Anyway, Maomao decided to have the villagers pick and gather the poisonous herbs for her. If she did it all herself, there was only so much she could achieve.
“Over here.”
Maomao headed over to where Chue guided her and heard voices coming out from a now rundown house. She looked inside. The villagers and Rikuson were having a discussion.
“I understand. Then we’ll treat this as if it never happened.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t believe I broke my word.”
“No, we don’t know what will happen from now on. It was good enough that we were still able to prevent so much damage.”
Maomao understood what they were talking about when she saw the pouch on the table. It was on what Rikuson had said before the locusts came, about buying at double the market price to incite the villagers who had no sense of pressure.
(This chaos isn’t only in this village, and they won’t be able to carelessly sell off the remainder either.)
Rikuson, who was leaving the house, noticed Maomao and Chue. “Have you recovered? Are you okay?” he asked.
Maomao showed him her head and palms. Her head was fine, but her hands still tingled a bit. But thanks to Chue, who had applied medicine and wrapped it in bandages while Maomao was unconscious, it was better.
“So you were super rich. Night burglars come out here, you know.” Chue poked the pouch in Rikuson’s hands.
“No, no. I am an insignificant middle manager, so I only have enough money to buy up the wheat of one village.” Rikuson stuck his tongue out and showed them the contents of the pouch. It contained go stones.
“Wooow.”
“I got into the habit of carrying it around with me due to my previous job.”
What a crook, Maomao thought.
“By the way, what business do you have with me?” he asked.
(Even if you say business.)
It was hard to say that she only wanted to check the current state of things.
“My apologies for suddenly fainting. I’ve caused you trouble,” Maomao said.
Taking the opportunity, Chue also bowed her head.
“No, it’s good that it’s nothing serious,” he said.
“In that case…”
“Eh, is that all?”
(Even if you say all.)
She had other things she wanted to ask Rikuson, but he still had things left to do. There were still a lot of locusts, and she felt bad about getting in his way.
“…Rikuson is quite used to it. Did you have some experience or something?” She found his calmness mysterious even if he had worked as the weirdo tactician’s adjutant.
Rikuson smiled tenderly. “My mum taught me. That no matter the situation, I must not lose sight of myself.”
And for an instant, he had a blank expression. “It was her last request that I collect myself, when I am on the verge of going insane.”
“Last request?”
“Yes. My house was raided. My mum and older sister hid me and were killed before my eyes.”
An extremely heavy story came out.
“I knew I’d be killed if I let out a sound, so I couldn’t scream as much as I wanted to. I bit into my wrists to muffle my voice, all to survive after watching my mum and sister die.”
Maomao didn’t know what was the best response to this situation. She could only reply with this: “And thanks to that, you saved this village.”
Whatever his past, it had nothing to do with Maomao. Just that if he had saved this village as a consequence, she could only be grateful for Rikuson’s past experience. She could also accept his odd fearlessness.
“Maomao is nice, with your way of thinking,” he said.
“Is that so?” Even if Maomao responded sentimentally, she had no idea how to interpret it, seeing as she wasn’t Rikuson. If she wasn’t a bothersome maiden of marriageable age, she probably didn’t need to sympathise.
“Maomao, I think we are quite compatible. May I propose to you?”
“Very funny,” Maomao shot back.
“I know right.” Rikuson chuckled.
(Was he the type to crack jokes like this?)
How unexpected, Maomao thought.
“Woww, is Chue-san being excluded? Can you let me in on this love-hate relationship drama?” Chue bobbed her face over.
“Chue-san is married.” Rikuson refused gently.
“Yes. Married with children. Not that you can see it, though,” Chue said.
(I can’t see it at all.)
Maomao somehow knew that the other woman had children, but Chue doesn’t care for them at all. Rather, Maomao didn’t know the names of the children or their genders either.
Her sister-in-law Maamei looked after them, but still, Chue was quite hands-off.
“Then, I will go help out with the locust extermination,” Rikuson said.
“I will go make some insecticide too,” Maomao said.
“Yes. I was shocked by how effective the poison was.”
“Poison…”
It’s not, Maomao wanted to say, but she did use poisonous plants for it.
“I’ll do my best with taking care of Maomao-san.” It seems Chue will monitor Maomao for the time being.
“Please don’t work too hard anymore,” he said.
“This time I’ll reap them with a sickle.” Maomao showed him her bandaged hand, then headed towards the villagers who were gathering poisonous plants.
.
.
.
When enough insecticide was made, Rihaku called her over.
“What is it?” Maomao asked.
“It looks like the poison is completed. I was thinking of going back to the western capital with lass,” he said.
“…is that so. It’s insecticide.”
Maomao looked at the village. Certainly, it wasn’t something special that only Maomao could do. If the additional military officials were helping out with the extermination, they would have no problem without Maomao.
“If you don’t come back soon, that old man will find out about the lie,” Rihaku said.
“…come to think of it, the lie worked really well.”
No matter the chaos, it was mysterious how the lie would work for the weirdo tactician who guesses most things correctly with that inexplicable sixth sense of this.
“Master Jinshi is a schemer too. He used the court physician old chap.”
The court physician old chap. The quack doctor, in other words.
“He told the court physician old chap about you, who then indirectly informed that old man.”
“….”
Clever, Maomao thought. Old chap and old man was kind of complicated, though.
“Lass is somewhat soft on the court physician old chap, though. The old man is also somewhat dumbfounded-ish.”
The quack doctor was a plump middle-aged man, but she felt she classified him as a baby mouse or a squirrel.
“When the chaos dies down, we’ll have to go back, right?”
“But what do we do about this?” Maomao looked at her hands.
“I have a change of clothes.” Chue smoothly prepared an outfit.
“It’s not really a blunder? You have a lot on your left arm too.” Rihaku pointed at Maomao’s left arm. She didn’t tell him, but it seems he had seen it.
“I guess so.”
Hand injuries are not big deal now, huh, Maomao thought belatedly.
