NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Episode 42
After finishing a hearty meal, Geo threw sausages to the water birds and returned to the cabin to rest. Perhaps because he had eaten a big meal, he wasn’t hungry even when dinner came.
“Nurungji… .”
“Gulp?”
“It’s a bit weird to eat it now, but let’s make some nurungji rice and eat it tomorrow. That’ll be delicious.”
“Kururururuk.”
“… … .”
Sergio, lying on the bed, poked Honey, who was lying next to him.
“Kung.”
“… … .”
“Kung kung kung.”
“It’s fluffy.”
“Kung!!!”
Honey rebelled fiercely, but that made her even cuter.
“This harmless guy.”
I thought that if it got a little bigger, I could use it as a pillow.
‘Couldn’t it be possible to create a material with a similar feel?’
Because I feel a little bad about sleeping on a live bird, I make a soft pillow that is not alive.
Geo blinked his eyes, daydreaming about this and that.
“… … .”
I couldn’t sleep at all.
“Phew… .”
There were times like this sometimes.
“Is this the artist’s fate?”
“…Kung?”
Honey’s reaction was something like, ‘Why don’t you stop talking nonsense and just go to sleep?’, but it wasn’t easy.
Geo rubbed his face a few times against the soft blanket that felt like it was full of feathers, then quickly got up from his bed.
“Honey, Daddy is going.”
“Crunch.”
“What a spicy guy.”
Leaving the tired Honey behind, he headed to a workshop filled with all kinds of materials.
“… … .”
As such, his severe insomnia was due to his sudden interest in something.
“…I became curious about the scenery outside the company.”
By pinpointing the exact location and imagining it, Geo was able to visualize the scenery there.
At first, I thought it was just my imagination. No matter how much I imagined what the third floor of the ‘Collector’ company would look like, it was no different from what it actually looked like.
But as he continued to imagine and gradually completed the picture, at some point Geo was able to realize something.
‘The scenery of the location I imagine is relatively similar to reality.’
I thought maybe it was one of the benefits of becoming a portrait artist.
“Outside is probably….”
Geo muttered.
“It looks like it’s going to be a dark dawn.”
It wasn’t a place he had never seen before, and it wasn’t difficult to draw a place he had already seen once. Geo stood on the wall of an alley and stroked his brush, recalling the sight he had seen.
Soon, a picture frame appeared in an alley in Seoul.
* * *
“Haaah….”
On a street at dawn, a woman tore through my hair.
“Where else should I cling to?”
The woman with short black hair, Cha Ara, couldn’t hold back her sigh.
‘As expected, there is no place that accepts F-class.’
Even if they are Awakened, F-class people are not treated better than porters.
Chaara’s rank was F. Her main skill was ‘Body Strengthening’. She had no other skills to learn, and of course, she had no job. She had the typical porter’s status.
“… … .”
She was sitting on the bench today, helpless after being released from her original team.
“… Well, where would you use a porter with a broken leg?”
It was because I injured my leg in the dungeon I visited in the afternoon.
There were plenty of F-class people who wanted to be used as porters, so there was no reason to hire someone who limped.
‘It was nice that only pretty normal people gathered together.’
It was a team made up of people who were not very interested in each other, even if they could not be called friendly. Although they ignored Cha Ara, who was just a porter in the F-class, as if she did not exist, the team itself had a tendency to be like that to each other.
Such indifference was one of the virtues of modern people that is hard to find.
“It was cut that easily though.”
Chaara, who was considered useless, was kicked out, saying she could no longer be hired.
It was fortunate that I received all the money I was owed and was kicked out. I looked at the balance in my account on my phone for a long time.
All together, about 500 thousand won.
“… … .”
This is not enough to pay the rent and buy the youngest son’s priest’s robe.
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“The rent went up this time….”
Yeah.
Cha Ara groaned.
“… What do I do now?”
Chaara clicked her tongue as she looked at the sky where snow was starting to fall quietly.
“Like a dog.”
It’s already freezing, so why is it snowing?
‘… The terminal has probably been disconnected for a long time. Since my brother is still at home, the youngest will be okay. As long as he doesn’t share his stuff like a fool somewhere else, that’s fine.’
Cha Ara got up from the bench, sniffling inwardly at the loneliness that was building inside her.
“We need to find a place where our eyes don’t meet.”
The youngest, Cha Ara, tied the scarf she had made herself tighter and moved her feet.
I had originally planned to just take a nap on the bench, but if it snowed, I might not be able to open my eyes the next morning.
‘It would be nice to be able to sleep near the history or the building.’
Public facilities with lots of people passing by or areas around companies that make money were covered in a warming spell.
If you could sleep nearby, you wouldn’t have to worry about sleeping on the streets like this, but if you got caught doing something wrong, you could end up being demoted to a 4th class citizen at worst.
‘I got a few days’ city residency ban with my Hunter’s ID, but that doesn’t mean I can sleep anywhere. It’ll be a headache if I get caught by the security guards…’
At times like this, I felt envious of my older brother, Cha Eun-hyuk.
“That guy can sleep even on a fish-shaped bread cart.”
Her brother, who sells bungeoppang, always moved his cart from the countryside to the city to make a living, because if he left it in the city, someone would steal it or tear it down.
“Ahh… .”
So, even Cha Ara herself couldn’t expect to fall asleep in his cart.
After walking aimlessly for a while, Cha Ara’s footsteps reached a dark alley.
“… … .”
…what is that?
‘…portrait?’
It was a portrait of a man hanging on one wall of an alley.
“… What is this, it’s creepy…”
The man in the portrait was handsome, like a statue or a doll, but more than his handsome appearance, the stillness of his eyes quietly closed struck me first.
Chaara hesitated and left the place, feeling the gloomy atmosphere as if someone’s corpse had been drawn there.
‘Some crazy guy hung a picture here.’
It was probably the work of some crazy guy with a peculiar taste or a hunter with strange skills, so Chaara decided not to pay much attention to it. She had no intention of falling asleep in this place where the snow was falling right away anyway.
Cha Ara, who had been walking a little further, soon discovered a woman.
“… … .”
I had been hit by the cold snow for so long that a soft white snow had already piled up on top of it.
Judging from the woman’s behavior, curled up like a ball, she was clearly a fourth-class citizen living illegally in the city.
“… … .”
“… … .”
The slender body that seemed to be breathing was shaking, but it was not dead yet.
‘It’s pretty far out there.’
Usually the poor live in deeper alleys.
Cha Ara, who was trying to ignore the poor man and pass by, stood in front of him again with a very uncomfortable expression on her face after walking a few steps.
“… … .”
Poor Min was either asleep or passed out from the cold, but he was still breathing, unable to come to his senses. He didn’t even notice that Chaara was right in front of him.
“… AC.”
Cha Ara took off her scarf, put it lightly around Binmin’s neck, and quickly left the place. She could faintly hear Binmin moving, so her pace became even faster.
‘fu*k, this is so annoying. fu*k, fu*k… .’
My neck was so cold that I felt a bit resentful.
“Why are you sleeping so pitifully and making a fuss…!”
I felt sad for no reason.
The poor man looked to be about my age or younger. So at best he couldn’t have been more than 20 years old.
I couldn’t just pass by a friend who was sleeping like he was about to die.
“Miss, it was the youngest one who knitted it… Youngest one…”
It was a scarf that was knitted with difficulty using fur from livestock and monsters caught in the village. The youngest’s skills were not bad, so it was a pretty good scarf. I had been using it well all winter, but I stupidly lost it like this.
‘fu*k… I shouldn’t have said anything to oppa or Chaisol… .’
As Cha Ara was walking along the road, something strange caught her eye.
“… … .”
Portrait of a man.
“…uh.”
I saw it earlier.
‘… What, what is it? I didn’t see it here. Did I see it wrong? Or were there multiple frames?’
The frame was half-shadowed and the face was not clearly visible, but I could tell immediately that it was the same portrait I had just seen.
For some reason, it gave me goosebumps because it was so eerie, like watching a horror movie.
“Uh, uh uh… .”
Even if it’s an F-class, an awakened person is an awakened person. They can instinctively feel danger.
“Am I okay?”
In those vulgar words.
The portrait buried in the shadows opened its eyes.
“… … .”
“… … .”
The mouth of the portrait, not obscured by darkness, opened softly.
“Excuse me.”
Aristocratic tone.
Cha Ara blinked her eyes in a state of extreme discomfort.
“… … .”
The picture frame was nowhere to be seen.
“… … .”
What, woah, what.
‘What is it?’
Cha Ara realized too late that she had collapsed.
“… Shit, shit… .”
Save people.
Her hands trembled as they touched the snow-covered ground. Cha Ara knew, and the world knew, that it wasn’t simply because of the cold.
It was nonsense, but I felt like I wouldn’t be able to come to my senses if I didn’t say something like this.
“crazy….”
Cha Ara realized this without even realizing it.
‘I almost lost.’
In fact, it wasn’t that dangerous of a situation, but Cha Ara knew that the strange portrait she had just seen was a very dangerous being.
Who knows, if that being had been just a little less polite, not feeling the need to apologize by saying, “Excuse me,” Cha Ara might have turned into a corpse.
“… What, what is it? Seriously, what did I see?”
As Cha Ara struggled to get out of this place, something cold and hard caught her hand.
Chaara, who felt goosebumps all the way to the top of her head from the small, hard sensation, couldn’t even scream and just opened her mouth.
“… … .”
As she groped again, shivering, a cold grain soon entered her hand.
Let’s take a look with a very nervous mind… .
“… See, a jewel?”
It was a black and transparent colored jewel.
“… What is it… .”
This is also something I felt instinctively.
Chaara realized that this was a gift from the portrait she had just seen.
“… … .”
Before her parents died, they always told her that if she did good deeds, good things would come.
This whole situation seemed like a creepy fairy tale.
* * *
And here’s another one that got creepy.
“Stalking is bad.”
Geo couldn’t come to his senses at his own rudeness.
It was fine to draw the alley at dawn. However, after drawing the picture, I saw a woman moving inside the frame, and I was worried for a moment whether it was dangerous at this late hour.
As a result, Geo’s gaze continued to follow him without him even realizing it… .
“In the end, it’s stalking.”
I ended up observing the other person without their consent.
“You must have been surprised.”
Normally, he would just quietly look at the building inside the collection, or move around through the frame, so he didn’t know. However, through this opportunity, Geo has definitely come to know.
‘When I fix my gaze on something that moves, the frame of reality moves with it.’
That was the story of the living, moving portrait incident that followed Cha Ara.
“I hope the meaning of the apology was conveyed well….”
Because he was only blankly staring at the short-haired woman, he could see her handing over her scarf to the poor and her frightened expression upon seeing the picture frame. Only when the woman turned pale and collapsed did Geo come to his senses.
I felt admiration for the woman who looked like she was still a high school student, worried about whether she was okay alone at this late hour, and sorry for startling her with my rudeness.
“… … .”
This deep feeling was recognized as an item of trade, and Geo gave Cha Ara a jewel as a gift.
“… … ?”
No, wait a minute.
“Are you rather scared?”
I was so shocked by my own rudeness that I couldn’t think.
But if you were to give a gift to a high school student who was already terrified of a living, breathing portrait, who would pick it up and say, “Wow, it’s a gem?”
“ah….”
I should have just given him something like a cookie.
‘I happened to not have any baked cookies right now, so I ended up drawing a jewel without realizing it.’
If he had given her some worthless snacks, it might have been less frightening. Geo vaguely saw the back of the short-haired student running away in panic through the picture frame.
“sorry….”
At that point, Geo realized something.
“… … .”
Do I sometimes change my personality?
It was finally the moment when I became aware of myself as the ‘Black Cloak’.