I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 33
033 Trust No One
Gus crouched behind a slope, glaring at the Goblin village. He wanted to rush out and slaughter them all right this instant. But he couldn’t.
‘I have to endure it. Going out there now would just be a dog’s death.’
Gus grit his teeth until they creaked.
Hidden deep within the mountains, the Goblin village had expanded greatly and was already at its saturation point. There was no time.
When these creatures lacked food and women, they began to fight and kill among themselves. And once someone lost their patience and raided a village, the group would lose all control in an instant. Greedy that a comrade might take all the food and women for themselves, they would charge in recklessly.
It was widely known that Goblins were dim-witted. They focused only on eating and women, never thinking of the future. In some ways, they were worse than beasts.
When encountered alone, they weren’t particularly dangerous monsters. They were strong, but a few grown men working together could easily defeat one. They also fell for traps quite often. Compared to other Magical Beasts or monsters, they were pathetically weak.
Yet the reason Goblins were terrifying was that they formed groups like honeybees and bred as fast as rabbits.
Goblins lived hidden in caves or deep places, stealing women from here and there to force them to bear children.
The kidnapped women would be battered and broken, forced to give birth to Goblins continuously until they eventually died. The end for every woman dragged to a Goblin nest was the same.
The misery was so beyond words that even if one was found alive, it was considered a mercy to kill her instead.
The chieftain of these Goblins seemed to be an intelligent individual. He had established a place in the rugged mountains where humans rarely ventured and seemed to govern his subordinates well. There appeared to be a degree of order established.
However, their numbers were too high. Even now, they were likely teetering on a precarious edge. Any small trigger would cause them to explode.
And as spring approached, most of the Goblins would no longer be able to suppress their breeding instincts.
‘That’s why they’re Goblins.’
Gus clenched his jaw until his teeth felt like they might shatter, then quietly withdrew from the spot.
Navigating rugged terrain with a limping leg brought several dangerous moments. Each time, his resentment toward Goblins flared up anew.
‘If it wasn’t for them.’
Everything he had dreamed for a bright future had vanished because of those bastards. No matter what he had to sacrifice, he would never forgive them.
As Gus descended the mountain, slick with snow and ice, Juhwan’s face came to mind.
A man who looked fierce but was good-natured—a man who had likely never hated anyone intensely—smiled happily in his memory. Every time Gus taught him something, Juhwan was incredibly grateful and delighted.
He was likely a pure person. He had lived his life being satisfied with and thankful for small things. Though they had spent little time together, Gus could tell Juhwan considered him a mentor and trusted him.
A corner of his chest felt a slight chill. His conscience pricked him with an aching, stinging pain.
Gus shook his head to clear away the hesitation.
This was the opportunity he had waited for so long. If he missed this chance, it would never come again. His age was already at a number where it wouldn’t be strange for him to be in a grave.
‘I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped.’
No matter how mindless Goblins were, they wouldn’t attack a village recklessly. They knew that humans with weapons lived there.
At the very least, the Goblin chieftain would keep that in mind and restrain them until the very last moment.
There was time to call for adventurers and deal with them.
“….”
Gus stared at the ground with a gloomy gaze.
Recalling Juhwan’s fierce face as he laughed, Gus muttered softly.
‘I’m sorry.’
The small cabin in the mountains would serve as great bait to keep them occupied until the Goblins attacked the village. Even a single woman would be enough to draw the attention of the stupid Goblins.
Gus headed straight for the Village Chief’s house. The Chief, who had gone to see an information broker, would likely be back by now.
He would call the adventurers without telling Juhwan.
For Juhwan, who was exceptionally tender toward his wife and child, there would be no choice but to join forces with Gus and the adventurers. If his family died, naturally—and if his family lived, even more so.
Even if Juhwan learned the truth and intended to kill Gus, there would be no other path for him but to kill the Goblins.
Late on the night the rabbit escaped, I saw one near the pile of bamboo. In the cold winter, it seemed to have returned in search of food.
The rabbit quickly fled as Juhwan approached. Since he didn’t know when it would come back, he couldn’t catch it with an arrow. Juhwan set up a few snares near where the rabbit had appeared.
Juhwan let out a small sigh. It was unfortunate, but it seemed he couldn’t raise these things. Even if he drove the fence posts deep, they would likely escape; it couldn’t be helped. Though he felt sorry for them, they would just have to become meat and fur.
Juhwan hung both rabbits upside down and made incisions to drain the blood.
Once the blood had drained sufficiently, he cut circles around the ankles of the hind legs. Like a taut rubber band snapping, the skin split to reveal the flesh.
After that, it was easy. He just had to grip the skin and peel it off.
The skinned rabbit carcasses were somewhat pale, looking like four-legged chickens at a glance.
Juhwan took the gutted rabbit meat and the skins back home.
“….”
Riji’s eyes went wide when she saw the rabbits, and they began to sparkle. She smiled brightly, looking delighted.
Quickly putting the meat into a tub, Riji began to ponder with a troubled expression.
“Why? What?”
When Juhwan asked, Riji cupped her cheeks with both hands and lowered her brows.
“What should I do? I’m not sure whether to roast it or salt it.”
Riji glanced at Dorothy and frowned again, looking conflicted.
Dorothy was still deep in dreamland. Perhaps she was tired after visiting the village yesterday, as she was even drooling slightly with her mouth half-open. It seemed she was still upset about the rabbit escaping even in her sleep; tear stains were on her cheeks.
“….”
Well, there was no way she wouldn’t worry after seeing that.
Looking at how she handled the wolf meat last time, Riji usually cooked in a way that stretched the quantity as much as possible.
Even then, it was mostly boiling it in water or salting it to eat with other things, but she never just roasted the meat to eat until they were full like back on Earth.
She had only managed to feed Dorothy that way once or twice.
However, after seeing Dorothy cry for rabbit meat yesterday, it seemed she wanted to feed her until she was full.
Thinking about the future, salting it was best, but it was only human to want to feed a child when they were crying for meat.
Sacrifice the future, or ignore the child’s tears? It was a battle between reason and emotion.
Besides, among the pickled vegetables they bought from the villagers, there were some that seemed like they would be delicious roasted together. Perhaps Riji herself wanted to eat it too.
Juhwan pointed to the rabbit meat he had given her.
“Salt it. I’ll roast it.”
Riji tilted her head. When Juhwan pointed outside and mimicked skewering the rabbit meat, an ‘ah’ expression crossed her face. Smiling as if embarrassed, Riji bowed her head slightly.
“Thank you. I’ll leave it to you.”
Riji hurried to rub salt onto the surface of the meat and then stuffed pickled vegetables inside the rabbits. It seemed she was roasting them with vegetables inside, like a roasted turkey.
Riji’s expression sparkled as she handed the prepared meat to him.
Whether it was just his imagination or not, she seemed to be very much looking forward to eating the meat as well.
In the faint dawn light, Riji’s eyes were shining like a child’s.
‘Then I should do my best.’
Juhwan went outside and gathered bamboo in a spot sheltered from the wind.
The meat would be even more delicious if the subtle scent of bamboo infused it.
He placed large stones on either side and used a long piece of bamboo as a skewer to thread the meat. He struggled a bit to keep the stuffed vegetables from spilling out.
Once the meat was ready, Juhwan flattened his palm. Lately, Juhwan hadn’t been using flint. There was no reason to struggle with flint when he had a fire as convenient as a lighter.
He created a small flame to start the fire and adjusted the height so the rabbit meat wouldn’t burn.
Somehow, the naked rabbit meat looked like the rotisserie chickens spinning behind shop windows. It felt like he was buying a whole chicken for his wife and kid on the way home from work.
‘What a humble gift.’
He chuckled. It was a shame he didn’t have any pepper; it would have been better. But though he didn’t know for sure, spices were probably very expensive in this era. He recalled reading somewhere that pepper was more expensive than gold in the Middle Ages.
For some reason, the fire felt a bit weak. As Juhwan summoned the flame from his finger again, he suddenly wished this were a slightly more mystical magic.
Instead of just producing a flame like a lighter, he wished he could produce chicken more delicious than pepper, like the magician who turned Cinderella into a princess.
A flame infused with flavor that required no spices would emerge, surrounding the whole chicken and instantly producing a rotisserie roast with a flavor that popped like popcorn.
He wanted to make a whole chicken—no, a whole rabbit roast—so delicious that Riji and Dorothy wouldn’t even notice if someone next to them died while they were eating.
At least that would be much more useful than a lighter.
It was just as he produced the fire while having those useless thoughts. Suddenly, a large flame flared up and engulfed the rabbit.
“!”
No, no, no, stop!
Startled, Juhwan flapped his hands. It wouldn’t put out the fire, but his body reacted that way first.
The fire had already gone out the moment Juhwan thought ‘stop.’
“….”
Juhwan stared blankly at his hand. Why had his Fire Magic, which wouldn’t produce anything more than a lighter flame no matter how much effort he put in, suddenly grown so large?
He reached out his hand and tried to produce fire again, but it was still only about the size of a lighter. It was the same even when he tried to recreate the exact thoughts he’d had earlier.
Lost in thought, Juhwan reached his hand toward the rabbit.
The first magic he had seen after coming to this world was manifested by dropping blood onto paper. What had he thought then? Hadn’t he thought that the magic was imbued into the paper?
Perhaps magic in this world wasn’t manifested by one’s own power like swinging a club, but was executed by imbuing it into some other object.
Come to think of it, the fire he had used against the wolf might not have simply grown from his hand, but had been imbued toward the wolf.
Thinking that way, it made sense why there were no burn marks on his own body, the caster.
Magic was something imbued into the target, not something held within one’s own hand.
Juhwan produced fire while imagining the rabbit meat being gently cooked as the flames enveloped it. The image in his mind was of a rotisserie chicken surrounded by a low flame.
Juhwan’s weak fire rose and clung to the rabbit’s body as if soaking in. A faint flame, like a heat haze, enveloped the entire body of the rabbit.
He heard the sound of the meat’s surface cooking gently. In an instant, the rabbit turned a golden brown. A delicious aroma wafted into his nose.
Good heavens. Juhwan stared silently at the rabbit meat.
‘I’ve made a rotisserie roast.’
He didn’t know how it would taste, but the appearance and smell were unmistakably rotisserie. Incredible. If he started a rabbit roast business with this, it would definitely be a hit. Chicken is the truth anywhere in the world. Though this was a rabbit, not a chicken.
Juhwan stood up with the finished meat. When he took it into the house, Riji was startled. She hadn’t expected it to be done so soon. She was even more surprised when she saw the meat.
“Juhwan, what is this?”
“Chicken, no, whole roast.”
“Huh?”
Since he spoke in Korean, Riji didn’t understand. Juhwan grinned and held the meat out to her.
“It’s okay, it’s delicious.”
“The smell is… very good.”
Riji swallowed hard as she smelled the meat. As expected, chicken is the truth.
As they went inside and approached the bed, Dorothy woke up, rubbing her eyes as if drawn by the smell of meat.
It seemed they didn’t usually eat breakfast in this world, but that day, everyone sat together for an early morning meal.
Meat first thing in the morning—he felt a bit sorry for their stomachs. However, there was likely no human in this world who could resist the smell of rotisserie.
The roasted rabbit was a hit with both Riji and Dorothy. He was truly glad he could use Fire Magic.
Once he knew the trick, using the fire was incredibly easy.
Even without direct contact, he could use Fire Magic on a target about 50cm away.
‘If this can be used on living people or animals, isn’t this a terrifying power?’
Once he calmed down, Juhwan stopped his behavior of testing magic by using it everywhere.
In a state where he didn’t know the level of magic in the outside world, it might be troublesome if someone saw him.
At the very least, he would have to be careful of his surroundings until he could confirm the level of other magicians.
With Healing Magic and Fire Magic, these two things, he could protect Riji and Dorothy no matter what happened.
Suddenly, the face of the Santa who told him to be happy came to mind.
Perhaps this power was something he had given him.
‘When Christmas comes, maybe I should set a memorial table for him like an ancestral rite.’
He stretched his back and began to chop firewood. Regardless of Fire Magic or whatever, every day in the mountains was the same. Fetching water, chopping wood, going hunting… if he skipped even one day, their livelihood would be at risk.
While he was busy chopping wood, Dorothy was shouting something from inside. It seemed the baby rabbit was finally able to move. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to eat that rabbit even when it grew up.
