Savory Death 6
"You're going to kill him... savorily?"
"Kill him savorily?"
At my talk of a savory death, Big Sister and Geolhwang both stared back at me with identical looks of utter incomprehension.
How many people, after all, would instantly grasp the idea of killing a man in a savory fashion out of the blue?
Everyone wore the same blank expression, yet I was certain that mealworms would let us eliminate the target with perfect safety—no need to poison only his food. On the day he came to the gambling house, if we simply added mealworms to everyone’s dishes, no one else would die while he alone would drop dead. It was a flawless method that would kill him cleanly without raising a single suspicion.
So savory and delicious that he just eats it and dies.
That was why I could guarantee the mealworms would finish him. If the man broke out in something whenever he ate crab or shrimp, it meant he had a crustacean allergy. The root cause of that allergy is tropomyosin, a protein that forms part of muscle fiber. Tropomyosin is found in most animals—crabs, shrimp, spiders, mollusks, even insects—but the kind in vertebrates is non-allergenic while the kind in invertebrates is highly allergenic. That is why crab or shrimp sets off the reaction. Even dust-mite allergies come from the same tropomyosin inside the mites. And mealworms, being insects themselves, are packed full of the stuff. The moment he ate them, the anaphylactic shock that had nearly killed Yeong-yeong would kill him instead. Better still, mealworms contain far more tropomyosin per equal weight than crustaceans.
"Let’s bring the yellow mealworms first and talk then. Commander Gu Pae, if you would."
I smiled to myself as I asked Gu Pae to hurry. Things looked promising enough that the smile rose on its own.
"Ah—understood, Young Master So-ryong."
Gu Pae left for the Tang compound to fetch the mealworms. Even though I had said we would talk once they arrived, Big Sister and Geolhwang kept peppering me with questions.
"So-ryong, from the way you asked for yellow mealworms, it seems you mean to use them. You’re going to kill a man with yellow mealworms?"
"What in the world are yellow mealworms? Curiosity’s killing me. From the talk they don’t sound like poisonous insects."
The one who actually needed killing was someone else, yet the two of them looked ready to die of curiosity, while the woman still wore a completely lost expression. Perfect explanation was impossible without a tasting, so I asked them again and again to wait just a little longer. How could anyone discuss gosoae without first tasting gosoae?
"I can only explain properly once the yellow mealworms arrive, so please wait a short while. Hwa-eun, you too—just a little patience."
"Ahem. Y-yes, all right."
"I understand, So-ryong."
An awkward half-shichen passed while we sipped tea. Then Gu Pae burst into the reception hall, out of breath, clutching a wriggling cloth pouch—he must have ridden hard.
"Young Master So-ryong, I brought them as ordered, but…"
At my request he had filled the pouch with the mealworms we had been breeding. It writhed and twitched from the living mass inside.
"Let’s see—oh, they’ve grown beautifully plump."
The ones inside were fat and well-fattened. I could have eaten them raw, but to make them more palatable I asked Big Sister,
"Where’s the kitchen?"
"The kitchen? That way, but…"
I followed her dubious face into the kitchen, quickly boiled water, blanched half the mealworms Gu Pae had brought, then stir-fried them in a Chinese pan. The classic way to prepare insects for eating is to dry them—steam or boil first, then dry in hot air or sunlight. Before long the mealworms shone with a glossy, appetizing sheen. I carried the finished dried mealworms back to the reception hall and offered them to the people who had been dying of curiosity.
"Here—these are yellow mealworms. Everyone try one."
"E-eat them?"
"You want us to eat this?"
"This?"
Big Sister, being a woman, could be forgiven her panic, but Gu Pae—who kept men that ate rats—was making a fuss, so I jerked my chin at him. He would go first. Of course I set the example myself. I popped a savory roasted mealworm into my mouth. A delicious sound followed.
Crunch.
"When you eat them like this they’re wonderfully savory. Aigoo, so savory."
Raw and alive they taste like peanuts and beans; dried and roasted they gain the extra note of a shrimp cracker and become even more savory. That was why, in my previous life in Korea, they had been named “gosoae.” Gu Pae, looking reluctant under my order, put one in his mouth, then rounded his lips in surprise and immediately reached for another.
"Why on earth does this taste good? It’s actually savory?"
The tasting continued. Geolhwang, Big Sister, and even the woman called Na-ok all put roasted mealworms in their mouths and looked mildly astonished.
"Th-they really are savory and delicious?"
"What insect tastes this good?"
"Truly remarkable."
They each grabbed a fistful and kept feeding themselves more. I looked at the three of them.
"Well? Quite savory, isn’t it?"
They nodded as one.
"Yes, very savory, but… are we putting poison on these?"
"So-ryong, they’re savory just as you said, but…"
"Yes, Young Master, extremely savory, yet…"
I had shown them the taste; now it was time to explain. I looked around the room.
"Since Geolhwang is here, I’ll explain carefully. There are things that are nothing to some people and poison to others."
"Like how Young Lady Yeong-yeong is sensitive to bee venom?"
"Exactly, Hwa-eun. Geolhwang said that when the man eats crab or shrimp, something breaks out on his body, didn’t he?"
"That’s right. What our children discovered is solid."
"Yes. That means crab and shrimp are poison to him. That’s why I prepared these yellow mealworms. Inside them is something completely harmless to ordinary people, yet poison to that man."
I explained it at a level this era could understand, and they all nodded.
"Yellow mealworms as well?"
"They look nothing like crabs or shrimp. Fascinating."
"So you’re saying crab and shrimp would be poison to him, and this bug produces the same effect?"
"Exactly, Elder."
Everyone looked intrigued, but after hearing me out Geolhwang held up a mealworm.
"But how do you get him to eat it? Looking like this, it’ll be harder than feeding him crab or shrimp."
He was right—the appearance was more off-putting than seafood. I sent someone to the pharmacy for a mortar, ground the mealworms, and showed Geolhwang again.
"No need to feed them whole. Grind them like this and mix them into other food—it only makes the dish more savory. The more he eats the more certain the death, so we’ll put in plenty."
"Oho. Grind and feed? That would work."
The amount needed to trigger an allergic reaction varies by person, so our goal was simply to get a large quantity into him. I was explaining that we would dust the powder heavily into whatever dish he ate when Big Sister’s voice rang out beside me.
"Ah! I have a wonderful idea, So-ryong!"
I turned to her; she shouted toward the door.
"Is anyone out there?!"
A maid’s voice answered.
"Yes, Young Miss, I’ve been waiting outside."
"Perfect. Go out and buy some lüdagun with bean flour and some without."
"Lüdagun?"
I tilted my head at the sudden request for “rolling donkeys.” The woman called Na-ok explained.
"It’s a party food. Made from glutinous rice with red-bean filling."
"Ah, is that so?"
Glutinous rice cakes? The description sounded exactly like that. Sure enough, a short while later the maid returned with two kinds of glutinous rice cakes stuffed with red-bean paste—one coated in yellow soybean flour, the other plain. The moment they arrived, Big Sister took one of the plain cakes and rolled it in the mealworm powder I had ground.
"Lüdagun is named for the dust a donkey raises when it rolls on the ground—glutinous rice cakes dusted with bean flour. No one dislikes them, they’re simple, and they fill you up, so they suit a gambling house perfectly. Sometimes they brush them with malt syrup first and then roll them in the flour. If we mix the yellow-mealworm powder with the bean flour and roll them, won’t it be completely undetectable?"
"Ohh…"
I had been thinking of sprinkling the powder into soup or some other dish, yet here was a perfect vehicle. This was truly an assassin’s dish—glutinous rice cakes heavily laden with mealworm powder, and sticky malt syrup to boot. As the cake went down the esophagus it would cling, and what would that do to the nearby airway? One of the ways anaphylactic shock kills is by closing the airway and causing suffocation. I looked at Big Sister with eyes full of affection.
Is this what they mean by ‘husband sings and wife follows’?
Beside me Geolhwang’s delighted voice boomed.
"A martial artist’s last meal is lüdagun dusted with insect powder? What a fitting death for a vermin of a man! He’ll thrash around raising dust on the floor—perfect for his station. Kehehe. I’m glad I came to watch."
His cheerful shout reminded me that this region detests the falling technique they call “lazy donkey roll.” Big Sister had once told me that using it in a fight, even if you survive, is a dishonor. From that angle, a martial artist dying from eating lüdagun would certainly be a disgrace.
‘Did you hear how the third son of Taehwa Sect died?’
‘No, what happened?’
‘Dropped dead while eating lüdagun.’
‘A martial artist? Lüdagun? Pfft!’
Rumors like that would spread, I was sure. With the dish decided, the woman named Na-ok, who had been quiet until now, made her request.
"I—I know how to make lüdagun! Please let me make them!"
She wanted to take revenge with her own hands. The board was already set; the food of vengeance should be hers. Every head in the reception hall nodded together.
"Of course. Revenge is something you do yourself."
"Please do."
"Th-thank you!"
The detailed plan began to take shape.
"Then we’ll tell the gambling-house owner that as a condition for taking the woman with us, he should let her work in the kitchen for a day. We’ll say she’s half out of her mind and agreed to follow us if she works one day in the kitchen—that should do."
"Ah, that would work."
"And just in case, we’ll gamble with him that day as well. When he collapses…"
"Kehehe. Just hearing it is satisfying and fun! Aigoo! That this old man can’t set foot in a gambling house is a real regret!"
A plan from which the man could never escape death.
When Jin Dae-seung, third son of the Taehwa Sect, arrived at the top floor of the gambling house reserved for the big spenders, the people waiting for him were unexpected.
"Y-Young Lady Hwa-eun?"
"And you are?"
"Ah, I am Jin Dae-seung, third son of the Taehwa Sect."
"Ah, so you are Hero Jin of the Taehwa Sect?"
A boy who looked completely out of place in a gambling house and Dang Hwa-eun, a direct descendant of the Tang Family, were already playing at the dice table where Jin Dae-seung always played toubao. He had heard they had come a few days earlier; he had not expected them today as well.
"Oh! I got it right!"
"My, So-ryong, you’re amazing!"
"Haha, am I?"
One of the Three Flowers of the Martial World, Dang Hwa-eun, sat beside the young boy and cooed at him. Jin Dae-seung asked the warrior who had accompanied him who the boy was; the man whispered quietly.
"I hear the Poison Flower has a fiancé now. That might be him."
"A fiancé? That scrawny little brat?"
"Yes, Young Master."
That a pretty woman like Dang Hwa-eun belonged to such a skinny kid—rage flared in Jin Dae-seung’s chest. He himself had never held a woman that beautiful, and it looked as though he never would. The only woman he still ranked high was that girl from Songga Village a few years back. But that day his eldest brother had caught him with bloodstained clothes, and he had been forbidden to go out alone ever since. The only place he could still visit with warriors was this gambling house; the only women left to him were the house’s courtesans.
Damn it.
He regretted that the older sister, said to be even prettier than the younger one, had not been there that day. Still, he sat down. Yet with Dang Hwa-eun leaning on the table, utterly absorbed in the boy beside her, his gambling could not go well. He was paying more attention to her than to the dice. After half a shichen of nothing but losses, when he had already dropped about half the money he had brought and was telling himself to focus, voices rose from nearby.
"Why is this so savory?"
"Today’s lüdagun is really delicious."
"Much better than the ones they sell in the market."
At the side table laid with wine and snacks, people were eating something with relish and praising it.
"Is that any good?"
"Yes, Young Master, try one. Strangely savory and tasty."
He was a little hungry, and he never refused cakes. Jin Dae-seung took a lüdagun from the plate the warrior offered and bit into it deeply. A savory flavor filled his mouth. Just as the others said, the lüdagun was excellent, so he chewed and swallowed the first one, then took a big bite of a second.
That was the moment.
"Kh… kh. Kheulk. Kheulk."
A foreign sensation in his throat. Coughs bursting out. His hands and feet went numb, then his breath turned short and ragged. It was exactly the state that had come over him as a child when he had eaten crab by mistake.
"Heuk… s-save…"
"Y-Young Master! Young Master!"
His legs gave way and he sank to the floor. Warriors rushed over; seeing him struggle for air they poured inner energy into him to help. Then a woman’s voice arrived.
"What’s the matter?"
"Th-the Young Master has collapsed."
"Dear me. As a member of the Tang Family, allow me to examine him."
Through his blurring vision he saw Dang Hwa-eun and the young boy. Tang people were skilled in medicine. Her hand settled on the chest of the fallen Jin Dae-seung. Then her words.
"I’ll pour inner energy to open his airways."
"Yes, th-thank you!"
The warriors thanked her and waited for his breath to free, yet no energy entered his body. Instead a cold sound transmission slipped into Jin Dae-seung’s ear.
Did you think you would live? Today you are fated to eat lüdagun and die rolling in the dirt like a donkey.
At the sudden, murderous words Jin Dae-seung’s eyes flew wide. The last thing he heard was a single phrase.
Songga Village.
"Kkeueoeoe!"
He did not know how, but he felt they knew everything he had done. Convinced the Tang Family was after his life, he thrashed with the last of his strength, trying somehow to tell the nearby warriors. Then the young boy’s voice.
"If a sick man thrashes about I can’t pour energy into him. Everyone hold him down!"
The helping hands he had hoped for became, at the boy’s words, hands that bound him. A moment later Jin Dae-seung’s vision drowned completely in darkness. The savory sensation of something still left in his mouth became his final memory in life.