Maomao and the others
decided to leave
Gao's
residence for the time being.
The carriage interior was cramped compared to the trip there. The reason was that
Mami
and
Suzume
were inside.
If they squeezed, one more person might fit, but
Basen
didn't bother getting in, since he wasn't much help anyway.
Since it was already late, they decided to share information before heading home.
「So it seems you've noticed something — why don't you explain.」
Jinshi
asked Maomao with his arms folded.
「It's just my usual speculation, though.」
「I'll take your usual speculation.」
Maomao thought about how to put it, but there was nothing worth hiding, so she spoke honestly.
「The one who made the poison is the mother, and the one being poisoned is her daughter.」
「That's unusually blunt of you, Maomao.」
Suzume swayed her body along with the rocking of the carriage.
「The mother is doing it to her own daughter?」
Mami confirmed.
"Yes."
"Just because someone is a mother doesn't mean she necessarily has any maternal instincts."
Suzume voiced what Maomao wanted to say.
"Are you certain she poisoned her?"
"I can't say with absolute certainty, but I'd put the odds at nine or ten out of ten."
Maomao laid out her reasoning.
"The tea I was served earlier contained several different medicinal herbs. They had a sleep-promoting effect, and the taste wasn't bad at all... That tea was most likely laced with the poison in question."
If Baten were here, he'd be squawking about it, but unfortunately he wasn't. Jinshi, for his part, was accustomed to such matters and stood with his arms crossed, composed.
"Judging by how calm you are, you don't seem to have ingested the poison."
"Yes, as Lady Moon says. I was served freshly brewed tea, not the leftover dregs."
"Also, even if she had ingested the poison, it wouldn't cause significant physical symptoms unless consumed daily."
Maomao added. This was a poison designed to slowly weaken someone over time, bit by bit.
"And her daughter—"
"Shikishi—"
"showed the same symptoms as those caused by poison ingestion."
Maomao looked at Jinshi and Amami, who both seemed unconvinced. Since Suzume had accompanied Maomao to the room, she appeared to be taking on the role of filling in any gaps in Maomao's testimony.
"Maomao remembered someone else's name on the first try..."
(Is that what matters here?!)
Maomao could remember names on the first try too, you know. Wanko-senpai, for instance.
"Why would a mother poison her own daughter? 'Not serving the leftover dregs' isn't a sufficient reason on its own."
Amami was right. Maomao thought so too.
"At first glance, she seemed like a good, devoted mother. At first glance."
Suzume had a slight edge to her when it came to the mother.
"The remade tea she served me had a slightly bitter taste. And also—"
"schizonepeta—"
was blended in"
「Schizonepeta?」
「Yes. Its name contains 'dog,' but its effects are much closer to catnip. It's used as a medicinal herb, but like catnip, it's also a plant cats are fond of.」
「Speaking of cats—」
「Yes.」
Back in her days in the rear palace,
Moumou—
—that hateful calico cat was always going after the catnip in the medical office.
「If it was something handled by someone who frequently touched schizonepeta, the scent may have clung to it.」
That was how the cat had found the poisoned pot.
「But there's no reason for Kuchinashi's mother to harm her daughter. If it were the first wife doing the poisoning, that would make sense.」
According to the preliminary information, the mother and daughter seemed to be neglected. Not only was the daughter not admitted to the rear palace—she had been relegated to a detached building without ever appearing in public.
「To my eyes, they didn't look like a mother and daughter who got along.」
「Oh? So Maomao thought so too?」
「Yes. Because that woman was more of a 'woman' than a 'mother.'」
Maomao stated plainly. That was the reason she had seen through the woman's past as a former courtesan.
So the sparrow had a thorn, after all.
A first-rate courtesan moves in ways that captivate her clients. The angle at which she tilts her head to look most beautiful from the client's perspective, the flow of her hair, the movement of her fingers—every gesture is calculated.
The concubine's movements, directed at Maomao and the others who were guests, were designed to make herself appear as pitiable as possible. They were strikingly similar to the movements of a skilled courtesan at the Rokushoukan who knew how to project an air of fragility.
「In other words, she was fishing for sympathy?」
Jinshi repeated with a look that said he couldn't quite follow.
「Yes. Because the concubine and her daughter weren't being treated as poorly as the preliminary information suggested. If anything, their treatment was more than generous.」
The concubine's clothing was the finest after the principal wife's. If she had truly been disregarded, she would never have been permitted to appear for the imperial brother's reception.
「As for the daughter—if she had an illness so incurable that even doctors threw up their hands, separating her from the main house would be perfectly normal. If it were some kind of infectious disease, it would be frightening; I would do the same in her position. And the tea she served had numerous medicinal herbs blended in—it certainly wouldn't have been cheap.」
More than anything, the poison in the pot had been made from high-grade tea leaves.
"But the reason there aren't many good rumors—"
"Frankly,
Lord Go's
wife isn't exactly what you'd call attractive. What would you think if there were a young, beautiful concubine in the household? What if that concubine—a loving, devoted mother—went around wearing a look of sorrow for everyone to see?"
People love to construct convenient narratives. The servants who were constantly in the manor might know the truth, but guests would let their imaginations run wild.
"If it were just about making herself look fragile, that would be one thing, but using her daughter as a prop is simply unforgivable."
"Prop—do you mean to say she's been poisoning her own daughter just to garner sympathy from others?"
"I thought it was the most plausible reason for poisoning someone."
"No, no—"
Jinshi wore an expression that made it perfectly clear he didn't want to believe a word of it.
"She's being targeted by a senior courtesan. 'Look what was done to me'—there were courtesans who made a point of showing guests their roughly shorn hair. It was all self-inflicted, of course. This is just an extension of that sort of thing. She uses her daughter as a prop and sheds a few tears before her master. The master can't help but feel sorry for the poor woman."
"But there's very little to gain from poisoning and weakening her. Lord Go has no other daughters. Wouldn't it be wiser to send her into the rear palace and make her a consort?"
"Jinshi—could you so easily elevate the daughter of a concubine, a former courtesan, to the rank of high consort?"
"..."
Jinshi was at a loss for words.
As someone who had managed the rear palace himself, he knew full well that selecting a high consort involved numerous considerations.
"If you'll pardon me,
Gyokuyou
Consort—when you elevated her to high consort, weren't there quite a few objections?"
Consort Gyokuyou's mother was one of the many wives of
Gyokuen,
the lord who governs the western territories. Combined with her mixed western blood, opinions persist to this day about whether she was truly fit to be empress.
"I don't know Lord Go in detail, but if it were to increase her chances of becoming a high consort, wouldn't she simply make the courtesan mother disappear from the picture?"
The daughter would be treated not as a concubine's child but as the legitimate wife's daughter. That was precisely why the girl was treated as though she didn't exist. It was better if no one ever learned of the courtesan lurking behind the scenes. She would learn the art of winning over men from her courtesan mother, and if she proved useful, she could be adopted as the legitimate wife's daughter. It was entirely possible that her official records had listed her as the legitimate wife's daughter from the very start.
(And then—)
As a concubine, she would become obsolete the moment her daughter entered the inner palace.
But what if her daughter was too sickly to enter the inner palace?
She didn't know what kind of man Go was. But even if he wasn't particularly sentimental, he surely wouldn't be so heartless as to cast off his own daughter. She might never appear on any grand stage, but she wouldn't be abandoned to starve to death.
"As a concubine, you could say she looked for a way to keep herself from being discarded by her master. By earning the sympathy of those around her, playing the part of a devoted mother through and through, and occasionally being compared to a principal wife who was neither young nor beautiful, she was able to reclaim a small measure of self-worth, wasn't she?"
Both Jinshi and Amami wore expressions of disbelief. Only Suzume wore a creepy, grinning smile.
(Did she think that was the only way to survive?)
Still, Maomao found it to be exceedingly selfish.
(It wasn't a potent poison.)
But it was one that would steadily rot the body.
"Well then, shall I go gather evidence to confirm all of this tomorrow?"
Suzume spoke with an air of someone clearly in her element when it came to dealings in the shadows.
"Yes. And there's one more thing I'd like you to look into."
"And what might that be?"
"I'd like you to investigate the cattle shed."
"The cattle shed?"
Not just Suzume—even Jinshi and Amami tilted their heads in confusion.