Volume 10 - Chapter 26

The Apothecary Diaries

Cleanup #

The sweep of the bandits ended laughably quickly. The bandits who had already headed to the toilet were captured, and the ones inside the church were also caught with almost no bloodshed, despite some resistance. However, since the bandits had symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, it became a scene of wailing and gnashing of teeth in a different sense, so I’ll avoid describing it in detail. I don’t want to clean it up at all.

And then, Maomao was facing Shikyuu with a furrowed brow. Xiaohong and the female escort were beside her. Xiaohong was smiling at the reunion with her uncle.

They rented a room in a meeting hall. There were guards outside the room to prevent eavesdropping.

“As expected, could you tell us the details soon?” said Maomao, not intimidated by the man who was twice her weight.

The female escort took Xiaohong out of the room, perhaps out of consideration.

“Well, I want to explain, but should we introduce ourselves first? How much do you know about me? Speak your mind,” said Shikyuu, and Maomao decided to answer honestly.

“You’re the son of Dora, who is impeccable as a blood relative, but has a bad reputation and is not well regarded in the succession dispute. You’re known for brewing bootleg liquor and having connections to bandits, or not having connections to bandits. I think it would be better to properly educate your own children.”

“You’re really frank,” said Shikyuu, without showing any signs of anger.

“Then, from me. You are the daughter of Kantaiwei. You came as a medical assistant, but in reality, you’re favored by the Moon Lord, right?”

“Kantaiwei thought I was the daughter of a familiar courtesan, so he just misunderstood. As for the Moon Lord, I can only tell you that I am valued as a poison taster,” Maomao corrected.

“Well, let’s leave it at that,” said Shikyuu, sounding a bit off, but ignoring it to move the conversation forward.

“Why did it turn out like this? Where should I start?” said Shikyuu, rubbing his chin and tapping the table with his finger.

“They say I’m the boss of the outlaws, but well, you could say I started a small escort bureau. To be precise, I took over a small escort bureau. As for the matter of having connections to bandits…it’s not like we have a lovey-dovey relationship. After I blinded that bear man’s eye, he held a grudge against me. He would appear to challenge my territory, and sometimes even impersonate one of my escorts.”

Maomao couldn’t swallow Shikyuu’s story completely, but what she heard was mostly what Chuue had brought to her attention.

(Chuue’s information is more suspicious)

If she were to accept Chuue’s story at face value, there would be contradictions. It’s strange from the beginning that Chuue and Shikyuu helped Maomao escape.

(Since it’s Chuue, she probably skillfully mixed in some true information, and it’s more likely that she was being led.)

If that’s the case, she’ll have to listen to Shikyuu’s story properly and compare it to the facts.

“When the Lord of the Moon had just arrived in the Western Capital, I was asked to take a certain foreign merchant caravan to the Western Capital. It was a job that other escort agencies had accepted, but they backed out because it would take them away from their territory, so they trusted me to do it. Of course, they asked me because they knew me well. They probably thought they could get away with it even if my father or Tamauguis found out. Among the escort agencies, my father’s dislike for foreigners was well known.

“What about you, as the son of Tamauguis?”

“…I used to dislike foreigners because of my father’s influence. But there’s no point in excluding foreigners in a place like this surrounded by borders.”

“Hmm.”

Maomao drinks a cup of fermented mare’s milk.

“Were the foreign merchants important people from another country?”

“I didn’t know at first. But I gradually became suspicious.”

“How so?”

Shikyuu raises his index finger.

“It seemed like they had heard about the Lord of the Moon’s stay and had come. But as soon as they arrived, pursuers came after them. It was too persistent for just targeting merchants, and troublesome. Also, they looked like Rouryoujin, but it was clear they were from a different ethnic group. I thought it was probably an important person from another country who had come to talk to the Lord of the Moon. But in reality, they had come to hide in a place where Rouryou’s important people gather.”

“Why would they do that?”

“It’s possible they were hoping to defect, and they thought it would be difficult for their own countrymen to follow them if there were important people with them. They have a staff of advisors who do nothing but come up with the most idiotic or ingenious methods, so who knows.”

“That’s troublesome.”

In any case, it seems they went into hiding.

“They were delayed by a locust invasion, so they were stuck there. It was dangerous to have any hostility towards foreigners, but Uncle Oumi saved them in the post town. We were in a hurry when they got sick and needed a doctor.”

“…”

(Foreigners, post town, doctor…)

Maomao remembers the story very well.

“Is the important person a child?”

“Yes.”

Maomao puts her head in her hands.

“We can’t keep lounging around in the post town forever. But things have progressed since my father died.”

“How has it changed since Tamauguis is gone?”

“If you had to talk to someone who would or wouldn’t listen to you about foreign affairs, which would you choose? In other words, the foreigners–can I mention their names now? People from the Rijin Kingdom came to pick up the child. The domestic turmoil has calmed down considerably.”

(Rijin Kingdom…)

“Maybe it was a country in the Northern Asia Federation. Beyond that, Maomao doesn’t know.”

“So I ended up being the mediator between you and the Moon King. But just as I was about to go and talk to him…”

Shikyuu taps his side, where he was injured by a poisoned arrow.

“I was attacked as soon as I entered the main house. I knocked out the guards nearby out of reflex, but that was a mistake. We didn’t know where the assassins were, so we hid in the passage and carved out arrows to defend ourselves.”

“And then, I was treated by you.”

The story connects.

“So why did I end up going with you?”

“I was set up. I had become the kidnapper of a foreign dignitary without realizing it. You who treated me were also implicated. In matters of diplomacy, you don’t show your opponent any disadvantage for your own country. As the eldest son, I had been educated to understand that. Considering that blow darts were used inside the mansion, there was a high possibility that there was a traitor. That’s what Chuue had said.”

Was it Chuue’s judgment to take Maomao out? Since Maomao had already made contact with the foreign dignitary, it was impossible to deny that he didn’t know what was going on.

“If we could meet the foreign dignitary and introduce him to the Principality without any misunderstandings, we could have been released. Of course, we had to confirm that the person we were introducing him to was not the dignitary’s political enemy. During that time, we also had to hide you, your niece, and fend off the pursuers. And I also wanted to contact the Moon King somehow.”

(In short, there’s a lot to do, a lot to do.)

“Well, not everything went smoothly, and the dignitary, feeling danger, moved from the inn town to the prearranged meeting place in case something happened. As a result, we ended up dragging you guys around again.”

“…One of the people who followed that dignitary was the so-called One-Eyed Dragon.”

“That’s too grandiose a name. Kumaotoko is enough. He had always held a grudge against me. He was probably happy to take on the job. This town was a place I often used to prepare, so he may have been lying in wait. …I’m sorry.”

“So you’re here now because you handed over the dignitary safely?”

“Right. I wanted to head out sooner, but I didn’t know what Kumaotoko would do if he noticed me. It’s no excuse, but I never intended to use you or Kohong as bait.”

“I understand. You wouldn’t make a mistake normally.”

If most thieves couldn’t read, they could be outsmarted in many ways.

Maomao looks at his sleeve. He changed into a washed shirt from a woolen one. There was a sparrow embroidery on the sleeve. It was not just a simple embroidery to fix frayed edges. Above all, there was nothing frayed on the shirt.

Maomao couldn’t imagine such delicate embroidery being done in a short period of time during labor. So the embroidery was already there from the beginning.

It’s as if the person who did the embroidery assumed that Maomao wasn’t interested in clothes and the like. And they assumed that he would recognize “fixing frayed edges” as a sign. Only someone who knew Maomao well could do that.

There were collaborators in the town in advance. It was the old lady. She was the only one among the idyllic residents who had a strangely extensive vocabulary.

“Did you have a prearranged method of contact?”

“I snuck in and told her normally. Well, I just wrote instructions in the expected place.”

“Is there someone like that?”

“Yeah, there are people who are good at that kind of thing.”

“…Is that female bodyguard?”

“Correct.”

“Is that…?”

“When Maomao tried to ask, the door opened. The female bodyguard was standing there. She had a sharp-looking face in her thirties, but her expression was oddly friendly.

“Is it possible that you are… Chuue-san?”

Maomao looked at the female bodyguard with half-closed eyes. He had thought it might be her, but…

“Hehe, did you figure it out? That’s correct.”

The female bodyguard took a very frivolous posture.