Light Novel Volume 03

Volume 3

Japanese
English

Japanese

薬屋のひとりごと３

Romaji

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 3

Trans. Title

Apothecary's Monologue 3

English

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 3

Cover Character(s)
Maomao, Jinshi

Release Info

Format

Light Novel

Release (JP)

June 29, 2015 (Hero Bunko)

ISBN (JP)

ISBN-13：ISBN 978-4-07-401176-6
ISBN-10：ISBN 4-074-01176-X

Pages (JP)

408

Release (EN)

Digital：September 14, 2021 (J-Novel Club)
Print：Expected November 5, 2024 (Square Enix Manga & Books)

ISBN (EN)

ISBN-13：ISBN Digital: 978-1-71-836122-5
Print: 978-1-64-609274-1
ISBN-10：ISBN Digital: 1-718-36122-X
Print: 1-646-09274-0

Pages (EN)

Digital: 242
Print: 352

Adapted

From
To

Web Novel

Chapter 56-?

Manga

Main：Ch.41-Ch.64
Notebook：Ch.31-Ch.053

Anime

Episode 25-Episode 36

Volumes
◄ Previous	Next ►
Volume 2	Volume 4

"The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 3" ( 薬屋のひとりごと３, Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 3 ) is the 3rd volume of the The Apothecary Diaries light novel series written by Natsu Hyūga and illustrated by Touko Shino. It was first published in Japan on June 29, 2015. The translated digital English version was published via J-Novel Club on September 14, 2021. The translated print English version was published on November 5, 2024.

Blurb[]

Maomao must help keep Consort Gyokuyou safe during her pregnancy. An imperial consort being with child is supposed to be a matter of the utmost secrecy, but this is the rear palace, where maneuvering and backstabbing are as commonplace as banter and tea parties. Threats seem to lurk around every corner—but it’s not just the rear palace keeping busy. Jinshi finds himself struggling to entertain a most unusual request from a pair of visiting ambassadors. Later, he’s invited to an important gathering in a faraway place—but who knows what dangers might be waiting for him?

Chapters[]

Prologue
Chapter 1: Books (書, Sho^?)
Chapter 2: The Cat (猫, Neko^?)
Chapter 3: The Caravan (隊商, Kyaraban^?)
Chapter 4: Perfume Oil (香油, Kōyu^?)
Chapter 5: Corpse Fungus (Part One) (冬人夏草　前編, Tōjin Kasō Zenpen^?)
Chapter 6: Corpse Fungus (Part Two) (冬人夏草　後編, Tōjin Kasō Kōhen^?)
Chapter 7: Mirrors (鏡, Kagami^?)
Chapter 8: The Moon Spirit (月精, Gessei^?)
Chapter 9: The Clinic (診療所, Shinryōjo^?)
Chapter 10: Third Time's the Charm (Part One) (みたび、水晶宮　前編, Mitabi, Suishō-kyū Zenpen^?)
Chapter 11: Third Time's the Charm (Part Two) (みたび、水晶宮　後編, Mitabi, Suishō-kyū Kōhen^?)
Chapter 12: The Shrine of Choosing (選択の廟, Sentaku no Byō^?)
Chapter 13: The Empress Dowager (皇太后, Kōtaigō^?)
Chapter 14: His Former Majesty (先帝, Sentei^?)
Chapter 15: Scary Stories (怪談, Kaidan^?)
Chapter 16: Beating the Heat (避暑地, Hishochi^?)
Chapter 17: The Hunt (Part One) (狩り　前編, Kari Zenpen^?)
Chapter 18: The Hunt (Part Two) (狩り　中編, Kari Chūhen^?)
Chapter 19: The Hunt (Part Three) (狩り　後編, Kari Kōhen^?)
Epilogue

Synopsis[]

Jinshi awakens after dreaming about a distressing scene between his mother, father, and grandmother. He considers his options on telling Maomao his real identity.

While making perfume and alcohol at the rear palace medical office, Maomao receives a package of erotic novels to be given to the consorts. Jinshi and Gaoshun are surprised by the paper quality and request the name of the selling bookstore. With Jinshi's goal of raising the literacy rate and the Emperor's support, books begin to circulate throughout the inner court, from the consorts down to the servants. This leads many servants, including Xiaolan, to seek learning on how to read and write.

A caravan comes to the rear palace, with all the consorts and ladies-in-waiting in excitement for all the goods to buy. Maomao joins Xiaolan at the caravan marketplace on the last day (for the discount) to purchase a hairband for Xiaolan, teas, and spices. While choosing jasmine tea, Maomao meets Shisui, a friend of Xiaolan. They decide to take a break at the medical office, where Shisui shows everyone her fascination with insects, to Maomao's interest.

A new trend in the rear palace results in the place becoming inundated with perfumes. Maomao goes to the Crystal Pavilion to investigate, by tearing off and smelling the ladies'-in-waiting outfits. Upon hearing complaints from there, Jinshi confronts Maomao on her actions, but she warns him of the presence of miscarriage-inducing goods brought by caravan. Jinshi later drinks some jasmine tea from Maomao on hearing that it can help with impotence.

Maomao hears of a servant who disappeared from the rear palace before her term was up. Jinshi informs Maomao of his plans to open a school for servants who want to learn how to read and write, to Maomao's delight. After giving suggestions to improve his idea, Maomao accepts a request to remove and catalogue all mushrooms within the rear palace, to reduce the number of food poisoning cases.

Maomao and Hongniang attend the funeral of a middle consort, who died of food poisoning. There, they witness another consort, with bandages wrapped around her face, open the coffin to reveal a similarly disfigured body. Maomao learns that the bandaged consort had become ill two years ago. She shows Jinshi and Gaoshun the effects of a mushroom that causes severe swelling, by unwrapping the bandage on her left arm. She connects the mushroom’s effects to the body's disfigurement, leading to Jinshi explaining that the middle consort, Consort Jin, had fallen ill to the mushroom one year prior to her death, after using it against a lower consort. This led to her subsequent suicide by food poisoning, according to her ladies-in-waiting. Maomao deduces that something is amiss when the consort's facial swellings are still fresh, and that there is no sign of her having eaten the mushroom.

Days later, Maomao searches for areas in the rear palace containing mushrooms. With the help of Gaoshun and two other eunuchs, she digs beneath one such spot to find a corpse. The corpse is revealed to be the real Consort Jin, who had already died one year ago. Maomao further deduces that the fake consort may have been the missing servant.

Jinshi asks Maomao to help recreate a moon spirit dance performance, as requested entertainment for two visiting envoys in an upcoming banquet. The previous "moon spirit" was in fact the old madam, who recounts to Maomao that dead bugs were rubbed into her clothing as a prank, and that she attracted plenty of bugs despite them being eliminated in the area. As there is no woman who is both beautiful and tall enough, Jinshi is selected to be the "moon spirit".

While exploring the location of the banquet, Maomao finds Shisui collecting moth cocoons. The banquet begins with the two envoys as guests of honor. Unmoved by the performances so far, one envoy exits her carriage to approach the Emperor, but is prevented in time by the other envoy. When the banquet ends, the envoys' carriages stop in front of a pond, where they see a moon spirit waving a scarf around, surrounded by hundreds of tiny lights. The spirit then seemingly vanishes into thin air. Both envoys are captivated by the performance, especially after Maomao mentions the name of the moon goddess.

To create the scenery, Maomao and Shisui collected female moths, whose pheromones released on clothing attracted male moths to it. This resulted in an ethereal effect like the old madam's performance.

Jinshi's school goes underway, with Xiaolan among its first students. Maomao accompanies Ailan to treat her fever at the rear palace clinic, which is staffed by middle-aged women. Returning from the clinic, she runs into Jinshi, who discusses plans to expand the medical staff in the future. The next day, Maomao is requested to make medicine for a servant at the Crystal Pavilion by Shenlü, one of the women from the clinic.

The rear palace doctor arrives at the Crystal Pavilion, along with Maomao disguised as a servant as she cannot freely enter. Though Shin, Lihua's cousin and chief lady-in-waiting, tries to obstruct them from entering, they find the sick servant isolated in a storage shed. Maomao notices that the heavy incense inside the shed was used to disguise odors from the servant and from a box containing many miscarriage-inducing perfumes. Jinshi confronts Shin with those perfumes with Lihua in attendance. Shin initially denies everything but admits that she was envious of Lihua's status as consort and possible mother of the nation, so kept the perfumes to make a miscarriage-inducing drug. Lihua then slaps Shin across the face in response to her comments. To spare Shin from the death penalty, she also dismisses her from the rear palace.

Maomao joins the Emperor and Jinshi at the Shrine of Choosing, which was used to determine whether the ruler (and consort) had a right to rule. The shrine's test consists of choosing one out of a series of three colored doors, given instructions. Their first attempt at the shrine's test fails, but their second attempt, with Maomao guiding, succeeds. Maomao surmises that having red-green color blindness is the key to solving the shrine's puzzle, as only they could properly follow the instructions.

Maomao finds Shisui collecting bugs based on a tip from other servants. While listening to Shisui explain about insects, they spot the Empress Dowager heading to the clinic, whom they hide from. Returning to the Jade Pavilion, the ladies-in-waiting prepare for a visit from the empress dowager, who asks Maomao for help regarding the Former Emperor.

Maomao is brought to the inner court and is informed of the "curse" the empress dowager believed to have: a year after his death, the former emperor's body had not yet decomposed. Staying at Jinshi's residence for the night, Maomao and Suiren talk about Jinshi and look at his childhood toys. Among them is a stone that is toxic.

The next day, Maomao enters the former emperor's room to investigate. She finds painting supplies and layers of paintings hidden behind the wallpaper; the first consisting of an adult woman surrounded by younger women. Recalling Jinshi's toxic stone, Maomao suspects that the paints contained orpiment, a source of arsenic, which leeched into the former emperor's body over time, preventing it from rotting upon death. The empress dowager reflects on her past with the former emperor, who feared adult women, having been dominated by his mother, the empress regnant, his whole life. As a result, he became a pedophile. She soon leaves, warning Jinshi to take care to hide his favorites.

Jinshi requests Maomao to join him on a hunting trip in Northern Province, on Shishou's invitation, with Gaoshun and Basen as another guest and attendant respectively. On arrival, Maomao notices cagey behavior from the other three, and they spend the rest of the day indoors. Jinshi also refuses to eat the dinner delivered by the hosts, as it contains aphrodisiacs. The following day, Jinshi, Gaoshun, and Basen join the hunt, with Maomao staying behind. She greets Lihaku, who is also on the trip as a bodyguard in charge of a hunting dog.

During the hunting banquet, Maomao attends Gaoshun, while Basen attends to Jinshi, who wears a mask and sits as the main guest. Jinshi leaves his seat, and Maomao follows him into the woods. While helping him cool off, Maomao and Jinshi are suddenly shot at, to which they escape by jumping into the nearby waterfall.

Basen becomes increasingly worried over Jinshi's disappearance. Lihaku then comes in and gives Basen a piece of Jinshi's robe that was stuck on a rock near the waterfall basin. Searching around that location yields a hawk-feathered arrow, of which Basen searches for among the attendees' belongings. Lo-en, an official, is found to have matching arrows, but he claims that those were planted on him. Basen then decides to start searching in the woods.

After jumping down the cliff, Jinshi takes Maomao into the cavern behind the waterfall. While drying their clothes, they discuss the best way to get out. On their first attempt, Maomao stands on Jinshi's shoulders to try to reach the cave opening. However, she loses her balance from a frog landing on her head, causing Jinshi to fall as well. Maomao ends up on top of Jinshi with her hand between his legs, and realizes he is not actually a eunuch, but deflects by claiming it was a frog she touched. Maomao then hears Lihaku's dog nearby and whistles, allowing them to be rescued. The smell from the gunshots leads the dog to one of the shooters, whom Lihaku takes into custody.

Returning to their house, Maomao and Jinshi make peace over what happened in the cavern. Lo-en is cleared of suspicion, as he had been the bait to draw out the shooter's accomplices.

Gaoshun and Basen join the hunt festivities, with Gaoshun pondering over the main guest of the hunt – the imperial younger brother, also known as Jinshi.