“Gyaaaah! How did you even find them!? That’s amazing! Wait, wait. Hold on. Don’t tell me... you didn’t bring me here to kill or kick them out, right?”
My excitement quickly turned into concern. Could it be that Ranghu brought me here to ask me to remove or destroy the babies?
It wasn’t a baseless worry—after all, garoe larvae are known pests that can devastate bumblebee colonies.
The reproductive strategy of garoes depends entirely on luck.
The mother doesn’t take care of her young, nor does she lay eggs in a place where there’s food.
Instead, she deposits two to five thousand eggs underground in an almost negligent manner. After hatching, the larvae crawl to the surface, then climb plants or trees and mimic flowers.
Their goal is to hitch a ride on bumblebees or honeybees, infiltrate their hives, and consume nectar, honey, and larvae—until they mature into adults.
But bumblebees and honeybees aren’t that common. And even if a bee does approach one of the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) mimicking larvae, it’s still an abysmal chance of success.
And even after sneaking in, survival isn’t guaranteed.
Worker bees often kill or devour garoe larvae outright.
But if they do manage to grow, they’ll absolutely ruin the hive—so my first thought was: Did Ranghu bring me here to report this and ask for extermination?
Ranghu immediately responded with a firm flap of her wings.
—Bzzzzzz!
“No? Really?”
At my question, Ranghu shuddered as if to say, How could you even suggest that?
Then she fetched fresh honey and pollen from a chamber near the larvae and pushed the mixture into the hive.
The babies must’ve run out of food, so she was feeding them again.
After sniffing around for more, she added another ball of honey-pollen mash into the cell—and the baby Qing Ji-dams buried their heads to eat, squirming with delight.
It felt like Ranghu was... raising them.
Wait... is she actually raising Qinggaroes?
Even as the so-called Poison-Father of the Martial World—Fabre in his past life—I hadn’t immediately suspected that this spirit creature was a variant of Qinggaroe.
And there was a reason I hadn’t doubted the Golden-Furred Wasp Queen.
First, I thought: There’s no way they’d have enough honey or pollen to feed garoe larvae.
Judging by the size of the mother and her immature egg, the larvae should be about as big as a grown man’s index finger.
If creatures that size were eating in an ordinary bee colony? They’d destroy it before they even grew up.
Which meant that for them to parasitize a hive, it would have to be a spirit creature hive like Ranghu’s.
But there was another problem: Golden-Furred Wasp Queens are intelligent.
Normal bees might be “smart” for insects, but that’s still a low bar. Garoe larvae can grow unnoticed in their hives.
They don’t scream when eaten, after all.
But these wasp queens are basically human-level intelligent. If something snuck in and started eating their babies? They’d spot it immediately and rip it apart.
Also, spirit creatures usually don’t even eat regular food. I assumed the Qinggaroe larvae would just absorb ambient energy like most spiritual beasts.
So why would they bother hiding in a hive?
And yet... these babies were living in a spirit hive, and they were being hosted by the queen herself.
It looked like... a symbiotic relationship.
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight.
Such interspecies insect symbiosis was extremely rare.
“Wow... why are they so cute though?”
I watched the little ones eat, completely enchanted.
Their yellowish bodies reminded me of saffron rice—like that rare golden rice they serve in India or the Middle East, said to be more precious than gold.
—Bzzzz!
Drawn in by their color, I instinctively reached out to touch them—but Ranghu quickly darted in front of me, waving her front legs.
She usually let me do anything I asked, but now she wore a stern expression: Absolutely not.
“Not allowed?”
—Bzz!
She was saying something, but I couldn’t understand her.
So I summoned Dong-i.
‘Dong-i, grandpa’s at Ranghu’s place. Can you come here? She’s saying something and I can’t figure it out.’
Dong-i responded in my head at once:
‘–Kkyuit! Okayy! Grandpa, I’m coming right away!’
There was a reason I’d called Dong-i specifically.
All the kids were close to me, but the others were too big—if they came in, the worker bees might get nervous.
Dong-i was the smallest and could interpret.
—Bzz, bzzz.
“Wait a second, I called Dong-i.”
While I waited, watching the babies eat, I heard a pattering from above—
and suddenly Dong-i jumped down onto my face.
‘–Kkyuu! Grandpa!’
“Oof, you little...”
She’d crawled across the ceiling and leapt straight onto my head.
She was only the size of two fists, a small gecko, so it didn’t hurt—but if she were a real granddaughter?
My neck would’ve snapped.
I remembered a news report from my past life: grandparents often got injured by their grandkids, who don’t understand strength or danger and would jump onto them from sofas and tables.
Anyway, now that she was here, I reminded her of her task.
She was young and might’ve forgotten on the way over.
“Dong-i, stay close and interpret what Ranghu says for me.”
Kkyut! 『Okay!』
As Dong-i climbed from my head to my shoulder, I asked what I’d been wondering.
“Ranghu, are you... raising them?”
—Bzz.
Kkyuit. 『She says yes. She thinks their poison could be useful.』
“Poison?”
So she was raising them because of their venom?
It really did seem like symbiosis.
Suddenly I thought of the Red-Wing Beetle.
Insects are full of mysteries.
Yes, garoe larvae parasitize bumblebees and destroy hives.
From a human perspective, that makes them awful creatures.
But even they aren’t at the top of the food chain.
There’s another insect that feeds off the garoe.
That’s the Red-Wing Beetle—tiny, with crimson wings, barely a fraction of the garoe’s size.
When it spots a garoe, it bites from a distance the garoe can’t reach, injuring it.
Then it digs in with its jaws and waits—not to eat the garoe, but to make it release cantharidin.
Why?
Because cantharidin is a powerful toxin, and Red-Wing Beetles coat their eggs with it to protect against predators.
Kkyuit. 『That’s what she said.』
I still didn’t know exactly how Ranghu planned to use their venom.
Maybe like the red-wings—to protect her own eggs.
Or maybe... evolution?
I’ve never heard of a Golden-Furred Wasp Queen evolving, but what if...?
The thought alone filled me with delight.
Then I heard Hwa-eun’s voice at the entrance to the deck.
“So-ryong? Are you alright? The crew said you got dragged off, so I came to check.”
“Ah, come in, Hwa-eun.”
She must’ve heard I’d been taken away by the wasps and came to look for me.
“What are you doing here? Ranghu, why did you drag So-ryong away?”
Hwa-eun stepped into the hive and came right up to me.
I pointed toward the hive.
“Come look over here, Hwa-eun. Ranghu found them!”
“Huh? Found what?”
“Just look.”
She came closer and peered at what I was pointing to—then gasped in surprise.
“W-What are these little ones? Are they Ranghu’s babies? They look just like Cho, Hyang, and Bini did when they were little!”
Apparently, I was the only one who’d seen inside the hive, so it made sense she assumed they were Golden-Furred Wasp larvae. The resemblance to our old babies made her nostalgic.
I smiled and explained.
“No, these are the babies of the Jade Armored Water Beetle.”
“These are!? H-How did you find them!?”
“Oh! Right! I didn’t even ask that yet!”
I’d gotten so mesmerized watching the wriggling larvae that I hadn’t thought to ask where they’d come from.
That was something I definitely needed to know—judging by their size, there might be more out there.
I turned quickly to Ranghu and asked:
“Ranghu, where did you find them?”
—Bzzzz.
“You brought them?”
—Bzz.
In response, Ranghu summoned one of her worker bees and had her stand in front of me.
So this was the one who found them while out collecting nectar.
“Where exactly did you— Wait, no, never mind. I’ll go myself. Could you take me to where you found them? There might still be more.”
The worker bee, as if she’d been about to dance to show me the location, realized I was human and instead pointed toward the entrance.
She meant to lead me there directly.
What a bold, no-nonsense little lady.
“Perfect. Let’s go! Hwa-eun, I’ll be back soon!”
As I stepped out of the hive and used lightfoot technique to take off, Hwa-eun’s voice called after me in a hurry.
“So-ryong! Wait for me!”
***
I couldn’t believe it—we had been searching in the wrong direction the entire time.
The place where the baby Qing Ji-dams were found was the complete opposite of where the mother had been discovered.
The Golden-Furred Wasp worker led us to a wide field.
A wildflower meadow in full bloom.
The mother must have laid her eggs here before moving elsewhere, perhaps searching for a final resting place.
“Everyone, search this area thoroughly!”
“Understood, Little Hero So! Or, wait—you're a Great Hero now, aren’t you? I keep forgetting. Hahaha!”
“Got it, So-ryong.”
Even the Three Peaks of the Five Dragons joined in, scouring the surroundings. About an hour later, we finally found where the eggs had been laid.
“Over here, Great Hero So!”
“Where!?”
At Ji-ryong’s shout, I ran over—and there it was. A small hole in the middle of a flowerbed.
When we dug it up, we found one unhatched egg.
“What, only one more?”
It was just as yellow as the hatched ones.
What was fascinating was this: Ordinary garoes lay two to five thousand eggs. But this spirit creature, the Qing Ji-dam, had laid only five.
Four hatched egg sacs, and one unhatched.
I could understand laying fewer due to being a spirit beast, but still—how were they supposed to carry on the species like this?
It wasn’t like you could predict when they’d run into a Golden-Furred Wasp hive again.
I collected the egg, still unable to believe it. We searched further, in case more had been scattered around, but found nothing else.
On the way back to the ship.
We were nearly at the pier when Hwa-eun asked:
“But why didn’t this one hatch?”
“Hmm... I’ll need to look into that.”
I placed the yellow egg on a soft cloth in both hands as we headed for the ship.
As we neared, we heard the flapping of Golden-Furred Wasp Queen wings.
—Bzzzz.
It was evening now, and many were just returning to the hive.
I heard Gungbong’s voice nearby.
“So-ryong-nim, it moved!”
“It did?”
Or maybe it was Soto speaking. I glanced at my palm.
The egg sat still.
“Maybe it just looked like it moved ‘cause I was walking?”
But then—
—Bzzzz.
As a wasp queen flew close by, the egg gave a sudden twitch.
“It moved!”
“Really!?”
But then it went still again.
As we got closer to the ship, the reason became clear.
The egg was reacting to the wingbeats of the wasp queens.
Ohhh... so that’s how it works.
It felt like these Qing Ji-dam eggs were designed like overwintering insect eggs—dormant until triggered by an external cue.
Specifically, by the wingbeat vibrations of the Golden-Furred Wasp Queen.
As we got closer and the wingbeat sounds continued, the egg’s shell tore open, and the last baby Qing Ji-dam emerged.
Without even drying its body, it immediately began crawling—straight up my body, all the way to the top of my head.
There, it wiggled and released a sweet fragrance that spread through the air.
Something bees would love.
“So-ryong, I smell something sweet.”
“I know, right?”
A worker bee approached gently, picked up the baby with care, and carried it into the hive.
In that moment, the reproductive ecology of the Qing Ji-dam spirit creature revealed itself.
So this is how they reproduce! Wow! They awaken in response to wingbeats! Nature’s amazing...
As I stood marveling at the mystery of the Qing Ji-dam’s life cycle—
A voice echoed in my head. It was Hwa-eun.
So-ryong, you’ve seemed kind of withdrawn these past few days, so I didn’t press... But now that the Qing Ji-dam reproduction mystery is solved...
...Yeah?
Shouldn’t we... start thinking about our reproduction now...?
We were supposed to take care of that three days ago.
But searching for the baby Qing Ji-dams had delayed that assignment.
