Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - Ch. 78.2 - The Stronghold (Part 2)

[Vemon]

Thanks for the translation

 

[Official229]

what's the consensus in the kusuriya discord for the novel? Are there other people still persevering to finish the J-Novel TL of the LN, are they reading fan-tl(if there is one), or are they all reading the WN?

No idea, I'm not in it. But I'm fairly certain they're no fans of the novel TL.
You can check for yourself. The link to it is on the alt version of Kusuriya.

 

[vmamoru77]

Seems like everyone with half a brain can tell these motherfuckers are going to get massacred so I'm curious what is exactly their master plan? Just having a lot of guns?

given this period of time.. even single gun can be dangerous thing ..


let me use altair as example


bayazit only have 77 shark-yay on his camp ... and that alone enough to destroy hundred to thousand muzrak army


and muzrak army turtle shield completely useless since shark-yay bullet can pierce thru it

 

[Valle_reading_manga]

Rakan enters worried father mode
Good thing Ruo Men's there to keep him in check
And now it's finally time for Jinshi's big appearance. That being said, the nearing war has, as pointed out by our educational vacationeer, certain implications...

---

Thanks for the chapter!

 

[huuthien2911]

Oh man i am glad and fearful at the same time... glad we have more Maomao and afraid cause i have seen so many series go to shit because of just greed.

I'm currently reading Vol 10 (current manga adapting vol 4), and Im still impress. The story still going strong.

 

[StormSen]

And this is one of the downsides of a collectivist ideology. It is a trash justice system to punish the innocents just for relations. by its own logic the entire imperial family should be executed

It's not collectivist. It's tribal. Tribalism has largely faded from the western world, but has been the dominant organizing social force for millenia; and even today it's essential in many (maybe most) parts of the world.

 

[StormSen]

Feels like we missed a chapter... The one where they go from "knowing nothing about where Maomao is" to "Shi clan has her!".

... Okay there was the bit where they found out that Rouran was switching out with her maids. Still, even if you supposed that Shi clan was involved in Maomao's disappearance, then they would have no idea whether Maomao is still alive, or where she might be. (She could be stashed somewhere in the capital, or with some affiliate house.)

Reacting to comments from @WhimsiCat, @chaos86 and @Aureliano, I went back and reviewed prev chapters. (Notes at end.)

• Maomao's note writing was sloppy, but they did eventually tentatively read it as "Shi Sui", the girl that Maomao was hanging out with. That girl has "Shi" in her name. (Related: the "risen dead woman" was "Sui Rei".) And if they look, they'll find no record of a "Shi Sui" as a maid in the inner place. [73.1]
• They also find that a eunuch is missing. [73.1]
• That eunuch had been seen praying at a shrine/graveyard for the old maids of the palace. Where Jinshi happens on Shen Ryu, whom (based on her smell of liquor/distilled alcohol) he quizzes about Maomao, whereupon she freaks out and poisons herself. And the distilled alcohol that she had was one that Maomao had created(?). And Shen Ryu had been leaving flowers at Tai Hou's grave. [74.2]
• The main (official) issue that Rou Ran has absconded [75.1]. This is a serious violation. Moreover, her whole retinue was involved, and apparently her subterfuge was planned from the beginning.
• So, this is absolutely a "House Shi" issue/violation. Shi Shou should be brought in for questioning, but... he's missing [75.2]. Probably he split town when Ruo Ran's absence was found out.
• Kan Rahan reports on grain and iron pricing odditites, pointing towards someone building up for battle [75.2]. This observation can be combined with Rakan's poking Shi Shou in [72].
• ...
• Maomao disappeared at the same time the eunuch, Rou Ran and Shi Sui disappeared. So those are likely connected.
• Maomao' body isn't found, and Maomao was able to leave a note, so she was not killed on the spot.
• So they have found plenty of evidence House Shi being involved in a plot. And they find evidence for Maomao's disappearance to be tied to that.
• Shi Shou would have had to go to his home territory.
• We're not told, but presumably Shi Shou's home in the capital was searched. So, if he isn't there and Maomao isn't there, then it's reasonable to assume that Maomao was taken to his home base.

So, so there's enough to put it together... But it still feels like a missing chapter... The emperor should be center of this at this point. A long term plot taking place in the inner palace, apparently run by one of the leading ministers? It should have gone to the Emperor as soon as Rou Ran turned up missing [75], then gone full scale as more info came to light. (Though to be fair, we don't know the time gap between ch 75 and ch 78.)

Chapter Notes (ignoring Maomao in village stuff)

Ch 72

• Shi Sho is the son-in-law of the ruler of Shihoku in the north. (I.e. he married into his position.)
• Rakan shows latest gun designs in meeting with Shi Shou. Probably Rakan is hinting to Shi Shou that Rakan thinks that Shi Shou was behind the gun attack on Jinshi during the hunting trip.
• Rakan also tests/finds that Shi Shou is color blind... Hence Shi Shou is likely maternally descended from the original Empress. (Rakan might have gotten "color blind" info from Luomen.)
• Jinshi et al. realizing that Maomao has been missing for two days.

Ch 73.1

• Jinshi & Luomen find note that Maomao left.
• Note is hard to read, but is finally guessed to read "Shi Sui".
• The secret passage is found.
• No "Shi Sui" maid. A eunuch is missing.

Ch 74.2

• Eunuch (Tian/Sui Rei) prayed at shrine/graveyard for old maids.
• At graveyard, Jinshi find Shen Ryu (old maid at clinic), quizzes her about Maomao. She freaks and attempts suicide. (Her freakout is actually due to mistakenly seeing Jinshi as the previous Emperor.) Shen Ryu has green eyes, so is probably descended from foreigners.

Ch 75.1

• Jinshi connects Shen Ryu to Taio Hou, thus connecting her to Shi family.
• Consort Rou ran is found to be missing, and to have been intentionally using her maids as substitutes for herself.
• Rou Ran's attendants under house arrest.

Ch 75.2

• Rakan tries to barge into inner palace. (Searching for Maomao.) News of Maomao's disappearance (plus Rou Ran, etc?) is being hidden (but Rakan found out anyway).
• Shi Shou is missing and is being treated as an enemy of the Emperor.
• Kan Rahan (Rakan's nephew, & adopted son) is introduced. Mention of importance of "Ra" name.
• Rahan reports on suspicious pricing in grain and in iron. (Iron price rise speculated to be due to production of firearms.)

Ch 78.2

• Kan Rahan reports that Shi stronghold is being rebuilt (had been dormant for centuries?). [How does he know this though? It's about 10 days to the north.]

 

[Cidolfas]

Yes.

From the English side of things, the translator is (in my opinion) pulling shit out of his ass. I couldn't get past the first volume of the official English translation because of this. I had a considerably easier time reading the fan translation of the WN, despite it having its own problems not relevant to the discussion (which you'll have no issue spotting should you go read a few chapters of it).

The following information is what I managed to piece together as a non-translator, so this is 2nd hand information.
The PTSD inducing part are there are translation mistakes. Pretty much every other chapter has them.
That by itself isn't that bad, since mistakes do happen... until you realize they've been pointed out to the translator and remained in regardless. If anything, the translator doubled down on his mistakes.
We've come to a point where people are just no longer pointing them out, because they know they won't get fixed.

For example, the official English translation for the novel part of this chapter has the following translation error (attributing the sentence to Rou Men instead of Rakan):
Note: Luo Men -> Ruo Men (Rakan's uncle) | Lakan -> Rakan (the general)


I don't think you even need to know Japanese to see something is wrong there, as the translation contradicts itself.

Funnily enough, MTL gets it right.


This was just one example. There are plenty more I can go hunt for in our series channel. But you do see the problem now, right?
I honestly don't know what to attribute these to. Is it incompetence? Is it a matter of pride? I don't know.
J-novel's other translations do not have these kinds of issues for the most part, so this seems to just be a problem with this translator in particular.
Honestly, what a fucking oversight from J-novel for a series like this to end up with a translation/translator like that.

I'm expressing my dissatisfaction using my wallet, and I hope you are too.
Though, given how popular this series is, I doubt it'll make a dent.

I agree with you that the person speaking in that passage is probably Lakan - and in this manga chapter it's Lakan - but the actual text is ambiguous.

This sent me into a deep dive on the JNovel forums corrections thread, and most everything brought up (which doesn't include this passage! Nobody mentioned it!) seem well explained from the translator and editor team. I have a real hard time trashing a translation over textual or cultural ambiguities that didn't match my reading.

 

[CompachiK]

Seems like everyone with half a brain can tell these motherfuckers are going to get massacred so I'm curious what is exactly their master plan? Just having a lot of guns?

It's been a while but

Spoiler

really big spoilers ahead:

Spoiler

If memory serves, basically all of the talented members of the clan have left by this point and it's mostly the pathologically self-absorbed Shenmei surrounding herself with yes-men and acting out a tantrum against the Imperial Court for perceived humiliation of the Previous Emperor passing her over in favor of her 10 year old maid (Suirei's grandmother).

 

[Official229]

I agree with you that the person speaking in that passage is probably Lakan - and in this manga chapter it's Lakan - but the actual text is ambiguous.

This sent me into a deep dive on the JNovel forums corrections thread, and most everything brought up (which doesn't include this passage! Nobody mentioned it!) seem well explained from the translator and editor team.

2nd hand information again, but people who compare against the Japanese novel have checked out from those threads because things don't get fixed (or the translator / editor brush it aside by saying it's a thought-out decision). You can see that the corrections are mostly just typos now. I also fail to see how it not being pointed out on that thread bears any relevance to it being correct or not.

Reading through the correction thread sure has taken me down memory lane. We've encountered a lot of the same issues when doing the manga (it's the same story, duh). Yet for some reason, when we encountered them and sought clarity from the original Japanese LN as well as the English LN translation, the one thing we all agreed upon was that the English LN translation did it wrong or went a direction that's just weird. I'm inclined to trust the combined autism of several translators and non-translators over a single editor / translator duo, especially when all of them have went whenever they've compared the English translation against the original Japanese.
But hey, we make mistakes as well .

I have a real hard time trashing a translation over textual or cultural ambiguities that didn't match my reading.

I do not understand what you mean here by textual or cultural ambiguities.
I'm guessing the textual is referring to cases like with Rakan / Ruo Men in this chapter?
I do not know you're referring to with cultural ambiguities, though.

If you want to see more concrete examples, I recommend checking the discord I've linked to twice already.
They have a document with the novel translation inaccuracies specifically.
They're not necessarily the same ones that we've come across, but they should overlap to a large degree.

 

[beThereShortly]

Thank you for the chapter!

Rankan is once again proving to be the best character. What a goofball!

 

[gelato345]

When I scoured the earlier non-English scans I thought Maomao was depressed she wasn’t back home after hearing the children playing.

The actual translation? This is much worse. Oughh.

 

[VanVassille]

I can see him mobilizing the forbidden army under the guise of saving his 'fiancee' lol

 

[kaZeTenShi]

to have two fathers and at least two mothers plus any number of sisters… she’s living everyone’s dream

And a violent granny ;>

 

[TheGodEmperor]

It's not collectivist. It's tribal. Tribalism has largely faded from the western world, but has been the dominant organizing social force for millenia; and even today it's essential in many (maybe most) parts of the world.

It is both. But it is deif a collectivist ideology. Also one stemming from the ideology that "Humans are inherently bad" which are two big (and stupid, imo) aspects of Confucianism.

 

[Oodori]

LETS GO WE RAISING AN ARMY BOISSSSSS