Beg Before the Portrait

That said, Ji-oh never wiped the paint away again.

"Even without the paint, everyone was already afraid of me."

"Well... I suppose that's true."

"More than anything, I don't want my face made public."

Having his personal information leaked was a terrifying prospect. Timid Seo Ji-oh, with no real ability to fight back, did not want his face put up for sale.

The fact that I'm already a haunted portrait is problem enough as it is.

Seo Ji-oh took pride in having lived a clean, upright life, but now that he had become a haunted portrait, he had to take every possible precaution. Being sold with his face covered was entirely different from being sold with both face and name made public.

"Well now, looks like we're of the same mind."

And with that, Yu Seong-un felt a weight lift from his shoulders.

He could have gotten annoyed that he has to consider human circumstances too, but seeing this... Ji-oh really is pure. Even if it's just consideration that comes from forcing himself into the mold of a human being, it's still exceptional.

It was a miracle of a mystery, really. As a Gardener, Yu Seong-un felt almost unbearable gratitude and affection. A being of the Source this easy to care for—every Gardener in the world would envy him.

Anyway...

With Ji-oh's own consent secured, the range of what the guild could do had expanded considerably.

"There'll still be records of your face at the auction house where you used to be, but I'll handle that part—or rather, the Guild Leader and I will."

"Yes, thank you."

"That said, we can't do anything about the memories of the guests who were there that day... but it's better than nothing."

"I'd appreciate it."

"Don't mention it."

And so they left the gallery.

Yu Seong-un set to work erasing the information on Ji-oh's Portrait from the auction house records—only to blink at an unexpected situation.

"......?"

Still scanning the monitor, Yu Seong-un headed up to the Guild Leader's office.

"Guild Leader."

"Ah, I was just about to call for you."

"...You were checking it as well, sir?"

"Were you also in the middle of scrubbing the records on Ji-oh's Portrait, Yu Seong-un?"

"That's my job. I didn't realize you were already on it, but since you've confirmed it yourself, this conversation should go smoothly."

Yu Seong-un handed over a thin stack of documents he'd hurriedly assembled.

"Ji-oh's face has been erased."

The records remaining at the auction house had changed. They now showed a portrait whose face was covered over in black paint.

"I couldn't tell whether it was only the online information that had been corrupted, so I went and checked in person—but it wasn't just those records. Everything from paper documents to the memories of the clients who attended that day is vague and uncertain."

"......"

Bi Sa-beol wore an uncharacteristically blank expression. He rolled his vivid golden, reptilian eyes.

"What exactly did Ji-oh do?"

"...He asked if he could cover his face on the portrait as well, thought for a moment, then simply painted over the entire screen with black paint. He also said that as long as he doesn't wipe it off, the portrait will stay like that."

"This may be another property of the portrait itself."

"A property of the portrait...?"

"A portrait is a painting of a person, after all."

Among the documents Yu Seong-un had brought was a printed image of Ji-oh's Portrait. As expected, the face was obscured by a thin layer of paint with the texture of ink.

"In that case, can a photograph of the original painted portrait still be called a portrait? What about the paper it's printed on?"

"...Since it wasn't painted by hand, one could argue it isn't."

"Or one could argue that it is. In the end, it's still a 'picture' of a 'person.'"

A picture, after all, is something that represents the form or image of an object on a flat surface using lines or color.

"So whether it's a printed image like this or a photograph taken of the portrait—anything of the sort can still be called a picture, don't you think?"

"In the broadest sense, that isn't wrong, but..."

"At the very least, Ji-oh seems to think so."

Bi Sa-beol narrowed his eyes and smirked.

"To be able to exert this direct an influence over the entire world simply by thinking it... what a remarkable portrait."

"......"

"...Ah. Of course..."

Wiping the smile from his face, Bi Sa-beol murmured low.

"This is why I love art."

After the Great Cataclysm, after the world changed and impossible abilities appeared, the very scope of art had expanded. If there was one field in the world that was most fascinating and most colorful, Bi Sa-beol dared to assert it was art.

"Having the face covered is a real pity. I'll have to go see his face sometime later—it is a shame. But when I think of this as another of Ji-oh's performance pieces, something in my chest swells."

"You're saying something rather perverted with a completely serious face..."

"I'm being serious, so of course my face is serious. Honestly, performance art carried out by a portrait itself is something you can hardly expect from any other artifact. You can barely even call this a fragment of a work."

"Objects with a sense of self aren't that common to begin with."

"I have a good feeling about this new year."

Winter would soon pass, and spring would come.

"I get the sense that something is coming..."

Very interesting things were going to happen.

"......"

"How are the results?"

"Well..."

Waves of undulating hair slipped down.

"The tests aren't working properly."

The mermaid Aria adjusted her oversized doctor's coat as she spoke.

"We've been running all sorts of experiments using the hair that human Seo Ji-oh left behind as a sample, but the results aren't consistent. It keeps changing and shifting, so the tests themselves are difficult... and it won't stabilize, either."

Iser replied.

"So he's clearly not human."

"Right. He's not human."

"......"

"But he's not not-human, either."

There were times when it clearly displayed human cells. Literally, it could become anything.

"Interesting."

Despite the words of interest, Aria's face was as mineral and inorganic as a gem—even though she wore her usual smile.

"Of all things, traces of Giovanni remain among them as well."

"...Then is he truly our teacher?"

"At the very least, there's a very strong connection."

They hadn't only performed material tests like cell analysis. Having passed through many dimensions, they had thoroughly established themselves as the masters of this place. Aria's capabilities as a doctor and researcher had long since broken through any ordinary limits.

And yet this is the first time the results have been this unclear.

Aria spoke to her younger brother.

"Iser, my little brother. I need your help."

"Please give me your orders."

"Bring that man back here. I need to speak with our teacher."

"......"

At her silent younger brother's appearance, Aria smiled faintly.

"Of course I know how difficult a request this is."

It had only been a few days since the Black Cloak presumed to be Giovanni had visited their dimension and spirited the humans away. Quiet enough that even catching his presence was hard, vanishing in an instant like a ghost—holding onto him would not be easy.

"We've been avoiding him on our end as well. We couldn't speak with Giovanni without being sure, after all."

There had been far too many uncertainties to face him unprepared. But now they had certainty. He was their one and only human teacher of their lives. He was Giovanni. Only, for some reason, he had changed a great deal, grown immense, and become strong enough that they could not simply snatch him away. They could not seize him rashly.

"And from the look of things, he doesn't remember much of this place either, does he? You said he didn't even recall this temple."

"He seemed to remember some of it, but probably..."

"Then appealing to affection will be difficult as well. Then again, he always did have a cold side."

Aria murmured.

"And by now he probably isn't human either."

"......"

"That part is certainly... a little strange, I suppose..."

Aria and Iser were the ones who had never understood human emotion and ways of thinking, and so had learned about them. Now the thought that Giovanni—their beloved teacher—had lost all of that stirred a peculiar feeling. It was closer to a sense of deprivation. That the dearest memory of a merfolk life had been resurrected from death and was flowing on in a form they did not know...

"......"

"Still, I'm asking you."

The two siblings never lost their smiles. For hundreds, thousands, or perhaps even more years, they had never once stopped smiling.

"Bring him here, one way or another."

"......"

"And keep him here."

"...Yes."

"I trust you'll manage it well."

"You need not worry."

The hunter who wore the black cloak, Seo Ji-oh, had shown a particular fondness and consideration for children.

"There are any number of methods."

Iser thought of a child who had approached him in a friendly way.

Cha I-sol, was it?

The new entry dungeon, the Abyssal Kingdom, was officially opened.

"Abyssal Kingdom? They put 'Kingdom' in the name?"

"If the Hunter Association formalized a name with 'Kingdom' in it..."

"Fuck, it's going to be filthy huge."

Entry dungeons were already considered the most grindy type of dungeon, and if the Hunter Association had used a clear word like "Kingdom," it meant that among entry dungeons, the map was particularly vast.

"But the difficulty, wow... that's..."

"It's linked to that virtual dungeon that blew up at the Sun Temple last time? Insane."

"Sounds like even the Association staff couldn't explore it properly."

"They're lucky they didn't die and go missing. And they were the first official entry team, too."

Naturally the difficulty had been set quite high at S-class.

"Still, they say no one died. Maybe it's not that dangerous?"

"Hey, all they're doing is fetching a bit of information, right?"

The purpose of opening the Abyssal Kingdom this time was exploration, not a full clear.

"Got a priority list?"

"Yeah, two of them. They even have names."

"Whoa... these are humanoid monsters?"

"First time in years, isn't it? No wonder they slapped an S-rank on it."

"So what monsters are there?"

"Let's see..."

The Hunter Association's priority targets totaled two.

"The merfolk Iser, and..."

"'Black Cloak'?"

A freelance hunter tilted his head.

"If they only put a nickname with no real name, is that their way of saying we should pay more attention to this one?"

When the Hunter Association judged it couldn't wrap something up quickly in-house, after a certain period they would open the known dungeon entrance. In such cases they called it the Exploration Season and put bounties on information about the dungeon.

"Been a while since I got to stretch my legs."

"No, even so, it's S-class—heading in is a bit..."

"It's just Exploration Season. If they wanted a clear, S-ranks would have to step up, but fetching information is something we can do too."

"True, the bounties the Association puts up are pretty decent money."

"And it doesn't even have to be info on these monsters specifically, right?"

"It's a newly opened dungeon, so probably."

Even for information that wasn't on the Association's bounty list, newly opened dungeons sometimes paid monetary rewards based on the importance of the intel. Getting caught by a dangerous monster would take your head in an instant, but it was worth trying.

"Besides, no one's bought this dungeon yet, right?"

"Honestly, who'd buy an S-class... unless it's one of the Big Three guilds."

"And there's zero clear information yet, so the risk is high in a lot of ways."

"Plus you don't know what resources are inside."

"Anyway, dungeons no one has bought don't cost anything to enter."

Some dungeons with useful resources, or ones deemed useful for affiliated hunters' self-improvement, were purchased by wealthy guilds. Those required a fee each time you entered.

"Compared to those, this dungeon is, well..."

"Fuck, don't get careless. S-class isn't some dog's name."

"You think I don't know that? Chill, asshole."

Not every hunter belonged to a guild. Dungeons with Association bounties like this often served as a major source of income for freelancers.

"Whoa, there's already a waiting list..."

"Can't we just go in raw?"

"The entrance is in the deep sea—how are you going to get there?"

"Swimming's a bit much."

"Fine, waiting doesn't cost money either."

Even if hunters had superhuman strength, finding an entrance deep enough to be called the abyss bare-handed was difficult. They had to take the Association's prepared submersibles, so the line quickly grew long.

And before long, a strange rumor began to circulate.

"Hey, you thinking of going to the Abyssal Kingdom?"

"It's still Exploration Season. The bounties haven't dropped either—I'm going to make some money."

"I heard it's dangerous there... so make sure you remember this."

"What's with the sudden talk?"

"No, seriously. They say it's the only way to come back alive."

Hunters whispered.

"If you don't want to die, go kneel and beg in front of the portrait."

"What...? A portrait?"

"'Black Cloak' likes kind, polite humans."

"......"

"Got it? Make sure you remember."

It was the moment the name Black Cloak began to spread among hunters.

"......"

"......"

"Ah, we're fucked."

The Association, which had tried to brand him as a monster and instill wariness of the existence called Black Cloak, clutched their heads. Because the image of Black Cloak circulating among the public was surprisingly favorable.

"The romanticists are going to start showing up again."

"Ugh, I'm already exhausted..."

Association staff could already picture the hunters who would run wild trusting only the fact that a monster was friendly to humans—and cause every creative form of damage imaginable.

(Continued in the next chapter)