After the hallway eting.
“Gguu?”
The teddy bear asked Gio a question.
“...Are you asking if my students are in the sa situation as the rmaids?”
“Ggugguggu.”
“No, not at all. What you’re worried about won’t happen.”
Giovanni smiled as he sat the teddy bear on his lap.
“I didn’t realize Father was concerned about that.”
“Gguu...”
“I’m not lying, really. They’re not that weak. In many ways, compared to our rmaid disciples, these friends are very different.”
“Ggu?”
“The rmaid disciples couldn’t live without , rember?”
At Giovanni’s cheerful remark, the teddy bear was left speechless.
“......”
“...Are you asking if I let that happen knowing what would follow? Hmm, well, I expected it would hit them hard, but I didn’t think they’d go so far as to devour a planet in the sea. That much... I really didn’t expect.”
“Gguuuuk...”
“Of course, I’ll admit it was an immature farewell.”
A rmaid shimred faintly in the shadows.
“But it was the best choice I could make at the ti.”
The blurred figure soon sank away.
“So in many respects, Earth’s students and the rmaid disciples are different cases. For starters, those kids weren’t that dependent on . My disappearance didn’t cause ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) a major disruption to their lives.”
“Gguggu?”
“Yes, they were far more mature than the rmaids. They were students already prepared to stand on their own. I rely provided a bit of a foothold.”
“Ggu...”
“Well, the rmaids and I also tried to prepare for a mature parting. But rmaids live a long ti, don’t they? Those kids saw as a parent. I was practically their only friend.”
So naturally, the attachnt ran deep.
“More than anything, rmaids are kind of...”
“......”
“...grotesquely obsessive, you could say.”
“Ggugguggu.”
Thwack—!
A rmaid tail slamd the floor from within the shadows.
“Oh dear, seems I struck a nerve.”
Giovanni chuckled teasingly.
“See? You should’ve lived a nicer life.”
Thwack, thwack, thwack—!!
“Who did they get that temper from?”
It certainly wasn’t Giovanni himself.
“In any case, Father, the thing you’re worried about won’t repeat itself. My rmaid disciples might have held close to their hearts, but it wasn’t the sa with my students. Sure, we got along well... but no, not to that level.”
Affection beyond a certain threshold turns into obsession and possessiveness. Giovanni might have had no choice given the environnt and nature of the rmaids, but Teacher Sergio was not soone to tolerate such things.
His students were always admirable as independent individuals.
“Gguu?”
Because that’s what you wanted?
“...Perhaps.”
“Ggu, gguggu.”
“How can you bla for that? Every relationship has soone who leads. And as their teacher, I had to prevent my students from heading down an unhealthy path.”
“Ggu?”
“Didn’t I ntion the rmaids had a different environnt and nature? I keep saying this, but our students are an entirely separate case. The two can’t be compared on the sa level.”
From the start, “Giovanni” and “Sergio” were entirely different people. They only shared a similar fate and form. Complete strangers otherwise. So of course they treated those they taught differently.
“So even if Earth’s students regain their mories, the world won’t be overturned. Those kids love their roots. They know how to embrace —and others.”
They were mature adults.
“The reason I’m approaching this carefully is because of my position... and theirs. Especially mine. No matter how I think about it, I prefer our current relationship. Their attitude no longer burdens .”
“Ggugguu?”
“Ah, it still makes shiver thinking about it.”
Sergio looked dismayed.
“They all thought I was so incredible person.”
“Gguu...”
“But back then, I wasn’t that different either. I had a stiff face that couldn’t smile properly, and I couldn’t even dress myself—I was a walking fashion disaster. I rember the kids used to call the Grim Reaper.”
“Ggu.”
“Yes, it suits well, thank you. I even rember scaring so students late at night and hearing them scream. It was my scary face again...”
Sergio’s expression must have been pretty intimidating for students to avoid him altogether.
“I gave them candy, chocolates, cookies, potatoes, sweet potatoes, even corn... but maybe because they were young, they always thought I was sothing extraordinary.”
“Ggu?”
“Co on, where in the world is there a Grim Reaper handing out sweet potatoes? Honestly, when the ‘tragic mafia boss heir’ rumor started, I sort of enjoyed it. I even laughed. But still, it was a bit much.”
“......”
The teddy bear tilted its head, puzzled.
“It really was overwhelming.”
Seriously?
“Oh, truly.”
He could swear it on the na of all gods and spirits. Though any gods passing by might grumble, it still showed how sincere Gio was. After all, humans can love sothing and still feel burdened by it.
“...Besides, how close can a teacher and student really get? In the end, I was an adult and the strong one, and they were children and the weak. But even so, the distance between us...”
He recalled the students who’d looked at him with sparkling eyes, full of expectation. Even the usually stone-faced Seo Seo-Hee was no exception. They had thought Sergio could fix anything just by stepping in.
“I wasn’t as good a person as they expected.”
Dependency or obsession can be shaken off, but that kind of innocent expectation can’t be helped.
He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t fun, but that was separate from everything else. The relationship then was good—but so is the one now, enough that he wouldn’t want to give it up.
“...So my little complaints have nothing to do with the fate of the Earth.”
“Gguuuu?”
“This ti, you really can believe . They’re not the type to cause trouble. The only reason I’m being cautious is because I want to preserve this equal relationship a little longer. It’s like a roleplay.”
“Ggugguggu...”
“If Father is pleased, then your son is pleased as well.”
Giovanni smiled brightly.
“There’s nothing to worry about.”
Because for him, there was no such thing as a serious problem.
***
In the studio, Gio toyed with the stamp.
“......”
“Aeehng.”
“You’re back, daughter.”
“Eeng.”
“Welco ho.”
Dana naturally climbed onto Gio’s lap and settled in. Honey, who had been perched by the window, flitted into Gio’s hood. Either way, it was a cute scene.
As he petted the plump Dana, Gio stared at the stamp.
“I wonder how far this thing will evolve.”
He had received the stamp after completing Giovanni’s quest. After finishing Argio’s quest, it had upgraded.
At first, it barely exempted anything more than a letter. Now, it easily waived small food and container charges.
‘But it probably didn’t waive the cost entirely.’
It might be tied to mories Gio had forgotten.
‘Where is the price I didn’t pay being collected?’
The past? Or the future?
“Either way, it doesn’t matter.”
“Ggurruk?”
“If it’s the past, then it’s already paid and irrelevant to now. If it’s the future, I can’t pay it yet, so it’s also irrelevant. There’s no reason for to worry.”
“Ggng...”
“But I do wonder how far I can go with this.”
He wanted to offer a bigger gift.
“......”
Gio looked at the blank canvas and opened his mouth.
“...I wanted to try painting again after a long ti, but nothing cos to mind.”
“Ggurrurruk.”
“Yeah... maybe it’s best to rest a little longer.”
“Ggur.”
“How about visiting the school for the first ti in a while?”
Gio tilted his head.
“I like that idea.”
It was a peaceful day.
***
The school he visited after a long ti was still a ruin.
“......”
Tap.
His shoe touched the floor.
“...Feels like a ghost might show up.”
But there was also a bit of pride.
“This is the haunted house version of a school, huh.”
“Ggngggngggng.”
“Honey, this is where your dad used to work.”
“Ggurruk...”
“Well, it’s probably not your vibe.”
The atmosphere was completely different from Dana’s ho in the Gem’s Waterway. The place was still covered in ash, with dust piled atop it. The fire-scarred school gave off an eerie air.
He was standing in the storage room attached to the art room.
“Let’s take a look around.”
Even though it was only 5 p.m., the school was already dark. The trees had grown so thick that their shadows blanketed the building. Without close inspection, one wouldn’t even realize a building was here.
‘It’s like a secret base.’
It reminded him of the secret bases he used to make in the forest as a child. Though those weren’t in dangerous places like this, even those small spaces brought joy to young Sergio.
‘I even ran into a wild boar once...’
A good mory.
“There might even be wild boars here now.”
“Gng...?”
“This school was built in a remote area to begin with. After the catastrophe, it turned into a true ruin. I don’t even know how those people who found back then managed to get in.”
“Ggurruk.”
“Co to think of it, when I first woke up, it took ages to find a place with people. Maybe now it’s not wild boars but monsters that live here.”
Though for monsters, he hadn’t seen any while staying here.
“Maybe my scary face worked on them too.”
A fairly reasonable guess.
“When I’d just awakened, I was so dazed I couldn’t think straight. Dealing with everything inside the painting alone was overwhelming. I don’t even know what state of mind I was in back then...”
Past the shattered door, a few desks ca into view. They were more like charred wooden remnants than actual desks. Gio lightly brushed one and stepped forward again.
An empty hallway appeared.
“......”
At this point, a ghost really should pop out for decorum’s sake.
‘How disappointing.’
Such unprofessional ghosts.
Trees had even grown through the building. Ivy nearly engulfed the school both inside and out, and flowers blood under the warm day. But instead of being lush, it all felt grotesque.
Gio gently rubbed his chin.
“...Do these guys have opinions too?”
Feeling a strange déjà vu, Gio scanned the school.
‘Maybe it’s just the mood, but everything looks like a scene from a horror movie. If they fild a movie here, the plot wouldn’t matter—the setting alone would score a perfect 100. Just existing, it’s a masterpiece.’
It was the textbook image of an “abandoned school from long ago.”
‘I thought maybe sothing would co back to if I ca here.’
Gio stopped and leaned his back against the hallway wall.
“Not much is coming to mind.”
“Ggurruk?”
“All I rember is... all there is.”
No matter how hard he tried, his last mory was of backing away from the fire and stumbling into the painting. He had a vague sense that he’d forgotten sothing, but that was it.
“Where did the fire start again?”
It had started on the first floor. The ho economics room. A cigarette tossed into an oven caused a huge fire. There were cooking oils and other flammables, so it spread quickly, blocking escape routes.
Sergio had sent out all the students before things got bad. He’d checked for anyone left behind, but that was all. It was too late for him to escape. So he headed for the art storage room.
“It would’ve been better if there were curtains... but there weren’t, so that failed.”
Then he fled into the storage room—and beca a painting.
“......”
“......”
“...Ah.”
Now that he thought about it.
“How do I even know it was a cigarette?”
Finally, he found a hole.
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