Spiritual Medicine 5
“So-ryong, this is the smiling flower. It’s a common sight around Sichuan or Yunnan.”
After wandering the jungle with Big Sis for a short while, we had little trouble finding a colony of smiling flowers blooming across a low hill.
The plants were shrubs about as tall as a person, their six-petaled blossoms of yellow, purple, and white mixed together in a lavish carpet that covered the entire slope.
“So these are smiling flowers, huh? Let me see…”
I picked one to check whether it really carried the scent Big Sis had mentioned earlier, and brought it to my nose.
A sweet fragrance immediately flooded in—thick, familiar, and unmistakably sweet. In my past life I ate one of these almost every day. If I look around here, there’s bound to be some somewhere. I nodded to myself, chasing the old memory. It was just as similar as Big Sis had said.
“It’s definitely similar.”
“Right? Not exactly the same, but really close, isn’t it? People of the Tang family train our noses to tell poisons apart by scent, so once we’ve smelled something we never forget it. There’s even a saying in the murim that you can always trust a Tang family’s nose.”
“You train for that too?”
“Yes. We have to memorize four thousand two hundred and six different scents.”
“F-four thousand two hundred and six?”
What were we, perfume makers? Having to remember four thousand two hundred and six scents was absurd. I was already fretting over how to survive the memorization-style education; now they wanted scent training on top of it. Cold sweat trickled down my back. Honestly, looking at Big Sis’s pretty face, if it were some bastard like Tak Un-yang I figured I could work up the nerve to deal with people… but this isn’t even about people. I couldn’t start handling anyone until the education was finished, and the education itself was ridiculous. While I was wondering why everything had to be so complicated and whether I could even manage it, a voice called up to us from the foot of the hill.
“Young Master So-ryong! Young Lady!”
“Over here!”
“This way, Vice Captain.”
The Vice Captain came flying up the slope in a single burst of qinggong. We had agreed that Big Sis and I would look for smiling flowers while he searched for plantain fruit; apparently he had found some and was racing over to us.
“Young Lady, there are plenty of plantains over that way just like here. I brought the fruit—nice and yellow, perfectly ripe.”
He held out a cluster heavy with yellow fruit.
What rested in his hand, however, was something far more familiar than I had expected. Plantain fruit, he said—yet the thing he offered was a ripe, familiar fruit. It was unmistakably a banana. Huh? That’s a total banana. Ah! Right—bananas belong to the plantain family. So this is that plantain!
The fruit the Captain had picked wasn’t the long commercial kind we knew, but short, monkey-banana shapes packed full of seeds when I snapped one in half. Sort of like a wild banana? The flesh tasted of that fierce astringency you get from the fibers between peel and pulp; since we hadn’t come looking for a snack I spat it out and sniffed instead.
The familiar aroma rose at once—the fragrant scent of banana.
“So-ryong, is it the one? The thing you were looking for?”
Big Sis watched me check the smell, eyes bright with expectation. She looked ready to start a full-scale housecleaning right then and there, so I gave a slow nod.
“Yes. These two should be enough.”
“I knew it! Then let’s hurry back and tell the Captain!”
“Let’s, Young Lady.”
We rode the Vice Captain’s back again and returned to the campsite. I gathered the Tang family warriors and made my request: collect plantain fruit and smiling-flower blossoms.
“I’ll need you to gather plantain fruit and smiling-flower blossoms.”
“Plantain fruit and smiling-flower blossoms, you say?”
“Yes. Muli isn’t far from here, so if you can find jars and fill them, that would be ideal.”
“Why the blossoms and the plantain fruit? The flowers I can understand, but plantain fruit is nothing but seeds and astringency.”
The Captain tilted his head and asked again. He seemed to think I was like some platoon leader fresh out of training who wanted wild deodeok for dinner—that I was just angling for a special meal while we were out in the field. Come to think of it, I hadn’t explained the details to anyone but Big Sis.
I looked over the Captain and the warriors, then pointed toward the direction where the Black Path scum were supposedly hiding.
“Those fellows hiding over there. Don’t you want to wipe them out completely?”
“Wipe them out?”
“Yes. Every last one of them.”
True to their reputation as the greatest assassin clan, their eyes sparkled at the word “wipe out.” Yet the Captain’s reply that followed reminded me they still belonged to the Orthodox Path and could not simply massacre people at will.
“There are rumors they kidnap women and children to sell or force into prostitution, and others that they deal in foul drugs. Honestly I’d love to wipe them all out, but we walk the Orthodox Path. I’m grateful that Young Master So-ryong has made a proposal befitting a member of our Tang family, yet we still cannot do anything that goes against proper conduct.”
The answer surprised me a little. I shook my head and explained. Who said anything about killing them all ourselves? I only wanted to scare them a bit.
“Of course not. Do you really think I’d suggest we kill them with our own hands? I only mean we should give them a good fright and drive them off. No need to worry.”
“What? Just scare them and drive them off? How exactly?”
“Hmm… how should I put it? Let’s just say we’ll arrange for them to have an unfortunate accident with a mid-grade poisonous beast—the Golden-Haired Bee King.”
“An unfortunate accident?”
“‘Unfortunate accident’—I rather like the sound of that.”
Big Sis nodded in approval at the phrase. The Captain and the other warriors, still in the dark, looked back and forth between us in confusion.
“Young Master So-ryong, we’ve scattered them exactly as ordered!”
“I’ve completed my part as well!”
The Captain, whose qinggong was the best among us, and the Vice Captain held up empty jars and grinned; they had carried out the orders perfectly. They seemed to be looking forward to whatever was about to happen—the despair and the screams…
“Of course you put most of it beyond their camp, right?”
“Of course. An entire jar’s worth is scattered past their campsite.”
“And you, Vice Captain?”
“Yes. I started from the nearest spots the bees wouldn’t react to and laid a long trail leading toward their camp.”
What the Captain and Vice Captain had scattered was a mash of ripe plantain fruit and smiling-flower blossoms thinned with water to stretch the volume. Preparations were finished.
I gave the signal to Big Sis, who had been tossing and catching a fist-sized stone for some time.
“Lady Hwa-eun, we’re ready!”
“Got it, So-ryong!”
At the signal she caught the falling stone and hurled it straight across the clearing toward the Golden-Haired Bee King’s hive.
—Shiiing!
Whether she had put her full core strength into it or not, the stone flew in a dead-straight line. In my past life she could have built a million-subscriber baseball-girl channel without breaking a sweat.
—Thwack!
The stone left her hand, shot across the open ground, and slammed into the center of the great ancient tree with a tremendous crack. The sound bounced off the cliff face and rolled back in booming echoes.
—Thwack… thwack… thwack… thwack…
Then the terror we had already heard twice filled the cliff and the clearing once more: the wingbeats of the Golden-Haired Bee King.
—Buzzzz! Buzz! Whiiiiine! Whine!
What followed was a scene we already knew well. A golden wave poured from the mouth of the old tree. In the light of the setting sun their golden fur glittered as the bees flooded out of the hive entrance like a breaking tide.
—Whiiiiine! Waaaaa!
The swarm that burst from the entrance rose at once and circled the hive in a furious cloud. Then they shot off toward the direction the wind was coming from.
A death cloud began drifting toward the Black Path scum’s campsite on the breeze.
The clearing was suddenly empty of bees.
“It’s true!”
“Th-this is amazing!”
Big Sis threw another stone for good measure, but no reaction came from inside the hive. Apart from the queen and a few drones, every worker had clearly streamed off toward the Black Path camp. After all, I had just given them the order for a total assault.
“So-ryong, how on earth did you do that? I never imagined bees would get so angry over a flower scent. Don’t bees like flowers and honey?”
Big Sis’s voice was full of wonder.
“That’s because I ordered the bees to launch a total assault.”
“A total assault!? You ordered them? All we did was crush flowers and fruit and scatter them!”
Her eyes went round. To her the whole thing must have looked like pure magic. To understand what had just happened, though, you first needed a deep knowledge of bees as insects and of how they communicate.
“That smell is the one that commands a total assault.”
“The smell from the smiling flowers and the plantain fruit?”
Big Sis found it marvelous, but the cause of this magical event was simply pheromone.
Pheromone is the general term for chemical signals animals of the same species use to talk to one another. It can make animals fall in love, fly into a rage, or grow perfectly docile. Animals react to it almost instantly, and a great many species use it—especially social insects such as bees, ants, and wasps, which rely on pheromones heavily for communication.
So I had simply presented them with the scent bees release when they order a total assault: the scent of banana.
Few people in my old country knew it, but among the pheromones honeybees use for conversation, the one that signals total assault is a compound called isoamyl acetate. Isoamyl acetate makes honeybees tense and far more aggressive.
When biologists studied the substance they discovered something curious: it smells like bananas. The pheromone bees release just before a furious attack carries a banana aroma. And sure enough, the main component of banana scent is isoamyl acetate itself—the same compound that forms the base of artificial banana flavoring we call “banana ester,” and the same compound found in natural bananas.
Every fruit of the banana family contains isoamyl acetate, and that is exactly the same compound as the bees’ total-assault pheromone. That is why, overseas, people are advised not to eat bananas anywhere bees might be present—because it can make them aggressive.
“I’ll explain the details later. For now, let’s harvest the honey before the Golden-Haired Bee King comes back! Vice Captain, keep watch!”
“All right, So-ryong.”
“Understood, Young Master So-ryong!”
Sunset was near. We had to hurry before the enraged swarm returned, so I set the Vice Captain on watch and ran for the hive entrance. First I checked the interior carefully. No sound came. Clearly not a single worker remained inside.
“Let’s go in.”
“I’ll take the lead!”
The Captain, twin daggers in hand, went first; Big Sis and I followed with a lantern and a brazier. We had brought the brazier so the acrid smoke of dried mugwort would keep any remaining bees calm if we met them.
We stepped into the entrance. Overhead, the hive was packed with wax comb…
There was a problem.
Not a drop of honey was visible.
“Huh? There’s no honey at all.”
“That can’t be.”
“He’s right—there’s truly none.”
The combs were empty. Any bee of the honeybee family stores honey as a matter of course, yet not a single drop could be seen. I had the Captain give me a shoulder ride so I could check higher up, but still there was nothing.
“How is this possible?”
The Captain had said he’d seen a hive once before, yet even he looked baffled. Once I examined the comb more carefully, though, the reason became clear.
There were no eggs or brood at all. These bees had already been preparing to migrate. Bees never leave while they are raising young. The cause was almost certainly us—too many humans appearing nearby had decided them on a move.
Then something caught my eye. I looked down at the Captain.
“Captain, how long can you keep running qinggong without rest?”
“Why the sudden question? If I pace myself, half a day or so?”
He asked why I wanted to know, but before I could answer a voice shouted from the entrance. The Vice Captain’s urgent cry rang out.
“Young Master So-ryong, they’re coming! The Golden-Haired Bee King is returning!”
I snatched up the thing I had spotted and yelled to the Captain.
“We’re leaving!”
“Yes, Young Master!”
We burst back into the clearing. The Captain was just catching his breath when Big Sis’s startled voice rose.
“S-So-ryong? Wh-why do you have that!?”
—Woom, woom.
I cradled the struggling creature against my chest and answered.
“There was no honey, so I brought the one who’ll make some. Captain, run! Before those things catch us! They won’t follow once night falls—hurry!”
A life-or-death sprint was about to begin—ours against the Golden-Haired Bee King.
After all, I had just stolen—no, respectfully invited—the queen bee.
I had always wanted to try my hand at beekeeping.