107
Apophis finished tying the rope around Set’s ankles with an expressionless face. The sound of the rope being tightened echoed clearly in Apophis’s ears. At that moment, Set’s voice came from above his head.
“Apophis.”
“…Yes.”
“Perform the binding magic.”
At those words, Apophis couldn’t help but close his trembling eyes. In fact, even while tying Set to the stake, he had been thinking to himself. He thought that when it came to the moment of death, Your Excellency, who had reached the level of a Sword Master, would escape on his own.
However, Set truly intended to die here. Even for Set, once Apophis cast the binding magic in earnest, it would take time to escape. Then, surviving unscathed from the rapidly burning flames would be nearly impossible.
As Apophis couldn’t bring himself to use magic against his lord, Chronos, who had been watching from the side, finally stepped forward. Chronos looked at Set’s gaunt face and said:
“Your Excellency… Do you really have to go this far?”
“Yes.”
“What if, what if you really die like this, Your Excellency? What about Ji-ho, who will be left alone? What about your child in Ji-ho’s womb?”
Chronos calmly tried to persuade Set. In fact, these were the same words he had been saying up until just before they came to this place. But Set hadn’t listened to any of it.
“Chronos. Do I look like I want to die to you?”
Set looked directly into Chronos’s eyes, who was looking up at him from one step below. In his eyes, a flame that hadn’t even been lit yet was burning vividly. It wasn’t the look of someone who wanted to end their life here, who had given up everything.
“I’m going to live.”
“…”
“But if, if by any chance things go wrong and I die…”
Set’s lips curved slightly upward. He looked around at Apophis and Chronos, as well as Isquis and Shango who were standing quietly, with an expression they had never seen before. He spoke softly:
“Protect Ji-ho.”
“…Your Excellency.”
“I know it’s a shameless request. You might hate or resent me for bringing you all here with my own hands and not taking responsibility to the end.”
Unlike his previous execution, Set’s clothes weren’t torn or damaged anywhere. Though he had grown thin, his neat hair, the epaulettes adorning his shoulders, the fluttering cape, and his undamaged shoes – he was bound to the stake as the most perfect ‘Duke Gorgon’ he had ever been.
Perhaps that’s why Set didn’t look like someone about to be executed.
“Still, I ask one last time. If I die here, protect Ji-ho. This is not an order.”
Shango quietly bowed his head at Set’s words. Isquis turned his head sideways, unable to hide his reddened eyes.
Apophis, who had silently inhaled, lightly waved his hand. Chain-shaped binding magic rose into the air and wrapped around Set’s body. Soon, Set’s body was tightly bound by invisible chains.
Finally, it was Chronos who moved. He raised two ordinary flints.
Before striking the two flints together, Chronos looked up at Set one last time. He saw Set looking down at him with an expressionless face. Chronos considered this a blessing.
Because it wasn’t the face of someone who had accepted death.
“Your Excellency.”
“…”
“Please, go safely.”
It wasn’t a farewell saying “come back.” Nor was it a comforting word for someone dying. It was simply a greeting for someone about to depart.
Chronos was inexplicably certain. If it was the Set he knew, he would surely be able to reach Yeon Ji-ho through the great flames.
He had always been a man forsaken by the gods, but somehow this time felt different. For the first time, Chronos prayed to the gods that his fate would guide him where he needed to be.
Tak, tadak, tak…
With a brief flash like lightning, sparks flew from the flints. The spark, smaller than a fingernail, began to spread as soon as it touched the straw pile at Set’s feet. The fire, which quickly grew in size with a whoosh, finally reached Set’s feet.
“…”
Set, bound to the stake, remained silent as he watched all of this. Then he recalled his first execution. That day, under a cloudy sky, citizens gathered in the square in small groups to watch his execution ceremony.
What did he think then?
Ah. He remembered. Just before dying, he had made a wish. It was a very absurd wish.
For someone to… love him.
At times, that someone was his adoptive mother, sometimes it was Gliese, and sometimes it was an unnamed person. Perhaps it didn’t matter to him. Whoever loved him, he was just thirsty for love.
But not anymore. Set no longer needed anyone else’s love. As the flames that engulfed his ankles now spread to his calves, Set whispered without even feeling the pain:
I don’t wish for anything else.
Even if I have to give up everything, it doesn’t matter, God.
If only one thing could be given to me…
“Please give me Ji-ho.”
Eventually, the flames engulfed Set’s entire body. Apophis, who had been watching the stake from a step away, finally couldn’t bear to watch till the end and turned his head sideways. He couldn’t bring himself to witness the end of his superior.
“Your Excellency!”
However, Apophis’s head soon turned back at Chronos’s astonished voice. The same was true for Shango and Isquis who were with him.
“…!”
When the flames that had spread like wildfire soared into the air and came back down, the stake was empty. Only the untied ropes indicated that someone had been there.
***
Even as the great flames devoured his body, Set strangely felt neither pain nor fear. This was so even though he had no lingering attachment to life, unlike during his first execution.
Was it because he could only think about somehow surviving and going to meet Yeon Ji-ho? Whenever the thought of Yeon Ji-ho waiting for him alone in the hospital crossed his mind, Set couldn’t help but think that even if he wanted to die, he had to live somehow.
When he closed his eyes and opened them again, all he saw was darkness. And there was a familiar scent.
Set’s heart pounded breathlessly as if someone was beating a drum inside it. The difference from last time was that thanks to the half-open wardrobe, he didn’t need to wait for someone to open it while trapped in a narrow space.
Set burst out of the wardrobe as if breaking it. A creaking sound came from the hinges of the old wardrobe.
“…Ji-ho?”
The longed-for scent of acacia was coming from everywhere. Thanks to this, Set called out Yeon Ji-ho’s name, thinking for a moment that he was right in front of him, but then closed his mouth again. Yeon Ji-ho wasn’t in the room.
Instead, what he saw was a pile of his own clothes filling the bed. They were all things that Yeon Ji-ho had bought for him.
“…”
He could immediately guess how Yeon Ji-ho, who had always said he was fine and that nothing was wrong, must have been living. He must have barely gotten through the nights, holding clothes that no longer had any scent, having lost their owner long ago.
Eventually, Set slowly left the room and headed to the living room. Despite it being bright daylight outside, a living room without a speck of light was waiting for Set. Set slowly approached the window.
Traces of several locks added on top of the original double windows were visible. Unlike before, the curtains had changed to blackout ones that didn’t let any sunlight through. How long had he been in this pitch-black darkness, with these thick curtains drawn as if to shut out the outside world?
Set stood in the middle of the living room and slowly looked around, turning only his head. Yeon Ji-ho’s house, which had always maintained cleanliness, was somewhat messy. There was nothing inside when he opened the refrigerator, and a thin layer of dust had settled on the unused tableware.
It was different from Set’s memory of Yeon Ji-ho’s house. It was no longer the place where warm sunlight poured in, always filled with a peaceful and tranquil energy. Instead, only a desperate desire to live, as if running away from something, remained.
Set, with his mouth closed and face lowered, approached the entrance this time. The more than three inner locking devices showed a glimpse of desperation. It was a trace of struggling, trying to live, trying to escape from something somehow.
Set’s fingers, touching his own face, began to tremble with anger.
Yeon Ji-ho, who had lived so smoothly until meeting him, now had only one reason to hide from something.
Hadad.
He had been holding his lover’s neck while Set was away.
