Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 73

Chapter 73

As the group of women and men who had accompanied Na-ok made their way back to the village, trailing just behind her, they spotted an enormous fire raging in the near distance.

It was late—most of the villagers, who kept early hours, were already asleep. Cries of alarm echoed as people sprinted toward the blazing home.

“F-fire!”
“A fire has broken out!”

In Songga Village, a community bound by close clan ties, a fire at one household was treated as a disaster affecting everyone.

“Fire!? Where!?”
“Whose home is it!?”
“I-it appears to be Na-ok’s house!”
“What!? Na-ok! Na-eun!”

Upon reaching the burning structure, they were met with the terrifying image of Na-ok kneeling in the center of the yard. Her garments were burned, her skin was covered in severe burns, and she was holding the blackened, lifeless body of her sister.

Smoke rose from her injured form, her eyes empty and stunned. Though her wounds must have been agonizing, Na-ok seemed unaware, hovering on the edge of consciousness.

“W-what occurred here!?”
“Na-ok! What happened!?”

Uncle Song Ho-jung, who worked as an escort, pressed for an explanation.

Na-ok slowly raised her hollow eyes to him and murmured,
“Uncle… N-Na-eun… Na-eun is…”

The dancing firelight revealed her torn and damaged clothes and her sister’s ashen, still face.

When Ho-jung saw Na-eun’s body, his expression contorted in rage.
“Was she already gone when you found her? Or did you see the monster who did this!?”

With trembling lips, Na-ok whispered,
“Uncle… Near the village entrance, I noticed a man… a stranger… leaving…”

Ho-jung’s voice thundered over the assembled villagers.
“Take half the men and women to contain the fire and keep it from spreading! Everyone else, with me! Someone had the audacity to enter Songga Village and murder my cousin’s child! He can’t have gone far—let’s move!”

While the villagers battled the blaze, hauling buckets of water, Ho-jung and a band of men carrying torches fanned out to comb the area surrounding the village.

As the fire was gradually subdued, so too were the last remnants of Na-ok’s awareness.
–Thud.
“Na-ok! Na-ok!”

The worried voice of an aunt seemed to fade into the distance as Na-ok collapsed to the ground, desperately wishing this were nothing more than a fleeting nightmare born from the fire.

***

When Na-ok finally awoke, more than a fortnight had slipped by.

She had hovered between life and death, her body devastated by burns and her mind broken by the trauma of losing her sister so violently.

“Na… Na-eun!”

Her body was wrapped in medicinal poultices and bandages, every piece of her scorched skin screaming with unbearable pain.

But the physical suffering was insignificant next to the overwhelming void left by her sister’s absence—a reality she could not embrace.

Na-eun had turned down marriage offers to remain with her, raised almost as her own child. And now, she was lost.

“Ahhh… Auntie… Did they find him? Did they catch that monster!?”

Through gritted teeth and desperate tears, Na-ok asked as soon as she was able to speak.

Her aunt’s face fell, and she shook her head slowly.
“Your uncle even enlisted the aid of the Escort Bureau, bringing in a skilled tracker, but… they discovered nothing. I fear there is little more to be done, my dear…”

“H-heuk… Na-eun…!”

The search persisted for days but produced no clues.

Na-ok was the sole witness who had seen the man, but the darkness had hidden his features, and too much time was lost while she was unconscious.

Even the tracker, for all his expertise, could find no distinct traces within the fire-ravaged and trampled scene.

“I am so sorry, child,” Ho-jung said, his voice thick with guilt. “I do not know how I will ever look my cousin in the eye again…”

But Na-ok had no response for him. She did not hold him responsible, nor did she question their failure. She simply lay on the guest bed in his home, staring at the wall, completely withdrawn.

As autumn waned and all living things seemed to slumber, Na-ok’s own spirit retreated into silence.

The only indications of life were her soft moans when her bandages were changed or her burns tended to.

Time flowed onward like a river, relentless and uncaring.

–Chirp. Chirp.

The initial chirping of crickets announced the coming of spring.

Their gentle calls outside her window stirred something in Na-ok’s dormant heart.

It sounded like her sister’s voice, calling to her, begging her.

“Sister… catch him… Avenge me… Heuk…”
“Na-eun?”

–Chirp. Chirp.

A profound and deep-seated hatred began to grow within her. Yes, she had raised her sister; it was also her responsibility to seek vengeance.

With that determination, Na-ok concentrated on healing, forcing herself to withstand the pain.

As soon as she was physically able, she knelt before her uncle and aunt and bowed deeply.

“I am leaving.”

“Leaving? Your home hasn’t been reconstructed yet!”

Her uncle mistakenly believed she intended to return to her own property.

“No, I am leaving Songga Village.”

“What!? Where will you go in your state!?”

“Is it because you feel like a burden? Don’t think that way, Na-ok. How could we ever face your parents in the afterlife if we allowed you to depart like this? Remain here and let us look after you!”

Na-ok shook her head.
“My sister calls out in agony every night. How can I live peacefully while her spirit endures such torment? I must avenge her.”

“But how? You are a woman! You don’t even know who he is!”

Though they attempted to dissuade her, her resolve was absolute. She even ceased eating, refusing to take another mouthful unless they permitted her to depart.

Ultimately, they conceded.

On the day she visited Na-eun’s grave for the final time, her aunt gave her a pouch stained with blood.

“Please, return to us alive.”

***

After leaving Songga Village, Na-ok’s first destination was Seongdo.

She believed the man who had crossed paths with Na-eun had headed in the direction of Seongdo, disappearing into the expanse.

She did not fret over how she would find a man whose face she never clearly saw.

Just as the red burn scars remained on Na-ok’s body, the man’s voice, that unforgettable voice, had been seared into Na-ok’s memory like a permanent mark.

“Be, careful!”

And so, Na-ok wandered the roads of Seongdo, addressing every man she met.

“Pardon me…”
“Ugh… What!?”
“Excuse me…”
“Ah! You scared me!”

Her once-pleasant face, now disfigured by burn scars, no longer drew sympathy from those she approached, making her task immensely difficult.

Year after year went by.

As the seasons cycled and the crickets started their songs once more, Na-ok roamed the streets of Seongdo, half-mad, finding clarity only in the brief silences between the crickets’ cries.

Then, one decisive day, on a street crowded with gambling houses, the voices of men reached her from an exchange between two strangers entering and leaving a building.

“Hey, watch it!”
“Look where you’re going!”

Under the eaves of an alley where the rain had quieted the crickets, Na-ok, sheltering from the downpour, finally recognized the voice she had never forgotten.

–Crash!
A bolt of lightning from the storm seemed to strike directly through her.

Three years had passed.

***

“Goodness…”

The whisper of disbelief came from the woman; our shock was beyond description.

As we journeyed by carriage, Gu-Pae, who had lost his own parents to bandits, had shared his painful history with the woman, only to be struck by even greater empathy after hearing her tale.

This was more than a simple tragedy.

After the woman’s story broke off, my sister, encouraging her to continue, inquired,
“So, what occurred next?”

“When I was nearly lost to madness, a beggar I had grown friendly with informed me that the man frequently visited the gambling house where I was employed.”

“Ah, is that why you requested to work at the gambling house?”

The woman nodded in confirmation.
“Yes, that’s correct, miss. Initially, I trailed him secretly, even contemplating stabbing him with a knife. But the old beggar appeared to know everything. He stated that the man was a martial artist, and that I, a woman, could not hope to get my revenge on my own…”

“So, you pleaded with the gambling house owner to let you work there and, without any pay, offered your labor, intending to poison him?”

The woman’s account clarified what the owner had mentioned earlier.

“Ah, so it was the food that tasted strange, the dish the owner spoke of?”

“I purchased poison with the money I begged for, but I suspect it was not genuine.”

The woman had tried to poison the man’s food, but she had been tricked into buying a fake substance.

Eventually, she was forced into a basement where crickets were kept, nearly losing her mind to their constant chirping. When we found her, she seemed to have briefly returned to her senses.

–Chirp, chirp.

“So that is what happened… Ah, I understand. Na-eun… I’ll hurry… Forgive me for being so late…”

As the sound of crickets filled the space again, the woman mumbled to herself, curling into a ball.

Despite her tragic circumstances, I questioned whether it was right to bring her to the Tang Clan, given her fragile mental state. After all, the crickets’ chirping seemed to drive her to frenzy.

[Will she truly be able to assist us?]

I quietly expressed my concern to Gu-Pae and my sister. They both nodded as if it were evident.

[Once her vengeance is achieved, she will recover. The wound is deep, but it is the only path. Those who avenge another’s grievance are fiercely loyal; they never betray those they feel indebted to.]

[Yes, So-ryong. I, too, once spoke to the rain, alone, until the one who avenged my parents healed me. The person who settles your debt of vengeance will never betray you.]

Though skeptical of the psychological reasoning, I had little choice but to trust their experience.

At the very least, during her lucid moments, her expertise in raising crickets could be valuable to our Poison Squad.

[Understood. Then.]

Helping her meant killing the man who had wronged her, the one she called her enemy. Despite having never killed before, I could feel my anger rise as I listened to her story of suffering.

The more I learned of her ordeal, the more I wanted to make the man pay for his crimes.

He was a murderer who deserved death.

I couldn’t escape the feeling that his wrongdoings did not end with her, and that there was more we did not yet know.

I asked O-gong to quiet the crickets for the time being.
“Hey, can you silence the crickets?”

Crickets are timid creatures; they fall silent when they sense predators.

–Sizzle!

As O-gong and the others produced a sound, the area instantly went quiet.

After a pause, the woman’s voice, now steady, spoke again.
“Can you truly help me? My mind is failing, and I can no longer do this alone… If you aid me, I will devote my entire life to serving you until my last breath!”

Having already agreed with my sister and Gu-Pae, I nodded and asked,
“Tell us, who exactly is this bastard?”

Should I have O-gong deal with him? Or perhaps tie him to a tree with Yo-hwa? Or a quicker method?

Among all the options, I knew the best approach would be the one that ended it definitively.