I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 112
112 Does It Have to Do with My Mother and Father?
Why hadn’t he noticed until now?
Juhwan looked up at the sky as he walked toward the house. Set against the blue expanse, towering trees filled the space.
“….”
Looking up at the tips of the trees reaching toward the sky, there were far more Zentangle vines than he had thought.
At the very edge of his vision high above, round, coiled vines shaped like snail shells hung from the trees like fruit.
‘Surely they didn’t settle up there because they know people don’t usually walk around with their heads tilted back.’
Plants use various methods to avoid the eyes of predators or to attract bees and butterflies.
He had heard there were even plants that lived as parasites, stealing nutrients from trees. Parasitic plants. He had seen them somewhere before. He remembered thinking it was a remarkably cunning way for a plant to live.
If plants could adapt to their surroundings in such diverse ways, it was certainly possible for them to grow in high places to avoid the eyes of humans or beasts.
‘Are these things alive, too?’
He often forgot that plants were living organisms. He tended to think of them as inanimate objects that simply bore fruit and scattered seeds. But yes, these things were alive and moving, too, thinking desperately for the sake of survival.
As he walked along the forest path, a coiled vine brushed against his body. Juhwan stopped in his tracks instinctively.
He stared at the Zentangle vine that had touched him.
He felt a strange sensation and reached out to touch it, but the feeling he’d had a moment ago was already gone.
‘Was it an illusion?’
For a moment, it felt as if the vine were speaking to him.
Just then, Riji’s voice drifted from the direction of the house.
“Juhwan! Juhwan! Are you there?”
“Yeah, Riji.”
Juhwan spun around and began to run toward the house.
As he rushed back, he saw Riji standing a little way into the forest path, just past the yard. She looked anxious, her face pale.
“What’s wrong?”
When he asked in surprise, Riji reached out and gripped his clothes tightly. Tears pooled in her eyes instantly. Her beautiful eyes were blurred, drowning in the swelling moisture.
“You… you didn’t come back… I kept waiting and you didn’t come… and then Yeonhwa came back alone….”
“…Who? Where’s Dorothy?”
Yeonhwa wasn’t by Riji’s side. However, the unicorn was standing not far away, watching her. She flicked her tail slowly, watching as if it had nothing to do with her.
There was no sign of danger anywhere. If Dorothy were missing or in peril, Yeonhwa certainly wouldn’t look so peaceful.
“Dorothy is… sleeping. She’s been tired lately. But….”
“….”
The tears gathered in Riji’s eyes rolled down her cheeks.
“So much time passed and you didn’t come… this place is dangerous… much more dangerous than the mountain before… and you didn’t come even though it was past the time you always return….”
Her voice broke between breaths. The fingers gripping his hem were white with strain.
“I’m sorry, Riji. I worried you. I’m truly sorry. I happened to see a Magic Beast and was late because I was tracking it.”
“…I was worried.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I was wrong, Riji.”
As he held her gently, she finally seemed to find some peace. The tension left her body, and she leaned against him slightly.
Because he had been processing the hide and meat of the Magic Beast, a foul odor clung to him. Although he had used mana to keep it away from his body as much as possible while working, it was impossible to avoid the scent entirely.
Moreover, the smell of the decaying corpse from the cave still lingered. The scent of rot seemed to cling more easily and persist longer than anything else.
Concerned about the smell, he tried to pull away, but Riji still held his clothes in a tight grip.
She was squeezing so hard it looked painful. Juhwan gently pried her fingers away one by one.
“Riji, I’ve become very strong. I won’t get hurt like I used to. A common Magic Beast can’t even touch me.”
He spoke lightly, trying to lift the heavy mood, but Riji didn’t smile.
“I know… I know….”
After saying that, she clung to his chest again.
“….”
A terrifying place called the Forest of Magic Beasts where no people dared to enter. Though she had never shown fear before, perhaps Riji had been thinking of this forest that way all along. She smiled when they were together, but perhaps she had been worrying like this every time Juhwan entered the forest alone.
As he patted her back gently, Riji spoke in a small voice.
“…It’s okay to be late. As long as you come back safely, I can wait forever.”
“….”
Somehow, those words sounded incredibly pitiable.
After standing like that for a moment, Juhwan took Riji’s hand.
“Let’s go inside. As you can see, I caught a Magic Beast. Skinning it is the same as any other animal, but the hide seems to get very stiff the moment it’s off. If I don’t treat it quickly, it’ll turn into something like a centipede shell.”
“Hehe.”
Riji finally laughed. Clutching Juhwan’s finger with her small hand, she spoke.
“That’s how Magic Beast hides are. That’s why they’re harder to handle than regular leather. I heard that if you make a vest out of it, even arrows can’t pierce it. That’s why it’s so expensive.”
Ah, so that was why.
Juhwan grinned.
Sometimes, when his back was turned, he could feel Riji quietly tracing his body with her eyes. Occasionally, she would hug him from behind as if on purpose.
At first, he thought she had finally grown accustomed to their life together and her desires had awakened, but he soon realized that wasn’t it. Her eyes were too clear. There was no trace of being consumed by pleasure. Well, he had known from the start that it was just his own wishful thinking anyway.
He wasn’t disappointed in the least.
But he hadn’t known why she was doing it—until he connected it to her occasionally sewing a vest in secret that fit Juhwan’s frame….
‘Right, that must be it.’
It seemed she wanted to make Juhwan a vest out of Magic Beast hide. Perhaps as a surprise gift.
‘But our circumstances are so transparent. Even if she makes it in secret, I’m bound to find out.’
The fact that he found his wife cute for trying to hide it was likely not just his imagination, but because Riji truly was adorable. His wife was so cute it was a problem. It made him want to do nothing but stay home with her.
As they walked side by side, Riji’s gaze suddenly fell on the hide.
“But didn’t you say you’d capture a Magic Beast alive? That the request paid much better.”
“Ah.”
Juhwan shrugged.
When he thought the missing fur was due to a disease, he had intended to kill it, thinking it was a sick bear. Leaving a sick animal in the forest could spread the illness.
But after realizing it was a Magic Beast, he felt sorry for it. He felt reluctant to capture it and sell it to someone.
He didn’t know where it would go after being sold, but if it were a mother bear who had lost her cub, she would miss her child for the rest of her life.
It reminded him of his own mother, who had lived missing him for so long, and he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.
“…It just turned out that way.”
Juhwan smiled as he spoke.
Riji hadn’t eaten lunch yet.
After the two of them had a late lunch together, Juhwan filled a large wooden tub with water as Riji requested.
It was to soak the Magic Beast hide.
After adding a suitable amount of salt, Riji looked at Juhwan and gave him a bright smile.
“Then, I’ll need a bit of mana, please.”
“Can I just pour it in however I want?”
“Um, I think so. The artisan said the higher the concentration of Mana Water, the better. But if there’s too much mana, it might become mushy. Should we start with this much?”
Riji spread her thumb and index finger to indicate about a span.
“Please pour in about this much. They say the Mana Water sold in shops contains much less than this. The leather artisan was very gloomy about it. He said it was a waste, because if the concentration were just a bit higher, it would make much better leather.”
Well, mana isn’t exactly measured that way.
Juhwan chuckled inwardly. Since Riji had never felt mana, she seemed to think it was something with mass that could be measured like salt or sand.
As Juhwan stood before the tub, Riji’s eyes sparkled.
Processing Magic Beast hide wasn’t much different from regular leather.
However, the materials used were slightly different, and the hide was harder and tougher, requiring more strength.
For example, regular leather is soaked in salt water before processing, but for Magic Beast hide, something called Mana Water is added to that salt water. Since Mana Water has no color or smell, it looks exactly like regular water to the eye. Unless one can feel mana, it looks like nothing but water.
He had heard that Mana Water was simply water with mana dissolved in it. The price varied wildly depending on the method and concentration of the mana dissolved, and high-quality Mana Water was used as a restorative for mages.
When he asked the Guild staff, they told him that in the case of someone with a large amount of mana like Juhwan, he could simply pour mana into it as he did with other objects.
It seemed that for those with little mana, there were methods to process it so that even a little more would dissolve. The more those methods were used, the lower the quality became.
The Mana Water used for Magic Beast hides was among the lowest quality. He had heard that most of it was made by collecting the leftovers of used Screaming Carrots and steeping them again.
Since Juhwan had mana to spare, there was no need to spend money on such things.
Under Riji’s gaze, which seemed to expect some grand spectacle, Juhwan dipped his hand into the water and released a bit of mana. Perhaps because there was a lot of mana compared to the water, the water in the tub rippled slightly.
When Juhwan pulled his hand out, Riji tilted her head.
“There.”
“…Uh… nothing seems to have changed.”
“Riji, that’s what mana is like. It’s invisible, and it has no taste or smell. Wasn’t it the same for the one the leather artisan used? Was it different?”
“…It had a foul smell. Like something was rotten? Like the smell of old dung.”
“Oh boy.”
That must have been a very bad one. Perhaps it was at the very bottom of the low-quality Mana Waters. It likely contained more other substances than actual mana.
As Juhwan laughed, Riji’s shoulders slumped slightly. She seemed a bit disappointed. He thought she might have been expecting something sparkling, like when Oz and Yeonhwa’s horns glowed.
“Then how do people know this is Mana Water?”
Riji asked, swirling her hand in the water. It seemed strange to her that nothing had changed.
“A person who can feel mana can tell. Those who can’t, won’t know.”
“Really? Then some people might get cheated into buying fake Mana Water.”
That would be a real problem. If it were an unfamiliar type, it would be best not to buy it anywhere except the Guild. No matter how cheap it was—or rather, especially if it was very cheap. No matter what world you go to, swindlers always exist.
For a while, Riji hovered near Juhwan like a butterfly circling flowers.
Even while working on the hide soaking in the salt Mana Water, she would immediately follow him if Juhwan went to the backyard. She would fiddle with something near him as if she had work to do, then follow him back inside when he returned.
‘Is it because she’s anxious?’
Her behavior overlapped somewhat with the image of the dead Magic Beast bear, making Juhwan feel uneasy for a while.
Occasionally, Riji would press down or flip the hide in the Mana Water with a stick. It seemed the mana acted to soften the Magic Beast hide.
However, wet hide is incredibly heavy. Even just stirring the hide in the tub was a struggle for a woman’s strength.
Seeing her small, slender frame straining with all her might was pitiful, but when he tried to help, Riji pushed his back.
“No, Juhwan. This is my job. You must be tired from hunting, so please rest a bit.”
She had been sticking to him like glue until a moment ago, but now that she had work to do or perhaps because her heart had settled, she seemed fine being apart.
He called Yeonhwa and headed toward the graves behind the house. Yeonhwa followed slowly behind him, flicking her tail slightly.
Looking up at the surrounding trees, the snail-shaped vines were everywhere.
“While I was out today, I found these vines hanging all over the place. Yeonhwa, did you make those strange vines?”
Hee-ing.
Yeonhwa nudged Juhwan’s back with her head. Her long horn slipped past his armpit and poked out in front. Her soft white mane flowed over his face, brushing against his body.
She seemed to want to say something, but he couldn’t tell what. If it were a simple yes or no, he could have understood quickly, but this time it didn’t seem to mean that.
“Do you know that pattern?”
Hee-ing.
She shook her head up and down slightly as if she knew.
“Did you make it?”
Hee-i-ing.
This time, he wasn’t sure what she meant. It seemed like she was saying she made it, but also like she wasn’t.
Yeonhwa also seemed frustrated, pacing slightly in place. Then, as if she remembered something, she suddenly headed toward the graves.
Trot, trot. Yeonhwa’s footsteps were hurried.
As Juhwan followed, Yeonhwa stood before the graves and looked back.
After confirming that he was watching, Yeonhwa scratched at the ground slightly with her front hoof.
“…What, does it have to do with my mother and father?”
Yeonhwa fluttered her mane as if she were happy.
