Volume 8, Chapter 6: Medicinal Herb Gathering (2/2)

“Hmm. Rather, are there medicinal herbs during this season? Also, the field is outside the wall, right? I heard that there are herbs, but I couldn’t find it anywhere so I left it.”

“Ahh, it’s nothing. Nothing weird is growing. …so, you’ll know when we get to it.” Maomao put on a jacket and left the Rokushoukan.

“Oh my. You’re going out with two sexy guys? Way to go—”

“Not a chance.”

Maomao and a similar aged courtesan said jokingly. She knew her from when she was a kamuro, so their exchanges were also casual.

They left the still-empty-at-noon pleasure district via the south side. They could see beggars in the alleyway, staring at them and wondering if they could be extorted from.

The old man guarding the castle gate yawned in boredom. Kokuyou smiled and waved at him like good friends, but the old man responded with a look of disgust. How much trouble did he stir up?

“What did you do?” she asked Kokuyou.

“I did nothing,” he replied.

How suspicious.

The gates are surrounded by a moat on the outside, similar to the inner palace in structure

Apparently, the inner palace was constructed on what used to be the castle ruins of the previous dynasty a long, long time ago before Rii was created. Could this outer wall be similarly built from the town ruins?

They turned right after leaving the gate. In terms of directions, they headed west.

“Here, that,” she said.

“That?”

Maomao pointed to the outer wall. There were branch-like things creeping on the wall. It was currently winter, so to some extent, the leaves would be more green and lush during summer. Having spread over the waterway, their vitality is amazing.

“I can see withered branches, but what’s this?” Sazen asked.

“We’re not using the stalks.” Maomao grabbed onto a branch and followed it down to the roots. She dug up the soil with a tool.

“Hehh, arrowroot, huh?” Kokuyou nodded, and helped her.

“By arrowroot, you mean kudzu?” Sazen asked.

“That’s right. Don’t stand around like an idiot. Help out,” Maomao said.

“Y-yeah.”

The three of them dug in the soil.

“Umm, can I ask a question?” Sazen asked.

“Sure,” Maomao said.

“I feel the old man at the castle gate is looking at us weirdly.”

“It’s fine. The outer wall will be damaged with the kudzu growing on it, and moreover, it’ll become a path for foreign enemies to invade. That’s why kudzu harvest is encouraged, apparently.”

“Apparently.”

Apparently, Dad had been apprehended by the guard many times and explained that. That’s why it was fine to dig up the arrowroot.

“I heard kudzu has high vitality. They can thrive even in a place like this.” Kokuyou was smiling in awe.

“Apparently they have been growing since around fifty years ago.”

She recalled what the old man of the castle gate said once. An old timer, he was gatekeeping during retirement.

“…can I ask a question?” Sazen said.

“Sure,” Maomao said.

“You said, Ruomen-san created a field here.”

“…”

“Eh, then, you’re saying he grew kudzu?”

“Yeah–, come on, your hands are idle. Quickly, dig, dig!”

Maomao roughly shaved down an excessively large root.

She recalled Dad looking at the outer wall in apology a long time ago.

He had left in a hurry to study in the West, and then worked in the inner palace afterwards.

In the space of a few decades, the kudzu had grown densely.

Dad started work at the imperial court again, and Maomao also became a court lady who assisted the court physicians, so they once again grew quickly.

Since there is a male help known as Sazen here, she wanted him to work hard at digging out the arrowroot.

“There’s a lot of arrowroot. Can we use them all?” Kokuyou asked.

“We don’t need to worry about the amount since kudzu powder can be sold as cold prevention,” Maomao said.

“Kudzu powder, how nice. But, wouldn’t that take a lot of work to make? Wouldn’t it be easier to buy it norma—”

“Come on, your hands are free. Work, work.” Maomao silenced Kokuyou who was saying unnecessary things.  She noticed she was more talkative than usual to silence the chatterbox.

(Sazen, sorry.)

He wasn’t someone responsible for cleaning up Dad’s mistakes, but she had him come along to eradicate the kudzu.

Making kudzu powder will take more than one or two days, so she’ll explain later. Besides that, she had to forbid Kokuyou from speaking.

(Ahh, we don’t have enough time.)

While she was thinking busy, busy, other things were on her mind, so it was good she could forget about her other worries.

Maomao diligently dug out the kudzu whose roots had spread over the ground.