NOVEL NEXT 01
01
In my house’s wardrobe
“I do not regret what I have done.”
On the pyre piled with straw at his feet, the man bound with ropes spoke softly with an expressionless face. There was not a hint of fear of death in his indifferent countenance.
Set Gorgon.
The man, called a devil of the ages, did not repent even in the face of death. Hadad spoke to the bound Set with a face full of anger.
“You will surely fall into hell.”
“Hell… Yes, I will wait for you there.”
The moment Set smirked briefly at Hadad, one of the soldiers set fire to the straw at his feet. The oil-soaked straw soon blazed fiercely like a wildfire.
Set Gorgon, even amidst the great flames, merely looked down at Hadad with an impassive face. He did not scream or close his eyes to escape the pain.
“I will probably never understand you, Set Gorgon.”
“That’s right.”
“Did you really have to make such a choice? Why, why…?”
In the end, it was Hadad who closed his eyes first. He recalled the pale, melancholic boy he had met long ago at the academy. Yes, there was a time when they had been friends.
Hadad was righteous. He was also honest. That is why he could not understand the man Set Gorgon.
Set slowly looked around the crowd and then spoke briefly just before being consumed by the flames.
“I just wanted to survive.”
I too wanted to be loved by someone…
His final mutterings were drowned out by the roaring flames, so no one could hear them. However, it seemed he did not wish for anyone to hear, as his face remained calm.
The devil of the ages, Set Gorgon, died like that. In the most devilish manner of all.
“Ah.”
The man lying on the sofa kept tapping the screen of his tablet, which refused to scroll down any further. He scratched his head and said,
“Is this really how it ends? No, Set dies like this?”
No way. The man, who had expressed his thoughts through his expression, tapped the tablet screen a bit more. Could this really be the end? He checked other readers’ reviews for confirmation.
Reviews
★☆☆☆☆ tls1***: Bring Set back
★★★☆☆ gaia***: It was good at the beginning, but the ending was rushed… so disappointing
★☆☆☆☆ jeus***: The ending is terrible tlqkf
As expected, there were many reviews expressing disappointment about the ending, just like him. As he read through the reviews, he too let out a voice of disappointment.
“Ah, I really liked that character after such a long time.”
He thought about leaving a review like the others, but when he saw his nickname starting with ‘yeon’, he held back. Instead, he simply said with a disappointed face,
“Still, I give five stars because of Set.”
He pressed the five-star rating without leaving any additional comments. Although he was disappointed with the ending of his favorite character, he rated it that way because the novel itself was enjoyable.
The novel “Hadad’s Star” was a romance genre, but it was a fantasy novel focused more on events than love. Thanks to that, the male lead Hadad and the antagonist Set took up 90% of the story, overshadowing the female lead Gliese.
“This is why villains with backstories are scary.”
Yeon Ji-ho, a ten-year web novel enthusiast, made that assessment of “Hadad’s Star.” In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the antagonist and villain, Set Gorgon, had driven most of the story.
Set Gorgon had a tragic backstory.
Abandoned at an orphanage for having odd eyes, he was adopted by the prestigious Gorgon Duke family due to the rarity of his eyes. He was abused throughout his childhood, and although he met Hadad at the academy, he ultimately could not defy the Duke’s orders and ended up opposing him.
Set Gorgon knew he could not win against Hadad. Nevertheless, he could not choose the right path because he craved the affection of the Duke’s deceased wife, who was also his adoptive mother.
“If Hadad had just paid a little more attention during our academy days, he could have been rehabilitated, right?”
It was true. Set during his academy days was not yet corrupted, and if someone had just cared a little more, they might have noticed the abuse. However, the male lead Hadad was too busy with his romance with the female lead Gliese to even notice.
“Ah, I’m really disappointed… I want to be reincarnated into the novel and save him. Really.”
Even though he knew it was nonsense, he felt that way. He was just too disappointed. The enthusiastic omega Yeon Ji-ho focused more on the backstory of his favorite character Set than on the love story between the male and female leads.
Yeon Ji-ho tapped the now unscrollable novel screen once more, even though he had already read the entire completed story.
“…Huh?”
But it was not the case. The tablet screen was filled with blank space, and when he scrolled down just in case, to his surprise, the scroll continued to move down. Yeon Ji-ho’s fingers moved busily.
Soon, words appeared on the screen.
「BEHIND STORY」
“There’s a side story?”
It definitely wasn’t there a moment ago. Did it just get uploaded?
Yeon Ji-ho scrolled down a bit more with a puzzled expression. To his amazement, there was the story about Set Gorgon that he had been longing for.
Just before being engulfed by the flames.
The sound of the roaring fire echoed in his ears. However, Set Gorgon, undeterred by the pain, stared intently at those in front of him.
Hadad, and Gliese.
Gliese was embracing Hadad, who could not bear to look at the flames.
Set thought. If he were to die, would there be someone who would mourn for him?
He wanted to be loved. The reason he tormented Gliese was not because he loved her, but because he envied the pure affection between her and Hadad. He envied that solid love that would not break even in the face of thunder and crashing waves, felt jealousy, and craved it.
“Mother.”
Set soon closed his eyes. Strangely, he did not feel pain from the flames that mostly engulfed his body. Perhaps he truly was a devil. Thus, he would not feel pain even in this hell.
“I have kept my promise to you.”
Not defying the wishes of his father, the Duke. The one wish his mother had hoped for. Having fulfilled that wish, his own wish…
Swallow.
Yeon Ji-ho was completely absorbed in the behind-the-scenes story written from Set’s perspective, hardly able to breathe. It was then that he scrolled down slowly, making sure not to miss a single word.
-Bang!
It was at that moment that Yeon Ji-ho, leaning against the sofa, jumped up as if struck by lightning. He turned his head in surprise to look in the direction of the sound.
It was definitely the sound of something breaking. However, there was no one else living in this house but Yeon Ji-ho, and since it was located on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province, unless someone knew him, there was no reason for anyone to come.
“…What is it?”
A thief?
In 21st century South Korea, it was hard to even hear about a thief breaking in on the news, but he had no other suspicions. After all, Yeon Ji-ho had been living as a recluse for so long that no one would come to visit him.
Contemplating, Yeon Ji-ho carefully took the baseball bat he had stored in the pantry and headed cautiously toward the bedroom.
It was a drizzly afternoon. Although it was still early to have dinner, the cloudy weather had already darkened the time. He stood in front of the bedroom door with a tense face and finally pushed the door open.
Before swinging the bat wildly, Yeon Ji-ho frowned at the smell of burning that touched his nose. What was that smell? There were no signs of a fire in the room, yet there was a burnt odor.
The darkened bedroom felt no different to Yeon Ji-ho. No, that wasn’t true. There was something different. Inside the wardrobe…
-Thud, thud.
“Is there… someone there?”
There was a sound coming from inside the wardrobe, as if something was knocking. Moreover, it seemed strangely like the wardrobe was shaking.
Just in case, he glanced at the window, but the tightly locked window showed no signs of someone having broken in. Then, could it be…
A ghost?
Yeon Ji-ho shivered with goosebumps. No way. There are no ghosts in this world. Even as he thought that, his heart raced wildly.
However, he could not ignore the persistent thud, thud coming from the wardrobe. Slowly approaching the wardrobe, Yeon Ji-ho steadied his trembling heart and placed his hand on the doorknob.
With a yank!
He grabbed both sides of the doorknob and pulled it open in one swift motion. And the moment the wardrobe door opened, a large, pitch-black something poured over Yeon Ji-ho’s entire body.
“…!”
When one is too surprised, they say no scream comes out. Yeon Ji-ho could only blink at the massive object that covered him. With the faint light coming from the living room, he could barely make out what the object was.
It was a person.
A man who had fallen out of the wardrobe and onto Yeon Ji-ho.
Just before the man collapsed into his arms, Yeon Ji-ho thought he had made eye contact with him. No, it was a certainty.
Because his two eyes were a striking blue and bright yellow odd eyes.