The Perfect Human

Of course, introducing yourself was a popular and convenient way to socialize.

"But that... how do I put this... do you know the feeling of something that is completely not human pretending to be one?"

"Monsters often try to mimic humans to lure them in. There's the Jangsanbeom, a monster that still hasn't been fully subjugated, which imitates human voices. Among overseas monsters, there are individuals that wear human skins or learn human language."

The hunter shook her head at the researcher's words.

"It wasn't that clumsy of a feeling. As I told you earlier, even though it was obvious it wasn't human at all, deep down I was somehow convinced it was."

"Yes, you did say that."

"It's something along those lines."

The hunter explained with a look that said she had no idea how to make the other person understand.

"Black Cloak definitely wasn't human. But there was nothing superfluous about the way it acted human. With the monsters you just used as examples, those fragments can look perfect... but they don't look like perfect humans, do they?"

"……."

"In contrast, there was none of that sense of otherness with Black Cloak. The discomfort was strong, but it was unmistakably a perfect human. That was..."

"A perfect human, you say."

The researcher stared straight at the hunter.

"Humans cannot be perfect."

"That's exactly the problem."

The hunter nodded.

"It was excessively perfect."

The actions of Black Cloak that day had certainly lacked any sense of otherness that would make you say it wasn't human, yet the discomfort had been considerable.

"As if it hadn't been human when it was born, but became human afterward..."

"That's not a concrete description."

"They call it a hunter's instinct, don't they? That gut feeling? Even without clear evidence, just... wow, this is really weird. We can't just let this slide... that kind of instinct hit me, I think."

The hunter gave a hollow laugh.

"Though honestly, calling it 'instinct' is a stretch when anyone could see it wasn't human."

Regardless of age or gender, if you threw anyone in front of it they'd think, Yeah, that thing isn't human, so it shouldn't have been defined by something as vague as instinct.

It had been extraordinarily polite. Its voice, seeping into the ears as if teaching someone, seemed to whisper not through the mouth but directly into the brain, and that voice had been so quiet it was almost embarrassing to call it a "sound." It had been like a peaceful grave.

"I just meant that the sensation I felt was that contradictory and ambiguous. It's too hard to explain concretely. If you ever witnessed Black Cloak yourself, you'd know what I was talking about."

"Hmm..."

The researcher asked, sounding puzzled.

"You're surprisingly favorable toward Black Cloak?"

"...What? Me? Did I?"

"You don't seem to realize it, but what you just said didn't feel like 'you should experience this too' so much as 'I want to introduce you to it.' Am I misunderstanding?"

"……."

After a long hesitation, the hunter finally spoke with difficulty.

"...I think you're right that it's favorable."

"I'm not criticizing; it's a pure question, so don't worry. I'm simply curious how you came to hold goodwill toward something that is so clearly an object of terror."

"Ah... this is so hard..."

The hunter let out a sigh and continued.

"...I don't know if this will be a sufficient answer, but I think it was because the other party was extremely kind to us."

"A monster, to humans?"

"Didn't you write it in the report?"

"I understand how it behaved, but that alone doesn't make it easy to grasp. Could you explain?"

"……."

After some thought, the hunter nodded.

"It would be best to start from the first meeting."

She recalled what had happened in the Abyssal Kingdom.

That black, enormous cloak.

"Team Leader."

It was right after they had fled from the humanoid monster Iser and the monsters he had brought with him.

"There are no other monsters nearby."

"Are you sure? Traps?"

"None of that either. We all checked, so it's certain."

"Something feels off..."

Team Leader Jeong Da-woon knew the situation unfolding around them was strange.

"It's not like the dungeon master doesn't know our location, so it makes no sense that there are no monsters only around here. This can't be a safe zone."

"Clearly not, just looking at it..."

A safe zone referred to, as the name suggested, a "safe area" that existed in some dungeons. Occasionally, when a dungeon had multiple masters, monsters would leave the area to avoid conflict with the opposing entity, creating such zones.

There are exceptional cases where safe zones sit alone for reasons other than territorial disputes, but this doesn't even feel like that kind of atmosphere.

Moreover, there was objective evidence.

"For a safe zone, there are way too many traces of monsters passing through."

"A place that originally had tons of monsters, and then the monsters suddenly vanished?"

It was not a good sign.

"Then the only possibility is that a monster stronger than them has barged in...?"

Thinking about it that way, Iser's reaction during their earlier standoff had also been strange.

"He looked flustered, like something was wrong with the dungeon."

"Yes. Thinking back to how the air of the entire dungeon trembled, something must have gone wrong. This dungeon seems closely linked to its master."

"If even a humanoid monster was shaken, it would have to be a monster far stronger than that for it to make sense. But if that's the case..."

"...then we're not safe either."

"Ah, we're properly screwed."

They had been so busy fleeing that they hadn't even realized this place was dangerous.

"Walking straight into the tiger's den on our own two feet."

The place where a monster strong enough to rattle the humanoid monster Iser had invaded seemed to be the very space they were in.

"At the very least, it has to be nearby."

"...We were so out of it..."

"Yeah. We would've died anyway if we hadn't come here."

Even though they had thought something was off on the way, they had still had to come. In their bodies, which had deteriorated to the worst possible state, they wouldn't have been able to cut down the other surrounding monsters and succeed in the raid.

"...Haa..."

Jeong Da-woon forced a smile.

"Well, it might still be a monster we can talk to."

"That's true too."

Knowing full well the odds of that were almost zero, the hunters snickered among themselves. They had realized long ago that they might die here, and so they had already prepared themselves mentally.

"Who knows? If we beg hard enough, maybe it'll spare us."

Trading jokes like that, the hunters took a rest.

"Hey, rest. Once we leave here it's war again."

"Yeah... if we don't rest now, when else will we get the chance?"

"Ugh, my legs... anyone have a potion?"

Thanks to that they got time to reorganize, but the unease grew with every passing moment.

"...Why aren't any monsters coming this way?"

"...How strong does a monster have to be to turn down a meal that's already set on the table..."

The times monsters attacked most often were precisely when hunters were forced to reorganize. Hunters who had nearly reached their limits and whose armaments had weakened made excellent snacks for monsters.

"And yet they still won't come even like this?"

Even the humanoid monster they had been facing had fled in panic. They had no idea what on earth had happened in this dungeon.

"We can't just stay put."

"But if we move rashly we could upset both monsters at once."

"Leaving us stuck here is a problem in its own way."

"You're right, but..."

"……."

"...Ah."

Jeong Da-woon's gaze, as she tried to soothe her teammate, landed somewhere.

"Team Leader? Why..."

"……."

"……."

Into the hunters' field of vision entered something pitch-black.

"A-a person?"

"A survivor?"

"No, that is..."

It was a man draped in a black cloak.

"Hello."

"……."

"I am a portrait."

"...Uh..."

"What are your names?"

"Uh, uh..."

"I am curious about your names."

That was their first meeting with Black Cloak.

"Would you converse with me?"

"……."

The researcher shrugged.

"From what you've said so far, I don't feel any goodwill at all."

"That's fair. The very fact that something non-human is asking for human names is terrifying in itself. My teammates and I felt the same."

"……."

"But maybe we relaxed a little because conversation at least seemed possible."

In contrast to Iser, whose will to tear humans apart had been as vivid as a color, Black Cloak, who approached without a sound and requested dialogue, gave off not even the slightest hostility.

"If you ask whether the existence itself wasn't terrifying, of course it was... but still..."

Even so, she had felt relieved.

"...It felt like receiving the goodwill of something of extremely high status, I suppose."

"...If you say 'extremely high status,' are you referring to a god? In that case it becomes difficult to call it a monster. Though rare, there are gods that visit dungeons in forms humans can perceive, so please answer with that in mind."

"No. I know what gods are like too. Beings close to fate or nature with will. But as a follower of the Sun God myself, I can say for certain that it was not a god. I did sense divinity, but it wasn't that."

If anything, it might have been a higher being than that.

"I felt the energy of the sun from him. It was truly warm. But it was cold as a corpse. I clearly felt the energy of death as well. Yet it wasn't rough, and all of that was just a simple outer shell... no, no, more than that, just..."

"……."

"...Things like rank or authority seemed completely useless to Black Cloak. We sometimes call gods fate and nature with will, but even will itself seemed absent in him. He thinks and moves, but... can you even call that will?"

"What do you mean?"

"He simply seemed to exist."

No intention to save anyone, no intention to harm anyone. No will to remain pure, no intention to be greedy. And yet it was clearly thinking and capable of conversation.

"……."

"……."

"...I don't know how to explain this either."

Birth and death. Living things and non-living things. A vast rank and presence so immense that seeking "will" in the way it thought and acted itself felt impure. A sensation that could not possibly be explained from a human perspective, yet was viciously clear.

"And those eyes..."

Ah, that.

"...That was..."

"...What was it?"

"……."

She answered only after a long while.

"It felt like it could become anything."

She had no idea how vast and expansive a thing was contained in those small eyes.

The cliché word "universe" could not express it. Amid that endless black-and-blue space, bonds like densely scattered stars, nature, fate—moving as if they possessed will, then falling still as mere non-living things.

How could a person express that? They could not. And they must not.

"At the very least, I can't."

A realm humans must not look upon.

"It seemed to be that itself."

"……."

"So you couldn't really call that a god, could you? Probably."

It had been closer to a structure.

"...Or a system? Or maybe not... no, I don't know."

"...I see."

The researcher nodded.

"But in the end, thanks to his goodwill, you all returned alive."

"We did. He didn't even seem to realize we were scared, but he was still quite gentlemanly. From the standpoint of something non-human, it must have been hard to read human emotions, so I understand."

"Black Cloak introduced himself as a portrait..."

"That might have been the most fitting introduction."

A person yet not a person, real or possibly a delusion, a portrait that might have captured someone's death or life. Black Cloak's introduction had been extremely appropriate.

"Mm, and..."

"And?"

"He used that method as well."

They had returned alive through a painting.

To the hunters who had calmed down even a little, Black Cloak asked,

"Then you would like to leave, would you not?"

"Th-that goes without saying..."

"I shall help you."

From somewhere he brought a single picture frame and held it up for the hunters to see.

"……."

"Do you know this place?"

It was a landscape painting that seemed to depict an alley deep in a city. It looked like a slum, but none of the hunters present knew the complex structure of the slums, tangled like an ant nest.

"……."

"Do you know this place?"

"Ah, no. I'm sorry."

Whether he disliked it when they failed to answer in time, he asked twice in the exact same tone, and they simply could not remain silent. Jeong Da-woon shot them a look that said Do any of you know?, but they shook their heads.

She was nervous. She would have to solve this unfathomable riddle to get out alive. No—even if that wasn't the case, for some reason Jeong Da-woon wanted to live up to the expectations she saw in the being before her. She wanted to be acknowledged by those eyes.

"……."

And for that very reason, she could not lie. Amid reverence and terror so deep she could not even dare imagine such a thing, Jeong Da-woon shook her head.

"...I'm sorry. We... don't really know."

"You need not be sorry."

It was a stable voice that carried no emotion whatsoever, yet did not feel cold. Black Cloak brushed the top of the frame with his pale, long hand.

The landscape painting changed.

"Do you know this place?"

"Ah."

This time she definitely knew the picture.

"Yes, yes, I know it. That... the Collector Guild station... the elevated railway, yes, that's the elevated railway station."

"Correct."

"Haa..."

Jeong Da-woon heaved a great sigh of relief.

Though his hands were visible, the counterpart whose entire body was covered by the black cloak and who was nothing but shadow did not even feel as if he had substance.

"Th-then... will you send us?"

"You need not be afraid."

"……."

"Yes. I will help you."

The black cloak that seemed the very image of a funeral, that thing resembling a reaper, stroked the painting.

"May I paint you?"

Black Cloak melted the hunters into paint and painted them into the landscape once more.

"……."

"...Uh..."

"...No way..."

When they opened their eyes, they were at the elevated railway station.

An abrupt return to life.

"……."

"……."

"Is that enough of an answer?"

"...Yes, for now."

The researcher nodded.

"I will report this to the Association."

It was the moment Black Cloak was officially registered in the world.

(To be continued)