Chapter 119
12 min read ·
Some time passed, and the rookie Curators’ first round of training came to an end.
“You have worked with your assigned Curators, encountered various works, and learned the attitude a Collector Curator must have toward works and clients. Thank you for your hard work over the past three weeks.”
That did not mean they were immediately hired as full-time employees.
“From now on, each of you will be assigned a work. Based on what you showed over the past three weeks, we have selected the work we judged most suitable for you, and if we determine that managing that work is too difficult, you will be removed.”
“...”
“By removed, I mean removed from the gallery. Unless you cause a fairly serious accident, you will be assigned to an office or field position at Collector. This is simply about selecting people who can show stability in the gallery, so you do not need to worry too much.”
Yu Seongun continued speaking with the five rookie Curators in front of him.
“You were given a period of three weeks, and since none of you raised objections or expressed a desire to transfer, I will assume all of you agree to become Curators of Collector. If you wish to continue working in the gallery, please fill out the consent form placed before you.”
All five rookies filled out the consent form. It stated that they would do their best with the work assigned to them in the gallery and would bear a certain degree of responsibility for any problems that arose from it.
It was similar to a waiver surrendering their bodies, but the rookies were not the sort to be frightened by something like that at this point. The fact that they would not have to take responsibility for every problem that occurred was enough.
Having seen the bottom in an illegal guild, they wanted to work for one of South Korea’s top three guilds, where at least minimal safety measures existed, and among them, the position of Collector Curator carried high honor.
“You have all agreed.”
Yu Seongun nodded.
“Some of you may already have checked, but on the back of the consent form is information about the work you will be in charge of from now on.”
“... Ah...”
“Collector is both a storehouse and a research lab where the most dangerous and sensitive objects on Earth are brought in. Naturally, there are many unidentified works whose true nature and response methods have not been determined, but...”
“...”
“You, as rookies, have been assigned works for which nearly all information has been identified. As long as you do only as you were taught and only as the manual says, these are works that will not cause problems.”
The longer a Curator worked in the gallery and the more works they handled, the more dangerous the works they were assigned became. But that was not something rookies who had only just begun adapting to the gallery needed to worry about.
“For the next year.”
Yu Seongun spoke.
“You will be given a period of one year. During that time, some of you may decide you cannot endure it and want to leave, and some of you may find works that suit you well. I hope you will spend that long and short time working as Curators of Collector.”
“... Th-then... could the work we are assigned change midway?”
“Because many works have firm preferences, mismatches may arise no matter how carefully we assigned you. If we determine that it is harmful to both the work and the Curator, your assigned work may change even during that year.”
That might not be solely a Curator’s problem. No matter how much care a Curator took, the condition of a work sometimes changed.
“Then I look forward to working with you.”
With Yu Seongun’s words, the Curators’ basic training came to an end.
“I would like to say we should greet each other if we happen to meet while coming and going, but I usually handle the works on the fifth floor and often go on business trips, so it will be difficult to run into me.”
“Thank you for everything.”
“I should be the one thanking you for following the training well. Please, everyone, do not cause any accidents. You heard this throughout the training period, but if you cause an accident, quite a lot of people will die, not just you.”
After saying something chilling, Yu Seongun gave his usual placid smile.
“Once again, welcome to the gallery of Collector.”
And so the rookie Curators were thrown into the wild.
“...”
“...”
A rather eerie wild, at that.
The work the man was assigned was a set of porcelain dolls.
“...”
Its official name was The Sweet Tea Party, and it consisted of three porcelain dolls smaller than an adult man’s hand gathered together.
‘Danger level 6.’
The works in Collector’s gallery were classified into danger levels from 1 to 10, and the higher the number, the safer they were. Among them, the work assigned to the man, who had just completed basic training, was a danger level 6 work on the third floor.
‘Compared to the other rookies who were assigned works around level 10 to 8, its danger level is high.’
He could not tell whether he should be happy that this meant he had been recognized or frightened that he had been placed in danger.
Curator Yu Seongun had also told him in passing, “If it really does not work out, ask to be assigned a different work.”
But.
“... There’s no need to do that already.”
The porcelain doll set The Sweet Tea Party depicted three girls in voluminous dresses.
All he had to do was give them the refreshments they had requested at the exact time, then prepare in advance the snack they named after finishing those refreshments.
‘Aside from the fact that I have to keep the time with absolute precision, the response method itself isn’t difficult.’
The margin of error was within five seconds. If he gave the snack any earlier or later than that, he would turn into a porcelain human.
It was a terrifying penalty that could kill him with a single mistake, but that had been the same when he was active in the field as a combat-type A-class Hunter.
“To begin with, five seconds is more than enough time for a Hunter...”
Especially for him, an A-class Hunter, judgment and action were possible even within 0.01 seconds. If anything, this was a far safer situation than a dungeon that required him to expend a great deal of strength and be prepared for injury.
“...”
The Sweet Tea Party was displayed in the twenty-eighth corridor on the third floor. Seeing it openly placed in a public location, the man’s expression relaxed a little.
The mere fact that it was not stored separately and was in a corridor any Curator could pass through confirmed its safety.
‘It’s still fairly dangerous, since it’s a third-floor work, so calling it safety is a bit much, but still, at this level...’
He felt relieved.
“... They’re charming and cute.”
Porcelain dolls in dresses thick with abundant frills, the kind that looked as if white powder would come off if he touched them. Their cheeks, painted rosy like ripe peaches, their yellow-peach eye areas, and their delicately grown eyelashes stood out.
Perhaps their eyes had been made by setting gemstones in them, because each pair gleamed purple, yellow, and green.
‘Maybe because the entire eyeball is a gemstone, the sclera and cornea aren’t distinguished. This will make it hard to notice even if they are looking at me.’
If not for the odd atmosphere they gave off, along with the unease of being unable to confirm their gaze, collectors with a hobby of gathering dolls like these might have responded very favorably to them.
“Today’s snack was star candy, wasn’t it?”
Each of them had requested purple, yellow, and green star candy.
“...”
He waited until the promised tea party time of 4 a.m., then placed the star candies the porcelain dolls wanted on tiny plates. On the plates, which were extremely small to match the dolls’ size, the star candies looked enormous.
Then the dolls moved.
“... Oh...”
SCRAPE, CLATTER.
Using knives with no sharp edge at all, the dolls split and ate the star candies as if they were sharing little pieces of cake.
The sight of the star candy cutting as smoothly as mousse cake felt quite fascinating.
“It was a good sweetness.”
“It was a good tea party.”
“It was a good time.”
After the tea party ended, each doll gave an evaluation, and it was said that the day’s fortune was decided according to the number of bad evaluations received among them. Remembering that, the man swallowed a sigh of relief.
‘My fortune today won’t be bad, then.’
At that moment, an abnormality was detected.
“It was a good crunch.”
“It was a good firmness.”
“It is a good fragrance.”
“It is a good dawn.”
“It was a good snack.”
“It is a good choice.”
“It is a good gift.”
A total of seven additional remarks.
“...”
It was an unmistakable abnormal phenomenon.
“... In the manual, there’s no explanation like...”
As if they could not even see the man hurriedly rereading the manual, the dolls opened their mouths again.
“Godfather.”
“Godfather is coming.”
“Let us decorate ourselves sweetly.”
The porcelain girls added statements that were completely different from the manual.
“... There was no information like this?”
The porcelain doll set The Sweet Tea Party spoke a total of three times in one tea party. All of them were sentences that began with “good” or “bad,” and there had been no existence they might call “Godfather” like this.
“What on earth is...”
It was when he picked up the radio to request help.
“...”
“...”
“...”
The dolls were looking in the same direction.
“...”
When the man looked back.
The sea.
The sun.
A deer.
A bird.
Clouds.
Flowers.
Mist.
Spring water.
A sigh.
A touch.
Teeth.
Eyeballs.
Eyes.
Snow.
“...”
A human?
“... Ah...”
He saw him.
A blond man wearing a kind smile came into view.
“Wh-who are you...?”
Though the man was a little flustered, he positioned himself so the porcelain dolls could not be seen. It was to prevent any possible danger.
‘I’m sure there was no presence.’
He was confused.
‘... If even I, who am confident in sensing presences, am this bad, anyone B-class or below wouldn’t be able to perceive him at all. I’ve never heard anything about a new S-class Hunter appearing in Korea. His face is unfamiliar too... Is he an unofficial Hunter close to S-class?’
He had already been tense. On his first day working alone, he had witnessed an abnormal phenomenon right from the start, so his mind was in disarray.
Though confused, the man gradually organized his thoughts and examined the other person, who only smiled silently as if waiting for him to regain himself. He was a person characterized by bright blond hair that curved softly and a smile that suited it.
Soon, the other person opened his mouth.
“Hello.”
“... Ah, yes.”
At that everyday, gentle tone, the tension naturally drained from his body.
“Good dawn to you.”
“My name is Seo Jio.”
“Seo Jio...”
The man clenched and unclenched his fist. For some reason, cold sweat began to seep out.
“You’re ‘Mr. Seo Jio,’ then.”
He was an existence Curator Yu Seongun had warned them about as well.
One of the C-class rookies had encountered him, and other employees also smiled strangely and avoided giving detailed descriptions of him. He was “Seo Jio,” the dawn shift worker called Collector’s unofficial special force.
“I have heard about you.”
“What is your name?”
“...”
“I am curious about your name.”
He is listening to me, right?
‘... His way of speaking is so cleanly cut off that it’s strangely confusing.’
The man said his name.
“... I’m Binari.”
“Nari?”
“No, Binari, without a surname.”
“I see.”
“You may call me whatever is comfortable.”
“Understood.”
His blue eyes curved gently.
“Will you converse with me?”
“...”
Without realizing it, the man checked the time.
“...”
4:51 a.m.
‘...51 minutes.’
The time he had managed the work was exactly 4 o’clock. And the current time was 4:51.
A gap of about an hour.
“... Yes, having a conversation... would be good.”
The man nodded.
In any case, it was not as if he could go back right away. Even if they talked, there would be no problem.
“I don’t think I can go home immediately.”
“I think it would be good to spend the time talking.”
“Yes, you’re right...”
The man sighed and turned back again to look at the porcelain dolls.
“...”
“...”
“...”
They sat obediently in their lovely, delicate forms.
“... Um, Mr. Seo Jio?”
“Yes, please speak.”
“I heard that you sometimes take charge of managing the gallery.”
“That is correct. This gallery has many wonderful and beautiful works.”
“Then...”
He would have to make a separate report before any possible problem occurred, but apart from that, he wanted to hear “Mr. Seo Jio’s” opinion. He recalled the word “Godfather” the dolls had whispered.
“Could you perhaps take a look at these dolls?”
The man shifted slightly aside and showed him the dolls with their gentle and cute faces. They were porcelain dolls that did not move at all, but perhaps because the tea party had just ended, they looked to be in quite a good mood.
The man described the abnormal phenomenon that had just occurred.
“I understand this work speaks once each per tea party, for a total of three sentences. But just now, for some reason, it spoke ten additional sentences, seven plus three.”
“Were they bad words?”
“No. They were good words. They were sentences that seemed to show they were sufficiently satisfied with this tea party. It is just that I never expected a case where they would speak at such length...”
“It means that fortune too great to be contained on a scale of twenty-four hours is scheduled to arrive.”
“...”
The man’s expression turned subtle.
“Isn’t that just a disaster?”
“That is a new perspective.”
“I prefer moderate fortune.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“... Ah, yes.”
He was a unique person.
‘The rhythm of his speech is quite gentle... but the form is stiff.’
Yet it was not awkward like a foreigner unused to Korean. This gentle yet blunt tone suited him extremely well, but when thought about rationally, there was a strange sense of incongruity.
“May I look at those children for a moment?”
“... Of course. Anything would be better than me, since I’m a rookie.”
“Thank you for your permission.”
Seo Jio approached with quiet movements and examined the porcelain dolls.
The manual did say there would be no penalty for touching them as long as one did not destroy them, but he was running his hand over the dolls with the benevolent touch of an old man caring for his grandchildren. There was affection in his touch.
It was a noble and fairy-tale-like sight, as if it might appear in a famous painting, but...
“...”
It was a little chilling.
‘... The atmosphere itself is definitely gentle, but...’
It was hard to breathe.
As if someone had died, the air was heavy.