Translator: Nox

I Became A Married Man in Another World

Chapter 94

094 The Devil’s Proposal

“Letters are so difficult.”

Lij, who was sitting beside him on the driver’s seat, spoke up suddenly.

She had been practicing writing letters on her lap with her finger, but it didn’t seem to be going well. She was letting out deep, heavy sighs.

“Is it that hard?”

“…Yes. They all look so similar that I keep making mistakes.”

She thought a certain pronunciation matched a specific character, but then the pronunciation would change in a different word. To Lij, it seemed as foreign as an ancient Egyptian script would be to someone from my world.

Dorothy, who had been playing with Oz inside the carriage, suddenly poked her head through the gap behind the driver’s seat.

“Mom, if you don’t know, do you want Dorothy to teach you?”

Though young Dorothy had only recently begun learning the script, she was picking it up much more easily than Lij.

“….”

Lij grew gloomy. She seemed depressed at being outperformed by a child.

Juhwan chuckled, holding the reins with one hand while wrapping his other arm around Lij’s shoulders.

Unlike an ordinary horse, the unicorn, Yeonhwa, could find the destination on her own.

If they encountered an unfamiliar path, she would stop or let out a cry to let them know, so the reins were mostly for show. He just had to hold them.

He didn’t even need to check if they were going the right way or if there were large rocks or mud pits ahead.

“It’s okay, Lij. You’ll get used to it soon.”

“I think I might be a fool.”

Lij looked like she was about to cry.

The fact that Lij couldn’t learn the script easily was likely due to the teaching method.

Whether it was the standard of education in this world or just how that woman had learned it, the guild’s reader didn’t explain the pronunciations one by one. She made her memorize everything as a whole.

That worked for children.

However, adults usually needed some level of explanation to learn effectively. If you just told them to memorize without the slightest explanation, then of course it would be difficult.

“Tonight, I’ll explain how the pronunciations work. That should make it a bit easier.”

“….”

Lij looked up at him silently. Her gaze was filled with the kind of awe one might have when looking at someone truly great.

“I thought you were amazing before, but I don’t think I truly understood it then. Looking at you now, Juhwan, you really are incredible. You learned all of this on your own without a teacher. I didn’t realize how impressive that was back then. Lately, I really feel….”

Lij nodded and whispered.

“I think you’re incredibly smart. You’re truly amazing.”

He felt a bit embarrassed.

Dorothy chimed in again, telling Lij that she was also very good at reading.

“Mom! I’m super smart too. I’ll teach you tonight.”

“….”

Lij grew gloomy once more.

Juhwan laughed and gave Dorothy’s forehead a playful flick.

“Will you teach Daddy too?”

“Does Daddy not know either?”

“That’s right. There are things I don’t know sometimes.”

“Okay! Dorothy will teach you!”

There is no better way to learn than by teaching what you know to someone else.

Dorothy brought out the bundle of wooden plaques with letters written on them from inside.

It seemed she didn’t intend to wait until nightfall to start teaching.

“This one is…”

Dorothy held out a wooden plaque through the gap and told them what the word was.

Glancing at Lij while listening, he saw her looking at the characters on the plaque in Dorothy’s hand with the intensity of a student learning from a master teacher.

‘Cute.’

Just as he thought that, Dorothy’s voice suddenly cut off. When he looked at her, the child was staring at Juhwan.

“Daddy! You can’t daydream while studying. The teacher will scold you.”

“…Right.”

When Juhwan answered, Lij giggled.

“Mom! You’re not supposed to laugh while studying. You have to focus on your lessons.”

“…Right.”

The couple was scolded side-by-side by their daughter as Dorothy’s lecture continued.

But Dorothy, why do you keep repeating the same two words? Daddy wants to know the reason for that.

His eyes met Lij’s.

She seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

When the two of them burst into laughter, Dorothy’s nagging poured out once more.

“You have to study hard to be a good student. Do you understand?”

Yes, Teacher.

---

Everyone makes mistakes.

No one can live their life making the right choice every single hour of every day.

However, while some are forgiven after making mistakes once, twice, or many times, others lose everything because of a single, solitary wrong choice. Just like her.

Annette stared blankly at the ceiling. There were a few dark red bloodstains on the high ceiling of the guild. How did bloodstains get up there? It was strange.

Annette let out a small sigh. Now was not the time to be curious about stains on the ceiling. She was in a position where she could be kicked out of her home the day after tomorrow. She was behind on the rent for the small room she had rented through the guild’s guarantee.

She had earned some extra income by teaching Juhwan and Lij the script, but a life of constant struggle didn’t become comfortable overnight.

Missing just a few days of the daily teaching fees meant she had to immediately cut back on food.

‘Where did it all go wrong?’

Following her father’s orders, she had been married off at a young age to a man much older than herself.

Like the clothes he changed every season, her husband went around with countless mistresses while she lived quietly in the mansion, watching it happen.

She gave birth to a son and lived a withered life, like a tree devoid of emotion.

Then one day, while living a life that felt more like a slow death, she fell in love.

For the first time in her life, she felt like a flower standing in the sunlight. Every time she met that man, her heart felt vividly, surgingly alive.

That was the beginning of her ruin.

“…Haa.”

Annette massaged her stiff shoulders with one hand as she looked around the guild.

Most of the adventurers who had filled the office had left, leaving only one man who had come in late. Once she finished with that adventurer’s business, no more customers would arrive.

The sun had already begun to set outside the office. It was dangerous for a woman to walk alone at night. She began to feel a bit rushed.

‘Why is he so late? Doesn’t he know what time the guild closes?’

Feeling a bit annoyed, Annette shot a brief glare at the man.

The guild’s business hours were her working hours. Until then, whether there was work or not, she had to sit in her corner and wait for someone who needed a reader.

The man gathered his things and headed out.

“Alright, let’s hurry up. Everyone, finish up the requests you’ve received. If you want to go home early, get moving. And for heaven’s sake, I want to go home too.”

The guild employee, whom everyone called Chatterbox because of his talkativeness, clapped his hands and shouted. At Chatterbox’s cry, the employees, who had been starting to slack off, became active again.

In place of the master, who was always out and about, Chatterbox usually took charge and directed the guild.

Annette glanced at Chatterbox and let out a small sigh.

“…Haa.”

It was because of that Chatterbox that she had ended up in this situation.

If he hadn’t exposed it, her love would have passed quietly, leaving behind a few memories. It could have remained hidden, like a stain behind a curtain that no one would ever know about.

But at some point, a rumor spread among the nobles that Kyle, the advisor to the Border Count, had been involved with numerous noble daughters and married women.

It didn’t take long for people to find out who Kyle’s partners were. In the end, everyone came to know of her transgression.

Her love became a scandal known to everyone in noble society, passing from one mouth to another as a subject of ridicule.

Because of that, her husband forbade her from seeing her son. She would never see him again for the rest of her life.

Her marriage contract contained a clause stating that if she severely damaged her husband’s reputation, her dowry—her only asset—would be paid as compensation.

It was a clause her father had included to ensure that she would never be a burden to her family, no matter what happened.

Caught by that clause, Annette was kicked out without a single cent. Even the necklaces and rings she had on her person were taken by her husband. She left that house with nothing but the clothes on her back.

She went to her parents’ house out of desperation, but they wouldn’t take her in either.

Instead, she was severely beaten for bringing shame to the family name.

She tried to ask Kyle for help, but he was in such trouble himself that she couldn’t even meet him.

Ultimately, the one who helped her when she had nowhere else to go was Chatterbox. He was the only one who tried to help her.

Thanks to his arrangements at the guild, Annette managed to get a position as a reader and earn enough to eat.

Much later, she found out that the woman Chatterbox was supposed to marry had also been involved with her lover, Kyle. It was around that time she learned that Chatterbox was the one who had started the rumors.

The shock that Kyle had been dating two women at once was less than the despair of losing everything because she was caught up in someone else’s messy affair.

Perhaps what Annette had thought was love wasn’t a true emotion for her, just as it hadn’t been for Kyle.

The thought occurred to her late that she might have just been in love with the feeling of love itself. It was a foolish thing. To ruin one’s life for something so uncertain.

In the end, she was surviving thanks to Chatterbox, but if asked whether she was grateful to him or hated him, she found it difficult to answer readily.

‘Well, there’s nothing I can do about it now, even if I think about it.’

She checked the requests posted on the bulletin board for a moment. Having looked through them many times, the slips of paper were familiar. She roughly knew what was written and where.

Scanning the requests quickly, Annette found one in a corner that had already expired. After tearing it down, she did a quick check of the remaining papers.

A reader’s duties included not only reading and writing for others but also managing this bulletin board.

After checking for torn papers or expired requests, Annette picked up her hourglass and headed to the reception desk.

The hourglass belonged to the guild. She had to return it properly at the end of each day’s work.

‘I wonder when Mr. Juhwan will come.’

Teaching him and his wife had helped her livelihood far more than she expected. She was paid for each day’s lesson, and they always gave her an extra coin or even a piece of meat on top of the agreed-upon fee.

“….”

Their lives were surely much humbler than Annette’s had been as a noble, yet for some reason, the two of them always seemed happy.

It was strange.

Why was an adventurer, staying in a shabby inn and busy with the daily struggle to survive, happier than a noble? Why did that woman smile like that?

Annette recalled Lij’s happy face and bit her lip.

Life was unfair.

An unlucky woman like herself always picked the losing lot, while a woman like Lij found good fortune even when she chose something bad.

By the time she finished her work and stepped outside, it was already pitch black.

A woman living alone was always in danger.

When it grew dark, that danger multiplied.

Annette hurried her pace.

She walked quickly through the central plaza and was just about to enter the alley where her house was located.

Someone called her name.

“Annette.”

Startled, she spun around to find her former lover, Kyle, standing still in the darkness.

“Kyle.”

Her heart began to thud loudly against her ribs.

The love she thought had melted away like snow began to crawl out from a corner of her heart.

She had been happy once, during the time she loved this man.

As the memory of her first kiss with Kyle flashed through her mind, her heart ached as if it were being sliced thin by a blade.

She had truly loved him.

Now, she thought of it as just another form of ugly desire, but the emotions at the time had been real.

Back then, she had truly believed this man was more precious to her than her own life.

But seeing his face, hatred rose up alongside those feelings. Unlike how Kyle had been her only love, she had been just one of many amusements to him.

She had lost everything because of her love for him, and yet she hated that Kyle had kept his position entirely intact, having only fought a few duels.

She hated him so much, so very much, that she used to think of him every night and imagine killing him.

“What brings you here after all this time?”

Annette’s voice turned cold automatically.

Perhaps he had come because he was suffering from guilt, unable to bear the thought of Annette being cast out of noble society and her family because of him.

Maybe seeing her at the guild not long ago had made him remember their old flame.

Of all the women he had known, Annette might have been the one he couldn’t forget until the end.

All sorts of thoughts raced through her mind.

But even if he begged for forgiveness or pleaded for her love, she would never forgive him. Who would allow him to be forgiven and find peace alone? This man needed to feel exactly as much pain and sorrow as she had.

‘I will never, ever, ever forgive you.’

Annette bit her lip hard and glared at Kyle.

“There’s no need to be so defensive, Annette. I’ve come to make you a good proposal.”

Kyle’s smooth voice echoed in her ears.