First Kiss 1
Just because the worker bees had poured into the hollow of the ancient tree did not mean the matter was finished.
Leaving things as they were would have been the height of carelessness.
From this moment on, the real work began.
So what was to be done right now?
Those creatures were intermediate-grade venomous beasts that had gorged themselves on honey, which was the only reason they had been able to fly all the way here over several days. Bees, as a rule, had terrible fuel efficiency; go even a single day without nectar and they simply died.
No matter that they were intermediate-grade venomous beasts, they were clearly starving and exhausted.
A glance at the sentries posted at the entrance confirmed it—their abdomens were sunken hollow, and the rapid expansion and contraction of those same bellies made the exhaustion obvious.
The old saying was true: affection and goodwill both sprang from a full belly.
If I fed them now, while they were this hungry?
Their wariness toward humans would drop, and they would start to regard me as their master. Or if not master, then at least something close enough that their hostility faded.
This is all part of the great Fabre plan. Let them fly themselves half to death, then provide shelter and food the moment their stomachs are empty.
I immediately ran to my father-in-law and explained what I needed.
“Father-in-law, there is something I require at once. Can it be obtained?”
“Something you need?”
“Yes. Feeding syrup—I must give the exhausted bees food. So honey, or… ah, what do they call it here? That sweet thing like honey, the kind you make by squeezing the juice of a large plant…”
I had no idea whether sugar even existed in this world or what they called it, so I was fumbling through the description when Grandfather, who had been listening nearby, spoke up.
“You mean white sugar or sand sugar?”
White sugar and sand sugar? White sugar would be the snow-white kind, but what is sand sugar?
“What are white sugar and sand sugar?”
“White sugar is the kind as white as snow. Sand sugar is the reddish kind that looks like sand.”
“Ah, so that’s why they’re called white sugar and sand sugar. I need the white sugar.”
White sugar was refined white sugar; sand sugar was probably brown sugar.
People often assumed brown sugar, packed with minerals, would be better for bees, but that was completely wrong.
Syrups and brown sugar contained large amounts of dextrin—undecomposed carbohydrates—that bees could not break down. Eating it gave them diarrhea, and for creatures with such poor fuel efficiency, diarrhea was a death sentence. Once a bee started scouring, it could die of exhaustion. Feeding syrup absolutely had to be made with white sugar.
Honey would have been better, of course, but honey was scarce and expensive.
“Open the Tang Family storehouses and bring out every last grain of white sugar!”
“Yes, Family Head!”
The warriors all headed for the warehouses. While I waited for the sugar, I first prepared the water jars and water. In that brief lull, a thought struck me—my sister.
The image of Hwa-eun collapsing earlier flashed through my mind.
“Ah! Where is Miss Hwa-eun?”
When I asked after her, my father-in-law gave me an incredulous look and answered with a note of grievance.
“Only now you remember? I already had your mother-in-law take her to rest. Why on earth was the child so completely spent? No—she must have used light-body techniques all the way here from Mok-ri with those bees on her tail, is that right?”
I watched his expression carefully and gave a tiny nod.
“Yes. She only slept about two shichen at night… and ran the rest of the time…”
“Heavens above…”
The muttered remark made it clear he thought she was an absolute lunatic. Beside him, Grandfather finally seemed to recall something and asked,
“Speaking of which, where in the world did the Poison Blood Squad captain, vice-captain, and the rest of the warriors go? They left together—surely they weren’t all wiped out by the Golden-Mane Bee Kings?!”
His voice rose with every word. He clearly feared the warriors had been slaughtered by the Golden-Mane Bee Kings.
Oh crap…
I had at least remembered my sister; the rest of them had completely vanished from my mind. Scratching my head in guilt, I answered,
“Th-they’re probably collapsed somewhere along the road… I suppose someone should go pick them up…”
“Hah…”
“Ha-ha.”
Myriad Poisons Divine Lord Grandfather and my father-in-law both let out stunned laughs. Moments later the Family Head issued orders for the stragglers to be collected.
“Poison Mist Squad, search the road to Mok-ri at once and bring back every last member of the Poison Blood Squad who fell behind!”
“Yes, Family Head! Ban Wi-so, captain of the Poison Mist Squad, receives the command! Move out!”
“““Yes, Captain!”””
A group of warriors sprinted down the mountain path. Soon afterward the water jars, water, and sacks of sugar arrived. I explained to the warriors how to make the feeding syrup.
“Mix two dou of water with sixteen gwan of white sugar.”
“Understood, Young Master So-ryong! You all heard that?!”
“““Yes!”””
They set about dissolving the white sugar into the water jars to produce the feeding syrup.
In my previous life I had used this exact mixture during the rainy season when bees could not forage, or in autumn after the final harvest so the colonies could survive the winter. Once the bees processed it, the result was called feeding-syrup honey—sometimes derided as fake honey. Honestly, it was not fake at all. The composition differed only slightly; the two were nearly impossible to tell apart.
Real honey was simply flower nectar mixed with enzymes in a bee’s stomach and regurgitated. If a bee ate sugar water instead of nectar and mixed it with the same enzymes, the product was almost identical. The only real differences were that natural honey contained no detectable maltose or sucrose, while feeding-syrup honey showed about five percent, and that natural honey was richer in free amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.
Even those maltose and sucrose residues disappeared if the bees stored the syrup long enough.
“Young Master So-ryong, it’s nearly ready. What should we do with it?”
After waiting a short while, the warriors asked what to do with the fully dissolved syrup.
“Move everything in front of the training grounds for now.”
Carrying the finished syrup, we arrived at the training grounds reserved for the direct bloodline of the clan. I peeked carefully through the doorway, just in case. These creatures had been extremely high-strung in the wild, after all.
Looking at the hollow tree inside the training grounds, I saw the bees still looked utterly spent.
Let’s see… still completely wiped out.
Confirming their condition, I scooped half a jar of syrup into my arms and stepped inside. Sure enough, the sound came at once.
—Woooom…
The walls and barriers meant they only stood guard inside the training grounds. Though they sounded ready to pour out of the hive any second, only a few heads poked from the entrance; not a single bee emerged.
“Will you be all right?”
Myriad Poisons Divine Lord Grandfather’s worried voice floated from behind me.
I reassured him there was no need for concern. The bees simply looked too exhausted to move. Under normal circumstances they would already have swarmed out.
“They seem too drained to fly, so I’ll go in once and come right back.”
“Then I’ll watch from behind. If anything happens I’ll rush in at once. Don’t worry and do as you must.”
“Yes, Grandfather.”
If things went wrong he would throw a hidden weapon for me. I approached the hollow tree carefully. Three bees still poked their heads from the entrance and did not budge—sentries, no doubt.
I spoke to them in the gentlest tone I could manage.
“There, there. Time to eat.”
I set the jar of syrup down right in front of the hollow. Immediately the Golden-Mane Bee Kings’ antennae began to twitch rapidly. They were still wary, yet there was always one glutton in every group. One bee could not resist and started to crawl out, only for the others to seize its hind legs and drag it back inside.
I smiled again and spoke in a friendly voice.
“It’s fine. This is for you. Go on, try it. Mm… ah, so sweet.”
I dipped a finger and tasted it to show them the liquid was harmless and edible. Only afterward did I realize this was the first sweet thing I had tasted since reincarnating. On Hainan Island I had never known which wild fruits were safe, so I had never dared touch them; the syrup was incredibly sweet. Even after joining the Tang Family I had never eaten anything sugary. The rush of joy I felt was exactly like the first chocolate pie I had eaten in army boot camp—or the first plate of black-bean noodles on leave.
Why is this so damn good? Chocolate Goddess has nothing on this.
The moment the sweetness hit my tongue, sparks seemed to flash behind my eyes. My spirits soared. The original purpose of feeding the bees vanished from my mind entirely; I just kept dipping two fingers into the syrup and licking them clean.
—Slurp.
A long proboscis suddenly plunged into the jar beside me. Startled, I looked over and found three Golden-Mane Bee Kings had already approached. The glutton from earlier had clearly stuck its tongue in.
I checked whether they were still on guard, but their compound eyes were fixed not on me but on the jar of syrup. They must have been starving. I pushed the jar closer and said,
“Yeah, that’s right. Eat up. Ahaha… ha…”
After a final glance at me they lunged. All three buried their heads in the jar and began gulping the sugar water with gusto.
Perfect!
The bees had dropped their wariness and were drinking the syrup. I dashed out, refilled the jars in both hands, and began a frantic delivery service. I carried every load myself in case the bees were still wary of other people. It was exhausting, but the steadily growing swarm left me no time to rest.
Three bees became ten, ten became thirty, thirty became a hundred, until at last every last bee had poured from the hive and was eagerly drinking the syrup—a magnificent sight.
“That’s it. Eat plenty and make lots of honey.”
Maybe I should sell honey as a side business?
If the beekeeping went well, peddling honey did not sound half bad.
The bees recovered their strength almost immediately after drinking the syrup.
From the very next day, they were spotted collecting nectar from the blossoms of every poisonous herb that covered Tang Family Mountain. Because their base stock was the relatively gentle honeybee, they did not attack people on sight while foraging—so long as no one threatened them directly.
Thus the sight of Golden-Mane Bee Kings buzzing about Tang Family Mountain quickly became an everyday occurrence within the clan.
“You’re telling me we ran into people from the Emei Sect along the way?”
Separately from the bees, my sister finally woke after three days and remembered nothing of meeting the Emei disciples. That death-defying sprint had clearly been too harsh a memory for her.
“Yes. Her dharma name was Yeon-su or something like that. She seemed to know Miss Hwa-eun…”
“Monk Yeon-su?”
“Yes. You asked for water and she gave you her bottle. You don’t remember?”
“…”
My sister’s eyes went wide with disbelief.
I was still helping her recover those memories when a Tang Family warrior’s voice called for me from outside.
“Young Master So-ryong, you need to come out. The Golden-Mane Bee Kings are acting strange.”
“Strange how?”
Since my sister was awake, I tucked the little Ogongs back into her arms and hurried out of her quarters. I had to see what was wrong.
Outside, a warrior pointed at the sky. Looking up, I saw a considerable number of Golden-Mane Bee Kings circling overhead, as if searching for something.
“What the…?”
Wanting to discover the cause of their odd behavior, I started toward the training grounds that housed them. Suddenly the sound of Golden-Mane Bee King wings beat right behind me.
—Bwooong.
I spun around to check the close-range wingbeats, and one Golden-Mane Bee King flew up and hovered directly in front of my face. More wingbeats joined it at once.
—Bwoong.
—Bwooong.
Wh-what?
In the blink of an eye more than a dozen Golden-Mane Bee Kings had surrounded me. Panicking, I raised both hands in surrender.
“Hey, kids? It’s okay. It’s me. I’m not a stranger.”
But they had been looking for me. One by one they latched onto my body and began to lift off. My feet slowly left the ground, and then I was being hauled through the air.
“W-wait—aaah!”
“Y-Young Master So-ryong! Tell the Supreme Clan Head! Inform the Family Head!”
The warriors stared up in horror and sprinted toward the Black Tortoise Hall that served as the Family Head’s residence. The last thing I saw was their fleeing backs; the next moment I was dumped in front of the Golden-Mane Bee Kings’ home. The bees that had carried me pushed my back with their heads, urging me inside.
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’m going in.”
Shoved forward, I entered the hollow tree. A small amount of comb had already been built. A bee slightly larger than the others hanging from that comb flew over and hovered before my face.
—Bwoong. Bwooong.
She examined me while hovering in place. When she glanced left and right, the other bees took it as a signal and clamped onto my arms and legs like living restraints. One even settled on the back of my head. Completely immobilized, I watched the queen climb onto my chest and slowly crawl upward.
“E-everyone calm down, kids. What’s going on…?”
She continued until she was face-to-face with me. Her mouth drew steadily closer to mine.
“Huh? Uh… uhhh?”
Her two compound eyes filled my entire field of vision. In those eyes I saw my own panicked face, and then the queen’s mouth sealed over mine.
Her tongue pushed into my mouth, and at the same time something sour and thick began to slide down my throat in heavy gulps.
It was my first kiss.