Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 4.03

3

And so, Ludo Ruu ended up spending the night at the main Dom house.

He had told his family that he should be back around when everyone was getting to sleep, but they shouldn’t have been all that worried as long as he showed up early in the morning. Still, it was a real miscalculation right at the end.

Well, whatever. All I’ve got to do now is sleep.

Atop the bedding laid out by Lem Dom, Ludo Ruu gave a hearty stretch.

The room was filled with the smell of fresh wood. It hadn’t bugged him all that much back in the main hall, but this must have been one of the houses Zattsu Suun burned down that had to be repaired. The former-leading-clan-head-turned-criminal had fled after biting and tearing out the throat of a Jeen hunter, then he set fire to the Dom settlement and let Diga and Doddo loose.

Just what were Diga and Doddo feeling now, having had their crimes pardoned at the meeting with the nobles? Ludo Ruu sort of wanted to go see the looks on their faces, but since there was no good reason to, he thought better of it. And if the fates allowed, he could see them tomorrow morning.

Still, I’m wide awake now, and I don’t feel like I’ll be getting sleepy for a while yet, Ludo Ruu thought to himself, right before someone knocked on his door.

Hearing that, he sat right up and called out, “It’s not bolted,” at which point the door opened revealing Lem Dom. There was a bottle of fruit wine dangling from her slender-yet-muscular hand.

“I went out of my way to make sure you had a room with a bolt, but you don’t even care enough to use it?”

“You guys have no reason to attack me. So as long as the front door is bolted shut, why would I need to be more cautious than that?”

“Hmph... You seem rather sure of your own strength,” Lem Dom retorted, once again smiling out of the corner of her mouth as she shut the door behind her. “This is the fruit wine you gave us, but would you care to join me tonight?”

“Ah, thanks for the offer, but I’m not that fond of fruit wine.”

“Oh? So there are hunters out there who don’t drink the stuff?”

“Of course. I think I’ve heard that the second son of the main Rutim house can’t handle fruit wine, for one.”

“Hmm... In that case, I guess I’ll have to drink it myself,” Lem Dom replied, sitting down next to the bedding. And as Ludo Ruu stared at the coquettish figure, he tilted his head.

“Umm, isn’t it against the old customs for an unwed man and woman to be alone together in a bedroom at night?”

“Supposedly. But other clans have been letting the old customs die out, haven’t they?”

“Yeah, but you belong to the northern clans that make a big deal out of them, don’t you?”

“If it’s a custom that’s not a crime to break, then what does it matter?” Lem Dom shot back with a faint smile. Despite her seriously wild nature she also possessed clear feminine charm, which really put Ludo Ruu on edge.

Well, it’s not like she’s going to go asking me to marry into the Dom clan or anything...

As a member of the main house of one of the leading clans, Ludo Ruu was expected to marry properly even more than Deek Dom or Morun Rutim. Still, his old man Donda Ruu had planned on having Ai Fa marry into the clan when she had no relation to them at all, so he didn’t seem that fixated on old customs.

“Do you have some sort of business with me? Not that I’m complaining about you coming here, after I showed up and bothered you and your brother like I did. But at least try not to do anything that’ll earn me the clan head’s wrath, okay?”

“Hmm, I may not quite be able to guarantee that...” Lem Dom said with a smile that seemed to imply something as she took a sip of fruit wine. “Before that, though, there’s something I’d like to confirm... Do you intend to have my clan head take a Ruu woman as his bride, Ludo Ruu?”

“Huh? Why do you think that?”

“It’s hard to think of anything else from what you were saying. Still, my clan head is a late bloomer, so he didn’t seem to pick up on it at all,” Lem Dom stated with a wicked chuckle. Though she possessed a variety of smiles and laughs, they all seemed rather suspicious and somehow arrogant. “Such matters should first be discussed with our parent clan, the Zaza, first, wouldn’t you agree? The Ruu are one of the leading clans, while the Dom fall under yet another leading clan, which means even more so that you cannot go cutting them out of the loop.”

“I wasn’t trying to do that at all. That’s why I said at the start that none of this was coming from my old man, the leading clan head.”

“Then without your father’s permission, you want to be of assistance to some woman of your own volition?”

“Can’t say.”

After drinking another sip of fruit wine, Lem Dom once again broke out in a smile.

“Isn’t that a rather unfair way of putting things?”

“It may be, but I still can’t say. Maybe we should just say it’s better than me lying to you?”

“I see. You have a strong sense of duty, don’t you, Ludo Ruu? Well, not that I especially care as long as you’re not mixing my clan head up in any strange plots.”

“I hope if nothing else, you’ll believe I have no plans to do anything like that.”

As she stared at Ludo Ruu out of the corner of her eye, Lem Dom murmured, “I see... In that case, I suppose it’s fine. But if I overlook that, then could you tell me about the Sauti in exchange?”

“The Sauti? What about the Sauti?”

“Didn’t you say the Ruu exchanged clan members with the far off Sauti so that they could be trained? I’d like to hear more about that.”

“Hmm? It’s nothing all that complicated. The Sauti clan head Dari Sauti wanted to be able to eat delicious meals at home too, so he had his people learn the necessary techniques from the Rutim clan, who fall under the Ruu,” Ludo Ruu replied as he remembered how things had played out. “All that trouble with the nobles put a stop to things for now, but before that, they had two or three clan members swapped with the Rutim. Then the Sauti clan members could be taught at the Rutim settlement, and the Rutim clan members sent to the Sauti settlement could also offer instructions. You can teach how to properly bloodlet and dissect a giba in just a few days like that.”

“That means spending those several days in another clan’s settlement, correct? Is that just a task for men?”

“No, since manning the stove is women’s work. Even if the meat is handled properly, it’d still be ruined if you went and boiled it together with poitan. So at the bare minimum, you’ve got to at least learn to bake poitan to have delicious meals. The Sauti women stayed for a few days at the Rutim settlement too from what I recall.”

Still, with just a few days all you could really learn was how to bake poitan and just a little bit of cooking. That would never be enough to measure up to clans like the Ruu, Fou, and Deen who were able to study directly under Asuta.

“Hmm... And is the Ruu settlement close to the Fa house?”

“Hrmm, that’s a bit hard to say. On a totos, it’s just a short run. But, well, it’s at least a bit closer than the Suun and Dom settlements are.”

“I see... But the Ruu and Fa share very strong bonds, correct?”

“Yeah. We’re close enough that for this past month or so, Ai Fa and Asuta have been staying at the Ruu settlement for their safety,” Ludo Ruu replied, and then he furrowed his brow. “Hey, why’re you asking about the Fa clan? The Rutim are the ones who’ve been teaching the Sauti. The Fa have nothing to do with it.”

“But if the Dom and Ruu exchanged clan members, could we in turn get close to the members of the Fa?”

“What would you do if you did?”

“Who can say?”

“Hey...” Ludo Ruu shot back, his eyes narrowing. “Let me just say, if you try to do anything to the Fa clan, you won’t get off lightly even if you are a member of the main Dom house. More than anything else, I hope you completely understand that.”

“Oh, my... You really are a Ruu clan hunter, aren’t you? You’re every bit as intense as the Dom and Zaza men,” Lem Dom replied with another suspicious chuckle. “But unfortunately for you, I’ve had to look at my clan head’s face ever since I was born. So a glare like that in your eyes isn’t enough to scare me.”

“I don’t care about scaring you. Just give me your word that you won’t try to do anything to either of those two in the Fa clan.”

“The Ruu and Fa clans really do have a strong bond, don’t they? Even though there are no blood ties between you... It’s no wonder the leading clan heads have found that suspicious.” Rather than being intimidated, Lem Dom moved her face closer to Ludo Ruu. “I have no intention of making you angry, though. So if I tell you about myself, will you lend me your aid in the future, I wonder...?”

“At least for now, I’ve got no reason to make you any promises.”

“That’s why I’m going to tell you about my circumstances. If I were to go to the Ruu settlement, I would like to form a bond with the head of the Fa clan.”

“With Ai Fa? Why’s that?”

At that, Lem Dom came in close to Ludo Ruu’s ear. As she did so, her womanly scent and the aroma of fruit wine both crept over his senses.

“Don’t tell anyone, but...I want to be a hunter too.”

Ludo Ruu was actually a little shocked when he heard that.

“I inherited the blood of the incredibly strong former Dom clan head, and I’ve already finished off a giba with my own two hands.”

“Huh? Even though you’re a woman?”

“Yes. A starving giba showed up one day in the Dom settlement. It hadn’t grown all that large, and must have been weakened by its hunger, but I slit its throat with a knife.” Lem Dom’s very words seemed filled with heat, causing Ludo Ruu’s ear to feel warm. “It made me think... Wouldn’t it be possible for even a woman like me to gain the strength of a hunter? That’s why I want to meet with Ai Fa of the Fa clan, the only female hunter at the forest’s edge.”

“I see. Well, I guess I can understand that.”

Ludo Ruu pulled back, and Lem Dom did the same in turn.

Her big slightly-upturned eyes were moist, but fiery. She looked both more seductive and more daring than she ever had before.

“So, do you believe me? It feels like the sort of thing that would just earn me scornful laughs if I told anyone.”

“Well, I mean, I’m plenty well acquainted with Ai Fa, y’know? So it makes sense to me that there could be other women out there around the forest’s edge thinking that way.”

“What sort of woman is Ai Fa? From what I’ve heard, she’s supposedly small and thin in a way that makes it hard to believe she’s a hunter,” Lem Dom asked, sidling up to Ludo Ruu again.

The young hunter replied, “Hmm...” as he scratched his head. “I don’t really know how to answer that... Well, it’s true that she’s smaller and thinner than you are. Even still, she’s just a tiny bit taller than I am.”

“And yet she still carries out her work as a hunter? And her only clan member is that foreigner Asuta who mans the stove, right?”

“Yeah. For two years now, Ai Fa has been hunting all on her own. It may sound foolish and dangerous, but I respect her.”

“Hmm... In that case, it sounds like I could be a hunter too.”

“I’m not so sure...” Ludo Ruu replied, looking Lem Dom over again.

She was unusually tall for a woman, and had plenty of muscle too. Her breasts and backside seemed like they’d get in the way, but she would also probably be really good at running and climbing trees.

But that wasn’t all there was to being a strong hunter...

“By the way, how old are you, Lem Dom?”

“I am fifteen.”

“Fifteen, huh? That’s the same age as me.” Well, considering her older brother Deek Dom was seventeen, that was no real shock at this point. “Hmm, let’s see... If you trained like crazy, then maybe you’d be strong enough to be a hunter in two years.”

“Oh, my, it would take two whole years?”

“That’s right. I met Ai Fa two years ago, when she was also fifteen.”

That was back when Ai Fa had lost her father and formed bad blood with Diga. When Donda Ruu had gone to the Fa house to ask if she would marry into the Ruu, Ludo Ruu and his big brothers had come along and met her.

Back then, Ai Fa had been even smaller and thinner than she was now. Ludo Ruu figured she was even smaller than he currently was. She didn’t have as much muscle as Lem Dom did now. In fact, she looked like she probably couldn’t even properly swing a sword. And yet she had declared that she intended to live as a hunter and rejected the marriage proposal.

Ludo Ruu had only just become a hunter at the age of thirteen, and he had thought she was an absolute fool of a woman. And that it was a real waste, considering how pretty of a face she had.

And yet, that small and beautiful woman had the look of a hunter blazing away in her blue eyes, and she stood there before Ludo Ruu’s furious old man without so much as flinching.

Apparently, Ai Fa had helped out with hunting work ever since she was thirteen. And so even though she still hadn’t built up the proper strength needed, her soul was already that of a hunter.

“When she was fifteen, Ai Fa had already trained for two years as a hunter. So I figured you could probably polish up your hunter’s soul in about two years too.”

“My hunter’s soul? I don’t really get it... That isn’t something you can see with your eyes, is it?”

“The fact that you can’t see it is what makes it so hard to nurture.”

“Hmph. But regardless of anything to do with your soul, as long as you’re strong enough, you can hunt down giba, can’t you? Isn’t muscle strength what’s most important?”

There was now finally a blaze burning away in Lem Dom’s eyes.

However, all Ludo Ruu could do in response was shrug his shoulders.

“It could be tricky to become a hunter as long as you’re thinking stuff like that. Still, you’ve got a pretty face and all, so wouldn’t you be happier just sticking to living like other women?”

“A woman’s life is boring...” Lem Dom replied, placing her hand on Ludo Ruu’s side. By doing so, she naturally slid in closer. “From morning to night you just gather firewood, dry pico leaves, skin pelts... And beyond that, at most you’ll have relations with a man and strive to make babies. But I...I want to experience a life more fitting for a person of the forest’s edge, all the way down to my core...”

Ludo Ruu could feel her warm breath on his face. Her large breasts were just barely touching his chest. And though he tried to fall back, the wall was right behind him.

“But lives like that are important for us people of the forest’s edge too. Giving birth to children is a form of happiness only women can experience, right?”

“Then will you help me experience that happiness...?”

“Come on, it’s not like we can sprint ahead with getting married without even asking for permission from our clan heads.”

“That’s true... In that case, how about indulging purely in pleasure while taking care not to make any kids...?”

It was hard to imagine those words were coming from a member of the northern clans, which highly valued the old customs.

Her plump, glistening lips hung partially open, and her red tongue that could just barely be seen within was so seductive it gave Ludo Ruu chills. The pure feminine allure she was giving off felt like it was filling the room and making it a little hard to breathe.

“Guess there’s no helping it...” Ludo Ruu murmured, suddenly grabbing hold of both of Lem Dom’s shoulders.

Though she was muscular like a man, her skin was amazingly smooth, like his fingers would gently sink into it.

There was now an even more suspicious yet passionate look in Lem Dom’s eyes. And as he stared straight into her black pupils, Ludo Ruu firmly pushed her down atop the bedding.

“All right, I win.”

“Huh...?”

“This contest of strength between hunters. Your back touched the ground, so you lose.”

For a moment, Lem Dom just stared blankly up at Ludo Ruu. And then, her expression eventually grew angry.

“Ludo Ruu...are you trying to shame me...?”

“You can take pride in winning a contest of strength, but it’s no shame to lose.”

“Don’t mess with me. If you’re sitting to start with, exactly how can it be a contest of strength?”

“Yeah, the proper way to do it is to stand and face each other. But us men do it like this in the bedroom when we’re young. It’s partially just playing around, but it makes for fine training too, right?”

Like some sort of beast, Lem Dom suddenly lunged forward and grabbed at Ludo Ruu.

And yet, both her hands grabbed nothing but air as Ludo Ruu spun while sitting, leaving Lem Dom to once again fall to the bedroom floor.

“See, I win. It’s pretty tricky to dodge an opponent while sitting, isn’t it?”

Thanks to the gap in their ages, Ludo Ruu couldn’t remember ever beating his brothers at this game. However, he also couldn’t recall ever losing to the members of the branch houses who were his age.

“You little...!”

“Ah, lifting your knees is cheating.”

As he said that, Ludo Ruu placed his hand on Lem Dom’s right hand with her nails up like claws, then let her attack flow past him as he twisted his body. Her momentum then pitched her forward and she once again hit the floor.

“Yeah, you really are shockingly strong and quick for a woman. I actually could see you becoming a hunter if you trained.”

Lem Dom didn’t say anything in response.

“Well, some stuff’s hard to get with words alone. It’d probably be quickest for you to meet Ai Fa directly so you can see the difference between the two of you.”

Lem Dom just slowly stood up in silence, her back turned to Ludo Ruu.

“I’ll never forget this humiliation...”

“Huh? Are you crying?”

“I am not!”

At that, Lem Dom snatched up the bottle of fruit wine that had fallen to the floor and swiftly exited the bedroom.

With a single yawn, Ludo Ruu flopped back down atop the bedding.

Hmm, there sure are some strange folks out there.

Still, considering Ludo Ruu was already close to Ai Fa and Asuta, this hadn’t made for all that big of a shock. And since he got in a bit of exercise there at the end, he felt like he would be able to sleep soundly.

With the thick womanly scent that lingered heavily about the room starting to disperse, Ludo Ruu closed his eyes.