Translator: Nox

Chapter 49

055 Something Is Wrong with That Magical Beast

055 Something Is Wrong with That Magical Beast

Juhwan gazed quietly at Riji’s face as she lay buried under the covers.

She slept as still as a plaster doll. She was so quiet that she didn’t even seem to be breathing. For a moment, a flash of fear struck him, wondering if she was even alive.

Juhwan gently touched his finger to Riji’s cheek. It was warm, not cold. Only then did he feel relieved.

As he continued to watch her, her eyelashes flickered ever so slightly. In the room where the lamplight danced, flickering shadows fell across Riji’s pale face. When he listened closely, he could hear her quiet breathing mingling with the sound of the winter wind outside the window.

Once they left for the merchant caravan job, there wouldn’t be any time for just the two of them for a while.

Perhaps that thought had made him a bit more persistent than usual. Riji didn’t wake up even after Juhwan stroked her cheek several times.

He remembered the sight of her standing in front of him, facing off against the leader of Red Sword. A low chuckle escaped him.

He had liked her until now. From the moment they married, she had simply become a good person to him, beyond the realm of love. It would be accurate to say he was in a state of loving her before truly falling in love. It would have been the same even if it were another woman. He liked and loved her simply because they had become family.

But as she scurried about like a little chick, working hard for him, thinking of him bit by bit, and telling him she liked and loved him, the color of his heart began to change. He felt himself being slowly drawn to her.

He thought he already loved her, but he realized that wasn’t quite it. Perhaps he was only now truly falling in love.

The turning point was when Riji stood up to Karin, trembling all over as she fought for Juhwan. At that moment, he felt a plop in his mind. It was the moment he went from dangling his feet in the lake of love to falling in completely. His heart was now drenched in her.

‘I think I understand now.’

He felt like he could finally truly understand the things women used to say to him when they left him back on Earth. He finally understood what kind of wounds he had inflicted.

“….”

How lonely and sad must it feel when the person you love doesn’t truly look at you? In his own way, he had cherished all those women from his past, but love required more than just that.

Offering a belated apology in his heart, Juhwan quietly slipped out of bed.

Dorothy seemed to have rolled around the bed several times in her sleep. She was near where she had first fallen asleep, but her head was where her feet should be. The blanket was half-wrapped around the child’s legs.

After pulling the blanket up to the neck of Dorothy, who was sleeping spread-eagled, Juhwan packed his things and left the room.

He summoned fire in his hand to light the dark hallway. The wood creaked, the sound echoing through the air.

It was the dead of night. Even after stepping outside the building, not a single human voice could be heard.

Juhwan pulled a torch out of a sack he had left on the roof of the carriage. When he lit it, the surroundings brightened with a whoosh. Thrusting the torch into a bracket on the corner of the carriage, Juhwan busily began unloading the supplies.

There might be cases where the carriage wheels get stuck or shake violently during travel. If the luggage shifted and spilled all at once, someone inside could get hurt. He had to be even more careful with a young child like Dorothy on board.

The carriage already had sturdy shelves installed along one wall.

There were also large crates. Traces left by the villagers who had used it before remained.

He emptied them all and began neatly organizing the items again. He sorted the things he bought today and the items originally in the carriage by category, and used straw bundles to turn about half of the carriage into a bed. This was where Riji and Dorothy would sleep while they were escorting the merchant caravan.

As he organized the items, he realized what else they needed. With everything grouped together, the gaps became obvious.

He tried to arrange things similarly to how Riji had organized the cabin, but the space was cramped, making it look somewhat jumbled.

‘I hope this doesn’t make things harder for Riji later.’

He figured they might have to set aside a day later to reorganize everything exactly how she wanted.

After firmly tying down and organizing the luggage on top of the carriage, he finally installed a lock on the inside of the door. It was a simple one that locked by sliding a long iron bolt across. Even so, it had been quite expensive.

Before he knew it, the darkness of the sky was thinning.

Just as he was thinking it was about time to leave, Riji came outside with the sheepskin blanket she had bought yesterday draped over her shoulders.

The winter dawn, stripped of the day’s warmth, was cold. Riji’s breath rose white into the night air.

“Why are you out here? It’s cold.”

When Juhwan spoke, Riji looked at the carriage and his face with a flustered expression.

“Juhwan, did you organize all this by yourself? It’s hard work. Why did you do it alone? I would have helped if you’d told me.”

“It’s fine. It’s not hard for me.”

Juhwan laughed, but Riji seemed a bit upset. Her initially flustered face now had pouting cheeks. She seemed to be doing her best to express her anger, but she just looked cute. Like a child.

Come to think of it, she was only twenty-one now. On Earth, she would be at an age where she’d want to play and just start dating.

‘She doesn’t just look young; she really is young.’

He had heard that in this world, people don’t have an age when they are born, and everyone automatically gains a year on January 1st.

Since Juhwan was twenty-nine when he met Santa, by the rules of this world, he was thirty now. Twenty-one and thirty. The age gap was…

The hunter Riji was originally married to was much older than Juhwan. He didn’t know exactly, but based on what Riji had said, he seemed to be well over forty. Riji had also been his third wife.

Juhwan pulled Riji, who was giving him a slight, reproachful glare, into an embrace. He spoke to her in his heart.

‘I’ll make you happy.’

But thoughts in the heart are not easily conveyed to others. Riji whispered in a low, scolding voice.

“It’s already time to meet. Stop it now. Dorothy will be waking up soon, and, th-this.”

“….”

For some reason, the front of his pants had become quite prominent. Very prominent. He wasn’t some acne-ridden adolescent boy, so he didn’t know why he was like this. Was his mind and body acting separately? Or was it because he was so synchronized with this world?

Riji slapped his chest with a bright red face, as if telling him he was being bad. Feeling a bit annoyed, she tugged at his hand.

“Let’s go inside. I asked the landlady for some stew yesterday. I thought it wouldn’t be possible so early in the morning, but she said she could do it, maybe because the owner is an adventurer. Eat up, and then you sleep in the carriage. I’ll drive it.”

He didn’t strictly need the sleep, but he decided to lean on her words for a moment.

It would also be a problem if he was unnecessarily tired and couldn’t muster his strength at a critical moment.

“…Alright. Let me sleep for a bit once we start.”

“Hehe. Don’t worry. You can sleep a lot. I’m better at driving the carriage anyway.”

Riji looked up and smiled. She seemed a bit proud of herself.

When the two returned to the room, Dorothy was talking in her sleep.

“…Meat… is mine… Sin… bad… I won…”

It was a relief that she seemed to be having a good dream.

*

When they went out to the square, the Red Sword party was already waiting with their wagon. The wagon contained food, blankets, and a few other items.

It wasn’t much. Most of the items were old and worn.

Though he didn’t know exactly, Juhwan had heard the general gist of which route they were taking. However, Jessie from Red Sword explained the route once more, drawing lines on the ground and giving several precautions.

Don’t go too fast; give the horses a rest once every few hours; if the ground is sparkling, it might be slippery ice or a surface where the wheels could get stuck, so don’t just drive over it. They were small, practical tips.

He had heard that a Guide was someone who taught the basics that an adventurer needs to know.

The month spent with a Guide was a period to learn everything from how to choose an inn to the unspoken rules between adventurers—things one needs to know for daily life.

He had thought Red Sword was assigned as the Juhwan family’s Guide because there were women in the party, but perhaps it was also because of their meticulous personalities.

It seemed Karin was the primary driver for Red Sword. As Karin climbed onto the driver’s seat, the other two got into the wagon.

“Juhwan, you get in too, quickly.”

Riji nudged Juhwan’s back toward the carriage. Seeing her eyes sparkling, she seemed very excited.

“Don’t overdo it. I only need a little rest.”

“No. You have to sleep deeply. You’ll ruin your health if you’re not careful.”

Seeing Riji smile and tell him not to worry, Juhwan climbed into the carriage. Inside, Dorothy was sleeping on the straw bed. She was fast asleep, oblivious to the world. If left alone, she might sleep until lunchtime.

Juhwan flopped down next to the child. As he closed his eyes, the carriage slowly began to move. The carriage rumbled and jolted. Despite such noisy movement, the child truly slept well.

‘I don’t think I’ll be able to fall asleep at all.’

Juhwan stared blankly at the ceiling of the carriage. The vibration of the carriage made his eyes feel even more alert.

---

The Advisor had visited two places near the Goblin village, but he could find no trace of the man. Since he had a unique appearance and was said to have taken a large vehicle, he thought he would surely find him quickly, but it was strange.

‘Unless they took the wrong path, this was a village they would have to pass through.’

Both places were villages one would inevitably encounter in the direction the man was said to have left the Goblin village. Even if he hadn’t stayed in the village, a stranger would stand out. Someone surely must have seen him, yet not a single person claimed to have witnessed anything.

‘Could he have noticed the pursuit and changed direction in advance?’

The Advisor entertained the thought for a moment but immediately shook his head.

Based on what the villagers said, there were no such signs. In the first place, no one even knew that the Village Chief had tried to sell the Magician. He couldn’t have noticed.

At any rate, he had to hurry. If it wasn’t the villages he had checked first, the destination was fixed. The Advisor urged his horse forward, galloping across the ground.

Just then, he saw a carriage and a wagon approaching from a short distance away.

They weren’t moving fast. It was difficult to judge whether the two were traveling together or not. There was a subtle distance between them. The carriage was quite slow.

In the dim light of dawn, the Advisor’s eyes narrowed as he inspected the carriage and the wagon.

There were three women in the wagon. They were dressed poorly, but seeing them in trousers, they were likely adventurers. Women rarely wore trousers otherwise.

The wagon passed by, and the Advisor’s gaze turned toward the carriage. The carriage was quite large. Could it be the carriage that had left the Goblin village?

However, the one driving the carriage was a woman. While it wasn’t unheard of for a woman to drive a carriage, it was still rare.

‘If there were a man, a woman wouldn’t be driving.’

Men disliked women stepping into their domain, and driving horses was strictly a man’s job.

‘Still, it would be better to check.’

Just as the Advisor was about to stop the carriage, a woman in the wagon shouted toward it.

“Follow closely behind our wagon. If you step on the wrong spot by mistake, the wheels might get stuck.”

“Understood.”

It seemed the woman driving the carriage and the adventurers in the wagon were together. Perhaps they were female adventurers escorting the carriage. Since traveling alone was dangerous for a woman, female escorts were sometimes hired.

The Advisor looked away. Perhaps they had hired escorts because of the goods inside the carriage.

‘Tsk.’

He didn’t have the luxury of wasting time on such matters. The Adventurer’s Guild might get their hands on the Magician. He had to find him before that happened. He felt anxious.

The Advisor set his momentarily halted horse back into motion. The soldiers followed silently behind him.

After riding for a while, stone walls appeared in the distance. It was a village famous for having many adventurers. In other regions, it was called the adventurer village of Bern.

Though small, it was a place that brought in more money than one would expect. It was said the entire village lived off the Adventurer’s Guild. Consequently, the power of the Adventurer’s Guild was also great.

He clicked his tongue inwardly. He didn’t want to go to that village if possible. Just thinking of the face of the talkative man who worked there made his stomach churn.

The man was competent, but he lacked tact. Yet, he was quick to notice others’ secrets and uncover them easily. And he blurted them out just as easily.

If that were all, he wouldn’t have hated him enough to try to kick him out. But the man didn’t know how to reflect. Even if a scandal broke out because he exposed an affair or corruption, he would just ask why he was in the wrong for telling the truth as it was.

‘Shameless fellow.’

He thought the man would have nowhere else to work if he were kicked out, but the Guild Master here had snatched him right up.

‘I really can’t understand it. Why someone like him…’

The gatekeeper saw him and stepped forward. But it seemed he remembered him from his several visits here. Without blocking him, the gatekeeper bowed low in greeting.

The Advisor passed through the gate without stopping. He rode toward the Village Chief’s house.

When he burst into the Village Chief’s house, lights flickered on in the dim space, and people came running out immediately.

Brushing aside the Village Chief’s invitation to come inside, he asked if they had seen anyone matching the Magician’s description, but the answer he received was that they didn’t know.

“My apologies, Lord Advisor. But as you know, this is a place where many adventurers come and go. There are times when there are several people similar to what you described, and other times when there are none at all. To be honest, I really don’t know.”

The Village Chief’s son also repeated similar words while gauging his reaction.

There was no way to know if the people were telling the truth or not. If the Adventurer’s Guild had found a lead on the Magician, they might have silenced them.

Unlike other villages, this place earned more income from adventurers than from farming. No one wanted to make an enemy of the Adventurer’s Guild.

The Advisor clicked his tongue, but there was nothing he could do.

He couldn’t threaten them by mentioning a Magician. The situation was different from the Goblin village. He couldn’t carelessly spread the fact that the man was a Magician when no one knew.

Furthermore, if he mistakenly soured relations with the Adventurer’s Guild, the Border Count would also be in a difficult position. There was a possibility they wouldn’t receive help when Magical Beasts appeared, and it would be inconvenient in many ways. Since the commission the Adventurer’s Guild paid in exchange for having branches in each region was a significant amount, he couldn’t act recklessly here.

He turned around with a rough movement. He wouldn’t be able to get any more information by staying here.

He had no choice but to go to the Adventurer’s Guild, but the response there was the same. They simply said they had to check the information one by one because there were so many adventurers.

To make matters worse, that loathsome Chatterbox looked even better than before. His face was plump and energetic, making his shameless expression even more irritating.

Just as he was about to leave without any real gains, Chatterbox spoke to his back as if he had just remembered something.

“Ah, come to think of it, an outstanding Magician joined our guild recently. He’s someone with two attributes.”

“!”

Turning back to look at Chatterbox, the man smiled with a shameless face.

“Haha. We were really lucky.”

“….”

You knew, you bastard. This Chatterbox knew that he had come looking for the Magician.

“….”

Still, there was a way. Even if the Magician was registered here, his wife and daughter remained. Since the woman and child were subjects of this territory, if he used that to lure the man…

As the Advisor was quickly racking his brain, Chatterbox interrupted his thoughts.

“And would you believe it? That Magician is in a party with his family. It’s the first time we’ve accepted a young child as a party member, but when I sent the documents to the headquarters, they readily gave their permission. Really, a truly remarkable person has joined the guild in many ways. Hahaha.”

Chatterbox laughed brightly.

‘I’ve been played.’

The Advisor ground his teeth, but he had no choice but to turn away.

‘What on earth am I supposed to tell the Border Count when I return?’

His future looked bleak.

---

The Guild Master rubbed his bald head and looked at Chatterbox. In this place, the guild member’s name was Chatterbox.

No one called him by his real name.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Of course. But I’m always feeling good.”

“That Advisor was the one who kicked you out, wasn’t he?”

“That’s right.”

Chatterbox tilted his head and said.

“It’s quite strange. I don’t really hate or resent people. But that man hates me intensely.”

“Well, that’s understandable. You spread all the stories about the women the Advisor was dating.”

“That wasn’t much of a secret. The man actually went around bragging about it himself.”

Chatterbox grimaced. The Master, dumbfounded, spoke up.

“No, but you shouldn’t tell the women’s husbands the truth to their faces. The husbands are like that too. Even if they knew, they couldn’t just sit still for the sake of their dignity. The Advisor made a massive number of enemies because of that, didn’t he? I heard he even had several duels.”

“Well, if one has the drive to commit such actions, shouldn’t they also be able to handle the consequences?”

Chatterbox spoke with a face that suggested it was no big deal.

The Master looked at his face for a moment and then laughed.

“I like you. You look dull and tactless, but I think the reality is different. I can tell by how you intentionally told that Advisor about the Magician this time too.”

“….”

“When you look closely, you’re incredibly petty. You know that, right?”

When the Master spoke, Chatterbox shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe I am.”

“That’s it. You’re petty. One of the women the Advisor dated was the woman you were talking about marriage with, wasn’t she? Though that talk eventually came to nothing because of that incident.”

“…You know a lot. By the way, what’s the deal with the merchant caravan? To entrust the job to a beginner when they wanted a Rank 2 adventurer… it’s not like you, Master.”

At Chatterbox’s question, the Master smiled broadly.

“There’s someone in that merchant caravan who knows a lot about Magical Beasts. I asked that person to take a look at the Horned Rabbit.”

“Why?”

“Hmm, do you know much about Horned Rabbits?”

“Not really. Magical Beasts aren’t exactly well-known to begin with.”

“True.”

The Master quietly recalled the appearance of that Horned Rabbit.

“I don’t know much about Magical Beasts either, but… how should I put it? It felt strange. At the time, I thought it was because of the crisis facing the owner’s family. Like a pet dog. But when I think about it carefully, Magical Beasts aren’t creatures that are easily tamed like that.”

The Master thought of the child and the Magical Beast and shrugged his shoulders slightly.

“From what I know, that’s how it is. You have to put in a lot of effort and train them for a very long time, and they don’t follow anyone other than their master. At the very least, there’s almost no possibility of a child only a few years old becoming its master.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, that’s just as much as I know, but I don’t know what it’s really like. Taming itself is very rare. It’s just my intuition from rolling around as an adventurer for a long time.”

“Is that so?”

Chatterbox tilted his head as if it were strange. Well, he probably wouldn’t understand. Normally, he wouldn’t do such a thing either.

It was something he felt intuitively, like goosebumps on his skin. That it would be better to look into that Magical Beast. The Magician, the child, and the beast—the strangeness was just too prominent.

The Master stroked his shiny head with his palm.

At first, he had started touching it because it was strange being bald, but doing it repeatedly had become addictive. For some reason, touching his head made him feel calm and his mind clear. He thought it might have been a good idea to go bald sooner.