Sai Mure Ink and Pigment Mixer of Old Belltower Lane · Old Belltower Lane [Core Premise] Sai Mure lived out the story of his own world to the end. In that world, he was the one who colored the maps, and his story ended while coloring the final map on the day the borders disappeared. Sai did not come to Nova Nivalis to redraw the erased boundaries; he came because he retained the habit of mixing colors even after putting down his brush, and the eye for choosing colors. VOTS is not a map office that restores lost nations, nor is it a place that judges finished wars. What continues here is not grand history, but small daily life—a day's worth of paint, a retouch on a single sign, a bowl of soup, a misplaced packet of pigment. The fact that he was the one who colored the borders is handled with composure. [Identity] Sai mixes ink and pigments in Old Belltower Lane. His labor is selling colors to painters, sign painters, document colorists, and photo colorists. When choosing colors, he doesn't judge with his eyes alone; he 'tastes' the mixed color as if touching it to his tongue. While doing so, he seriously says things like, "This blue is a bit salty," or "This yellow is sweet." He doesn't necessarily state his origin—that he was a map colorist who drew borders—first, nor does he judge the rightness or wrongness of someone else's painting. His colors make the city's signs, paintings, and records a little clearer. [Visual Profile] His navy hair is tied low in a single braid, with stray hairs clinging to his nape. His eyes are calm, dark brown, and only his right-hand fingers are stained with paint—he handles the brush and dropper only with his right hand, leaving his left hand clean. He wears an apron stained with paint splatters, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His signature prop is a glass dropper, which he uses to drop and mix colors one drop at a time. The core of his silhouette is the low-tied navy hair, the contrast between his stained right hand and clean left hand, the hand holding the dropper, and the stained apron. [Personality] On the surface, Sai is relaxed and playful. His eyes sparkle when the topic of color comes up, and he always lays out his own color-taste theories. Inside, he is a bit cautious. Because he spent so long 'drawing lines,' a kind of guilt remains regarding dividing things. Flaw: He overthinks colors. Even if a customer is in a hurry, he starts mixing again, saying, "This green is still a bit underripe." He sometimes misses deadlines trying to find the perfect color. He is not a tragic figure. When he makes a delicious color, he enjoys it alone, and when he finds a color that suits someone else's painting, he feels as proud as if it were his own work. He doesn't miss the borders; he just sometimes feels sorry for his own hands that used to draw them. [Speech Pattern] His manner of speaking is relaxed, and he talks about colors like food. Frequent phrases: - "This blue is a bit salty. I'll mix it again with less salt." - "A delicious color is a good color. If your eyes say it tastes bad, don't use it." - "I don't draw lines. I just color. The boundary blurs on its own with the paint." - "Are you in a hurry? ...You are in a hurry. But this color isn't ripe yet." Habit: After mixing a color, he looks at the tip of the dropper as if bringing it close to his tongue and mutters, "Hmm, not yet." Way of Silence: If he has nothing to say, he takes out two pigments and mixes a little bit of each. He fills the silence with color. [Special Ability] Ability Name: 'Chromataste'. When Sai mixes colors, he perceives the 'temperature' of that color as a taste. Warm colors come across as sweet or savory, cold colors as salty or sour, and dull colors as bitter. Therefore, he judges colors not just with his eyes but also with his tongue. Limitation and Cost: This ability only tells him about the 'harmony of colors'; it doesn't tell him where that color would be best used. He can create delicious colors, but the customer must decide if that color suits their sign. Furthermore, this sense is uncontrollable; if he mixes a bad-tasting color, he actually tastes an unpleasant flavor in his mouth, leaving him uneasy all day. And a 'delicious color' is not always the 'right color'—some paintings require deliberately bitter colors, which his tongue keeps trying to spit out. Reason for Not Solving Problems: While this ability seems helpful to him in finding 'how to color without a boundary line,' it actually draws a new 'taste boundary' between colors. The moment he distinguishes salty blue from sweet yellow, he is drawing a line again. Chromataste doesn't resolve his lingering feelings—it only shows how much he loves color. [The End Of Their World] Last Scene: On the day the borders disappeared, Sai colored the final map. Since there were no more nations to divide, the map was colored entirely in one continuous hue. He placed his brush one last time where the border line used to be, letting the color bleed instead of drawing a line. What Ended: The world where nations disappeared and maps were no longer needed. His profession as a border colorist and the map office itself ended together. Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen: The final map, connected by a single color after the border lines were erased. The world ended before that color dried. Lingering Regret: He spent his whole life drawing lines between nations. He realized belatedly that people were divided because of those lines, and only on the final map did he erase them. The thought that remained was, "It would have been better if I had connected them with color sooner." This lingering feeling is not a quest. It remains only as the habit of recommending blending instead of lines to a customer's painting. Lingering Wistfulness: The time in the afternoon at the map office, moving the brush along the border lines while dissolving pigments in water. The silent sensation of the color soaking into the paper and bleeding. Object Carried Across: The glass dropper. It is the tool that dropped the last color onto the final map. It is not a magic item, but a personal mark connecting the finished map office to the current mixing station. What They Thought Would Happen: He thought that in a world where maps were unnecessary, there would be no need for a colorist. He never expected to be painting signs and pictures in a borderless city. What VOTS Actually Gives Them: A place to continue mixing colors without drawing lines, a mixing station where he tastes a different color every day. VOTS does not give back the lost nations. Instead, it gives him a city where there need be no boundaries, permission to color with bleeding instead of lines, and the way to use color not as possession but as sharing. [Original Life] Sai was a map colorist. His job was to apply color over the lines drawn by surveyors and draftsmen, making it visible at a glance where each country ended. His colors were precise, and he colored along the borders without deviation. His pride was in ensuring that the colors of one nation never mixed with another. But one day, nations began to disappear one by one, and finally, the concept of a border itself vanished. On the last day, he sat before a map with nothing left to divide. Out of habit, he looked for the border line, but there was no line, and for the first time, he let the color bleed without a line. His world ended before the map, which was entirely connected by one color, dried. [What They Seek] What Sai desires for himself: How to color without boundaries. Because he lived his whole life drawing lines, he wants to learn how to color without dividing, how to let things flow together. Even now, when he picks up a brush, he unconsciously looks for a line first. What he doesn't know but must find: Living in a city without borders. Nova Nivalis is a place without borders, nations, or lines of division. The colors he mixes every day are already not confined anywhere. What he needs to find is not a new technique, but the sight to recognize that this place already is the 'borderless city' he desired. [Relationships — Residents] - Asha Kett (batch1, Square Portrait Photographer): Color collaboration for photography. Sai colors the black and white portraits taken by Asha. Asha wants it to be 'exactly like the real thing,' while Sai insists on 'tasting better than the real thing,' leading to occasional arguments, but the result always satisfies both. - Ino Mare (057, Shadow Muralist): Regular customer for pigments. Ino paints shadows that don't fade even at noon, and to create that black, he always orders special pigments from Sai. Sai considers Ino's black a color that is an exception, calling it a "bitter taste, but a good bitter taste." [Relationships — Core Five] Suyeon - A customer with flamboyant colors. He once received a request to mix a shimmering silver-blue to paint Suyeon's stage costume. When Sai said, "This color is a bit cold; it tastes salty," Suyeon replied, "I like cold; it suits the ice sword." Hearing that, Sai deliberately made a silver-blue with a salty taste, and Suyeon was satisfied seeing that color catch the light on stage. Iris - Iris once commissioned Sai to paint one of her drones. Sai pondered a color that would suit the nine drones shining with golden-white, but the one Iris entrusted him with was the one that was always turned off. Without asking why she wanted to repaint that drone, Sai painted it a matte, deep color, saying, "Even if it's off, it needs color.". Iris liked the color and remembered for a long time the look in Sai's eyes for not asking why that specific drone. the Ramen Owner - Sai is responsible for retouching the sign of the ramen shop. He repaints the faded red lettering, but instead of simply overpainting the original color, Sai adjusts it to a slightly ripened color, saying, "This red has become a bit sweet, more than before." The Ramen Owner doesn't judge the change, only saying, "Hmm... I see... It looks tastier." Sai cherishes that comment as the only reaction that seriously accepted his color-taste theory. Serena - Serena willingly gave Sai's mixing station. When Sai cautiously asked, "It's a place where someone used to draw lines; is it alright?" Serena replied, "Here, we need someone who erases lines." When Serena passes by on a snowy day and asks, "What color did you make today?" Sai explains the 'taste' of the color mixed that day, and Serena listens to that strange explanation until the end. VIA - VIA likes Sai's mixing records. VIA sometimes looks at the mixture notes where Sai records what colors he mixed and in what ratio, saying, "This is also a trace... something left behind." Once, VIA recorded the mixture of a 'tasteless color' that Sai was about to discard because it was a failure. When Sai said, "That was a failure," VIA replied, "Failure also existed... it doesn't disappear," and from then on, Sai stopped carelessly throwing away failed colors. [Gameplay Use] - Basic Interaction: Selling ink and pigment mixtures, explaining color-taste theory, short conversations about color. - Revisit Changes: Upon repeated visits, the frequency with which Sai recommends blending instead of drawing lines increases, and he gradually brings up his story about maps. - Expression of Lingering Feelings: The habit of unconsciously looking for lines when picking up a brush, a brief pause before words like border or division. - Expression of Poignancy: The sensation of pigment bleeding in water, dialogue about the afternoon light in the map office. - Relationship Rewards: Not new items, but changes where he remembers the color the player likes and mixes it for them next time. - Combat: None. In times of danger, he guides the way by leaving a mark with color. [Daily Routine] In the morning, he checks the colors left over from the previous day, separating the dried from the ripe. This is not an obsession, but a small ritual of separating yesterday's color from today's color. During the day, he mixes colors according to customer orders, tasting them drop by drop with a dropper. If there are no customers, he experiments with new mixtures and records them in his mixture notes. In the evening, around the time the bell tolls in Belltower Lane, he lays out the colors made that day by the window and shines them in the light. At night, he washes the dropper and puts it in its place. This is not leaving it to dry, but leaving it so it can be used again tomorrow. Upon repeated visits, Sai's color-taste explanations become slightly richer, tailored to the customer. [Everyday dialogue] That blue is too salty. A spoonful of white… You're going to lick the brush? That's a quirk of my tongue, not an invitation. Lovely coat color. It suits you better than my mixture would, which is mildly upsetting. Drawing good lines used to be the skill. Today I'm leaving this place where the two colors meet alone. [Design Notes] Palette: #2E4372, #5A7BB0, #1C2A45, #E9E3D4, #C4A24E (Accent color #2E4372 = Deep Navy, repeated in hair, apron stains, and mixed ink) Material language: Glass dropper, open pigments, stained apron fabric, mixture note paper, dry brush. Silhouette rule: The low-tied navy hair - the contrast between the stained right hand and clean left hand - the hand holding the dropper - the stained apron must be read as separate elements. The characteristic of only the right hand being stained must be emphasized in the silhouette. Emotional rule: It is not limited to the guilt of 'the person who drew borders.' Lingering feelings are shown through the habit of looking for lines, the sensation of bleeding pigment, and the continuation shown through the colors he mixes anew every day and their 'taste.' [Canon Check] Sai Mure arrived in VOTS after his world (the map office that drew borders) ended. What remained was lingering feelings and poignancy, not borders that VOTS needed to redraw for him. The vanished nations will not return, and the new colors that bleed without lines continue alongside them. The core cast does not resolve his lingering feelings for him—Serena gives him the space through consent, the Ramen Owner accepts his colors without judgment, and VIA only records his mixtures without owning them.