The Artist Who Paints Dungeon-Chapter 355

The merchant froze for a moment at the unexpected news during this rare communication.

"The President of the Association has started moving independently."

"At this rate, none of the Symbols of Eternity seem fully reliable."

With the face of a priest, Gio stroked his chin without expression. His reaction made it hard to read his emotions, so Yoo Seong-Woon carefully asked from beside him,

"Are you in a bad mood?"

"Not necessarily."

"You're not smiling though, are you?"

"I don't always smile. Hmm, actually... no, to be honest..."

"Honestly?"

"I think I'm displeased."

"Oof."

Gio smiled again, a priest's gentle smile, at Yoo Seong-Woon’s exaggerated reaction.

"Haha, it's nothing serious. Just personal bias, really."

"Well, if it's a problem related to the Symbols of Eternity, I wouldn't call it not serious..."

"I'm only worried."

"Still, she’s someone with enough experience to live up to her name. Don't worry too much."

"It feels slightly different this time, though."

If the communication reports were correct, then for now, Jeong Hae-Woon was either missing or had betrayed them. The guildmaster of Justitia was outside the dungeon, and Dan Haera was acting alone—so unless she reached out first, they wouldn’t know anything about her.

"Let’s see..."

As Gio spoke, he rolled his eyes and looked upward. Yoo Seong-Woon thought it looked more like pretending to calculate something than actually looking. He felt a chill, wondering what kind of prophecy might come out of that mouth.

Gio eventually spoke. His first words were a question.

"It's been quite a while since we started the raid, hasn't it?"

"Uh, well. Time's been so distorted here that it's hard to say precisely... but yeah, it's been a decent amount of time."

"And including the time we spent preparing on Earth?"

"Ah, then it’s really been a lot. Though the sense of time can vary greatly from person to person, even considering that—yeah, I’d say so."

"I think the President has likely been refraining from using 'Promises' during that time."

"...You think so?"

Yoo Seong-Woon scratched his neck.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

Thinking it over, his portrait was right.

The President had declared early on that she would participate in the raid herself. Since her ability required memory or emotion as fuel, it made sense that she would’ve saved them up for the most critical moment.

Unlike mana or stamina, those kinds of fuel weren’t easily replenished.

"But why bring that up?"

"Am I the only one who finds that dangerous?"

"I mean... I guess it could be seen that way."

"Right?"

The dungeon’s method for generating sub-dungeons still wasn’t fully understood. Some were based on subjective memories, others on objective past events.

But the larger the group, the lower the chance of being targeted by one. So far, only one sub-dungeon appeared per team.

Which meant that if you acted alone, it was almost inevitable you'd encounter a sub-dungeon based on you. And Dan Haera, rare as it was, was currently in a state full of memories and emotions.

"Gio, are you worried the President might be overwhelmed by her emotions?"

"Compared to most people, wouldn't her resistance be relatively low?"

"The President has refrained from using memories and emotions like this several times before. And nothing's ever gone wrong."

"I want to believe that and feel reassured as well. But this dungeon targets a person’s most vulnerable points. I know she’s faced evil gods who do the same, but still..."

"Yeah, those evil gods are no joke when it comes to exploiting weaknesses. But she’s handled all sorts of trials and crises up to now. Don’t you think we can worry a little less?"

"Maybe."

Gio’s portrait, pretending to deliberate a bit longer, added another point.

"But what if she’s become much more vulnerable than before?"

"...More vulnerable than before?"

"For example, if a major 'Promise' were to break."

"Oof."

"There were already signs of it happening."

"You mean the system's collapse? But not all Hunter systems have shut down, right? The Earth outside the dungeon probably still has functioning 'Promises'."

"I'm just speculating."

Truthfully, even Gio didn’t know. How could he? In a world like this, just surviving took all his attention. But he was certain that the past involving ‘Sergio’ and his four students was anything but ordinary.

'I don't know the details, but I get the feeling there was a massive screw-up somewhere along the line.'

Judging by the scale of things now, he didn’t like the feeling.

'Come to think of it, Eun-Hye was so scared back then. She was terrified she'd be punished and abandoned—even though she knew my personality. For her to be that scared... they must have really messed up.'

Gio didn’t have any memories of that time. He had no recollections, nor were there signs they would return. It didn’t matter whether he remembered or not. What mattered were his students.

'If they were still in their right minds, it must’ve been bad enough to make them shake with guilt. Eun-Hye was always a soft-hearted one, sure, but is Haera really that different?'

Probably not.

"...I’ve got a bad feeling."

"Should I treat that like a prophecy?"

"I don’t know how to prophesy, Seong-Woon. Please don’t spread unfounded rumors."

"I’ll keep it in mind anyway."

"Will you, really?"

Even as they joked, Gio shrugged at Yoo Seong-Woon’s playfulness.

"It’ll work out somehow."

"That’s ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the scariest thing you’ve said in a while, Gio."

"To be honest, I’ve kind of stopped caring how it turns out."

"Did you get tired of us?"

"What kind of accusation is that? I’m innocent."

"Good. I just got the feeling you’d let go."

"Adults should be able to take responsibility for their own lives."

"I mean, sure. But are you saying the ‘adult’ in question is the President?"

"Her, and others too, probably."

When he’d met his former student—now the President—Gio had already steeled himself. Her reaction was enough to tell him they’d done something quite serious. But that was all it meant to him.

Gio wasn’t short on imagination. He’d even thought of the worst-case scenario, and even if that were true, he didn’t think he’d be angry. In other words, he truly didn’t care anymore.

'It’s not my job to be tormented by a stupid past.'

Teacher believes in our smart Haera to figure it out herself.

***

"......"

"Haera."

"...Ah."

Had she spaced out for a moment?

"...What is this feeling?"

"Are you asking me, teacher?"

"Well... I guess I am."

"You’re afraid."

"So this is fear."

She raised a hand and lightly brushed her forehead. Through that small gesture, Dan Haera realized her fingertips were trembling. She tried to regulate her breath and movements as usual, but it wasn’t easy.

It felt like a faint dizziness was washing over her, and like a soft ringing was passing through her ears and brain. Fear—so this is fear. Dan Haera instinctively began calculating its value.

'This could be a decent cost for a Promise. It’s a feeling I haven’t experienced in a long time...' 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But even as she continued calculating naturally, her thoughts jammed. The same thought kept echoing around her head. It must be the weight of fear—what it felt like to carry it.

"...I wonder why you said that."

"What are you wondering about?"

"Why did you tell me to eat you?"

"Because you all did that."

"......"

Dan Haera let out a hollow laugh. It was a weak, unstable sound—something the ‘President’ was never supposed to show. The words left her mouth before she realized it.

"That’s more shocking than I expected."

To eat a god.

"It’s a common method. Very old-fashioned."

"I’m always here."

"Primitive, maybe, but definitely effective. In any mystical tradition, consumption carries deep meaning—and great influence."

"I’ll always be here."

"I just hope it wasn’t something as crude as tearing off your flesh. Still, I never thought of that method until now. Why is that?"

It was a fairly obvious answer. Hadn’t Jeong Hae-Woon once said that he’d absorbed ‘Mr. Sergio’ and gained an S-class ability?

'And yet I didn’t think of that old method?'

Was it an unconscious decision? To preserve whatever scraps of dignity I thought I’d thrown away? Somehow, she’d instinctively excluded that act from consideration.

"...You’re not lying to me, are you?"

"There’s no reason I would."

"True, I guess."

It could be a lie. But it could also be the truth. Thinking that, Dan Haera raised a hand and stroked the straw doll’s face. Unlike before, it trembled faintly, as if now it did feel a bit of resistance.

"What have we..."

She tried to ask something, but her mouth shut before she could finish.

"......"

"Haera."

"My mind’s a mess."

Emotions. Emotions. Emotions.

Ah, this wretched thing. Dan Haera didn’t like herself when she got swept up in emotion. It felt like a parasite had crawled into the body she kept so perfectly controlled.

Now the parasite had wriggled through her guts and was crawling into her brain. That’s why her hands were trembling. She wanted to pull it out and kill it. She wanted to erase it. But she couldn’t.

'It’s valuable fuel.'

Her precious resource. The monster’s power that could shape a better future. Some even said this power rivaled that of gods. And when she thought of that word—god—Dan Haera suddenly recalled a pale man in a black suit.

"......"

Had he once been a god of humans?

'Probably not a fun existence.'

That thought crossed her mind, and she quickly erased it.

'Why am I thinking about useless things?'

So many unpurged emotions had built up. In just a brief moment, she’d become unable to make clear judgments.

But she didn’t want to dwell on what dulled her functioning. She didn’t want to analyze it. She found herself utterly pathetic for being so easily swayed by just a few words. She wanted to delete herself completely.

"...I need to leave here quickly."

The system would be a great teaching tool for humans. Dan Haera would secure it—for her own ambitions, and for her duty as President. She had to preserve it. So she mustn’t learn anything more about the past.

Even so, she hadn’t expected to be this defenseless.

"This wasn’t the time to be enjoying myself."

"Are you leaving?"

"I think I must, teacher."

To a Symbol of Eternity, a “teacher” was an unnecessary figure.

So if she simply ignored it and left like this, then...

***

"Would’ve been nice if Seo Seo-Hee had come in too."

Jeong Hae-Woon muttered as he looked around at the sprawled clowns. Piled like lifeless dolls, they didn’t stir. It’d be a lie to say he felt no guilt—but he turned his gaze away anyway.

Right now, morals or conscience didn’t matter to Jeong Hae-Woon.

"...Guys like us were never meant to lead anyone."

He said the words deliberately, but it wasn’t clear who they were meant for. Maybe his deranged friends. Maybe the foolish people who still believed in them. Maybe himself.

"We never should have."

He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the water.

"......"

Somewhere between his twenties and thirties. The face that had stopped aging, the very image of his prime. Jeong Hae-Woon thought of a time a little younger than that. He couldn’t remember it clearly, but pieces floated back.

He recalled what he looked like as a student, and leaned on his hand.

'...There’s no way to go back, is there.'

Truthfully, even Jeong Hae-Woon didn’t know what exactly he was doing all this for. Maybe he just couldn’t bear being praised as a Symbol of Eternity anymore. So he was doing this instead.

Maybe he shared Zeorge’s motive. To live like trash as honestly as possible, and die here as a betrayer of humanity. As the first and most corrupted gardener, it wasn’t such a bad end.

"Yeah. Sure, let’s say that’s it..."

Staring quietly at his reflection, Jeong Hae-Woon soon walked over and stood before one of the clowns.

"Let’s see here."

"......"

"Right. Beautiful. Suits you perfectly."

"......"

"I guess I really am no longer human."

He gave a crooked smile.

"We’ve met before, haven’t we, Hunter Cha?"

She already had somewhere she needed to go.