The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 7

by Natsu Hyuuga

Empress Gyokuyou’s son was now the presumed heir apparent, but the little boy in Consort Lihua’s arms would be the next in line. Unless they’re still treating Jinshi as the heir apparent? The thought of the succession disputes that could arise gave Maomao pause,

There were three spare high-consort pavilions available, but Aylin didn’t live in any of them. Like the other middle consorts, she’d been given a more modest building to herself. So she wasn’t getting any special treatment.

The Emperor could certainly be energetic after dark, but Maomao also knew he was a sharp thinker. He had two perfectly healthy sons already; he didn’t need to be in a rush to add a third.

Even Maomao’s friend Xiaolan was gone, since her term of service had ended the year before. I wonder how she’s doing, anyway, Maomao thought. Xiaolan was a sweet girl and had found herself work in a good part of town.

She stopped when she noticed something odd: the cookies were essentially cylindrical in shape, and there seemed to be something inside them. She grabbed at one, managing to extract a small piece of paper. There was one in each of the cookies.

Each piece of paper had different letters written on it. If they were ever going to decipher the meaning, they would need all of them, which meant Maomao had no qualms about revealing just one.

They put their heads together, and bit by bit they decoded the message, until they read: Do you want to know the true identity of the pale woman?

“Do you think this is some sort of test as well?” En’en said. “A test?” Maomao asked. When she thought about it, it seemed plausible. Candidates for the medical assistantship had been screened more aggressively than the other court ladies,

Someone was searching for people with the ability to consider multiple sides of a situation and adapt. Almost like... Almost like a spy.

I’m not interested, Maomao thought. She was perfectly content to hang around the medical office,

“We couldn’t have solved this without the three of us together. If you go telling, she’ll assume we agreed.” So what was she trying to say? “You’re in this with us!” Yao and En’en chorused. All Maomao could do was hold up her hands a little and smile wryly.

When Maomao worked her way into the gaggle of people and saw who was lying on the stretcher, however, she couldn’t refrain from a disgusted “Ugh!” Who should she find but the monocled freak laid out on the stretcher, tossing with pain.

“I c-can’t hold it in...” At that, needless to say, his stretcher bearers paled, then hefted him up and hurried him off to the toilet. Let us refrain from saying which end “it” came out of.

Lahan said. “But my honored father isn’t just anyone. Who could have managed to poison him?” “Surely there are more than a few people with grudges against him,” Maomao said,

“I agree with you. Take away his ability to judge people, and you’re left with nothing but an old man starting to stink of age,” Maomao said. “How rude. He can play Go and Shogi, you know.” “Both of you are positively awful,” En’en said calmly,

She was pretty enough that Lahan clearly felt it was worth his while to talk to her. The way his glasses flashed, you could almost see him turning her body into a series of numbers. His gaze was growing dangerously perverted, so Maomao gave him a sound smack on the head.

is it possible this is simply from bad food? Did he eat something he found on the ground?” “I have a guard watching him at all times to make sure he doesn’t,” Lahan said proudly. You do? Maomao thought.

Now that she thought about it, she realized she’d hardly seen Rikuson recently. Had he been prized away from the strategist?

In other words, immediately before falling ill, the freak had been bothering Jinshi.

“This says he ate one mooncake and drank some juice, and that he offered the mooncake to the Moon Prince. It also says he was angry that he wasn’t offered tea.” “That’s right. The prince was as lovely as ever, if I may say so,” the strategist’s assistant replied, his eyes glistening at the memory. Another of Jinshi’s victims.

“Wage thief,” Maomao grumbled. “This might be a good moment to not say everything we think,” En’en chided, but privately Maomao was sure she agreed with her. The freak had arrived thirty minutes late for work in the morning, truly the kind of privilege afforded only to the bosses. For

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” En’en said. “Not as beautiful as you,” Lahan replied smoothly. Stupid abacus-face. He was no looker himself, but he never failed to chat up a pretty girl. En’en only said “Thank you” and smiled courteously. Purely businesslike.

“With Master Gyokuen coming to the capital, he requested that someone knowledgeable about matters in the central regions be sent west in his place. Master Rikuson has gone to fulfill that request,” the aide said.

“Well, who in the world was it?” Lahan demanded, adjusting his glasses on his face. “The freak himself,” Maomao replied.

If this is your idea of a joke, then let your dear big brother inform you that it’s gone too far,” Lahan said. “Who’s my big brother?” Maomao growled, temporarily forgetting to be polite. She stole a look at En’en, who was making an I-knew-it face.

“Saliva?” If the strategist wasn’t drinking from a cup, then he was drinking directly from the bottle, and some of his saliva would get mixed back into the juice.

Maomao, taste the juice for poison. I know that’s your specialty,” Lahan said. “Absolutely not.” “Why not? Normally you can hardly stop yourself from sampling a poison.” “Because I’m not drinking from something that old fart put his mouth on. Do you want to try it?”

At length he said, “Couldn’t you be just a little kinder to him? He is still grieving, you know.” “I wouldn’t want it to go to his head,” Maomao said flatly.

As for Lady Yao... Well, I can only ask you to be generous with her. She was so sure she would enter this job as the top student, but here you are.” “Top student?” “Hadn’t you heard? The person who gets the best grade on the test is given a slightly different color of hairband.”

“Did you say fifteen?” That made her four years younger than Maomao—yet her body was so developed! “She’s quite large for her age.” (Maomao didn’t specify where.) “Yes, I’ve worked hard to help her grow,” En’en replied, sounding strangely proud of the fact.

Also (not that it mattered to her), it seemed Basen was back at work. His recovery struck her as preternaturally quick, considering the severity of his wounds. Maybe he’s just built differently. One day, she hoped she would be able to test his powers of recovery against those of other people.

Once in a while, pictures of Maomao the cat were mixed in with the letters; these came from Chou-u. In lieu of a personal seal, Maomao’s toe beans would be pressed on the pictures in scarlet ink. The scratches on the pictures suggested she signed them under duress.

Yao studied one picture of the cat particularly hard. At length, she handed it regretfully back to Maomao. En’en later asked if Maomao wouldn’t give her the cat painting; Maomao suspected it would then make its way to Yao.

It truly is a graveyard of women... Or rather, a battlefield, Maomao thought. Those who were defeated in combat had no choice but to disappear.

It might seem startlingly frank, even uncouth, but in the rear palace records were always kept of the Emperor’s nocturnal visits, which were required to be reported to the physician.

From what Maomao could deduce, the Emperor and Gyokuyou were engaged in some pretty advanced hanky-panky. Just the noises that could be heard through the wall... For Hongniang, more than thirty years old and still single, it must have been a trial.

the one visit she’d had appeared to have left this woman imperious and proud, though in Maomao’s eyes it only made her seem the more sad. That lone visit put the world beyond the inner palace all but out of her reach.

Physicians were supposed to hand down cryptic pronouncements from which students had to unravel the truth for themselves, but Maomao’s father didn’t work like that. He was kind enough to explain things so that anyone could understand.

Maomao had trouble with Aylin’s title for one simple reason: she didn’t believe Aylin had really come to the rear palace as a consort.

Maomao spotted En’en discreetly comparing Aylin’s chest with Yao’s, but she could keep that to herself. Was En’en hoping to help Yao “grow” even more?

“Some doctors do practice that sort of medicine. It simply happens that I don’t,” Luomen said, refusing to specifically denigrate folk practices like “chants and charms.”

Instead the treats contained a letter, telling them to go to a restaurant near the dormitory. The fact that the same letter was in all three of their cookies suggested that they had been right to think they needed to pass the test together or not at all.

No sooner were they settled in their private room than Maomao felt herself go limp as the tension left her body. “Hullo,” said a small, tousle-haired, spectacles-wearing man sipping some fruit liquor—no, more likely fruit juice. It was the freak strategist’s nephew and adopted son, Lahan.

“This is Master Lahan,” En’en offered. “Maomao is Grand Commandant Kan’s daughter, you see.” The freak strategist’s full title! She really had done her homework, Maomao realized, scowling bitterly. She resorted to her usual insistence: “He’s a stranger.”

There was a crook to En’en’s lips; Maomao thought it was a smile, but if so, it was a distinctly sarcastic one. Maybe she’d heard rumors about Lahan, what kind of person he was. She certainly seemed more wise to the ways of the world than Yao, who was still cocking her head in confusion.

“The country of Shaoh is supported by two pillars,” Yao said. “One is the king, and the other is the shrine maiden.”

In the past, shrine maidens had rarely served more than a few years—maybe a decade at most—for by definition, only a girl who hadn’t begun to menstruate could serve as shrine maiden. “The current shrine maiden, however, is in her forties now, older than the king, which means she can stick her nose where a shrine maiden wouldn’t have dared before. In fact, it’s made women all over Shaoh more politically influential.”

Forty years old and still her menarche hasn’t begun? That definitely got Maomao’s attention.

“The current shrine maiden is albino. There are several conditions governing which children might be chosen to be shrine maidens, but the most revered candidates of all are ‘pale’ children.”

“The shrine maiden is currently indisposed with an illness,” Lahan said. “She’s come to our country for medical treatment, but no man, not even a eunuch, is allowed to lay hands on her.” “Hence court ladies serving as medical assistants.”