It was still at the height of summer. A notice had arrived for the court physician assistants who had been washing and sterilising bandages over and over for days on end despite their exhaustion.
"For me?"
It was En'en who tilted her head. The notice that came was only for her.
"What could this be about?" Yao studied it in wonder. Including Maomao, she had the best physique out of the three, but her inquisitiveness made her look younger.
"It looks like a notice of personnel change," Maomao said.
After seeing the contents, the three scrunched up their faces. Then they looked at the court physician who had brought in the notice.
"And so, this is where En'en will be working temporarily," he said.
To say who contorted their face the most from the court physican's words, it was En'en herself.
"My apologies, but I would rather not separate from Yao-sama," she said.
"Do you think you can oppose this person?" the court physician asked.
The phrasing was polite all in all, but it seems he wasn't giving her a direct answer.
Speaking of what was written on the notice…
"Ummm, so it's about working for His Highness the imperial brother, for a fixed term," Yao summarised the letter. In other words, being in charge of assisting Jinshi.
"May I ask a question? Why me? If you review the results and such, wouldn't Yao-sama be considered the more excellent choice?" En'en asked.
(Nah, that's because you undermined your performance, no?)
It was Maomao's kindness that she didn't retort despite her wanting to do so.
"Besides, when you consider parentage, I think I'm unfitting."
While Yao was a different matter, En'en was a commoner. It would be natural to select someone with a good pedigree to become the maid of royalty.
However, Maomao felt that she understood the reason En'en was chosen. (T/N: The webnovel had Yao, which sounded really off imo, so I checked the light novel version—En'en made more sense.)
"Rather, he is avoiding people with good parentage," the court physician said, putting on some airs. "If he was to carelessly select someone from a good family, there won't be few suspecting that person to be His Highness's consort candidate."
Jinshi was one year older than Maomao, twenty-years-old. He looked older, but it wouldn't be strange for him to even get a concubine soon. Rather, it would be strange if he didn't have one.
"Also, I was notified that it would be troubling to get someone unskilful due to that face of his."
It was as she predicted. If it was En'en, though it was somewhat twisted, since she lived for her young lady, she probably wouldn't get infatuated with Jinshi. Rather, it was written on the court lady's face that she was against transferring.
"Maomao was also among the candidates, but…" The court physician peeked outside. There was monocle weirdo stuck to the window. Just when she thought she hasn't seen him recently, he was back at it again. Everyone was already used to it. "I got a notice from a certain gentleman stating she was unsuitable, so she has been exempted."
As that gentleman stared in, a pair of people who looked like his subordinates were behind him, dragging him back by his hands. She wished for him to never return, but he would probably be back a little while later.
(Which reminds me.)
She had caught sight of the weirdo tactician, but his adjutant, Rikuson, was nowhere to be found. That man was treated as a priceless treasure with his ability to never forget a face he has seen once, but could he have other jobs?
"It's abrupt, but I want you to go starting from tomorrow," the court physician said.
"…" En'en was expressionless, but she was releasing an absolutely reluctant aura. She stared at Yao for help. And that Yao accepted it, saying that if you say parentage, then it can't be helped. Maomao had thought that the other court lady would be jealous, but she was surprisingly fine for that part. Yao might have known that En'en was the power behind the throne.
"If it's En'en, it wouldn't be strange wherever you go. Good luck," Yao said with a sparkling smile. Instead of what Maomao had normally expected her to do, to retaliate in response to giving En'en away, there were no signs of that air whatsoever—she was giving her blessings. She couldn't read En'en's cues at all.
En'en's face twisted. She couldn't say anything since her master had completely sold her off even though it would be better for her to speak out here.
"Then, I'll leave it to you." Clapped on the shoulders by the court physician, En'en hung her head, crestfallen.
.
.
.
"With one less person, it indeed got busier at work," Yao said as she cleaned up the medicine in the shelf. She was speaking more frequently to Maomao, but this was due to En'en's absence.
"I guess so. En'en works a lot after all." Maomao checked the medicines as she sorted them. There were occasions where unusual medicines would be mixed among those, but the ones brought here today were pretty much only additions to normally used medicines.
"I want to believe that it will be okay, but it'll be great if there's no blunder," Yao said.
"There's nothing to worry about," Maomao replied.
"That's true. It's En'en. She'll be fine."
(No, even if you make some blunder, you won't get beheaded.)
Rather than En'en's ability, it was a judgement based on Jinshi's character. It wasn't Jinshi's specialty to punish people willy-nilly. Of course, he'll punish if it's unavoidable, but she didn't think En'en would commit such a terrible mistake.
(Limited to not committing treason.)
Anyhow, Maomao worked as she normally did.
〇●〇
There were more people in the office than usual. With documents in one hand, Jinshi looked at the civil official, military official and court lady who had been referred to him.
Normally, with Jinshi's position, he wouldn't have face to face meetings with newly assigned people. However, it was Jinshi's consideration to purposely confirm it.
"It will get busy from here on, so do your best at work." Jinshi smiled. It really wasn't that he wanted to show courtesy, nor was it to make the subordinates feel anxious.
All the people here stood without a change in their expression.
The act of smiling is used to give a good impression to the other party, but for Jinshi, on the contrary, it commonly called for disaster.
It was during the first day he entered the inner palace as a eunuch. When he greeted another eunuch with a smile, he was dragged into the thicket the moment Gaoshun looked away for an instant. It wasn't as if one's libido is erased completely with the tool gone, the eunuch had tried to treat Jinshi as the boy in a pederastic relationship. Jinshi had no idea how it was going to work, but that moment, his body had been in danger.
"There's no way that would give a good memory, at this stage," he inadvertently muttered to himself. He had kicked that place and ran away. In truth, it wasn't unusual to have such relations between eunuchs; apparently, they are officially known as sworn brothers.
He didn't want to think about it.
"What's wrong, Jinshi-sama?" Basen, who was finally back, healed of his injuries, tilted his head. His body was shattered all over, but apparently, he trained every single day without fail. Even Gaoshun, as a father, was shocked by his son's sturdiness.
"No, it's nothing."
The people selected this time didn't seem bad. He was a little uneasy when he heard that there had to be a young maid, but there didn't seem to be an issue in that respect.
However, with the incident where he got served poison last time, it was better he braced himself. He had to be vigilant. Jinshi personally wanted to employ an old friend, but who he got this time was the co-worker of that old friend. In other words, it was about the court physician assisting court lady.
For a person from a newly constructed post, the exam in and of itself was created to be difficult. He heard that among their numbers, those who were deemed unsuitable by the court physicians were quickly expelled, so he would think that her ability was assured.
Due to the crown prince's debut, he will allocate work to each of them from now on. Jinshi also had to start on his work, so he decided to promptly dissolve the meeting here.
.
.
.
When everyone was gone, Jinshi gave a big sigh. Basen, being the only person in the room, would overlook this much for him.
Basen also tried his best at work for the time he spent in his break. Jinshi was delighted that the other man tried his best on the paperwork he was weak in.
"Jinshi-sama, what shall we do about the matter about the Sha'ou Priestess in the villa?" Basen asked, a document in hand.
Politics is truly a pain. What would be faster to speak out is sent around through letters. Certainly, he had a feeling that the other party had shown up at the villa quite some time ago. At this point, it was also troubling to inquire through documents. If he remembered properly, Jinshi had greeted her once, but that was all. He had thought that someone else was interacting with her, but it was unforeseen that it would come around to Jinshi now.
"Am I doing it…?" He could only sigh when he saw the mountain of documents. Work related to the inner palace was still coming over, and he had a feeling that everything from the gap with the Shi Clan out of the equation was coming around to him too. "I wonder if everyone hates me."
"No, I would believe that you are beloved instead," Basen said.
"Stop saying that with a straight face."
"Is that so? What's with everyone coming here wanting to see Jinshi-sama then?"
It was because the man was saying it with no sense of malice whatsoever that it was troubling.
The reason court ladies were forbidden entry was that there were too many who purposely drop their documents to prolong their work. There would be the occasional civil official who would such a thing, so he could only forbid anyone who drops their documents from entering ever again.
Thanks to that, for a portion of people, it is seen as a place where you get punished the moment you fail.
Nonetheless, the documents do not decrease.
"The matter is about what we should do about the Sha'ou Priestess, but she has yet to meet the court physicians, right?"
"Yes. Those going will be Court Physician Kan and the court physician assistants."
The other party is a leader of a foreign country, a person with the title of Priestess. Be as it may that she was here for medical treatment, she wasn't someone who was fine to be readily touched by males, so the former eunuch, Court Physician Kan, in other words, Kan Ruomen, Maomao's adoptive father, Rakan's uncle, will be going. Those touching and examining her will be the court ladies, and Ruomen will probably by examining the priestess' illness through their information.
It was drawn-out, but it was the other party's wish, so it can't be helped. Although there were two court ladies left as he had just headhunted one of them, Maomao was there, so it would probably go well with her cooperating with Ruomen.
"Well then, ask about the circumstance of both parties. Along with when's convenient for the Priestess, report to the medical office so she can visit," Jinshi said.
"Certainly." Basen promptly wrote up a document and make use of the messenger who was waiting outside the office.
"Anything else?" Jinshi wanted to get the important matters over and done with first. It was fine to postpone the trivial matter that kept coming back.
"There's nothing in particular, but, ah, there's one if you say there's one," Basen said.
"What is it?"
"…I was given a request for immediate transfer."
"…." Jinshi accepted the quickly scrawled transfer request. It would have to be someone among those he had met up with just now.
"'Return me to be a court physician assistant', the court lady called En'en had requested," Basen said.
There was indeed a saying, 'birds of a feather'(lit. badgers of the same hole), apparently, there are a lot of peculiar people among those who seek a slightly peculiar profession.
The young maid didn't want to stay for as much as possible, so if the other maids learn the job it shouldn't be a problem if the numbers decrease, Jinshi thought, so he was going to respond to her request if she bore with it for a bit longer.
"This En'en court lady, what kind of recommendation did she get?" Jinshi asked.
"She is careful, good at lifting people up at work. Also, she has been trained as a maid since the age of ten, so there shouldn't be a problem. She also has a good memory, but her inability to go ahead on her own accord is a strength and counts as a weakness."
"That is certainly not bad."
"And also… there's something else, that's unrelated to ability, though…" Basen turned his face away from the document, somehow at a loss as to what to say.
"What is it? Speak up."
"…yes. In the remarks, 'dislikes men', it's not that she hates them, but.." he hesitated a little, then went on. "It seems, just a little, she's inclined towards lilies."
Lilies, that is, she preferred getting along with those of the same gender over the opposite gender. (T/N: Lilies, as in Yuri. Lesbian.)
"EMPLOY!" Jinshi threw away the transfer request.
"J-Jinshi-sama!"
"It has nothing to do with ability, right? She's a good talent. I won't let her escape me," Jinshi said to Basen, grinning, and started to resume working.