Chapter 4

RUSTLE...

"..."

A long, pale hand sifted through the finely dried petals, colored a soft sky blue.

It was Jio.

"Hm."

He was making medicine.

"I think they're dry enough."

It had already been eleven days since he had steamed the Baibameunil flowers thoroughly on the leaves of the Dorongdorong tree and set them out to dry.

The flowers, dried crisp under warm wind and sunlight, had almost no scent left. It felt different from the strong fragrance that had flowed out when he first boiled them in water to remove their toxicity.

"Will they smell again if I put them back in water?"

Seo Jio muttered quietly as he packed the well-dried flowers into a sterilized glass jar.

"I do wonder if brewing tea with this will really make a medicine good for stopping bleeding... No matter how generously I look at it, isn't this just flower tea?"

Jio's eyes turned toward another tray. It was the tray where he had left the Mangdung Fruits to dry.

"..."

Strangely, the Mangdung Fruits, which had dried down to the size of raisins in just eleven days, had turned a deep yellow.

"It feels like these smell stronger the longer they dry."

In terms of fragrance, Mangdung Fruits and Baibameunil were complete opposites. The Mangdung Fruits grew more fragrant the longer they dried, while Baibameunil, conversely, grew weaker.

"..."

Jio's eyes blinked twice in quick succession as he calculated the work he would have to do from now on.

"... It'll still be a long while before they're dry enough to grind into powder."

You little thing, you're still moist.

"You have what it takes to be a companion to me, a french fry that's crispy outside and tender inside."

He coolly gave up on the Mangdung Fruits, took only the Baibameunil, and went inside the cabin.

The system had explained that Baibameunil medicinal tea was a great help for stopping bleeding and boosting immunity. Though it had not told him exactly at what temperature and how much he should take.

'Does that mean I can just figure it out myself? I think this system friend trusts me too much. I'd rather it didn't, if possible. I'm just a Gangwon Province new potato...'

In that sense, Jio decided to brew the tea however he pleased. The wonderful potato Seo Jio had talent in the tea ceremony as well.

"... Mm..."

Jio set the glass jar of flowers on the dining table and paused for a moment.

"..."

After standing there blankly as if a computer were rebooting, he soon opened his mouth.

"I don't think I have a tea set."

Tea utensils.

In simple terms, teaware.

"Right?"

To explain further, it meant a teapot and teacups. Seo Jio, who had a great interest in gourmet food, also knew a fair bit about the utensils used to brew tea.

First, there was the teapot used to steep tea leaves, then the teacups the brewed tea was poured into, the cooling vessel used to cool it, the waste bowl where tea was discarded while keeping only the fragrance, and so on; there were many kinds of tea utensils.

Among them, Jio decided to try making only a teapot and teacups.

"Let's go to the studio."

Fortunately, Jio had the ability to turn paintings into real objects.

"To think I'd gain superpowers at this age... As expected, even adults worn down by society have to keep a bit of childlike innocence in one corner of their hearts if they want to become magical girls someday."

So said the twenty-nine-year-old man.

"I, a potato, am one impressive potato."

In the beautiful name of friendship, peace, and love, Jio honorably ignored the alarming recent developments in his life.

'The direction I go is the road.'

Even if that happened to be a roller coaster gone off the rails.

As if in consideration of the way he lived so thoughtlessly, this world helped Jio in various ways. The cabin's structure, furniture, and household items were the same, and perhaps because it reflected the tastes of Seo Jio, who had continued painting various works even after becoming a teacher, there was a studio as well.

Jio went up to the second floor and headed straight to the studio that took up half of that floor.

"Let's see..."

He sat in front of the easel holding a canvas. There were various paints and brushes there in forms familiar to Jio.

"What should I draw, and how?"

What Jio had to draw was a tea set. It would hold Baibameunil flower tea full of vanilla fragrance.

If the price was the same, one might as well choose the prettier dress. It would not cost more money to put effort into drawing it, so Jio thought quite hard.

"..."

About ten minutes passed like that. Jio, sitting before the canvas, opened his mouth after a long while.

"... Since the tea will come out a pretty color."

His uniquely calm voice, without any particular rise or fall, flowed out plainly, as if he were admonishing students.

"White porcelain would be nice."

What made a good tea set? Jio, who had brewed tea several times before with a serious heart, knew the answer.

First, it had to please the eye.

"White as drawing paper."

Second, it had to feel comfortable in the hand.

"So it feels stable..."

Third, it had to harmonize with the tea.

"It should make the color come through cleanly."

Jio was not some great artisan, but he was good enough to enjoy his own meager gourmet world.

Since this was precious flower tea he had gone through the trouble of making, he wanted to steep it in a fine tea set if possible.

"..."

He chose a fine-grained white paint. It was a dense color, like whipped cream piped straight upward.

The cabin's studio had all sorts of materials hidden in small drawers here and there, like an old apothecary. Among them were shells with a white sheen like porcelain, and Jio had ground them finely to make paint.

Paint made from shells that ought to have been by the water. A pure white tea set painted with that paint. Soft sky-blue petals to steep in that tea set...

"Yes."

Nice.

"I think this is good."

He liked it.

"It'll look just like a pond held in the roots of a spring. I think that'll do."

His hand moved.

And following that movement, Jio's eyes moved as if licking over the canvas.

"..."

Since it would hold blue tea, it would be better for the color to feel warm rather than cool.

What makes the body feel warm is influenced by both actual temperature and visual temperature. He wanted to drink warm tea.

"..."

This tea set must have been made by hands as fine as silk.

They must have moved gently and slowly over white clay full of moisture, hands so delicate they would not leave a single fingerprint, and turned the wheel while humming on a spring day drenched in ample leisure.

Wouldn't the person shaping the clay have worn a smile so warm it reassured even those watching?

"..."

Because it would be lifted with a light and gentle heart, the handle was heavy and smooth. The handle stretching straight out to the side for an easy grip was like ivory. It gave off that kind of warm glow.

Round at the end. Round in the body as well. The surface was smoothed until not a single sharp corner could be found. It must have been carefully stroked over while the wet clay was still moist, its inside tidied, then fired in a hot kiln.

What would you call yourself?

"..."

You are clean drawing paper, so there is not a single picture or curve. That would be good for holding tea.

The glaze resembled flawless clear stream water. As if it had been dipped into that clean water and taken out a hundred times, as if transparent stars had been melted down and coated over it, he carefully covered the pure white porcelain in a serene glaze.

And so my rounded tea set, fired in the kiln once more...

"..."

The moment he drew in its shadow and gave it weight.

"..."

TAP.

It fell onto Jio's lap.

"..."

CLINK.

A light, clear sound.

'It's hard, but...'

He set down the brush and took the tea set in his hand. The sensation curling around his palm was plaintive, like a child searching for its father.

"Yes."

And so, in the end, something light as a cloud and soft as cotton was truly to his liking.

* * *

Being able to make paintings real was a very nice thing.

'And convenient.'

Jio leisurely enjoyed his tea.

The tea set shaped from paint instead of clay and glaze satisfied Jio. It went extremely well with the blue tea that had gently seeped out of the Baibameunil.

'Maybe because it's such a dense white, it also harmonizes with the flower's soft, cream-like fragrance.'

The grip he felt in the hand holding it was stable too. Unless someone charged in like a bull and delivered a soccer kick, it seemed unlikely he would drop it.

"Nice."

It was a savory tea with no sweetness at all, but the fragrance was so blatantly sweet that he thought it would go well with cookies later.

'What if I add fruit and sugar to make iced tea? Or it would probably go very well as milk tea, since the cream scent is strong too...'

He did not have an oven, but he did have a hearth, and there was flour in storage, so he should try making cookies someday too. Since ancient times, the more food, the better.

'They say this is a great help for stopping bleeding and boosting immunity, but it doesn't feel that convincing.'

Jio felt a little puzzled.

"Has my body changed?"

Originally, Seo Jio was the sort of person who felt strong effects from the ingredients that entered his mouth.

It was commonly known that blueberries were good for the eyes, but unlike people who felt no real difference after eating them, Seo Jio felt his eyes grow refreshed after eating only a few.

But even after drinking medicinal tea recognized by the system, he felt no change...

"..."

Jio blinked twice.

'If I look at it that way, I should start by calling this body strange for having no physiological functions at all.'

Jio stopped before he even entered the first letter of the word "worry." The wonderful potato understood things splendidly on his own.

He could eat and sleep, but he never felt colder or hotter beyond a certain degree. He had never sweated, and in the same vein, he had never needed to be indebted to the toilet. Regardless of the fact that there was a bathroom in the cabin.

'Let's say I've evolved in an exceptional way. Now that I've become a haunted portrait anyway, I don't know what useless worries I'm having.'

In any case, it was funny, so that was enough.

Thinking that, Jio took another sip of Baibameunil tea.

"..."

It was delicious.

"Sir?"

"..."

"You have no answer today either. That is a terribly sad thing. If you are in there alone, aren't you bored? I can really be an excellent conversation partner..."

"..."

"Sir, are you asleep? Knock, knock, knock? Is it because I am speaking Korean that you won't react? No, that can't be it. Not one of the twenty-seven languages got a response..."

It was delicious, but it felt like it might give him indigestion.

'Then that person will go down in history as the only human to make a haunted portrait get indigestion while drinking tea.'

It had already been eleven days since the gentleman named Bi Sabeol began his self-promotion in front of the front door.

'Since time in the painted world flows as it pleases according to my mood or schedule, it may not be accurate, but anyway...'

It was fair to say it was impressive for him to put that much passion and sincerity into a portrait he had only briefly locked eyes with once.

"Is he someone completely obsessed with ghost stories?"

It was possible to get excited over a mysterious painting that even opened its eyes on its own. That was the charm of a haunted portrait, after all.

But the fact that this man named Bi Sabeol was not that idle pushed Jio into a world of terror and insanity.

"From what I hear, he's the chairman of one of South Korea's top three conglomerates..."

Mr. Chairman, why aren't you working?

The storage room where the Portrait of Jio hung was Bi Sabeol's personal gallery, and he had learned that Bi Sabeol possessed an exceptionally strong desire to collect works of art... through conversations between other employees who occasionally visited this gallery.

Was it because there were simply too many items? This enormous gallery was not on a scale Bi Sabeol could manage alone, so apparently there had to be at least one manager assigned to each work.

'Though for some reason they kept changing, there were managers assigned to me too.'

Thanks to the conversations they shared, he had also been able to learn a few things about Bi Sabeol.

'A lunatic obsessed with collecting.'

Apparently, while he was normally a gentleman with ordinary sensibilities despite being somewhat playful, when it came to matters related to art, he became a madman who would stop at nothing.

'Harmful.'

Even so, Jio did not have bad feelings toward the person named Bi Sabeol.

"..."

Jio's gaze touched the frame hanging on the tree.

The moment he saw Bi Sabeol outside it trying to start a conversation yet again, information visible only to Jio popped up over the smooth glass of the frame.

He blinked twice.

"..."

Surprisingly, that frame measured the danger level of any living thing loitering beyond the portrait.

Judging by the reactions of the people on the other side, that display seemed to be something only Jio himself could see.

"Sir? Sir? Do you truly have no intention of conversing with me?"

"..."

"If you tell me what kind of sacrifice you want, I can capture it alive and bring it to you. Sir?"

So the reason Jio was bothering to leave Bi Sabeol like that was nothing special.

'I can already see the unbearable future that would unfold from speaking to him just once.'

He was openly burdensome. Jio was not a vessel large enough to contain a human being named Bi Sabeol.

'A Gangwon Province new potato ought to be approached carefully so it doesn't get scratched...'

His way of speaking was quite polite and his behavior was elegant, but a stranger camping out for fifteen hours in front of someone else's front door was burdensome no matter what anyone said.

"..."

Since he did not sense any malice, and Bi Sabeol did not seem like a bad person, it was not that he particularly disliked him.

"... It's more that I'm a little reluctant."

Even only listening one-sidedly was already tiring, wasn't it?

'He'd drain me dry.'

Jio was simply.

"..."

Waiting until he judged that conversation was possible.

'Surely he can't keep that up forever. Let's try to interact when that person runs out of charge.'

He did not want to get his energy drained for no reason.

'What a scary person.'

Jio nodded at the fact that he could avoid that scary person.

"What a nice place to live."

Jio, who had already gone outside the portrait several times, knew. What people saw right now would be only the portrait in which Jio himself was painted.

What mattered was Jio's own will. When he had the will to interact with the outside, the "Jio" inside the painting opened his eyes. This was something he had discovered after installing a mirror while he was at the abandoned school.

'So no matter how much I lounge around inside, it can't be seen outside.'

Here, at least, Jio's complete freedom was guaranteed. Whether the person waiting so desperately for his answer outside was the chairman of a major corporation or whatever the hell, it did not matter if he enjoyed such peaceful rest.

Fortunately, after the busy red-haired man, befitting a major corporation chairman, disappeared while announcing yet another attempt, Jio was able to enjoy complete peace.

"..."

He was leaving him alone because having someone talk like that was, in its own way, welcome, but...

"... I can't leave my only front door like this forever."

He had to take back ownership.

After pondering for a moment, his gaze soon turned beyond the frame, where he sensed no presence at all.

"..."

At last, Jio's mouth opened.

"Should I go out once?"

The fate of automatically committing trespassing simply by stepping out the front door was lamentable, but just as all adults in the world had done, Jio eventually accepted his fate.

If a person lived long enough, they might end up trespassing.

"..."

He had been abducted too, so it went both ways.

Though he did wonder whether there was anyone who asked a portrait for its opinion before purchasing it, in any case, they too had hung him in the gallery without seeking Jio's consent.

Then there was also a violation of portrait rights.

"... Ta-da."

Jio's ultimate positive mindset successfully finished rationalizing it.