Volume 8, Chapter 11: Court Physician and Herbalist (2/2)

“Are you from a family of farmers?” Maomao blurted out in her vexation.

“No, I got used to this training, with this being the third time I’ve done it. That said, it doesn’t feel good, does it?” Tenyuu answered.

As expected, he had been feigning ignorance that time a few days ago.

Tenyuu seemed to be a generally useless man with a loose tongue, but it seems he has deft fingers. He sliced through the slippery chicken skin skilfully.

“Do it while thinking which organ is equivalent to the parts of the human body.”

Of course, the structure of humans and chickens are different.

This was probably the very first point of introduction.

If you can’t catch a chicken that’s running around, there’s no way you can do it to a human subject.

If you don’t have the guts to strangle a living chicken, you won’t be able to cut up a human.

If you don’t have the finesse to cut apart a strangled chicken, you won’t be able to do it to a human body.

It was the introduction of an introduction, but there were also apprentice court physicians who had a hard time with the first step.

“What’s after chicken?” Maomao asked.

“Pig. It’s large, so it’s one per three people. Once you get to cow, it’s five people. Once you’re used to it, you don the court physician robe and do it without making any blood splatters. And I haven’t advanced to the next step,” Tenyuu said.

“You still haven’t advanced?”

“No, I was made to start all over again. My skill is shaky, they said.”

He looked calm compared to the other apprentice court physicians, so she ended up talking with Tenyuu.

“It’s fine if you’re just doing it all over again. If they take that you don’t have the potential at all, you don’t have the path to promote,” he said.

(No potential, huh.)

She recalled the apprentice court physician that went strange.

“I won’t be able to make En’en-chan feel at ease with an apprentice court physician’s wages,  you see.”

(En’en, keep at it.)

It seems this man is truly persistent.

By chopping up chickens, it grew thick with the smell of blood. An apprentice court physicians who couldn’t tolerate the smell cut the chicken while covering his nose and mouth with a towel, but Court Physician Ryuu, who had returned, stripped it off.

“It is correct to wear a mask when you treat patients. But take it off now.”

The face of the apprentice court physician who got his mask taken off turned ghastly pale. He ran out of the hut, sick.

“Ahh. How many times has it been? He’s going to be treated as having no potential now.” Tenyuu commented about others.

Maomao laid out the organs on a plate. Heart, liver, intestines, stomach…

(Intestines are easy to damage but they’re delicious. It’s edible now though.)

It was a bit of a hassle to wash chicken intestines since they are so thin though.

(I want to turn it into a gizzard skewer and sprinkle salt on it.)

It would probably be delicious if the blood was drained.

(The gallbladder hasn’t been crushed. Good.)

When bile spills out, it’ll be spoiled.

She gently placed the organ down. When she put it all of them down, Court Physician Ryuu…

“Now, put it back together and sew it up.”

Even though she had divided all of them for cooking.

“I know that you’re eager to eat it, but don’t keep doing this. You’ll be seeing your patients as meat,” he said.

“That is not going to happen, obviously,” she said.

It seems Maomao’s thoughts were transparent.

She placed the organs back into their original positions. She put in special care for the gallbladder as to not crush it.

“You know how to use it?” he asked.

Taken out before Maomao was something carefully wrapped in cloth that looked like a fish hook. There was also some thread.

“Yes,” she said.

Was the thread silk? It had a characteristic sheen. She passed the thread through the hole in the fish hook and sewed it up with her fingers pinching onto it.

(Since I have sewed before.)

She always used a straight needle, but the fish hook shape was easier to use than expected.

(When you become a bureaucrat, you get to use nice tools.)

She sewed with awe. Calling it extravagant, the area she was pinching onto was thin so if there was a tool she could use to maintain a proper grip on it, she could do it more easily.

(I can’t hold on with tweezers, huh. If there’s a tool that can grip on a little better, I want it.)

She finished sewing while in thought.

She looked over to the side. Tenyuu was looking like he had already finished his work, so it was vexing.

“How did it go? Give me a look.” Court Physician Ryuu looked at the stitches. “…hmm, do whatever you like to it afterwards.

It seems she got a passing mark.

“Wash the needle properly. Boil it afterwards. It’s expensive, so don’t lose it.”

Both with its shape and thinness, it probably can only be made by really skilled artisans. Sneaking it home would be impossible—she gave up on that.

Maomao cut the thread she had sewn with and decided to take out all the organs and wash it.