After finishing several house calls to the priestesses, the atmosphere on the streets as seen from the carriage was as lively as the New Year.
"It might be faster to walk back."
Yao
said that. Maomao knew her father had bad legs, so she kept quiet.
Her father wore an awkward smile.
"Sorry about that. My legs can't quite handle the distance."
He looked like he wanted to say it was a mistake, but it was already too late. Being their father, it was excusable, but with any other important person, he might have spoiled their mood.
The visits' purpose was unclear, but they did seem useful in some ways. Unfortunately, what proved helpful wasn't the medicines Maomao had prepared, but lifestyle advice to drink more water.
In this land, where water was precious,
Saoo,
people didn't have the habit of drinking frequently, and as priestesses, they couldn't easily slip away to use the restroom, so they drank even less than usual. When they slightly increased their water intake, they were delighted to find their headaches had decreased.
One also reported in broken language that she was happy to be able to take walks.
Shiroko,
being what she was, could only go outside at night. But compared to Saoo,
Ri
had weaker sunlight and more rainy days. She said she went for walks outside with an umbrella even when the weather was bad.
(She's really blossoming.)
You'd almost suspect
sightseeing
was why she came to Ri.
Of course, they weren't free all day—visitors came from time to time. As anyone of importance would know, some people came with the excuse of wanting a reading.
Just as Lady Bai had been popular, the foreign shiroko priestess was also captivating.
"Today's visitor seemed to want a fortune reading,"
Maomao said, the thought suddenly occurring to her.
"Considering her position as a shrine maiden, divination is probably part of the job, but it might be a bit disrespectful. After all, she is a dignitary from another country."
Everyone nodded at the old man's words.
To add to that, she was ostensibly there for rest and recuperation. There was no sense of concern on anyone's part, but the troublesome thing was that most people were simply like that.
"They say her divinations come true, but I'm not sure relying on them is wise. Deciding someone's future based on divination without any clear reasoning — I don't think that's a good idea."
That was precisely what bothered Maomao. Divination had no basis. If it did, the only explanation would be that the shrine maiden possessed mind-reading abilities.
"Maomao always wants to know for certain whether something is real or not."
"You don't like divination?"
Yao interjected.
"Doesn't it creep you out?"
She knew that not everything in the world had a clear-cut answer. However, Maomao believed that even things that seemed mysterious in this world had some sort of basis — it was simply a matter of lacking the knowledge or information to find it.
"Burning turtle shells to decide on relocating the capital — how does that sound?"
"No, that actually makes a surprising amount of sense."
The old man countered.
"By using the animals of a particular region, you can determine their nutritional condition at that time. In other words, you can learn how rich the land is. When people truly believe, performing grand rituals in the name of divination, calling upon gods and immortals — that's how it's done. That might well be the beginning of governance."
(Makes sense.)
The old man's reasoning was convincing. Yao listened with keen interest.
"The troublesome thing is, even if something once had meaning, when nobody understands why it was done in the first place, only the form remains. That sort of thing is the biggest headache."
The old man made a sorrowful face.
"Once, I visited a village where, during a poor harvest, they would bury babies born that year alive as human sacrifices. Burying the sacrifices didn't end the poor harvests, so they kept burying more and more new ones. By the time there were no more villagers left to sacrifice, I happened to be passing through on my journey."
(Ah, I can see where this is going.)
Knowing the old man's tendency to attract misfortune, it was easy to predict how the story would go from here.
"When they wrapped me in rope and dropped me into the hole, I truly thought I was going to die. If the companions who came after hadn't noticed, I'd still be underground to this day."
"..."
Yao was speechless. The old man recounted rather heavy tales from his past in a mild, unhurried tone. He was a wise man, but he had grown somewhat numb to his own misfortunes.
"You might think human sacrifices are foolish, but in the old days, there were times when it actually worked. In that village, continuous cropping was practiced as a matter of course. They added fertilizer, but there were certain nutrients that were always lacking. And those nutrients happened to be something found in the human body."
Of course, by that logic, the practice would be meaningless outside of issues caused by continuous cropping. The village the old man had passed through was suffering crop failure due to an insect-borne disease, so sacrifices would have done nothing.
"There are times when people do things based on gut feeling even if they don't understand the reasoning. The origin of human sacrifices was probably something as simple as crops accidentally thriving around the spots where bodies were buried via shallow burial. But over time, gods were added to the story, and the whole thing became sacred. The word 'gods' is awfully convenient."
The priestess of the sandou may well have undergone that same process of being made sacred.
As they talked, they arrived at the medical office. Maomao supported the limping old man as they climbed down from the carriage. They would have to write up reports again now.
But the medical office was noisy.
When she wondered what was going on—
"You're finally back."
The medical officer approached with a troubled look on his face.
"What's the matter?"
"What do you mean, 'what's the matter'? Who would've thought you two would show up while I wasn't here? I told them you were gone, but they said they'd wait until you got back, and that's caused quite the headache."
The way he put it limited the possibilities considerably.
Maomao exchanged a look with the old man.
"Well, no helping it."
The old man entered the medical office first. Inside, as you might imagine, was the oddball with the monocle. The eccentric strategist was lying on a sofa he had procured from who knows where.
"Uncle! You took forever!"
"Hey now,
Rakan
. Don't just bring other people's furniture in here without permission. And look—wrap those snack wrappers in the trash can properly. And if you drink nothing but fruit water and get cavities, don't come crying to me."
Hunched over as he began picking up the wrappers, the old man cut quite the—how to put it.
"L-like a grandmother."
That was Yao's assessment, having been raised by a wet nurse, but the others probably had similar thoughts.
Since the old man had already started diligently tidying up, the eccentric's subordinates and the medical apprentices hurriedly began picking up trash as well. Ordinarily, Maomao should have joined in to help, but if she got too close he would likely start nagging her again, and more to the point, she simply didn't want to help. So she observed from behind a pillar.
"Uncle! Maomao! Maomao's nearby, I can tell!"
The eccentric sniffed the air.
"Disgusting…"
Maomao couldn't help letting it slip out.
"Maomao, your face—seriously, you've got to stop making that face. You're starting to bring me down too."
Yao told her off like that, so Maomao pressed her fingertips against the corners of her twisted mouth and the furrow between her brows, kneading them back into place, though her face still twitched.
"Maomao! Bring out Maomao!"
"What's the matter, now? I told you if you caused a ruckus, they'd put extra carrots in tonight's dinner. We're having carrot porridge today."
Between that "just like Granny" behavior from earlier and this line, a few people were doubled over in utter defeat. The rest looked uncertain about what to do.
"The porridge would be better with egg, Uncle. No, more importantly—Maomao! I came here today with a perfectly good reason!"
"You dragged a long chair in here, sprawled out on it, and scattered sweets everywhere. I'd say there's already something wrong with you."
The old man spoke as he opened a drawer in the infirmary. He pulled out a packet of interdental toothpicks and handed them to the eccentric tactician. It was his way of telling him to clean his teeth.
"I'll hear what you have to say first. You lose all sense of judgment when it comes to Maomao. If it's something I can actually accept, I'll pass the message along."
The eccentric tactician nodded away, chewing on a toothpick.
The old man should be fine handling this. Maomao picked up the basket of used bandages that had been set out in the hallway. She figured the conversation would be over by the time she finished washing them.
She had just finished washing the bandages and was about to hang them up when she was called back—about half an hour had passed, perhaps. The old man came to Maomao looking exhausted.
"So, what did he actually want?"
It was Yao who asked, not Maomao. She did seem to have her fair share of curiosity for her age.
"Well, it was quite the unexpected proposal, actually."
"What sort of proposal?"
"There's a coming-of-age ceremony for the Crown Prince coming up soon, and he wants Maomao to do the tasting for the banquet meal."
(Does he even have the slightest intention of attending?)
According to Raham, the eccentric tactician regularly skipped garden parties and gatherings. He had even skipped out on the garden party where Maomao had done the food tasting before.
"Why of all people…"
She could tell he had definitely earned her grudge. But the fact that he'd specifically request Maomao by name was genuinely surprising. You'd think he'd say something like "absolutely not, I'm not drinking poison" based on past experience.
"If he were asking me to become a lady-in-waiting, that would be one thing, but a food taster is harder to refuse. What do you think?"
"What do you mean, what do I think?"
When the old man said "hard to refuse," he meant it was practically impossible. He was a pushover no matter what. Not that it mattered, but from that exchange just now, the old man's new nickname was "
"Mom"
became his new nickname. It really didn't matter one bit.
"May I ask a question?"
The one who gently raised her hand was Yao. The old man nodded go-ahead.
"Weren't Maomao and I supposed to be seated with the shrine maiden at the dinner?"
"That's right. But the directive only covered one of you."
Whether it would be Maomao or Yao was still undetermined. Given that she was a foreign dignitary with plenty of attendants and guards surrounding her, just being able to sit together at all was already a fortunate outcome.
"Then, Maomao, you go. It'll be fine as long as I'm there."
Yao said it plainly.
"W-wait a moment. Don't I get a say in this?"
"You were specifically named, so you should accept. Besides, what if having you lurking near the shrine maiden forces the strategist to end up hovering around awkwardly?"
Maomao couldn't say a word.
The old man was silent too.
In this country, imperious behavior was taken for granted, but doing it in front of a foreign shrine maiden would be problematic. It was such a strange situation that even a castrated man wasn't allowed to touch her.
"Maomao..."
The old man patted Maomao on the shoulder.
"Leave the shrine maiden to me."
Yao patted her shoulder too.
"W-wait a moment."
Maomao looked at the two of them while waving both hands frantically.
"Maomao, sorry, but you probably can't refuse this. When you think about the shrine maiden situation, you really ought to side with Rakan on this one. It could turn into an international incident, you know."
"N-no, old man, at least try harder!"
"Can't be done."
Being told that so bluntly, Maomao was patted on the shoulder once more.