Apothecary Diaries: Volume 14 (Light Novel) (eBook)

Natsu Hyuuga (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
9781718361447 (ISBN)

Infos

No sooner is Maomao settled back in the royal capital than she's dragged off to a meeting of the named clans, and despite the posh surroundings, intrigue is the order of the day. Old grudges come to the surface, new ones threaten to break out into fights, and...is that a hint of love in the air? Maomao will have to navigate the twisting politics and conflicting priorities of the different clans-including hers-if she wants to survive one of the liveliest meetings around!

Textauszug

Chapter 1: The Meeting of the Named (Part One)

The day after she had visited Jinshi, Maomao found herself shaken awake by someone most unexpected.

“Maomao, wake up!”

“Huh? En’en?”

Maomao was tired from everything that had happened the night before. She hadn’t even managed to brush her teeth before sleep had taken her. Even her leftover food and drink still lay scattered about.

“Quick, get changed!”

“Why? Were we doing something today?” Still looking a bit vacant, Maomao got out some clothes. She was pretty sure she’d left today open, after planning to visit Jinshi last night.

“We weren’t, until the biggest thing happened and now I need you to come with me.” En’en looked deadly serious.

“Aren’t you going to ask if I’m free?”

“What are your plans for today?”

“Nothing much.”

At least, there hadn’t been.

“And you have work tomorrow, right?” En’en asked.

“Yeah...”

“Don’t worry, I took the liberty of telling them you’d be out.”

“What? Why?!”

Maomao was still trying to catch up with what was happening as En’en stripped her down and hustled her into her clothes.

“Where are we going? For that matter, where’s Yao?”

“My mistress is in the carriage outside. I’ll give you the details once we’re en route.”

In other words, she would not be taking no for an answer. Maomao could be surprisingly generous—but there were limits. Yao and En’en weren’t as bad as Lahan, but she still thought they were going a bit overboard.

“What if I refuse?” she asked. You had to know where to draw the line in your relationships. She couldn’t have En’en thinking she could just be pushed around.

“I have one good reason you won’t. Something you love.”

I’m not sure what she takes me for.

Maomao wasn’t going to remain pleasant and friendly forever. A lot had happened last night, and she was still tired. She was very eager to spend today in quiet relaxation.

“Here.”

En’en placed a thick book in front of her. It had a luxurious vellum cover decorated with pictures of flowers and bearing a title in a foreign language.

Maomao’s sleepy eyes snapped open and she swallowed hard.

“May I...open it?”

“Be my guest.”

“Hoooooohhhhhh!”

It was a botanical encyclopedia. Maomao was struck by the detail of the illustrations in spite of the fact that the book appeared to be printed. She’d never seen this book before, and many of the plants within were unfamiliar to her. Even if it took time to translate, the result would be well worth the effort.

“All right, that’s it for your test read!” En’en announced.

“Ahhh!”

En’en snatched the book away from Maomao, who was clinging to it and quivering.

“A few more pages! Let me see just a little more!”

“It’s a very valuable book—a trader seems to have stocked it on a whim, then sold it to a bookstore. I doubt we’ll see another copy for a good long while.”

“How much? How much do you want?! I’ll pay! I’ll give you my whole salary, and if that’s not enough, I’ll go into debt!”

“You sound like a desperate gambler,” En’en grumbled. Then she gave the book to Maomao. In exchange, she clasped Maomao’s wrist firmly, so she couldn’t get away. “I promise I’ll tell you everything. But for starters, would you join me in the carriage?”

“Absolutely!” Maomao said, hugging her encyclopedia close.

As promised, Yao was in the carriage outside the dormitory, dressed to go out. En’en sat beside her, while Maomao sat across from them. The carriage started off.

“So where exactly do you plan to take me?” Maomao asked Yao, still clutching her book.

“Maomao, do you know about the meeting of the named?”

“The meeting of the named?” She cocked her head.

“I can’t believe you,” groused Yao.

“Positively ridiculous,” said En’en.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Maomao asked, giving them an annoyed look.

“Didn’t you get a letter from Master Lahan?”

“Yes, and it made excellent kindling.”

Long pause from the other girls.

Lahan’s letters were inevitably filled with prying questions about how things were going with Jinshi and other obnoxiousness, so these days Maomao threw them right in the trash.

“No wonder you don’t know.”

“What is this meeting of the named? Is that where we’re going now, by any chance?”

“Correct,” said En’en, giving her an okay gesture.

“When you say ‘named,’ you must be talking about—you know. The Ma clan and the U clan and all those.”

“That’s right. It’s a meeting of all the clans who have been granted a name by the Emperor. We, however, are not among them. I’d love to go myself, but of course I’m not qualified. So we’re attending as your attendants.” En’en didn’t look thrilled by this premise.

“Why would you want to go? I don’t think it will be that interesting. Besides, even if you say I brought you, I bet they’ll just chase you right back out.”

Maomao didn’t think of herself as a member of the La clan, and didn’t expect to be admitted to some assembly she knew nothing about just because she’d shown up.

“This was Master Lahan’s condition. He said he would take us as long as we brought you.”

“Huh! So that four-eyed bastard is behind this.”

“Maomao.” En’en glared at her, reminding her not to use foul language in front of Yao. Unfortunately for her, Maomao was well used to being glared at by now and thought nothing of it—but she did decide to be more careful of her words.

“If it’s some kind of gathering, then I guess it’s very formal and everything. Are you sure I can just go bringing random people?”

“It doesn’t sound like it’s actually that serious. More of a meet and greet. It’s the perfect opportunity to make new connections, so sometimes people bring folks they want to introduce,” En’en said—proving her worth as a gatherer of information once again.

“But why does Yao want to go to this meeting of the named? Is there some sort of connection you want to make?”

“Exactly the opposite!” Yao said, and produced a sheaf of letters. The cloying stench of perfume immediately filled the carriage confines.

“That reeks!” Maomao exclaimed. “Don’t tell me... Are those love letters?”

“Yes, they are!”

Even for love letters, they were in bad taste—both in whatever perfume that was, and how much of it was on them. Maomao became acutely aware of how high-class the letters she ordinarily received were.

“May I?”

“Go ahead.”

Maomao took the sheaf. She knew it wasn’t polite to read someone else’s love letters, but the outrageous fumes gave her a bad feeling about this.

“Yikes...”

“Yikes is right,” Yao groaned. En’en nodded.

Love letters were usually rife with unctuous praise for the recipient, but this author talked extensively about how great he was and how prominent his family was. Self-confidence wasn’t a bad thing, but this was out-and-out narcissism. The handwriting was lovely, if nothing else—suggesting that the writer’s real skill was in finding a good scribe.

“While you were in the western capital, Maomao, somebody seems to have taken a fancy to my mistress. These letters have been arriving nonstop, and I can’t stand it!” En’en gave the letters a look of absolute contempt. It was such a familiar expression, it almost made Maomao nostalgic.

“He showed up when I was at work, and wouldn’t give up even after the doctors chased him out,” Yao said. “Even worse, it sounds like he’s told his family he’s actually seeing me already...”

It seemed the past year had been as eventful for Yao and En’en as it had been for Maomao.

I had no idea.

When Yao had been fretting about “relationships” the other day, maybe this was what she had meant.

“Huh! That sounds like a tight spot,” Maomao said.

“Don’t be flippant,” replied En’en, her face grim.

“Yeah,” said Yao. “And you know what? This moron said he’s going to go talk to my mother! I never imagined things would be worse without my uncle here!”

Yao’s father had already passed, leaving Vice Minister Lu as her guardian. When Maomao and the others had returned to the royal city, the vice minister had stayed behind in the western capital.

“My mistress’s mother isn’t the most worldly woman, and there’s a good chance she’ll swallow whatever this guy says hook, line, and sinker. She believes that a woman’s greatest joy is to marry into a good family.”

Maomao had only heard snippets about Yao’s mother before—evidently, she was Yao’s polar opposite.

“And if her mother is taken in by this guy, then Yao could be forced to marry him because the two...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.5.2025
• Reihe/Serie: The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel)
• Illustrationen: Natsu Hyuuga
• Übersetzer: Natsu Hyuuga
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Krimi / Thriller
• Schlagworte: Drama • eunuchs • female protagonist • History • Light Novel • Mystery
• ISBN-13: 9781718361447 / 9781718361447