You'd think they'd want a banquet to be relaxed and enjoyable, but that was never how the bigwigs operated.
In the center of the room stood a long table, with chairs lined up on either side and a larger table connected at the far end. At the back sat the Emperor, the Empress, Jinshi, and their guest the priestess.
All the rest were arranged symmetrically along the long table. The seating was the same as at the garden party before, and if there was any difference, it was that they now had chairs to sit on indoors.
Maomao stood against the wall with a look that said "I wish this would just end already." Looking around, she saw that the impressive role of food taster had been assigned to VIPs such as the Emperor, the priestess, and the Empresses.
(He doesn't really need one, though.)
Suppressing a scoff, Maomao watched the eccentric's back. He was of average build and height, slightly stoop-shouldered, and aside from his upswept eyes behind a monocle, he had no notable features—a thoroughly unremarkable man. This was the nation's military strategist.
Truth be told, the title of strategist was mostly in name only. His proper rank was apparently something like Grand Commandant, but Maomao had no idea what that entailed. Still, judging by where he was seated, he had to be quite high-ranking.
(If he wanted a food taster so badly, he shouldn't have shown up.)
The people around the eccentric strategist all wore the same expression. This hopeless old man would start pestering those around him whenever he had nothing to do, which was apparently quite a problem. No one complained about him skipping garden parties and other such
events
—because he was in the way even when he was there.
Sure enough, the eccentric apparently found himself with nothing to do and started talking to a military officer seated beside him.
Maomao watched through half-lidded eyes as she quietly tugged the cloth in her hand. The cloth was long and thin like a cord, with its end tied to the eccentric's ankle. Each time she tugged, the eccentric would flinch. He would turn around, look somewhat self-satisfied, and then straighten his back with a snap.
Having him look back at her each time was truly unpleasant, but there was nothing she could do. That penny-pinching
Raban
had added surveillance to her duties under the guise of assisting with the food tasting. Of course, she had no intention of complying, but she had been pressed by her old man and agreed on the promise of receiving some rare medicinal herbs from the trade goods. And so, rather than putting a bell on a cat, she had put a leash on the eccentric.
The people around them seemed to look at them a bit oddly, but since this eccentric was already regarded as strange to begin with, nobody said anything, so she paid it no mind.
A banquet didn't mean food was served right away—there were several proceedings first. Unlike the outdoor garden party, there were no elaborate sword dances or other entertainments, but the pleasant music playing was a nice touch. The slightly exotic feel—was that because she was imagining
the music
of Sha'ou?
Perhaps the strategist had no interest in music, because he pulled a Go manual from his robe and started reading, so she tugged the cord again. She really couldn't understand why the Emperor hadn't had this man hanged.
After some important-looking person delivered an important-sounding speech, the meal finally began. Standing behind Jinshi was
En'en,
who, under normal circumstances, would have been the old nursemaid.
Water Lily
She would have liked to attend, but most of the ladies-in-waiting were young. Even the spry old nursemaid would have read the room and deferred to En'en in a situation like this.
She seems to be climbing the ranks rather smoothly.
It didn't feel like someone else's problem, no matter how hard Maomao tried to see it that way. Still, En'en kept glancing sideways. The reason was that just as En'en had been assigned to Jinshi, Yao had been assigned to the shrine maiden of Sa'ou.
Yao
appeared nervous; her complexion was rather pale.
En'en, who had looked as hollow as a corpse that morning, seemed a bit livelier now. But she still didn't look free of her lady-in-waiting duties, casting pleading looks around as if to ask whether this would be over soon. She also seemed concerned about Yao's poor complexion.
In the end, Maomao found it amusing that despite their efforts to train palace ladies suited for medical work, they all ended up as tasters. After all, tasting was supposed to be a lowly job for expendable underlings. Yao seemed to be a fine young lady from a good family—hadn't her parents put a stop to it? Maomao felt a slight twinge of unease.
(I did teach her the basics of tasting, at least.)
That said, tasting was something where failure could happen no matter who did it. Whether it was a new poison or a slow-acting one…
(In the end, when you're going to die, you die.)
That was just how it was. But Maomao figured that if she was going to die anyway, she'd rather die from a novel poison. Was it too much to ask to at least identify what kind of toxin it was before breathing her last?
Well, while she was mulling over such thoughts, the meal was brought in.
As always, she wanted the tasting done quickly and without fuss.
Maomao received her small tasting plate and thought to herself as the eccentric strategist watched her eat with a lingering, unsettling gaze.
Once they started eating, the meal wrapped up briskly. After this there was supposed to be a banquet, and since Maomao couldn't tell the difference between a meal and a banquet, she could only sigh.
They were apparently moving to a different location with fewer people than before. Yao and En'en appeared to continue on with their duties, but as far as Maomao was concerned, her work was done. She left the room and was just about to toss away the strategist's string—not a cat bell this time—when…
There was a clattering sound. Turning to look, she saw a palace lady collapsed on the floor. It was Yao.
"My lady!"
En'en came rushing in. She hurried to lift Yao up, asking what had happened.
Maomao tossed aside the string and hurried over to the two of them. Yao was hunched over, and vomit was strewn across the floor.
The nearby palace ladies started clamoring, shrieking as if to say how rude it was to throw up in the presence of distinguished company. But that wasn't the problem.
"My lady, my lady!"
Maomao slapped En'en across the cheek as the girl shook Yao.
"Check her mouth for residue! If it's blocking her throat, she could suffocate!"
"...Yes."
En'en had been shaken, but when Maomao spoke, she thrust her fingers into Yao's mouth. She appeared to be breathing, but she was trembling and clutching her stomach. Her pupils were dilated.
(If Yao collapsed,)
What had happened to the shrine maiden? By the time Maomao looked over, people had already gathered around her. The woman who had been doing the poison testing alongside Yao was pale-faced and staggering, holding her mouth as she moved away. The shrine maiden, too, was being led off in another direction.
(The shrine maiden was poisoned.)
Maomao put her coat on the trembling Yao. En'en, her face completely white, kept saying "Miss, miss, miss" while racking her brain for what to do.
"Water, salt water, and then..."
When you didn't know what the poison was, the priority was simply to get the contents of the stomach out. Trying to force her to vomit, Maomao pulled En'en aside and stuck her fingers into Yao's mouth when an old man with a limp approached.
"Maomao. Let me take over."
It was the old man. He held a water pitcher and a bucket. He also had a cloth, which he gently draped over Yao's waist. With abdominal pain and vomiting, diarrhea was highly likely to follow as well. He had the forethought to place it so that if she had an accident, it wouldn't be too noticeable.
"You should prioritize the shrine maiden. Leave this to me."
With that, the old man picked up the rope Maomao had discarded and pulled on it.
The one who responded was the eccentric strategist who had been standing there blankly.
"Could you bring me some charcoal? If possible, crush it to a fine powder in a mortar. Also, prepare a room — a room where I can tend to this girl and the shrine maidens. You can do that, right, Rakhan?"
"Yeah. Uncle. I'll have it ready right away."
The one who answered was the eccentric strategist, but it was the subordinates nearby who actually sprang into action. They moved faster when the strategist relayed the orders than when the old man gave them directly.
"Old man, I'm counting on you for Yao."
That was all Maomao said before heading toward where the shrine maidens were.
The shrine maidens had been moved into a hastily prepared room.
The shrine maiden and the other poison tester kept vomiting. Maomao had to give them salt water and have them purge everything from their stomachs. Along with that, they also had to drink the powdered charcoal and a laxative. It tasted terrible, but it was necessary to empty their stomachs completely.
Since the old man couldn't examine the shrine maiden's condition, Maomao had no choice but to take full responsibility herself. She needed to expel everything from their stomachs and have their intestines emptied as well. If the laxatives didn't work, she would have had to insert a medicinal solution rectally to force a bowel movement, but fortunately the shrine maiden and the other poison tester both seemed rather averse to that, and the laxatives took effect properly, which was a relief.
These two seemed to have milder symptoms compared to Yao, and even with the poisoning symptoms, their consciousness remained clear.
As for Yao, her condition was quite serious, and En'en was tending to her without sparing a thought for her current master, Jinshi. Jinshi wasn't a monster, so he didn't try to drag her back.
However, just around the time the shrine maiden's condition had stabilized somewhat, the day after the banquet, he came to see Maomao. He was dressed more plainly than usual, but his characteristic sparkle hadn't dimmed one bit.
At his side was the returned
Bashan
was there.
Maomao hadn't changed out of the same clothes since yesterday and hadn't bathed either, but at this point, she didn't have the luxury to worry about such pleasantries.
"How is the shrine maiden's condition?"
"She's stable. Yao's symptoms aren't as severe as those of the girl who served as the taste-tester."
The court physician came to Maomao to report on Yao's condition in detail. Maomao, in turn, conveyed the shrine maiden's status to the physician with equal thoroughness. If anything went wrong, it would become an international incident. She couldn't let things deteriorate any further.
That was likely why Jinshi had come in person.
"You mentioned Yao, didn't you? The one who is En'en's mistress."
"You seem quite fond of En'en, but I'd ask that you send her back soon. She was in a terrible state without Yao around."
With everything going on, and then Yao ending up like that on top of it all, he must have been beside himself. Maomao had calmed down a little and spoke with a touch of humor.
"A colleague of yours is going through something like that, and you're not worried?"
"I'm not so cold-blooded as to feel no worry at all. However, my current job is to attend to the shrine maiden, and Yao has her adoptive father looking after her."
With the old man there, she trusted that he would manage somehow. En'en had some knowledge of medicine as well, so once things settled down, she could properly care for the patient—there was no need for Maomao to abandon her duties to rush over.
More importantly, if anything serious happened to the shrine maiden here, it would escalate into a national problem. That was the one thing she had to prevent.
"...By the way, have you found the person who poisoned the shrine maiden?"
Apparently, no one other than those connected to the shrine maiden had shown any symptoms of poisoning.
Even if the shrine maiden survived, the fact remained that her life had been targeted. If they didn't find and punish the culprit quickly, it would become the root cause of an unavoidable dispute.
Jinsji wore an inscrutable expression. Then he glanced at Bashan. Bashan, wearing a complicated look of his own, produced a cloth bundle from inside his robe. What emerged was a small bottle. When the lid was opened, powder was inside.
"This is..."
Maomao's nose twitched. It was a scent she had smelled somewhere before. And quite recently, at that...
"!"
Just as she instinctively reached for the bottle upon recognizing the smell, Bashan covered it with the cloth bundle.
"Seems like you know something."
"...Is this incense powder?"
"Yes."
Makko is a type of incense made from plants. Among its ingredients is
shikimi,
a plant that is highly toxic, causing symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea.
"I was told by the court physician that it's poisonous."
"Yes. The symptoms are very similar to those this time."
After ingestion, poisoning symptoms appear within several hours.
"About this incense..."
Jinshi looked at Maomao with a grave expression.
"
Lady Airin
had it."
(Just as I suspected...)
Before the banquet, Maomao had brought mosquito repellent to Lady Airin. It was the same scent she had smelled then.