Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

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Chapter 4: The Runaway

– Zzrrr! Zzrrr!

“Bin must be really upset with Daddy, huh? Well, now that I know, let’s go find Mommy. Time to sleep with her. It’s getting dark, you know.”

[So-ryong, I’ll try to calm her down. Right now, it seems like no matter what I say, she won’t feel better.]

The bouncing Bin was eventually taken away by Hua Eun, after she got the news from Chang-ryong.

In her sulkiness, she completely forgot about being upset with Hua Eun.

– Tsk!

With a haughty tsk, Bin jumped onto her mom’s shoulder, turning her head away as if to vanish into thin air.

The storm named Bin left a lone man behind.

No, it was more like six venomous creatures left with him.

With the molting and drying off creatures like Chao and Hyang, Seol-i and Bin followed by Yo-hwa and the Flying Heavenly Snake remained.

Staring blankly at the rising moon, I cautiously asked the Flying Heavenly Snake next to me.

“Uh… Flying Heavenly Snake, I’m not suspicious, but… you aren’t hiding anything, are you?”

– Sha?

“It’s about Inner Dan.”

– Shaaa!

The Flying Heavenly Snake shook its head in shock, like it was saying there is no Inner Dan and there can’t be one.

I felt its mind saying that. After all, I hadn’t even registered it yet.

“I mean, I trust you, but… I’m in a bit of a hurry. You saw how mad Bin was. I just want to hold onto anything.”

– Sha. Sha.

It seemed like after the two of us had shared about Inner Dan, Bin would definitely be angrier, but perhaps because it had witnessed everything from the start, it looked at me with pitying eyes as if saying it understood.

‘Maybe this guy isn’t as bad as I thought?’

As I was thinking that, it suddenly struck me that I hadn’t named it yet.

And I hadn’t checked how it’d feel about living with us.

“Oh shoot! Have you decided yet?”

– Sha?

Upon being asked if it had decided, it tilted its head.

“I’m talking about living with us. I mentioned before, but there are plenty of beasts in the mountains like hedgehogs that eat your kind. Up until now, it might have been a bit rough, but I won’t treat you badly. Other kids say it’s not so bad—”

As I spoke, I noticed the venomous creatures peeking over the opened lid, and they began chatting with the Flying Heavenly Snake.

– Kiss! Kishi-shi! Kishi!

– Koo koo koo! Gguk guk!

The Flying Heavenly Snake looked shocked as if it understood what they were saying.

After a moment, it cautiously nodded.

– Sha…

If we had reached an agreement to live together, there was no need to keep it locked up.

With Yo-hwa and the Lizard nearby, where would it run off to anyway?

Feigning generosity, I opened my pocket and reached out to it.

Nothing beats freedom when trying to build trust.

– Sha!?

The creature flinched and stepped back.

“We agreed to live together. I’m just trying to let you out.”

– Shaaa!?

It looked as if it was asking whether it could trust the words of a creature known as venomous, so I nodded in response.

“We can’t keep you locked up forever, right? Usually, we all get along like this.”

As I gently set it down on the ground, it could finally see its friends properly.

As I smiled at it, it curled up, lowering its head in what seemed like a greeting.

‘Is it trying to say nice to meet you?’

I also greeted it back.

“Alright, I’ll be counting on you too. Let’s get along well, Flying Heavenly Snake. Oh, by the way, I should think of a name for you, huh? I can’t keep calling you Flying Heavenly Snake forever, right? We need to give you a proper name.”

Even though I was still full of thoughts about Bin, I decided to name the Flying Heavenly Snake first.

As Hua Eun said, it seemed difficult to soothe Bin immediately, and I couldn’t leave the Flying Heavenly Snake unnamed.

Now that it was fully part of our family, it deserved a proper name!

“Since you are called the heaven’s son of the Twenty-Four Poisons, the name must contain ‘heaven’… How about ‘Ilcheon’ for the first heaven, since it’s male? Oh wait, are you male or female? Should I check your… you know?”

As I pondered its name, I realized I didn’t even know its gender yet.

Contemplating checking, the creature suddenly shouted in surprise.

– Sha~yaaaa!

“Oh, so you’re a female?”

The way it acted shy made me think that was the case.

It nodded at my question.

Since it’s the first of the Twenty-Four Poisons and the position of ‘Heaven,’ I thought ‘Ilcheon’ would work, but that would be problematic.

If it’s female, it definitely needed a cute name.

I began brainstorming.

‘With its beautiful emerald mane, if I convert ’emerald’ into Hanja, it becomes ‘Yeon-du’ (軟豆)… Yeon-du? Oh yeah, that name sounds perfect!’

As I thought, the name Yeon-du came to mind.

I asked the creature for its opinion.

“How about the name Yeon-du? Your mane is a lovely emerald color, so I thought it fits perfectly. What do you think? I find it exceptionally beautiful, and it goes so well with your blue scales!”

In the regional dialect, Yeon-du would be pronounced ‘Lan-Dou.’

Upon hearing my pronunciation, the creature twisted and squirmed with embarrassment before thinking for a bit and quickly nodding.

– Shaaa!

It definitely liked it.

“Alright, your name is now Yeon-du.”

Thus, the Flying Heavenly Snake’s name was set as Yeon-du. After thinking for a second, I realized I had forgotten to include the character for ‘heaven.’

Since it meant the number one of the Twenty-Four Poisons and ‘heaven’ from the phrase ‘heaven and earth,’ I couldn’t leave it out.

Meaning the title of the Twenty-Four Poisons signifies the head of Heaven, it felt off to skip that.

“Oh shoot! I forgot to add ‘heaven’ (天) in your name. Should I just put it like a surname? Let me see, if I add ‘heaven,’ it becomes Cheon Yeon-du… Huh?”

I had thought I came up with a good name, but while naming it, I accidentally created the word for ‘smallpox’ (天然痘).

Yeon-du had no idea what was happening and nodded happily.

– Shaaa!

In the region, they referred to the dreaded contagious disease of smallpox as ‘Cheonhwa’ (天花).

‘W-well, this is the Central Plains, so it’s probably just me being weird. Everyone else will certainly see it as a nice name.’

“W-well, Yeon-du, let’s just call you ‘Yeon-du’ instead of ‘Cheon Yeon-du’ for now.”

Thus, the Flying Heavenly Snake officially got the name Yeon-du, or rather, Cheon Yeon-du.

*

The next day, I tried to cheer up Bin, but I couldn’t even attempt it.

We had a major situation waiting for us.

Once Hua Eun and Older Sister Seol could move freely, the decision to travel was made immediately.

I wasn’t fully healed yet, but the two of them had to go regardless.

“We’re sorry to put this on you, Mandok God.”

Sword Phoenix hung her head apologetically, offering a blood-dried paper on the bedside to Mandok God.

Sword Phoenix and Chang-ryong had been bedridden for over three months.

The brother had been unable to move in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace for at least two months.

Moreover, Sword Phoenix had reopened her wounds from moving around yesterday, and she had spikes of fever throughout the night.

Since we needed to convey the information from Bu Gak-ju Bang-soon of the Martial Forest Alliance back to the Martial Forest Alliance, this mission fell to our Tang Clan.

Initially, I wanted to take at least one of us on the journey, even though they were severely wounded.

It wouldn’t feel right to speak if none of us assigned to the mission could make it.

However, since that wasn’t possible and we had to set off alone, Sword Phoenix’s expression reflected her deep regret.

“Being part of the Alliance, it’s only natural for us to take on significant missions, so don’t say such things. You all should focus on your recovery. I’ll handle this.”

Besides, I had my own agenda to visit the Martial Forest Alliance. The Blood Cult has allied with the Five Poisons Sect, and I needed to inform them of that. Also, there would likely be a need for countermeasures, as they mentioned they had developed an antidote.

“Thank you. Mandok God.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

At the old man’s words, my brother and Sword Phoenix bowed deeply.

Yet, that didn’t make any sense because, according to the old man’s words, we’d have to visit the Martial Forest Alliance regardless.

From the information we caught during the battle with the Blood Cult, we heard they had formed an alliance with the Five Poisons Sect.

The Blood Cult were the ones who infiltrated our Tang Clan and murdered the warriors, so they were unforgivable. The Five Poisons Sect has been our long-standing enemy for over a hundred years.

With this incident added on, it felt like we had become mortal enemies, and for that reason, we would need the Martial Forest Alliance’s active assistance.

From what I observed during this pursuit, their forces were definitely not small, and it felt like with just our Tang Clan and the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, it would be difficult to respond.

And that’s not all?

It appeared the antidote for the poison from Hoban Yusa had been prepared by the Five Poisons Sect, so we had to inform the Martial Forest Alliance about that, as well as ensure a countermeasure was in place.

I had already confirmed that the blood toxin from the wasp was effective, but we couldn’t mass-produce it, so another strategy had to be set in motion.

Though it had come to a close for us, we decided to give the somewhat neglected Southern Barbarian Beast Palace a push to join the Martial Forest Alliance, so we had to go anyway.

“Make sure you three recover enough in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace. Then, we’ll see you later.”

“Take care, So-ryong.”

“Understood. Older Brother. Once you’re fully healed, please visit the Tang Clan.”

“Of course. I must visit my younger sister, Young Young.”

After finishing our goodbyes with my brother, the waiting Sword Phoenix came over with her thanks once more.

“Thank you, Junior Hero. I’m truly grateful for all the help. Without you, I don’t know what would’ve happened…”

I felt genuinely grateful.

Feeling a bit playful, I put on a mock apologetic expression and replied, “You’ll be better soon! But I hope I didn’t just add more unnecessary stress…”

Sword Phoenix glanced at Chang-ryong, blushing.

“Well, I made my choice, so I have to bear it.”

As I patted the bewildered Chang-ryong on the shoulder, I reminded him again of the debt he owed me.

[Keep in mind that Chang-ryong can never forget that I saved him three times.]

As I said my farewells to the three, I spotted Hua Eun and Older Sister Seol waiting.

Sister Seol was to travel as a special envoy to the Martial Forest Alliance, so she would accompany us.

“Alright, let’s go, Long.”

“Yes, Older Sister Seol. Let’s go, Grandfather.”

“Alright, for now, let’s head to Sichuan first. We need to check if there’s been any trouble in the clan and prepare for other poisons, so we better hurry.”

There was indeed a method to get directly from Yunnan to the Martial Forest Alliance in Wuhan.

From Yunnan, where the Yangtze River flows, by passing through the border area of Sichuan and taking a boat to Wuhan, we could reach there.

The Yangtze River is quite long, as it originates from Tibet and flows through Yunnan all the way to the West Sea of the previous life.

However, we decided not to take that route and opted to stop by the Tang Clan first, as we’d planned on bringing some poison samples on our visit to the Martial Forest Alliance.

Regardless, since we now knew it would be impossible to create the blood toxin, informing them about which venom would work was also a yes.

Wasting no time preparing for the poisons would be a priority as instructed by Mandok God.

Thus, we hurriedly journeyed and arrived in Sichuan in almost a month. Upon arriving, Sister Seol looked around with wide eyes.

“So this is the Sichuan Tang Clan!? The entire mountain is the clan, huh?”

It seemed Sister Seol, being from the Yunnan countryside, was experiencing seeing such a prominent family for the first time.

– Buwuuung. Buwung.

But before Older Sister Seol’s astonished voice could finish, the buzzing of the Golden Hair Bee Kings echoed above our heads.

Upon realizing I was among those entering the Nine Entrance Gate at the Tang Clan’s mountain entrance, they seemed to have come out to greet me.

“W-wait, is that the Golden Hair Bee King!?”

“I’ve got creatures raised myself!”

“You had more raised creatures!?”

“This is all of them. How have you all been?”

– Bwuuung! Bwung!

They seemed to grumble about missing me after so long.

I was dragged over to the beehive for an audience with the queen bee, and after finally indulging in some honey, I was finally set free again.

That night, the long-awaited peaceful night at the Tang Clan turned chaotic with an unexpected event.

The significant matter of Bin’s runaway, who had stuck close to me throughout the return journey, had happened.

“Is she hitting puberty already!?”

“Puberty?”

“There’s such a thing! But seriously, where could she have gone?”

“Quickly send your thoughts to find her!”

I desperately tried reaching out to Bin with my mind, but all I received back was the feeling that she wouldn’t come home until she grew bigger than her older sister.

“Older Sister said she wouldn’t come home until she was bigger than you!”

“Ah…”

With the youngest daughter’s runaway, Hua Eun held her temples, wobbling about.