I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 79
079 Rudolph is Zentangle
He had left nothing behind on Earth. At most, there were his parents’ graves and some childhood memories.
But perhaps it was because it was the place where he was born and raised. Or perhaps his daily life, spent desperately trying to learn a foreign language, had tired him more than he realized.
His heart leaped the moment he heard a familiar tongue. Juhwan looked at the girl without even realizing it.
She was a child with an appearance common in this world. Perhaps her unusually pale face and clear eyes stood out just a little.
“….”
But looking closely, unlike his first impression, the girl felt a bit peculiar. She seemed ordinary at a glance, but upon closer inspection, she carried an aura slightly different from others.
‘What is it that’s different?’
Her clothing and appearance weren’t much different from those around her. The girl looked her age—ah, was that it? Juhwan suddenly realized what was strange about her.
Even Dorothy had a face that looked somewhat worn by life when he first met her.
But this girl showed no signs of being weary of the world. Somehow, she looked like a child raised in a fairy tale. That was what created an aura so detached from everyone else.
The girl tilted her head again and asked.
[Keuriseumaseu Ibu, sowoneul malhae? Santa nappunnom?]
“….”
He almost answered her before he could stop himself. But he held back.
The language of Earth felt completely different from the language of this world.
Though he had been somewhat careless at first, Juhwan now knew just how exotic Korean sounded here.
The words of Earth sounded stranger to the human ear than any foreign tongue of this world. If he responded to it, he would instantly draw everyone’s attention.
The people nearby began to murmur as they heard the girl’s words. Someone spoke up.
“What’s that? What language is she speaking? I’ve met people from many countries, but I’ve never heard anything like that.”
As expected, the language of Earth stood out.
Swallowing the dry saliva in his mouth, Juhwan lowered his gaze slightly from the girl.
“It’s a peculiar language.”
As Juhwan spoke, Lij pressed close to him. She clung to him, tucking herself against his side. She rarely did such a thing in public.
Checking her expression, he saw her face was filled with anxiety. Lij had likely heard Juhwan speak Korean occasionally. That was why she knew the girl was speaking the same language.
Lij looked at the girl with a hint of fear in her eyes. To reassure her, Juhwan placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
The Guild Master waved his hands to shoo the people away.
“What are you all gawking at? Get back to work. The Guild is closing soon. If you don’t hurry, I’ll kick you all out.”
Grumbling, the people lined up at the reception desk again. It was the same at the appraisal counter. The crowd around Juhwan thinned out.
The Guild Master looked at Juhwan.
“Do you have a moment? I’d like to talk about a few things.”
“….”
“I’ve looked into the magical beasts as well. About the horned rabbits. Since you probably don’t know much about magical beasts yet, Juhwan, there’s some information that would be good for you to hear.”
He had been planning to look into magical beasts anyway.
The Guild Master’s offer was perfect. However, the girl who knew the language of Earth weighed on his mind.
While the Guild Master spoke, the girl watched Oz in Dorothy’s arms intently.
Oz stared back at the girl with his black eyes. For some reason, Oz’s fur seemed to be standing slightly on end.
Noticing this, Juhwan consciously let a bit of mana flow from his body. Doing this would allow him to react instantaneously if an unexpected situation occurred. It was insurance, just in case.
Oz twitched his flattened ears. His ear canals rotated slightly in different directions. He seemed to be gathering sound. At the same time, his nose twitched. It looked as if he was confirming the girl’s sound and scent.
Juhwan watched the girl quietly. She might harbor ill intent. Though she looked like an ordinary human, there was a possibility she was a powerful magician.
The air felt bone-dry with every breath. A sharp tension, like static electricity, seemed to travel through the air with his breathing.
His mouth went dry.
Perhaps he was too tense. Small sparks crackled faintly, like a lighter being flicked.
As if infected by Juhwan’s tension, Lij and Dorothy’s bodies also stiffened.
“Hehe.”
Suddenly, the girl laughed. For a moment, her eyes looked as transparent as glass beads. It might have been an optical illusion.
“It’s this person.”
The girl whispered.
At that moment, Oz’s wariness vanished. His bristling fur lay flat, and his tense posture relaxed.
To Juhwan, the girl didn’t seem to have changed at all, but did Oz see something different?
As if he had lost interest, Oz crawled back into Dorothy’s pocket.
“Oz, are you sleepy?”
It seemed the sensation of Oz squirming was ticklish. Dorothy giggled, twisting her body.
The Guild Master looked at Juhwan, appearing relieved by the girl’s words.
“Let’s go to the second floor first. I have things to say.”
When Juhwan nodded, the Guild Master led the way, and the girl followed. Juhwan and Lij followed behind them.
The Red Sword party remained downstairs. As the appraisal clerk asked how they wanted their payment, Karin’s voice replied that she would deposit it. She sounded incredibly happy. Juhwan felt a bit lighter as well.
However, his steps up the stairs felt heavy. Who exactly was this girl the Guild Master had brought? Why did she know the language of Earth? Her identity was baffling.
*
The second floor of the Guild appeared to be a warehouse for appraised goods. There were several partition-like walls in the large space. Each partitioned area seemed to have a different purpose.
Several employees were busy moving or organizing items.
Seeing them sweating even in winter, it seemed to be quite heavy labor. There were more people working at the Guild than he had thought.
The Guild Master led Juhwan’s group to the place furthest from the stairs.
Walking through a narrow passage piled with goods, they reached a corner where a long rectangular table and a few chairs were set up.
Perhaps it was a place for receiving guests. It was a bit humble for that, but this was likely what a reception area in a small village Guild looked like. Several boxes were stacked nearby, making it look a bit cluttered.
“Let’s all sit down first.”
At the Guild Master’s word, Juhwan sat down beside Lij. The girl sat next to the Guild Master.
“First, I have one thing to ask you, Juhwan. Have you ever met Santa? Or have you ever heard the word ‘Rudolph’?”
“….”
He had expected Santa, but Rudolph…. Surely even Santa Village didn’t exist in this world.
Juhwan thought he hadn’t let any expression show, but the Guild Master seemed to see the answer in his eyes. He grinned.
“You don’t seem to know much about magical beasts, so I’ll tell you what I’ve found out first. It’s nothing too special, but it’ll be helpful.”
The biggest difference between a magical beast and a normal animal was the presence of mana. Because they possessed mana, they were called [Magical Beasts].
Magical beasts were omnivores. They ate anything. This was evident just by looking at Oz. Though he looked like a rabbit, he didn’t just eat grass; he ate meat, rice, and bread too.
And magical beasts absorbed mana. Sometimes they gathered it from nature or from mana-infused creatures like Screaming Carrots, and in cases where they were raised by humans, they occasionally received it from their owners.
“I’m told that if a magical beast cannot absorb any mana at all, it will die. They can endure for quite a while, but eventually, they die. Well, they say that rarely happens since they absorb mana from nature too.”
Horned rabbits were said to be the type of magical beast most commonly seen by people. They were also what magical beast hunters caught the most. However, they weren’t easy to catch. It was because they were so fast. They couldn’t be caught with traps like normal rabbits.
While explaining various things about magical beasts, the Guild Master’s eyes drifted toward Dorothy’s bulging front pocket.
“Even if horned rabbits are caught the most, their numbers aren’t that high. It’s just that they’re seen more often among the magical beasts that stay hidden. That’s why their ecology isn’t well known. But when I asked someone who knows, they said that when a horned rabbit becomes an adult, its horn begins to emerge and grows larger over time.”
“Oh.”
Lij let out a small gasp of surprise and covered her mouth with her hand. Oz already had a horn even though he was still young.
“That’s right. Your horned rabbit is a bit strange. So I looked into it, and it seems that fellow is a being called a Rudolph.”
While listening to the Guild Master’s story, Juhwan observed the girl.
For a while now, the girl had been twitching her nose, sniffing the air. She seemed to be sniffing Juhwan in particular. She was trying to be discreet so others wouldn’t notice, but the twitching of her nose was quite conspicuous.
The Guild Master must have seen her too. But it seemed she had been acting this way all along. He continued speaking, pretending not to notice.
“A Rudolph is a magical beast created by Santa’s contractor. They aren’t known to ordinary people. Well, even magical beasts themselves are rarely seen by anyone.”
He sighed softly. Based on their exchange so far, the Guild Master seemed to have figured out quite a lot. It couldn’t be helped.
“What is Santa’s contractor?”
“Ah, we’re starting from there?”
The Guild Master laughed. He scratched his head, which had become smooth thanks to Juhwan.
“There are Heroes and Santa’s contractors. A Hero is someone summoned by the royal family through a summoning circle, as many people know. This is common knowledge, but, hmm, looking at your face, it seems you didn’t know much about it, Juhwan.”
On the other hand, very few people knew of the existence of Santa’s contractors.
A contract was established when one met Santa, made a wish, and Santa gave a gift—but meeting Santa itself was an incredibly rare occurrence. Only royalty or high-ranking nobles knew about it.
The Master seemed certain that Juhwan was Santa’s contractor. He didn’t bother asking if he was. Instead, he glanced at the girl.
“This child is said to be the granddaughter of a man who used to hunt magical beasts in this Guild long ago. When I went to look into Rudolph, that man had already passed away, and this child was home alone.”
When he asked her to tell him if she knew anything about Rudolph, the girl apparently shook her head. She said she couldn’t tell anyone who wasn’t Rudolph’s owner.
“To be honest, it was exhausting. This girl… while saying she wouldn’t talk, she suddenly came close to me and started sniffing like a dog, then told me to take her to Rudolph’s owner.”
The Guild Master sighed.
“And then, for the whole day, twenty-four hours a day, she’s been stuck to my side. Sniffing like a dog. It’s driving me crazy. Even when I’m taking care of business or sleeping, she follows me and sniffs. I really…”
He let out a long breath and looked up at the ceiling.
“What will people think? If I’m stuck to a child like this twenty-four hours a day.”
Seeing the Guild Master say that this was the most difficult part, Juhwan chuckled. Internally, he thought, ‘As I suspected.’ This girl was a bit strange.
Words she didn’t know were coming out. Santa, contractor, Rudolph….
Her husband didn’t seem to have met the girl before, but there was definitely something in common between the two. That language the girl had spoken—Lij didn’t know the meaning, but it was definitely the same language Juhwan occasionally muttered to himself.
She had thought he might be a noble from another country. Though he had become a commoner for unknown reasons, she had speculated that he was of noble birth. At the very least, she knew he wasn’t an ordinary person.
He might be someone far more important than she had imagined. Santa was a being close to a god. If he was someone who had made a contract with such a being, wouldn’t his status be higher than that of a mediocre noble? From now on, this man might be surrounded by glamorous people and forget all about a lowly commoner woman like her.
She became afraid. It felt as if her husband might suddenly fly away somewhere. It felt as if someone great would come, say this wasn’t the place for someone of his status, and take him away. She felt as if the girl would say he wasn’t someone who should be by the side of a trivial woman like herself.
Perhaps she had gripped his arm too tightly without realizing it. Her husband lowered his head and looked into her face.
“Lij, it’s okay.”
Without even knowing what she was afraid of, Juhwan lightly patted her shoulder.
Lij steadied her breathing. Seeing her husband’s kind face, her heart finally calmed down. This man wasn’t the type to abandon her just because he became rich or attained high status. It was okay. She could stay by his side.
Only after thinking that could she finally force a smile. So as not to be abandoned, so as not to become a burdensome woman, Lij lifted the corners of her mouth as high as she could.
The girl didn’t seem to know how to read the room. She leaned over the table, almost climbing onto it, and whispered into Juhwan’s ear.
“Rudolph is Zentangle.”
“Zentangle?”
When Juhwan asked instinctively, the girl faced him and gave a bright smile.
“As I thought, you know that word. That word was left behind by someone who was once Santa’s contractor.”
Santa’s contractor was apparently the girl’s great-great-grandmother.
“She grumbled every day. About that ‘rotten Santa,’ or how she ‘wouldn’t let him be’ if she met him again.”
That Santa seemed to have fulfilled his promises to everyone in a similar way to Juhwan. Suddenly, he wondered what kind of wish the girl’s ancestor had made. At Juhwan’s question, the girl giggled.
“She said she wanted a being that would always be by her side and protect her.”
“So, did she meet such a being?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
The girl grinned.
“Santa definitely fulfills his promises. Even if his methods are a bit of a problem.”
While carrying on a normal conversation, the girl began to twitch her nose again. Between sentences, she wrinkled her nose and sniffed.
She was mainly trying to catch Juhwan’s scent. She was a strange child.
“So, what is Zentangle?”
The girl tilted her head at Juhwan’s question.
“Zentangle is just Zentangle, isn’t it?”
“What does it mean that Rudolph is Zentangle?”
“Ah.”
The girl’s eyes went wide as if she were a bit surprised.
“What does Zentangle mean?”
This time, the girl asked.
The Zentangle he knew was a method of drawing by repeating the same patterns over and over.
When he explained it that way, the girl’s face brightened.
“What, it just meant a drawing. I thought it was some grand meaning.”
Muttering to herself, the girl stood up abruptly. She was about to turn and leave without a word of farewell, but as if remembering something, she leaned toward Juhwan again. She brought her mouth close to Juhwan’s ear and whispered.
“Did a red mark appear?”
“Yes.”
“That’s it. That’s Rudolph’s ability. You’ll figure it out soon after seeing it a few times. As Rudolph’s power grows, those marks increase. Like a tangle. My grandfather used that ability to hunt magical beasts.”
The girl whispered without using her throat. The sound came only from her mouth. It was so quiet that even Lij likely couldn’t hear it. It was barely audible even to Juhwan.
The girl straightened up and laughed softly, looking pleased.
“I should get going now. I’ll come to see you again later.”
She seemed happy to have learned the word Zentangle. With a cheerful face, as if she were about to burst into song, the girl hurried down the hallway.
The Guild Master stood up abruptly and shouted.
“Hey, kid! Do you have a place to go? Your house is quite a distance from here! Hey!”
“It’s okay, no problem!”
The girl waved her hand as she ran. The pitter-patter of her shoes hitting the wooden floor faded into the distance.
“No, it really is far…”
The Guild Master muttered, looking worried.
