Chapter 20

"Nice."

As always, this latest activity had been quite successful.

"People need to sweat."

"Mm?"

"He who does not work shall not eat."

"Mmm mmm mmm...?"

The sweet-colored water bird, Honey, trembled all over.

At the cry that seemed to ask, *'Then what about me, when I don't work?' * Jio firmly shook his head.

"When you look that cute, what could you possibly have to worry about?"

"Mmk."

"You are already doing your part by being cute, so don't worry about strange things."

No matter how thoughtlessly Jio lived, he was not so irresponsible that he would refuse to take responsibility for a life he had birthed with paint.

As the son of Jio himself, a gourmet and a gourmand, Honey would never go hungry.

"Understand?"

Honey accepted that and sprawled out comfortably.

"But get out of there first."

"Mmrr."

Of all places, he was inside Jio's basket.

"It's hard to take out the seeds."

"Mmrrng."

"Who did you take after to be this stubborn?"

"Mmk?"

"Me? You unfilial child."

Jio bent down and rummaged through the basket.

Honey's body had only the faintest viscosity and was otherwise transparent water itself, so there was no major problem, but the little thing had played with the seeds and mixed them all into a mess.

"This is..."

"..."

"... I think these were eggplant seeds."

Fortunately, Seo Jio, who came from a mountain village in Gangwon Province, could identify the type just by looking at the seeds.

It was not something everyone from Gangwon Province could do; it was possible because Jio himself was truly serious about this kind of farming.

Jio, who had enjoyed farmwork since he was young, stood up with the eggplant seeds and put them into a hole he had dug beforehand.

"Now it's time to plant potatoes."

"Mmrk?"

"Hm?"

There was a brief communication error, but Jio soon realized what Honey was wondering about.

"I wasn't saying I was going to plant your dad."

"Mmm?"

"Potato is a nickname."

"It's like a second name."

His mother, who liked potatoes, had looked at his fetal ultrasound and said he "looked like a potato," giving him the prenatal name Potato, and there was an anecdote about his grandmother seeing the newborn Jio and nodding as she said, "She ate nothing but potatoes, and then she gave birth to a potato."

"All the adults called me Potato, so until I was four, I thought I was a potato."

Maybe that was why he had grown up so healthy and harmless.

"Well, that's good enough."

"Mmrrr."

"You just grow up healthy too."

The Seo family had, for generations, tended to respect the free will of new life.

How many days had passed?

At last, Jio succeeded in planting all the seeds Yu Seongun had given him.

He had even planted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, all famous famine-relief crops, so starving to death now seemed a long way off.

"Then again, with this body, starving to death would probably be harder."

"Mmrrr."

"No matter how hungry your dad gets, he won't eat you, Honey."

The crops were planted in the vegetable garden behind the cabin.

"Actually, at this point, maybe it's a bit ambiguous to call it a vegetable garden."

It had gotten a little bigger, but it was still a vegetable garden.

It was not as large and vast as the fields of people who farmed for a living, so Jio had his own excuse.

In any case, it was a vegetable garden.

Jio was an excellent adult who knew how to compromise with reality.

"Then let's go back."

"Mm mmrrk."

"Right, we should try the syrup I made."

The fruit syrup he had made earlier was about ready to mature.

"I put sour and bitter drought jars into sweet-and-tart Mangdung Fruits, so the combination is excellent for now."

If there was anything to worry about, it was whether the amounts of the two were in proper harmony, but that part did not bother him much.

Jio, with his deep experience living alone, had somehow come to possess the hand-seasoning of an old grandmother.

"It was only by feel and by eye, but there is no way I would be wrong when it comes to combining things I am going to eat."

As if befitting that confidence, a good fragrance was already coming from the glass jar.

"Hm."

Jio entered the kitchen and blinked as he looked at the cupboard where the fruit syrup was.

"It's been a while since I sweated, so should I drink it as a cold tea?"

"Mmrk?"

"I sweated in my heart."

Honey had pointed out that Jio's body did not actually expel waste products like sweat, but in any case, had he not done labor?

A human being who had labored was supposed to drink a cool and refreshing tea to increase work efficiency.

"To do that, I'll need to bring some ice from the storeroom."

A pig did not hesitate before food.

Without even taking the time to wipe away sweat that had never come out, Jio went straight down to the storeroom.

Naturally, the ice storeroom filled with all kinds of ingredients had ice.

In the corners of the storeroom, which did not merely look almost like a cave but made it impossible to even guess where the ice ended, pieces of ice could be seen.

"Is it a little cold?"

When he opened the heavy door and went inside the storeroom, Honey stiffened rigidly.

"M-Mm, mmrrrk."

"If it's too cold, you can go outside... huh."

"..."

"... Did you freeze?"

Just as Jio, with his expressionless face, was violently shaken by the sight of Honey having become transparent ice itself...

Even though Honey had already become ice, he shook himself once with a flutter and groomed his feathers.

"Pff."

"?"

"Mmk."

"Did you evolve?"

"Mmrr."

"If I evolved from a human into a haunted portrait, there's no law saying a water bird can't become an ice bird."

He had been startled once because he thought Honey had died after suddenly becoming ice, and once more because Honey was moving flexibly despite being ice, but if there was no problem, what did it matter?

Honey was cute even frozen, so it was fine.

"A moving ice bird seems interesting enough."

"Mmrrrrrrrrrk!"

"Seeing you enjoy it too warms this father's heart."

Honey, who resembled his creator and had been born without any sense of danger, simply delighted in his own change.

Even if he was a bird with a body of water, Jio did wonder if it was right for him to freeze this quickly, but Jio himself had become a portrait after being human, so he was not greatly surprised.

"When have we ever followed the laws of physics?"

To think he would live long enough to ignore the laws of physics too; what an interesting life this was.

"For now, the ice..."

"Mmk mmrrk."

"It's over there, thanks."

Honey's wings, now that he had become ice, no longer melded into his body as one the way they had before.

Perhaps because feathers, or body parts, that had not existed before had appeared, Honey told him where the ice was and then busily groomed his body.

It seemed unable to leave feathers alone was a bird species trait.

'He was a bit less like that when he was water.'

Leaving Honey on his shoulder as he was, Jio slowly walked through the ice storeroom.

"..."

It was cool.

"Haa..."

His breath came out white.

A breath thick enough to be visible at a glance.

It must have been that cold, and yet for some reason, Jio did not feel the cold, and the ingredients did not freeze either.

He could not tell whether the ice storeroom was deceiving Jio, or whether he and the ingredients were sturdier than ice.

'Probably the latter.'

Jio lowered his head and looked at the floor.

"... Hm..."

He murmured.

"If this breaks, it will be a disaster."

An ice floor like a bottomless pit came into view.

'It does seem to be solid ice, but it's transparent, as if there's a lake beneath the ice.'

It was an extremely transparent floor.

Ice that had frozen very slowly was not opaque, but clear like glass, and such ice was laid all across the floor.

Jio could not even gauge its depth.

It was somewhat slick, carried a faint blue glow, and from time to time, clusters of light glittered deep inside.

They shone for a few seconds like fireflies and then disappeared, and Jio wondered what they were.

"Are they the same kind of inhabitants as the forest butterflies?"

"Mmm?"

"Or they might just be glowing moss or bacteria."

They did not move.

They merely lit up for a moment and then vanished.

They resembled dim starlight.

"..."

It was a dreamlike sight.

"The colors are similar to a glacier too."

There was no deep scent of the sea, but the transparent, blue ice floor of unknowable depth reminded him of a glacier.

He had never actually seen a glacier on Earth, but it made him think this was probably what it would look like.

Jio lifted his head and looked at the ice storeroom as a whole.

"Where on earth did all this ice come from?"

"There's ice in every direction."

He wondered every time he saw it.

"You have to go down quite a long way from the first floor of the cabin to reach this ice storeroom."

"Then maybe there was groundwater beneath the cabin."

Then a contradiction arose.

"Right, even if that's true, it doesn't make sense by common sense that groundwater beneath a forest with such a mild climate would be frozen solid like this."

That was why it was all the more mysterious.

"Nice."

And funny.

"It's just like a fairy tale..."

He liked it.

Still expressionless and blunt-faced, Jio moved his feet.

Honey seemed to have already adapted to his body no longer spreading out the way it had before, and likewise flew around the huge, cave-like ice storeroom while making happy cries.

It was a scene like something from a movie.

After walking through the ice cavern for quite some time, Jio found what he had been looking for.

"Yes, right."

"It was here."

It was ice that had grown like a cave stalagmite.

"I think this is good too."

"Mmk?"

"It's just like a cave."

It made no sense, but the ice storeroom also looked like a limestone cave made of ice.

Whether it flowed from somewhere, had melted, or there was even a water vein like in a tree, water was dripping here and there in the ice storeroom, and perhaps because of the low temperature, it often formed spikes or pillars like this.

"Ordinary limestone caves are like this."

"Water containing a large amount of lime drips down and slowly builds pillars on the cave floor, and water droplets splash around and protrude like coral, or..."

"..."

"Here."

"They remain in the shape of pearls like these."

They were actually called cave pearls.

"Of course, these should properly be called ice pearls, not cave pearls..."

At this rate, did it not truly feel like a cave?

A great mold created by nature, that was.

"..."

"Should I take these?"

Whatever their effect, had it not said they tasted the same as real ice?

"Cutting off that huge ice bamboo shoot would be tiring too."

"Mmrrk mmrrk."

Honey, the ice bird, fluttered over and swallowed one of the round ice pearls gathered together.

At that swift movement, Jio could not help but admire him.

"You're eating it?"

"Are you a pig?"

"Mmrrrrrrrr!!"

"No, it's a misunderstanding."

"If it sounded like I was criticizing you, that is a very big misunderstanding."

"Dad likes pigs."

Jio, who had spent most of his life being raised by his grandmother, had come to resemble some of her tastes, one of which was that he could not stand to see people too skinny.

In that sense, if Honey, who could be called his child, became plump, it would actually make him happy.

"Children are supposed to eat a lot and grow big."

Become a pig, abracadabra.

"Then let's go back up now."

"Mmm mmm mmm..."

"I told you, I actually like it, pig."

"Mmrrrrrrrr!!!"

"Children are supposed to be plump so they can grow well later."

After soothing Honey, Jio came up from the ice storeroom and headed straight for the kitchen.

A good fragrance was coming from the fruit syrup he had taken out of the cupboard in advance, and he was already looking forward to how delicious it would be.

He took out a clean glass and put two spoonfuls of fruit syrup into it.

"It really does smell good."

Mangdung Fruits, whose fragrance grew stronger the more they were dried, seemed to have their fragrance amplified even further when they went through a kind of aging process, even if that process was not drying.

The Mangdung Fruits, soaked moistly into the sugar and imparting their fragrance to it, gave off their distinctive fresh, sweet scent.

"Maybe because drought jars are a citrus fruit, they seem to have a citrus scent too..."

Should he say it smelled bitter and tart, like lemon peel?

"I'm looking forward to this."

The fruit syrup in the glass had artistic value all by itself.

The syrup, having fully soaked up the sugar and given up its juice without holding back, gleamed with a glossy shine.

The flesh of the Mangdung Fruits had changed into the form of soft jelly, and the drought jars, whose thin membranes he had peeled off one by one, had hardened a little, spreading so that their grains were visible.

"Add the ice pearls here too..."

"Mmk mmrrk."

"That's the pearl you ate earlier."

"Put it back."

"Mmk?"

"I decline."

Honey, who had somehow turned back into water, tried to display the strange act of spitting out the ice pearl he had just swallowed, but Jio stopped him with a father's authority.

It was not penguin milk, and he did not want to go that far.

"Now, if I stir it gently..."

CLINK, CLACK.

The glass and the ice pearls struck each other, making a clear sound.

"Fruit tea complete."

"Quack."

"Are you a chicken?"

"Mmrrng."

"I don't know what you are."

The completed fruit tea was beautiful enough to make him want to draw it.

The scarlet tea shining through the glass was very transparent despite its deep color.

Perhaps because of the ice pearls, the glittering blue light he had seen in the storeroom repeatedly shone and disappeared like shooting stars, and between them, fruit flesh shaped like full moons and half-moons could be seen.

When he took a sip as it was...

"..."

He sensed an ecstatic flavor.

"... It's good."

It was a flavor and savoriness he had never tasted even once before.

The scarlet tea was smooth and cool, and just when the sweetness seemed to become too strong, a leisurely bitterness soon approached and politely calmed it down.

The intense sourness of the drought jars met the Mangdung Fruits and sugar and felt like the cute whining of a child.

'I like the fruit flesh too.'

The Mangdung Fruits, stripped of all their juice by the sugar, were like jelly.

If he had to compare them, they were similar to konjac jelly, but much softer than that.

They had a soft yet strangely springy texture, like grapes with all their skins peeled away.

The drought jars had a popping taste, just like the pulp of grapefruit or oranges.

Like the Mangdung Fruits, they seemed to have had their juice taken by the sugar, but there was a bit more hardness to them.

But it was not an unpleasant hardness.

The grains that gently spread through his mouth gave him a pleasant texture.

'The taste and fragrance are all mixed together, so it's hard to distinguish them, but...'

The tea was by no means one-dimensional and showed a flavor like soup, the fruit flesh added enjoyment to what could have been a monotonous texture, and then there was that strange change that melted softly over the tongue.

That small change was probably from the clusters of light trapped inside the ice pearls.

"... Popping candy?"

It did not exactly spread with a tingle or burst like fireworks, but the blue clusters of light dotted throughout the tea added a strange savoriness.

He felt a pleasure on his tongue that could not be described simply as sweet or salty.

It was a fruit tea that made him smack his lips for no reason.

"..."

"Mmrrk?"

"It would be perfect as a gift."

Since there was a lot of it, he thought he might package some up.

"I should give it to Mr. Yu Seongun."

Wanting to share his cooking was the instinct of an old grandmother.

Jio, who had grown up hearing from his grandmother, his life mentor, that he should "live by giving," wanted to fatten Yu Seongun up.