–Tssrrrr. 『Daddy, it’s morning! How long are you going to sleep?!』

–Kkii!

Half-awake, I rubbed my eyes as the sounds of Hyang and Hongdan crying reached me.

It felt like Dong was tapping my forehead with her tiny paw, while Seol and Bing were pressing their cool bodies to my face, perhaps trying to wake me up.

I could feel the refreshing chill on my face and the little ones’ touch as well.

–Kkugu.

–Kkuu!

–Kkyut! Kkyut!

From the sound of Hyang, Hongdan, and the others all crying, it seemed everyone had finally woken up around midday.

Thanks to the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly’s scales, everyone but me had only just managed to wake up by noon.

–Tssrut! 『Daddy!』

“Alright, Hyang, Daddy’s getting up... Haaahm...”

–Tssrrrut! 『Open your eyes already!』

Answering Hyang’s continued urging, I sat up.

But even with her loud cries, and the chilly sensations of Seol and Bing on my face, my eyelids felt impossibly heavy and refused to open.

The brightness around me was making me squint, which made opening my eyes even harder.

The reason I couldn’t get up properly was simple—I’d stayed up through the night, greeting the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly, talking with Hwa-eun and Cheongyu, and racking my brain on how to capture the creature... I didn’t fall asleep until almost dawn.

While everyone else had enjoyed peaceful dreams, I’d had a really hectic night.

‘I was seriously busy last night.’

I thought I’d slept for at least six hours, but I still felt oddly exhausted.

Thinking back, I’d slept in a bright room without blackout curtains, so it made sense I felt more tired.

In my previous life too, I often went to sleep at dawn after streaming and caring for nocturnal critters—but back then, I had blackout curtains and never felt this drained.

‘Blackout curtains are essential for venomous creature lovers like us, right?’

When I was living on the boat, having blackout curtains was great. Now, I really missed them.

Just as I was thinking that, I heard Grandpa Yakseon’s voice nearby.

“So-ryong, how did it go last night? Don’t tell me you fell asleep? Was it a failure?”

‘A failure? Ah, right!’

Still not fully awake, I mulled over his words and suddenly remembered—I’d taken the medicine Grandpa gave me so I could observe what happened overnight.

Up until dinner last night, we’d all assumed someone from the Blood Cult had poisoned us.

Stretching to shake off the grogginess, I answered,

“Haaahm... No, I managed to stay awake until dawn.”

“Oh! Really!? As expected! I figured with your poison arts and my medicine, you’d be able to resist to some degree. So? Nothing happened? Did anyone enter our room?”

Grandpa seemed convinced that my poison training and his medicine had helped—but personally, I thought the credit belonged to Hwa-eun.

Even with the medicine and my poison resistance, I was about to fall asleep when I heard Hwa-eun’s voice—and it snapped me awake like a charm.

‘It was seriously amazing.’

Just thinking about her voice last night helped me wake up a little more.

I rubbed my eyes and barely managed to open them as I answered Grandpa’s question.

“No, something did happen.”

“Something happened? What was it? Are you hurt?”

Grandpa Yakseon’s eyes widened in surprise.

As I rubbed the back of my neck from the fatigue, his eyes grew even larger—he must’ve thought I was injured.

He hurried over to check my body, but I gave a reassuring look as I replied.

“Yes. Fortunately, I was able to figure out what happened.”

“You figured it out?”

“You mean you got to the bottom of it? Tell us—who was the culprit!?”

Not just Grandpa Yakseon—Cheon Baek-u, who had apparently woken up earlier and just come back from outside, also asked urgently.

“Ah, it wasn’t a person who poisoned us.”

“Not a person?”

“No. It was a spirit beast.”

“A spirit beast?”

“A spirit beast, you say?”

At the mention of a spirit beast, both elders turned to look at my companions in surprise.

They were probably wondering if it was one of my own spirit creatures, so I nodded.

“Yes. It was a spirit beast called the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly.”

“Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly?”

“A giant butterfly, blood-red in color.”

“Ah! I’ve heard of that one.”

Cheon Baek-u looked like it was news to him, but Grandpa Yakseon seemed familiar with the name.

He explained, probably recalling something from an old book he’d read.

“I remember reading about it in an old text. It said the creature could put people to sleep. Ah, so the poison that got us was from the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly?”

“Yes, that’s right, Grandpa. I woke up last night and saw it flying around outside.”

“A spirit beast was behind this...”

“You mean the poison came from a spirit beast?”

Cheon Baek-u’s face turned grim.

Grandpa Yakseon, meanwhile, was startled for a moment but then let out a chuckle.

“Well, well... We kept talking about spirit beasts, and one finally showed up. So, did you get your wish?”

Back in the previous village, I’d kept saying it might be a spirit beast causing the trouble—he must have remembered that.

And probably also remembered how disappointed I looked when it turned out not to be the Blood Cult.

“Well, I wouldn’t say it was a wish exactly...”

“You were practically praying out loud for a spirit beast to appear, weren’t you? Haha.”

‘Okay, I don’t think I was that obvious... I mean, I was a little disappointed, sure.’

Feeling embarrassed, I scratched the back of my head as Cheon Baek-u spoke up in frustration.

“Brother, is this really the time to be laughing? We were poisoned by a spirit beast! If this poison were even half as strong as So-ryong’s creatures, we’d be in serious trouble!”

Just like Cheon Baek-u said, we were all suffering from the poison of the spirit beast, the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly.

Since he didn’t know much about it, Cheon Baek-u didn’t think it was something to laugh about.

He had seen firsthand the power of some of the poisons my companions carried, so his concern seemed even more serious.

“Isn’t this more serious than the Blood Cult?”

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

If it had been the Blood Cult, we could’ve just beaten them down—but with a spirit beast’s poison, the potential damage could be much greater. That’s probably how he saw it.

After all, spirit beasts around here were considered on par with natural disasters or mythical Neidan sources.

Then Grandpa Yakseon spoke with a reassuring expression.

“Don’t worry, brother. The poison of the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly may put people to sleep and show them illusions, but it doesn’t lead to death. Isn’t that right, So-ryong? You’d know better than us, with your knowledge of the Tang Clan and venomous creatures.”

Well... not entirely correct, but mostly accurate.

I nodded in agreement, and Cheon Baek-u’s expression lightened a bit.

“Yes, Grandpa. We should definitely be cautious, but from what I understand, it doesn’t lead to death.”

“Really? Then that’s a relief. Ahem.”

Maybe embarrassed about having overreacted, Cheon Baek-u cleared his throat.

Grandpa Yakseon looked at him with a smile and asked me,

“So then, So-ryong, if it’s a spirit beast, can I entrust it to you? We’re not in any condition to help, except when we’re awake.”

It sounded like he meant they wouldn’t be able to assist like they had during Geumdo’s treatment. I answered with confidence.

This Wei Su Long—when it comes to venomous creatures—if I don’t have confidence, I might as well be dead.

“Of course.”

***

I said it confidently—but two days passed with no progress at all.

For two days, I had asked Hwa-eun to speak to the butterfly and kept waking up at night alone to try and reach out to it.

But the moment I greeted it or it saw me, it vanished.

‘No, this is getting tricky.’

If I couldn’t even get «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» it to stick around, how was I supposed to explain anything or build any kind of connection?

While my mind was racing with thoughts about trying a different method, I got a message from Hwa-eun.

『So-ryong, have you had lunch yet?』

I was the only one in the village who stayed awake at night.

So the only person I could talk to for advice was Hwa-eun, who was far away, and we had agreed to only message at night—but strangely, this time, it was right after lunch, during a short break.

『Yes, Hwa-eun. Is something wrong?』

『...Do I have to have a reason to talk to you?』

‘Gyaaah!’

『R-Right. Of course not. I just—uh—was wondering if anything had happened to you. I was just a little worried. No, a lot.’』

One careless word and I nearly triggered a wave of disappointment, so I quickly explained myself. Her mood softened right away.

While I breathed a sigh of relief, she continued.

『Three nights ago, I stayed up talking with Lady Cheongyu, and there’s something I need to confirm. Could you ask the villagers when they first started falling asleep like this?』

『Why’s that?』

『Well, something’s been bothering me.』

『Something strange?』

When I asked about the strange part, she began explaining her theory about the Blood-Blossom Dream Illusion Butterfly’s poison.

『Yes, no matter how I think about it. It’s strange how everyone keeps falling asleep at the exact same time.

Even if the poison is lethal, the efficacy of venom weakens with repeated exposure. If we knew exactly when they started being affected, I could refine my theory more.』

『Ah, I get what you mean.』

Even deadly poison, if diluted and administered repeatedly, would eventually cause the body to build resistance.

The antivenoms used for snakebites in modern hospitals are made using a similar method.

Since it’s dangerous to inject humans directly with poison, they give it to horses and refine the antibodies from their blood serum.

So if the villagers had been exposed to the butterfly’s poison for a long time, its effectiveness should’ve waned.

Even if it was the venom of a spirit beast, the human immune system would naturally begin building antibodies.

I immediately headed outside and went to the village chief’s main house.

“Elder, are you here?”

I called toward the inside, and the village chief stepped out.

Inside, I saw his wife clearing dishes—he must’ve just finished eating.

“Sir, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Ah, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“You want to ask me?”

“Yes. Do you remember when the villagers first started falling into these deep sleeps?”

He stroked his chin and thought for a moment.

Then, as if he remembered something, he clapped his palm and answered.

“Hmm... Ah! It was just under a month ago. We had picked out some lanterns we’d made for the Lantern Festival to test them the night before. The next day, everyone fell into a deep sleep.

We sometimes light them early to test for soot buildup or see how long they last. That was the day it began.”

The Lantern Festival—one of the biggest holidays here—was when countless lanterns were lit to brighten the night.

It takes place around mid-January and is even the origin of the phrase “sleepless city.”

I’d seen it once myself in Hainan—streets glowing with lanterns, lion dances, the whole celebration.

“Ah, you mean those lanterns hanging in the yard?”

“Yes. Our village makes lanterns for a living, so we often hang new designs to test how they hold up.”

Understanding that they’d tested the lanterns for quality, I nodded and relayed what I learned to Hwa-eun.

『Hwa-eun, it was just under a month ago. Since this village makes a living by crafting lanterns, they lit a few to test for defects, and the next day, people started falling asleep.』

『Then my theory must be right.』

From her tone, it sounded like she’d figured something out—and just then, an idea hit me too.

‘That’s right! The lanterns!’

Smiling, I asked her,

『Hwa-eun, should we exchange what we’ve figured out? I just came up with a good idea too.』

『You did too? Great!』

The village chief was watching me in silence, clearly unsure what was going on, so I made a polite request.

“Elder, would it be possible for me to have one of those lanterns?”

“Of course! I’d be honored to make one for you as thanks. How big would you like it?”

I smiled and answered,

“As big as the moon in the sky.”