65
Chirp… Chirp.
In the dark night, a strange cry could be heard from the distant snowy forest. Yeon Ji-ho, sitting with his knees pulled up on a camping chair next to the caravan, turned his head slightly to look towards the forest.
“Mr. Ji-ho… Are you not cold? Please cover yourself with this.”
It was Apophis who approached Yeon Ji-ho. He awkwardly smiled and casually handed over the blanket he was holding.
Yeon Ji-ho, who didn’t immediately take the blanket and just turned his head to stare blankly, sighed inwardly. Although Apophis had a meticulous personality, he wasn’t the type to be kind and sensitive enough to care about someone else’s coldness.
So the person who prepared this blanket must surely be someone else. For example, someone who would be very worried about Yeon Ji-ho.
“I wasn’t that cold, maybe because it’s not snowing here. But I’ll use it, thank you.”
Unlike the outside where north winds and heavy snow were raging, the Village of Time had neither snow nor cold wave. It had just changed from spring to autumn weather as night fell.
Still, Yeon Ji-ho wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, if only for the sake of whoever had prepared it for him. Then Apophis glanced behind, checking the situation, and took a seat in the chair next to Yeon Ji-ho.
“Um. The army stew was delicious today.”
“Thank you.”
“H-how are you so good at cooking, Mr. Ji-ho?”
“I’ve lived alone for a long time.”
Yeon Ji-ho, hugging his raised knees, mumbled his answer with his lips buried against his knees. Unlike usual, the conversation ended abruptly, and Apophis looked very flustered.
Realizing this himself, Yeon Ji-ho let out a big sigh. In truth, he didn’t feel like talking to anyone. But continuing to converse in this manner would be disrespectful to the other person.
“…I’m sorry. I shouldn’t act like a child.”
“Ah, no! I shouldn’t have spoken to you when you wanted to be alone…”
“It’s not that I wanted to be alone, I just needed some time to organize my thoughts.”
Yeon Ji-ho lifted his eyes to look at the heavy snow falling outside. Large snowflakes were falling one by one. Looking at that snow made him think a lot.
“…Did I really think of Mr. Set only as ‘Duke Your Excellency’?”
If asked whether he initially thought of him as a ‘character from a novel’, he wouldn’t deny it. He was amazed at seeing the sword technique and referred to the contents of “The Star of Hadad” whenever he tried to guess about Set.
But as he gradually grew closer to him, the contents of “The Star of Hadad” were proportionally forgotten. He only remembered the contents after meeting Hadad, so at some point, he must have stopped thinking of Set as a character from a novel.
“His Excellency will know that’s not true.”
“Is that so?”
“He wouldn’t be unaware of what even we know. However.”
Apophis hesitated, unable to continue his words immediately. As Yeon Ji-ho waited patiently, his mouth finally opened.
“…He must be… anxious. Because His Excellency has never had something of his own.”
“…’His own’?”
“Ah, aah. I don’t mean it in the sense of objects, Mr. Ji-ho. I dare not mean it that way!”
Yeon Ji-ho smiled knowingly at Apophis, who was even raising his hands to deny. Only then did Apophis let out a sigh of relief.
“Mr. Ji-ho, do you perhaps know when I met His Excellency?”
“Ah, no. I haven’t… heard about it.”
At those words, Yeon Ji-ho, who was unconsciously rummaging through the contents of “The Star of Hadad” in his mind, soon stopped. Isn’t this the kind of story that only has meaning when heard directly from the person involved?
“I come from a plague village, a place everyone hushed up about.”
“Ah…”
“As far as I know, His Excellency came from an orphanage in the capital’s slums.”
“What? Then the two of you…”
“Yes, that’s right. I was one of the candidates for the ‘next Duke Gorgon’.”
Yeon Ji-ho’s mouth opened slightly. This was the first time he had heard this story. Who would have thought that Apophis, the deputy, had met Set in such a way.
“All the children I met then were in the same situation as me. Homeless vagrants. Orphans abandoned even by their families.”
This story, of course, wouldn’t be in the novel. The story of a mere supporting character, a villain’s deputy at that, doesn’t appear in novels.
Yeon Ji-ho listened intently to Apophis’s story. The stories of the two of them, especially Set’s childhood, were always just single lines he had read in passing in the novel.
“And… at that time, all the children except His Excellency and me died.”
Apophis’s mouth turned up bitterly. It wasn’t a good memory for him either. Bringing up the story of when he first met Set.
At that time, Duke Gorgon prioritized ‘children with nowhere to go’ when choosing his adopted son. The reason was obvious. Only children that no one would look for could be manipulated at will.
In addition, he wanted an appearance that would make people not want to approach even at first glance. For Apophis, it was his split tongue, and for Set, it was his odd eye.
Relis Gorgon always treated his adopted son candidates harshly. He didn’t care whether the children who dropped out suffered or died. Apophis still didn’t know where the bodies of the children who died then had gone.
“I should have died then too.”
“…What?”
“That was my original fate.”
When the adopted son candidates, which had started with dozens, suddenly dwindled to less than five. Apophis sensed that he would die. He felt he couldn’t endure the harsh training, starvation, and abuse any longer.
The other children weren’t in good condition either, and of course, they didn’t care about Apophis, their competitor. Rather, there was an atmosphere of welcoming it if he died, so Apophis sensed his end.
Until a moldy bread rolled into Apophis’s food slot while he was curled up in his cell-like room.
‘Eat.’
Only when he heard the voice did Apophis realize that the one who had given him the bread was none other than the boy with the ominous eyes in the room next to his. He was the child with the gloomiest aura among the adopted son candidates.
‘…Go away. Why are you giving this to me? It’s yours.’
‘Nothing here is mine.’
The reply was so cold it was resolute. Even so, when Apophis hesitated to take the bread, young Set casually spat out:
‘I didn’t come here to possess anything.’
‘…’
‘Is there anything truly mine besides death?’
It was a statement that deflated Apophis, who had been desperately trying to survive and claim the position of the duke’s adopted son, even if in name only. Wasn’t that something only someone who had never truly possessed anything could say?
Even Apophis, who came from a plague village, had ordinary parents until the plague struck the village. Every child who came here was the same. At least once, at least once in their lives, they had a happy memory and lived on, taking comfort in it.
But Set didn’t.
That child, born with the eye of misfortune, as if abandoned by the gods, possessed nothing.
“His Excellency was abandoned at an orphanage as soon as he was born. Then he was abused by the director and bullied by the other orphanage children.”
This is a story Yeon Ji-ho knows.
“And then he immediately entered the duke’s household. After only receiving harsh treatment from Relis Gorgon… the only person he met was the duke’s wife.”
This too is a story Yeon Ji-ho knows.
“The duchess was a kind but weak person. She couldn’t even think of protecting His Excellency from Relis Gorgon. But that shallow affection kept His Excellency alive.”
Surely these are all stories he knows from the novel… Strange. Why does his nose sting with pain, and why does his vision keep blurring? These stories that he had merely clicked his tongue at a few times when reading the novel.
“I can’t fully understand because I’m not His Excellency, and because I haven’t lived such an empty life. But one thing is clear.”
“…”
“Those who have been starving all along cling desperately to the first water and food they taste.”
For Set Gorgon, that was Yeon Ji-ho’s affection. The first taste of someone’s peaceful affection. The only warmth solely for him, not for anyone else.
Greed and obsession invariably start from hunger. They tightly grasp what they’ve barely gotten their hands on, trying to make it their own somehow. Not knowing that what they’re holding might be a balloon that could burst at any moment.
“Oh, my. Are you… crying? I’m sorry!”
Apophis, who hadn’t noticed Yeon Ji-ho crying beside him as he was talking, finally saw his face and panicked. As Apophis was searching for a clean cloth but couldn’t find one, scratching his head:
“Here.”
“…Your Excellency?!”
Suddenly, a large hand was thrust out beside Apophis. Apophis quickly turned around at the handkerchief gently placed on it. Set, his expression hidden in the darkness, was staring intently at Apophis.
“…Give it to Ji-ho.”
It seemed he couldn’t give it to Yeon Ji-ho directly, so he handed it to Apophis even though Yeon Ji-ho was right in front of him. Hesitating, Apophis took it and gently offered it to Yeon Ji-ho.
“Um, Mr. Ji-ho, His Excellency…”
“Please tell him to give it to me directly.”
“Ugh.”
Suddenly caught between the two, Apophis held his forehead. He was inwardly regretting that this is why one shouldn’t get between lovers.
