Chapter 19

"It was dangerous."

Yu Seongun spoke as if sighing.

"I did agree to it myself, but watching the employees whisper about the 'ghost story' had my heart trembling. One wrong move, and there could have been internal strife."

"Our guild members are not so narrow-minded that a single ghost story would be enough to cause internal strife. Curator Yu Seongun, you seem to have little faith in your coworkers."

"Faith or whatever, it was too much of a gamble. This wasn't something we could feel reassured about on the grounds of trust between coworkers."

In the end, things had gone well, but that did not change the fact that it had been a dangerous gamble.

"We practically let loose a Root entity whose identity we haven't even properly grasped..."

They still did not know what Jio's true identity was. For some reason, that was still the case. No matter how many books Yu Seongun rifled through, he could not find even one similar creature.

If they entrusted the investigation to the Association, they might at least get an answer, but it was unknown how likely that was, and in the first place, Bi Sabeol would not allow it.

'He's the kind of person who pours so much care into what belongs to him.'

What was certain, however, was that the 'Portrait of Jio' was clearly an existence strongly influenced by the Root.

Gardeners and the few humans who knew of their existence referred to such monsters, items, skills, or phenomena as 'Root entities.' Since they were hard to define specifically, it was their way of vaguely glossing over them.

It was a somewhat embarrassing fact as a specialist of this era, but the 'Portrait of Jio' was exactly such a case.

"One wrong move, and we could have ended up unleashing a disaster."

"I wonder. Curator Yu Seongun, what do you think Jio's identity is?"

"Are you changing the subject...?"

"It's an ordinary question."

"..."

Yu Seongun shrugged.

"Of course I don't know. Just as I never have."

Jio was on a completely different track from ordinary Root entities.

"First of all, there's a high chance he isn't a monster."

"Certainly, they are hostile toward civilization outside dungeons."

"Their hostility is close to instinct. It's reflexive, like how humans freak out or want to kill a cockroach the moment they see one. That isn't something a monster can simply decide to control..."

"Even if it were possible, with that much patience and judgment, it would already have surpassed the level of a 'monster.'"

"In that sense, I judged that he probably isn't a monster."

Jio's goodwill sometimes felt indifferent or merciless because it came from finding the species itself endearing, but that did not mean it was not pure goodwill.

That was why he could not be a monster.

"Isn't he showing a completely different pattern from monsters?"

Yu Seongun nodded.

"Of course, there are monsters that are friendly toward humans, but strictly speaking, that's closer to love-hate than affection. If the deformity incident eleven years ago had truly been pure goodwill, they would have closely observed humans wailing in fear and then cleaned up after themselves."

"But I believe you said they clearly enjoyed it?"

"There's also the fact that they have no intention of understanding humans at all, and perhaps they simply found human reactions amusing. As for that part, the incident was wrapped up in a hurry and left unsolved... so I can't say anything for certain either."

"That isn't what's important right now, so let's move on."

"Hm, and..."

Yu Seongun rolled his dark navy eyes and continued.

"He isn't an item either."

"Items with egos certainly exist, don't they?"

"The egos lodged in items are strictly created by humans. They have limits."

He added more.

"You can't judge it by how much they can think like humans... You have to look at their essence."

"Their essence?"

"Jio created life, even if only inside the portrait."

After pondering for a moment, Yu Seongun tilted his head.

"Perhaps the life created that way can come outside the painting as well. I haven't gotten an answer from Jio, but since he himself has no restrictions on coming out in the first place, and he can easily slip objects outside the painting, the possibility is high."

"What if Jio draws a monster and it comes outside?"

"I think that would be possible too. Even if it isn't, we have already confirmed that Jio alone can come out as he pleases. If it were an item rather than a monster, or if Jio brought out a contracted beast subjugated by his soul, that alone would already be impossible to handle."

"And a mere item can't go that far?"

"All items are created by humans. Even if I set aside every prejudice, only a highly intelligent monster would be capable of making one. Creating life is impossible at the level of humans or monsters, and the fact that the grade of his soul is beyond comparison with humans has already been testified to by countless witnesses. He isn't an item."

"Aha."

Bi Sabeol chuckled as if amused. For his age, it was a terribly childish display.

"Then what about a type of skill? In the case of skills, it was proven long ago that they can deal with souls. Though there is only one, there is a user of a resurrection skill who can even revive the dead."

"That person is also merely manipulating a soul that already existed, not creating an entirely new soul. Even if a skill capable of creating souls exists somewhere in the world... in the first place, a skill is intangible energy that intelligent life-forms can wield."

"You mean Jio, who has a form and an ego, cannot be the remnants of a skill? But what if he is merely a kind of Awakened who gained a skill that allows him to turn himself into a portrait?"

Bi Sabeol said, waving his fingers.

"Jio also says he is a twenty-nine-year-old young man, and he said he had once been part of human society in the past. If so, he could simply be a type of Awakened that has not been discovered until now."

Yu Seongun shook his head.

"Impossible."

"Why? Does Mr. Yu Seongun, the former research team leader of the Association, see something?"

"If seeing were the issue, you would see better than I do, Guild Master... I simply know something."

"Then what do you know?"

"Do you know why superpowered people came to be called 'Awakened' in the first place?"

"Hmm..."

Bi Sabeol shrugged.

"It's not a field I'm particularly interested in."

"I suppose simply saying you don't know would put a scratch on that lofty pride of yours."

"I suppose it would put quite a large scratch on it. I am, in my own way, the head of one of South Korea's top three guilds. Can you even imagine how expensive a single speck of this pride is?"

"I'm sure."

Yu Seongun let out a hollow, bitter laugh and continued.

"It's easy if you look back at the meaning of the word awakening."

"One, to wake and regain consciousness. Two, to realize and come to know. Three, to regain one's senses and be alert, carefully observing and guarding against danger."

"... You said it wasn't a field you were interested in, so why do you sound like a Korean dictionary..."

"If I don't even know the meaning of words, I wonder what meaning there is in my becoming Guild Master with a single appraisal skill."

"Ah, yes. I'm sure."

"So which of these is it?"

"Hm... Any of them will do."

Yu Seongun continued calmly.

"The important point is its essence."

"How interesting."

"No matter which meaning it is, awakening is something newly formed from an already existing state."

He propped his chin on his hand.

"Whether you open your eyes and come to your senses, straighten out a mind that had unfortunately become twisted, or mature inwardly and reflect on your younger days... it means a change that occurs within the one person who existed from the beginning."

"Aha, and?"

"An Awakened person's skill isn't an ability they received from nothing. It is an ability that had originally been buried in that person's own qualities, awakening. Dungeons appeared, energy and resources that had never existed on Earth before emerged, and the environment changed along with them. Humans evolved to match that."

"I think the Center's textbooks had something similar. So can I understand it as meaning that an era came when people could realize the stone they already possessed was a diamond, and they simply realized it?"

"That's roughly similar."

Yu Seongun scratched the back of his neck.

"In that sense, Jio cannot be considered Awakened."

"Hmm..."

"Even if we call him Awakened, it means the grade of his original soul awakened, not that it was newly bestowed upon him."

"So that is how it is."

The two of them did not know it, but there was an error in Yu Seongun's words. Seo Jio was a case in which, in the process of Earth being newly born, he had very, very, extremely coincidentally fused with the Root and raised the grade of his soul.

It was a miraculous transformation with odds difficult to observe in a small dimension like Earth.

"What a headache."

"It is a headache."

Of course, there was no way the two of them, only thirty years after the Great Calamity, could figure out that part.

In the eyes of ordinary humans like them, the 'Portrait of Jio' was simply an existence that had never been human from the beginning.

"..."

Bi Sabeol, who had been pondering while blinking his bright yellow eyes, opened his mouth.

"Then what if we call Jio a 'child of the Root'?"

"That also feels a little... strange."

"Please explain in what sense it is strange."

"Most Root's children have nothing that could be called reason. No, there is no need to even go as far as children. This applies to almost every existence born from the Root..."

Yu Seongun spoke with a reluctant expression.

"If I had to explain Root entities in one phrase, I would call them 'Living Stories.' So they can't do something like think. Even if they appear to be thinking, that's an illusion. They aren't actually thinking."

"Are you certain?"

"... Not... really. No matter how much of a Gardener I am, this field still hasn't been properly uncovered."

Yu Seongun hesitated, then continued.

"I only said that because all the Root's children I have seen until now could be considered nature itself."

There were occasionally cases where a human with powerful thoughts created a dungeon with their own rules and became the boss monster there.

But even they could not be called 'children of the Root.'

"Monsters are one of two things. They either arose from a dungeon, or they became monsters because they created a dungeon."

"Hmm..."

"They are different from 'children of the Root,' who arise directly from the Root or happen to fall into the veins of the Root and then appear throughout various dimensions."

"Stories about that side are fascinating no matter how many times I hear them."

Bi Sabeol smiled, narrowing his eyes like a snake.

"From my perspective as a Hunter, the greatest secret of the world would seem to be nothing but dungeons."

"That is a good thing. There are many people who still cannot adjust even to the existence of dungeons, but if we told them that those dungeons were actually formed from a cosmic concept called the Root... everyone's heads would split open."

"I am always grateful to our Gardeners as it is. Shall I make you coffee?"

"No, thank you. I'm sick of caffeine."

Yu Seongun openly grimaced. He had already been busy and working overtime often, and recently, in order to talk with Jio, who only opened his eyes at dawn, he had been consuming every kind of caffeine there was, until he was on the verge of throwing up.

"Anyway, well, yes. If we had to classify him, I think it would be much easier to explain Jio as a child of the Root. There is no other way to explain him... and the Root is not such a narrow concept that mere beings of Earth could grasp it in thirty years."

"True. When we haven't even fully grasped dungeons, we hardly have the leeway to explore knowledge even deeper beneath them."

"The Association president still seems to have a great deal of interest, but I don't know. It is still difficult to say this or that about Jio's identity."

The Root was an ecosystem and nature in itself. Just as nitrogen in the atmosphere cannot understand humans, Root's children are fundamentally far too lacking in their understanding of humans. They simply survive in their own way and cultivate their own 'stories.'

But Jio was not like that.

"How that is possible... I don't really know. But he said he had once been human in the past, so if we investigate mainly in that direction, shouldn't something come up...?"

"..."

"Even so, I cannot understand how a human could become a child of the Root. Even if he was human, there is also the possibility that he wasn't a human from Earth."

Many novice Gardeners often confused 'monsters' and 'children of the Root,' but just because they had both been formed under strong influence from the Root did not mean they were the same.

"Monsters are born from dungeons, and Root's children are born from the Root. In the first place, they were born from different wombs, so there is no way the two can be the same."

"Would it be roughly like the relationship between an uncle and a nephew?"

"Hm... That is similar to a certain extent."

The order was that 'dungeons' and 'children of the Root' were formed from the mother body known as the Root, and monsters were formed from those 'dungeons.' Usually, this flow was followed.

"Once you get to humanoid monsters or those on a similar level, they may create dungeons first and create new rules or monsters there, but cases like that are not common..."

So calling them uncle and nephew was not exactly wrong.

"There is also a theory that dungeons themselves are one type of child of the Root."

"Ah, is that so?"

"This is an area that still requires further research. I cannot say for certain. Anyway..."

Yu Seongun looked at Bi Sabeol.

"So, was it really all right?"

"..."

"We effectively decided to let an unknown being like this roam freely."

At that, Bi Sabeol shrugged.

"... Haven't we been exchanging answers about that since a while ago?"

Just how were they supposed to keep that unknown, uncontrollable existence from being free?

"He isn't a monster, he isn't an item, he isn't Awakened. And to call him a child of the Root, there are too many strange points."

"..."

"He creates life, his soul is of a high grade, and there is simply nothing he cannot do. He does everything by himself. If there were any restrictions or conditions on coming outside the portrait, that would be one thing, but even that much is something he does freely and easily."

"... That's true."

"How do you plan to stop him? Is it even possible? We can't handle even the god who has supposedly become much more familiar to us, so how do you intend to stop the 'Portrait of Jio,' whose identity is even more unknown than that?"

Bi Sabeol smiled and waved his hand.

"Ah, perhaps it might be possible if we took a human he cherishes hostage."

"Are you insane?"

"I expected that response, of course. Not only is it not to the taste of kind people like us from a humanitarian perspective, but in the first place, we don't even know how effective it would be. With Jio's abilities, he could slip a hostage away as much as he likes... and then we would only earn his anger."

"..."

"Do you understand?"

He smiled cheerfully.

"We can't stop him."

"... I know."

"How is it any different from trying to stop a tidal wave by putting a single tiny child in front of it as a meat shield? Good grief. If we can't stop him anyway, we should at least avoid earning his anger."

He smiled faintly. It was a smile that felt somehow like an old man's downward gaze, as if soothing a sulking child.

"And as much as possible, it would be best to earn his goodwill."

As the greatest fortune among misfortunes, the 'Portrait of Jio' was very gentlemanly, valued courtesy, and was also fair.

If someone gave him something out of goodwill, he too would return that same goodwill with something of even greater value. That was probably Jio's 'rule.'

"This incident was a kind of vaccination. It was a preliminary warning for coexisting with an existence we can never deal with. Fortunately, I know my employees very well, and they showed the level of indifference that matched my expectations."

"... The countless ghost-story commotions that have happened in the guild until now probably played a part too. They likely thought that nothing had happened so far, so there was no need to tremble over one ghost story at this point."

"Exactly."

"..."

"This place is 'Collector.'"

A place managed by Bi Sabeol himself, filled only with employees Bi Sabeol himself had chosen, and full of works Bi Sabeol himself loved.

That was South Korea's third-ranked guild, 'Collector.'

"Mr. Yu Seongun, remember this. The 'Portrait of Jio' is not an existence we can control."

Thinking of fighting him was foolish.

"He is a natural disaster, and fortunately, he can communicate with us and holds goodwill toward us. That can be called an extraordinary fortune, an absurd miracle beyond that."

"..."

"Don't think of stupidly throwing away this miracle as if Earth's fate rests in your hands. We must be careful, we must be bold, and we must always be kind."

"... Did you buy Jio knowing it would turn out like this? Since he had already appeared at auction, he would be revealed to the world anyway, and you made the first move in case some disaster occurred in that process?"

"I see quite a lot, you know."

"..."

"I thought he was no ordinary work."

Bi Sabeol then smiled with a childish, playful expression. He was dressed like a gentleman, so one would think it would not suit him at all, yet instead, he seemed lively.

He said,

"Because he was the only work I couldn't read."

It was true.

"..."

"... I believe in you, Guild Master."

"Believing too much in me would be a problem."

"To be precise, I believe in your eye."

He believed in that eye.

Since the gamble had succeeded in the end, Yu Seongun decided to swallow his words.

"And yet the fact that I am still anxious must be because I am only a mere human."

"We are harboring a talking disaster, so of course you are."

"It feels... like right before a horror movie starts."

Ah, yes.

That was it.

"... Maybe it's because I'm facing something too enormous..."

What could he do about a heart that shrank before a giant?

Humans were, by nature, such tiny beings.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jio, who on that day that had been the end of Earth but actually was not, had unconsciously fused with the Root and evolved into a haunted portrait through a miracle among miracles so absurd it went beyond being dumbfounding and ridiculous into the realm of things that should not exist...

"This is the stuff."

Was farming.

Which meant he was not thinking about anything at all.