…"

Faced with the other person's extremely cautious questions, Ji-oh realized something belatedly.

"……?"

Ah. That student.

The one I ran into in the alley last time?

The kindhearted student who, on a winter day, had readily donated their scarf to a homeless person.

Thinking about it again, that was really admirable.

He needed to give them a good-deed award right away. Or a gift certificate. Or at least a snack…

The admirable student who showed him that even Hell Korea still has admirable young sprouts.

As a former teacher, Seo Ji-oh was weak to young students, and he personally adored good people. Nothing warmed his heart quite like a kind, well-mannered student.

What do I do.

Remembering that the other person was that good student from before only made him more tongue-tied.

They seemed extremely scared of me that day too… if they find out it's the same person, won't they just faint on the spot?

Besides, the current Ji-oh had no proper identity to speak of. In other words, he couldn't answer the questions they were asking.

No matter how insane he might be, he could hardly say, "Actually, I was an art teacher working at a high school thirty-one years ago, and during a fire I became a haunted portrait…"

"……."

"……."

But ignoring a student's questions forever just because he was tongue-tied was no way for an adult to behave either.

He was also glad, in a way, to see a familiar face — even if he had only glimpsed it by chance once. Ji-oh applied pressure to his faltering brain and forced out words.

"Hello."

"…Ah, yes."

"……."

"Th-ah, hello…"

Ah. That wasn't it.

While I was asleep for those thirty-one years, every last scrap of social skill inside me must have dried up.

Watching the extremely awkward student, guilt welled up on its own.

This was the first person who had ever been this afraid of him, so he had no idea how to respond — and the fact that the other was a young student only made him more careful still.

Ji-oh hesitated a moment, then spoke again.

"My name is Seo Ji-oh."

His grandmother had always said that exchanging names was the most effective way to put someone at ease. Ji-oh firmly believed the words of his heaven-like grandparents.

"……."

"And what might your name be?"

Even so, this was a little strange — but as a portrait appearing inside a dungeon, Ji-oh had no awareness that he was, objectively, saying odd things.

Even if he had been aware, he probably couldn't have managed a convincing recovery while already this flustered.

"…I-I'm…"

"You seem tense."

"……."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"……."

"I promise I will do you no harm."

Ji-oh was speaking with genuine goodwill, purely from the heart. The student just looked so tense that he had only wanted to say, I'm harmless, you don't need to be that scared…

"Please don't be frightened."

Life was not that easy.

"……."

"I am curious about your name."

Already, the excessively formal register suggested he was being partly overtaken by his identity as a portrait.

Is the tension not letting up?

To keep the already-dangerous Ji-oh's portrait from slipping free of his human personality, Yu Seong-un and Bi Sa-beol had never described to him just how terrifying and distant a presence he felt like to ordinary people.

So Ji-oh still thought of himself as roughly "a gloomy middle-aged man you might run into in an alley late at night."

If I clear up the misunderstanding, things should get better.

If only his self-assessment had been even slightly accurate.

"Cha… Cha Ah-ra… I'm Cha Ah-ra."

"A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Cha Ah-ra."

Ji-oh asked, packing the words full of kindness.

"Would you speak with me?"

Behold my open heart. I shall show you how harmless I am. Or so he resolved.

"……."

"……."

"Please spare me."

Sincerity, unfortunately, did not always get through.

(To be continued)