The Apothecary Diaries Vol. 4: The Apothecary Diaries (Manga), Volume 4
- ISBN
- 9781646090730
- Publisher
- Square Enix
- English release
- Pages
- 192
- Chapters
- 15–21
The Apothecary Diaries manga 4 opens a death investigation inside the rear palace. Continue from the previous manga book for the banquet case and the relationships behind the request. The contents lists chapters 15 to 21. This is Square Enix’s manga drawn by Nekokurage and compiled by Itsuki Nanao, rather than the fourth light novel. The opening analysis distinguishes physical observations from the conclusions other people want Maomao to draw, and stops before the case’s later resolution.
Spoilers — why this volume matters. Tap to reveal.
A drowned maid is said to have climbed the palace wall and jumped, but Maomao tests the account against its physical demands. The wall has footholds; the woman’s bound feet would make using them difficult. Bloody fingertips suggest an effort to climb back out. Maomao is certain the woman entered the water alive while refusing to certify murder. That limit is more useful than turning every troubling detail into a solved case. The same conversation also tests the palace’s apparent shelter: Maomao contrasts protected courtesans with the hazards she knows outside, then reminds Jinshi that a servant’s error can cost her life. Her request for poison if he ever orders her execution makes the imbalance personal without claiming that such an order is imminent. This analysis reads only printed pages 3–17 of Square Enix’s licensed manga preview distributed by PRH, within chapter 15. It does not identify the killer or close the investigation.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Links on this page are affiliate links, which cost you nothing extra. They never influence what appears on this site or what the commentary says about it.
Lines from this volume
“It's not a matter of what you will or won't do... ...but rather of what you can and cannot do.”
“I... ...think this needs to stew a bit longer. We'll get something else!”
Serving the honey was Gyokuyo's own idea. She served honey boiled with citrus peel because it was cold, and Consort Lishu, who had just said she loves sweets, froze at the sight of it while the ladies nearby whispered that she won't even eat the honey she's being offered (pp. 26–27). Maomao asks for a word; Gyokuyo says "Oh my, my!"; the page never shows what passed between them. Then the fault moves to the pot. The obvious objection is that this is statecraft, not tact. The chapter's captions say tea parties are a way for the ladies to feel out each other's true intentions, and that Gyokuyo writes down what she learns and sends it home to help her family (p. 23). Both readings hold. Taken as a pretext, which is how the page stages it, the excuse costs her nothing and spares a guest a public humiliation, and Maomao, who had begun to doubt her report that Lishu's ladies bully her, now concludes it was accurate after all (pp. 25, 29). Gyokuyo's kindness is also how she gathers evidence.
After examining a drowned maid, Maomao has asked Jinshi that if her execution is ever needed, it be done by poison. He is appalled and says he would never do such a thing. Her reply is the sharpest political sentence in the preview. She has just said that a simple error can end a peasant's life, and the captions add that no peasant may oppose a noble. His goodwill is not the relevant fact; his power is. The strongest objection is that she is unfair to him. He has made no threat, and he prefers favors: the tea party she attended was, she concludes, his doing (p. 30). The objection loses on the same chapter's last page. He asks her, as a favor, to help out at the Garnet Palace, and she thinks that he may put it as a question, but it is not as if she has a choice (p. 32).