Chapter 78
There was a reason Yu Seong-un was always stuck to Jio’s side.
‘If I lose focus for a moment, he starts spouting absurd words and deeds.’
It would have been better if he were a mimic-type monster clumsy at imitating humans.
Because no matter what it did, you could tell it was a monster.
But ‘Jio’s Portrait’ was strangely proficient at imitating a human.
‘That’s what makes him confuse people even more.’
While his head was certain he wasn't human, his heart was convinced he was, and that sense of disparity created a feeling of eeriness.
It was a different sort of fear from what one felt from monsters or the children of the Source.
‘It’s truly what you’d call an urban legend.’
Yu Seong-un’s role was to help such a Jio blend in well among humans.
“Whoops.”
Splash.
Yu Seong-un stepped onto a floor with a soft texture.
“It’s kind of like jelly, this.”
“It certainly is.”
Kang Seo-dam, who entered the dungeon right after, also nodded.
“It seems like a slime with low viscosity, but for something like that, it supports weight well.”
“And yet when you scoop it up with your hands, it’s just seawater.”
Shaking the water from his hands, Yu Seong-un looked at Jio and Cha Ara who had entered with them.
“Oh, you’re in?”
“Yes, y-yes… yes.”
“Don’t be too nervous. There are three A-Class Hunters here, do you really think we can’t protect one Hunter Cha Ara?”
“Three….”
“It’s three, right.”
“Ah… r-right.”
As if she knew how to read the room, Cha Ara quickly took Yu Seong-un’s cue.
The way she kept glancing at Jio as he looked around the dungeon suggested she probably even remembered the rule, ‘You must not point out that he isn’t human in front of Jio.’
‘Well, Hunter Cha Ara received the official notice too.’
The notice repeatedly advised things like, ‘Do not question Jio’s identity.’ It seemed Cha Ara also judged that there was no need to get on Jio’s bad side.
‘By the way….’
If his guess was correct, this dungeon should be like a hometown to ‘Giovanni’.
“…Jio, are you okay?”
“I am fine.”
“I’m worried since it’s your first time formally entering a dungeon.”
“I was a little nervous, but I’m not as shaky as I thought I would be.”
The platinum-blond Jio, who had thrown back his black hood, wore his characteristic gentle smile.
“The scent of the sea feels quite pleasant.”
“Come to think of it, you liked the sea.”
Having said that, Yu Seong-un looked down.
“…….”
An entire nation, completely submerged in the sea, was visible.
“…Getting down there is going to be a chore. Jio, can you swim?”
“To be honest with you, I cannot!”
“Why is he so proud about it?”
As its name was ‘Nation of the Deep Sea’, the Hunters who visited this place were fundamentally a group of people who could swim.
In the first place, it was rare for a Hunter to be unable to swim.
“I didn’t think of this….”
With a troubled face, Yu Seong-un looked back at the other two.
“What about Hunter Cha Ara or Priest Kang Seo-dam?”
“Huh? Ah, I can, but… since I’m F-Class….”
“I can do it without difficulty.”
“Oh my.”
Yu Seong-un looked at Jio again.
“Then it looks like either I or Priest Kang Seo-dam will have to help Jio, is that okay?”
“No?”
“Oh…?”
“There are plenty of ways to go without swimming.”
“How come there are plenty??”
“I learned a good skill from the elder in my house.”
“…….”
No, wait a minute.
“…The elder in your house?”
“Yes.”
“Th-that elder is that thing, right. That….”
“I will escort you comfortably.”
“What on earth??”
Without answering Yu Seong-un’s question, Jio placed his hands on the floor.
At that moment.
“…….”
—Ruuuuuumble!!
“…….”
“There.”
With a loud noise, a path was created into the sea.
“Now we can just walk.”
“…….”
“Let’s walk.”
The Hunters, including Yu Seong-un, stared with dumbfounded faces at the tunnel that had formed in the sea.
“Uh….”
In the space that was hollowed out like a long straw, there were even stairs kindly created.
The path continued to a considerable depth, and with a Hunter’s good eyesight, they could confirm that it reached all the way to the ‘Temple of the Deep Sea’.
Yu Seong-un, who prided himself on being the human who received Jio’s greatest affection, asked.
“What did you do to this?”
“Seawater is also water, so if you heat it up, wouldn’t it evaporate?”
“So you evaporated it?”
“Yes, convenient, isn’t it?”
“Because you didn’t want to swim?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, I can’t. It’s not a matter of my preference.”
“So you changed the dungeon….”
He changed the form of the sea because he couldn’t swim.
Yu Seong-un looked back at Kang Seo-dam, the child of the sun.
“…….”
“I cannot do that.”
“I thought so.”
Please, Jio.
‘What kind of Hunter in the world remodels a dungeon because they don’t want to swim.’
In the first place, being able to remodel a dungeon was already beyond the realm of a Hunter.
That Hunter had no reason to come to the dungeon.
The existence of the dungeon and the significance of the Hunter’s visit disappear.
‘This is like the Republic of Korea’s representative tycoon, Guild Master Bisabeol, making his part-timers collect waste paper to earn five thousand won for his own pocket money.’
If this was the case, then why did the identity of ‘Seo Jio’ even exist?
Did he really have no intention of imitating a human?
Was it a warning not to pull any pathetic tricks?
Yu Seong-un fell into a deep quagmire.
‘The fortunate thing is that Priest Kang Seo-dam and Hunter Cha Ara are trying their absolute best to look away and pretend they don’t see….’
After confirming the cooperative intent of the two, who seemed to vow silence on everything that happened today, he looked at Jio again.
“Jio, everyone here is trustworthy, so I’ll speak frankly.”
“Please speak comfortably.”
“This is a bit beyond the realm of what’s humanly possible.”
“But I am an ordinary human….”
“Ah, I know, I know. We all know that very well, so you don’t have to worry about that. It’s just….”
Yu Seong-un took a deep breath.
“Other people might be scared of you or misunderstand, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t show your abilities too much in front of people other than us. Did you understand what I said?”
“I understand, thank you for your consideration.”
“Right….”
Cha Ara looked at Yu Seong-un, who was desperately and calmly persuading him, with a pitiful expression and even to Yu Seong-un himself, his own situation felt a bit pathetic.
‘A mere human body is giving social skills training to a being of the Source whose identity I don’t even know.’
Outside of The Collectors’ building, ‘Seo Jio’s’ stature was lowered to a human level, so it was manageable to this extent, but no, in fact, even now it was so overwhelming that it felt like his whole body would explode.
‘It’s a good thing Jio thinks of himself as human….’
You could say the plan to separate ‘Seo Jio’ and ‘The Black Cape’ was a success, in its own way. It wasn’t a bad situation.
‘The pressure is definitely less than when we’re inside the company building, so yes, this much is.’
In a pinch, he could just compare him to S-Class Hunters.
At that level, they were close to human disasters.
The problem was that Jio wasn’t even human, and this was a part Yu Seong-un had to work on.
“Normally, Hunters can’t just change someone else’s dungeon like this.”
“I see, that must be inconvenient.”
“…Right….”
“You all have me, so you don’t have to worry.”
And Jio had no thoughts about it at all.
Just because he changed the dungeon a little didn’t mean he did something unethical.
No one died, no one was hurt, and no one’s feelings were hurt.
Jio’s ultimate positive mindset did not bow before the mere limits of humanity.
Limits are meant to be overcome.
Giovanni overcame his own limitation of not being able to swim with the power of the sun.
He prided himself on this remarkable growth.
“Let’s go now.”
If this solidifies my concept even more, it’s a welcome development.
‘Tada.’
Anyway, what’s good is good.
***
Giovanni died.
“…….”
If you were to ask if he had been in his right mind since then, he had not.
The farewell Iseur had been preparing was a little warmer.
Wrinkles would form on the aged Jio’s hands and around his eyes, his back that was straight like a divine statue would bend, and his firm body would become endlessly thin.
Jio was supposed to die while watching countless people thank him for his life.
His breath would slowly fade, his eyelids that were always kindly curved would close and his heart that beat, albeit slowly, would quietly sink….
“…Where was the teacher’s corpse?”
“It’s probably in your stomach.”
“…….”
“And, it’s in the sea.”
Nothing had come to pass.
“…How old was the teacher?”
“He lived a little over 30 years after being born.”
“How long of a life is that?”
“Humans, if well-cared for in a good environment, live past 100.”
“What if they are not cared for in an ordinary environment?”
“Unless they were continuously abused, normally it would be around 80 years old.”
“The teacher did not even get to enjoy half of my lifespan.”
He was too young.
“It was only 30 years.”
“Yes, it was only 30 years.”
“I thought it was longer than that.”
It was devastating.
“Like 100 years, or 200 years. To say that all of that happened in just 30 years is too overwhelming… so much happened….”
Giovanni saved people his entire life.
“Why did no one defend the teacher? He saved so many lives. He saved dying breaths and cursed lives. The people who were saved by the teacher… didn’t they say thank you then? They even shed tears of joy at his touch.”
His sister affirmed it.
“That’s right, Jio was a very kind person. He saved many humans and merfolk.”
“But when he died, no one remained by his side.”
He was not a person who should have died like that.
“The teacher should have closed his eyes in a warmer bed, with a slightly older body, surrounded by very many people. Shouldn’t he have? He was a person who lived so devotedly for others. Such a human should be warmer, under the sunlight….”
“It seems the death you imagined only exists in fairy tales.”
“…It didn’t have to be a fairy tale…. What I said was a situation that could be realized at any time, not necessarily in a fairy tale. That is, at most… only that much. I didn’t wish for a miracle. I didn’t wish for a human to live as long as a merman, nor did I try to bring the dead back to life.”
What was so great about that?
“Humans die anyway. No matter how good the environment they grow up in, no matter how well they are cared for, their lifespan is so short that they die quickly. If he lived shedding blood and sweat without rest in such a short life, shouldn’t he have enjoyed at least that much of a benefit?”
“So, did you receive such a benefit?”
“…….”
No.
“…No….”
He respected the teacher, the person named Giovanni.
Jio was a priest and a doctor.
Iseur learned the virtues of a priest from him and Aria learned the skills of a doctor from him.
As it was something they learned from Jio, both of them had treated humans with great hospitality as well.
“It was not so. In the end, just….”
But not a single human knew how to be grateful.
“…In the end, they are a race that would cast aside even the kindness of Jio, who was one of their own, in a single moment.”
“Humans are so fickle. They are different from merfolk in many ways.”
Merfolk live for over a thousand years.
Perhaps because they were born to live that long, merfolk were indifferent to stimuli, not sensitive to emotions, and did not change easily.
And for that reason, when a merman receives a single stimulus, an emotion, a change, they cherish it for a very long time.
“…Ah….”
Iseur already knew that ‘it’ would be Giovanni.
“Please, why… why, this… this shouldn’t be….”
“…….”
“This shouldn’t be happening, Aria….”
That’s why he had wished for him to meet a very sweet and gentle death.
“Why on earth do I have to carry this memory for a lifetime…?”
He knew that every moment of that short life of the person who resembled the sunlight, the person who was as fluffy as a warm blanket, would ultimately be what he had to cherish.
So he was relieved.
Because he believed that at least someone as wonderful and great as Giovanni was a human worthy of being cherished by a merman.
“Aria, I ate him.”
A merman ate a human.
“You ask why? Because I was hungry, the vulgar humans locked me and him in a small water tank…! Jio couldn’t die! Giovanni was rotting in pain and cold, and I was hungry! I ate him!!”
Watching that, the children of the sun sneered.
“That in the end, a merman is just a merman even if it imitates a human, a monster that eats people…!!”
“…….”
“…Are we monsters?”
His one and only sister answered.
“Everyone is a monster.”
“…….”
“Only, except for the teacher… Everyone was a monster.”
“…I see.”
Jio was human.
That was certain.
“…I miss the teacher….”
“Me too.”
For a very long time, Iseur could not open his mouth.
He felt that if he opened this mouth, the Giovanni he had swallowed would flow out.
His innards that he had chewed and swallowed would escape, his eyes would shed tears, and his mouth would scream or pour out resentment towards the merfolk.
And now, what Iseur, who finally opened his mouth, held onto was, in the end, Giovanni, time and again.
“Sister.”
“…To be honest, I think I hate you.”
“I think this is the first time I’ve seen you hate someone, sister.”
“I don’t even know if this feeling is certain.”
“I will accept it gladly. Because even that is a change the teacher created.”
“I will cover the sun with the sea.”
Her words were grandiose, but Iseur knew that it would soon be realized.
“When the whole world is covered by the sea, Jio can also remain in the sea forever.”
“…….”
“And merfolk too… are a part of the sea in the end, aren’t they. Just like the paintings of mermaids that person always drew….”
“…….”
“…You know.”
Aria was wearing a pure white gown.
“…I don’t know what I want either, Iseur….”
It was Giovanni’s.
“…….”
“…….”
A long time passed after that.
A very, very long time….
***
“Did you have another nightmare?”
“…….”
Round, black pupils.
“…Priest Cha Isold.”
“I’m not a priest yet.”
“I am not human.”
“Why not?”
“…I wonder….”
Why wasn’t he?
“What would it have been like if I were human.”
We had a future.
“…I have such delusions.”
“You’re human now, though.”
“I am a merman, as I told you when I brought you here.”
“But you’re human?”
“…….”
“What’s the difference between a human and a merman? I don’t really know.”
“That is….”
There were countless differences, but perhaps because it was the day he met the teacher, his mouth wouldn’t open.
“…You have a point.”
What on earth was the difference?
How big of a difference could it be?
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