Paint, Rank, and a Missing Student
"So, about that."
Leaning against the gallery wall, Yu Seong-un asked Ji-oh.
"Is turning people into paint also because you're a painter?"
"……."
"If it's an awkward question, you don't have to answer."
As a former research team leader at the Association, Yu Seong-un still had deep ties on the Hunter Association side. That meant he could dig up plenty of information—and the recent rumors about Ji-oh being sighted in the Abyssal Kingdom were no exception.
"You've never once called yourself a painter, so I just got a little curious."
Witnesses claimed the Black Cloak was both a portrait and a painter.
"And turning living creatures into paint is pretty amazing, too."
"It wasn't nearly as impressive an act as you seem to think."
Ji-oh answered in his usual flat, machine-like tone.
"To answer your earlier question: I'm just an ordinary person who paints as a hobby. Calling me a painter would be overstating it."
"In the end, a painter is just someone who paints, like you said. Well, more precisely, someone who does it for a living… but it's roughly the same idea, isn't it?"
"If that's how you want to see it, I don't mind."
Unlike when he stepped out of the frame of "Ji-oh's Portrait" and mimicked a human, the voice of the portrait-bound Ji-oh was unnervingly businesslike. Completely devoid of emotion, mineral-hard, he continued.
"I turned those people into paint simply because I was able to paint them from the other side of the frame. But if I had drawn already-existing living beings with ordinary paint, I judged it would be closer to creation than transportation—so I had no choice but to turn them into paint first."
"…Right, that…."
Yu Seong-un recalled an earlier conversation he'd had with "Ji-oh's Portrait."
"From your point of view, the paintings aren't you—they're us, aren't they?"
"I haven't forgotten that all of you are living beings with selves, not ordinary pictures or paint. I simply kept wondering how I could help them, and settled on this method. Was it any help?"
"It did raise the survival rate, yeah."
With the frame between them, Ji-oh viewed the human world as a painting from his own world, and humans viewed Ji-oh's world as a painting from theirs. That was why Ji-oh—both portrait and painter—seemed able to exert arbitrary influence through painting.
"It's just… how do I put this…."
Yu Seong-un hesitated a moment before going on.
"People are scared of you, that's all."
"They're scared?"
"You don't exactly look approachable."
"That's true."
"And getting turned into paint while still alive isn't exactly an everyday occurrence."
It wasn't merely "uncommon"—it was the kind of thing most people would never experience even once in a lifetime. Hunters were grateful for the Black Cloak's inexplicable goodwill, yet they still feared him.
"Anyway, as long as you're not treating us like nothing more than paint, that's fine."
"I never thought of it that way."
"Yeah. You just wanted to help in that particular fashion."
That part, of course, was distinctly un-human.
From a human perspective, a favor from a being of the Source doesn't always feel like a favor.
It was a pure way of thinking, if you could call it pure.
It was like a small child who doesn't understand dog biology feeding chocolate to a cute puppy. The child only wanted to share a sweet treat, but for the dog it was pure poison.
Maybe it's because he himself is a portrait, but he doesn't even hesitate at turning people into paint. The silver lining is that people at least recognized it as goodwill….
Which apparently was why some hunters even felt a kind of awe.
"…Uh…."
After a brief pause, Yu Seong-un spoke again.
"Have you still been going to the Abyssal Kingdom lately?"
"I've been visiting in the hope of meeting Iser, but I've only run into humans, never mermaids."
"Aigoo."
That crafty mermaid Iser was probably avoiding Ji-oh. Whether he needed time to sort out his thoughts or was cooking up some other scheme, Yu Seong-un couldn't say.
"Anyway… thanks for helping people."
"No, there's no need to thank me. If anything, I want to apologize for startling them. Was my behavior rude?"
"Not rude, exactly—just that quite a few people are scared."
It was more than "quite a few," really, but the fact remained that Ji-oh had shown mercy and saved human lives. The hunters seemed to understand it as goodwill, so for now it was fine.
If the Black Cloak ever becomes too familiar to the hunters, that could cause its own problems, but at least nothing major is about to blow up.
Ideally Yu Seong-un wanted to keep a strict separation between the kind, friendly hunter "Seo Ji-oh" and the unidentifiable urban legend "Black Cloak"—but Ji-oh himself didn't seem interested in that distinction, which was a little inconvenient from a greedy human's point of view.
Did Ji-oh actually want to mingle closely with people even while wearing the Black Cloak?
"Just so there's no misunderstanding—I wasn't saying you shouldn't help people. Being a little startled is still better than dying, right? I only came because I was curious how much you knew, so don't take it too hard."
"I didn't take it hard."
"Good to hear. But…."
Yu Seong-un trailed off.
"Something else occurred to me."
The real reason he had come to the gallery today wasn't merely to pass along feedback about the Black Cloak rumors.
"Mind if I ask a question?"
"If it's something I can answer, I'll try."
"Okay, so… by what standard are you able to adjust your rank?"
It was a question born from the various eyewitness accounts circulating, plus the handful of witnesses like Yu Seong-un himself and the Cha family. The gap in rank between the rumored Black Cloak and the human "Ji-oh" was so vast that they hardly seemed like the same being.
The portrait, its eyes painted over with black pigment and therefore sightless, asked back.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Uh…."
Of course—Ji-oh had no idea how high his own rank actually was.
He thinks of himself as an ordinary human, so bringing up the word "rank" was my mistake. This is the same guy who once explained people being scared of him as just a resolution problem….
After organizing his thoughts for a moment, Yu Seong-un spoke again.
"…Obviously the Black Cloak urban legend and the person named Ji-oh are the same individual, but even so, there are times when the same being shows completely different judgments and ways of speaking. When you're acting as 'Seo Ji-oh'… I don't think the idea of turning people into paint would even cross your mind."
That was the real issue.
"Even though you're the same Ji-oh, it feels like your entire way of thinking changes depending on your rank."
"……."
"Maybe I'm just imagining things. If that was a rude assumption, I apologize."
A moment later the portrait answered.
"I think Mr. Yu Seong-un is correct. There are times when I change my thoughts and tone of voice."
"Ah."
"I try my best to live correctly and politely, but to borrow your words—when I am the Black Cloak, I make arrogant and rude judgments."
The portrait seemed to be aware of this point as well.
"But I have absolutely no intention of harming people. I will never do anything that hurts any of you, so please don't worry on that score."
"I understand what you mean."
Yu Seong-un nodded.
Of course human thinking and Source thinking can't be the same.
Even for the same being, differences in rank could produce differences in worldview.
Ji-oh called it arrogant and rude, but for him those actions were probably the natural ones. Considering the rank contained inside the existence called Ji-oh's Portrait, it isn't strange at all.
A human looking down at ants was only natural.
The fact that he's even attempting to bend down and match our eye level like this is already amazing. Maybe it's only possible because Ji-oh has such a high understanding of humans.
Of course, even if Ji-oh "tried," he could never become completely human—but the fact that he was scolding himself for "arrogant and rude judgments" still meant something.
"……."
A chill ran down Yu Seong-un's spine.
"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?"
"Hm? No, just…."
Every time he was reminded that Ji-oh was not human, he got goosebumps.
"…I was just thinking how incredible you are."
Even now, Yu Seong-un still did not know what Ji-oh actually was.
Only that he was a portrait—nothing more.
"Ssshhhpp…."
"Myaeng."
"Ssshhhhpppp…."
"Mung."
Honey craned its neck curiously at the sight of Ji-oh vacuuming Dana's belly.
"Kkureuk?"
"I feel alive again."
"Kkung?"
"I've been healed."
Truly, no hobby raised one's quality of life quite like face-planting into a cat's stomach.
"Of course Dana is neither soft nor warm, but…."
"Grrrr."
"She's still a cat. Thank you for stepping on me, Master."
The two cotton-ball paws pushing his face away were almost unbearably adorable.
The teddy-bear Sun God watching the scene looked a little unsettled, but Ji-oh, Honey, and Dana were completely unfazed. In the midst of this cozy family gathering, Ji-oh asked a serious question.
"So—how am I supposed to get a look at Iser's face?"
The topic was Iser's recent truancy.
"For some reason he won't come to see me. He can't possibly not know I've been there, so what's going on?"
"Kkuuu…."
The teddy bear narrowed its brow as if to say, "You really don't know?", and Ji-oh nodded.
"I do know, of course. It's probably the same principle as a puppy that knows it's in trouble avoiding its owner's eyes. Humans have this unfortunate instinct—when they've done something wrong and think they're about to get scolded, they just run first and think later."
"Kku…."
The Sun God wondered whether it was even appropriate to call the mermaid Iser a human, and whether comparing him to a puppy or a little child was fair. In the first place, Iser did not seem to be avoiding Ji-oh out of fear of a scolding.
The form was unmistakably Giovanni, yet inside it lingered a strange sense of wrongness and an unfathomably lofty rank. Add the solar divinity that mermaids could only revile, and he had become someone they found extremely difficult to face.
But Ji-oh was a young man of conviction. He remained undaunted.
"When I was little, if I ever drew a map on the blanket, I'd spend the whole night secretly hand-washing it while watching Grandma's every move. Even though I knew it was a perfectly natural bodily function for a child, guilt and shame kept me from saying a word."
"Kku…?"
"But I got caught in the end. How well can a kid hand-wash anything by himself? It was soaking wet and never dried overnight. Therefore, no matter how hard Iser tries to avoid me, that child will never escape me."
"Kkuuuu…?"
The teddy bear's expression clearly asked, "Is that really an appropriate analogy?", and Ji-oh let out a small sigh.
"It's true that Iser chose a far more brutal path than this humble analogy deserves…."
"Kkukku, kku."
"In my memories, Iser was only a young student. Even if people call him a terrorist now, it still doesn't feel real."
The mere fact that he himself was somehow involved in that terrorist incident was enough to make him break out in a cold sweat, but beyond that, Giovanni simply remembered his little disciple. It refused to feel real.
Even if someone suddenly announced, "Your small, precious student has been bombing religious facilities ever since you died," the only reaction that came out was, "Huh? Oh? Is that so?"
"But that's exactly why we need to grab—no, meet Iser all the more."
"Kkureuk?"
Honey shot him a suspicious look that clearly said, "Didn't you just say 'grab' a second ago?" Naturally Ji-oh ignored it, and Dana flopped over with a huge yawn.
"How am I supposed to get Iser to come see me? I couldn't stop worrying about it."
"Kku…."
"The Abyssal Kingdom is not a big-box supermarket. I can't put out a lost-child announcement, and a full-grown adult like Iser can't exactly be called a lost child. That cute little mermaid knows exactly where the exit is and still refuses to come find me…."
Had his disciple suddenly turned into a coward who wouldn't even show his face? Ji-oh blinked twice, then continued.
"Just so you know, it isn't as if I have no plan at all."
"Kkung?"
"If I cause one really spectacular incident inside the Abyssal Kingdom—what you could call their own home—I'm sure those faces will show up."
"Kkururuk?"
"If it goes well, I should be able to seize the initiative cleanly. Yes, the plan is…."
Hearing Ji-oh's idea, the bird tilted its head as if to ask whether that would really work, the cat rolled over onto its back in pure disinterest, and the teddy bear wore a faintly dubious expression that said, "Are you sure that's okay?"
At that look, Ji-oh turned to the Sun God.
"Is something wrong?"
"…Kku…."
Faced with Ji-oh's completely nonchalant demeanor, the teddy bear nodded as if thinking, "Well, if you say so." In truth it hadn't made that face because it knew anything specific; it had simply thought, "If Ji-oh is fine with it, then it must be fine."
"Kkuu, kkukkukku."
"Thank you for the support."
It was, in every way, a heartwarming family meeting.
(To be continued)