Volume 7, Chapter 12: Go Tournament – Morning of the Second Day (2/2)

When you lose once, you must once again return to the plaza.

Maomao passed him a new tag, a drink and a mooncake.

“The people on the right are waiting to compete. Please play against them at once.”

You cannot pick your opponent. The old man made a look of distaste but reluctantly moved to sit on the right.

If he had voiced any words of dissent, she’d have him leave immediately.

To make sure he doesn’t try to pull anything, a number of the weirdo’s subordinates were on standby alongside Dad.

“Excuse me, may I have a refill of mooncakes?” A timid looking man said to Maomao.

Not a participant. It was the man who recently became the substitute for the weirdo’s subordinate, Rikuson. A man of average build, he didn’t seem like a military official.

Rikuson is a gentle man with a self-assured personality, but this one had the air of a pushover.

“Understood,” Maomao said.

Did he eat it all already? With a look of surprise, she handed over the small amount of steamed buns left over laboriously. “Here you go.”

“N-no, um….” The subordinate looked like he had something difficult to say. “…can you bring it over to Rakan-sama?”

“…”

“I-I’m sorry. You seem busy so I’ll do it myself.”

As soon as he saw Maomao’s face, he retreated. Good. He understands.

“Maomao ah…”

She heard a sad voice.

It was Dad.

“Don’t make such a face,” he said.

“Such a face, you say.” Maomao relaxed her face. It seems her temple was throbbing and her lips were terribly twisted.

“I’m sorry.” Apologising to the subordinate, Dad looked towards the old man concerned. “Has Rakan been feeling unwell lately?”

“You can tell?” The subordinate looked at Dad.

“Rakan-sama seemed to be looking forward to today’s tournament, that he, so, so unusually, to the point that it was truly unbelievable, yes, very, worked extremely hard.”

“….”

How much does he work normally?

“Normally he would come to work at noon and leave right before the sun sets, but he was in the office like other people, and moreover, didn’t take any naps.”

“That child is working hard, considering. Normally he would sleep half the day away.”

So he finally turned into an average person.

Dad stared at the weirdo tactician.

Maomao wasn’t entirely sure herself, but apparently that thing gets tired too.

It was hard to tell since he was extremely lively when playing Go.

“He’ll probably start work from tomorrow onwards, but my apologies, can you allow him some time to sleep? If he doesn’t get enough sleep, his judgement ability will plummet all at once.”

“What judgement. Seems to me he’s rampaging on the regular,” Maomao murmured, and Dad lowered his brows a little desolately.

Dad is somewhat soft on the weirdo.

“Maomao, I’m going to walk around outside.”

“Understood. Call me if anything comes up.”

He could probably just leave the apprehending to a nearby military official.

Rahan’s intention in calling Maomao and Dad over was to use them to buffer the weirdo tactician’s antics. He was behaving himself right now, and it was more important for Dad to check for any unwell people outside.

“There are a lot of people, so be careful,” she said.

“I’ll be fine.”

So he said, but Dad had a disabled leg and was walking with a cane. While worrying over him being pushed around by the crowd and falling over, she picked up a mooncake.

“They should have prepared rice crackers as well.”

It was delicious, but she wanted something salty—as she entertained such whimsical thoughts, she decided to make more honey infused drinks.