The Story of Becoming a Married Man in Another World

003 Arriving at the Village

The slaves, in addition to the shackles on their ankles, each had a wooden tag hanging around their necks. It was about the width of two fingers and the length of one finger. It was small.

The captain looked at the wooden tag hanging around the neck of the slave at the front and flipped through the stack of papers.

Kim Joo-hwan looked at the wooden tag hanging around the neck of the man in the same carriage as him.

34.

Familiar Arabic numerals were written in black. The characters might be different, but the numbers were the same.

The stack of papers the captain had seemed to contain personal information or ownership details of the slaves in the carriage.

—

—

As the captain pulled out a sheet of paper, the soldier roughly shoved the slave in front of the captain. The slave nearly stumbled but managed to stand upright before the captain.

The captain asked the village chief something, then wrote letters on the paper with a thin stick that looked like charcoal.

When he handed the paper forward, the soldier extended the slave’s arm over the paper and cut the finger with a small knife. Blood dripped onto the paper.

“!”

Kim Joo-hwan’s eyes widened as he watched.

Suddenly, the paper began to glow faintly. At the same time, a soft light emanated from the back of the slave’s hand.

‘Could it be magic?’

At least, this place doesn’t seem to be Earth. If there’s magic, it must be another world.

The slave, whose hand was glowing, was pushed again by the soldier and staggered to stand in front of the village chief.

Then a new slave stood before the captain, and after matching the wooden tag hanging around the neck with the paper, something was written down.

Then the slave’s blood was dropped onto the paper.

As before, a soft light emanated from both the slave’s hand and the paper.

Several people went through this process, and when only two were left, it happened again.

A slave, pushed by the soldier, stood before the paper.

But this slave seemed to know how to read. He glanced at the paper and said something with a startled expression.

“## #####.”

The slave shook his head and pointed at the paper with his finger. It seemed he was saying that what was written on the paper was different from his situation.

But no one seemed willing to listen to him. The captain said something harshly and slapped the slave’s cheek.

The slave fell to the ground, and the soldier standing nearby kicked him in the stomach.

But the slave, despite screaming in pain, continued to plead. It seemed that what was written on the paper was a very bad condition.

As the slave continued to show signs of resistance, the enraged captain drew his sword.

The soldier pinned the slave down. The slave screamed, and the village chief shouted something in panic.

Ignoring them, the captain swung the sword and cut off the slave’s arm, then smeared the paper with the blood. Amid the slave’s horrific screams, a soft light emanated from both the paper and the back of the slave’s hand.

When the light subsided, the soldier roughly lifted the fallen slave and shoved him into the group of slaves standing before the village chief.

The village chief pointed to the cart and pleaded for something. It seemed he was asking for one more person to replace the one who had lost an arm. But when the captain shouted, the chief fell silent.

Kim Joo-hwan pulled his body, which had been slightly sticking out of the bars, back into the cart. My goodness. He muttered to himself.

He knew that they didn’t care at all if someone died in the cart. But to cut off a person’s arm without batting an eye…

Kim Joo-hwan watched the slave writhing in pain. Blood spurted out like water from a torn hose. But no one tried to stop the bleeding or treat him. They seemed to think he would die soon with his already weakened body and now missing an arm.

That evening, they stayed in the village, and the next morning, the cart and soldiers set off.

After traveling for several days on a desolate road, they came to a similar village again.

—

—

The same thing happened in that village.

The villagers offered alcohol and food, and the soldiers dragged a few slaves out of the carriage and made some kind of contract with magic.

When the money pouch was handed over to the captain, the number of slaves left in the village increased by a few. In villages that did not give the money pouch, only three or four slaves were left.

However, unlike what I saw at first, the slaves were handed over to the village by the soldiers dragging a few out of the carriage.

Like the first village, the village chief only chose slaves one more time after that.

It is speculated that the amount of money handed over by those two villages was particularly large.

As time went by, the number of slaves in the carriage gradually decreased, and finally, only about ten were left in the carriage Kim Joo-hwan was riding. There were hardly any people left in the other carriages.

Sometimes, even before arriving at the village, the blood of a dying slave was dropped on the contract to activate the magic. Such slaves were left with their corpses and papers in the next village.

Kim Joo-hwan had already taken clothes and shoes from the dead and was wearing them. He could even eat food that smelled like rotten pig slop.

In any situation, one eventually adapts. He thought humans were truly amazing.

*

The surrounding scenery gradually changed. There were more forests and trees than fields. The sound of wheels rolling over the hard ground seemed even harder.

To the people in the carriage, it was equally freezing cold everywhere. But judging by the hardness and sound of the ground, this area seemed colder. The soil was as hard as ice.

Kim Joo-hwan pulled the layers of clothes over himself to hide his skin. But even with multiple layers of clothes without any cotton, the wind still penetrated.

The cold wind touched his skin like a knife. It was cold. His shivering body trembled. His body, exposed to the cold winter wind for several days, seemed to tear apart at the slightest touch.

The corpses in the carriage were dragged out midway, but two of the remaining people were barely breathing. He thought they would die today or tomorrow.

‘How long can I endure?’

The vomiting had almost stopped, but he continued to have diarrhea, probably because the food given as meals was close to filth. If this continued, he too would eventually die. Dying of diarrhea at the end of such a long journey seemed like a joke not even fit for a drinking party.

As the sun, which had been high in the sky, tilted slightly, the carriage Kim Joo-hwan was riding arrived at a small village.

The first thing he saw was a fence wall made of carved wood, like a primitive tribe. The fence, made by cutting long pieces of wood and joining them together, was broken in many places. It looked as if someone had forcibly destroyed it. Some parts could be climbed over just by stepping on them.

The villages they had passed through so far were shabby, but this place seemed worse.

The fields around were smaller than those in other villages, and there were sparse trees near the wooden outer wall. Although it was on flat land, it looked no different from a mountain village except for the road.

In fact, one side of the forest led to a mountain.

Perhaps to block wild animals, there was an additional layer of wooden fence near the mountain.

When the soldiers stood in front of the wooden gate and banged on it, shouting, the gate creaked open after a while.

The village men ran out, bowing to the soldiers in a fluster.

The gate seemed to be broken. One end dragged on the ground, making it hard to open. It took several village men to open it wide.

As the carriages carrying the slaves and the soldiers passed through the gate and slowly entered the village, a few women were peeking from behind the old, broken houses.

When some soldiers’ gazes turned that way, the women shrieked and ran into the houses.

The soldiers muttered something and spat on the ground. The atmosphere was not good.

—

—

A middle-aged man, who appeared to be the village chief, ran out, and a much smaller amount of alcohol and shabby food than elsewhere was served in front of the soldiers.

This time, there was no money pouch handed to the captain from another village. It was evident that the captain’s mood had worsened more than ever before.

Among the few remaining slaves, the carriage with Kim Joo-hwan was in the worst condition.

The captain looked at Kim Joo-hwan with a rough expression. When he said something to the soldiers, the carriage door immediately opened.

One slave who was near the door went outside, and three soldiers entered the carriage.

The soldiers grabbed two slaves who looked like they were going to die any day now.

The two were dragged out of the carriage by the soldiers in an unconscious state and thrown to the ground. Limp, the two slaves collapsed without even a groan.

The gaze of the soldier who had entered the carriage suddenly turned to Kim Joo-hwan’s ankle. While the soldiers were dragging out the slaves, the hem of the clothes hiding the ankle had slightly shifted.

For a moment, he couldn’t breathe. The moment had finally come. What would happen? Would he be handed over to the village as a slave like the others? Or would he just be killed?

The soldier approached with an “Oh” expression, pushed aside Kim Joo-hwan’s clothes, and checked his neck and ankle. Looking slightly flustered, he called a nearby soldier.

The soldier who approached and checked Kim Joo-hwan ran to the captain and whispered something.

The soldier who had entered the carriage grabbed Kim Joo-hwan’s hair and dragged him outside.

‘Don’t resist. Don’t resist. Endure!’

Kim Joo-hwan clenched the fist he had unconsciously raised. He lowered his head. If he was going to die a dog’s death, he shouldn’t act rashly.

Simply resisting them was easy. Maybe he could snatch the spear from the soldier right in front of him and kill one or two. If it was one meter, or maybe two meters, he might be able to escape.

But if he wanted to live, he shouldn’t do that.

There were many soldiers around. Kim Joo-hwan, with his bare body, couldn’t fight them all and escape. They also had horses. If he ran away, he would surely be caught and killed.

Kim Joo-hwan knelt on the ground as the soldier pulled him.

The soldiers’ actions were rough. One soldier kicked Kim Joo-hwan’s back hard. With a thud, the impact covered his body. His cheek hit the cold ground and stung.

“## #### ######!”

Several soldiers, pressing him down, shouted at Kim Joo-hwan with fierce expressions. They seemed to be interrogating him, but of course, he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

When the captain approached and gave an order, the soldiers kicked him or hit him with the shaft of their spears for a while.

The hard shoes of the soldiers crushed his frozen skin. It hurt. His insides turned over, and blood flowed from his mouth.

Kim Joo-hwan curled his body to absorb the shock and kept shouting in Korean, “I don’t understand, I don’t understand the language here.”

Their kicks and shouts probably contained some dissatisfaction with the village.

Following the village men, women also came out, but they were older and less attractive than elsewhere.

The food, money, and women were all inferior to other places. The village’s poor hospitality had angered both the captain and the soldiers.

That resentment was poured out on Kim Joo-hwan, who they happened to find. The soldiers’ beating continued for a while. Occasionally, even the captain kicked Kim Joo-hwan in the stomach. The captain’s violence was particularly painful.

After enduring the violence with his whole body for a while, the soldiers’ kicks finally stopped.

“#### ###.”

—

—

When the captain grinned and said something, two dying slaves were dragged in. The soldiers cut the limp arms of the two and smeared blood on the contract. A faint light appeared on the paper and the backs of the unconscious slaves’ hands, lingering for a moment before disappearing.

The village chief pleaded with a tearful face. He was probably asking how they could give dying people as slaves. But when the captain shouted something, the chief flinched and quietly lowered his voice.

Three slaves were handed over to this village. Two were dying, and the other was a man with swollen feet. He probably had frostbite.

Finally, Kim Joo-hwan was handed over to the chief. It was more like the villagers just picked him up from where he had collapsed and took him away.

Seeing that the other slaves who had gotten off the carriage all got back on, it seemed Kim Joo-hwan was meant to replace several slaves. It didn’t make sense that one person could replace many slaves, but that seemed to be the captain’s calculation.

However, it didn’t seem like Kim Joo-hwan was given as a slave. The villagers didn’t chain him or brand him. There was no magical contract either. Not knowing under what pretext he was handed over to the village made him a bit uneasy.

The villagers separated Kim Joo-hwan from the slaves and took him to another house.

It was a small, shabby house. Inside, there were a few rough pieces of furniture and some straw in the corner. There were no signs of anyone living there. It seemed to be an empty house. The house was quite cold without any warmth, but compared to the carriage, it was heaven.

As he crouched inside for a while, a villager brought in a bowl of something that looked like watery flour porridge.

The villager made a gesture as if to eat the porridge and quickly left. He heard a clattering sound outside the door. It seemed they were blocking the door to prevent Kim Joo-hwan from leaving.

It was just a bowl of thin porridge, lacking even salt, but that evening, he could finally eat something. It tasted so good it brought tears to his eyes.

After devouring it greedily, even chewing on the bowl, he curled up in the straw in the corner and spent the night.

He tried not to sleep, not knowing what might happen, but he eventually fell asleep.

When he woke up after a short nap, he heard the laughter of soldiers from somewhere. The cries of women were mixed with the soldiers’ laughter.

“….”

Kim Joo-hwan tried hard to ignore the sound and closed his eyes. There was nothing good in this world. Whether in this world or the other, it was probably all the same.

—