Side Story 07
Of course, that doesn’t mean Yeon Ji-ho had fallen directly into the middle of Set’s company. He had fallen into a wardrobe in a small office in the building before Set’s company had relocated to New York—the wardrobe that Set usually used for commuting.
Since the wardrobe door wasn’t particularly thick, light and noise seeped through even when the door was closed. In this situation, Yeon Ji-ho couldn’t bring himself to suddenly open the wardrobe door and step out, so he remained trapped inside.
‘Chief, where is the CEO right now?’
‘Ah, the CEO? He’s in a meeting. It’s taking longer than expected.’
Then Apophis’s voice could be heard. It was a voice clearly worn out from exhaustion.
Trapped in the wardrobe, Yeon Ji-ho felt his heart pounding due to the heat that hadn’t yet subsided. If Set had been outside, he would have at least asked him for help, but now that was simply impossible.
‘The CEO seems very busy these days.’
‘Of course. Not only does he commute all the way from Korea… no, besides that, once he leaves work, he also takes care of his child.’
‘Wow, really? Well, I suppose he’s still in the middle of child-rearing. Being the CEO, he can’t even take parental leave.’
Apophis let out a hollow laugh at the mention of parental leave from the employee’s mouth. Of course, Set’s company valued work-life balance and had good welfare benefits, including thorough parental leave provisions—but these benefits didn’t apply to Set alone. The newly growing company couldn’t afford to have its CEO take time off.
‘I’m only now realizing what an incredible task childcare is in this capitalist society. Last time, I even saw the CEO dozing off.’
‘Really? Seriously?’
‘Yes. You might not understand how surprising this story is… but for the CEO I know, it’s unimaginable.’
At the mention that, of all people, Set had dozed off, Yeon Ji-ho quietly closed his mouth. That must have been around that time. When Seho was still a newborn, he would wake up crying loudly as soon as his back touched the bed, so Set and Yeon Ji-ho had to take turns holding him.
But Yeon Ji-ho, whose condition hadn’t fully recovered after what happened during childbirth, couldn’t hold out for long, and Set, worried about him, would ask him to sleep. As a result, Set had to manage a miraculous schedule—going to work early in the morning, then looking after Seho all night after returning home.
‘No, I can’t imagine the CEO I know dozing off either… He’s such a thorough person.’
‘Yes, that’s why you should forget about marriage and stay with the company for life.’
‘What? Why would you say such a frightening thing…’
The voices of Apophis and the employee faded away after that conversation. Yeon Ji-ho had been listening intently to their conversation, barely even breathing.
It was truly the first time he had heard that Set had been struggling to that extent. No, of course Yeon Ji-ho had anticipated that Set would have been struggling, even if he was a Sword Master. After all, he hadn’t had proper time to sleep for nearly three months.
But Set had never once shown any sign of this to Yeon Ji-ho, so it was a fact he knew nothing about.
For a moment, he felt hurt. It would have been better if Set had given him even a little hint about this. He felt disappointed that Set couldn’t lean on him.
But even so, his feeling of guilt grew larger. Despite knowing better than anyone that Set wasn’t the type to show when he was struggling, Yeon Ji-ho had ignored Set’s difficulties because he too was busy and struggling. Yeon Ji-ho quietly bit his lower lip.
‘Has the CEO arrived?’
‘Yes.’
Then, amid the chaotic atmosphere outside, Set’s voice could be heard. At the same time, Yeon Ji-ho pressed himself against the wardrobe door and watched Set through the crack.
‘How was the meeting?’
‘Not bad. However, there are a few points that need to be addressed. Apophis, send the related documents to my tablet… Hmm?’
Set, who had been busy conversing with Apophis, suddenly turned his head and fixed his gaze on the wardrobe. Yeon Ji-ho, who had been peering outside with his eyes pressed against the crack, flinched momentarily, feeling as though their eyes had met.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘In the wardrobe… No, it’s nothing.’
Set cut off what he was about to say and began approaching the wardrobe directly. This startled Yeon Ji-ho, who began to panic, not knowing what to do.
Finally, with a flushed face from the heat, Yeon Ji-ho thought to himself: he wanted to escape from this place.
THUMP… At last, Set grabbed the wardrobe doors with both hands and flung them open.
‘CEO?’
‘…’
‘There’s nothing there.’
Set stared at the empty wardrobe with a strange expression. Clearly, clearly something had seemed to be there. But his thoughts didn’t linger for long. Soon he became busy again due to Apophis’s urgent voice calling for him.
***
“…So since then… you haven’t been able to control your power?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’ve been trying to practice controlling it somehow, but…”
Yeon Ji-ho paused mid-sentence and let out a small sigh. Since the fever, Yeon Ji-ho’s power had begun to burst out on its own, as if the reins had been loosened. One day, he even opened his bedroom door thinking, ‘I’ll clean up after the guest leaves,’ only to end up in the pension where a guest was still staying.
Fortunately, the guest had been asleep, so he wasn’t discovered, but from that point on, Yeon Ji-ho became anxious. If a guest caught him—or worse, if Set found out—the already busy Set would worry insanely.
After Yeon Ji-ho gave birth, Set had already been anxious about his condition to the point where “overprotective” was the perfect description. If Set discovered that Yeon Ji-ho couldn’t control his power, he might immediately quit his job.
“And to make things worse, Set recently took some vacation days.”
While Set happily carried Seho and followed Yeon Ji-ho around during the holiday, it was nothing but agony for Yeon Ji-ho. He was anxious about showing his inability to control his power in front of Set and having everything that had happened be discovered.
But the real problem occurred as Set’s vacation was coming to an end. During the short holiday, Yeon Ji-ho had forcibly suppressed his power, but that seemed to be the issue—his uncontrolled power reached its limit and completely exploded on the last day of Set’s vacation.
When he opened the door to go to the bathroom, it led to an alley on the outskirts of Seoul that he had never intended to visit, and when he casually opened his bedroom door, it repeatedly led to some village in Asterra. Eventually, after enduring for so long, Yeon Ji-ho had no choice but to call Set back from work and entrust him with Seho before leaving.
“Anyway, the source of this power must be in Asterra, so I thought I needed to come to Asterra to resolve it.”
Yeon Ji-ho spread out both his hands and looked down at them as he spoke with a sigh. Somehow, he needed to solve this problem to return to Set and Seho. It was an unfortunate situation for Set, but he hoped Set would wait quietly for him until then.
“Then… when you were collapsed…”
“Well, um. I didn’t notice when I only opened the gate twice a day, but when I was forced to open it ten or twenty times, my vision would sometimes spin.”
“…Isn’t that dangerous?”
“It gets better right away if I lie down for a bit. It’s probably not a big issue, so please don’t worry too much.”
Yeon Ji-ho spoke soothingly to the concerned Shango. In response, Shango remained silent. There was no way he could not worry about Yeon Ji-ho despite being told not to.
That’s because what Yeon Ji-ho experienced during childbirth remained like a deep trauma in Shango’s memory as well. The Gorgon Knights had always been protective of Yeon Ji-ho, but after his childbirth, their protection became even more intense.
“Well… shall we get going now?”
“Yes, where to…”
“First, I want to confirm that. Yggdrasil, which is said to exist like a legend.”
In the middle of a field filled with yellow flowers, Yeon Ji-ho took a step forward and said:
“If this power was given by a god, shouldn’t we go meet the god?”
“I… suppose so.”
Shango responded somewhat reluctantly to Yeon Ji-ho’s daring statement about meeting a god. For Shango, who was born in Asterra, gods were still distant beings.
“Hmm, so where should we go first… Ah, I believe mythology is closely related to Hwangseong.”
Yeon Ji-ho spoke while trying to recall the content of “The Star of Hadad,” which he could barely remember now. Though he couldn’t remember the details at all, most things related to gods were dormant within Hwangseong.
As he recalled this fact, Yeon Ji-ho naturally voiced the next question:
“By the way, who is the current emperor of Asterra?”
Shango hesitated momentarily at the question. But as Yeon Ji-ho’s gaze continued to press, he reluctantly provided an answer.
“It’s still… Hadad, Ji-ho nim.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
