I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 62
Arrows flew in succession. Flaming arrows were mixed among the regular ones.
The startled horses stamped their hooves and let out panicked whinnies.
As several horses bolted in fright, a few of the merchant company’s wagons swayed and shifted slightly.
Several servants from the company clung to the wagons, desperate to calm the horses.
To them, the wagons seemed more precious than human lives. One might even think they valued the cargo more than their own necks, judging by their frantic efforts.
Juhwan quickly calmed the horse hitched to his own wagon and pulled it forward.
The bandits’ goal was the goods in the merchant company’s wagons. They wouldn’t fire flaming arrows directly at them.
In fact, the flaming arrows that came flying in all landed on the ground at a distance from the wagons. Their only purpose was to light up the area so the bandits could aim more easily.
Juhwan guided his horse in the opposite direction of the incoming arrows and lined it up alongside the merchant wagons. This way, even if a stray arrow flew toward his wagon, it would hit the company’s sturdier ones instead.
When one horse moved in a panic, the horse next to it was affected. The company servants had no choice but to busy themselves moving between the wagons, calming Juhwan’s horse along with their own.
Lij seemed uneasy as the wagon moved. She peered outside, her body pressed close to the opening between the driver’s seat and the carriage.
She was clutching Dorothy tightly in her arms. Her face looked exceptionally pale.
Juhwan caught their eyes and gave them a reassuring smirk.
“I’m right here, so it’s okay. There’s no need to be afraid.”
Oz was perched on his head as usual. Juhwan pulled an arrow from his quiver and looked into Oz’s eyes.
“Oz, look after Lij and Dorothy. Don’t leave their side, no matter what.”
“Piii.”
Oz let out a sharp cry as if he understood perfectly.
Juhwan stepped onto the driver’s seat and climbed onto the roof of the wagon.
After the previous bandit raid, he had left a section of the roof clear. It was a narrow space, just barely enough to stand with his feet braced.
Standing there, he aimed his bow toward the murky darkness. The sky was still pitch black, but he could tell something was moving in the gloom. It was likely because dawn was approaching.
This would have been impossible if he were still used to the light-polluted nights of Earth. However, his eyes, now accustomed to the nights of this world, could faintly make out the silhouettes of men and horses moving through the darkness.
He didn’t need to hit them with pinpoint accuracy. Just getting close was enough. He just had to make them hesitate, slow down, or drive them toward the other merchant groups.
‘I’m sorry, but survival comes first.’
Juhwan drew his bow back with strength. He held his breath. He aimed the taut bow at the enemy in the dark and quietly released. The arrow sliced through the air with a sharp whistle.
One, then two arrows flew, followed by screams from the darkness. There were more screams than the number of arrows Juhwan had fired.
Glancing around, he saw Leonard, the owner of the Miller Merchant Company, already firing arrows into the dark.
Gordon was nearby, also loosing arrows.
In this world, were merchant companies actually businesses run by mercenaries rather than traders? Both men seemed to be better archers than Juhwan. Every time a thick arrow flew out, a bandit’s scream erupted from the shadows.
Several of the Miller Merchant Company’s guards were hit by arrows. It wasn’t just their position under attack; the other merchant groups nearby were in a similar state.
‘Have they been hiding their numbers until now?’
In previous skirmishes, the number of bandits had never exceeded thirty.
There usually seemed to be about twenty. But now, their numbers had surged all at once. There were at least fifty—maybe a hundred, or even more.
Perhaps, as Leonard had suggested, they had been pillaging the wagons that strayed from the procession. One group to attack the main line, another to plunder the stragglers. They must have divided the labor like that.
The bandits, who had been circling on horseback and only firing arrows, finally seemed ready for a direct assault. Shouts erupted from all sides along with the thunder of galloping hooves.
The sun hadn’t risen yet, but the pitch-black air had turned a hazy gray.
He couldn’t see the faces of the approaching enemies. With the dim light at their backs, the silhouettes of the oncoming men appeared as black ink blots. It felt like a scene from a movie.
Juhwan fired several more arrows before leaping down from the wagon. The enemy was close enough now that a sword would be faster than a bow.
He lunged toward a man approaching the merchant wagons. A hatchet was already in Juhwan’s hand.
Humans were different from Goblins. They were more cunning and used weapons. This would be more difficult than facing Goblins in the mountains. Juhwan’s jaw tightened.
Juhwan scanned the area for the Magicians. The Magicians, who should have been the most active, were nowhere to be seen.
‘Those bastards.’
The Magicians were staying in a relatively safe spot. They stood behind several guards, using them as human shields.
The Wind Magician seemed to be literally manipulating the air. Incoming arrows veered off in strange directions, whistling past them.
Whether that was just how Magicians fought or not, the other guards didn’t seem to actively resent them for it.
The one who stood out was the Fire Magician. He was using a long whip made of fire. Every time the whip lashed through the air, the flames extended into the void. Each strike sent a serpent of fire crashing into a man.
‘So that’s how they use it.’
It seemed Fire Magic wasn’t just about directly manifesting flames on an opponent’s body to burn them, like he did.
However, in Juhwan’s case, if he used a normal whip, it would likely turn to ash instantly. His power was too intense.
It shouldn’t be much different for others, so perhaps that whip was specially crafted.
‘Ah!’
Suddenly, he remembered what happened when they left the Goblin village. At that time, Juhwan had extinguished the fire surrounding the village by pouring a massive amount of mana into the flames.
Fire cannot burn within ash. Focusing on that principle, Juhwan had made the blazing fire even stronger. He had turned all the fuel surrounding the village into ash in an instant.
Fire imbued with mana flows along the fuel.
That Fire Magician was likely using oil or resin on the whip to utilize its properties. If so, he had something right here that was coated in fuel.
‘Good.’
Juhwan grabbed a torch he had wedged into the wagon. He ignited it. The torch was coated in resin. If a whip could be used for Fire Magic, then a torch surely could as well.
He swung the torch toward an approaching bandit while channeling his fire mana into it.
It worked exactly as he thought.
The mana traveling through the torch manifested as a massive burst of fire in the air.
The amount of mana required was incomparably smaller than what he had used before.
Several bandits approaching the wagon were engulfed in flames.
‘I get it now. This is how I’m supposed to use this power.’
Juhwan swung the torch toward the bandits again.
The fire grew even larger. The flames cutting through the air looked like a giant’s club. The dancing fire was as vast as Gulliver in the land of Lilliput. Juhwan’s flames swallowed men and horses in an instant.
The bandits’ horses screamed. Bandits engulfed in fire flailed their arms before falling to the ground.
The smell of burning hair and scorched flesh spread everywhere. The sight of burning horses and men looked like a scene straight out of hell.
But he didn’t stop. Every time Juhwan’s arm swung through the air, a bandit was consumed by fire.
“It’s a High Magician! The enemy has a High Fire Magician!” one of the bandits shouted.
Immediately, arrows began to rain down on Juhwan.
Juhwan swung the torch around him, amplifying his mana. The massive club of fire turned the incoming arrows into ash instantly.
Just then, an exceptionally fast and powerful arrow came flying toward him. It was as if the arrow had eyes of its own.
Normal arrows don’t fly in a straight line; they naturally follow a slight arc.
But this arrow flew straight at Juhwan like a guided missile.
It was an arrow imbued with Wind Magic.
His body reacted before his mind did. Juhwan twisted his torso, dodging the arrow aimed at his head.
He felt a slight stir of wind against his skin. Perhaps the arrow fired by the bandit was so powerful that he had felt its draft.
But that wasn’t it. It was a faint sensation, but it felt as though a breeze had stirred from the very surface of Juhwan’s skin.
The arrow’s trajectory shifted ever so slightly. It grazed his forehead as it passed.
Another one flew in immediately.
This time, a wind definitely rose from his skin.
The arrow was aimed right between Juhwan’s eyes, but it narrowly grazed his ear instead.
It seemed he could use Wind Magic as well. Though for now, it was only a very faint breeze.
The one targeting Juhwan with Wind Magic seemed to be the bandit leader. Perhaps because he was using a bow, he was the only one positioned far away.
Juhwan gathered mana in his hand.
If that bastard used wind to fire arrows, Juhwan had fire.
‘Though it seems I might have wind now, too.’
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Fire for wind.
He pulled the torch back like he was throwing a baseball and swung it forward with all his might. A massive fireball erupted from the torch. The mana-infused fire soared through the air.
It felt like watching a cartoon.
The fire Juhwan launched flew straight into the enemy leader.
The man and his horse became a single heap of blazing fire.
“Stop! Fall back! They have a High Magician! Retreat! Retreat!” one of the bandits yelled at the top of his lungs.
But instead of just fleeing, they suddenly began firing arrows at their fallen comrades.
After that, the bandits turned their horses in unison and began to retreat.
In the dim light, several horses that looked like they belonged to the commanders caught his eye.
They seemed incredibly well-trained. They didn’t panic much at the sight of fire and obeyed their masters’ commands. The muscles on the horses’ legs and bodies looked far superior to any he had seen so far.
The bandits vanished into the distance in an instant.
‘They aren’t ordinary bandits.’
Not even the merchant caravan seemed to have such fine horses. In this medieval setting, horses were expensive. Neither in the Goblin village nor the adventurer village had he seen such high-quality mounts.
Those men might be mercenaries. But if they were, they wouldn’t have shot their own allies dead.
‘They said this country is at war.’
Could they have been enemy soldiers disguised as bandits? Regardless, the crisis had passed. However, there might be stragglers. Juhwan stood in place for a moment, watching the spot where the bandits had disappeared. Groans and screams echoed from all around.
After confirming that Lij and Dorothy were safe, he began to treat the nearby wounded.
‘Let’s hurry.’
He had only caught a glimpse of his family’s faces from outside the wagon earlier. He wanted to finish up quickly and go back to hold them both tight. He wanted to feel their warmth and make them feel safe. Juhwan’s hands moved even faster as he sent healing mana into the injured.
“It’s dragon fire!”
Dorothy’s eyes went wide as she watched the massive flames her dad was creating.
The way the huge fire erupted from the torch in her dad’s hand looked just like flames spewing from a dragon’s mouth.
“Amazing.”
The small torch became a giant fire that scattered everywhere. It looked like her dad’s hand had turned into flames and was swallowing the air.
“Mom! Dad turned into a dragon! It’s incredible! My dad is so amazing!”
All the bad guys were running away. Dad had defeated them all. Dorothy looked up at Mom Lij’s face.
“Mom, Dad is so strong! I told you, right? My dad is the strongest.”
But Mom Lij still seemed uneasy. She held Dorothy tightly and watched Dad through the hole in the driver’s seat.
Because the hole was small, she could only see Dad in glimpses.
After a while, Dad came close and looked at Mom through the opening. Even though the bad guys had all run away, Dad didn’t come inside the wagon.
After asking if they were okay, Dad went off somewhere again.
He said he’d be back soon, but as soon as he disappeared, Dorothy suddenly felt scared.
She could hear people moving around. Everyone seemed busy. The groans of people, the clattering sounds of objects being moved…
For some reason, the sounds felt scarier when heard from inside the wagon.
Dorothy spun around and hugged Mom Lij tight.
It wasn’t because she was scared. She was hugging her because she thought Mom might be scared.
‘Really, Oz.’
After saying that in her head to Oz on top of her head, Dorothy buried her face in Mom’s chest. Mom Lij must have been scared too. She held Dorothy tightly.
They must have stayed like that for a long time. Suddenly, a rattling sound came from the wagon door.
‘Is Dad here?’
She thought so, but it was a bit strange. Whenever Dad came to the wagon, he always called Mom’s name. He didn’t just try to open the door like that.
Mom Lij set Dorothy down and moved her behind her back. Mom picked up the spear sitting in the corner. It was the sharp bamboo one they had brought from their house in the mountains.
“Dorothy, you have to scream as loud as you can now. Okay? So Dad can hear you…”
Mom was speaking in a trembling voice while aiming the spear at the door, when she suddenly collapsed to the floor.
“Huh? Mom!”
Dorothy jumped up in surprise, and then her neck stung.
