The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 7 by Natsu Hyuuga

Author:Natsu Hyuuga [HYUUGA, NATSU]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2023-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

Maomao and the others had lunch at a nearby dining hall. The food was free and you could even get seconds, but if you didn’t want what they were serving, you had to bring your own meal or snack.

The court ladies ate separately from the men. Usually, Yao acted all but indifferent toward Maomao, but at meal times she edged a little closer on account of the atmosphere in the dining area.

Whether it be the rear palace or the pleasure quarter, there was a side of women that only came out with other women. When the ladies were off in their own corner of the dining hall, where the men wouldn’t see or hear them, that was when the talk really started.

“I give up. I just can’t abide soldiers. He gets paid well, but he’s so busy, and so much of his money goes to all the food he needs. He doesn’t even treat me to a decent meal!”

“Ugh, that’s awful. But civil officials aren’t so great either. That one who chatted me up the other day? Remember him? Well, it was nice of him to ask, but—ugh. I just don’t think I have anything to talk about with a man who’s made his way in life by organizing shelf after shelf of moldy books! I can’t even accept his hair stick. It’s so old-fashioned, I wouldn’t be caught dead with it!”

“Oh, take it. I know you—you’re just going to pawn it anyway.”

Many of the court ladies came from high-ranking families, but their personalities weren’t always as good as their upbringings. It was something of a difficult reality for a genuinely prim and proper young lady.

Maomao usually chose a seat in a corner of the dining area, and wherever she went, Yao would dart after her. She knew that if Maomao was there, the crueler ladies, especially those who were hostile to the newly minted medical assistants, would keep their distance.

I just tried to give them fair warning, Maomao thought, but now they wouldn’t get anywhere near her. It was like the Crystal Pavilion all over again.

So what had happened? There had been a court lady who’d decided to launch a preemptive strike against what she took to be the naive young medical assistants. She’d approached them with a train of hangers-on, in fact looking much like Yao had at the beginning. But where Yao had obviously been passionate about her work, this woman gave the impression that she was mostly at the palace in hopes of landing a mate. The way she seemed to have a different male dining companion at every meal, it was almost as if she took pride in being a woman of easy virtue.

Maomao couldn’t help but notice a rash around the woman’s mouth. “It seems you have a substantial number of partners,” she’d said. “Are you aware of the risks of illness?” She was just making sure.

“I wouldn’t be with a man who was sick!” the woman had said, whereupon Maomao had told her

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