I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 128
128 Run Away, Yeonhwa!
Suddenly, he felt something. It was as if someone were secretly watching him.
Juhwan cast his gaze into the empty air.
“….”
Naturally, there was nothing there. It wasn’t as if eyes would manifest in the void to stare at him.
Yet, a lingering unease remained, prompting Juhwan to spread his mana around him.
He gradually expanded his mana like a mist, feeling through the empty space. He wondered if he might sense something, but he found nothing.
‘Was it just my imagination?’
Just in case, he extended the range of his Mana Detection as far as possible, but the void simply continued on and on. Of course. He felt a bit foolish.
Juhwan withdrew the mana he had spread out. Like moisture soaking into the air, the mana sank back beneath his skin bit by bit.
That was when it happened. He felt a strange sensation.
’Oh…’
Juhwan stared back into the empty air.
On rare occasions, when he released and then retracted his mana, he felt as if something had mixed back in with it. Of course, it wasn’t that something had actually entered his body. To describe it, it felt as though a faint scent had rubbed off on him. Just like now.
‘It feels like something unfamiliar has rubbed off on me.’
But he couldn’t be sure. There was only a very slight sense of dissonance, barely enough to say he had felt anything at all.
He tried to check again, but the sensation had already vanished.
It was as if it hadn’t been there from the start.
“….”
Perhaps it belonged to a Magic Beast. The mana of the agitated young Magic Beast had been reaching out in all directions, leaving traces behind.
Juhwan spread his mana once more to check his surroundings, but he found nothing.
“Is something wrong?”
“Did you find something?”
The nearby adventurers asked, sensing his odd behavior. Juhwan replied that it was nothing and turned his attention back to the Magic Beast.
*
The captured young Magic Beast was immediately moved to a wagon.
While keeping the beast pinned with a mana-infused net, the adventurers struck metal plates and made noise from all sides.
When Juhwan lifted the net slightly toward the wagon, the Magic Beast fled inside without a second thought.
The wagon consisted of iron bars and a wooden roof. Aside from having wheels for transport, it looked like an ordinary animal cage.
However, the wagon had been given a special treatment reserved for Magic Beasts.
Magic Beasts were incomparably stronger than ordinary animals.
It was said that if they went into a frenzy, they could easily smash through not just wood, but even iron bars.
For that reason, wagons or cages used to hold Magic Beasts were imbued with special magic. Mana was applied to the bars or the entire wagon and then fixed in place. Once that was done, it was nearly impossible to break.
Such a wagon was used for the young Magic Beast they had caught this time.
After entering the wagon, the cub crouched low, growling in every direction.
It bared its teeth and threatened the people, but its tail was tucked between its legs out of fear.
Even though the adventurers were no longer threatening it, the cub glared around and retreated little by little. It seemed terrified. Panting heavily, the cub continued to huff and puff.
Backing into a corner of the cage, the cub’s rump hit the iron bars. With nowhere left to retreat, the cub arched its back like a cat, its fur standing on end.
“….”
Not much of its fur remained. It had fallen out in patches, as if it were suffering from alopecia.
Juhwan breathed shallowly as he looked at the patterns revealed on the hairless skin. He hadn’t been able to see them properly in the heat of the moment earlier. But seeing them up close now, the sheer misery of it took his breath away.
The patterns on the Magic Beast were not Zentangles. They were completely different from the patterns Oz or Yeonhwa drew.
“These are veins.”
Gwen said, examining the young Magic Beast’s skin.
“It seems so. But it doesn’t look natural.”
Like blood forced through a narrow passage, black veins protruded sharply above the skin. But they looked incredibly hard. Rather than blood, it looked as if fine sand had gathered in the vessels.
And, over the black veins stretching out like a spiderweb, there were traces of blood flowing in a regular direction. It looked similar to whip marks, but they hadn’t been inflicted from the outside. Strangely enough, those too were the flow of blood.
Gwen frowned as he observed the cub from various angles.
“It definitely looks like bloodstains… but it’s strange. As you said, Juhwan, it doesn’t seem like the natural movement of blood.”
The black whip-like marks were starkly emphasized. Regardless of the heart or the original veins, they looked like they flowed from front to back like a zebra’s stripes. Seeing how thick those specific areas were, he wondered if the blood had been forced to move after it had already solidified.
“Does it mean the blood of a long-dead corpse was moved?”
And in a completely different direction from the heart or the original flow of blood.
Since he didn’t know if a necromancer normally used magic that way or if this was a special case, he couldn’t tell what it signified.
“I don’t know. I’ve never even heard of a mage who moves corpses. At least, not as far as I know.”
When Juhwan looked at the guild guide, he also shook his head.
“I haven’t heard of such a thing either.”
Juhwan frowned at a bad premonition.
A magic that no one knew of, one that hadn’t existed before, had suddenly appeared. And it was right after the news that the Hero of the enemy nation had descended.
‘Could this be the Hero’s doing?’
Juhwan studied the young Magic Beast again. If this was the Hero’s magic, the state of this cub might be a failed case.
‘Maybe even those whip patterns weren’t supposed to be there.’
The Hero of this world was likely someone from Earth. He had heard several times that the Hero had black hair and black eyes.
If so, the Hero must have had to learn and master the use of mana, just as Juhwan had. Naturally, they would have failed several times before becoming proficient.
Thinking that way as he looked at the young Magic Beast, facts he hadn’t noticed before came into view.
“No way…”
The flesh that kept crumbling away, the skin that dented where the net touched it, the terrified face, the pitiful cries searching for its mother.
Juhwan let out the words like a sigh.
“This Magic Beast… it’s constantly rotting.”
“It looks that way, but what does that…”
Gwen stopped mid-sentence. He looked at the cub again and let out a long sigh. He seemed to have realized what Juhwan meant.
“Is that why the mother was so enraged?”
Gwen looked at the Magic Beast with pity.
Juhwan didn’t answer.
This Magic Beast’s body was continuously rotting while it was still conscious. Even though its cells and heart were already dead, its flesh and organs were rotting as if it were still alive. If so, its nerve cells might be the same. Perhaps this child had been in constant pain and agony.
Within those cries searching for its mother, there might have been a plea of suffering. If it was crying out, ’Mom, it hurts,’ and if the mother felt the same pain and knew her child’s agony, then it was only natural for her to hate humans so much.
Juhwan called out to Yeonhwa in his mind.
[’Yeonhwa, could you perhaps soothe this child’s pain?’]
If the nerve cells were still functioning, there was a chance Yeonhwa’s poison might work. At the very least, it might be able to stop the pain.
From a short distance away, he saw Yeonhwa’s horn glow red.
However, no patterns appeared on the Magic Beast’s body.
Yeonhwa’s horn glowed once more, but the result was the same. It didn’t work. As expected, Yeonhwa’s Zentangles seemed to only work on living creatures.
Yeonhwa lowered her head slightly, looking disappointed.
After whispering to Yeonhwa that it was okay, Juhwan turned his gaze back to the young Magic Beast.
“I want to find the mother and the other cub as soon as possible. I want to find them and kill them.”
If total annihilation was the only way to escape this agony, he wanted to liberate them as soon as possible.
Gwen nodded.
“Yes… but who could it be? A Magic Beast like this wouldn’t occur naturally. Someone must have created it.”
There was a mix of slight fear and anger in Gwen’s voice.
“….”
Did the Hero know that what they created was in this state? If they knew and left it like this, they couldn’t possibly have a human heart.
Juhwan and the adventurers immediately began to move, leading the wagon carrying the young Magic Beast.
Information was constantly coming in from the team tracking the mother’s movement path.
The mother’s traces were very difficult to follow, but the fact that she had killed humans couldn’t be hidden. The subjugation team tracking her was following the locations where corpses appeared. It was a grim story.
The only silver lining was that the mother seemed to be following the cub closely. If they found either the mother or the cub, they could achieve both goals at once. While capturing the cub first made it more likely they would be killed by the mother, they were searching for both regardless.
The guild had also sent horses with the wagon. They were said to be animals somewhat accustomed to chaos. Perhaps they were horses ridden by mercenaries or adventurers, or ones that had served on the battlefield.
However, when they tried to have the horses pull the Magic Beast’s wagon, the horses began to panic and thrash. It seemed they couldn’t endure the terror of knowing a Magic Beast was right behind them.
Inevitably, the people rode the horses, and the adventurers took turns pulling the wagon. They could have asked Yeonhwa, but for Juhwan’s carriage, having a single ordinary horse pull it was a bit—no, quite difficult.
Though it wasn’t the original plan, they ended up putting a tarp over the wagon. This was because the cub didn’t cry at all while the wagon was moving.
There were times it growled anxiously, but for the most part, it just huddled in a corner, wary of its surroundings.
In that case, there was no need to torment the already frightened cub. The goal was to lure the mother, not to terrify the cub.
Ultimately, they decided to keep the wagon covered while traveling.
Once the tarp was on and the inside of the wagon became dark, the cub seemed to finally relax. Sitting in the corner, it made low purring and grumbling noises. It felt half like a threat and half like a sob.
After traveling for a little over an hour, Juhwan approached the wagon pullers.
They switched pullers every hour or two. The wagon was heavy, but because there were many people, frequent rotations actually reduced fatigue and kept the pace fast.
“Good work.”
“Oh, it’s nothing. You must be having a harder time than us, Juhwan.”
Four people normally handled the wagon. Two pulled from the front, while the other two pushed from the back.
However, Juhwan pulled it alone. Since his strength didn’t balance well with others, it was more comfortable for him to do it by himself.
He didn’t need anyone pushing from behind either. It had wheels, so it followed if he just pulled. There was no need for unnecessary help.
Still, to others, it looked like a grueling task.
Riji, who followed behind driving their carriage, often sent him concerned looks.
Her expression looked very complicated and sad, as if her heart went out to both Juhwan and the Magic Beast.
Beside Riji, Dorothy raised both hands and waved them energetically. She seemed to be cheering him on, but for some reason, she looked very excited. Perhaps pulling the Magic Beast wagon looked like fun to her.
It wasn’t fun at all, though.
Still, receiving the child’s ‘encouragement’ cleared his mind a little. It seemed she wouldn’t be saying she wouldn’t come near him for fear of taking after her father anymore.
By the time it was Juhwan’s turn to pull the wagon again, Dorothy was clinging to him as if she had completely forgotten about the previous incident.
As the sky grew dusky, the subjugation team stopped their progress and prepared to camp. Campfires were lit here and there, and the tarp was removed from the wagon.
Inside the wagon, a considerable amount of debris that had fallen from the cub had gathered. It wasn’t obvious just by looking, but seeing it gathered like this, the rate of decay was remarkably fast.
A significant amount of time had passed since the Magic Beast first appeared. If it had been rotting at this speed from the beginning, its condition would have been much worse by now. It was clear that the rate at which the flesh rotted was accelerating.
Shortly after the tarp was removed, the cub began to cry mournfully toward the sky. It seemed to be calling for its mother. Sometimes the sound became loud, like a scream. The laughter of the usually boisterous adventurers dropped by more than half. The cries of a beast could be distressing to humans.
Dorothy, who was sitting in front of the campfire, asked.
“Daddy, is the kid in the wagon a really bad kid?”
“Well.”
“Did he kill a lot of people?”
Dorothy had heard what people were saying here and there, so she had a general idea of why this subjugation team had been formed. But she hadn’t asked about it once until now. He had thought she wasn’t interested.
Juhwan hesitated for a moment on how to answer, but he nodded honestly.
“Yes. A lot of people died because of that Magic Beast.”
“He’s a bad Magic Beast.”
“….”
“Daddy, if he’s a bad Magic Beast, are we not supposed to feel sorry for him?”
“…Why?”
“….”
Dorothy fell silent. Staring quietly at the hem of her clothes, she stole a glance at Juhwan.
“He’s locked up because he’s a bad Magic Beast. But hearing him cry makes me feel sorry for him. I want to let him go.”
“….”
“Is that not allowed?”
“Right, it’s not allowed. If you let him go, other people will die again.”
Dorothy didn’t say anything more. She just stole occasional glances at the Magic Beast.
The child’s expression weighed on his mind. He had a feeling she might not have been talking only about the Magic Beast.
While listening to information from the guild staff or discussing the Magic Beast with other adventurers, Juhwan kept an eye on Dorothy from time to time.
And taking advantage of the moment when everyone was busy, he saw Dorothy quietly approach Yeonhwa.
Following her stealthily, he saw Dorothy lean in close to Yeonhwa and whisper in a small voice.
“You might get locked up too. If you’re locked in a wagon, they won’t let you go. Killing people is bad.”
‘Ah!’
She must have remembered the incident where the bandits were killed. Juhwan stifled a smile.
Dorothy looked around to see if anyone was watching, then whispered to Yeonhwa again.
“If the other uncles find out, they’ll definitely lock you up, so run away. If you go now, no one will know. You have to go somewhere where there are no people. Do you understand? Go, quickly!”
She pushed Yeonhwa with both hands. She seemed frustrated that Yeonhwa wasn’t running away.
Whether it was because Dorothy was cute, or because she was being silly, or because she felt grateful—Yeonhwa’s tail was wagging frantically.
Juhwan quietly turned around and left the spot.
The young Magic Beast trapped in the wagon let out another long cry.
It seemed he wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight.
