Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

Chapter 27

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The three days of her home returning pa.s.sed by in a blink of an eye.

Her meeting the people she missed and her feeling of wanting to always remain like this was strong, but there was no way for her resign from her job in the Inner Palace, so she had no choice but to again trouble Rihaku, her ident.i.ty guarantor, to return.

Above all, her back was being pushed by the madam who was wondering what kind of s.a.d.i.s.t Maomao"s first sell came out as.

(It looks like he saw a good dream.)

Seeing the excessively glowing Pairin-neechan and the Rihaku with the corner of his eyes sagged, who changed like apricot soaked in honey, she regretted that she overpaid her reward to him.
As a result, the next person to sell their body was determined.

Well, she somewhat sympathised with Rihaku, who, having known of heavenly nectar once, will come to find the ones on earth unpalatable.

The Madam will surely make a killing of him.
Beyond that was not Maomao"s responsibility.

For that reason, she was going to return to the Jade Palace with the souvenirs, but right there was a celestial maiden-like young man who was cloaked in an excessively dangerous air.

She felt an ominous poisonous air from the direction of the gentle smile.

Why is that, he is excessively glaring at her?

No matter his personality, a beauty was a beauty. Besides, when he glared, there was intensity to it.

As it was bothersome, she only bowed her head as much as she had to, and went towards her own room, when he firmly grabbed her shoulders with the force of his nails digging in.

"They are waiting in the parlour."

A honey-like voice flowed into her ears. Honey was honey, but it was wolfsbane honey.

Gaoshun, at the back, whose eyes told her to give up.
Consort Gyokuyou, whose eyes shone like she was troubled.
Honnyan, who was looking at Maomao with blaming eyes for some reason.

The three maids too, were more curious than worried.
She would be probably thoroughly questioned after this.

(Just what is happening?)

She put down her belongings, changed into her maid clothes and went to the parlour.

"What do you require of me?"

There was only Jis.h.i.+n in the room. He was elegantly dressed in simple official attire, legs crossed on the chair, elbows on the table. Somehow, she felt his att.i.tude was worse than usual. Was it her imagination? She wanted it to be her imagination. Let"s take it as imagination.

There is no Gaoshun, the breath of fresh air.
Consort Gyokuyou was nowhere to be found.

Well, in other words, they couldn"t bear to stay.

"It seems you went to returned home."

"Yes."

"How was it?"

"Everyone was good."

"Is that so."

"Yes."

"…."

"What kind of man was this Rihaku guy?"

"Yes. He"s my ident.i.ty guarantor."

(Why the name?)

He will be a regular customer from now on. An important source of income.

"Do you not understand what I mean? That meaning."

"Yes. He must be a high official to be my guarantor who can properly maintain my ident.i.ty."

Jis.h.i.+n, for some reason, looked extremely tired.
Was it because she said the obvious?

"Did you receive a kanzas.h.i.+?"

"He distributed many of them. I received one out of obligation."

Now that she thought about it, he was generous. Though it was a simple design, it was a reliably made kanzas.h.i.+.

"So you mean, even though you received one out of obligation, I lost?"[T/N: Jis.h.i.+n starts using 俺 "ore" to refer to himself from here. So you know, he usually uses 私 "watas.h.i.+", which is a gender-neutral way of referring to oneself. "ore", on the other hand, is masculine…. I"ll put it in italics to denote it.]

(I?)

She tilted her head at the (first-person) p.r.o.noun she wasn"t used to hearing.

"Even though I gave you one too, you didn"t come to me at all."

He looked sulky.
Without his celestial smile, he looked about the same age as Maomao. Rather, he looked even younger.
She admired that there are people who can change up to now with a single expression.

It turns out that Jis.h.i.+n was unable to stomach the fact that she relied on Rihaku and didn"t come to talk to him. How mysterious. Even though it"s a given that people would be happy to be not be concerned with troublesome things. Was it because that guy was a leisurely person?

"I sincerely apologise. It did not occur to me that I was to give a satisfactory compensation to Jis.h.i.+n-sama."

(Would inviting a eunuch to a brothel be rude?)

It may be possible to go to a place that only have tea drinking and poetry recitals, and go on to indulge in sensual affairs. It was awkward to invite people who were no longer men to a place like that.
Above all, people like Jis.h.i.+n. Prost.i.tutes from the area would catch a mummy become a mummy.* [T/N: ???.]

"What do you mean, compensation? Did you pay this Rihaku guy with that?"

He was making a dubious face for some reason.
It was an uneasy expression, combined with displeasure.

"That"s right. I pleasured him with a dream of one night."

(Like this, he probably won"t return to reality for a while.)

Even a gallant military personnel would become a kitten when they look at Pairin-neesan.
Would he come carrying gold coins to her from now on?

She looked at Jis.h.i.+n. All the blood had drained from his face.
His hand, holding onto the teacup, was quivering.

(Did the room get colder?)

Maomao added charcoal to the brazier, and stirred the flames with a fan.

"It seems he was greatly satisfied. a.s.suming I tried hard*."

(I also need to work hard on finding new customers.)

As she made a fist at her new resolve, there was the sound of the teacup breaking behind her.

Shards of ceramic scattered about.
Jis.h.i.+n stood up with a pale face. His clothes were soaked through with tea.

"Ahh, I"ll bring you something to wipe up now."

She opened the door, and right there, was Consort Gyokuyou, clutching her stomach in laughter.
Gaoshun, with an extremely tired face.
Honnyan, who was struck speechless with shock.

Maomao, who had no idea what was going on, went to the kitchen to look for a dishcloth for the time being.

"How long are you going to be contrary?"

Jis.h.i.+n rested his face against the table even though he was already back in his office.
Gaoshun sighed deeply.

"Don"t forget you are in the middle of work."

"I get it already."

He doesn"t get it.
The person called Jis.h.i.+n doesn"t reply like a child.
He doesn"t get overly attached to his toys.

He suffered hards.h.i.+p even though he heard the details from Consort Gyokuyou who was convulsing with laughter afterward.
As a collateral for undertaking her ident.i.ty, the man was granted a meeting with a star(popular prost.i.tute) he longed for. That the girl helped in such a way, was completely not what they imagined.

However, he wondered what his master imagined. Ahh, it was scary to be young.

He was somewhat back to normal, but he was still disgruntled.

Well, quickly finis.h.i.+ng his work to go meet her, only to find that she returned home with an unknown man wasn"t different to a bolt out of the blue.

He had no free time to sooth children indefinitely.
Gaoshun placed a lacquered box on the table and took out a correspondence from the inside.

"The report from a couple of days ago finally arrived."

To look for a court lady with burn scars. It had been a month since.

"That took way too long."

Raising his face that was cast down, Jis.h.i.+n"s face returned.

"I sincerely apologise."

To not add excuses.
That was Gaoshun"s creed.

"Just who was it?"

"Yes. It was surprisingly a big shot."

The correspondence was spread out on the table.

"Pomegranate Palace, Fonmin. The Pure Consort"s head maid."

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