(Aaah, this is definitely the harder side.)
Maomao observed the state of the Western Capital as though it were someone else's problem.
Locusts still clung to the roadsides and walls of buildings. She thought she could make out dark clusters here and there, but it was best not to look too closely.
The total number of locusts was probably not as great as in the rural villages. But there were hardly any people around.
She could see stalls gnawed to shreds and fruits, half-eaten, rolling along the ground.
(City folk really don't like bugs.)
The people's attitude toward a locust swarm would have been quite different from the countryside, yet very few were out and about.
"What was the state of the chaos?"
Maomao directed the question at Li Bai, who sat on the driver's bench.
Rikuson, it seemed, would remain for a few more days. It might have been a relief for the village, and Maomao did find it strange that he didn't need to return at least once during this crisis, but apparently that was the instruction he'd received.
"Pandemonium. It was raining down like hail."
"Did no one warn them that the locust plague was coming?"
Since word had reached Maomao, it wouldn't have been strange for Jinshi to have taken some countermeasure.
But— "This is the Western Capital. Everything has to go through the proper channels, you know."
"...That's true."
Jinshi couldn't very well raise his voice and shout. Unlike Maomao, he was a man of station.
"Still, it doesn't look like nothing's been done."
In the center of the square, they were running what looked like a soup kitchen. It had only been a few days since the locusts struck, though it felt much longer. Not every household would have reserves.
(The poorer the household, the more they lived day to day.)
Earning money from day labor just to buy a meal was not uncommon.
Restaurants were dotted here and there, but with this commotion, the supply lines had ground to a halt. It didn't look like they could put out much in the way of decent food.
The smell of porridge from the relief kitchen drifted over. And then, a thought suddenly came to mind.
( Rahan's brother) Sweet potatoes That was the smell of sweet potatoes. Most likely the large shipment that had been brought by boat along with Maomao and the others. They were now being cooked and filling the bellies of the starving citizens of the Western Capital.
"We've lost a truly wonderful person."
Sparrow had tears welling up in her eyes.
He was dead now.
"Well, if the stuff he brought along ended up being useful, then that's a good thing, isn't it? The potato brother ought to be happy about it too."
Li Bai spoke in a way that made it impossible to tell whether he was talking about a living person or a dead one.
The carriage arrived at the villa. Whether they heard the horses whinnying or not, a crowd had gathered at the entrance. When she looked to see who it was, the quack doctor and Ten'yu were there.
"Missyyyy!"
A slightly haggard-looking little man came running over. Before he could crash into Maomao, Li Bai grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. The small man flailed about.
"Medicine official, are you all right?"
Maomao bowed her head to the quack doctor. The quack doctor had been set down by Li Bai.
"You're okay, right, miss? Even if they said it was a safe place, it must've been scary, right? I was terrified. What was that about? I thought it was the end of the world!"
"The medicine official would even faint at a cockroach, you know."
There had been several times Maomao came across him during cleaning and found him completely white as a sheet. The quack doctor was every bit that much of a coward.
"Only that lady is the one being sly, don't you think? Yeah, that's right. That's fine."
Connections "That's right, you see—"
Ten'yū was as unpleasant as always, but it was unclear how much of Jinshi's reasoning he actually knew about.
"Shouldn't the medical office be left empty?"
Maomao offered her honest opinion.
"Hmm, we're not all that busy. Maybe it's because you're assigned to Lady Tsuki. Officer Yang and the others seem to be swamped, though."
(Busy because she's assigned to Jinshi?)
Something felt off about that.
"Oh, right, right, young lady. Lord Rakan was really worried about you, you know."
"I see."
Not exactly useful information.
"He told me you seem to like sweets, so you should bring him some candied sweet potato and go pay him a visit once."
She'd rather ignore it, but he'd probably show up on his own anyway.
"Hey now, young lady—you're hurt! What happened to your hand?"
"Oh, it's fine. I was making an insecticide, and this is from an experiment."
"An experiment? Are you some kind of insect?"
The quack doctor tilted his head in puzzlement.
"If a cat can kill them, insects should be a walk in the park, right?"
Ten'yū chimed in with a quip.
"All right, all right, you two. Could you maybe wrap up your little chat?"
Suzume stepped in between them.
"Well, there are a few things I'd like to report."
"Report?"
"About the insecticide."
"Oh, is that so? My apologies, then."
The quack doctor stepped aside to make way. Tianyou had only come to tease, so he didn’t seem to intend to get in the way.
Yujuan ’s estate was needlessly vast, but Jinshi’s room was located at the very back of it. You could tell he was being respected as a guest, but honestly, it was far away.
"Yes, your outfits are in order. It's fine."
Sparrow checked the clothing of Maomao and Rakan. Maomao gently smoothed down a tuft of Sparrow’s hair that was sticking up.
"Excuse m—"
The moment they entered, there was a clatter.
Jinshi was sitting in a posture that had, somewhat, collapsed.
As usual, Suiren and Toumi were on standby, and Mashen stood there with a sour face.
"I have returned."
While considering whether to leave the report to Rakan, the latter stepped back, so Maomao spoke the first word.
"Welcome back."
Looking at the faces assembled in the room, she wondered how she should address them. For now, a greeting directed at Moon Princess should suffice.
"Well, how did it go?"
Even if asked how, she decided to first report the story she’d heard from Sparrow.
"The damage to the crops is severe, but it wasn’t catastrophic. If we’re talking about the wheat itself, I believe about 70 percent of the usual harvest yield has survived."
"So, Rahan-brother’s report was useful after all."
(He’s still called Rahan-brother officially, huh?)
Jinshi probably didn’t know his real name yet either. If he never came back, she idly wondered what to write on his tombstone.
"I sent runners to the other villages as well, but no matter how you look at it, the crops have fallen below half. And for the areas where the runners haven’t returned yet, it’s probably even worse."
No matter how hard Rahan-brother tried, it was too late. Well, maybe he’d managed to salvage a little, but from the outside, the only impression left would be that "those above did nothing."
"Li Bai. How many personnel would you need to send to each village?"
"I'd say at least ten, minimum. There's the matter of disposing of the insects, rebuilding houses, but the most dangerous thing would be—"
"Rioters? Or bandits?"
"Both."
When disaster strikes, people's lives fall into chaos. When lives fall into chaos, hearts turn wild. Wild hearts drive people to theft and violence.
Sparrow had been hoping Jinshi would ask her opinion too, bouncing her hair up and down with anticipation, but her chance never came.
"Understood. Li Bai, you've worked hard. You may return to your post."
"Yes, sir."
As Li Bai withdrew from the room, Maomao moved to follow, but Shuisen stepped into the doorway in an instant.
"What is it?"
"Hehe. Stay a while longer, won't you?"
There was nothing to do but obey and turn back around.
The Jinshi sitting before her had the mask of the Moon Princess slipping once more.
"Is your head all right?"
It seemed Ma Shun had reported that Maomao had been struck by hail and lost consciousness.
"I don't know. There are cases where people collapse days later."
Head injuries could be without external wounds, yet still involve internal bleeding that led to death.
"Then stay put and behave!"
"No. Even if I stay put, I'll collapse when I collapse. And the only person who can treat it is my foster father, more or less."
Doctor Liu might be able to handle it, but he wasn't in the western capital.
"Then I'd like to do what I can while I'm able."
"Then what is that on your right hand?"
He had apparently noticed the bandage on her arm.
"...It's from an experiment."
"I thought you didn't use your dominant hand for experiments?"
Jinshi gave her a moist, fixed stare. It was the opposite of his usual manner.
"Hmph. Well, fine. More importantly... I'm glad you're safe."
(Oh.)
She thought Tsukimi had completely become Jinshi. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists. There was something childish about it, a very human vulnerability seeping through.
"You must be tired. Go back to your room and rest."
These were welcome words for Maomao. Suzume raised her hand in joy as well, then caught the elder's gaze and stopped.
Maomao wanted to return to her room, but there was one thing she wanted to confirm first.
"Jinshi... aren't you going to do anything?"
It might have sounded rude. But the Jinshi who had spent so much time devising countermeasures against the locust plague could not possibly be relaxing leisurely in a guest room right now.
"In the midst of this unprecedented crisis, aren't there still many things you should be doing, many things you could be doing?"
It seemed her meaning had gotten through to him.
"That's because, as you can see, I am a guest. That's why I prepared provisions as a gift."
Porridge sweetened with sweet potatoes — the same kind that had been distributed in the marketplace.
"It seems they're making good use of it."
"Making use of it, you say?"
The food he had prepared had already been handed over to Saiete. And distributing it was the prerogative of Saiete's lord. In other words, to the residents, the benefactor was whoever had handed it out.
(That's outright credit theft.)
In other words, all the credit had been snatched away by Gyokuyō.
"I understand why you let me go freely. It seems you had a pretty good read on my behavior and personality."
Despite his appearance, Jinshi was an earnest character. He thought about the good of the country without regard to factional politics.
If he could be used properly, he would prove extremely useful.
And then, conveniently, the locust plague had struck.
"It was already anticipated. The fact that my strategist has stepped forward to take the lead is at least something of an improvement."
"B-But"
As for that matter, there were people more upset about it than Maomao. Maosen kept his grim expression, and neither Suiren nor Tomei looked happy.
"The reason I was summoned to the Western Capital this time was exactly that. Apparently, they want me around as a supporting act."
The lord of the Western Capital, Gyokou, actually intended to make the Imperial Brother a supporting character.
(So she wants to play the hero, huh?)
So that was it—Maomao clenched her fist.