En'en As far as she knew, the Rahan residence had ordinary servants and servants who were not so ordinary.
The ordinary servants were mainly those brought by the household's adopted son, Rahaku— people he had brought along.
The non-ordinary servants were people Rahan himself had picked up from who-knows-where.
The man called strategist Rahan was, by all appearances, a thoroughly unremarkable fellow. Neither fat nor thin, neither tall nor short, with narrow fox-like eyes and a lecherous mouth. If one were to name a distinguishing feature, it would be the foreign-style monocle he wore. He was technically a military official, yet his physical prowess was abysmal. He had no stamina, and got sick on any form of conveyance. His horsemanship alone was passable—from his days in Jushai Province, supposedly, he could ride at least as well as the average person.
In all honesty, he was nothing more than a figurehead who had landed an important post solely through his bloodline. That had been the general assessment of Rahan until about a decade or so ago.
But when civil unrest broke out in the Western Capital and he returned afterward, his reputation underwent a complete transformation.
As an individual, he was hopelessly dull, yet when it came to putting others to use, he surpassed everyone.
The servants such a man brought in could hardly be ordinary.
Dressed in men's clothing and preparing tea was Sanban— one of the servants Rahan had brought in.
Sanban's height was short for a man, yet tall for a woman.
About the same height as Yao. En'en had confirmed that Sanban was female. She was a servant who had come to Rahan roughly five years ago.
"Maomao, En'en. I'm sorry for summoning you."
Sanban had well-proportioned features and wore a faint smile.
"What can I do for you?"
Rather than En'en, it was Maomao who responded.
It was. She had a thoroughly exasperated look on her face.
"To think I would try to entertain our guests—"
"That sort of polite preamble is fine, but could we move on to the actual topic?"
En'en spoke bluntly. Maomao was nodding along, apparently about to say the same thing. She was already helping herself to tea and the rice cracker snacks.
"Very well. I'll be straightforward. It's about that Yao of yours."
"Yao? That's a rather familiar way to address her."
As far as En'en was concerned, there was no reason Sanban should be addressing Yao so casually.
"Is that because"
"Vice Minister Lu"
"is her uncle? From what I've found, she's someone who resents her uncle's influence. On a personal level, she's merely a court lady, isn't she? Is she truly noble enough to warrant an honorific?"
Sanban's expression didn't change. She wore a faint smile, but her eyes weren't smiling.
Just as En'en had looked into Sanban, Sanban had clearly done her homework on both En'en and Yao. She even seemed to know about Maomao's preferences—the snack crackers laid out were exactly the crispy, crunchy salted rice crackers she favored. And Maomao was crunching away on them happily.
"Nonetheless, I didn't come here looking for a fight. I invited you both because I'd like to discuss an arrangement that benefits everyone."
"Mutual benefit?"
Maomao fixed her with a skeptical gaze.
"And what exactly would that be?"
"Well. I don't think anyone stands to gain from Yao remaining in this mansion any longer. I've actually found a lovely new residence I'd very much like to recommend."
She smoothly produced a paper with a floor plan sketched on it. It was more spacious than the rooms En'en and the others were currently using, with more furnaces in the kitchen and a well nearby.
"The area is close to the market and the neighborhood is quite safe. The workspace is nearby too, and the rent is—would you believe it—only this much!"
The number of fingers she held up was indeed a bargain. In En'en's place, Maomao's eyes lit up and her hands began to flutter with excitement.
"With this much space, the herbs, the processing..."
It was true that the workplace lodgings weren't suited for processing medicinal herbs.
"That is a fine property, to be sure."
"Isn't it? Then shall we go ahead and arrange the move right away?"
"I'd like to say yes without hesitation, but I want to confirm one thing first. What exactly is the problem with us staying in this mansion?"
"What a suspicious nature you have. I'm simply saying that it looks improper for a respectable young lady to be staying indefinitely in a gentleman's home."
"That's true enough. Put simply, it sounds like a proposal made out of consideration for Yao."
Yen Yen stared intently at Sanban.
"Yen Yen."
Maomao nudged her with her elbow and whispered.
"What is it, Maomao?"
Yen Yen whispered back in the same manner.
"Why don't you just go along with the proposal? It's a perfectly good place, and I don't think it's a scam. What exactly do you find objectionable?"
"If I had to pinpoint it, doesn't Sanban seem to be looking down on the young lady a bit?"
"That's just your imagination, isn't it?"
"No, it is not my imagination."
Yen Yen fixed Sanban with a sharp gaze.
"Sanban's points are perfectly valid, but are they truly made out of consideration for Yao?"
"No, they're made out of consideration for Raban."
Sanban answered with a beaming smile.
Yen Yen thought to herself.
Certainly, Sanban's proposal was not a bad deal for Yen Yen. However, it contained no respect for Yao. What did that mean, exactly?
"Honestly, what kind of thing is it for a young lady of age to throw herself into a gentleman's home, no matter how tiresome her uncle's talk of marriage may be? And the uncle who was supposedly so bothersome is currently away in some distant western land with no telling when he'll return. Yet she has the nerve to simply plant herself there. I, for one, cannot understand such thick skin."
While Yen Yen stewed over Sanban's remarks, Maomao nudged her with her elbow again.
"Yen Yen, could it be that you actually agree with the proposal itself, but because you find this Sanban so disagreeable, you just don't want to acquiesce?"
"...No, that's not it at all."
"Your face is scrunching up terribly right now."
"Then just agree to it quickly."
"Hmm, that's something I need to discuss with the young lady first."
"Somehow, in the end, you can never win against Yao, can you?"
Maomao cast her an exasperated look.
"Can we stop with the whispering already?"
Sanban asked.
"I can't say anything about the move until I've discussed it with the young lady first."
"Is that so? Even the ideal properties I've been suggesting to the other servants aren't good enough?"
Sanban tilted her head.
Yen'en was growing increasingly frustrated at how she kept playing into the other's rhythm.
"Then let me turn the question around — why are you so dead set on driving us out, especially Lady Yao? I'd love to hear your reasoning."
Yen'en had entertained the faint hope that Sanban might at least be thrown off her composure. But Sanban answered without so much as changing her expression.
"I love Rahban. I intend to do whatever it takes for him. So when some naive little girl gets the wrong idea and shows up forcing herself on him like a pushy bride-to-be, how could I not see her as anything but a nuisance?"
"Who are you calling a naive little girl—"
Just as Yen'en was about to lunge forward— "Pfft!"
It was Maomao who sprayed sparkling droplets everywhere. It was so disgusting that Yen'en instinctively stepped back half a pace.
"My apologies."
"No, it's..."
Tea and cracker crumbs from Maomao's outburst clung to Sanban's face.
"But are you in your right mind?"
"What exactly do you mean by right mind?"
Sanban returned Maomao's question with genuine confusion, wiping her face with a hand towel.
"I'm talking about that scruffy fellow with the glasses. He thinks about nothing but making money, women are an afterthought at best, and if some pretty number is involved, he'd even consider having children with a man—"
just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill little man, you know?"
"I'm well aware. Moreover, when he cuts someone off, he's thorough about it — he drives an incompatible partner into a corner without dirtying his own hands and leaves no evidence. His athletic ability is abysmal: he can't ride a horse, can't draw a bowstring... I'd say the term 'big-headed bookworm' suits him perfectly."
"He clearly doesn't look like a decent man, does he?"
Maomao wore an expression of disbelief. Her reaction was so exaggerated that Yanyan felt her anger over being called a "little girl" by Sanban subside just a little.
However, Sanban herself was faintly flushed in the cheeks.
"Well, I won't say his appearance is particularly outstanding, but he gave me the chance to live as myself. He wouldn't bend his principles for the sake of anything beautiful."
She had the face of a lovestruck maiden, which was rather unfortunate, but Yanyan still couldn't bring herself to think well of Rakan.
"No matter how much Sanban-san harbors feelings for him, a man like that will eventually grow bored of his games, then casually take a young woman from a respectable family as his wife, pretend his past dalliances never happened, and play at being a proper family man. Are you really okay with that? Given your current position, I don't think you're a fitting match to become the mistress of this household."
Yanyan's assessment of Rakan was harsh, but she didn't think it was entirely wrong. She didn't know his original family background, but as far as she knew, he was nothing more than a servant now.
"I'm well aware of that. That's precisely why I believe it doesn't matter whether I'm Sanban or Second. What I'd like is for the person who becomes the future mistress of this estate to be someone I can support."
"..."
Yanyan couldn't help but exchange a glance with Maomao.
Sanban was an even more zealous devotee than they had imagined.
"No, no, let's stop right there! There are plenty of men out there far better than Rakan!"
"Maomao-sama, it's not so easy to find a man who thinks the way Rakan-sama does, you know?"
"Sanban-san, even if you can't match up to the young lady in looks, you're quite attractive by any standard. Your vision is just clouded right now."
"A man shallow enough to judge women by appearance would never have been on my radar to begin with."
"No, that guy absolutely goes for looks — he's obsessed with beauty and all those numbers! You need to open your eyes and face reality!"
Maomao shook Sanban by the shoulders.
Yanyan understood at least half of what Maomao was feeling. She couldn't comprehend why that bespectacled man was so popular either. Rakan must have been born under some kind of star that granted him that sort of luck.
But at the same time, she was weighing whether to persuade Yao and have her move into the property Sanban recommended as soon as possible. She wasn't confident she could explain it well.
More than anything, there was a certain worry gnawing at her.
If, by some one-in-a-hundred-million fluke — an impossibility, but still — What if Yao, like Sanban, had fallen in love with Rakan?
She told herself it was youthful folly and utterly unthinkable, yet the very act of urging the move to confirm whether that was the case was the hardest thing Yanyan had ever had to do.