I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 136
136. The Margrave’s Invitation (Illustration)
136. The Margrave’s Invitation
What’s so great about a guy like that? At best, he’s probably just a pebble sticking out of the dirt.
A unicorn? Hmph. Can’t you just stick a fake horn on a horse’s head? Anyone who believes unicorns actually exist is a fool.
Whether he’s Santa-grade or whatever, why should our Lord Margrave care about some commoner?
His heart was full of discontent. His stomach churned at the fact that a man as great as the Margrave of Bern had granted his own crest to a mere commoner.
‘Tsk! And he even refused to work under the Margrave despite being offered such an honor?’
This was a story he had heard from a soldier who was present when the Margrave met that Santa-grade adventurer. He heard the man had declined, even though the Margrave himself—not some subordinate—had made the offer.
In a world where nobles who only care about lining their own pockets are as common as the hair on one’s head or legs, there was no one as noble and great as the Margrave.
Sure, he sometimes flew into a fiery rage;
Or caused trouble for his administrators and soldiers by acting on sudden whims outside the schedule;
Or killed traitors in summary executions, losing the chance to gather information;
Or occasionally injured his own soldiers while brawling with them;
And of course, he did plenty of other things to baffle his aides—as many as there are grains of sand on the ground…
But even so, his generosity and integrity as a ruler were more than enough to offset all his other flaws.
It was the Margrave who had plucked him from his life as an ignorant commoner and appointed him as an administrator. Thanks to him, his entire family could live in abundance. He didn’t have to sell his younger brother.
There were many others among the administrators and soldiers who had been saved in the same way.
Sometimes, soldiers were treated as expendables. There were, of course, times when they received orders that meant certain death.
However, the same applied to the Margrave and his family.
They went to their deaths together. It wasn’t just the soldiers who became expendable.
The Margrave was a man who ordered both nobles and commoners to die when it was their time to die.
Yet, he was also the one who demanded they find a way to survive that place no matter what.
“….”
Now that he thought about it, it seemed a bit irrational, but that was just the kind of man he was.
‘Anyway.’
No one could be as noble as the Margrave. To the aide, he was the most elegant noble and the wisest lord he had ever seen.
‘And he doesn’t even realize that.’
How dare he? How dare a commoner humiliate the Margrave like that? It was outrageous. He’d have to give the man a piece of his mind when they met. Hmph, just you wait, commoner.
That was what he thought. The new aide—who was often criticized for being far too devoted to the Margrave—truly believed that until the moment he arrived at the Bern Adventurer Village.
But there was a white unicorn walking right in front of him. It was perhaps inevitable that he found himself staring blankly.
‘It… it must be a fake horn.’
Right, that had to be it. It was clearly a prop.
He’d seen such things in traveling circuses that toured the cities. Beautiful sirens, one-eyed giants, hairy men. He’d heard from a circus member that they were all fakes. There was no doubt about it.
To confirm this, the new aide trudged toward the fake unicorn.
But it was incredibly large. Had they attached something to its body to make it look bigger too? No, its eye level was far too high for that. Where on earth did they find such a massive horse?
His mind was a mess of confusion as he got close enough to almost touch the unicorn.
Suddenly, a passing man pulled him back from behind.
“You shouldn’t get too close. People who are new to this village approach it without knowing, but you’ll get in big trouble. It bites.”
“…Oh…”
“It’s especially sensitive right now because it’s time to chase the kids around.”
“Wait, kids?”
“Yeah. It belongs to the unicorn owner’s kid, and around this time, they go around playing with the rabbit. Ah, it’s a horned rabbit. It has a horn on its head. Since they’ve been doing that for a few days now, we’ve all ended up watching the unicorn around this time.”
Another passerby stopped and chimed in.
“Seeing a unicorn brings good luck. That’s why many people wander out into the streets at this hour.”
While he was listening to the story about luck, a man approached and gave the unicorn a polite bow. Why? Why was he bowing to a unicorn?
“The little lady is over on the Street of Weapons. I think the innkeeper’s kid talked her into it. The two of them were selling karambits.”
The man even spoke to the unicorn.
To his surprise, as if it understood human speech, the unicorn tossed its mane and trotted across the square, its hooves clattering against the ground.
While the new aide watched blankly, the white horse’s hindquarters disappeared into the distance. The men surrounded him and began to chat.
“I heard those karambits are pretty good. My wife said it’s convenient for trimming meat.”
“Ah, I guess they’re a trend among the women. But they’re expensive. To spend that much just for cutting meat and fish…”
“Sigh, my wife’s been grumbling for me to buy her one, too.”
Another person walking by joined the conversation.
“I heard the Mage made them. The weapon shop owner said so. The Mage ordered them to be produced.”
“The Mage really can do anything, can’t he?”
“But, sigh… seeing how the Mage treats his wife, my wife has been a bit… lately…”
“Same here. The Mage has completely spoiled the women’s expectations.”
“It’s not like we can complain to the Mage about it, though.”
“Sigh…”
“Sigh…”
The group kept growing until more than ten scruffy-looking men had gathered, grumbling and sighing together.
The aide felt a bit strange. Was he not just some arrogant commoner? He had thought the man was just someone who knew a bit of magic, but things seemed different. He was popular, knowledgeable, and seemed very…
At that thought, the new aide flinched and straightened his expression.
‘What am I doing thinking like that? I came here to give him a piece of my mind. I came because I can’t forgive a commoner who looked down on the Margrave.’
Determined, he started walking again, when a blonde girl with messy hair ran past him.
“Huh?”
Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, there was definitely a rabbit on the child’s head. One with a horn… and it was glowing red, to boot.
“Uh…?”
Behind the little girl as she ran, small pebbles were snapping in half like chestnuts popping open. Click, clack.
One, two, ten, twenty…
Split pebbles lay in a neat line along the path the child had taken.
“W-What the…!”
He froze in shock. Did the child do that by stepping on them? No, the stones just snapped on their own, didn’t they? Just now?
The men who had been talking earlier laughed loudly as they approached. One of them patted him on the back.
“We almost fainted the first day we saw it, too.”
“But after seeing it over and over, you get used to it.”
“They say it’s ‘special training.’”
Clop, clop, clop. The unicorn that had gone far away earlier came back. It wasn’t running, but it was walking at a brisk pace, seemingly chasing after the little girl.
“Haha. Looks like they’re heading home now.”
“Indeed. Did she get into trouble again?”
The men laughed heartily.
One of them called out to the unicorn.
“You’re a bit fast today, Lord Unicorn.”
As if it knew the words were directed at it, the unicorn glanced toward them.
With a slightly haughty expression—no, was it even possible for a unicorn to look haughty?
But with a truly haughty look, the unicorn gave the man a brief glance. When the men bowed their heads, the unicorn dipped its head slightly as if accepting the greeting.
‘What is that? Is there a person inside?’
After that, the unicorn diligently followed the little girl who had moved further ahead.
The village men went back to talking about the Mage and their wives. Were they crazy, chatting about their wives in a time like this?
Just outside the village, a war was imminent and chaos reigned, yet this village alone felt strangely detached from it all.
The new aide crossed the square feeling somewhat lightheaded.
He aimed for the Santa signboard, which could be seen anywhere in the cities of the Bern Margraviate, when someone spoke to him from behind.
“Are you all right?”
He turned around to find a massive giant standing there. Eek! He reflexively swallowed a scream.
The Margrave of Bern was also quite large, but this man was much bigger and more rugged. One of his forearms looked as thick as the aide’s own torso.
‘M-Maybe I should have brought someone with me.’
Why did he think coming alone would be fine? He simply hadn’t wanted to be a burden to the Margrave, who was so short-staffed he’d take any help he could get, but his life was still precious.
‘B-B-But the Guild is right in front of me.’
If things got bad, he could just crawl to the Guild. While thinking that, he looked up at the giant’s face far above him, and then a delicate voice spoke from beside the man.
“Um… are you really okay?”
Looking down, he saw a woman at least a head or two shorter than himself standing next to the giant. She was very small. Standing next to the giant, she looked even smaller.
‘Is she… his daughter?’
The giant didn’t seem quite old enough for that, though.
The aide looked up at the giant’s face once more. Wait, what did he say again? As he was thinking, the giant asked again.
“Are you sick? If you feel like throwing up, let’s go over to that shade.”
Ah, it wasn’t a threat. He wasn’t asking for money or threatening to kill him. It seemed his brain had stopped working because he was so startled. The aide breathed a sigh of relief and spoke.
“I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong.”
“Well, that’s a relief then.”
The giant gave a broad smile and walked across the square with the woman.
The man and woman walked together quietly. It was just that—they were simply walking together—but for some reason, the sight felt a bit unfamiliar.
Wondering why, he watched them closely and realized they were walking side-by-side.
The man was tall, with long legs. He should have been much faster than the woman, yet she didn’t seem to be hurrying at all.
‘Is he walking incredibly slowly to match her pace?’
It wasn’t that no one ever matched a woman’s pace like that. Most nobles walked that way.
But he couldn’t recall ever seeing such a thing among commoners, no matter how hard he racked his brain.
‘What a strange person.’
He wondered if that, too, was a phenomenon caused by that Santa-grade adventurer Mage.
The aide watched the couple for a moment before turning away. It was time to work. After checking the letter safely tucked inside his leather bag, he hurried toward the Guild.
Most of the adventurers who had participated in the subjugation force had returned to their original regions. He heard they would receive their subjugation rewards at their local Guilds.
It seemed they did it that way because carrying large amounts of money was dangerous.
Juhwan decided to stay in this village for a while until information on regions with frequent magic beast sightings was gathered.
Thanks to that, Dorothy was thrilled. It was because he had given her permission to wander the village as she pleased after she finished her chores.
Oz had regained some of his strength, and if anything happened, Oz and Yeonhwa could immediately sense each other’s status. Since most of the villagers worshipped the unicorn like an idol, there was little risk of her being mistreated. He felt it would be fine to leave her be.
Lately, she had been hanging around with the innkeeper’s kid. From what he heard, it seemed she was being recruited for the kid’s part-time jobs in exchange for a bit of food.
Well, Dorothy called it playing together, but in reality, she was just being used.
One moment they were at the karambit stall, and the next they were working as barkers for someone selling raisins or bread.
While Yeonhwa—who went around picking up the kids—and Oz were the main attractions for the people, Dorothy was having fun, and the innkeeper’s kid and the villagers were all happy, so Juhwan figured it was fine.
When Juhwan and Riji went to the Street of Weapons to find the child, the people there each had something to say.
“Oh, you just missed them. They already left. Yeonhwa came to get them.”
“I think she still wanted to play; she ran away as soon as she saw Yeonhwa.”
The people laughed.
Riji also laughed, looking exasperated.
Just as they were wondering where to go next, the innkeeper’s kid came running up, panting.
“Mister Mage! Mister Mage! There’s a message from the Guild. They want you to come right now. Some kind of news came from the Margrave.”
“I see, thanks.”
When Juhwan handed him a small coin, the boy beamed and bowed deeply.
“Thank you! Oh, should I bring Dorothy to the Guild? She’s at the bakery right now.”
Part-time work at the bakery this time? Riji chuckled beside him.
“Would you do that for me?”
“Yes!”
The boy answered energetically and ran off immediately. He was probably the most hardworking person in this village.
When they arrived at the Guild with Riji, Chatterbox was standing outside waiting. As soon as he saw Juhwan, he rushed over and spoke quickly.
“An invitation has arrived from the Margrave.”
