Translator: Nox

I Became A Married Man in Another World

Chapter 8

#008 Hero

The storage room was empty, but it seemed shelves had originally been installed there. Parts of the wall were a different color.

Debris, seemingly spilled during the looting, was scattered sparsely on the floor. Scraps of dried plants like medicinal herbs, pieces of jerky that looked gnawed by rats, broken iron fragments that seemed to be part of a tool like a hoe, straw, and small pieces of fur...

Joo-hwan Kim crouched down next to the woman.

He had thought the woman and child were given to him. But it seemed to be the opposite. He had been given to the woman and child. Perhaps this house was where the woman's parents or husband had lived.

'Is this what happens to the remaining family when the head of the household dies?'

I will never die. I won't leave my family behind like this. Even if I die, I will surely crawl back from hell to return to my family.

Thinking this, Joo-hwan Kim carefully lifted the woman up, making sure not to startle her. She shouldn't be sitting slumped on a floor like this. He had heard that it wasn't good for a woman's body to sit on cold surfaces.

"It's okay. I'm here now. From now on, I'll do whatever it takes to provide for you."

As he carried her, he gently patted her back. Even if the words didn't get through, the comforting atmosphere would be conveyed.

As he kept saying "It's okay, it's okay," the woman, whose body had been stiff at first, eventually leaned her face against his chest and began to sob again.

Was her sorrow that deep? Even after entering the house, the woman cried for a long time, to an astonishing degree. There were no chairs. Joo-hwan Kim sat down on the wooden floor and continued to stroke the woman's back.

The child, who had crept up beside them, held onto the woman's hem tightly before starting to cry as well. Huddled as if hiding from Joo-hwan's gaze, the child opened their mouth wide and wailed while clutching the woman's clothes.

At first, he thought it was just because they were family, but it seemed a bit different. It looked as if the child was holding onto the clothes to prevent the woman from running away.

With the sound of crying echoing throughout the house, Joo-hwan Kim could only sit still with a troubled expression.

While stroking the woman's back, Joo-hwan Kim, perhaps finding it too difficult to stay crouched, finally sat down flat on the floor and pulled the child, who had slumped down, onto his lap.

The hut, devoid of any warmth from a fire, was so cold that there was little difference between inside and out.

"You'll catch a cold sitting on a floor like this."

He said it, but of course, since they didn't speak the same language, the meaning wasn't conveyed.

Though peeking at Joo-hwan with flinches of fear, the child did not let go of the woman's clothes.

As the child sat on Joo-hwan's lap, the woman's clothes were pulled to one side, becoming disarrayed. The tugging of the fabric revealed her slender neck and collarbone.

"...."

Joo-hwan Kim averted his gaze slightly. However, the woman didn't seem to realize how she looked. Or perhaps she wasn't used to the gaze of a man.

Suddenly, the softness of the woman touching his body made him feel awkward. He felt restless, his heart fluttering.

Suddenly, he wondered: Is this child the woman's offspring? Was the dead man the woman's husband? If so, did this woman love that man?

Of course, it didn't matter if she did. As they lived together from now on, love and affection would grow. If he treated her much better than the dead man and worked hard, they would surely become a good family. They would become a happy couple. He was confident.

But a small part of his heart felt a tiny sting.

Joo-hwan Kim spoke quietly while stroking the backs of the woman and child sitting on his legs.

"From now on, I'll make sure this house is filled with everything you two want. I'll make you happier than anyone. I'll make sure you never regret me becoming your family. Because I will never make you two cry..."

He kept saying similar things. Rather than saying it to them, it was a vow to himself. He would be a good husband, a good father.

Joo-hwan's voice mingled with the crying of the two, spreading through the quiet house. Perhaps they were gradually calming down, as the sound of weeping grew quieter over time.

The woman occasionally glanced at him. The initial atmosphere of fear had vanished at some point. She still looked at him with starts, but it seemed more like she found him unfamiliar rather than being afraid. That was a good sign.

Joo-hwan Kim gave the woman a grin and began to think about what he needed to do next. The matter of making a living rested entirely in his two hands. From now on, he would have to work without rest.

Joo-hwan Kim's expression grew serious. Today was the true beginning of his life. The things he had done on Earth would be of little help. The tasks he had learned while working at a company were useless here. Rather, the time he spent briefly at his grandfather's house in the countryside during middle school seemed like it would be more helpful.

Lost in thought, Joo-hwan Kim quietly stroked their backs.

It was still morning. If he hurried, he might be able to start a fire by the time they went to sleep tonight.

He needed to gather firewood quickly, and after that, go fetch water. There must be running water flowing down from the mountain somewhere.

He needed to wash his smelly clothes somewhere. While the clothes were drying, he'd have no choice but to cover himself with leaves. He couldn't show such an unsightly appearance to the woman and child.

No, but would there even be leaves large enough to cover that? It's actually quite big, despite how it looks...

The wind whistled into the house, and there was not a single piece of firewood.

But how strange.

Even though all the original belongings in the house had been plundered by those brigands and the future looked bleak—even though he only had one set of clothes and was on the verge of becoming a leaf-wearing pervert—his heart felt soft and warm, as if he were flying through the sky.

Leaves... he hoped he could find some big ones.

*

After things had calmed down to some extent, Joo-hwan Kim pointed a finger at his own face and said, "Joo-hwan Kim." If they were to live together, they should at least know names.

After that, he pointed his finger at the woman's and the child's faces in turn.

Then he pointed at his own face again, said "Joo-hwan Kim," and then pointed at the woman and the child.

After repeating this several times, the woman hesitantly opened her mouth.

"## Lizi####."

The woman pointed to herself and said "Lizi" once more, then pointed a finger at the child and shook her head. It seemed to mean the child didn't have a name.

The face of the child, who was still clutching the woman's clothes, slowly turned toward the floor.

He didn't know why the child didn't have a name. But he could tell it was a very sad thing and that it had hurt the child.

Joo-hwan Kim placed his large hand on the child's head and spoke.

"Then from now on, let's make your name Dorothy."

It was the name of the cute girl from the Wizard of Oz. He would give the child the name of a girl who travels, meets friends, goes on adventures, and achieves happiness for herself.

After Joo-hwan mentioned his and the woman's names in turn, he pointed his finger at the child's face and said "Dorothy," causing the child's eyes to widen.

"Dorothy?"

The child asked Joo-hwan hesitantly.

"Yes, it's a name for becoming happy. It's a name that will allow you to meet many good friends and people you love in the future."

Even if the meaning didn't get through, he wanted to tell her. That this was the name of a very lovely girl, and that she would surely become happy.

The child bowed her head slightly and muttered.

"Dorothy."

For the first time since meeting him, the child smiled faintly. It was a very small smile, but it made his heart swell.

***

He was a strange man. He had a body and hands much larger than her dead husband's, but he didn't try to hit her at all.

He didn't act roughly either. He was somehow polite. It was hard to describe, but his behavior was completely different from the villagers. He was a completely different kind of person.

His voice was softer than anyone she had ever heard. And the resonance of his words was strange.

She had never met any nobles, but the words he spoke were surely the very high-class ones used by people of high status. Just listening to him speak gave her that feeling, even if she didn't know the meaning.

'He doesn't seem like someone who would live in a village like this.'

Lizi watched the man as he walked around checking every corner of the house.

Thinking that this man would be her husband from now on made her feel strange. He was a completely different person from what she had imagined. A corner of her heart felt ticklish for some reason.

The man taught her his name, but it was too difficult to pronounce. Ging-ju-han? Whenever she tried to say it all at once, it kept coming out weird. Eventually, the man had her call him 'Joo-hwan'.

'Joo-hwan.'

Unlike how she struggled to say his name, Joo-hwan pronounced her name clearly.

That was also strange; his pronunciation seemed somehow different from how the villagers called her. Even though it was the same name, it sounded more high-class when Joo-hwan said it.

Really, she didn't know why. The pronunciation just echoed clearly in her ears.

Her name, tossed out so casually, sounded as if it belonged to someone noble.

Joo-hwan seemed to be mainly looking for where there were gaps. As he moved through the house, he occasionally bent down to check the walls or corners. He inspected places that looked rotten or had holes even more thoroughly. Perhaps he was planning to repair the house.

Thinking that brought another wave of sadness.

Nothing was left in the house. Not only food and things that could be turned into money like hides, but even wooden items like chairs, shelves, and tables, and the tent leather kept under the bed were all gone.

They had even taken every single bow, arrow, knife, hoe, hammer, and spare axe.

All that remained was a single chipped axe.

Without tools, one could truly do nothing in these mountains.

One couldn't hunt, nor plant vegetables. House repairs were out of the question, and one couldn't even prepare defenses against beasts.

What should they do now? How would they survive? The future looked pitch black.

"####?"

A voice was heard right in front of her. Startled back to her senses, she saw Joo-hwan looking down at her with a worried face.

She didn't know the words, but he was likely worrying about her. Joo-hwan placed his large hand on her head and began to stroke it.

'....'

Maybe this man thought of her as a child. Maybe he didn't know she was to be his wife because they couldn't communicate.

Lizi had turned 21 after this past New Year, but because she hadn't eaten properly since she was young, her body was smaller than her older or younger siblings. She was often seen as younger than her age.

To a man this massive, she might be seen as a child. Thinking that way, it seemed to make sense. That's why he kept hugging her like that. Because he thought she was a child.

She felt strange. A corner of her heart had been ticklish for a while now. She felt restless. The desire to say she wasn't a child and the thought of wanting to be a child were mixed half-and-half.

Joo-hwan stared quietly into her eyes and then grinned. It seemed a few tears had welled up. He lightly touched and wiped under her eyes with his large, thick finger.

Looking at that hand, the thought suddenly occurred to her that this person might have truly been someone of high status.

It wasn't as soft as the village chief's wife had described, but it certainly wasn't the hand of a farmer. Nor was it that of a commoner.

The hands of people in the same village as Lizi were almost all similar, though they varied in size. Calluses formed in the same places, and because they chapped without exception in winter, the backs of their hands became bumpy like toad skin. Every single fingertip was rough. Lizi's hands were the same.

When she suddenly hid her hands behind her back out of embarrassment, Joo-hwan tilted his head as if puzzled.

Perhaps this person was a noble from another country, or a subordinate of a Lord. Or maybe a knight. In any case, he wouldn't have been of a status that rolled around in the dirt like her.

"###?"

Joo-hwan said something while lightly grabbing her wrist. His large hand could wrap around her wrist once with room to spare.

Holding her wrist loosely, Joo-hwan pulled it forward. He didn't seem to apply any strength, yet her hand was easily led forward by the man.

As if checking for injuries, Joo-hwan thoroughly inspected the front and back of her hand. It was embarrassing. Strange. She had never been this embarrassed by someone's gaze. When she wiggled her toes and clenched her fist to hide her hand, Joo-hwan smiled broadly.

Once again, Joo-hwan stroked her head. He muttered something that seemed to be saying he was glad there were no injuries.

'It's strange.'

She had never received this kind of kindness. Not from her mother, not from her father, never.

Her heart, which had been quiet until a moment ago, suddenly became tumultuous.

'It's strange. This is really strange.'

A strange emotion she had never felt before appeared on her face. Embarrassed, and somehow a little regretful, she didn't quite know. She didn't know what it was, but deep in her heart, it felt ticklish. Deep in her heart, where her hands couldn't reach to scratch, it was ticklish, itchy. Her body felt restless.

Suddenly, she remembered a rumor she had heard a few days ago. The village women were saying that a Hero had appeared.

They said that the high-ranking people of the enemy country, which was at war, had succeeded in a summoning ritual. She had heard it was a Hero with black hair and black eyes.

The enemy country, having succeeded in a summoning that had only remained as a legend, was said to be in a festive mood. Were they so happy that rumors were spreading even to small villages in other countries?

'Black hair and black eyes.'

Lizi suddenly raised her head and looked at the face of the man who had become her husband.