Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

I quickly snatched up the oar that had been set down for a moment and placed the largest fish that had floated up onto it.

Gasps erupted from everyone, eyes wide in shock.

Grandmother Sang-woo, Sister Seol, and Hwa-eun all froze and shouted in hushed alarm at my sudden action—because I had just placed a poisoned fish onto the oar.

“Young Master, didn’t you say you’d listen to what I told you!? Put it down right now! That creature is poisonous! The poison of the Lake Spirit can spread for over ten paces around it!”

“Ryong! It’s poison! Put it down, quick!”

“So-ryong! Please put it down! We don’t even know what kind of poison it is yet!”

It seemed like they were all terrified that I might be poisoned, but I had no such concern. No matter how I looked at it, this wasn’t poison.

No matter how many times I thought about it, I couldn’t recall any poison like this.

[There’s no need to worry so much. I’m pretty sure this isn’t poison.]

[Not poison?]

[Not poison?!]

[W-what? You mean it’s not poison? But people actually died from this!]

Grandmother Sang-woo, Hwa-eun, and Sister Seol all stared at me in disbelief, their expressions laid bare under the moonlight.

I wasn’t entirely certain yet—I’d still need to check one last time—but this was definitely not poison. Hwa-eun hadn’t caught on yet, likely due to the surprise, but with a bit of a nudge, she’d surely come to the same conclusion.

I smiled and asked her,

[Yes, I’ll need to double-check, but I can say with certainty—this is not poison.]

[S-So-ryong, w-why do you think that?]

[Hwa-eun, let me ask you something. If Ho-ye had released one of its poisons into this lake, what would have happened?]

[What? Well, a heavier poison would obviously sink, or if it were lighter, it’d float to the surface like oil, or maybe... it would just slowly spread...!]

As she answered, her eyes began to dart, and she turned to look at me—then gasped softly as something clicked in her mind.

[Oh—oh! That’s it! You’re right! It’s not poison! Yes! That’s exactly what it is! Why didn’t I realize that?!]

[The real question, Hwa-eun, is—are you really sure it’s not poison?]

As expected, just a hint was all it took for Hwa-eun to catch on.

Anyone capable of dealing with even this much of a clue couldn’t possibly be unfamiliar with this—especially not someone from the Tang Clan.

The Tang Clan had spent generations crafting poisons in all forms—powders, liquids—and had studied exactly how they would spread under various environmental conditions.

If you couldn’t spot something this obvious, you’d be disqualified from the Tang Clan entirely.

[Exactly. The reason the poison wasn’t found in the bodies of the dead is simple—it was never poison to begin with.]

[That’s right. There’s no poisoning because there was no poison.]

Just as Hwa-eun said, this simply couldn’t be poison.

If Ho-ye had indeed released its venom into the lake, the fish wouldn’t have reacted the way they just did when they floated up.

We’d seen Ho-ye poke its head above the surface, only to dive back under, startled by the sound of our boat hitting the cliff.

And at that exact moment, fish began shooting up from the water near Seol’s net.

So now the question—

Underwater diffusion refers to how particles spread in water. But could any known poison really diffuse through more than ten meters of water in an instant?

Poison and water don’t share the same density or mass. Like Hwa-eun said, some poisons would sink, others float, and some would slowly spread through the cold lake water.

That’s right. Poison just couldn’t spread that quickly in water.

Diffusion in liquid flows from high concentration to low concentration. Even if the poison concentration was high, it would still take time to diffuse. It couldn’t happen in the blink of an eye.

‘How could any liquid travel ten meters instantly and still cause poisoning? That makes no sense.’

A substance spreading ten meters through water in an instant?

That would go against the laws of physics.

Even the venomous creatures I raise—intelligent and extraordinary as they may be in this new life—still operate within the boundaries of natural law.

Their fluids may have special effects, but they don’t defy the physical properties of liquid.

To ease everyone’s fear and curiosity, I offered the fish on the oar to Hwa-eun.

[Can you test this to see if there’s any poison?]

[Alright!]

As I held out the large fish, stiffened unnaturally atop the oar, Hwa-eun nodded quickly, pulling out silver needles, golden needles, and reagents from her sleeve. She rubbed them against the fish’s surface and dipped them into ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) testing solutions.

After a brief wait, she checked the results and, as expected, smiled.

[So-ryong was right. There’s no trace of poison on this fish.]

Sister Seol furrowed her brows and asked with an exasperated look,

[If it’s not poison, then what is it? Why did the fish die? Why did people die?]

[Th-that... I’m not really sure...]

Even someone like Hwa-eun, despite realizing it wasn’t poison, couldn’t identify what it actually was.

Which made sense—no one from this era could have encountered it before.

Well, maybe they had, indirectly... thanks to me.

I gently picked up the fish with my hand and gave it a little shake.

[Do you know why this fish’s body is so stiff?]

[No idea.]

[Not sure, either.]

They both tilted their heads in confusion.

[Have you ever seen anything like this before?]

I asked again. Sister Seol looked like she wanted to scold me for being roundabout but then blinked and muttered,

[You know... the fish reminds me of when you grabbed that lightning-struck candle that one time... So-ryong, stop dragging it out and just spit it out—]

‘Wait, seriously? That fast?’

Was this what they meant by catching a rat while backing into it?

She answered my question so perfectly, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

I smiled, eyes wide in admiration.

[Exactly! That’s it!]

At my reply, Sister Seol’s eyes widened in astonishment.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

[Hm? You mean you’re the one who hugged the lightning-struck candle? Uh... wait... are you saying this thing was struck by lightning!?]

[Then... are you saying Ho-ye releases lightning!?]

[Ah! Yes, lightning!]

That was it.

The reason people died so suddenly and the fish floated to the surface—

Ho-ye was releasing electricity, just like an electric eel.

And not just a little spark, either. We were talking about serious voltage.

[Yes, that’s right. It seems it releases electricity—lightning, essentially.]

‘Damn, Ho-ye’s actually insane. An electric salamander...’

You might think fish aren’t exactly my specialty—but anything that lives in water falls under my domain too.

Blue-ringed octopuses and jellyfish are notorious venomous monsters, after all.

I didn’t know much about most aquatic creatures beyond that, but the electric eel was a different story.

It literally kills using electricity. If that’s not a kind of venom, then what is?

‘Yeah. Electricity is a kind of venom.’

Nodding to myself, I started piecing everything together. Now it all made sense.

In my previous life, electric eels could discharge up to 900 volts and project that current over about ten meters.

But earlier, Grandmother said that Ho-ye could release its current over “ten jang”—which would be roughly thirty meters.

That meant the voltage was incredibly strong.

And electricity explained everything that had happened so far.

Like the story Grandmother told: how an ancestor of the Black-Clad Tribe was crossing the lead-covered burial stone, only for a sudden event to wipe out the pursuing warriors from a hostile tribe.

Or the strange conditions of the corpses recently discovered.

All of it—explained in one word: electricity.

The tribe’s ancestor had startled Ho-ye while crossing the lead slab, and it had discharged electricity in defense.

The fishermen, who had to dip their hands into the water while pulling in the nets, must have done the same—startled Ho-ye and gotten shocked.

Their bodies, leaning out over the water to pull the nets in... Then, boom—Ho-ye discharged a massive current, and they were paralyzed on the spot and tumbled right into the water.

Their muscles seizing all at once from the jolt, their lungs locked—there’d be no chance to swim. Just instant drowning.

‘Damn it... and now I’m supposed to just walk away from this?’

Even though the whole mystery was finally unraveled, I was left with a bitter, hollow ache in my chest.

Because if I were to name Ho-ye by the standards of my past life, there was no way any proper herpetology nerd could pass it up.

Electro Giant Salamander.

A massive, electric salamander!

I mean, what boy wouldn’t have his heart race at a name like that?

But seeing how much the shrine maiden’s tribe cherished this creature...

I figured I’d have to find some other way to cope with my disappointment.

“Ugh, mister.”

“Yes, young master?”

“You touched its eyes, didn’t you?”

“What? Ah—y-yes, I did!”

At my comment, the fisherman immediately started scooping the fish out of the water with something like a net.

‘I’ll just call it glowfin. Yeah...’

Since Ho-ye had caught it for me, I felt like I had to eat at least that one.

***

The next day, after restocking supplies, we stayed for three more days.

Since we couldn’t take them with us, we helped the familiar Ho-ye and left behind records for the Little Ryongs to refer to.

[So-ryong, look over there! There are two of them!]

[Whoa... a pair...]

But the more I learned about them, the more it felt like something inside my chest was being torn apart.

It was heartbreaking enough that they were electric salamanders—

But knowing they lived as bonded pairs made it worse.

‘God, I really want to take them with me.’

Zzzrip—

They were curled around the candle. Hwa-eun and I had watched them closely.

They moved in pairs, always two together.

Just after sunset, when the moon was high in the sky, they had briefly emerged from the water, swam a little, then disappeared again.

They didn’t seem to hunt at a distance like other spirit beasts.

As the shaman grandmother had said, they were incredibly docile.

So sensitive, in fact, that even the slightest sound sent them diving back underwater, and they wouldn’t reappear that day.

I wanted to observe them for days longer—but in the end, we had no choice but to leave.

Our original destination had been the volcanic region of Yunnan.

We’d only sent word to the Tang Clan that we were heading to Qinghai, but ended up traveling all the way there—

So now we had to return as quickly as possible.

We hadn’t even received permission for the Qinghai detour.

The longer we delayed, the more trouble we’d be in.

“Haaah...”

“So-ryong, don’t be too sad. This isn’t Sichuan, right? You can come back anytime.”

“She’s right, So-ryong. The Black-Clad Tribe will always welcome you.”

On the day we left, the fishmonger woman and the shaman grandmother from the Black-Clad Tribe came to the dock to see us off.

“Ugh... I really don’t want to leave.”

“Haha, seems like you’ve grown quite attached already.”

“I have. Stay healthy, both of you. I’ll be back soon.”

“Yes, So-ryong. Travel safely.”

I gave a final wave as our boat drifted away from the dock, the figures of the shaman and the Black-Clad woman slowly fading into the distance.

Then, just as we began to exit the lake’s far channel—

One of the boatmen who’d been inside playing with the children suddenly burst onto the deck.

“So-ryong! You need to come out here—right now!”

“What?”

His tone was urgent—something was clearly wrong. I rushed out onto the deck and heard voices shouting.

“So-ryong! So-ryong!”

Turning toward the sound, I saw it—

A boat full of Black-Clad tribespeople, rowing with all their strength, chasing after us.

And standing at the very front of their boat was the shaman grandmother.

Her voice was frantic. I quickly ordered the helmsman,

“Can you stop the boat for a moment?”

“Understood, So-ryong! Lower the sails and drop the anchor stone!”

“Yes, helmsman!”

—Thunk!

At his command, the sails were lowered and the anchor stone dropped.

Our boat came to a slow stop as the others pulled up alongside us.

Then came the grandmother’s desperate cry:

“So-So-ryong, please help us!”

“What? What happened?”

I was baffled by her sudden plea, but she hurriedly continued.

“The Seochang magistrate has summoned three military ships! He said if there’s anything in that lake harming people, it’s to be hunted down and killed—!”

“What!?”

They had no malice, those creatures...

But still, with so many people dead, it seemed the magistrate had called in the army.

He’d asked us for help before, but when we couldn’t offer a clear solution, he must’ve decided to call the soldiers instead.

“This is bad!”

Until now, the Black-Clad Tribe had managed to keep everything quiet—

But with military ships involved, finding the creatures wouldn’t be difficult.

This really was bad.

Then the grandmother looked me in the eyes, her voice trembling with urgency.

“So-ryong, didn’t you once say... that you were creating a place where venomous and spirit creatures could live without fear of persecution? A sanctuary... a Poison Garden?”

“Y-yes, that’s true...”

I had mentioned something like that when I introduced the kids.

Then came the request I could not ignore.

“In that case... please take our Spirit into that sanctuary you promised—into the Poison Garden for venomous and spirit creatures!”

Honestly... the magistrate of Seochang was too good a person for this world.