Chapter 134

Jio had abruptly spoken to Ju-hyeon because he had confirmed the history described above.

"He seems like a good person."

"Cooor."

"It says he's safe for me."

Perfect.

"The way the System says it is pretty damn obnoxious, but for now, I understand that this An Juhyeon is a kind person."

"And nothing matters more than that."

In this world, there were fewer harmless humans than one might think who could hold a normal conversation with "Black Cloak."

That was an extremely serious problem for Jio, who knew how to do nothing but eat and sleep.

"Now I can finally make a pen pal too."

"Grrrrr..."

"Dana, Daddy needs friends too, don't you think?"

"And I'm human too."

Jio scooped up Dana, who had been clawing at the door of the room where Ju-hyeon slept as if she might go beyond scratching it and break it down entirely.

The larger Dana grew, the more actively she expressed her aversion to humans.

Her body was flashing all over.

"Yu Seongun told me an ordinary anti-cat is usually busy just avoiding people, so why is our child so confident she could pierce the sky?"

"It is a very interesting point."

She had clearly taken after her daddy.

"Father."

"Mm?"

"I think we need to calm Dana down a little."

"Mmm..."

"Could you let me know when our guest wakes up?"

"Mm."

"Thank you."

Jio carried the tray of food he had brought in case Ju-hyeon had woken up and went back down with it.

Dana, who had grown quite a bit, perceptively moved from her daddy's arms to his shoulder.

His shoulder felt cozy and heavy.

"A cool bundle of jeweled fur..."

Was she not a rather cute cooling mat?

When summer came to Earth, he even wondered if he should bring Dana instead of Honey.

"Honey, let's go."

"Coo."

"You can eat this."

"Cooorrrrrrrr."

"I should eat too."

It was porridge boiled until no grains of rice held their shape, with various vegetables and a little minced meat added.

The Baibamnil and mudskipper-fruit pickles he had made before were set out as side dishes too, sending up a delicious aroma.

And Honey swallowed it all by himself.

"..."

"Coo."

"Pig."

"Coo-coo-coo-coo-coo-coo...!!"

"How cute."

He had not expected Honey to eat all of it alone, but in any case, Honey earned bonus points for making sure he did not have to throw away the food their guest had left uneaten.

Jio pulled Dana down from where she lay sprawled over his shoulder and set her on his thighs.

"How is our Dana so full of confidence?"

"Mraow."

"Do you perhaps think the world revolves around you?"

"Mrr."

"So that was it."

"That is confidence worthy of a child of our household."

Still, it would be troublesome if she went around chomping on the head of every person she met.

"Honey used to be like that too."

"Mrr?"

"Did you learn it by watching your older brother?"

"Hiss."

"It seems not, so it must be instinct."

"Prrrrr."

"Adorable."

Jio gently stroked Dana's belly as she flopped onto her back and acted cute.

Unlike ordinary cats, which were sensitive about having their bellies touched, Dana lay there as if she simply loved it.

Since she was long-haired, it almost felt as if a heavy carpet had been laid over his lap.

"Your older brother also used to go around biting people as he pleased at first."

"It only happened exactly once, but when Daddy found out about it, his heart dropped all the way down."

"Mrrrow...?"

"For Daddy's sake, I hope you will not chew on other people or wound them as you please."

"To explain the downside from your perspective as a monster, every time you cause an injury like that, I have to go far away to smooth it over or pay money."

"...!"

"Daddy can draw jewels and draw gold too, but it seems barter is not very popular in the Republic of Korea yet."

"In short, I am broke, and I may be branded a debtor and publicly shamed, so I would appreciate it if Dana thought of Daddy just a little."

"Mraaoow..."

"Good girl, good girl."

Dana apologized after learning the poor state of Daddy's wallet.

As he rebuilt trust with his dependable daughter, who promised not to cause trouble, Jio set Honey, who was pecking at the poor innocent empty tray, onto his hand.

"Honey, come here."

"Cooor."

"You will wear through the tray soon."

He had no idea who Honey had taken after to grow into such a splendid pig.

Of course, he knew very well that Honey had taken after Jio himself.

"Our guest must have been quite tired, seeing as he has slept for nearly five days."

Jio really liked this guest.

He was a thirty-six-year-old adult man, older than Jio, and even when he came face-to-face with Black Cloak, he neither got frightened nor attacked.

He was even a polite and harmless human acknowledged by the System.

"And he is skin and bones."

He had to be fattened up at once.

It had been quite some time since he had found a person who seemed this rewarding to fatten up.

An Juhyeon was practically qualified to become Jio's friend.

"I even prepared lamb skewers to tear into together..."

"Cooorrr."

"Yes, if he really does not wake up, we can eat them together tonight."

"Mraow?"

"If he wakes up, we all eat together."

Once we ate, we would become Anne of Green Gables and her friend Diana.

In this harsh world, Jio had finished preparing the hunt to make a new friend.

Ju-hyeon woke in the early dawn.

"..."

With his mind blank, he sat up in the soft bed.

The dawn of a world where full spring had settled was cool, and a gentle breeze carrying the scent of flowers and forest blew softly.

Ju-hyeon turned his head toward where it touched his cheek.

Beyond the wide-open terrace, he saw a world sparkling with dew.

"... Wow..."

It was beautiful.

And peaceful.

"... Where is this, right now..."

His mind was hazy, and he frowned.

When he groped around from where he sat upright, his hand caught on a soft blanket that seemed to be filled with nothing but feathers.

The soft, rustling feel of sun-dried fabric brought back the feeling of stroking moss in his childhood.

Ju-hyeon was briefly rendered speechless by that texture, then soon looked again at the world beyond the terrace.

It was an instinctive gaze.

"... Was I inside Black Cloak's frame?"

It was a world more like a fairy tale than he had imagined.

'The sun is just rising.'

The dark dawn clouds were navy blue, calling to mind a spring cold snap, but the warmth and starlight lingering beside the rising sun were gentle colors like forsythia and cherry blossoms.

If he broke off a bite of that, it seemed it would be as sweet as honey offered by flowers.

"..."

STEP.

Without realizing it, Ju-hyeon went out onto the terrace.

"... Stars."

There were stars in the sky, and the moon, and the sun along with them.

The stars, which did not fade even in the bright and soft light, showed a clarity that made them seem about to fall at any moment.

They were still sparkling.

"The Milky Way..."

At that dreamlike sight, the tips of his fingers suddenly tingled, and his tightly closed lungs ached.

It was a sight he had never seen before, and yet Ju-hyeon felt an inexplicable longing and heavy air.

"..."

Where the shadows of dawn still remained, he could see an endless forest and a sparkling lake.

Ju-hyeon's eyes were stolen for a moment by that lake.

From it, glittering in an ecstatic gold, he felt a deep abundance.

It was cold, and warm.

"... What a strange feeling."

Muttering for no reason, Ju-hyeon hesitantly stepped back.

"... This place is, um, yes."

"Right..."

He tried to pull himself together.

"Is it some kind of dungeon?"

It did not work very well.

He had been in this state all throughout these recent days.

Even as he rationally thought that he had to do this and that to make up for things, when it came time to put it into practice, he had no will to do so.

It felt as if his brain had stiffened, refusing to work.

But a cool breeze blew in from the terrace and cooled the heat of his forehead.

"..."

At that softness, which seemed to tell him not to be impatient, Ju-hyeon found himself ridiculous for thinking such a thing and slowly let out a sigh.

"... Haaah..."

FLOP.

He sat down on the bed.

"... Calm down."

It was all right.

It was not all right, but it could become all right.

As always, he would be able to overcome this too.

'Maybe because I slept and woke up, I feel like a little of my reason is coming back.'

The horrible lethargy that had tormented Ju-hyeon lately had eased considerably.

Yes, he had been lethargic.

An impulse he had never felt in his life had violently shaken Ju-hyeon, and the head that had always coolly produced results for his own benefit and goals had gone rigid.

'But now... it is not like that.'

He felt as if he could breathe fairly well.

"..."

"Coo?"

"... Huh?"

"Coo, cooor."

"A bird?"

When he came to his senses, a golden bird was sitting on the terrace railing.

"No, water?"

Ju-hyeon soon realized it was living water in the shape of a bird.

It looked similar to a long-tailed tit, which was said to have already gone extinct, but it had a much longer, spreading tail and conspicuous jewels inside its body, as if it were a treasure chest.

"Why is it here..."

When he froze, not knowing how to react, the bird fluttered over and sat on Ju-hyeon's thigh.

It had almost no weight, and though it was water, it was warm like a living creature.

"Coo."

"... Hello?"

"Coo-cooor."

The water bird let out a long cry as if answering his greeting, then flapped its wings and flew up again.

It soon bit the sleeve of Ju-hyeon's white pajamas with its beak and tugged hard.

"... You want me to go out?"

"Cooor."

"... How fascinating."

"Maybe its vocal organs are not in its mouth..."

Perhaps he was not fully awake yet, because what he found more curious was that the cry of a bird made entirely of water did not become distorted even while it held his sleeve in its mouth.

In a strange sense of unreality, Ju-hyeon followed where the bird led him down.

There, a pitch-black man stood.

"Honey."

At his call, the honey-colored bird settled on the man's hand.

It was a soft landing.

The man gave it brief praise, saying it had done well, and moved the bird onto his shoulder.

At his feet was a large cat glittering with an icy light.

Ju-hyeon realized that it resembled an anti-cat quite a bit.

As he hesitated, not knowing what to do, the man soon spoke to him.

"Good morning."

"Ah, yes."

"Good morning."

"I was worried because you did not wake up for a long time."

"Did not wake up...?"

"You slept for eight days."

"..."

After chewing over those words, Ju-hyeon's dark skin went ashen.

"... Eight days?"

"In reality, a total of three days have passed."

"Ah, aah."

"Ah... I see."

"I understand."

Ju-hyeon let out a relieved breath.

After being startled once like that, he felt as if his mind cleared in an instant.

With reason clearer than before, Ju-hyeon looked at the pitch-black man in front of him and thought to himself.

'Is this Black Cloak's true form?'

There were so few witnesses who had seen beneath Black Cloak that there was even a theory that the cloak or the suit itself was his main body.

And the true body of Black Cloak that Ju-hyeon confirmed was a man far more beautiful than he had imagined.

'I feel like I saw him before I fell asleep too, but his impression is completely different from then... What exactly is different?'

As he wondered about the differences in Black Cloak's changes, the other party politely asked with calm, settled eyes.

"Would you like to eat?"

"..."

"You are hungry, aren't you?"

Ah, that expression.

'A single expression changes a person completely.'

When Black Cloak had just asked, "You are hungry, aren't you?", he looked extremely gentle and kind, even though his color had not changed.

Ju-hyeon's gaze was drawn without him realizing to the natural, soft curve of his eyes and lips.

Only after a beat was Ju-hyeon able to answer.

"... Yes, I am hungry."

Just look at this terrible peace.

'There is no way peace like this could actually exist in the world.'

From that unreal tranquility, he realized that he was inside a painting.