Chapter 50

According to my dearly departed seniors, never trust monsters.

'They weren't wrong.'

Cha A-ra was someone who acknowledged the distrust of monsters ingrained bone-deep in the Hunter world.

In fact, even the word "distrust" was a little strange, because no one trusted a wild boar that came down from the mountains, did they?

'Trusting them is what makes you an idiot.'

Before any relationship of trust or whatever could be considered, Hunters and monsters threatened each other's right to survive simply by existing.

The monsters being discussed here mainly lived in dungeons, and some of them had settled on Earth in modern times. Monsters varied wildly in everything from size to preferences, but what they had in common was that they were dangerous.

'Monsters are basically hostile toward Earth's living creatures.'

It did not matter how pathetic or how powerful their abilities were. Being one-sidedly hated by something other than humans was enough on its own to devastate a person's mind.

"..."

In that context, Cha A-ra was having a hard time accepting the current situation.

"You had best watch your step."

"Ah, yes?"

"There is a drop just ahead."

"Oh..."

"Your eyes are poor."

No, your eyes are sharp.

'Though even if I said that to a monster, he wouldn't understand.'

The bird that Black Cloak had called "Honey" brightly lit up the world only briefly, then returned to a soft glow and hid inside the hood of his cloak.

Thanks to that, Cha A-ra was following after Black Cloak by the light of the Anti-Cat.

'Maybe it's because his body itself is so black, but I can't see him well even when he's close. If not for the Anti-Cat, I really might not have been able to follow him...'

In any case, she understood that "Seo Jio" was being considerate of her.

'Aside from the fact that he's a little clumsy at imitating a human... I mean.'

What kind of person came barefoot into a cold cave like this in the first place?

In truth, Jio had his own circumstances.

The reason he sometimes walked around barefoot outside the portrait was that he lived without shoes at home.

Since he drew passages and entrances, the place he usually moved from was the workshop in his cabin, and Jio, who had come straight from there into the dungeon, had not bothered to bring shoes.

Since the Jewel Vein was dark, he had thought that even if he ran into someone, surely they would not look at his feet.

"..."

But from Cha A-ra's perspective, it felt as though he was awkwardly copying human clothing.

"Um, but, when you said home..."

"We are almost there."

"W-We are?"

At the relatively kind treatment, Cha A-ra felt a little relieved.

'... Judging by how he answers me every time, he doesn't seem to have any bad feelings toward me.'

An ordinary monster did not have this level of intelligence, so it could not serve as a comparison.

But fundamentally, monsters had almost no reason, and whenever they saw a person, they wanted to see the color of that person's entrails.

'I heard humanoid monsters aren't very different either...'

Even if a monster showed goodwill toward a human, from a human perspective, it was a disaster.

So although she did not quite understand this polite treatment, Cha A-ra forced herself to endure her fear and followed after Black Cloak.

'If I stayed like this, I was going to starve to death anyway. In that case, it's better to try something, anything.'

Just as Cha A-ra was trying to pull herself together, Black Cloak stopped in place and spoke.

He pointed at the wall.

"This is it."

"..."

A frame?

'... It's an empty frame with only a forest background painted in it, and no person.'

Then it could have simply been called a "landscape painting," but something about it felt lacking, and Cha A-ra sensed that this was not a complete work.

"... Ah."

She soon realized that it felt somehow familiar.

"Could it be the one I saw last time..."

"Yes, this is where I stay."

"... Oh, I see."

A painting with a person in it.

She did not know the details, but she understood that Black Cloak's essence was a portrait.

'When I met him before, he was in the form of a portrait too.'

Black Cloak held out his hand.

"Please, come in."

"..."

It would be a lie to say she was not afraid.

'... Even if I stay here, I'll only starve to death.'

She was already sick of starving in the darkness where she could not see a thing, waiting for new Hunters who might or might not come.

Someone might call it a foolish decision, but Cha A-ra did not want to let the opportunity before her slip away.

"Phew..."

With a slightly trembling hand, she took his.

"... Ah...!"

Then, for a moment, her mind went blank.

Cha A-ra felt as though her body were entering the painting.

She did not feel like herself, and after she felt a dazed sense of floating and strange sensations brushed past her dozens, hundreds of times, she was finally able to come to her senses.

"..."

As if that brief confusion had never happened, gentle, vivid air, sanity itself, greeted Cha A-ra.

"..."

"Are you all right?"

"... Yes, yes."

It had happened in an instant.

'... Just now, something...'

But she had definitely felt a chilling, bottomless distance as she passed through the frame.

"..."

It was fear.

Or perhaps loneliness.

Cha A-ra, who had never even attended school and was not good at expressing herself, wondered how she should explain the sensation she had felt in that instant.

Only after quite some time had passed would she judge it to have been an eerie, strange sensation, as if she had been left alone in the universe for a moment.

"... This place is..."

"It is the house where I stay."

As Black Cloak said that, he set down the cat, the Anti-Cat, that he had been holding in his arms.

"Honey, he'll be your younger sibling, so look after him."

"Coo-gurgle."

"Good boy."

The sight of him speaking to a bird made of water was like a scene from a fairy tale.

"..."

This space was the same.

Dense drawer cabinets that filled the walls.

Paints carrying scents from nature, and a canvas set on an easel carved from wood...

"... A workshop?"

It was.

'Why is it empty?'

Not a single canvas had a painting on it.

The air was gentle.

The sight was peaceful too.

But for some reason, as Cha A-ra looked at the parts that were mostly similar to human lifestyles yet different one by one, she felt a chill without realizing it.

"Yes, it is my workshop."

"This may be a rude question... but there are no paintings."

"I am always painting."

"..."

"They simply stop being paintings now."

It was an abstruse statement that made an even colder shiver run down her spine.

"Finished paintings either leave on their own, or else... remain like this."

"... It wasn't a passage? This was, um, a painting?"

"It is both a passage and a painting."

The monster answered curtly, then covered the frame of the Jewel Vein, the passage Cha A-ra had come through, with a black cloth.

Only then did Cha A-ra realize that there were several frames covered with cloth like this throughout the workshop.

"..."

"Would you like to look around?"

"Ah, no."

"Well, you must be hungry."

Cha A-ra blinked at his words.

'... Didn't his voice change somehow?'

No, the voice itself was no different from a moment ago.

But...

"Are you no longer afraid of me?"

"... What? Ah, yes?"

"You seemed less tense than before, so I asked."

"That, um, well, t-that's..."

"..."

At the sight of Cha A-ra stammering, the monster tilted his head but waited for her.

Reading consideration once again in that behavior, Cha A-ra was soon able to calm herself and continue speaking.

"... Yes, I think... I'm less scared than before..."

"That is a relief."

Black Cloak's voice was polite and soft-spoken.

"When I go outside, people are afraid of me. I believe it is a problem that occurs because I am a portrait."

He opened the workshop door.

"The kitchen is on the first floor."

"The kitchen..."

It was much too domestic a word to hear in a monster's lair.

Cha A-ra felt a strange awkwardness, but still gathered her courage and asked.

"C-Can I go with you?"

"Of course."

"Thank you..."

Cha A-ra followed after the monster, just as she had in the Jewel Vein.

Though the atmosphere was completely different from then.

'... It's very bright.'

To be precise, it would be more accurate to say it was gentle rather than bright.

This place, filled with warm air, softly loosened her hands and feet, but there was also something not light about it, something calmly sunken.

"..."

Why?

'It's like a fairy tale.'

The walls built of wood gave off a fragrant smell.

The stairs were made of hard material, yet they were so soft that she nearly mistook them for something plush, and inside the cabin, where sunlight lay tenderly, there was a fluffy atmosphere that seemed like it should only come from well-dried blankets.

'And yet, strangely...'

Cha A-ra thought this place was like a tomb.

"..."

"You may look around."

"Yes?"

"It seems it will take a little while to prepare the meal."

The voice of Black Cloak as he said that had a somehow aristocratic grace.

"During that time, it would be best for you to look around the cabin and rest."

"W-Would that be all right?"

"I will make you fruit tea, so how about taking it with you?"

"Ah."

Fruit tea.

'Isn't that really expensive?'

While she hesitated, Black Cloak went into the kitchen and soon returned with a glass.

The tea, rippling with a mysterious hue like the glow of sunset, looked like a magic potion, and perhaps thanks to the round ice, it was cool.

"You may sit on the sofa and drink it."

"T-Thank you."

Did all humanoid monsters behave this much like humans?

'Since the word humanoid is attached in the first place, maybe it's only natural, in a way...'

Holding the glass, Cha A-ra carefully sat on the sofa.

"!"

It was extremely soft.

'It must be an expensive sofa.'

She thought that, but then realized that there was no way a monster would buy furniture according to human rules, and she felt a little embarrassed.

Trying to understand the rules around monsters from a human perspective in the first place had been foolish.

"... It smells really nice..."

Its appearance was closer to a work of art than food, but it had an extremely soft and sweet scent.

"..."

When she took a sip.

A gentle sweetness wrapped around her mouth.

"Wow..."

Cha A-ra's pale cheeks faintly flushed.

'... What is this? It's really good. Is all fruit tea like this...?'

Sugar itself was so precious that Cha A-ra had never properly eaten even a single piece of fruit, let alone fruit tea.

So for a moment, she wondered if all fruit tea in the world was like this, but that question lasted only briefly before Cha A-ra, sipping the tea, realized an astonishing fact.

"..."

She... She wasn't hungry.

'No, I'm still hungry, but...'

The terrible hunger that had felt as if a fork were scraping down her stomach had disappeared.

'What is this? Was it really a potion?'

Well, it was fruit tea obtained in a dungeon where a humanoid monster lived.

Perhaps she should not compare it to ordinary fruit tea made by humans.

As Cha A-ra groped her way through understanding the situation, she pressed her lips together.

"... Mmm..."

For some reason, she felt good.

It was not enough to make her break into a silly grin, but something inside her tickled, and she could tell that she herself was relaxing.

She felt as though the stress she had received while working lately and the resentment she felt toward the teammates who had abandoned her had eased a little.

"..."

She finished the fruit tea quickly.

'... My body feels really light.'

Perhaps the tea had a special effect, because even what little injury and fatigue remained had been washed away.

Since her tension had eased along with it, Cha A-ra was able to look around with a little more composure.

"The ceiling is really high."

She had not noticed because she had been so tense, but thinking back on it now, it seemed to have taken quite a while to come down the stairs.

It was only a two-story building, but its scale itself was tremendous.

'Still, the reason it doesn't feel like a rich family's house from a drama must be because this is also a kind of dungeon. In any case, it's a place where a monster lives, so if this is a dungeon, then it is a dungeon...'

Cha A-ra slowly blinked.

The clatter of dishes, and the slow breeze peculiar to spring.

The birdsong heard beyond the window was resonant and clear, just like round beads trembling.

"I'm kind of sleepy..."

She kept thinking it, but it really was like a fairy tale.

"..."

And.

It resembled a funeral.

"... Is it because it's quiet?"

It was different from sadness or grief.

It did not resemble someone's sorrowful crying.

Nor did it resemble composed visitors in mourning.

It simply felt abundant and heavy, like several white chrysanthemums quietly placed before a photograph of the deceased.

"Mmm..."

It was difficult to describe the air.

'It isn't uncomfortable.'

It was simply peaceful.

To the point of feeling almost oppressive.

"Ms. Cha A-ra."

"..."

"Ms. Cha A-ra."

"Ah, yessir...!! Hunter Cha A-ra is present!!"

"I know that, so you do not need to be that nervous."

The monster who came out of the kitchen had, at some point, taken off his cloak.

"..."

"Are you having trouble moving?"

"Ah, no."

Wow.

Holy shit.

'A person could look like that.'

'Ah, no, he's a monster, so I shouldn't call him a person... but still, he really is handsome.'

Why was something that looked as though it belonged in a museum preparing a meal in a cabin like this?

He was so handsome that it actually made him feel distant.

In many ways, he did not seem human.

Unaware of Cha A-ra's thoughts, the monster spoke with his characteristic blunt expression and voice.

"I prepared a light meal, and wondered if it would suit you."

"Ah, thank you."

And then Cha A-ra saw an unexpected sight.

"..."

"Do you like rice?"

"I'd eat it if I had it. I mean, I never have any to eat, but..."

"Are there any side dishes you dislike?"

"I'm in no position to be picky when I'm being fed. But, no. Um..."

"Is there a problem?"

"... Were you Korean?"

What was with this seven-side-dish Korean meal?

"I introduced myself as Seo Jio. Does that not sound like a Korean name?"

"Ah, that's true."

She had been so scared she was dying that she had had no room to think about whether his name was Korean or whatever, and she had not expected that refined, gloomy nobleman's face to set out such a warm meal.

'So that's why he was Seo Jio.'

She also learned for the first time just now that the reason his name had been made three syllables was to borrow a Korean feeling.

There was white rice she rarely got to eat and all kinds of side dishes laid out, but Cha A-ra felt a sense of déjà vu.

'... Why do I feel the aura of my late grandmother?'

Cha A-ra felt a little strange.

Considering the elegant atmosphere of the humanoid monster called Seo Jio, it should have looked out of place, but instead, it looked so natural that she felt an even greater dissonance.

"..."

Cha A-ra suddenly realized one of her own emotions.

"Please eat comfortably."

"... Yes."

It was very faint, and in this peaceful atmosphere, it might have been a rather out-of-place impression.

But it was a kind of "awe."

An emotion one could feel toward something that was not human.

"Thank you."

'... It sounds a little ridiculous after being served such a familiar, homey meal, but...'

Cha A-ra suddenly raised her head and looked into Seo Jio's eyes.

She saw ordinary black eyes.

"..."