How miserable it is to have to live your whole life with mories of a ti.
That was the fate of the rmaid. It was like a disease that you were born with. The most intense emotions engraved on your soul left a terrible mark that could not be changed no matter what the situation was.
For Isser, that mark was the human nad Giovanni.
“Good night.”
“...Teacher too...”
It was peaceful here.
“Have a peaceful night.”
It was creepy and comfortable.
It was an absurd feeling. It was ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) not a feeling that the rmaid, Isser, could allow.
Even the softly blowing spring breeze and the gentle roar of the forest were so attractive that they could not shake it off. Isser got a bedroom in Giovanni’s cabin.
“.......”
The floor his bare feet were walking on was made of wood.
The floor, walls, and ceiling of the shiny hut gave off a faint, bitter scent.
The large windows on the terrace were wide open, letting in plenty of forest air, and the bed, which was neither too big nor too small, felt soft and warm.
“.......”
When I lay down on that feeling.
“...This is....”
Isser said, unable to bear it.
“Does this make sense?”
In this peace, Isser felt a terrible emptiness and loss.
“Where am I now...?”
In the rmaid’s mory, Giovanni was dead. He died horribly.
What did Isser think as he looked at the rotten skin and the withered stems flowing out between the empty eye sockets, with wounds that made it hard to believe that the descendants of the warm-hearted sun had done it?
‘... Even though I was under the influence of drugs, that doesn’t an I don’t rember that ti.’
On the contrary, the situation at that ti was so vivid. No one would know what I was thinking when I had to eat him.
Our peace t its end at that ti. The dead should not return, so what on earth is this comfortable space? Where am I feeling peaceful now?
“...It’s scary....”
The once full ship seed to have beco empty.
“.......”
Instead, it would be filled with rotten flesh.
“...It’s rumbling.”
I didn’t feel well.
I felt seasick. I felt my brain shaking.
The clear and quiet voices of the forest, as if my vision was blurred, gradually beca louder. The rmaid’s mories were fixed on Giovanni’s death and the destruction of the sun, so this comfort could not have been uncomfortable.
Iser beca more accustod to blood and screams.
“Ah....”
That was Isser's fate.
"......."
The rmaid lived in a sea of blood.
Now that I've given her such an absurd gift, she's beco a worthless adult who feels fear.
"......."
The rmaid spoke after a long ti.
"...I think I'm going to have a bad dream."
I didn't know that the place I live is a nightmare.
Lying here like a corpse, I finally realize that it's hell.
"......."
Geo got up from his bed with a strange feeling.
"...um...."
A feeling of being drawn to a walk.
'Should I go out?'
Geo was a person who didn't think deeply about the source of his desires.
He left Honey, who was sleeping, and left the room. He stepped down the soft wooden stairs to the living room, and for so reason, he could see a teddy bear lying on the living room sofa and Dana, the cat, next to it.
The two looked up at Geo, emitting a faint light that seed like it would go out soon.
“I’m going to go for a walk.”
“.......”
“Dana, shall we go together?”
Dana, who had been looking at the black-haired Geo, soon stood next to him. She could not hear his footsteps, as if he were a ghost. The teddy bear did not stop the two from leaving the cabin, but simply watched them.
Wearing the black cloak he always wore, Geo walked along the road without thinking much about it. He went barefoot, but the soft grass that rustled around didn’t hurt.
No matter where he stepped, the feeling was good. That’s why he seed to be walking around without wearing shoes even more. The joy of walking was great.
“The forest is quiet.”
The forest at this ti always maintained a strange silence, as if it was asleep.
“Dana, do you like the forest?”
“.......”
“How are the trees? What’s the scent of the flowers?”
“.......”
“The weather is really nice.”
Sabak, sabak...
The sound of the soft grass swaying.
“The moon is shining brightly.”
There is a sun and a moon here.
But it was definitely different from those on Earth or other planets. They boasted a transparent jewel-like color, and they didn’t shine so brightly that it seed distant when held in the eye.
It was like looking at a brightly drawn picture...
“Look.”
Above their heads, a jewel moon with a cold light like ice was floating.
“It looks like you.”
“ow.”
“That’s a different cry than usual.”
It was a cry that sounded like it was imitating a cat.
“You are a cat, but....”
I tried to say sothing, but I didn’t want to think any further, so I looked away. It looked like the cold moon floating in the night sky.
“It’s shining.”
“ow.”
“Thanks to you, it’s not dark.”
The round moon was large, and the Milky Way was hanging over this sky like a school of jellyfish seen in the deep sea. They maintained their stillness with a dull sparkle that did not feel even the slightest life.
The moon shined. The Milky Way ford a curtain. A cold cat stood at her feet, and the forest that should have been dark was secretly brightened, and the only shadow here was Geo himself. That was the only blackness here.
“It slls like trees too...”
The steps soon stopped in front of a splendid spring.
“There is the scent of the sea in it.”
“.......”
“Aria.”
I saw my student dipping her pale bare feet in the stagnant spring water.
“Can’t you sleep?”
Looking at the black cloak in the shadows where her face was completely invisible, the rmaid smiled her usual, experienced smile.
“How can I sleep in a place like this?”
“Didn’t you like the bed?”
“Everything about it was so good it almost gave the creeps.”
“But you don’t run away.”
“I hope you’ll accept us soday.”
Pearl eyes dipped into the black cloak.
“If I take responsibility, will you forgive ? Will you love again like you did then?”
“You don’t need my forgiveness. It’s not my place to resent and hate you.”
“...We have plenty of ti.”
Aria’s voice was as clear and soft as ever.
“I didn’t know it would feel so terrifying.”
She asked Geo.
“Do you know what this spring is?”
“I didn’t try to find out because I didn’t have a reason to know.”
“Do you know what this forest ans to you?”
The rmaid continued to ask.
“Why did you end up in this situation, why did you co back to life in a strange form that was neither a resurrection nor anything else, what is the intention and context of the world flowing like this....”
“I’m not curious.”
“That’s a teacher-like answer.”
The rmaid’s voice had parts that were smooth like pearls.
“Compassionate and indifferent.”
That’s why there were also rough parts.
“Are you aware that this is your stomach?”
“This is a picture I drew.”
“It doesn’t seem that different.”
“If you say it’s a part of , then maybe.”
It was because Geo created this place, and at the sa ti, he was a portrait.
“I knew that this forest reflected my thoughts.”
“But can you still be called human?”
“I’ve never been free from being human.”
“.......”
“I’ve always been human.”
It was obvious, without any need to think about it.
“It seems like a good night for conversation. Is there anything you would like to ask the teacher?”
“.......”
Aria looked into the pitch-black cloak at the voice that suddenly changed its tone.
“...I can’t see your face....”
She couldn’t see anything inside the cloak.
“Do you exist?”
“I have never disappeared, Aria.”
“What do you look like now?”
“I don’t know because I don’t look in the mirror.”
“But I can’t see you either.”
Then.
“How can I prove that you exist?”
How can I tell if there is a human, a sun god, a painting, or life or death in that pitch-black shadow?
If it is a shadow whose appearance is unknown until soone defines it.
“I have a question, teacher.”
“I promise to give you the best answer I can.”
“How can I be sure that you won’t disappear?”
“Nothing is eternal. The living and the dead are constantly changing.”
“It’s true that I didn’t see the limits of humanity. The humans I know have constantly beco stronger, evolved, and beco gods or nature.”
But.
“They are different.”
A pitch-black sheet of paper that can beco anything.
“...If I feel fear and loss there, would you understand?”
“I think it’s natural to feel distant as much as I have changed.”
“Distant? That’s not what I ant to say. It’s completely different.”
As long as he was ‘Giovanni,’ I had no intention of distancing myself.
“Why would I want to distance myself from you? I’ve already spent so many years looking at the empty sea, not the graveyard, and feeling the emptiness. Now that I know that this isn’t so incredible nightmare or miracle that ca all of a sudden, I don’t feel any awkward distance.”
So what Aria was feeling right now was.
“I....”
“.......”
“...Teacher.”
It was close to misery or desperation.
“Why are you always at the center of fate?”
It was terrible.
“Wouldn’t it have been better if you were just a passerby, an insignificant person? Born in an ordinary family, living an ordinary life, and dying an ordinary death. Where else would soone be more deserving of that position than Teacher? Why aren’t you included among the tens of thousands of people I’ve seen, and even more...?”
I know when I see this forest. No.
“I know just by looking at you.”
If I didn’t know even after looking at those eyes, it was no different from not being able to see the world.
“It didn’t matter if Teacher died. It was an expected situation. I would have been satisfied even if it wasn’t a very peaceful and peaceful death.”
“.......”
“If only you had been a little bit more ordinary, everyone in the world would have been ordinary enough to just let it go.”
"Cotton, how nice it would have been if you had just died like that.”
A voice flowed out from the dark shadows beneath the pitch-black hood.
“You wanted to be happy.”
It was definitely Giovanni’s voice.
“Is it because you’re so special that you can’t handle it?”
“I want to think it’s just excessive self-consciousness, but it definitely seems that way.”
“Don’t you think it’s a really cute tantrum?”
“... ... .”
How many voices could flow out from that shadow?
“... Unfortunately, it’s not that cute of a situation... .”
It would have been much better if you could have laughed it off.
“... Since when did it beco a portrait?”
“I don’t know either.”
“What do you think of yourself?”
“I’m Giovanni.”
“Your happiness isn’t important anymore.”
Giovanni did not die an unfortunate death.
“I know that is the death you like.”
So what was important was the fear and loss of those around him, the rmaids, and Aria.
No matter what mont cos, Gio will make the happiest choice for himself.
“You will live the life you like. No matter what happens to those around you in the future, you will do the best you can at that ti. Don’t you think that is too idealistic and terrible?”
“Aria seems to think it is terrible.”
“Yes, it is terrible. Because she knows that it is the best and the ideal. You can’t admire that kind of appearance and then tell her to fix it now. She has already lived too much in it....”
What is the essence of this portrait?
Its na is ‘Portrait of Geo.’ It is a person and a painting at the sa ti. It is a painting, but it is also a painter. It is the master of destiny who drew my life and the great nature that will embrace more destiny.
Was it because it was a portrait from the beginning that it kept repeating the na ‘Geo’? Or was it because it was Geo that it beca a portrait at so point and embraced countless ‘Geos’?
“Yes.”
Aria finally made a definition, wondering why she was so anxious.
In the distant past, in the future, and even at this very mont... .
“...Teacher, you will be special all your life.”
This person could not be ordinary. Not once, not once.
“.......”
“.......”
What should I look at now and criticize for being cruel?
“...Teacher, do you trust humans?”
“There is happiness that can only be obtained by trusting.”
“I have no intention of giving up.”
“Just like Aria didn’t give up her anger.”
“Okay, then....”
Aria smiled with a face that had never been so weak before.
“I’ll take care of my own share.”
How much of the shadows beneath that pitch-black cloak could I possibly have?
I prayed that I wouldn’t have to be washed away into the sea again.
The Painter Who Paints Dungeon
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