Chapter 38
Around the time Jio fell asleep after successfully finishing his jerky content.
The world outside the frame was in the middle of work hours.
“So that’s why you called me.”
“Come now, let’s talk a little. Why do you look so scary?”
“If you think I’m only in charge of the Portrait of Jio, you’re gravely mistaken...”
“You get bonuses, don’t you?”
“Damn capitalist society.”
Yu Seongun had been summoned by the Guild Master.
“Didn’t I tell you I’d organize the report and send it up soon?”
“How am I supposed to wait until then?”
“Why can’t you wait for that?”
“You know me.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“People should speak face-to-face.”
“That is an outrageous insult to highly advanced modern society.”
“The world these days has no warmth. Our employees are even worse.”
“I don’t know what kind of warmth you expect from this crap world, or why you’re demanding it from me.”
“Everyone’s too cold.”
“That’s your own preference, so what nonsense are you spouting?”
Bi Sabeol smiled brightly at Yu Seongun’s utterly exhausted face and mixed him a fruit syrup drink.
“Why don’t you drink this and perk up?”
“Is it poison?”
“Now, now. This was a gift from our precious portrait. How could you call it poison?”
“Just give me poison instead. So I can drink it and collapse...”
No matter how gentlemanly the Portrait of Jio was, he was a Root entity, and to put it simply, a monster.
Dealing with an already rare humanoid monster was taxing enough, but that was not the only work Yu Seongun was responsible for.
“The sea has been terribly restless lately, so I got called out again.”
Yu Seongun was also handling outside requests.
“When I looked into it, the movements of the Root's children were strange. I’ll send up a report on that part soon as well. Probably tomorrow or the day after...”
“You can report that later. It wasn’t my request anyway.”
“Naturally.”
“Then will you tell me about Jio now?”
“I knew it.”
For the record, Bi Sabeol still had not managed to speak with Jio.
“Isn’t Jio avoiding conversation because you keep acting so overwhelming?”
“No, what did I even do?”
“Plenty of employees say they’ve seen Black Cloak, but the Guild Master himself has never had even one conversation with him. At this point, it’s dereliction of duty.”
“I’m telling you, I tried to talk to him.”
“I meant that you should change your approach.”
It was a matter related to Jio’s traits.
“Jio dislikes rude people, doesn’t he?”
“He doesn’t hate them.”
“That’s true, but...”
There were two things the Portrait of Jio disliked.
The rude, and the evil.
‘... But even though he avoids rude people, he doesn’t view them all that negatively.’
Among people, there were those who liked puppies and cats but disliked reptiles, were there not?
In roughly that sense, Jio avoided rude people.
He did not disparage their existence itself, but he did not enjoy associating with them.
“That detached side of him is quite similar to a child of the Root.”
“I suppose it would be. Even if he insists he’s human, not every part of him can be the same as a human. He might be trying hard to ignore the fact that he isn’t human...”
As for Jio himself, he simply was not thinking about anything at all.
“Well, he doesn’t seem to have that detachment toward criminals.”
While Jio seemed to think, “That can happen,” when it came to rude people, he showed clear disgust in the face of malice.
He had never actually encountered a criminal, but judging by his usual words and actions, it was already clear.
“Either way, we still need to be careful. Guild Master, you should be careful too.”
“I’ll try to restrain myself.”
“You’ll just say that and nothing more. Anyway, so...”
The reason Bi Sabeol had called Yu Seongun was obvious.
“You’re curious about how Jio acted during the Seoul tour, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m curious. A Root entity whose identity we don’t even know wandered around the human world. And he even came back peacefully without causing a major incident, didn’t he?”
“That’s right.”
Of course, there was one unpleasant fact.
“A priest of the Sun did go missing.”
“Oh, that much is nothing. I looked into him, and his record didn’t exactly look clean.”
“That seems to be why they’re keeping it quiet internally as well.”
“There’s an induction ceremony coming up soon, so they’d want to avoid making it public even more.”
“... Jio probably had a hand in the disappearance.”
A Hunter capable enough to be a Curator could not make do with ordinary observation and memory.
Yu Seongun remembered the man in scholar’s robes he had encountered at Gyeongbokgung Palace, and the priest who had gone missing this time was that very man.
“That day, Jio made a camera-shaped gesture with his hands and looked at the man.”
“A camera, you say. Considering that Jio is a portrait, wouldn’t it be closer to a frame?”
“That could be. In any case, after his eyes met the man’s, he said we should leave Gyeongbokgung Palace. He didn’t look to be in a very good mood.”
“Was his mood ruined because he encountered a bad person who didn’t suit his tastes?”
“I think that is highly likely.”
“So Jio appraises people in that way. That’s useful information.”
According to Bi Sabeol’s intelligence, the priest already had a shady background.
Yu Seongun trusted Bi Sabeol, and neither of them even considered the possibility that the priest Jio had dealt with might not have been an evil person.
“Still, from the fact that he dealt with him quietly, we can confirm Jio’s understanding of human society. He must not have wanted things to become noisy.”
That was not true.
It had simply been something Honey did on his own while Jio was sprawled out asleep.
Honey, too, had not acted because he did not want a commotion; he had merely sensed something threatening his father, dealt with it, and returned as he was.
But Jio did not give the impression of someone who was that thoughtless.
On the contrary, he often felt more like a quiet being precisely because he knew so much, and the two of them continued their conversation on the premise that Jio knew all of this.
“In that case, I am curious what would happen if he encountered a criminal head-on.”
“Of all things to be curious about, why would you be curious about that? Don’t have strange curiosities.”
“How cold.”
“...”
Did he really want to act like that at his age?
‘I should make sure I don’t age like that.’
Yu Seongun ignored Bi Sabeol, who was pretending to look pitiful.
“The most surprising part of this tour and observation was, of course, that Jio lowered his own level to that of a human.”
“... Lowered his level?”
Bi Sabeol looked surprised for the first time in a while.
“Jio did? You’re saying he lowered his own level to that of a human?”
“Yes. It’s surprising, isn’t it?”
“Before being surprising...”
Bi Sabeol paused briefly to choose his words.
He soon found the right one.
“That’s disgusting.”
As expected, Jio was not human.
“To carve out his own flesh so casually.”
“I was horrified when I first saw it too. If Jio were human, he could never have made that decision.”
“And if he did it merely to avoid causing a commotion, I find it even harder to understand.”
Even if Bi Sabeol had never spoken with Jio, he had “seen” him many times.
The level of Jio that Bi Sabeol knew was beyond comparison to that of a mere human.
“And yet, he deliberately dragged himself down until he could be perceived as human...”
It was no different from the torture of being carved up alive.
“Did he seem to have any health problems?”
“None that I could confirm, and he had the same expressionless face as usual.”
“I see.”
For Jio, since he had originally been human, that sensation did not feel strange.
But to others, it was a bizarre act on a level beyond pulling out his own eyeballs, cutting off his arms and legs, and taking out his organs.
“Were there any other unusual details?”
“Uh...”
Yu Seongun chose a lighter topic.
“He seemed to like food.”
“No wonder he kept giving food as gifts.”
“He seemed interested in both eating and cooking.”
That was also why Yu Seongun had been worried.
“If we aren’t careful, someone could take him for a sucker.”
“Oh dear.”
That was something of a problem.
“You said you told him about that part, yes?”
“I don’t know if he understood, though.”
“A favorable Root entity is actually much more difficult to deal with.”
If it had been an ordinary monster, they could have handled it normally, but because they needed steady mutual interaction, there were more things to pay attention to.
Just as protection was harder than attack.
“Still, it’s fortunate that he seems strongly willing to cooperate.”
“Since he is a good guy, after all...”
Aside from the eeriness of that level, Jio was certainly a good guy.
“The problem is that his very existence is a threat.”
“That’s not something we can do anything about, is it?”
“I know that much.”
But regardless of Jio’s good faith, continued vigilance seemed necessary.
“... Ah.”
“Is there something else?”
“It’s about Jio’s personality.”
“Personality, you say. I’m already interested.”
“Jio, with his level lowered, looked truly human.”
This needed a bit of explanation.
“To the point that he seemed like an entirely different being from his usual self.”
“If it was to that extent, then it wouldn’t be simply a matter of whether his level was high or low, would it?”
“I confirmed that it also has a slight influence on his personality.”
“Would that be a side effect of lowering his level?”
“Isn’t that likely? For us, this version is more harmless, so that’s good, but...”
Jio inside the painting, or the one who sometimes roamed the building at dawn, had something eerie about him.
He was like a grim reaper.
‘No, rather than that, he’s closer to death itself, without will or emotion.’
He wore a pitch-black cloak, his footsteps were almost inaudible, and he always walked with his hands behind his back, neat and elegant like a nobleman, looking at the world with curious eyes.
Even so, his expressionless, gloomy face felt somehow cold.
That coldness did not mean Jio’s personality was coolheaded.
It simply seemed to say that his very existence could not hold warmth.
“Jio without his level lowered is extremely polite, orderly, and heavy. Even among people who only saw the portrait without speaking to Jio, many evaluated it as ‘like a depiction of someone’s final moments.’”
Jio felt like a being that embodied a funeral.
And then there was that remoteness.
“You could never call him human.”
“But is that enough to talk about a change in personality?”
“I confirmed that it clearly has an influence.”
Jio with his level lowered truly seemed like an ordinary person.
“A person who is a little too taciturn and observes manners.”
But the usual Jio was different.
“He’s more arrogant.”
“Hmm?”
“No, arrogant is a bit strange as a word... How should I put it...”
It was difficult to express.
“... Like someone high-ranking...”
Jio looked down at humans.
Like someone with a hobby of keeping insects looking at a diligent ant hauling a load, or as if finding it cute.
“In fact, Jio gave people gifts several times. Those did have the meaning of rewards, but they clearly took the form of bestowed favors. Even while calling himself an ordinary twenty-nine-year-old human, he evaluated and praised staff members much older than I am.”
At that, Bi Sabeol asked.
“But Jio with his level lowered was different?”
“Yes. At that time, he truly seemed like an ordinary young man.”
The “Jio” Yu Seongun had confirmed was a twenty-nine-year-old person with good manners and few words.
“Though he was a bit... overly curious, and there were times when he tried to settle payment with jewels...”
“He isn’t truly human, so those unique aspects can’t be helped. But even so, I think it’s truly fascinating that he behaved enough like an ordinary young man.”
“He said he had taken separate measures, so that was probably the influence.”
There was also something worrying.
“At least normally, because of that high level of his, no one would even think to try anything with him. But when he looked like an ordinary twenty-nine-year-old young man, I started worrying he might get caught in some strange scam.”
“... Would it go that far? He still has an appraisal skill...”
“When he was in human form, not only was his personality much gentler, but his abilities also seemed restricted. Even that appraisal skill could only be confirmed when he deliberately made a frame-shaped hand gesture.”
And one more thing.
“The longer he stayed outside, the weaker he became.”
He had merely had the energy sucked right out of him after being exposed to modern society for the first time in a long while, but as someone who paid great attention to every detail of Jio’s condition, Yu Seongun had no choice but to read more varied meanings into it.
“I’m worried other people might mess with him.”
“That would certainly be a problem.”
“Right?”
“It is, but that...”
Bi Sabeol stroked his chin.
“Just because he lowered his level doesn’t mean his essence goes anywhere.”
Suppose there were two large pieces of metal, and one of them was compressed until it was very small.
If that happened, one would certainly be large and the other small, but their weight would be the same.
If anything, being smaller would make it easier to wound a human.
A similar example would be a bomb.
Even if a bomb were fashioned into a small and cute shape, it would still explode the moment it was lit.
If anything, because it was compressed, it might explode far more violently.
“This is only a guess because we don’t have an exact analysis, but... since Jio thinks of himself as human, if someone keeps prodding that essence, the backlash will be much greater. There’s no need to cause such a disaster.”
“I think so too.”
“Unless the entire nation has agreed to commit mass suicide?”
Therefore, Jio when he had become “human” seemed to need firm protection.
“We should issue him a Hunter ID.”
“Even that alone would definitely reduce the number of people picking fights with him.”
In this world, a Hunter was both a person of power and a celebrity.
When trouble arose, showing a Hunter ID resolved most conflicts.
That was because the Association strictly prevented fights between Hunters.
“And one more thing.”
Yu Seongun continued.
“This is also a matter related to personality.”
“What other problem could there be at this point?”
“Jio when he is human can probably be defined as a twenty-nine-year-old young man named Seo Jio. Correct?”
But Yu Seongun had clearly witnessed it.
“When Jio dipped his feet in Cheonggyecheon...”
“...”
“And when he rode the water taxi.”
A change had occurred in Jio.
“He was looking at the water with eyes like someone else’s.”
That gaze did not belong to Jio, the blunt, quiet twenty-nine-year-old young man.
It seemed older and more seasoned than that, with clearer emotions, and while it held a definite distance, it was not cold; it was gentle, like that of a model student who was loved by everyone.
The faint smile that appeared even had a light and cheerful quality, like a cool sea breeze.
In many ways, he was different from the existing “Seo Jio” or the “portrait.”
“There were changes in his form too. His hair turned white, and a watery blue shimmer lingered in his eyes.”
“Oh, that’s quite similar to you too, Curator Yu Seongun.”
“It felt a little... different from me. It’s true that it was a similar type, but...”
That color was much warmer.
Like summer sunlight, or the surface of the sea.
“...”
He was not certain.
“I’ll look into it further.”
“Let’s do that.”
They knew far too little about Jio.
