Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

When noon came around, Maomao alternated with Honnyan to wait behind Consort Gyokuyou.

Hearing Infa"s advice, the three kanzas.h.i.+ she received were all slipped to her belt for the time being. Since the thing Consort Gyokuyou gave her was the neck accessory, wearing one kanzas.h.i.+ would have been fine. But that would make a difference in merit to the kanzas.h.i.+ she didn"t wear.

It was quite a spectacle to view the banquet once again from seats of honour.

Military officers lined the west side, and civil officials lined the east. Sitting at about twenty percent from the middle of the long table, was Gaoshun on a seat on the military officer side. Though she realised that he was more a big-shot that she thought, she was surprised the eunuch was able to line up there without feeling out of place.

The large man from before was also sitting there. He was closer to the lower seats than Gaoshun, but he might be more successful considering his age.

In contrast, Jis.h.i.+n was nowhere to be seen. Seeing as he was glittered to that degree, he should be someone she would find easily though.
As there was no need to find him, she decided to devote herself to her main job.

Alcohol came first thing before the meal. They were poured little by little from gla.s.s containers into silver cups.
Shaking the cup slowly, she looked to see if there were cloudiness in places she touched.
It would blacken if there is a.r.s.enic poison.

She sniffed the cup while she slowly turned it, and held the contents in her mouth. Though she knew there was no poison, if a poison taster didn"t swallow, the poison tasting wouldn"t be recognised. She moistened her throat with a gulp, then rinsed her mouth with fresh water.

(Oh.)

It turns out that people were observing her.

The other poison tasters had yet to drink from their cups.
After they confirmed that nothing happened to Maomao, they timidly raised their cups to their lips.

(Well, that"s normal.)

Everyone is afraid of death.
If there was anyone who tried first, it was safest to watch to make sure before they do it themselves.

(If you have to use poison at the banquet, it would have to be fast acting.)

Among those people, the one who would deliberately ingest poison would be only Maomao. In this world, there isn"t such a rare type of person.

(If you must, fugu would be good. The guts would nicely dissolve into the soup.)

That numbing feeling at the tip of the tongue was irresistible. To get that feeling, she didn"t know how many times she repeatedly pumped her stomach and vomited. As she thought about that, she met the gaze of a maid who was bring the relishes. The corner of her lips raised. She grinned unpleasantly. She was completely charmed by it.

She always returned to her usual expressionless face.

The appetiser she received was a dish that occasionally came out as a supper, being the emperor"s favourite food.
It looks like the meal was cooked from the Inner Palace side. The usual thing.

As the other poison tasters were staring at Maomao, she hurriedly picked it up with her chopsticks.

It was a fish and vegetable namasu. [T/N: a dish slightly pickled in rice vinegar for a couple of hours]Though he was l.u.s.ty old man, the poison taster had to say that his eating habits were unexpectantly aimed towards health.

(The setting is wrong.)

It wasn"t the usual ingredients.
It couldn"t be that they made a mistake with the recipe of the emperor"s favourite food.

If that was the case, this here had to be something made for a different consort.
The Inner Palace"s Meal Duty were capable at their job. Even if they used the same menu, they separated the cooking of the emperor"s meals and the consort"s meals.
When Consort Gyokuyou was nursing, they prepared a menu for continuous milk production.

The poison tasting ended. Seeing everyone in the middle of eating the relish, she decided it really was just a setting mistake.
Consort Riishu, the one who couldn"t read the atmosphere, was paled faced.

(Is it something she hates?)

With the emperor"s favourite food before her, there was no way the consort could leave it.
So she endured and was eating it.

When the consort looked back, the poison taster maid closed her eyes, lips trembling. She saw and understood the faint arc those lips drew.

(She saw something unpleasant.)

Returning her gaze, Maomao received the next dish.

It would be good if this was a normal banquet.

Rihaku felt he was unable to fit in with high cla.s.s n.o.bles who look down from the palace circles.

How is this fun, he thought, to have a banquet outside in the cold and wind.

No, it would be fine if it was just a banquet. Just like the olden days, enjoying alcohol and meat with mutual companions in a peach garden would be certainly fun.

However, when there were n.o.bles together, there is always poison in hand.
The cuisines, no matter what high cla.s.s ingredients, secret techniques employed, its deliciousness would be halved by the time the poison tasting is over.

It wasn"t that he was blaming the poison tasters. But seeing their frightened, pale faces as they slowly eat from their spoon every single time, that was what kills his appet.i.te.

Today as well, he thought they are taking an awful long time for the same pointless thing.

However, it was somehow a little different.

Usually, it was a given that all the poison tasters would look at each other as they take their turns in holding the spoon.
Today, however, there was a recklessly enthusiastic poison taster.

The n.o.ble Consort"s poison taster, a short maid with not even one kanzas.h.i.+ seen on her, swirled a silver cup before drinking from it.
After she slowly swallowed it, she rinsed her mouth as if it was nothing.

Thinking back, he was sure he had seen her from somewhere, and gave her a kanzas.h.i.+ not so long ago. She was neat but wasn"t much of a looker. The type that to be quite hidden among the beautiful Inner Palace court ladies.
However, she was a girl, who was expressionless in some respects, with piercing eyes that captivated others.

For such an unfriendly girl, she was surprisingly expressive.
While thinking she was expressionless, she suddenly grinned for some reason, and when he was thinking about that, her face returned to what was before, and this time she was making a sullen face.
And yet, she was poison tasting as if it was natural. She was so strange.

He wondered what sort of face she would make next. It was a perfect time waster.

The soup was presented, the girl put her spoon in it. She peered at it, slowly placed on the tip of her tongue.

He thought that the girl"s eyes widened for an instant, and she suddenly smiled as though she was melting in intoxication.

Cheeks flushed, eyes on the verge of watering. Her lips drew an arc, and from her slightly parted lips, he saw white teeth and a captivating tongue.

This was why women are terrifying.

Those lips that licked up that drop, was like a ripe fruit smile of a high-cla.s.s prost.i.tute.

The cooking must be indescribably delicious.

To make an ordinary girl make such a fascinating act, was it something inside it, or was it the skills of the Imperial court"s cooks?

The time he was gulping down saliva, an unbelievable act came from the girl.

She took a hand towel from her pocket, and spat out what she just ate.

"It"s, poison."

The maid, who was expressionless again, stated her task matter and disappeared behind the curtain.

The end of the banquet was announced amid the commotion.

T/N: Thanks for the feedback yesterday, it was nice to read :> That said, if you guys ever see any confusing sentences, tell me, I will fix it….