I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 71
071 The Road Back
As the sun climbed high into the sky, the bells of the clock tower began to toll. It was the noon bell. They had promised to meet the Red Sword party once the bell rang and their errands were finished.
Lij stood before a shop selling chickens and eggs, agonizing over a final decision. It seemed she wanted to buy a chicken. Looking at the birds packed tightly into wooden crates, she asked, “Juhwan, do you think there’s enough room on the wagon to build a coop, either on top or in the back?”
“….”
Surely she wasn’t asking seriously.
“It would be so nice to have even just two chickens. Having fresh eggs every day would make our table feel quite luxurious.”
Lij stared longingly at the stacked crates several times before finally asking the shopkeeper how much a young hen cost. She was indeed serious.
“Lij, if we put them on the wagon, the chickens will die before we get home.”
Lij likely knew that better than anyone, as Juhwan had never actually raised a chicken himself.
Lij let out a sigh.
“I know, but it would be so wonderful to have them. It’ll take several days to get back to the village this time too, and we could have eggs the whole way. Besides, if we had just one rooster, they’d have chicks, and eventually, we could even use them for meat.”
Hearing her speak, it seemed she had been quite envious of the neighbors who kept chickens when she was a child. To her, a neighbor with several chickens was a symbol of wealth. Now that they had money, that was the first thing that came to her mind.
As Juhwan offered a wry smile, Dorothy, who was cradled in his arms, spoke up.
“Mama, I think chickens would be good. Oz will protect them.”
“Right? I think Oz would be a great guardian too.”
“Yeah, our Oz is smart.”
It seemed both mother and daughter were set on raising chickens. Perhaps to the two of them, who had known such poverty, a chicken was the legendary goose that laid golden eggs.
“We should get going. Red Sword will be waiting.”
At Juhwan’s words, Lij nodded reluctantly. However, before leaving the shop, she bought a bundle of twelve eggs, tied in pairs with straw.
“Mama, is it heavy? Should Dorothy carry it?”
Dorothy reached out with both hands. Lij hesitated for a moment, worried they might break, but soon placed the bundle in the child’s arms.
“Hmm, but Dorothy, you’re helping Mama by carrying her eggs, but you’re currently being carried by Papa. In the end, Papa is the one carrying everything heavy.”
At Juhwan’s remark, Dorothy’s eyes went wide, and she fell into deep thought.
After a moment, the child nodded as if she had found the solution.
“Papa is super strong. So it’s okay. You can win against the eggs.”
“…Right.”
Lij laughed at the exchange between Juhwan and Dorothy. As she laughed, Dorothy followed suit. The gloom from the guild earlier seemed to vanish in that laughter.
Juhwan carried most of the purchased goods on his back, while Lij held the items that needed careful handling. Together, the three of them left the alleyway and crossed the plaza.
Occasionally, they heard whispers from people noticing Oz and calling him a Magical Beast. They seemed to recognize him more by his collar than his horn. People pointed at the collar and the horn from all directions.
“Oz is a smarty, Papa. Dorothy is his teacher.”
Dorothy spoke loudly, intentionally making sure people could hear.
She seemed to be bragging about Oz. Even though people were looking at Oz, it was Dorothy whose nose was held high with pride.
And for some reason, she held the bundle of eggs a little higher so people could see them. It seemed she wanted to show off that they were rich.
They had already settled their bill at the inn, but they had been told they could leave the wagon there until today.
When they arrived at the inn and went to the stable area, there were signs that the hostler had given the horses hay and water. It was a bit expensive, but the service was certainly good.
Once they boarded the wagon, Dorothy hopped out of Juhwan’s arms. After carefully loading their luggage, the three of them sat side-by-side on the driver’s seat.
Leaving the castle must have been bittersweet. As they sat on the driver’s seat and the city gates came into view, Dorothy suddenly stood up on the bench and turned around on her knees.
Lij quickly grabbed the child’s waist. While being scolded by her mother, Dorothy waved her hand toward the city buildings. She said she was saying goodbye.
Juhwan supported the child’s back with one arm to help her sit properly and felt a bit of relief. Everything was back to normal. It seemed she had just been a little startled by the Advisor earlier.
“Dorothy, you can’t stand up in the wagon. You’ll fall.”
“Yes! Papa.”
Her spirited reply was the same as always.
Red Sword was already waiting for them in front of the city gates.
It had taken a long time to come here with the merchant caravan, but the return trip seemed like it would only take a few days. They said there were several villages along the way, so they wouldn’t need to camp out.
They chose a slightly different path from the one the caravan had taken.
When heading to Moderni, the sheer size of the merchant caravan had limited their choice of roads.
But Juhwan and Red Sword had no such restrictions. They planned a route using safe roads connecting the villages, aiming to avoid bandits as much as possible. According to Red Sword, although it was a bit longer, it was the most common route to Moderni.
“Please remember this road. Moderni is the city where adventurers gather the most. While the guild in the Adventurer Village has quite a few adventurers, Moderni is the best for finding work. During seasons when work gets scarce, most adventurers head to Moderni to find jobs. So, you must remember this path. That’s why we’re going a bit slowly on purpose.”
Karin gave this advice while they were stopped for a brief rest after traveling for a while.
It seemed the people of this era learned every road solely by memory, without maps, let alone navigation.
To be honest, Juhwan lacked confidence. He wasn’t sure if he could actually find his way if he were told to go alone. There were no road signs in this medieval world.
Aside from a few short breaks, Juhwan and Red Sword traveled almost continuously at a moderate pace.
They passed through the villages they encountered midday and entered a village just as the sun began to set. It was much smaller than the Adventurer Village. It felt slightly larger than the village where he had first met Lij.
Though they entered the village, the streets were deserted. Hardly anyone was out. Jessie mentioned that most villages were like this in the winter, even if they were different in spring or autumn.
As they headed toward the plaza, the Village Chief and a few local men came out to meet them.
“Oh, are you adventurers?”
The Village Chief smiled broadly after seeing the attire of Juhwan and the Red Sword party.
The question was directed at Juhwan.
“Yes. We’d like to stay the night.”
“We don’t have a formal inn in our village. But since adventurers come by occasionally, we rent out houses or barns.”
The Village Chief said it would be 1 Lina to rent a small house for the night, or one large coin for a barn.
What is this? This is blatant price gouging. Juhwan’s eyes widened. The inn at the Adventurer Village had been 1 Lina for two days. And that was for a clean, formal inn. If it was going to be this expensive, it was better to just sleep outside.
As Juhwan turned to get back on the wagon, the Village Chief cried out and spoke to him again.
“Sir Adventurer! If you’re short on funds, I won’t take the full 1 Lina; I’ll just take one coin.”
One coin was 0.5 Lina—the same as the price for a room with two beds at the inn in the Adventurer Village. Did he look that gullible?
Now he was starting to get annoyed.
“Move. Where do you get off charging such a ridiculous price?”
When Juhwan furrowed his brows, the Village Chief let out a gasp and bowed low.
“I-I’m sorry. Our village gets so few guests that I don’t know the market rates. Well then, how about one small coin?”
It seemed this village set its prices based on who they were looking at. Karin, who had been listening quietly, cut in with a smirk.
“Look here, you saw the nice wagon and got greedy, didn’t you? Don’t go looking for trouble and just do this properly. Give us the barn and the small house for one small coin. And give us two canteens of hot water to use when we sleep.”
“B-but if we do that…”
As the Village Chief and the men looked at each other with troubled expressions, Karin grinned.
“Normally, I’d start by making a scene, but I’m holding back because Juhwan is here.”
“Haa…”
The Village Chief stole a glance up at Juhwan and sighed. He nodded his head in agreement, and then Marie spoke up.
“Give us some hay for the horses too.”
“That will be per horse…”
The moment the Village Chief tried to name a price, Juhwan’s brows tensed. He glared, wondering what kind of absurd price he was about to hear next, and the Village Chief choked on his breath. Then, with a face that looked like he might cry, the Village Chief nodded.
“W-we’ll do that. But we can’t give too much.”
Karin looked somewhat pleased. Hmm, it seemed that paying separately for hay was actually the standard practice.
‘I guess I was the one being unreasonable.’
But the guy who tried to rip them off in the first place was the one at fault.
The house the Village Chief rented out wasn’t an empty one. Someone living there had vacated it for the night.
“This is like a side hustle for the village. In a place with little cash income, it’s quite a decent and profitable business,” Marie said with a giggle before heading toward the barn where they would be staying.
At first, Juhwan felt terribly guilty because Red Sword had insisted on sleeping in the barn, but once he stepped inside the house, he understood why.
The house and the barn were practically at the same level, but the barn had more straw. If you spread out a pile of straw, you could sleep quite warmly.
Juhwan let out a wry smile. There were chicken and goat droppings scattered about the house. The straw on the bed looked like it had been used for a very long time, as much of it was crushed and broken, and most of all, it looked like there were bedbugs.
The only saving grace was the hearth in the center of the house. However, no fire was lit. It wasn’t that it had been cleaned or the fire intentionally put out. Seeing a bit of ash, it seemed they only lit a fire for a short while each day.
He had no choice but to bring in a few logs he had prepared in the wagon.
He had kept them for emergencies, but in a situation like this, there was no helping it.
He produced fire from his hand to light the logs and made a stew using various ingredients they had.
He made a generous amount, and Lij took some to the Red Sword party. Juhwan didn’t go inside and stayed outside the barn, where he could hear Karin’s voice.
“Thank you, Lij. But don’t do this in the future. Of course, once people become close, they share meals like this. But unless you’re in the same party, everyone is responsible for their own costs. If you give to everyone you meet, you’ll have nothing left. In the worst case, the other person might start expecting it again. That’s why adventurers, even if they’re close, try to handle everything on their own.”
Karin’s voice was gentle.
“Besides, right now, our job is to teach you and Juhwan how to act as adventurers. But truly, thank you, Lij. My body was getting cold, so I really appreciate this stew.”
Holding the child wrapped in a wool blanket in one arm, Juhwan gave Lij a comforting pat on the shoulder as she emerged from the barn with a slightly downcast expression.
Stews in this world were basically a hodgepodge porridge made by boiling miscellaneous ingredients together in water.
It wasn’t as if every party would light separate fires to make their own stew. Most likely, adventurers traveling together would gather around one pot to cook.
Karin had pointed out the act of bringing them food even though they hadn’t cooked together.
Lij huddled her shoulders against the cold air. Juhwan opened one side of his coat. He pulled her inside his garment and walked for a while. The stars in the sky were twinkling brightly. As they walked, Lij’s heart seemed to clear again.
Around the time they finished their meal, the Village Chief brought over one leather canteen filled with hot water. But that alone wasn’t very warm.
It would have been better if they could move the bed next to the hearth, but the layout of the house made it impossible.
It was cold because it wasn’t heated properly, and with the bedbugs, it was impossible to sleep.
In the end, Juhwan and Lij took the child and went to lie down in the wagon. Once they lay in the cramped space with the canteen at their feet, it became quite toasty.
Lij let out a small laugh as she lay in the pitch-black darkness. Juhwan reached out and toyed with Lij’s short hair.
“Why are you laughing?”
“I liked the inn, but I like sleeping huddled together like this too, Juhwan.”
“Is that so?”
Dorothy lay between Lij and Juhwan, who were using their arms as pillows. Oz was curled up by their heads. Dorothy had already been half-asleep by the time they left the house because of the bedbugs. Somehow, the inside of the wagon felt filled with a sense of happiness.
“Me too, Lij.”
“Right?”
Lij’s voice was laced with genuine joy.
It was around the time the night deepened and Lij fell asleep. A small voice from Dorothy reached Juhwan’s ears as he drifted in a light slumber.
“…Don’t… throw me away… Dorothy… don’t throw me away….”
His eyes snapped open.
Dorothy was still sleeping in his arms. It was sleep-talking.
The child spoke again, her pronunciation slurred in her sleep.
“…Papa….”
‘Could it be…’
Juhwan murmured to himself unconsciously. He felt he finally understood what that small sense of unease he had felt since morning was.
