Translator: Nox

I Became A Married Man in Another World

Chapter 14

The house was thick with smoke. It seemed the firewood hadn’t dried properly. Well, he had expected as much. There was a reason stoves were always connected to chimneys.

Dorothy let out a series of coughs from the stinging smoke.

Yet, for some reason, the child seemed delighted, scurrying around the house like a little bird.

Through the hazy gray, she appeared here and there like a “super mouse,” flashing in and out of sight.

Lij, who had been enduring the smoke for fear of letting the cold air in, finally gave up and pushed open the wooden window. Beside her, Dorothy reached out her small hands, pretending to help. Both of them were coughing fitfully.

The fire, which had been flickering weakly at first, finally took hold of the logs. As the flames grew steady, the smoke began to thin. The haze, thick as a poison mist, coiled in the center of the room before drifting out through the opening toward the sky beyond the ceiling.

Watching this, Juhwan felt he understood how to set up a smoking rack for meat.

‘If I work hard to gather and dry firewood this year, maybe there will be less smoke next year.’

Juhwan murmured to himself as he gently patted the back of Lij, whose eyes were watering from the smoke.

‘Next year.’

If they were to spend next year in this cabin as well, he hoped the conditions would be a little better.

He wanted to catch rabbits or wolves to smoke the meat and even start a small garden. Rice might be difficult, but perhaps they could harvest some barley. If they spread barley straw on the bed and used it to cover the walls and roof, they might survive the winter a little more easily.

He resolved to hunt diligently. If he could catch wild rabbits alive, perhaps he could breed them. That would provide a more stable supply of meat. Even though he hadn’t even gone on a proper hunt yet, his imagination was growing as lushly as a young sapling.

“….”

At any rate, he hoped to have plenty of meat left over. He would feed Lij and Dorothy until they were full, and sell the rest.

When peddlers visited this small village, he could trade the surplus meat for supplies. Perhaps he could even sell it for money. Silver coins, gold coins—in his mind, the sound of clinking coins began to pile up.

Lij and Dorothy’s clothes were little more than rags. They were so worn that it was a marvel people could even wear them.

Imagining the joy on their faces when he bought them new clothes, Juhwan found himself murmuring aloud.

It would be nice. It would be truly wonderful if such a future came to pass.

---

After confirming the fire was burning well, Juhwan went out to gather more wood.

By the time he finished splitting the logs into firewood, the sky had turned pitch black.

He placed wick and oil into a small dish and lit it. Even with the lamp lit, the house remained dark. A single lamp was hardly enough for such a large space. Shadows stretched across their faces, making the atmosphere feel somewhat eerie.

The lamp oil didn’t smell good, either. It was nauseating, likely made from animal fat.

Ah, perhaps wolf fat is used for things like this. He recalled Lij’s face lighting up when she saw the white chunks of wolf fat.

The smell of the lamp mixed with the acrid smoke made his stomach churn. If Juhwan felt this way, Lij and Dorothy surely felt the same. Yet, for some reason, the two of them remained in high spirits throughout the evening.

For dinner, they boiled wolf meat in a pot with water and salt. With no other ingredients, the flavor of the meat was even more pronounced.

Wolf meat might have tasted better if aged, but it wasn’t bad. To be honest, it was quite delicious.

He wasn’t sure if it was because he was hungry, or because the food he’d eaten since arriving here had been so poor.

Or perhaps it was because Lij and Dorothy ate with such relish. There was a saying that just watching someone eat could make you full, and he found it to be true.

By the time they finished the meal, Dorothy was half-asleep. Her head nodded forward and back, her body swaying in every direction. Even so, she didn’t let go of the meat in her mouth. He reflected that a child’s greed was something more primitive and powerful than an adult’s.

Juhwan caught Lij’s eye, and they shared a silent laugh.

While Lij held Dorothy, Juhwan dragged the bed from the corner over to the hearth. The house was too cold to sleep in the corners.

The bed was large enough for the three of them. There was hardly any straw left, but he spread a thin layer evenly across the bottom and covered it with the cloth from his bundle.

The moment he laid Dorothy down where the warmth of the fire reached, the child curled into a ball and fell into a deep sleep. Her mouth, which had been clamped tight around the meat, drifted half-open.

The firewood crackled steadily, spitting sparks. Juhwan added a few more logs to ensure the fire wouldn’t go out during the night, then spread the large cloth sack that had held their belongings on the floor. Over that, he laid another thin cloth.

When Juhwan looked quietly at Lij, her face flushed bright red as if ripened by the firelight, and she lowered her head.

Juhwan reached out his hand, and Lij gave a small nod.

However, instead of taking his hand, she stood up with awkward movements.

Lij then ladled a bit of water from the pot sitting on the hearth.

She poured the hot water into a long-handled iron dipper and transferred it to a small tub. It was something they had found in the Hunter’s workshop, scrubbed clean, and dried in the sun.

After mixing hot and cold water in the tub, Lij soaked a towel in it.

It was warm near the fire, but stepping even a little away from it brought a biting chill.

Instead of undressing, Lij lifted her clothes slightly and wiped her body with the warm towel.

Then she approached Juhwan to wash him as well. Her slender fingers traced his muscles, rubbing the cloth against his skin.

Lij’s hands were rough, yet they felt soft against him. They were undeniably the hands of a woman. Every time her hands passed over his body, his breath hitched slightly.

After cleaning him, Lij quietly extinguished the lamp.

The two lay down together on the cloth spread across the floor.

Beneath the glow of the low-burning fire, the warmth of their bodies grew hotter than the flames. The sight of Lij biting her lip to stifle her breathing was more beautiful than anything else in the world.

The emotions that had been drifting aimlessly all day finally seemed to find their footing.

Ah, this woman is truly my wife. These two are my family.

The thought brought unexpected tears to his eyes.

He prayed that this happiness would continue in the midst of their lives, and that these two would not leave this world before him.

Juhwan made a wish to the Santa in his memories—the one who had laughed with that bizarre sound. If you have given them to me, please do not take them away. Let this woman and child laugh until the moment I die.

---

It might be different for nobles like the Lord.

But for commoners like Lij, every household was much the same. Every child grew up sharing the same space as their parents. From the time they were tiny infants until they married and left home, they lived in a single room.

This was no different at night; as children grew older, they became aware of how their parents spent their evenings.

Sisters, brothers, siblings—they all knew what parents did at night.

Even if they didn’t understand it when they were young, it was only a matter of time. Even without being taught, they eventually came to know.

Lij was no different. But unlike her other siblings, she had always harbored a sense of loathing toward that private time between a husband and wife.

Those hours were rough and cruel. Her father’s shouting had always been terrifying. After her father fell asleep, her mother would sometimes cry alone.

The thought of such a thing becoming her own future had filled her with dread.

‘….’

In the early hours of the dawn, before anyone else had stirred, Lij woke and smiled softly to the sound of the crackling logs.

She had certainly been on the floor when she drifted off, but at some point, she had been moved into the bed. She was tucked against her husband, her head pillowed on his arm and her face buried against his firm chest.

A small, warm body was pressed tightly against her back. Dorothy’s little leg hooked around her waist like sticky resin.

She and Dorothy were sharing Juhwan’s arm as a pillow. Warmth radiated from her husband’s thick arm.

‘Held in this arm…’

Sandwiched between her husband and the child, Lij smiled shyly again.

Her face and her entire body flushed with embarrassment, her mind filling with the various memories of the night. She didn’t know what to do with herself. And yet, the laughter kept bubbling up. She felt like a fool.

She never would have believed that the time she had loathed so much could be this sweet. It was unthinkable that that could turn into this. From the moment she met this man, her world had been changing constantly.

It seemed her fidgeting had woken Juhwan. Shadows danced across his face in the flickering firelight.

Overcome with shyness once more, she pressed her face against his chest to hide her expression. Juhwan pulled both her and Dorothy into a single embrace and spoke softly.

“###.”

She didn’t know what the words meant, but she could tell they were tender. It only made her feel more embarrassed.

Lij closed her eyes. Thump-thump. She couldn’t tell if the beating heart was hers or her husband’s. Perhaps it was both. Enveloped by that small, rhythmic sound, she drifted back to sleep.

She thought she heard Dorothy mumble in her sleep, “Meat, meat.” The child’s mouth worked as if she were eating even in her dreams, her body wiggling against Lij’s back. Even as she sank into sleep, a laugh escaped her.

---

Faint sunlight filtered through the hole in the ceiling. When Juhwan opened his eyes, only he and Dorothy were in the bed.

Lij had already risen and was sorting through the ashes and glowing embers in the hearth.

She moved the embers to the edge, away from the main fire, and poured a little water over them.

The red-hot lumps hissed, a bit of smoke rising, and they became the charcoal Juhwan was familiar with.

Juhwan got out of bed and took the iron poker and shovel from Lij’s hands. He picked out the glowing embers just as she had done and doused them with water. After clearing out the few embers, he added more firewood.

Lij, who had been watching him quietly, said something in a small voice.

“##, ###.”

Judging by the tone and manner, it was likely a morning greeting. When Juhwan mimicked her words, her face turned bright red, and she repeated only the latter half, dropping the first part.

Perhaps the first word had been a title for a husband.

Something like ‘Honey’ or ‘Dear.’

When he pointed to himself and said the word he thought was the title, Lij nodded with a crimson face.

“What about Lij?”

After pointing to himself and saying the husband’s title, he pointed to Lij. She whispered a few words. When he repeated them after her, she fled to the corner in embarrassment.

Juhwan stood up and sauntered after her. He repeated the words she had taught him.

“Wife, bride, lady.”

The back of Lij’s neck was beet red. Feeling a bit playful, he gave her a light poke, making her flinch with a strange little sound.

He poked, he touched, he whispered ‘wife’ to her—each word laced with a bit of sweetness and a hint of mischief.

But their brief moment of sweetness was broken by a lively sound.

With a strange shout of “##!” Dorothy bolted upright.

Lij jumped in surprise, then giggled. She pointed to the tub containing the wolf meat and repeated a word several times to teach him.

Whether Dorothy had seen meat in her dreams, eaten it, or dreamt the meat had grown legs and run away, she had clearly been dreaming of it.

“Meat.”

As Juhwan carefully followed the pronunciation, Lij nodded as if to praise him.

As if drawn by the sound, Dorothy jumped out of bed and ran to the meat tub. After opening the wooden lid to check that it hadn’t gone anywhere, she let out a relieved, beaming smile.

Seeing that, Juhwan made a silent vow.

‘I have to hunt hard.’

They needed meat. Lots of it.

---

After drinking a cup of water he’d let cool from the boil, Juhwan headed outside.

He cleared away the debris he hadn’t finished tidying while splitting wood yesterday and sharpened his axe on a whetstone from the workshop. By the time he finished, the sky was fully bright.

“!”

Suddenly, he felt a sensation like something crawling on his skin. He whipped around, glaring into the forest. His grip tightened on the axe.

However, the person who limped out from between the trees was the old Hunter.

The old Hunter’s gaze was fixed on Juhwan’s left arm, where the wolf’s teeth marks remained.