I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 118
118 Maybe, Just Maybe…
The road to Bern was mostly a dirt path formed naturally by people coming and going.
Beyond that, most of the land was forest or uncharted territory where humans did not live. Because it was dangerous, people rarely ventured into such places, and thus no roads were formed. At best, there were only narrow trails, like animal tracks.
Whether people didn’t go because there were no roads, or whether roads didn’t form because people didn’t go, the paths people traveled were set.
Therefore, to get anywhere, it was common to follow the roads connecting village to village, even if it meant taking a slightly longer detour.
Aside from the lack of other paths, entering a side road just because one was visible carried a high risk of being attacked and killed by magic beasts or wild animals.
However, even though there were only one or two roads for people and carriages, it was rare to encounter others on them.
Unlike Earth, part of the reason was the small population relative to the landmass, but in this world, very few people ever left their villages.
A significant number of people lived lives where they might step outside their village once or twice a year at most.
Juhwan had heard that some people died without ever taking a single step outside their village. Riji had been like that before she was sold as a hunter’s wife, and she said there were more people like that than one would think.
If you met someone on the road, they were more likely to be a wanderer than a peasant belonging to some village.
Even Juhwan, in all his time living in a carriage, could count on his fingers the number of times he had encountered people on the road.
Yet this time, he had already met six travelers in half a day.
Two were families fleeing with all their belongings loaded onto carts, and the other four were individuals leaving their villages as if escaping.
Every single one of them hurried away without stopping, even after seeing Juhwan’s family. They seemed terrified whenever Juhwan tried to speak to them. They appeared even more frightened upon seeing a unicorn pulling the carriage.
“Most peasants can’t leave their villages. It’s because they’re tied to the land. If they leave a village without permission, the worst-case scenario is being caught and whipped to death,” Riji whispered, watching the backs of the people hurrying away.
“Those people might be terrified because they’re escaping in secret and saw us. They might have thought we have connections to the nobility since we have a unicorn.”
Riji murmured with a puzzled expression.
“But village life isn’t usually so lax that people can just pack up everything and leave like that… It’s one thing if they run away with nothing but their bodies, but usually, they get caught before they can. If someone runs away, the other villagers get punished too.”
There were some people who could leave a village freely. While those who had lived in a village for generations were bound by farmland and family, those who had only recently arrived from elsewhere or those who didn’t even have land to cultivate were free to leave. If you had no land, there was nothing to tie you down.
However, even those people rarely left their villages. Usually, they lived by doing whatever the Village Chief told them to do.
Unless they were adventurers or craftsmen, even if someone who only knew how to farm went outside, their prospects for making a living were bleak.
It was difficult to enter cities with gates, and the hardships of making a living were similar whether in this village or that one.
There were even frequent cases where people went to another village only to be tricked into working like slaves.
In one way or another, people either continued to live in the village where they were born or just lived day to day once they settled somewhere.
Riji glanced at Juhwan’s face and spoke as if apologizing.
“Because you were in that situation, too.”
No, no, absolutely not. Juhwan smiled and hugged Riji and Dorothy.
“It’s the opposite. I told you before. I met you and Dorothy because I desperately wanted to.”
“….”
She didn’t seem to believe him. But it was the truth. Riji and Dorothy had been drawn in by his destiny.
Dorothy tilted her head.
“Dorothy made a wish, too. To have a new mommy and a new daddy.”
“….”
“….”
At the child’s words, Juhwan and Riji lost their words and fell silent for a moment. Dorothy smiled brightly, seemingly unaware of the awkwardness.
“That’s why Dorothy got a mommy and a daddy.”
Oz’s ears popped out from the pouch hanging near her chest. Dorothy opened the pouch and looked down at Oz.
“You like it too, Oz? Having a mommy and a daddy.”
In reality, Juhwan, Riji, and Oz had all come together, but in Dorothy’s heart, the order seemed to have become jumbled. To Dorothy, Oz’s position might feel like a sibling she grew up with.
Juhwan ruffled the child’s hair with his large hand. Dorothy shook her head along with his moving fingers and giggled.
“Daddy, I’m dizzy. Dorothy’s head is spinning.”
They must have reached a rocky patch. The carriage hit a small stone, rattling and swaying slightly.
Finding it incredibly fun, Dorothy spent a while laughing while swaying her small body back and forth with the carriage’s movement.
As the carriage moved slowly forward, the figure of a man carrying a large bundle on his back appeared in the distance. He was walking with his body hunched forward on the dirt road ahead, which sloped like a hill.
Beside the man was a boy who looked about ten years old. However, they weren’t even holding hands; the boy just walked silently a short distance away.
Both the man and the child looked exhausted. From behind, it looked as if the two of them might collapse into the ground at any moment.
Riji and Juhwan’s eyes met. It was just about time to look for a place to camp. Riji drove the carriage a bit faster and pulled up beside the man and the boy.
“We’re looking for a place to camp now. It seems we’re heading in the same direction—why don’t we stay together? I’ll give you a ride.”
“….”
The man didn’t even seem to have the energy to be wary. He stared blankly up at Juhwan on the driver’s seat, as if he hadn’t understood his words.
Even though he saw Yeonhwa, he wasn’t surprised by the fact that she was a unicorn. His vacant gaze just drifted without settling on one spot. He looked like someone whose soul had departed.
The boy, who seemed to be his son, took the man’s hand and pulled it slightly.
“Dad, there’s a child here, too. I think these people are okay.”
“…Right.”
The man answered the child slowly. He seemed to react a beat slow to everything.
Juhwan hopped down and took the bundle the man was carrying on his back.
A portion of the carriage roof was always left open. This was in case they needed to fight if bandits or enemies appeared.
Placing the man’s luggage in that empty space, Juhwan had Riji and Dorothy go inside the carriage.
He sat the man and the ten-year-old child on the driver’s seat, and Juhwan took the reins. The boy stole glances at Yeonhwa, but he didn’t say a word.
“We’ll camp once we find a suitable spot a little further along.”
Juhwan spoke, but the man just sat hunched over, staring blankly.
Even speaking seemed to be a struggle.
Staring blankly ahead, the man suddenly spoke.
“…We have nothing to give you.”
“It’s alright. I’m not giving you a ride expecting something.”
“…I won’t sell the child.”
“….”
Juhwan instinctively looked at the man. He heard Riji catch her breath from behind the driver’s seat.
The boy glanced at Juhwan and then squeezed the man’s hand tight.
“Dad, I think this person is okay.”
“…I won’t sell you.”
The conversation between the man and the child wasn’t flowing properly. But it didn’t sound like the man was out of his mind; it sounded more like he was making a vow.
Every time the man said he wouldn’t sell him, the boy’s shoulders seemed to drop slightly in relief.
Juhwan had heard that boys fetched a good price these days. For children who were too young, it was uncertain whether they would grow properly or even survive, but by age ten, they had survived the most dangerous hurdles. Since it was an age where they could be put to work to some extent, this man might have been told to sell his child multiple times.
Juhwan let out a small breath.
“Our home is in the mountains. It’s been a while since we’ve been out, so we don’t know much about what’s going on in the world. I’ll treat you to dinner, so please tell us a bit about what’s been happening lately.”
People tend to feel more at ease when they receive something as payment for doing even a small task. At Juhwan’s words, the man bowed his head slightly.
For some reason, tears were streaming from the man’s eyes. The tracks of the tears left long streaks on his dirty, unwashed cheeks.
They stopped the carriage in a suitable spot and started a fire.
The man said almost nothing, but he moved his body bit by bit, gathering nearby branches or clearing stones from the seating area.
While Riji boiled stew and prepared the meal, the boy helped her alongside Dorothy.
The boy, whom they had thought was ten, was actually twelve. He was small for a twelve-year-old.
The man said, while watching the child sitting with Riji from across the campfire, that the boy was short because he hadn’t eaten well when he was young.
He said they came from a village near the border. The man continued slowly, staring vacantly into the fire.
“…Our village is a very small and humble place. Sometimes it’s the Simoni Kingdom, and sometimes it’s Tairon. The place it belongs to changes depending on the results of the wars. Right now, it’s Simoni. It’s hard to make a living, but even so, the villagers were very close. The whole village was basically one family. But then, about a month ago, a strange magic beast appeared.”
The man gripped the stew bowl he was holding. His hands were trembling violently. The bowl shook and the broth spilled, but the man didn’t seem to notice.
Juhwan took the bowl from the man’s hand. The man stared blankly at Juhwan’s actions and spoke.
“Are you a hunter? Your clothes look like a hunter’s. That horned horse, too. Was it a unicorn?”
The man’s gaze clung to Juhwan as he trembled uncontrollably.
“Have you ever seen it? The magic beast that appeared in our village. It had black patterns all over its body. Patterns like long whips…”
More of the whites of the man’s eyes became visible. His face was filled with terror.
“It just bites people to death. But it doesn’t even eat them. It just kills and kills, like it’s insane. Usually, a beast kills to eat. Isn’t that right? I heard magic beasts were like that, too. That they eat people. But why does it kill everyone without even eating them?”
The man said, weeping.
“Everyone died. My wife, my daughter who married into the house across the way, even the two-year-old youngest. The Village Chief and everyone else—the whole village died. All because of that one magic beast.”
He said the few who barely survived scattered and fled the village.
“Several villages on the border ended up like that. Some villages were completely wiped out, and others had many survivors.”
Not only the villages attacked by the magic beast, but also nearby villages began to see people fleeing. Most of the refugees Juhwan saw today were people who had run away like that.
“Did the Border Count who rules this territory do nothing? I heard that subjugating magic beasts is done by the Lord or by putting out a request to the Guild.”
When Juhwan spoke, the man let out a strange, wheezing laugh amidst his tears.
“Our village was the first to be sacrificed.”
But because it was a village so close to the border, the news was slow to reach the authorities. The man added, “And besides…”
“If it had been a big city or another village, they might have done something quickly. But our village is different.”
It belonged to the Simoni Kingdom now, but in ten-odd years, it might become part of the Tairon Kingdom again. The man said the Border Count, who was already short on money and soldiers, wouldn’t have wanted to spend money for such a village.
While they were procrastinating, the magic beast moved from the border to another village. The Border Count probably hoped that the magic beast would go to the Tairon Kingdom. But instead, the magic beast entered the lands of the Simoni Kingdom and began to roam from village to village.
“There are rumors that it wasn’t just one.”
There were villages that seemed to have been attacked almost simultaneously. He said he learned this while talking to other refugees he met.
The man hung his head and murmured through his tears.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. My family is all dead. All that’s left is that one child.”
After pouring out his words and crying for a while, the man returned to his vacant expression. He sat with his head bowed in exhaustion, occasionally murmuring.
“It would have been better if I had just died.”
The boy said nothing. He just moved from across the fire to sit quietly by his father’s side. It seemed he had been listening to his father say such things for a long time.
Juhwan couldn’t offer a single word of comfort and just placed a blanket in front of the two. The nights were still quite chilly. It was too cold to sleep without cover.
As the night deepened, the cries of wild animals could be heard in the distance.
The next morning, the man declined the offer to travel together if they were heading in the same direction and prepared to set off with his son.
When asked why he didn’t go to the Bern Adventurer Village, the man shook his head.
“Unless you’re a slave, no village takes in outsiders lightly right now. It’s because there isn’t enough to eat. No matter how much they need workers, people become stingy about taking others in if there’s no food right away. A large place like the Bern Adventurer Village will have even more people flocking to it, so they won’t just let anyone in. It might be different if you have the skills to be an adventurer, but we can’t.”
The man spoke with his shoulders slumped slightly.
“We’re going to a city called Moderni. We can’t enter there officially either, but I heard there’s a way. Entering through the back door.”
What the man was talking about was likely the underworld of the back alleys where vagrants lived.
Juhwan shook his head, remembering how Dorothy was almost dragged away before.
“I’ve been to Moderni, and that’s not a very good idea. Think about it again.”
At his words, the man laughed weakly.
“Thank you. You’re probably right. But we are criminals who fled our village. Even if the village was entirely destroyed, we weren’t supposed to leave. We have to live there until an Administrator comes and gives us new instructions.”
There could be reconstruction or integration with neighboring villages, but for that, various investigations and plans would have to be made. It takes time.
Since there was no way an Administrator would hurry from a long distance for the sake of one or two remaining commoners, they would have to live alone for a significant period anyway.
In a deserted border village, surviving for even a few days is difficult. The probability of being killed by a beast before starving to death is higher.
In the end, the man had no choice but to flee with the child.
The Lord’s Administrators know that fact, too. That’s why they leave villages with small populations to their own devices.
“Everyone knows that fleeing is the only way, but you still become a criminal if you leave your village to survive.”
Then why not go to where the Administrator is—Juhwan was about to say that, but he held his tongue. Someone must have tried that before. But since it was useless, no one did it anymore.
“Peasants are tied to the land they live on. Even if they leave that land, they can’t escape it.”
The man’s words left a strange resonance in Juhwan’s heart.
After the man left, Juhwan and Riji also drove the carriage toward the Bern Adventurer Village.
Sitting side by side on the driver’s seat, Riji suddenly murmured.
“What was that pattern on the magic beast’s body?”
“….”
He didn’t know for sure. But it couldn’t have been a normal magic beast.
Perhaps the magic beast that appeared at the border had developed Zentangle patterns, just like the bear magic beast near the graves. Maybe… just maybe…
