Kusuriya no Hitorigoto Novel

Maomao, a pharmacist from the pleasure district, secures employment as a maidservant in the imperial inner palace. Deliberately low-key and unremarkable in appearance, she expects to complete her contract unnoticed—confident the emperor will never summon her. That certainty shatters when she learns the imperial children are mysteriously dying. Compelled by the puzzle, Maomao launches a dangerous investigation into the poisonings threatening the imperial family. Operating as the emperor's food taster and wielding her pharmaceutical expertise, she navigates the labyrinth of palace conspiracies and political schemes. Set in the medieval East's complex imperial court, this enigmatic pharmacist unravels cryptic cases one by one, exposing the dark truths lurking within the palace walls.