Chapter 112: Running Away (5)

Translator: bjgoofy

‘I won’t return until I’m bigger and prettier than Cho.’ That was the last feeling that Bin left with me.

It seemed like she felt that since Cho had grown bigger, I loved Cho more than her, so she wanted to become bigger and prettier than Cho.

[Bin! Bin! Do you know how many bad men there are out there! Hurry back! It’s dangerous outside! Daddy was wrong, okay!?]

I sent a few more thoughts her way, but there was no response from Bin anymore.

Our relationship had been a little cold lately, but I never imagined she’d go through with a sudden escape.

Shocked by the news of Bin’s disappearance, I supported the staggering Hwa-eun and seated her in a chair.

“Calm down and sit for a moment, Hwa-eun.”

Then I checked exactly when the little one had disappeared.

If she hadn’t gotten far, I planned to bring her back quickly.

“When exactly did she vanish, Hwa-eun?”

“She was definitely with me right before I went to bed. But I had a strange feeling and opened my eyes, and she wasn’t next to me. I called out to her, but there was no answer... The door was slightly open and I had a weird feeling, so I asked the guards outside, and they said she crawled out of my room and went toward your place, Soryong.”

“My place?”

“Yes, Soryong.”

Hearing that she had gone toward my place, I asked the others.

“Did any of you see Bin come looking for me?”

-Kkuggku?

-Tsururur.

-Shaaah.

Ice and Snow, the lizards, as well as Cho and Hyang, and Yeondu the snake, all nocturnal.

They were always awake while I slept, so I asked if any of them had seen Bin, but they all shook their heads.

If Bin had come, there’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed. It seemed she hadn’t reached my quarters after all.

I asked Hwa-eun again.

“Hwa-eun, when did you fall asleep last night?”

At my question, Hwa-eun seemed to think for a moment, then counted on her fingers before answering.

“Hae hour.”

“Hae hour, huh...”

If she fell asleep at Hae hour, that would be somewhere between 9 and 11 p.m.

Now, it’s around 3 a.m.

If that’s the case, then it’s been at least four hours, up to six hours since Bin disappeared.

Even for a short-legged centipede, that’s plenty of time to get far away.

She had molted and gotten much faster, so there was no telling how far she might’ve gone.

“She must already be pretty far away?”

“Sh-should we wake all the family’s guards!?”

A mother whose child had run away was understandably anxious, suggesting we wake the whole household, but since it had already been over four hours since she went missing, and it was the middle of the night, it wasn’t the right time.

It would be a bit much to wake everyone just to find a pet venomous creature.

So for now, Hwa-eun and I decided to search for her ourselves.

“It’s late. Let’s try looking ourselves first. She’s likely already far away, and waking everyone now probably won’t help.”

We would confirm the direction she went for now, and once daylight came, it’d be faster to use flying friends rather than crawling ones to search for her.

We had the Golden-Furred King Bee, after all. I intended to get their help.

Ordinary bees usually forage within about 3 kilometers.

But they can fly up to 12 kilometers, and the Golden-Furred King Bees were more than a hundred times larger, so they could probably search much larger areas.

“Did any of you happen to see Bin?”

“Bin?”

So the first ones I checked with were the guards stationed along the roads and gates.

Bin, being an arthropod, was always out and about.

Rather than hiding in narrow, damp corners, she likely used roads and gates, so we first asked the guards stationed at Tang Family’s pathways and gates about her whereabouts.

“Oh, I mean the centipede I raise.”

When I asked by name, the guards blinked.

I explained again that I was looking for one of the centipedes I raised, and one guard pointed toward the mountain peak and said,

“Ah, I saw one crawl up the path toward the mountain peak earlier.”

“The mountain?”

I tilted my head at the mention of the mountain, and Hwa-eun’s reproachful voice rang out.

“Why didn’t you stop her! Why didn’t you notify us!?”

“Uh? W-well, all of Soryong-nim’s venomous creatures understand human speech so well, I thought she just went out for a bit and would come back... I’m sorry, Young Miss.”

“Calm down, Hwa-eun. The guards couldn’t have known whether she was running away or just going for a stroll.”

The fact that the child had gone missing seemed to torment Hwa-eun more than it did me.

Since we’d heard she disappeared toward the mountain, I ran back to my quarters and plucked the string by the window.

-Ting.

Because we had someone no, something, that would know where someone went if they moved during the night.

That was Yohwa.

Yohwa had laid her webs all around the Tang Family grounds, so if someone moved during the night, the chances were high that she would know.

-Thud.

As soon as I plucked the signaling thread, sure enough, Yohwa flew through the air and arrived swiftly in front of us, asking why she’d been summoned.

-Kisit?

“Yohwa, Bin disappeared, do you know which direction she went?”

-Kishi!

“Oh, she does know. Hwa-eun.”

“Where is it, Yohwa?”

In response to our questions, Yohwa picked me up and immediately began moving.

She seemed to know exactly where Bin had gone.

“Let’s go together, Soryong.”

Following on Cho, Hwa-eun and I arrived at the inner courtyard where Yingying was staying, a place right along the path that led toward the mountain.

-Kisit!

Yohwa pointed up the mountain, indicating the direction.

It seemed this was the last location Yohwa had confirmed.

Her web likely ended here.

“Looks like she went toward the mountain from here.”

With help from Cho and Yohwa, we climbed up to the mountain peak, but all we found near the summit was one dead owl, foaming at the mouth.

Judging from the melted area around its bite wound, it seemed likely this was Bin’s doing.

“Looks like she was here at least…”

As I poked the owl’s corpse with a stick and turned to Hwa-eun, she buried her face in my shoulder and spoke in a sorrowful voice.

“What should we do, Soryong?”

‘Normally, running away from home means you suffer a bit outside and then come back...’

If it were a person who ran away, they’d come slinking back as soon as they got hungry or started missing home.

That’s why I’d usually suggest we just wait a bit, but the one who’d run away was a spiritual creature, a little girl, and an centipede at that, so I had no idea how this would go.

[Bin!]

So all I could do was keep sending my thoughts toward Bin, who wouldn’t answer.

***

At the peak of Tang Family Mountain, where Sichuan’s Tang Family is located.

A single centipede was slowly crawling up the highest rock at the summit.

Under the moonlight, the centipede’s appearance was far from ordinary, much bigger than a typical one, about as thick as a person’s forearm, and her yellow body was covered with distinct blue spots.

Yes, it was Bin, who had left the Tang Family in Sichuan.

Bin had crawled all the way up the mountain and now sat on the highest rock, gazing quietly down toward the base.

In her view, far in the distance, she could see the glow of lights.

Seeing the place where her daddy and mommy were made her antennae droop involuntarily.

Though she hadn’t gone far, she was already thinking of her mom’s embrace and her dad’s voice.

Since she’d never been separated from her dad since birth, her antennae drooped for a reason.

A weak, pitiful sound escaped her mouth without her realizing it.

-Tsur...

「“Oh, our Bin is so pretty.”」

But when her father’s voice echoed in her mind, the longing was pushed aside by a surge of resentment, and she twitched her antennae again.

-Tsurut!

She still hadn’t forgiven him.

To steel her resolve again, Bin decided to recall all the reasons she was resentful toward her dad.

She had promised herself she wouldn’t return until she became bigger and prettier than Cho, but now, having only just left home, she already felt her resolve wavering. So she needed to remember why she left in the first place.

He only called Cho “big sister”.

He gave Cho the inner core of the Flying Celestial Serpent, making her grow bigger and prettier, and only ever said Cho was pretty.

He praised Cho for being able to emit killing intent.

When bad guys came, he only relied on Cho.

Flying in the sky with Cho and saying Cho was the best.

Meanwhile, all he ever did to Bin was lie.

Bin, too, had felt the killing intent directed toward her father and thought, of course, she could emit killing intent too.

Of course, she didn’t expect to make countless bats tremble like Cho could, not right away, at least.

After all, there was still a size difference between her and Cho.

So at first, she had started with a single small bat, and next was a foolish man.

In the end, it was because of her father's lie that Bin, growing increasingly confident, ended up doing something foolish, shooting killing intent even in a moment of danger for her father.

She had wanted to immobilize the woman charging at her dad with killing intent and be praised by him…

Just thinking about it again made her antennae tremble with resentment.

If she had done it wrong, wouldn’t her dad have been hurt?

And all of this might never have happened in the first place if, back when they were fighting over the inner core, her dad hadn't held onto Bin and Hyang.

It was all the more upsetting because all the praise from her dad could have been Bin’s.

Even the time he brought her the discarded shell Cho had shed and told her to eat it.

As more and more grievances came to mind, the drooping antennae of Bin sprang upright with determination.

-Tsururur!

Thus, regaining her resolve, Bin swiftly leapt down from the rock.

To return to the place she remembered visiting with her dad.

Bin’s adventure was quite rough.

She had to make a worthless owl that flew at her thinking she was prey foam at the mouth, and similarly had to continue a bloody battle with a hedgehog that rushed at her thinking she was food.

Though, of course, neither of them was any real match for Bin.

After several such scuffles, Bin, relying on her memory of the night and distant sensations she could feel, was finally able to locate the place she had been searching for.

-Tsururururu!

From atop a pitch-black pit, Bin glared downward threateningly.

Snakes that had been coiled around drooping tree branches bolted and scattered at lightning speed.

From the depths of the dark pit, a writhing black aura came into view, something only Cho had seen before.

Yes, this was the cave she had visited twice with her dad.

The reason Bin had come here was because an old memory had resurfaced.

The swelling sensation she had felt when she ate that irritating shell of Cho’s reminded her of the feeling she’d had when she jumped into this pit long ago to punish the snakes that had bitten her dad.

She still remembered how, afterward, her shell had turned black and her mom and dad had both worried.

It made her think that maybe, just like when she ate Cho’s shell, she could get something here too.

Just as she was quietly staring down into the pit, steeling herself to jump in, her father’s thoughts reached her heart.

[Bin, where are you? Daddy was wrong. Mommy’s worried, come back.]

He must have only just realized she was gone.

Hearing her father’s desperate heart and that her mother was worried made Bin’s body flinch, but she knew that if she returned now, nothing would change.

Cho would always be bigger and prettier than Bin, and her dad would keep favoring Cho more than Bin.

Though her dad said he would get her an inner core, it didn’t seem like inner cores were easy to come by.

That’s why Bin shouted her feelings toward her dad, that she wouldn’t return until she was bigger and prettier than Cho.

-Tsururur!

And then, she hurled herself into the pitch-black pit.

Wishing with all her heart that this pit would fulfill her wish and make her bigger and prettier than Cho.

-Tak.

The moment she landed at the bottom of the pit.

As soon as Bin’s feet touched the floor, a massive energy surged through the tips of her antennae.

Just as she’d hoped, something tremendous began pouring into her.

Her antennae stiffened upright.

From the countless tips of her legs, dark energy flooded her body in waves.

Bin’s chest swelled with joy, and as her body slowly turned black, her consciousness began to fade.

In that fading awareness.

Bin hoped that when she woke up, she would have a big, beautiful body that made her the most beloved in her dad’s eyes.

Because she loved her dad the most.

And because she wanted to be loved the most by him.