Humans are creatures who live their lives using language as a means of communication. How inconvenient would it be if they couldn't use it?
Maomao and the others were experiencing this firsthand.
"Um... What's your name? What's your name?"
The one fumbling with words, trying to talk to the child, was Yao.
She was bent low, bringing herself down to the foreign girl's eye level. The girl kept her innocent expression and merely tilted her head. She said nothing. She appeared to be trying to make out what Yao was saying, so her hearing seemed to work, but she wouldn't speak at all.
(If she'd just say something, we might be able to figure out which country she's from.)
But she didn't utter a single word.
Yao had gotten herself into this and was now desperately trying to figure out the girl's identity, but her face was a picture of utter helplessness. She kept glancing over at Maomao and En'en every so often.
(She should just help her out.)
En'en, the servant, was quietly observing her mistress's actions.
Maomao had always thought of En'en as Yao's devoted servant, but she noticed something was a little off. En'en did care about Yao, and she performed her duties as a servant perfectly, but...
(Something's a little twisted...)
That was Maomao's assessment.
Like she found her mistress so cute she wanted to be a little mean to her, and yet also something else entirely.
In other words, En'en had been watching Yao's distressed face to her heart's content the whole time.
When Maomao decided things had gone on long enough and moved to intervene—worried she'd run out of time for her errands—En'en stepped forward first.
"Yao, I don't think your words are getting through in this language. Let me take over."
"En'en, please!"
Yao's face lit up with relief. She was grateful to En'en, but the real problem was that En'en had been enjoying herself this entire time, wiggling her rear with delight as she watched Yao's helpless expression.
(Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.)
Maomao narrowed her eyes at the pair.
Yan Yan asked for the name in a foreign language. When we say foreign language, there are several. The only one Maomao could manage even haltingly was the language of Saa-O. She could handle simple reading and writing in a western language even further to the west, but it was entirely self-taught, so she had no confidence in her pronunciation.
Yan Yan had said she only remembered about as much as Maomao did, so she addressed the girl slowly. But the girl, who had been tilting her head, suddenly opened her eyes wide and started hopping up and down. It seemed they had managed to communicate.
"She seems like a child from Saa-O."
Airin was blonde with blue eyes, but not all people from Saa-O had light hair and eyes.
Colors passed from parent to child were more easily inherited when they were darker, so naturally, most had black or brown hair and eyes.
"It worked? But her name..."
The girl wasn't speaking at all. She was just tapping her own throat and making a gesture with her hands.
"Could it be that she can't speak?"
When Maomao asked in the Saa-O language, "You can't speak?" the girl made a large circle with her hands.
"If she can't talk..."
Maomao picked up a fallen branch and wrote characters on the ground. Then she handed the branch to the foreign girl.
"Can you write your name?"
In response to Maomao's question, the girl shook her head. She started drawing something. It looked like a flower, but it was unclear what kind.
"It seems she can't write either."
"What do we do?"
"Shouldn't you be the one asking that?"
Maomao shot back at Yao's words. If anyone was to blame, it was Yao who had charged in without thinking. But perhaps despite appearances, she had quite a strong sense of justice.
Yao made an awkward face.
The girl kept drawing on the ground.
"What is this, I wonder?"
It looked like a vessel with a pattern on it.
"Could it be food?"
"What about it?"
The girl tapped her drawing with the branch.
"Could she be looking for this?"
When Yao spoke up, En'en asked the girl a question in broken words, and the girl drew a big circle. Then she showed her palm. A single tiny speck of gold dust sat on it.
"Wait, that's..."
Small, but it's gold.
Not something to show so casually — Maomao squeezed the girl's palm shut.
"She has money, so does this mean she wants to go shopping?"
"I believe that's not wrong."
She got En'en's agreement. Yao nodded in affirmation as well.
"But this doesn't tell us anything at all, does it?"
Maomao looked at the drawing and asked, "Is this the kind of vessel you want?"
The girl shook her head vigorously.
If only the drawing were a bit better, she might have figured it out.
(If it were at least as good as Chou U ) No, there was no point saying that. For her age, the drawing was actually pretty good.
"It looks like some kind of food, but are there any other clues?"
They were getting nowhere.
The girl was gazing toward the waterway. The children who had scattered earlier had begun playing by the water's edge. She thought they were fishing for something, and when she looked— crayfish.
They were catching crayfish. De-mud them and cook them up, and they tasted delicious.
But the girl didn't seem to be after the crayfish — she shook her head as if to say, "Not that."
"Well, there's no helping it. Shall we head back for now? The medical officers should be able to speak more fluently."
"Yes."
Yao, having thrown up his hands in defeat, readily agreed.
"Hey, let's go together."
Yao took his daughter by the hand. The girl tilted her head, so Maomao explained that they were going to take her somewhere to find someone who could better understand what she was trying to say.
But the child shook her head. She seemed to want to tell them something, but since she wouldn't speak, they couldn't understand. She just kept drawing pictures on the ground.
"Could this be... a steamed bun?"
"If you say steamed bun, then I suppose so."
It was hard to tell from just an ellipse drawn on the ground. As Maomao and the others tilted their heads in puzzlement, the girl tilted hers in return, as if asking, "You still don't get it?"
"Is this a fruit?"
"Could it be...
an apple?
Is that what you mean?"
Just as Yao said, it was a round shape with a stem and leaves sticking out of it. Looking at the other drawings, they could well be fruits or sweets. If so, then the earlier drawing of a vessel must be a dish full of snacks.
"Could it be..."
"You want snacks?
Is that what you're after?"
At Enen's question, the girl waved her arms wide. That seemed to be the right answer.
Maomao unfolded the bundle she was carrying and showed the sweets they had bought earlier.
"Not these?"
Yao and Enen also opened their bundles and held out their sweets, but the girl shook her head at every one.
"I'm pretty sure we've got most of the varieties..."
Baked sweets, steamed sweets, sweet things, spicy things—her demands were quite extensive.
"The only ones left are from the next shop."
As Maomao said this while pointing toward the shop, the girl bounced up with a little leap.
"Huh?"
First, though I don't really understand, I tell her there's a shop that sells sweets nearby. At that, she bounces up even higher with delight.
"Are you saying you'll take me there?"
Apparently so.
She must want something from the shop.
Maomao and the others cross the waterway and head toward the shop. Amid the residential houses stands a single signboard. The place looks shut up and gloomy from the outside.
The girl can't read, despite there being a signboard. That must be why she didn't know where it was.
"This is a sweets shop?"
Yao eyes the place with deep suspicion.
"It's a rather... unique shop."
I open the shop door with a creak, and there are customers inside. In the dim interior, the stout shopkeeper has a guest. The guest appears to be a woman, but she's remarkably tall. Her skin is also a shade on the darker side.
(A foreigner?)
"Jazguru!"
The woman calls out in an unfamiliar word.
Before I can even tilt my head in puzzlement, the foreign girl dashes out.
"There you are! Where did you go off to?"
She speaks in a foreign tongue. "Jazguru" seems to be the girl's name.
"So, um, you're her guardian?"
"Judging by the situation, I'd say so."
I let my shoulders slump, wondering what on earth all the fuss just now had been about.
Jazguru gestures toward Maomao and the others, trying to explain something to the woman.
"C-Could it be that you brought Jazguru all the way here?"
Her accent is thick, but the words are perfectly understandable.
"She was just by the waterway nearby. She seemed to want some sweets..."
Yao answers on our behalf.
In other words, the girl's companion had been at the sweets shop, but they got separated and she lost track of where the shop was. I can't believe it was this close all along.
"Excuse me. This one absolutely insists on coming here."
The woman explains. The shopkeeper, in the meantime, seems to be looking for the ordered item, rummaging through shelves noisily.
"Oh, this shop..."
Enen nods in understanding upon seeing the package bearing the shop's mark. The paper is crude, but it serves well enough as wrapping.
"What is it?"
"Oh, I just realized this is a shop that does business with our estate."
Maomao looked at the products sold in the shop and understood. They weren't fresh goods, but mostly dried ones.
"Here you go—this is all we have in stock right now, but will it do?"
"Huh?!"
Yao cried out in surprise at what the shopkeeper brought over with a thud.
It was a bundle of dried frogs. Frogs that had been stretched out and dried.
Perhaps her reaction in the waterway when they were catching crayfish was because she thought they were catching frogs. That’s why she’d been disappointed.
(Though the species is different.)
These were high-quality frogs used in fancy confections, so they were quite different from the ones found just anywhere.
(Frogs...)
Maomao recalled some nondescript thing from the back of her memory that was vaguely frog-like, and shook her head.
"What... what are they used for?"
(Probably for a chilled summer dessert.)
The fat from the reproductive organs of a female frog found only in certain regions was jiggly and delicious. She should have known this very well.
(It’s better not to know.)
That was that.
"Hey, is it true that foreigners eat snakes and frogs?"
Yao whispered furtively to Enen. Enen answered, "Yes, it is," but his tone was distinctly forced.
However, seeing what the foreign guests were buying up right now, Maomao felt troubled.
"Um..."
Dried frogs aside, they were buying up dried sun-reflecting fruit and pomegranates pickled in rock sugar.
"Could you possibly set aside just a little of the sun-reflecting fruit for us?"
"I'm sorry. How much do you need?"
When Maomao told her the quantity, the shopkeeper cheerfully agreed.
"If it's sun-reflecting fruit, they're in season right now and we have fresh ones, so we can prepare them anytime. Pomegranates will take a little longer, though."
"Thank you so much."
The woman politely thanked the shopkeeper. Jazguru mimicked her and bowed as well.
Maomao looked at what the woman had been buying and narrowed her eyes.
She was curious, but— It would be a rather intrusive question, and more importantly, she wasn't sure they could communicate well enough, so she held her tongue.
The woman wrapped her purchases in cloth and stood before Maomao and the others.
"This isn't much, but..."
What the woman held out was white cloth. She gave one piece to each of them.
"You've been kind to Jazguru, so..."
With that, the foreign guests left the shop. When Maomao touched the cloth, she panicked.
"Wait!"
"Your order is ready!"
Maomao tried to chase after them, but the shopkeeper called her back. She received the items she had been sent to buy, and when she stepped outside the shop, the foreign pair had already vanished.
"What's wrong?"
"It's about this..."
Maomao held up the white cloth she had received, letting it flutter. It appeared plain, but in one corner there was fine embroidery of leaves and flowers.
"Judging by the cool touch, it's silk."
"Yes, it's silk, but what about it?"
Maomao spread both hands wide and shook her head at the young lady who had blurted it out so casually.
"Miss Yao. Giving away silk goods as payment for merely bringing back a lost child is rather extravagant, generally speaking."
"That's... that's right! I thought so too!"
Yes, Yao's charm was gradually becoming understandable. En'en gave a firm thumbs-up where Yao couldn't see.
That was just like their bulk buying at the store — the sort of people who hand out luxury items like they're nothing.
(They're quite wealthy.)
She let out a sigh, thinking she should have laid it on a bit thicker with Yao.
"Perhaps it's some sort of gynecological condition?"
"They were buying nothing but those kinds of ingredients, weren't they."
En'en had apparently been thinking the same thing.
Yao alone seemed not to have caught on, and she looked at Maomao and En'en with a slightly sour expression.
Just then, a bell rang out to announce the time.
"I-it's time!"
Realizing it was time to head back, the three of them were once again forced into an all-out sprint.