Chapter 43

Morning came, and he was back on the bed.

"..."

"Gurgle?"

"Hmm."

Jio was lost in a shallow sort of worry.

It was not the first time he had learned that his personality could change.

"There is Giovanni's case, too."

But now that he thought about it belatedly, it seemed Jio sometimes slipped out of his usual personality. Mainly when he was interacting with people outside while in his "portrait" state.

"When I think about it, praising the staff or suddenly giving them gifts wasn't a normal reaction either."

"Gurgle?"

"Some of them were older than me, too, so for a strapping young man from the land of Eastern courtesy like me to act that way is honestly not especially normal, considering my current state."

The problem was that Jio himself had felt no sense of wrongness about that change.

"At the time, I just thought it was natural."

It did seem certain that the identity of being a "portrait" was changing him.

"Gods of heaven and earth."

"Grumble..."

"When I stayed inside the portrait, I was the same as usual, so I didn't feel anything strange."

"Gurgle?"

"No, it's all right."

Whether his personality changed or something else changed, Jio would not yield to a mere mystery of this degree.

"But I should be careful not to act rudely toward other people."

At this rate, he felt as if he would soon accept it as natural to pat the head of some total stranger he had never even met.

"It's not as if I'm someone important enough to do something that unsightly."

Patting someone's head was something possible only in fiction, or when a parent did it to their child. Even lovers ought to refrain from such bold touches, so Jio felt the need to conduct himself with modesty.

"Of course, I've never had a lover."

"..."

"How dare you look at your father, who is as high as the heavens, with those eyes."

So what if I've never had a girlfriend.

"Anyway, a change in personality isn't that unfamiliar a situation. Even when I went on my Seoul outing, there were times when my awareness as Giovanni grew stronger... and I think I should see it as being in a fairly similar context to what I'm worrying about right now."

That said, it did not feel as if his actual "personality" itself was literally changing.

"If it were that much, I would have noticed long ago."

If he had to put it into words, it was closer to the feeling of recalling memories he had forgotten.

"It's not something I could call Seo Jio, but it is still me... that kind of feeling..."

"... Gurgle?"

"It's not dissociative identity disorder. You're misunderstanding."

Just as he had lived in his previous life as Giovanni, a priest whose merciful smile was his finest trait, but in this life had lived as Seo Jio, who had sometimes been asked, "Do you not know how to smile?" It was similar to belatedly recalling his previous life and having forgotten habits pop out now and then.

"I never thought problems would arise because of my identity as a portrait, too, though."

Jio murmured.

"It does seem like an issue similar to resolution after all. Maybe errors happen somewhere because I'm trying to act human in the body of a portrait. My way of speaking comes out stiffer, and my behavior and thoughts turn strange..."

He thought he would have to be careful.

"From now on, let's try harder at self-objectification."

"Hmph."

"You think it's a bother? Honey, you should work on developing some social skills."

At the sight of Honey grumbling, Jio placed the round waterbird on his hand and rolled him this way and that. Honey rolled around like a plump water pouch, and did not seem to feel bad about it.

"Are you having fun?"

"Gurrrrrgle."

"I see."

Jio, who had been briefly startled by the change in his personality, was able to put his thoughts in order at that carefree sight.

"Anyway, it's fun, so it's fine."

If this ever-changing life were not fun, would that not be stranger?

"Then shall we eat for now?"

"Gurgle?"

Honey expressed confusion, but Jio paid no attention and got up.

"Even if we don't eat right away, it's good to make soup or side dishes in advance. We have bones from the deer we butchered anyway, so if I sort them out and make marrowbone broth, we can store it in the ice cellar and take it out whenever we need it."

Marrowbone broth could be a hearty meal all on its own. Jio nodded.

"When I had indigestion, my grandmother used to tell me to add a little scallion and salt to bone broth and try drinking it."

He did not know about other people, but when Jio had indigestion, that sort of bone broth sat far more comfortably in his stomach than porridge. There were no solids, so it did not fill his stomach, but perhaps because it was a rich soup, it still felt like he had eaten something.

"If you put a little salt, chopped scallions, and freshly cooked rice into milky broth that's been simmered until it's white, that's bone soup. Richly simmered marrowbone broth has an incredible savory flavor. That's why even such a simple meal feels hearty."

"Gurrrrrgle...?"

"That isn't spicy."

Honey, who had felt great resistance to the spicy sausages last time, seemed to be wondering whether bone soup was spicy. But unless red pepper powder or spicy seasoning was added and mixed in, there would be no reason for bone soup to taste spicy.

"If it feels too plain, you can add meat, or you can put thin noodles in instead of rice. Eating both together probably isn't as bad as you'd think. I think one of the charms of bone soup is that you can add more seasoning or pepper however you like."

There were plenty of other places to use marrowbone broth as well.

"At the very least, if you boil spicy instant noodles with broth instead of water, that tastes fantastic, too."

"Gurgle! Gurgle! Gurgle!"

"Still, the broth itself would make the soup a little milder... all right, let's skip that one."

Honey, who hated spicy food, shouted his desperate opposition, and Jio, who was his father, respected Honey's opinion. If there were humans in the world who ate everything well, then somewhere there was also bound to be a weak little waterbird who could not eat even the slightest bit of spice.

"Then making another soup with more vegetables would be fine, too. A representative one would be dumpling soup, I suppose."

Jio murmured.

"Rice cake soup would be good, too. Army stew, where you add all sorts of vegetables and ham and boil it all together, isn't bad either... and if marrowbone broth goes into something simple like soybean paste soup or seaweed soup, the flavor becomes much deeper."

"Hm?"

"I don't know about army stew, but the rest shouldn't be spicy. Unless you add hot green chilies... Come to think of it, did you know rice tastes much better if you use broth instead of water when cooking it?"

"Gurrr."

"All right, let's go make broth."

Ever since eating rice balls last time, Honey had become a waterbird who loved rice more than anything in the world. It was obvious he was imagining how delicious it would be to make rice cooked in marrowbone broth into rice balls and grill them.

As Jio headed down to the ice cellar where he had stored the marrowbones, he suddenly became uneasy.

"Come to think of it, when people usually say marrowbone broth, don't they make it with cow bones?"

"... Hmph?"

"Well, when I trimmed and sorted them last time, they were pretty full of marrow. Maybe because it had been freshly hunted, the red boundary on the cut surface of the bone shaft was clear, too, so the condition shouldn't be bad. Thanks to how big the deer was, the bones are thick and sturdy, so it should be fun to simmer marrowbone broth with them..."

"..."

"True, since when have we only eaten food from Earth?"

When simmering marrowbone broth, people usually used bones from the legs of an animal. If it had been a cow, they would have been ox feet, but Jio did not think a deer would be that different, so he had sorted them for now. He brought the marrowbones from the ice cellar to the kitchen.

"I did wash them once back then, but this still feels unpleasant."

After washing the marrowbones, which had been cut so that the marrow was clearly visible, until they were clean, he took out a large pot and dropped them all inside. When he used a bellflower to light the firewood, the water quickly came to a boil.

"I drained all the blood when I butchered it the first time, so not that many impurities should rise up. I drained them for almost more than a full day, so they should be pretty clean, but there are still foreign substances left inside. You have to remove those for good broth to come out."

"..."

"As you are currently expecting, it is a damn time-consuming task."

"Grumble, grumble, grumble..."

"I wasn't expecting to be able to eat the broth today anyway."

Once marrowbones that had been blanched in boiling water, washed, and made completely clean came out, from then on, it was a battle of time and devotion. Real marrowbone broth was not expensive for nothing.

"We can keep boiling it in the pot like this, but we shouldn't boil it over too strong a fire. Even if it takes some time, we have to boil it over low heat for the savory flavor of the broth to come out better."

"..."

"The more it boils, the more fat and miscellaneous impurities will keep floating up. Maybe because the marrow comes out as it is, people say the first broth usually comes out too greasy and strong, so it's hard to eat. So you can't really eat the first broth..."

"Hmph."

"You're going to eat it?"

"Gurgle."

"You pig."

Honey protested fiercely, but reality did not change because of that. This affection that could not give up even the first broth, which would make the inside of one's mouth greasy enough to make smacking sounds. This obsession.

"You are already a splendid pig."

"Gurrrrrrrrrrrrrgle!!!"

"Accept reality."

If possible, Jio wished he would grow a little plump.

"Enough for me to lean on..."

To be exact, he wished Honey would grow plump enough for him to use as a pillow.

"..."

At the face that showed firm resolve, Jio nodded.

"Is this puberty?"

He could feel a strong conviction that Honey would somehow maintain his current cute and adorable form.

'He knows he's cute.'

Even if he was a son born from paint, if one's child had the right convictions, it was only proper to support them. Jio decided to back down. Fat animals were cute, but force-feeding one into gaining weight was animal abuse.

"Anyway, the marrowbone broth won't be done right away. The impurities only rise after some time has passed, and even if we stay glued right next to this, there's nothing we can do."

"Gurrrgle?"

"Yes, so we have to prepare another dish. Let us give our marrowbone friend, who gives so generously, some time alone."

Jio looked at the pot, which was not even boiling yet because he had just changed the water.

"I'm not sure, but I've heard that if you simmer marrowbones too many times, it's actually bad for your health... I don't know how to handle the legs of a tree-antlered deer."

"..."

Jio nodded.

"There was no need to worry."

What realistic worries had he been having in this fantasy world?

"It says the marrow and bones will melt on their own, so we can simply filter out the impurities from time to time and wait. Let's stop paying attention to those independent fellows and now worry about our lunch."

"Gurrrgle."

"Then something suitable would be..."

After thinking for a moment, Jio soon made up his mind.

"At last, the day has come."

"Gurgle?"

"The time for fishing has come."

After eating so much land meat, should he not refresh his weary tongue and stomach with fish?

"That is proper courtesy toward my tongue and stomach."

And Seo Jio was a true gourmand who had learned the term Engel coefficient at the age of five. He still remembered his grandmother's warm voice as she chuckled and said, "We've got a little piggy spud in our house."

So Jio schemed about eating fish. There were many ways.

"The stream is narrow, but it's quite deep, and I've confirmed while coming and going that there are fish of all sizes in it. In particular, I connected the waterbirds' nests to the stream and the springs so various living creatures could move through them... so in effect, we could get decent fish just by going to the nests."

"..."

At those words from Jio, Honey tilted his head this way and that, then soon came up beside his ear and poked his cheek. The beak was so small and harmless that it made one wonder why it had even grown there, so it did not hurt.

"What is it, Honey?"

"Gurrrrrgle."

"... Ah."

Come to think of it, Jio had another source of fish.

"There was the 'Breathing Sea.'"

The "Breathing Sea," one of the dimensional gates Jio had made before, was quite literally a world submerged beneath the sea. When he had seen it last time, all sorts of living creatures had definitely been overflowing there, too.

Jio accepted Honey's advice.

"You are clever."

"Gurgle."

Honey became majestic. It was very cute.

"No matter how cute you look, the only one you can conquer is your father."

"Grumble, grumble, grumble."

"Do you think you can act that cute somewhere else and work anyone as well as you work me? Where in the world is there a servant as capable as me? You should stick close to your father."

They were a harmonious family again today.

Jio went straight to the second floor, and among its rooms, to the storage room where he kept completed works. The frame that could take him to the "Breathing Sea" was hanging there.

Standing before the frame filled with blue light, Jio slowly seeped into it as though melting.

"..."

And then, soon.

He was underwater.

"It has been a long time, Father."

Giovanni had entered the "Breathing Sea."

"Or perhaps it has not been that long?"

" "

"I went to look around the outside world for a while."

The one conversing with Jio was none other than the Sun God of a ruined world. That lonely old man whom "Giovanni" had asked a favor of before.

He asked why Jio had visited today.

"Ah."