The Story of Becoming a Married Man in Another World

002 Slave

Even modern cars rattle when driving on unpaved roads. How much worse would it be for a carriage with just a plank and wheels?

The heavy wooden carriage shook violently with each step the horse took, making his brain feel like it was rattling like a bell, and his body shook to the bone.

As a result, even though he hadn’t drunk a drop of water since falling into this strange place, he kept vomiting. Eventually, nothing came out, but he continued to dry heave.

Unable to endure the suffering any longer, Kim Joo-hwan pushed others aside and moved to the edge. As he dragged his body, a slight scuffle broke out between him and the others.

The edge was colder than the inside, but he could spread his legs a bit more.

—

He reflexively dodged, but because his body was in pain, it wasn’t perfect. The man’s elbow struck Kim Joo-hwan’s forehead hard. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything.

But in high school, he fought almost every day. He was quite familiar with fighting.

Kim Joo-hwan grabbed the man’s arm that was just falling off his body.

He twisted the man’s arm behind his back and pinned his upper body to the floor.

The man, with his cheek pressed against the floor of the carriage, couldn’t even make a sound and just opened his mouth. If Kim Joo-hwan applied a little more force, the man’s arm would break. The man couldn’t even scream and panted in fear.

The other men who were trying to block Kim Joo-hwan’s way were startled and shrank back when they saw the scene. They cautiously backed away, watching Kim Joo-hwan’s movements.

The world of men is similar everywhere. If they know the opponent is strong, they don’t dare to confront him recklessly.

Kim Joo-hwan pushed through the people and went to the edge. As he turned his face away from the people and faced outside, cold air entered his body. Freed from the rotten smell, he could finally breathe.

*

The procession moved for a long time, then stopped to rest for a while before moving again. It was cold and exhausting. Enduring the jolting of the carriage was all he could do, so he couldn’t even tell how much time had passed. The carriage, full of people, constantly shook as it passed through the cold winter road.

Time passed with the biting wind. The sun was still high, but the air was gradually getting colder. The winter sun is short. Maybe it would be night soon. It was already so cold now, how much colder would it get when night fell? He shivered unconsciously.

The procession stopped as the sky turned red.

The soldiers hurriedly set up tents and lit fires here and there. A large pot was hung over the fire. The soldiers brought water from somewhere and poured it in, then added various things to it.

Kim Joo-hwan watched the soldiers move blankly. The carriage he was on was far from the soldiers, but the savory smell wafted over to him.

His stomach growled. But nothing was given to the people in the carriage as the soldiers finished their meal.

Only after a long time did the soldiers bring a slightly larger wooden tub and round bowls that looked like gourds into the carriage.

The wooden tub contained something like thin porridge. It was different from what the soldiers were eating. It smelled strange, as if it had gone bad. He was hungry, but he didn’t feel like eating it.

But the other men in the carriage rushed to the food in the wooden tub.

People fought to grab the few bowls and eat first, and some scooped the food with their bare hands. Men from the back tried to get closer to the wooden tub, causing chaos in the carriage.

The wooden tub was emptied in no time. It was probably because there was less food than the number of people.

A few soldiers went around each carriage, collecting the wooden tubs and bowls.

After a while, the soldiers lowered the thick cloth that was rolled up on top of the carriage. As the tattered cloth, like a rag, covered the carriage, everything became quiet.

The cloth covering the carriage was not ordinary. It seemed to be made of something like processed leather. There were no gaps at all. The surface was slightly rough, like thick vinyl flooring.

Thanks to the thick cloth, the cold was lessened, but at the same time, the air was cut off. Without fresh air, the carriage quickly filled with a suffocating stench.

The fear that he might suffocate and die at any moment due to the stench and thin air overwhelmed him.

Kim Joo-hwan lay flat on the floor. He pressed himself as close to the edge as possible to get a little more air.

With his nose aimed at the narrow gap between the tent and the carriage, Kim Joo-hwan breathed as slowly as possible.

‘Slowly, slowly, it’s okay. This is not a sealed space. There is little, but air is still coming in. I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid.’

Kim Joo-hwan suppressed his growing fear. He must not think hastily. If he became anxious, the fear that he might die would grow stronger. Then, without realizing it, he would try to inhale more air, and eventually, the fear of not being able to breathe would drive him mad.

Kim Joo-hwan repeatedly took shallow breaths. What if he fell asleep and couldn’t wake up? The fear surged countless times.

—

—

In the pitch-black darkness, he opened his eyes wide. But whether his eyes were open or closed, the darkness remained the same. As time passed, he couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. His mind was in a jumble.

How did it come to this? Is it worth living like this? Suddenly, such thoughts crossed his mind.

He had no family. His parents died in an accident when he was in middle school, and since then, he had been alone. He had dated women, but none of the relationships lasted long.

Every time he returned to his dark house and turned on the light, he felt anew how lonely he was among so many people.

Still, he had lived diligently. In a lonely world, he had lived with his head held high, full of bravado. But honestly, he was exhausted. Every night before he slept, he thought of his parents’ faces. But over time, he could no longer remember his mother and father’s faces clearly. Even his memories had become lonely.

“Father, Mother.”

Do I have to keep living even in a place like this? Do I have to? I don’t want to. I want to quit now. If I’ve been pushed out of the familiar world and fallen into a place like this alone, then maybe now is the time to stop trying.

But even as he thought that, his body betrayed his mind. I want to live, I need air, it screamed. His breath quickened as he tried to inhale the thin air.

As his consciousness began to fade, for some reason, Santa’s voice echoed in his head. Be happy! Happiness, my foot, this world and the other world, damn it all.

That night, he had to suppress the overwhelming fear of death. It was a time harder than the cold. It wasn’t until the tent was raised in the morning that he barely felt he was alive.

Such days continued for two more days. Every night, he wondered if he would die today. But human life is tenacious. It doesn’t die easily. He didn’t die. Eventually, even the desire to die disappeared. He just wished for the pain to go away.

On the third day, the carriage carrying Kim Joo-hwan arrived at a shabby-looking rural village. It was around noon, with the sun high in the sky.

*

It was the first village he had seen since coming to this world.

“People live here too.”

For some reason, he felt strange. Kim Joo-hwan clung to the wooden bars of the carriage and looked at the quiet rural village.

Was it to keep out animals or bandits? Against the backdrop of the frozen winter fields, a stone wall about the height of a person stretched out.

But it didn’t seem like such a stone wall could keep anything out. The wall was crumbling in places, with holes here and there. It didn’t even surround the entire village.

As the soldiers led the carriage into the village, a few men came running from beyond the deserted streets.

Kim Joo-hwan held onto the wooden bars of the carriage and watched the village men greet the soldiers.

An old man who looked quite aged and some middle-aged village men bowed deeply to the soldiers.

The old man seemed to have the highest status. They were all dressed similarly, but he was the cleanest, and he was the one talking to the leader of the soldiers. Perhaps that old man was the village chief.

When the leader of the soldiers said something, a village man next to the chief hurriedly ran into the village.

In the meantime, the soldiers moved the carriage further into the village.

The land was vast, but the village itself was not large. The houses were close together, with only a little distance between them, and in one corner of what seemed to be the village square, there was a well made of piled stones.

Seeing the well, he suddenly felt thirsty. It seemed others felt the same. The men in the carriage with Kim Joo-hwan swallowed dryly.

But no one in the carriage said anything. It was just quiet. Kim Joo-hwan also kept his mouth shut, watching the outside of the carriage, mindful of the others.

He must not act out. Before entering the village, he had seen someone from another carriage speak to a soldier and get beaten. The beaten man was bleeding heavily, possibly from a burst eye.

The soldiers didn’t care whether the people in the carriage lived or died. They probably weren’t worth even a coin. Human dignity clearly meant nothing. At least to the soldiers, it had no value.

How did it come to this? A small sigh escaped through his dry lips.

—

—

After a while, the village men brought several barrels of liquor. Behind them, a few women were carrying baskets of food.

A noisy sound echoed among the soldiers.

Barrels and wooden cups were placed on a small wooden table next to the well, and the women placed the food baskets.

The captain and a few soldiers were drinking and talking to the women. There was a sticky tone in their voices. Even if you couldn’t understand the words, you could tell what it was by their gaze and tone. It seemed that the soldiers wouldn’t be leaving this village anytime soon.

“….”

Why did they come to this village? Was it just a stop on their way somewhere, or did they have a purpose? Somehow, I felt a bit uneasy.

The village chief bowed and said something to the captain, who glanced at the village women. The women were bowing their heads with pale faces.

The village chief nodded vigorously with a servile smile. He bowed his head several times.

Then he discreetly handed a small pouch to the captain. Judging by the slight heaviness of the pouch, it seemed to contain coins like gold or silver.

The captain slightly opened the pouch and looked inside, then shouted something to the soldiers.

“#### #####.”

A few soldiers approached another carriage and opened the door.

That carriage had the most people in it. It seemed to have almost twice as many people as the other carriages. There were about forty to fifty people. There wasn’t even enough space to sit, so a few were awkwardly standing, leaning over others.

As the soldiers urged them, the men inside the carriage came out. If they moved even a little slowly, the soldiers would stab them with the reverse side of their spears or beat them randomly.

The people inside the carriage seemed to be either criminals or slaves, as he had guessed. Everyone had shackles on their ankles. Judging by the feeling, they were more likely to be slaves than criminals.

What kind of treatment would he receive? Even without shackles, would he be treated as a slave like the others? If he had been dropped in the open field instead of this carriage, there might have been another way, but an unlucky person remains unlucky in any situation. Kim Joo-hwan unconsciously clenched his fist.

As the slaves gathered outside the carriage with clinking metal sounds, the village chief and the village men approached them.

The village chief and the men began to inspect the slaves one by one.

They made them open their mouths to check inside, and carefully examined their shoulders, arms, and waists. They looked from the front and back, and even made them sit or spin around. It was like they were picking out slaves.

When the village chief and the men selected about twenty slaves, the soldiers took them to the captain.

A soldier placed a thick stack of papers on the table where the captain was sitting.

What were they planning to do? What was about to happen was something that Kim Joo-hwan might face in the future. Kim Joo-hwan swallowed and quietly watched the people through the wooden bars.

—