The residence that will be accommodating Maomao’s group from now on seemed to be a comfortable place to live in.

Isei Province, where the western capital was situated, was easily pictured to be all desert, but in actuality, mostly grassland. It was arid, but not all sand, having enough moisture for grass to grow. With that being said, water was a precious resource.

And so, the rows of lush trees in the garden of the residence was enough to be a symbol of wealth. Of course, it left much to be desired for people from the capital, which had a large river flowing in its vicinity and was not very far from the coast either, but still…

(It’s somewhat soothing.)

The style of the garden was drawn from the capital, but a lot of the plants used were unfamiliar. It was in Maomao’s nature to want to check if the plants had medicinal value.

“Lass, let’s put down our bags first. I’m already over long-distance travelling.”

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The quack doctor looked at Maomao in exhaustion.

“That’s right, Nyannyan. Once we reach our rooms, we can decide who will be exploring the residence with rock paper scissors, okay?”

It seems Tenyuu held the same opinion as to the quack doctor. Certainly, it appears his affinity with that overly serious Court Physician Ri guy was extremely bad.

Rihaku, the guard, was walking a few steps behind the three of them. It seems he had no intention of speaking about Tenyuu.

There was the medical office too, The room prepared for them was at an outbuilding. Seeing that illnesses are considered unclean, she had no complaints about the location. Even if they were to carelessly establish it in a place with good traffic, they would have to make sure it wouldn’t be contagious should a sick person come in.

“What an odd building.”

The quack doctor looked at the outbuilding curiously. Certainly, the structure was quite different from what was typically found in Rii. Of course, there were building styles particular to the western capital, but speaking which this one was…

“Could this be that chapel thing?” Tenyuu said while touching the brick building.

“Chapou? What’s that?”

The word had to be unfamiliar to the quack doctor. It wasn’t really used in Rii. Not strange for the quack doctor who knew nothing of the world to not know.

“It’s something like a shrine,” Maomao said.

“Ahhh, a place of worship.”

“The western capital has various faiths mixed together.”

Upon entering the outbuilding, they came into a draughty parlour, but it didn’t contain anything resembling an object of worship. There were only faded traces on the decoration of the pillars.

This was likely once the residence of deeply religious people. Was it that once this place became Gyoku’en’s, the building’s function as a place of worship was lost even though it wasn’t demolished?

“It’s spacious enough. Oh, our belongings were even delivered properly. Yeah, there are a lot. It would be a lot of work to put all of this into order. Gosh, should we just keep it in the boxes?” the quack said.

“That’s true. Before that, let’s decide with rock paper scissors! Who will be exploring?” Tenyuu asked.

If it was Maomao from a moment ago, she would be on board with Tenyuu’s suggestion. However, after some deep consideration, Maomao figured that even if she were to win, can the remaining two work properly? If Tenyuu were to win, it would be a bit irritating, and if it were the quack doctor’s win, she wouldn’t be at ease.

In the end, Maomao decided to take the super boring route. She rolled up her sleeves and covered her mouth with a towel. “Okay, exploring will come later! After we sort our belongings!”

“Huh? Weren’t you eager about exploring?” Tenyuu said.

“Lass, we’re tired from the journey. Shouldn’t we take it more slowly?” the quack said.

The cargo brought over through the long journey might have spoiled. They needed to sort out the useable medicines from those that can’t be used and replace what they were low on.

“We can’t. For the time being, we can’t go out unless we clear up everything here first,” Maomao said.

“Ehhhhh—” The quack doctor pouted, brows knitting.

Tenyuu also looked like he couldn’t be bothered, but started to move reluctantly.

“Lass, what should I do?” Rihaku, the large breed dog who looked like he had free time, showed his face. He acted like he was on the verge of doing sit-ups on the floor if there was nothing to do. In that case, let’s put him onto some manual labour.

“Can you bring the box that’s at the entrance of the outbuilding over?” she asked.

There was a large box left at the entrance.

“Roger. Is it heavy?”

“That box was heavy so it was left there…” Maomao stood before the heavy box. She lifted up the lid and looked inside. It contained a large volume of rice husks and sweet potato. “This cargo is something else, huh.”

This was heavy indeed. It was probably impossible for even Rihaku to carry.

“What should we do? Should we borrow a cart?” he asked.

“No, shall we have someone who’s under this jurisdiction come to pick it up?”

When she wondered who she should call, someone came over from the direction of the garden, waving their hands.

“Heeeey, did our cargo get mixed up with yours?”

A man with unremarkable features came over. Daringly put, he’s a normal-looking man, who looked to be around twenty-three to twenty-four years old.

(…I feel like I’ve seen him before?)

Maomao tilted her head.

The other person looked surprised when he saw her.

“Y-you are!” He pointed at Maomao with a forced reaction. “The person who is either Rahan’s younger sister or not!”

“The person who is not,” she said.

Turns out she did recall this exchange from somewhere.

(Who could he be?)

Maomao dropped her gaze to the box of sweet potatoes. Also, Rahan’s name came up. “…are you Rahan’s older brother?”

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“I’m older than Rahan! Why do I get the suffix?!”

The one giving the sharp counter was certainly Rahan’s older brother whom she had met once before. She only remembered his mediocre clean retorts.

“I don’t know your name.”

“My name is—”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

She only just finally learned the quack doctor’s name recently.

“Listen to me!”

“That aside, why are you here?”

At Maomao’s question, Rahan’s older brother made an inexplicable expression. Rihaku, seeing that he wasn’t a harmful person, was silent.

“As dad’s substitute… I was brought over to give guidance on how to grow these….”

He spoke like there was some hidden meaning to it.

“Are you saying that you got tricked by Rahan to come here?”

“N-not at all!”

Easy to read. Rahan was a heartless bastard as usual.

“What happened to Rahan’s biological father?”

How was Rahan’s dad, Ra-something, who was interested in agriculture doing? She felt that he would go anywhere for his fields though.

“…his experiment of growing sweet potatoes in the north was leaked, so he wasn’t able to leave.”

“Experiment?”

“The yield of sweet potato is several times greater than rice, so he was trying to grow it in Shihoku Province, where there is a lot of land and people…”

“I see.” She remembered that Jinshi had various food supply countermeasures in planning.

“But, really, as sweet potato is a plant that came from the south, it didn’t grow well in the north. Honestly speaking, it probably didn’t grow, but dad said that there’s merit to investigating how far north it can go, so I kept my mouth shut.”

“…no, with what he’s doing now…” Even Maomao understood that those were dangerous thoughts. There might be a food supply crisis soon. It was troubling that he was using people and land out of curiosity.

(With that gentle face…)

The man’s aura resembled Ruomen, but it seems he was the type to be blindsided once he’s absorbed into something.

“As you would expect, I found it all dangerous, so this here is… hey.” He threw out something from the box next to the box of sweet potatoes.

“Potato? Umm, is this a white potato?”

It was a small round potato. This seems to be a relatively new foodstuff. She heard that it had yet to appear on the market when the madam was younger.

“That’s right. With this potato, you can grow it on cold, barren land. Rahan, that bastard, he came to check if dad was doing it properly, so he brought over some white potatoes too. Rahan only knows the kind side of dad, so he didn’t really worry about it, but dad is also unhinged.”

His meticulous side was also Rahan-like. Rahan’s father, Ra-something-san, was a member of the Ra Clan after all.

“White potatoes can be harvested twice a year, so it would be when dad is crying to his plantings. About this time, he would have to desperately plant more to falsify the size of the sweet potato harvest, right?”

“You know a lot about potatoes, huh.” She thought Rahan’s older brother was normal-ish and only good at retorts, but he was unexpectedly reliable.

“Amazing. You’re a farming expert, hah.”

“F-FARMING!?”

Rihaku didn’t understand half of what was being said, but he was slapping Rahan’s older brother’s back. Rahan’s older brother looked like he wanted to say something back, but he was too choked to do so.

In addition, the quack didn’t come closer as though he was shy of Rahan’s older brother, who had raised his voice at the end. As for Tenyuu, he didn’t seem interested in the much too ordinary man.

“…and so, do you mean that these potatoes aren’t for eating, but were brought over as a seed potato?”

“That’s right. I was told to give guidance on its growing methods. What is elder brother going to live tied up to the same field for the rest of your life! In the end, it’s still ploughing the fields!”

It seems the normal person had longed for the outside world and was tricked to come here. And when he chased after the seed potatoes, he got used to being a farmer. It seems he was complaining as he skilfully grew crops.

(Agriculture guidance, huh.)

That means he will be heading to the rural district.

“When you’re going to the farming villages, please take me with you too,” Maomao said.

“Why, again?”

“There’s something I want to investigate.”

It was truly a timely offer. If Rahan’s older brother weren’t here, she would be going to ask Rikuson.

(Rikuson’s clothes from that time.)

He was probably covered in mud because he was inspecting the farming villages. What was a man headhunted from the capital to come to the western capital doing at a farming village?

(Was it tax fraud? Or was he going to check the size of the harvest?)

Or…

(Did he sense the start of the locust plague?)

The locust plague had originated from the west of the capital.

If so, there was a high possibility that the locust came from further west. It was important to deal with a locust plague when it was on a smaller scale.

(I’m not that interested in insects though…)

The girl who loved insects had entrusted the matter to her a long time ago, so it can’t be helped.