episode_0072

072 – Father Like the Sky #3

Icarus said I was a celebrity, but in fact, this man himself was a great celebrity.

Because he was the first human to fly.

When his father Daedalus was retaliated against by King Minos of Crete for some reason.

And so, when Daedalus and his son had to escape from an island in the vast ocean.

Daedalus and Icarus gathered beeswax from beehives and bird feathers to make wings.

They flapped their wings with those and soared into the sky, it was said.

What truly remarkable technological skill.

The problem was that Icarus flew so high into the sky that the beeswax holding the feathers melted from the sun’s heat, causing him to plummet to the ground.

He fell into the sea and died that way.

And became a resident of this Soul Society.

“It’s truly embarrassing for stories of such a terrible failure to spread among others. That’s why I prefer to be called by the pen name ‘RUS’ in this Soul Society.”

It was surprising that he was running a cafe business and drawing pictures in a secluded part of this Happy World.

Of course, I had a more important matter.

“Icarus ssi, do you happen to have a sunrise painting?”

“I do. Here.”

Icarus held out a framed picture to me.

He touched the tape, haphazardly affixed to piece together the torn fragments, with his fingertips and spoke.

“It was the first painting I drew after entering this Soul Society. I gifted it to my father. But my father tore the painting right in front of my eyes and threw it in the trash.”

“In the trash?”

“He told me that I had no talent for painting and that I should learn skills from him to pick up a hammer instead. He said that was the only way I could survive in this fierce Soul Society….”

It certainly couldn’t be called a well-drawn painting.

“From my father’s perspective, he probably wanted me to follow him and pursue a stable profession. But. Rather than being hidden under the shadow of a giant like my father my entire life, I wanted to stand under the sun by my own strength. That might be why I drew this kind of painting.”

With a sweep.

It was Icarus ssi, putting the ‘Sunrise’ painting he had shown me into a deep drawer.

“Joy Manager nim, I am grateful that you picked up the torn painting from the trash and taped it. I heard from Hedone. She said Joy Manager nim gave her this painting.”

The painting had tape on it from the beginning.

I didn’t do it.

Who did, then?

The old man who was desperately searching for the painting early this morning came to mind.

Could it be that Daedalus himself took out the painting he had torn and thrown in the trash, and restored it with tape?

‘Why would he do such a thing?’

I couldn’t understand.

The thoughts of masters always far surpass the common sense of ordinary people like me.

That’s why they become masters.

“However, Manager nim. That painting is my first work from my immature days and is an unfinished piece. It’s a shameful work for me, so I will seal it away forever. Please understand.”

# # #

A man cried.

Clutching the torn papers, very, very sorrowfully.

When his crying grew louder and louder, roaring like thunder shaking the world-.

“Gasp!”

Late dawn.

Icarus woke up from a nightmare.

His wife Danderiol, lying next to him, asked.

“What? Did you dream of falling into the sea again?”

“No. It wasn’t that.”

“Then your father appeared in your dream.”

Icarus neither denied nor affirmed.

Because he wondered if the man he saw in his dream was truly his father.

‘My father is someone who never cries.’

When he declared that he would pursue the path of painting, his father picked up a hammer and tried to hit Icarus.

Icarus also fought back against his father, and in that worst possible way, father and son severed ties.

‘How many years has it been since I last met my father? Yet, that man still casts a shadow over me, like a giant wooden block and a rock within me. Can I never escape the shadow of the master throughout my life?’

It was the sorrow of a son who had a great father.

Wherever he went, the label ‘son of Daedalus’ always followed him.

And the comparison, that he was a son who couldn’t measure up to his father, would probably follow him his entire life.

“If you’re struggling so much, why don’t you meet your father again and talk to him?”

His wife Danderiol asked.

“We also have to tell him we got married.”

“Even if I call him, he won’t come. Even if he does, he won’t say anything good. I’ve never received praise from my father, not once. I was always an inadequate son. That’s what it’s like to be the son of a genius.”

Icarus recalled the time he showed his father the house he had designed and built for the first time.

That day, his father Daedalus went far away without a word and smoked a cigarette.

His expression was filled with disappointment that could be understood without words.

Icarus could acutely feel, in that silence, the fact that his talent did not meet his father’s expectations.

The cold air of that day and his father’s silent reproach, a ‘tsk’ of disapproval, still occasionally resurfaced as a nightmare.

Of course, Danderiol shrugged her shoulders.

“I like this hut you built. Because it feels human. I also like the paintings you draw. It’s like you’re showing others the world only you see. Your father will surely like them too.”

“Not at all! He’d tell me to give up painting and pick up a hammer like him. But look at my hand. My hand is….”

Icarus’s right hand was indistinct and cloud-like like a ghost.

It was ‘partial ghostification’.

It wasn’t a common symptom, but it wasn’t an entirely unheard-of symptom either.

“With a hand like this, I can never hold a hammer.”

“But you can hold me, can’t you? It’s a perfect hand for holding someone. It’s soft and. Indistinct and cloud-like. I think it would be perfect if you reconciled with your father with that hand.”

“Enough. Don’t even bring up that man’s story.”

With a swift turn.

Icarus turned his back and fell asleep just like that.

Watching his back, Danderiol, the nymph of the stream, quietly fell into thought.

‘Even in this Soul Society, life isn’t eternal. We’ll forget our memories and become ghosts. It would be good if we could reconcile before that happens. Because we’re family.’

Pop. At that moment, Icarus got up from his spot again.

And he took out the ‘Sunrise’ painting he had put in the drawer and felt the tape’s finish with his fingertips.

“As expected, it’s too clumsy. As if someone who knows nothing about painting forcefully pieced it together. There’s no way Joy Manager nim, who is rumored to be an elite among elites, would have restored the painting like this. And this….”

Icarus, who had been examining the painting for a long time, discovered a round mark.

It was a mark as if someone had dropped a water droplet on the sketchbook.

# # #

“Here comes the hammer!”

Dawn. Old man Daedalus came looking for me again.

He was throwing a fit, demanding the sunrise painting; it was a complete mess.

‘If this old man comes here every day and throws a fit like this, I’ll die from lack of sleep or an accidental death before getting fired from the Soul Society. But I can’t cooperate with him either.’

It was a time when I was contemplating many things.

“Are you really not going to hand it over until the very end? There’s nothing for it. I’ll just have to complete the work the Chairman nim entrusted to me without the painting. It will probably take about four more days. It’s all my karma, I suppose.”

What? He can complete it in four days even without the painting?

A chill ran down my spine.

If Daedalus Director completes the work within five days, my defeat will be confirmed.

Then I would have to receive Melinoye nim’s ‘special reward’.

Therefore, I had to obstruct Daedalus Director!

But by what means could I obstruct the work of a genius master?

‘I can’t do it. But if it’s this man’s estranged son, it might be possible.’

A man who inherited the blood of a genius.

It’s possible that Icarus could make Daedalus feel bad. Then Daedalus, being a mood-driven craftsman, wouldn’t be able to get a grip on his work and would ruin it.

‘Since he said the sunrise painting would be permanently sealed, there would be no chance of him handing it over to Daedalus.’

That’s a good idea.

“Daedalus ssi, did you say you wanted to see the sunrise painting? Well, there’s nothing for it. I know where that painting is. Follow me.”

“Is that truly so?!”

I led the man, whose one leg had turned ghost-like and was limping, towards a secluded corner of the Happy World.

A clumsily built hut nestled among thorn bushes.

Seeing it, Daedalus frowned.

“What a terribly unskillfully built hut.”

Knock, knock.

When I knocked on the door, a man appeared from within.

“Who….”

“…….”

The man and the old man met each other’s eyes.

What would happen now?

It was tense.

“Your hand….”

The old man looked at his son’s indistinct and cloud-like hand.

The two stood there for a long time.

How much time had passed like that?

In the long-continuing silence.

Daedalus stroked his rough beard and shifted his gaze here and there.

“Your paintings are doing quite well, I hear. I don’t know much about young people’s trends, but they say your paintings are very popular on places like SNS. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“But you tore up my painting, Father. You even threw it in the trash.”

“That was…. because it’s difficult to live in this barren Soul Society by painting. That’s what I thought. Honestly, that thought hasn’t changed even now. Making a living from painting is a hard path.”

“But I saw it. Late at night, you took out the bundle of papers from the trash, taped them together, and even cried your eyes out. I thought it was a dream I saw in my sleep, because there’s no way Father would cry.”

His son’s eyes seemed to turn to me, then he immediately shook his head.

“But I realized it after seeing Joy Manager nim. If it were this man, he would have restored the painting perfectly. Therefore, it wasn’t Joy Manager nim who put the tape on it… meaning my dream was real.”

In other words, Icarus ssi seemed to have realized, after seeing me, that it was his own father Daedalus who had restored the painting.

I was flustered because he was greatly overestimating me.

“Father, why did you reattach the painting you tore?”

Icarus ssi raised his voice.

His emotions were so profound that I had no chance to open my mouth.

Then Daedalus Director also raised his voice.

“Actually… your painting was wonderful enough. However, I couldn’t simply keep cheering you on. Being an artist is a difficult profession. Many people have had unhappy endings. I didn’t want you to become like that.”

“As you said, Father, it wasn’t easy to get to this point. I drew until my hands were worn out and turned ghost-like, barely managing to set up my own studio.”

“…….”

“Perhaps, if you hadn’t been so harsh, I would have given up painting quickly without any stubbornness. And I would have lived my entire life in your shadow. Therefore, I am grateful to you, Father.”

The son bowed his head.

“But Father, I will become independent now.”

Tears fell from the son’s eyes and wet the floor.

Soon, an old and weary hand straightened his shoulder.

“Don’t bow your head. You’re already married and a respectable head of the family. Since you’re living so well with your wife like this, you are better than me. You were always a wonderful son. You’ll surely be a better father than I was.”

Daedalus turned around just like that.

And he limped away towards the fake sun that was beginning to emit light in the distance.

“Don’t you need the painting? You came all the way here to get the painting!”

I asked.

Then the old man replied.

“It’s fine. Joy Manager, honestly, when you resisted and didn’t hand over the painting easily, I hated you. But thanks to that, I was able to reflect on why that painting was so precious to me. That must have been your intention. Thank you. Thanks to you, it seems the greatest masterpiece of my life will be created.”

“A masterpiece?”

“Yes, it’s all thanks to you. You truly know how to handle me.”

I was so sad that I shed a few tears.

It was unfair! How could an estranged father and son reconcile so easily?

Then the married woman Danderiol ssi also cried and patted my shoulder.

“Indeed, the ‘Protector of Married Women’! Joy Manager nim, you protected our family even by taking on the role of a villain! My husband and I will never forget this! Never!”

Time passed, and two days later.

The Chairman nim himself came all the way to the Audit Team office and could not contain his rage.

“You rascal, Joy! What kind of magic did you use to move the stubborn Daedalus’s heart?! Did you want that special reward so badly?”

Flap.

A newspaper was held in the Chairman nim’s hand.

It read:

「Clouds, stars, and the sun and moon are embroidered on the ceiling of the Soul Society.」

「The renowned master Daedalus’s work, ‘Celestial Sphere ver.2’, which directly transferred the sky from the surface, will be unveiled to the public tonight for the first time.」

「The part he put the most effort into was the ‘sun’, and the ‘sunrise’ was implemented─.」

What Daedalus developed, commissioned by the Chairman nim, was the sky.

He had transferred a real sky onto the ceiling of the Soul Society.

Honestly, I don’t know how he did it.

That must be what a genius does.

However.

What caught my eye more was the small article below it.

「A new work by the popular painter ‘RUS’, famous on SNS, was unveiled at the Daedalus Art Museum in Elysium.」

「The work’s title is ‘Sun’─. With a unique painting style using mosaic techniques….」

The sunrise painting, which someone had torn and then taped back together.

However, unlike what I knew, the back view of a man with wings had been added to that painting.

I didn’t know who that figure from behind was.

One leg of that soaring man was indistinct and cloud-like, just like a ghost.

‘The father and son reconciled.’

Since it was completely unintended by me, I was honestly troubled as well.

The problem was that the Chairman nim’s rage pierced the sky.

“You rascal, Joy!”

“Agh! The ceiling is cracking!”

“Run away!”

If I stayed like this, I might be flattened to death by the Chairman nim’s imposing presence.

So I chose to flee!

“You rascal! Stop right there!”

The Chairman nim chased after me.

However, after chasing for a while, the Chairman nim’s steps suddenly halted.

“…The old man is here, not even dead.”

Soon, the old god Kronos, who had been plowing the field with a hoe, straightened his back.

“You’re old yourself, what are you talking about!”