Never Trust a Monster
The late senior hunters had said: never trust a monster.
Not that they were wrong.
Cha Ah-ra was someone who fully accepted the bone-deep distrust of monsters that ran through the hunter world. Truthfully, even the word “distrust” felt a little strange — after all, no one trusted a wild boar that had come down from the mountains either.
Believing them would just be stupid.
Long before anyone started talking about trust or relationships, hunters and monsters threatened each other’s right to survive simply by existing. The monsters in question mainly lived in dungeons, though some had settled on Earth in modern times. Whatever their size or tastes, they shared one trait: they were dangerous.
Monsters are basically hostile to every living thing on Earth.
It didn’t matter how trivial or how overwhelming their power was. Being unilaterally hated by something that was not human was, in itself, enough to hollow out a person’s spirit.
“…….”
In that light, Cha Ah-ra was having a hard time accepting the situation she was in right now.
“You should watch your step.”
“Ah — yes?”
“There’s a fault line right ahead.”
“Ah…”
“Your eyes are dim.”
No, your eyes are just way too good.
Not that a monster would understand even if I said it.
The bird the black-cloaked man had called Honey briefly flooded the world with light, then settled back into a soft glow and vanished into the hood of his cloak. After that, Cha Ah-ra could only follow him by the light of the Anti-cat.
Maybe because the body itself is so black, even up close I can barely see him. Without the Anti-cat I might not have been able to keep up at all…
At least she could tell that Seo Ji-oh was being considerate of her.
Separate from how clumsy his human imitation is… that is.
Who in their right mind walked barefoot into a freezing cave like this?
In fact Ji-oh had his own reasons. The reason he sometimes wandered outside the portrait barefoot was simply that he lived barefoot at home. Because he painted the passages and entrances himself, he usually stepped out from the cabin’s workshop — and having come straight from there into the dungeon, he hadn’t bothered to grab shoes. The Vein of Gems was dark; even if he ran into someone, he figured they would never notice his feet.
“…….”
From Cha Ah-ra’s point of view, though, it just looked like a clumsy attempt to dress like a human.
“Um, so… about this ‘home’ thing…”
“We’re almost there.”
“R-really?”
The reasonably kind treatment let her relax a little.
…The way he answers every single thing, he doesn’t seem to hate me, at least.
Ordinary monsters didn’t have this level of intelligence, so they weren’t even worth comparing. But as a rule monsters had almost no reason; the moment they saw a person they wanted to see the color of their insides.
I heard humanoid monsters aren’t all that different…
Even if a monster offered goodwill, from a human perspective it was still a catastrophe. So while she couldn’t make sense of this polite treatment, Cha Ah-ra forced down her fear and kept following the black cloak.
I was going to starve to death if I stayed put anyway. Better to try something than that.
As she was steeling herself, the black-cloaked man stopped and pointed at the wall.
“Here.”
“…….”
A picture frame?
…Just a painted forest background. Empty. No person in it.
Then it could simply have been called a landscape, yet something about it felt incomplete; Cha Ah-ra sensed this was not a finished work.
“…Ah.”
A moment later she realized why it looked familiar.
“Is this the one I saw last time…?”
“Yes. It’s the place where I stay.”
“…Ah. I see.”
A painting with a person drawn in it. She still didn’t understand much, but she grasped that the black-cloaked man’s true nature was a portrait.
When I met him before, was he also in portrait form?
He held out his hand.
“Shall we go in?”
“…….”
It would have been a lie to say she wasn’t scared.
…If I stay here I’ll just starve to death.
She was already sick of going hungry in absolute darkness, waiting for new hunters who might never come. Some people would call it a foolish choice, but Cha Ah-ra did not want to let the chance in front of her slip away.
“Hoo…”
With slightly trembling fingers she took his hand.
“…Ah…!”
For a moment her mind went blank. She felt her body sliding into the painting. She no longer felt like herself; a hazy weightlessness overtook her, and only after a bizarre sensation swept through her dozens — hundreds — of times could she come back to her senses.
“…….”
As if that brief chaos had never happened, mild, clear air and her own reason welcomed her back.
“…….”
“Are you all right?”
“…Y-yes.”
It had all been over in an instant.
…Just now, something…
But while passing through the frame she had definitely felt a spine-crawling vastness.
“…….”
It was fear. Or was it loneliness? Having never even gone to school, Cha Ah-ra had poor powers of expression and struggled to name the sensation. Looking back later, it had felt as if she had been left alone in the universe for a single moment — eerie and utterly strange.
“…This place is…”
“It’s the house where I stay.”
As he spoke, the black-cloaked man set down the cat he had been carrying — the Anti-cat.
“Honey, this one will be your little sibling. Take care of it.”
“Kkurrururuk.”
“Good bird.”
Watching him speak to a bird made of water looked exactly like a scene from a fairy tale.
“…….”
The space itself was the same. Dense drawers covering every wall. Paint that still held the scents of nature, and a canvas propped on an easel carved from wood…
“…A workshop?”
But.
Why is it empty?
Not a single canvas had anything painted on it. The air was mild. The scene was peaceful. Yet as she noticed the little ways it resembled human life and the little ways it did not, Cha Ah-ra felt a chill she could not suppress.
“Yes. My workshop.”
“This might be rude, but… there are no paintings.”
“I am always painting.”
“…….”
“It’s just that they are no longer paintings.”
The statement was so opaque that it only made her spine colder.
“Finished paintings leave of their own accord, or else… they remain like this.”
“…Wasn’t that a passage? You’re saying this was — uh — a painting?”
“It is both a passage and a painting.”
The monster answered bluntly and covered the frame of the Vein of Gems — the passage Cha Ah-ra had come through — with a black cloth. Only then did she notice that several other frames around the workshop were likewise draped in cloth.
“…….”
“Would you like to look around?”
“Ah — no.”
“Well. You must be hungry.”
At those words Cha Ah-ra blinked.
…Did his voice just change?
No — the voice itself was the same as a moment ago. But…
“Are you no longer afraid of me?”
“…Huh? Ah — what?”
“You seem less tense than before, so I asked.”
“That — uh — th-that is…”
“…….”
Watching her stammer, the monster tilted his head yet waited patiently. Reading consideration in that once again, Cha Ah-ra managed to steady herself and continue.
“…Yes. I think… I’m less scared than before…”
“I’m glad.”
The black-cloaked man’s voice was polite and soft.
“When I go outside, people are afraid of me. I believe it is a problem that arises because I am a portrait.”
He opened the workshop door.
“The kitchen is on the first floor.”
“Kitchen…”
It was far too domestic a word to hear inside a monster’s den. Feeling a strange awkwardness, Cha Ah-ra still found the courage to ask,
“C-can I come with you?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you…”
Just as she had in the Vein of Gems, Cha Ah-ra followed the monster — though the atmosphere could not have been more different.
…It’s really bright.
More accurately, not bright so much as mild. Warm air filled the place and gently loosened her hands and feet, yet there was nothing light about it; everything felt calmly settled.
“…….”
Why was that?
It looks like a fairy tale.
A fragrant scent rose from the wooden walls. The stairs, though hard, felt soft enough to create the illusion of cushioning, and the cabin, gently filled with sunlight, had the fluffy atmosphere of well-dried bedding.
And yet somehow…
Cha Ah-ra thought the place felt like a tomb.
“…….”
“Feel free to look around.”
“Pardon?”
“It will take a little time to prepare the meal.”
There was something aristocratic in the black-cloaked man’s voice as he spoke.
“In the meantime, it would be good to rest while looking around the cabin.”
“Is… that all right?”
“I’ll make you some fruit tea. How about carrying it with you?”
“Ah.”
Fruit tea.
Isn’t that insanely expensive?
While she hesitated, he disappeared into the kitchen and soon returned with a glass. The tea shimmered with an enigmatic sunset color, looking for all the world like a magic potion; thanks to the round ice it was cool.
“You may sit on the sofa and drink it.”
“Th-thank you.”
Did all humanoid monsters act this human?
Since the word “humanoid” is attached in the first place, maybe it’s only natural…
Taking the glass, Cha Ah-ra carefully sat down on the sofa.
“!”
It was ridiculously soft.
Must be an expensive sofa.
Then she remembered that a monster would never buy furniture according to human rules, and she felt a little embarrassed. Trying to understand a monster’s world through human logic had been stupid from the start.
“…The scent is really nice…”
It looked closer to a work of art than to food, yet the fragrance was soft and wonderfully sweet.
“…….”
She took a sip. A mild sweetness wrapped around her mouth.
“Wow…”
Her pale cheeks faintly flushed.
…What is this? It’s insanely good. Is all fruit tea like this…?
Sugar itself was so precious that Cha Ah-ra had never properly eaten even a single piece of fruit, let alone fruit tea. For a moment she wondered if every fruit tea in the world tasted like this — then, still sipping, she realized something astonishing.
“…….”
She wasn’t… hungry.
No, I still am hungry, but…
The terrible empty feeling of her stomach being scraped raw with a fork was gone.
What? Was it actually a potion?
Well, it was fruit tea obtained in a dungeon where a humanoid monster lived. Maybe comparing it to ordinary human fruit tea was a mistake. Groping her way toward understanding, Cha Ah-ra pressed her lips tightly together.
“…Mmm…”
Strangely, she felt good. Not enough to grin, but a ticklish warmth in her gut told her her tension had loosened. The stress of recent work and her resentment toward the teammates who had abandoned her seemed to ease a little.
“…….”
She finished the fruit tea quickly.
…My body feels so light.
Whether the tea had a special effect or not, even the lingering injuries and fatigue washed away. With her tension gone as well, Cha Ah-ra could finally look around with a little more ease.
“The ceiling is really high.”
She hadn’t noticed while she was so tense, but thinking back, coming down the stairs had taken quite a while too. It was only a two-story building, yet the scale itself was enormous.
And yet it doesn’t feel like the rich houses I’ve seen in dramas — maybe because this is a kind of dungeon too. A monster lives here, so if this is a dungeon then it’s a dungeon…
She blinked slowly. Soft clinking sounds, the lazy wind of spring. Birdsong drifting through the window rang clear and pure, like round beads vibrating.
“I’m getting a bit sleepy…”
She kept thinking it, but it really was like a fairy tale.
“…….”
And it resembled a funeral.
“…Maybe because it’s so quiet.”
It was different from sadness or grief. It didn’t sound like anyone’s bitter weeping, nor like a visitor calmly mourning. It simply felt rich and heavy, like the many white chrysanthemums laid quietly before a photograph of the dead.
“Mm…”
An atmosphere hard to put into words.
It’s not uncomfortable.
It was simply peaceful — to a degree that almost felt extreme.
“Miss Cha Ah-ra.”
“…….”
“Miss Cha Ah-ra.”
“Ah — yes yes…!! Hunter Cha Ah-ra, present and accounted for!!”
“I know. You need not be that tense.”
The monster who stepped out of the kitchen had, at some point, removed his cloak.
“…….”
“Is there a problem with your movement?”
“Ah — no.”
Wow.
Holy shit.
So a person could look like that.
A-ah, no — since he’s a monster I shouldn’t call him a person, but… still, he really is good-looking.
Why was something that belonged in a museum preparing a meal in a cabin like this? He was so handsome it actually created distance. In every way he did not feel human.
Unaware of her thoughts, the monster spoke with his usual blunt expression and flat voice.
“I’ve prepared a light meal. I wondered how it would suit you.”
“Ah — thank you.”
And then Cha Ah-ra saw something she had not expected at all.
“…….”
“Do you like rice?”
“I’d eat it if I could get it. I’d eat it if I could get it, but…”
“Is there any side dish you dislike?”
“I’m not the type to be picky when I’m being fed. But — no. That…”
“Is there a problem?”
“…Are you Korean?”
What was this seven-side-dish Korean table setting?
“I introduced myself as Seo Ji-oh. Doesn’t that sound like a Korean name?”
“Ah. Right.”
She had been too terrified to spare a thought for whether the name was Korean or not, and she had never imagined that this noble, gloomy face would set out such a cozy meal.
So that’s why Seo Ji-oh.
She only now realized that the three-syllable name had been chosen to borrow a Korean feel. White rice she could rarely eat and all kinds of side dishes were lined up, yet Cha Ah-ra felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
…Why do I feel my late grandmother’s vibe?
Her feelings turned complicated. Considering the refined air of the humanoid monster named Seo Ji-oh, the table should not have suited him at all — yet it looked so natural that the dissonance only grew stronger.
“…….”
Suddenly she recognized one of the emotions inside her.
“Please eat comfortably.”
“…Yes.”
It was very faint, and quite alien in this peaceful atmosphere, but it was a kind of awe.
“Thank you.”
An emotion one could hold toward something that was not human.
…It might sound funny saying this while accepting such a familiar meal, but…
Cha Ah-ra lifted her head and looked into Seo Ji-oh’s eyes. Ordinary black eyes looked back at her.
“…….”
“Is there a problem?”
“…No.”
Right now they seemed quite human.
“I’ll dig in.”
In other words, she never once felt him as human.
Since it was not fear, she could only call it awe.
(To be continued)