A few days later, a strange patient arrived at the medical office.
A man with his right hand bandaged was brought in with a pale face.
Moreover, the person who had brought him looked familiar.
Maomao narrowed her eyes and studied the one who had brought the patient.
"Um,
this is Usjun...
..."
"L-long time no see!"
Maomao
raised her voice to cover up the fact that she had almost forgotten.
Usjun was
the former consort Risu's half-brother.
"What happened?"
The patient seemed to be in considerable pain, so Maomao listened to Usjun's account.
The other medical officers had gone to eat lunch, so Maomao
and Yu were minding the office.
Usually at least one medical officer would remain, but
the old medical officer hadn't returned yet and Senior Wainwan had gone out shopping, so it couldn't be helped.
"He's been feeling unwell for several days, and just when his fever seemed to go down, symptoms like this appeared again."
Usjun said.
He seemed so unsteady that he couldn't have come alone.
"What about this wound?"
"He said this was a wound from about ten days ago. Apparently he tried to restrain an attacker but was struck back."
"An attacker..."
Thinking the wound might have become infected and caused a fever, she undid the bandage that was wrapped around it.
And then, the blood drained from her face in an instant.
"Yuu!"
Without thinking, she called out to the junior court lady by name. When Yuu looked at the part where the bandage had been peeled back, her face turned ashen.
"Maomao, let me take over!"
"Right."
Leaving the patient to Yuu, Maomao hurriedly washed her hands and covered her mouth with a hand towel. Then she grabbed the arm of the military officer who had brought the patient.
"Please wash your hands. And change your clothes, then—"
Maomao rattled off every possible measure she could think of. Ujun was a rather unimposing man for a military officer, but that made him all the more understanding and willing to follow directions. He did exactly as Maomao told him without question.
Once Maomao finished giving instructions to Ujun, she headed to the adjacent room.
"We're closing for the day, so please leave!"
She yanked off the bed covers and dumped two military officers, who had been lying in bed feeling unwell, onto the floor.
"What do you think you're doing!?"
She understood their protest, but this was an emergency too.
"Do you want to catch a disease!?"
Maomao's voice was loud too, but the fact that she hadn't resorted to an outright commanding tone probably meant some rationality was still at work.
The officers, too, could tell something was seriously wrong from Maomao's demeanor and left the room.
"Maomao, I'll lay her on the bed."
"Yeah, sorry to trouble you."
It wasn't right to leave everything to Yuu alone, but Maomao really didn't want to touch the patient any more than necessary.
The reason was—.
"Don't tell me this is smallpox."
When she peeled back the bandage on the patient's right arm, red rashes had appeared.
It was too early to definitively diagnose it as smallpox at this point, but Maomao had a strong conviction.
"She'd been feeling unwell for several days, and just when the fever seemed to go down, these symptoms appeared again."
It was consistent with the early symptoms of smallpox.
*She mentioned that the wound was inflicted about ten days ago. Apparently, he was trying to apprehend an assailant but was attacked in return.*
(A wound from an attack by a madman)
Maomao had been hearing stories about a roaming attacker. A stranger spreading the seeds of smallpox — if that attacker was the same person who had struck the patient, there was no need to speculate about what disease they were dealing with.
Maomao swiftly wrote on a piece of paper: *Possible smallpox patient. No entry*, and affixed it to the infirmary door. She then locked it from the inside.
"She's been laid down."
Yu returned.
"Yu, change into this."
"Understood."
Yu shed her outer robe and put on the clothes Maomao handed her. It was an apron used by medical officers. In Yu's case, the concern was not that Yu herself would be infected, but rather whether she might serve as a vector to spread the disease to others.
"I've changed clothes as instructed. Could you please explain what exactly is going on?"
Junshun, who had brought the patient, looked bewildered. He had properly covered his mouth with cloth as well.
You could hardly blame him for thinking his good deed had backfired.
(In a way, we're lucky it was this man.)
If the person had been someone who panicked and became a liability, Maomao and Yu would have been unable to handle him.
"The patient from earlier has a high likelihood of smallpox. And you, who brought her in, may have been exposed as well."
"......"
Junshun looked less panicked than deeply troubled.
"Smallpox — you mean *that* smallpox?"
"The smallpox that isn't chickenpox."
Junshun's face went slack. Then again, he had never been a particularly spirited man to begin with, so the change was barely noticeable.
"This is a terrible situation, but I suppose there's no helping it. What am I supposed to do from here on?"
"It depends on whether the patient from earlier truly has smallpox, but either way, you'll need to be quarantined for a while. Roughly ten days to two weeks. Have you ever had smallpox before?"
"I've had chickenpox."
No pockmarks resembling scars were visible on Junshun's skin.
"How much do you know about smallpox?"
"It's a highly contagious disease with a high mortality rate, I believe. I've also heard that it causes blisters which tend to leave scars on the skin."
For an ordinary person, that was more than sufficient knowledge.
It was a relief that it was Junshun who had brought the patient.
"Were there any military officers who were in close contact with the patient earlier, or who shared a room with them at night? Also, if you know their family arrangements..."
"Well, let me see..."
Junshun crossed his arms.
"I believe he lives alone. He's not very good at communal living, so rather than staying in the dormitories, he probably rented a place nearby. As for meals, he would buy food from street stalls rather than restaurants and take it home to eat, it seems."
"You know a lot about him."
"Yes. He's surprisingly lonely, it seems — he'll talk to just about anyone, even someone like me."
Junshun was a meek sort of man, but that very quality seemed to put people at ease. He might have been some variant of the quack doctors found in the rear palace.
Maomao listened to Junshun's account while jotting down notes on paper.
Meanwhile, Yu handled the smallpox treatment with practiced ease.
While Maomao was questioning Junshun, a loud pounding on the door came from outside.
"What on earth is going on?!"
Li
—it was the medical officer's voice.
"It's as written on the notice. I have additional information."
Maomao slid the paper she had just written on under the door.
"It hasn't been confirmed yet that the sleeping patient has smallpox, but was my judgment excessive?"
"No, there's no problem. Any seasoned medical officer would have done the same."
If this was Maomao getting ahead of herself, then so be it.
"However, we can't have the medical office occupied for days on end, so once another room is prepared, they'll need to be moved there."
"Understood. In any case, I'm hungry, so I'll have one patient meal, shrimp fried rice, and
spare ribs...
"...could you prepare about three each of the sweet-simmered dishes, chicken wrapped in lotus leaves, and other suitable appetizers as well?"
"...Does it
have to be
that specific menu?"
There was a note of doubt in Officer Li's voice.
"Yes. We may still be carrying the root cause of the illness. So we need to eat well, keep our strength up, and not give in."
Maomao spoke in a crisp, unwavering voice that was unmistakable even through the door.
"Also, I'd like some fruit and sweets."
"And persimmons, please."
Yū added her own order.
"Some books would be a great help, if you have any."
Bōjun, ever the opportunist, chimed in as well.
"About ten of the latest popular books."
"...Fine."
After Officer Li's exasperated reply, the sound of his footsteps receding from the infirmary echoed away.