Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 23 - Chapter 3.5

5

It was now the lower sixth hour, sunset. The tower of firewood in the center of the plaza had been reassembled and the ritual flame stoked, signaling the start of the banquet. The eight guests and eighty-four members of the participating clans had all gathered in the plaza, with the unwed women from the six clans wearing banquet attire. The Ruu clan only brought that clothing out for wedding banquets, but small clans with few members didn’t hold weddings all that often, so they wore them at festivals of the hunt as well.

Since they weren’t as well off as the Ruu clan, the majority of them used flowers and berries as accessories. However, all of them wore iridescent veils that created rainbow splashes of color here and there throughout the plaza. They must have been precious bits of attire, passed down from grandmother to mother, and then mother to daughter in turn. As they lived such impoverished lives, they must have needed to scrape together money bit by bit in order to buy them. The young unwed women were all showing off their dazzling smiles from behind their veils.

“Well then, before we begin the banquet, I would like to once again congratulate the five hunters who were victorious in the contests of strength!” Baadu Fou declared before the ritual flame.

Behind him, five hunters were seated on a stage made from logs.

“The victor in the archery contest, Cheem Sudra!”

When his name was called, the small fifteen-year-old hunter quickly stood up. Everyone clapped, but the boy looked rather sullen and his face was turning red. A young woman from the Fou placed a woven flower crown atop his head.

“The victor in the weight-pulling contest, Radd Liddo!”

The Liddo clan head, who was the most muscular person present, slowly rose. His stern expression gave way to an amused smile, and he looked quite eager to dig into the food and fruit wine.

“The victor in the tree-climbing contest, Raielfam Sudra!”

The Sudra clan head looked just as calm and dour as always. As he stood beside the Liddo clan head, it was clear that there had to be around a thirty centimeter height difference between them, with the larger clan head probably weighing twice as much as he did.

“The victor in the pole-tugging contest, Jou Ran!”

Unsurprisingly, Jou Ran had a smile on his face. Women of the Ran and Fou clans cheered out in shrill voices. If he was still single, he would probably receive a fair number of marriage proposals today.

“And the victor in the combat contest, Ai Fa!”

The women cheered for Ai Fa just as much as they had for Jou Ran. Naturally, my clan head’s expression didn’t budge one bit as she stood there commandingly with her back straight.

Once the crowning ceremony was complete, there was another lively round of applause from the crowd.

“These are the five who claimed victory in today’s contest of strength. The rest of us who could not measure up to them must strive to work even harder as hunters,” Baadu Fou stated, accepting a bottle of fruit wine from his wife. “I am the one speaking to you now because this banquet is being held here at the Fou settlement, but that does not place me above you in any way. Just as we treat the Ran who are our subordinate clan as equals here, I would like each of the six clan heads present to carry out this duty in turn.” The majority of the people in the cheering crowd were holding bottles of fruit wine in their hands by this point. “Well then, let us get this festival of the hunt started! Members of the Fa, Deen, Liddo, Sudra, Fou, and Ran, consume these blessings, make them your strength, and give thanks to the mother forest!”

“Thanks to the mother forest!” voices chanted in unison.

At last, the banquet had begun. I added firewood to a simple stove and placed pasta into a pot. We had already cooked enough pasta to feed dozens of people, but our goal was to prepare enough for a hundred. Meanwhile, the crowd rushed toward the various other stoves that were set up here and there.

I had three stoves lined up next to me, and starting from the right, they had the meat sauce, pasta noodles, and giba bone soup on top of them. Yun Sudra was in charge of the meat sauce, while Saris Ran Fou was handling the giba bone soup.

“Hmm. So this is that pasta stuff I’ve heard so much about, is it? It certainly has a strange shape, just like they said,” one of the hunters remarked, staring as I served up a mountain of pasta onto a large plate.

“You can sample it first if you’d like. It’s really good with either the sauce or the broth we have here as well. The easy way to eat it is to wrap some around one of these segmented spoons.”

The pasta used not only poitan, but also fuwano, egg, and reten oil, so virtually nobody from the small clans had tasted it before. Toor Deen and Yun Sudra were probably the only ones making it in their own homes.

Perhaps because of the novelty, a fair number of men and young children were gathering around us. As we lectured them on how to eat the pasta, we served up one dish after another. The large amount of tableware we were handing out had naturally come from our post town business supplies.

The sauce contained a large amount of ground meat. Even the small clans frequently ate tarapa-based dishes, so they definitely wouldn’t be disappointed with it. And then there was the dish I was proudest of: the giba bone soup. After three whole months of experimentation, it was finally ready for its grand debut.

The giba bone soup’s stock had taken nine hours of boiling to prepare, so it was naturally quite rich. By the time we had removed the giba bones at the end, all of the marrow had melted off them, leaving nothing but smooth, clean bones.

Still, stock alone wasn’t enough. It was just the base that I had used to prepare the best soup that I could come up with. The ingredients I utilized were dried seaweed, rock salt, sugar, pico leaves, tau oil, myamuu, nyatta liquor, and of course, some additional stock from giba meat. The giba bones provided the liquid with incredible richness and flavor, but they were lacking in umami, so I had added giba meat and seaweed stock, as well as a variety of seasonings, to supplement the taste.

Furthermore, with tonkotsu stock, you could choose between a light clear broth and a rich white broth. I had gone with a white one to cater to the tastes of the people of the forest’s edge, and the result was a wonderfully rich soup. It was quite viscous, thanks to the number of giba bones we had used, and so cloudy that you couldn’t see through it to a depth of even a centimeter. Its aroma was exquisite too. I wanted to try making it with kimyuus bones as well at some point, but I had no issues whatsoever with the way it tasted now, and I figured the people of the forest’s edge would prefer it this way regardless.

I had also added lots of other ingredients to the giba bone soup. For vegetables, we had the cabbage-like tino, carrot-like nenon, spinach-like nanaar, and the mushrooms that were similar to cloud ears and common mushrooms. Then, to finish it off, I had made giba char siu too.

We hadn’t prepared the char siu using the Chinese roasting method, though. Instead, we had gone with the braising technique Japanese ramen shops used. I had pulled out the stops when making it, taking blocks of rib meat that were tied up into round shapes and slowly simmering them in a specially prepared broth, then seasoning them with tau oil, sugar, myamuu, red mamaria vinegar, nyatta liquor, and keru root.

After they had simmered until they were tender enough for a wooden skewer to easily pass through, we left them to sit so the flavors could seep into them for a while. Then we had cut them into rather thick slices, which could be added on top of something else right before eating. Thanks to the plentiful solid ingredients, I knew the soup would have been fantastic all on its own, but I had thought it would be ideal to go one step further and make it a noodle soup dish instead.

“So this is the giba bone soup?” Rimee Ruu asked as she approached along with Reina Ruu, surrounded by members of the various clans.

“Hey there. Do the two of you want some? I’d like to have Jiza Ruu eat it too, actually.”

“Jiza? But why?”

“Well, Jiza Ruu rated the giba cutlets quite highly, didn’t he? He seemed to think that dish, which uses giba meat and lard, could be a good one for the people of the forest’s edge. This dish is kind of similar, in how it concentrates the delicious flavor of giba meat, so I figured it might be to his tastes.”

“I’m sure it will be pleasing not just to Jiza Ruu, but to all the people of the forest’s edge. I’d like to experiment with it as well, but it takes quite a while to prepare,” Reina Ruu said.

“Just gathering the firewood is a huge undertaking by itself, and it has a horrible stench if you mess it up. But you could use our research as a basis and continue from there if you’d like,” I told her.

Reina Ruu smiled with a look that seemed half overjoyed and half apologetic, while Rimee Ruu just got all excited and declared, “I wanna hurry up and eat!” Oh, and since the two of them were guests, they weren’t wearing any banquet attire in order to differentiate themselves. “And I wanna talk to Ai Fa too! Does she still have to sit up there?”

“Yeah. Apparently, the custom is for the victors to stay up on the stage for a while and let everyone congratulate them while they enjoy the banquet. Isn’t that how it is with the Ruu festival of the hunt too?”

Even now, various women were bringing bowls and plates full of food to the victors sitting on the stage, one after another. Men and children were also approaching them constantly, so they always had someone to talk to.

“This is a banquet to deepen the ties between the six clans. You need to exercise a bit of patience, Rimee,” Reina Ruu said.

“Okay,” Rimee Ruu earnestly replied. I knew that it had hurt her really badly when Ai Fa had cut off contact with her, but as the young girl looked up at Ai Fa on the stage in the distance now, it was easy to see the delight shining in her eyes.

With that, the two friendly sisters left with portions for Jiza Ruu and Ai Fa, at which point Baadu Fou and his wife were the next to approach us.

“Asuta, I don’t think you need to prepare all the pasta at once. It’s a special dish, so why not leave some for later?” Baadu Fou’s wife said.

“Ah. You may be right. If at all possible, I’d like to have everyone here try it.”

“Indeed, but you should be sure to enjoy the banquet as well. I can take care of managing the flames for a while,” she kindly offered, and so I was able to step away from the stove.

Apparently, similar exchanges had occurred at the stoves on either side of me as well, so Yun Sudra and Saris Ran Fou had also been set free. Saris Ran Fou’s husband, the youngest son of the main Fou house, had also come to see her.

“Shall we go congratulate the victors, Asuta?” Yun Sudra asked, and we headed over in that direction together.

As Yun Sudra was an unwed woman, she had her hair down and was clad in banquet attire. Her long ash-brown hair flowed down her back, and with the iridescent veil she was wearing, she kind of looked like a different person, with a mature beauty about her.

“Congratulations on your victory today,” Yun Sudra said when we came to a stop in front of the stage, holding her left shoulder and bowing elegantly. I went ahead and gave a bow of my own too.

The five hunters were seated atop the stage, while the people surrounding them were all standing as they all enjoyed the banquet food. Laughter filled the air, earthenware bottles of fruit wine were being poured out into cups and dishes, and everyone was getting really fired up.

“Ooh, Asuta! I had some of that giba bone soup stuff! We make broth at the Liddo clan too, so why does it taste so different?!” the Liddo clan head, Radd Liddo, asked with a hearty laugh, his face especially red.

“Because we used a lot of expensive ingredients for today. It’s a banquet, so we’ve got to make it special.”

“Heh heh. When you’ve got as much money lying around as the Fa clan does, I bet you can eat stuff like this every single day!” he said without a hint of derision. He seemed to be in a good mood, and there was an earnest, almost innocent smile across his usually stern face.

“Clan head, Cheem, congratulations. It makes me so proud to know that two of the victors today came from our clan,” Yun Sudra called out.

The two hunters in question were being rather unsociable, though, only offering brief replies like “Right.”

I wanted to talk with Ai Fa too, but she was currently speaking to Jou Ran, while I was now engaged in conversation with Radd Liddo. And, well, we had already gotten to talk a bit after the contests of strength. It was important to prioritize interacting with other clans right now.

It was around then that I heard a commotion approaching us from behind, and when I turned to look, I let out a “Gah” before I could stop myself. A large man was coming our way with a totos, parting the crowd as they went.

“Ah, if it isn’t the youngest son of the Zaza! That’s right, you were invited to attend as an observer too!” Radd Liddo jovially called out, only for Geol Zaza to shoot him a glare before turning to scan the plaza with his eyes.

“I’m the youngest son of the Zaza, Geol Zaza. I’ve come here as an observer under orders from my clan head, Gulaf. Where can I store my totos?”

“The Fou clan welcomes you. I can take charge of your totos,” a Fou woman stated, looking a bit nervous as she approached Geol Zaza.

The hunter still looked displeased as he said, “Thanks” and thrust the bird’s reins at her.

“You got here rather late. The other guests all arrived by the time we were midway through the contests of strength,” Radd Liddo commented.

“Hmph,” Geol Zaza snorted. “My sister Sufira got here ahead of me, so it shouldn’t be any issue. I couldn’t exactly go shirking my hunting duty for the sake of a banquet held by some other clans anyway.”

“Oh? But I heard that when the Fa clan head and that Dom woman did their contests of strength, you came running over when the sun was still high in the sky.”

I didn’t know whether it was just his natural personality or the influence of the booze in his system, but Radd Liddo really wasn’t holding back, despite the fact that he was talking to the heir to his parent clan. Geol Zaza sulkily looked over the hunters on the stage, and his eyes narrowed sharply when he caught sight of Ai Fa.

“If you’re seated there, then you must have won a contest of strength, right, woman hunter of the Fa?”

“The Fa clan head was the winner of the combat competition! And she did a fine job of bringing me down, let me tell you!” Radd Liddo said with a chuckle before taking a swig of his fruit wine. However, perhaps due to the disquieting air Geol Zaza was giving off, everyone aside from Radd Liddo looked rather concerned. The Zaza weren’t just the parent clan of the Liddo and Deen; they were also one of the new leading clans of the forest’s edge. That meant that Geol Zaza was the heir to that title, putting him in a similar position to Jiza Ruu.

“You’re the Liddo clan head, aren’t you...? I recall seeing you at that Jeen wedding.”

“Yeah. Guess we didn’t have much of a chance to see one another before that.”

“Right. And we’ve never participated in the same festival of the hunt, so I don’t know anything of your strength. How skilled of a hunter are you?”

The question seemed to perplex Radd Liddo a little. “I don’t really know what to say to that. In contests of strength between the Liddo and Deen, I’m usually able to claim a win or two.”

“I’m asking about your combat skill.”

“That’s my specialty, along with weight pulling.”

“I still can’t be sure without facing you myself...” Geol Zaza muttered, and then his glare turned back to Ai Fa. “How many skilled hunters are gathered here? And just how strong is this woman hunter who defeated all of you? If anyone can answer me, I’d love to hear it.”

“Are you really so lacking in your ability to measure the strength of others? A hunter on your level should be able to more or less see such things,” Raielfam Sudra replied. He was a man who would never flinch, even if he was directly facing a leading clan head, so he looked just like he always did as he stared at Geol Zaza.

“Are you talking about the so-called insight of the weak? I was never weak, so I don’t possess that skill.”

“Yes, I suppose it’s true that large-bodied hunters tend to lack the ability to measure skill. Still, I must say this is quite a surprise,” Raielfam Sudra commented despite not looking surprised in the least as he stroked his wrinkled forehead. “Ai Fa is an outstanding hunter. Even if your insight is lacking, that much should be clear if you’ve heard about how she had an even match with the previous Rutim clan head.”

“I’ve only ever heard rumors about the last Rutim clan head. Is it true that his strength is second only to Donda Ruu out of the hunters under the Ruu clan?”

“I’d say that they’re actually quite even when competing in combat, and from what I’ve been told, sometimes he’s even beaten Donda Ruu.”

When he heard those words, Geol Zaza’s black eyes started blazing brightly. “If she fought evenly with a man who could do the same with Donda Ruu, wouldn’t that mean this woman possesses strength equal to that of one of the leading clan heads?”

“You’re acquainted with Donda Ruu?”

“I met him for the first time recently, and he’s quite a hunter. Even I can tell that much,” Geol Zaza muttered, the disquieting tone in his voice welling up more and more.

Radd Liddo, meanwhile, questioningly tilted his head. “What are you getting so worked up over, youngest son of the Zaza? What does the Fa clan head’s strength matter?”

“This woman said she could beat me ten times in a row... I can’t exactly overlook such an insult, now can I?”

An even greater sense of unease seemed to spread through the crowd, but Radd Liddo simply laughed once again. “Even so, you can’t ask to do a contest of strength now. The Fa clan head has already had plenty of fruit wine to drink, so you wouldn’t be able to properly compare your strengths anyway.”

“Is there anyone else here who has that ‘insight of the weak’?”

I had learned that hunters like Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu who didn’t have particularly strong bodies developed a certain insight due to a craving for the strength they lacked. But rather than being some sort of mythical power, it was really just a discerning eye fostered by the need to compare yourself to others.

“I believe I’m rather skilled at measuring strength.” Cheem Sudra calmly chimed in from over by the right edge of the stage, and Geol Zaza’s blazing eyes turned his way.

“Am I inferior to this woman hunter?”

“To my eyes, the Fa clan head appears more skilled,” Cheem Sudra immediately replied, causing Geol Zaza to grind his teeth.

“Then what about you? Do you think you can beat me?”

“It would be difficult for me to defeat you.”

“Then how many hunters on this stage surpass me?”

“All of the hunters on this stage, myself aside...though I believe it would be a close match with the Liddo clan head.”

With that, Radd Liddo uttered, “What?! The Sudra clan head who beat me in pole tugging is one thing, but are you saying the young Ran fellow is more skilled than me too?”

“That’s how it appears to me. Of course, that’s just my personal judgment.”

“Hmm... That means I need more training, then! Even if it is an honor to hear someone say I’m the equal of a leading clan head’s heir!” Radd Liddo said, letting out another jovial chuckle. “Still, everyone here is a victor! They won against more than thirty hunters, so they all must be quite skilled! There’s no shame in being weaker than any of them!”

“You don’t find that disappointing, as a subordinate of one of the leading clans?” Geol Zaza asked in a voice dripping with animosity, but Radd Liddo’s smile didn’t budge in the least.

“Even if we are subordinates of a leading clan, our blood ties with the Suun and the northern clans are weak. We’re not especially big either, even when compared to the Fou and the Ran. And I’ve learned that small clans like the Fa and Sudra have excellent hunters of their own, so I can’t see how regret comes into play here.”

Geol Zaza looked completely unsatisfied with that answer and turned his gaze toward Ai Fa once again. It was a threatening look that made it seem like he was going to challenge her to a contest of strength at any moment, but before he could open his mouth, a large figure approached him from the side. It was Jiza Ruu.

“It’s certainly become noisy over here. This is a banquet to be enjoyed. It is no place for such quarreling.”

Geol Zaza slowly turned to face him. “And who are you?”

“I am the oldest son of the main Ruu house, Jiza Ruu. Are you a hunter of the main Zaza house, perhaps?”

“I’m the youngest son of the main Zaza house, Geol Zaza. So, you’re the Ruu clan’s heir.”

The two of them looked to be about equal in terms of build. Jiza Ruu was just a touch taller, while Geol Zaza was the wider of the two.

The Ruu heir narrowed his eyes, though his smile remained the same as always, while Geol Zaza’s black eyes continued to blaze brightly under the giba pelt he wore atop his head. They both seemed to possess a different sort of intensity than their fathers.

“I don’t know what you were discussing just now, but we are here as observers. You should take care to act in a way that is appropriate for that role.”

“Hmph. I may be the youngest son, but I’m still going to be the next leading clan head. I’m in the same position as you, so I can’t see why I should have to put up with you talking down to me.”

“Right now, your role as an observer should be more important to you than your position. And if you wish to call yourself the next leading clan head, that makes it all the more important for you to adhere to our laws and customs.” Jiza Ruu was perfectly calm and composed, but that just seemed to fan Geol Zaza’s animosity further. By this point, his eyes had become a blazing inferno.

It was then that another figure appeared, an adorable little girl in banquet attire: Toor Deen. “I-It’s been a long time, Geol Zaza! I brought you food!”

Geol Zaza turned her way suspiciously. The young chef looked really anxious as she held out a plate piled high with giba cutlets.

“I wasn’t able to serve these at the northern settlement, so you’ve never tried them, right, Geol Zaza? It’s a dish we’re very proud of, so please give them a taste.”

“Oh, I was wondering who was approaching... The chef from the Deen, eh? I hardly recognized you today.” Geol Zaza looked her up and down, taking note of how her hair was down and she was wearing an iridescent veil. Then his eyes fell upon the plate she held. “And you’ve brought a strange dish with you to boot. Is that stuff seriously giba meat?”

“Y-Yes! It’s a fried dish like the one I served before at the Jeen and Liddo wedding. It may not look like the meat you’re familiar with, but many people of the forest’s edge have enjoyed it. Please, give it a try.”

Geol Zaza scratched at his square chin. It seemed his momentum had been dampened.

Then yet another person approached.

“What are you up to, Geol? I won’t permit you to sully the Zaza name.” Naturally, that had come from Sufira Zaza. Geol Zaza sighed heavily, and then Jiza Ruu chimed in.

“Dari Sauti and the Deen and Ran clan heads are waiting over that way. Why not talk with them while enjoying the food that the chefs have kindly prepared for us?”

With Jiza Ruu, Sufira Zaza, and Toor Deen all staring at him, Geol Zaza finally relented.

“What a bunch of nags you are... Hey, Fa clan head, I’m not done with you just yet. You better not fall asleep before I’m finished talking to them.”

That was a rather tepid parting line considering the dangerous aura he’d just been giving off. Ai Fa simply tilted her head a bit as she watched Geol Zaza depart, with Jiza Ruu and the others surrounding him.

“What a hot-blooded fellow! Still, I suppose that’s just what you expect to see from someone that young,” Radd Liddo said with a chuckle, holding up his bottle of fruit wine high. “At any rate, we’re all comrades here. Even if we do quarrel sometimes, it’s no big deal! All you have to do is keep beating yourselves against each other until both sides are satisfied, and eventually you’ll understand one another!”

That jovial remark was enough to finally clear away the disquiet lingering in the air.

The banquet had only just begun, and as the crowd started smiling along with the Liddo clan head, joy started to fill the air once more.