Chapter 299

First, Yoo Sung-woon was delivered to the house.

"May I come in?"

"When you say it like that, it sounds like some kind of Mystery that can only enter if invited."

"It is only natural courtesy to receive permission before entering someone else’s home."

"Well, I suppose... Come in."

And Ji-oh came too.

"The house is as dreary as ever."

"Still, isn’t it a bit better now that there’s a painting hanging?"

"It’s even drearier."

"You’re the one who drew this painting."

"What isn’t, isn’t."

"Look at that stubbornness."

Then, Ji-oh asked.

"How does a Gardener visit their Garden?"

"The method varies slightly for each Gardener. Some visit through dreams, some designate a door to use as a passage, and others pray to the Garden to summon them... It requires a bit of an agreement."

"What about you, Yoo Sung-woon?"

"Strictly speaking, the Garden is the one that summons me."

Yoo Sung-woon held up both hands.

"If I clap three times like this, I can enter the Garden. Oh, of course, just clapping isn’t enough. You have to clap by overlapping your hands top to bottom, like this, to satisfy the condition."

"Is there a special meaning behind clapping three times?"

"Because people don’t usually clap up to three times unless they’re consciously doing it? You often clap once or twice to get someone’s attention. By that logic, four or five times would be better, but that’s too cumbersome."

"Then do you move your body along with your mind?"

"That also varies slightly depending on the Gardener, but I tend to move my entire body. Most Gardeners prefer this method unless there’s a specific reason not to. You never know what might possess an empty body."

He crossed his arms.

"But since there’s a noticeable passage right here now..."

"Will you be moving through here with me, Yoo Sung-woon?"

"Since it’s my first time entering with you, it would be better to be a bit more cautious. I’ll enter my usual way, so could you follow in after me? It’ll be easier to handle any changes if the Gardener goes first to assess the situation."

"Do as you wish, Yoo Sung-woon."

"Then..."

Clap, clap, clap.

Three claps.

"See you later."

Yoo Sung-woon soon disappeared.

"..."

"Gurrrng."

"Looks convenient."

Ji-oh and Honey watched in admiration.

He waited a moment for Yoo Sung-woon to arrive at the Garden. It probably looked like an instantaneous transfer, but there needed to be some leeway. Then, he entered the frame.

A vast snowfield unfolded before his eyes.

"...?"

It wasn’t particularly cold.

"Is this a situation like the ice warehouse?"

"Kkuguguguk..."

"Ah, it’s frozen."

"Growwwlll."

"And this is a familiar situation too."

Ji-oh didn’t feel the cold. He only perceived the blowing wind as refreshing. He had planned to rely on Honey if push came to shove, but that was no longer necessary. It was a relief that things were less cumbersome.

Ji-oh stroked Honey, who had turned into ice.

"Will you be able to fly alright?"

"Gurrrk."

"It’s been a while since I’ve seen this form."

Honey still flew around freely. The only difference was that its wings, which had always been indistinguishable from its body, were now clearly visible. Its long tail feathers, like a peacock’s, rattled as if made of woven, hard beads.

’Anyway, there are no issues.’

Ji-oh looked at the snowfield.

"...It really is vast."

"Gurrr."

Honey agreed.

"It’s definitely going to be very different from the ’Garden’ we know."

When people think of a garden, they usually imagine a space filled with flowers and trees. In those places, a gardener’s job is clear. But what do Gardeners manage in a Garden like this?

And then, Ji-oh realized.

"..."

Ah, right.

"...Where is Yoo Sung-woon?"

"Kkungkkungkkungkkung..."

"Are we lost right now?"

"Growwwlll..."

"Yoo Sung-woon...!"

Yoo Sung-woon was nowhere to be seen.

He wondered where Sung-woon could have gone leaving this frail portrait behind, but no matter how much Honey looked around, Yoo Sung-woon simply wasn’t there. It wasn’t like he could have been deleted in transit, so there was only one answer.

"It seems we arrived first."

"Gurrrk."

"This is trouble."

And so, Ji-oh was left unattended.

"..."

"..."

"Should we build a snowman?"

He eventually decided to enjoy the moment.

How many times in life does one get to experience something so novel? Even if hundreds or thousands of times remained, the surprise and novelty of the present wouldn’t change. Ji-oh was filled with confidence.

"It was fun gathering with the kids to make a 3-meter snowman when the school playground was covered in snow."

"Kkung...?"

"It snowed a lot that day. We dragged in every bit of snow we could find. Other students who saw us making it on the playground rushed out after lunch to help... That’s quite a memory, too."

"Growl."

"With that in mind, how about we make a snowman?"

"Kkung."

"Then a snow duck..."

"Kkung."

"I suppose this isn’t an environment where people or ducks could live."

Ji-oh was an excellent adult who knew how to be considerate even of snow sculptures. If a person were to live, they would need food, clothing, and shelter; if a duck were to live, it would need water. There was none of that here.

After thinking carefully, Ji-oh narrowed it down to a few animals. They were mostly friends who lived in burrows.

"A polar bear?"

"Kkungkkungkkung..."

"I suppose it would take a bit too long to make. How about a fox then?"

"Kkung?"

"That’s too big too? What about a rabbit then?"

"Growl."

"Since you aren’t that big either."

And so, Ji-oh sat down on the ground, or rather, the snowy floor. Beneath the snowfield where blizzards raged and auroras shimmered, Ji-oh began packing snow. Since he was making them, he wanted to make them well.

’If I make them out of snow, they’ll be easy to destroy later and they’re eco-friendly, so it shouldn’t be a problem for Yoo Sung-woon.’

With that thought, Ji-oh ended up making exactly 194 intricate snow bunnies.

***

And so, they returned to the beginning.

"To think you were bored enough without me to make all these snow bunnies..."

"Initially, I intended to make them and then destroy them."

"Unless something’s gone wrong with my eyes, aren’t these little guys moving?"

"That’s what happened."

Ji-oh felt extremely apologetic.

"I apologize once again. There’s also the option of moving these little guys to our ice warehouse."

"I don’t know if our snowfield can just be moved over there..."

"Would just moving the rabbits count as moving the snowfield?"

"These guys are made from the flesh of the snowfield, after all."

"Calling it flesh makes it sound a bit terrifying."

Have I been sculpting rabbits out of flesh this whole time?

"But I didn’t know they would come alive and move like this."

Just because you sculpt a pig out of butcher shop meat doesn’t mean it becomes a living, breathing pig. That was the logic of the dimension called Earth, and Ji-oh thought the same. But he had to admit he had been rash.

Because painting a bird with watercolors didn’t turn it into a living, breathing waterbird according to Earth’s logic either.

"I am sorry, Yoo Sung-woon."

"Uh... I have a lot of things I want to say, but. You really didn’t know until you made all 194 of them, then?"

"When I made them and set them down, they stayed completely still, exactly as I sculpted them..."

"And then they suddenly started moving when I arrived?"

"Yes, you are exactly right."

He wondered if they had been playing innocent.

"...I understand for now."

Yoo Sung-woon thus accepted reality.

"I did freak out at first as much as I could, but the snowfield doesn’t seem to be angry or having any issues equivalent to my freaking out. I didn’t expect it to be this calm, but it seems you really do get special treatment, Ji-oh."

"Is there a reason for it to show favoritism toward me?"

"You’re somewhat worthy of favoritism."

Let’s say a person overeats. What kind of protest could a burdened stomach possibly make? In reality, ’Ji-oh’s Portrait’ and Yoo Sung-woon’s Garden were essentially one body.

’It would be stranger if an issue arose when its own body is tinkering with its own body.’

He wasn’t sure if that was an accurate analogy, though. Yoo Sung-woon still didn’t know the exact relationship between ’Ji-oh’s Portrait’ and the Gardens.

’What kind of relationship could it be? Master and slave? Boss and subordinate? Parent and child? Or truly just parts of the same body?’

For the moment, even his snowfield showed no reaction. He had expected some sort of sign when Ji-oh visited, so this was a bit surprising.

Having finished organizing his thoughts, Yoo Sung-woon regained his smile.

"I’ll expect generous child support."

"Of course, I will come periodically to groom their fur. You won’t have to worry about a thing."

"You sound exactly like a son who randomly brings a stray animal home... Anyway, if that’s the case, then fine."

He just had to think of it as another addition to the Garden’s landscape.

’I’m not sure if it’s okay to just gloss over it like that, though.’

Even if a problem occurred, it would be a matter between Mysteries, not something for Yoo Sung-woon, a mere Gardener, to agonize over.

"...Then do you want to at least watch me maintain the snowfield? Or have you already seen everything there is to see during this time?"

"That is not the case. I was so busy making snow bunnies while waiting for you that I couldn’t appreciate the rest of the scenery."

"I don’t know why you did that, but I’ll apologize first. I’m sorry. I have no objective way to gauge the time it takes for me to transfer to the snowfield, so I didn’t know it would take this long."

"I don’t think it’s something you need to apologize for, Yoo Sung-woon, but thank you for your consideration."

"Then we should get moving..."

Yoo Sung-woon paused just as he was about to step forward.

"...Ji-oh, don’t you think they’re following us?"

"It seems they want to admire you for a long time."

"What use could they possibly have from admiring me?"

Even as he said it, he understood. The fundamental attitude ’Ji-oh’s Portrait’ had towards humans was also ’admiration’. Since these were Mysteries created by him, they were bound to have a similar attitude.

’...Then how should these rabbits be defined? They must belong to one of Ji-oh’s children, for starters. Are they my snowfield’s children too? Small gardens I have to serve...?’

There were very few precedents of such moving ’creatures’ appearing in a Garden. While it was said that ’creatures’ acting as gatekeepers or butlers existed very rarely, it wasn’t an area Yoo Sung-woon knew in detail.

’I’ll have to contact the elders whenever I have time. I wonder what I need to do to get along with these rabbits.’

Pushing his puzzled feelings aside, Yoo Sung-woon guided Ji-oh.

"First... a Gardener’s job isn’t much. You wander every corner of the Garden and listen to its stories. And you grant its wishes. It might be easier to understand if you think of it as a kind of artwork, in terms of a collector."

"I understand that it requires management."

"Right, exactly that. Management. But on days with a blizzard like today, you have to focus quite intently to hear the voice of the snowfield. Honestly, even if I call it a voice, it’s closer to understanding and accepting the owner’s will as a Gardener..."

"Is it difficult to describe?"

"...Honestly, it kind of is. I’ve never explained something like this to someone who isn’t a Gardener, and Gardeners basically know this feeling well, so there aren’t many occasions to explain it anyway. I don’t know how to express this sensation the Garden demands of me."

It was a whisper. Or a visible signpost, or like an intangible wall that you could only recognize once you hit it. It was too light to be called a divine oracle, and too heavy to be called a child’s whining.

But this place was clearly a Garden.

"Think of a normal garden. If you leave it neglected without tending to it for a long time, it becomes an eyesore. It’s the same here. You grasp things like time and weather to ensure the flowers and trees don’t wither, don’t grow too wild, or don’t get sick... You look after it."

Yoo Sung-woon stopped at a certain spot, knelt on one knee, and brushed the floor.

"Today’s work is scheduled to happen under here."

"It’s cold ice. Is there seawater underneath? Or is it just ice?"

"From what I can see, it probably takes the form of water... Hmm, this shouldn’t happen."

Crack—.

With a dull noise, the ice broke.

"Problems like this occur occasionally."

"Is it a problem?"

"The snowfield must remain frozen no matter what. The coldest, most static, and absolutely not flowing..."

"That’s what a snowfield is."

"Right, it shouldn’t melt."

Looking at the sufficiently large hole, Yoo Sung-woon spoke.

"So I have to freeze it."

"Are you heading in?"

"Want to come along?"

"...Yes."

That day, Ji-oh watched the sight of the sea turning into a glacier.

The flowing water that dared to brave the cold stopped, and soon froze over...

***

"Did you die?"

"No, a Gardener in their Garden doesn’t die from something like this."

"I thought you became part of the glacier."

"Visually, that is what happened."

"Aren’t you cold?"

"I’m cold enough to die."

"You love this snowfield."

"I still will even after I die."

"A Gardener..."

Ji-oh shared his impression.

"Must be lonely."

"...Honestly, it kind of is."

It was too vast here, and people were too small.