The Artist Who Paints Dungeon - Chapter 118



Only Noblemtl

Episode 118

The next day, the woman’s senior in charge asked.

“Did you enjoy your time at the gallery yesterday?”

“yes…?”

“Because my name is on the list.”

“Oh, yes.”

The woman nodded.

“I think I got beat up a lot during the ceremony, but I had a good time.”

“Huh? An initiation ceremony?”

The curator in charge tilted his head.

“What, you got on the elevator at 4:44?”

“… Yes, I’m sorry. I should have studied it properly…”

“Ah, don’t worry, I’m not saying anything.”

The curator in charge who said that smiled slightly and continued speaking.

“I’m a curator on the first floor. I asked the people who were working overtime yesterday, and they said they never took it out. They also said they didn’t press the rescue request button.”

“ah….”

“I didn’t hear that he was found breathing in the elevator this morning, so someone on another floor must have taken him out. Which floor was the curator? I should be grateful.”

“Hey, you were on the 5th floor. Thanks to that, I was able to see the gallery, which is said to be the most dangerous.”

“… 5th floor?”

“…yes yes.”

“… … .”

The curator in charge had the same expression as before, a faint smile like a smiling merchant, but something about his reaction was strange.

The curator in charge said as he watched the woman waiting for an answer.

“But you know what?”

“What, what is it?”

“There were no curators working overtime on the 5th floor yesterday.”

“… … .”

I got goosebumps.

“…yes?”

“Hey, kidding kidding!”

A refreshing laugh. The curator in charge laughed with a face full of laughter.

“If you want to survive in this gallery, you have to be able to take a joke like this.”

“… No, just kidding… right?”

“No, to be honest, my name wasn’t on the attendance list?”

“Then it’s not a joke…!”

“But there’s someone in our guild who walks around without his name on the roster.”

“…ah….”

“Didn’t you hear what Mr. Yoo Seong-un said yesterday? He said he told you something.”

The woman nodded to him.

“I, I heard. It’s Sergio.”

“Yes, Sergio.”

The curator in charge smiled brightly.

“Hey, you’re lucky. I haven’t seen Sergio much lately.”

“Ah… You don’t come here often? Isn’t that person a curator?”

“You can think of me as a special force of our guild, not a curator.”

“I heard it from Mr. Yoo Seong-un too… So, you don’t have any set work to do?”

“The most important job for the guild members is collecting the guild master’s items.”

“…Why all of a sudden?”

“I meant that it is fulfilling its role as a collectible, Sergio.”

“… Is that okay? Shouldn’t we eat it raw…?”

“That’s true.”

The curator whispered, his voice deliberately lowered.

“There’s a story that that person is a hidden S-class hunter.”

“… S, S-class? There aren’t many of them in the country…?”

“He’s lying and saying he’s an A-class because he hates being noisy.”

“Isn’t that illegal??”

“Hey, why are you worrying about that? This is a collection store.”

“Uh… uh, no… that…”

“Our guild leader can do this much for the guild members. Doesn’t that make you feel proud?”

The curator shrugged. She pointed to the stuffed rabbit she was in charge of.

“Come on, pat our caregiver’s head. He’s so fluffy and cute.”

“…Is it okay to stroke it like this?”

“Yes, very well done. This will give you a piece with a very low probability.”

“You said that it was like a gift that the works gave you?”

“It can be a curse sometimes… but the caregiver is a gentle piece of work, so that’s not the case, and yes, it’s a gift.”

“What gift does this doll give?”

“Oh my, a doll for a caregiver. Please be careful what you say.”

“Oh, yes. What kind of gifts does the caregiver give?”

“Give me some nice-smelling flowers, or a sewing kit that can fix any piece of clothing.”

“oh….”

“Isn’t it cute?”

“It’s cute.”

After a brief briefing, the curator returned to the previous topic.

“I see, Sergio opened the door for our junior. That’s amazing.”

“But still, they’re the same employees, so is there anything to be surprised about…?”

“Employees are like employees. Sergio doesn’t like crowds, so he usually wanders around in the early morning when there are no people around.”

“You’re really kind for something like that.”

“… … .”

The curator asked back.

“Was it kind?”

“Huh? Oh, yes, yes. You were very kind.”

“Um… Mr. Geo, aren’t you such a handsome man?”

“ah….”

The woman nodded.

“Now that I think about it, that’s true. He was quite a handsome man.”

I felt a little strange.

“I guess I was so surprised and scared at dawn that I didn’t even think he was handsome.”

“Everyone who meets Mr. Sergio says the same thing. They think he’s handsome even though it’s late.”

The curator’s eyes sparkled.

“But how handsome is he? I haven’t even seen his face, but you say he’s a statuesque handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes. He looks like he smells like sunshine.”

“You’ve never even seen the face, but you describe it in such detail… I think that’s right. You must have some Western blood, because your nose is really high. Your eyes are also big.”

“Oh… .”

The curator, who had been expressing admiration, soon muttered quietly.

“Is that how it is these days?”

“… … ?”

“Hmm, not bad.”

“… No matter how handsome you are, it’s rude to judge someone like that… .”

“Oh my, am I really that rude?”

The curator burst into laughter.

“I heard that sometimes Mr. Geo gets depressed.”

“… I can’t even imagine it?”

“Because he has such a heavy aura, many people say he’s scary.”

“Ah… definitely… .”

He was a person who fit in well with the all-white gallery, but there was something strange about him.

“… Is it because he’s so handsome? He doesn’t seem like he’s from this world. I feel distant from him.”

“Mr. Geo is very friendly, but the reactions are like this?”

“I know you treated me kindly. You even gave me chocolate so I wouldn’t have to take a different route when I was tired.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s Geo. He carries snacks in his pocket like a squirrel.”

“squirrel….”

“I guess you think it doesn’t suit you.”

The curator then asked, placing a pink bag in the hands of a fluffy stuffed animal.

“How did it feel?”

“… … .”

“I’m talking about a guy named Sergio.”

A calm voice, a little lower in tone than before. The woman thought of the man she had seen at dawn.

“… It’s strange to say, but the first thing that came to my mind was that it was perfect.”

The moment he came into view, the world felt full.

Just as it is difficult to disparage the sunshine of a spring day, or to find fault with the cool waves of summer, it would be the same feeling as when one simply listens absentmindedly to a lullaby sung by a mother of a child or to a superstition passed down from generation to generation in a village.

A being that you can find fault with if you want to, and criticize if you want to, but you don’t necessarily feel like doing so. A being that you can call complete even if you tear its skin, bleed, or have any kind of flaw. A being that makes you think you’re just observing the flow of history.

It was a presence that made me feel rich and tight just by itself.

“It would be a bit strange to think that way the moment we met, right?”

“… I think it might be possible if it was the first time you saw someone of S-class rank.”

“I’m glad I’m not weird.”

He smiled awkwardly and continued speaking.

“His speech was also a bit peculiar. Should I say it was old-fashioned? Or should I say it had a certain elegance to it? To be honest, he spoke so politely that it was a bit difficult to handle.”

There was something halting about Sergio’s speech.

“Should I say it was like someone who had a translation machine mess up? It’s not that I find it strange, but it was a little scary because I was really scared at the time.”

“Well… he could really be a Western hunter. He definitely looks like he has a lot of that blood in him. We don’t know exactly where the guild leader recruited him either.”

“Then maybe I’m just not used to Korean yet. But it’s not that it’s really strange, it’s just that it suits me well… That’s a little bit…”

I was scared.

“Is it because he’s handsome like no human being?”

I felt something was off.

“Yeah, well, that’s what happened.”

“Aren’t there any other stories?”

“Just… you’re saying that you’re being incredibly friendly?”

But even in that part, I felt distant. Something was strange.

“A favor is a favor, but rather than doing it out of personal feelings… .”

“What, what, you wanted to develop a personal relationship?”

“No, that’s not what I meant. You know that.”

“If favor is not a personal feeling, then what is it?”

“… Really?”

I realized it was strange even after I said it.

“Oh, I mean, of course I didn’t mean to imply that he was being hypocritical or that his kindness was fake. Really.”

“I didn’t understand it like that.”

“So what I was trying to say is… the kindness Sergio shows is a bit like an out-of-touch, um… not a normal give-and-take… this is…”

It sounds really weird though.

“I just felt like it was a favor I received because I was human.”

A favor given without any conditions, simply because you were born human.

So, rather, it felt like indifference… .

“… No, it’s not that I felt bad. Rather, I think it felt good. I think it was the first time in my life that I met someone who showed me kindness without any consideration, so I was a bit taken aback…”

I should say that I was embarrassed because it felt like I had received something so huge without doing anything.

“Mr. Sergio, you’re a first-class citizen, right? Oh, did I ask something so obvious?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think so.”

“Somehow, I felt a sense of dignity in his actions. It didn’t feel Korean, though….”

There was an atmosphere that naturally made me yearn for it.

“He was very easygoing, but his words and actions had a sense of weight. He was definitely sociable, even though he didn’t have a friendly vibe. He also had a mysterious vibe, like a prince from a fairy tale.”

The curator in charge smiled sinisterly at the woman’s words.

“Hey, honey. Are you going to confess to me like this?”

“…Senior, you asked for a review… .”

“Hey, I didn’t expect it to go that far.”

The curator smiled cheerfully.

“Anyway, I’m glad that my junior is doing well.”

“Can I consider this as a possibility of being converted to a full-time employee…?”

“The gallery is so short on manpower that if you don’t cause any major accidents, you’ll be considered a full-time employee.”

“That would be really great, but I’m worried because I have many shortcomings.”

“What are you worried about? You were the one who spoke well in front of Mr. Sergio.”

“Ah… Is that how the standard is measured?”

“People must be so creepy.”

The curator smiled broadly.

“Take care of yourself, and your staff too… .”

“… … .”

“And with the works.”

It was a tone that had a strange resonance.

‘…ah.’

The woman suddenly remembered that the curator of meteor showers she had seen yesterday had the same smile.

Those eyes that curve strangely, containing emotions that may or may not be goodwill or malice.

“… … .”

Then I realized that the curators here had a gallery-like atmosphere.

“…I will work hard.”

Should I say it is mysterious or bizarre?

I wasn’t sure.

* * *

“honey.”

“Cur.”

“Dad gained confidence.”

If there was a problem with the haunted portrait, it was the resolution. When the portrait went beyond the frame, there was a resolution problem, and people complained about the burden in recognizing it.

And now that I have completely become one with ‘Giovanni’, who has been solving my problems up until now, I went out to walk around wondering, ‘Will I still be able to walk around without any resolution problems?’

“I had a conversation with the staff without any friction.”

I was so touched that I even gave her the chocolate I had been saving up like pocket money.

After giving it to him, I thought, ‘Huh? If I do this, won’t they find out that Black Cloak and I are the same person?’ but I brushed it off. Geo, who grew up in the mountains of Gangwon-do, was not good at thinking deeply.

“I hope I can make new friends like this.”

“Gurr.”

“My own pen pal… .”

“… Hold.”

Honey didn’t tackle him because he seemed quite happy.