Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 157

Chapter 157
Bini’s furious shrieks echoed as it smashed the bedbugs beneath its attacks.
The delicate herbal aroma that had once hung in the room was abruptly overpowered by the pungent odor of old metal.
These bugs gave off a scent like coriander due to their very nature; the plant’s scientific name, Coriandrum sativum, is derived from the Greek word *koriós*, meaning bedbug.
Across cultures, coriander earned the nickname “bedbug herb” for its similarity to the insect’s natural smell.
As for the overpowering reek of rusted iron, that came from two sources: their waste, and the partly digested blood inside them.
The dark streaks previously staining the walls had been bedbug excrement—essentially oxidized, iron-rich blood that had broken down, releasing a foul, metallic odor.
And now, as Bini crushed them, the half-processed blood within their engorged bodies splattered out, spreading the stench of decay.
‘Bini! Use your tail to knock the lantern onto the bed and then get us out of here!’
— Tsrrt!
Bini, which had instinctively wrapped itself around me for protection, reacted at once.
It was tough enough to confront these creatures directly, but we had no idea how many more were lurking throughout the settlement. We had to alert the others before it was too late.
— Thump.
— Fwoosh!
A sound of erupting flame echoed as Bini’s tail swept the lantern over.
The heat bloomed instantly, and in the next breath, Bini coiled around me and pulled me through the door.
Outside, it shook itself off before pounding the earth in anger.
— Tsrrrt!
— Boom! Boom!
There’s a Korean expression—when someone is completely flattened, they are said to be “like a bedbug pancake.”
At this moment, Bini’s enraged assaults were literally turning these bedbugs into pancakes.
The firelight threw dancing shadows on the ground, illuminating the dark red blood seeping from the pulverized corpses.
The bugs shuddered and convulsed, saturating the soil in a hideous mixture of black and red.
As Bini and I stood catching our breath before the blazing house, we suddenly heard yelling.
The river bandits we’d tasked with patrolling the village were sprinting toward us, alarmed by the unexpected blaze.
“F-FIRE!”
“There’s a fire!”
The noise roused several villagers, and soon, lamplight began to glow in windows throughout the community.
Except… for two homes.
The houses of the first and second victims stayed deeply, unnaturally dark.
Even with all the shouting and the roaring fire, no one inside had stirred.
It was impossible.
A fire this large would rouse anyone. Yet, those two houses were utterly silent.
Something was terribly wrong.
I turned to the bandits, who had gone still at my command.
“Ignore the fire! Check for survivors in those two houses! But be wary—there are bedbugs!”
“Bedbugs?”
“Wait, what?”
They recoiled, bewildered.
It was understandable—bedbugs were such a mundane nuisance that most people never gave them a second thought.
Before the invention of DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), bedbugs were an unavoidable fact of human existence.
They hid in beds, walls, and furniture, lying in wait to feast on their victims.
So, of course, the bandits were confused by my warning.
“Not ordinary bedbugs! Look at those!” I yelled.
“Huh? W-what in the world?!”
“HOLY SHIT!”
They followed my pointing finger toward the burning house—and stared in pure horror.
A horde of black, turtle-sized bedbugs was scuttling out of the inferno, fleeing the flames.
The instant they saw what we were facing, the bandits shrieked and sprinted for the dark houses.
“GO! GO NOW!”
‘They’ll see to the survivors—I must contain these things.’
The bedbugs were quick.
I turned and gave Bini a clear command.
“Bini! Stop them from spreading! Destroy every one that tries to get away!”
— Tsrrrt!
Bini sprang into motion, racing around the burning structure at incredible speed.
Any bedbug attempting to escape the fire was immediately pulverized beneath its claws.
By the time our backup arrived—Seol, Hwa-eun, Lee Tae, Cho, and Yo-hwa—the scene was one of chaos.
Seol and Hwa-eun’s eyes went wide at the monstrous size of the bedbugs.
“What… the… hell…”
“Cho! Yo-hwa! Assist Bini!”
— Tsrrrt!
— Ksssshh!
On Hwa-eun’s order, Cho took to the air, while Yo-hwa zigzagged across the ground, obliterating bedbugs wherever she went.
Certain we could hold the infestation here, I turned to Lee Tae.
“Lee Tae! Your men went into those dark homes to look for survivors and haven’t returned. Go find them!”
“Understood!”
As he raced off, I moved toward the second victim’s house.
I intended to set it ablaze as well—when abruptly, a figure staggered out from one of the dark doorways.
A bandit, his eyes empty, shuffling weakly toward Lee Tae.
“B-boss… r-run…”
Then, he fell.
— Thud.
Seol, standing close by, screamed.
“T-that means what I felt was—?! KYAAAAH!”
Despite being an experienced fighter, she was utterly unnerved.
The reason?
A clump of squirming, bloated bedbugs was clinging to the bandit’s back, their abdomens visibly expanding as we watched.
Some were so full that a clear fluid leaked from their bodies.
They had already drunk their fill of his blood.
Lee Tae rushed toward him in a panic.
“Yeon-gul! Hey, wake up!”
He snatched up a club and started battering the bedbugs off his comrade’s back.
— WHAM! WHAM!
“Yeon-gul! Didn’t you always say you wanted to see your mother again?! WAKE UP!”
But Hwa-eun let out a sigh, shaking her head.
“…He’s gone.”
Lee Tae’s hands shook.
“N-no… it can’t be! He can hold his breath forever—he’s just faking! Right? Right?!”
The horror had shattered his reason.
And it was about to get worse.
Hwa-eun’s voice became frigid.
“Pull yourself together. Do you want to get everyone else killed too?!”
“…Others?”
Lee Tae blinked.
I nodded.
“We have no clue how many more of these things are in the village. Get everyone to the docks—NOW.”
“You’re right… Y-you’re absolutely right!”
Lee Tae and his men hurried away to evacuate the villagers.
Meanwhile, I grabbed a torch and set another house on fire.
Simultaneously, fresh waves of bedbugs started pouring out.
They just kept coming.
The time was now the dead of night, between 1 and 3 AM.
This was going to be a protracted fight.
“Cho, Bini, and Yo-hwa! Don’t let a single one get past you!”
— Tsrrrt!
— Ksssshh!
As the black surge of bedbugs advanced, our three familiars met the charge directly.
Before the backdrop of violent flames, a scene from hell played out.
— CRACK!
— SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!
***
At daybreak, the bedbugs had all vanished as if it were all a terrible dream.
Being nocturnal by nature, they retreated into hiding places within bedding and under floorboards as soon as daylight appeared.
“Ugh, I’m spent.”
My older sister collapsed onto the ground, carefully avoiding the sticky residue of the crushed bedbugs, looking utterly wiped out.
Behind her, the bandits who had aided in the fight were also lying on the ground, their expressions full of weariness.
“Hah… It’s finally done.”
“That was terrifying.”
Initially, we believed the infestation would be limited, since we had only burned four houses.
We thought we had dealt with all the ones emerging from those buildings.
But then, my sister pointed beyond the charred ruins of the first house.
“So-ryong! More are coming!”
“More!?”
Stunned, I sharpened my sight, and I saw them—limitless swarms of bedbugs streaming from the mountain’s shadow behind the first destroyed home.
Their real nesting ground appeared to be in the mountain.
That was why we were forced to battle until sunrise, and only with the dawn did the horde finally pull back.
To be accurate, the conflict wasn’t truly over. The creatures had just retreated, creating a temporary respite.
“Are you guys okay?”
Tsrrr!
Ksss!
Tsrrr.
Cho and Bini seemed completely unaffected, but Yo-hwa appeared somewhat weary.
When I held out my finger to her, she bit into it, drawing a much larger amount of yang energy than usual, which left me feeling a bit faint.
I dropped onto the ground beside my sister.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted too. This is revolting. Cho, Yo-hwa, and Bini, you should go wash off in the river.”
Their legs were coated in dried bedbug remains.
Hearing me, they glanced down at themselves and agreed.
The three of them departed to bathe, and as they left, Hwa-eun came over and gave me a water flask.
“Are you okay, So-ryong?”
“I’m fine. What about you?”
“I’m alright.”
Just then, my sister let out a dramatic groan as if on her deathbed.
“I’m not okay! Someone look after me too…”
Smiling, I passed her the water, which she gulped down immediately.
Finished, she shuddered intensely, disgusted by the mere memory of the bedbugs.
“I detest bedbugs more than anything. But they’re coming back tonight, aren’t they?”
“Probably.”
“And we’re trapped here until the ship is repaired, right?”
“They’ve removed the ruined planks for caulking and repairs, so yes, we’re stuck here for roughly a week.”
Hearing my reply, she heaved a deep sigh.
“Haa… But where did these gigantic bedbugs even come from?”
At her question, I picked up one of the more whole corpses and studied it carefully.
‘It’s nearly identical to Cimex lectularius…’
The Cimicidae family is made up of bloodsucking insects that prey on warm-blooded animals, commonly called bedbugs.
Among them, the most familiar species, Cimex lectularius, was fundamentally the same as the ones that had attacked the village.
The sole differences were their palm-sized scale, the increased potency of their saliva’s anticoagulants, and a far stronger numbing agent in their excretions.
A realization dawned on me, and I asked my sister with a grave look.
“Doesn’t this feel familiar?”
“Huh? Feel? You mean the herbal smell?”
She believed I meant the coriander-like scent of the bugs, but I shook my head.
“No. Doesn’t this have the same feeling as when we encountered the army ants?”
“The army ants!?”
She started in shock.
Hwa-eun nodded, concurring with my observation.
“It does seem like more than a coincidence. The site of this bedbug emergence is also highly suspect. This is Changjiang Sapgyeop—a place where it’s simple for an infestation to spread in all directions. If So-ryong is correct… this carries their same signature.”
I had mentioned the army ants because I had a powerful suspicion that the foul mark of the Five Venom Clan was all over this.