Chapter 142

Jio was not hurt by people being afraid of him.

'They could be afraid.'

Even before the Great Catastrophe, there had been many people who were afraid of Seo Jio.

His facial muscles, as if they alone had devolved, did not know how to smile, and because he did not particularly enjoy social activities, his range of activity was narrow as well.

On top of that, Jio was especially particular about manners, so in many ways, he was a difficult person to casually befriend.

Perhaps because of that, whenever it seemed as though people who feared him had become rare, another would appear.

'They said my aura was scary...'

Always expressionless, tall as a pole, and the clothes he wore were always black suits.

'Black is such an easy color to wear.'

It was a choice made out of personal taste as well as convenience.

But more than one or two people were frightened by Jio's outward appearance.

He was aware that he did not give off an easy impression.

"..."

But even Jio became troubled when he saw someone frightened to this extent.

"Are we almost there?"

"I apologize for causing you discomfort."

"There is no need to apologize."

There was no need to react with such terror to a simple question of, "How far have we come?"

The priest guiding him had never made any particular fuss, but his stiff steps and slightly trembling pitch told Jio of his fear.

Giovanni thought inwardly.

'I really do think this counts as a nuisance.'

He hated it so much.

'At least the Collector employees just openly get startled, so I can laugh it off...'

Even if it was the same fear, the texture of it was different.

The people at Collector recovered quickly, and above all, they seemed to have adapted well to the being called Jio.

It was probably because they were all people who were unusually indifferent and calm.

But the emotion the priest guiding him now felt was truly proper fear.

'I didn't think he would be this afraid.'

And yet, seeing him do his absolute best to treat him as a guest twisted Jio's mood, when Jio was only satisfied after returning any kindness he received fivefold.

"..."

"It is just ahead."

"I see."

Jio thanked the priest, who had stopped before a massive gate.

"Thank you."

"... It was an honor for me."

The priest bowed deeply.

"Please do not think ill of us for obeying Father's words."

"I have come as a priest who wishes to pray and as a visitor, so you need not worry."

"My heart, lowly priest that I am, is lightened to hear you say so."

At that, Jio asked.

"If it is all right with you, would you accept my humble gift?"

"... A gift, you say?"

"Do you enjoy sweet things, priest?"

"Sweet things... yes, I like them."

"What I am giving you is a small gift, and an expression of my gratitude."

Jio handed him dried fruit, neatly wrapped in traditional paper.

"They are fruit dried in the sunlight."

"Ah..."

"You may eat them, or you may not."

Then he added,

"Only, do not fear me."

Because he felt so sorry.

"Would you do that for me?"

"... I shall not forget the warm grace bestowed by Your Divinity."

"Please do not think of it so grandly."

Ah, please don't do that.

'Why is he doing this?'

To be honest, he felt like he might cry a little.

Every single word was truly burdensome.

If he were simply being treated as an urban legend or a monster, he could laugh and move on because it was funny, but being treated so earnestly while feared like this was far too awkward for Jio.

What exactly had he bestowed, and what grace was this?

He did not want to be treated as though he had granted overwhelming royal favor over a mere piece of dried fruit.

He hoped the priest would understand the desperation contained in his bribe.

"When I come next time, I hope your expression will be a little more at ease than it is now."

Thinking it would not be polite to cling any further, Jio stepped back there.

It was true that he looked scary, and being afraid of something scary was only natural, so it would not be polite to keep whining at someone he had just met not to be afraid of him.

"..."

Thinking this made him miss Mr. Juhyeon, who would be resting at home.

'Please hurry up and become close with me.'

My prospective pen-pal friend, who is kind and well-mannered, yet unafraid of a haunted portrait.

He had never been particularly sociable to begin with, but after he became an urban legend, more people were afraid of him, which made things somewhat difficult.

It had become too hard to make friends.

"Do I just open the door and enter?"

"If you stand before it, I will ring the bell for the gatekeeper."

"I understand."

JINGLE.

The priest rang a bell that shone white.

"..."

The door opened smoothly without a single sound.

'... The opening of a horror movie?'

A door opening soundlessly in a dark and enormous temple.

It was rather like a haunted mansion, and it felt novel.

'But if it's a horror concept, I, a haunted portrait, won't lose either.'

Jio thought that if he ever had occasion to build a temple later, he would make sure to obtain copyright permission and introduce this system.

From the looks of it, his public image seemed to be growing closer to an urban legend, and there was much to learn here.

'By the way, would it be too rude to compare an elder whose face I don't even know on the same line as a ghost?'

To Jio, the god of death also appeared to be a being on the same level as the Sun God, his teddy-bear Father.

It was because, after experiencing the Sun God once already, the idea of "god = elderly person living alone" had been planted in his brain.

He strode confidently through the door, into the darkness where not a single ray of light entered.

From the looks of it, an elder of this household was also living an extremely lonely and desolate life, and Jio was confident he could act charming for such a person.

"... Hm."

A black, transparent waterway, stained with darkness, lay shallow across the entire floor and flowed softly.

The massive door closed behind him, again without a sound, and soon a pure white lamp bloomed not too far away.

"Are you the bishop of this place?"

"Please lower your speech, nameless Divinity."

The one who spoke was a woman wearing a hanbok as full as a peony.

"Thank you for tolerating our rudeness. May I understand your coming all the way here in person as your acceptance of Father's invitation?"

"Of course."

"I am called Eunryeong, and though I am lacking, I serve as the administrator of this place. If there is anything you need, please call me at any time. I shall remain within this room."

The bishop set the lamp she was holding down on the floor, then quietly withdrew and disappeared into the darkness.

The bishop, dressed in a pitch-black hanbok with her face covered by a pitch-black veil, was quickly dyed by the darkness and vanished from sight.

Only then did Jio realize whom he was supposed to speak with.

"Ah."

He lifted his head and looked into the darkness.

"I never imagined you would already be here."

Then, from within the darkness, came a wet sound.

"I greet the Death of Earth."

"... You..."

Between the small but bright lamps, "Death" showed his face.

"You... have treated my children... well..."

It was an enormous being, as though one with the darkness.

Its face resembled an ancient tree that had maintained its sturdiness for long years, and through large and small cracks, a pure white light like lamplight leaked out.

He had countless very long and thin arms, and his lower body, visible in the lamplight, resembled a pitch-black river and stretched on at great length.

A body spread out like a spiderweb, and black silks wrapped around it.

Jio realized that this entire room had been created by Death's manifested body.

"What a splendid form."

He marveled.

"You are both a river and a tree."

"Is that... how I appear..."

"What I am stepping on is your knee, and what I see is a mountain made of arms."

"... You are... very favorable... toward me..."

"Is there a reason I should not be?"

Jio liked elders.

"I came here today to ask about evil gods."

"... Is that so..."

"Would you tell me why you called me here?"

"I..."

Death's voice was vast, like the echo of a cave.

"Saw you."

And quiet.

"You dwell within sin, yet you are no sinner."

"You are much like providence, yet you are not that either."

"Because of wickedness, you cannot be called a hero..."

With mouths suspended in the air, Death defined Arjio.

"You who gave yourself, why are you in hell?"

He said,

"Though denounced as a sinner, you are no sinner, and while you refuse to enjoy peace within providence, even as a divinity that craves blood and wealth, you were once a hero. I hold you dear. How pitiful that soul is."

"..."

"You wish to be condemned, but it will not be easy. You wish to remain in pleasure where reason is blurred, but abundance and peace shall remain by your side, and you wish to be remembered as a foolish wraith, yet you will remain a master of history."

Death asked,

"Who are you?"

It was a pure question filled with doubt.

"Have you already decided?"

"..."

And Jio...

"...?"

Was dumbfounded.

"I am human."

"I see. So that is what you have decided."

"No, I was just human from the very beginning."

"I understand..."

"Elder, please listen to me."

Jio felt a little wronged.

"I admit I am a slightly unusual case, but that does not mean I am not human."

There were people who flew around with crow wings the size of houses on their backs, people whose eyes were slit and gleamed like reptiles, and people who were immortal and so strong they could sway the world with a single snort.

They were still people.

So why not me?

"This is discrimination."

"Discrimination..."

"Human diversity can easily embrace someone as unusual as me."

"I suppose it can... It must embrace you well..."

"I am saying it is not embracing me, I was originally within it."

"I will hear it so..."

For some reason, he seemed to sigh.

Jio felt even more wronged.

Human diversity had become this vast, so why could a haunted portrait not be treated as human?

Whether he had no interest in Jio's sense of grievance, or whether he had no will to debate, the mouths in the air attached to the god of death, who seemed to have come to his own conclusion, kept murmuring.

"Pitiful."

"How lovely that devotion and affection."

"Your broad embrace is higher than a mountain and longer than a river."

"They breathe within your embrace."

"They sleep within your embrace."

"Life and death lie within it."

"Even so, you say you are human."

"You will love without end."

"You will give without end."

"Could there be an end to you?"

"There is only beginning."

"For you..."

Among those countless mist-like voices that whispered like something in a secluded mountain valley, only one continued.

"There is no death."

"..."

Jio thought.

'... Heaven and earth, gods and spirits, so this is how I walk the path of a legendary eccentric.'

To think he would suddenly receive confirmation that he was immortal.

'As expected, I am amazing.'

It was a fact he had already vaguely accepted from the moment he admitted he had become a portrait, but it seemed Jio had become a body that could no longer be called ordinary.

Today, his self-esteem rose another level.

It seemed it could probably stop rising around now, but the only human who could have pointed that out, Seo Jio's grandmother, had already passed away.

It was something that would make Yu Seongun scream and humanity lament.

"..."

Jio soon reached a conclusion.

"... I will have to make a great many friends."

Then it would be fine.

"Then I will never be bored for the rest of my life."

"... Yes..."

"May I visit you from time to time? I will set a table for you."

"A table... you say..."

"If there is no death for me, then can we not become friends without parting?"

"... Friends..."

The pitch-black room made of death rang roundly.

"That sounds good."

Jio recognized that it was laughter.

"Come often, young friend."

"Thank you."

"I will await your gift."

And so Jio gained another friend.

TA-DA.

"Oh, really?"

Yu Seongun, who had been waiting in the prayer room, asked,

"So as long as they are not afraid of you, they are all your friends?"

"If possible, I would also hope they are kind and polite."

"Right. Every kind and polite being who isn't afraid of you."

"In that case, it seems there is no reason not to make them my friend."

"Indeed..."

Yu Seongun nodded.

"Since you called him an elder in your own way, I thought surely it would not go as far as friendship."

"He did not seem as old and lonely as I had expected..."

"By that old and lonely person, are you using your father as the standard?"

"Until I went to see him, he was quite lonely."

"I don't really know how you can define a formless being like a god as being in a state of 'old' or 'lonely' in the first place."

"It's just... can't you tell at a glance? Death did not look especially lonely to me. He has a lot of family, too."

"..."

That part was a little interesting.

Yu Seongun's nasty habit quietly raised its head and showed curiosity.

He asked,

"Then what state did the god of death look like in your eyes?"

He was curious about the world Jio saw.

"You said he did not look lonely, for starters."

"Hm... If I were to compare him to a person, he was about middle-aged..."

"Middle-aged. And?"

"With a great capacity for acceptance..."

After thinking for a moment, Jio continued,

"A can't-be-bothered type?"

"..."

"Unless it was nonsense, he felt like someone who would accept it if you pushed."

"Uh..."

"Most of all, he did not seem to want to leave the room."

"... Uh, well..."

"I think we will get along well."

"... I see."

Yu Seongun nodded.

"If you say so, then it must be so."

Mm, yes.

So that was how it was.

It seemed this was still a realm too difficult for humans to understand.