Ten days had passed since quarantine began,
Maomao
and the others were finally released.
Ujun
had been playing dumb the entire time,
and Yu
had been diligently looking after the patients throughout. It would have been cruel to tell her that the whole quarantine had been orchestrated, and besides, there was no telling what the emotional woman might do, so they kept quiet.
Maomao had been uneasy about who was behind this and for what purpose, but she was finally given an opportunity to have it explained.
Yu went off separately to report the patients' records to her superior. As if timed perfectly, a distinctive shuffling footstep approached.
"I've come to pick you up~"
There was only one person Maomao knew of with that distinctive speech pattern.
"Sparrow —
could you please explain
what exactly happened?"
The patient's guard and Ujun had both slipped away at some point, leaving Maomao alone in the infirmary.
"Well, it can't be helped~"
Sparrow strode in through the infirmary's front entrance and, making herself right at home, began preparing tea. As far as Maomao knew, Sparrow had never once set foot in the infirmary, but given that it was Sparrow, it somehow made sense.
Maomao wiped down the table and accepted the tea Sparrow offered. No sweets had been set out, so Sparrow produced a steamed bun from inside her robe.
"Lady! I warmed it up for you~"
"..."
It was lukewarm at best. Maomao set it beside her tea, deliberately waiting for it to cool. Sparrow's somewhat theatrical movements might have had some meaning, but Maomao couldn't figure it out, so she let it be.
"It was due to various overlapping circumstances, you see~ I had to get Jun to cooperate by using his half-sister as leverage."
"Oh?"
Maomao couldn't tell how much of what Sparrow said was true, but for now, she let it pass.
"Have you learned anything about smallpox?"
If Maomao's assumptions were correct, they must have been conducting similar experiments with smallpox as they had with the appendicitis drug trials.
"It seemed like all sorts of experiments were being carried out behind my back, without my knowledge."
The fact that they had lent Maomao the forbidden texts must have been to help her understand. The forbidden texts Maomao had received were merely copies. And not even complete ones at that.
"The forbidden texts referred to it under the name 'variolation.' The copied portions they handed over made it fairly easy to piece together."
The reason the texts were forbidden was precisely because they lacked the dissection sections. They must have judged it too risky to let those parts leave the facility. Without the dissection portions, anyone who saw the texts could be given any number of excuses.
"Kokuyou's letter mentioned cows and horses. It seems the court physicians were already well into their experiments with those."
"Yes. It appears they've been using the horses and cows at Hongmei Hall, where my dear brother-in-law's beloved resides. And Maomao, you must have realized this long ago — the patient here was undoubtedly someone who had undergone variolation."
It was exactly as Maomao had imagined.
"Then what was the reason for isolating me using that person?"
Sparrow let out a "pu-pu" laugh, a slightly irritated sort of chuckle.
"Heheh, Maomao, you're just a bonus this time, you know."
"Hm? So it wasn't me they wanted to isolate."
Containing Lady Yū was the real objective.
(What does that mean?)
Sparrow was probably trying to say Maomao was being overly self-important. Sparrow was the type who enjoyed needling others, so getting angry here would only backfire. She decided to respond with a calm question instead.
"So this was a measure to keep Lady Yū from leaving?"
Sparrow closed one eye and snapped her left fingers with a click, all while smiling.
Maomao thought Sparrow was a natural-born talent when it came to needling people.
"Why Lady Yū? If it's about Kokuyou then..."
Maomao suddenly stopped herself.
Someone who knew about Kokuyou's method of variolation. Maomao had assumed it was a surviving villager. And Lady Yū's family members were among those survivors.
"One of Lady Yū's family members had been conducting variolation on their own?"
"You have it easy, Maomao — no need for you to explain anything."
A cold sweat broke out across Maomao's entire body. The sweat from tension was a different kind entirely from the sweat of exertion. Sparrow was surely not the type to go unnoticed by such a distinctly odorous perspiration.
"I had thought Yuu might be involved, but judging by how things have been these past ten days, she seems to have nothing to do with it."
Sparrow, perhaps to put Maomao at ease, first insisted that Yuu was innocent.
"Now, regarding the inoculation — if I told you that Yuu's family was *on the verge* of doing it, would you understand?"
"On the verge?"
Sparrow seemed to want Maomao to piece the answer together herself. A roundabout approach, Maomao thought, but since she often used the same tactic herself in conversation, she couldn't very well complain.
(Yuu has nothing to do with it.)
(Yuu's family was on the verge of performing inoculation.)
(Inoculation requires skin and other parts from smallpox patients, but...)
Yuu's village had been wiped out by smallpox years ago. Skin from patients at that time would be useless for inoculation now.
Which meant relatively recent smallpox patient tissue would be needed.
"Someone suggested to Yuu's family that they perform inoculation, and they obtained body parts from a smallpox patient?"
Sparrow formed a circle with her finger.
"That's correct. During the day, a certain person came by during a time when Yuu was away. Yuu's mother had passed, so only children were home. It seems they kept it secret so Yuu wouldn't find out when she returned from the front lines of the smallpox crisis."
"And this person would be..."
"Yes, I imagine you've already guessed, Maomao. The former village chief of the village where Yuu lived. While the adults were away, only children were at home. He must have heard that some of the village survivors were living in the capital. Being the former village chief, the children let their guard down. So they were on the verge of attempting something like inoculation — a mock procedure. Yuu's mother noticed something was off and intervened, which is how the whole thing came to light."
Sparrow spoke while eating a steamed bun. Talking with her mouth full without dropping a single crumb — a born bride of a fine family through and through, even in ruin.
"I'd advise against telling Yuu. Especially since that village chief still hasn't been captured — was that why you started this whole elaborate performance?"
Sparrow nodded.
"Yuu's family — the men are off helping in the region where the smallpox outbreak occurred. If we told Yuu and she caused a big commotion, that would be problematic. Also, when the village chief returned, we needed to catch him, so we quietly surrounded her house with guards. This entire charade was devised so we could isolate her without arousing suspicion."
"Even if it was only an attempt, conducting an unauthorized inoculation is still a serious matter."
Even being children, some form of punishment could be expected. There was a real possibility Yuu might have run off in the wrong direction.
Yuu was probably quite capable for her age as a medical practitioner. But her personality was emotional.
Tenyuu.
Not quite as devastating, but there were aspects of him that were difficult to handle as well.
"Exactly — it was a difficult situation. Yuu didn't know yet. So we couldn't send Yuu home, and ideally we wanted to cut off her access to information entirely. We set up guards around her house to catch the village chief if he returned, but he never showed up."
Maomao understood what Suzume was trying to say. But she had her doubts.
"Then why am I caught up in this as well?"
"Well, having another woman around would put Yuu more at ease, and—"
"And?"
"One more thing. In times like these, I can't help but want to call upon Lady Rakhan's assistance."
Maomao made her usual displeased face.
"It also served as a pretext to protect you so you wouldn't run into the village chief."
Suzume clapped her hands together and pulled out little flags and flowers with a flourish. Her joking demeanor was rather suspicious.
"The village chief had apparently been visiting various medical practitioners. The decision to shelter Yuu was partly related to that."
The arrangement was nominally for ten days, but since Maomao was being allowed out now, it was safe to assume the matter had been resolved.
"So the village chief was captured?"
"Yes… three days ago."
Maomao did not miss the evasive tone.
"He wasn't captured alive?"
"He was."
"Then—"
"The village chief—well, the person identified as the rogue attacker—was found in the village that had been sealed off due to the smallpox outbreak. It seems a child let it slip that Yuu's father was working there."
Suzume paused for a beat.
"And at the same time, Katsuyou, who had been stabbed by the attacker, was found."
"What!?"
Maomao shot to her feet and slammed the table.
"He's alive. It was touch and go, but he's alive."
"…He didn't manage to play the part of the eccentric strategist, did he?"
"Rakhan was only asked to keep watch within the capital. He's not the type to go out of his way for some other town where Maomao isn't even present."
Maomao felt a strange sense of guilt budding within her.
"So even if Suzume were to tell me the secret, is there actually something to be done?"
Suzume had long since finished her own manju and was eyeing Maomao's. The manju had gone cold, but Maomao handed it over to her anyway.
Suzume took the manju, toying with it between her fingertips as she spoke.
"The village headman who was captured — he's not in very good shape, you know. He's been acting as though possessed, burning through the last flicker of his life. Everyone's brushing it off as the ravings of a madman, but doesn't it bother you?"
"...You want me to examine him?"
"I won't force you, of course."
When she said it like that, it felt unfair.
Maomao had no choice but to weigh her reluctance against her curiosity and move toward whichever side tipped the scale.