Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 24 - Chapter 2.4

4

It was now the following morning.

I headed to the Ruu settlement at the agreed upon time, finding a bit of a commotion there. I arrived right at the upper fifth hour, since that was when Shumiral had said his next visit would be, but it looked like he had shown up a bit early. There was already a crowd surrounding him, which included hunters from not just the Ruu, but their subordinate clans as well.

“Well, if it isn’t Asuta! Long time no see!” Rau Lea called out from the crowd as I was approaching them after bringing my wagon to a stop. He was right; it had been quite some time since I’d last seen him. In fact, it might have been since that welcome party we’d had for Dora and the other townsfolk.

“Yeah, it’s really been a while. What brings you here today?”

“Donda Ruu invited me! He said I should come and see what I think about this crazy easterner and the hunting dogs he brought with him.”

Rau Lea and I were the same age, but despite that, he was already the head of the main Lea house. His hair was golden, like Ai Fa’s, and he had fine facial features like a woman, but he was still a pretty brazen and mischievous guy. His light blue eyes were sparkling like a child’s as he stared at the hunting dogs, which he was seeing for the first time.

Behind Rau Lea, I spied a middle-aged man with gray-brown hair and a mustache grinning at me: Giran Ririn, who I also hadn’t seen in some time.

“So you’re here too, Giran Ririn? Were all of the subordinate clan heads invited?”

“Indeed. And there seem to be some folks who aren’t clan heads here too,” Giran Ririn said, right before someone else in the crowd started roaring with laughter. And sure enough, the person who was laughing was not a current clan head, but a former one.

“Excuse me for a moment... Dan Rutim, I’m glad to see you looking well.”

“Hey there, Asuta! Just look at these things! Pretty interesting, aren’t they?!” Dan Rutim was sitting on the ground, playing with two of the hunting dogs. He almost looked like a giant baby holding two huge stuffed animals. “Yes, very interesting! They kinda resemble varb wolves too! Isn’t there some legend about wolves who left the mountains and became dogs?”

“Yeah, I heard something like that from Ai Fa. I’m sure dogs and wolves are related, at the very least.”

The dogs looked like the kind of breed that would come from the west in my old world. They had droopy ears, square faces, and strong bodies, but there was still something weirdly cute about them.

“I knew it! They’ve got the same clever look in their eyes that varb wolves have! What incredibly interesting creatures they are!”

When I met Radd Liddo, I had thought that he and Dan Rutim were pretty similar, but on second thought, it was pretty obvious that this man had the bigger heart by far. The hunting dogs were perfectly content to sit around him without even a hint of fear.

Dan Rutim was clearly the most enthusiastic person in the crowd, but it looked like a majority of them were at least smiling. Any of them who had seen the show put on by the animal tamer from the traveling performers had probably grown a lot more accustomed to seeing unfamiliar beasts.

Wondering where Shumiral himself was, I glanced around until I spotted him talking to Jiza Ruu and Gazraan Rutim, who were both looking pretty serious. From Jiza Ruu’s perspective, this was the man who was asking to marry his sister. As someone who valued the customs of the forest’s edge more than almost anybody else, Shumiral was probably as much of a headache for him as I had once been.

Feeling a bit worried, I started to walk over there, but before I could reach the three of them, a certain brother and sister pair I was friends with called out to me.

“Hey, Asuta! Welcome back!” Ludo Ruu said.

“Look, look! The doggy likes me!” Rimee Ruu added.

There was a dog on either side of the pair, and they were doting on the animals as eagerly as Dan Rutim was. I had long suspected that the Sym blood running through their veins was the reason the people of the forest’s edge were able to bond with totos so quickly. Maybe there was something in the Jagar part of their blood that caused them to be drawn to dogs like this too.

“Sorry for the wait, Asuta. We’re getting ready to head out now,” someone said to me from behind. When I turned around, I found Reina Ruu standing there smiling a short distance away from the crowd.

“Ah, thanks. Um, how are things going with Shumiral?”

“Well, he’s at least been granted permission to enter the forest. As for whether or not he’ll be permitted to become a member of a clan or marry into a leading clan, they’ll be discussing all of that after they see how effective he is on the hunt.” That made sense. There was no way they could have figured everything out in a single night. Once Shumiral showed them what he could do, then the discussion could move on to the next step. “They’re going to start by having him head out into the forest with hunters from the Ruu and their subordinate clans. How well he does will determine what happens next.”

“I see. That’s good to hear,” I said with a sigh of relief. Then I waved at Shumiral, and he bowed back to me next to Gazraan Rutim. “Well then, how about we get going? We’ve got our own work to do.” As I separated from the crowd, I saw that Ruuruu’s wagon was already on standby. We had decided that the Fa clan would bring two wagons to town until Lili Ravitz’s training was over, so the women who were going to ride with me were also standing there off to the side. One of them was Vina Ruu, who was on duty today. “Good morning, Vina Ruu. How are you feeling?”

“Feeling...? The same as always, I’d say.”

She seemed to have lost her meekness from yesterday and returned to her usual self somehow. As I titled my head in confusion, Reina Ruu brought her mouth close to my ear for a whisper.

“With all the commotion Shumiral’s arrival caused, they haven’t been able to talk to one another yet. Jiza’s barely left his side since he got here.”

“I’m sure. From your brother’s point of view, this situation must be really alarming.”

“Yeah... But actually, he seems less shaken than I expected him to be. He’s been keeping a really close eye on Shumiral this whole time, trying to find any fault he can, but if Shumiral’s abilities impress them enough, he might not raise an objection,” Reina Ruu said, smiling in a way that made her look really mature. “Jiza’s changed. And he’s still changing, I’m sure. Compared to how he was when he first met you, he seems to see things in a totally different way now.”

It would soon be nine months since I first appeared at the forest’s edge. That was more than enough time for someone’s perspective to evolve. After glancing back at Jiza Ruu and Shumiral one last time, I headed over to the wagon so we could get on with our own job.

Our work in the post town was going smoothly again today, and the same was true for Myme’s stall. She had asked the Ruu women to help her with her preparations in the morning, and had managed to get a hundred meals ready as a result. Selling a hundred meals would earn her two hundred red coins. Even subtracting the cost of the ingredients, that would work out to around a hundred and twenty coins of pure profit, and because of her strong sense of duty, the first thing she did with that money was repay the Fa clan for the medicine we had bought for her father.

“Thankfully, my father’s wounds have healed quite a bit. It’ll still take a long time for his leg bone to be fully fixed, but he’s gotten a lot of his energy back already,” Myme told us, with a smile that had also been restored to about eighty percent of its original brightness. The remaining twenty percent must have been due to her worries about the future.

Six days had now passed since Myme and Mikel had come to the Ruu settlement. Living together with Bartha and Jeeda seemed to be no problem for them, so the only point of concern was what would come next.

“I’m really fond of the settlement at the forest’s edge. I’d be perfectly happy if my father and I could simply keep living with Bartha and Jeeda. But it’s not going to be that simple, is it?”

Myme had heard about Shumiral by way of Bartha, so she knew how harshly an outsider trying to be accepted as a person of the forest’s edge would be scrutinized.

“Well, the reason they’re being so tough on Shumiral is because he’s trying to marry into the main Ruu house. But I was allowed to live as a member of the Fa clan without any of that.”

Still, there was a chance that I would have been driven from the forest’s edge at the previous clan head meeting if I had spent my time idly. Back then, even Jiza Ruu had strongly felt that I should live in town instead. But as guests, the standard Myme and Mikel would be judged by wouldn’t be nearly as high. After all, Bartha and Jeeda had been living in the forest for several months already, so I wanted Myme to spend her time with us feeling carefree instead of worrying.

At any rate, we carried on with our business regardless of the drama happening behind the scenes. Our proposed contract that would guarantee our supply of poitan was also steadily moving toward being finalized. I had already paid Dora eighteen silver coins for the minimum number we would need, though I was still trying to figure out what the actual quantity was ultimately going to end up being.

The Ruu clan had covered half of the advance payment, since even though the Fa clan was the one that had made it our mission to bring happiness to our fellow people of the forest’s edge, a leading clan like the Ruu couldn’t overlook the predicament we were all facing. At any rate, now we had no need to worry about anyone starving because they were unable to purchase the poitan they needed.

The members of the Silver Vase, Shumiral excluded, also stopped by our stalls. Five of them showed up in the morning and four in the afternoon, and they all bought sizable meals from us. When Radajid made his purchase, he started talking to me in a formal tone. “Shumiral is, currently in, the forest, correct? We shall pray, for his, safe return.”

“I’m sure Shumiral will be fine. He’s got a bunch of really strong hunters from the Ruu with him, after all.”

“Yes... If he could, ride a totos, there would be, no need to worry, but the forest, of Morga, is so dense, that totos, cannot enter, correct?”

“That’s true. If you tried to go in there riding on a totos, their head would keep getting caught on stuff. They’re so big, it’s kinda inevitable.”

“How unfortunate. If he could, ride a totos, he would not, even need, those hunting dogs.”

I didn’t really get what he meant and so I asked for a clarification, and was told that Shumiral was extremely skilled at handling a totos. He could even hold off a muffur bear or an algura silver lion while riding one.

“That’s amazing. And it puts me even more at ease. I think we should just have faith in Shumiral.”

“Yes.” Radajid nodded, then he seemed to remember something and looked directly at me. “There is one more, important matter, to discuss. We have brought, a great deal, of ingredients, from the capital. Now that Count Turan, has fallen, we wanted to, sell them to you, but it seems, we must deliver them, to other nobles.”

“Yeah, the business deals Cyclaeus was a part of are all being handled by Duke Genos and the guardian in charge of the house of Turan now. It could cause a bit of trouble if you sell that stuff in the post town without their permission.”

“That is, a shame. If we could, sell to you, directly, we would have, made it, a good bit, cheaper.”

“Thank you for thinking of me like that. But I’m still grateful to you. Genos’s stock of dried seaweed and saltwater fish and the like has been getting worryingly low lately.”

With that businesslike discussion out of the way, Radajid returned to the castle town. Since Shumiral had already switched over to the western god, he had taken up leadership of the group. They had headed straight to the castle town first yesterday because they needed to inform their business partners about that. As for the post of second-in-command, that had gone to the older member who specialized in star reading.

Shumiral’s now more like an outside collaborator. It must have taken a lot of resolve to entrust Radajid with the group his father had created. I seriously hoped that resolve would be rewarded. But first, the question of whether those dogs would be useful in hunting giba would need to be answered.

I was still thinking about that as we were wrapping up our business in the post town for the day. After that, it was finally time to give cooking lessons to the Suun clan. After saying farewell to Reina Ruu and the others at the Ruu settlement, we headed north, dropping Lili Ravitz off along the way before heading for the Suun settlement.

This would be the first time I had visited the place in over half a year. After a long while, we arrived and pulled the wagon into the settlement, as an indescribable sense of nostalgia ran down my spine.

The massive ritual hall with its dome-shaped roof of dried grass still sat in the center. That was where the clan head meeting had been held. I had met Gulaf Zaza and the other northern hunters for the first time there, fed everyone a meal made with bloodlet giba meat, and explained the Fa clan’s actions... And then at night, Diga and Doddo had attacked.

Ludo Ruu had fought off Tei Suun while bleeding from his head, Dan Rutim had come running with Tsuvai under his arm, and Donda Ruu had cornered Zuuro Suun with his face looking like a lion’s. And there was the sight of Ai Fa asleep with her limbs bound. One after another, these images floated through my mind.

Then there were the members of the Suun clan. Once all of their crimes were exposed, the members of the branch houses had all cried out. Toor Deen had been one of them. They had thought they were going to be scalped, but they were also finally free of Zattsu Suun’s curse. I could still clearly recall their lamentations, and how they made the night air seem to tremble.

It had been a huge turning point for us. I had met Ai Fa in the forest, been invited to the Ruu settlement, encountered Kamyua Yoshu in the post town...and then, we came here to the Suun settlement. One event had led to another, and another, and another, leading us to where we were now. Feeling all kinds of emotions welling up in my chest, I gripped Gilulu’s reins tight.

“Er, which building should we head toward?”

“That one on the far left. That’s where the family currently in charge of managing the Suun clan lives.”

The Suun had lost their main house and hadn’t been permitted to select a new one yet, so they were trying to rebuild with all of their people on an equal standing. However, the house with the oldest member had been put in charge of managing the clan’s affairs for the time being.

As I got down from the driver’s seat and headed in that direction, I let out an “Ah” before I could stop myself. I had just noticed that the former main Suun house, which should have been right beside the one I was walking to, was now gone.

“When Zuuro and Zattsu Suun were moved to the northern settlement, Gulaf Zaza and the others burned that house down. After all, no one was going to be returning there ever again,” Toor Deen quietly explained from up in the wagon.

Awash in feelings that were difficult to put into words, I replied, “I see.”

It was true that there was no longer anyone to return there. Yamiru Lea had joined the Lea clan, Mida the Ruu, Tsuvai and Oura the Rutim, and Diga and Doddo the Dom. And of course, Zattsu’s and Tei Suun’s souls had long since returned to the heavens, while Zuuro Suun had been sent off to a penal colony somewhere. With that, their crimes had finally been forgiven. Their ties had been severed and the house where they’d been raised had been burned to the ground, but in return, Yamiru Lea and the others had been permitted to walk a new path in life.

When I thought about that, a strange feeling caused my heart to skip a beat, and a cold bead of sweat ran down my cheek. Their ties had been severed, and their home burned down...permitting them to live new lives. It was nothing but a coincidence, and yet... That’s practically the same as my story, isn’t it?

I gulped, causing Yun Sudra to shoot me a concerned look as she walked beside me.

“What’s the matter, Asuta? You look a bit pale.”

“It’s nothing.”

Nothing but a coincidence. It wasn’t like I was being judged for a crime. But still, I felt like I was suddenly seeing Yamiru Lea and the others in a new light.

They all lost a lot, but they were able to grab hold of happy new lives in exchange. We’re the same in that way.

Zattsu and Tei Suun were the only ones who hadn’t been saved while they were still alive, but their remaining family deserved a chance to live happily enough to make up for that fact. That was how I felt as I stood before the old house.

“Excuse me. We’re here to give your people cooking lessons.”

The door swung open in response, and an older woman appeared from inside. She wasn’t quite old enough to be called elderly, but her hair had gone rather white. When she saw me, tears streamed from her eyes as she said, “Ah... Asuta of the Fa clan... So you really did come. I was worried that you might still be angry with the Suun clan.”

“O-Of course not. I just happened to have some business suddenly crop up yesterday that prevented me from coming here,” I replied in a fluster. Then I looked at Yun Sudra, and she gave me a troubled smile in response.

“I tried to explain it to them, but apparently my words weren’t enough to ease their worries.”

“I see. Um, please don’t cry. I’m not angry with the Suun clan. Everyone at the forest’s edge decided to forgive you, right?”

But the woman still continued to cry as she looked at my face. However, her brown eyes no longer looked like they belonged to a dead fish, as they had before. Instead, they had a noticeable sparkle in them, which her tears made all the brighter. Since I had recruited all the women of the branch houses for the meal I served at the clan head meeting, I must have met her before.

“Everyone is gathered in the kitchen. Please, teach us your lesson.”

“Got it. I’ll see you in a bit.”

At her direction, we circled around to the rear of the house. Then we stepped into the kitchen, where we were greeted by an unexpectedly large number of women.

“Oh, Asuta, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“I’m glad that I get to see you again, Asuta.”

There were ten of them there, as well as a number of young children. But from what I had been told, there weren’t even twenty members of the Suun clan left at this point. If that was the truth, then this must have been everyone aside from the hunters.

The kids who were younger than five all stared at me in amazement. Those who were a bit older smiled at me bashfully or hid behind their mothers, but regardless, they were all looking in my direction. The women, both young and old, had a variety of reactions, running the gamut from smiling to looking nervous. But again, none of them had those dead-fish eyes or were expressionless like clay dolls.

Sure enough, I did indeed remember a number of their faces. They had all cooked alongside me at the clan head meeting. The woman who had injured Toor Deen with a splash of boiling water was there. The one who had burned the myamuu giba while Sheera Ruu had tried to instruct her was there too, as was the woman who had said the Suun settlement didn’t have any aria or poitan. All of them were full of emotion now as they watched me.

“It’s been a long time, everyone. I’m glad to see you all doing well,” I replied, feeling rather emotional myself, and I saw a number of them once again having to hold back tears. To them, I was a living representation of the Suun clan’s downfall. Donda Ruu and the other clan heads under him had driven Zuuro Suun into a corner, but I was the one who had said we should search their pantry.

Back then, they had surrounded us, looking like living corpses. And when the secret of their pantry was exposed, their tears came pouring out as if a dam had been broken.

“Our apologies. Everyone wanted to see you, so even those who cannot cook are gathered here. But as we don’t want them to get in the way of your work, they’ll be leaving shortly.”

“Ah, no, I’m grateful for the sentiment. I look forward to working with you all these next few days.”

The women who had brought the young children to the kitchen bowed their heads and stepped outside. That just left five Suun women in there with us.

“We’re looking forward to working with you as well. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to remember the joy of living.”

“Today’s the last day of lessons for the men, isn’t it? Have you already been able to enjoy the taste of bloodlet giba meat?”

“Yes. We have enough meat now that we’re starting to run short on pico leaves,” one of the women replied, and then I heard some cheers from the plaza. Though the sun was still high in the sky, the men had returned from the forest.

I wanted to greet them first before starting work, only for an unexpectedly large figure to appear before me and catch me off guard. I could tell that he was a hunter from the northern settlement, since he wore a pelt with the head part still attached.

“The Fa clan’s chef, eh? So you’re here today too.” A number of similarly dressed brawny hunters were there behind him as well. They numbered six in total, and were carrying three giba. “We’re hunters from the Jeen clan. We came here today to give the Suun men hunting lessons.”

“Oh, I see. Well, good work.”

They visited the Suun settlement once every few days to assist the Suun clan’s men, who had forgotten how to hunt giba. They were also tasked with confirming that the Suun were living proper lives and not touching the fruits of the forest, because they were the angriest and felt the greatest responsibility for the Suun clan’s past actions.

Farther back were two more groups, one familiar and one not. They were the hunters of the Sudra and Suun clans—four from the former, and seven from the latter, carrying five giba between them.

“Good work, Raielfam Sudra. That’s quite a haul, considering how high in the sky the sun still is.”

“Indeed, though we only successfully bloodlet half of them. But we need to skin the pelts, so we brought them all back,” the Sudra clan head replied, bringing his wrinkled forehead close to mine. “Still, I certainly never expected to take down eight whole giba. I’ve never seen hunting grounds with so many of them running around.”

“That was why the Suun clan chose this place for their settlement. After all, they once possessed more strength than any other clan,” the Jeen man who had spoken to me before interjected. “The fruits of the forest have fully recovered in the past half year, and the number of giba about has continued to rise. If we didn’t stop by occasionally, the Suun men would surely be in quite a bit of danger.”

“Yes, you are all certainly excellent hunters. There can be no mistaking that, after I’ve seen the strength of the northern clans firsthand. Still, do none of you use bows in your hunting?” Raielfam Sudra asked.

“I wouldn’t say that we don’t use them at all, but we didn’t bring any hunters who specialize in them today.”

“There are ten hunters in the Jeen clan, correct? So at least six of you don’t use bows?” Raielfam Sudra questioned, crossing his short arms with a complicated expression on his face. In the meantime, I went ahead and greeted the Suun men one by one.

I hadn’t had any direct interaction with any of them, but they had all been present for the moment of their clan’s downfall. They hadn’t wept like the women, but their eyes had still been flooded with emotion.

Around when they started the process of hanging the eight giba they had hunted from some tree branches, Raielfam Sudra spoke up once more.

“Jeen hunter, I have a proposition for you. Could we join you again when you go out into the Suun hunting grounds?”

“What? We only visit this place once every five days at most. Your bloodletting lessons should already be over by the next time we come.”

“I would like to hunt alongside you, even outside of those lessons. To be honest, our Sudra hunters have started to have a bit too much time on our hands.”

“Oh? You only have four hunters, but you have time on your hands?”

“Indeed. The clans surrounding the Fa have grown strong over these past several months. I am certain that as of late, all of them have been hunting more giba than they ever have before. As a result, our hunting grounds have started to feel somewhat restricted. We would need to head farther into the forest to expand them, but we’re aware of our limits.” Raielfam Sudra stared up at the Jeen hunter, who was over a head taller than him. “So, our hunting grounds now feel restrictive, while the Suun clan are suffering from a surplus of giba. I feel it would be beneficial for both sides if we visit the Suun settlement like this on occasion. And if we could borrow the strength of the northern clans as well, it would be even more worthwhile. We specialize in bows while you are among the strongest when it comes to blades, which should mean we both get an advantage from working together.”

“It’s true that we were able to hunt eight giba in such a short time because the Jeen, Sudra, and Suun hunters were all working together,” the Jeen hunter replied, clearly thinking about the proposal carefully. “It is our job to hunt as many giba as possible. With that in mind, I could see our clan head considering your idea. At any rate, it won’t be too long before we visit the Suun clan again.”

“I see. In that case, if you can inform us of the date, we’ll come here as well. The Fa clan is paying us for meat, so you can keep all of the horns, tusks, and pelts.”

“That would feel like accepting charity from you. The fruits of the hunt should be split evenly.”

Though he had ended up reverting to the usual stubbornness of the northern clans at the end, he seemed to have more or less accepted Raielfam Sudra’s suggestion. I was honestly impressed to see that the Sudra clan head’s quick tongue was effective even against the northern clans.

Raielfam Sudra stole a glance in my direction and said, “By the way, are the Suun clan permitted to sell meat to the Fa clan? They used to oppose the Fa clan’s actions, but the main house is gone now, so I’m sure they must think differently now.”

“That...would need to be discussed with the leading clan heads. It could be dangerous to allow the Suun clan to acquire excessive wealth, after all,” the Jeen hunter said.

“Then they could simply use their earnings to buy the food and medicine they need, and have the Zaza clan hold on to whatever is left. There are a lot of young children at the Suun settlement, so it seems like they’re probably going to end up running out of funds sooner or later as things stand.”

“Only the leading clan heads can make that kind of decision...but I will pass your words along to Gulaf Zaza.”

“I see. I’ll be counting on you.” Raielfam Sudra gave a big nod, and then he turned to face me directly. “By the way, how long do you plan to keep watching us? The sun has sunk quite a bit now.”

“Oh, right. Please excuse us.”

With that, we all headed back to the kitchen. Along the way, Toor Deen whispered to me, “Um, Raielfam Sudra... He’s a very strange man, isn’t he? It seems as if he can see things that we can’t.”

“Yeah, he’s an amazing guy. I’d say he’s playing a starring role in helping to change everyone’s lifestyles here at the forest’s edge.”

I glanced over at Yun Sudra, and she shot me a proud smile.

“I’m feeling overwhelmed, honestly. I’m very proud to be a member of the Sudra clan.”

“Yeah, I’d say you’re right to feel that way. So, do you still think your clan head isn’t sensible?”

“Isn’t sensible? When did I ever say such a thing?”

“Didn’t you mention something like that some time ago? You know, back when he didn’t let you go with us to Dabagg.”

“I-I mean, it was just that I wanted to go too...but it wasn’t like I was seriously criticizing my clan head!” Yun Sudra loudly shouted, causing the Suun clan women to look her way in confusion. She blushed red and shot me a reproachful glare. “That’s cruel of you, Asuta, dragging up the ancient past.”

“Ah ha ha, sorry.”

The forest’s edge was in the midst of an upheaval, even now. As I prayed from the depths of my heart that Shumiral would be able to smoothly slot himself into our community, I went ahead and carried out the rest of my work for the day.