Chapter 27 – Elixir (5)

TL Note: Changed Golden-Furred Bee Queen to Golden-Furred King Bee. Previously, I translated it as ‘queen’ because I always thought a queen produces honey, which was a mistake on my part. I assumed that ‘wang’ (Korean for king) as used here, was meant to signify a queen, since irl, there are no king bees, only queen bees.

“Soryong, this is Michelia Flower. It’s a flower commonly found around Sichuan or Yunnan.”

After wandering through the forest with Nunim, we soon found a cluster of Michelia Flowers blooming on a small hill.

The Michelia Flower was a shrub about the height of a person, with yellow, purple, and white flowers that had six petals each, blossoming abundantly and filling the hill with color.

“So, this is the Michelia Flower, huh? Let me see…”

Just as Nunim mentioned, I wanted to check if it really had that scent I remembered, so I picked one of the flowers and sniffed its fragrance.

A sweet aroma flowed into my nostrils.

It was a very familiar and deeply sweet scent that smoothly entered my nose.

‘I ate one of these almost every day in my past life. There must be some around here, right?’

I nodded to myself, retracing the memories of my past life.

It was, as Nunim said, quite similar.

“It definitely resembles it.”

“Right? It’s not exactly the same, but it’s really close, isn’t it? People of the Tang Family train to distinguish scents from poisons, so once we smell something, we never forget it.

There’s even a saying in the murim that the Tang Family’s nose can always be trusted.”

“You train for something like that?”

“Yes, we have to memorize a total of 4,206 different scents.”

“F-Four thousand two hundred and six?”

I was baffled by the absurd number, 4,206 scents. They’re not perfumers, yet they had to memorize so many?

I was already dreading the rote memorization-style education I needed to pass, but now I had to study scents as well? Cold sweat trickled down my back.

‘Well, honestly, given Nunim’s beautiful appearance, if it were a bad guy like Tak Wun-yang, I thought I could maybe handle dealing with people if I really had to… But this isn’t just about people…’

The training itself was such an insane ordeal that I wouldn’t be able to do anything else until it was over.

Just as I was contemplating the overwhelming complexity of my situation, a voice called out to us from the bottom of the hill.

“Young Hero Soryong! Young Miss!”

“Over here!”

“We’re over here, Vice Commander.”

The Vice Commander quickly flew up the hill with movement techniques.

While Nunim and I were searching for Michelia Flowers, the Vice Commander was tasked with finding the Banana Plant fruit. It seemed he had found it and was now rushing over to us.

“Young Miss, there’s a large patch of Banana Plants over there as well. I’ve found their fruit, and it’s ripe and yellow.”

The Vice Commander held out a bunch of yellow fruits he claimed were Banana Plant fruits.

But what he held in his hand was something very familiar, something different from what I had expected.

He called it the fruit of the Banana Plant, but what he handed over was a bunch of ripe bananas, a fruit I knew all too well.

‘Huh? Isn’t this just a banana? Ah! Right, bananas are part of the Banana Plant family! So this Banana Plant must be that Banana Plant!’

The bunch of Banana Plant fruits the Vice Commander brought wasn’t like the bananas we usually see. They looked like short, monkey bananas, and when I broke one in half, I found it full of seeds.

‘This feels like a wild banana.’

When I tasted it, the fibrous layer between the banana’s flesh and peel had an extremely astringent flavor. But since eating it wasn’t the point, I spat it out and sniffed the fruit’s scent instead.

The moment I smelled it, the familiar fragrance rose up.

As expected, the scent of bananas came through clearly.

“Soryong, is this it? Is this what you were looking for?”

Nunim asked me, eyes filled with hopeful anticipation as she watched me confirm the scent.

It was clear she was eager to check this task off her list, so I nodded slowly.

“Yes, these two will be enough.”

“As expected! Then let’s hurry back and inform the Commander!”

“Let’s do so, Young Miss.”

With that, I mounted the Vice Commander’s back again and we returned to the campsite.

I gathered the warriors of the Tang Family and made a request.

To collect banana plant fruits and Michelia Flowers.

“Please gather the Banana Plant fruits and Michelia Flowers.”

“You’re asking us to collect Banana Plant fruits and Michelia Flowers?”

“Yes, since Mokli isn’t far from here. It would be great if you could get some jars and fill them up.”

“What’s the purpose of the Michelia Flowers and the Banana Plant fruits? I can understand the flowers, but the Banana Plant fruits are full of seeds and unbearably astringent.”

The Commander tilted his head in confusion as he questioned back at my request.

He seemed to think I was asking for some special food, like a platoon commander requesting mountain bellflower for dinner during field training.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t given any detailed explanations except to Nunim.

After glancing at the Commander and the warriors, I pointed toward the direction where those unorthodox path practitioners were hiding and spoke.

“Those guys hiding over there. Don’t you want to sweep them all away?”

“Sweep them away?”

“Yes, I mean completely clear them out.”

As expected of a renowned assassination family, their eyes sparkled at the mention of sweeping away enemies.

However, being part of a righteous family, the Commander gave a more measured response, explaining they couldn’t commit indiscriminate slaughter.

“There are rumors that those bastards kidnap women, sell them off, or force them into becoming courtesans. Some even deal in harmful drugs, so honestly, I’d love to wipe them out.

But we are a family that walks the righteous path. I appreciate that Young Hero Soryong’s suggestion aligns with our principles, but we cannot commit actions that stray from our moral code.”

I was slightly surprised by his unexpected answer. Shaking my head, I clarified my intentions.

Who said anything about killing everyone? I was only suggesting we scare them a bit.

“Come now. Do you really think I’m asking you to kill them with our own hands? I’m just saying we’ll scare them enough to chase them away. There’s no need to worry.”

“What? Just scare them away? How exactly?”

“Hmm… How should I put it? Let’s just say we’ll make them suffer an unfortunate accident involving the Golden-Furred King Bee.”

“What? An unfortunate accident?”

“I quite like the sound of that.”

Nunim said, nodding in satisfaction.

Nunim nodded as if she liked the phrase ‘unfortunate accident’, while the Commander and other warriors looked back and forth between me and Nunim with confused faces.

***

[Young Hero Soryong, we’ve scattered it just as you ordered!]

[I’ve also completed my task!]

The Commander, who was the most skilled in movement techniques among us, and the Vice Commander perfectly executed my instructions. They grinned as they held up the now-empty jars.

They seemed to be eagerly anticipating what was about to happen next,

…The despair and screams…

[Of course, you scattered the most of it just beyond their campsite, right?]

[Naturally. I spread an entire jar’s worth just beyond their campsite.]

[And what about the Vice Commander?]

[I sprinkled small amounts from the nearest spots where the bees wouldn’t react, creating a trail leading toward their campsite.]

What the Commander and Vice Commander scattered was a mixture of well-ripened Banana Plant fruits and crushed Michelia Flowers, diluted with water to increase the quantity.

Now, all preparations were complete.

I signaled to Nunim, who had been repeatedly throwing and catching a fist-sized stone for some time now.

[Young Miss Hwa-eun, everything is ready!]

[Alright, Soryong!]

At the signal, Nunim caught the falling stone and hurled it directly toward the Golden-Furred King Bee’s hive, located just beyond the clearing.

– Shiiiiing!

The stone flew straight, as if it had been thrown with perfect form.

In my past life, she could have easily gotten a million subscribers with a baseball girl concept, that was certain.

– Thwack!

The stone Nunim threw flew straight across the clearing and struck the massive ancient tree beyond with a thunderous impact, embedding itself right into the center of the trunk.

The sound echoed loudly as it bounced off the cliff and reverberated across the clearing.

– Thwack… Thwack… Thwack… Thwack…

And then the terrifying sound we had already heard twice before began to fill the cliff and clearing.

It was the sound of the Golden-Furred King Bee’s wings beating.

– Buwoong! Bwoong! Whiiing! Whing!

What happened next was an all-too-familiar scene – a golden wave began to pour out of the tree’s entrance.

Shimmering under the golden light of the setting sun, the Golden-Furred Bees surged out of the hive like a flood.

– Whiing! Wheeeeng!

The bees poured out of the nest entrance like a tide.

The bees that poured out of the nest entrance immediately took flight and circled fiercely around their home.

Then, they began to shoot off in the direction the wind was blowing.

A deadly swarm, like a dark cloud, started moving toward the Unorthodox Path bastards’ campsite, carried along by the wind.

Once the bees had cleared the area…

“It really worked!”

“This… this is incredible!”

Nunim threw another stone, but there was no reaction from within the hive this time.

It seemed that, except for the queen bee and a few male bees, the entire swarm had moved toward the unorthodox camp.

After all, I had just given them the signal for a full-scale attack.

“Soryong, what did you do exactly? I didn’t think bees would get so enraged by a flower’s scent. Don’t bees like flowers and nectar?”

Nunim asked, clearly fascinated by what had just happened.

“That’s because I ordered the bees to launch a full-scale attack.”

“An attack? You ordered them? But all you did was crush flowers and fruits and scatter them!”

Nunim widened her eyes in disbelief. To her, this situation must have seemed like some kind of magic.

To understand what’s happening here, you first need to know more about bees, how they behave and, more importantly, how they communicate.

“That scent is the signal for an all-out attack.”

“The scent from the Michelia Flowers and Banana Plant fruits?”

While Nunim was amazed, the cause of this magical phenomenon was all about pheromones.

Pheromones are chemical signals animals of the same species use to communicate with each other.

Pheromones can make animals fall in love, rage with anger, or become calm and docile.

Animals respond to pheromones immediately, and many species use pheromones extensively. Social insects like bees, ants, and wasps, in particular, rely heavily on pheromones as their primary form of communication.

That’s why I gave them the banana scent – the scent bees release when launching an all-out attack.

While it’s not well known in our country, among the pheromones that honey bees use to communicate, the pheromone that signals an all-out attack is a component called isoamyl acetate.

Isoamyl acetate agitates bees and causes them to attack more ferociously.

But when biologists were studying this isoamyl acetate, they discovered something interesting – it had a banana scent.

They discovered that the pheromone honey bees release before launching a fierce attack smelled like bananas.

So when they checked, they found that the main component of banana scent was indeed isoamyl acetate.

It’s the main component of the artificial banana flavoring we call ‘banana ester’, and also the main component of natural banana scent.

This compound, isoamyl acetate, is found in all fruits of the Banana Plant family.

This happened to be the same component as the pheromone bees use to signal an all-out attack.

For this reason, in some foreign countries, people are advised to be cautious about eating bananas in areas where bees might be present.

Because it can make the bees aggressive.

“I’ll explain everything later. For now, let’s hurry and collect the honey before the Golden-Furred Bees returns! Vice Commander, keep watch!”

“Understood, Soryong.”

“Yes, Young Hero Soryong!”

The sun was about to set.

We had to move quickly before the enraged bees returned, so I instructed the Vice Commander to keep watch while I ran toward the hive entrance.

I first checked the inside of the hive.

As expected, there was no sound to be heard.

It was clear there wasn’t a single worker bee left inside.

“Let’s go in.”

“I’ll take the lead!”

With daggers in both hands, the Commander took the lead, and Nunim and I followed behind with a lantern and a brazier.

We had brought the brazier with burning dried mugwort for safety. If any bees remained inside, the smoke would calm them down.

We entered through the hive entrance.

Above our heads, the hive was packed with wax honeycombs…

But there was a problem.

The problem was that there wasn’t a single drop of honey in sight.

“Huh? There’s no honey here.”

“That can’t be.”

“Young Hero is right, there really isn’t any.”

The hive was completely empty.

For any species of honeybee, storing honey is essential. Yet, here was a hive with no honey at all.

I asked the Commander to pick me up higher so I could check the higher parts, but still, there wasn’t a single drop of honey to be found.

“How could this be?”

Even the Commander, who said he’d seen such hives before, looked utterly baffled.

However, examining the hive, I immediately understood why there was no honey.

There weren’t any eggs in the hive.

These bees had clearly been preparing to migrate.

Because bees never migrate when they’re raising their young.

The reason was most likely us.

With so many people appearing around their hive, they must have decided to relocate.

And then, I saw something.

I looked down and asked the Commander.

“Commander, how long can you use movement techniques non-stop?”

“Why do you ask all of a sudden? If I pace myself, maybe half a day?”

The Commander looked puzzled and asked why I was suddenly bringing that up.

Before I could answer, a voice rang out from the entrance.

The Vice Commander shouted urgently.

“Young Hero Soryong, they’re coming! The Golden-Furred Bees are coming back!”

I grabbed the thing that had caught my eye and shouted to the Commander.

“Let’s get out of here!”

“Yes, Young Hero Soryong!”

We made it back to the clearing.

As the Commander caught his breath, Nunim stammered in shock.

“So-Soryong? W-why did you take that!?”

– Buzz, buzz.

I answered while holding the squirming creature in my arms.

“Since there was no honey, I brought someone who can make honey. Commander, let’s run! Quickly, before they start chasing us! They won’t follow us at night, so hurry!”

A life-or-death sprint was about to begin.

Between us and the Golden-Furred King Bee.

Because I had stolen – no, respectfully brought along their queen bee.

As I’d always wanted to try beekeeping once.

***

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

Thank you for reading!

[Author – 에르훗]

[Translator – bjgoofy]