Translator: Nox

I Became A Married Man in Another World

Chapter 96

Dorothy held Oz close, glancing at Lij, then at the onlookers, and back at Lij again. After checking Lij’s expression a few more times, Dorothy wiggled her bottom, inching closer to Juhwan. Then, she whispered to him.

“Daddy, can Dorothy stay on top of Yeonhwa?”

She wanted to show off. Thinking her mother would surely say no, she seemed to be asking Juhwan in secret.

But there was no way Lij, standing right beside them, wouldn’t hear.

Lij’s eyebrows shot up.

“No. It’s dangerous.”

Dorothy’s eyebrows drooped in the opposite direction of Lij’s.

“It’s not dangerous, Mommy. Yeonhwa is very, very smart, so she won’t let Dorothy fall. She’s incredibly nice.”

“No matter how smart and nice Yeonhwa is, she doesn’t have hands. If she slips by mistake, even Yeonhwa won’t be able to catch you.”

Dorothy looked up at Juhwan pleadingly.

Her eyes were begging, but the answer was no. It really was dangerous, and a father couldn’t simply allow something the mother had already forbidden.

When Juhwan offered no help, Dorothy’s shoulders slumped.

Her pout was prominent.

Dorothy hugged Oz tight and muttered.

“Oz, Mommy is a meanie.”

“…Pii?”

“Why are you taking Mommy’s side?”

“…Pii?”

“No, it’s not my fault.”

“…Pii?”

Whether they were actually communicating or the child was just imagining a conversation, Dorothy bickered with Oz for a while before climbing onto Juhwan’s lap, calling for her daddy.

As Juhwan held the child with one arm, Dorothy threw her head back.

Her body arched.

The child’s slender neck stretched back as far as it could.

Swallowing hard and looking up with wide eyes, Dorothy asked.

“Daddy, Dorothy wants to hold the reins.”

Hands much smaller than Juhwan’s fidgeted just below his line of sight.

Juhwan smiled in spite of himself.

Dorothy had become much more affectionate and demanding lately. The variety of words she used to express herself had increased as well.

Thanks to that, Lij’s nagging increased bit by bit too, but Juhwan was very happy to see the child’s expressions becoming richer and more childlike.

Listening to Lij lecture the child about never trying to hold the reins when she was alone, Juhwan placed his hands over the child’s and held the reins together.

Yeonhwa’s pace slowed slightly. Sensing that the child was holding the reins, she seemed to be navigating the path based on her own judgment rather than the signals. She might not be human, but she was a clever creature.

As they passed through the Village gates, Juhwan saw the innkeeper’s ten-year-old son amidst the bustling crowd.

The boy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers upon seeing Juhwan and the Unicorn, and he shouted toward the people.

“If you come to our inn, you can see that Unicorn! That Unicorn is staying at our inn. If you’re looking for a place to stay, you have to come now! The rooms will be full in no time. There aren’t many left!”

Because of the boy’s shouting, Dorothy noticed him too. Her face lit up.

“Oh, it’s the inn oppa!”

Dorothy let go of the reins she was holding and threw both hands up. She waved them wildly.

Because of that, several people who realized the boy’s words were true began talking to him excitedly. They seemed to be asking about room rates and meals.

The innkeeper’s son, seizing the opportunity, waved back at Dorothy while answering the people.

“Dorothy! Come back early today! Let’s play together.”

“Okay! Oppa!”

Lij laughed at the boy’s antics. Juhwan also let out a chuckle at the absurdity of it.

‘When we were at the inn, he wouldn’t even pay attention to her, saying he was too busy even when Dorothy followed him around to play…’

That boy looked like he would grow up to be a successful innkeeper.

Dorothy seemed happy that the inn boy, who was close to her age, wanted to play. Her body bounced with excitement as she clamored to get to the inn quickly.

‘Since there aren’t many kids her age around, it’s good for them to play together.’

It felt like it would be okay to finish work early and head back today.

But that was that, and this was this.

“Dorothy, if Daddy hadn’t been holding on, the reins would have fallen. That would have been big trouble.”

As Juhwan spoke, Dorothy finally seemed to realize she had let go of the reins. She looked startled and stole a glance at Lij. When Lij didn’t say anything, she gave a silly grin.

Listening to the child suddenly start singing for some reason while sitting on his lap, Juhwan slowly drove the carriage.

As they moved along the road inside the Village, more people gathered.

Dorothy was thrilled by the attention, but Lij’s expression grew increasingly troubled. Eventually, she buried her face against Juhwan’s arm. She seemed embarrassed by the people staring.

With a procession of people following behind them like the Pied Piper, the carriage slowly passed through the central square and headed toward the parking area behind the Guild.

The space for tying up carriages and horses was empty. It seemed there were no other visitors today.

The caretaker he had seen when he first came to this Village stared blankly at the Unicorn with his mouth agape before blurting out.

“Honestly, I’ve seen many people while working here, but I’ve never seen adventurers succeed as quickly as you folks. You raised your rank in the blink of an eye, and if Horned Rabbits weren’t enough, now you’ve even brought back a Unicorn? People will think it’s a lie if I tell them.”

Haha. Though this Unicorn had followed them of its own accord.

Juhwan gave a smirk, stopped the carriage, and climbed onto the roof. It was time to take out the Orthos, which had been bundled up in hay.

First, he snapped the hay ropes that had been wrapping the Orthos.

Since the weather was cold, there was no worry about it spoiling. However, once the hay that had been absorbing the smell was gone, the scent of blood wafted out strongly.

Juhwan tossed the blood-stained hay to the ground and looked at the caretaker.

“Sorry. It smells a bit.”

“No, it’s fine. Where do you think we are? Things smelling of blood are always coming in and out of the Guild. I see things covered in dung and urine all day long too. But what is that? It’s huge.”

The caretaker asked, looking up at the high carriage.

“It’s an Orthos.”

“!”

The caretaker’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

“W-what did you say?”

“It’s a two-headed dog. That’s what everyone calls it.”

Just then, part of the rope securing the Orthos’s body snapped.

It seemed the blade had grazed it while he was cutting the hay ropes. Having been tied so tightly around the Orthos’s massive frame, the rope couldn’t withstand the tension and broke.

One of the Orthos’s legs jerked out over the side of the carriage roof.

Screams erupted from the people who had followed the carriage and were watching from outside the parking area. A few of them ran away like mad.

The caretaker, who was right next to the carriage, collapsed onto the ground where he stood.

“Gasp! Is-is-is it really dead?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. It really is dead. Even the entrails have been removed.”

“…I almost died of fright myself.”

The caretaker said as much, unable to even stand up, as he clutched his heart and panted.

“They say your heart drops when you’re too surprised, and it’s true. I only found out today.”

He seemed quite badly shaken.

Juhwan was also a little surprised. He hadn’t expected them to be this terrified.

“When I was a kid in my home village, a wounded Orthos showed up once. The village was completely devastated because of that thing.”

The caretaker muttered, looking up at the carriage.

“After that, a two-headed dog appeared in my dreams every night. It kept chasing me. I still see it in my dreams sometimes.”

As the caretaker stood up, he glanced at the people standing at a distance.

“Well, it’s not rare. Even if it’s not an Orthos, everyone in this world encounters something terrifying at least once.”

“….”

Nightmares weren’t necessarily limited to Magical Beasts like Orthos or Goblins.

Juhwan’s gaze turned toward the carriage as he prepared to lower the Orthos from the roof.

Dorothy and Lij were standing side by side next to the carriage. Dorothy’s eyes were sparkling, seemingly excited to see the Orthos’s corpse being brought down.

“….”

Dorothy’s dead father, Lij’s father who sold his daughter to just anyone, the marauding soldiers who attacked villages—they were all nightmares just like the Orthos.

To the person suffering, a father who hits them might be a more terrifying existence than a man-eating Orthos. One cannot rank which nightmare is more frightening.

‘I will never let them have dreams like that again.’

He couldn’t do something grand like saving everyone in the world or defending this country from enemy attacks.

But he could at least protect his family and those closest to him. Things that might be impossible alone were well within reach with Yeonhwa and Oz by his side.

Just then, Yeonhwa and Oz let out a small cry at the same time. It sounded as if they were answering his thoughts.

Thank you. At that thought, the two Magical Beasts cried out once more.

Dorothy mimicked Lij’s nagging and said to Oz and Yeonhwa.

“Daddy is working! You have to be quiet. If you interfere, you’re being a bad kid. Understand?”

“…Hee-ing.”

“…Pii?”

“Okay. I’ll forgive you just this once.”

Watching the exchange between Dorothy and the Magical Beasts, Lij laughed in disbelief.

Perhaps Yeonhwa and Oz were playing with the child in their own way.

Juhwan chuckled and turned his attention back to the Orthos’s carcass.

Once all the hay used as padding and wrapping was removed, only the rope-bound Orthos remained. Though one rope had snapped, the Orthos was still tightly bound.

Juhwan let out a small sigh as he shifted the Orthos. He would need to give the carriage roof a thorough cleaning. Fluid that had leaked under the hay was smeared on it. A musty smell had also seeped in.

‘It would have been nice to have something like plastic.’

In the future, he would have to give some thought to the method of transporting Magical Beasts.

Juhwan heaved the Orthos’s carcass onto the ground. A cloud of dust billowed up. Dorothy, who was standing a little distance away, watched the hazy dust and shouted that it was cool. He had no idea why dust was cool. A child’s sensibilities were sometimes hard to understand.

Almost simultaneously, a strange sound erupted from the people who saw the Orthos. It was hard to tell if it was a scream or a cheer.

It was likely something in between.

“It really is an Orthos.”

“That thing definitely fought the Unicorn. That’s why the Unicorn pierced it with that horn.”

“You mean the Unicorn is stronger?”

The sound of people buzzing reached his ears.

Dorothy’s shoulders puffed up with pride, and she suddenly spoke in an impossibly loud voice.

“Oz! That Orthos, you know, my daddy caught it!”

She was clearly speaking to Oz, but for some reason, Dorothy’s gaze was fixed toward the sky where the people were. Holding Oz, Dorothy mimicked a fight, moving her shoulders and elbows this way and that.

“He went like this, bam, and pow, and then the heads went ‘ack’ and fell down dead.”

“Pii.”

Oz let out a small sound, appearing slightly aggrieved. It seemed he wanted to say he had played a part too.

But since Dorothy hadn’t actually seen the scene, she seemed to take it as a sign of agreement.

“Right? You saw it too? My daddy is super strong! He took down the Orthos in one shot!”

No matter how careful he was, that word kept coming out. This was why they said early education lasted a lifetime.

Listening to Lij tell her that she shouldn’t use that word, Juhwan looked at the Orthos carcass lying on the ground.

What should he do with this huge thing? Could he just take something this large inside?

As he raised his head to ask the caretaker, he heard a voice.

“I knew you could do it!”

Turning his head, he saw Chatterbox approaching with sparkling eyes and a quick stride.

“I believed in you. I knew you would surely pull it off. I’m so relieved. I was worried that thing might even attack other villages.”

Approaching them, Chatterbox suddenly furrowed his brow as if concerned.

“Did you, by any chance, fail to meet the Magical Beast Hunter you were supposed to work with? Ah, did that person die? That wouldn’t be good.”

Chatterbox’s face went back and forth between bright and serious all on its own.

When Juhwan told him that the man would be coming by in a few days, Chatterbox let out a grand sigh of relief.

“That’s a relief. There are so few Magical Beast Hunters as it is, and their numbers are dwindling by the day. Without them, the Magical Beasts increase and eventually attack humans. That’s why every country is struggling to secure Hunters. If you don’t reduce the number of beasts regularly, it reaches a point where it’s hard to handle even with a massive deployment of soldiers later on.”

In the meantime, the caretaker brought a large cart from somewhere. It seemed the Orthos carcass was to be taken inside the Guild.

“Little lady, you’ve made a new friend in the meantime.”

Chatterbox glanced at the Unicorn and spoke to Dorothy.

Had he been watching from the moment Juhwan arrived here? He seemed to have already moved past the stage of surprise. He only let out a small exclamation of admiration upon seeing the Unicorn.

While Juhwan loaded the Orthos onto the cart, the caretaker cleared away the surrounding hay. He was a diligent man.

Juhwan asked the caretaker to make sure people didn’t get too close to the Unicorn, then paid an amount slightly higher than the cost of fodder, including a fee for the cleaning.

“Thank you.”

The caretaker was delighted and offered to provide the fodder as a courtesy, but Juhwan declined.

Even if it looked like a horse, a Unicorn was a Magical Beast. It could eat hay, but it didn’t particularly like it.

What Yeonhwa liked was, first, meat; second, meat; and third, meat.

Just like Oz.

No, was Dorothy the same?

Once they started living in the mountains, it felt like they would literally have to hunt every day to survive.

For some reason, a smile escaped him.