I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 107
107. The Ability to Contaminate Emotions
During the day, Glenn handled matters requiring discussion or processed formal documents.
However, tasks like writing simple correspondence or verifying unofficial intelligence were saved for the desk in his bedroom after the sun went down.
Glenn, the Crown Prince of Tairon, placed the documents he had just finished reviewing into a box brought by an attendant and pulled out a new letter. It was from one of the royal women married off to other kingdoms.
Royal women living abroad sent letters back to their home country regularly. On the surface, they were merely letters of greeting intended to share news of their well-being, but when cross-referenced with surrounding circumstances, they often became sources of high-level intelligence.
Most of these letters passed through the censorship of the host country, but occasionally, some were sent secretly via envoys.
Reviewing these letters one by one and reporting the significant findings to his father, the King, was also part of the Crown Prince’s duties.
While he was deep into reading the letters and documents, his attendant spoke up quietly.
“The escort for the female Hero has arrived.”
“Ah.”
That woman. A sigh almost escaped him involuntarily. Glenn held his breath and forced a small smile onto his lips.
“Let him in.”
“…”
The attendant bowed silently, and almost simultaneously, the door opened. A draft entered, causing the candlelight on the desk to flicker.
“You’ve come.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The escort knight did not approach but stood quietly by the door.
The attendant whispered so only Glenn could hear.
“I understand he was in the female Hero’s room until a moment ago.”
It seemed he was standing there out of concern that he might have been affected by the female Hero’s ability. Glenn gave a bitter smile and beckoned the escort knight forward.
“Come closer. You receive blessings at the temple every day, so you are fine. You are also being checked by priests and mages frequently, so do not worry and come near.”
The escort knight glanced at the attendant. The attendant spoke in a low voice.
“His Highness the Crown Prince received a blessing at the temple today. Even if any of the female Hero’s power remains, he will not be affected.”
Only after hearing the attendant’s words did the escort knight finally move.
“Then, though it is presumptuous of me, I shall approach.”
The escort knight came forward and stood quietly before the desk.
“How is it?”
“This morning, the maidservant who served her most closely went mad. It appears she suspected a colleague of slandering her.”
“Any symptoms?”
“In her case, unlike others, there were no warning signs. She appeared perfectly normal on the outside, then suddenly suffered a breakdown.”
It was a headache. The female Hero’s ability was to drag out the negative emotions of others, contaminating and amplifying them. She drove everyone around her insane.
That female Hero always found the negative within others. She never accepted kindness as kindness, instead unearthing the tiny things hidden beneath the surface.
Doubt, ridicule, contempt, superiority, meanness, violence, malice…
She found the negativity hidden at the very bottom, things that even the person themselves hadn’t noticed.
No one in this world possesses only good emotions, but the female Hero refused to tolerate that truth.
“It is a loathsome ability.”
That power applied not only to others but to the female Hero herself. Because of it, she was always anxious, sad, and fearful, self-deprecatingly believing she was worthless. And that, in turn, affected those around her again.
‘I thought she simply had a vast amount of mana but hadn’t manifested an ability yet.’
Glenn clicked his tongue inwardly.
Until the first few people by her side went mad, no one had noticed. It was only after the palace’s Chief Mage discovered records of such a power existing in the past that measures were taken.
Glenn still found it hard to believe that such an ability actually existed.
Currently, they restricted the people allowed around her, and those by her side were given powerful blessings by priests every day.
However, as he had just heard in the report, even the blessings did not seem perfect. Occasionally, there were those who were significantly affected despite being blessed.
Glenn shifted his gaze to the attendant.
“How is the Hero? Does he seem to be affected by the female Hero?”
“At first, he seemed fine, but recently there have been signs that suggest he might be falling under her influence. There were reports that the women assigned to him have become somewhat coarse in personality.”
“…”
“However, it is not certain. We cannot distinguish whether it is because he has come to this world or if it truly is the influence of the female Hero.”
“I see.”
Glenn fell into thought for a moment before speaking.
“Prepare to move her to the detached palace. I don’t know what will happen in the future, but we cannot leave things like this. If more people go mad, rumors will begin to spread.”
“Understood.”
The attendant bowed his head.
Glenn looked at the escort knight.
“You must continue to soothe the female Hero. Do not give her any reason to doubt. Everyone else has failed. You are the only one whose negative emotions haven’t been detected.”
“Understood, Your Highness.”
After the escort knight bowed and withdrew, Glenn sank deep into his chair and closed his eyes.
‘As I thought, those people are not Heroes.’
But they weren’t Santa contractors either. They still hadn’t been able to produce a Rudolph. His father, the King, didn’t seem to have given up yet, but Glenn was certain it wouldn’t work.
‘Moving corpses, contaminating negative emotions…’
There was no way such people could be Heroes or Santa contractors.
Juhwan let out a groan and crossed his arms.
After arriving at the cabin, the first thing he did was clear away the dust that had settled over the entire house and the clutter scattered across the floor.
At a glance, the cabin he hadn’t used for a while looked clean, but a closer inspection of every nook and cranny revealed it was full of dust and insect carcasses.
There were mouse droppings, of course, and even the dried-up remains of centipedes.
He learned after coming here that when a centipede dries out, it curls into a ball and becomes hard as a stone. At first, he didn’t even think it was a bug; he thought it was some kind of totem or decoration. In a way, it almost looked pretty—until he realized what it was, which made it a bit gruesome.
“…”
A small sigh escaped Juhwan’s lips.
Various parts of the building had holes gnawed into them by mice or moles. It was the same for the shed next to the cabin.
If he left food in the house or the shed, it would become mouse feed in an instant. It would be like spending a fortune just to give alms to the vermin.
“This is going to be a bigger job than I thought,” Juhwan muttered.
Riji, who had been busy sweeping and wiping, straightened her back slightly and spoke.
“…”
Juhwan looked up at the sky. The sun was already setting. It was time to prepare a place to sleep.
“…”
He wasn’t looking from the outside. He was looking at the sky from inside the house.
‘The sky feels so close. I guess it’s because we’re in the mountains.’
It was a strange feeling.
In city buildings or two-story houses, it was different, but among the flimsy single-story houses in the village, many had holes in their ceilings.
He’d heard there were such things as chimneys, but installing one in a house was said to be extremely expensive. So, most single-story houses just had a hole in the ceiling to let the smoke out.
However, the smoke hole in this cabin was a bit large. Quite large, actually. Honestly, it was big enough that if it rained, water would pour in and put out the fire and everything else.
‘How on earth did my mother and father live in a house like this?’
He had seen it back in the village—some houses had wood or leather coverings over the smoke holes in the ceiling, like umbrellas.
This house needed that too. No, it was a necessity.
“Riji, let’s rest for today.”
Riji stood awkwardly, unable to fully straighten her back. She had been moving around diligently without a single break, and it seemed her back was aching.
“Um, but…”
Riji’s eyebrows drooped as she looked at the house. True, looking at the state of the interior, one wouldn’t feel like resting even if they wanted to. But…
“It doesn’t look like a job that’ll be done in a day or two. Let’s take it slow.”
When Juhwan said that, Riji’s shoulders slumped a little. It seemed she also realized they had a long road ahead of them.
Dorothy was running around the house with a broom made of bundled twigs, kicking up dust everywhere.
In her own way, she was cleaning, but in reality, she was just moving dust from one spot to another. Still, seeing her working so hard to help her mother, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her she was just making things dusty.
Seeing Juhwan and Riji stop working, Dorothy wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and came running over.
“Mom, Dad! Is it break time? Dorothy is so tired too. Phew, I need to rest.”
The sight of her panting for breath was adorable. Juhwan picked Dorothy up and ruffled her hair with his fingers.
“Yeah, good job. Let’s stop for today and do the rest tomorrow.”
“Okay!”
In the fire pit located in the center of the house, water with jerky in it was boiling. Riji smiled at Juhwan and Dorothy and added various stew ingredients to the water. After adding dried vegetables, spices, and salt and letting it boil for a while, a fragrant aroma spread throughout the cabin.
Just then, Yeonhwa’s cry was heard from outside. It seemed Yeonhwa, who had disappeared somewhere as soon as they arrived at the cabin, had finally returned.
“Dorothy will go see!” Dorothy shouted and ran outside. Oz followed her, hopping along.
However, Dorothy, who had gone out, came running back in almost immediately.
“Dad! Yeonhwa caught a bird! The bird is flapping!”
“Huh?”
When he went outside, Yeonhwa was holding a wild pheasant in her mouth.
The pheasant wasn’t dead yet; it was half-alive. Since there were no wounds, she had likely captured it by paralyzing it. One side was fine, but the other seemed paralyzed. One wing flapped occasionally.
“A horse catching a bird… what kind of hunting horse is this?”
He was a bit dumbfounded, but this might be normal for a unicorn. Even though she looked like a horse, she was ultimately a creature that hunted and ate Magic Beasts and animals.
When she saw Juhwan, Yeonhwa dropped the pheasant on the ground. She nuzzled her face against his body as if acting spoiled. Yeonhwa’s tail wagged back and forth. Was she perhaps expecting praise?
“Right, right. Good job.”
Juhwan praised her by lightly patting her neck, but for some reason, she seemed to be waiting for something more. When Juhwan didn’t understand, Yeonhwa used her horn to push the pheasant to his feet.
‘Ah, maybe.’
He remembered a story he’d heard while working part-time in manual labor. One of the workers had grown up in the countryside and said he used to follow shotgun hunters around when he was young.
According to him, Jindo dogs hunt instinctively even without special training, but they must be trained so that when they catch prey, the owner must always make the first cut before the dog is allowed to eat. He said that was the basic rule of handling a hunting dog.
Perhaps Yeonhwa was expecting the same.
Juhwan peeked at Yeonhwa’s reaction as he picked up a knife and touched it to the pheasant. Yeonhwa’s eyes sparkled. It seemed his guess was right.
Juhwan looked at Dorothy. Normally, showing a child an animal being killed was something to avoid. However, after Riji spoke about Dorothy’s future, Juhwan had changed his mind slightly.
Do not treat this child by the universal standards of Earth. This child must survive this harsh world on her own.
Moreover, this child already knew much of the world’s cruelty. Juhwan decided that what he should do for the child was not to hide and cover up the grim reality, but to teach her to see it correctly. He couldn’t hide the world with his palm forever.
Juhwan lightly stroked Dorothy’s head.
“Dorothy, you shouldn’t kill animals for no reason. That’s a bad thing. But if there’s a time when you absolutely must kill, you have to do it quickly so they don’t suffer.”
Dorothy swallowed hard and nodded.
“Okay, Dad!”
“…”
Juhwan placed the knife against the pheasant’s neck and made a quick cut. The already weakened pheasant quickly breathed its last. After carving a bit of meat from the pheasant and offering the large portion, Yeonhwa took it, shaking her mane happily.
Riji took the small portion. Though it wasn’t much, she intended to wash it well and add it to the stew.
“Well done.”
When he patted her neck, Yeonhwa’s tail swished back and forth in delight.
“But Dad, Oz says he’s sad.”
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Juhwan looked toward the corner and saw Oz sitting behind the door with his ears drooping.
“Piii.”
Apparently, Oz was sad that Yeonhwa received praise for hunting while he hadn’t. Dorothy tapped Oz’s head and said, “It’s okay, Oz. It’s because you’re small. You can’t hunt because the pheasant is bigger. To bring a pheasant back, you have to have a really big body.”
That didn’t seem quite right.
Still, it must have been some comfort to Oz, as the small horned rabbit tilted its head and let out a little “Piii.”
