Wildfire 3
Now that Hwa-yang had reached adulthood, she was so cute it was almost criminal.
A plump, steamed-bun body dyed a bright orange. Tiny, deep-purple feet. Front and hind legs that had shortened into stubby little things, and a pair of vacant eyes that looked as if she had achieved total enlightenment. Along her back, rough, knobby protrusions rose like flowing magma. That was the full picture of adult Hwa-yang.
Cute, sure. But looking at her, I probably shouldn't get my hopes up for anything spectacular.
I figured it was best not to expect her to rank among the Ten Great Poisons or even the Twenty-Four Poison Branches. Just looking at her, she fell far short of the aura those creatures carried. No—not just far short. Downright unimpressive, maybe?
Cho had a six-meter body, could fly, and carried a near-hydrochloric-acid poison that turned protein into water. Yo-hwa had a body both hard and light, steel-like silk, and a paralysis venom that came with hallucinations. And that wasn't all. The Silver Silkworm Moths, Moji and Soji, were still larvae, but they already packed both healing and debuffs. The Fiendish Black Tiger Wasp had a broken wasp-based body plus sonic attacks.
But Hwa-yang? Her poison was impressive, sure, but the way she looked…
Yeah. She just looked like a giant orange potato.
Why are you a potato?
Not that "potato" was entirely an insult. The word carried two meanings: she literally looked like a potato, and she had the same body type as the rain frogs I'd kept in my previous life.
Rain frogs had earned the nickname "potato" for their plump, round bodies. They waddled around on short legs with steamed-bun physiques, and their cry was a little pee-yaaak, which had won them a solid fanbase. Despite having no venom at all, they were among the few frogs I'd ever kept purely for how adorable they were.
Hwa-yang looked almost exactly like them. Right down to the unimpressive appearance.
In my past life, the general consensus on rain frogs had been that they were pretty pathetic-looking. A frog so unimpressive in form that it still somehow attracted a huge following—that was the rain frog.
Ah. Now that I think about it, of course Hwa-yang looks like them. Their ecology is similar.
Thinking about rain frogs, I could vaguely understand why Hwa-yang had ended up with a similar body structure. Rain frogs lived in the sands of Africa, burrowing underground and only coming out when it rained or at night. Hwa-yang seemed like the kind of creature that would only emerge when there was fire. Water and fire—different triggers, same vibe. Spending ten years barely eating and holding out until adulthood was a lot like a rain frog waiting underground for the rain.
Yeah. She's short on dignity, but I didn't have a single amphibian yet. She's unimpressively cute, so I'll take it.
It felt like scratching an instant lottery ticket and winning about five thousand won. Not a total bust, but a little disappointing all the same.
Still, none of my kids were amphibians, and she was already in my hands. I decided I would raise her well from here on out, and I stroked the head of Hwa-yang, who was staring up at me with those vacant eyes.
"I'll be counting on you from now on, Hwa-yang. Congratulations on becoming an adult."
As I stroked her head, her eyes curved into pleasant little crescents, and I heard her first cry.
—Kii!
Just as expected—an adorably tiny cry, just like a rain frog's.
"Our Hwa-yang's cry is also unimpres—no, cute."
—Kii! Kii!
Whether she liked the petting or not, Hwa-yang's eyes slowly began to close. I kept stroking her as I looked her over. I'd already put the disappointment behind me; what I needed next was to figure out exactly what she was.
I decided to examine her more carefully. I was genuinely curious about Hwa-yang's true identity. Nothing I'd seen so far had given me a clear answer. Me—the walking encyclopedia of venomous creatures, the guy they called Spicy Fabre—and I still couldn't get a read on her.
Setting everything else aside, I couldn't even tell whether she was a frog, a toad, or a narrow-mouthed frog. Fine for a tadpole, but she was an adult now.
Of course, telling amphibians apart had always been a little tricky. Even in my past life, the lines between frogs, toads, and narrow-mouthed frogs had been fuzzy. Species were usually classified by genetic, morphological, and physiological traits, but the order Anura—the frogs, toads, and narrow-mouthed frogs of the class Amphibia—was full of exceptions. Some frogs had the warty skin typical of toads. Some frogs had legs that couldn't jump, like narrow-mouthed frogs. Some toads had frog-like traits. We divided them into frogs, narrow-mouthed frogs, and toads, but the categories were never absolute.
So when I looked down at Hwa-yang with a serious expression, she stared back up at me and cried as if to ask what was wrong.
—Kii?
"Nothing. I'm just looking because you're cute."
Based on the rough, knobby back of her adult form, she seemed like a toad. But judging by her leg length, jumping was clearly out of the question, and her web-less feet put her closer to a narrow-mouthed frog. Then again, looking at her overall shape, she was basically a rain frog. Hard to pin down, really.
—Tsurut!
I was still deep in thought about what Hwa-yang could possibly be when Cho's startled cry rang out beside me. I turned my head. Cho had her antennae standing straight up and was staring at me in a complete daze. It was rare for her to be this shocked—interesting.
"What is it, Cho? Something wrong?"
I tilted my head and asked, but Cho stayed frozen solid.
"Cho? Hey?"
I waved a hand in front of her eyes, trying to snap her out of it—and that was when I noticed something glittering in her gaze as she looked at me.
What? Is there still some leftover fire nearby?
I turned to check the surroundings, but around the white-ash summit there wasn't a single ember left. Just as I was wondering about it, a strange sound came from above my head.
—Hwagreuk…
"Uh…"
The sound of something burning. I slowly raised a hand toward the top of my head and felt heat. Blue fire was rising from my hair, using the strands as a wick.
"F-Fire!?"
"Tsurururu!"
"Gyaaaah!"
I panicked and jammed my head into the ash, but the flames wouldn't go out. I covered my head with what was left of Sister Seol's fur pelt, but the fire mysteriously rose right up over the fur.
—Hwagreuk!
This didn't feel like normal fire. Hwa-yang's evolution must have evolved her poison as well, and if I wasn't careful this could get ugly. I asked Cho to hurry and bring Hwa-eun, along with Seol, Bing, and Dong-i. I was going to need Seol, Bing, and Dong-i for the detox.
"Cho, go tell Mom to bring Seol, Bing, and Dong-i! Hurry! Got it!"
—Tsurut!
Hearing my request, Cho shot into the sky and vanished down the mountain. I looked at Hwa-yang with growing worry—and from her back, the same blue flames that were rising from my head flared up fiercely. Cheonghwa. Blue Fire.
—Hwagreuk.
I didn't see the poison evolving coming. I-It'll be fine, right?
I'd figured the me from another universe would somehow handle it—but apparently the me from another universe was still me.
The wait for Hwa-eun felt like an eternity.
Strangely, my hair itself wasn't burning away, but having flames dance on top of my head like a candle was enough to make anyone anxious. I felt like I'd turned into a candle myself, and my nerves were fraying. The terror that the fire might creep down and melt me away from the tips of my hair kept rising.
And along with it, a more fundamental male fear: even if I didn't die, what if all my hair burned off?
If I go bald at this age, I'd rather just die!
If you scar your scalp, they call it a "patch bald"—the hair roots in that spot are gone forever, and nothing ever grows there again. And burns? That was a lifetime of baldness, guaranteed. So of course I was losing my mind under the weight of two separate terrors.
"Damn it… Hwa-yang, can't you put this fire out!?"
In my panic I asked Hwa-yang if she could extinguish the flames, but she just stared at me with those vacant eyes. In a situation this urgent, that look was enough to drive a man insane.
Gyaaaah!
I was stamping my feet in that frantic state when I suddenly sensed something wrong with my body. It wasn't like the last time I'd been poisoned—no fever, no pain, no coughing up blood. But somehow, my internal energy was slowly being drained from my dantian.
"W-What is this!?"
And as my anxiety peaked, my internal energy began pouring out of my whole body as if I were in the middle of a fight.
Don't tell me—is this thing burning my internal energy!?
Whatever the mechanism, Hwa-yang's poison felt like it was burning my internal energy. Before she matured, it had burned blood and bodily fluids. Now that she was an adult, it seemed the fuel had switched to internal energy.
—Gulp.
What happens when all my internal energy is gone?
The moment I started wondering what would happen once my energy burned out completely, the anxiety spiked—and my internal energy began draining even faster.
N-No! Calm down, calm down, So-ryong! It's nothing! Just calm down!
A third of my internal energy was already gone. I quickly sat cross-legged and set about recovering my power. I had to buy time until Hwa-eun arrived, no matter what.
I had only just settled into the lotus position beside Hwa-yang and begun circulating my energy when I felt ash swirling through the air, and Hwa-eun's and Sister Seol's voices reached my ears.
"So-ryong! I knew it! What kind of state is this!? You're not a candle!"
"So-ryong!"
I quickly finished a minor circulation cycle and opened my eyes to find my elder sister stamping her feet right in front of me. Hwa-eun pulled Seol, Bing, and Dong-i from the hem of her skirt, pressed them against my body, and said,
"Hwa-eun… I-I'm sorry."
"I know. Apologies later. Just hold on a little! Kids, take care of your dad!"
—Kkukku!
—Kkuu!
—Kyuu!
"Yong-ie, once you're detoxed, you look at me, got it!?"
Judging by Sister Seol's reaction, my back was not going to survive the aftermath of the detox—but if detox was all it took, I could spare a back. I settled my mind and waited for the poison to clear.
If I can trade my back for Hwa-yang's adulthood, that's a bargain. Absolutely.
Just like last time, Seol, Bing, and Dong-i clung to my body and began to glow. Soon I heard Sister Seol and Hwa-eun saying the flames on my head were shrinking.
"It's going down!"
"Ah, the flames are shrinking!"
Whew… I freaked out for nothing.
Thankfully, it felt like the detox was working. I was just starting to calm my startled heart when Dong-i, who had been detoxing just fine, suddenly began to groan.
—Kyuung…
Then came the strained cries of Bing and Seol, as if the effort was too much.
—Kkuu…
—Kkukkuu…
A moment later they dropped off my body, panting hard.
"What's wrong, Seol? Bing?"
"Is something not working?"
Apparently the evolved poison made detoxing much harder.
—Hwagreuk.
The moment the three of them stopped, the flames surged back up from my head.
Damn it. Nothing ever just goes smoothly for me in one clean shot…
Whether I was cursed or what, every time something went wrong, it never resolved cleanly in a single try. I was seriously considering whether I needed an exorcism when a startled cry burst from Hwa-eun's lips.
"A B-Blue Fire Magma Toad!?"
Apparently she'd been so focused on me that only now had adult Hwa-yang, sitting behind my back, caught her eye.
Blue Fire Magma Toad—translated, it meant a blue magma toad. For unimpressive little Hwa-yang, that scientific name was way too grand.
W-What?