Chapter 133: Dark (3)
Translator: bjgoofy
"B-Bin!"
-Tsureut....
Bin's color right now was real all black.
What kind of evolution could produce something this luxurious?
My gaze was immediately stolen by the glossy, jet-black chitin exoskeleton that sheathed Bin's body.
From her eyeballs to the very tips of her antennae, every last part of her had been dyed black without exception.
The sheer elegance radiating from that blackness captivated me completely.
If one were to name the rarest, most luxurious colors found in nature, it would undoubtedly be all-white and all-black, and of those two, all-black was the more precious.
'So rare! Impossibly rare!'
The reason all-black was the rarest color in nature, especially among animals, was that it did not occur naturally. It could only arise through melanism, an increase of melanin pigment in the body.
White had two possible mutations, albinism and leucism, making it difficult but not impossibly rare to encounter. Black, however, could only emerge through the single pathway of melanism, which made it far more precious.
Albino or leucistic specimens could, with great luck, be born during breeding or discovered in the wild, and in my previous life they had been sold fairly often. But a melanistic specimen was something I had never once seen in all my years of living.
That was why, if forced to choose the rarer of the two, it was black, without question.
And that was exactly why I had been so completely captivated.
Because she was my very own black Bin.
'Ah, how beautiful!'
I was staring blankly at Bin when my eyes met hers.
Our shimmering gazes locked onto each other.
And when the reflected sunlight glinting off Bin's black body dazzled my eyes once more, we rushed toward each other without either of us moving first.
"Kyaaah! My baby girl! Look how gorgeous you've become...."
-Ts, tsururr....
A tearful reunion between a father and the daughter who had left home.
Even Bin, tsundere as she was, didn't pull away this time, bashful though she seemed.
The moment I ran to her and threw my arms around her, what I felt was an overwhelming sense of weight.
Cho was sturdy enough, but being a flight-type, she had always felt somewhat light. What I felt from Bin, however, was an even denser, heavier solidity, the sheer mass of her hardened chitin exoskeleton.
A rock-solid toughness wrapped in a jet-black exterior, layered with an overwhelming heft that composed every inch of Bin's body.
If Cho felt like a fighter jet fuselage, then Bin was more like... a tank, perhaps?
And at the same time, something else surfaced in my mind: the realization that I had been wrong about Bin.
She loved her papa this much, and I had gone and thought she had run away from home.
"That's right, you didn't run away! Papa jumped to conclusions! There's no way my baby girl would do that."
I had assumed the reason Bin suddenly vanished was that she had gotten upset and left home, but it seemed this papa's guess had been wrong.
Creatures that were originally wild animals could never fully shed their wild instincts, no matter how well a person tamed them.
Cho, Hyang, and Bin had been raised by me from the moment they were born, but it seemed some of that wildness still lingered within them.
In other words, Bin's disappearance wasn't running away at all. Just as a tamed wild animal seeks out a secluded spot when giving birth, she had surely gone off to find a hidden place to undergo her evolution.
Cho's evolution had been sudden, triggered by consuming an Inner Core, but Bin's evolution was something she had to achieve through her own effort alone, so it seemed she had needed a secluded space to herself.
How exactly she had pulled off this miraculous feat, I had no idea.
Seol noona had mentioned that Bin might have been sleeping, which made the theory all the more plausible.
And if that wasn't the reason? Then so what?
If I said it wasn't so, then it wasn't so.
There was no way my pretty, sweet daughter would do such a thing, was there?
When I pressed myself firmly against Bin's body, she emerged fully from the hole in the ground and coiled herself around me.
As if to say she would never be separated from me again.
And everyone, Hwa-eun, Seol noona, and all the Tang Family members present, watched us with expressions that said they had absolutely no idea what to do.
***
"Bin is back?!"
By the time Bin and I had calmed down, the voice of Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons rang out from the entrance of the Inner Courtyard.
I turned my head and saw three people standing there with stunned expressions.
They must have followed the commotion of the warriors. Having apparently rushed over from the direction of the Family Head's Hall, Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, Father-in-law, and Mother-in-law had caught sight of Bin's transformed appearance and were staring wide-eyed in shock.
"B-Bin? That's Bin?"
"Wait, the cute little Bin?"
It seemed Bin's transformation was quite the shock.
"Yes, Bin has returned. And look how beautiful she's become."
When I stroked Bin and showed her off proudly, Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons circled quickly around Bin, then spoke with an astonished expression.
"Could it be... Hyeon?"
"Hyeon?"
Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, suddenly uttering the word Hyeon out of nowhere.
When Hwa-eun, Seol noona, and I all tilted our heads in confusion, Grandfather called out for us to wait a moment and launched himself away with Qinggong.
"All warriors, withdraw! The rest of you, wait here!"
Before long, he returned carrying an old book.
It was roughly four times the size of any ordinary volume I had seen before.
While I was marveling at its sheer size, Grandfather set it down in the pavilion.
The moment he placed it there, the characters inscribed on its cover leapt into view 'The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven'.
"Oh! So this is 'The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven'!"
"That's right. This is the very book you've been so eager to see."
This was the secret text I had heard about, the one passed down through the Tang Family 'The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven'.
It was essentially the Central Plains' own bestiary of venomous creatures compiled by the Tang Family, the book they had refused to show me no matter how many times I begged, always insisting I had to devote myself to martial training first.
It was quite weathered; parts had crumbled away with age, and many pages were tattered and frayed.
Grandfather opened to the first page, and as if he was finally ready to show it to me, he beckoned me closer.
"Come, Soryong. Come have a look."
"Yes, sir!"
"Shall I step away?"
When told to come examine the book, Seol noona asked if she should excuse herself, but Grandfather shook his head.
"It's called a secret text, but it's not actually a martial manual, so there's no need for that. Come, have a look together."
With my heart pounding, I sat down in the pavilion and examined the opened first page.
The words written there immediately caught my eye.
「I, Tang Hwa-seong, youngest son of Tang Mun-ryong, third Family Head of the Tang Family, leave this record for future generations.
The name of this text is 'The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven'.
I have traveled across the whole of the Central Plains hunting venomous creatures, and herein I record their appearances, habitats, and peculiar behaviors.
The reason I have compiled this knowledge of venomous creatures is that the Tang Family has long neglected the poisons these creatures possess.
Venomous creatures that live in the mountains, fields, and forests where all things eat and are eaten, where life and death coexist.
I saw limitless potential in them.
It is my sincere hope that the records I leave behind will aid the Poison Techniques of future generations.」
"What is this?"
"These are the words of the ancestor who compiled this text."
The book opened with a solemn declaration from a man who, though a bottom-rung nobody within the Tang Family, believed in the boundless potential of venomous creatures.
Unexpectedly moved by those words, words that struck a chord in the heart of this Maewoon Fabre, I offered a silent prayer for the repose of Tang Hwa-seong's soul and turned the first page. There, drawn entirely in ink, were illustrations accompanied by brief descriptions and notes on behaviors.
It truly felt like a Central Plains edition of a venomous creature field guide.
「Wingspan: five cheok. Its beak is copper-colored and sharp; its body is covered in purple-crimson feathers. When it spreads its wings in fury, everything in the surrounding area withers black and turns to poison. Upon its head it wears a golden crown, possessing the bearing of an emperor in every regard. [TL Note: one cheok is approximately 30 cm / 1 foot]
This creature is called the Zhen, or the Zhen Bird.」
The first page, as expected, was the Zhen Bird.
A creature closely resembling the Zhen Bird we knew so well had been rendered in considerable detail with fine brushstrokes.
But before I could study the first page closely, the pages were flipped rapidly by Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.
The pages stopped turning at one that had been painted almost entirely black with ink.
'What's this?'
Even as the pages flew past, I had been watching them, and the illustrations were generally drawn in fine ink outlines. But the creature on this page alone had been rendered with thick, heavy brushstrokes, practically slathered in ink.
Looking more closely, it was a single centipede, painted solid black.
The characters written below the illustration read: Twenty-Four Poison Branches, Ink-Black Ghost Centipede.
When I shifted my gaze to the description beside it, what was written there was astonishing.
「The Ink-Black Ghost Centipede: a formidable venomous creature that occupies the Hyeon seat, one of the positions in the Twenty-Four Poison Branches. It emerges suddenly from underground to attack humans and beasts. Its appearance is that of an enormous, jet-black centipede, and because it resembles a black specter in centipede form, it is called the Ink-Black Ghost Centipede.
The Ink-Black Ghost Centipede appears to hear the sounds of people and animals above ground with extraordinary acuity. Even fleeing atop a boulder offers no safety.
For it shatters boulders as it surges upward.」
"Hrrgh!"
What was described in the book was none other than our Bin.
She wasn't one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, but the text described her as a formidable venomous creature occupying the third seat of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches, those that had narrowly missed the ranks of the Ten Great.
"Our Bin may not be one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, but she's an Ink-Black Ghost Centipede of the Twenty-Four Poison Branches!"
Even being in the Twenty-Four Poison Branches was more than enough.
She wasn't one of the Ten Great, true, but to this papa, Bin was every bit their equal.
Overwhelmed with admiration that our Bin had evolved into such an incredible creature, I called out to her.
"Bin! Our Bin has become the Ink-Black Ghost Centipede, holder of the third seat in the Twenty-Four Poison Branches!"
But Bin seemed to dislike the name Ink-Black Ghost Centipede, grimacing and letting out a sharp screech.
-Tsururr!
"What? You don't like 'Ink-Black Ghost Centipede'?"
-Tsureut!
The instant I caught the feeling behind her protest, 'It's not that I don't like it, but Cho....'
-Tsurururr.
Another low cry from a centipede, this time coming from overhead.
I looked up at the sky to find Cho slowly descending from above.
Come to think of it, Cho hadn't been beside me when I woke up.
Given that Cho's love for her papa was every bit as fierce as Bin's, it would have been perfectly natural for her to be standing guard at my side when I collapsed. How strange.
Just as I was making a face that said I was curious where she had been, Hwa-eun and Seol noona offered an explanation from beside me.
"I thought we needed to find Bin, so I sent Cho out to look for her."
"It seemed like the reason you collapsed was because of Bin, so we tried to track her down. Since last time she and Cho grew together.
They were telling me they had gone looking for Bin because she seemed to be the cause of my collapse.
The moment Hwa-eun finished explaining, Cho landed right in front of Bin and looked her up and down.
Under that scrutinizing gaze, Bin thrust her body forward as if to shove Cho away.
And so began a contest of strength.
-Tsureut!
-Tsurureut!
Bin was slightly larger in build, but Cho, perhaps riding the prestige of being one of the Ten Great, refused to be pushed back.
It looked like a serious fight was about to erupt and I would need to intervene, but strangely, in that moment, I began to sense something like words passing between the two of them.
Before, I could only feel one of their hearts when they intentionally sent their feelings to me, like private messages. But now, something like the exchange passing between the two of them, whether words or emotions, was beginning to reach me.
'What? Has this telepathy-like ability evolved too?'
What was flowing back and forth right now was:
『Papa said I'm prettier. Prettier than you.』
『Papa said I'm the prettiest.』
The moment I grasped the content of their exchange, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Both their heads swiveled toward me at once, and their questions burst into my mind simultaneously.
-Tsureut?
-Tsureut?
『So? Which of us does Papa think is the prettiest?』
『So? Which of us does Papa think is the prettiest?』
'Gah!'
The prettiness rankings among daughters were apparently a matter of utmost importance.
I had a feeling that if I answered wrong, a massive fight would break out between my girls.
And that fight would be, in all likelihood, a kaiju battle.
If one of the Ten Great Venomous Creatures and another creature of the same caliber went at each other tooth and claw, wouldn't the Poison Energy they scattered leave nothing standing?
This was basically the equivalent of a nuclear war erupting inside the Tang Family compound.
Unable to answer rashly, I gulped hard.
-Tsururr.
At that moment, Hyang wriggled her antennae out from Hwa-eun's sleeve and crawled out to look at Bin and Cho.
She seemed to have been sleeping and had just woken up. Talk about adding insult to injury.
If Hyang realized she was the only one who hadn't evolved and started wailing on top of everything, that would be hell itself.
One crying, two fighting. Just as the approaching reality was about to make me lose my mind entirely,
rather than throwing the tantrum I had expected, Hyang leapt from Hwa-eun and landed on my shoulder.
She coiled herself around my neck, gazed steadily at Bin and Cho, and sent me the triumphant feelings of a victor.
Now that she thought about it, the one who had Papa all to herself was her.
Since getting that big would only be a burden on Papa, she declared she would absolutely never grow that large and would stay attached to Papa's body for the rest of her life.
'I-Is this... like saying she'll never get married and live with Papa forever?'
At the wave of that sentiment, Bin's and Cho's antennae shot straight up above their heads.
*****
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