A painter.

A person who made a living by painting.

In Ares, there were truly all kinds of art-related classes, just like painters.

Bards who sang.

Sculptors who carved statues.

And of course there were painters as well, and naturally, art-related classes were often ignored by users.

Even so, there were certainly users who pursued them with unshakable resolve.

One of them was Amy.

Painter Amy.

She had been a painter in real life too, and so in Ares, she became a painter as well.

She simply loved painting.

That was because of her father, who also worked as a painter.

And Amy had one dream.

I’m going to create a work that shocks the world, no matter what!

The number of painters was very small.

There were even statistics saying that fewer than one hundred thousand painters were active in Ares.

In a game played by over a billion people, that was an astonishingly small number.

To become the greatest among those painters.

That was Amy’s goal.

And in pursuit of that goal, Amy had found the fastest and easiest path.

Painters possessed something special.

If they painted someone exceptional—

a super Named NPC,

someone who had shaken the world—

they were granted special benefits.

And so Amy had tried to seek out super Named NPCs all over the world, as well as overwhelmingly powerful figures.

Remarkable people.

But it had been impossible.

“A poor little painter thinks she can request an audience with the lord? Are you completely insane?”

“It’s free. I’ll paint him as magnificently as possible and offer it to him.”

“Get lost.”

No one was going to allow Amy, an obscure painter with a low level, near them.

Amy did not give up, and for about a month, she wandered in search of people she might be able to paint.

Not just super Named NPCs, but kings and emperors too.

In the Parion Empire, simply making the request had gotten her forcibly logged out.

Amy became desperate.

I don’t have much time left...

She was sinking into despair with what little time remained.

That was why she did not give up, and instead visited hundreds of kingdoms, only to be turned away at every door.

And then, at last—

she came to the nation of Hyun.

Amy had come here clutching at her final straw.

She told the guards why she had come, and the information was relayed quickly.

After hearing it, Hyunsoo met with Nell and said:

“For free? Jackpot.”

“????”

Nell found herself wondering whether Hyunsoo, handsome and cool as he was now, might go bald in ten years.

The instant she received the report, Nell investigated Amy. And now that the nation of Hyun was a kingdom, information on a single user could be obtained quickly.

“User Amy. She’s close to being an unknown painter, but her skill seems excellent. And it appears she’s spent a long time trying to meet Named NPCs, kings, and emperors. She’s estimated to be eighteen.”

Hyunsoo nodded.

“I’d like to tell you not to meet her... but you’re going to meet her, aren’t you?”

“It’s free. Tee-hee.”

He was an impossible king.

Nell gave a small snort of laughter and nodded.

I like him because he’s this kind of king.

As for Hyunsoo, he had already received information from Kabel even before Nell finished looking into her.

Why is she in such a hurry?

Since he had been given a day to rest, there was no particular reason to refuse.

And so Hyunsoo made his way to the audience chamber to meet Painter Amy.

*****

Master Painter.

There were not many people left in Korea who truly suited that title anymore.

But Lee Usan was a man to whom the title fit as naturally as the name Master Blacksmith Hyun.

He had won the President’s Award several times, and Master Painter Lee Usan’s works were recognized across the world.

One of his paintings had even sold at auction for 5 billion won.

Master Painter Lee Usan was a Living National Treasure of South Korea, and the idol of painters everywhere.

Even so, there was something that even Lee Usan could not do.

“You need to begin your daughter’s chemotherapy right away. The longer the delay, the more brutally the survival rate drops in leukemia.”

It was a matter of illness.

And worse, it was leukemia in his only daughter, the one and only child he had in this world.

That brought Lee Usan to ruin.

At the doctor’s incomprehending look, Usan spoke bitterly.

“I brought my daughter to the hospital for a chemotherapy visit. While we were there, she saw the leukemia patients in the ward beyond ours.”

Usan’s voice trembled. He wore white hanbok of an old-fashioned, comfortable sort and had a long beard, utterly out of place in the twenty-first century.

“She saw them with their heads completely shaved, vomiting, writhing in agony from chemotherapy, screaming that they would rather be killed... For a child her age, it must have been unbearable. She ran straight out of the hospital and is now protesting that she would rather die.”

The doctor said nothing, and Lee Usan had seen the terror on his daughter’s face.

That was why he could not force her.

But the doctor was cold.

“You need to persuade her quickly.”

Usan rose to his feet weakly.

He had not experienced that fear himself, but he understood part of it.

And Master Painter Lee Usan knew what his daughter’s dream was.

Even if I die, I want to paint one really great picture first!

Usan knew very well what his daughter had been doing these days.

He looked up at the sky.

Once, he too had walked the road of a poor painter, and because of that he knew.

There were no great figures who would meet with a poor painter.

It can’t come true...

Determined that today, no matter what, he would drag her to the hospital, Usan returned to the mansion—

and froze in confusion.

All over the house were papers filled with research on someone called Master Blacksmith Hyun.

Master Blacksmith Hyun? Why has she been researching this man?

Startled, Usan realized that the Ares capsule his daughter had entered was now active.

*****

Amy.

Her appearance, framed by long black hair, was striking. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Her eyes, dark and deep like her black hair, were beautiful enough that countless men had courted her over the years.

Her father Usan’s friends often said she looked like a girl stepped out of a painting.

And so that delicate-looking girl, dressed in the humble clothes of a poor painter, walked toward the audience chamber of the nation of Hyun with a pounding heart.

I’m so happy!

Every king and emperor had refused her.

But the very first user king alone had agreed.

And so Amy had researched Hyun thoroughly.

He really was an incredible person...

Amy was still young. Other than painting, she had never paid much attention to rankers. She had only heard the name in passing.

In any case, she entered the audience chamber—

and quickly found herself flustered.

Amy had always been exceptionally beautiful, and because of that, she had seen more than her share of handsome men.

But Hyun, seated on the throne, was on an entirely different level from all of them.

His short-cropped hair and bright, intelligent eyes.

His long, cleanly built limbs and the splendid black full plate armor he wore.

At the left side of the throne were displayed the silver hammer Unparalleled, and the Sword for the One Who Follows the King, with its black blade and rough white wooden grip.

And on top of that—

“Welcome, Amy.”

That relaxed smile of his was charming, and unlike the oppressive aura she had felt when seeing other kings from afar, he carried both ease and charisma at once.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP-

[Painter’s Sense]

[He is the loftiest being you have ever met.]

[If you paint him, the likelihood of producing a better work rises beyond measurable limits.]

The passive ability possessed by all painter users was activating too.

Beyond measurable limits?

Amy was stunned, and that notification made her realize something.

The person she was meeting now—

was not someone she ever could have met lightly.

And through her prior research, Amy had learned a great deal about him.

“I want to paint half of you as you are now, and half of you scarred.”

When Hyunsoo looked at her in puzzlement, she explained:

“The side with the burns will represent a despairing past, and the other half will express your radiant present.”

Interest flashed in Hyunsoo’s eyes.

That’s good.

It was not just because it was free.

It was an unexpectedly excellent idea.

And whether it would be displayed or not was Hyunsoo’s choice anyway. A kingdom was supposed to have at least one portrait that represented its king.

The question was her actual skill.

Level 103? That’s low for a painter. Hmm...

Painters, too, received scaling from their level.

So he stopped himself from expecting much—

only to be surprised as he watched her paint at a rapid pace.

Hyunsoo knew next to nothing about painting.

Even so, he could tell her level was extraordinary.

Why has she never come to light?

That thought crossed his mind, but soon he understood.

A painter probably depended on fame several hundred times more than a blacksmith did.

And Amy, as she was now—

worked swiftly, losing herself more and more deeply in immersion.

She too was the type who did not rely much on system assistance.

SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRITCH-

Before long, her hand was sketching the half of Hyunsoo’s face marred by burn scars.

SCRITCH SCRITCH-

The uneven scars looked like thick worms crawling over the flesh.

The eye on that side was sorrowful, as though reflecting a painful past.

Then she painted the other half of his face.

Exactly as she saw it.

That eye was bright, intelligent, and fierce, and the unscarred side of his face was beautiful enough to inspire awe.

And after some time had passed—

[You are painting the most perfect portrait.]

[You are portraying the bearing of the king who leads the current age.]

Amy’s hand began moving even more boldly.

The faster it moved, the more the painting approached completion, and rapture began filling her face.

Hyunsoo, too, found himself admiring a portrait far more intricate, accomplished, and extraordinary than he had ever expected.

Then—

SNAP-

The tip of her pencil broke, and Amy stopped drawing.

Because she knew that if she finished this—

she would create a painting that would remain in the world forever, and it would be recorded as her final work.

At the same time, she looked at Hyunsoo’s portrait.

The face of despair.

And the face he wore now.

His Majesty must have suffered too. So how is he like this now?

She found herself wondering.

But she could not ask so bluntly.

How should I ask him?

Then she found a way.

“Would you name this painting for me?”

“......”

Hyunsoo paused, thinking.

Amy, who had asked the question, thought she had caught him too suddenly.

Hyunsoo was not an artist.

And with such a sudden question, it could not be easy for him to define a single meaning to be contained in the painting.

Just as she thought she had expected too much for no reason—

“......The King Who Wanted to Live.”

Amy’s eyes shook as she watched Hyunsoo smile awkwardly.

“That’s the name of the painting.”

Something she could not describe caught fire inside her chest.

With just those words, she could suddenly see everything that had come from his desire to live.

And because he had wanted to live, Hyunsoo had lived on not as a man with a face ruined by scars, but as the man he was now.

Because he had wanted to live, he had fought and overcome countless things.

Amy stopped painting.

[The portrait The King Who Wanted to Live, painted of you, is recorded as unfinished.]

Unfinished?

Hyunsoo looked puzzled, and Amy quickly explained.

“The truth is... this painting was going to be...”

It was her final work.

After explaining her circumstances, Amy said that if she finished it, that would mean she had accepted death—and so she wanted to stop painting now.

So that was why.

That was the moment Hyunsoo understood why she had seemed so rushed.

And Amy felt sorry toward Hyunsoo as well.

Because she was stopping midway through his portrait.

But Hyunsoo shook his head.

“It’s okay, Amy. Get treatment, come back later, and finish it then. Oh, and even if it’s unfinished, would it be okay if I put it on display in the Turtle Ship?”

“Of course.”

Amy smiled brightly at that and logged out.

PSSSH-

Amy emerged from the capsule.

Waiting there was Master Painter Lee Usan, his face full of worry.

The moment he saw her come out, Usan steeled himself to drag her to the hospital somehow.

But then—

“......I’ll get treatment.”

Lee Usan was sincerely overjoyed, and after taking her to the hospital and watching her change into a patient’s gown, he could only stare at the strange smile that remained on her face.

And just before she entered the chemotherapy room—

“I have a favor to ask.”

Master Painter Lee Usan.

It was the first time his daughter had ever asked him for something.

And the truth was, his influence was greater than most people realized.

He could have given her almost anything she wanted.

Smiling radiantly, she made her first request—

and her last.

“Please complete Hyun’s portrait.”