I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 131
131. Searching for Survivors
In a sky as black as spilled ink, a moon hung brighter and larger than Earth’s. Though it was the same yellow as the sun, the moonlight felt cold and chilly for some reason. Its aloof rejection felt much like the people of this world.
Step, step. In the desolate darkness, the sound of someone approaching echoed.
Lee Jeong-hwa gasped, tearing her eyes away from the moon and lowering her head.
‘Could it be… did they track me from the royal palace?’
Her heart stretched and contracted like a rubber band, thumping wildly. She was so tense that it became difficult to breathe.
‘W-what should I do?’
She was terrified. She didn’t want to go back to that lonely, freezing detached palace. Without realizing it, Jeong-hwa began to bite her nails.
*
After being moved from Tairon’s grand palace to a small, shabby detached palace, the Escort Knight had vanished from her side one day.
Meals, a change of clothes, and supplies were prepared every day, but no people were to be seen. The maids and servants only slipped in to clean while she was sleeping and then left immediately.
Once the Escort Knight stopped coming, there was no one left to talk to, no one left to lean on.
When she woke up, she was utterly alone. She called out for someone until her throat was sore, but no one came. It was as if she had been abandoned inside the palace. All day long, with no one to exchange even a single word with, she had to sit vacantly in that vast detached palace.
Day after day, time passed like that, and eventually, the distribution of all goods—including food and clothing—began to dwindle.
Just as she was thinking she would truly be trapped in the detached palace until she died, she met that man. “How pitiful, how pitiful,” the man said, tears streaming down his face.
[Why does this nation of Tairon treat the Hero sent by God so harshly? Do they not fear God? They will be punished. This kingdom will surely suffer divine retribution.]
His words moved her heart. He was the only one who recognized her suffering when no one else did. He empathized and understood. Jeong-hwa’s heart was won over by him in an instant.
When he suggested they leave the royal palace, she felt a sincere sense of relief. She thought that as long as she was with this man, she would be fine going anywhere. Compared to the Escort Knight or other men, he looked ordinary and had no particular distinguishing features, but she liked that. She thought an ordinary, unassuming person wouldn’t abandon her.
She only found out that the man was from the Simoni Kingdom after they had left the royal palace.
[There is a country that desperately desires the Hero. A Hero has not yet descended upon our land. The King, the priests, and the citizens—everyone is longing for the Hero.]
Living together like a married couple with the man was fine, but wouldn’t it be better if she could be treated as a Hero? If she became the sole Hero of a nation instead of one of two, she wouldn’t have to worry about being discarded anymore. With that thought, she decided to go to the man’s homeland.
He told her that her appearance was very rare in this land. He said there were occasionally similar-looking men among foreign mercenaries, but almost no women. So, she hid her appearance with a cloak and traveled by carriage and horse.
Because of the unfamiliar horses and the heavy vibrations of the carriage, her backside burned with pain and she suffered from motion sickness every day.
Other people joined them along the way besides that man. Sometimes he would step away, and another man or woman would fill the space beside her.
He told her that since this was an enemy nation, there were many things to be careful of. Sometimes, to avoid inspections, they passed through gates hidden in carriages filled with straw.
There were many other incidents, but none seemed as troublesome as this one. The man who had taken her out of Tairon’s detached palace had suddenly gone mad.
He shouted something about a “traitor” at a man who had joined them midway and suddenly drew his sword. She didn’t remember much clearly after that.
She only had fragmentary memories of a man and woman she didn’t know coming from somewhere to pull her out of the chaos. The gruesome scent of blood, gaping wounds, and strangely white-looking muscle….
By the time she came to her senses, the man and woman who had brought her here told her to wait for someone and then left. She was left alone in a remote alleyway of a large city.
*
Jeong-hwa kept her head down and waited for the person walking into the alley to pass her by. The speed at which she gnawed her nails quickened slightly. Her heart felt like it was burning with anxiety.
‘Should I not have left? What should I do? If I had just stayed there, I wouldn’t have been in this much danger at least. Did I make the wrong choice?’ Even though there was no turning back, those thoughts wouldn’t leave her head.
Jeong-hwa stopped mid-bite. The feet of the person she thought would pass by stood right in front of her.
“….”
Her heart hammered. Public safety in this world was not very good. It was different from Earth, where people wandered around even in the middle of the night. Walking around at this hour was dangerous even for a man.
‘W-what should I do? What do I do?’
Panicking, her head sank lower and lower. She could only focus on the shoes in front of her feet.
“Please lift your head. I am the person who has come to meet you, Jeong-hwa.”
“!”
When she jerked her head up at the sound of her name, an ordinary-looking man was standing there.
“This place is near the border of the Wind Kingdom. You will move into Wind under a false identity and then cross over to Simoni. During that time, you will act as my lover. I look forward to working with you.”
The man was smiling with a gentle face. There was no hint of threat anywhere. He had an impression that made one feel at ease for some reason.
Until now, everyone had seemed constantly anxious. Because of that, Jeong-hwa had also been perpetually unstable. She had been in a state of constant restlessness, wondering when they might be caught.
But in front of this man, she felt relieved. It felt like it would be okay. As a wave of relief washed over her, the strength left her waist.
As Jeong-hwa collapsed toward the floor, the man whispered, “Excuse me,” and helped her up.
“Let’s move. It’s a bit dangerous here. It seems they brought you here because they were in a hurry, but although few people pass through, that also means no one would notice if someone died here. If you suffer something terrible, you’d just be buried here.”
The man spoke calmly and led Jeong-hwa a short distance through the alley.
A carriage was waiting a little further away. As the two of them boarded, the coachman immediately set the horses in motion.
The man didn’t say anything more, and Jeong-hwa had nothing to say either. In the first place, she couldn’t understand the language of this country very well.
Jeong-hwa sat beside the man, quietly keeping her head lowered.
Moonlight poured in through the half-open window. Inside the rattling carriage, she suddenly looked toward the man.
The man was looking out the opposite window, twirling a small object over his fingers on his lap. It seemed to be a habit.
’Oh!’
Jeong-hwa saw a small grain spinning along the man’s fingers. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like the seed of some fruit.
The seed, glowing lemon-yellow in the moonlight, spun around on his lap, following his fingers.
Is this magic, too? It was fascinating. In the silent carriage, Jeong-hwa watched the seed the man was spinning for a long time. She felt it was the most serene and peaceful time she’d had since coming here.
After that, things progressed rapidly.
When morning came, Jeong-hwa crossed the border with the man.
The man seemed to be some kind of merchant. He had several large loads packed into the carriage.
It was easy to tell that the man and the soldiers at the checkpoint had seen each other many times. After sharing a few jokes and laughs, the man crossed the border between Tairon and the Wind Kingdom.
She had kept her cloak pulled tight even inside the carriage for fear of being caught, but no one looked inside. They just made a show of peering through the window and let them pass.
After that, peaceful times continued within the Wind Kingdom.
She kept her cloak on to hide her eyes and hair, but the sense of urgency she had felt ever since arriving in this world was gone.
Perhaps it was the first feeling of peace she had experienced since coming to this world. Ever since meeting the man, she felt strangely at ease and was no longer anxious.
‘Perhaps this man is the one who brings me luck and stability.’
The thought suddenly occurred to her.
The man had not told her his name. He used a name when crossing the border, but it was easy to tell that wasn’t his real name.
However, during the journey, someone had once mentioned a name that wasn’t the one used at the border. It was likely the man’s most trusted subordinate.
As Jeong-hwa pricked up her ears and listened quietly, she suddenly heard the name ‘Enri’ amidst their whispering.
‘Enri.’
That was likely the man’s real name.
Jeong-hwa etched the man’s name into her heart, and finally, they arrived at their destination: the border of the Simoni Kingdom.
The border was not much different from the ones she had seen. There were walls and gates, and there were soldiers. After waiting in line, when the carriage reached the gate, they handed over documents and passed through. Then, there was the gate of the other country.
Men in fine clothing and women who looked like maids were standing in line, waiting for her. It was just like the reception she received when she first arrived in this world.
‘But now, there’s only me here.’
Her heart skipped like popping corn. Yes, there was only her here. Without a male Hero to draw these people’s eyes away, she was alone.
As the people who came to receive her bowed deeply and welcomed the Hero to Simoni, a smile finally appeared on Jeong-hwa’s face.
Once it was certain that all the undead Magic Beasts were dead, most of the adventurers who had participated in the subjugation force returned to the Guild. The equipment at the subjugation base also began to be packed up. Everything would be loaded onto wagons and taken back to the Guild.
However, Juhwan and the hunters still had work to do. It was to find the survivors and the bodies of the second subjugation force.
This was also a supplementary request issued by the Guild. To find survivors and heal them to the extent possible. He heard that the funds all came from the Margrave’s pocket.
Though he had begun his activities as a Magic Beast hunter, Juhwan was still just a greenhorn. Therefore, the search was led by Gwen.
“If there are survivors, they will likely be hunters. An ordinary adventurer wouldn’t have been able to deceive the Magic Beast’s hunting abilities.”
The most certain way to escape a beast was to erase one’s scent. However, that was also the most difficult thing to do. An ordinary person cannot erase their body odor.
Furthermore, this Magic Beast was one with a keen sense of smell. Gwen repeatedly said that the probability of even a hunter being alive—let alone an adventurer—was extremely low.
As the tracking progressed, Juhwan realized Gwen’s words were true and felt grim.
One mangled corpse was found up in a tree. It seemed the Magic Beast had chased them as they fled and bitten them right there. Only half the body remained in the tree. The rest could not be found.
Another body was found in the forest across a stream. It was an adventurer.
It seemed they had entered the water to eliminate their scent but failed to evade the Magic Beast’s nose.
In that manner, the search party looking for survivors only repeatedly discovered bodies one after another.
Whether alive or dead, as long as there was a body, Juhwan could find it with his Mana Detection. In fact, Juhwan found several bodies using his detection magic.
However, it was impossible to wander through the entire vast mountain range while scanning with detection magic.
A pattern was soon established where the hunters would spread out in all directions to find a clue, and Juhwan would use detection magic to search along that lead.
After searching like that for several days, most of the seventeen members of the subjugation force were found. Only three remained: the young Magic Beast hunter who had served as the Captain of the force, and two other hunters.
Two days later, one of the hunters was found dead.
Only two remained.
The hope of finding anyone alive had almost vanished. It felt as though only the task of confirming their deaths remained.
As if to support that thought, on the afternoon of the next day, they found the body of the Magic Beast hunter who had been the Captain of the second force.
He was lying face down in the forest, his upper and lower body nearly severed.
It was a place with a slight slope and thick bushes.
Gloomy sighs escaped the mouths of the hunters participating in the search.
Juhwan spread his Mana Detection to check the surroundings, then lowered his head.
“I think there’s one more body down here. There’s a sort of burrow, and there’s a human body inside it.”
The Captain’s body was positioned as if it were covering the entrance to that burrow. Perhaps he had died while trying to flee inside. The wretched stench of blood brought a bitter taste to Juhwan’s throat.
It was then.
The body inside the burrow moved its hand slightly.
If he hadn’t had his Mana Detection active, he wouldn’t have known. From the outside, nothing could be seen or felt.
Juhwan muttered in spite of himself.
“No way! Are they alive?”
