I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 28
028 Where Is the Hero?
Cutting wood to make a rabbit hutch took too long. That was why he thought of bamboo, and it turned out to be surprisingly effective. After driving the bamboo stalks tightly into the ground, it became a fairly sturdy enclosure.
He fashioned the roof and the entrance by weaving bamboo together with rope. There were nails in his toolbox, but he didn’t have many left. He figured it was best to save them for later.
For the gate, he drilled holes in the bamboo to fit it in place. It felt a bit stiff when it moved, but for a first attempt, it seemed decent enough. The gate didn’t align perfectly, leaving a small gap, but that was unavoidable for a beginner. Completing it to this extent was practically a miracle in itself.
Juhwan admired his handiwork, stretching his back. The sky was already stained with a dusky crimson light.
On the torch stands placed outside the cabin, wooden stakes wrapped with resin-soaked cloth were already set. It seemed Riji had prepared them as it grew dark.
Juhwan produced a flame from his fingertip and transferred it to the torch. The size of the flame was about the same as before, but for some reason, the fire felt a bit stronger—as if the heat was more intense. It seemed that practicing his mana control was actually helping. But when is it ever going to get bigger? It still looked like nothing more than a lighter flame. What good was a tiny spark, even if it was a strong one? An involuntary sigh escaped him.
Relying on the torchlight, he set about building a bamboo fence around the house. Unlike the rabbit hutch, the fence surrounding the house was as tall as a man. Juhwan dug deep into the earth first, layering two or three stalks of bamboo together to build the perimeter.
He couldn’t finish it all at once; he only managed a small section in front of the house. Since he had to work on it between other chores, it would likely take a few days to fully enclose the house.
Before he knew it, darkness had fallen on all sides. From deep within the forest, the mournful cry of an owl echoed several times at intervals.
When he stepped inside the house, Dorothy was excitedly pattering around the room. Her face lit up the moment she saw him.
She ran toward him, shouting at the top of her lungs.
“Baby eyes ##! Papa, baby rabbit eyes ##. Cute.”
Just before she reached Juhwan in her tumbling run, Dorothy stopped in her tracks with an “Ah!” Expression. “Rabbit, rabbit!” she cried, spinning around.
As the child dashed toward the basket, her fluff-ball hair bounced up and down. Dorothy ran as fast as her short legs could carry her back to the basket where the rabbit was.
She picked up the basket with both small hands and, this time, walked back very carefully.
Riji, who was by the hearth, gave a small sigh. Perhaps the child had been running around like this all day, carrying the rabbit to Riji over and over.
Fearing the child might trip while holding the basket, Juhwan approached Dorothy and knelt on one knee. The baby rabbit was huddled in the corner of the small basket. Its black eyes shined brightly.
“You’re awake.”
As Juhwan muttered those words, Dorothy tilted her head. She seemed to find the words she couldn’t understand strange.
Juhwan placed his hand on the baby rabbit’s body and sent out his mana. Or at least, that was what he intended. He couldn’t tell if something was actually flowing, but every time he thought the words send mana or heal, something changed, so it must be working.
Perhaps because of the mana, the baby rabbit’s body trembled. The redness of the wound, which looked like it had been sliced by something sharp, faded slightly, and the flesh began to knit together. It looked like moving clam meat. It was a bit grotesque, but the child’s impression was different.
“Amazing.”
Dorothy whispered. After staring at the baby rabbit, she looked up at Juhwan. Her eyes were filled with something akin to reverence.
“Papa, amazing. So amazing.”
“….”
He felt a little happy. And a little shy.
The baby rabbit’s basket was returned to its original spot, and the wild rabbit that had been kept in the wooden tub was moved to the outdoor hutch he had just built.
For the time being, he lined a corner of the hutch with bamboo leaves and straw from under the bed. The straw bedding they used for their mattress became even thinner.
After dinner, the house grew quiet as Dorothy fell asleep. It seemed wrestling with the rabbits and running around trying to “help” had exhausted her. When he picked her up to move her to the bed, her head lolled back and forth.
In the quiet, save for the sound of logs crackling in the hearth, Riji used a small knife to scrape the fat off the rabbit skin.
It was a method she had learned from Gus; apparently, scraping the fat as thin as possible was the key to whether it would become good leather or not. Riji’s face was incredibly serious.
Beside her, Juhwan looked at the wooden plaques with characters written on them, memorizing the basic alphabet. When he first showed them the plaques, Dorothy and Riji had shown a bit of interest, but they quickly lost it. Both were more concerned with the rabbits—Dorothy with the baby rabbit, and Riji with the wild one.
‘I guess food really is the priority.’
After learning the characters, he looked at the wooden plaques with words written on them and practiced the pronunciation. Trying to study at his age made his head throb. But it couldn’t be helped.
When he read a pronunciation to Riji and asked for the meaning, she would put down the rabbit skin and use a mix of hand gestures and body language to explain. They were words meaning things like many, few, all, no, and good.
Perhaps there had originally been more of these plaques. He thought it was a bit of a waste, knowing that his vocabulary would have expanded instantly if there were just a hundred more.
Humans are greedy creatures. He should have been grateful enough to have obtained this much, but once you have something, you want more.
At first, he was thankful just to have escaped the wagon where they were being led like livestock, but now that he had a home and a family, he wanted to go to the city and learn more of the language. Truly, it was because humans were like this that Satan existed.
The image of Santa suddenly flickered in his mind and vanished. Was that Santa still searching for someone at the entrance of the subway station?
Riji finished scraping the fat off the rabbit skin and was soon sewing. The fabric she had received from the Village Chief’s Wife had already been turned into pants for Juhwan and a skirt for Dorothy.
A little more fabric had come in after that, but she didn’t try to make clothes for herself. It was only after Juhwan insisted several times that she make something for herself that she finally began working on a garment for herself using the most worn-looking fabric.
She never rested for a moment. He didn’t know if all women in this world were like that, or if Riji was just exceptionally diligent. With her slender frame, she was always doing something. He worried she might wear herself out.
At the very least, so she wouldn’t be cold, Juhwan added more wood to the hearth. The fire had to stay lit all night. When adding logs, he took that into account and used larger pieces of wood for the night.
After tending to the leather and then the sewing, Riji tilted her head and slumped her shoulders as if they were stiff. she rolled her head back and then to the side. She looked just like a squirrel moving.
When Juhwan moved behind her and gently massaged her shoulders, she jumped, tucking her neck in. She seemed to be ticklish. As she shifted her body here and there, Riji seemed to shrink under Juhwan’s touch.
Initially, he had only intended to massage her aching shoulders, but Juhwan’s hands gradually grew bolder. Riji’s exceptionally pale skin flushed red.
In the flickering light, layers of clothing were shed one by one. He wondered how such sweetness could be hidden in such a slender frame; every part of Riji’s body was sweet. A faint moisture glazed his wife’s eyes. Sometimes she whimpered adorably, like a puppy.
His ever-diligent wife was a hard worker even at night. As industrious as a squirrel gathering acorns, Riji would often focus her wandering consciousness and look at him, asking with her eyes: Am I doing well?
When he stroked his wife’s cheek and met her gaze as if in answer, Riji would smile happily. She was cute. The word “lovely” was likely meant for a temperament like hers rather than just appearance. Though, of course, she was incredibly cute and lovely in Juhwan’s eyes as well.
Thinking that he had finally found the perfect piece for his missing circle, Juhwan deeply enjoyed the sweetness his wife offered. Somewhere beyond the deepening night sky, the owl’s cry echoed once more.
To get to the large city where the information brokers were, one first had to travel half a day to the Village, and then another full day and a half by regular stagecoach.
He had a cart and a horse at home, but considering the travel time, horse feed, and lodging, it was cheaper to use the stagecoach.
However, the stagecoach stopped at every village and required transfers to coaches heading in different directions, so if the timing was off, a whole day could be wasted.
Most of the time, the coaches ran on schedule, but accidents or issues with the driver often caused delays.
Praying that such a thing wouldn’t happen this time, the Village Chief boarded the rattling coach.
Three people sat in a single seat. Being squeezed between large men and tossed about made his legs and back so strained that it was difficult to walk afterward. If someone happened to vomit from motion sickness, it was pure misery.
‘All this suffering, the coach fare, and the money for the information broker…’
A sigh escaped him involuntarily. He hoped that after speaking with the broker, he could ideally connect with a noble all at once. There was only one broker nearby anyway, and traveling further would cost even more money.
Even if Healing Magicians were rare, there was usually at least one in a larger city. Since it cost a lot of money to be treated by a Magician, it didn’t really matter to commoners, but they did exist.
However, those Healing Magicians didn’t have much power. The Village Chief had only heard rumors, but it seemed they could barely stop bleeding or help speed up recovery slightly.
Powerful Healing Magicians who could close wounds completely, like Juhwan had done, were mostly monopolized by the nobility or royalty.
Well, he himself had been skeptical, wondering if a Magician with such power actually existed, but seeing Juhwan made him realize that such incredible people were real. The nobles hire and carry around Magicians with that kind of monstrous power. Incredible.
How much would information about such a Magician be worth?
He probably wouldn’t get as much as he had first envisioned. Back then, he had been too excited and set his sights too high.
But he should be able to get at least ten or so gold coins. If he could connect with a noble who truly needed a Healing Magician, he might get even more.
While enduring the coach ride and mulling over these thoughts, he arrived at the village where the inn was located. As people poured out of the coach, a scruffy boy ran up to them.
“Welcome! I’ll guide you to the lodging.”
The people trudged after the boy, who looked to be about ten years old. The place he led them to was a shabby barn. It was the lodging included in the coach fare.
The barn, lined with hay, was already crowded. Some people were sleeping huddled together. A few were crouched down, eating something.
“We have hot stew! Bread and wine too. Does anyone need anything?”
The boy asked the newcomers. But no one asked for any. Despite him saying it was hot, it would undoubtedly be stone cold. When no one responded, the boy looked a bit disappointed.
As he lay in the barn with his eyes closed, the Village Chief could hear people whispering.
It seemed someone in the corner knew about the Yongsa from the enemy nation. He had thought there would be only one Hero, but they said there were two.
At that, another person asked anxiously.
“Then what’s going to happen to us? Shouldn’t we summon a Hero as well?”
This area was close to the enemy nation. Several villages near the border had already been raided or turned into battlefields multiple times.
The Village Chief’s village had not yet been caught up in the war, but it was very close to the border. Naturally, the Village Chief’s attention was drawn to their conversation.
The person who had spoken about the enemy’s Hero replied in an uncertain voice.
“Who knows what’ll happen. It seems our country tried to summon a Hero several times too. My relative is at the temple, and he told me. They said they tried the summoning many times. But it seems they never succeeded once.”
The man’s voice dropped a bit lower.
“My relative says there are rumors circulating in the temple that a Hero might have already been summoned. No one knows for sure what’s going on. My relative is only at a local temple, after all.”
Someone else suddenly spoke up at the man’s words.
“I think the Hero who appeared in the enemy nation is a fake. Honestly, we don’t even know if Heroes really exist. How can you believe in something that was around hundreds of years ago? It’s not like anyone’s seen one in person.”
“I feel the same. Honestly, it’s hard to believe.”
“But what if it’s true?”
“They say Heroes look different from us. If he’s a fake, he’ll be found out soon enough.”
The anxious people buzzed with talk. The Village Chief’s heart grew uneasy as well.
‘I have to sell the information quickly, take the money, and leave the village. I don’t know when the enemy might invade.’
He wouldn’t just take the money; he needed to get a travel pass so he could move to a safer territory. A noble should easily be able to arrange something like that.
The Village Chief suppressed his anxiety as best he could and spent the night in the hard, cold barn.
Before sunrise, the boy came back to call the people. They shuffled out of the barn and boarded their respective stagecoaches.
The Village Chief joined the crowd and climbed into the coach. It was finally as the sun was beginning to set that he arrived at his destination, the city.
