I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 84
084 Let Us Struggle Endlessly
The direction of the wind changed. The breeze that had been flowing from front to back now brushed past him, heading forward.
Gwen’s steps stopped of their own accord. Senses honed by years of hunting took control of his body before his mind could even process the thought.
Whoosh. High up in the trees, the sound of the wind violently shaking the branches rang out. Other than that, there was almost no sound. It was as if even the natural voices of the forest were holding their breath today.
He waited for a moment, but the wind showed no sign of shifting back.
‘This won’t do.’
Gwen stopped his pursuit and climbed a tree.
Magical beasts possessed incredibly sensitive senses. No matter how hard one tried to mask their scent, the smell of a human reached them in an instant. Magical beasts could detect traces of a person from much further away than humans realized.
Because of that, one had to be careful when the wind blew toward the beast.
This time, the beast already had prey, so the chances were slim, but otherwise, the roles of hunter and hunted could be reversed in a heartbeat.
The Orthos, which people called the two-headed dog, was a violent and cunning magical beast. He had encountered one once, a long time ago, in his youth.
An Orthos would relentlessly pursue and toy with its prey. Even after catching it, they didn’t kill easily; they tended to keep the prey alive for a while, like a cat playing with a mouse. They also had a keen sense of smell, making them excellent trackers.
However, the creatures could not climb trees. If one encountered an Orthos in the forest, climbing a tree was the only way to survive—assuming, of course, that one was faster than the beast.
After enduring the wind that pierced his skin like a blade for a while, the direction finally shifted again.
Gwen quickly descended to the ground.
The child snatched by the magical beast had already been wounded back in the village. Traces of blood led from the village into the forest.
However, the marks that were distinct at first gradually diminished and were now almost invisible.
‘With that much blood loss, the child is likely as good as dead.’
Gwen clicked his tongue inwardly. He didn’t expect to be able to save the child. He had hoped to at least bring back a scrap of the child’s clothing, but even that was becoming impossible.
Though he tracked meticulously, tracing marks where the child might have brushed against branches or a single drop of blood soaked beneath the leaves, he ultimately failed to reach the Orthos’s nest.
The cunning creature had not gone straight to its lair, but had wandered through the forest until almost no traces remained.
Perhaps the beast already knew it was being followed.
‘But it’s strange.’
Orthos did not naturally have the habit of eating humans.
They could eat humans if they wanted to, but they weren’t beasts that sought them out for pleasure. This attack on the village was a very rare occurrence.
‘Did it happen to eat a human once and develop a taste for it?’
If so, it was possible that a human possessing mana had been the first victim.
Magical beasts were instinctively drawn to mana. If a human they happened to taste possessed mana, they might not be able to forget it and could attack humans again.
‘There shouldn’t have been anyone with mana in the village, though.’
Just where could it have… As he thought this, Gwen remembered that the village had been plundered last autumn.
‘It must have been a Magician or someone with mana among the looters who fell victim.’
Truly, those Tairon bastards caused harm at every turn.
“….”
The probability of finding the beast’s nest had become extremely low. Any further effort might be a waste of time.
Gwen agonized for a moment but decided to continue the search only until the afternoon. The traces left by the child hadn’t completely vanished yet. If he followed them, who knew? He had a feeling the nest wasn’t that far away.
Staying alert so he could draw an arrow at any moment, Gwen moved forward through the forest path again.
‘I wonder if the Magician Leonard mentioned has arrived by now.’
When he was commissioned for the magical beast subjugation, Leonard said he had met an incredible person. He said the man had a Rudolph with him, but that the man himself was even more impressive. But could a mere human dare compare to such a wondrous creature? Honestly, it was hard to believe.
Gwen smirked, thinking of the stories about Rudolphs he had heard as a child.
He thought he would never see one in his lifetime. But it seemed that if you desired something strongly enough, it came true. To have a wish granted at his old age.
Feeling the flowing wind against his hand as he gripped his arrow, Gwen’s pace quickened slightly.
A branch was snapped. It was a fresh mark.
He knew he should be more careful, but his heart was fluttering at the thought of meeting a Rudolph. Gwen stepped forward a bit more carelessly than usual.
One step, two steps—as he moved deeper into the forest, Gwen suddenly stopped, his intuition screaming of danger.
‘…It’s a trap.’
The moment he realized it, Gwen’s body moved. He quickly turned and sprinted back the way he came.
Just then, a massive shadow stretched out in front of Gwen.
Damn it, it was the Orthos.
Jack, the supposed prize apprentice of the magical beast hunter, knew almost nothing about magical beasts. Listening to him, it seemed he had only recently become an apprentice. Before that, he had been an apprentice to an ordinary hunter.
Though rare, there were people whose mana manifested as they entered their teens. Jack was such a case; it seemed he saw the potential to become a magical beast hunter once he suddenly gained the ability to use mana.
However, becoming a magical beast hunter was not that easy. It wasn’t something possible just because one gained a little mana. Moreover, Gwen belonged to the top tier even among magical beast hunters. Not just anyone could easily become his apprentice.
It seemed Jack had followed Gwen around for several years, begging to be taken in, before finally being allowed to stay nearby. In short, he couldn’t even be called an apprentice yet.
Juhwan hadn’t received that exact explanation, but piecing together the boastful stories, that was the gist of it.
“People who gain mana late like I did are extremely rare. It’s a very unusual case.”
He seemed very proud of possessing mana. Jack repeated this several times.
“….”
Juhwan gave a bitter smile. Jack was directing his words at Juhwan, but in reality, he was talking to Lij at Juhwan’s side. Even though he knew she was a married woman, he still seemed interested in her.
Far from noticing such things, Lij thought Jack was saying those things to belittle Juhwan. Thus, she was currently a bit angry, but Jack failed to notice. He was a man lacking in intuition.
At this point, it was almost pitiful. Juhwan wasn’t exactly popular with women himself, but Jack seemed hopeless. There was no chance.
Besides, Juhwan had clearly stated he was a Magician, yet Jack was bragging about having a bit of mana manifest late in life; Juhwan couldn’t help but wonder if the man was a fool.
“By the way, what are you doing now? Why are you pouring rosin powder on the ground?”
“I’m making simple preparations to deal with the magical beast. We don’t know when it might appear in the village.”
Imitating what Gus used to do, Juhwan drew long lines and sprinkled rosin powder in places where a magical beast might enter. After sprinkling the powder, he covered it lightly with soil so it wouldn’t blow away.
The rosin powder was something he had asked the Guild to prepare when they left the Adventurer Village. He had said a little would suffice, but they had given him a whole container from somewhere.
“As I said before, I can use fire magic. If I set this up, I’ll be able to trap the beast. Don’t go near the areas where I’ve sprinkled the rosin powder if the beast appears.”
He didn’t know how formidable an Orthos was, but surely it wouldn’t be able to pass through a roaring wall of flame.
“Lij and Dorothy, remember this well. If the magical beast appears, you must never stand where the marks are.”
“I understand.”
“Yes, Papa!”
He placed dozens of small stones at the locations with rosin powder as danger signs. He also told the Village Chief not to go near the rock piles.
If the beast was smarter than expected and noticed the trap and didn’t enter the village, that would be enough in its own way. It could prevent some loss of life.
It would make things a bit more difficult, but in that case, they could just track the creature outside the village. Even if the work was harder, it was much better than people dying.
However, Jack didn’t seem to understand Juhwan’s actions.
“Well, I don’t know what you’re trying to do by sprinkling rosin powder like that. You must not know what a magical beast is. The Orthos that appeared in the village is nothing like that Horned Rabbit kit you have. A mature Orthos is incredibly strong and large. You can’t catch it just by lighting some rosin powder on fire.”
Well, that would be the common thought. It seemed cases where fire erupted as largely as Juhwan’s magic were rare.
Dorothy, who had been following Juhwan around like a little chick, opened her arms wide with sparkling eyes.
“My Papa’s fire is super big! This much! Huge fire as big as the sky goes bam bam. It even flies!”
Taking the opportunity, Dorothy bragged.
Jack gave a smirk.
“Sure, sure, your Papa breathes fire that big. As big as the sky.”
“Yeah! It reaches all the way to the sky. It goes up as big as the stars.”
’No, I can’t breathe fire that big. When you say it like that, it sounds like a total lie.’
When Juhwan laughed involuntarily, Lij giggled along.
“Dorothy, it’s not ‘goes up big,’ it’s ‘goes up high’.”
When Lij corrected the word, Dorothy quickly nodded and spoke again.
“Yeah, my Papa’s fire goes up that high, all the way to the stars.”
It really smelled like a lie.
Jack shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
“Kids really do exaggerate a lot.”
“…It’s not an exaggeration. The fire Juhwan-ssi makes is truly large. And it flies very far.”
“Ah, yes.”
At Lij’s words, Jack nodded as if he had no choice. He didn’t believe it. To be fair, even Juhwan thought it sounded like a lie, so he wouldn’t have believed it either.
Juhwan sprinkled more rosin powder on the ground, murmuring to himself. It would actually be better if it were an exaggeration. It was best if no situation arose that required him to create such a massive fire.
*
The task of sprinkling the powder took all day. They hadn’t even covered the entire perimeter of the village. The village was small, but it had many areas bordering the forest. Since they didn’t know the exact entry path of the beast, they had to go around to all the places near the forest and where the fences were missing to sprinkle the rosin.
The villagers hadn’t even properly figured out which direction the beast had come from.
They said that when the first attack happened, by the time they came to their senses, the beast was already inside the village. After that, whenever a scream was heard announcing the beast’s appearance, everyone was too busy hiding in their houses.
The number of men was low due to the war, and there had even been looting last autumn. The Village Chief, who had sustained the village for a long time, had also lost his wife, husband, and children.
The villagers were in no state to prepare for the magical beast. They had neither the will nor the strength. It seemed they were barely managing just to survive each day.
Repairing houses and fixing fences to keep out external enemies were things they no longer bothered with. If they thought they would be plundered just the same even with a fence, then it was understandable.
Since they didn’t know when the beast might appear, no one walked around the village. This was why it had become a ghost town.
Juhwan finished all the work at sunset and returned to the carriage.
The carriage was kept inside the village but slightly away from where people lived. He didn’t want to keep it too close to the villagers.
He thought the carriage might be looted, but there were no signs of anyone touching it.
However, some footprints remained around the carriage. He had intentionally sprinkled a bit of dirt, and new prints were stamped upon it.
‘As I thought…’
He couldn’t let his guard down until the moment they left. He mustn’t let pity blind him. If he wasn’t careful, those pitiful people could harm Lij and Dorothy.
Juhwan let out a small sigh and looked at his wife and child.
Dorothy seemed tired from following Juhwan around. Her eyes were half-closed. He felt a bit sorry for her, but he couldn’t leave Lij and the child alone in the carriage. They had no choice but to stay together.
Under the darkening sky, Juhwan lit a campfire, and Lij added a bit of rosin powder to it.
As the fire roared to life, Lij put water and dried vegetables in an iron pot and boiled them. She used her Karambit to cut off small pieces of meat and add them. While seasoning with salt, Lij suddenly looked toward the distant forest.
“It’s strange. I used to always hear various sounds from the forest, but it’s so quiet here. There isn’t even the sound of wolves howling.”
“….”
Lij shrugged her shoulders slightly.
Juhwan put his arm around her shoulders and looked at the distant sky. The red sunset was bleeding into the black shadows of the mountains.
“It must be because of the magical beast. From the beast’s perspective, even wolves are nothing more than prey.”
In a world where the magical beast was the absolute predator, everyone in the forest must be living with bated breath. What on earth had happened to the magical beast that used to live in a different world, separated from humans by a fence?
‘Why did it suddenly start perceiving humans as prey?’
Moreover, it targeted the village, not just people who entered the mountains. It was abnormal.
The stew began to bubble. Before they knew it, the surroundings had turned pitch black.
When the whole family sat around the campfire, Lij used the Karambit to thinly slice the seasoned meat she had bought at the market and placed a few pieces on each plate.
“Lij, I’ll take over now, so you eat too.”
When Juhwan spoke after stirring the stew once with a large wooden ladle, Lij gave a small laugh.
“It’s okay. It’s not even that hard. Besides, the knife is so sharp it doesn’t even feel like I’m working. It’s so convenient.”
Lij thinly sliced the seasoned meat with the Karambit. Dorothy, who had been half-asleep, was already holding out her plate with both hands, having finished her portion.
Lij giggled as she placed a piece of meat on it.
“I bought it as a weapon to protect myself, but now it’s just a meat knife. It’s become completely dedicated to cooking.”
Juhwan smiled as well, drawn in by her.
“It can’t be helped. But it’s not a bad thing, Lij.”
Whether it was a weapon or a kitchen knife, if it wasn’t familiar to the hand, it couldn’t be handled when actually needed. It was better to use it every day while preparing meat than to hold it once every few days just to call it a weapon.
Watching Lij and Dorothy eat, Juhwan turned his gaze toward the darkness.
Though he couldn’t see them, someone was hiding in the darkness far away, watching them.
When Juhwan stood up and made a move toward them, the person’s gaze disappeared. He heard the faint sound of hurried footsteps as if they were flustered.
“Juhwan?”
Lij and Dorothy probably hadn’t heard it. Lij called him, sounding uneasy. Juhwan sat back down by the campfire.
“It’s nothing.”
“….”
The ears of Oz, who was lying in front of the campfire, twitched.
The night deepened. Only the sound of the crackling campfire echoed in the silence.
In the quiet, the child’s head began to nod forward. Dorothy was dozing off with a spoon in her mouth.
“Really, how does she fall asleep so instantly?”
Lij laughed softly and took the spoon out of Dorothy’s mouth. As she held the child in her arms and gently patted her back, Juhwan looked at the sky. It was a moonlit night. A moon similar to the one seen from Earth hung in the night sky.
“The moon is beautiful, but why isn’t our world the same? It’s full of hunger, cold, and fear.”
Lij spoke softly, leaning her head against Juhwan’s chest.
Well, it was probably because they were greedy humans. Because simply being alive wasn’t enough. Because they wanted to be happier and more important than others.
On Earth, his soul had been cold and hungry. He had always craved love.
Now, he trembled every single moment, fearing he might lose it. Whether happy or unhappy, humans were the same. It was like two sides of a coin. Always anxious, cold, and hungry….
He put his arm around Lij’s shoulder and kissed her forehead. Even if humans were ugly, it was fine. To grasp happiness and not let go, let us struggle endlessly. Perhaps that was what it meant to be human.
