Good Morning, Did You Sleep Well?
Everything in this world changes eventually. Just as children become adults and young trees become ancient ones, forms are bound to change as life goes on.
The same is true for the human heart. The burning passion and ambitions one holds in youth cool with age, and in their place grow greed, selfishness, and desire.
The village chief stirred the wood in the hearth, reviving the flames a little, then turned his gaze toward his wife, who was drawing water from the well.
Buckets swayed from either end of the long pole resting across her shoulders. She carried the yoke into the kitchen and poured the water into a large wooden barrel without even glancing at him.
After emptying the buckets, the middle-aged woman waddled toward the opposite corner of the room. A hen sat there laying eggs. She tried to shoo it away with her hand, but the foul-tempered hen refused to move, bobbing its little head back and forth as it pecked sharply at her fingers to protect its eggs.
“You stupid chicken, biting your own owner?!”
Her pot-lid-sized hand smacked the hen. The bird flapped wildly in protest for a moment before finally being shoved aside and scurrying away.
Watching his middle-aged wife turn around with the eggs in hand, the village chief slapped the spot beside the hearth with his palm.
“Come over here for a moment.”
“Why?”
His wife answered curtly as she stomped across the house without looking at him. She intentionally made heavy footsteps. Her lips jutted out in annoyance as she placed the eggs into a basket in the kitchen.
“What do you mean why? I have something to say.”
“....”
It seemed she was still furious about him taking the cloth and giving it to the mountain keeper last night.
‘That ignorant woman doesn’t understand a man’s grand ambitions.’
The chief sighed and patted the floor beside him again. Grumbling, she finally came over and plopped down next to him. Hiding his irritation, he began speaking.
“That’s enough already. How many times do I have to tell you? We need the mountain keeper. You know that too, so why are you acting like this?”
“I know, which is why I already gave him flour and salt and everything else. But there was no need to give away that cloth too. Do you know what that was? I saved it for ten years without even using it.”
“I know, but it couldn’t be helped. That man looked like someone used to fighting. If more people get hurt or killed, this year’s farming is truly finished. Everyone will starve to death. We should be grateful if things end with just losing a little cloth.”
The village chief recalled the large man’s arm when he handed over the fabric. The wound, which looked like an animal bite, was still large, yet clearly healing.
Gers had been telling the truth.
That man was a mage.
A healing mage, at that.
Even with his wife in front of him, his thoughts naturally drifted back to the mountain keeper.
‘I need to think carefully. A mage that powerful... even nobles would want him. Maybe even royalty.’
He could sell him for a high price. Being the chief of this village wasn’t bad, but if things went well, he could live an even better life.
In large cities, mages were not that rare. But powerful mages were a different story.
And a healing mage was especially rare.
He might receive an unimaginable fortune.
But he had to be careful. If nobles or guilds caught wind of it, they’d seize the mage without paying him a single coin.
“....”
The chief glanced at his still-sulking wife and sighed again. It would take time for her anger to fade. He returned his thoughts to the mountain keeper.
He had no idea how a mage ended up riding in a convict’s wagon. Even the soldiers had seemed unaware.
‘Judging by how he can’t speak the language, he’s probably not from this country.’
Maybe he was a criminal who fled from another nation.
No, that had to be it.
Otherwise, there was no way a mage would end up in such miserable circumstances.
If so, the man probably wouldn’t go around announcing he was a mage, which made hiding him easy. All he had to do was quietly gather information and find the place that would pay the most.
A smile naturally formed on his face.
No one knew there was a healing mage here yet.
The mountain keeper’s cabin was deep in the isolated mountains, so almost nobody would approach it, and it would still be a long time before the lord’s officials came.
The villagers were ignorant fools. Unless someone directly explained it to them, they would never notice. If Gers hadn’t told him, even the chief himself wouldn’t have realized it.
‘If rumors spread carelessly, things will become troublesome.’
He needed to be extremely careful. Even his loose-lipped wife couldn’t know.
Right now, the only person he could trust was Gers.
Gers could have kept the information to himself and quietly profited from it alone, but since he told the chief, he likely wouldn’t betray him later.
Old man Gers had originally been brought here by the former village chief, the current chief’s father, to become the mountain keeper. Due to an accident, he never officially became one, but in reality, he handled most of the duties anyway.
Though his injured leg prevented him from participating in large hunts, he was far more capable than most hunters.
The village occasionally brought in incompetent hunters, but no serious problems had occurred so far because Gers had always supported them behind the scenes.
Gers monitored wolves and goblins, and hunted animals like badgers, foxes, and field mice so their numbers wouldn’t grow out of control. Since he knew the mountain well, leaving things to him required no worry.
There had never been any problems before, so yes, it would be best to leave the mountain keeper duties to Gers.
Meanwhile, the chief would investigate whether there were any runaway mages and which nobles were looking to hire healing mages.
He couldn’t contact nobles directly, but large cities had information brokers. A little money would be enough to ask around.
Until then, nobody could know.
The mage had to remain tightly bound to this mountain.
The village chief turned to his wife.
“Hey, try to get along with the mountain keeper’s wife.”
“....”
At his words, her eyes narrowed sharply. The village women disliked that frail outsider woman.
Her lips stuck out like a pig’s snout. Before she could complain, the chief spoke first.
“According to Gers, this mountain keeper seems quite capable. He learns hunting quickly and he’s smart. He’s different from the others. If things go wrong, he might realize we’ve been stealing the lord’s supplies and report us.”
His wife flinched.
“He seems close with his wife, so try befriending her. When women become friendly, the men naturally follow.”
“....”
“And besides, if you become close to the mountain keeper’s wife, maybe we can get rabbit pelts cheaply. That woman seems weak-hearted and naive. Once spring comes, we might even get field mouse meat for free.”
“Fine. There are women’s matters to handle anyway. Even if you hadn’t said anything, I would’ve dealt with it myself.”
Still grumbling, his wife dusted off her skirt and stood up.
The village chief fed a few more dry branches into the fading fire.
He should probably return some of the things they took from the mountain cabin. Maybe even add a few items originally meant for the mountain keeper from the lord.
“....”
It was fine for now since the man didn’t know the language, but problems would inevitably arise later.
The previous mountain keepers had been too incompetent to complain, but this giant was different. Even without hearing Gers’s opinion, he looked far smarter and stronger than the useless drifters they had brought before.
The chief sighed bitterly.
Giving away possessions felt wasteful, but it couldn’t be helped. Rather than thinking of it as a loss, he should bring something decent. Wool products would be good. Among the supplies meant for the mountain keeper were several sturdy wool items.
‘My wife’s going to throw another fit.’
A sigh escaped him automatically.
Once, his wife had been known as the village beauty, but now none of that remained. Just as he himself aged day by day, she too had become uglier with time.
Only her greed kept growing.
“....”
If he gained a fortune, perhaps taking a young concubine wouldn’t be bad either. Chiefs of other wealthy villages all had one or two.
He alone had none.
The newly added branches caught fire. The flames grew stronger.
It almost felt like they reflected his bright future.
The village chief chuckled quietly.
Morning came early in the mountain cabin.
Juhwan woke before sunrise, but Lizzy was already up and busily moving around.
She transferred hot water from the iron pot on the hearth into another container before adding cold water to it. Steam rose from the tub of warm water, and Lizzy smiled brightly while holding a small cylindrical metal ladle.
The cabin now had a few more belongings—water barrels, shelves, salt, flour, and other supplies.
The village chief and villagers had brought them.
The water container Lizzy had just filled with hot water had also been among the things the men delivered.
Even the presence or absence of one or two old water barrels made a huge difference in this impoverished cabin. Having several now made Lizzy incredibly happy.
To Juhwan, the gap almost felt as large as the difference between the rich and the destitute back on modern Earth.
When the villagers suddenly started bringing supplies, Lizzy had initially been confused, but she seemed to conclude it was because of the incident where the men barged into the house.
She appeared to think the villagers became frightened after Juhwan drove them away, and were now returning some of the stolen belongings.
From that moment onward, the way Lizzy looked at Juhwan sparkled, like a maiden admiring a heroic savior.
She seemed far happier about that than discovering her bruises had disappeared.
Juhwan personally thought healing magic was far more amazing, but he couldn’t understand a woman’s heart.
An old water barrel made her happier. Rough fabric made her happy. The fact that she could make another outfit for Dorothy made her beam with joy...
Watching Lizzy quietly made him realize that happiness might not be such a grand thing after all.
It was the sort of phrase he often saw in books—finding happiness in small things.
He had never truly agreed with it before.
How could anyone genuinely become happy over a single flower on the roadside? He had always thought such words were lies spoken by people with full stomachs and carefree lives.
But when he looked at Lizzy, he started to understand those words.
Watching her smile somehow made him happy too.
Maybe this feeling resembled what those books meant.
Even if flowers still wouldn’t make him happy now, perhaps if moments like this continued long enough, someday they might.
The old version of himself—the lonely man returning home alone every night—would never have imagined thinking like this.
Realizing Juhwan was awake and watching her, Lizzy approached with a bright smile.
“Good morning, did you sleep well?”
At Juhwan’s clumsy words, Lizzy smiled sweetly and replied.
“Good morning, I slept well.”
“Good morning, I slept well.”
When he repeated her words awkwardly, she nodded as if praising him.
Lizzy handed him the toothbrush she had left in the corner.
Ever since realizing he brushed his teeth immediately after waking up, she started handing it to him every morning.
As Juhwan accepted it, Lizzy also held out a wooden cup with a little water in it.
She didn’t have to do things like that, but for some reason she seemed proud of taking care of him that way.
Even though it made him feel slightly guilty, it also made him very happy.
“Thank you.”
At his words, Lizzy shyly lowered her head slightly.
Juhwan took the toothbrush and cup outside.
The toothbrush wasn’t artificial like modern ones. In this world, they shaved the ends of thin twigs with a knife, crushed the fibers to soften them, and used them as toothbrushes.
Naturally, people made them themselves.
Maybe they sold them somewhere, but at least here in the mountains and nearby village, nobody bought them.
Apparently not every tree could be used. While traveling with him, Gers had used gestures and a few words to teach him which specific branches were suitable for toothbrushes.
Dorothy hated brushing her teeth, so every night Lizzy and Dorothy bickered over it.
Children really were the same no matter the world.
Remembering how he himself hated brushing his teeth as a child, Juhwan chuckled softly while cleaning his teeth with the wooden brush.
When he returned inside, Lizzy was treating the wolf pelt.
Gers had taught her how. As a hunter, he knew how to process hides.
Lizzy pulled and kneaded the damp inner side of the leather with her fingers. The effort made her pale fingers grow even whiter as she strained them.
She had to repeat the process for a very long time, until her fingers hurt so badly it became difficult to move them.
And it wasn’t something done only once.
She repeatedly soaked the hide, kneaded and rubbed it, then dried it again. Apparently, that was how the leather became soft.
It looked so exhausting that Juhwan tried to help, but Lizzy refused.
She seemed to consider hide processing her responsibility.
During the day, Dorothy helped too with her tiny fern-like hands.
Whether she was actually useful was questionable, but the two of them seemed to enjoy working together regardless.
Sometimes Dorothy looked at the fur hide and shouted “Meat!” which concerned him slightly.
Juhwan glanced toward the bed and smiled faintly.
Dorothy had rolled around alone in bed until her stomach was exposed. He covered the child with the rough wool blanket before picking up two water containers and heading outside.
Outside stood a long wooden carrying pole with ropes attached to both ends.
Juhwan hung the water buckets on each side.
Now he needed to fetch water several times to fill the barrels, then chop firewood.
If he worked up a sweat doing that for a while, Gers would arrive.
Thinking about Gers made his heart beat a little faster.
Today, they were going rabbit hunting.
Over the past few days, Gers had taught Juhwan how to find paths rabbits frequently used.
Mostly by checking for rabbit droppings.
If they placed snares along paths where droppings appeared often, rabbits passing by would supposedly get caught.
Yesterday, nothing had been caught.
Today was the second day since setting the snares.
Would they catch something today?
For Dorothy, who constantly sang about wanting meat, he really hoped they could catch a rabbit.
“....”
Though, he still hadn’t actually seen a rabbit yet.
For a brief moment, he worried about what he’d do if rabbits turned out too cute to kill.
He needed to abandon such soft-hearted Earthling sensibilities, but whenever he imagined fluffy, round, adorable rabbits, his resolve unconsciously wavered.