Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

I jerked in shock and threw out my right hand.

It was a reflexive movement.

Senior Sister had shoved herself toward me, and in my fluster I had thrust it out.

And then a lump of flesh burrowed sticky between my fingers.

A piece of flesh that felt as though it had been coated in viscous liquid slipped in between each of my fingers.

It was Senior Sister’s breast.

At the same time, something poked its head out from between my fingers and greeted me hello.

‘Wuaaahhh!’

Startled, I tried to yank my hand back.

But it was as if it had stuck to something, and my hand did not come away easily.

Senior Sister’s flesh clung along my palm and fingers, and when it tried to peel away, long strands like spider silk stretched between us.

Senior Sister was a blue sea slug spirit-creature.

Slug types protected their bodies with sticky fluid, so it seemed that trait had been reflected in her too.

When Senior Sister pressed closer against me, my entire hand that had been trying to pull away was feeling an insane softness and stickiness.

Senior Sister had originally been both a human and a blue sea slug spirit-creature, so she had possessed two forms: a human form and a blue sea slug spirit-creature form.

But now that Senior Sister had reached the Primordial Infant Stage, it seemed the two forms had merged.

Because right now she was in human form, yet her hair was blue, and her skin was sticky like this.

Just as Senior Sister had said a moment ago, she was extremely sticky.

“Junior Brother...”

“S-Senior Sister. Th-that is, well...”

I tried to say something, but Senior Sister lifted a finger and pressed it to my lips.

A finger sticking wetly to my lips.

Soon, I could no longer open my mouth.

The sticky substance flowing down from Senior Sister’s finger stretched across my parted lips and kept me from speaking.

“Mmph...”

At that moment, a tentacle rising from behind Senior Sister’s back burrowed into my arms.

The blue sea slug’s tentacle.

Something that had originally been like wings rose from Senior Sister’s back like wings and moved.

Tentacles slipping in through every gap between our bodies.

The tentacles that burrowed into my chest, my armpits, and the waist of my pants softly caught hold of my clothes and spread them open a moment later.

-Rip.

Once my clothes were pulled apart, I ended up like a peeled tangerine.

Peeled completely bare and looking delicious, that kind of state.

“Haa...”

Letting out an excited breath, Senior Sister kept coming closer and closer.

I tried to draw back, but there was only the floor behind me.

“Hngh!”

The moment Senior Sister’s tip touched my body with a soft tap, a muffled moan burst from my blocked mouth.

Because the thing touching the end of my body was gradually spreading its reach and sticking to me.

As if it wanted complete union.

Senior Sister’s body kept covering me as though it were invading me bit by bit.

Feeling that stickiness invading my entire body, I finally decided to accept the situation.

‘Right. Well, I already did it with a spider. Let’s accept a blue sea slug too. S-Spicy Fabre can’t be picky about venomous creatures, can he?’

And there was what my wives had said too.

‘So-ryong, Senior Sister is in a mentally cornered state right now. If you don’t hold and comfort her properly, she could even go mad.’

‘You have to comfort her well. You must not refuse. If you do, something really bad could happen to Senior Sister.’

I could understand what my wives had meant.

Senior Sister must have been mentally driven into a corner.

And the cause of that seemed to have been me.

Senior Sister had lived with illness for dozens, even hundreds, of years.

So in that situation, after I had saved her, how grateful must she have felt?

She had probably started feeling sorry from the moment she saw me running all over the place to find medicine because I said I would treat her.

-Slurp.

Senior Sister’s lips stuck to mine as though they would never come off again for all eternity.

It felt like I was forgetting something important, but I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Senior Sister.

Because the softness invading my whole body was making it impossible for me to think properly.

‘But who was it that told me if I saved Senior Sister, she might end up feeling grateful to me?’

A question rose in my mind, but it was forgotten almost immediately.

***

When I came to my senses, Senior Sister was in my arms.

The place was my bed.

The bed in my quarters, which could be entered through the open door of the office.

When I turned my head, a long trail of sticky liquid stretched from the floor where I had first been laid down all the way to the bed, like skid marks from a traffic accident.

‘A traffic accident... well, I guess it is traffic all right.’

Apparently, even in the middle of that frenzy, I had still had enough presence of mind to move us over here together.

Just as I was reaching out to vaporize the sticky liquid because it felt like some shameful trace, I heard Senior Sister’s voice.

“Junior Brother... I’m sorry...”

Senior Sister was talking in her sleep, and it seemed her condition was still not very good after all.

Because even in her dreams she was apologizing to me.

I decided to let Senior Sister sleep a little longer by pressing one of her acupoints.

Cultivators were liberated from sleep to a certain extent, so they did not necessarily need to sleep, but there was still nothing quite like sleep for letting the mind rest.

When I raised my energy and tapped Senior Sister’s acupoint, her breathing quieted down.

Once Senior Sister’s breathing had stabilized, I got up and picked up the clothes scattered on the floor and put them back on.

“It’s nice and all, but with Senior Sister, I should strip ahead of time. These clothes...”

I picked up the clothes soaked in sticky liquid, put them on, and raised my energy to blow the stuff off them.

After dressing properly like that and looking out the window, I saw a sky that had gone completely dark.

It seemed it was the middle of the night, and at the same time I felt hunger.

What I was feeling probably was not real hunger.

More like a habit or something.

After thinking it over, I decided to go get a late-night meal.

There were quite a few twenty-four-hour eateries in the market district of White Night City.

Since most of the people were cultivators, they made and sold food without rest.

There was quite a variety of food being sold, like noodles flavored with beasts that were not spirit-creatures or spirit herbs but still possessed spiritual energy.

‘Maybe I’ll go have a bowl of hot noodles.’

-Creak.

I was thinking about noodles as I passed through the corridor to head downstairs, when it happened.

Just as I was nearing the stairs, the door to the room beside mine suddenly opened.

At that instant, I felt an arm seize mine.

The arm gripping me yanked me into its room in an instant.

From the aura I felt, I realized who owned that room, and in that moment my body froze on the spot.

The person who had taught me that if I held Senior Sister and saved her, Senior Sister might come to like me.

It was Sister Seolpyo.

‘Huuurk!’

The promise I had made with Sister Seol came rushing back to me.

‘Senior Sister, that woman’s in the same position as me, isn’t she? We aren’t tied by blood, but she’s your sect sister and I’m your sworn older sister. So... if you’re going to accept her, then accept me too when that time comes.

If only that woman’s allowed and I’m not, I think I’d be too sad.’

The one-plus-one promise.

Now that I thought about it, Senior Sister had been bundled together with Sister Seol as a set.

A dark room with the lights out.

Sister Seol’s eyes, gleaming with the Beast-Eye Art in the darkness, were staring at me.

For a moment, nothing continued except quiet breathing.

Then Sister Seol asked,

“...You remember the promise, right?”

I slowly nodded.

I was shocked that things had ended up like this because I had not even anticipated what was about to happen right in front of me, but at this point, I could not pretend it had never happened.

Because I had promised.

A man could not speak twice with one mouth.

There was some dirty old saying from Joseon that went something like this.

A woman has two lips, so she can speak twice, but a man has one mouth, so he must stand by the one thing he says.

So I had to keep my promise.

‘Haa. They say the swords of men great enough to be remembered in history never have a day when they are not wet with the blood of their enemies. I’m a great man who’s even become a cultivator, but my sword never has a day to dry for a different reason.’

Lamenting inwardly, I said to Sister Seol,

“But right now it’s difficult. I can’t exactly say it right after accepting Senior Sister.”

How was I supposed to say I had gotten into another contractual accident with Sister Seol immediately after accepting Senior Sister today?

So what I meant was, give me a little time.

Sister Seol spoke as though that were only natural.

“Th-then... I understand that much too. I was only asking whether you remembered the promise, So-ryong.”

“I remember. So wait a little.”

“O-okay. Then from now on, I’ll listen well and stop making a fuss too.”

“Good.”

Thinking that before long I was going to have to bow my head in front of my wives, I slipped out of Sister Seol’s room.

***

Senior Sister’s condition was more serious than I had thought.

“Junior Brother, are you all right today?”

“Pardon?”

“Your yang energy.”

“I-I think I’m all right...”

“So you’re not all right. Wait a moment.”

“S-Senior Sister?”

I said I was fine.

But damn it, the memory of what had happened on the first night came back to mind, and the So-ryong Sword shot up to the heavens.

Maybe Senior Sister sensed it from my aura, because she came over and knelt in front of my chair.

Senior Sister lightly brushed one lock of hair behind her ear and looked up at me.

“Junior Brother, you mustn’t keep doing this. If you do, then I can’t apologize.”

Who in the world had taught her something like this?

Just as I recoiled in horror and Senior Sister was pulling down the front of my pants—

a voice came from outside.

“Lord So-ryong, a guest has come to see you.”

“A guest?”

I hurriedly pulled Senior Sister to her feet and called Chief Steward Mong-a in.

“Come in, Chief Steward Mong-a.”

“Yes, Elder. Oh my, the young lady is here as well?”

“Mhm.”

Senior Sister’s face reddened at Chief Steward Mong-a’s words.

She might be thinking of it as a ritual of apology, but it seemed she had not forgotten that being caught by others at it was still embarrassing.

“The young lady’s face is...”

Why was it getting so red?

Thinking she might ask something like that, I hurriedly asked first.

“Right, so who is the guest?”

“Someone named Sua from the Black Water Sea of the Sixth Heaven came with subordinates.”

“Sua?”

If it was Sua, that dragon cultivator from before.

The woman who ruled the Black Water Sea of the Sixth Heaven.

The one who had said she was interested in me—no, the one who had even proposed to me.

A thought occurred to me that maybe what had happened last time could be exposed to my wives.

That thing where I had gone all gooey over meeting a dragon.

It occurred to me she might even propose again.

With my heart thumping, I asked,

“D-did she not say what business she had?”

“Ah, she said she wanted to cultivate in the First Heaven.”

‘Whew...’

From the sound of it, thankfully, it seemed she just wanted to cultivate in the First Heaven.

Though I would have to check more carefully what sort of intention might be hiding behind that.

“But aren’t the reservations fully booked right now?”

“Yes, Elder.”

“Let’s talk to her in detail first and then decide.”

“Yes.”

Anyone could cultivate in the First Heaven, but as for the places where the energy was especially abundant, there were about two points.

One was where the main base of Blood Market Tower was located, and the other was where the inn had been built.

The inn side was more efficient.

This side was the center of the heavenly spring, while the place where Blood Market Tower stood was like a branch stream split off from it.

So if someone wanted to cultivate, they absolutely had to stay at the inn.

Because the places with abundant energy had much higher cultivation efficiency.

But right now reservations were full, so if you had not booked ahead, you could not use the inn.

I decided I would talk with her and then decide where she would stay.

If she started spouting nonsense about proposing again, I was thinking I would throw her out quickly, and if not, if her purpose was purely cultivation, I would give her lodgings.

If she really had come for cultivation, I was thinking I would lend her one of the spaces we had prepared for our family or VIP guests.

Our family got decent efficiency just from staying at Blood Market Tower, but Chief Steward Mong-a had made a place like that just in case.

It bothered me a little that I had gone all gooey before, but if I threw her out, there could be a commotion, and then my wives might hear about that disgraceful behavior of mine.

So after deciding on that, I went to meet the guest, Sua.

When I went down to the reception hall, an alluring woman with horns of blue jade caught my eye.

“Have you been well?”

Sua greeted me warmly the moment she saw me.

“Oh my, what brings you here?”

I had already heard that she spoke informally because dragons were arrogant.

When I greeted her warmly too, she stated her business.

“I came because I want to cultivate. I heard anyone can do it.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

Thankfully, it did not feel like she was here to propose again.

After exchanging a few simple greetings, we sat and drank tea and began talking in earnest.

“So then, for how many days?”

“About a month?”

“Oh ho.”

A month? I thought I could make a pretty decent amount of spirit stones off that, and when I brought up the fee, she pulled something out from her bosom and set it on the table.

“I would like to pay with this.”

“This is?”

What she had set out was a single blue jewel.

It was quite a glittering thing, similar in color to her horns.

“The true blood of an Azure Dragon. Of course, it is not mine. It was handed down to me from above.

From another Dragon King of a much higher realm. I would like to pay with this. It is something that can turn anyone into a dragon if you cut open the flesh and put it into the body. A rare treasure indeed.

Well, it is a bit much for a fee, but I will offer it for the sake of my friendship with you.”

“Ohoho!”

So in other words, it was something that could turn anyone into a dragon just by embedding it inside them, and for an instant something Zihwa had said flashed through my mind.

That I should be careful of dragons.

‘Tch. Why does this feel unsettling?’