Chapter 1054: That Creature Is a Harmful Creature (9)

While the passage to Maji Island was being prepared, the very first thing Qing did was change the prince’s diet.

“Your Highness, enjoy your meal.”

“Ugh... are you sure my tray didn’t get switched with a servant’s? This is...”

“How could that be? It’s just that your heart is currently full of corrupt temptation, so there was no choice but to cut you off from cooked food in order to purify you.”

The prince looked down at the tray.

Rice and beans soaking in water.

With rice and beans that were not soaking in water served on the side.

Cooked food meant food prepared over fire, or any act of eating such food. In the Taoist arts of preserving life, people used to say that such things were terribly harmful to the body, and even more harmful to the mind and soul.

From that perspective, it was a splendid non-cooked meal.

“No matter what you say, this is—”

“Your Highness, you have to keep Lord Nakamura alive.”

So what, you’re just going to let Nakamura die like this?

You’re not going to save Nakamura?

You’re going to let Nakamura die?

“Right. Right, of course.”

And so the prince lost even the cooked food he had been fated to eat.

And so one day passed, then two, then three.

No matter how delicious something is, if a person eats nothing but that same thing over and over, they get sick of it fast.

And if even delicious food becomes unbearable that way, then what about food that tastes bad?

Could chewing plain soaked rice and unsoaked rice with no seasoning at all—brown rice, not even milled—really be called a meal?

People had always said that living well meant eating well, and among food, clothing, and shelter, the importance of eating well came first.

Which meant the prince, forced to continue this wretched diet, could hardly be called someone living well.

And on top of that—

“Your Highness... you must not... trust that demoness... please... please...!”

Even while rotting alive in hideous agony, Lord Nakamura simply could not stop offering loyal counsel to his lord.

“Lord Nakamura, please come to your senses. And if I don’t trust her, then what exactly am I supposed to do? I have to return to my country, don’t I?”

“You... must not return... that demoness... that vile bitch... is colluding with Central Plains soldiers... and means to destroy the kingdom while she’s at it...”

“Enough already!!”

The prince shouted at the top of his lungs.

Well, anyone would have gotten irritated.

He had to spoon-feed him every meal, help him relieve himself, even wipe down his body because he was developing bedsores.

And in the middle of all that, his own meals were nothing but soaked grain and raw grain because cooked food was forbidden.

Then on top of that, the patient he was taking care of opened his mouth only to say don’t trust that woman, and now he had gone even further and was saying they should not return to their homeland at all?

“My lord... I speak only... from loyalty...”

“Then what exactly do you expect me to do if I don’t trust her? Swim home? Staying in the Central Plains like this is already only possible because of Lady Seomun’s generosity. So what, should I leave at once, live out in the wild like a savage, and wait there until my royal father arrives with an army?”

“That... that is exactly it. That is what you must do. If you wait, His Majesty... will surely come... but if you remain in that demoness’s grasp... she will make a hostage of you...!”

The prince was dumbfounded.

No matter how sick he was, no matter how much pain had clouded his judgment, the things coming out of his mouth were still beyond belief.

Then suddenly the stench rising from Nakamura’s rotting wound became too much for the prince to bear.

“I’m stepping out for some air.”

“My lord, please, please don’t dismiss my words so lightly...”

Leaving Nakamura’s pleas behind, the prince slammed the door and stepped out into the corridor.

And there, at the far end of the hall, he ran straight into Qing, who happened to be coming with a fresh bowl of medicinal decoction.

A truly uncanny coincidence.

Almost as if she had been standing there all along, waiting with it in her hands.

“Hm? Your Highness? Why are you out here instead of tending to the patient? Did you perhaps hear me coming? Well, this works out nicely. Here, take this. We’ll be boarding the ship tomorrow morning, so I prepared a medicinal decoction to help the patient endure the trip.”

Qing smiled brightly, holding out the tray. With the face veil on, she did not even bother managing her expression anymore.

Why are you out here? It was getting good. Go on back in, feed it to him, and get even sicker of him. Hurry up and go.

The prince accepted the tray with an unmistakably sour look on his face, and Qing’s smile deepened.

“It’ll be bitter and sour enough that he may try to spit it out, but you must force it down him no matter what. If his body isn’t strengthened like this, Lord Nakamura won’t survive the conditions aboard a tossing ship.”

Of course it would be bitter and sour.

She had simmered knotweed and ephedra until they were fully reduced, making it the bitterest, harshest liquid in the world; then she had squeezed in quince juice to add sourness and astringency, and finally mixed in a generous amount of salt for a briny finish.

So maybe, if someone searched hard enough, they might find some actual medicinal value in it.

But in the end, it was simply a hideous liquid she had painstakingly made in order to torment someone.

And so what did Qing’s special decoction taste like?

The moment the prince poured it into Nakamura’s mouth—

PFFFT!

Even a man dying from a rotting abdomen found the strength to spray forward with impressive force.

Naturally, the prince—who had been pouring it in—got the full blast evenly smeared across his face, which left him feeling sticky, miserable, and utterly wretched—

“That demoness... she really has given me poison... my lord, she’s trying to kill me... blegh. Poison... poison. Ghk. Khk—”

The prince wiped his face with one hand.

Endure it. I have to endure it. Loyal retainer. He’s my loyal retainer.

“Good medicine is always bitter. Here.”

But Nakamura clamped his mouth shut and shook his head frantically. It was bitter, hot, sour, astringent, and salty all at once—there was simply no way any human being could consider it food. Of course he thought that demoness was trying to poison him.

The prince grabbed Nakamura’s jaw hard, squeezed his cheeks until his mouth was forced open, and slowly poured the decoction in.

Mmph-blblb—

It went in only to come straight back out again, with the occasional spray besides. He thrashed about as though he had forgotten even his pain, no, not forgotten it—rather, the pain hit so hard that a shrill, agonized scream burst out of him.

He had been acting like a man on the verge of death, so where in the world was all this strength coming from?

Maybe the medicine really was that effective.

He didn’t even know whether it was good for him, and he clearly had no appreciation at all for the labor of the person feeding it to him. Why was he making things so difficult? Why was he acting like this, seriously...!

And just as the prince’s irritation was climbing toward its absolute limit—

“Your Highness? I brought the patient’s meal.”

Qing barged in with a tray carrying a bowl of hodgepodge porridge.

Nakamura’s lips were swollen and ruined from the aftereffects of the bitter, hot, sour, astringent, salty decoction, cold sweat pouring off him as he stared resentfully at the prince.

The prince, meanwhile, looked utterly wrung out, and his eyes now held plain anger.

Seeing that, Qing felt boundless satisfaction.

This was exactly the proper way for bad people to look at each other.

And to put the finishing touch on it—

“Look, Your Highness. Lord Nakamura’s complexion is flushed, and he’s sweating. He’s already recovering his vigor, isn’t he? And when the body’s vitality returns like this, you must not miss the chance to strengthen it with good food. This is the Fairy Clinic’s special restorative porridge.”

Qing’s special hodgepodge porridge revealed itself.

Inside the glossy rice porridge floated a generous amount of finely chopped vegetables, shimmering in bright five-colored variety. It looked utterly delicious.

And Qing had even drizzled in a portion of sesame oil she had set aside on purpose, so that the moment it met the hot porridge, that rich, nutty fragrance spread through the entire room.

Gulp.

That was the prince swallowing.

Well, of course. He had spent the last three days chewing nothing but soaked grain and raw grain, so the sight of a single fine bowl of porridge was naturally enough to make saliva flood his mouth.

“And this is Your Highness’s meal. Then I’ll be going.”

Qing stepped out and back in once more, set down the usual meager bowl of grain, and withdrew.

But even until the moment the door clicked shut behind her, the prince’s gaze never left the hodgepodge porridge.

It looks... incredibly, unbelievably good.

Seriously—

Gulp.

How could a mere bowl of porridge look this luxurious? This appetizing...?

The prince picked up the bowl and scooped up a spoonful.

Gulp.

Then, trying very hard not to look tempted, he held the spoon out toward Nakamura.

But Nakamura shook his head.

“That demoness... there is surely poison in—”

“You’re still saying that? Lord Nakamura, how do you feel now? You said there was poison in the decoction, yet look at you—aren’t you lively as ever? In the end, it was medicine after all. And you still doubt her?”

“Do not... fall for... that demoness’s tricks...”

Nakamura was not doubting.

He was certain.

After all, he had heard her vicious scheme with his own ears.

But the prince snapped.

“Fine then. Since you keep suspecting Lady Seomun’s sincerity and insisting the decoction was poisoned, if there were truly poison in it, then wouldn’t your meal be the same? In that case, if I taste it myself, won’t that put your mind at ease?”

“My lord, no—”

“Look!”

The prince scooped up a large spoonful of porridge and stuffed it into his own mouth.

And then—

Flavor exploded.

Qing’s special hodgepodge porridge had earned lavish praise even from the sons and daughters of the richest houses in the Central Plains, people raised on fine food from infancy.

So for a prince who had spent days gnawing down nothing but raw grain under the name of meals?

That was the moment his eyes practically rolled back.

No, how could food this delicious exist in the world?

How had he lived without ever knowing it?

“My lord, no, you must spit it out at once. She made that herself—”

“My lord...?”

“My lord, now that we know... there’s no poison in it...”

“Gulp.”

“My lord, if I’m to recover my strength—”

By the time the prince came back to his senses, the bowl was already completely empty.

He had scraped it so clean that one rinse with water would probably have washed it spotless.

And so Nakamura was forced to sit there wide-eyed and watch as the prince shoveled down the porridge as if possessed by the ghost of someone who had starved to death—while wearing the happiest expression in the world.

At first Nakamura had tried to stop him.

Then he had started wondering if it really was that good.

His own mouth was still full of bitterness, sourness, heat, and salt, yet his saliva kept pooling anyway.

And in the end, full of desperate longing, all he could do was stare.

The next day, at last, it was time to set out.

Maji Island lay roughly one hundred and twenty li east of the Shanghai headland.

Because Shanghai itself sat farther inland, once they passed the brackish-water zone where the Yangtze met the sea, it would still be another three hundred li or so by sea.

So the expected voyage would take around three days.

Which Qing found more than a little absurd.

Three days.

A mere three days away, and they had allowed a pirate den to sit there unmolested?

Of course, the Water Forces did have excuses of their own.

If it had been as easy as sailing over in a swarm and blasting them all to death with cannon, they might well have done it as a training exercise.

But that would only have stirred up more venom. In the end, soldiers would still have to land and wipe them out, and that was exactly where the Water Forces ran into a wall.

And if they wanted to mobilize land troops, that was not the sort of thing local generals could settle by huddling together and muttering it over among themselves.

In the first place, even that kind of muttering was impossible. The obvious response would be: Why should our land troops solve pirate matters? Isn’t that the Water Forces’ job?

Anyway.

Boarding complete.

Departure.

And since there would be nothing to do until they arrived, Qing had naturally prepared entertainment in advance.

“Ahem, Lady Seomun, about that porridge yesterday. What was it called, exactly?”

“Oh, that? It doesn’t really have a name.”

“No name? Is there such a thing as a dish with no name?”

“Well, I never gave it one. Hmm. If I had to call it something... Seomun Secret Nutritive Porridge?”

“Ah! Lady Seomun made it herself?”

“Well, naturally. When it comes to food for a patient, it would hardly do for someone other than a physician to handle it. So? Did it suit your taste?”

“Of course it did! I had never tasted such excellent porridge in my life! No—rather, I mean, I had never tasted anything so fine. Ahem. Then, if that medicinal porridge is so good for the body... my own meals...”

Qing grinned.

The little bastard ate it himself.

Which, to be fair, was exactly who I meant it for.

“My, last time I sensed the aura of impure lust from you, and now I sense the aura of appetite. Surely you aren’t coveting the patient’s food while you’re meant to be caring for him? Not at a time when Lord Nakamura’s life cannot be guaranteed unless every ounce of your devotion is poured into him?”

“No, of course not. Nothing of the sort.”

“The bowl was licked absolutely clean yesterday, and again this morning, so I suppose Lord Nakamura must have eaten every last bite. In that case, starting today, I should be able to add meat. By the time we arrive, there ought to be dramatic improvement.”

At that, the prince swallowed.

It was already that delicious without meat.

So how good would it be with meat added?

And so, at lunch, there was chicken hodgepodge porridge, full of tender shredded meat that practically fell apart on the tongue.

For dinner, there was a rich hodgepodge porridge with shredded jangjorim and crushed tofu mixed in.

The next morning, unbelievably, came hodgepodge beef porridge.

And at lunch, an ultra-luxurious premium hodgepodge porridge made with pheasant, sea cucumber innards, and sea urchin roe.

If she served the same thing over and over, he would get sick of it and actually feed it to the patient, so the hodgepodge porridge kept evolving into more and more extravagant forms.

Thanks to that, the Water Forces were the ones living in luxury.

At first the ship’s cook had hovered nearby, half suspicious and half unconvinced, watching every move. Now he was practically radiating reverence from his eyes as he furiously wrote down her methods.

Even the Water Forces soldiers disguised as civilian sailors had by this point begun waiting for mealtimes with stretched necks.

And Qing, for her part, was having a wonderful time too.

“That’s strange. Why has the patient grown so much weaker? Your Highness, could it be—”

“No. Absolutely not.”

She had not even finished asking before the prince denied it out of sheer guilt.

Qing’s eyes turned lazily toward Nakamura.

The man had already been dying, then he had been forced to writhe under the effects of that horrible decoction until his strength was drained away, and after that even his meals had been stolen from him.

He was now awake so rarely that, no matter how much True Qi she infused into him, his True Essence kept scattering away. At this point, it looked like he did not have much longer.

“Your Highness, I think the final critical moment has come. Tonight, you must stay by his side without sleeping and pray for his recovery without pause. If you sincerely pray through the night for Lord Nakamura’s full recovery and offer your devotion with all your heart, he’ll soon rise as though nothing ever happened. But if, by any chance, even the slightest corrupt thought is mixed into that devotion, then he may die at once. Still, surely that would never happen. So now Lord Nakamura’s life or death truly—really—rests in your hands.”

She said it in a grave voice, but what it boiled down to was simple enough:

If this one dies, it’s all your fault.

And beneath the face veil as she said it so solemnly, Qing’s smile was blooming wide and lovely.