Suddenly, I snatched the lantern and lowered it close to the water’s surface. Hwa-eun and Seol, who had been wide-eyed in shock, gasped in disbelief at what they saw.

"The tadpole is sucking in the fire!"

"It’s eating the fire?!"

Despite their astonished cries, the tadpole continued to devour the flickering flame without hesitation. Thin streams of fire rippled across the water's surface, vanishing into the tadpole’s mouth with gulping motions.

If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.

‘This is insane!’

A tadpole swallowing fire—it was beyond belief.

Watching this, I felt like sparks were flying in my own eyes. After all, fire is the ultimate symbol of a man’s passion, isn’t it?

Red, fire, flames—these things represent intensity and determination.

I didn’t know what kind of creature this tadpole would grow into, but if it consumed fire as food, then it would likely mature into some kind of flame-wielding frog or toad. The very thought sent shivers down my spine.

Not only was it a representation of a man’s spirit, but it also meant this creature possessed the fire attribute.

‘How am I supposed to ignore that?’

And as the tadpole devoured the flames, I realized that the nuns’ earlier remarks—about struggling when their lamps ran out of oil—were far more important than I had initially thought.

They had mentioned that while bathing, they always ran out of lamp oil.

This little thing must have been secretly absorbing the heat.

It should have been consuming open flames like it was doing now, but since the nuns wouldn’t have brought their lanterns close to the water, it had been surviving by leeching off distant sources of heat.

I had a faint suspicion as to why this creature had remained in its tadpole state for ten whole years without growing.@@novelbin@@

If fire was its food, then it would have trouble finding sustenance in nature unless there were volcanic regions or wildfires nearby. That meant it likely had the ability to consume large amounts of fire whenever possible to accelerate its growth.

Some toads in the desert undergo metamorphosis from tadpoles to adults in as little as ten days when it rains. This creature was probably similar.

‘Poor thing. You’ve barely managed to scrape by all these years. Or should I say, you’ve barely managed to "fire-feed"?’

At that moment, as I looked at the tadpole greedily gulping down the last of the fire, the flame suddenly snapped off.

I quickly lifted the lantern to check it under the moonlight—sure enough, the lamp oil had completely run out.

"You were starving, huh?"

"Did the lamp run out of oil?"

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