Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

“Honestly! I worked so hard to get assigned to Zhejiang, and I barely even got to visit Botan Temple!”

The princess was grumbling at the ship’s railing, looking visibly irritated.

She glanced at me with a face that said, we understand each other, right? sympathize with me.

Honestly, she was always a bit of a headache—but what could I do? We needed her help.

So I answered her complaint with all due courtesy.

“Why’s that?”

“Because of the recent increase in pirate attacks, the local governors of Zhejiang submitted petitions to the court. After reading them, His Majesty has been sending me secret orders...”

“Secret orders?”

“His Majesty keeps sending secret orders, saying he’s worried and suggesting that I, being frail, should go somewhere safer. So what am I supposed to do? If I leave it alone, he’s going to have me reassigned again. I have to get rid of the pirates, that way he won’t keep talking like this.”

It seemed the Emperor really doted on the princess.

I mean, it’s not like pirates would ever actually invade the city walls... right?

“But the city should be secure. His Majesty seems to be worrying a bit too much.”

“Well, not right now, but there was a time when pirates actually attacked the city.”

‘So they have gotten inside before.’

I thought she was exaggerating, but apparently pirates had once broken through the gates.

In that case, it made sense the Emperor would be worried—especially if he cherished the princess that much.

Still, the princess was clearly frustrated.

She’d gone through all the effort of arranging a fake marriage to get stationed in Zhejiang where Botan Temple was...

Only to end up facing reassignment again.

‘Wait, has she been hunting the pirates herself?’

Listening to her words, it sounded like the princess had personally gone after them.

nd now that I looked at her, her cheeks were a little darker than before—sunburnt, maybe.

When I first met her, her skin had been pale as snow.

“So you’ve been going after the pirates yourself?”

“Yes. I convinced my teacher and have been working with the disciples of Botan Temple and the government troops. That’s why my skin’s gotten rough from all this sea wind!”

She touched her cheek with a frown.

I had been wondering why she wasn’t training at Botan Temple like she loved to—now I knew why.

Still, it felt a bit excessive that she had to go herself.

“If the Lord of Seorinak Fortress is there... is it really necessary for you to go? You could’ve just sent soldiers.”

I mean, there were military officers for that sort of thing.

At my question, the princess sighed and replied, looking annoyed.

“There’s a reason. Iju is a rainy, hot region where many minority groups live. In recent years, pirates have started settling there in larger numbers—and now, some martial artists who fled from the central families have joined them too. They’ve become seriously powerful. So the military alone can’t handle them. There are martial artists among them, after all. And with people trained in internal energy rowing their boats, their ships are way too fast—we simply can’t catch up.”

“Have you considered attacking Iju directly?”

If you can’t catch them at sea, hit their base.

She grumbled at the question.

“Of course I have! We teamed up with Lord Bukgeom and launched a subjugation campaign. But the moment they were attacked, the bastards fled into the eastern mountain range—and their ships just vanished back out to sea. We couldn’t catch them at all.”

“Ah...”

Yeah, if that’s how things were, I could see why they’d be difficult to deal with.

I nodded, and then the princess’s tone suddenly shifted, her eyes lighting up.

“But then, right when I was wondering what to do—your letter arrived! And I remembered your daughter flying through the air. That was it! You always seem to show up right when you’re needed!”

“R-right.”

I felt the heat in her gaze.

As I gave her an awkward reply, she said something utterly absurd.

“My master told me... this is destiny!”

“Destiny? Between you and me?”

I glanced sideways—

Hwa-eun’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

If it weren’t the princess, she probably would’ve grabbed her by the hair.

But then the princess added something that brought Hwa-eun’s face back to normal.

“Yes! My master said, in my past life, I helped you a lot. So now in this life, you’re helping me.”

“Y-you mean... a past life?”

“Yes, a past life.”

“...Strange. I don’t remember anyone like that in my past life.”

“Yes!”

“...No, never mind.”

‘The head of Botan Temple’s just a spiritual scammer, huh.’

Sure, they say her martial arts are slow to develop, but now I was pretty sure she was a quack.

That’s when Do Sagong’s voice came from the bow of the ship.

“So-ryong! Smoke is rising over there—it looks like a fire!”

We’d been traveling along the coastline, keeping an eye out for any pirate activity.

At his words, I turned my eyes to the distant shore—

Smoke was rising from a small village.

“Cho!”

I told Cho to fly up and use his sight enhancement to check the village.

What came into view were men dragging people onto boats.

Their shirts had been thrown off, and their sun-burned bronze skin was visible.

They waved swords, threatening the villagers.

Most of the village was already in flames.

“Princess! They’re pirates!”

“I knew it!”

As Cho dove back down, I shouted while the princess pulled out a horn from beneath the ship’s deck.

-Buuuuung!

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

As the horn’s sound rang out, four warships trailing behind us answered with war drums.

-Boom boom boom!

The warships and ours picked up speed, slicing through the water.

A commotion broke out in the village harbor.

The pirates, who had been dragging people along, suddenly threw them aside and scrambled onto their ships.

Two small boats pulled out of the harbor.

Their sails were already folded—they were rowing hard and gaining speed.

Our ships couldn’t catch up.

“They’ve got oars, like the boats used by the Wae people. And our ships are flat-bottomed, while theirs seem to be sharp-bottomed ones.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

A flat-bottomed ship, like ours, is stable but slow.

A sharp-bottomed ship slices the water and moves much faster.

But at ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) this point, I wasn’t worried about flat or sharp.

Who cared about the shape of the boat?

I silently sent a message to Cho.

‘Cho? Can you drop me off, then punch a hole in the bottom of that boat trying to escape?’

-Chorrt! “How big a hole?”

‘Big enough for you to fit through.’

-Chorrr! “Got it! I’ll catch up and poke a hole right away!”

Cho dropped me gently back on deck, then dove into the sea with a splash.

He extended his antennae like a periscope and swam like a shark, darting through the water.

‘Missile away.’

That boat’s fate was sealed.

As for the other one—time for the next move.

“—Yeondu!”

-Shaaa!

“You see that boat over there?”

-Shaaa!

“Fly over and crush the deck!”

-Shaaaaaaah!

If there was one thing that changed when Yeondu reached adulthood, it was speed.

Before, it felt like she was just drifting through the air.

Now—perhaps thanks to the power of Cheongyu, the Sovereign of Gold and Crown—she was fast.

Not floating anymore—actually flying.

At my command, Yeondu shot up into the sky and launched herself toward the distant fleeing boat.

***

“Damn it! Just because we were delayed, they threw out all the fresh girls—!”

Jin-gyu, the leader of the Black Water Thieves, shouted in frustration from the deck.

They had come to capture new women, since the last batch had either died or gone mad, and to loot food and valuables—

but all the women they caught today had been tossed overboard.

There were even two particularly fine ones among them, making the loss even more bitter.

Girls like that weren’t easy to come by...

“We didn’t have a choice. The ship was already loaded.”

Just like the subordinate said, the ship was already packed with plundered food and goods—

they wouldn’t have been able to escape from the military ships with any extra passengers on board.

So the moment they heard the military drums, they had no choice but to throw the women overboard and board the ship in a hurry.

“But Chief, wasn’t it a fun sight earlier? Heheh.”

“You bastard! Do you only eat once a day or something?! Shit. Why are those damn soldiers still showing up on land these days...”

Jin-gyu cursed, both irritated and regretful.

“Row faster! I’ve been hearing rumors that martial artists are tagging along with government forces these days.”

“Yes, Chief!”

And his mind drifted back to a memory.

“Man, that wench from the Ak family... she was really strong!”

Jin-gyu, once a famed martial artist from the Central Plains, had become the pirate leader of the Black Water Thieves based in Iju.

A few years back, he’d made a fatal mistake—

He’d encountered a beautiful woman on the road, lost control of his desires, and assaulted her after knocking out her attendants.

The problem? She turned out to be a member of the Shandong Ak Clan.

“Shandong Ak Clan? We won’t let you live!”

“Shandong Ak Clan?!”

Just as he was about to leave after severing her meridians, those shouts rang out.

Jin-gyu slaughtered everyone on the scene to keep them quiet—

but it was too late.

The martial artists of the Ak Clan later examined the corpses, discovered traces of his techniques, and joined forces with other sects to put a bounty on his head across the entire Central Plains.

And so he had no choice but to flee to Iju, where he eventually rose to lead a powerful band of pirates.

“But why are they chasing us so long today?”

Jin-gyu was just remembering the tender flesh of that Ak Clan girl when one of his men shouted.

He turned to look, and sure enough, military ships were pursuing them.

“That’s strange. They usually give up quickly...”

Normally, the government ships would stop after a short chase and return to check on the village that had been raided.

After all, they knew they couldn’t catch the pirates’ faster ships.

He enhanced his vision to check:

One of the five ships had indeed turned toward the village, but the remaining four were chasing his ship.

“What a waste of effort. Even with a tailwind, they’ll never catch us.”

That was when it happened.

“Waaahhh!”

“Chief! Chief!”

Screams echoed from the ship sailing beside his.

“What the hell’s going on?”

Jin-gyu ran to the side, gripping the rail, and looked toward the sound—

The other ship was listing badly, taking on water.

His men were scrambling on the deck, yelling frantically.

“H-help us!”

“The ship’s taking on water!”

“What?! Did we overload it?”

For some reason, the ship was flooding.

Jin-gyu shouted to his crew.

“Turn around! Dump some cargo if you have to, but bring them aboard!”

“Yes, Chief!”

Cargo could be replaced, but martial artists were rare.

Even if those men had been drifters from across the Central Plains and not entirely trustworthy, he couldn’t operate as a pirate without them.

In Iju, a pirate crew’s strength was measured by how many martial artists it had.

If he lost half his trained fighters now, the Black Water Thieves would be reduced to gutter scum.

The government ships weren’t closing in too fast yet—

they had time to recover their men.

Just as Jin-gyu turned the bow of his ship—

“T-th-th-th-that!”

One of his men started stammering in panic.

Normally he’d snap at such nonsense in a situation like this, but when he turned to look, the man was pointing toward the sky.

Following his finger, Jin-gyu saw something flying above—

“Huh?!”

He gasped for breath.

And no wonder—there was a massive snake flying in the sky.

“W-what the hell is that?!”

At first, Jin-gyu thought maybe it was just some spiritual beast passing through.

The snake rose higher into the air—

but then it suddenly dived, as if plunging into water, straight toward Jin-gyu’s ship.

“W-watch out!”

It was definitely targeting them.

Jin-gyu shouted in alarm, gripping the railing—

-BOOM!

The enormous snake crashed down at high speed, slamming through the center of the deck and splitting the keel in half.

The bow and stern lifted into the air like broken wings, and Jin-gyu, along with his pirates, were scattered in every direction.