Chapter 165: Wildfire (2) [Illustration Included]

Translator: bjgoofy

"Ryong, where do you think you're going all of a sudden!? And why are you carrying Hwayang! You'll get poisoned again at this rate! Hwa-eun! Hwa-eun! Come look at Soryong!"

From behind me, Seol noona's scolding lodged in the back of my skull, sharp as a thrown hidden weapon.

And she wasn't even one of the Tang Family....

What's more, she'd even gone and called out to Hwa-eun, who was inside the cabin playing with Hyang, Ice, Snow, and the others.

They say the lowest thing in the world is tattling, and it seemed she was about to go and tattle on me to Hwa-eun.

'Seol noona, I trusted you.... How could you....'

I felt a bit betrayed, but, well, it was fair enough.

Since touching Hwayang meant getting poisoned, and on top of that I was clutching the little guy to my chest while suddenly sprinting toward a burning mountain, Seol noona's nagging clung to me like inescapable fate.

But even if I got poisoned again and collapsed spewing fire, even if I'd get an earful from Hwa-eun later, how on earth could a real man, the Maewoon Fabre, possibly resist this?

This was the perfect chance to confirm just what kind of animal's tadpole Hwayang actually was, so I had to pull it off even if it cost me my life.

Right now, Hwayang was like a scratch-off lottery ticket I hadn't scratched yet.

I needed to scratch it right away, because a chance this perfect might never come again.

If Hwayang's food were something that cost nothing, like Cho's or Bin's, that would be one thing, but the little guy's food was fire itself.

After all, it was the kind of thing that ran up a fuel bill, and making a blaze on this scale would take far more than a coin or two.

'So even if I ended up vomiting blood instead of fire, there was no way I could pass this up.'

Seol noona seemed to be worried about my body, but it wasn't as though I'd touched Hwayang without thinking.

I, this Fabre, was a man who handled Venomous Creatures. Would I really have touched Hwayang without a single thought?

I was making the attempt precisely because I had something to fall back on.

With Snow, Ice, and Dong-i around, it would be a bit of an ordeal, but I'd surely be detoxified one way or another.

And since I'd already been detoxified once, I figured I might have built up a little Resistance by now.

And so, leaving behind those dagger-like shouts and hidden-weapon glares, I quickly unleashed my Qinggong, crossed the waterway Bin had carved open, and headed down toward the foot of the mountain.

One of the four spots where the fire had started was right up ahead, and by now the entire mountain was blazing like one enormous bonfire.

The fierce heat made it hard to get close, so to feed Hwayang the fire, it seemed I'd have to shave it away gently, starting from the edges.

'I'll have to peel it away carefully, nice and slow, like the skin off an apple.'

Having laid out my plan, I reached the foot of the mountain where the fire had begun, Hwayang still clutched in my arms, and Sword Dragon hyung-nim, who had been surveying the flames, turned to look at me as I arrived and asked with a startled expression.

"Younger Brother Soryong, it's dangerous here, why have you come so close? Hm? And what's that, now? Did you have yet another Venomous Creature?"

On top of the searing flames, while all the other little ones had shown themselves at least once, Hwayang had stayed inside the water bucket in the cabin the whole time, so this was hyung-nim's first time seeing him.

"Yes, it's another Venomous Creature of mine. I'm here to feed the little guy."

"Food?"

As hyung-nim blinked at the word 'food', I felt squirming against my chest.

Unable to hold back in front of such an enormous meal, Hwayang thrashed and tried to lunge forward.

"All right. All right. Let's go. Go on."

Soothing Hwayang, I aimed the little guy's mouth out in front of me and thrust him forward.

And as I slowly approached the flames, the great blaze burning on the tree ahead swirled and was sucked straight into Hwayang's mouth.

At that, Sword Dragon hyung-nim's astonished cry came from behind me.

"Younger Brother Soryong! The flames there are too fierce.... Hkk! It's, it's eating the fire?"

He clearly couldn't believe that the flames engulfing a huge tree had been sucked into Hwayang's mouth in an instant.

Even I was a bit taken aback right now, so how astonishing and uncanny must it be for Sword Dragon hyung-nim?

The reason I was startled was that, perhaps because both its front and hind legs had grown in, the way Hwayang ate fire now was completely different from before.

Back when it had no legs, the flames had been drawn in thin, like a slender thread, but now they were sucked up in an instant, like some giant vacuum cleaner.

'Whoa.... that's insane.'

As I stared blankly at the little guy after his one-shot of the flames, Hwayang turned his head to look back at me.

Then Hwayang swung his tail and smacked me across both cheeks.

-Slap. Slap.

"Ack! R-right, I get it. I get it."

It had the feel of 'snap out of it and give me my food, fast.'

Coming to my senses like Heungbu after a slap from his elder brother Nolbu, I quickly moved toward the next patch of flames. [TL Note: Heungbu and Nolbu are brothers from a classic Korean folktale; Nolbu is the greedy, cruel elder brother and Heungbu the kindhearted younger one.]

Sure, I'd been smacked across the cheek by the little guy, but I was overjoyed about it.

His tail was incredibly soft and wrapped snugly against my cheek, and who else in this whole world had ever been slapped on the cheek by the tail of a giant tadpole, besides me?

'Got hit, but I'm happy....'

Grinning goofily, I quickly thrust the little guy forward and moved sideways, off to one side and then the other.

And then a fantastic sight unfolded.

With every step I took, every time I shifted position, every nearby ember and every great blaze alike was swallowed into Hwayang's mouth.

The surrounding flames were drawn into Hwayang's mouth as if a vacuum cleaner were sucking up everything around it.

But Hwayang seemed dissatisfied with something, and with a thoroughly disgruntled expression he kept turning his head back to hurry me along, as if to say 'move faster.'

"I'm hurrying too, but this isn't as easy as it looks, Hwayang."

Hwayang wanted me to hurry, but this was by no means an easy task.

Even with the mountain ablaze, the edges were just small fires that had sprung up here and there and linked together, so to shave them off from the rim, I had to go to each one in turn and feed it to him.

That was because Hwayang sucked up connected flames all at once, but he couldn't do the same with the ones that were separated.

Also, perhaps because Hwayang absorbed the heat along with the flames in front of me, those felt no worse than a sauna, but the flames off to the sides were another matter.

If I slipped up and ventured even a little too far inward, it felt like stepping into a blast furnace.

So, watching my surroundings and approaching as carefully as I could, I had no choice but to be slow, and Hwayang clearly wasn't satisfied with all the delay.

"I'm going to have to try a different approach here, aren't I?"

One way or another, I had to come up with some kind of plan.

Because at this rate, it didn't look like I'd manage to satisfy Hwayang.

And since the flames wouldn't keep burning forever, I needed to feed him as much as possible, as fast as possible.

After all, once the trees had all burned away, the wildfire would die down too.

'Isn't there some other way?'

I had stopped walking for a moment and was gazing at the burning mountain, racking my brain for some good idea, when it happened.

As I stared blankly at the center of that massive blaze, voices reached me from behind, from where Sword Dragon hyung-nim stood.

"Ryong! You get back here right now!?"

"Soryong! It's dangerous! Come back!"

Hwa-eun and Seol noona had arrived at some point and were calling out to me from back there.

That was when Seol noona's clothing caught my eye.

No, to be exact, it was the leopard pelt draped over Seol noona's shoulders and head that caught my eye.

Since Seol noona normally went around in a miniskirt and short sleeves, it seemed she'd thrown the hide over herself because of the flames.

That, and the center of the blaze I'd been staring at a moment ago, overlapped as afterimages in my mind.

The fur pelt draped over Seol noona's shoulders, and the Heart of the Fire.

What came to mind was a killer combo.

'Should I take a gamble on this? It's high risk, high return, right?'

I dashed over to the two of them and asked Seol noona to lend me the hide she had draped over herself, at which point Hwa-eun and Seol noona seized me from either side and hauled me off backward.

"Seol noona! Would you lend me that?"

"Don't you even think about pulling something now!"

"Soryong, let's talk for a moment."

Being dragged backward, I explained that it was now or never.

"C-calm down, both of you, and just hear me out. If Hwayang misses this chance, he might never reach his Adult Form, I'm telling you."

"Hm? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Why is that?"

"Well, it's like this......."

As I was marched off, earnestly explaining the situation, the two of them fell into thought for a moment, then nodded along.

"I understand what you're saying, but won't it be far too dangerous?"

"She's right, Soryong. It's much too dangerous!"

But it seemed they couldn't shake their worry no matter what.

With the flames raging like that, they seemed afraid I might get hurt.

But was I a man to give up?

This man, Fabre, was one who knew nothing of giving up.

"I'll do it as safely as I possibly can. So I won't get hurt. Please. Please! Please! Hwa-eun! Seol noona! Please!"

"W-wait, talk without clinging to me, Soryong. No, don't put your hand around my waist. No, w-wait, no...."

"You think this noona will give in just because you beg like.... no, not the shoulders...."

They resisted stubbornly at first, but when I pleaded with them wearing the face of a husband begging to buy a game console, in the end the two of them found their heads nodding.

Throwing in some extra service by massaging Seol noona's shoulders and slipping my hand around Hwa-eun's waist was a little bonus on the side.

In the end, Seol noona handed me the hide she'd been wrapped in and asked.

"But what are you planning to do with this?"

At Seol noona's question, I took the hide and hurried over to a nearby waterway.

And after soaking the fur thoroughly with water, I draped it over myself.

And the action that followed was setting Hwayang atop my head and leaping straight into the flames.

"This is what I'm going to do."

"Soryong!"

"Soryong! When you get back, you are in so much trouble!"

Since it seemed they'd never allow it if I told them this was my plan, I moved at once, and sure enough, the two of them shouted after me in fury from behind.

But there was nothing for it.

Even if I got pummeled for it later, a real man had to move now.

To get Hwayang to eat as much fire as possible, I had to reach the Heart of the Fire at the center of the blaze, and it seemed I'd never get close to that Heart of the Fire, where the flames burned fiercest, unless I did it this way.

Whatever happened after that, the me in some other universe would handle it.

'Me of the other multiverse. I'm counting on you!'

-Whoosh.

The flames blazing fiercely above my head were sucked into Hwayang's mouth, and I immediately set my course and ran for the valley stream flowing down from up the mountain.

No matter that I'd thrown a water-soaked hide over myself, at this rate I'd burn to death along the way.

However much water I'd soaked into the fur hide, it would evaporate anyway, so my plan was to follow the waterway I'd scouted out nearby, keep re-soaking the hide with water, and make my way toward the Heart of the Fire.

And so I ran for a little while, letting Hwayang, perched on my head, suck up the fire.

When I reached the valley stream and dipped my feet into the water, it felt as warm as a hot spring.

'Fire really is no joke, huh.'

It seemed the shallow stream had been warmed through by the heat of the raging fire.

I soaked the fur hide in the water once more and flung myself up along the valley.

Sparks and embers poured down from the burning mountain like a glittering waterfall.

My eyes stung and stung from the searing, blazing flames.

And so I climbed the mountain along the valley for a good while.

"Oh no, is this the end of it? The summit's still a long way off, though?"

But Hwayang and I couldn't reach the Heart of the Fire we were after.

After about thirty minutes I'd reached the end of the valley, but the place where the stream began was nowhere near the Heart of the Fire.

"Is the Heart of the Fire just out of reach?"

The area around me had become a safe zone for now, since Hwayang had sucked up the flames, but with no waterway left, I couldn't head any higher.

It was a shame, but there was nothing more I could do.

I lifted Hwayang down from my head, met his eyes, and spoke.

"Hwayang, we tried, but this is as far as we go. So.... Gyaaaaaa!?"

The instant I set Hwayang down and was about to say there was nothing for it now, that he should eat a reasonable amount and we should head back.

Hwayang's tail, with only two-thirds of it left, caught my eye.

It hadn't been cut off; the tail had simply grown shorter from all the fire he'd sucked down on the way up.

The words tumbling out of me were changing before I even realized it.

"Right, just because a man's put in the effort doesn't mean it's over, you've got to get a good result out of it! Of course. To heck with it, let's push on a little more! A man's born once and dies once, not twice, right?"

Granted, if I died, it would be my second time. In any case, the brave boast had slipped out before I knew it.

I crouched down by the bubbling spring and racked my brain over what on earth to do.

That was the moment.

-Tssrit?

Cho's voice rang out in my head, asking where her dad was.

When I looked up at the sky, I saw Cho circling through the air, searching for me.

'That's it!'

In that instant, a realization came to me.

A thought flared up in my mind like a spark: that the fiercest of the rising flames, the peak of the entire blaze, was its very topmost point.

The thought brushed past me that, to feed him as much as possible, I could just have him slurp it up right from the tip of the blazing flames.

"Hwayang, first let's gobble up as much of the surrounding flames as we can!"

Since I needed to bring Cho down here, I had Hwayang devour as much of the surrounding fire as possible, then called Cho down to this spot.

'Cho! Dad's right here! Come on over!'

At that, Cho, who'd been circling overhead, spotted us and swooped down through the flames, then immediately started scolding me.

-Tsurur! Tsur! Tss tss chirr!

The nagging had the feel of something she'd picked up from watching her mother, Hwa-eun.

I calmed Cho down and explained my plan to her in my head.

'Cho, settle down and hear me out. Hwayang's gone hungry for a whole ten years, and if not now, there won't be another chance. So we have to help Hwayang.......'

When I quickly showed Cho the scene I was imagining in my head, she stiffened her antennae bolt upright.

To her question of whether I really meant to do this, I nodded.

-Tssrit?

What I'd shown Cho in my mind was this: cutting Seol noona's fur hide into strips to make cords.

And using those to strap my body to the front of Cho's.

And then rising into the sky and plunging down like a meteor toward the summit of the burning mountain, Hwayang thrust out in front.

Since Hwayang sucked up the heat along with the flames, the space behind him stayed safe, so the idea was to hold Hwayang out in front of Cho and charge straight for the burning mountain's summit like a single arrowhead, so to speak?

Cho sent back a feeling of sheer disbelief at my insane proposal.

'Cho, you're the daughter Dad loves most of all, so you'll grant Dad's wish, won't you?'

-Churoot?

At those few words, a moment later she had no choice but to plummet down through the air alongside us.

"All right, here we all go!"

The three of us plunged like a meteor from the sky above the madly blazing mountaintop, Hwayang held out in front.

The instant Hwayang touched the tip of the flames.

The flames that had engulfed the whole mountain whipped into a colossal vortex and were sucked into Hwayang's mouth.

-KWHOOOOSH.

Like a gigantic black hole of fire, no, a red hole.

And in the moment every last flame was sucked in and vanished.

The three of us dropped down into the heap of white ash piled thick across the mountain summit.

-Thud!

'Is everyone okay!?'

-Chirr chirr!

He'd sucked up the fire and the heat completely, and Cho had cut our speed at the last moment, so there shouldn't be any damage from the fall or the fire.

But when I checked, just in case, whether any of them had gotten hurt, Cho's reply came back that she was fine.

Then, as the ash that had billowed up from the impact scattered on the wind, Hwayang's form was at last revealed from within the heap of ash.

His Adult Form, that is.

'Gyaaaa.... huh!?'

But something about Hwayang's appearance was a little off.

He was cute, sure, but the problem was that he was too cute, if anything?

'Don't tell me it was a dud lottery ticket!?'

Hwayang was somehow lacking in dignity.

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