I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 30
030 The Peddler’s Wagon
Deep in the mountains, the chirping of birds and the whispering of the wind felt as if they were right beside him. It was a feeling of being submerged in nature.
However, as he moved away from the mountains and approached the Village, the atmosphere changed completely.
A small village in this world was different from those on Earth. It was closer to nature. Yet, the mere presence of man-made structures made the air feel vastly different from that of the mountains.
In a short amount of time, his senses seemed to have shifted significantly from when he lived on Earth. Had he seen these buildings back then, he would have thought they were practically part of nature. They say humans are creatures of adaptation, and it seemed to be true.
Juhwan cast a brief glance at Lij, worried by her slightly slowed pace. Her face appeared a bit dark, as if she were exhausted or perhaps not particularly happy to be heading to the Village.
Was she afraid of running into the men who had attacked him before? Or was she scared of meeting their families? Whatever the reason, he would never let such a thing happen to her again.
Juhwan lightly stroked Lij’s back. Her body, which had seemed slightly hunched, straightened a little. She looked up at him and smiled, her expression brightening.
Juhwan gently touched the hair swaying at the nape of her neck. Lij’s long, softly glowing hair had been beautiful. The fact that he’d made her cut it for money felt like a glaring reminder of his own inadequacy as a husband, and he felt a pang of guilt every time he saw it.
However, the short bob actually suited Lij quite well. While her long hair had given her an innocent and calm impression, the cut—short enough to reveal her nape—made her look like a young girl wearing a castella cake on her head. She looked cute and lively.
‘If it hadn’t been cut because of money, I would have told her how cute she looks as much as I wanted.’
Because it was his own lack of means that forced his wife to cut her hair for their livelihood, he couldn’t bring himself to openly express how pretty she was. Apology preceded admiration.
He had started hunting and bringing home rabbits, and he’d begun to think he was finally acting the part of a breadwinner, but it seemed he still had a long way to go.
Feeling that reality poignantly, he reached out and took Lij’s hand. He hoped his feelings of finding her beautiful would reach her.
Perhaps not used to the habit of holding hands, Lij seemed startled. Her wide, round eyes, paired with the short hair, made her look even more adorable.
“You’re cute.”
The words slipped out before he could help it. He hadn’t planned to say it; it just happened.
“….”
Lij lowered her gaze bashfully. Her pale ears were tinged slightly red. He wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed because he was holding her hand or because of the compliment. Either way, she seemed happy, and his heart felt a little lighter. Her short hair really was lovely and pretty.
Dorothy, perched atop the jige, kicked the frame with her feet and reached her small hand out toward Juhwan and Lij.
“Dorothy is cute too.”
“Pfft.”
Lij let out a laugh at the absurdity. The slightly awkward atmosphere vanished in an instant. Children truly were remarkable sometimes. They had no sense of the mood at all.
“Of course Dorothy is cute,” Juhwan said.
At his words, Dorothy leaned forward, putting her weight against the jige. When he turned his head slightly, he could see her curly hair, sticking out like wild grass, pressed against the backrest of the frame.
“Mama, what about Dorothy?”
Apparently, Juhwan’s word wasn’t enough. Lij said with a smile, “Dorothy is so very cute.”
“Yeah!”
Satisfied, Dorothy gave a loud reply and laughed.
The back gate they had used to head up the mountain was locked, so this time they entered through the large main gate at the front of the Village.
The entrance gate was wide open.
According to Lij, it remained open during the day when people frequently came and gone, but it was closed in the evening. Having studied the language for a few days, the amount of speech Juhwan could understand had increased significantly. It was a small joy.
When he first arrived at the Village, the fence had been crumbling in places. Whether the Village lacked the resources to fix it or not, the perimeter walls had not been repaired at all. He wondered if there was even any point in closing the front gate when the walls were broken down.
“….”
Juhwan shifted his gaze from the fence and stepped inside.
Small fields were visible here and there, with houses standing at intervals. He could hear a rooster crowing somewhere. Perhaps because it was the outskirts of the Village, there were hardly any people in sight.
As they walked toward the center of the Village, more people began to appear.
It was only one or two people at a time, but it had been a while since he’d seen others moving about. His heart felt a tiny bit of excitement.
Dorothy seemed thrilled. She fidgeted restlessly on the jige before finally climbing down and starting to run ahead of Juhwan and Lij.
However, she didn’t go far. She would run ahead a short distance, and if she got too close to a villager, she would scurry back. She kept busily circling near Juhwan and Lij, moving back and forth and side to side.
Following the path toward the center, a fairly wide space began to come into view in the distance. People were gathered there, a low murmur filling the air. In the middle of it all was a wagon covered with a large roof. It looked quite big.
The scene unfolding around it was reminiscent of an old rural marketplace. People seemed to be selling things they had laid out on the ground.
Some items were in baskets, while others were spread out on a single sheet of cloth. Some people simply placed their goods on the bare earth.
As Juhwan’s gaze turned toward the people, Lij spoke to him.
“They are the villagers. When the peddler comes, they bring their goods to sell individually.”
“Individually?”
“Ah, person by person.”
When he asked about the unfamiliar word, Lij explained using terms Juhwan could understand. Each? Respectively? It probably meant something like that.
Whenever she taught him like this, Lij wore a strangely happy expression.
She seemed a little proud. But as if she didn’t want to show it, she purposefully put on a prim face.
Finding that look cute for some reason, Juhwan lightly pressed her nose with his finger. Her small nose squished slightly under the pressure.
Dorothy, who had been running ahead and coming back, saw this and began to clutch her stomach with laughter.
Perhaps because Dorothy was laughing, Lij seemed a little annoyed. She let go of Juhwan’s hand and walked a bit ahead. When Dorothy ran up and took her hand, the two of them walked side by side in front of Juhwan.
“….”
He needed to reflect. Poking a woman’s nose was a breach of manners. It was incredibly cute, but he decided not to do it again.
When he had first arrived at this Village, he’d had no room to feel or observe anything.
He had been moved directly from a carriage to a shabby house, and he’d spent the entire night worrying about the future. Far from having peace of mind, his head had been filled with thoughts of whether he would live or die, or if he should run away.
Even now, remembering his feelings from that time made his fists clench.
But entering the Village with his wife and daughter felt completely different. He could see the smiles on people’s faces and clearly register their laughter. This was a place where ordinary people lived too. Only now did that thought finally occur to him.
As they approached the peddler’s wagon, the villagers’ gazes fell blatantly upon Juhwan’s family. It wasn’t exactly a hostile feeling, but it felt like they were being rejected.
It reminded him of a time long ago, back on Earth, when he had drifted between relatives’ houses for a short while. It felt exactly like this. He might have expected it for himself, but were Lij and Dorothy treated this way too? His mood soured.
Juhwan walked close behind Lij and Dorothy, as if shielding them from the villagers’ stares. With his large frame and the jige on his back, he looked like a robot escorting its masters.
Perhaps because of Juhwan, the people’s stares thinned out slightly. When their eyes happened to meet, they quickly looked away.
Dorothy seemed a bit intimidated, but her expression revived as they got closer to the wagon and saw the goods. She seemed fascinated. Her eyes grew round, and her head darted busily from side to side.
Dorothy’s small head whipped around as she looked back and forth between Juhwan and Lij.
“Can Dorothy look at that?”
Lij smiled at Dorothy and nodded. She seemed to be warning her not to touch anything. After Lij whispered to her in a low voice, as if wary of their surroundings, Dorothy ran toward the wagon.
The wagon appeared to be operated by several men. An older man and a few younger men were dealing with people and selling goods.
They might have been related by blood. Despite the differences in age, their faces were somewhat similar.
As Dorothy circled around, a boy who looked to be about ten years old suddenly popped out from the back.
This child also seemed to be part of the peddler’s group. His face was similar as well.
It was like a Matryoshka, the traditional Russian doll. A doll within a doll, all looking the same. This peddler family was a bit funny.
Dorothy must have thought so too, because after seeing the boy’s face, she ran around busily, checking the faces of the peddler men one by one.
The boy seemed a bit annoyed by her behavior. He muttered something to himself.
While checking on the child playing every now and then, Lij began to take out the rabbit skins and her own hair to show the peddler.
It didn’t seem like Lij had a talent for haggling. Juhwan didn’t consider himself a master negotiator either, but this was a bit much.
However, Juhwan didn’t intervene; he just stood still and watched the interaction between the peddler and Lij.
Seeing the rabbit skins, a middle-aged man who had been a short distance away approached. The young man stepped back, and the middle-aged man took over dealing with Lij.
The middle-aged peddler and his sons had entered the familiar Village and were taking out their goods to display them one by one. Even as the items that had packed the interior were being set outside, the peddler and his sons attended to the villagers who came to exchange or purchase goods.
The greatest income for a peddler traveling through such small villages wasn’t the money received from sales, but the items received through bartering or local specialties.
Sometimes, items received in one region could be exchanged for higher-value goods in another.
Because of this, checking the items people brought was more important than displaying their own goods.
The middle-aged peddler kept a broad watch over his sons as they dealt with people, occasionally stepping in himself.
The most important skill for a peddler was an eye for accurately judging the value of goods. This was also the primary focus of his sons’ education. Although the sons disliked his interference, they had to learn well if they wanted to make a living for a long time to come.
However, there was one thing even more important for a peddler: they had to protect their goods no matter what.
Without goods, there was no trade.
The greatest danger for a peddler was the thugs and bandits encountered everywhere. They stuck to safe, well-known routes whenever possible, but sometimes they still ran into nasty characters.
In such cases, there was a high probability of losing a lifetime’s worth of fortune in a single unlucky encounter.
For this reason, small peddlers often traveled together with others selling different wares, or they hired cheap guards.
The middle-aged peddler instead traveled with his sons. He himself knew how to handle a weapon to some extent, and so did his sons. Eventually, some of the sons would become independent, but until then, they were guards who didn’t cost a penny.
While dealing with customers, the middle-aged peddler saw a giant of a man walking toward them from a distance. An axe was hanging at the man’s waist.
“….”
He was someone the peddler hadn’t seen during his last visit. Since the atmosphere among the villagers was also a bit awkward, the middle-aged peddler subtly shifted his stance.
Before he could even signal his sons, his eldest and second sons had already spotted the giant and moved to stand nearby.
The other sons continued to attend to customers. However, they too were on alert, ready to join a fight at any moment.
Everyone was relieved when the giant drew close and a woman, who appeared to be his family, took out some goods. If they fought a man like that, they might lose several items to damage even if they won. If they could avoid a fight, that was the best outcome.
While watching his third son deal with the woman, the middle-aged peddler’s eyes widened.
The quality of the pelts the woman produced looked excellent. They seemed to have been caught quite recently. Pelts caught in winter were the densest and of the best quality.
Furthermore, the hair she pulled from a pouch was long and had a lustrous sheen that was very fine.
The highest-selling hair color was golden. That was the color most preferred by noble ladies. It was even better if the length was long.
The middle-aged peddler rubbed his palms together and stepped forward toward the woman.
Contrary to his rough appearance, the giant seemed to be a quiet man. He simply stood silently behind the woman, showing no sign of wanting to speak.
‘Good, good. Luck is on my side today.’
In these remote villages, there were hardly any people skilled in haggling. Even the Village Chief only acted tough within his own village; compared to people from the city, he was quite naive.
The middle-aged peddler quietly listened as the woman, after showing her goods, hesitantly stated what she wanted.
The woman primarily wanted basic daily necessities and food.
Shoes and secondhand clothes for a man and a child, salt, a pot, and things of that nature.
The way she spoke, occasionally glancing at him as she listed the items, made it seem as though she was worried the quantity of goods she was asking for was too much.
The giant standing behind her didn’t seem inclined to interfere. He remained standing there, saying nothing.
Hehehehe. Hiding the laughter bubbling up inside him, the middle-aged peddler scowled deeply and lightly picked up a rabbit skin with his fingers.
The elasticity felt very good. It had been properly tanned as well.
’Nice. Very nice.’
The middle-aged peddler opened his mouth to address the woman.
