Chapter 78

There was a reason Yu Seongun was always stuck to Jio's side.

'Whenever I come to my senses, he's saying and doing ridiculous things.'

It would have been better if he were an anthropomorphic monster that was bad at pretending to be human.

No matter how it acted, you could tell it was a monster.

But the Portrait of Jio was strangely good at pretending to be human.

'That's why he confuses people even more.'

Your head was certain he was not human, and yet your heart was convinced he was human, so the dissonance made you feel a chill.

It was a different kind of fear from what you felt from monsters or a child of the Root.

'You could really call it a ghost story.'

And Yu Seongun's role was to make sure that Jio could blend in well among humans.

"Whoops."

SPLASH.

Yu Seongun stepped onto the floor, which was made of something soft and yielding.

"This feels kind of like jelly."

"It certainly does."

Kang Seo-dam, who entered the dungeon after him, nodded as well.

"It almost looks like a slime with low viscosity, but for something like that, it supports weight quite well."

"And when you scoop it up in your hand, it's just seawater."

Yu Seongun shook off the water he had held in his hand and looked at Jio and Cha A-ra, who had entered with him.

"Oh, you're in?"

"Yes, y-yes... yes."

"Don't be so nervous. There are three A-class Hunters here. Surely we can protect one Hunter Cha A-ra, can't we?"

"Three..."

"That's right, three."

"Ah... r-right."

Perhaps because she had learned to read the room, Cha A-ra quickly followed Yu Seongun's lead. At the same time, the way she kept glancing at Jio as he looked around the dungeon made it seem like she had probably remembered even the rule that said, "You must not point out in front of Jio that he is not human."

'Well, Hunter Cha A-ra received the official notice too.'

The official notice had repeatedly included recommendations along the lines of "Do not question Jio's identity."

Cha A-ra also seemed to have judged that there was no need to get on Jio's nerves.

'Anyway...'

If his guess was right, this dungeon would be no different from a hometown to "Giovanni."

"... Jio, are you okay?"

"I am fine."

"I'm worried since this is your first time officially entering a dungeon."

"I am a little nervous, but I am not as shaken as I thought I would be."

Platinum-haired Jio, who had pushed his black hood back, formed that uniquely kind smile of his.

"The scent of the sea is quite pleasant."

"Come to think of it, you did like the sea."

Saying that, Yu Seongun looked down.

"..."

He saw a single country submerged deep beneath the sea.

"... Even getting down there is going to be a job. Jio, can you swim?"

"To be honest, I cannot!"

"Why are you so proud of that?"

Since this place was called the "country of the deep sea" right from the name, the Hunters who visited here were generally the ones who could swim.

To begin with, it was rare to find a Hunter who could not swim.

"I didn't think of this..."

With a troubled expression, Yu Seongun looked back at the other two.

"Hunter Cha A-ra, Priest Kang Seo-dam, what about you?"

"Me? Ah, I can, technically... but I'm F-class..."

"I can do so without any difficulty."

"Oh boy."

Yu Seongun looked at Jio again.

"Then I or Priest Kang Seo-dam will probably have to help you, Jio. Is that okay?"

"No?"

"Oh...?"

"There are any number of ways to go without swimming."

"Why are there any number of ways??"

"I learned a good technique from the elder at our house."

"..."

No, wait.

"... The elder at your house?"

"Yes."

"T-that elder is, you know. That..."

"I will make this comfortable for you."

"Make what comfortable??"

Without answering Yu Seongun's question, Jio placed his hand on the floor.

At that moment.

"..."

RUMBLE!

"..."

"It is done."

With a powerful noise, a path formed into the sea.

"Now we can walk."

"..."

"Let us walk."

The Hunters, including Yu Seongun, stared blankly at the tunnel that had formed in the sea.

"Uh..."

In the space opened up like a long straw, stairs had even been kindly created.

The path continued to quite a deep place, and with a Hunter's excellent eyesight, they could confirm that it reached all the way to the Temple of the Deep Sea.

Yu Seongun, who prided himself on being the human who received the greatest affection from Jio, asked.

"What did you do to make this happen?"

"Seawater is water too, so if it is heated until hot enough, would it not evaporate?"

"So you evaporated it?"

"Yes, convenient, is it not?"

"Because you didn't want to swim?"

"It is not that I do not want to. It is that I cannot. It is not a matter of my preferences."

"So you changed the dungeon..."

Because he could not swim, he had changed the shape of the sea.

Yu Seongun looked back at Kang Seo-dam, a child of the sun.

"..."

"I cannot do that."

"Of course not."

Please, Jio.

'What Hunter in the world remodels a dungeon because he doesn't want to swim?'

To begin with, the fact that he could remodel a dungeon had already left the realm of Hunters.

That Hunter had no reason to come to a dungeon.

The existence of dungeons and the meaning of Hunters visiting them disappeared altogether.

'This is like Guild Master Bi Sabeol, one of Korea's richest men, making part-timers collect scrap paper so he can earn five thousand won in pocket money.'

If this was how things were going to be, why did the identity of "Seo Jio" even exist?

Did he truly have no intention of pretending to be human?

Was this a warning not to pull any pathetic tricks?

Yu Seongun sank into a deep mire.

'The good thing is that Priest Kang Seo-dam and Hunter Cha A-ra are both trying their absolute best to pretend not to know and avoid looking...'

After confirming the two of them were cooperating as if to say they would keep their mouths shut about everything that happened today, he looked at Jio again.

"Jio, everyone here is trustworthy, so I'll be open with you."

"Please speak freely."

"This sort of thing is a little hard to call within the realm of humans."

"But I am an ordinary human..."

"Ah, I know, I know. Everyone knows that very well, so you don't have to worry about that. It's just..."

Yu Seongun took a deep breath.

"Other people might be afraid of you or misunderstand you, so I don't want you to show your abilities too much in front of anyone besides us. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I understand. Thank you for your consideration."

"Right..."

Cha A-ra looked at Yu Seongun with pity as he desperately tried to persuade him calmly.

And even Yu Seongun thought his own situation was a little miserable.

'To think I'm giving social skills lessons to a Root entity whose identity I don't even know, in the body of a mere human.'

Outside Collector, "Seo Jio" at least had his level lowered to that of a human, so this was manageable.

No, in truth, even now he was so overwhelming that Yu Seongun felt like his whole body might burst.

'It's a good thing Jio thinks of himself as human...'

In a way, you could say the plan to separate "Seo Jio" and "Black Cloak" had succeeded.

It was not a bad situation.

'The pressure is definitely weaker than when he's inside the company building, so yes, this much is...'

If necessary, he could compare him to S-class Hunters.

At that point, they were close to human disasters.

The problem was that Jio was not even human, and Yu Seongun had to work on that part.

"Ordinary Hunters can't just change other people's dungeons like this."

"I see. That must be inconvenient."

"... It is..."

"You all have me, so you need not worry."

And Jio had no thoughts whatsoever.

It was not as if he had done anything unethical just because he had changed the dungeon a little.

No one had died, no one had been hurt, and no one had been wounded.

Jio's ultimate positive mindset did not yield in the face of mere human limitations.

Limitations existed to be surpassed.

Giovanni had overcome his limitation of being unable to swim with the power of the sun.

He prided himself on his remarkable growth.

"Let us go now."

If this made his concept even more solid, that was something to welcome.

'Ta-da.'

In any case, all was well that ended well.

* * *

Giovanni died.

"..."

If asked whether he had been in his right mind after that, the answer was no.

The farewell Iser had been preparing for was a little warmer.

Wrinkles would form on the hands and around the eyes of an aged Jio, the waist that had once been straight like a divine statue would bend, and his firm body would grow endlessly thin.

Jio would die while watching countless people give thanks for his life.

His breathing would slowly grow faint, his eyelids that had always been gently curved would close, and his heart, which still beat however slowly, would sink into silence...

"... Where was Teacher's corpse?"

"In your stomach, I suppose."

"..."

"And in the sea."

None of it had come true.

"... How old was Teacher?"

"He lived a little over thirty years after he was born."

"How long is that?"

"If humans are raised in a good environment and looked after well, they can live past one hundred."

"And if they are not looked after in an ordinary environment?"

"If they have not suffered constant abuse, then ordinarily around eighty, perhaps."

"Teacher did not even enjoy half my lifespan."

He had been too young.

"It was only thirty years."

"Yes, only thirty years."

"I thought it was longer than that."

He felt empty.

"One hundred years, or two hundred years. To say all of that happened in just thirty years at most is too chaotic... There was too much..."

Giovanni saved people his entire life.

"Why did no one defend Teacher? He truly saved so many lives. He kept dying breaths alive and saved cursed lives. The people Teacher saved... did they not surely say thank you then? Some even wept with joy at his touch."

His sister affirmed it.

"That's right, Jio was a very kind person. He saved many humans and mermaids."

"But when he died, no one remained by his side."

He was not someone who should have died like that.

"Teacher should have closed his eyes in a slightly older body, lying in a warm bed, beside many, many people. Shouldn't he have? He was someone who had lived so devotedly for others. A human like that should have been warmer, in the sunlight..."

"It seems the death you imagined only existed in fairy tales."

"... It did not have to be in a fairy tale... What I described was a situation that could have been realized at any time, even if it was not in a fairy tale. It was only... only that much. I did not hope for a miracle. I did not wish for humans to live as long as mermaids, nor did I try to revive the dead."

What was so great about that?

"Humans die anyway. No matter how good an environment they grow up in, no matter how well they are cared for, their lifespans are so short that they die quickly. If he lived such a short life without even resting, shedding blood and sweat, shouldn't he at least have been allowed that much benefit?"

"So did you receive that benefit?"

"..."

No.

"... No..."

He had respected Teacher, the man named Giovanni.

Jio was a priest and a doctor.

Iser learned from him what sort of character a priest should have, and Aria learned from him the abilities of a doctor.

Because they had learned it from Jio, both of them had treated humans excellently as well.

"It was not so. In the end, it was just..."

But not a single human knew how to be grateful.

"... In the end, they are a race that could even cast aside the kindness of Jio, one of their own kind, in an instant."

"Humans are very fickle. They are different from mermaids in many ways."

Mermaids live for over a thousand years.

Perhaps because they are born to live so long from the moment of their birth, mermaids are dull to incoming stimuli, not sensitive to emotion, and do not change easily.

And precisely because of that, when a mermaid gains one stimulus, one emotion, one change, they keep it within themselves for a very long time.

"... Ah..."

Iser already knew that "it" would be Giovanni.

"Please, why... why, if it is like this... it should not be like this..."

"..."

"It should not be like this, Aria..."

That was why he had hoped Giovanni would meet a very sweet and gentle death.

"Why in the world must I carry this memory for my entire life...?"

He knew that the person who resembled sunlight, every moment of that short life of the person as soft as a warm blanket, would ultimately be something he had to carry.

That was why he had felt relieved.

At least, if it was someone as wonderful and excellent as Giovanni, he had thought he was a human a mermaid could rightfully carry.

"Aria, I ate that man."

A mermaid ate a human.

"Why, you ask? Because I was hungry. Those vulgar humans locked me and him in a narrow tank...! Jio could not die! Giovanni was rotting in pain and cold, and I was hungry! I ate him!!"

The children of the sun laughed as they watched.

"In the end, even if a mermaid imitates a human, a mermaid is still a mermaid, a monster that eats people...!!"

"..."

"... Are we monsters?"

His only sister answered.

"Everyone is a monster."

"..."

"Only, except for Teacher... everyone was a monster."

"... I see."

Jio was human.

That was certain.

"... I miss Teacher..."

"So do I."

For a very long time, Iser could not open his mouth.

If he opened this mouth, it felt as if the Giovanni he had swallowed would spill out.

It felt as if the organs he had chewed and swallowed would flee, his eyes would shed tears, and his mouth would scream or pour resentment toward the mermaid.

And in the end, after turning round and round, what Iser held when he opened his mouth now was Giovanni.

"Sister."

"... To be honest, I think I hate you."

"I think this is the first time I have seen you hate someone, Sister."

"I don't even know if this emotion is certain."

"I will accept it gladly. Even that is a change Teacher created."

"I will cover the sun with the sea."

Her words were arrogant, but Iser knew that it would soon be realized.

"If the whole world is covered by the sea, Jio can stay in the sea forever too."

"..."

"And mermaids, too... are ultimately a part of the sea. Like the paintings of mermaids he was always drawing..."

"..."

"... You know."

Aria was wearing a pure white coat.

"... I don't know what I want either, Iser..."

It had belonged to Giovanni.

"..."

"..."

A long time passed after that.

A very, very long time...

* * *

"Did you have another nightmare?"

"..."

Round black eyes.

"... Priest Cha Yi-sol."

"I'm not a priest yet."

"I am not human."

"Why not?"

"... I wonder..."

Why had he not been?

"What would it have been like if I were human?"

We had a future.

"... I sometimes have such delusions."

"You're human now too."

"I am a mermaid, as I told you when I brought you here."

"But you're human?"

"..."

"What's different between humans and mermaids? I don't really know."

"That is..."

There were countless differences, but perhaps because it was the day he would meet Teacher, his mouth especially would not open.

"... Indeed."

What difference had there been, exactly?

How great a difference could it have been?