The Road to Glory Chapter 133 - The Sun Rises in Venice

“I can’t see them.”

Halo turned around in a full circle.

Through the sunglasses-like spectacles, he could only see a world drained of color, but the familiar faces were nowhere to be seen.

And no sound either.

He closed his eyes and listened carefully, but no Korean could be heard. Italian, Spanish, English, Chinese, and all sorts of languages and music filled the air.

Festival music is always joyful. Halo smiled as he listened to the lively tunes.

Everyone had scattered, but there was no need to worry.

They were all adults, not the type to get lost in an unfamiliar travel destination. If necessary, they could contact each other by phone. Everyone knew the way back home.

So Halo walked wherever his feet took him.

There were quite a few people dressed as Medico della Peste. It was apparently one of the popular costumes, so duplicates were inevitable.

Halo spotted another Medico della Peste, dressed like him in a black coat and black suit. The man, carrying a large guitar case on his back and holding the white cane of the plague doctor, was staggering with his hand on his stomach.

The man slowly approached Halo, who was leaning against a wall.

“Where’s the bathroom? Emergency!”

“The bathroom is just around this corner.”

“Oh, thank you! … Oh my, comrade!”

When Halo pointed to the bathroom sign, the man looked up to greet him and then exclaimed upon seeing the similar outfit.

He was about to turn the corner but hesitated.

The narrow bathroom, and he had a lot of luggage.

Seeing his guitar and cane, and his full hands, the man handed the cane to Halo.

“Please hold this for a moment!”

“?”

“Please! I’ll be right back, ugh-. Next time, I should never drink before a performance.”

At that moment, the man’s stomach growled.

As if sensing some signal, the man hurried off, his rear end sticking out.

From entrusting the cane to shouting about an emergency situation, it seemed he had a bad case of indigestion.

The fact that he didn’t leave his guitar behind showed that he still maintained some presence of mind, right?

“…”

Since Halo was just taking a break anyway, he nodded vaguely. The man’s face brightened, and he dashed around the corner.

Just before the door slammed shut, the man’s voice, almost like a scream, called out:

“That thing’s not worth much! I got it second-hand!”

“…I don’t need it.”

It sounded like he was saying it was okay to steal it, but Halo had no interest in coveting other people’s belongings. How much could this thing cost anyway? Halo gripped the cane and rested it on the ground.

He waited like that for a while.

No matter how long he waited, the man didn’t come out.

It felt like he had waited for twenty or thirty minutes. Had the man gone to build a bathroom, or had he drowned in it?

Halo was about to turn to the corner where the man had entered, thinking of just leaving the cane leaning against the bathroom door. At that moment,

“Peter!”

Someone grabbed Halo’s arm from behind.

It was a man in an elaborate clown costume.

He shouted, panting.

“Hey! I’ve been looking everywhere for you! I thought you’d drowned in the toilet. Didn’t I tell you to go easy on the booze?”

“?”

“If you’re done, let’s hurry!”

The man pulled Halo forcefully.

Confused by what was happening, Halo stood his ground, causing the man to slap his back repeatedly.

“Come on, we’re late. It’s our first time applying for this, you know. Even if you’re nervous, you have to perform well. We practiced so hard! Let’s go!”

“Performance?”

Unfortunately, the man seemed not to have heard Halo’s voice over the crowd noise.

He dragged Halo into the crowd by force.

Halo glanced back and then looked at the clown.

It seemed there was some misunderstanding.

“Wait a moment.”

A trumpet sounded loudly from the side, drowning out his voice.

He tapped the clown, but the clown went ahead, seemingly annoyed.

Halo chuckled and followed him obediently. This absurd situation would be resolved as soon as the man who went into the bathroom returned, and he was curious about what this ‘performance’ was.

He thought he could just say no when they reached a less crowded area.

Since he followed willingly, the clown stopped pulling him forcefully.

The place where the clown took him was the pier.

There were far more gondolas there than Halo had seen since coming to Venice.

It was as if all the gondolas in Venice had been gathered in one place.

The only difference was that these gondolas were elaborately decorated.

Halo then realized that these gondolas were going to be part of a parade.

The clown led him to one of the gondolas.

“I can’t believe we’re doing something like this.”

His voice was a mix of tension and excitement.

“We could never have done this normally. The mask is a bit cumbersome, but I guess it’s good in a way. It feels like I’ve become someone else, not myself. With my face covered, it feels like I can do anything.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. Even if I make a mistake, no one will know it’s me. They’ll just think it was some clown…”

The clown paused.

He noticed that the voice of the Medico della Peste talking next to him was different from the one he knew. The Peter he knew had a raspy voice, if anything, not this clear tone. The clown jumped and asked:

“Who are you?!”

“The wrong person you brought along.”

Halo folded his arms.

At that moment, the clown realized his mistake.

Although his complexion couldn’t be seen due to the face paint, Halo could tell that his expression had instantly turned serious.

“Oh, no. But you look exactly like Peter. That cane too-“

Halo remembered the person who had entrusted him with the cane. So that’s who he had been mistaken for, that Medico della Peste.

“Wh-what should we do? We need to board the gondola in five minutes. Where the hell did Peter go?”

The clown’s face contorted as if he was about to cry.

“Does Peter know where this place is?”

“Yes, he has to. We’ve scouted this place several times.”

“Then we should wait. We can’t go back now.”

“…Right. Peter will come, won’t he?”

Halo conversed calmly with the clown.

It was so natural that the event organizer came over to tell them to prepare to board the gondola.

“M-MJ will be waiting.”

“Who’s MJ?”

“! Haven’t you even watched Spider Man? I mean, Peter’s girlfriend. We call Juliet ‘MJ’. Peter said he was going to give an inspired performance to Juliet and propose. There’s even a bouquet on the boat.”

“…”

Halo, not knowing what Spider Man was, kept his mouth shut for a moment.

He couldn’t understand what connection there was between Julia, MJ, and Spider Man.

“Wh-what if he doesn’t come?”

The clown, apparently thinking that the person he had mistakenly brought was some kind of counselor, asked desperately. By then, the [Please board] announcement was already playing.

Halo said nonchalantly:

“Then I’ll do it for him.”

“Do you know how to play the guitar?”

“Well, if it’s a song I know?”

The clown belatedly registered the guitar case he was carrying.

Yes, he had confused him with Peter because of the cane, guitar case, and plague doctor costume. But looking again, the luxurious guitar case with a butterfly engraved on it was clearly not Peter’s. How did he mix them up?

The clown blamed himself for his stupidity.

“You must know the song. It’s a very famous one.”

The clown whispered.

Halo’s eyes gleamed as he listened quietly.

“You know it, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you smiling?”

“Just… because it’s fun.”

What’s fun about this?

The clown tilted his head.

Eventually, the clown nervously chewed his nails as he boarded the gondola. He asked Halo, unsure of what to do, “Can you really play?”

“Where’s my seat?”

Unaware of the clown’s racing heart, Halo looked around. The clown pointed to the bow.

The bow of the boat. The most visible spot.

“Be careful not to fall.”

“Ben, is something wrong?”

“Who’s that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Where’s Peter?”

“I don’t know, that bastard probably drowned in the toilet.”

Question marks appeared on the faces of the team members who boarded the gondola with the clown’s words.

Someone whispered, “Is this right?” But the gondolas in the front row were already starting to move. Whatever.

They were wearing masks anyway. What’s the worst that could happen? Appearing on the news? The clown swore that when this parade was over, he would throw Peter, who would undoubtedly appear nonchalantly, into Venice’s dirty canals.

And so the boats moved forward along the waterway.

The lights around the canal began to turn on one by one.

The lanterns placed on the boats were lit as well.

The first day of the Venice Carnival.

The sun was slowly setting.

The crowds that had been so numerous during the day were now entering restaurants or lodgings.

A pierrot started beating a conga drum with his hands.

The clown played an accordion. The joker blew on a pan flute.

The plague doctor standing at the bow of the boat threw the guitar case onto the deck and picked up the guitar. He cradled a beautiful non-linear guitar with an elegant H engraved on it.

“Dad! Look at that! A crow is holding a guitar.”

A child perched on his father’s shoulders pointed at the strange combination, and as the child’s parents were about to pass by, correcting him, “It’s not a crow, it’s a Medico della Peste,” at that moment.

Along with the sound of an acoustic guitar, a clear voice echoed through the Venetian canals.

The brightly smiling couple thought the voice was familiar for a moment, then their expressions slowly hardened. When they turned their heads, the boat was already drifting along the canal’s waves.

The gondolier lazily rowing lifted his head.

A black silhouette was splitting the horizon where the sun was setting in half.

The black coat fluttered in the wind, and his song flowed into the Venice Cathedral.

“I hear a Halo song somewhere.”

“Isn’t someone playing it?”

“Um… doesn’t it sound a bit different?”

“…!”

In a restaurant where soft classical music was playing.

People eating on the second-floor terrace soon jumped up and grabbed the railings that blocked them.

Although a big accident behind them had created gaps between the gondolas, the leading gondola was still gliding smoothly forward.

They watched in awe, and at the same time, people began to gather one by one.

“…Haeil?”

Halo didn’t stop singing when he saw Han Jinyeong standing with a foreign couple.

“Can you see? The gondola parade is in progress, wrapping up the first day of the carnival.”

An anchor from a local Venice broadcasting station was reporting the festival situation live. People with cameras gave a thumbs up, and the anchor pointed to the gondolas crossing the canal.

“On the horizon, the sun…”

The anchor paused for a moment at the sound of the song.

It was because a HALO song could be heard from somewhere.

The sound slowly drew closer, and the anchor, thinking someone had turned on a music player, turned her head towards the source of the sound.

“The sun…”

More than three seconds of silence. It was a broadcasting accident, but the anchor’s head was already following the gondola.

“The sun…”

“Ha…lo?”

The voice of the anchor wearing The Sun necklace trembled.

No one could blame her. Even the camera followed one gondola instead of the anchor, and even the sound system tilted towards the canal.

The plague doctor standing at the bow turned to look at them for a moment.

Black glass spectacles reflected them.

For some reason, they were so tense they couldn’t even breathe. Just when time seemed to have stopped, the plague doctor looked forward again, and time began to flow.

“Halo!”

The anchor, who had been blankly watching his actions, dropped her microphone on the ground and started running.

The gondola was too far ahead for them to follow.

And,

There was a procession of people urgently chasing after the gondola.

Regardless of who was chasing, Halo sang freely.

-It feels like I’ve become someone else, not myself. With my face covered, it feels like I can do anything. Even if I make a mistake, no one will know it’s me. They’ll just think it was some clown who made a mistake.

He seemed to understand what the clown’s earlier words meant.

It had been a long time since he had heard the session’s performance,

But Halo sang the song he knew best without caring.

He spread both arms, savoring the wind and the beautiful sunset.

As the boat approached land where it could dock, Halo leaped off.

Turning around, he saw the clown, joker, and pierrot looking at him with dumbfounded expressions. Their eyes wide open and mouths agape, they looked so silly that even bugs wouldn’t eat them.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I had fun today.”

“Uh, um…”

Halo greeted those who had given him this enjoyable experience and ran up the stairs. In the distance, lights began to flicker. It was the procession chasing Halo. Before the lights could get closer, Halo entered an alley.

The golden-caged butterfly glinted in the darkness.

Those who had been blankly watching him slowly disappear could no longer see Halo’s back as the boat drifted away.

[Massive Chain Collision of Gondolas on First Day of Carnival]

A news article reported that dozens of gondolas had collided, people had fallen into the canals, and the festival had been devastated, but it was overshadowed by another article.

Not just in the local Venice newspaper, but all over Italy.

No, breaking news appeared worldwide.

[The Sun Rises at Venice Festival]

[Mysterious Plague Doctor Appears at Carnival!]

[Cause of Massive Chain Collision of Carnival Gondolas (No Injuries)]

On the front page of newspapers, internet articles, public broadcasts, local broadcasts.

One sentence appeared everywhere.

[HALO Appeared]

Halo reveals himself!