The Story of Becoming a Married Man in Another World

014 The Sweet Night of the Couple

The house was filled with smoke. It seemed like the firewood wasn’t properly dried. Well, he had expected it to be like this. There was a reason why stoves had flues.

Dorothy coughed in the acrid smoke.

But for some reason, the child was happy, running around the house like a little bird.

In the thick smoke, the child appeared here and there like a super mouse.

Lizzy, who had been enduring the smoke because she didn’t want the wind to come into the house, finally couldn’t stand it and opened the wooden window. Dorothy stretched out her small hand to help. Both of them coughed.

As the firewood, which had been weak at first, started to burn properly, the smoke gradually decreased. The thick smoke gathered in the center and slowly escaped through the ceiling.

He thought he knew how to make a smoking device to smoke meat.

‘If I diligently dry the firewood this year, will there be less smoke next year?’

—

—

Juhwan muttered to himself as he lightly patted Lizzy’s back, who was tearing up because of the smoke.

‘Next year.’

If they were to spend next year in this cabin, he hoped it would be in a slightly better environment.

He wanted to catch and smoke rabbits or wolves, and cultivate a small field. Even if rice was difficult, they might be able to harvest barley. If they laid barley straw on the bed and covered the walls and roof, they might be able to get through the winter a bit more easily.

Let’s work hard on hunting too. If they could catch wild rabbits alive, they might be able to raise them. Then they could obtain more meat more stably. Even though he hadn’t properly hunted yet, his imagination grew like a young sapling.

“….”

Anyway, it would be nice if they had plenty of meat left. He wanted to feed Lizzy and Dorothy abundantly and sell the rest.

When a peddler came to this small village, they could trade the leftover meat for goods. Maybe they could even sell it for money. Silver coins, gold coins, the sound of money jingling in his head.

Lizzy and Dorothy’s clothes were almost rags. They were so worn out that it was hard to believe people wore such things.

Imagining buying clothes for the two and seeing their happy faces, Juhwan unconsciously muttered to himself.

It would be nice. It would be really nice if such a future came.

*

After confirming that the fire was properly lit, Juhwan brought more wood. As he chopped wood to make firewood, the sky grew dark.

He put lamp oil and a wick in a small bowl and lit it. Even with the lamp lit, the house was still dark. A large house with only one lamp, it couldn’t possibly be bright. Shadows cast on people’s faces made them look eerie.

The lamp didn’t smell good either. It was nauseating, perhaps made from animal fat.

Ah, could wolf fat be used for such purposes? He recalled Lizzy’s face, who had been delighted to see the white lump of wolf fat.

The pungent smoke mixed with the lamp’s smell made his stomach churn. If Juhwan felt that way, Lizzy and Dorothy must have felt the same. Yet, for some reason, the two were in good spirits all the time.

That evening, they boiled water, wolf meat, and salt in a pot and ate it. With nothing else in it, the taste of the meat stood out even more.

Wolf meat might taste better if aged, but it wasn’t bad. To be honest, it was quite tasty.

He couldn’t tell if it was because he was hungry or because the food they had eaten since coming here was so poor.

Maybe it was because Lizzy and Dorothy ate so deliciously. There’s a saying that just watching someone eat can make you full, and it was really true.

By the time Dorothy finished eating, she was half asleep. Her head nodded forward and back, her body swaying side to side. Yet, she didn’t let go of the meat in her mouth. He thought that a child’s greed was more primitive and stronger than an adult’s.

Juhwan and Lizzy exchanged glances and laughed silently.

While Lizzy held Dorothy, Juhwan brought the bed that had been in the corner next to the stove. The house was too cold to sleep in the corner.

The bed was big enough for three people to sleep on. Although there was almost no straw, he spread a layer evenly underneath and laid the cloth from the bundle on top.

When he laid Dorothy in the warm spot near the fire, she curled up and fell into a deep sleep. The mouth that had been tightly holding the meat was now half open.

The firewood crackled as it continuously burned. To keep the fire from going out overnight, Juhwan added a few more logs and spread the large cloth bag that had held their belongings on the floor. He laid another thin cloth on top of it.

When Juhwan quietly looked at Lizzy, she blushed as if she had been cooked by the fire and lowered her head.

When Juhwan reached out his hand, Lizzy nodded slightly.

But instead of taking Juhwan’s hand, she awkwardly stood up.

—

—

Soon after, Lizzy ladled some water from the pot resting on the stove.

She poured the hot water into a small container using a long-handled iron ladle. It had been found in the hunter’s workshop, cleaned well, and dried in the sunlight.

After mixing the hot water with cold water in the container, Lizzy soaked a towel in it.

The area by the fire was warm, but just a little distance away, it was very cold. Instead of taking off her clothes, Lizzy lifted them slightly and wiped her body with the warm, wet towel.

Then she approached and wiped Juhwan’s body as well. Her slender fingers traced Juhwan’s muscles, rubbing the fabric against his skin.

Lizzy’s hands, though rough against his skin, were still soft. They felt like a woman’s hands. With every pass of Lizzy’s hands over his body, his breath quickened slightly.

After wiping various parts of his body, Lizzy quietly extinguished the lamp.

The two of them lay down on the cloth spread out on the floor, overlapping each other.

Under the softly flickering light, their body heat became hotter than the fire. Lizzy’s face, biting her lips to suppress her breath, was more beautiful than anything in this world.

The emotions that had been floating all day finally seemed to find their footing on the ground.

Ah, this woman is truly my wife. These two are my family.

Thinking this, tears unexpectedly welled up.

May this happiness continue at the heart of life, may these two never leave this world before me.

Juhwan made a wish to the Santa from his memories, who had laughed in a strange way. If granted, please do not take it away; until the moment I die, let this woman make the child smile.

*

Nobles like the lord may be a bit different.

But commoners like Lizzy are similar in every household. Children grow up in the same space as their parents, without exception. From a very young age until they marry and leave home, they share the same space.

This is no different at night; as children grow older, they learn how couples spend their nights.

Sisters, brothers, and younger siblings all knew what their parents did at night.

When they were young, they might not have understood what it was, but it was only a matter of time. Even without someone teaching them, they would eventually find out.

Lizzy was no different. And unlike her siblings, she harbored a sense of disgust towards the couple’s nighttime activities.

That time was rough and cruel. Her father’s yelling was always terrifying. After her father fell asleep, her mother would sometimes cry alone. The thought that such a thing would become her future filled her with fear.

‘….’

In the early dawn, at a time when no one was awake, Lizzy quietly smiled amidst the crackling sound of the burning firewood.

When she had dozed off, she was certainly on the floor, but somehow she had found herself in bed. She was buried in the hard chest of the man who had become her husband, resting her face against him.

A small, warm body was pressed against her back. Dorothy’s little legs clung to her waist like sticky resin.

She and Dorothy were sharing Juhwan’s arm side by side. The warmth from her thick husband’s arm enveloped her.

‘Nestled in this arm….’

Caught between her husband and child, Lizzy shyly smiled again. Her face and body flushed with embarrassment, her mind filled with various thoughts that kept bubbling up. She didn’t know what to do. Yet, laughter kept escaping her. It felt as if she had become a fool.

To think that the time she had always found disgusting could be this sweet—if it were the old her, she would never have believed it. It was absurd that such things could become like this. From the moment she met this man, the world had continued to change.

—

—

It seems that Juhwan woke up because she was stirring. Under the dancing light, a shadow fell on Juhwan’s face.

She felt embarrassed again. To hide her expression, she buried her face in her husband’s chest. Juhwan hugged both Dorothy and her at once and whispered softly.

“###.”

She didn’t know what it meant, but she could tell it contained a tender message. Somehow, she felt even more embarrassed.

Liz closed her eyes. Thump thump, she couldn’t tell if the heartbeat was hers or her husband’s. Maybe it was both. Amid the small sound of the heartbeat, she fell asleep again.

In a faint moment, she heard Dorothy’s voice talking in her sleep, saying, “Meat, meat.” The child’s mouth moved as if she was eating meat even in her dream, her back wriggling against her. Even as she fell into sleep, a smile escaped her lips.

*

Soft sunlight streamed in through the open ceiling. When she opened her eyes, only she and Dorothy were in the bed.

Liz had already gotten up and was sorting through the ashes and red embers in the hearth.

Liz moved the embers to the edge of the fire and poured a little water on them.

With a hiss and a bit of smoke, the red embers turned into charcoal, something Juhwan was familiar with.

Juhwan got up and took the iron skewer and shovel from Liz’s hands. He picked out the red-hot embers and poured water on them, just as Liz had done. After picking out the few embers, he added more firewood.

Liz, who had been quietly watching him, said something in a small voice.

“##,###.”

Judging by the atmosphere and tone, it was probably a greeting asking if he had slept well. When Juhwan mimicked her words, her face turned red, and she repeated only the latter part of the phrase, leaving out the first part.

Perhaps the first part was a term of endearment for her husband. Something like “honey” or “darling.”

Pointing to himself and saying what he thought was the term of endearment, Liz nodded with a red face.

“Liz?”

Pointing to himself and saying the term for her husband, then moving his finger to Liz, she said a few words in a small voice. When he repeated them, she blushed and ran to a corner.

Juhwan got up and leisurely followed her. He repeated the words Liz had taught him.

“Wife, spouse, darling.”

Liz’s neck turned red as she turned her back. Feeling a bit playful, he lightly touched her with his finger, and Liz made a strange sound and flinched.

Touching, caressing, whispering “wife,” adding a bit of sweetness and naughtiness.

But the moment of sweetness was broken by an energetic sound. Dorothy suddenly sat up with a strange noise.

Liz flinched in surprise, then giggled. She pointed to the container of wolf meat and repeated “##” a few times, teaching him.

It seemed Dorothy had dreamed of meat, whether she saw it or ate it, or maybe the meat had legs and ran away. Anyway, she had a dream about meat.

“Meat.”

When Juhwan carefully pronounced it, Liz nodded as if he had done well.

As if drawn by the sound, Dorothy jumped off the bed and ran to the meat container. She opened the wooden lid as if checking if it hadn’t run away, then smiled with relief.

Seeing that, Juhwan made a resolution to himself.

—

—

‘Let’s hunt hard.’

Meat, we need meat.

*

Cooling the boiling water, Juhwan took a sip and went outside.

He cleared away the debris from chopping wood yesterday and sharpened the axe with the whetstone in the workshop. As he spent time doing this, the sky became completely bright.

“!”

Suddenly, he felt something crawling on his skin. He quickly turned around and glared into the forest. His grip on the axe tightened.

But what emerged from between the trees was an old hunter with a limp.

The old hunter’s gaze was fixed on Juhwan’s left arm, which bore the marks of a wolf’s teeth.

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