Chapter 181
Three days passed in a flash—of course, in Seong-Hwi’s mind, not in reality.
“Urgh,” Seong-Hwi groaned.
He felt dizzy because he had spent three days in another man’s life. The man’s name was Orpheus, a legendary bard in Greek mythology. Songs played from his golden lyre could move beasts and nature itself. He outplayed the Sirens during his adventure on the Argo, and even quelled a raging storm with his music.
However, he was more famous for his heartrending love story with his wife, Eurydice, who suffered a fatal bite from a viper. Devastated by her death, Orpheus traveled to the underworld to get her back.
His songs charmed Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, and Cerberus, a three-headed dog that guarded the gates of the underworld. They even stopped the spinning of Ixion’s fiery wheel. The eternal punishments of the underworld stopped as they listened to his song, and the goddesses of vengeance shed true tears, not tears of blood.
Orpheus ultimately beguiled Hades and his wife, Persephone, receiving their approval to take Eurydice with him, with the condition that Eurydice must follow behind him, and that he must not turn to look at her until they reached the upper world.
However, seeing daybreak after their long journey through the underworld, Orpheus turned around, unable to resist his desire to look at his beloved wife. His feelings of love took away his only love. Eurydice, who had yet to reach the upper world, turned into a spirit and vanished, and Orpheus was forbidden from seeing his wife ever again.
It’s killing me, Seong-Hwi thought.
He wanted to die, weighed down by an immense sense of despair. He wanted someone to tear him apart into tens of thousands of pieces.