Keiyou
As written in his letter,
Yuyu
had returned to the capital.
(She really has been through it.)
Maomao
looked at Yuyu, who had lost a considerable amount of weight in just about a month, and felt it keenly. If anything, she thought it was admirable that a girl still in her mid-teens had managed to endure for a whole month.
"I can still do this, you know."
She could keep going — that much was true. But if they let her carry on like this —
"You might be able to keep going, but you'd never recover."
En'en
said.
"The human body can recover to a certain degree, but there are limits. They must have decided it was better to send you home and let you rest so you could come back ready, rather than pushing until you broke down — isn't that so? If that's the case, then restoring your strength is what matters."
"B-but — "
"You're doing work that none of us can do."
(She's actually making sense!)
Maomao was taken aback for a moment, but En'en was, by and large, a sensible person.
Yao
out of the picture, she was perfectly rational.
Granted, she was indebted to Yao, but En'en's fixation was a bit much, and Maomao wished she would rein it in a little.
"That's right — health should come first."
Choucha
also sided with En'en.
"At the very least,
Liu
"The head physician isn't the type to work his medical officers to the bone. Same goes for the court ladies. If someone's no use, he'll cut them loose without hesitation — but the fact that Yuu has been given time off means she's still considered valuable. You should take pride in that."
Yao chimed in as well.
"Indeed, indeed. What matters most for Yuu right now is rebuilding her strength. She doesn't have nearly enough weight on her — not at all. So today, let's eat and eat and eat!"
"Why exactly is
Suzume
here?"
Maomao voiced the question bluntly.
They were currently at an eatery near the dormitory. The restaurant had private rooms, so a group of women dining together wouldn't be bothered by unwanted customers.
Changsha had suggested they gather together now that Yuu had returned. The timing worked out since everyone happened to be on the early shift, so they'd ducked into the restaurant on short notice — only for a certain tagalong to come along as well.
"Oh, no need to worry about me, truly. You all know who I am, and renting a private room costs money, doesn't it? The more people splitting the bill, the cheaper it works out for everyone!"
"Fair logic, but the one most likely to out-eat everyone at this table is you, isn't it, Suzume?"
"Heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh. Come now, Maomao. The reason I was able to find a restaurant matching everyone's requirements in the blink of an eye is thanks to yours truly!"
"Well, can't argue with that."
It had private rooms, served delicious food with a light hand on seasoning, and was close to the dormitory. The entrance was understated, which was why Maomao had never stepped inside despite passing by. She was impressed that such a nice place existed.
Changsha moved around the table, pouring tea. Maomao would have preferred something stronger to drink, but considering Yao's condition, alcohol was out of the question. Yuu's stamina was still depleted as well. She thought Changsha could probably handle a drink, but the fact that she was pouring tea made it clear she had no intention of ordering sake. That being the case, Maomao had no choice but to read the room and go along with it.
"All right, all right, everyone — please enjoy the meal to the fullest!"
Suzume swooped in and snatched the dishes from the server who had entered the room, setting them down in the center of the table. Steaming bamboo baskets of translucent-skinned dumplings and bowls of soup with fluffy egg floating in them were laid out one after another. Everything was lightly seasoned with salt. Since you could adjust the flavor with condiments, the food was practically tailor-made for Yao.
"I doubt Yuu is in the mood right now, but the first step to recovery is eating. Honestly, if you don't eat something here and start recovering, there's no way you'll be fit to return to duty. Or what — would you rather stay thin forever because you never want to go back to that place?"
Changsha's tone was noticeably more casual than how she usually spoke to Maomao and the others. Being a fellow peer, she was probably closer to Yuu than any of them were.
Yuu scowled for an instant, then let out a long breath and reached for the bamboo basket.
"Hold on, hold on — just wait a moment! Suzume will serve everyone's portions!"
Suzume deftly spun a small plate between her fingertips. Her dexterity was so extraordinary that nobody suspected her right hand was impaired. Her left hand moved at more than double the normal range of motion, while her right — though numb from the elbow down — still provided useful assistance using the upper arm, which remained functional.
"It's fine, I can serve myself."
Yao reached out with her own chopsticks. Yanyan had been fidgeting, eager to serve Yao's portion for her.
"No, no. It's perfectly fine for you, Yao, and the others to serve yourselves as you please. However, as a junior, there is an unspoken rule that one must not eat any dish that a senior has not touched first. An open banquet—how splendid indeed, but since there is no alcohol here, I, Suzume, will simply take a little of everything on your behalf, and then anyone who wants to eat what's left can dig in freely. Problem solved."
"There are a few things I don't think I can eat."
"Then please hand those over to me. I'll clean every last bite without leaving a speck behind."
"Wouldn't it be fine to just leave them?"
Among the upper classes, there existed a custom of having servants eat the leftovers.
In any case, the dishes that had been brought out were all distributed, and everyone began to eat.
Since the meal was also meant for socializing and exchanging information, everyone talked while eating.
"Miss Yao. I know you told me to focus on recovering my strength, and I'm sorry to bring this up, but could you tell me about the isolated village?"
It was a topic that could kill one's appetite, but Yao was receptive to Maomao's question.
"Yes. The situation is not favorable. However, compared to what I witnessed in the past, I can say it is considerably better."
Long ago, the village where Yao had lived had seen only a handful of survivors, including Yao's own family.
"How many people are infected?"
"The village has a population of roughly three hundred. About sixty percent have been completely quarantined. There have also been deaths. Those who appear to have fully recovered are helping out little by little, but the infection is spreading faster than that."
Yao spoke calmly, but the faces of everyone around her had gone pale. Only Suzume was cheerfully munching away at the food, though Maomao was also stuffing dumplings into her mouth.
"Is the strategy of the senior court physicians simply to wait for the outbreak to die down on its own within the village?"
"Yes. However—several people have already attempted to escape, and one managed to get away alone."
"Are they okay?"
Chousha's face had turned blue, though her chopsticks were just barely reaching for a stir-fried leafy vegetable dish.
"They were caught right away. Also, people who had been in contact with the escapee were temporarily quarantined, and it turned out to be fine."
"That's a relief."
Maomao agreed, but there was one thing that caught her attention.
"From what you're describing, the village is relatively easy to isolate, isn't it? In other words, it's somewhat removed from other villages and towns, with little interaction with the outside?"
"That is correct."
"Then where did the infection originate?"
Maomao's question was not meant to blame anyone. She simply wanted to confirm where the disease had come from.
"That's what we don't know. Apparently, at first it was only small children who were getting sick, so they thought it was smallpox. But then adults started falling ill too, which means they realized too late what was actually happening."
"Don't traveling merchants ever visit the village?"
"A few groups had come through, but none of them seemed to have any symptoms of smallpox or anything like it. However, one of the children had apparently been taken by a parent to a nearby town at one point, and they said that might have been when he caught it."
Yu answered, though she didn't seem entirely convinced.
"It's strange, isn't it?"
"It really is."
"What's so strange?"
Suzume asked while pouring a generous amount of vinegar into her rice porridge.
"Let's say a child caught the infection in town. Then the question is — was smallpox actually spreading in that town?"
"It wasn't."
Yu said.
Yao and the others felt the same strangeness Maomao did.
"So where did this smallpox come from?"
The question naturally arose.
Even Maomao didn't have a detailed understanding of how diseases originated. The prevailing belief was that they were caused by a faint, subtle poison entering the body.
"Can we not get more information from that first child who caught smallpox?"
"He… apparently passed away."
Maomao placed her left hand on her forehead. With her free right hand, she scooped up an egg from the soup with her spoon. The broth was lightly seasoned — she could barely taste anything.
"If the source of infection was in the next town over, that would be a real problem."
"Indeed. There's no point in quarantining the village if the disease is already spreading over there."
"Wait a minute. If someone in that town had been infected but the outbreak has already ended, doesn't that mean they either died or recovered? In that case, there shouldn't be any risk of them passing it to anyone else, right?"
Yao's reasoning seemed sound, but there was one piece she was missing.
"Smallpox patients can spread the infection even from their corpses."
"Yes. They say you need to be careful for about a year afterward, and that the bodies should be cremated rather than buried. Any clothing or items with blood or skin residue on them must be disinfected as well, or they become dangerous."
"Really?"
It was true. Yao wasn't that knowledgeable about smallpox. As an attending lady who had many other things to learn for her work assisting the court physicians, it was only natural she wouldn't know. Even beyond Yao, both Eien and Chousha wore expressions like they were hearing about it for the first time.
"So what you're saying is — if someone who gave smallpox to a child dies somewhere in town and someone finds the body, things could get really unpleasant, is that about the size of it?"
"Well, that's one way things could go."
Thinking about the worst-case scenario, sure, that would be the outcome. But things had their priorities, and searching for a body that might or might not exist wasn't something they could realistically do right now.
Rather, they should be thinking about other solutions.
"Was Keyou discussing what to do about it?"
She thought of that frustratingly carefree man.
"Yes. The doctor is trying to think of some way to prevent it."
"He seemed to be looking for cows, though."
"Yes. I believe he's researching cowpox."
Maomao's eyes went wide.
"Cowpox?"
"The doctor seems to think he can develop a prevention based on cowpox."
"W-wait a moment! I don't think Keyou said anything like that before. He said something about his master's research not surviving or whatever."
Maomao lunged toward Yu in her eagerness. She got far too close, and Suzume stepped between them to hold her back.
"Whoa, whoa."
"What do you mean?"
"The doctor probably isn't fully confident himself. The idea is that if you inoculate someone with cowpox, they might develop resistance to the disease with milder symptoms than actual smallpox."
"Then let's go find cows right away!"
"Wait, Maomao."
"Let's calm down, Maomao."
Eien and Suzume each grabbed one of Maomao's hands as she looked ready to bolt.
"Apparently, even if you catch cowpox, there are cases where you still come down with smallpox."
"...Then what's the point?"
"Yes. It seems there were cases where resistance was built and cases where it wasn't."
Yu raises the index fingers of both her right and left hands.
"The doctor's twin brother caught cowpox and thereby became immune to smallpox. But the master caught cowpox and still came down with smallpox, and since he was suffering so terribly, she put him out of his misery."
Putting him out of his misery — in other words, killing him.
(Oh, so that's how it was.)
It lined up with the story of Keyō's past. And because he couldn't be certain of the outcome, he hadn't told Maomao there was a way to counter it yet.
Maomao would have tried cowpox first, but even if she did, she wouldn't know unless she came into contact with smallpox.
(I would have tried it if not for what Father told me.)
Maomao bit down hard on her lip.
Luomen
She couldn't force this burden on Luomen just to run a test. This ability to foresee such things — as expected of Luomen.
"Well now, the atmosphere has gotten a bit strange, but look — tonight's star attraction has arrived!"
Suzume waves in the server who comes carrying a roasted duck with a flourish.
The plump, golden-brown duck looked delicious, but Maomao asked about what was on her mind.
"Suzume, this duck — please tell me it's not something you brought in yourself?"
"No, unfortunately. I wish I could have brought one."
Maomao was at least relieved to know it was not
Baseki's
beloved pet duck.