Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

Even after finishing the work at the grain warehouse and returning to the inn, fortunately, it wasn’t even lunchtime yet—so hurrying back had paid off.

“Here’s what you asked for.”

As soon as we arrived at the inn, a servant handed us a basket.

When we opened the basket he gave us, inside were piles of steaming dumplings and three water bottles.

A lunchbox.

You might wonder why a lunchbox, but we’d prepared it since even the time spent eating felt like a waste.

“Oh. Thank you. It looks delicious.”

Stuffing one of the tasty-looking dumplings straight into my mouth, I immediately headed for the dock.

Accompanying me were Sister Seol, Hwa-eun, and Hyang, who was disguised in armor.

Though the shining red armor drew some attention, we quickened our steps while pretending it was normal.

“So-ryong, can’t we just do this after sunset?”

“That’s true, but... keh-heuk, keh-heuk.”

“So-ryong, are you okay?”

“Ryong, drink some water.”

I started coughing while talking with a mouth full of dumpling, but after drinking the water Sister Seol handed me, I barely caught my breath and replied,

“Phew... That was close. I want to hurry up and do it as soon as possible. Right now it’s holding out, but its condition could suddenly worsen.”

“Yeah. Beasts tend to do that out of nowhere.”

On the way to the dock, Hwa-eun suggested that we just wait until evening and bring the kids for treatment then, but I couldn’t allow it.

We had already lost a day, and that alone made me feel anxious.

Judging from Geumdo Elder’s current condition, it was unlikely to suddenly deteriorate, but sometimes things did happen exactly like that. Besides, people like us—even if we’re raising a thousand—if even one is sick, we can’t eat, can’t sleep, and just worry.

Especially if that one is larger than all the others combined, then it’s a guaranteed anxiety syndrome until treatment is over.

‘It really feels like there’s a stone lodged deep in my chest, you know?’

So we hurried to the dock with Hwa-eun and Sister Seol.

Just like the first day, the dock was chaotic today as well.

Boats in the river, people swarming the dock—it was a sea of people.

But once we arrived with the Geumjeok Merchant Guild’s representative, the crowd parted instantly.

Geum Gi-ryung, this man, had clearly pulled some strings here. It really did matter who you knew in life.

And that wasn’t all.

Even amidst all this mess, Geum Gi-ryung had the sense to reserve a spot at the dock just for us.

Aside from the small ferry we would be taking, there were no other boats docked in that corner.

‘Geum Gi-ryung really knows how to get things done.’

“This is the one. Please board here. You must serve them with utmost care, understood?”

Impressed by his foresight, we boarded the small ferry he had prepared.

“Of course, sir. I’m Boatman Mak-sam. I’ve already loaded what you requested onto the boat.”

“I’m So-ryong. I’ll be in your care today. Now then, let’s take a look.”

Once on board, hearing the boatman’s explanation, I checked the items we had asked for.

The treatment tools.

There were picks, chisels, shovels, stakes, brooms, strong liquor, cloth, sticks, paper, glue, and ropes.

Alongside those were jars of decocted dandelion and fish mint water that Hwa-eun had mentioned.

Picks, shovels, chisels, and stakes.

Not a typical set of treatment tools.

But since Geumdo Elder was enormous, what would normally be solvable with a small knife in my past life now required tools used on construction sites [N O V E L I G H T] and in quarries.

“Then we’re departing.”

“Yes.”

Squeak. Squeak.

As the boatman rowed toward the island, we soon saw a large bamboo hut? A warehouse?

The roof was thatched with straw tied over bamboo rafters, and the four sides were walled off with bamboo.

It looked like an airplane hangar from my past life. It covered about half of Geumdo Elder’s shell.

Even Cheongwol could fit in it with room to spare—it seemed designed exactly for convenient interior work, just like I’d asked.

‘Working from inside shouldn’t be a problem.’

I’d need to check it up close, but so far it looked excellent.

After a short wait, the boat brushed up against Geumdo Elder’s side.

Thud.

‘What the—!?’

“P-please be more careful when docking next time. Understood?”

“Y-yes. I’m very sorry.”

Startled as the boat bumped into Geumdo Elder’s side, I gave the boatman a warning. Then we unloaded what we brought and stood in front of the structure.

“This must be the door.”

One side of the wall had been made to open outward. Once we opened it, the hollow interior was revealed.

We shut the door tightly and settled down a short distance from the wound Hwa-eun had found yesterday.

“Should we eat lunch first before starting?”

“Yeah, Ryong. You’re going to need your strength.”

“Alright, So-ryong.”

While Sister Seol and Hwa-eun laid out a bamboo mat and started setting up lunch on the sand, I undid the armor disguise on Hyang and gave her a request.

“Hyang-ah, could you go over to Geumdo Elder’s head and let him know we’re about to start treatment? Just say you’re here on your sister’s behalf. That should work.”

Tsrrr.

With a strong reply, Hyang disappeared through a crack beneath the bamboo structure.

I figured if she crawled flat like that, no one would notice her. Just as I grabbed a dumpling and popped it into my mouth on the bamboo mat, a bubbling noise came from the distance.

Bubblrblrblr.

And then, in my mind, I heard Hyang’s voice.

—Tsrrr, (He said okay, Dad.)

‘Alright, well done, my girl. Come back quickly.’

Tsrrt! (Yes!)

The treatment notice had been delivered.

Lying diagonally on the mat, I ate about three dumplings, then rolled up my sleeves.

“Well then, let’s get started.”

First, I picked up a shovel to clear away the sand from the wound area.

We couldn’t let any sand get into the wound during treatment.

Thunk. Thunk.

Using the wooden shovel, I carefully brushed off the sand piled on top of the shell. Sweat started to bead on my forehead.

Shhkk. Shhkk.

“Ptooey, what the heck is this.”

As a sudden spray of sand hit my face, I turned my head—and saw Hyang next to me digging like a puppy, trying to help.

When our eyes met, she cheerfully said in her bright voice:

Tsrrr! 『Dad, I’m helping!』

“Hyang-ah, it’s okay. Could you rest for now?”

I appreciated the thought, but honestly, she was getting in the way. Plus, it looked like she’d need a full bath later.

After leaving Hyang with Hwa-eun, her antennae drooped.

She looked a little disappointed, but there was no helping it.

Digging again in earnest, before long I started seeing the wound.

A black pattern appeared, faded as if bleached, amidst the golden shell.

Just like before, under the light flowing in from the window we’d made, a fairly large wound was visible.

“The wound doesn’t look that big.”

“It’s not big, but it must be deep.”

Sister Seol, seeing the wound for the first time, thought it wasn’t too large compared to the child’s body, but since it couldn’t move, the wound had to be deep.

I decided to dig out more of the surrounding soil.

Thunk. Thunk.

For about half a shichen, hunched over and unable to straighten my back, I pushed the soil around the wound into a circular clearing, and finally removed enough to be satisfied.

I even used the broom to thoroughly sweep away any remaining grains of sand.

“So-ryong, take a break before you go on.”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“Phew. Maybe I should.”

The sand had now been completely cleared. Once it was sterilized, I could start digging into the wound.

I took the water bottle Hwa-eun handed me and gulped it down.

“Kuaa, that hits the spot.”

After sitting briefly to cool off my sweat, I immediately began the sterilization process.

Turtles may lack alcohol dehydrogenase, but since it was just the shell, the first sterilization would be with alcohol.

Soaking a cloth in strong liquor, I wiped down the exposed wound and surrounding area.

After a short wait, the alcohol evaporated, leaving only the smell of liquor behind.

Next, I washed the surface with decoctions of dandelion and fish mint.

“Wow, the place you wiped really shines, So-ryong.”

Once it was clean, everything except the wound glistened in gold.

Geumdo Elder’s carapace was truly a radiant golden hue.

“It’s really beautiful.”

While Sister Seol and Hwa-eun admired the golden shell of Geumdo Elder, I used the strong liquor to sterilize the chisel, wedge, and mallet, then settled beside the wound.

I also wiped my hands and arms with liquor, and once the alcohol-soaked hands had dried, I grabbed the chisel and mallet and struck the shell.

Clack!

The satisfying sound of the mallet striking the chisel rang out, and with it came the return of the stench that had vanished during cleaning.

“Ugh, that smell.”

But could I stop now?

Starting from the center, I began removing the surface layer.

Clack. Clack.

Just like with the turtles I treated in my past life, the decayed, crumbling carapace came off easier than expected.

As I continued shaving off pieces of the shell, a yellowish mass came into view.

When I reached out and touched it, it had a clay-like texture. Sister Seol tilted her head and asked,

“So-ryong, what is that?”

She looked curious, wondering what it was—but this was the turtle’s inflammation mass.

When a turtle’s shell becomes infected and decays, and the bacteria penetrate deeply, this type of severe shell rot develops. The inside of the shell decays and transforms into this yellow pus.

But unlike humans, it’s not watery. Since it develops as the shell decays, it’s a bit solid, like sebum.

That’s why, among enthusiasts like me, shell rot is sometimes jokingly called “turtle acne.”

Because on the belly side, you can squeeze it like sebum, and when you remove it, it leaves behind a clean hole, just like a popped zit.

“This is pus.”

“Really? Isn’t pus usually more watery?”

“For humans, sure—but the stuff on a turtle’s back is this firm.”

Tap tap tap. Tap tap.

I chiseled a bit more around the area and finished exposing the full wound.

Now it was time to extract it.

When I pressed my hand into the pus, it sank right in.

Gripping tightly and pulling, the hardened, sebum-like pus started peeling away from one corner.

“Ughhh. This feels kind of weird.”

“So-ryong, is there anything I can help with?”

While Sister Seol groaned in discomfort, Hwa-eun unexpectedly offered her help in a calm tone.

“Could you prepare the Night Pearl we got from Guildmaster Geum?”

“Sure.”

Since I needed to examine the inside of the wound, I had her prepare the Night Pearl and continued extracting the inflamed mass.

Pop.

A short while later—

With a satisfying pop, the last chunk of pus came free.

Looking at the now-cleared wound gave me an incredible sense of relief.

Maybe this was why pimple-popping videos were popular in my past life.

The hole left behind after removing the pus was so large, it looked like two people my size could lie down inside.

“Whoa, that’s seriously huge.”

Sister Seol was shocked by the amount of pus I had pulled out.

No wonder—next to me, the extracted inflammation was easily double my size.

Since the turtle itself was massive, the amount of pus from the shell rot was no joke either.

“Now I need to check the inside. Hwa-eun, could you shine the Night Pearl for me?”

“Got it.”

I wiped my pus-covered hand with a cloth and disinfected it again with strong liquor.

Then, with the light of the Night Pearl that Hwa-eun held up, I stuck my head into the turtle’s shell.

The Night Pearl followed my head down.

Its soft glow began to illuminate the inside of the turtle’s shell.

“Let’s see now.”

The first thing I saw was smooth, dark-red flesh.

When I reached out to touch it, the part I touched shrank slightly, and from the direction of the head, I heard a bubbling sound.

Bubblrblrblr.

—Tsrrr. (Dad, he’s about to cough.)

Hyang had followed me into the shell and informed me that Geumdo Elder felt like he was going to cough.

I wondered if a spirit beast might be different, but it seemed his internal structure was similar to that of a regular turtle.

This dark-red flesh was likely the lungs.

In a typical turtle, the upper part of the carapace houses an enormous lung.

Turtles maintain buoyancy through their lungs and cloaca, which is why they possess such large lungs—located just beneath the upper shell.

‘So the structure really isn’t that different from a regular turtle...’

Now that I had confirmed that its body wasn’t different from that of a normal turtle, the infected organ had to be the lungs.

I’d been wondering which organ was infected, but considering how close the wound was, the lungs were the most likely candidate.

I examined the area further to locate the infected zone.

Soon, I spotted light pink flesh a bit farther in.

Where the light pink met the dark red, there was a clear boundary line. As I checked the entire area, I realized the dark-red region I’d seen first was the infection.

Geumdo Elder’s lungs were originally light pink, it seemed.

‘Wait, this is bigger than I thought.’

As I stepped back and took in the full picture, I saw that the area just below the hole had turned dark red over a vast area.

The hole above was large enough for two people to lie down in, but the infected area looked big enough for five of me.

The shell rot had decayed the carapace and allowed bacteria to penetrate deep inside—likely spreading widely across the surface of the lung that was in contact with the shell.

That must be why he was having trouble controlling his buoyancy and couldn’t go or stay anywhere.

‘Will this be okay?’

The infected region was bigger than I expected, and I couldn’t help but worry—but I decided to push ahead with treatment.

I’d boldly promised to move him within fifteen days, but now I was starting to worry a bit.

No matter how I looked at it, the condition seemed pretty serious.