The Gallery at four in the morning.
“Gio.”
As usual, Yoo Seongwoon called to the Portrait.
“Are you awake?”
“Yes. I am awake.”
“I came because you sent a letter.”
“…….”
The Portrait, its eyes obscured by black paint, looked at Yoo Seongwoon. The bloodless lower half of its face spoke.
“Could you read it this time?”
“Nothing has changed. It was the same as the ones you sent before.”
“I see.”
He did not sound disappointed.
As always, the Portrait’s tone was impassive and hollow. The calm voice was undoubtedly pleasant to hear, but it carried too much weight to dwell upon for long.
Yoo Seongwoon let the voice, whose meaning he could not read at all, flow past him. Then the Portrait spoke again.
“I can show you something interesting.”
“Something interesting….”
Yoo Seongwoon nodded as though he had guessed.
“Did you finally succeed in finding another ‘Gio’?”
He had been told that the reason the being could imitate a human so well despite possessing such immense caliber was that it awakened another ‘Gio,’ one of its old personalities. Until the human ‘Gio’ became stained by the Portrait, it could act as a human with relative ease.
Gio affirmed Yoo Seongwoon’s question, then elaborated.
“I painted it. I did not find it.”
“So it’s a painting in the end? Then how is it any different from the Portrait?”
“More precisely, I am asking the Gio beyond the painting.”
“Asking….”
That was a rather gentle expression.
“…….”
Yoo…