I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 124
124. The Mother and the Cub
“Is this truly alright? If they were to abuse the name of Bern…”
At the aide’s question, Count Bern let out a snort.
“Where are your eyes kept?”
“….”
“That man is someone who boldly refuses even my offers. He is not the type to use the name of Bern for anything unseemly.”
“But still.”
“Enough. It is already done. Hurry and send him garments embroidered with the family crest. Include some accessories for a lady and things for a child as well.”
“If you are sending them as a sign that he may use the name, surely garments for the man alone would suffice. Clothing bearing the crest is something only a limited few, such as the head of the house and the heir, may wear…”
The aide added, his voice laced with anxiety.
“Even for that man alone, it is excessive.”
Count Bern gave a smirk.
“A person like that cannot be baited with gold or status. He is the type to repay trust with trust. And his greatest priority is his family. It was just as Kyle reported—he puts his family above all else.”
Count Bern hopped down from his horse and handed the reins to a soldier.
“Because he is that kind of man, I must pay attention to the woman and the child. Just as I prioritize the protection of this territory, he considers the safety and well-being of his family to be paramount. Therefore, he shouldn’t be the only one protected from other nobles. He probably wouldn’t feel the slightest bit grateful for just that much.”
He spoke firmly to the aide, but the man still looked dissatisfied.
‘Well, I can understand the aide’s perspective.’
A family crest was a sacred thing. While the same applied to items and accessories, those permitted to wear the crest on their clothing were particularly limited. Even the wife of the head of the house could not wear it lightly.
There was only one reason for someone other than the head or the heir to wear such clothes. It meant that to treat the wearer poorly was to insult the family name—a declaration that all of Bern would not stand idly by. It was not something to be given away haphazardly.
The Count shrugged his shoulders slightly and looked out at the sea of tents before him. Near the border, rows upon rows of soldiers’ tents stood in formation.
A commander responsible for this post approached through the rows.
“You have arrived, My Lord.”
“Any movement from the enemy?”
“No change. It is quiet—unnervingly so.”
“….”
The Count gave a slight nod, signaling the commander to withdraw, and strode forward with long steps.
Entering the large command tent, he whipped off his cloak and tossed it to his aide.
Watching the aide quickly catch and fold the garment, the Count collapsed onto a cot.
As he aged, his stamina was slowly waning. In the past, he could stay up for several days and feel fine, but now, his body felt heavy if he missed even a single night’s sleep.
However, he could not rest.
Even before the Magic Beasts appeared, the movements of the Tairon soldiers near the border had become suspicious. This camp had been established specifically to guard against them.
‘Steadily increasing troops, and then the sudden appearance of those bizarre Magic Beasts. This is undoubtedly their doing.’
At first, he thought the Magic Beasts had simply descended to human settlements due to hunger. But those beasts were different from the norm. Their appearance was far too grotesque. It was as if…
Count Bern closed his eyes.
He didn’t know how they had managed to push the Magic Beasts toward this side, but it was certainly the work of those Tairon bastards.
The moment he realized that, he had immediately put in a request to the Guild. The Magic Beasts could be handled by the Guild. He needed to focus on the enemy that wasn’t a beast.
His intuition told him so. This was a ploy. He could not afford to let his guard down at the border while being distracted by the monsters.
Perhaps because he had immediately raised his banners at the border and established this camp as a show of force, the enemy had made no move.
‘That man, Juhwan… it would be wonderful if he would cooperate with us.’
The Count smirked, recalling his confrontation with Juhwan. It had been a long time since he’d felt that kind of tension. He felt a thrill he hadn’t experienced since his reckless youth.
‘It felt like having one foot in the grave.’
If he had pushed the man just a little further, he might be lying there now, bleeding out on the ground.
‘It felt as though I was being cut by invisible blades.’
Recalling the mana Juhwan had exuded, the Count felt a chill run down his spine. It was the sensation of blades of wind aiming for his throat from all directions.
It was truly chilling. It was a thrill he shouldn’t be feeling anymore, now that he had so much on his shoulders.
The Count crossed his arms while lying down and forced himself to try and sleep. A soldier had to be able to fall asleep within minutes anywhere. In a battlefield where the enemy could strike at any moment, the ability to fall asleep and wake easily was a small but vital skill.
“….”
His blood was up for the first time in a long while, making sleep elusive.
The Count brought Juhwan’s face to mind.
‘I would like to test myself against him one day.’
Juhwan had more abundant mana, and perhaps his talent for magic was incomparable. But the Count had long years of experience.
In a duel where lives were on the line, the outcome was determined by a combination of minor habits, experience, and even luck. It wasn’t decided simply by the amount of mana or the variety of spells one possessed.
Though he was a noble, he did not use the clean, performative swordsmanship of the high-born. He had used deceptions and, if necessary, thrown sand in eyes to survive.
Other nobles might cry foul and call it cowardly, but on the battlefield, survival was the only justice. That was the resolve and the conduct he demanded of himself and his soldiers.
Survive, no matter what.
That was the conclusion his ancestors had reached after losing countless kin on the battlefield.
Unable to sleep due to a restless excitement that made his body ache, the Count began to count in his head. He was scheduled to patrol the border this evening. He had to get some sleep now.
He was old enough that his body was aging, but his heart was still as youthful as ever. Feeling a slight throb in his knee, the Count let out a small sigh. It looked like it might rain tonight.
The subjugation base was called a base, but it was really just a few old houses stocked with food and a few supplies.
Then again, it wasn’t as if a few simple Guild employees, who weren’t even soldiers, would build a grand fortress. He knew that. He knew, and yet, he hadn’t expected it to be this shabby—just a plain, simple house.
“There don’t seem to be any tools here useful for catching Magic Beasts,” Juhwan remarked.
The Guild employee let out a laugh.
“Well, we do have some nets prepared.”
“Nets, I see.”
If they could have been caught with something like a net, they would have been subjugated already.
Juhwan let out a soft breath and perched on the edge of a table. There were a few chairs, but they were all piled with items.
The only places to sit were the floor or the table, and the floor was filthy with animal waste and what looked like rat droppings. Perhaps because it was only men gathered here, no one seemed to have thought of cleaning it. Of course, Juhwan didn’t intend to either.
“….”
He would have to have Riji and Dorothy stay in the carriage. It was definitely cleaner and more hygienic to stay outside.
Juhwan took the wooden slats and papers offered by the Guild employee and read through them one by one. They were records of the traces left by other subjugation teams tracking the Magic Beasts.
The wooden slats, sliced thin like ancient bamboo slips, seemed to have been reused several times. There were marks where the surface had been shaved down to write on them again.
Apparently, neither the slats nor the paper documents were written by the subjugation teams themselves, but were all compiled by the Guild employees. Shaving wood every time must be a chore; the Guild staff seemed to have a difficult job as well.
“There aren’t many adventurers who keep records like this. I haven’t seen a single one since I started working for the Guild.”
Well, he figured as much. He could tell after spending a bit of time around them. It wasn’t that adventurers were stupid, but their brains seemed to be made of muscle.
As he read through, something caught his eye. It wasn’t clear yet, though. Juhwan looked up and asked the employee.
“Do you have a map of this area?”
“It’s hard to call it a map, but I have a simple sketch of the terrain. It’s what the Guild staff use,” the employee said, rummaging through a bag and a wooden box. “Since this area is close to the border, the Count has forbidden the drawing or selling of maps. He’s wary of them falling into enemy hands.”
“That will do.”
The paper the employee found and handed over had the locations of mountains and villages drawn very simply.
From this map, it was impossible to tell the height of the mountains or the size of the villages. it was truly a rough sketch, recording only approximate locations.
Juhwan began to mark points on the paper with a pencil made of charred wood.
The locations where the Magic Beasts’ footprints were found.
The places where witnesses had seen them.
The direction the beasts were heading, determined by the discovery of human corpses.
The Guild employee, who had been watching quietly from the side, suddenly let out an “Ah.”
“This… it looks like one is chasing the other two.”
“It seems so.”
Juhwan read the report again and sighed.
All three beasts looked similar.
Looking closely at the travel routes and the corpses, one beast in particular was killing people with extreme ferocity. It was cruel enough to make one want to look away.
After glancing at Juhwan and then back at the map, the employee suddenly murmured.
“Could this be… a mother and its cubs?”
“Most likely. At the very least, it’s clear they were a pack.”
Given the level of frenzy, it was more plausible to see them as a mother and cubs rather than just a pack that had been separated.
Among animals, there were those whose offspring reached near-adult size in just a few months. This was likely a similar case.
He didn’t know how the cub had become separated, but that was likely the cause of more than half the rampage.
“It looks as though they hate humans,” the employee said with a lamenting tone.
“That’s probably the truth. We don’t know the circumstances, but they must have been separated because of humans.”
Juhwan gave a small sigh and looked at the employee.
“Can you contact the other subjugation teams?”
“Of course. It will take some time, but it’s possible.”
“It would be best to capture the cubs first, and then lure the mother. If there’s a team closely tracking the cubs, I’d like to join them.”
“Yes, I understand. I’ll reach out to them.”
Even if they were cubs, Magic Beasts were different from ordinary animals. They were quite large, fierce, and powerful. They wouldn’t be easy to catch.
Furthermore, the reports mentioned that these beasts moved perfectly fine even after being wounded. They might be individuals with high regenerative abilities.
Juhwan lowered his gaze back to the wooden slats and papers.
He read them repeatedly, familiarizing himself with the beasts’ behavior.
He committed the details to memory, hoping to glean something more, but nothing major came to mind.
That evening, several bonfires were lit in the center of the camp, and almost everyone gathered around to eat together.
The adventurers gathered for this subjugation were mostly Rank 3 and Rank 4. At this level, they were veteran adventurers with a fair amount of experience.
While they might not be experts at hunting Magic Beasts, they had handled goblin subjugations many times and possessed their own specialties and abilities. With their help, he should be able to take down the beasts without too much trouble.
Riji and Dorothy, who had been a bit intimidated at first, seemed to have grown accustomed to them. they were interacting with the people with poise. Once they got close, the adventurers proved to be surprisingly easygoing and approachable.
In Riji’s case, she was starting to exude the air of a female adventurer.
However, Juhwan did not forget that their easygoing nature and kindness were only because a man like him was present.
If Riji had been alone, it wouldn’t have been like this. The men who had threatened Red Sword every night were adventurers just like these.
Because they were a party with a strong man—a woman and child with a powerful protector—they could sit comfortably among them and laugh.
‘Both men and women… everyone has to be strong.’
Someone was telling a story about their childhood. Apparently, they had almost died falling into a pond. It wasn’t much of a story, but the man’s gestures and facial expressions made it entertaining.
Riji and Dorothy laughed, sitting close to Juhwan.
Occasionally, the gazes of one or two men drifted toward Riji. They weren’t leering openly. They would just steal glances and then quickly look away whenever their eyes met Juhwan’s.
“….”
Riji was growing more beautiful with every passing day. He had thought her cute and lovely when they first met, but now she was beautiful to anyone’s eyes. It was like watching a caterpillar transform into a butterfly.
Juhwan placed a hand on Riji’s shoulder and pulled her slightly closer.
Riji tilted her head and looked up at Juhwan’s face.
Even that slight tilt of her head was so lovely it felt intentional.
A man sitting nearby was staring blankly at Riji, as if entranced.
Juhwan’s hand tightened around Riji’s shoulder without him realizing it.
He had to stay sharp. When people saw a beautiful flower, there were always those who wanted to pluck it. He had to be strong—strong enough so that no one would even think of it, strong enough so they wouldn’t dare to fight him after just one look. He could never forget what kind of world this was.
