Chapter 150: Fire and Ice (1)
Translator: bjgoofy
The Sword Empress looked rather dumbfounded by my somewhat drastic method of cutting their attachment, but at least all the complaints vanished completely.
After all, the precept was absolute: no males, whether man or beast, could enter or remain in Botaam Temple without extraordinary reason, and they could not so much as set foot on the Sacred Peak.
And so, even the young Buddhist Nuns resigned themselves and bid Moon Shadow farewell, allowing us to leave Botaam Temple with the creature in tow without incident.
"Goodbye. Moon Shadow, stay healthy."
"Please take care."
The parting nuns wore wistful faces.
But from Moon Shadow, rather than any sense of longing, I got the distinct impression of relief, as though a weight had been lifted.
The reason was simple: the moment the creature was transferred onto the boat, it spat water from its mouth straight at the nuns.
"Moon Shadow must be sad too. It's probably spraying water instead of tears."
"Moon Shadow, we'll miss you."
The nuns interpreted the display as the creature's own way of expressing sorrow, but Cho tilted her head at their reaction, puzzled.
-Tssrit?
She had sensed the real reason, and sure enough, my vague suspicion turned out to be right.
The water-spitting was not out of sadness. It was out of fury.
Cho was letting me know through our mental link that Moon Shadow was absolutely livid.
'It's angry?'
-Tssrit!
Most likely, the creature resented ten years of being obliviously neglected, never properly fed. Seeing that, I decided that to build a good relationship with Moon Shadow, I would keep my promise and start feeding it the moment the boat set off.
Tadpoles, being the larvae of amphibians, are voracious eaters, gorging themselves until their stomachs nearly burst. Ten years of fasting would be enough to make anyone furious.
"Now then, as promised, shall we try feeding it?"
After offering one last Cupped Fist Salute to the Sword Empress, I stepped into the cabin.
When I announced it was time for feeding and turned toward the tall-rimmed water basin holding Moon Shadow, people were already crowded around it.
From my father-in-law to Hwa-eun, to Seol noona.
They were all hanging over the rim, watching the creature swim about with lazy, swaying motions.
There was something about the way a tadpole swam that had a lulling, mesmerizing charm, and since a new candidate for a Venomous Creature had just arrived, everyone seemed eager to get a better look.
"Haaah...."
"There's something about watching it that just makes you feel relaxed and drowsy."
"By the way, son-in-law, is this thing a toad or a frog?"
I gathered the lantern and oil bottle from the cabin and approached Moon Shadow as I answered.
"Hard to say. Even I can't tell with certainty when they're still tadpoles."
The reason I could not distinguish whether the creature was a frog or a toad, despite bearing the title of Maewoon Fabre, lay in the fact that the distinction between frogs and toads is inherently vague.
Even in my previous life, where taxonomy was highly developed, the two were barely differentiated.
Under the classification of Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Amphibia, Order Anura, which encompassed all frogs collectively, one simply appended Family Bufonidae at the end to designate toads.
If one insisted on drawing a line, a single species of Asian toad was called the "true toad", but separating them further was meaningless.
The criteria that did divide frogs from toads were not based on taxonomic differences, but on whether the skin was bumpy, or how well the animal tolerated life on land.
And even those distinctions varied by species, so they could hardly be called precise.
Thus, when they were still tadpoles and looked nearly identical, telling them apart was all the more difficult.
"So even you find some things challenging?"
"Yes, at this stage they all look so similar that it's hard to tell."
"And you said this thing eats fire? Let's see it, then."
When I stepped forward with the lantern and oil bottle, my father-in-law moved aside, clearly eager to witness the feeding.
I filled the oil lamp and used a fire striker to light it quickly.
Then, the moment I brought the lamp over the rim of the water basin, the creature darted over at once.
As it stretched its mouth toward the lamp, streams of flame began flowing into its maw, just as before.
"Oh, it really does eat fire."
My father-in-law marveled at the sight.
While he stood admiring Moon Shadow's mealtime, I asked whether he had any guesses about what kind of Venomous Creature it might be.
If anyone would know, it would be him.
"Do you happen to have any idea what kind of Venomous Creature this is?"
At that, my father-in-law fell into deep thought for a moment, then answered with an uncertain expression.
"If it's a toad or a frog, there are a couple in the Twenty-Four Poison Branches and a couple more among the Ten Great Venomous Creatures, but I can't say for certain. The ones recorded there are all fully grown specimens.
What's more, there's nothing written about what they eat. And some sections are so old and damaged that even I don't know the full details."
As my father-in-law said, the entries in The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven were all based on adult specimens.
There was nothing at all about their juvenile stages, so just as he said, certainty was out of reach.
'So even Father-in-law doesn't know this time. Can't be helped, I suppose?'
I could not confirm the creature's identity right away, but raising it would reveal the answer soon enough.
It was a bit disappointing, but I decided to use the opportunity to score some points instead.
"Hearing that, I realize just how weighty my duty is."
"Duty? What duty are you talking about?"
My father-in-law gave me a look that said, what's all this talk about duty?
I answered his question with a resolute expression.
"I mean Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures. So that it can serve as a reference for occasions like this, I must make certain to document everything about that creature in the Record."
At that, my father-in-law nodded with a deeply satisfied expression.
"That's my son-in-law, all right. Even at a time like this, thinking of the family's future generations."
Seeing how pleased he was, I, Maewoon Fabre, thought to myself that although I had been practically a Venomous Creature otaku in my previous life, I probably would have done just fine in the corporate world too.
***
Is there anything more frustrating than discovering a new species and having no reference material to consult?
In my previous life, books and the internet were so well developed that with a little searching, I could learn the habits and ecology of whatever creature had come into my hands. But the only reference I had now was The Compendium of Venomous Creatures Under Heaven.
I could not pass on my frustration to future generations. So after feeding Moon Shadow its fill of fire, I decided to seize the momentum and write the first chapter of Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures.
After all, aside from the title I had written when I first received the book, I had not managed a single line.
'Let's see, I'll start with an introduction first....'
For the introduction, I wrote about why Venomous Creatures were remarkable, along with a considerate note to future readers urging them not to suffer the same frustration I had.
「This Soryong leaves behind this Record of Venomous Creatures so that future generations may know how magnificent and beautiful Venomous Creatures truly are, and so that they need never endure the same frustration I have known.」
'Oh...... that's brilliant.'
And then, the first chapter.
There was no need to agonize over what to write.
The first chapter was a given.
'Obviously, the first chapter has to be about my girls, doesn't it?'
I had to write about the three Blue-Spotted Centipede sisters, the first Spiritual Creatures and Venomous Creatures I had ever encountered.
And so, the very first thing I wrote in the opening chapter was, naturally, about the Blue-Spotted Centipedes.
「Chapter One: Blue-Spotted Centipede.」
I wrote the heading and was about to begin the first line when a thought suddenly struck me.
'If it's too academic, it'll be boring, and the future scholars won't even bother reading it.'
The worry was that if it read like an encyclopedia or an academic journal, future disciples might find it too dull to pick up.
So rather than writing purely for the sake of conveying information, I decided to make it somewhat novelistic, recounting my experiences in an entertaining and gripping way.
With bits of useful information woven in throughout, of course.
It reminded me of the educational comics I had published back in my previous life, when I had been at the peak of my career.
「It was an evening of drizzling rain. The people who arrived at the abandoned conduit wore martial arts outfits bearing the character for Tang. One of the men among them asked me.......」
I was scribbling away, completely absorbed, when a voice broke through.
"Soryong?"
I snapped to attention and turned my head to find Hwa-eun, who had somehow come up right behind me and was peeking over my shoulder at what I had written.
I must have been so engrossed in writing Soryong's Record that I had failed to notice anyone approaching.
Setting the brush down, I answered her.
"Ah, Hwa-eun, what is it?"
"It's already time for dinner."
"Already?"
I had clearly started at lunchtime, and she was telling me it was nearly dinnertime.
At her words, I glanced toward the cabin window. The sun was already sinking below the distant horizon.
"Oh, is it that late already?"
"Yes. By the way, you were working on Soryong's Record of Venomous Creatures?"
"Yes, Hwa-eun."
When I nodded, she asked in a voice tinged with curiosity.
"Could I take a quick look? I'm curious. A book written by you, Soryong."
"You want to see it?"
"Yes."
I was a bit embarrassed, but she would need to see it eventually once it was finished anyway.
It might not be a bad idea to have her proofread it in case I had used any incorrect characters. I nodded.
"All right. Here."
I shifted aside and showed her Soryong's Record, and Hwa-eun studied the contents with bright, sparkling eyes.
As she read through the early sections, she praised me, calling it impressive.
"You wrote it in the style of a tale? That's amazing. It feels like I'm experiencing it all firsthand."
"I, I don't think it's that great."
"No, really. You have all sorts of talents, Soryong. I've never read a tale that draws you in like this."
By "tale", she probably meant something like a novel, and her praise was likely about how compelling the writing was.
My shoulders straightened just a little.
'Maybe I've stumbled onto an unexpected talent?'
And then, her praise continued.
"The parts describing the children are fun too. 'Cho, perhaps because she has always been treated as the eldest, considers herself the big sister and looks after her younger siblings well. But strictly speaking, they are true sisters, so when she acts like the big sister, it sometimes feels like she is mimicking an adult, which is rather endearing.'
'Bin loves her father more than anyone, but pretends otherwise and plays coy.'
'Hyang has such an easygoing personality that when she's asleep, she sleeps like a log and wouldn't notice if someone carried her off.' Ahaha...."
That was when it happened.
A chorus of sharp cries pierced the air.
-Tssrit!?
-Tsurur!?
-Tss!?
I turned toward the sound of my three children's cries, and there they were at the cabin entrance, all three of them staring at us.
What I felt from their hearts was, 'What did we just hear?'
I had written it in a novelistic style, true, but since it was academic content, I had described them objectively and without embellishment. Apparently, the content had not sat well with my three daughters.
The three of them came scurrying toward me, and Cho and Bin cried out at Hwa-eun.
-Tssrit!
-Tsurur!
It felt like they were demanding she read it again.
At the sight, Hwa-eun stammered.
"R-read it again?"
-Tsrr!
-Tsrrit!
Hwa-eun glanced at me nervously, then, cowed by the children's fierce intensity, began haltingly reading the passage aloud once more.
"'Ch-Cho, perhaps because she has always been treated as the eldest, considers herself the big sister and looks after her younger siblings well. But strictly speaking, they are true sisters, so wh-when she acts like the big sister, it sometimes feels like she is mimicking an adult, which is rather endearing.'
'B-Bin loves her father more than anyone, but, um.... that is. She pretends otherwise and plays coy.'
'Hyang has such an easygoing personality that when she's asleep, she wouldn't notice if someone carried her off, like a, a log?'"
The moment Hwa-eun finished, the three daughters pressed close to my side.
Hyang climbed up my body and onto the desk, then picked up the brush in her mouth, placed it in my hand, and let out a cry.
-Tssrit!
It felt distinctly like a demand for revisions.
"G-girls. That kind of scholarly writing has to be objective. It's...... a matter of a scholar's honor and pride...."
I tried explaining to the children about a scholar's honor and pride, but what would they care about any of that?
In the end, badgered by all three, I had no choice but to stuff the text full of the most flattering embellishments imaginable, beautifying them to their complete satisfaction.
'To think I'd end up whitewashing my own work....'
Having been reborn into the Central Plains only to experience literary falsification, I felt I could understand, just a little, the anguish of the scholars who suffered in the great book burnings. [TL Note: 분서(粉書), literally "powdering/whitewashing writing", is a pun on 분서갱유(焚書坑儒), the infamous Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars under Qin Shi Huang. The protagonist plays on the similar sound to compare being forced to "prettify" his writing with the destruction of honest scholarship.]
Whether having one's works burned or being forced to dress up one's writing with lies, both were sorrows that cut deep for any scholar.
***
After the whitewashing incident, nothing of note occurred, and the boat sailed on toward Sichuan, crossing the sea and traveling upriver.
Moon Shadow ate far more than expected, so we had to dock twice to purchase additional oil, but that was about it.
Then, just before arriving in Sichuan,
I could finally feel small bumps emerging at the boundary between Moon Shadow's head and tail.
Checking to see how much the creature had grown, I ran my fingers along its body and felt the little protrusions, the first signs of hind legs sprouting between its head and legs.
"It looks like the hind legs are about to come in."
"Really?"
"I'm so curious what it'll turn out to be."
The appearance of bumps between a tadpole's head and tail meant its hind legs were developing.
I had worried that perhaps ten years stuck as a tadpole had halted its growth entirely, so this was a relief.
Then, that evening.
Strangely, after finishing dinner, I felt an unusual heat.
"It seems a bit hot. Is everyone else all right?"
"Hot?"
"It should be much cooler here than at Botaam Temple, though?"
Seol noona was right. Botaam Temple was far to the south of Sichuan.
Yet it somehow felt hot. I was puzzling over that when, suddenly, a burst of blue flame shot from my exhaled breath.
-Burst!
"Kgh...."
"S-Soryong!"
"Soryong!"
Something was clearly wrong.
My father-in-law rushed over, examined my body, and then spoke with a startled expression.
"You've been poisoned!"
At those words, all our eyes turned toward Moon Shadow, swimming in its water basin.
If I had been poisoned, that creature was the only possible culprit.
*****
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