Kusuriya no Hitorigoto - Vol. 12 Ch. 63.2 - The Hunt (Part 4)

[Hicleric]

You really need to reread the whole manga. You either have a very bad memory or have terrible reading comprehension.

Mao got a hunch that Jinshi is way more important than just an eunuch very early on (that time she pushed him out of danger and hurt her leg) but she decided to ignore it to avoid trouble. This wasn’t implied but showed clearly. Later on she deduced the relationship between Jinshi and consort Adou. But again, she just shook it off and avoid pursuing it. That’s the two I can remember but I’m sure there are more. Whenever it comes to Jinshi’s background, Mao actively avoids getting deeper because she knows it’s too dangerous. The fact that she discovered that he’s not an eunuch at all and again avoid accepting it is entirely consistent with her behaviour right from the beginning. She didn’t just figure it out 60 chapters in. She figured it out bits by bits throughout the manga from the beginning until now.

You just managed to miss out all the Everest-sized breadcrumps.

I am a big enough person to recognize the gaps in my memory (it has been years since I've read through the earlier arcs) so thank you for filling them in. I will nonetheless take issue with the accompanying, unwarranted personal attacks and consequently deliver a bonk in reply.
spoiler to indulge in little more pettiness:

ah heck, let's make it two since I'm a little peeved about having a rational literary decomposition argument being judged as equivalent to advocating rape, but I'll stop there. Bonk.

I'd also like to ask if breadcrumps (krumps?) are delicious because I am apparently bad at reading comprehension and unable to infer intent from the letters presented in front of me.


Back to the matter at hand (ha!) I argue that recognizing there is something different about Jinshi is not the same as deducing that he is not a eunuch. Maomao derisively calling him "eunuch" consistently up through this arc indicates that she never seriously considered the possibility that he wasn't (even if he was special), and that's where I find the discrepancy in her deductive skills to arise.

Or perhaps this is an intentional discrepancy, since her fondness for nicknames (e.g., "that quack") could indicate a penchant for pigeonholing once she has a feel for a person, which could be an interesting foible to explore as she attempts to dig into the conspiracy. I'd be quite happy if that turns out to be the case. It would add layers to her character knowing that her skills are ultimately susceptible to the sin of being human.

 

[Mingxingxing]

Well, Maomao think of herself as a normal illegitimate daughter of a courtesan and forget her father lineage. Her father wanted to acknowledge his daughter and that would make many men pursuing her base on the connection.

Think of this time period worse than Victorian regency era historically. Maybe more of era where a king of England married queen after queen for a son and he accused his queen(s) of being unfaithful when he is the one who has strings of mistresses and the queen's guilt is not having a baby boy.

Jinshi should know better than to approach a woman who disguise herself to be less attractive with this pushy approach, but he is angry and has been in a bind in how to tell her his real status. He is lucky she doesn't have a turtle on hand.

 

[Postludium]

does anyone know what volume in the light novel that this storyline occurs in?

 

[Grimmycoffee]

And.. a pistol. A flintlock pistol, known for their godawful accuracy and noise, among other things; used in an assassination in a country which have few, if any, firearms. Genius.

They did mention so there might be explanation, I guess.

Noise aside, I do wonder how bad their accuracy actually is, since having shorter Effective Range is different than having worse accuracy, and I've heard that when western ship crash in medieval Japan, the Japanese try out the firearms at bow range. I don't remember the detail, but if the result is good enough that a clan there even become Christian for it, it must've went pretty well.

 

[alacaelum]

So everyone is aware on this fun hunting trip just now there was an assassination attempt on one of the guest right?

Like the whole thing is called off and FBI is called and heads will roll or a national scandal right?

Believe it or not... I could see this leading to nothing.

An undercover hunt... certainly.

But a full-on hunt for political dissidents... yeah, I don't think so.

The emperor is powerful, but he isn't the only person with power in the country, there are other leaders that have if not equal at least too close for comfort power that he couldn't simply turn a finger and accuse them.

And Shinji's situation is a "secret", one way or another excess action could lead to a lot of undesirable attention, whatever they do... it will be subtle and heads will roll only after solid proof is gathered.

But the immediate culprits will be sentenced.

 

[The5thSeraph]

I'm pretty sure Mao Mao has just been in denial about the whole not-a-eunuch thing this whole time.

Not to say she was completely unaware. Just that she wasn't even willing to entertain the thought. No doubt she has seen the evidence plenty of times and simply rejected the correct conclusion because the consequences of it being so are potentially catastrophic. And as the story has continuously and unsubtly hinted, her adoptive father told her not to act on assumptions / jump to conclusions / whatever.

Yeah, people have constantly treated it like some sort of plot-hole or uncharacteristic stupidity, but it isn't. We've just been dealing with an unreliable narrator who can't be honest with herself about certain things.

 

[Gurgling]

What a good dog.

 

[welcome2atlantis]

Smart doggo deserves some treatos.

 

[Carn109]

Looks like the Frog was stopped by the Dog

 

[fabyan]

damn, he almost rape her

 

[Nihmandra]

Way to rizz up a girl who disguised herself on daily to not get raped, bravo ji... kousen. I didn't think much about him but I'm starting to dislike him now

 

[terrysen13]

Should have kicked him in the nuts

So what if she did'nt praise his glorious "frog" or whatever
gives him no right to act like this

tbf, if we're gonna call out jinshi's actions we should also call out the fact that maomao groped tf out of jinshi, lol. even if we say she didn't know he had 'it', the moment she started having suspicions she continued to fondle him to "make sure" rather than immediately let go. not saying they're even and jinshi's response is appropriate, just saying maomao shouldn't go scot-free either.

don't get it twisted, i love my girl maomao but often i notice jinshi gets the brunt of the complaints but we don't really talk about maomao's own questionable actions (casually lifting the lady's skirt after the chocolate incident, her courtesan joke/threat on the crystal palace maid, the rihaku 'inspection' where she was about to ask him to show his private parts, going up to random palace ladies to sniff them, etc.)

 

[RobinMedea]

tbf, if we're gonna call out jinshi's actions we should also call out the fact that maomao groped tf out of jinshi, lol. even if we say she didn't know he had 'it', the moment she started having suspicions she continued to fondle him to "make sure" rather than immediately let go. not saying they're even and jinshi's response is appropriate, just saying maomao shouldn't go scot-free either.

don't get it twisted, i love my girl maomao but often i notice jinshi gets the brunt of the complaints but we don't really talk about maomao's own questionable actions (casually lifting the lady's skirt after the chocolate incident, her courtesan joke/threat on the crystal palace maid, the rihaku 'inspection' where she was about to ask him to show his private parts, going up to random palace ladies to sniff them, etc.)

Oh no not saying that isn't bad.

it's just worse.

Jinshi is simply the one in power in their dynamic. He is older and nobility.

 

[cksn]

jinshi did nothing wrong
power dynamic is both inevitable and morally good because he's male

 

[Ai9964]

MaoMao locking the door at the end 😭
At least she's aware of Jinshi as a man, though I don't know if that's a good reason, he still kinda tried to force her, I don't know how far Jinshi planned to go if the dog wouldn't have found them

 

[guan0apes]

Spoiler

if he'd raped her, she would've loved it
that's just facts
under all that apothecary stuff she's still a girl

they hated him for the truth considering later in the novel she even asks him to rapeplay

 

[The_Man_Saw_a_Plan]

Should have kicked him in the nuts

So what if she did'nt praise his glorious "frog" or whatever
gives him no right to act like this

You must have been waiting a long time for him to make a mistake