Fabre in Sacheon's Tang-Chapter 157: Absorption (5)

Bini’s enraged cries filled the air as the bedbugs were crushed beneath its strikes.

The once faint scent of coriander that had permeated the room was instantly replaced by the stench of rusted metal.

The reason these bedbugs emitted a coriander-like smell was due to their natural composition—after all, the scientific name for coriander, Coriandrum sativum, comes from the Greek word koriós, which means bedbug.

Both in the East and the West, coriander was often called “bedbug herb” because of its resemblance to the insect’s natural odor.

As for the overwhelming stench of oxidized iron, that was a result of two things: their excrement, and the partially digested blood in their bodies.

The dark stains running down the walls earlier had been bedbug feces—essentially oxidized blood, rich in iron, which had decomposed and released a foul, metallic smell.

And now, as Bini crushed them, the half-digested blood inside their swollen bodies was splattering everywhere, spreading the stench of rot.

‘Bini! Knock over the lantern onto the bed and get out of there!’

— Tsrrt!

Bini, who had instinctively coiled around me to protect me, responded immediately.

It was sturdy enough to take on these creatures in a direct fight, but there was no telling how many more of these things were hidden throughout the village. We needed to warn the others before it was too late.

— Thump.

— Fwoosh!

The sound of flames igniting filled the air as Bini’s tail lashed out, knocking over the lantern.

The heat spread rapidly, and in the next moment, Bini wrapped around me and dragged me outside.

Once outside, it shook itself off before slamming the ground in frustration.

— Tsrrrt!

— Boom! Boom!

In Korea, there was a saying—when someone was flattened, they were "like a bedbug pancake."

Right now, these bedbugs were literally being turned into pancakes under Bini’s furious strikes.

The flames cast flickering shadows on the ground, revealing the dark red blood oozing from the crushed bodies.

The creatures twitched and writhed, soaking the dirt in a gruesome shade of black and red.

As Bini and I stood before the burning house, gasping for breath, we suddenly heard shouts.

The river bandits we had asked to patrol the village were rushing over, panicked by the sudden fire.

“F-FIRE!”

“There’s a fire!”

The commotion woke up several villagers, and soon, lights began flickering on in various homes.

Except... for two houses.

The first victim’s house, and the second victim’s house remained eerily dark.

Even with all this shouting and the raging flames, the people inside hadn’t woken up.

It didn’t make sense.

A fire of this scale would wake anyone. Yet, those two houses were completely silent.

Something was wrong.

I turned to the bandits, who had frozen in place at my words.

“Forget the fire! Check if anyone in those two houses is still alive! But be careful—there are bedbugs!”

“Bedbugs?”

“Wait, what?”

They flinched, confused.

It made sense—bedbugs were so common that most people didn’t even think twice about them.

Before the introduction of DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), bedbugs had been an inescapable part of human life.

They hid in bedding, walls, and furniture, waiting to torment their victims.

So, naturally, the bandits looked perplexed by my warning.

“Not just any bedbugs! Those ones!” I shouted.

“Huh? W-what the hell?!”

“HOLY SHIT!”

They followed my finger toward the burning house—and froze in terror.

A swarm of black, turtle-sized bedbugs was crawling out of the flames, trying to escape the fire.

The moment they saw what we were dealing with, the bandits screamed and bolted toward the unlit houses.

“GO! GO NOW!”

‘They’ll handle the survivors—I need to stop these ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) things from spreading.’

The bedbugs were fast.

I turned to Bini and gave a direct order.

“Bini! Don’t let them spread! Kill every single one that tries to escape!”

— Tsrrrt!

Bini lunged into action, circling the burning house at high speed.

Any bedbug fleeing the fire was instantly crushed under its claws.

By the time reinforcements arrived—Seol, Hwa-eun, Lee Tae, Cho, and Yo-hwa—the situation was chaotic.

Seol and Hwa-eun’s eyes widened at the sheer size of the bedbugs.

“What... the... hell...”

“Cho! Yo-hwa! Help Bini!”

— Tsrrrt!

— Ksssshh!

At Hwa-eun’s command, Cho took flight, while Yo-hwa darted across the ground, crushing bedbugs left and right.

Now that I knew we could contain the infestation, I turned to Lee Tae.

“Lee Tae! Your men went to those dark houses to check for survivors, but they haven’t come back. Go check on them!”

“Understood!”

While he ran off, I made my way toward the second victim’s house.

I was about to set it on fire as well—when suddenly, someone stumbled out of one of the dark houses.

A bandit, his eyes vacant, dragging his feet toward Lee Tae.

“B-boss... r-run...”

Then, he collapsed.

— Thud.

Seol, standing nearby, screamed.

“T-that means the thing I touched was—?! KYAAAAH!”

Despite being a seasoned warrior, she had completely lost her composure.

The reason?

A mass of writhing, bloated bedbugs was latched onto the bandit’s back, their bellies swelling before our eyes.

Some were so engorged that clear liquid dripped from their bodies.

They had already gorged themselves on his blood.

Lee Tae ran toward him in panic.

“Yeon-gul! Hey, wake up!”

He grabbed a club and began smashing the bedbugs off his back.

— WHAM! WHAM!

“Yeon-gul! Didn’t you always say you wanted to see your mother again?! WAKE UP!”

But Hwa-eun sighed, shaking her head.

“...He’s dead.”

Lee Tae’s hands trembled.

“N-no... no way! He can hold his breath for ages—he’s just pretending! Right? Right?!”

His mind had snapped from the horror.

And it was about to get worse.

Hwa-eun’s voice turned ice-cold.

“Get yourself together. Do you want everyone else to die too?!”

“...Others?”

Lee Tae blinked.

I nodded.

“We don’t know how many more of these things are still in the village. Move everyone to the docks—NOW.”

“You’re right... Y-you’re absolutely right!”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Lee Tae and his men rushed off to evacuate the villagers.

Meanwhile, I took a torch and set another house ablaze.

At the same time, new swarms of bedbugs began pouring out.

They just kept coming.

The time was now between 1 and 3 AM—the darkest hours of the night.

It was going to be a long battle.

“Cho, Bini, and Yo-hwa! Don’t let a single one escape!”

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— Tsrrrt!

— Ksssshh!

As the black tide of bedbugs surged forward, our three familiars met them head-on.

Against the backdrop of raging flames, hell unfolded.

— CRACK!

— SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!

***

As dawn broke, all the bedbugs seemed to have disappeared as if it had all been a lie.

Since bedbugs were nocturnal insects by nature, they would hide in crevices in the bedding or between floorboards as soon as daylight arrived.

“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”

Collapsing onto the ground, dodging the sticky remains of the crushed bedbugs, was my older sister, looking completely drained.

Behind her, the bandits who had helped us in the battle were also sprawled out on the ground, their faces filled with exhaustion.

“Hah... It’s finally over.”

“That was horrifying.”

At first, we thought the infestation wouldn’t be too severe, considering that we had only burned down four houses.

After all, we had already taken care of the ones crawling out of those homes.

But then, my sister pointed past the smoldering remains of the first house.

“So-ryong! More are coming!”

“More!?”

Shocked, I enhanced my vision, and there they were—endless swarms of bedbugs pouring out from the shadow of the mountain behind the first burned-down house.

It seemed their true breeding ground was in the mountain.

That was why we had to keep fighting until dawn, and only when daylight came did the swarm finally retreat.

Well, to be precise, the fight hadn’t truly ended. The creatures had only withdrawn, entering a temporary lull.

“Are you guys okay?”

Cho and Bini looked perfectly fine, but Yo-hwa seemed slightly exhausted.

When I offered her my finger, she bit into it, absorbing a far greater amount of yang energy than before, leaving me slightly drained.

I slumped onto the ground next to my sister.

“Ugh, I’m exhausted too. This is disgusting. Cho, Yo-hwa, and Bini, you should go wash up in the river.”

Their legs were covered in dried bedbug fluids.

Hearing my comment, they looked down at themselves and nodded.

The three ladies then left for a bath, and as they did, Hwa-eun approached and handed me a flask of water.

“Are you okay, So-ryong?”

“I’m fine. What about you?”

“I’m alright.”

At that moment, my sister groaned as if she was dying.

“I’m not okay! Take care of me too...”

Smiling, I handed her some water, which she chugged down in an instant.

After finishing, she shuddered violently as if just the thought of the bedbugs disgusted her.

“I hate bedbugs the most. But they’re going to come again tonight, aren’t they?”

“Most likely.”

“And we’re stuck here until our ship is fixed, right?”

“They tore out the damaged planks for waterproofing repairs, so yes, we’re stranded here for about a week.”

Hearing my answer, she sighed heavily.

“Haa... But where the hell did such massive bedbugs even come from?”

At her question, I grabbed one of the more intact corpses and examined it closely.

‘It’s almost identical to Cimex lectularius...’

The Cimicidae family consists of bloodsucking insects that feed on warm-blooded animals, commonly known as bedbugs.

Among them, the most well-known species, Cimex lectularius, was essentially the exact same as the ones that had invaded the village.

The only difference was that these were the size of a human palm, their saliva had stronger anticoagulant properties, and they excreted a numbing agent that was far more potent than usual.

Something clicked in my mind, and I asked my sister with a serious expression.

“Doesn’t this smell familiar?”

“Huh? Smell? You mean the scent of herbs?”

She thought I was referring to the coriander-like smell of the bedbugs, but I shook my head.

“No. Doesn’t this feel the same as back when we faced the army ants?”

“The army ants!?”

She flinched in shock.

Hwa-eun nodded, agreeing with my assessment.

“It does seem too much of a coincidence. The location where the bedbugs appeared is also too suspicious. This is Changjiang Sapgyeop—a place where it’s easy for infestations to spread in every direction. If So-ryong is right... this has the same scent as them.”

The reason I brought up the army ants was because I couldn’t shake the feeling that this had the foul stench of the Five Venom Clan all over it.