I Became A Married Man in Another World
Chapter 86
086 Orthos, the Two-Headed Dog (Side Story; Life is Always Cruel)
086 Orthos, the Two-Headed Dog (Side Story; Life is Always Cruel / Illustration; Orthos)
Juhwan’s hand, which had been about to shoot fire magic, faltered. If he unleashed flames around the Orthos now, the woman would die.
As he stared into the distant darkness, the woman’s hand gave off a faint glint. She was holding a knife. No one would ever think she could kill a magical beast with such a thing. She wants to die, he realized.
A small breath escaped him. She was surely someone who had lost her family. A heavy, aching sympathy swelled in his chest.
Juhwan knew the agony of losing family better than anyone.
If they hadn’t just passed away but had been snatched by a magical beast, it was only natural to want to die. He could understand her.
Juhwan made up his mind and channeled mana into his torch. Sometimes, death could be a mercy. Once again, the torch in his hand erupted into a massive light amidst the darkness.
He was just about to hurl that fire magic when Jack, the apprentice hunter, shouted and ran toward the woman.
“What are you doing! Didn’t you hear me say you can’t go that way?”
Jack yelled furiously as he chased her, reaching her side in an instant. They were too close to the Orthos.
‘Damn it.’
Juhwan’s brow furrowed. He couldn’t let that man die as well.
A curse slipped out reflexively. Juhwan shot a quick glance at Oz beside him.
“Oz, I’m counting on you.”
Leaving a brief instruction for Oz not to leave Lij and Dorothy’s side, Juhwan threw the torch aside. He sprinted straight toward the Orthos.
No matter how he fought the Orthos, he couldn’t let it approach the others. If he was going to fight the beast, it had to be as far from the carriage as possible.
There was only one conclusion. He had to go out and fight it himself.
In the short time Juhwan took to reach the Orthos, Jack grabbed the woman, shouting and arguing in a rage.
“Let go! I said let go!”
“Are you crazy? Get over here right now!”
“Who are you to care!”
“You think I can stand by and watch another person get killed by a beast right in front of me?! You stubborn woman!”
Jack punched the woman in the stomach. As she doubled over, she dropped her knife.
“Do you have any idea how I’ve lived since my parents were devoured? What happens to the family if you die? Do you know what it’s like for a family to live on after seeing their own flesh and blood eaten before their very eyes?!”
Jack continued to shout as he threw the woman over his shoulder. Then, he sprinted away.
“I became a hunter to create a world where people don’t die from magical beasts!”
Jack’s cries echoed through the darkness.
Everyone has their own story. Compared to the miserable people living in this world, the things Juhwan had endured back on Earth might actually be trivial. Among the unfortunate souls of this world, he was likely the luckiest of them all.
The anger that had surged within him lost its direction and fizzled out. It couldn’t be helped. What was done was done.
Fortunately, the Orthos paid no mind to Jack and the woman. It focused solely on Juhwan. Its eyes, coveting his mana, flashed eerily in the dark.
As he drew closer, the body of the Orthos, which had been a mere shadow, came clearly into view.
It was massive. This was no ordinary dog’s physique. Though its legs were short, the height of the Orthos’s heads nearly reached Juhwan’s shoulder.
The muscular body stood growling toward Juhwan. Four large claws gripped the ground. The taut muscles of its legs looked as though they might spring off the earth at any second.
Mana leaked from the Orthos’s entire body, weighing down the surroundings.
While he couldn’t sense the mana flowing through his own body, he could feel what emanated from the beast. It was as if the density of the air had increased, pushing against everything like a tsunami.
Indeed, at this level, one or two hunters wouldn’t stand a chance. He understood why the guild had been so anxious to send reinforcements.
And he realized why hunters were so few. If they had to hunt things like this, naturally, few would volunteer. No matter how good the pay was, it wasn’t worth more than one’s life.
‘This won’t be easy.’
His mouth went dry. Juhwan glared at the beast, coating his entire body in mana.
It appeared to have no fur. Even if it did, it must be extremely short. In the darkness, it looked close to black, though he couldn’t tell what color it might be in the light.
Its entire body seemed to be made of muscle. Hard-looking muscles were swollen tight. Every time the creature moved, those muscles rippled and bulged.
It had one body, but the two faces moved independently.
One head had its pointed ears pricked up, while the other had its ears laid flat against its head.
Though they looked identical, their expressions were different. Unlike the arms or legs, the two heads seemed to be completely separate entities. Two different dogs coexisting in one body.
Grrrr, the Orthos let out a savage snarl, baring its teeth.
Saliva dripped from both mouths. The transparent drool stretched like thick glue before hitting the ground.
‘It looks like it sees me entirely as prey.’
A smirk tugged at his lips despite himself. The solemnity of a moment ago vanished, replaced by a surge of arrogance. How dare a thing like you… That thought filled his entire being.
It felt as if he had rewound time back to his high school days, when he roamed the streets to vent his rage at life. Back then, he would flatten anyone who dared to pick a fight with him.
‘It’s the same. It doesn’t matter if the opponent is human or a beast.’
If it attacks, he’ll deal with it. Come on.
As Juhwan spread his feet and lowered his stance, the Orthos seemed to understand his intent.
With a look that seemed to say ’How insolent,’ the Orthos lowered its body. The beast’s muscles became as taut as a rubber band on the verge of snapping.
It was the movement right before an attack.
Grrr, grrr. The Orthos’s growling intensified. Saliva flowed incessantly from its parted jaws.
Just then, something glinted inside the mouth of the head facing forward. There was something deep on its tongue.
Before he could identify what it was, the Orthos’s body leaped through the air, lunging at Juhwan.
Two heads lunged at once to bite him. From both sides, sharp teeth snapped, spraying saliva.
Juhwan wreathed his arms in fire.
One head flinched at the sight of the flames and pulled back. Not missing the opening, Juhwan punched the Orthos in the head.
With a dull thud, one head was knocked aside.
However, the other head immediately lunged from the left. This one wasn’t afraid of the fire. If there was an alpha between them, it was likely this one.
Juhwan’s fire-clad fist cut through the air once more. The heavy sounds of hitting flesh and bone echoed in succession. The stench of the Orthos’s burning flesh was sickening.
Krrr-grrr. Making a strange sound, the dominant right head went for Juhwan’s throat. The fishy smell of its breath wafted through the air.
The moment he dodged those teeth, the other head tried to tear into Juhwan’s hand. He quickly lowered his body, but the sharp teeth grazed him, and blood splattered into the air.
Juhwan counterattacked immediately, driving his knee into the beast’s throat.
With a choking sound, the Orthos’s eyes rolled back.
Juhwan kept his body wreathed in fire. Every time he struck, the beast’s flesh scorched, but parts of it began to regenerate. Like a lizard’s regrowing tail, its body seemed to have the ability to heal and restore itself.
‘This won’t work.’
Fighting like this was futile. Inflicting minor shocks wouldn’t kill it.
Juhwan channeled as much mana as possible into his arms and slammed into the Orthos. Flames erupted brilliantly, pushing the beast’s body back.
The Orthos’s massive frame tottered and lifted to the side. Aiming for the moment its claws lost their grip on the earth, Juhwan struck the beast repeatedly in succession. Fire and wind rose together, engulfing the Orthos.
The Orthos let out a shrill cry and fell over. Juhwan flipped the beast over and grabbed its tail and one leg. The fire surrounding his body began to burn the Orthos’s hide.
He held on tight as the creature thrashed and screamed. Its long claws mercilessly raked Juhwan’s body.
Ignoring the pain, he dragged it toward the spot where he had hidden the resin. The beast’s two heads wailed, flailing in the air.
After dragging it right over the resin, Juhwan let go and leaped backward.
At the same time, fire shot from Juhwan’s hand.
As the sparks crossed the night air and touched the ground, the surroundings erupted in flames all at once. Bright fire soared into the night air, consuming the Orthos’s body.
Startled, the Orthos let out a grotesque scream and tried to escape.
Juhwan drew the axe at his waist and leaped into the air.
He swung the axe down right between the beast’s two heads.
The axe embedded itself where the body split into a Y-shape. But it didn’t go deep. It felt as if the blade had pierced the skin only to be stopped by the dense muscle.
“Damn it.”
The heat from the fire he’d ignited with the resin scorched the air and washed over Juhwan. Thanks to the mana surrounding him, he avoided burns, but the heat made his skin sting.
He moved behind the Orthos and grabbed its tail. By gripping it with both hands and pulling with all his might, he stopped it from escaping, but he didn’t know what to do next. He could inflict pain, but it didn’t seem like he could kill it.
Just then, an urgent voice cut through the night air.
“There must be a magic stone somewhere in its body. You have to destroy that!”
A magic stone. Juhwan remembered something glinting inside the beast’s mouth earlier. Perhaps that was the stone.
He pulled the tail hard, dragging it back into the fire. The screams of the struggling Orthos were loud enough to deafen him.
“Oh, hell.”
Juhwan muttered as he thrust his hand deep into the maw of the right head.
His flesh was sliced by the hard teeth. As blood poured out, a wave of pain surged, making his arm go numb.
Still, he didn’t let go.
Instead, Juhwan shoved his arm even further down the beast’s throat. Past the sensation of the slippery tongue, his hand touched something hard.
The beast grew desperate. The Orthos’s body convulsed as its claws raked Juhwan’s entire body.
The thrashing claws of the Orthos aimed for Juhwan’s eyes. He ducked his head instantly, but couldn’t avoid it entirely. Ah, it’s going to hit.
In that moment, Oz’s sharp cry rang out from the distance.
“Piii!”
At that instant, several small circles, smaller than a fingernail, appeared on the Orthos’s teeth that were biting Juhwan. They were patterns made of red light.
Though they were small and numerous, they looked exactly like the ones Oz had made on the Screaming Carrots.
The moment the circles appeared, the Orthos’s body stiffened. It was as if it had been frozen in a game of tag.
He quickly gathered his mana. There was a stone as small as a pea on the Orthos’s tongue. He pressed down on it with his mana and exerted force all at once.
As the mana surged into the magic stone, it suddenly shattered into pieces.
A sorrowful wail erupted from both heads simultaneously.
And a moment later, the Orthos’s body went limp.
It was dead.
Only after confirming this did Juhwan collapse onto his back. He had lost so much blood that his mind was hazy.
The voice of the person who had told him about the magic stone drew closer. It was likely the hunter who had gone into the mountains. Not an enemy. It was okay. Lij and Dorothy were safe.
Juhwan closed his eyes. He could hear Lij crying in the distance.
Dorothy was shouting something.
The sound of footsteps pitter-pattered, and the voices of the two grew closer.
Was Oz doing its job properly? Was it protecting Lij and Dorothy? With those thoughts, his consciousness gradually faded.
* (Side Story; Life is Always Cruel)
Last autumn, soldiers from the neighboring Tairon Kingdom raided the village.
At that time, her two daughters died. They were defiled by the soldiers so terribly that one child died immediately, and the other took her own life. Even if she had lived, nothing good would have come of it. Because the soldiers had been so brutal, her body was completely broken.
Just before winter arrived, a magical beast began to devour the villagers.
On the day the first snow fell, her husband was killed by the beast. His throat was bitten. Yet, even as he was dragged away by the beast, he was still alive. She didn’t know how that was possible. Bleeding profusely, he was dragged away while screaming.
The only one left was her six-year-old son.
In such a remote village, children often died soon after birth. It was rare for them to reach three or four years of age.
Her son was the only one who had survived among the several children she had borne.
Though he was skin and bones, to the woman who had lost her husband and daughters, he was her only blood relative and family.
To save that child at least, she begged from house to house to feed him. When there was truly nothing to eat, she even dug up dirt and boiled it in water to feed him.
But she could see the child slowly dying.
A few days ago, the young Village Chief held a village meeting.
There are a few villages that appease the gods with human sacrifice when things get bad. In such places, giving up one’s own life was considered important.
They believed that only then would the gods release their anger and bestow blessings. For that reason, those villages often sought people who volunteered to sell themselves rather than using slaves.
They said they had received word from one such village looking for someone.
At this rate, the entire village would starve to death. Everyone decided that sacrifice was the only way to survive.
By handing over one person, they would receive a small portion of grain. It wasn’t for everyone. It was to save the lives of a few young people for the village’s future. By receiving that, they might barely survive what little remained of winter.
The victim was chosen by drawing sticks. Several thin sticks were placed in a large wooden bucket. One of them was colored. It was the Village Chief who had colored it. Only the Village Chief knew which stick was marked; to anyone else, they all looked the same.
After shaking the bucket to mix them, women over forty lined up to draw one each. Men and young women did not draw. They were the ones who had to work for the village and bear children in the future.
Several people drew sticks and sighed in relief. Then, the person who drew the colored stick was her. The Village Chief promised to take in the child left behind and raise him until he was an adult. They were to depart in a few days, when people from the sacrificing village would come to collect her.
She received a bit of flour and dried meat. The villagers had each contributed a little of what they had. She thought she could finally give her child a hearty meal.
In the dim evening, as she was boiling water and simmering the dried meat, the magical beast raided the village. Her six-year-old son was snatched away.
She watched the light fade from her child’s eyes as he was taken.
She just stood there blankly, looking at that face. She had to save the child, but her legs shook so much she couldn’t move.
The hunters came immediately after, but she knew he couldn’t be saved.
What kind of mother was she, and what was a precious child? She hadn’t been able to save her child because her own life, which was to end in a few days anyway, felt too dear.
From that night on, whenever darkness fell, the woman sat huddled outside her house with a knife, waiting for the beast. Wrapped in an old blanket, she quietly watched the void. This time, she thought, she would surely attack the beast.
And finally, the beast appeared. She saw it passing quietly before her eyes. It didn’t seem to notice her. I have to get up, I have to stab it now, she thought, but she was terrified. A fishy scent drifted through the air. Its eyes glistened and shone in the darkness. Perhaps it was because she had been in the cold for so long, or perhaps it was because she was afraid, but her body wouldn’t move.
When she twitched, the beast saw her. She’d been caught. Now she would die. But even after seeing her, the beast showed no reaction. As if it had seen a bug on the road, or a meaningless stone with no life, it simply turned its gaze away.
Ah, she realized then. This beast had known she was there from the start. But it didn’t care. It simply ignored her because it didn’t consider her a threat.
The beast, its body the same color as the darkness, moved quietly past her.
Her son’s eyes rose in her mind. That face full of terror didn’t leave her sight for a single hour, a single moment. If she let this beast go now, she would see her son’s eyes until the moment she died as a human sacrifice.
The woman leaped up and ran toward the beast.
“You monster!”
Die. Die. Die. She swung her knife-wielding hand wildly.
Please, eat me. Nothing is left, yet please, with those cruel teeth, bite and kill me—me, who couldn’t protect her child because her own breath was too dear.
…
But life is always cruel.
She couldn’t die when she wanted to.
A few days later, led by people from the other village, the woman was taken to the cliff for the human sacrifice.
She had to throw herself off the cliff. That was the condition.
Taking a step forward, she squeezed her eyes shut. One step, two, three, and at some point, her body plummeted.
Thud, the sound echoed through her entire being. As her body sank deep into the ground, she became free. Finally, she was dying. Leaving the dry earth, she was finally going to her family’s side. She felt at peace.
Cruel…
