Chapter 23 – Elixir (1)

The day after the family’s discipline was grandly ‘straightened up’.

At the training grounds behind the inner courtyard used by the family’s direct line.

“Again! Where did I tell you to aim, whether the weapon is poisoned or not?”

“The center of the body, sir.”

“And why did I say to aim for the center of the body?”

“Because aiming for places like the head or shoulders makes it easier for the opponent to dodge. By aiming for the center, even if they avoid it, it might still graze them.”

“Exactly. That’s why the chest and abdomen are the best targets. Now, try again.”

‘Focus on the straw dummy, aim for the center carefully….’

At the family’s training field, where a dead colossal ancient tree, centuries old, stood majestically in the middle, I was practicing throwing throwing daggers at a straw dummy shaped like a person.

Just as I pulled my arm back like a rubber band and was about to release the flying dagger from my fingertips.

Nunim ran into the training ground, her face full of alarm.

“So… Soryong! Something terrible has happened!”

-Thunk!

At her sudden cry, my concentration broke, and the flying dagger veered off course, flying past the straw dummy and embedding itself in the hollow trunk of the ancient tree behind it.

This made the face of Man of Ten Thousand Poisons Grandfather distort in anger.

“Hey! I told you to focus when throwing your daggers! If this were a real fight, your enemy’s blade would already be at your throat!”

“I-I’m sorry.”

‘You tell me to hit targets from far away, but now you’re just scolding me because you want to…’

Flinching at Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ rebuke, I glanced at nunim, who had rushed into the training ground.

What caught my eye was that nunim’s eyes, which were already large to begin with, had grown about three times bigger, looking like the heroine of a romance comic.

Keeping an eye on grandfather’s reaction, I asked.

“What’s wrong, Young Miss?”

Nunim then said something incomprehensible.

“Our… our babies! Something’s wrong with our babies!”

“What! Babies? What are you talking about? Since when we have babies?”

Now it was Grandfather Man of Ten Thousand Poisons’ turn for his eyes to grow wide at nunim’s words.

It’s only natural that he’d be shocked—his granddaughter, who wasn’t even married yet, suddenly burst in talking about babies.

Realizing her mistake, nunim turned beet red. She hastily corrected herself.

“Not like that! I mean the centipedes! Something’s wrong with the centipedes!“

She must’ve meant her Blue-Spotted Centipedes but accidentally referred to them as “our babies”.

Internally laughing at nunim’s silly behavior, I asked again.

“You mean the centipedes?”

I instinctively scanned nunim’s body.

To search for the centipedes that should be attached to her body.

Lately, it had become normal to leave the centipedes with nunim when doing physical training.

This was because it wasn’t easy to move with them attached while practicing martial arts.

The creatures would eat their fill, and I would gain freedom during that time.

This had been a process that worked without any issues until now.

However, there was no sign of the centipedes on her body.

‘Did those little guys sneak into her bosom?’

Thinking they might have hidden in nunim’s chest area, I thoughtlessly tried to check inside her collar, causing her to grab her clothes in surprise.

Her eyes wide with surprise, she stammered,

“Th-they’re not here! They’ve all fallen off!”

“They… fell off?”

“Yes! And something’s strange about them. How do I even explain this?”

It was clear something unusual was happening, but she couldn’t articulate it.

The last time I checked with the Blue-Spotted Centipedes, they were supposed to remain attached to their mother’s body until after their second molting. Alarmed, I hurriedly followed grandfather and nunim to the pavilion where she had been.

If something was wrong with them, it would be a serious problem.

When we arrived at the center of the pavilion, what greeted us was the sight of the centipedes lying motionless.

“What’s this? Why are they like this? Hey kids?”

Leaping onto the pavilion to examine them closely, I immediately noticed something peculiar.

Their colors seemed slightly more translucent.

No, rather than transparent, it was like they had put on an extra layer.

It felt like they were wrapped in plastic, and seeing this, I immediately understood what was happening.

‘Ah, so that’s it. They’re about to molt.’

It seemed that their first molting was about to occur.

“There’s no need to worry. Creatures like centipedes with hard shells shed their exoskeletons when their bodies grow. It seems they’re about to shed theirs now.”

“They’re shedding their shells?”

“Yes, most likely very soon…”

I was in the middle of explaining to calm startled nunim when she suddenly cried out.

“Ah! Look over there! Their heads, their heads!”

At her exclamation, I turned my gaze to where she was pointing. One of the centipede’s heads had begun to swell at the back.

-Rip.

The back of its head split open, and shortly after, a yellow neck emerged, followed by the centipede’s head slipping out of its shell.

The rest of its body began wriggling free, inch by inch.

The creature was sliding forward like a soul escaping from its body.

When it stretched out its body that had slid forward, its body, which had been about as thick as a fat sausage, was now as thick as a forearm.

The centipede, which had been completely yellow before, now began to shimmer with a faint white hue.

Even the texture of its exoskeleton appeared sharper and more refined.

Its body swelled and contracted repeatedly, as if trying to fully fill its new shell with fluid.

“Oh wow, this is such a fascinating sight!”

“It really is. It looks like it’s grown twice as big!”

“Oh, the second one is starting to shed now too!”

“The third one’s head has split open!”

Nunim and the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons Grandfather marveled like they were watching a nature documentary.

As the centipedes slowly emerged from their shells and began drying their bodies, nunim turned to me and asked,

“By the way, what are these little ones’ names?”

“Names?”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t named them yet. Scratching my head, I replied,

“Uh… Centipede 1, Centipede 2, and Centipede 3?”

Nunim stared at me with a look of utter disappointment.

She shook her head and spoke.

With an expression that said ‘that won’t do.’

“Do you know how absurd that sounds? The centipedes are said to become dragons if they live for a thousand years, and you want to name them Centipede 1, Centipede 2, and Centipede 3? That’s completely unacceptable. They need names more dignified and fitting for dragons. After all, they’ll be protecting the Tang Sect for a thousand years.”

“No, Young Miss, it’s unlikely that the centipedes will ever become dragons, even after a thousand years…”

Nunim firmly believed that the centipedes would turn into dragons if they lived for a thousand years.

It was like an elementary schooler believing that Santa Claus was real.

When I told her that it was absurd, she turned to Grandfather for support.

“Young Hero Soryong, how can you not know this if you’re well-versed in venomous creatures? The centipedes will become dragons after a thousand years, right, Grandfather?”

Grandfather nodded his head in agreement.

Honestly, even if she’s his beloved granddaughter, I might need to reevaluate Man of Ten Thousand Poisons Grandfather.

Believing in Santa Claus is forgivable in elementary school to preserve innocence, but nunim is twenty. It’s about time she took the red pill and learned some reality.

“Ah, yes, centipedes that live a thousand years become dragons, that’s why they’re also called Heavenly Dragons.”

‘Seriously, what’s the point of trying to reason with these people?’

It dawned on me—what’s the use of discussing biology with people who don’t even understand basic taxonomy?

These are people who probably think spiders and scorpions are the same thing.

After that, nunim and Grandfather started coming up with names for my centipedes , completely disregarding the fact that they weren’t their companions.

“How about Geum-hu (Golden Queen), Geum-je (Golden Emperor), and Geum-sang (Golden Minister)? If we use the character for gold (geum), the most precious thing in the Tang Sect, they’ll become the Golden Queen, Emperor, and Minister.”

‘What? Geum-hu, Geum-je, and Geum-sang? Seriously?’

Nunim’s naming sense was somehow even worse than mine.

The centipedes seemed to agree. Even while drying their bodies, they raised their heads to stare at her.

If they could talk, I was sure they’d tell me how absurd her names were.

Leaving all that aside, my centipedes were female.

I decided to remind her of that important fact.

“Young Miss, all of these little ones are female.”

“What? All three of them?”

“Yes.”

“Then… what should we name them…?”

In the end, before nunim could unleash her terrible naming sense, I decided to finalize the names for the little ones.

“Let’s just call them Cho (初), Hyang (香), and Bin (彬).”

“Cho, Hyang, and Bin?”

“Yes. That one with the long antennae will be Cho, meaning ‘firstborn’. The one constantly moving its antennae is Hyang, which means ‘fragrance’. And the third one will be Bin, with the character for brilliance (彬), since its shell is shinier than the others.”

Nunim poked her cheek with her index finger, deep in thought, before nodding.

“Alright, well… the dad should name the kids, after all.”

“What?”

At nunim’s comment, Grandfather wore an expression of utter disbelief.

***

Typically, centipedes eat their exoskeletons after molting, but the my centipedes showed no interest in theirs.

Even when I held it up to their mouths, they turned their heads away. It seemed they truly grew on vitality and qi alone.

As a result, three discarded exoskeletons of the centipedes were left behind.

The slightly yellowish, translucent exoskeletons lay crumpled on the pavilion floor, like socks left behind after being taken off.

I was just thinking about carefully straightening them out and preserving them when,

-Clang!

“This is…!?”

“A precious material indeed.”

Grandfather had picked up one of the exoskeletons and tapped it lightly with a dagger.

The strange sound it emitted was like metal striking metal.

“The shell of the one caught on Haenam Island was hard too, but this is just as expected. It wouldn’t even be scratched by ordinary weapons.”

I hadn’t realized this secret since the centipedes themselves felt soft, but now I saw how incredible it was.

As I picked up one of the shells to inspect it closely, Grandfather carefully examined the one he held. After some time, he brought it over and began comparing it against my arm, as if he were tailoring a custom garment for me.

Nodding thoughtfully, he spoke.

“We should make some arm guards for Soryong with this. If we connect the legs and tie them properly, it’ll make for an excellent set of arm guards.”

“Arm guards!?”

“Yes. The length is just about right to cover the forearm. If we craft them to protect from the elbow to the back of the hand, it’ll be perfect. If we place the centipede’s head on the back of the hand, we could even coat its fangs with poison to use for stabbing. It’ll be fantastic.”

‘What the—! Centipede-shell arm guards? With fangs on the back of the hand? Isn’t that basically Centipede Man?’

Grandfather enthusiastically described his incredible design.

From the moment I met him, I thought he was a rather unconventional old man, but now I realized he truly understood a man’s romantic ideals.

“Is something like that really possible?”

I wanted to double-check, to see if this was something that could truly be done. Nunim, smiling brightly, reassured me.

“The skills of the Tang Sect’s blacksmiths are extraordinary. They can create hidden weapons with the thickness of a strand of hair. If Grandfather says it can be done, they’ll definitely be able to make arm guards out of the centipede’s shells.”

“Whoa!”

I had thought the Tang Sect was merely a notorious assassin family of the Central Plains, but now I realized they were quite an incredible clan.

You could even say they were a family that understood romantic ideals.

I was already envisioning using two of the exoskeletons to craft the arm guards and preserving the last one as a keepsake, when Grandfather’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“The remaining one should be used to make Hwa-eun a pair of gloves. The inside is soft, and the outside is tough, so it’ll be perfect for protecting her hands from hidden weapons.”

What?! I had planned to keep one as a specimen for future study, but now Grandfather was suggesting using the last exoskeleton to make gloves for nunim.

Startled, I looked at him with wide eyes. Grandfather chuckled and asked,

“What? Do you feel it’s a waste?”

Nunim turned to me with an expression that clearly said, Of course not. That couldn’t be it.

Hurriedly, I shook my head.

“N-no, of course not. How could that be?”

Although I said it wasn’t, honestly… it did feel like a bit of a waste.

***

A full day passed, and the centipede began crawling back onto my body.

Their bodies didn’t seem to have completely hardened yet, but it appeared they were mobile enough to move around.

One noticeable change after their first molting was that the my centipedes now fully resembled centipedes.

Centipedes are classified under the Chilopoda subclass, meaning they grow without adding more body segments as they mature.

However, when they’re first born, they tend to look a bit rounded, almost like millipedes. Now, they had grown flatter, their legs and exoskeleton had hardened, and they had become true centipedes.

Their weight seemed to have increased as well. They definitely felt heavier than before.

“Wow, you guys got heavier.”

-Tsurur!

When I complained about their weight, the centipedes made warning sounds as if to say they were ladies and I shouldn’t mention their weight.

The flatter and slightly elongated centipedes began searching for new positions on my body.

Previously, they used to cling to my torso, but now, each of them wrapped themselves around a different place.

Two of them coiled around my arms, while the remaining one wrapped itself around my waist.

Since their legs had become sharper, I could feel a faint prickling sensation whenever they moved. Adjusting to their increased weight and size, I carried them with me as I passed by the front of the Family Head’s Hall.

“Hehehe. See? What did I tell you!?”

“As expected from the Sichuan Tang Sect. Come on, let’s head to the brothel today!”

Two burly men who looked like street thugs stepped out from the direction of the Family Head’s Hall, grinning from ear to ear as they made their way down the mountain.

The jingling money pouches in their hands gave off the impression that they had just scored some sort of payday.

Even though this was an assassin family, those two didn’t seem to fit the atmosphere of this place at all.

As I was thinking this, a voice from inside the Family Head’s Hall called out.

“Go fetch Soryong for me.”

It was a call for me.

‘What’s going on now?’

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – 에르훗]

[Translator – bjgoofy]