Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang

"So-ryong, this is Hamsuhwa (含笑花). It's a common flower found around Sichuan or Yunnan," my sister explained.

After wandering through the jungle for a while, we easily discovered a patch of Hamsuhwa blooming on a small hill.

The Hamsuhwa was a shrub about the height of a person, with a mixture of yellow, purple, and white flowers made up of six petals, blooming profusely across the hillside.

"So, this is Hamsuhwa? Let's see..."

To confirm if it was the same scent from earlier, I picked a flower and sniffed it.

The sweet fragrance flooded my nose, familiar and rich, bringing back memories.

‘In my past life, I used to eat one of these almost every day. If I search here, I should be able to find some...’

I nodded, recalling my past life’s memories, as the scent matched perfectly.

“It’s definitely similar.”

“Right? It’s not exactly the same, but it’s very close, don’t you think? People from the Tang Clan train to distinguish scents from poisons, so once they’ve smelled something, they can never forget it.

There’s even a saying in the martial world that you can trust the nose of the Tang Clan,” she explained.

“They train to do that?”

“Yes, they have to remember over four thousand two hundred scents.”

“Four thousand two hundred?!” I was stunned. I wasn’t a perfumer, and the thought of memorizing that many scents seemed absurd. I was already struggling with the idea of passing some memorization training, and now I had to deal with learning all these smells.

‘Honestly, if I had to face someone like Tak Wonyang with my sister's grace, I might have a chance, but this... this training is impossible.’

Just as I was lost in thought about how difficult this all seemed, a voice called out from below the hill.

"So-ryong! Miss!"

“This way!”

“This way, Deputy Commander.”

The Deputy Commander, who had leaped up the hill with his light body technique, approached us.

We had been searching for Hamsuhwa, while he had been tasked with finding the Bacha fruit. It seemed he had found it and rushed to us.

“Miss, just over there, there were many Bacha trees, just like you said. Here’s the Bacha fruit. It’s ripe and yellow.”

The Deputy Commander handed us a bunch of yellow, ripe fruit. But what he presented wasn’t what I had expected—it was something very familiar.

He had called it the Bacha fruit, but what he was holding out was a banana.

‘Wait, this is just a banana! Oh! That’s right! Bacha belongs to the banana family! So, this Bacha was the one!’

The Bacha fruit he picked was unlike the familiar bananas we usually saw. It looked more like a small monkey banana. When I broke it in half, I found a full seed inside.

‘It’s like a wild banana?’

When I tasted it, there was an intensely astringent flavor between the banana’s flesh and its skin’s fibers. I wasn’t looking to eat it, so I quickly spat it out and focused on the scent instead.

I sniffed the Bacha fruit and recognized the familiar aroma.

Sure enough, it had the pleasant smell of bananas.

“So-ryong, is this the one you were looking for?” my sister asked with hopeful eyes, noticing my reaction.

Her excitement seemed almost like she was eagerly waiting for something to be cleaned up, so I slowly nodded.

“Yes, these two should be enough.”

“Really! Then let’s hurry and tell the Deputy Commander!”

“Of course, Miss.”

After arriving at the camp on the Deputy Commander’s back, I gathered the Tang Clan warriors and gave my instructions.

“Please gather the Bacha fruit and the Hamsuhwa flowers.”

“The Bacha fruit and Hamsuhwa flowers?” the Deputy Commander asked, confused.

“Yes, I was told that Mokri isn’t far from here, so please get a jar and collect them inside it.”

“But why? The flowers I understand, but the Bacha fruit is full of seeds and extremely astringent.”

The Deputy Commander looked at me, puzzled, probably thinking I was asking for a special treat like a soldier requesting their favorite dinner. I hadn’t given any detailed explanation until now, so I glanced around at the warriors before pointing to the direction where the black-hearted traitors were hiding.

“Over there, the ones hiding. Don’t you want to wipe them out?”

“Wipe them out?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes, completely.”

As expected, the mention of wiping out the enemies seemed to excite the warriors, who began to glow with enthusiasm.

But then, the Deputy Commander, being a part of the White Path family, couldn’t just go around slaughtering people indiscriminately.

“We’ve heard rumors about some of them kidnapping women and selling them, or using them as courtesans. There are even whispers about dealing in bad drugs. Honestly, I’d like to wipe them all out, but we’re from a family that walks the White Path.

I appreciate your suggestion, So-ryong, but we can never do anything dishonorable. I can’t permit it.”

His unexpected answer caught me off guard. I shook my head and clarified.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t mean for us to kill them directly. I just thought we could scare them a little and chase them off. There’s no need to be so concerned.”

“Huh? You want to chase them off just by scaring them? How?”

“Well... what should I say? Maybe we could have the Golden-Fur Bees give them an 'accidental' encounter?”

“‘Accidental’ encounter?”

“‘Accidental’ encounter. I like that term.”

My sister nodded in agreement with the idea, and the Deputy Commander and the warriors, who were confused, exchanged glances with us, unsure of what exactly was going on.

***

"So-ryong, as ordered, I’ve spread it!"
"I’ve completed my task as well!"

The Deputy Commander, along with the other members of our group who were skilled in light-body techniques, proudly held up empty jars, signaling that the task had been perfectly carried out.

It seemed they were eagerly awaiting what would come next—despair and screams.

"Of course, you’ve spread it mostly beyond their camp, right?"

"Of course. We’ve spread an entire jar beyond their camp."

"And what about you, Deputy Commander?"

"Yes, I started with the closest place where the bees weren’t reacting and gradually spread it toward their camp."

What they had scattered was a mixture of crushed Bacha fruit and Hamsuhwa flowers, diluted with water to increase the volume.

The preparations were complete. I gave my sister, who had been tossing a large stone in the air and catching it, a signal.

"Hwa-eun, we’re ready!"

"Got it, So-ryong!"

With the signal, my sister caught the stone midair and launched it toward the Golden-Fur Bee King’s hive across the open area.

• Siiing!

The stone flew smoothly through the air, its trajectory perfect.

In my past life, if I had done this as a baseball player, I would have easily reached a million subscribers.

• Thwack!

The stone left her hand and struck the large tree in the center of the open area with a loud crash.

The sound echoed loudly, reverberating off the cliff.

• Thwack... Thwack... Thwack...

And then, the terrifying sound of buzzing filled the air once more. It was the sound of the Golden-Fur Bees flapping their wings.

• Whoooom! Whoooom! Wheeeeng! Wheeeeng!

What followed was a scene I had seen before—the golden flood of bees pouring out from the hive’s entrance.

With the golden fur of the bees glinting in the sunset, they streamed out of the hive like a tidal wave, filling the air above.

• Wheeeeng! Waaaeng!

The bees flooded out of the hive and immediately began circling the area with terrifying speed.

Then, they began to head toward the wind, moving in the direction of the Black Path’s camp.

The cloud of death was moving toward the camp.

The open area, now devoid of bees, became eerily silent.

"Unbelievable!"

"This is truly amazing!"

My sister threw another stone, but this time, there was no response from the hive.

It was clear that, except for a few queen bees and male bees, all the bees had gone toward the Black Path’s camp.

I had given the signal for a full assault, so they had been commanded to attack.

"So-ryong, how did you do it? I had no idea that the bees would react so aggressively to a flower scent. Don’t bees usually love flowers and honey?"

My sister asked in astonishment.

"That’s because I commanded them to launch a full assault," I answered.

"A full assault!? You commanded them? But we only crushed the flowers and fruits and spread them!"

My sister’s eyes widened in surprise.

It seemed she found this situation incredibly fascinating.

To understand what was happening, one had to know a lot about bees and how they communicate.

"The scent is the one that commands a full assault," I explained.@@novelbin@@

"The scent from the Hamsuhwa and Bacha fruit?"

My sister was amazed, but the source of this magical occurrence was pheromones.

Pheromones are chemical signals that animals use to communicate within their species.

Pheromones can make animals fall in love, become angry, or even calm down.

Animals react instantly to these pheromones, and many species, especially social insects like bees, ants, and hornets, use them to communicate.

That’s why the bees responded so fiercely—because I gave them the scent that orders an attack.

It’s a pheromone called isoamyl acetate, which is found in the banana family.

This chemical was discovered by biologists when they studied how bees communicate, and it turned out that the substance that makes bees attack aggressively also happens to be the main component of the banana scent.

The same isoamyl acetate is found in all banana plants, whether in cultivated bananas or wild ones.

It’s the reason that in areas with bees, eating bananas is often discouraged because it can provoke them into attacking.

"We’ll discuss the details later, but for now, let’s harvest the honey before the Golden-Fur Bees return! Deputy Commander, keep watch!"

"Understood, So-ryong."

"Got it, So-ryong!"

As the sun began to set, we had to hurry before the enraged bees returned. I instructed the Deputy Commander to keep watch and rushed toward the hive entrance.

Once there, I checked the inside.

But once again, there was no response.

It was clear that there were no worker bees left inside.

"Let’s go inside," I said.

"I’ll lead the way!"

The Deputy Commander, holding a short sword in both hands, led the way, with my sister and I following behind, carrying a lantern and a brazier.

We had brought the brazier to fill the air with the pungent smell of mugwort, in case any bees were still inside, hoping to calm them down.

As we entered the hive, I saw that it was filled with honeycomb made of wax.

However, there was a problem.

The problem was that there was no honey anywhere to be found.

"Huh? There’s no honey?"

"That can’t be right."

"Just as So-ryong said, there’s no honey."

The hive was completely empty.

Normally, any bee hive would have honey stored, but there was not a single drop in sight.

I asked the Deputy Commander to lift me up so I could check higher up, but still, no honey.

"How is this possible?"

The Deputy Commander, who had seen hives before, was equally puzzled.

But after inspecting the hive, the reason for the lack of honey became clear.

There were no eggs in the hive.

These bees had clearly been preparing to migrate.

Bees never migrate when they are raising offspring, so the absence of eggs indicated that they had already decided to leave.

The cause was likely us.

Seeing so many humans nearby must have triggered their decision to migrate.

At that moment, I saw something else.

I looked down at the Deputy Commander and asked.

"How far can you go with light-body techniques without stopping?"

"Why the sudden question? If I take it easy, I could run for about half a day."

The Deputy Commander responded, confused by my question, but before I could explain, I heard the urgent voice of the Deputy Commander outside.

"So-ryong! They’re coming! The Golden-Fur Bees are returning!"

Seeing what was coming, I shouted to the Deputy Commander.

"Let’s go!"

"Yes, So-ryong!"

We quickly arrived at the open area, and as the Deputy Commander tried to catch his breath, my sister’s panicked voice came through.

"So-ryong? Why... Why that one!?"

• Whoom, whoom.

I held the struggling creature in my arms and answered.

"There’s no honey, so I brought back one to make honey for us. Deputy Commander, let’s move! Before they come after us! They won’t follow us at night, so we need to hurry!"

Our life-or-death dash was about to begin.

The Golden-Fur Bees, and us.

I had "borrowed" the queen bee.