The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 14 [Parts 1 to 4] by Natsu Hyuuga

Author:Natsu Hyuuga
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Light Novel, partial, mystery, anime, drama, female protagonist, history, eunuchs, print by square enix
Publisher: J-Novel Club (generated)

Chapter 4: The Rabbit and the Dragon

The Shin youth and aide were unable to hide their astonishment at the mistress’s confession.

“What’s the meaning of this, Mother? Explain this instant!” said the aide, finally losing his composure. Apparently, he was the mistress’s son.

“Grandmother... This must be some sort of joke, right?” asked the grandson, his voice small.

The mistress merely shook her head at her two family members. “If there has been any betrayal of the Shin clan, it was by none other than myself.” She looked at the floor.

“Would you perhaps tell us the truth about what happened forty years ago?” Maomao asked.

“I will,” she said.

“That being the case, perhaps you would like to resume your seats?” Lahan asked. It seemed to bring the other two men back to their senses, and they sat down.

“Very well, then,” the mistress said. “Just as the former head of the Shin clan was friends with the leader of the U, so I was close to the U leader’s wife.” A fond look came over the old woman’s face as she remembered those days. “She and I had both married into good, named families—perhaps that’s why we found we shared similar concerns and could talk to each other about anything. We often took tea together back then.”

While everyone else listened with bated breath, the freak strategist munched on a skewer of hawthorn berries. He’d gone through several already, Erfan clearing away the metal skewers whenever he was done with one.

“My husband could be...hotheaded, and between his continual attacks on the empress regnant’s faction and the fact that her own husband was a partisan of hers, my friend and I gradually grew more distant. Eventually, we not only took no more tea together but hardly even wrote to each other—even though we were both grieved to see the gulf between the Shin and the U growing simply because we belonged to different factions.”

The mistress continued to look at the floor, and now she hid her face with a folding fan, so it was impossible to see her expression.

“My husband was a very direct person. It wasn’t in his nature to be able to respect a woman like the empress regnant, who had allegedly assassinated the emperor and put her own son in his place. It was exactly because of his loyalty to the throne that he felt so strongly about it. However, for political acumen the empress regnant was renowned as one of the best of our recent rulers, and very capable. My husband also understood that the U had aligned themselves with the empress regnant for the sake of the nation.”

The assassination of the emperor was never anything more than a rumor, Maomao thought, but it seemed churlish to point that out now, so she kept quiet.

The mistress could understand both perspectives. That was why she couldn’t oppose either the U or the Shin, even when the clans took two very divergent paths.

“From the time her son, the former emperor, took the throne, the empress regnant was vigorous about punishing those who would not obey.

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