I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 44
044 Is That Acorn Still All Alone?
A child has a way of softening a person’s heart, no matter the circumstances.
But the lighthearted atmosphere was fleeting. As soon as Juhwan lifted Dorothy into the carriage and closed the door, the air around them grew heavy once more.
Whether it was because it was a Horned Rabbit or because rabbits were naturally good kickers, the Village Chief’s Wife’s injury was severe. She looked as though she had half-lost consciousness, yet she was still sobbing weakly.
Since he’d heard the carriage was communal property of the Village, the luggage inside likely belonged to the Village Chief’s house. They must have cherished those belongings dearly.
While Juhwan was considering what to do, the Village Chief’s Son stepped forward hesitantly through the crowd. He seemed terrified of Juhwan. He stood at a distance where Juhwan couldn’t reach him and bowed deeply.
“I’ve spoken with the villagers. That, uh, the carriage is communal property, but since we aren’t using it, please take it. We’ll give you everything inside as well.”
Hardly had the Village Chief’s Son finished speaking when his mother, still sprawled on the ground, began to wail. Juhwan had thought she was unconscious, but apparently not. He was certain she had been in a dead faint.
When Juhwan looked around at the people, everyone quickly averted their eyes.
Their offer of the carriage and goods was likely born of fear. They were probably afraid he might retaliate against them.
Juhwan turned away without a word. He hadn’t particularly intended to take revenge, but he had planned to take the carriage by force anyway. If they were giving it to him, so much the better.
As he climbed onto the driver’s seat, the chilly air sparkled under the sunlight. Finding it strange, he looked up to see small snowflakes falling lightly like downy feathers. It was the first snow he had seen since coming to this world.
Come to think of it, it was winter, yet he hadn’t seen snow once until now. There hadn’t been much snow piled on the mountain paths either.
He recalled reading somewhere that a lack of snow leads to a winter drought. If that were the case, between the war and a bit of a drought, this world must be a truly difficult place to survive.
Anyone can become a devil when they or their family are starving and suffering. Juhwan had realized yesterday and today that he, too, was capable of becoming such a thing. Perhaps the villagers had simply become selfish in their struggle to survive.
‘But still.’
That was all the more reason to harden his heart. Anyone living in this world could coolly endanger others for their own sake. Gus and the villagers had shown Juhwan exactly what kind of place this world was.
Dorothy’s small face shimmered in his mind.
‘This is the world she has to grow up in.’
With a dark heart, Juhwan shook the reins. The carriage slowly moved forward, leaving the villagers behind.
Just in case there were any Goblins remaining, Riji and Dorothy stayed inside the carriage.
However, as they passed through the Village, he didn’t see a single Goblin left unscathed. They were all dead or wounded. Occasionally, a Goblin would be lying there, moaning from an Arrow wound.
Juhwan let out a soft sigh. He had made the right choice keeping Riji and Dorothy inside.
Broken doors, scattered belongings, the remains of people who had been torn apart, and a woman lying dead in a gruesome state. Every single stone along the path the carriage traveled was stained with blood. It was utterly wretched.
Driving the carriage slowly, Juhwan brought the horse to a halt.
Whether from Goblins searching for people or people searching for cover as they fled, several piles of straw lay scattered near a partially destroyed shed.
Juhwan immediately stopped the horse and climbed down from the carriage. This was perfect. Spreading it on the cold, hard floor of the carriage would help. Moreover, things had been so frantic that he hadn’t realized the horse had nothing to eat.
Juhwan opened the carriage door and tossed the straw inside. Riji took it from him and spread it thickly across the floor. She seemed pleased.
‘She didn’t say anything, but she must have been cold.’
He felt terribly sorry.
The remaining bundles of straw were placed on top of the carriage.
The roof of the carriage was rounded, but a wooden railing had been installed around the edges. It seemed intended for carrying luggage. Ropes were tied to various points on the railing.
After tying the straw securely to the roof, Juhwan turned to climb back down.
That was when he saw a familiar figure.
It was Gus.
He was limping out from behind a building a short distance away. A Goblin lay fallen some distance from him.
Gus was stooping down, picking up Arrows scattered here and there on the ground.
The culprit behind all of this. The man who had lured the Goblins to the cabin, putting Riji and Dorothy in danger.
That man hadn’t lured the Goblins toward the random crowd in the Village, but toward a cabin in the mountains where there was only one woman. He had intended for Riji and Dorothy to die. He was an enemy.
There was no one else around. No Goblins, no people.
Juhwan hopped down from the carriage and spoke toward the gap in the driver’s seat.
“Wait a moment.”
He must have sounded incredibly cold. Riji, who had been tidying the straw, seemed startled by his voice. He could vaguely see her hurrying toward the front of the carriage from the inside.
But there was no time for long explanations.
Juhwan lowered his body and ran toward Gus. An axe was gripped in his hand.
He reached Gus in an instant.
Suddenly, Gus turned his head and saw Juhwan.
In that moment, Juhwan kicked off the ground and launched himself. Stretching his body in mid-air, he swung his entire shoulder. The axe whistled through the air.
Gus jerked his body backward.
The axe sliced through the empty air, narrowly missing Gus.
Juhwan immediately reached for Gus’s head. Grabbing the hair that was tied back, he yanked it with all his might and threw him down.
His age and physical disability must have been the deciding factors. If Gus’s leg had been fine, or if he had been as young as Juhwan, Juhwan wouldn’t have been able to touch a hair on his head.
Gus was old and exhausted from the night’s events. He couldn’t recover his stamina as quickly as Juhwan. That narrowed the gap in experience and ability.
As Gus collapsed to the ground, Juhwan pinned his torso down with his foot and swung the axe.
Gus seemed like he wanted to say something to Juhwan. But Juhwan didn’t listen. There was no need to hear anything or communicate. The only thing that mattered was that he had tried to kill his family. If Juhwan hadn’t been able to use fire magic, this would have been a revenge for his family’s death. No matter the reason, he could not forgive this man.
With a dull thud, the axe severed Gus’s neck. Crimson blood sprayed.
Breathing heavily, Juhwan recalled the expression on Gus’s face when he had first spotted him. He had looked surprised, but there was a certain nonchalance about him.
Perhaps Gus had already known before Juhwan spotted him. Perhaps he knew the carriage Juhwan was on was coming.
He might have intentionally shown himself while pretending not to know. As a skilled Hunter, he was certainly capable of that.
“….”
It didn’t matter. Gus’s intentions were completely irrelevant. This was Juhwan’s own issue. Gus had coolly tried to kill Riji and Dorothy. He would not be forgiven.
Juhwan turned sharply.
When he returned to the carriage, he saw Riji’s face through the gap in the driver’s seat.
It seemed she had been waiting for him to return that whole time.
“What happened?”
Riji asked anxiously.
Riji didn’t know that Gus had tried to kill them.
In this Village where they hadn’t been able to get close to anyone, Gus had been the person they were closest to. In Riji and Dorothy’s hearts, Gus was likely a kind man.
Juhwan managed a faint smile.
“Sorry, there was a Goblin.”
“Still?”
“But I killed it. It’s okay.”
Riji seemed relieved. She asked if he was hurt anywhere and gave a weak laugh, saying he’d given her a fright.
Juhwan looked down at the blood on his body and muttered to himself. It was a relief that Goblin blood was red.
After that, they saw almost no one. Whether Gus had gone around killing Goblins, they occasionally saw Goblin corpses hit by Arrows.
A short while later, the fence wall began to appear in the distance. It was still burning. The horse shook its head anxiously at the rising flames and the acrid smell.
He drove the carriage along the burning wall for a while. After traveling some distance, he found a section of the wall that had crumbled as if it had turned to ash. It seemed the fire had caught on a part that was already broken. But the fire was still going strong. It looked as though flames were erupting not just from the fence but from the ground itself. In a world without gasoline, how on earth had Gus managed this?
Juhwan stopped the carriage a distance away from the fire and picked up a long wooden stick nearby.
As he drew closer to the Village wall, a wave of intense heat washed over him. He felt like he would get burned even without the fire touching him.
Covering his face and hands with his clothes and leaning back as far as possible, he tapped the remaining wall with the stick. After a few strikes, the wall crumbled completely. The flames remained, but the height of the heat lowered slightly. As expected, the fire here was smaller than elsewhere.
“Riji, come here, sit in the driver’s seat.”
He handed the reins to Riji. If something happened to Juhwan or a Goblin suddenly appeared while he was incapacitated, she had to be able to drive the carriage.
After confirming there was nothing around, Juhwan took a deep breath.
He wished he could see the amount of mana left in his body, but he had no way of knowing for sure. He just had a feeling it was a bit low right now.
‘I need to be able to put out the flames.’
He went as close to the wall as possible and placed his hand on the ground. He visualized burning away the entire wall, several times the length of the carriage.
He felt like shouting to increase his power, but magic didn’t manifest that way. Straining his gut would only lead to a trip to the latrine.
Juhwan fixed his gaze on the burning wall and thought, Please, burn away all of this fire too.
In an instant, the flames surged toward the sky before—pop—a hole opened in the middle. It was as if the fire had vanished from within just as it was about to explode.
From behind him, Riji whispered.
“Oh my goodness!”
Juhwan also stared blankly at the sight before him. The brilliantly burning fire had completely disappeared. The wooden fence seemed to have turned to ash in an instant. The fire had died out along a much longer stretch of the fence than Juhwan had intended, across almost everything in his sight.
He heard Dorothy, who had been watching through the gap in the driver’s seat, speak in a disappointed tone.
“The fire’s gone. I thought a big fire was going to come out of Papa.”
“….”
Children do love a spectacle. Juhwan chuckled and started to stand up, only to stagger as he lost his balance. He must have used too much strength.
A sudden wave of dizziness hit him.
“Juhwan!”
Riji turned pale and ran toward him. She tried to catch him by sliding under his arm, but the size difference was too great.
They both tilted and fell to the ground together. Even as he fell, he instinctively pulled her to land on top of him. With a thud, his back hit the ground. Dust rose, tickling his nose.
“Haa.”
He held Riji’s body to his chest with one arm and caught his breath. If she had been crushed under him… His face paled at the horrific thought.
“Juhwan, Juhwan, are you okay? Are you alright?”
Clinging to his body, Riji frantically touched his face, body, and head in a panic.
“I’m okay.”
He was just a little dizzy. He’d be fine after a short rest. Juhwan tried to say that, but as he looked up at the sky, his vision turned yellow.
Ah, he might need to rest for more than just a little while. The snowflakes that had been falling lightly had stopped at some point.
Papa collapsed. It seemed to be because the fire disappeared. Even Mama fell down. Dorothy, who had been watching through the gap in the driver’s seat, jumped to her feet.
“It’s an emergency, Oz.”
Dorothy scurried over and pushed the carriage door with both hands. It was a bit heavy. But it was okay. She had Oz.
“Oz!”
Go! She was about to say that, but Oz was faster. Oz came dashing from the back of the carriage, stepped lightly on Dorothy’s head, and kicked the carriage door.
Thump!
“….”
It didn’t open.
It couldn’t be helped. In times like these, Dorothy had to step up. Dorothy pushed the door with both hands again. Oz jumped onto Dorothy’s head once more and kicked the door.
Thump!
It still wouldn’t open. What should she do? What if Papa couldn’t get up? She was pounding on the door in a panic when there was a click from outside and the door opened. Mama Riji stood there with a startled face.
“Dorothy, are you alright?”
“…U… waah…”
Suddenly, a sob escaped her. She had been scared for just a moment. Being inside the carriage was scary, and Papa collapsing was scary too.
“Waaaaah.”
As she cried, wiping away tears with both hands, Mama hugged Dorothy.
“I’m sorry, Dorothy. I locked the door for a moment because it shouldn’t open while the carriage is moving. If a Goblin or a bad person appeared, we’d have to run away quickly. You couldn’t fall out if the door opened then. I’m sorry, were you very scared?”
“I wasn’t scared!”
It wasn’t that she was scared. Dorothy was brave, so she wasn’t scared. She was just worried for a moment. Because Mama and Papa needed Dorothy’s help. Besides, the ground was cold, so they had to get up quickly. That was all she was worried about.
Mama Riji held Dorothy and hurried over to where Papa was. Papa had been lying down earlier, but he was already sitting up. His face was pale. It was strange. Fear gripped her heart.
“Papa, are you okay?”
When Dorothy looked up at him from below, Papa smiled.
“I’m okay.”
Papa closed his eyes and opened them a moment later, then stood up while making a strange sound, “Yeongcha.” It was a word she’d never heard before. It sounded similar to the words Papa sometimes used that only he understood.
Papa walked a bit slowly toward the carriage. He seemed to be staggering somehow. She was worried.
Usually, Papa would lift Dorothy into the carriage, but today Mama held her. When Papa tried to grab Dorothy’s waist, Mama got angry. She said he had to rest.
‘Mama gets angry too.’
She was surprised. And… she clenched her fists, worried Mama might get hit.
But Papa didn’t get angry.
When her second mama got angry, her old father would get truly, insanely angry.
But this Papa just smiled.
‘It’s strange.’
Since Papa said he didn’t want to lie down inside the carriage, they eventually decided that both Mama and Papa would sit in the front. But they told Dorothy to go inside the carriage.
“No! Dorothy doesn’t want to be an Acorn all alone!”
Dorothy didn’t want to be alone. She wanted to be with Mama and Papa. Mama looked a bit troubled and said,
“Dorothy, it’s not an acorn, it’s a loner.”
“….”
Papa started to laugh. Mama laughed too. It was a bit strange, but somehow Dorothy felt like laughing too.
The three of them decided to sit side-by-side in the driver’s seat. Oh, no.
Mama, Papa, Dorothy, plus Oz and Toto. There were five of them in total.
But still, ‘Acorn’ felt more lonely than ‘loner’.
An Acorn.
It’s very lonely because it’s fallen on the mountain. She had thought that once when she saw an acorn fallen on the mountain. That Dorothy was lonely like an acorn.
Was that acorn from back then still all alone? Now Dorothy wasn’t lonely because she had a Mama and a Papa. She felt a little sorry for it.
