Jio smiled.

“Have you come to see me?”

“Yes!”

Cha Yisol smiled too.

“But where is this? It isn’t the beach?”

“It is one of the rooms in the Temple of the Deep Sea.”

“What were you doing, hyung?”

“As you can see...”

CLANK.

Jio waved his hand.

“I was tied up.”

“Oh.”

“I suppose this must be your first time seeing someone tied up. Are you all right mentally?”

“Why, why are you tied up? And it’s not my first time. I saw it on the news...”

“I expect those people were a little different from me.”

Jio had not exactly committed a crime and been arrested and sent to prosecution.

“Strictly speaking, my very existence is illegal.”

“What does that mean?”

“I know. What does it mean?”

People these days seemed to live such complicated lives.

“Back in my day, even if an alien showed up, people would just shrug it off.”

“Wow, really?”

“Of course.”

Or they would dismiss it as nonsense and move on.

But perhaps because, in this world, it would not be strange at all if a real alien appeared, portraits like Jio had found it very hard to live.

“How did the conversation get all the way here again?”

“Why are you tied up?”

“Oh, right. That’s it. Some wicked mermaids kidnapped me.”

“Eunha?”

“That’s right. Student Eunha did it.”

“Uh...”

Cha Yi-sol was flustered.

“Why would Eunha do that?”

“She says she wants to live with me and die with me.”

“Why would she say that? That’s way too much pressure.”

“Isn’t it?”

Jio asked with a smile.

“By the way, will you be all right being here?”

The place where he was currently imprisoned had once been one of the pope’s residences, a place the pope mainly used when staying at the temple.

Jio thought it resembled the main hall or council hall of Joseon.

But of course, it was not a safe space like the old temple had been.

“It may not look like it, but this is a dungeon.”

“No matter how I look at it, it seems like a dungeon.”

“Hmm, I see.”

The atmosphere had grown rather ominous.

The temple was lavishly adorned with gold, silver, jewels, and marble, but for some reason it was full of a chilly air, and with rusted, broken places everywhere, it was no different from a haunted house.

The gloomy air unique to the deep sea was vivid here.

A crushing pressure one would only feel before a gigantic deep-sea creature.

Skeletons scattered here and there among greedy riches.

A temple within a temple, where glittering yet cold scales of water shimmered...

Jio was bound to the pope’s throne placed in the very center of it.

“I expect Iser and Aria have also sensed that Student Cha Yisol has come.”

“But I came through that portrait.”

“Yes, it happened right in front of my eyes, so I am perfectly aware of that.”

“And the mermaids still know?”

“This is the mermaids’ home, after all.”

It was the mermaids’ sea, one that had become part of them.

“Even if you came through a portrait, those children would not fail to recognize my presence.”

Cha Yisol had painted “Jio’s Portrait,” and “Jio’s Portrait” had accepted Cha Yisol in turn.

Because it was an ownerless portrait, there had been a slight issue, but it had been possible with help from the teddy-bear father at home.

And, surprisingly, Cha Yisol had expressed his desire to meet Jio.

Jio was in no state to move, so he did not know exactly how events had led to this, but in any case, Cha Yisol could return.

If he did it now.

“This is a dangerous place, so you should return to the safe Temple of the Sun.”

“But I want to help with something too.”

“My goodness, how admirable. But no.”

“Aww.”

“Children are not supposed to help with things like this.”

“You’re saying the exact same thing as Iru-da...”

“Iru-da truly is a very clever friend.”

Arjio believed children had no place on a battlefield like this.

“Children have the right to be protected, but they also have duties. The time that only young children like Student Cha Yisol can enjoy is extremely limited. I believe they should enjoy pure happiness during that time, at least.”

But Cha Yisol’s stubbornness, which had brought him crawling all the way into a portrait, was tremendous.

“Then it’s fine as long as I don’t get hurt and don’t get sick, right?”

“Wouldn’t seeing me in this state already count as mental suffering?”

“I think I’m getting used to it the more I look.”

“That is exactly the kind of thing you must not get used to. Student Cha Yisol’s purity is being worn away.”

“I don’t think it’ll be dangerous if I’m with you, hyung. Do I really have to leave? I’ll stay quiet.”

“I would rather you not get involved in something like this in the first place.”

“I’ll sit here and chat with you, hyung. I was going to treat people injured on the coast, but I couldn’t even do that...”

“Can you not hear me?”

“I came all this way, so I don’t want to do nothing. You’ll be bored alone, so I’ll do at least this for you.”

“You are so admirable and so frustrating it is driving me mad.”

Jio smiled brightly.

“Go back.”

“No.”

“Now, now. Go back.”

Because he just had to be bound by the mermaids, he could not send Cha Yisol back home.

Ordinarily, he would have turned the restraints into paint, but perhaps the mermaids had been doing research in the meantime, because no matter what he did, they would not come undone.

Realizing that Jio could not force him to go back, Cha Yisol simply crouched at Jio’s feet.

Cha Yisol asked with an innocent face.

“You can’t send me back, can you?”

“What a child you are, understanding ten things without even being told one.”

“But how did you call me?”

“Please be precise, Student Cha Yisol. You crossed over on your own.”

“The portrait just opened, though?”

“Because it was an ownerless portrait, my father accepted you.”

“Ah, so that’s why the teddy-bear grandpa...”

“More importantly, Student Cha Yisol, you opened the frame itself and entered it yourself.”

“Huh.”

Cha Yisol blinked.

“You didn’t open it for me?”

“My own will was not reflected in it, and strictly speaking, I only gave Student Cha Yisol the key so that you could express your intent to visit. A house key.”

“A house key...? Ah.”

He rubbed his own forehead.

“This?”

“Yes, that.”

He meant the “fragment” Giovanni had given Cha Yisol as the Sun God.

“It also has the function of sharing a portion of the power I can use, but I am a portrait, you see. As this characteristic of mine was shared along with it, Student Cha Yisol also gained the ability to create portraits.”

“The grandpa helped me go in, though.”

“That is because Student Cha Yisol is still inexperienced. You are not a perfect portrait like me, either, so it seems you can only create the frame and have difficulty entering it. That is why my father must have helped you.”

“Wooow...”

“I had intended to share other abilities with you little by little, but if I had known Student Cha Yisol was this brave, I would have thought a little more carefully about the fragment I gave you then. You are more decisive than I imagined.”

Cha Yisol tilted his head.

“You didn’t know I would do this?”

“It is true that I am smarter than average, but that does not mean I know everything in the world.”

“No way. It seems like you’d know everything. You’re a god, hyung.”

“I am not even a proper god, and if I did, what joy would I have left in life?”

Jio did not wish to master all knowledge and wisdom.

“I truly did not know Student Cha Yisol would come all the way here to find me.”

Nor had he known that his father, ignorant of human frailty, would send this palm-sized child right before his nose.

Did he even know how harsh a place this was, sending a child here like that?

“My father guided you to the Breathing Sea, yes?”

“That frame’s name was the Breathing Sea?”

“If you mean the painting of the sea, then yes.”

“Then I think that’s right.”

“Dear me. I should have hidden it away more securely.”

The Breathing Sea and the country of the deep sea were connected spaces.

Jio had often wandered around this temple through it before, so he roughly knew that much.

“It seems my father took Student Cha Yisol’s words about wanting to see me at face value and placed the Breathing Sea in this room. And Student Cha Yisol happily came to me through that frame.”

Fortunately, the frame of the Breathing Sea itself was still there.

The view from this side was a peaceful cabin scene, but in any case, a path for Cha Yisol to escape through had been opened, if only temporarily.

“If things go wrong, run that way.”

“Yes!”

“I am still quite uneasy about this, so it would be even better if you went now.”

“No!”

“Who did you take after to be so unyielding?”

That resolve and steadfastness surpassed even bamboo in winter.

“Fortunately, it did not seem that Iser and Aria entirely disliked Student Cha Yisol, and they are people I can communicate with to some extent, so there should not be any major problem.”

“Then can I stay here?”

“You are already here, are you not? Your skill at letting my words go in one ear and out the other is impressive, so I will tolerate it, because there is nothing I can do right now. But you must never do this again.”

He could have sent his will to his father and told him to take Cha Yisol away, but he did not think the Sun God would welcome that.

His adorable teddy-bear grandpa had apparently never been human, so he had no conscience either.

‘He will probably leave Student Cha Yisol be, saying it will help both of us.’

Above all, Giovanni’s homeland was a world where children’s rights had not been established.

It made no sense for Giovanni’s father, who had been a god there, to worry about Cha Yisol’s safety now.

“What a checkmate this is.”

“What’s checkmate?”

“It is a word used when playing a game called janggi, but it is also used for a situation where you have no choice but to lose, no matter what you do.”

“Did you lose, hyung?”

“Haha, I suppose I lost to Student Cha Yisol.”

He really would have to fix that utter lack of a sense of danger someday.

Children these days were far too daring and precocious.

“Did you properly tell Student Iru-da or the other teachers before coming? If you said you were going to see me, when I should have been dispatched to the coast with Black Cloak’s help, I do not think you could have come here like this.”

Cha Yisol blinked.

“Uh... I came as soon as I thought of it, so I contacted them afterward.”

“From that alone, you are already guaranteed to be scolded, but how exactly did you contact them?”

“I got stationery from the teddy-bear grandpa and...”

“I would appreciate it if you would not simply say you sent a letter.”

“I sent a letter.”

“Oh dear.”

Jio let out a sigh.

“It likely was not delivered.”

“What? Why? I saw it go?”

“As I said earlier, Student Cha Yisol, you are not a portrait, so, hmm...”

“So?”

“To put it simply, you do not have the ability to pay the call fee.”

“... Call fee?”

“Even when I, who am more skilled with portraits than Student Cha Yisol, send letters, the writing gets distorted.”

It was a problem that occurred in the process of a painting becoming reality.

When something imaginary transformed into something of Earth, it became altered during the process of interpretation and analysis.

Because of that, there was the problem that Jio’s letters were effectively unreadable.

“Then what do you think would happen with Student Cha Yisol?”

“Ah, it won’t send...?”

“It may send, but there is a high chance it will be lost in the process.”

“... Then there won’t be a reply either...?”

“Even I have yet to receive a reply. For now, only one-way communication is possible.”

“Uh-oh...”

Only then did Cha Yisol’s face turn pale.

“I, I came without telling Iru-da!!”

He had trotted over under the judgment that there was no way it would be dangerous if Jio was with him, but if even the message he had written, roughly saying, “I’ll go check first, so if it’s really safe, won’t you think about going with me just one more time? Of course, it’s fine if you don’t want to. I’ll wait for your reply!” had not gone through, then this was a completely different matter from the start.

He sprang up and ran to the portrait.

“Huh?! It’s gone!!”

“O Sun...”

Giovanni sighed.

‘There is no need to be this childish.’

Of course, there was a high chance both Jio and Cha Yisol would grow through this incident, but he did not particularly want to force a child to develop.

If there was an easier path, why deliberately refuse it?

‘I’ll have to have a conversation about this part later.’

It was not as though the teddy-bear Sun God harbored any malice.

For example, it was probably the feeling of wanting to raise a game character’s stats.

It was like sending them into battle to gain experience points in order to level up.

The Sun sincerely believed this path would help both of them, and that was also a fact based in affection.

Then again, it would be ridiculous if the Sun followed human sympathy and the ethics of humble life.

“I apologize on his behalf, Student Cha Yisol. It seems my father has closed the door.”

“Why, why...? It was open just a moment ago.”

“He will open the door again if it seems Student Cha Yisol is in danger, but until then, it seems it will stay like this. He must want Student Cha Yisol to develop through this process.”

“Development is all well and good, but first I need to explain to Iru-da... Just one excuse, please...! I really knew it wouldn’t be dangerous, so I only meant to come and look for a moment...!!”

“For that, your intention to settle down beside me seemed far too firm, did it not?”

“That was because I’d be safe if I was with you, hyung, so I was just going to wait with you until Iru-da’s reply came...!”

“Oh dear, how pitiful. But my father will not open the door.”

Giovanni smiled.

Having served a god, Giovanni sensed how the situation would unfold.

“Because there is a fate to be gained only if Student Iru-da does not know about this.”

Seeing that he could not weave a fate of this magnitude, it was clear that he was not a god after all.

‘So this is the true power of a real god.’

Yes, compared to that, I am ordinary.

“It seems...”

The priests of the Sun Cult reached a conclusion.

“A mermaid appears to have kidnapped Prospective Priest Cha Yisol.”

“They said Hunter Seo Jio was in the same situation as well...”

“Brother Cha Yisol has even experienced the same thing before.”

“Could it be that the evil god in the research lab entering the Sun Cult and approaching Brother Cha Yisol was also...?”

“The divinity of the Sankalut cult and the mermaids may have joined hands. Of all things, are they the apostles of Black Cloak?”

“It may be a hasty judgment, but it seems the mermaids are trying to keep Black Cloak in check.”

“They said a mermaid named Iser actually made a similar remark.”

“What on earth is about to happen...?”

Iru-da was close to tears.

“... Give Cha Yisol back...”

“We will contact them about this at once. He may perhaps be inside the dungeon.”

“Do you know how low the chance is that a kidnapped child victim returns alive...?”

“We are well aware, but not even an entry order has come down yet, and...”

“I want to be dispatched too...!”

There was no way she would stay safe alone when she did not know when or how her partner might die.

“Send me out there!!”

Everything was as the god willed.