I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 52
052 The First Request
Whether the guild staff member was oblivious or simply didn’t care about such trivialities even with others listening, he spoke in a loud voice.
“It’s a rare case, but the [Dorothy and Oz] party will start at 3rd Grade, the highest rank at our branch. However, even with a high grade, they are still new adventurers, so I hope the members of [Red Sword] will be of great help to them.”
The faces of the women from the Red Sword party grew redder. Laughter erupted from various spots around the room. Jokes began to flow from the mouths of the other adventurers.
“Wow, the low-ranks are teaching the high-ranks now?”
“Is it really okay to leave it to women who have no skills beyond gathering herbs?”
“How about our party gives them some guidance instead?”
“We’d be willing to do it even if we had to pay a small commission ourselves.”
Then, someone snickered and added, “Do you all sleep together at night? Isn’t that what Red Sword is famous for?”
One of the women from Red Sword—the one who had injured her fist—turned around like a flash of lightning. She charged straight at the man who had spoken. She raised her fist high.
But before she could strike, the man moved first.
He leaned back slightly and grabbed the woman’s head with his hand.
Then he slammed her down. With a heavy thud, the woman’s face was smashed into the table.
“How dare a 5th Grade piece of trash crawl all over a 4th Grade!”
As the man shouted aggressively, the surrounding adventurers laughed. No one tried to help the woman. Only the other women of the Red Sword party rushed over to assist her.
Juhwan quietly observed the adventurers. Their reactions and behavior, the movements of the man who claimed to be 4th Grade, and the shifts in the shoulders and arms of the others.
The things Gus had taught him were proving useful.
A few of the men moved differently from the rest. They seemed to be just standing there, but their hands and feet were positioned so they could fight at any moment. Those people were likely experienced adventurers.
Dorothy, who had been smiling brightly until a moment ago, seemed shocked.
She stood frozen with her eyes wide open.
Beside Juhwan, Lij’s body also stiffened for a moment. However, Lij immediately rushed to Dorothy.
It seemed she thought she shouldn’t interfere while Juhwan was quietly observing the people. She hurriedly picked the child up before she could cry and scurried back to Juhwan’s side.
Thinking they had found a good spectacle, the adventurers crowded around the Red Sword woman and the man.
There seemed to be a significant gap in skill between the woman from Red Sword and the man. The woman pinned to the table tried to grab the man’s wrist, but he didn’t budge. Blood flowed from her nose, instantly staining the table.
The other Red Sword women were blocked by the rest of the adventurers. They were arguing with the men, unable to get close to the two who were fighting.
Juhwan took Dorothy from Lij’s arms and turned his gaze toward the guild staff member.
“Are you going to leave it like that?”
At Juhwan’s question, the staff member shrugged.
“Fighting isn’t allowed inside the office. But if I kick them out like this, blood will truly be shed.”
That wasn’t exactly what Juhwan was asking.
He turned his gaze back to Red Sword and the adventurers. So this is what adventurers were like. No sense of camaraderie, and blatant discrimination against women.
‘Being a female adventurer is a much more dangerous job than I thought.’
He felt he needed to be careful regarding Lij and Dorothy as well. For a moment, he worried if he had made the wrong choice.
The staff member looked at Juhwan with a serious expression.
“Always keep a sharp eye on your surroundings. You must trust no one. Of course, you can trust the Guild. Our Adventurer’s Guild exists for your sake. But be wary of people. People lie.”
The staff member turned his gaze back to the adventurers and clapped his hands loudly to get their attention.
“Take your fight elsewhere. If you break Guild property, I will demand compensation. Members of Red Sword, please come over here.”
The man who had been pinning the Red Sword woman grinned and let go.
There were several other employees in the guild, but none of them paid the adventurers any mind. They simply went about their own business.
Lij’s expression was completely cowed. It must feel like she had taken one step out into the world only to find herself on a massive highway with dump trucks zooming past.
Juhwan took a soft breath and put his arm around Lij’s shoulders. Her tense body seemed to relax just a fraction.
Juhwan looked back at the staff member. When he asked if the Master had arrived, the man laughed and told him not to worry about the treatment.
“His hair might not grow back, but well, he’ll be fine. In the future, the Red Sword members will teach you this too, but you must never work without compensation. Of course, it’s a bit different among comrades, but you have to weigh the costs and benefits carefully. Especially since Healing Magic is extremely expensive.”
As the female adventurers of Red Sword approached, the staff member spoke again.
“You aren’t receiving guidance for free, so don’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything you want to know or confirm. Red Sword is having their commissions waived in exchange for providing this guidance.”
“Commissions?”
When Juhwan asked, the staff member gave a thin smile.
“Unlike other guilds, the Adventurer’s Guild doesn’t charge entrance fees or annual membership dues. Adventurers wander around so much that it’s too difficult to manage if we did. Instead, we take a commission for every job brokered by the Guild. It’s 30%. By taking on the guidance of newbies, that commission is waived for one month.”
Juhwan recalled that there had been no commission when he sold the pelts.
“But…”
As Juhwan began to speak, the staff member went “Ah” and nodded.
“We don’t take a commission when we purchase items. That’s why quite a few adventurers hunt Magical Beasts. Unlike animals, it’s fine to hunt Magical Beasts in any forest. But they often die because of that. They are called Magical Beasts because they are stronger than humans. Adventurers die very easily.”
“….”
The staff member let out a long sigh.
“That’s why our Guild goes so far as to waive commissions to focus on the education of new members. So they won’t die. For an adventurer, the world is full of danger in every direction.”
Juhwan decided that regardless of what this man’s actual name was, he would call him Chatterbox from now on. The man talked incessantly. If someone else said one word, this man seemed to say a hundred. If he fell into water, only his mouth would stay afloat.
The members of Red Sword approached and spoke somewhat curtly.
“A lot of time has passed, so let’s pick a request first. We have to make a living, after all.”
It was the woman who had injured her fist and just challenged the 4th Grade adventurer.
She seemed to have a rougher personality than the other women. Judging by how she picked the fight earlier, that was likely true.
“I’m Karin. I’m the leader of Red Sword.”
Karin glanced at Juhwan and Lij. Finally, she looked at Dorothy and knit her brows slightly. Then she muttered quietly, “Do they think being an adventurer is some kind of joke?”
Oz, who was perched on Dorothy’s head, let out a pwee sound. With feet that were large compared to its body, it lightly tapped Dorothy’s head—tap, tap, tap. Perhaps it was a sign of being slightly annoyed. Both Lij and Dorothy seemed even more intimidated than before. The two of them huddled closer together.
Juhwan gave a smirk to Lij and the child, tightening his arms around them.
“You don’t need to worry about our party. Each of us has a role, and we’re all doing well. We won’t be a burden to your party either. If it looks like we will, don’t worry about us and just run away. We’ll take care of our own business.”
It seemed he wasn’t going to get along very well with this female party. However, he couldn’t ask to change parties either. If they were paired with male adventurers who treated Lij and Dorothy harshly, he wasn’t sure he could stop himself from killing them.
The other members of Red Sword stood between them, looking flustered. They apologized, saying Karin was in a bad mood because of the unpleasant incident today.
He knew. He had seen the fight in the plaza.
A strained round of introductions followed. The names of the other two were Marie and Jessie. From the look of it, the leader Karin was the one who usually picked fights with other adventurers, while the other two women followed her into battle.
When Juhwan tapped Lij’s shoulder to encourage her, she swallowed hard and straightened her back.
“I’m Lij. In our party, I’m in charge of cooking, accounting, and leather processing. This child is Dorothy, and the Magical Beast on her head is Oz.”
Her voice was small. It seemed she wasn’t yet used to introducing herself as a member of a party and felt embarrassed.
But they had made a promise before coming here. They had agreed to confidently tell others that she was handling those tasks.
Well done. To convey that feeling, Juhwan squeezed her shoulder, and she let out a small breath as if relieved.
Dorothy’s eyes went wide as she looked back and forth between Lij and Juhwan.
She seemed to want to be introduced as a Beast Tamer.
Juhwan turned his head slightly to avoid Dorothy’s eyes.
Sorry, but other than her name, there was no introduction for Dorothy. Claiming she was a Beast Tamer was practically a lie told just to join the party. If he had any conscience, he couldn’t introduce her as a tamer to others.
Lij seemed to feel the same way, as she also turned her head slightly away.
Dorothy wrapped her arms around Juhwan’s neck and lifted her head high. Then she opened her small mouth toward the Red Sword party. It seemed she had decided to introduce herself.
“I’m a Beast Tamer. Oz is my Magical Beast!”
“…Pwee.”
As if it had no choice, Oz let out a small cry. Juhwan sometimes wondered if that creature actually understood human speech. It might even be reading the atmosphere.
A moment of silence passed, and the woman named Jessie from Red Sword chuckled.
“Right, a Beast Tamer.”
“Yeah!”
“That’s cool.”
“Right? Dorothy is cool. Oz is still a baby, so there’s a lot he doesn’t know. Dorothy has to teach him a lot.”
“….”
Jessie looked at Dorothy, Oz, Juhwan, and then Lij in turn.
“It really is… cool,” Jessie said softly with a smile.
‘I thought the world was a place where all women were unhappy.’
Jessie watched the child’s smiling face and then dropped her gaze.
A kind man, a wife who appeared to be loved by her husband, and a young girl growing up receiving plenty of affection from both of them.
It was even a family party. She had never heard of a family being in one party together. On top of that, the man was a Magician. She had heard he was a Magician with two specialties. It seemed there were children like this, and lucky women like this, in the world.
‘How unfair.’
For some reason, she felt like crying.
The name of their party, Red Sword, contained the rage of the leader Karin, Marie, and herself.
It was a name filled with the fury of those who had always been weak, declaring they would endure no longer—that they would kill anyone they faced, staining their swords red.
But it hadn’t turned out that way.
Skills learned through observation and fighting hadn’t raised the level of the three women. They must have lacked talent. Even the slightest bit of it.
No matter how hard they tried, the limit was rising from the lowest rank, 6th Grade, to 5th. Even then, Red Sword was the least skilled party in the 5th Grade.
They always had to be on edge, making their appearances look rough so they wouldn’t be underestimated. If they accepted things quietly, they were looked down upon. They intentionally reacted aggressively, used foul language, and picked fights.
Even so, their party was always a joke. Something people looked at and laughed at.
Jessie saw the image of Lij smiling next to her husband.
She was envious.
Because she was envious, she felt a slight spark of resentment.
While we are living such a hard life, why is that woman so happy?
Even the child smiling with a rare Magical Beast on her head was a bit annoying.
Neither Jessie’s own father, nor Marie’s or Karin’s fathers, had been like that.
‘The world really isn’t fair.’
She felt that especially strongly today.
“If you find a suitable request among the papers on this wall, you take it to the reception desk.”
Marie was explaining things to the [Dorothy and Oz] party.
“There’s a man over there who will read it for you, so just ask him.”
In the corner Marie pointed to sat a man they always relied on.
The guild had two readers. One was a man, and the other was a woman said to be of noble birth. The two of them came to the guild at different times—morning, afternoon, or on alternating days.
Some adventurers could read, but most were illiterate.
The same went for Jessie and the other members of Red Sword; they had never learned to read. So they always paid a small fee to use a reader.
The readers received one small coin for as long as it took for a small hourglass to run out. During that time, they would compare several request forms to find the one with the best conditions.
Assuming it would be the same this time, Jessie was about to call the reader over.
However, the Magician named Juhwan shook his head.
“I can read, so I’ll choose it myself.”
She was startled. She had heard that even among nobles, there were occasionally people who couldn’t read. She had heard an adventurer who went to guard a noble tell such a story. But how could this man…?
As she looked at the man’s face anew, the child opened her eyes wide and looked up at her father.
“Daddy! Daddy! Why do you know how to read?”
The man smiled, his eyes crinkling softly.
“If you know how to read, there are many more things you can do. You’ll be able to live better in this world. I’ll teach you later, Dorothy.”
“I don’t want to. Dorothy likes playing better.”
“Well, if you know letters, you might get to do even more fun things. I’ll teach both you and Mommy later.”
At the man’s words, the woman named Lij made a slightly troubled face.
Jessie, who was listening while pretending not to, was a bit surprised. It was surprising that the man knew letters, but to think he would say he’d teach them to his daughter and wife.
The Magician named Juhwan checked the papers on the wall one by one, reading them slowly to his wife and child. From herb gathering to village requests to hunt Magical Beasts and even escort missions…
‘He really can read.’
And he wasn’t just skimming through them alone; he was telling his wife and even the child, who couldn’t properly understand, about them.
“Daddy, why do they want herbs here?”
At the child’s question, the man began to explain that this was where adventurers gathered and what those adventurers did.
He was a strange man. Why did he explain every single thing the child said?
Watching this strange family, the likes of which she had never seen, Jessie felt something bitter rising in her chest. A dark, bitter thing called jealousy slowly filled her heart.
Looking to the side, she saw that the leader Karin and Marie wore similar expressions.
Everyone else was standing in the middle of a storm, getting hit by the rain, but only that woman and child were inside a safe shelter.
‘Really, the world isn’t fair.’
Jessie muttered to herself and turned her head away.
Someone was rushing into the guild. It was a guild employee she saw occasionally. Not someone who worked at the reception desk, but a man who handled external affairs.
The employee went straight to the staff member sitting at the reception desk. After whispering something to him, the talkative staff member turned his head this way.
The talkative receptionist looked at the leader Karin and shouted.
“Everyone! Please come over here. A request has come in for you.”
A request? For us, the least skilled of the 5th Grade?
Jessie glanced at the Magician. Since he said he was a Healing Magician, the request was likely for that man. Red Sword was probably just an add-on.
As the two parties gathered at the reception desk, the talkative receptionist spoke with a sparkling smile.
“A fairly large merchant group is on the move. It’s a collection of small and medium-sized merchants. One of those merchants has requested an escort from us. I need you all to go. Please prepare so you can depart early tomorrow morning.”
The receptionist looked at the leader Karin.
“Since [Dorothy and Oz] is a newborn party that doesn’t know anything yet, please teach them well what they need to prepare for a long journey.”
When Karin replied that she understood, the Magician spoke up.
“Is it okay for us to participate in that escort? We have a child.”
The receptionist laughed, saying there was no need to worry.
“It’s fine. There are many adventurers escorting, and I don’t think it will be particularly dangerous. I’ve already asked for understanding regarding the child, so it’s okay.”
“Is it okay if the escorts bring a carriage?”
“Of course. You can bring a carriage as long as you can do the job properly. Besides, they wanted an escort and a Magician at the same time. [Dorothy and Oz] is going on the request as a Magician. The escort part is for [Red Sword].”
See, I knew it.
Jessie wore a self-mocking smile. There was no way a merchant would intentionally request a low-rank party like Red Sword.
Her party did escorts occasionally, but they were mostly low-paying jobs.
If they were forming a large merchant group, the rank of the adventurers hired as escorts would normally be high.
Sure enough, the escort fee the talkative receptionist mentioned was quite high.
And the payment [Dorothy and Oz] was receiving was even higher.
‘The world really isn’t fair.’
She hated the world already, and now she hated it even more.
