I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 27
027 But It Has Horns
Lij looked at the rabbit trembling in the cloth pouch, its head half-hidden inside.
She had some faint memories of raising rabbits. It was when she was very young, perhaps a little older than Dorothy. Back then, she had thought rabbits were incredibly, immensely large.
But looking at it now—well, it wasn’t exactly small, but it wasn’t as big as she remembered. When she was a child, she had thought a rabbit was as big as she was.
‘Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up.’
Thinking about it, there was no way a rabbit could be as large as a child. Memories were strange things. Perhaps she thought that way even more because she had only ever seen a rabbit once.
Hardly anyone in the village where she lived kept rabbits.
It was likely because there was no suitable habitat for wild rabbits near the village.
She had heard that in other, larger towns, there were occasionally places that bred many rabbits. But in a village as small as the one she grew up in, rabbits were truly rare.
The only reason her family had one was that her father had found an injured, immobile rabbit while returning from a neighboring village.
The rabbit that Lij and her siblings had raised on grass disappeared before long. It hadn’t been eaten by the family; it seemed they had sold it to a merchant or someone else.
‘Ah, that’s it!’
This might be an opportunity.
Juhwan was not used to this kind of life. She had realized this through living with him. He was so clumsy at the life of a commoner that she was certain he must have been a nobleman.
Considering he didn’t even know what a flint was, he must have lived a life where someone did everything for him. Was it only natural since he was a great Magician? She didn’t know how he had become a criminal, but he must have originally been a person of high status.
He probably didn’t know much about how to raise a rabbit either. This was her chance to show him she was a useful wife. Finally, an opportunity had come to escape the position of a woman who couldn’t work properly and only received help.
She wanted to look reliable; she wanted to be seen as a good wife, an admirable woman. The thought made her heart race with anticipation.
‘First, I have to take this rabbit out of the pouch.’
There was no place to put it right away. Usually, livestock were kept indoors during the winter, but this rabbit had just been caught from the wild. If she just left it, it might take the chance to bolt the moment the door opened.
“….”
A rabbit, a rabbit—where should she put it? As she flustered about in a panic, she suddenly heard laughter. Dorothy, held in Juhwan’s arms, was laughing with both hands covering her mouth.
“Lij, you look silly.”
A giggling voice echoed from behind the small child’s hands.
Juhwan didn’t make a sound, but he was laughing just the same. His eyes, which usually looked fierce when he was still, were curved into gentle crescents as he looked at her.
The child’s laughter and her husband’s gaze made her feel strangely embarrassed.
It felt as though her heart—not entirely pure, but wishing to show her husband her usefulness and be adored—had been found out.
“Hahahaha. Lij’s face turned red!”
Dorothy laughed loudly, still hiding her mouth with both hands. As if following her lead, Juhwan pulled Lij into an embrace and let out a soft chuckle.
“Lij, you’re cute.”
“Dorothy too!”
The child shouted loudly from her husband’s other arm.
“Dorothy is cute too.”
Juhwan laughed and pulled both Dorothy and Lij close.
Just then, something suddenly jumped.
Startled, all three of them turned their eyes toward the pouch where the rabbit had been. The rabbit had burst out of the pouch and began to dash through the house at a frantic speed.
“Kyaaaa!”
Dorothy leaped down from Juhwan’s arms, letting out a sound that was somewhere between a scream and a laugh.
Dorothy ran after the rabbit.
The small rabbit kicked off objects and bolted like an arrow, with Dorothy hot on its heels. With a clatter, things placed on the table fell to the floor.
“Oh my goodness! Dorothy, stop! No! Ah, the flour is over there!”
It wasn’t just the falling objects that were a problem. It would be a disaster if Dorothy accidentally tripped and fell into the hearth. This house was built of wood. The rabbit, Dorothy, and the house were all in danger in various ways.
Chasing after the child who paid no heed to her shouts, Lij also began to run through the house.
The sounds of things falling, the rabbit scurrying, and the child tumbling and rolling on the floor echoed everywhere in a chaotic din.
Just as Lij turned pale, Juhwan seemed worried too. His large frame moved to chase Dorothy, then the rabbit.
The house was in a total uproar, the whole family running to catch either the rabbit or the child.
Then, suddenly, without anyone starting it first, they all began to laugh. Dorothy flopped onto the floor, cackling, and Juhwan laughed beside her.
Lij panted as she looked at the house, which had become a shambles. When would she ever clean all this up? No, before that, when would that rabbit stop running? It was still bolting about.
As she stood there dazed, the thought suddenly struck her: ‘Ah, I’m happy.’ Laughter burst from Lij’s lips as well.
A bit far from the house, there was a place with many bamboos.
It was a spot Gus had shown him. He hadn’t known at the time, but it seemed this was where the bamboo for arrows was selected.
Later, Juhwan would also choose wood here to make arrows. That must be why Gus had gone out of his way to tell him.
After cutting down thick stalks of bamboo, Juhwan loaded them onto the jige he had made a few days ago.
The bamboo piled up high, far exceeding the height of the jige.
When he tied them down securely with rope so they wouldn’t spill, the load became so large it was hard to tell if it was a jige or a bamboo monster.
He wondered if even he, who was confident in his superhuman strength, could walk while carrying this.
‘It can’t be helped. I don’t have time to make two trips.’
There was still some time before the sun went down.
However, the concept of “getting dark” didn’t exist in the mountains. Just when you thought the day had shortened a bit, it would suddenly become night.
Because it turned pitch black in the blink of an eye, one always had to check the remaining daylight and return home at the appropriate time.
Once, he had made a mistake because he wasn’t used to gauging the sun, but that wouldn’t happen anymore.
Back then, he had walked along a mountain path where he couldn’t see anything in front or behind him, relying only on a small flame on his finger.
It was a tiny light, but he had been truly grateful for it.
It must have been heavenly luck that he didn’t encounter any predators. At the time, he had sincerely thought that perhaps Santa had helped him.
Juhwan leaned forward to fit his back against the wooden jige, then put strength into his waist and hips.
Using the stick that supported the jige as a cane, he hoisted himself up, and the pile of bamboo swayed slightly as it rose.
The rope over his shoulders felt heavy. If he hadn’t padded it with leather beforehand, the rope probably would have dug in and been painful.
After holding the posture for a moment to find his balance, Juhwan began to walk.
It was less uncomfortable to walk than he had expected. He had made it by recalling the traditional jige he had seen at his grandfather’s house, and it was surprisingly decent.
He hadn’t used a single nail while making the jige. He had trimmed Y-shaped green wood to stand on both sides and carved holes to fit the horizontal crossbars. Perhaps he had a knack for woodworking. It was the discovery of an unexpected talent.
‘If I ever leave the mountains, I might be able to live as a carpenter.’
That might not be bad. He didn’t know how much a carpenter could earn in this era, but if he went to live in a city, wouldn’t there be more jobs for a carpenter than a hunter?
He didn’t know what the future held, but considering Dorothy’s education and future, they would have to go to a city someday.
It would be fine if he could work using magic, but he was a bit hesitant as he didn’t know how he would be treated. Healing Magic might be one thing, but at the very least, fire magic would be useless.
As Juhwan walked with various thoughts in his head, something caught his eye.
There were bloodstains on the snow slightly off the forest path. Near the red-soaked snow, drops of blood looked like red dots.
But there were no footprints.
“….”
He stopped walking and listened to his surroundings for a moment. Perhaps a predator was roaming nearby. The cry of a bird could be heard somewhere in the distance.
Though it was far from the house, if there was a fierce beast nearby, he had to check.
Juhwan set down the jige and picked up the axe he had tucked into his belt.
Approaching the bloodstains while staying alert for sounds, he found signs of a struggle a short distance away.
Juhwan’s eyes widened slightly.
“Oh, what’s this?”
To his surprise, a tiny baby rabbit was lying as if dead where the snow was disturbed. It was much smaller than Juhwan’s palm. Seeing as there were no animal tracks around, perhaps a bird had tried to snatch it and failed.
‘Is it dead?’
Seeing that the blood was red, it couldn’t have been dead for long. Since it was midwinter, it wouldn’t have spoiled quickly, and everything was precious in these mountains.
It was a pity, but he would use it for meat stew.
Juhwan approached and put his hand on the baby rabbit.
“Oh.”
It wasn’t dead yet. It had torn wounds here and there, but it was warm.
When he placed his palm against the rabbit’s body, he felt a faint but steady pulse.
Juhwan placed the rabbit in his palm and held it for a while, focusing on sending mana into it.
The wounds didn’t heal instantly like when Lij’s bruises disappeared. The mangled areas just became a bit drier. It seemed that while light things like bruises healed quickly, more severe symptoms like tears or breaks took time.
‘I don’t know if it’ll survive.’
Juhwan carefully tucked the baby rabbit inside the front of his clothes.
After tightening his belt so the rabbit wouldn’t fall through his clothes, Juhwan shouldered the jige again.
The baby rabbit did not wake up the entire way home.
Daddy brought home an incredible amount of bamboo. Then he hit the bamboo with a hammer, thud-thud, and drove them into the ground.
When several long bamboos were driven into the ground and Daddy straightened his back, Dorothy quickly ran over with the water Lij had given her and held it out to him.
After that, she would bring a towel. It was also Dorothy’s job to take the cup back to Lij—no, Mommy—after Daddy finished drinking his water.
While Daddy was hammering, Dorothy scurried around and gathered bamboo leaves. Once she had gathered two handfuls of leaves that had fallen from the bamboo, she ran back to the house.
As she reached out to open the house door, the bamboo leaves she had worked so hard to collect fell to the floor. She opened the door and busily picked them up again.
After picking them all up and trotting inside, she saw Lij looking at the baby rabbit placed in a small basket.
“Mommy! I brought food!”
As Dorothy ran over, Lij smiled brightly.
“Right, good job.”
“Yeah! Dorothy is so busy! Oh, so busy.”
Dorothy ran over and looked at the baby rabbit’s face. In the small basket, the rabbit looked so tiny. It hadn’t opened its eyes even once yet.
“When does the baby wake up?”
“I wonder.”
Lij spoke in a small voice and watched the baby rabbit quietly. Dorothy placed one bamboo leaf she was holding beside the baby rabbit.
“It’ll eat when it wakes up. It has to eat to grow a lot. It has to become a big rabbit.”
As she said that, she suddenly looked down and saw that all the bamboo leaves had fallen. Lij laughed softly and picked up all the leaves, placing them back in Dorothy’s hands.
“Thank you!”
After speaking loudly, Dorothy ran to the wooden barrel in the corner.
The big rabbit was in there. Mommy said it had no choice for now because it didn’t have a house.
The wooden barrel was the rabbit house.
She opened the lid and put the bamboo leaves inside. Oh, they fell on the floor again. Dorothy sighed, picked up the leaves from the floor, and put them inside the barrel.
The rabbit would starve if Dorothy wasn’t there, so she couldn’t rest even for a moment. Besides, she had to bring water to Daddy and help Mommy with her work. If Dorothy wasn’t there, both Mommy and Daddy would have such a hard time, so she was very busy.
Lij, who had been watching the baby rabbit, stood up.
“Dorothy, will you look after the baby rabbit? Watch it from the side for a bit and tell me when it wakes up. Can you do that?”
Sigh, Dorothy was really too busy. There was so much to do. Dorothy thought so to herself, but it couldn’t be helped. Since Dorothy was the only one who could help Mommy and Daddy.
Dorothy nodded vigorously and answered.
“Yeah, Dorothy will do it.”
Lij said thank you and went to the hearth to ladle water from the large pot.
Normally, Dorothy would also be by her side helping to bring flour or move dishes, but now she had to look after the baby rabbit.
Dorothy sat by the basket and watched the baby rabbit quietly. The baby rabbit didn’t get up. She stared at it again. It still didn’t wake up. When would it wake up?
‘Hmm.’
Dorothy thought for a moment and then gently stroked the baby rabbit’s head. It was soft. So cute. Lij had said she shouldn’t touch it too much, but waking it up should be okay. Since she had to wait until it woke up, maybe waking it up a little…
Dorothy rubbed and touched the baby rabbit’s head. It was soft.
‘Hmm, but, that’s strange.’
Why was that? The baby rabbit had horns.
Dorothy tilted her head and touched the baby rabbit’s head again. They were hidden in the fur, but they were a bit pointy.
“Mommy! Why does the baby rabbit have horns?”
When Dorothy asked, Lij let out a little chuckle as if it were amusing.
“Well, rabbits don’t usually have horns, do they?”
“But.”
They’re there—she was about to say that, but then Dorothy saw the baby rabbit’s face. Its eyes were round. Oh, its eyes opened.
“Mommy! The baby rabbit opened its eyes!”
In the middle of shouting that, Dorothy completely forgot about the fact that there were horns on the baby rabbit’s head.
