“Heeey, you’re conscious?”
When Maomao woke up, she heard a cheerful voice. A familiar face was looking over her.
“R-Rihaku-sama?”
It was the familiar military official who was like a large breed dog.
Maomao regarded her surroundings in a daze.
It seems she was inside a tent instead of a room. She looked left and right. Chue was cooking something in a pot.
It would have been fine if that was all, but…
She spotted a locust in the corner of her vision and sprang to her feet.
“Locust!” Maomao immediately stomped on the insect.
“Hey, lass. There’s no point just killing that. Also, it’s better if you don’t make sudden movements,” Rihaku said.
“He’s right, Maomao-san. Here, please eat this.” Chue got her to sit. She presented Maomao a bowl so she ate it. It was a milk gruel with a mild savoury taste.
As she was eating warm food, Maomao remembered. “How long was I out for?”
She remembered the locusts coming and the falling hailstones.
“The entire day. A large hailstone hit you on the head. I judged that it was dangerous to move you unskillfully so I had you rest in the tent,” Chue said.
Chue’s response is generally correct, Maomao thought. Then she thought she fainted at a crucial time, and felt pathetic.
(I must have been greatly affected.)
Even Maomao was human. It couldn’t be helped that she would turn strange in response to unprecedented circumstances. But, no doubt she became a burden with that.
“There’s no need for Maomao-san to feel down. You were just specialised with going wild and killing insects. Thanks to that, the cat stamp insecticide was a little too potent and had to be diluted down to not corrupt the soil. It’s diluted now, used to exterminate the remaining pests.”
“Exterminate the remaining pests?”
“In simple terms, they went over the mountain. After the hailstorm, a lot of them were suddenly chilled. Either way, they’re still alive, so we’re currently extermining the remainder.”
“I helped out.” Rihaku raised his hand. “A large number of locusts also flew to the western capital. It’s not as bad as it was here, but there are damages. Master Jinshi is drowning in work, and ordered me to immediately head to the farming village where lass is. I’ve arrived half a day ago.”
“To change places, my younger brother went back to the Prince of the Moon,” Chue said.
That must be the best Jinshi could do. Basen would still have energy left over, but someone had to give Jinshi the report of the current situation.
“It seems rough. The people in the western capital looked like they were seeing a locust for the first time. It’s also the first time for me, but I was told many times it might come.” Rihaku had nerves of steel, as his appearance suggested. The personnel selection made no mistake. “Oh yeah. That old man was throwing a fit, yelling, ‘Where’s Maomao? Where is she?’ It was awful. The court physician old man got spooked when he got carried in.”
The weirdo tactician, was too imaginable.
Rihaku continued. “I don’t know if Master Jinshi is quick-witted or something, but he was lying left and right, saying that ‘Maomao is isolated in a place with no locusts.’”
“Even though I’m at the front lines.”
No, it was Maomao who said she was going… but the lie was also a white one.
“The old man, he organised a locust subjugating force. Also, the rioters in the western capital were also suppressed.”
“….”
It seems there were no issues on the western capital side.
The problem was the other farming communities.
(Which reminds me.)
“Is Rahan’s older brother safe?” she asked.
“Ahh, the potato guy, huh.”
“No news would mean that he’s safe, right?”
“No, the last correspondence was too unsettling.”
Even though he was a very ordinary excellent farmer, he was forced to a strict schedule and ran head-on into the front line of the locust plague.
(Thank you, Rahan’s older brother.)
Maomao, while looking at the ceiling of the tent, tried to imagine Rahan’s older brother’s smiling face, but she couldn’t imagine it. He was usually grilling someone.
(Rather, is he still alive?)
He was closely guarded, so she wanted to believe that he was still alive.
“By the way, how bad is the damage?” she asked.
A locust plague had broken out. It was what it was. What was important now was dealing with the aftermath.
“The wheat harvest was eighty per cent done. The wheat that hasn’t been reaped is devastated, but it seems the yield was better than average. And excluding the wheat had has been trampled on and burnt in a house fire, the harvest was around seventy per cent compared to average,” Chue answered.
“Seventy per cent, you say?”
Considering the damages, the numbers are miraculous, Maomao thought. Was Rahan’s older brother’s guidance method that good? But she shouldn’t think of only the wheat.
“What about other damages?”
“Most of the straw was eaten. The grass for the livestock too. Also, the potato field became just stalks, but I think they are still alive.” Chue spoke succinctly, but it seems she was not good at serious situations; her hand was bobbing a flower and a flag. Rihaku watched in amusement, not tired of looking at it.
“Honestly speaking, other farming villages would have to have significant damages.”
“Master Jinshi, as soon as he got the letter from Rahan’s older brother, rushed to the nearest village on a fast horse, but I don’t think they were as well prepared as we were here.”
“That’s true. Relatively, we got through it without chaos.”
(That was towards the side of no chaos, huh.)
Maomao thought she wasn’t accustomed to it but was Chue more used to it?
However, speaking of the person who had been most active during this incident was…
“How’s Rikuson?” Maomao asked.
“I think he’s outside. Will you go to him?” Chue said.
Rikuson. He was familiar with it. Not just driving the locusts away, but also even keeping in mind of the people that got cornered to their wits’ end.
(If not, more grain would have gone up in flames.)
Despite Maomao telling them to not use fire so much, they used fire. While in a dark locked room, merely hearing the pandemonium outside would have to give rise to anxiety. She now knew how important it was to go and speak to every house.
(Just who is he?)
Maomao, while harbouring her suspicions, went outside the tent. Chue came along, as though she was worried about Maomao.
It was still chilly, as if the influence of the hailstorm still remained. Dead locusts were littered all over the floor and there were also people catching those that were still in the air.
As if they were gathering the insects, for the time being, there was an unpleasant black mountain at the centre of the village. It looked like it was moving, so she didn’t want to get any closer.
The people that had been shut indoors were dumbfounded when they came outside. The wheat fields had been harvested, if only the ears, but the straws can’t be used for anything.
Maomao had already heard about the situation beforehand from Chue, but it was different seeing it fresh with her own eyes. She passed through the potato field that became only stalks, and also checked the pastures.
The grasslands looked patchy, though it wasn’t as obvious as the wheat straws. The livestock were let out, but they were somehow fidgety.
The chickens were pecking at the fallen locusts.
(Is it delicious?)
Maomao had tasted it before, but it can’t be helped that it looked unpalatable.
“Maomao-san, Maomao-san.”
“What is it, Chue-san?”
“I wanted to try cooking it to see if it’s edible.” Chue took out some sort of fried food from somewhere. It was Chue-esque to suddenly do something, but she probably read what Maomao was thinking about.
“…”
“I took off the head, shell and legs since it looks like it’s bad for digestion. Also, I don’t know what they had been eating, so I removed the innards too.”
Of what, it was the thing that needn’t be said. It was completely unknown what kind of dish it was from its appearance now.
“It’s correct to take out the innards. These things also eat poisonous herbs as well as each other. But, there’s nothing much left once you take it out.”
“Yes. The edible part is too little. Here you go!”
Maomao reluctantly took a bite.
“How is it?”
“…it’s not inedible.”
“Honestly, considering the work that went into it, I’d recommend a different dish.”
“That’s true.”
Being Chue’s cooking, she should have used good seasoning at least. She used that, but well, it wasn’t that it was inedible. Her saying that, was because the people who were standing dumbfounded before the fields that had been devoured by the locusts won’t cook it. The amount of nutrition it gives compared to the damage was insignificant.
As she walked, surveying the damage, Nenjen waved at her. Maomao went up to the one-armed old man who looked like he wanted something.
“Is there no more of that poison?” he asked.
“Poison?” Maomao tilted her head.
“The thing you were brewing in the large pot, the thing that kills insects. As there’s a limit to crushing them one by one, you can purge them all in one go when you scatter it onto them.”
“Ahh, the insecticide.” She dimly recalled that she had been single-mindedly boiling poisonous plants.
“Yes, that poison.”
“Poison…” She wanted him to amend that…
“Ah, Poison Sis. More poison.”
“Poison, please. The poison that’s dangerous unless you dilute it.”
“That poison was effective. What did you brew it with?”
The other villagers gathered around.
(I-It’s not—)
…Poison, Maomao wanted to insist, but Chue patted her shoulders. The woman was shaking her head with a look of understanding.
Maomao hung her head. “Please use it following the dosage and directions for use.”
She had no choice but to gather poisonous plants once again.
