The Story of Becoming a Married Man in Another World

028 Where is the Hero

Cutting wood to make a rabbit hutch takes too much time. So, I thought of using bamboo, and surprisingly, it worked well. By tightly surrounding it with bamboo, it became a very sturdy hutch.

The roof and entrance were made by weaving bamboo with rope. There were nails in the toolbox, but not many. It would be better to save them for later.

The door was made by drilling holes in the bamboo and fitting it in. It felt a bit stiff when moving, but for a first project, it seemed fine. The door didn’t fit perfectly, leaving a small gap, but as a beginner, it couldn’t be helped. Completing it to this extent was a divine skill.

Juhwan admired the hutch he made and stretched his back. The sky was already tinged with a dusky red.

Outside the cabin, a torch stand with a wooden stick wrapped in resin-soaked cloth was placed. As it got dark, it seemed Liz had prepared it.

—

Juhwan lit a fire on his finger and transferred it to the torch. The size was almost the same, but somehow the fire felt a bit stronger. It felt like the heat was more intense. It seems that practicing magic is helpful. But when will it grow bigger? It still looked like nothing more than a lighter flame. What’s the use of a small flame being strong? A sigh escaped him without realizing it.

Relying on the torch, this time he built a fence around the house with bamboo. Unlike the rabbit hutch, the fence surrounding the house was as tall as a person. Juhwan first dug deep into the ground and overlapped a few bamboos to make the fence.

He couldn’t do it all at once, so he worked a little in front of the house and called it a day. Since he had to do it in between other tasks, it would take a few days to build the fence around the house.

Before he knew it, it had become pitch dark all around. The mournful sound of an owl echoed several times from deep within the forest.

When he entered the house, Dorothy was excitedly running around inside. When she saw him, her face lit up brightly. She ran over and shouted loudly.

“Baby eyes! Dad, baby rabbit eyes. So cute.”

Before she reached Juhwan, Dorothy stopped with an “Ah” expression. Shouting “Rabbit, rabbit,” she turned around.

As the child ran towards the basket, her fluffy hair bobbed up and down. Dorothy ran back to the basket with the rabbit with her short legs.

Holding the basket with her small hands, she walked carefully this time.

Lizzy, who was next to the hearth, sighed slightly. Perhaps she had been running around all day, bringing the rabbit to Lizzy.

Worried that the child might fall while holding the basket, Juhwan approached Dorothy and knelt on one knee. The baby rabbit was curled up in a corner of the small basket. Its black eyes sparkled.

“You’re awake.”

When Juhwan murmured that, Dorothy tilted her head. It seemed strange to her that she couldn’t understand what he was saying.

Juhwan touched the baby rabbit’s body and sent a bit of magic. He thought he did. He couldn’t tell if something was really going, but every time he thought about sending magic, healing, something seemed to change, so it must be going.

Perhaps because of the magic, the baby rabbit’s body trembled. The red color of the wound, which looked like it had been torn by something sharp, slightly faded, and the flesh stuck together a bit. It looked like clam meat moving. It was a bit gross, but the child’s impression seemed different.

“Amazing.”

Dorothy murmured. Watching the baby rabbit quietly, Dorothy looked up at Juhwan. Her eyes were filled with something like respect.

“Dad, amazing. Really amazing.”

“….”

He felt a bit happy. He felt shy.

The baby rabbit basket was returned to its original place, and the wild rabbit in the wooden barrel was moved to the hutch outside. In a hurry, he put bamboo leaves and straw from under the bed in a corner of the hutch. The straw used as a mattress became even flatter.

After dinner, the house became quiet as Dorothy fell asleep. She must have been tired from wrestling with the rabbit and running around doing errands. When he picked her up to move her to the bed, her head bobbed.

In the quiet sound of the firewood burning in the hearth, Lizzy was peeling the fat off the rabbit skin with a small knife.

It was a method she learned from Gus, and it seemed that peeling the fat as thinly as possible was the key to making good leather. Lizzy’s face was very serious.

Next to her, Juhwan was looking at a wooden plaque with letters on it, memorizing the basic characters. When he first showed the letter plaque, he showed some interest, but both Dorothy and Lizzy quickly lost interest. Both of them paid more attention to the rabbits. Dorothy to the baby rabbit, and Lizzy to the wild rabbit.

‘After all, eating is the best.’

After memorizing the characters, he looked at the wooden plaque with words and followed the pronunciation. Studying at this age made his head throb. But there was no choice.

When he read the pronunciation to Lizzy and asked her the meaning, she put down the rabbit skin and used gestures to explain. It was a language with meanings like many, few, all, not, like.

Perhaps there were originally more of these letter plaques. Even if there were about a hundred, his vocabulary would increase rapidly, he thought it was a bit of a pity.

People are greedy. Even though he should be grateful for getting this much, once he has something, he wants more.

—

—

At first, I was just grateful to be free from the cart that dragged me like livestock, but now that I have a home and family, I want to go to the city and learn more letters. Really, it’s because humans are like this that Satan exists.

Suddenly, Santa’s face came to mind and then disappeared. Is that Santa still looking for someone at the entrance of the subway station?

Lizzie had already skinned the rabbit and was now sewing. The fabric given by the village chief’s wife had already become Juhwan’s pants and Dorothy’s skirt.

Some more fabric had come in after that, but she didn’t try to make her own clothes. Only after Juhwan insisted several times did she finally start making her own with the most shabby-looking fabric.

She never rests for a moment. I don’t know if all women in this world are like this or if Lizzie is particularly diligent. She was always doing something with her slender body. I worry a bit that she might hurt herself.

At least to keep her warm, Juhwan added a little more firewood to the stove. The fire must not go out overnight. When adding firewood, he also considered this and used slightly larger logs at night.

After skinning the leather and sewing, Lizzie tilted her head and loosened her waist, as if her shoulders were stiff. She moved her face back and forth. She looked like a squirrel moving.

When Juhwan came behind her and gently massaged her shoulders, she was startled and shrank her neck. It seemed ticklish. Moving her body here and there, Lizzie shrank under Juhwan’s hands.

At first, he just intended to massage her sore shoulders, but Juhwan’s hands gradually became more daring. Lizzie’s unusually white skin turned red.

In the flickering firelight, layer by layer, her clothes came off. I wonder where such sweetness is hidden in her slender body; Lizzie’s body is sweet everywhere. A faint moisture seeped into his wife’s eyes. Sometimes she whimpered cutely like a puppy.

His always hardworking wife was diligent even at night.

—

“Welcome! I’ll guide you to your lodging.”

People followed the boy, who looked about ten years old, as he led them to a shabby barn. The lodging was included in the carriage fare.

The barn, lined with hay, was already crowded with people. Some were sleeping curled up close to each other. A few were squatting and eating something.

“We have hot stew. There’s also bread and wine. Does anyone need anything?”

The boy asked the newcomers. But no one asked for anything. Though he said it was hot, it was probably cold by now. Seeing no one respond, the boy looked a bit disappointed.

Lying down with eyes closed in the barn, whispers of people could be heard.

Someone in the corner seemed to know about the hero of the enemy nation. They thought there was only one hero, but it turned out there were two.

Someone else asked anxiously,

“Then what happens to us? Shouldn’t we summon a hero too?”

This place was close to the enemy nation. Several villages near the border had already been raided or turned into battlefields multiple times.

The village chief’s village had not yet been swept up in the war, but it was very close to the border. Naturally, the chief’s attention was drawn to the people’s conversation.

The person who spoke about the enemy’s hero answered in an uncertain voice,

“Well, who knows. It seems our country has tried to summon a hero several times too. My relative is at the temple, and they said they’ve attempted hero summoning multiple times. But it seems they’ve never succeeded.”

The man’s voice grew a bit quieter.

“My relative said there’s a rumor in the temple that a hero has already been summoned. But who knows for sure. My relative is only at a local temple.”

Someone suddenly spoke up at the man’s words.

“I think the hero who appeared in the enemy nation is a fake. Honestly, we don’t even know if heroes really exist. How can we believe in something that supposedly existed hundreds of years ago? No one has seen one in person.”

“I agree. Honestly, it’s hard to believe.”

“But what if it’s true?”

“They say the hero looks different from us. If it’s a fake, it will be found out soon.”

The anxious people murmured among themselves. The village chief also felt uneasy.

‘I need to sell the information quickly, get the money, and leave the village. We never know when the enemy might attack.’

Not only did he need the money, but he also needed a pass to move to another safe territory. A noble would surely be able to arrange that.

The village chief spent the night in the hard, cold barn, trying to suppress his anxiety.

Before sunrise, the boy came to call the people again. They all rushed out of the barn and boarded the regular carriages they were assigned to.

The village chief also mixed in with the people and boarded a carriage. They finally arrived at their destination city as the sun was setting.

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