The Apothecary Diaries Book 9

Taboo

The next day, the library at the freak strategist's house had been conscientiously cleaned up. The carpet was back in place, the bookshelves were where they belonged. If anything was different, it was only that the faded carpet had been replaced with a new one.

"Master Lahan told one of the servants to clean things up," En'en reported.

"Is that right?" Maomao said with relief. She'd left immediately after the events of the previous day and had felt bad leaving Yao and En'en to un-tear the room apart.

"I did indeed, and the least you could do is be grateful, Little Sister," said someone to whom she very much did not wish to be grateful. He was presently sitting in a chair.

"What the hell are you even doing here?" Maomao asked.

"What a way to talk! With my honored father away, I'm in charge of this household."

"In other words, you've got plenty of time on your hands. Is my father coming or what?"

"Maomao, watch your tone," En'en said. Yao was already seated and waiting eagerly.

Luomen arrived, announced by the tapping of his cane on the floor. As he entered the library, he thanked the servant who was aiding him.

En'en closed the door. The windows were shut as well; candles had been set out for light, and filled the room not just with illumination but also a sweet smell of honey.

I'm not too keen on using fire in a library... Maomao would make sure to put the candles out and change the air in the room the moment this conversation was over.

She pulled out a chair for Luomen. "Thank you," he said, but he looked troubled. It probably had to do with the book sitting on the table.

"You don't mind if I'm here, Granduncle?" Lahan asked.

"You might wish to reconsider where you stick your neck, Lahan," said Luomen.

"I take your point, but I'd like to be aware of what's going on in my house. It's not my style to duck responsibility by saying I didn't know."

In some respects, Lahan had a personality the polar opposite of Maomao's. Perhaps he was simply confident that he would be able to handle any problems that arose from his approach.

"Are we right? Is this Kada's Book?" Yao asked, rising and propping up the sheepskin tome.

"Yes... I compiled it while I was studying in the west."

Yao's face tightened. En'en remained impassive, and Lahan, if anything, looked downright intrigued.

"Did you also make these illustrations, then, Master Luomen?" Yao asked. She flipped the pages, showing the depictions of open human bodies.

"I did. I drew those illustrations, and I did the dissections as well."

At the word dissections, Yao's face got even stiffer. Human dissection was not many people's idea of a good time. Desecrating a dead body was considered immoral, and was forbidden.

"Were they...criminals?" Yao asked.

Luomen shook his head sadly. He stood up and turned to the last page of the book, where there was a picture of a woman. She appeared to be a foreigner; her hair billowed, and her light skin tone was depicted in delicate brushstrokes. Her internal organs were drawn in a realistic fashion, but her face bore the stylized, serene expression of a bodhisattva. There were ink stains here and there; this page was noticeably less clean than the others.

"The land to the west knows much that we do not, and there is a great deal we can learn from them. But it doesn't mean that everything they do is right. I often saw them mete out punishment to people who had committed no crime." There was grief in Luomen's eyes; he seemed to be gazing into the past. "This woman was said to be a witch. To test whether the accusation was true, they tied her to a boulder and threw her in the water, where she sank."