Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Chapter 35

"You have work. Go."

At the madam's pestering, she was made to ride on a rather magnificent horse carriage.
Apparently, tonight's job was a certain n.o.bleman's banquet.

The sighing Maomao was led to a large residence in the north of the capital.
There were her older sisters and several others. Everyone was dressed in beautiful clothes, faces applied with bewitching make-up. Thinking that even she looked just like the others, she felt a little ill at ease for some strange reason.

They traversed the long hallway, climbed the spiral staircase, and were shown into a s.p.a.cious room.

Lanterns hung down from the ceiling, red ta.s.sels swinging.

The five people, who were lined up side by side, were younger than she thought.

Seeing the young men who were illuminated with the wavering flame, Pairin-neechan licked her lips. Joga-neechan, who was beside her, poked her side.

(Hurry up and introduce us.)

They were high officials who work in the Imperial Court.
Apparently, the referrer was Rihaku.

If Maomao had an affinity with Rihaku, her debt should decrease slowly.

Well, her severance payment she received paid more than she expected. She didn't need to go as far as selling her body, and it was good this way that she is living with a part-time job.

(The hag clicked her tongue.)

Apparently, the madam really wanted Maomao to be a prost.i.tute.

She had been told many times to stop playing pharmacist, but that was impossible. As her own interest lay in pharmacy, she had nothing towards singing and dancing.

(At any rate, they're filthy rich.)

It was priced even higher to summon prost.i.tutes to the residence than to have the banquet at the brothel. On top of that, the ones they called were the popular prost.i.tutes who could make one year's worth of silver disappear with a single night of alcohol pouring.
To think that they called the Rokushoukan's Three Princesses: Meimei, Pairin, and Joga, altogether.

Maomao was one of the several people who were brought along to support the Three Princesses.
Though she had done most of the training, she couldn't recite poetry, couldn't play the erhu, and dancing was just unreasonable.

At least she would keep the customer's cups from emptying. She didn't think she could just keep a close eye.

With a smile plastered on her face, she slowly poured alcohol into the empty vessel.
Everyone was in a daze at her older sisters' poetry and dancing. It was a relief that no one was looking her way.

(Oh? Is he bored?)

Even though everyone was lit up with smiles, drunk with alcohol and enjoying the dance performance. There was just one person who was looking down below.

The young man, who was clad in first-cla.s.s cotton clothes, with one knee up, was pouring his own drink and gulping down alcohol.
Only there was the atmosphere was clouded in grey.

(Did he lose his job?)

Maomao, who was in a strangely solemn place, held a full bottle of alcohol and sat down beside the gloomy man.

His glossy bangs concealed the upper half of his face.

"Leave me alone."

(?)

Well. It sounded like a voice she heard before.

All questions of impoliteness and rudeness were gone from her mind.

Taking care to not touch the forehead of the man who was looking down, she gently raised his front bangs.

A beautiful face was exposed.
Irritation instantly changed into surprise.

"Jis.h.i.+n-sama?"

Though there wasn't that glittering smile, and his voice wasn't sweet like honey, it was surely the eunuch she was familiar with.

Jis.h.i.+n blinked several times. She couldn't calm down at all from being stared at somewhat steadily.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?"

"I get that often."

"Don't tell me you're disguised with make-up?"

"I get that often."

She had a feeling that she had a similar conversation some time ago.
She returned the bangs she was holding on back to their original position.

And in doing so, Jis.h.i.+n stretched out his hand and held onto Maomao's.

"Why did you run away?"

He looked at her with a sulky face.

"Please don't touch the prost.i.tute."

Those were the rules. She couldn't do anything about it. It will cost extra fees.

"Before that, what's with your get up?"

"I'm in the middle of part time work."

"At the brothel? …you don't mean, you?"

Understanding what Jis.h.i.+n wanted to say, Maomao scowled at him with her eyes half-closed.
It was simply his character to suspect people's sense of virtue, apparently.

"Not really. I haven't snagged a customer. Not yet."

"Not yet…."

"…."

She couldn't answer back. Before repaying her remaining debt, there is certainly a chance of the madam forcing her to bring in guests.
With her dad and her older sisters' keeping that at bay, that was not an issue at present.

"Shall I buy you?" [T/N: ore again.]

"Hah?"

"Don't joke–" she stopped mid-sentence as an idea suddenly crossed her.

"That might be good."

"!?"

Jis.h.i.+n gave a shocked expression.

Somehow, because he wasn't sparkling today, he was rich in expressions. The celestial maiden's smile was beautiful, but it was an expression that couldn't be deemed as human.
Occasionally, he has two souls. She even wondered if one of the spirits were not settling. * [T/N: something to do with his personality changes]

"I wouldn't be bad to work at the Inner Palace one more time."

Jis.h.i.+n's shoulders slumped.
What's wrong?

"Didn't you quit because you hated that place?"

"When did I say such things?"

Even though she requested to continue working for the sake of repaying her debt, the one who dismissed her was this guy.
Although there were a lot of troublesome things, she was in quite favourable terms with Consort Gyokuyou's maids. She didn't think she would get used to thinking that she would do a rare post like food tasting.

"If I don't like it, it'll be to the point of not being able to do poison experiments."

"You should really put a stop to that."

Jis.h.i.+n placed his chin on his raised knee. He made a bitter smile.

"That's right. You are that kind of person huh"

"What is it? That."

"Do people tell you that you don't say enough?"

"…I get that often."

His bitter smile gradually changed into an innocent one.

This time Maomao hung her head in sullenness. There, Jis.h.i.+n reached out his hand.

"So why did you run away?"

"It was the rules."

Even though she said it, Jis.h.i.+n wasn't drawing back his extended hand.
He stared at Maomao in a clammy manner.

"Isn't it fine if it's just for a little bit?"

"You can't."

"It wouldn't hurt."

Property of © Fantasy-Books.live; outside of it, it is stolen.

"It'll hurt of my willpower."

"Just one hand. It’ll be fine if it's just fingers."

"…."

Obstinate. Come to think of this, this man was sticky.

She closed her eyes in surrender, and sighed deeply.

"Just your fingers then."

Something pressed down on her lips.
She opened her eyes. There was red rouge on Jis.h.i.+n's long fingers.

As Maomao was caught dumbfounded, Jis.h.i.+n drew back his fingers. And then, of all things, he gently placed it on his own lips.

(This jerk.)

He separated his two fingers, slightly transferring the rouge on his nicely shaped lips.
Jis.h.i.+n crinkled his eyes, making an even more innocent smile. His cheeks were a light shade of sakura colour, like they were also spread with rouge.

Maomao's shoulders shook, but Jis.h.i.+n was facing her with his excessively innocent smile. She said nothing, hung her head, averting her eyes.

(Don't we match.) [T/N: idk, there's a pun here on utsuru. It’s got multiple meanings. I tl'ed it as 'transfer' and "spread' for Jis.h.i.+n, 'match' for Maomao. But if anyone has a better idea….]

Maomao, who was bound with her mouth jagged, her cheeks were becoming sakura coloured. She wasn't even wearing cheek rouge. [T/N: kinda like this: (¤﹏¤) ]

When she thought she could hear giggling, everyone around them was watching her way.

She feared what comes after.
She was extremely ill at ease.

Gaoshun, who appeared unnoticed, folded his arms in relief.
As if to say that one task was finished.

Because she was already embarra.s.sed about something or other at something, she couldn't really remember what happened after that.
Just that, she remembered that her older sisters' questioning was very persistent.

A few days later, a beautiful n.o.bleman appeared in the capital's prost.i.tution quarter.

Carrying money that even dazzled the madam, and for some reason, a strange plant that grew from a bug, that man requested for one girl.

Inner Palace Arc END

T/N: How was that for an introduction? I think it sets the tone of the story pretty well.

The author left an afterword that went along the lines of her thinking that she wrote the essentials of what she wanted to write, the continuation will be about annihilating raised flags and that although this story was tagged as mystery it’s a little strict, so she’s going to write it as fantasy instead. …I think.

Hm, note that the next arc was rewritten, so the above might be a little outdated :>

Well, the next arc is called Imperial Court 1 and it is nineteen chapters long, but it should be around the same length as this arc since the chapters are a little longer…. There will be more characters too, so yay?

I’m gonna take a break before I start the following arc. Who would have thought that nearly one chapter per day is pretty tiring eh. See you guys some time next month. I’m thinking two weeks, but don’t hold me on that. I’m going to steamroll through the previous chapters first and fix up any mistakes and consistency issues. View it as a super delayed TLC and edit orz (I just went through the first few chapters. I forgot how much foreshadowing there was :>)

For the time being, you guys can amuse yourselves with google translate, if it may help with withdrawal symptoms… ;D The nonsensical adventures of Mr Mibu and Catcat, you know….

Thank you for reading. Thank you for putting up with my wonky grammar and iffy tls. I’ll work hard on fixing those.
Special thanks to everyone (esp. Sakuhime) who suggested edits, I really appreciated that <>

And, uh, I really enjoyed reading the comments. o/

*runs off to hibernate*

Oh yeah, ‘beloved consort’ is now ‘favoured consort’. I think that’s the right term for it. Oops.