005 The Old Man, the Hunt, the Woman, and the Rabbit

Outside, it was still pitch black.

Kim Juhwan, who had been keeping watch in a half-asleep state, snapped wide awake and sat up.

His heart throbbed.

There were people outside the building.

He heard whispered voices, followed by a rattling sound at the door. It seemed they were removing the wooden beam he had used to wedge the door shut.

‘What do I do now?’

The soldiers hadn’t left yet. Based on their behavior so far, they wouldn’t set out until daybreak.

Juhwan pulled up the information about the village he had stored in his mind, reviewing it piece by piece.

The terrain he had noted while being brought in by carriage, the approximate number of people, the locations of the houses and the collapsed fences…

The section where the fence was down faced the mountains.

Other parts were either too narrow or too high for him to clear, but that spot looked like he could escape with just a bit of effort.

Juhwan recalled the hands of the men who had seized him.

They were strong. Likely tempered by farming and various manual labors.

Though lean, their hands were far tougher than those of men back on modern Earth.

However, he was stronger.

Even if the opponents came at him with pickaxes or iron tools, he wouldn’t easily lose to three or four—no, even five or six. He could shake them off.

‘Any more than that would be trouble, though.’

Strong as he was, facing more than that number of people empty-handed would be pushing it.

“…”

Juhwan took a deep breath.

It’s okay. I just need to act after the soldiers leave. As long as the sword-wielding soldiers are gone, I can manage somehow. Don’t be nervous. There’s no need to be afraid.

He probably wouldn’t be branded as a slave. If that were the plan, the soldiers would have done it already. It was just a guess, but he doubted ordinary villagers had the means to brand a slave.

The bundle of papers the soldiers carried seemed to be contracts pre-enchanted with magic.

Seeing as the soldiers carried such things around, people who could use magic on the fly—like in novels—were likely rare.

Naturally, there was no way a village like this would have such a magician. Nor would poor commoners be able to easily obtain magic-imbued paper.

In the pitch darkness, Juhwan watched the door as it rattled open.

‘It’s fine. For now, I can just follow their lead. Once the soldiers are gone, if things seem strange, I can act then. It won’t be too late.’

If worst came to worst, he could grab a pickaxe or even a poker; he could take on the men of a backwoods village like this. He had always been stronger than most.

Juhwan breathed lightly. Inhale, exhale. He repeated it several times.

Keep calm. Don’t rush. I just have to avoid being bound like a slave. First, I’ll stay in this village and learn about this world.

Even if he eventually moved elsewhere, he wouldn’t be able to survive properly knowing as little as he did now. In fact, he might end up in an even worse situation. Right now, his only task was to familiarize himself with this world as much as possible.

“…”

The door opened with a long, low creak.

Juhwan subtly clenched his fists. Unwittingly, strength surged into his hands.

*

The first person to enter was the Village Chief. He looked to be slightly past middle age. He was short, but his frame appeared solid.

Behind him stood about a dozen men.

One man stood by the door holding a torch. The flickering light cast long shadows, making the villagers’ faces look like goblins.

“## ##### ##### ###.”

The Village Chief said something with a smile.

Perhaps because he knew Juhwan couldn’t understand the language, he spread his arms wide in a gesture of welcome.

Several times, the Village Chief pointed to himself and the men, then spread his arms toward Juhwan again.

He seemed to be saying: We are all human, comrades of the same village. Welcome.

“…”

Seeing him go through such effort to express himself, Juhwan felt certain he wasn’t a slave. Relieved, the tension in his shoulders eased slightly.

Juhwan offered a small smile to the Village Chief and the men, nodding his head.

He consciously moved with a slight slouch to appear non-threatening.

His large frame often looked too intimidating. He wanted to minimize that, to show he was harmless.

The Village Chief’s expression brightened visibly, as if he felt they had communicated. Perhaps he thought Juhwan had a gentle personality despite his massive size.

At any rate, like Juhwan, the Village Chief and the villagers seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. they looked at one another, nodding or exchanging subtle glances.

However, it wasn’t as if they were accepting him out of pure kindness. Naturally, these people had their own motives.

‘I just hope they only need me for labor.’

Juhwan shifted his gaze slightly, careful not to let the men notice.

Two men who hadn’t entered the room were holding sticks carved from wood.

Between the legs of the man standing by the door, the tip of something like an iron skewer peeked out. It seemed they were hiding potential weapons behind their backs.

They didn’t seem to have the intention to attack, but they looked ready to pounce the moment they saw any suspicious signs.

Well, it was only natural to be wary of someone brought in like a criminal alongside slaves. It would be scarier if they showed no caution at all. You never knew what might be hidden behind such a facade.

Juhwan looked away as if he hadn’t noticed a thing.

After some gestures indicating a lack of hostility, the Village Chief suddenly began using hand signs. A triangle? The motion of firing a bow? Juhwan couldn’t quite tell what he meant.

This time, the Village Chief drew the shape of a gourd in the air.

He still had no idea.

When Juhwan remained utterly confused, the Village Chief looked at the other men with a troubled expression.

A young man standing next to the Village Chief stepped forward. After catching Juhwan’s attention, he moved his hips back and forth several times. Then, he drew the gourd shape in the air again.

Ah! He thought he understood. Perhaps these people were miming the act of sex.

When Juhwan’s expression stiffened awkwardly, the Village Chief and the men burst into laughter. It seemed his guess was correct.

But he didn’t understand why they were making such gestures.

The Village Chief shouted something toward the back, and a person stepped forward from the crowd.

His white hair was tied back tightly, and he wore a coat made of animal fur. He had the air of a hunter.

The old man walked out slowly with a limp and stared quietly at Juhwan.

The Village Chief pointed a finger at Juhwan, then at the old man.

He repeated the gesture several times, alternating between them, and then mimed shooting a bow into the air.

The Village Chief put his hands up to mimic ears, then mimed shooting a bow again.

“###. ###.”

Repeating the same word several times, he pointed at the old man, then said the same word toward Juhwan. It seemed to mean “hunter.”

Juhwan repeated the word the Village Chief had said while pointing to himself and then to the old man. The Village Chief nodded vigorously.

“## ###.”

‘Is he telling me to learn how to hunt from this old man?’

The old man, the hunt, the woman, and the rabbit.

He really didn’t know what it meant.

No, if he just took the woman out of the equation, it made perfect sense. It likely meant he should learn how to hunt animals like rabbits. But including the woman made the whole thing strange.

Before he knew it, the sky was turning a hazy gray with dawn. When the man holding the torch extinguished it, the Village Chief headed outside and beckoned Juhwan to follow.

The men carrying weapons fell to the outskirts of the group, following at a slight distance.

Ignoring the men trailing him with hidden wooden sticks and iron skewers, Juhwan walked nonchalantly after the Village Chief and the old hunter.

After the Village Chief left, his wife visited the house with a few men. The men carried food like flour and oats, along with small daily necessities.

Lij stood still, listening to the Village Chief’s Wife. The woman pointed to the bundles of goods.

“This here is a month’s worth of food. Over there are things you’ll need for living. Lamp oil, a pot, and…”

Lij must have looked dazed, as the Village Chief’s Wife frowned slightly.

“You know this isn’t being given to you for free, right?”

Lij lowered her head slightly, staring at the floor. Displeased by her reaction, the Village Chief’s Wife clicked her tongue. But Lij was too consumed by disappointment to care.

‘They really took everything.’

She had known, but seeing the reality before her eyes made her heart grow heavy.

Normally, there would be no need for the Village Chief’s Wife to bring these things.

The Forester’s cabin should have already been equipped with the necessities for daily life.

The fact that she brought them meant the Village Chief and a few others had made off with everything in the house.

However, she couldn’t say that openly. In a small village like this, you couldn’t survive if you opposed the Village Chief. Moreover, if the Village Chief hadn’t embezzled the items, then the entire village was in on it together.

Lij bit her lip.

The Village Chief’s Wife ignored Lij’s expression and continued.

“The village will keep providing food and supplies for a while. I hear your husband-to-be doesn’t know our language at all, so you make sure to remember. You’ll have to pay it all back later.”

The Village Chief’s Wife sighed and gestured for the men to leave.

She stepped closer to Lij and took her hand.

“Look, I know you don’t have good feelings toward our village. But it’s hard for us to make a living too. I’m sure it’s the same in your village, right? So don’t think too badly of us.”

Unlike before, the Village Chief’s Wife’s voice had softened.

She glanced at the child in the corner.

“Besides, the people in our village didn’t like the Forester—your late husband. He was an outsider, too. The Forester’s job is supposed to be done by a hunter, so the village went through a lot of trouble to find and bring him here, but he was so violent…”

The Village Chief’s Wife let out a long sigh.

“He had a bad reputation, but hunters are so hard to find that we had no choice but to make him the Forester.”

To get him to settle down, they had married him to a village girl. But his first wife died immediately after giving birth, and the second girl they gave him was beaten to death.

Since he did his job as a Forester well enough, no one said anything, but the villagers were all furious with Lij’s late husband.

“I know it’s not your fault, but people’s hearts don’t always listen to reason. Because you were that man’s wife, people didn’t have good feelings toward you either. I’m sorry for that.”

As she rambled on, the Village Chief’s Wife looked into Lij’s face with an intensely serious expression.

“It must have been hard for you, having a first husband like that. But this time might be different. I heard the man who’s to be your husband might not be a commoner. He looks a bit rough, but my husband says his hands are very fine. He might have been a nobleman somewhere.”

The Village Chief’s Wife gently stroked the back of Lij’s hand.

“A man like that at least won’t hit you. Besides, the Forester is allowed to catch animals, so you’ll be able to live much more comfortably than you think.”

The Village Chief’s Wife smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

“…”

Was what she said true? Did she really think that way?

Lij knew the villagers and the Village Chief’s Wife weren’t acting for her sake. But had they considered her at least a little, even in the smallest way? Had they looked out for her just a bit, trying to send her to a man who wasn’t too violent?

‘If that were the case…’

Back in her home village, Lij had nowhere to turn. She had tried her best, but being small and weak, she had only ever received cold stares from her father and mother.

That was likely why. At the Village Chief’s Wife’s trivial words, her heart wavered just a little. She found herself hoping that they had thought of her, if only a tiny bit.