"Waaah! No way! Sister Mitsuba reached the Shogun again!"
"Hmph... Hahahaha!"
Time flew by, and in the alley in the afternoon, having once again claimed final victory from the group of children, Mitsuba immediately threw her head back and laughed loudly.
Squatting on the ground, already holding a handful of rice ears in her hand, she immediately extended her hand to the gloomy-faced children beside her, urging ruthlessly:
"Hurry up! Hand over all the rice ears in your hands!"
"Damn it! Why does Sister Mitsuba win again!"
"We lost, it's all your fault. If Ah Bai hadn't spun so many retreats just now, we definitely could have won this time..."
"It's clearly the compass's problem! How can you blame me!"
"Really, being so grown up and not knowing to let us children win..."
"Exactly! Sister Mitsuba definitely cheated!"
"Less nonsense."
Facing the unanimous condemnation from this group of children, Mitsuba only smiled faintly.
She raised her head, raised her hand to gently pat nonexistent dust from her shoulder, and spoke with the tone of an ultimate master, shaking her head:
"Git gud, scrub~ Can't handle losing, don't play~"
"Waaah! She's so smug!"
"Again! I definitely have to beat her once!"
"Hmph! Bring it on! Today I definitely have to make you brats lose convincingly!"
Just as Mitsuba rolled up her sleeves, preparing to teach these arrogant brats another harsh lesson, a voice suddenly sounded behind her.
"Miss Mitsuba, you should return."
Hearing this familiar voice, the smile that had just appeared on Mitsuba's face instantly froze.
"Hey! Who, who are you people?"
Behind her at the alley entrance, several Tsugikuni family guards were standing respectfully.
From the fine beads of sweat on their foreheads, it wasn't hard to tell that they had probably run all over the city before finally finding Mitsuba squatting here playing games with this group of children in this alley.
"Alright."
Responding in a low voice, Mitsuba lowered her eyelids and put down the handful of rice ears she had won.
She slowly stood up, patted the dust from her clothes, and her face once again returned to that previous expressionless demeanor.
"Sister Mitsuba, are you leaving?"
"Come play with us again next time, okay?"
Seemingly finally realizing that those sword-bearing people at the alley entrance had come to fetch Mitsuba, all the children looked up at her and hurriedly pressed.
"Mm, if there's an opportunity."
Mitsuba smiled and nodded, then removed the money pouch from her waist and handed it to them.
"Here, thank you for being willing to play with me. Keep a little of the money inside secretly to buy things to eat, and give the rest all to your parents, understood?"
"Understood..."
Maintaining that proper smile on her face, Mitsuba said nothing more and turned to leave.
"Sister Mitsuba!"
But at this moment, one of the children behind her suddenly called out to her again.
She turned back to look. It was a somewhat shy little boy.
He walked before everyone, looked up at Mitsuba, then very shyly raised his hand and pointed at his own cheeks with two index fingers.
"Be happy!"
Her eyes immediately moistened. Mitsuba just stared at him blankly and slowly nodded.
"Mm."
"..."
"Miss Mitsuba, you should be mindful of your status."
"Mm, I know."
On the way back to the castle tower, the guards kept chattering endlessly in Mitsuba's ears with remonstrations.
"You are now the family head of the Tsugikuni family. You should know that casually walking about outside like this is very dangerous behavior."
"Mm, I know."
"If you accidentally encounter any malicious people, this would cause very great trouble for the Tsugikuni family..."
"Mm, I know."
After continuously remonstrating for quite a while like this, the guards finally changed the topic.
"By the way, we previously saw a doctor conducting free medical consultations in the southern part of the city. I heard she's a famous doctor who traveled here from Shikoku. Miss Mitsuba, would you like to take a look?"
"A famous doctor?"
Upon hearing this, Mitsuba stopped her steps.
These past two years, her health hadn't been very good.
No, that wasn't quite right...
Because overall it was still fine, only occasionally, her left thumb would suddenly become numb and unable to move.
Otherwise she would suddenly feel dizzy and lightheaded, with a heavy head and light feet...
Though these were all just minor symptoms, completely insufficient to affect Mitsuba's daily life, considering her current identity as family head of the Tsugikuni family, the retainers had still invited physicians from the city to examine her multiple times.
Although these physicians ultimately couldn't find any problems with her body, only telling her to take good care of herself normally...
But Mitsuba herself could clearly feel that there were some problems with her body.
After all, how could a normal person's body occasionally feel finger numbness and dizziness?
"Alright, lead the way."
Not refusing, Mitsuba nodded lightly and followed the guards toward the southern part of the city.
"..."
"Butter...fly?"
Honestly, before seeing with her own eyes, Mitsuba never could have imagined that the traveling famous doctor the guards spoke of was actually a woman who looked no more than twenty-something years old?
"Next one, please~"
Looking at that woman on the street wearing light, simple clothes, with a face full of smiles, sitting at her stall constantly taking pulses and examining the townspeople lined up in queue, Mitsuba's heart was quite shocked.
In this era, for a young woman to dare practice medicine alone outside was truly extremely rare.
But beyond the shock, this also made Mitsuba suspicious of the other party's medical skills.
Because she was too young.
At just over twenty years of age, if placed elsewhere, she would probably still be serving as an apprentice assistant to old physicians in medical halls—where would she have the qualification to practice medicine?
Could she be some kind of quack?
"Oh my~ What a beautiful young lady. Are you also here for a consultation?"
Just as Mitsuba felt hesitant, the queue before the woman's stall happened to end.
Having just become free, she immediately spotted Mitsuba standing not far away, so she smiled and waved toward her.
"Mm."
Since she had already been noticed, Mitsuba no longer hesitated. She immediately stepped forward, sat down in the seat before the stall, while the guards behind her stood on both sides.
Not frightened by this formation in the slightest, and completely not intending to pursue Mitsuba's identity, the woman only smiled and asked:
"Hello, I'm a doctor who traveled here from Shikoku. You can just call me Doctor Butterfly. May I ask where you feel unwell?"
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