Maomao pondered what to do about this unreasonable request to examine a patient without so much as touching her.
"So how far am I allowed to go?"
"?"
The foreign young lady tilted her head, seemingly unable to understand Maomao's words. The middle-aged woman attending her leaned in and whispered.
"She says as long as you keep a distance of about two feet, you may examine her."
(About two feet? You've got to be kidding.)
There was no way she could do a proper examination like that.
"Then how much of her clothing would she be willing to remove?"
It was probably futile, but she asked anyway.
"She says it would be fine as long as she keeps her undergarments on, provided the gentlemen leave the room."
(Huh?)
Maomao was taken aback by how readily she agreed to that part.
However, when there was a language barrier, taking a thorough medical history was going to be difficult.
(Is it a throbbing pain, a pounding ache, or something sharp and stabbing?)
She was absolutely confident that her questions would never get across no matter what she asked.
With no other choice, Maomao decided to relay her questions through the attending woman.
"Well then, let me ask about her condition."
Beside Maomao, Suzume held writing tools, putting on the air of a capable woman,
preparing to take
notes.
"When did the pain first start?"
"She says it began about ten days ago. She had apparently been feeling unwell before that, but she had overlooked the toll the past few months had taken on her body."
The middle-aged woman relayed this with a deeply apologetic expression.
"What kind of pain is it?"
"It seems there is a dull pain. Sometimes it becomes so sharp that she has to curl up."
If the pain were severe enough to make her curl up, wouldn't that be a more serious problem?
However, something nags at Maomao.
"In the past few months, has there been any lack of exercise?"
"No... When it comes to exercise, it's been excessive, if anything."
She looked at the young lady with a slight sense of exasperation. She was behaving herself on the bed now, but she sounded like quite the handful normally.
"How is your appetite?"
"My appetite? Actually, about two months ago, my food intake decreased. I thought it was due to the unfamiliar environment as well."
"So, did the extreme decrease in food happen along with the headaches?"
"Yes."
(Ah, I see.)
Not wanting to be touched, not wanting to be examined closely, but being fine with taking off clothes. She felt she now understood the reason.
However, it was still too early to be certain.
"Suzume."
"Yes, yes, what is it, Maomao-san?"
"Could you prepare these for me?"
Maomao fluidly wrote down the necessary items with a pen.
"Understood."
Suzume bowed her head and left the room.
"I will prepare the medicine, so please wait a moment."
"Um, did you figure it out just from that?"
They hadn't even done a physical exam, let alone asked her to undress. The lady-in-waiting looked at Maomao with mixed feelings of doubt and belief, suspecting she was just guessing.
"Judging whether the medicine works or not can also help diagnose the condition. Or, is even administering medication not permitted?"
"No. That is not the case."
"Are there any foods that do not agree with the young lady?"
"There don't seem to be any particular problems. As for the medicine, I believe it should be fine as long as it's not extremely bitter."
Just as Maomao was thinking there would be no issue, Suzume returned briskly.
"Here it is."
Suzume brought back a refreshing-looking glass vessel. It carried the scent of citrus and sweet honey, with condensation beading on the outside.
Maomao poured some of the drink from the vessel into another cup and tasted it.
"Just to be safe, I'll taste-test it for poison."
"May I try some as well?"
She transferred a portion into another cup and handed it to the attendant lady.
"This is the medicine? It's surprisingly delicious!"
"Yes. I would like the young lady to drink it all at once, if possible."
"Understood."
The attendant lady carried the glass vessel over to the young lady. The young lady blinked her eyes apprehensively, then hesitantly drank.
"…What's the matter? Please drink it all at once."
The young lady had gone still. Her face was terribly contorted.
The attendant lady was saying something to the young lady, but her voice was too quiet to hear.
But Maomao understood something from this.
"I cannot touch her or even approach her, but you, as her attendant, should be able to, yes? Inside the young lady's mouth — I believe it's likely one of her back teeth. Please check."
The attendant lady tried to look inside the young lady's mouth, but the young lady stubbornly refused to open it.
"Is it all right to poke her cheek?"
The attendant poked the young lady's cheek with her finger. It was somehow endearing, and it reminded her of the master and servant pair of
Yao
Yenyen
in the capital.
When she poked the left cheek, the young lady flinched.
(Just as I thought.)
"The cause of your headaches, my lady, is a cavity."
Maomao declared this with certainty.
Minor ailments for several months. Then, ten days ago, her condition worsened.
A small cavity left untreated must have grown larger. At first it was merely a twinge, and her appetite declined only somewhat. Because she favored the decayed tooth, she chewed predominantly on the right side where there was no cavity. The result was strain on her shoulders and neck, triggering headaches.
The young lady wanted to hide the cavity but couldn't conceal her poor health. So she reported only the headaches — and to avoid getting the cavity treated, she made unreasonable demands.
The attendant woman kept looking at the young lady as though she had something to say. She probably wanted to rant in her native tongue, but held back with Maomao and the others present.
The attendant and the young lady were locked in a struggle that was anything but dignified. From a distance, Maomao watched and thought, She really is a handful.
"If you don't mind, may I touch you and look inside your mouth?"
"P-please, I'm counting on you."
The attendant woman was being pulled by the hair even as the young lady continued to resist — nothing like her initial impression.
The young lady seemed to have finally given up and opened her mouth.
"Whoa, it's turned black. That must hurt."
This was far beyond mere sensitivity to cold water.
"Can you treat it?"
"Extraction would be faster than treatment. They're baby teeth, after all."
"Please, I'm counting on you."
The young lady apparently couldn't speak anything beyond those first two phrases, so she didn't quite follow the exchange between Maomao and the attendant. But she understood she was in danger. In the midst of her thrashing, a guard from outside finally came in to restrain her.
(Just how much of a handful is she?)
One of the guards had a bruise on his face from being kicked. Even so, Maomao wondered whether, in this foreign land, guards of the opposite sex were permitted to touch a lady.
(When someone puts up that much of a fight, I suppose there's no other way.)
It was so violent
that even
Li Bai had hesitated about stepping in to help.
Maomao thrust her finger into the young lady's mouth, holding firm so her finger wouldn't be bitten off.
"It's loose. I can get it right out."
"What about anesthesia? Maomao?"
"Anesthesia won't make a difference either way. It'll be over in an instant, so let's just power through."
If she was spirited enough that it would take a crowd to hold her down, there shouldn't be any problem.
Naturally, Maomao didn't have dental extraction
forceps
on hand, so she had some brought in.
"Well, it's going to hurt quite a bit, but please hang in there."
Gone was the delicate, sheltered-lady treatment from just moments before. The attendant woman in particular was furious that the young lady had been hiding her cavity, her expression making it clear she would see this treated no matter what.
The young lady was restrained with her arms pinned behind her back, her mouth held in place—unable to scream even if she wanted to.
(Sorry about this.)
Maomao gripped the cavity and gave the forceps a firm twist—yank, yank. The young lady jerked in response, but she was surprised by how anticlimactically the tooth came out.
"All right, let me apply some medicine."
She lightly dabbed on a styptic, then had the young lady bite down on layered gauze.
"Once the bleeding stops, throw it away. If it doesn't, bite down on a fresh piece and wait until it does."
She also handed over painkillers, though she didn't think they'd be necessary.
The attendant woman and the guards were already in tattered shape, and only the young lady herself sat staring at the hole in her baby tooth.
Maomao set down the medicine and a sheet of paper with written instructions, then prepared to leave.
"My, my—that was truly impressive."
Hulang
was rubbing his hands together in admiration.
"When you asked me to find a female doctor, I honestly didn't know what to do."
"That would be rather difficult in the Western Capital, I imagine."
Thinking back on it now, it was probably the young lady herself who had insisted on a female doctor. She had specifically demanded a physician who wouldn't exist in the Western Capital—because she didn't want anyone to discover her cavity.
(Brats are such a pain.)
Having finished her work for the time being, Maomao headed back to the infirmary.
"Well then, we'll leave it here."
Ma Liang
Suzume departed with the cage strapped to her back.
"I wonder why that person came?"
Li Bai remarked suddenly.
"I don't know either, so please don't ask me."
Maomao wondered whether it was cramped inside the cage, but she put the thought aside and returned to work.
○●○
"Around twelve or thirteen years old. Platinum hair with blue eyes."
"How does that sound? Does it ring a bell?"
Suzume asked her master inside the cage.
"There's one possibility. But—"
"But?"
"That person is male."
"Interesting."
Suzume recalled the young lady with the toothache from earlier. A child of that age could still conceal their sex.
"Then, assuming it's a man — who is he?"
"Let's see —
the Northern Alliance,
a country on the eastern side —
the Liren Kingdom.
The fourth son of the royal family matches both the age and appearance, I believe. When the young lady was throwing her tantrum, the words that slipped out were curses used in that country."
The Northern Alliance was often lumped together as a single entity in Li, but in truth it was a collective term for several countries.
Suzume's master was often dismissed by those around him as a hopeless, frail weakling, but he was far from incompetent. He reviewed every document that the Moon Princess was supposed to read, and it was Ma Liang's job to make up for whatever she failed to grasp.
"It makes my skin crawl to think why someone of such noble blood would remain in the Western Capital instead of returning to his own country."
I hope it isn’t real. My stomach hurts.
The sound from the basket ceased as if to tell her to stop talking. Suzume returned silently to her room. She needed to prepare a gentle supper for the stomach.