I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 109
As soon as dawn broke, Juhwan went out to check the rabbit traps he had set in the mountains. He was a bit worried because it had rained overnight. If he wasn’t careful, a rabbit caught in a snare could die from hypothermia. Nights in the mountains were freezing.
Fortunately, no rabbits had frozen to death. Perhaps because the mountains were untouched by humans, every snare he had set in various locations had caught a rabbit.
‘I thought maybe half of the snares would be full, but I didn’t expect to catch them all.’
However, one of them had only parts of its body remaining, as if something had eaten it.
It seemed that since the creature couldn’t undo the snare, it had devoured the rabbit right there. Most of the fleshy parts were gone, leaving only bones and fur.
A carcass torn apart so messily rendered the fur useless as well. It was a waste, but he had no choice but to throw it all away.
Juhwan removed the rabbit remains from the snare and meticulously covered the bloodstains with dirt.
He felt he should set the traps a bit further away. Though it wasn’t near the house, it would be wise to be more cautious with so many beasts around. No matter how reliable Oz and Yeonhwa were, one could never be too careful.
‘But there really is plenty to eat here.’
Even though spring had already begun on the plains, it was still winter in the mountains. It was less severe near the cabin because of the lower elevation, but the season remained firmly in winter once one stepped a little deeper into the forest.
If rabbits could be caught like this in the dead of winter, it would be even easier in the spring and summer. He might never starve just by finding the fruit trees that grew wild in the mountains.
‘With Oz and Yeonhwa, the house will be safe…’
These mountains, said to be uninhabitable because of the abundance of magic beasts, might actually provide the most comfortable environment for Juhwan.
Juhwan was also becoming increasingly accustomed to magic; he was now capable of a fair amount of control. He felt strong enough that he wouldn’t be bested by a magic beast if he were alone. At the very least, he could escape if things got dangerous.
Juhwan stood up, picking up the sack of rabbits. The rabbits, which had been lying still in the dark sack, seemed startled. They squirmed and moved as if trying to escape.
It was time to head home. Since he had only intended to check the rabbits, he hadn’t had breakfast yet.
Juhwan infused mana into some dust and scattered it around. Using the mana that spread out in a wide circle to detect his surroundings, he began to head back down toward the house.
Walking slowly along a different path than the one he had taken up, Juhwan expanded his detection range a bit further than yesterday.
A little more, a little more—he pushed the range to his absolute limit.
It was easy up to a certain point, but once he crossed that threshold, it required much more focus. It felt as though the concentration needed multiplied several times over as the range grew.
If he let his focus slip even slightly, the dust spread far and wide would immediately scatter and fall to the ground. Then, detection would become impossible.
Juhwan picked up more dirt and infused it with mana.
This was already the fifth time.
‘I wish I could use it more easily, but it’s not simple.’
Juhwan took a larger amount of dust, scattered it in all directions, and expanded his detection range again.
The range of his Mana Detection moved along with him in the direction he walked.
Today wasn’t much different from yesterday. His mana brushed past small animals, trees, and stones.
Occasionally, he felt something beneath the ground. It might be a mole or a snake. Unlike things on the surface, he couldn’t tell exactly what was underground. He could only occasionally sense that something living existed there.
“…”
Juhwan suddenly stopped in his tracks.
At the very edge of his mana’s reach, there was something different from before.
Because it was still far away, he couldn’t tell exactly where it was or what it was.
He couldn’t see it, but it was like a scent wafting toward him; he could only vaguely tell which direction it was in—north, south, east, or west.
Still, he could tell it wasn’t a small animal. He wouldn’t have been able to sense something small so clearly. It was something large.
Juhwan tensed slightly and quickened his pace. It was okay. There was no need to panic. Yeonhwa and Oz were at the house. As long as they were there, there was no need to worry about Riji and Dorothy being in danger, no matter what was in the mountains. It was fine.
He walked for a long time, but he still couldn’t pinpoint its exact location.
Mana Detection was like throwing a net while standing in pitch-black darkness with your eyes closed. He needed to get closer to determine the exact size and direction.
Gauging the direction, he wound his way through the mountain paths. Occasionally, he lost the presence entirely. When that happened, he would return to the original spot and track it again.
As he moved while gradually shifting the range of his mana detection, he finally drew close to them.
‘Ah, I’ve reached them!’
They were large. About Juhwan’s size, or perhaps a bit smaller.
Juhwan began to count the number of presences his mana detected.
’One, two, three…’
Maybe they were wolves. The wolves he had encountered were as large as humans.
Wolves were pack animals, so it was a possibility.
The speed of the detected targets was slow. They seemed to be standing still.
Counting the numbers in his head, Juhwan slowly began to run.
They weren’t beasts. They were humans.
Amidst his Mana Detection, he sensed inorganic objects as well.
They were likely swords or spears. Animals wouldn’t carry such things.
Humans were in these mountains. And not just one or two, but seven of them.
‘Who on earth would come into these mountains?’
This was the forest of magic beasts. Almost no one who knew that would enter.
He had heard that sometimes people came to abandon the elderly or children to reduce the number of mouths to feed, or occasionally entered at the risk of their lives when there was truly nothing left to eat.
‘Did they come to hunt magic beasts?’
Surely they weren’t soldiers, and seeing that they were armed, there was a possibility they were adventurers. It seemed there were parties among general adventurers, not just magic beast hunters, who hunted magic beasts if they were confident in their skills.
“…”
Come to think of it, the Guild had said they would contact him if anything came up.
Seeing people not far from the cabin, it seemed highly likely they were from the Guild.
However, feeling that something was somehow off, Juhwan ran down the mountain.
The Tairon Kingdom had been raising war funds by committing acts of banditry in various countries.
While those at the management level performing such tasks were often nobles, the ones beneath them were mostly rough, low-quality mercenaries or commoners.
Sometimes, a noble of the Tairon Kingdom would pretend to be a bandit, leading their family and subordinates after promising to share the spoils.
The organization he belonged to was a mix of nobles, mercenaries, and regular soldiers.
Since their Captain was a wind mage of considerable skill, their performance had been among the best.
He had planned to return home after working here for about another year.
In exchange for taking on the dirty work, his success upon returning to his home country had been promised.
Those at the leadership level were all slated to rise to certain positions, and the general members from mercenary and commoner backgrounds were to be given appropriate rewards.
Now, if he just waited a little longer, the sweetness of his bitter efforts was promised, but…
‘That rat-like merchant.’
Ever since their Captain was killed by a fire mage while raiding a merchant caravan of the Simoni Kingdom, and after being betrayed by the merchant Enri, who was responsible for escorting the goods, their organization had been on a downward spiral. No, they were tumbling headlong into ruin.
At first, they had planned to hide quietly for a while. However, the Border Count’s subjugation began. They were driven into a situation where they couldn’t stay hidden.
The Border Count who ruled the territories in this vicinity was a martial-type noble. He was also a mage who led his army into battle himself. He was a rough and cruel man. And he was a competent hound.
His bandit group was quickly pursued by the Border Count’s subordinates and pushed to the brink. His comrades and subordinates were killed, and the Deputy Commander himself fled with a handful of men.
However, because the Border Count’s men pursued them relentlessly, they couldn’t travel on the main roads.
Whether news of them had reached the entire territory or not, checkpoints were being set up everywhere, and the Border Count’s men continued to chase from behind. They had no choice but to escape using the mountains and forests.
The forest was a world of beasts and magic beasts. They moved only through the shallow parts of the forest as much as possible, but every night, several subordinates died. In the end, only seven remained, including himself. Everyone else was dead.
‘But if we pass through here, we can reach our home country safely.’
In terms of distance, it was still far, but there were no major dangerous cities in this direction. Most were small villages at best.
The Deputy Commander took a deep breath. The fastest way was to cut through the forest, but he didn’t have the guts to pass through its depths. He intended to move along the edge of the forest.
Once they reached this far into the outskirts, the Border Count’s men wouldn’t continue their pursuit. They didn’t have the luxury to move soldiers just to chase a few escapees. The probability of survival was high enough.
As they had always done, they just needed to raid a village close to the mountains to fill their bellies and let the men have their way with the women to quell their dissatisfaction.
The remaining subordinates were all former mercenaries. Mercenaries, who were essentially bandits to begin with, had excellent survival skills. While soldiers more skilled than them were dying, only the mercenaries tenaciously survived.
Though they were the type to act threateningly even toward him, the Deputy Commander, he needed their martial strength, and the mercenaries needed him to guarantee their rewards when they arrived in Tairon. To survive, they had no choice but to trust and rely on each other.
“Tch, what is this? There’s only one woman.”
One mercenary muttered and spat on the ground.
“Still, it looks like there’s quite a bit of food. When I peeked at the warehouse door earlier, there was a lot piled up.”
“Is this the time to be picky? We’re lucky there’s even one.”
The subordinate mercenaries snickered and laughed. However, everyone’s voices were exhausted.
The Deputy Commander straightened his weary body and fixed his gaze on the cabin visible in the distance.
In front of the small, humble house, a woman was washing something.
A small girl was moving back and forth nearby. Whether she was helping the woman or not, she would run to the woman with something small in her hand and then run somewhere else.
‘Anything is fine. As long as there’s something to eat.’
He had starved for so long that he didn’t even have thoughts of women. He just wanted to eat something. To the point where the woman and child looked like food. Right now, he felt like he could even eat a human.
“Deputy Commander, let’s go.”
“Doesn’t look like there’s a man in this house either. Well, not that a country bumpkin in the middle of a forest like this would matter anyway.”
“Fine, let’s go.”
It was just as the Deputy Commander was about to stand up. From somewhere, the sound of a horse’s neigh echoed.
“What…?”
Why would there be a horse’s neigh in a place like this? Just as he turned his head with that thought, he saw a man standing among the thick trees.
“Gah!”
The Deputy Commander’s eyes widened.
It was a very large man. Perhaps about two meters tall. But thanks to his bulging muscles, he looked even larger than he actually was.
However, the reason the Deputy Commander was shocked wasn’t because of the giant’s size. It was because he was a man he had seen before.
“T-t-that man!”
It was the fire mage who had been in the merchant caravan. The very man he had seen in the city of Modun when meeting the merchant Enri.
The Deputy Commander flailed his hands like a drowning man and backed away.
Goosebumps erupted all over his body, and the strength left his legs.
“What is it!”
“That guy?”
The subordinates gripped their weapons. They aimed them at the giant.
But it wouldn’t work. Those kinds of weapons wouldn’t work against him.
The memory of the massive fireball that man had unleashed came to mind. My god, if something like that flew at them, they would be roasted alive in an instant.
The Deputy Commander hurriedly turned around. He had to escape. He had to run while his subordinates held that man back for a moment.
He ran a few steps with the shouts of his subordinates behind him when something suddenly jumped out and blocked his path. For a moment, his vision went white.
Someone shouted from behind.
“Gah! It’s a unicorn!”
But he didn’t know what happened after that. Whether it was a real unicorn, or if his subordinates were turned into fireballs and died.
What the Deputy Commander saw were sleek, white horse legs raised high in the air and the slender belly of a horse.
The moment he saw that, a hard hoof struck his face with great force. The Deputy Commander fell backward and lost consciousness.
They seemed to be bandits. When Juhwan approached, they were just about to head toward the house.
Turning his head toward the house, he saw Oz standing near the boundary where the yard met the trees, watching this way.
Juhwan was able to find him because he already knew Oz was there.
If one didn’t know that a small horned rabbit lived in that house, one wouldn’t have easily seen Oz’s body among the bushes.
Dorothy was busy moving back and forth behind Oz, saying she was helping her mother.
These bastards had been watching those two and spewing filthy words, thinking of violating them.
“…”
He thought it was strange that he couldn’t see Yeonhwa, but he soon realized why. A white horn was standing still not far from the bandits. It seemed she had sensed their presence and arrived before Juhwan.
As expected, the house was safe with Oz and Yeonhwa there. They noticed the surrounding presence much more sensitively than Juhwan and protected Riji and Dorothy on their own.
Juhwan picked up a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it toward the men running at him. At the same time, he released mana from his hands. The mana emitted from his entire arm caught each grain of dirt and surrounded them.
‘They deserve to die.’
That’s what he thought. These were men who raped women, killed children, and tormented the helpless. They deserved to die.
There was a method he had thought of many times but hadn’t used until now.
It was to kill a living being by blocking the movement of air and stopping their breathing.
It was an idea that had occurred to him when Yeonhwa paralyzed the bandits last time.
If one could make people unable to move with poison, couldn’t one also kill them by stopping the flow of air with mana?
If that were possible, he could kill dozens or hundreds of enemies at once. With proper practice, he might even be able to kill thousands.
He could deal with numerous enemies just by using a little bit of mana.
This was a country at war. In a situation where one never knew what might happen, it was better to have as many methods as possible.
However, he had no reason to kill anything in such a way. He felt it was something he shouldn’t do to humans, and even toward beasts, he thought it was a pitiful thing to do.
But these bastards deserved to die that way.
Juhwan used the mana moving slowly in the air to envelop their faces. It felt like putting a plastic bag full of water over their heads.
And he stopped the mana right there. The densely packed mana touched their warm skin and completely blocked the flow of air.
The bandits tried to inhale, but it was useless. Their faces quickly turned ashen.
And a moment later, the bandits rolled their eyes back and collapsed to the ground one by one.
“…”
The method he had thought of was certainly effective. But he didn’t feel refreshed. Only a lingering sense of discomfort remained.
Juhwan picked up a stone rolling nearby and infused it with mana. He struck the ground lightly a few times. Along with a cloud of dust, a large pit was dug in an instant.
When he patted the back of the approaching Yeonhwa and praised her for a job well done, she circled Juhwan once as if pleased.
Then, she bit his clothes and pulled, lowering her body slightly.
“You want me to ride on your back?”
Hee-hee-ing.
“Without even a saddle…”
As Juhwan spoke, Yeonhwa suddenly bit his arm and tossed him upward as if throwing him. His large body was lifted surprisingly easily. Not only could she pull loads, but Yeonhwa’s jaw also seemed powerful. She was strong as an ox.
Having ended up on the unicorn’s back, Yeonhwa began to walk with light, rhythmic steps. Swaying back and forth, his body moved this way and that from the high vantage point. Unexpectedly, this was scary.
When he instinctively gripped her mane tight, Yeonhwa shook her mane as if laughing and let out a neigh.
It seemed he would have to make or buy a saddle. They said unicorns only let virgins on their backs, but that seemed to be all lies.
When they arrived at the house, Dorothy’s eyes went round, and they soon filled with tears.
“Dorothy wants to ride Yeonhwa too.”
Well, it’s dangerous, so you can’t. Even Daddy thought he was going to die of fright on her back. At any rate, it would indeed be best to prepare a saddle.
As he thought about such things, the lingering feelings of discomfort had somewhat vanished. Could it be that Yeonhwa had put him on her back for that reason?
When he glanced at Yeonhwa, the white unicorn had an expression as if she knew nothing, munching away at Dorothy’s hair. Amidst the sound of Dorothy’s giggling, Riji looked at him with a bright smile.
“Welcome back. Did you catch many rabbits?”
“Yeah.”
When he held out the sack, Riji took it with a joyful smile. Dorothy, shaking her spit-soaked hair, ran over and stuck her head into the sack.
“Rabbits!”
This time, let’s have Oz guard them well and try raising them so they don’t escape.
