Companion Poison Beasts
“Companion poison beasts?”
In the now-friendly atmosphere, the single phrase I tossed out seemed to send massive ripples through the Beast Palace.
The Beast Palace Lord and the elders each nodded, admiration and regret crossing their faces as they murmured among themselves.
“Does that mean a poison beast that becomes one’s lifelong partner? Even in our Beast Palace, where we cherish beasts, no one uses the word ‘companion’… How could someone from the Central Plains…”
“Isn’t that an extraordinary mindset? I’d love for the disciples of our palace to take it to heart. Lately some of them treat their beasts like mere servants—it’s been a headache. How did such a talent end up with the Tang Family…”
“He’s the Tang Family’s live-in son-in-law, I hear. What a pity. He’d fit right in with our Beast Palace.”
“I thought it was bizarre when they said the Black Wolf Hero had a collar around his neck held by a woman. But if the one holding the leash is a human-faced spider—and a companion at that—then it means each is the other’s master, doesn’t it? What profound meaning!”
Uh, teacher, that last part is a misunderstanding, okay?
There seemed to be a few misconceptions floating around, but the result was good either way. By proving my obsessive passion, the animal fanatics had accepted me as one of their own.
Reptiles and insects were my specialty, true, but we were all lumped together under the giant category of “animals.”
Hey hey, so you’re poison-beast faction, brother? Poison-beast faction gets full approval. Same animals, after all.
I almost felt like I could hear their inner voices. And perhaps because I had proven I was the same kind of person, the Palace Lord made his decision faster than expected.
He must have realized that simply slipping away for a while, as I had suggested, meant no one had to die or get hurt for nothing. Orders came down at once.
“If a young hero calls the children he raises ‘companions,’ then the depth of his care for poison beasts needs no further proof. If the advice he gave us sprang from that same heart, we can trust how much it is meant for our sake. I have decided.
The Demon Ants are said to move at daybreak, yes? Even if we could wipe them out for certain as you claim, it is still wiser to avoid losses we need not take.
Buildings can be rebuilt. People and beasts cannot return.
Summon every soul of the palace before the Palace Lord’s Hall! We will prepare to evacuate!”
At the Palace Lord’s words, even the elders who had voiced other opinions all nodded in acceptance. The woman who had resisted hardest even sent me a sound transmission.
There was even a touch of respect in her eyes.
Then came the elders’ booming replies.
“We receive your command, Palace Lord!”
“Yes! Palace Lord!”
The moment the order fell, the great double doors of the Palace Lord’s Hall through which we had entered swung wide open. One elder seized the ram’s-horn trumpet hanging on the wall and sprinted to the entrance.
From the mouth of the hall a deep, resonant trumpet blast rolled out.
—Bwoooooong.
The profound call of the ram’s horn vibrated through Beast Valley and into our chests. As the sound flooded the valley, light flared outside; every person and beast within the valley, lanterns in hand, thronged densely before the entrance of the Palace Lord’s Hall.
Leopards, eagles, owls, bears, wolves, monkeys, wild boars, deer, and roe deer—quite a variety of beasts stood interspersed among the people. Once the crowd of humans and animals had packed the entrance, the Beast Palace Lord strode out before the hall and shouted in a voice thick with inner energy.
“Every member of the Beast Palace and every beast—prepare to evacuate! We need only take shelter until the Demon Ants withdraw. Pack provisions and simple clothing, then gather here again in one shichen!”
Concise and to the point. The people gathered in front answered as one.
“““Understood, Palace Lord!”””
Then they scattered swiftly into the village to make ready for flight.
Thus the evacuation preparations began. When the Palace Lord turned and re-entered the hall, questions poured down at once.
“The centipede, the lizards, even the spider—how did you come to raise those poison beasts… no, those children?”
“Insects are different from beasts; I always thought they couldn’t understand human speech. How do those children understand yours?”
“We’ve tried raising lizards several times in our palace and failed every time. Remarkable!”
Here, too, only people truly devoted to animals were present, so they showed keen interest the moment they saw children of a new kind. Before I could answer anything, the Palace Lord stepped forward and settled the noisy atmosphere.
“Time is short. Everyone help with the evacuation. Speak with the young hero later, separately.”
“Ahem… Understood, Palace Lord.”
“Yes.”
The elders immediately dashed out of the hall with faintly regretful faces to help with the evacuation.
Because we had warned the Southern Savage Beast Palace that danger was approaching, they declared they would give us a gift of gratitude. With everyone currently frantic over evacuation preparations, however, they said they would form a separate envoy and send it to the Tang Family later.
“Ordinarily it would be proper to lavish hospitality and a grand reward upon you at once. But with things as they are, I will send someone to the Tang Family myself later to convey our thanks. I am truly sorry.”
“We only did what any person ought to do…”
“Come now! Even beasts repay kindness—do you mean to make our Beast Palace worse than beasts!?”
I was only refusing out of courtesy…
“Then I gratefully accept.”
“That’s more like it.”
Well, if they were offering a reward, I might as well accept it gratefully. I answered as though yielding and headed for the entrance of Beast Valley. It was time for us to take our leave as well.
“Then we shall withdraw.”
“We will see you to the mouth of Beast Valley.”
The Beast Palace was in utter chaos with evacuation preparations, yet the Palace Lord and several elders insisted on escorting us to the entrance. Accompanied by them, we made our way back toward the mouth of Beast Valley through which we had entered.
“Ah, so this is an Azure-Spotted Centipede?”
“Yes. The lizards have no separate name in the Central Plains, so I named them Snow Ice Lizards. They breathe cold qi.”
“They breathe cold qi? Then they are spirit beasts!? How enviable. The name is similar to mine—I’m so tempted.”
The woman who followed us to the entrance, peppering us with questions, was the same one who had been most aggressive earlier. As it turned out, she was both an elder and the Palace Lord’s daughter—Seolpyo.
In our language it meant “Snow Leopard,” yet her skin was so tanned that “Black Leopard” would have suited her better. The reason her surname differed was that here they didn’t use family names; they simply called one another by animal nicknames.
They truly were people devoted to animals. Of course, I myself had once stuck the nickname “Spicy Fabre” on myself in my previous life, so I understood.
“Yes, and the spider is an Inmyeonjiju—a Human-faced Spider. The reason she takes Hwa-eun’s form is that she assumes the appearance of whoever the person whose yang energy she draws considers most beautiful.”
“Oh my! Then Lady Hwa-eun must be so happy!”
“Well… yes.”
At Seolpyo’s envious gaze, my elder sister’s face flushed. I could understand her embarrassment. Every time Yo-hwa drew my yang energy, it became an advertisement that I considered my sister the most beautiful—indirectly confessing every single day that she was the most beautiful woman to me.
We were nearly at the entrance of Beast Valley, chatting with Seolpyo, when it happened. Just as we were about to exchange final farewells, a beast’s cry I had only ever heard in zoos in my previous life suddenly rang out.
—Bwooouuu! Bwooouu!
“Y-Young hero, if they ever have offspring, give them to me… Wait, that’s an elephant!?”
In the Central Plains, “xiang” meant elephant.
God-elephant hyungnim is here?
Asian elephants had once lived in the Central Plains, and even in my previous life wild elephants occasionally appeared in these southern wilds, so it wasn’t that strange. Whether she knew the elephant or not, Seolpyo reacted first to the trumpeting.
Leaving us behind, she dashed forward. Yet after only a few steps she stopped dead. As Seolpyo stared blankly up the hill, two elephants soon thrust their heads over the crest and looked our way.
—Thud… Thud… Thud…
Beneath the moonlight, two enormous elephants revealed themselves—the overwhelming majesty of the god-elephant brothers, absolute kings of the animal kingdom. But a closer look showed the two elephants were far from normal.
Under the moonlight, swarms of scarlet ants blanketed their backs and rumps.
—Ssssshhhhh!
“Th-The elephants!”
The ant swarm already covered the elephants’ backs, jaws locked deep into flesh. Behind the elephants, more ants seethed in a dense tide. Seolpyo, her earlier spirit vanished, stumbled backward in shock.
The elephants trumpeted as if begging for help and charged toward us, only to collapse right at the mouth of Beast Valley.
—Thud!
—Bwooo!
One last trunk stretched toward us as if pleading for aid. Then the elephants were torn apart into meatballs on the spot.
In real time the elephants’ bones were laid bare. The people of the Beast Palace widened their eyes in shock, never expecting the god-elephant brothers to be reduced to meatballs so instantly.
“Th-The elephants!”
“An elephant, gone in one go!”
“The young hero’s words were true…”
But there was no time to simply gape.
“This is no time to stand around—you must hurry! We cannot know how the Demon Ants will move, so even now we must—”
The ones that had followed the elephants were only a hunting party; their numbers were not yet enough to seal the entrance. I was saying we needed to rush the evacuation before the main force moved, but the Beast Palace Lord pointed at the hill and let out a low groan.
“It seems we’re already too late…”
—Ssssshhhhh!
At the tip of the Palace Lord’s finger, the main force of ants that had poured down from the hilltop was following the hunting party that had come for the elephants and completely sealing the mouth of Beast Valley.
“This is bad…”
“Does this mean we have to fight…?”
“But an elephant, just like that…”
With the entrance completely blocked, even the elders who had earlier urged battle now wore flustered expressions. Watching the strongest of the animal kingdom—the god-elephant brothers—vanish before their eyes had clearly summoned pure terror.
This was the Beast Palace, a place that imitated animals or fought alongside them. Seeing the strongest among those animals fall so futilely had broken their spirit a little.
Beside me, my elder sister spoke with a grave face.
“What do we do, So-ryong? The Poisonous Creature Squad outside…”
“They know how terrifying the Demon Ants are, so they will have fled across the river.”
“You’re right, of course.”
My sister looked toward the entrance with a bewildered expression. She was fretting over the Poisonous Creature Squad, but I had told Commander Gu Pae and the other warriors to take position near the river. If things grew dangerous they would have crossed the water, so there was no need to worry about them.
We, on the other hand, were the problem.
“How do we get out of here…”
Just as I was pondering, a familiar voice reached me.
—Kishit!
I turned my head. Yo-hwa was rapidly climbing the cliff face and looking our way.
That’s right! We have Yo-hwa! Heaven never truly seals every exit, does it?
If Yo-hwa strung her webs or carried me, my sister and I could definitely survive. I was just rejoicing that even if the sky fell there would be a hole to climb through when my sister’s flustered expression caught my eye.
What is it?
A way to live had appeared, yet she looked more panicked than before. When I turned my head the opposite way she was looking, the Beast Palace Lord and the elders wore awkward faces. The moment our eyes met, they averted their gazes.
Thinking about it, this was an extremely uncomfortable situation. We would have to leave all of them behind and escape with only my sister and myself.
Even if we acted out of goodwill and had Yo-hwa string webs to help them climb the cliff, how many of the Beast Palace people—children and beasts included—could we save before the ants started moving again…?
And if we told them to abandon the animals and at least save their own lives, not a single one would agree.
Even if we survive alone, this is a situation that’ll haunt us for the rest of our lives. What do we do?
At the end of the hundred-meter-long corridor, the ants were gnawing the elephants’ bones clean. I stared blankly at them, dredging up any useful memory from my previous life, when the moon slipped behind a cloud and darkness swallowed everything for an instant. One entry left in Fabre’s encyclopedia inside my head rose to the surface.
That’s it! There—there is a way for everyone to live!
I approached the first people of my own kind I had met in the Central Plains and asked,
“Excuse me, Palace Lord.”
A calm reply came back.
“Young hero, do not worry about us—leave at once. You have already fulfilled more than enough of the duty you owed.”
“That’s right, young hero. In the world of beasts, eating and being eaten is only natural. Our Beast Palace is part of that world as well; if we cannot overcome them, we will simply be eaten.”
They say there are no bad people among those who love animals. Smiling, I asked,
“What if there is a way for everyone to live? Would you hear me out?”
If things went well, there really might be a way to save them all.
I would just have to suffer like hell myself.