Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

It had definitely made eye contact with me. Yet aside from lifting its head at first, the creature remained frozen in place, as if paralyzed.

The unsettling sensation in my head refused to fade, but for now, I decided to quietly retreat.

Since it had yet to react, the best outcome would be if I could slip away without provoking it.

‘Maybe... maybe it didn’t see me? That’d be for the best, but...’

I pressed my fingers firmly against the vocal sac beneath Hwayang’s chin, preventing it from making any sound.

The moment I did, Hwayang tried to chirp again, only for its cheek pouches to deflate with a pitiful hiss.

I immediately pulled the squirming creature close against my chest, suppressing its movements with both arms.

Despite being a mystical beast, it had short legs, making it difficult to exert much strength while restrained—a small mercy in a situation like this.

For once, its insignificant little body was proving useful.

-pp!

‘Stay still, you little thing! This is serious!’

『Food. Food. Food. Food. Food. Food.』

‘Ugh, if this were my past life, I’d be feeding you black food rations right now!’

Just as I was stepping back, holding onto the tiny creature that was spamming ”Food” over and over in my mental chat window, a chilling noise came from the creature’s tail.

-Scrape. Scrape.

‘Yeah, of course. There was no way it’d just stay still at a time like this...’

That sound—one that could make any man’s knees buckle.

A sharp, grating noise like the edge of a well-honed blade scraping against another. The kind of sound one would hear from a pair of sharp scissors. The eerie noise echoed off the cave walls, spreading an unsettling chill.

I had hoped for luck, but the sound in my ears told me that hope was meaningless.

For just a moment, I froze in place, cursing my bad luck—right before the creature lunged at me, its pincers slashing toward my head.

-Shing! Scrape!

“Hiiik!”

I threw myself to the ground just in time, the giant scissor-like pincers sweeping over my head.

The sharp ends of my tied-up hair were sliced clean off, and the blades, narrowly missing me, instead struck the stone pillar I had been hiding behind—splitting it clean in half.

-Crack! Rumble!

A natural monument that had stood for hundreds, if not thousands of years, crumbled in an instant.

As the stone pillar broke apart, I dodged to the side, barely avoiding the falling debris from the cave’s ceiling.

“Haaaah!”

“So-ryong!”

“Ryong!”

I had been so focused on running while clutching Hwayang that I hadn’t even looked back. But before I could react, Tang Hwa-eun and Seol rushed in and caught me.

Their familiar voices, filled with relief, echoed in my ears.

“Are you okay?”

“Are you alright, So-ryong?”

Hwayang, in its reckless idiocy, had ended up drawing the attention of a creature in its most violent and aggressive phase.

Thanks to that, I had a sinking feeling we would have to run for a long time.

As they supported me, I called out urgently.

“I’m fine! Everyone, run!”

At the same time, I shouted toward Oryong Three Peaks, who were positioned further back, telling them to flee.

Just as I took a step backward with Tang Hwa-eun and Seol, the creature closed the gap in an instant.

Its gleaming pincers opened wide right in front of the three of us.

“So-ryong!”

“S-Sir So!”

Our desperate situation sent Gyu-seong and Ji-ryong shouting from behind us, their voices echoing off the cave walls.

Neither of the two supporting me had time to dodge, and as the one standing in the middle, I had no way to evade it.

My eyes, along with Tang Hwa-eun and Seol’s, widened in alarm.

-Crack! Thud!

A dark blur suddenly shot out from behind us like a missile, colliding with the monster.

-Chrrrrr!

-Chrrr!

I landed hard on my backside in shock at the unexpected turn of events. When I looked up, I saw a pair of very familiar figures.

Bini had tackled the monster with a powerful headbutt, forcing it backward, while Cho stood firm beside her.

Ah... they say a well-raised daughter is the greatest treasure in a household.

I couldn’t help but mentally scream my overflowing affection toward the two.

‘Aaaaaaah! My girls! You’re the best!’

“Bini! Cho!”

“Well done, Bini! Cho!”

Despite being slammed into the cave wall, the monster quickly recovered and started crawling toward us again.

At that moment, Bini and Cho’s antennae, which had curved slightly from my cheers, snapped back upright.

They were clearly preparing to fight.

Seeing that, I immediately called for a retreat.

If we fought that thing now, it would fight to the death.

And if we dragged out the battle, Bini and Cho might end up caught in the crossfire.

“Cho, Bini, fall back!”

-Chrrrt!

-Chrrrr!

Unlike Hwayang, my girls actually listened to me.

Bini immediately turned, while Cho wrapped herself around Tang Hwa-eun and Seol, swiftly dragging them away.

In a flash, they surged past Oryong Three Peaks, who had been momentarily frozen.

-Scrape! Scrape!

Behind us, the sound of furious, relentless scissor strikes echoed through the cave.

Gyu-seong and Ji-ryong’s voices rang out again.

“So-ryong! Instead of running, why don’t we just take it down now?”

“S-Sir So! The thing is fast, sure, but with your O-gong, we should be able to handle it. Why don’t we just deal with it now?”

Since I had already mentioned capturing it before, they seemed to think we might as well do it now.

Having seen Bini’s strength, they figured that if we worked together, we could definitely take it down.

But I immediately shook my head.

If Yo-hwa were here, it might be possible, but the tunnel was too narrow to bring her inside, which meant we had no way to safely subdue the creature.

If we had Yo-hwa’s silk, capturing it would be easy. But without it, things were different.

Besides, now was not the time to capture it, nor should we.

“No. Right now, that thing will never surrender. Not until it dies.”

Both of them widened their eyes at my words.

Ji-ryong, running alongside me, looked confused as he asked.

“Why? Is there a reason it would fight to the death?”

Since they hadn’t gotten close, they hadn’t seen it.

But I nodded and answered.

“There is. That thing just laid eggs.”

“Eggs?”

“It was guarding its eggs?”

“There were eggs? So-ryong?”

They all turned to me in shock.

Yeah. Just before Hwayang had stirred things up, I had seen the creature licking the eggs beneath its belly.

That meant it was prepared to fight to the death.

“If it has eggs, that makes sense.”

“Nothing is more ferocious than a mother protecting its young.”

“So that’s why it was so aggressive...”

The others nodded in understanding.

They were right—mothers protecting their offspring were always aggressive. But in this case, it was worse.

This particular creature became far more violent when guarding its eggs than other animals.

‘You should always be careful around brooding earwigs.’

The creature we were facing was called Gu-su in the central lands.

In English, it was known as an earwig.

The earwig is an arthropod that has long been misunderstood—rumored to crawl into people’s ears as they sleep and devour their brains.

That was exactly why I said the creature would fight to the death.

Like centipedes, earwigs possess maternal instincts. But unlike most insects, they become exceptionally aggressive when guarding their eggs.

Once they lay eggs, they are infamous for relentlessly attacking anything that enters their burrow.

In fact, an earwig’s maternal instincts are even more extreme than a centipede’s.

And there was another reason I told them not to fight it.

“Yes, and if we’re not careful, we might end up with a nasty surprise.”

“A nasty surprise?”

“What do you mean?”

My words sparked confusion among the group.

And in that very moment—

Before I could even react, Hwayang slipped from my grip.

It must have wriggled loose when my arms slackened for a brief second. The tiny creature tumbled to the cave floor.

-Toktok... roll...

The orange potato rolled straight into the path of the earwig that was chasing us.

Panicked, I shouted Hwayang’s name and gestured for Bini to halt.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

But before I could do anything else, a brilliant blue flame erupted from Hwayang’s tiny body.

“Bini, wait! Hwayang!”

-Whoooosh!

The entire cave was dyed in a flickering blue light.

The sudden burst of fire made the earwig hesitate. It froze for a second, startled, then quickly backed away.

-Screeech!

Hwayang took a step forward on its short legs.

The massive earwig recoiled again, retreating even farther.

And then—Hwayang turned to me with the most arrogant, self-satisfied expression I had ever seen.

I could practically hear its thoughts: See? Even I can do this.

So it wasn’t just thinking about food all the time? It actually felt competitive toward Bini and Cho?

But while Hwayang was brimming with pride, I could only look at it with concern.

Because that ‘nasty surprise’... was about to happen.

“No, Hwayang, you... if you keep that up...”

And then—

Before I could finish my sentence, just as Hwayang’s smug expression reached its peak—

-Fwoosh!

The earwig suddenly lowered its tail, raised its front legs, and from its abdomen, it sprayed a thick yellow liquid straight at Hwayang.

A putrid stench filled the air.

“Kyahhhh!”

“Urghhh!”

Screams erupted all around me.

The overpowering stench rushed in, forcing everyone to clamp their noses shut.

The sheer intensity of the smell was enough to make people gag.

-Screeeee!

Hwayang, now drenched in the foul-smelling liquid, rolled frantically on the cave floor, its blue flames flickering wildly.

It flailed its tiny front limbs uselessly, trying to wipe its face, but to no avail.

The earwig hesitated for a moment, then slowly backed away.

After one last glance in our direction, it vanished into the shadows of the cave.

Once the creature had fully disappeared, Tang Hwa-eun, still holding her nose, asked worriedly:

“So-ryong, if that’s poison, cough... what do we do?”

“No, I don’t think it’s poison. Probably...”

Some species of earwigs have the ability to release foul-smelling secretions from their abdomens.

That was likely what had just happened.

Ji-ryong pointed at Hwayang and asked:

“That’s the ‘nasty surprise’ you were talking about?”

“Yes... That’s why I told you not to fight it. Sigh... Bini, can you pull down one of the ceiling columns?”

-Chrrrt.

With a sigh, ★ ★ I took the pillar Bini had just knocked loose and used it to roll Hwayang beneath the falling water at the back of the cave.

That smell had to be washed off.

“This is your punishment.”

While I felt a little bad about it, I also found it somewhat satisfying.

Hwayang let out a pitiful, drawn-out wail.

-Screeeech... Screeeeeech...

***

By the time Hwayang had finally been rid of the stench, it sat on the cave floor with the expression of someone who had lost everything in life.

Just then, Ji-ryong asked:

“But seriously... what was that thing?”

Now that the creature was gone, curiosity was finally setting in.

“That was a big gu-su... basically, a giant earwig.”

Hearing my answer, Tang Hwa-eun, who had been watching Hwayang with a sympathetic look, spoke up.

It seemed like she had some information on the creature.

“It must be a Black-Clawed Red Earwig (Hong-gu), one of the Twenty-Four Venomous Beasts designated by the Tang Clan.

The Tang Clan classifies poisons into twenty-four categories:

Heaven and Earth, Black and YellowSun, Moon, Stars, and Thunder Clouds, Rain, Snow, and HailGold, Silver, Water, and FireRed, Blue, White, and BlackFlowers, Trees, Grass, and FruitsThe Black-Clawed Red Earwig is categorized under ‘Red.’ It looks similar to a regular earwig, but with a sharper, blade-like pincer at the tip of its tail. In the dark, its red body must have appeared even more intense.” Earwigs typically have simple pincers, like a stag beetle, designed to grab and hold their prey.

But this one had actual blades.

So it was one of the Twenty-Four Venomous Beasts...

This was already the third one I had encountered.

Collecting these things was turning out to be surprisingly fun.

‘Oh? I thought it looked impressive... Turns out it’s one of the Twenty-Four Venomous Beasts?’

Just as I was reveling in this realization, Seol, who had been deep in thought, suddenly spoke up.

“But Ryong, what do you plan to do about it?”

“What do you mean?”

I tilted my head, prompting her to launch into a mini lecture.

“As a hunter, it’s wrong to capture both the parent and the child at the same time.

Even if it’s just an animal, separating a mother from its child is a cruel thing to do.

We can’t capture the mother before the eggs hatch, but we also can’t take the eggs from her.

At the same time, if we just leave it alone, it’ll keep killing livestock...”

Classic reasoning from someone from the Beast Palace.

I smiled and reassured her.

“Earwigs stop eating once they lay eggs, so it won’t be a problem.”

“Really?”

Earwigs enter a fasting period the moment they lay eggs.

After I explained this, Seol’s expression brightened.

“Yes, and we’ll probably have to take the hatchlings once they emerge.”

“Well... I suppose that makes sense. If there are too many, that’s the best option.

But what about the mother? Once the young hatch, she’ll start hunting again.”

Seol seemed worried, but there was no need to be.

“She’ll die when the eggs hatch, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“What!? The mother dies?”

Seol’s eyes widened in shock.

But it wasn’t just any kind of death.

Earwigs with strong maternal instincts sacrifice themselves after their eggs hatch.

The mother allows her young to eat her body, providing them with a final meal before they disperse into the world.

The ultimate maternal sacrifice in the arthropod kingdom.

“Yes, once the hatchlings emerge, she offers herself as food.”

“...”

“So even a lowly insect can love its children that much?”

“That’s... incredible.”

Tang Hwa-eun and the others looked stunned.

At the same time, I could feel Bini and Cho’s emotions welling up in my mind.

They were wondering if I loved them enough to let them eat me, too.

“....”

If I told them ‘no,’ would that mean I didn’t love them?

But I obviously couldn’t tell them ‘yes’ either.

...Maybe I’d tell them to just lick me like candy instead.