Chapter 148: Fire Carp (3)
Translator: bjgoofy
'What in the world are you?'
It wasn't that I truly didn't know the answer.
I was simply dumbfounded, that was all.
No matter how varied they might be in size or color, there was no way Maewoon Fabre could fail to recognize that shape.
But the reason I found myself asking such a question was that the color, and especially the size, were unlike anything I had ever seen before.
So there I stood, slack-jawed, staring at the creature Botaam Temple had introduced as their Fire Carp, when Sound Transmissions arrived from Hwa-eun and Seol noona, who looked equally bewildered beside me.
[Soryong, that's not a Fire Carp, is it? No matter how I look at it? It looks more like....]
[Soryong, that's.... The size doesn't make sense, but I think it might be a tadpole.... or am I wrong?]
It seemed I wasn't the only one who thought the creature introduced as a Fire Carp was no such thing.
Hwa-eun and Seol noona, who knew far more about animals than ordinary people, were asking with equally baffled expressions.
Just as Hwa-eun said, the Central Plains term for it was tadpole.
It was unmistakably not a Fire Carp, an ornamental koi, but the larva of something else entirely.
'That's definitely a tadpole, isn't it? The color is peach, too. It's so enormous that a casual glance might make it look like a plump carp, but it hasn't got a single pectoral or dorsal fin, and then there's that adorable little snout. That is one hundred percent the larva of an amphibian.'
A tadpole, the larval form of amphibian species belonging to the order Anura, meaning the young of toads, frogs, narrow-mouthed toads, and the like.
At the sight of it, Maewoon Fabre's heart pounded for the first time in ages.
A pinkish, peach-tinted hue.
No matter how he looked at it, the creature was spectacularly vivid even at this juvenile stage, suggesting a promising future as the young of some poison frog or poison toad.
Snakes, centipedes, scorpions, moths... they were all impressive venomous creatures in their own right, but toads were a venomous species of truly distinguished pedigree.
Adorable, and that languid demeanor of theirs had a way of putting anyone who watched them at ease.
Was this what they meant by a blessing in disguise?
Yeondu might be a little disappointed, but the Inner Core no longer mattered.
A giant tadpole like that. It was impossible not to wonder what kind of frog or toad it would become once fully grown.
'I nearly resented the princess over the whole no-Inner-Core business, but now I ought to be thanking her instead.'
I had come close to feeling let down, but this more than made up for it, a gift more than generous enough to repay the help she had given.
Before answering the other two, I stood there gazing blankly at the creature they called a "Fire Carp(?)" as it wriggled through the crystal-clear pond near the mountaintop, the bottom visible through the water, and let my thoughts turn.
And then it hit me, the things that had clearly been odd all along.
I had been so preoccupied with the thought of dressing as a woman that I'd completely overlooked them, but in hindsight, there had been more than a few strange details.
'Now that I think about it, there were quite a few things that didn't add up....'
First, when people typically described the size of a fish, they used measurements like a palm-length or a forearm-length. But oddly enough, whenever the Fire Carp on Botaam Temple's Sacred Peak was mentioned, the description had always been about the size of a head.
I had chalked it up to the locals here simply being a bit unusual, or having different standards than mine, but it turned out the creature really was about the size of a human head.
A body as big as a head, with a long tail trailing behind it.
Furthermore, Botaam Temple was on an island.
Fire Carp were koi, a freshwater fish.
No matter how exceptional a Spiritual Creature might be, the fact that a freshwater fish, and a koi at that, lived on an island should have struck me as strange, yet I had missed it entirely.
And that wasn't all.
Moon Reflection Pool, as the name implied, was a pond where the moon's reflection shimmered upon the water. And a pond, by definition, held still water, which meant that unless a koi had somehow flown through the air, there was no way one could have gotten into this place.
So naturally, the idea that an ornamental koi lived in a pond on an island in the middle of the sea made no sense at all, yet I had been so distracted by other matters that the thought had never even crossed my mind.
I tore my gaze away from the creature and decided it was time to answer Hwa-eun and Seol noona's questions.
That was when it happened.
Startled cries from Hwa-eun and Seol noona, ringing out without warning.
"Sister Cho-a! Wh-what are you doing!?"
"S-Sister!?"
For some reason, the two of them were shouting at the nun who had guided us, their voices panicked. They came rushing over and pressed my face into their chests.
Startled, I tried to push them away and glanced upward, only to meet their eyes as they both shook their heads furiously.
Their expressions said there was absolutely something I must not be allowed to see.
'Wh-what is this all of a sudden?'
While I was still reeling from their outburst and my blocked vision, the nun's reply drifted over.
"Hm? Well, obviously I'm about to bathe. You three should hurry and undress too. If the Sword Empress sent the three of you up here, she must have meant for you to wash up before coming back down....
The reason this is Botaam Temple's Sacred Peak, where all males, human or animal, are forbidden, is because this is where we cleanse our bodies."
So that was why this was the Sacred Peak of Mount Putuo and why men were absolutely prohibited from coming here. It seemed this was where the Buddhist nuns washed themselves.
If this was the communal bathhouse for the all-female Botaam Temple, then of course men would never be allowed up. Flustered by the nun's question, Hwa-eun scrambled to explain.
"It seems the Sword Empress didn't have a chance to mention it, but w-we only came up here to see the F-Fire Carp."
"Oh, is that so? I assumed we'd be bathing, of course. But well, since you've come all the way up, you might as well wash.
It's not easy to come up here in broad daylight like this, and if you bathe in this water, your skin becomes wonderfully smooth. You must not have been able to wash properly during your journey here. Come on, let's get in together."
"B-but even among women, how could we bathe together when we've only just met?"
"Sh-she's right!"
The nun apparently wasn't stopping her undressing, judging by the wave of flustered heat radiating from Seol noona and Hwa-eun's direction.
To their protest that surely one couldn't just strip down and bathe with someone they'd only just met, even among women, the nun's reply was utterly unfazed.
"This body is nothing but flesh that will rot and vanish. Shame is merely a matter of the mind. Now, don't be shy, come on in."
'What kind of nun talks like a Casanova....'
That didn't feel like enlightenment so much as a pickup line.
Hwa-eun and Seol noona replied firmly.
"N-no. We only came to see the Fire Carp, so we really can't."
"Sh-she's right."
"The water here is lovely, though...."
When Hwa-eun and Seol noona refused adamantly, the nun must have finally given up on the bath, because the hands covering my eyes fell away.
As the pond came back into view, the nun came over gathering up her robes and pulling them back on, then spoke with a smile.
"Quite adorable, isn't it? About ten years ago, after a typhoon passed through, it just appeared in the pond out of nowhere. We named it Yeongyeon, after this pool."
I was relieved the subject had shifted from bathing back to the tadpole, but Sister Cho-a's words left all three of us stunned.
"Ten years?"
"Ten years?"
First the shock that it wasn't a Fire Carp but a tadpole, then the shock of the nun suddenly undressing, and now the shock that the creature was already ten years old.
'T-ten years as a tadpole?'
And for good reason, because no amphibian could possibly remain a tadpole for ten years.
Granted, certain species of toad bred during a few rainy days in the desert, then burrowed underground as adults to sleep until the next rainy season, and some frog larvae could hibernate in their tadpole stage.
But that was either as an adult or limited to winter.
It was only natural for a tadpole to mature into an adult once spring arrived, so I hurried closer and dipped my hand into the pond water.
There was a chance that, being a Spiritual Creature, it had entered a prolonged hibernation because its environment wasn't suitable.
Tadpoles weren't particularly active to begin with, but they did occasionally swim around even during hibernation, so an ordinary person might not be able to tell the difference.
'It's not that cold, though?'
But the water wasn't particularly cold.
And the tadpole was scurrying around far too energetically to be in any state of hibernation.
'Definitely not hibernating.'
For the time being, I tugged on Hwa-eun's sleeve and got her to ask the nun various questions.
If we were going to bring the creature safely back to the Tang Family, we needed to gather as much information as possible about its environment and diet.
And about why it was still a tadpole.
[Hwa-eun, ask the nun if they've ever tried feeding it anything, whether its size is the same now as it was ten years ago, things like that. As detailed as you can.
We need to find out what it eats if we're going to take it with us.
I'll go around the pond in the meantime and check the surroundings.]
[Got it.]
"Sister Cho-a, would it be all right if I asked you a few questions?"
"Of course. What would you like to know?"
"Oh, I'm curious about the tad... I mean, the Fire Carp. So, um......."
Leaving Hwa-eun to her conversation with the nun, I moved quickly around the perimeter of the pond.
'Let's see what ecological secrets this place is hiding.'
***
The guest quarters at Botaam Temple.
After eating supper, Seol noona, Hwa-eun, and I had all gathered in a single room.
The reason we were crammed into one room was that I had asked to stay a few days to observe the creature's habits more closely.
Botaam Temple's policy was for three or four people to share a room, and they applied the same arrangement to guests.
I nearly balked at the arrangement, but thanks to Seol noona, I was already used to situations like this, so I sat on the edge of the dining table and relayed what I had learned that day.
"There was nothing particularly unusual around the pond. The water wasn't especially hot or cold.... Most of the pond is filled by rainfall, and a small amount of water trickles in through the crevices in the rock, but nothing out of the ordinary.
It's not as though the water has a high limestone content either. It was genuinely clean and clear.
Nothing special about the surrounding vegetation or trees, either."
When I finished recounting what I had found and looked at Hwa-eun, she nodded.
Picking up where I left off, Hwa-eun shared what she had learned from her conversation with the nun.
"When the nuns first discovered it, they tried leaving bits of rice and things for it, but it never ate any of it, so they stopped.
They seemed to just assume that since it was a Spiritual Creature, it didn't need food.
They said it has gotten a little bigger compared to ten years ago, but not by much."
It didn't eat anything, the nuns said, but that was only because they didn't know any better.
Having raised Spiritual Creatures myself, I was fairly certain it was eating something.
The fact that it had grown even slightly was evidence of that.
'It's definitely eating something, but what....'
Earlier, just in case, I had wondered whether it might be absorbing some form of energy the way Cho, Hyang, and Bin did, so I'd asked Seol noona to examine the flow of energy around the pond.
But just like the Sword Empress, all Seol noona could confirm was that the creature had no Inner Core, so I pressed Hwa-eun to continue.
"And?"
"Well, the nuns apparently visit the pool at night carrying lanterns to bathe. She said whenever they do, the creature swims up to greet them happily.
She mentioned they always have trouble on the way back down because the oil in their lanterns runs out, something like that, but I don't think it's particularly important."
"You're right. Nothing especially useful."
Neither Hwa-eun nor I had managed to uncover anything critical.
The most important problem if we wanted to take the creature with us was figuring out what the tadpole ate, and I couldn't help but furrow my brow at the puzzle.
From beside me, Seol noona spoke up, concern written on her face.
"By the way, Soryong, I asked around during dinner, and the nuns here absolutely adore the Fire Carp... or the tadpole, I mean. Will it be all right?
All they talked about over their meal was the tadpole.
Even if the Sword Empress agrees to give it to us, I get the feeling they'd cry and throw a fit if we tried to take it. Will that be okay?"
True to form for someone who took the care of pets seriously, Seol noona must have been worrying that the nuns would raise an uproar if we took the tadpole away. But there was no need for concern.
Even if the Sword Empress refused to hand it over, even if the Buddhist nuns wept and wailed, I had a perfectly good method for taking it with us no matter what.
"You don't need to worry about that. I can handle it."
"You?"
"Yes."
"Hmm.... If you say so."
Seol noona nodded at my reassurance.
She gazed out the window at the setting sun, then turned to us.
"Well, we'll leave that to Soryong then. In the meantime, let's talk to the Sword Empress and go up the mountain tonight, after dark."
"At night?"
"Even if there was nothing during the day, nighttime might be different. Animals are mostly active at night, so we might spot something we missed during the day."
"Ah, of course!"
Coming from someone who handled wild animals, it was only natural for Seol noona to suggest observing the creature's nighttime behavior.
Frogs and toads were, after all, mostly nocturnal.
That was our Seol noona for you.
Seol noona truly was worthy of being Maewoon Fabre's older sister.
"Then let's do that!"
***
Long after sunset, in the pitch-dark hours before dawn, when even the Buddhist nuns had finished their baths.
The three of us made our way to Moon Reflection Pool by memory, lantern in hand.
The reason we were allowed to move about the Sacred Peak on our own was simple enough: it wasn't some place of great significance, just a bathhouse.
True to its name, the moonlight rippled across the surface of Moon Reflection Pool when we arrived.
As we approached with the lantern, just as Hwa-eun had learned, the creature came scurrying through the water toward us.
"Little one, what on earth do you eat?"
Before checking the surroundings, Hwa-eun crouched by the water's edge holding the lantern and reached out her hand. The creature held perfectly still and let her touch it.
At that moment, Yeondu burst out from inside my robe and stared at it, licking her lips with longing.
-Shaaa....
It seemed she had finally accepted the devastating truth that it was not a Fire Carp. I stroked Yeondu's head with an apologetic expression.
"I promise I'll find you a real Fire Carp next time. I'm sorry, Yeondu."
-Shaaa-shaaa.
True to her good-natured temperament, Yeondu looked a little wistful for a moment, then nodded her head.
That was when it happened.
As if she couldn't quite let go of her disappointment, Yeondu glanced toward Hwa-eun, then suddenly let out a startled cry.
-Shaaaa!
The sharp sound piercing through the dead of night made everyone turn toward Yeondu. She kept jabbing her head in Hwa-eun's direction, clearly trying to alert us to something.
"What is it? What's wrong, Yeondu, what did you see?"
Though Seol noona and Hwa-eun scanned their surroundings, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
There was no sign of danger, nothing unusual at all, and both Hwa-eun and Seol noona wore expressions of utter confusion.
"What is it? It seems like Yeondu saw something, but there's nothing here."
"Why did she get so startled?"
'Saw something? What could Yeondu have possibly seen? In the middle of the night.... wait!?'
It hit me in that instant.
A single thought flashed through my mind.
I remembered that Yeondu had infrared vision, which meant that whatever she was seeing right now had to do with temperature.
I rushed over, grabbed the lantern Hwa-eun was holding, and brought it close to the surface of the water. The flame flickering above the oil reservoir inside the lantern began to stretch into a long, thin thread, streaming across the water's surface and being drawn straight into the tadpole's mouth.
*****
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