Maomao
studied the young girl's hair carefully. The roots were light-colored, but the tips were dark. There wasn't any special ointment for congested hair follicles, but she could at least wipe the sniffling girl's face.
(Don't speak ill of Grandfather.)
To Maomao,
Gyokuō
was nothing more than a good-for-nothing man, but to his own family, he must have seemed different. Since he had generally shown a kind face to the people of the Western Capital, perhaps he had been soft on his grandchildren.
"Here, it's goat's milk with honey mixed in. Want to drink some?"
The quack doctor held out a tea cup to the young girl. Her leg injury had healed, but she still occasionally limped as if to protect it.
(Goat's milk, I can forgive. But honey, absolutely not.)
He must have mixed in a generous helping of the precious sweetener. The young girl drank the goat's milk with evident relish.
The quack doctor was about to add honey to his own portion as well, so Maomao quickly stopped him.
"No good?"
"No."
There was almost no honey left in the jar. A little remained at the bottom, and the rest had turned into crystallized chunks stuck to the sides.
Beekeeping wasn't particularly widespread in Seisei Province, so honey was expensive.
(Sugar's expensive too, I suppose.)
No wonder sweet potatoes had become so popular. If they could make syrup from sweet potatoes or wheat, demand would likely be high, but there was no room for such things right now. Both fuel and raw materials would be needed in large quantities.
Sparrow kept staring at the honey jar, so Maomao reluctantly scooped out the crystallized bits with a spoon.
"Just a little, okay?"
"Okay~!"
Maomao found herself wondering whether this woman was truly someone's mother.
She was putting the honey jar away at the back of the shelf when loud, noisy footsteps approached the medical office.
"
Xiao Hong
!"
A woman in her mid-twenties came in, holding the young girl in her arms.
"I've brought the mother."
Li Bai
looked at the woman. Since she was called Xiao Hong, her name was probably
Hongniang
— or something like that. She suddenly thought of
Gyokuyou's
head maid.
(The mother of Yuuka's grandchild — so she's Yuuka's daughter?)
Maomao tried to sort out the complicated family tree in her head. The Yu household had far too many relatives, and she got confused every time.
"Thank you ever so much for saving my daughter."
"I wouldn't call it saving, exactly."
Honestly, even if an adult had temporarily stopped that brat, she would just go right back to bullying someone when no one was watching.
Unless her very foundations were torn down and rebuilt, there was no telling what kind of adult she would become. But Maomao was not in a position to intervene that far.
(Speaking of intervening...)
Maomao watched the sparrow carefully licking its honey granules. The sparrow had seemed like it would simply observe the children's quarrel from the sidelines, but it moved before Maomao did.
"Sparrow, I'm sorry for butting in halfway through."
Maomao quietly apologized for having inserted herself from the side. It would have been more natural if the sparrow had scolded the child on its own.
"Not at all — having you step out into the open, Maomao, worked out much better."
(And what exactly were you doing behind the scenes?)
Maomao nearly said something aloud, but held her tongue.
So it was rare for the sparrow, who normally worked behind the scenes, to firmly stop a child's behavior right out in the open.
"Once again, I must apologize — my daughter caused you a great deal of trouble."
The woman bowed her head politely. Her features suggested she had originally been strong-willed, but months of living through the aftermath of the disaster had left her looking strangely haggard.
「I came today to discuss my father's inheritance, but while I let my guard down, this happened."
"Not to be nosy, but is she always like that?"
"...No. I've always been careful to make sure she isn't."
The mother strokes her daughter Xiaohong's head.
Xiaohong's hair is black at the tips but lighter at the roots.
"It looks like you've been dyeing your hair."
The length of the lighter roots made it clear she hadn't dyed it in months.
The locust plague must have made supplies scarce, leaving her unable to continue.
"Yes. Father — Gyokuei despised foreign blood. He said the foreigners would one day threaten the western capital, and told me to keep watch so we wouldn't be overrun."
"So Lord Gyokuen held quite a different opinion, it seems."
"Yes, but I — we took Father's teachings as absolute. I even twisted them on my own to mean that those with foreign blood deserved to be oppressed."
"...You did the same to Consort Gyokuyou?"
"..."
The mother's silence was an admission of guilt.
Perhaps not wanting her daughter to hear, she cupped the girl's ears as if covering her whole head. The words "what goes around comes around" must be cutting deep right about now.
Consort Gyokuyou was younger, but she was the mother's aunt by marriage.
Maomao had only guessed, but it struck far deeper than she'd expected.
The woman herself seemed to be reflecting on her past behavior, so Maomao had no right to say anything more.
"Your daughter doesn't appear to have any external injuries. The hair roots seem damaged, though, so please be gentle when you wash her hair."
That was all Maomao said. The mother and daughter slowly bowed and left the infirmary.
Once the pair had completely disappeared from the window, Maomao let out a long breath.
"Lord Gyokuei's inheritance must be quite substantial."
Suzaku said while clearing away the tea she had served the mother and daughter.
"Inheritance, yes, but she's only a daughter."
Depending on the region, a woman's position was weak. Being given a seat at the table was already more than fair — and even if she were an only daughter, that would be one thing, but with three brothers, just how much would she stand to receive?
While she'd been mulling over all the fuss elsewhere, Maomao's drunkenness had apparently worn off. The strange throbbing in her head, the queasy churning in her chest, the nausea like her stomach was being wrung out — all of it was gone. She wished she could have recorded the details more carefully, but there was nothing to be done about that now. She picked up her brush.
"I feel like I'm forgetting something."
Suzume was pecking at the quack doctor, trying to tempt him to eat a bit more honey.
"Come to think of it..."
Scratching her head with the handle of her brush, Maomao thought it over.
"The young ladies came back from their outing, but shouldn't someone go give a report?"
The quack doctor asked in his easygoing manner.
"Ah!"
Maomao, Suzume, and Li Bai's voices overlapped at once.
Completely
Jinshi
they had forgotten to report to him.