Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Chapter 11

"I don't know anything about that."

Maomao replied, not wanting to over-guess herself. It wasn’t that she was being modest.

She knew what kind of illness it was, and she also seen patients with it.
That is why she said that.

"It's not a disease you can cure with medicine."

It is a neurosis.

When the brothel's prostitutes were inflicted with this disease, her dad didn't prescribe them any medicine.
It wasn’t something that can be cured with medicine after all.

"If there was medicine…"

what can cure it then? he asked.

"My expertise is drugs."

Though she meant to declare it, from a fleeting glance in her peripheral, she saw the gloominess that suffused the heavenly face.

(Our eyes must not meet.)

She averted from the young man's gaze as if she were handling a wild animal. She wasn't able to avert the avert. He came around towards Maomao.

He’s quite persistent. He’s quite annoying.

"…I'll make an effort."

She replied with an extremely reluctant face.

The one who came by at midnight was the eunuch Gaoshun.
Though she thought he was hard to get along with his quietness and his lack of expression, Maomao actually felt a wave of affinity towards him.

(He really doesn't feel like a eunuch type of person.)

It is common for eunuchs, having their physical yang parts removed to become more feminine.

The easiest to understand as an example was the shrub doctor.

In the case of Gaoshun, while his hair wasn't dense, he was not fearful that if he was not in a place like the Inner Palace, he could be mistaken as a military officer.

(Why did he choose this path?)

She knew that this wasn't something she should ask even if she was curious. She clammed her mouth and shook her head.

Gaoshun led the way with a lantern in one hand.

It was a half moon, but it was bright with no clouds.
The inside of the palace she had only seen at noon was like a different place.

Sometimes, there were rustling sounds. She heard sounds of heavy breathing from the shade of the tree somehow, but she decided to ignore it.

Well, as the imperial court had no actual men aside from the emperor, it was inevitable that the shape of love was warped.

"Maomao-sama."

Gaoshun spoke to her.

"I don't need a title. Gaoshun-sama's rank is higher."

"Then, Shaomao." [T/N: 'shao' here was the same connotations as 'chan' in Japanese]

(Why are you suddenly adding shao?)

Maomao nodded, unexpectantly moved, while thinking, ‘this old man’.

"Would it be okay if you don't look at Jishin-sama like you would look at a pest?"

(It turns out, I'm exposed?)

Recently, her facial expressions were conspicuous, it seemed she couldn't completely hide her impudence.
Though she thought her head wasn't going to fly at present, she had to have self-restraint. For the Mr Big shot, it should be Maomao who would be the insect.

"Today as well, I go back and I get reported that 'I've been looked at like a slug'."

(Certainly, I thought that his persistence was gross.)

Reporting everything is also persistent.

"He smiles with clouded eyes as he shudders. That would be what you call self-satisfaction, isn't it."

At the words born from a misunderstanding, she replied very seriously.
Rather, it was energy brought down from that garbage of an insect.

"…, I'll pay attention from now on."

"Indeed, because people without immunity can't help but swoon with one glance. It is troublesome to deal with it."

His hardships blurred with the deep sigh.

They arrived at the eastern gate as they were talking about their terrible hardship.
The castle walls were around the same height as Maomao's four walls. Outside was a deep moat and the bridge, for the transport of food supplies and materials, and sometimes, when maidservants were replaced, was lowered.

Escaping from the Inner Palace had the meaning of capital punishment.
The gate is always stationed with palace guards. The interior had two eunuchs, the exterior had two military officers. The gates were double; the guardroom could be entered from both the interior and exterior sides.

Two oxen were bred to raise and lower the drawbridge as human power was inadequate.

Maomao was driven with the urge to go look for things in the expansive pine forest, but with Gaoshun here, there was no way of that coming true, so she sat down in the gazebo in the garden.

It appeared there with the half-moon in the background.

The shadow of a white woman dancing in midair.

Clad in a long gown and a shawl, standing on the top of the castle walls, with a dancer’s gait.

Clothing wavering, shawl undulating like a living thing. Her long black hair shone amid the darkness, the faint outlines of her figure stood out.

A beauty that can't be real.
As if she went astray from paradise, a wondrous spectacle.

"Fuyou under the moon." [T/N: Fuyou is cotton rose, but it is also the name of a character, mentioned below]

Suddenly, those words passed through her head.

Gaoshun looked surprised for an instant, and muttered to himself.

"She has good intuition."

The woman's name was "Fuyou", a middle-ranked consort.
The princess to be bestowed for merit next month.

T/N: Would you guys prefer if I made the dialogue more like what we see in English (like: she said,”….” ) or keep the same formatting as it is in Japanese?

Chapter end