I haven’t checked the content for new names; I’ll add them when I read this part.
About the content, I do remember that 猫猫 quickly examines the maids and claims that it’s 未遂. Is it that easy to check? I’m not sure I want an answer to that.
Also, a quick glance shows me that, this week again, we will have “English” furigana
Like I expected I’m not getting as much done during the week now. So currently I only finished the first of the 3 chapters. This one was pretty entertaining and had not too hard vocab. My thoughts and questions so far.
Musings and Questions CH カカオ
水瓶 that is used in cooling the chocolate mass I found only modern images for. Did they have glass containers at that time or how should I imagine this thing?
So cool that she uses science! Big fan
苦味と甘味 is that read くみとかんみ or にがみとあまみ? As far as I found both should be possible which is preferred?
酒豪 has reading of ざる? I was puzzled by this reading didn’t get the meaning of that…
それはおやめください I first read as 親めく ださい… took me a short bit to realize its keigo. DAMN
惰性を防ぐためにも says 玉葉. I have a hard time translating that and making sense in context… Can someone explain what she says here? She muses about if she should provide 帝 with the shoko pan. And this sentence is her reasoning (which I can’t translate to make sense). But after MauMau’s remark of 三倍効く seems scared of the prospect (really きついらしい).
And yeah again some nice furigana… This time though the author used it also on a chinese word which I find more okay somehow.
I’ve never heard the other two readings. As far as I know, in cooking (which is pretty much what is happening here), it would be にがみとあまみ
It actually doesn’t. I was just checking the text for context, but I guess it’s just the author playing with words? 酒豪 is a heavy drinker. ザル is someone who doesn’t get drunk no matter how much they drink. All of this is telling us that her liver is probably on the brink of death.
I haven’t checked the content yet, but… Well, you know. When couples have been together for a while, some stuff become routine. Gotta spice that stuff up. But three times more (arousal? again, I need to check) is probably more than 玉葉 can handle.
Okay thanks that was what I assumed it meant. Break through the “stale” habits. Wasn’t too sure though if it meant something else. Since the 侍女 seemed to be sleeping after the fact maybe 玉葉 fought it would have that effect too was my thinking…
It’s 3 times more effective than normal 強壮剤 according to Maumau
In real life, stimulants (including coffee) have a tendency to make you even more tired once their effect dissipate. The stronger the stimulant, the harder you crash. They probably crashed hard. From eating chocolate.
That chapter actually made me wonder if chocolate really has this effect, and modern society is just too used to it to feel anything anymore. I wasn’t curious enough to check, though.
(By the way, I edit my previous message to add an answer about 酒豪)
His power level is probably going to be over 9000 then. That does sound きつい
Ah that is the missing link ３ 《酒をいくら注いでも溜まらないことから》俗に、大酒飲みのこと。
Didn’t register with me when I looked it up.
Regarding the chocolate I think it’s a combination of 2 factors. One is the chocolate itself wich definitely has a slight euphoric component which we are all used to. Maumau says herself that the people where the kakao is cultivated are also used to it.
But i think the second component is what herbs she mixed into the chocolate. I think the actual effect would be much less when they would consume only the raw kakao.
I mean she warned him that it can lead to nosebleeds if consumed in too big quantities (meaning more than 1 fingernails worth in size) which is not something chocolate can do as far as I know ^_^.
True. I was under that impression because the customers coming to the 妓楼 would probably bring regular cacao/chocolate… but I guess it would not have that effect anyway.
Finished last week’s reading this morning and started/finished our first chapter here. Man, I’m just going to need to go back and straight up re-read all of last week’s; all I remember from it is a haze. This week, in contrast, started off fine.
Chapter 9
残念なことに、様子の違う猫猫を見て妓女は怒り、その客はやり手婆に出入り禁止を食らう羽目になったという。
What’s the highlighted part here saying? I guess specifically the 様子の違う part. How does 猫猫 factor in to the proprietress kicking out people who bring in chocolate?
金属板に穴をあけただけの包丁で果実を半分に切り、褐色の液体に浸す。
The highlighted bit again. A hole just barely made with a knife?
「被害者がでなければいいけど」
At the very end of the chapter, after 壬氏 steals a bite of her chocolate. “It’s fine if the victim doesn’t appear”, or somesuch? I’m not sure who 被害者 is referring to here, though.
他人事のように猫猫は呟いた。
And then the sentence immediately after that one. What does 他人事のように mean here?
I think this is the first time we properly meet 高順, right? I liked him from the manga; seems like a very solid and dependable kind of guy, haha. Hopefully we get to see plenty of him here~
Well, discourse lost the message I posted but at least save a draft. Hopefully it’s fine.
Ch 9
猫猫 became different from usual, and especially more euphoric (妙に気持ちが明るくなった). That made clear that the customer was trying to manipulate the 妓女’s feelings. The sentence only means that one guy got kicked out.
Technically VだけのB means that B is enough to do verb V. Here, that knife could pierce a hole in a metal plate. Not sure why that’s a good idea to use that for fruits, though. I’m not sure about the grammar, but my hunch is actually that there’s a hole in the blade (which is a thing for some types of knives). Those are also not knives used to cut fruits though.
Yes. Well, if there isn’t any victim. Someone getting seduced and err ending up having a good time with him.
“As if she isn’t related”. She doesn’t seem to care if it happens, and doesn’t care about the consequences.
Well, he was here in the last chapter as well, but yes, he is more fleshed out this time. I like him too!
I took that to mean a knife that was just a metal ‘board’ with holes in it, or a hole I guess. Kind of a rustic knife that was all blade, with holes to make holding it possible. I’m not sure if that’s an actual thing, though. Thinking about it more, I guess it makes more sense that it’s just a super sharp blade considering 玉葉’s kitchen would likely be very well equipped.
Among the many sentences that actually take me several tries, there are a few that I end up reading over and over because I’m sure I’m misunderstanding.
実験に使った毒蛇を酒に漬けて飲んでいたので、猫猫は酒豪だった。
But nope, I guess she actually did that.
I’m liking 猫猫 more and more as a character.
Need to read it a second time to absorb everything. Especially the exchange between 猫猫 and 高順 to get all the nuance. That was a pretty long chapter and lots of stuff happened.
So my short thoughts on this part.
Thoughts
It’s always funny seing Maumau from the others 侍女’s perspective with Maumau being so oblivious to how she is seen by others ^^.
The hate for Jinshi is there. So fun reading her thoughts about him and her interaction with 高順. I’m not sure she knows herself how she should feel about jinshi really. Or is she just so weak that a 憂いを含める顔 is all it takes to take pity and try to help XD.
高順 looks soo different in the illustration compared to what I imagined. I mean, sure, she thought he is not fat and feminine like most 宦官 but still my image was somehow way off…
Well, that’s re-read value here. I had completely forgotten about those guesses. … While, from the point of view of plot progression, I get the reason why 猫猫 didn’t guess already, it feels a bit unnatural that she is otherwise so smart but failed here. I guess he is standing in her blind spot. Like, she cares so little for eunuchs that she just can’t spare the brain cells (edit: I’m not saying that her guesses are wrong nor right; maybe she guessed, maybe it’s something else entirely. There’s no way for the reader (I think) to know better at this point, but she should be able to guess, based on information she should have that was not provided to the reader; that’s why, rereading this part, it feels a bit unnatural)
re: 高順’s appearance.
I remember being surprised as well, but that’s mostly because the illustration makes him look a bit too young and slender. After all those talks of looking like a 武官, being fit, and having body hair (?), I kinda expected a “manly man”. I guess that illustration might still fit that description in context, but it doesn’t match my internal image.
Done with this week by finishing CH 11. Actually read it two times; for experimentation and because it was relatively short.
Since I took it slow the first time, the comprehension the second time was just a little bit better, but not by leaps and bounds. It’s nice though for a second look at the vocabulary for sure.
寝ているのにあたかも起きている couldn’t find anything for that? Is that a misspelling for あたま?
なきにしもあらず can’t decipher that can someone explain please?
You are not alone. I’m with you on the ??? and Maumau isn’t helping either. No theories sadly
Either way the 後宮 seems not as 屈強 as people think.
Otherwise not much to say for this chapter.
Next weeks reading will probably be my last since this weekend the beginner and the week after the intermediate clubs start and I’m probably better served by mining from there.
It’s a phrase, you can find the whole thing in jisho. ‘not non-existent; not completely lacking; there is some; certainly existent’. This site explains the grammar behind this phrase and gives a bit of a different meaning/nuance than the jisho entry: 「なきにしもあらず」の意味は、”ないわけではない・ないとは断言できない”です。あるとまでは断言できず、ないともはっきり断言することができないときに使う、遠回しに肯定をする言葉です。
So, I really missed it the first time I read this, and I would probably miss it a second time if I hadn’t read the manga, which adds a scene between 壬氏 and “someone” explaining it.
The 武官 who got celebrated as hero during the recent fight against the 異民族 is the one who is marrying her. It was mentioned that making him a hero was fake (he didn’t do anything special), just a political thing. Well, specifically, it was for the purpose of sending 芙蓉 to him. To make sure that said 武官 does ask for 芙蓉, 壬氏 sent him the aphrodisiac from 猫猫 along with a love letter from 芙蓉 (note: I can’t remember any mention of the love letter in the book, though… 壬氏 is just looking at a piece of paper). The combination of the two results in a misattribution of arousal, and voila.
That’s a crazy involved thing to do, though, so I don’t blame my past self for missing it. I kept wondering for a long time where the cacao had gone…
That’s too bad. I liked reading your comments on the story. Anyway, the threads aren’t going anywhere.
I’m not sure I want an answer to that.
(edit: I’m not saying that her guesses are wrong nor right; maybe she guessed, maybe it’s something else entirely. There’s no way for the reader (I think) to know better at this point, but she should be able to guess, based on information she should have that was not provided to the reader; that’s why, rereading this part, it feels a bit unnatural)