Chapter 14

Fruit syrup was truly easy to make.

"The prep is a bit tedious, but if you mix half fruit and half sugar and let it sit, that's fruit syrup."

Jio brought over a cleanly sterilized glass jar with friendship and peace, love and affection.

It was so big it was closer to a crock than a jar, but Jio, who took after his grandmother, the village's generous big spender, had no intention of holding back on ingredients when he cooked.

It had to be at least this big.

"Now, let's see."

He washed the Mangdung Fruits, plump and full inside, and the drought jars, which gave off a sour and bitter scent, cleanly in water.

The flesh of the Mangdung Fruits was soft like tender jelly and full of juice, while the drought jars had little juice and firm flesh, like unripe mandarins.

The skin of the Mangdung Fruits was so thin it seemed as if it would melt, so without any separate processing, he simply cut them into quarters.

As for the drought jars, he peeled away even the white, translucent outer skin and left only the pulp.

"And then..."

He just had to pour them in.

'It would be better to have the juicy Mangdung Fruits on top.'

He layered the very bottom of the glass jar with drought jars, then sprinkled a little sugar over them.

After that, he placed Mangdung Fruits on top again, then poured in a generous amount of sugar to make a layer.

Once the layer of sugar had formed firmly, he just had to keep repeating the process.

Jio pressed down firmly so no air pockets formed between the pieces of fruit.

"It can't go bad."

Food in this forest did not spoil or grow mold, but even so, this process was necessary for the fruit flesh to mix well and for the sugar water to seep in.

Jio filled the glass crock without leaving any gaps.

"Done."

All that remained was to seal it like this and store it in a cool shade for a few days.

"I hope it ripens quickly, but I suppose it will need some time."

"Hrrm, hrrm, hrrm."

"You can't eat it yet."

"If you take it out and eat it now, it's just fruit with sugar on it."

"Later, when the fruit gets softer and the fragrance seeps into the sugar water, that's when we can drink it as tea."

"Coo."

"Cooking is sometimes the art of waiting."

Honey grumbled in complaint, but there was nothing to be done.

The fruit syrup needed some time before it fully matured.

"It won't take that long."

"The weather is warm here, so the sugar should melt quickly."

"The juice should come out obediently too."

"Hrrm."

"Don't stick to the floor. You'll get covered in dust."

"Yucky."

"At this rate, you'll end up cleaning every floor in our house."

"You'll turn from Honey-bird into Dust-bird."

Since they had gone on an adventure for a successful fruit syrup, it was already late, and he was hungry too.

Rather than longing for fruit syrup when he did not know when it would mature, it was time to crave a meal.

"Hmm..."

Should he go really simple?

"Let's make rice balls."

"Coo?"

"Can you eat rice too?"

"Gurrrrrrrrrr."

"Where does food get digested in that transparent body of yours...?"

As expected, Honey was overflowing with the makings of a pig.

Jio, the father of this round pig-bird, nodded with pride.

"Gurrrrrr!!"

"All right, I get it."

"Let's go."

The rice balls Jio was going to make this time were the real, literal thing.

Freshly cooked rice, a little salt, and a little sesame oil.

"It's a good thing I made rice ahead of time."

The cabin had a stove, but it did not have an electric rice cooker.

Since this was a world without electricity in the first place, there was nothing he could do about that.

Because of that, Jio had drawn an iron pot in advance and set it in the kitchen behind the cabin.

When he lifted the heavy iron lid, white steam rose in soft curls.

"Nice."

The moment he nodded, the steam suddenly drifting around vanished without a trace.

"...?"

That was when Honey, beside him, caught his eye.

"..."

He could not tell if it was just his imagination, but for some reason, it seemed a little bigger than before.

"Gurrr."

"... Don't tell me you're eating all the moisture rising from the rice right now?"

"Hrrm."

"Your body smells like freshly cooked rice."

"It's extremely nutty, but if I slept with you beside me, I'd get too hungry to fall asleep."

"Gurrrng."

"I've seen people steam their faces with it for skincare, but this is my first time seeing someone eat the steam itself..."

Was this what they meant by "give it to your stomach, not your skin"?

"That's new."

The unique sweet scent of Rurufu sap and the nutty smell of freshly cooked rice mingled together.

He could not define what scent that was at all.

Feeling oddly unsettled, Jio scooped out the rice for the moment.

No matter how astonishing it was, if it was a living creature, it naturally had to eat.

"Let's make porridge with the scorched rice stuck to the bottom."

"It's very easy on the stomach, so it's good to take out and eat anytime."

"I've never seen anyone get indigestion from eating this."

"Gurr."

"We'll make rice balls first, and the porridge later."

"Scorched-rice porridge is really refreshing if you eat it in the morning when you've just woken up and you're still half-asleep."

Returning to the kitchen, Jio sprinkled a little salt and sesame oil over the fluffy cooked rice.

The cabin cupboards were stocked with all the basic ingredients, so there was no need to agonize over this and that.

'I wonder what happens when I use all this up.'

It would be fun if they refilled automatically, like when he first checked the cabin, and even if they did not, it did not matter because he could just draw more and make them anew.

But so far, they did not seem to have refilled.

Jio gently stirred the hot rice with chopsticks and adjusted the seasoning.

"Honestly, even just this tastes good."

The smooth, nutty taste unique to freshly cooked rice, the rich aroma of sesame oil softly wrapping around it, and the light seasoning from the salt made rice balls that warmed the stomach like nothing else if eaten right after they were made.

"It's a good meal when you have to eat, but don't feel like making anything impressive."

"Gurrrrr."

"If you can eat, then eat."

"I'm not sure how you eat, though... Was the steam from the pot earlier not enough?"

"You look bigger, but are you not already full?"

"Gurgle."

"All right, then try eating."

The sight of water eating rice.

'It sounds fun, so let's leave it alone.'

Jio made that resolution to himself and formed the rice balls.

About thirty-nine in total.

"..."

"..."

"Dad is hungry."

"Gurrrrrk..."

"It's because I'm hungry."

Jio was a big eater.

"Sometimes I need to eat a lot like this for my stomach to feel secure."

But he did not stop there.

"I'm going to grill them once for the texture."

"Rice balls that are browned on both sides have a good texture to start with, and their nutty flavor becomes stronger too."

"Hrrm..."

"I don't really know whether it's because the sesame oil scent gets stronger or because the grain gets toasted..."

"But grilling them like this is much tastier than eating plain rice balls."

"Coo-hrmm."

"True, it might get a little boring if we only eat rice."

Jio lamented the situation his own laziness had created.

He had known the day would come when he regretted it like this.

"I should have made some side dishes in advance."

"Then even if I only ate rice, I could have enjoyed a slightly more varied meal."

"Hrrmmm..."

"It would be fine to make soup with fish caught from the lake, and I think it would be good to mix this and that together and make salted seafood too."

"It might be nice to have something like meat soup, but eating meat here feels a bit wrong."

Even assuming he hunted land animals rather than fish, he did not know how, and he was also reluctant to catch and eat the cute, round animals that matched Jio's taste.

In the first place, he was not even sure how much meat would come from those small, round bodies.

"Should I ask Yu Seongun for this sort of thing too?"

"Gurrrrrrr."

"Along with the seeds, right?"

Jio placed the well-shaped rice balls onto a pan that had been sufficiently heated over the brazier.

SIZZLE!

With that sound, the rich fragrance of sesame oil rose together with the nutty smell of grain crackling as it browned.

'Simple, but a good combination.'

After grilling all the rice balls, Jio sat at the dining table and took a bite.

"..."

As expected, it was delicious.

'... Maybe because the rice turned out nicely firm, but grilling it once improved both the texture and the aroma.'

'The salt seasoning is just right too, so it doesn't get tiresome.'

The rice that went into this had been drawn into being by Jio, so its condition was neither especially good nor bad.

Because of that, it was difficult to expect much from the power of the ingredient itself, but even so, the rice balls were quite delicious.

"Is it because it's a meal after labor?"

"Gurrrrrrrrng."

"..."

A rice-ball-shaped bird entered Jio's view.

"Oh."

No, it was Honey, who had swallowed a rice ball.

"Good heavens."

"Gurgle."

"You swallowed that."

"Gurrrrrng."

"Even though it's bigger than your body."

Jio accepted it three seconds later.

"That's funny."

"Coo."

"Since it's come to this, do you want to just eat one more?"

"Can you get even bigger from here?"

"Gurrrrrm."

"Right, you probably haven't finished digesting yet."

"Of course."

"You look that way."

"Gurr?"

"Yeah, Dad knows everything."

And so, a peaceful day passed.

* * *

"..."

STEP...

Yu Seongun, standing before the portrait, tilted his head.

"These days, it isn't opening its eyes again."

He had waited from midnight until the current time, five in the morning, but the portrait had not opened its eyes.

Yu Seongun murmured as he stroked his chin with his fingers.

"There doesn't seem to be a separate rule for this part."

The portrait would choose the times with the fewest employees and open its eyes.

The period when they could have a conversation differed from day to day.

As long as he did not ask rude questions, it would not necessarily run away, but that did not mean it was always looking outside the painting either.

It seemed he probably liked the world inside that portrait.

'Personally, I think that is the wise choice.'

No matter how the world inside the portrait was realized, it would be much better than looking around at this filthy, complicatedly entangled modern society.

At least, Yu Seongun thought so.

"... If I think of it that way..."

Perhaps the Portrait of Jio seemed to like quiet too.

"This could also be seen as one of its rules."

Yu Seongun sat with his back against the wall in front of the portrait and took out a notebook.

'I should record this.'

His work was to observe, analyze, maintain, and manage unknown objects or phenomena.

For Yu Seongun, whose knowledge was vast to that degree, the Portrait of Jio was almost the first subject he had ever paid this much attention to.

Fortunately, the Portrait of Jio was a subject that was relatively favorable toward humans.

The way he answered when asked questions and repaid goodwill with goodwill could be called quite gentlemanly.

"Can I organize it roughly?"

Thanks to that, the analysis was not too difficult.

'... This part is definitely unusual.'

He had still not grasped Jio's true identity, but he had to be careful.

There was a reason humanoid monsters were classified as top-level dangerous elements regardless of their attitude.

'Because they knew almost nothing about humans.'

Eleven years ago, a humanoid monster friendly toward Earthlings was witnessed for the first time.

Based on this, the associations of several countries searched for a way to interact with the residents beyond the dimensional gates.

However, an incident occurred in which the bodies of the delegation that had crossed the gate for the sake of friendship returned as "healthy deformities."

'The humanoid monster at that time had expressed that as its goodwill...'

From the humanoid monster's perspective, the bodies of the delegation had many inefficient parts, so it increased their legs to four or split their mouths into six branches.

That was goodwill, but at the same time, it was a disaster for humans.

The saying that monsters were monsters for a reason had arisen then.

"It's terrifying even when I think about it again."

After that incident, humanoid monsters also became targets for extermination without exception.

Because no matter how much goodwill they held toward humans, no one knew in what way, or around when, that goodwill would reveal its horrific true form.

'So I want to simply stay wary of this portrait too, but there are too many suspicious points for that.'

'Jio knows far too much about humans to be called an ordinary humanoid monster.'

'He doesn't unconditionally hate living things from Earth either.'

He was neither extremely favorable toward humans nor extremely hostile.

He was somewhat cynical, and at the same time, polite and considerate.

The Portrait of Jio was like an ordinary human who was merely severely blunt.

"..."

Tap.

Yu Seongun pressed his pen against the notebook.

"Those parts are what make it even harder to understand."

Jio did not seem like a mere monster.

'Anyone who isn't a Curator or a Gardener would say he's still just a monster, but...'

As expected, he had no certainty.

"Yes, he really could be a monster."

He could be an item with an ego, or simply a cursed portrait, or else a hallucination of such a high level that they could not even imagine it.

'It has only been about thirty years since dungeons appeared, so we can't know everything either.'

So Yu Seongun's current best option was only to analyze this portrait and respond to it.

"Hmm..."

First, there was something he was curious about.

The portrait's eyes were distant, as if they were not human, and its appearance had a beauty that did not seem to belong to a person of this world, while its pale yet vivid colors gave it a strange sense of unreality.

'That AI-like businesslike way of speaking and unchanging expression probably contributed to that pressure too.'

But.

"Whatever else may be true, Jio is still gentlemanly."

As could be seen from the rules he had organized earlier, judging only by Jio's actions so far, he was absolutely not a threatening or violent subject.

As shown by his deep understanding of humans, he clearly considered and respected them.

'Unlike the ignorant humanoid monsters up to now, he thinks from the perspective of humans.'

That meant he possessed a depth of understanding unseen in other monsters.

'And based on that, he expresses his goodwill and shows consideration.'

Did he not even give gifts?

"..."

After pondering for a moment, Yu Seongun wrote a new sentence in his notebook.

'... I'm not certain, but.'

Looking at the people Jio had given gifts to so far, all of them were either people he owed a debt to or people who had treated him favorably.

Since he was a portrait capable of distinguishing human good and evil, perhaps he liked kind and well-mannered people.

'Well, anyway.'

That was not the important part.

"... The problem is why the other employees freaked out so badly and ran away..."

All the employees here were people Bi Sabeol had stubbornly trained or poached one by one.

That meant Bi Sabeol's obsession with collecting showed itself not only toward objects but also toward humans, and Bi Sabeol, who was strongly attached to his employees, would not choose stupid or incompetent people.

So no matter how low-ranking an employee was, would Bi Sabeol have carelessly picked someone to manage his beloved gallery in particular?

They were all people with backbone and ability.

"And yet they were frightened and overwhelmed when they encountered Jio."

Yu Seongun had never faced Jio directly.

The last time he came outside, all Yu Seongun had done was follow behind and monitor him.

Because of that, he could not know what they had felt from Jio when facing him head-on.

He could only vaguely guess.

"..."

If he could oppress humans simply by existing, then the grade of his soul must be tremendous.

'... If I look at it that way, should I be grateful he's sleeping quietly inside the portrait?'

Yu Seongun let out a deep sigh with a troubled expression.

"Just what did that man Bi Sabeol bring in...?"

Was he finally planning to destroy Earth?

It was a day when the cigarettes he had quit five years ago tempted him.