Day Twenty:
Bandits showing up in various places. The military officials posted at farming villages seem busy.
Day Twenty-Five:
Support supplies from the capital delivered. Faster than expected.
Day Twenty-Seven:
Seems like some shops are open. The shortage of stock continues; inferior goods common.
Day Thirty:
The kitchens attempted locust dishes. Apparently it didn’t go well.
Day Thirty-Two:
“We’re out of stock.”
“Are we out?”
“Yeah, we’re out.”
What are you trying to say? Tenyuu stared at Maomao. The aloof smooth talker was sunburnt from being under the western capital sun. It seems Court Physician You was working him hard as usual.
“What are we out of?” Maomao looked at the medicine shelf.
“Styptics, antibiotic ointments, salves, cold medicine, fever medicine, antidiarrhoeal and headache medicine,” he answered.
“Isn’t that everything?” Maomao was doubtful. They had practically replenished everything yesterday.
“Everything, yeah. Perhaps there’s a good for nothing restaurant, so there’s a lot of guys with upset stomachs. ‘Cause of that, headache medicine would be given to high officials who’ll be getting headaches.”
“Stomach medicine might be better. We don’t have any of those, though,” she said.
He cracked a joke, but this wasn’t the time for one.
“This is the last of the medicine,” she said.
“Make more.”
“We don’t have the ingredients.” Maomao’s group made what they could. They even got Rihaku to help out.
“What about substitutes?” he asked.
“We use those substitutes, and we’re finished.”
“Eh, then, wouldn’t it be because the quality dropped?”
“…please give up on that.” Even Maomao wanted to give out more decent medicine, but without it, there was nothing she could do. She made a different thing with similar medicinal use. “You can’t get medicinal herbs in the western capital that are as good as the ones from the capital.”
The difference in climate was great. There was vegetation in the western capital, so based on that, there were also medicinal plants, but Maomao who was raised in the capital wasn’t familiar with those. Even so, it was said the western capital with a large amount of trade with other countries had nothing that can’t be obtained, but…
(It’ll be nice if they prioritise medicine a little bit more.)
Was it postponed due to the problems with the food supply? Or was it only that the supplies weren’t coming over to Maomao’s place?
“Hmmm, from the way things seem, I’ve no idea when we can go back home,” he said.
“I know right.”
“I wonder if Ruomen-san is okay.” The quack doctor inserted himself into the conversation out on nowhere.
(Dad, huh.)
She wanted to believe that he was fine as he was apparently in the inner palace as the quack doctor’s substitute. More importantly, the quack should be more concerned about himself, Maomao thought.
They heard that the time they will be in the western capital will be extended, but they won’t be able to return any time soon from the looks of it.
It would be fine if only Jinshi returned, but it didn’t seem like it was going that way.
(There’s a chance said person is refusing too.)
She thought the current situation of the western capital was genuinely bad. Their response was somewhat better as they had predicted it, but it was still a disaster.
(It’s something that’s said to cause the downfall of a country.)
There might be small locust plagues, but a large one like this would be the first time in some decades?
Jinshi was requesting support from the capital. At least, with Jinshi here, they would be more accommodating. If he stayed behind in the western capital, they might send extra.
In Maomao’s view, she didn’t see any discord between the emperor and Jinshi.
(There’s some doubt remaining in regards to the subject where he was made to go to the western capital.)
Was there no one to stand in for him? she wondered.
“However, Imperial Prince-sama is working in his room today too?” Tenyuu said, quite sarcastically.
“It can’t be helped. It’s dangerous for him to go outside,” the quack doctor supported.
“I know that, but it doesn’t leave a good impression.”
“What do you mean?”
“Military officials are suffering in the countryside left and right. He’s just issuing commands and partaking in a lot of rice in a safe place.”
“Partaking?”
“A junior military official said that while eating potato porridge.” Tenyuu slipped in disapproval. “Another military official countered with, ‘Then, who was it who brought in this potato?’”
“Hmmmm.”
In other words, there were people who harbour distrust in Jinshi’s current actions, and there were military officials who understand his position.
But if there were even military officials who hold such distrust, what about the citizens?
Tenyuu provided the answer to that. “However, the territory lord here is good at popularity stunts.”
It was about Gyoku’ou.
“By popularity stunts, do you mean how he’s helping out with the distribution? Maomao asked.
“That’s not what I meant, but he’s popular among the military officials. That said, it was the military officials who handed out the rice, so it automatically became the territory lord’s achievements. Also, he even spearheaded the suppression of the riots without masking it.”
“Oooh, that’s amazing.” The quack doctor had started to prepare tea out of nowhere. There was less tea, so the leaves were a little thin.
“Amazing. He’s just like an actor of a play.”
(Actor, again.)
Does everyone get the same impression? She recalled what the weirdo tactician said as well.
“Excuse me. How do you two see Gyoku’ou-sama?” It was fine to ask just Tenyuu, but the quack doctor wanted to join in so Maomao included him in the conversation.
“Gyoku’ou-sama is cool. He’s manly and ambitious. I’ve only caught a glance of him though.”
The quack doctor’s opinion she pretty much imagined. Maomao, too, heard a lot of stories, and couldn’t actually meet Gyoku’ou in person, so she couldn’t assert it confidently, but from just looking at him, she might have gotten that impression.
“As for me…” Tenyuu gulped down the watery tea and packed the medicine that was taken out into a box. “I see him as a person who’s born in the wrong era.”
“Wrong era?”
“Yeah, wrong era. He’s the same as the eccentric tactician.” Tenyuu said something quite unsettling.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“It’s tough to live an ordinary life. By an ordinary life, I mean peacefully, I suppose. I’ve glanced at the streets, but I feel somewhat lively amidst this chaos.”
“Tenyuu-san is lively when there’s some kind of problem before you, though.”
“Are you saying that I’m of the same kind?” Tenyuu drank the rest of his tea, then departed with the medicine.
“The same kind, huh.”
It didn’t sound like a good thing.
I don’t get it at all, she thought as she wondered what to do with the medicine they were low on.
.
.
.
“Cultivating medicinal herbs, huh.”
Rahan’s older brother was dressed for farm work. He denied that he was a farmer, but with his clothes and the hoe in his hand, no matter how she saw it, he was a first-class farmer. “Certainly, if we suppose the long stretch, I think we do have fields to grow medicinal herbs, but wouldn’t it be difficult with the soil here? Dry fields aren’t suited for the vicinity of the western capital and walking out to the grasslands is far,” he said.
“Then, Rahan’s older brother in farm wear, what are you ploughing? Is there soil to plough?” Maomao wanted to point that out.
“I’m working properly! I was told to come to plant potatoes in various places.”
“Who did?”
Was it Jinshi who asked him again?
“My dad did…. It makes no sense, right? In times of an emergency like this, I get a letter and it says, ‘I’m waiting for a report.’… And I was near death.”
If Rahan’s older brother was a decent farmer, then Rahan’s father was a crazy farmer.
“Is that so. You’re alive and well. How did you come back?” she asked.
Thinking how it seems like he had strayed from his escorts and was at the edge of Isei Province, he must have had a lot of hardships.
“Uuuu. I had escorts with me until halfway, when the horse pulling the carriage got spooked at the swarm of locusts and ran away. We were attacked by bandits, and I strayed off. I bartered dried potatoes wherever I went, and then there were people who plundered, aiming for my dried potato. Along the way, I reached a village I stopped by to grow potatoes, and since I warned them that the locust plague might come, it seems their damage was minor and they looked after me, but at the next village…”
This was troubling. Should she hear the entire thing, she could write a book on it. “Ooookay, I understand. I understand. Then, when you find a place that can grow medicinal herbs, please tell me.”
“Can’t be helped.” Rahan’s older brother, who complained while working earnestly, was truly a good person. So, she prayed that he wouldn’t be used to death.
“Come to think of it, you have letters too,” he said.
“Oh? From who?” she asked.
“Chue-san came by just now. You must have missed her?”
“Yes.”
Was it from her dad Ruomen? Or was it from Rokushoukan?
Maomao decided to return to the medical office.
