Prologue
Why, seems like I've become a haunted portrait.
I have become a painting.
Not a memorial portrait, but a real painting.
And I've also landed in the middle of a cabin in the forest.
“... I guess I'll just consider this as moving to the countryside.”
Although I ended up being treated as a haunted portrait while being perfectly alive, it's fun so it's alright.
***
Seo Gio was an art teacher.1
To explain why a respectable member of society like him became a haunted portrait, it was because Seo Gio failed to escape the school in time during a fire and ended up trapped in the art room, falling right into his own painting.
For real.
“If I'm going to die anyway, I wanted to die at my favourite place.”
That place was exactly the art warehouse. The place where a landscape painting of a cabin in the forest was placed, which eventually turned into a painting showing him.2
“Living life, I've come to have such an experience.”
Gio sat on the bench, taking in the landscape within the painting.
The weather was mild.
Birds chirping harmoniously as if singing in a choir. The light and soft spring breeze, gentle as silk.
Jewel-like sunlight shone through the dense foliage. The perfect temperature and the rich forest scent, as if moistened with dew...
“Hmm.”
It was peaceful.
“It's nice.”
It's been about a week since he regained consciousness in the cabin inside this painting.
'The flow of time has been so inconsistent that I'm not sure exactly how long I've been here...'
It's natural for the tenants to inspect their new home, and so Gio discovered a few minor rules within this painting.
Firstly, everything he painted in this place became real.
Seo Gio, who was observing the apple he had painted, put it down with a light touch. The well-ripened apple emitted a pleasant fragrance.
He felt proud.
'I'm freed from food expenses.'
Indeed, he was proud of himself.
Haunted portrait or not, this was very welcome news to Seo Gio, who was both a gourmet and a glutton.
If he painted an apple, it became a real apple. If he paints a bag of salt, it becomes real salt. The same was true for kitchen utensils other than food ingredients, such as pots and spatulas, as well as plants like flowers and trees. R
'At this point, there's one thing that anyone might be curious about.'
But he can't paint people.
He might become the first human to create a human with paint, so he tried painting, but all that came out was a warm corpse, not a living, moving human.
“It's a relief that the limits are clear.”
Gio almost got scared. For him who values friendship, peace, and love, the ability to create humanity was nothing but harmful.
Above all, Seo Gio's dream was closer to that of a landlord than a creator.
'I was relieved to find that I hadn't gained the ability to harm the cuteness and adorableness of my life.'
And the second rule.
Gio's gaze landed on a frame hanging on a wooden pillar.
“Is it something like a front door?”
Through the frame, Gio could see the scenery outside this place.
“It might be hung there to emphasize the importance of communication, so as not to grow old alone.”
It was possible to interact with reality, and he could even step out of the painting if desired. Compared to numerous haunted portraits in ghost stories that Seo Gio knew, this one had a relatively high degree of freedom.
'As expected of me.'
Even as a painting, he doesn't follow the same path as others.
Gio was greatly satisfied with his own uniqueness, something unparalleled in human history. It seemed like there couldn't be another one like this in the world. If there were, it would be fate, which would be even better.
Anyway, moving on.
“... There seems to be no need to go into a society reeks of exhaustion and start a new life.”
Why bother leaving this clean zone?
“In just a few years, many things have changed from what I remembered ....”
At the ripe age of 29, it was a rather bitter thing to mutter, but that was the reality. It had already been about 30 years since the fire accident occurred.
'31 years to be exact.'
Upon learning this, Gio leisurely returned to the world within the painting. This talking potato lacked the confidence to adapt to the new society.
“It must have been quite a while since my death report was filed, why would I leave this place which might made me be subjected to some kind of biological experiment?”
Obviously, he had no intention of leaving this peaceful home, where he didn't have to pay for food, rent, or electricity, just to suffer needlessly.
“I'm a bit worried about the kids from our class... The world has changed so much, I have no idea how everyone is doing.”
Thirty-one years ago, when the fire accident occurred, it seemed as if the Earth had turned upside down.
'They called it the 'Great Catastrophe.”
Since that day, the world seemed to have completely changed.
When he saw an unbelievable sight of a businessman in a suit holding a bow and fighting a monster the size of a house, Gio, who was very frightened, readily accepted his identity as a painting.
“One can experience such things in life.”
Even if his body dies and dies again a hundred times, his bones turn to dust with no way to restore, and his soul remains intact and well, it's still better to live the peaceful and comfortable life of a haunted portrait than suffer from monsters in modern society.
“There are various ways of living in this world, and among them exists the life of a portrait ....”
And to discuss the third report at this point.
“... Hmm.”
This forest is another ecosystem.
“Shall I go gathering?”
Gio grabbed a sturdy basket. He planned to fill it with plenty of food.
'All I had drawn was a two-story cabin and the forest surrounding it, but as I wandered around, I found plants and geographical features that I had never drawn.'
It seemed as if it had been created based on Gio's imagination.
Rustle.
“Hello.”
“Making medicine might come in handy someday.”
Thud.
The basket was set down.
'It doesn't seem like I'll need it, but I was bored anyway....'
Thinking that it was a very suitable new activity, he reached out for the Lulupu flowers after washing his hands clean in the spring water.
With his characteristic blunt and gloomy face, Gio snipped the flower stalk. Despite his downcast expression, his touch when handling the flowers was quite delicate.
'It would be fun to take the whole plant with the roots, but this isn't the kind of plant I usually grow... It's a water flower, so I don't even know where the roots start or end. I'd be upset if the population decreased because of a careless attempt, so I need to be careful.'
The Lulupu he picked must have already fully bloomed, as they did not wither nor drip any water, meaning—Gio had harvested the flowers in the right way.
“The scent is nice.”
Gio carefully placed the flower bud into the basket.
In the pond, there were about twenty flowers in bloom, but just in case, he only collected three of them. The petals themselves were so large and abundant like those of a lotus that it felt wasteful to pick more.
'The stems are quite sturdy, I wonder if there are other ways to use it. It feels like fibre, but somehow it felt as if it might peel off like thread when being torn vertically ....'
Soon, Gio had gathered all the flowers.
“This should be enough.”
As for the exact amount, he decided to determine it leisurely by feeling while making the medicine. Then, Gio set the basket filled with flowers back down on the ground.
And he admired the spring.
Drip.
Trickle ....
The sound of shallow, clear water flowing.
The pure fragrance emanates from a clean spring.
The humid air of the forest.
“... It's nice.”
This spring, which existed even though he had not painted it, was more beautiful than he could have imagined.
The tree that stood firm despite being dead shone a brilliant white, resembling the expensive Carrara marble.5
Between the trees with their intricate veins, through which the sky faintly shone, the transparent spring water flowed, breaking the sunlight like gold.
'It looks like pearls being thinly spread out.'
The sap of the tree had hardened into gems. Whether it secreted sap before dying or not, wide and winding jewel-like formations in the shape of plates with a light blue hue, protruded from all over the tree like shelf mushrooms.
The transparent, turquoise objects resembled large jewel-made plates. They held the spring water bathed in sunlight and carrying a gentle light.
Drip...
The spring water flowed down sequentially along the jewel plates.
From the highest place, step by step, one by one. It made a clear ringing sound like dawn's jade marbles as it struck the jewel plates. If one listened closely, it felt just like listening to a butterfly sing.
The sunlight leaking through the leaves of the forest scattered and shone upon the marble-like trees, making it feel as though one had entered a temple.
Thus, the spring water that had flowed down pooled around the roots of a dead tree, creating a shallow well.
The overflowing spring water spread throughout the forest, and butterflies with wings resembling sunlight illuminated the area around it. They were just like fireflies.
Fireflies that can be seen even during the day.
“That's cool.”
The spring, which took the giant tree soaring high into the sky as its base, also looked like a giant pond.
'... There's a saying that good water emits fragrance, but I wonder if it applies to water this clean.'
The air enveloping this place was rich and sweet, as if one were lying above a flower bed. Perhaps the fragrance from Lulupu petals mixed with the spring water.
Indeed ...
“People should return to farming in the countryside.”
Gio liked this place.
He settled down among the soft, blanket-like moss and slowly took an afternoon nap.
***
“Here it is.”
An art warehouse in a now-forgotten abandoned school.
Inside the portrait hanging there, a man was quietly closing his eyes.
“Look at this painting.”
“Wow, how did it not burn and remain like this?”
“It's in good condition ... I wonder if taking it would count as an achievement?”
“Seems like the piece has a name too.”
“It has a name? It was an item, then.”
Now, the last rule.
Gio became a painting.
“It's called 'Gio's Portrait.'”
That was a clear fact.
“It's sure convenient to travel with someone who has appraisal skills .... but is this really from Earth?”
“Is it possible for an ordinary portrait to still be this clean despite being inside an abandoned school in the mountains like this? There's no one taking care of it, right?”
“I guess that's true.”
“It must be an item that came from some dungeon, obviously. There are many other dungeons around here too.”
“Anyway, Collection would love this. They go crazy for this kind of stuff, don't they?”6
And like that, while Gio was asleep.
The painting's entrance was changing on its own.
1: 서지오 (Seo Ji-o), but due to reasons I'll use Seo 'Gio'.
2: basically the painting of the forest cabin now has an additional Gio with closed eyes on it.
3: I don't know how to write the name for this one, 도롱도롱 열매 was the name of a fruit in one piece (サラサラの実 — salasala fruit), so idk anymore and just translate the name as 'Salasala Tree'.
4: it was Gyeongdan actually.
5: the image for better imagination.
6: this is the name of a guild, you'll see it often afterwards.
t/n: another slice of life novel. I was very tempted to split this chapter, as this chapter is more than twice longer than the ones I usually did (it's 3.5k+ words and this isn't even the longest chap I've read, it's mid). but I decided not to split this ch 1 because this ch is what made me interested into this story and I want to drag yall down this hell too (mwahaha).
I was looking for a fantasy slice of life with slight romance when I stumbled onto this accidentally. well, I don't think this has romance, still, the story is just sooooo good I can't help but pick this up (and the MC is actually really cute lmfaooo).
for me, this series is just up to my plate, after all, it have similarities with both other projects I took (MPBGS with its misunderstood protagonist trope and horror comedy and TSDDBM with the slice-of-life genre).
anyways, I hope you guys find this series as interesting as I do c: