Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Swoosh!With a soft swoosh, something red was sucked into Hyang’s mouth in the blink of an eye.

The stone that had been in its mouth disappeared with that sound.

“My, my stone! My token!”

“Hyang! Spit it out! Spit it out right now!”

Seeing this, I immediately lunged forward, trying to pry open Hyang’s mouth, but the little creature only mumbled as it swallowed, refusing to spit out the stone.

“Hyang! Can’t you spit it out!?”

Gulp.Then, a very clean sound followed as something went down its throat. Despite Hyang’s mumbling, even with me holding its mouth open, the stone was swallowed.

“No, no... My, my token... The stone Yangrang gave me...”

Seon-hwa stared blankly at the disappearance of the engagement gift.

It was supposed to be a very meaningful gift, but now Hyang had swallowed it.

However, there was no need to worry.

Although I didn’t know what the stone was exactly, Hyang wouldn’t be able to digest it. It would surely spit it out in the end.

Even if it had swallowed a stone, amphibians like frogs or toads could spit out their stomach contents because they could regurgitate their stomachs whole.

This phenomenon, called ”amphibian stomach washing,” meant that after a short wait, Hyang would likely spit it out.

“Don’t worry, Seon-hwa. I don’t know why it’s doing this, but it’ll spit it out soon. It can’t digest a ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) stone.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes. It should spit it out soon. It knows it’s not its food.”

Everyone watched Hyang intently, tense.

Suddenly, Hyang’s body began to wriggle.

Just like a cat coughing up a hairball, Hyang squirmed, and after a while, spat out its stomach whole.

Then, there was a sound of something hitting the stone floor.

Thud. Clink.“It’s out!” “It’s out!”

“...Huh!?”

“...Huh?”

The stone that Seon-hwa had been waiting for rolled out, but once they checked, confusion spread among the group.

Clearly, Hyang had swallowed a bright red stone, but the stone that came out, soaked in saliva, was a completely unexpected transparent one.

“W-What’s this...?”

“Uh...”

“My... my stone...”

The voices of Seon-hwa, Hyang, and I were full of confusion.

“Must be the saliva. I’ll wipe it off.”

I quickly wiped the saliva off with my clothes, but the stone that was once red had now turned into a small, hexagonal, transparent one.

Though I wanted to believe it was just because of the saliva, the stone had completely lost its color.

Wiping it off did nothing.

“I’m... sorry, Seon-hwa.”

“I’m sorry, Seon-hwa.”

The kid had caused a big mess. What could we do?

It was only natural for the parents to apologize.

And it wasn’t just any random object—this was an engagement gift, and now it was ruined.

When I had briefly seen it, it had looked like a beautiful red stone, but now it looked like a crystal.

The stone that I had handed to Seon-hwa, once bright red, had now turned into a crystal-like form, making Seon-hwa look devastated as he picked it up with his fingers.

“Yangrang’s token... My token... It was a red stone, like the color of my lips. Yangrang said we shouldn’t change, like the color of the stone, but now...”

The once red stone, now pale like a faded stone, left Seon-hwa’s lips looking just as colorless.

It had been a meaningful gift, but now its color was gone.

Seon-hwa was lost in his thoughts, devastated by the fact that his token had lost its color. Hyang and I felt deeply sorry for him.

‘Hyang, you little rascal!’

I knew that sometimes kids would do things that would require an apology, but I didn’t expect the first apology to be because of Hyang.

Just then, a voice that had been watching the situation from the side spoke up.

“Seon-hwa, the stone is just a gift. My feelings for you haven’t changed, so please don’t put too much importance on the stone.”

“Yangrang...”

‘Oh, the goosebumps.’

Yangrang, as simple as he was, was a straightforward person, but who had coated him in butter?

Had he dipped into cheese fondue and come out? Or maybe he’d just chugged the oil from grilling some pork belly?

Was he now the sweet, charismatic middle-aged man?

They say love makes you a poet, but this was... much.

Yangrang’s overly sentimental words made all of us shake with discomfort, but then he continued.

“And isn’t it the foolish So-Sohyeop who taught me and connected us through the Moonlight Elder? Please don’t criticize too much.”

“Alright, Yangrang.”

With his words, Seon-hwa seemed a little cheered up, shaking his head and speaking.

“Like Yangrang said, the stone isn’t really a big deal, so don’t worry too much about it. You two.”

“Thank you, Seon-hwa, Yangrang.”

“Thank you. Both of you.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Thanks? For me to repay the debt I owe to my little So-Sohyeop, this isn’t enough.”

Yangrang, surprisingly loyal, had some surprising depth. Although Seon-hwa, who had led us through the Yunnan jungle to the border, had become a little simpler, it was a good thing for us in many ways.

After exchanging another round of thanks, Hyang and I simultaneously turned our heads toward one person.

Now that the apologies were done, it was time to give someone a piece of our minds.

“Hyang?”

“Hyang?”

We must have thought that, since we were busy apologizing, we wouldn’t notice Hyang’s movements, but both Seon-hwa and I had been keeping an eye on it.

So, when Hyang, sneaking away from the altar and crawling home, flinched at our call, we immediately sprang into action.

Squeak... Squeak?The plump creature couldn’t turn its head, so its whole body slowly rotated toward us at the sound of our call. But before it could fully turn, we caught one of its front paws in each of our hands.

Then, with its paws held firmly, it was swiftly dragged to my quarters.

“Let’s have a chat, Hyang.”

“Hyang, we need to talk.”

“Seol, please look after the guest. I’ll take Hyang with me and talk to it, we’ll be back soon.”

“Alright. Don’t worry about this place.”

With both of its arms caught, Hyang looked back and forth between Seon-hwa and me with a confused expression as it was dragged along.

***

“Come on, eat.”

Squeak...There was no need for me to go to such lengths. After just the first round from Seon-hwa, Hyang’s mental state was already shattered.

I tried to feed it dinner by lighting the lamp and bringing it over, but Hyang, who usually loved food, pretended not to notice the meal.

“It’s fine, you know?”

I kept encouraging it, but it seemed uninterested in the food.

Seon-hwa gave a cold nod in response.

“I’m glad to see Hyang showing some remorse. That’s good. In that case, let’s let it go hungry today.”

Indeed, Seon-hwa was terrifying when angry.

She just took the food away as Hyang hesitated.

Whether it was sulking or showing remorse, it didn’t matter. When it refused the meal, Seon-hwa quickly took the lamp away.

She must have intended to use this opportunity to correct its behavior, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit concerned.

As for me, I saw a different side to it, so while I couldn’t be as firm as Seon-hwa, I still felt worried when I saw it refusing food.

Sure, in my past life, if my younger sister had refused food, people would have been quick to order fried chicken to cheer her up.

‘Is it okay?’

I was worried, but part of me hoped that this little habit of sneaking food would finally be corrected. The night passed.

The next morning, Seon-hwa came to us early and said brightly:

“Seon-hwa, look! It seems like the color just faded for a moment. I’m sorry for overreacting yesterday.”

For some reason, the red stone in Seon-hwa’s hand had returned to its original bright red color.

I was relieved to see that it had been restored.

“I’m glad. Seon-hwa.”

“I’m glad too, Seon-hwa.”

As we were congratulating Seon-hwa on the return of the stone’s color, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

‘Why did Hyang swallow the stone?’

It wasn’t something that Hyang usually ate—there was no reason for it to swallow a stone.

I hadn’t considered it earlier, since we were focused on the apology and punishment, but it seemed strange now.

Just then, I remembered something Seon-hwa had casually mentioned the day before.

‘I stopped by the Tengchong Volcano hot springs in Yunnan, and Yangrang gave me this after discovering it there...’

The stone that Seon-hwa valued so much.

I remembered that it had been discovered near the volcano’s hot springs.

‘Could it be?’

Thinking about it, I realized something was off about Hyang eating fire. Normally, fire only occurs in nature from wildfires, which require lightning strikes or dense trees rubbing against each other in strong winds.

At first, I thought Hyang might have just been diving underwater waiting for a natural fire, but natural wildfires happen only once every several decades, so that didn’t seem possible.

Actually, since Hyang lived in the lava zone, and its diet consisted of such things, I could now understand its behavior.

I also understood the reason for the color change in the stone.

‘Could this be... the opposite of the Ice Crystal that Seol, Bini, and Dongi consume?’

If that was the case, the color fading would make sense.

Seol, Bini, and Dongi use Ice Crystals for their meals, which absorb the surrounding cold and store the chill within them.

If this stone attracted the opposite type of energy and absorbed Yang Qi, it would explain why its color returned so quickly.

“Seon-hwa, sorry, but could I borrow that stone for a moment? I think there might be something secretive about it, and I’d like to check it out.”

“THIS? Check it?”

“Yes, I just want to verify something.”

“Alright.”

Thanks to Seon-hwa’s surprisingly swift consent, possibly due to Yangrang’s words, I hurried to my grandfather’s quarters with the stone in hand.

“Grandfather! Grandfather!”

“What’s going on, So-ryong?”

I burst into the room to find my grandfather reading a book at his desk, tilting his head curiously.

I showed him the stone that I had borrowed from Seon-hwa and explained the events from yesterday.

Seon-hwa had found the stone near the volcano, Hyang had swallowed it, and now, a day later, the color had returned.

“Found it near the volcano?”

My grandfather, after hearing this, took a book from the shelf, flipped through a few pages, and pointed to one particular section.

“Could it be this one?”

“Wow?”

He pointed to a line in the book.

Huajing (Fire Crystal).

It was a term meaning fire crystal, and when translated, it referred to a type of fire mineral.

The hexagonal shape of the stone likely matched what was described.

“Huajing, a crystal filled with Yang Qi...”

At that moment, something clicked in my mind.

‘Could Hyang... did it not swallow the stone in remorse, but because it had overeaten yesterday and now refuses food?’

I finally understood.

No wonder Hyang had seemed to show remorse earlier.

If Seon-hwa knew, she’d be shocked, so I decided to keep it a secret. But it seemed I’d need to go find another stone like this one.

If I asked Seon-hwa or Yangrang, they’d probably give it to me, but I couldn’t just take their tokens.

It seemed I’d need something a bit bigger.