Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 25 - Chapter 1.2

2

After wrapping up business in the post town, we then headed to the Sauti settlement. I was the only one who had been summoned, though, and since I intended to stop by the Ririn settlement on the way back as well, I was going to need Toor Deen and the others to handle the preparations for tomorrow. My original plan was to send everyone else home in Fafa’s wagon and head to the Sauti settlement alone, but the members of the Ruu clan had asked to accompany me. Dari Sauti was in charge of overseeing the clearing work, and Donda Ruu had apparently said they should be there if he was going to make a request of me.

Speaking of Donda Ruu, he had finally resumed his hunting work at the start of the brown month. The lord of the forest had gored his right shoulder, forcing him to take three months off to recuperate, but he had finally regained the strength to work as a hunter. Reina Ruu and the others had told me that he had been in unusually high spirits the night before, and had drunk an exceptional amount of fruit wine.

And so, I ended up heading to the Sauti settlement with the members of the Ruu clan—Rimee Ruu, Vina Ruu, Ryada Ruu, and Bartha. Two members of the main house who weren’t busy, and two guards to accompany them. Normally, there would be no need for guards to come along when visiting another clan, but there were lots of northerners and guards from town near the Sauti settlement at the moment. It would be worrying to send chefs to such a place all on their own, so those two had been chosen to come along, as they didn’t have any hunting work to take care of.

Bartha was of course dressed as a warrior, and Ryada Ruu was equipped with a sword and bow. Thinking back on his training with Donda Ruu the other day, Ryada Ruu didn’t seem to have weakened at all, his right leg aside. It would be difficult for him to run, carry heavy loads, or walk for long periods of time, so he could no longer serve as a hunter, but he was perfectly capable of dealing with folks from town.

“One wagon should be plenty for five people. And the Ruu settlement is on the way back, so you can come with us in Gilulu’s wagon.”

And with that, we were on our way to the Sauti settlement. Perhaps this goes without saying, but I had asked them all to ride along with me so that Vina Ruu would get pulled along for the visit to the Ririn clan. After all, there was no way they’d want to walk back on foot in this rain. The diligent people of the forest’s edge didn’t visit other clans without business to take care of, so I had concocted this little scheme to get around that.

I can just tell everyone I want to stop by the Ririn settlement after we wrap things up with the Sauti. With any luck, we’ll be staying at the Sauti settlement until it’s almost evening. That’ll guarantee that we’ll be able to meet with Shumiral.

If I had to, I knew I could leave the prep work for tomorrow up to Toor Deen and the others. That morning, I had talked with Ai Fa about letting them use the kitchen without me. From there, it was all down to the mother forest’s guidance.

“I haven’t been to the Sauti settlement in a long time! Not since Papa Donda got hurt, and now the violet, silver, and gold months have gone by...so it’s been around three months!” Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed. She was sitting beside Vina Ruu, who still hadn’t stopped sighing. Having Bartha and Ryada Ruu with us too on this trip made it feel like a fresh and new experience. “By the way, are you still not planning on doing study sessions at the Ruu settlement? Reina’s been disappointed that you haven’t, especially since Mikel and Myme are around.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that. I just wanted to finish our cooking lessons for the Dai and the Suun first. Repeating a lesson after letting some time pass is a good way to get it to stick.”

“Hmm, really?”

“Besides, it’s still going to be a little longer before Mikel can walk without any problems, right? As long as Mikel can’t move around on his own, Myme will want to keep nursing him as much as she can, so even if we invited her to a study session, she would probably turn us down. The way I see it, there’s no need to rush. We can wait until both of them are able to join us.”

“I see! You’re so smart, Asuta!”

My cooking skills earned me tons of praise, but it was pretty rare to hear someone call me smart like that. I really adored Rimee Ruu.

“The rainy season around here is even worse than I’d heard. Is there any danger of landslides when it keeps pouring like this all day?” Bartha interjected.

“That’s no issue,” Ryada Ruu replied. “The ground is firm throughout the settlement at the forest’s edge. The rain washes away sticky sand, but there’s no risk of our houses or paths getting damaged. I recall the elder saying that’s what makes this land unsuitable for farming.”

“Huh. And thanks to the elevation, the rain all flows down into town, right? But even if it isn’t dangerous, I still can’t wait for this gloomy season to hurry on by.”

“Fair enough. However, this rain brings prosperity to both the forest and the town, from what I’ve heard. It is all down to the will of the forest and the gods.”

Like Ryada Ruu said, I wasn’t having any serious issues with driving the wagon, even through this rain. Visibility was poor, of course, but the well-trodden yellow path supported the vehicle’s weight just fine. And as long as I avoided any large puddles, I probably wouldn’t get a wheel caught in the mud or anything.

Gilulu and the other totos didn’t seem to have any issues with the rain either. He had the same unaffected look on his face as he energetically ran down the path, just like always. It was a really reassuring sight.

We continued with our friendly chatting for a while, interrupted by the occasional sigh, until the Sauti settlement finally came into view. For now, I couldn’t see any guards or northerners around. The Sauti were located close to the southern tip of the settlement at the forest’s edge, though, so we would probably be able to see the work site if we went just a little bit farther.

I pulled the wagon into the Sauti settlement. The rain was still coming down, so there didn’t seem to be anyone out in the plaza either. However, I did notice one thing that had changed compared to last time. The plaza, which was a touch smaller than the one at the Ruu settlement, had a large leather tarp canopy stretched over it. What was that all about? It was wide enough to provide shelter to nearly half of the plaza. A number of wooden supports had been driven into the ground to hold it up, creating a rain shield that even outdid our outdoor restaurant space in the post town.

As I tilted my head in confusion, we detoured around that space and headed for the main house. And right as I was descending from the driver’s seat onto the damp ground, the house’s door swung open. They must have been watching us from the window. The one who appeared from inside was Mil Fei Sauti, who had attended the dance party along with us.

“Welcome to the Sauti house. We have been waiting for you, Asuta. And are these all people from the Ruu clan?”

“Yes. Donda Ruu ordered them to come along in case anything bad had happened.”

“Anything bad...? No, no such thing has happened. We simply have something to discuss with you. Please, come this way.” Mil Fei Sauti, who was wearing the same sort of hooded cloak as us to protect against the rain, turned and started walking toward the rear of the house. I followed after her, tying Gilulu to a tree along the way, and we were all led to the kitchen.

It was a nostalgic sight, as I hadn’t been here for three months. We stepped inside and hung our wet rain gear on the wall, at which point Mil Fei Sauti once again faced us.

“First, allow me to thank you for coming all this way. As our clan head, Dari, is currently carrying out his work as a hunter, allow me to be the one to speak with you.”

“Ah, so Dari Sauti is finally back to hunting too?”

“Yes, thanks to the assistance you all lent us. Aside from the two who lost the capability to work as hunters, everyone else has been able to recover.” Mil Fei Sauti wasn’t generally a very expressive person, but she smiled faintly for a moment with narrowed eyes before shifting back to a serious expression as she continued. “I should start by explaining the situation... Four days have passed since work on clearing the forest began. Since then, the workers have been eating lunch here at the Sauti settlement.”

“Oh, so that’s what the cover outside is for. I was wondering about that.”

“Right. We have subordinate clans located farther south, but they do not have plazas big enough to handle such a large crowd, so they borrowed ours instead. There aren’t any people who get married during the rainy season, so it shouldn’t prove any inconvenience.”

“I see. So, what is it that you needed to discuss with me?”

“Well, you see...it has to do with what those northerners have been eating,” Mil Fei Sauti replied, giving a little sigh. “We set aside some of the food they’ve been getting. I’ll heat it back up. Would you be willing to try it?”

“Huh? I don’t mind, of course, but now I’m feeling even more confused.”

Mil Fei Sauti nodded, then lit one of the stoves, setting a very small pot on top of it. And when she removed the wooden board covering the pot, it revealed something strange underneath.

“What is that? It almost looks like oatmeal.”

“Oatmeal?”

“That’s a dish from my home country. But this...”

To put it briefly, it looked like a really crude dish. Still, perhaps there was no helping that, since it was being made for slaves. There was a mysterious milky white paste, and I could spy at least a couple chunks of vegetables and meat scattered here and there throughout.

Before long, the smell of the reheated dish filled the kitchen. Rimee Ruu’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity, and her nose was twitching like a bunny’s.

“It smells pretty tasty! That white stuff is karon milk, isn’t it?”

“Yes. They used karon milk and a poitan-like ingredient called fuwano.” There was only enough of the dish left to fill a single bowl, so it heated up quickly. After transferring it to a wooden plate, Mil Fei Sauti said, “Here you are,” as she handed it to me. “I tried it earlier today, and I swear to the forest that it shall do your body no harm.”

“I wasn’t worried about that at all. The northerners have been eating this stuff, after all.”

I scooped some up with a spoon, then popped it into my mouth. Instantly, I let out a pathetic groan. “Ugh... How should I put it...? I think I’d have trouble calling it good even if I was trying to be polite.”

“Yes. Still, it may be easier to eat than soup made with giba meat that hasn’t been bloodlet.”

Mil Fei Sauti was certainly right on that front. It wasn’t as if there was anything odd about the taste, and the smell was okay too because of the sweet aroma of karon milk. But its texture was just awful. It was as floury as the poitan soup I had eaten in the past, and the ingredients were all mushy. I couldn’t even clearly make out what meat and vegetables had been used, and the only flavors I could taste were karon milk and salt.

If I were to classify it as good or bad, then I’d have to say it was bad. The sweet karon milk and the saltiness didn’t pair well. Despite the sweet smell, the salty taste was the stronger of the two, and the texture was akin to botched oatmeal. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as muddy water, but it would be difficult to find anything to praise.

While I was doing my analysis, Rimee Ruu shouted, “I wanna try it too!” so Mil Fei Sauti pulled out a fresh spoon. For taste testing, even people who weren’t clan members could share a dish as long as they didn’t double-dip with a spoon. At any rate, everyone aside from Ryada Ruu had a single bite of the bungled dish.

“Ah ha ha, gross!” Rimee Ruu laughed.

“It would certainly be difficult to call that delicious... I would prefer not to taste any more...” was Vina Ruu’s opinion.

“It’s like they just tossed whatever they had lying around into it, huh? If you could do something about this floury texture, I might be able to handle it, though,” Bartha said.

“To be sure. Would you like to see the ingredients they used?” Mil Fei Sauti put her rain gear back on and led us to the pantry next. The room was jam packed with huge jars and wooden boxes taking up every last bit of floor space to the point that there wasn’t even anywhere to stand. “They use these ingredients to make that dish from before. Please, take a look.”

The jars and boxes all had lids covering them, so I had to look through them one by one. The majority were filled with vegetable scraps. Aria, nenon, nanaar, sheema, gigo, pula, chan, ro’hyoi... There were bits and pieces from all sorts of vegetables crammed inside, regardless of whether they were cheap or expensive. Some of them were parts of high-class ingredients, like the stalks of mushrooms, while others were things even I threw away, like sheel skins.

Aside from that, there was also karon milk and meat pickled in salt. The meat was all scraps as well, including stuff like karon meat stuck to the ribs and whole kimyuus feet. I did spot one solid chunk of meat in there, but a moment later I noticed that it was starting to turn blue. With meat like that, even if it was pickled in salt, it would need to be eaten by the following day at the latest to not wreck your stomach.

The karon milk must have been around for a while too. It didn’t smell like it had spoiled yet, but I was still a bit worried. At least the temperature was cooler than usual now that we were in the rainy season.

“From what I’m seeing, these seem to be leftover scraps gathered from the castle town.”

“You think so too, Asuta?”

“Well, there are ingredients in the mix that not many folks in the post town can get their hands on, so yeah. This is the food they’re giving to the northerners?”

“Yes. Apparently, they ate the same thing in the Turan lands as well.” Most of them had probably been slaves there for years at this point. It seemed pretty clear what sort of food they had been provided in that time. Furthermore, as someone with ties to a huge number of restaurants, it would have been easy for Cyclaeus to establish a system for collecting such unused scraps. “The only difference between this and their usual diet is that now it’s being made with fuwano rather than poitan. It used to be made with poitan before the rainy season, but there isn’t any available anymore. Not even a single one.”

“Yeah, the residents of the post town have been struggling to get them too. Still, it feels a bit ironic that they’re having to use fuwano instead, since it’s more expensive than poitan.”

“It’s the northerners who are left to suffer in the face of that irony, though. Because fuwano cost more, the sizes of their portions have been decreased to make up for it.”

I was left at a loss for words.

Mil Fei Sauti was staring at me with a deadly serious gaze. “The nobles of Genos have decided that the northerners should be given shabby meals. But now, they aren’t only shabby. They are also small. What do you think about that, Asuta?”

“What do I think...? It feels really bad to hear that, of course. I never expected the northerners would have to deal with a problem like this.”

“Our clan head feels the same way. I’m glad to hear you agree, Asuta,” Mil Fei Sauti said, her gaze growing ever so slightly gentler. “Of course, it was only the amount of fuwano that decreased, but that is just as important of an ingredient as poitan, isn’t it? Here at the forest’s edge, when those who become impoverished are unable to eat enough aria and poitan, they grow weaker. Our clan head is worried that the northerners might grow weaker as well over the course of the rainy season.”

“Right, I definitely think so too. And they’re being forced to work even harder than they usually would, which makes this that much more of a concern.”

Doing some basic math, fuwano cost one and a half times as much as poitan. That meant if the budget was kept the same, they would get two-thirds of their normal amount each day. Decreasing your carbohydrate intake by that much while forced to do intense physical labor would be incredibly rough.

“Our clan head only learned about this yesterday. He discussed the matter this morning with the heads of our subordinate clans, and we will be sending messengers to the Ruu and Zaza tonight. If the other leading clan heads agree, we plan to tell the nobles that we people of the forest’s edge would like to purchase enough fuwano to make up the difference.”

“You do? Ah, were you thinking of using the reward money...?”

“Yes. We’ll need to do calculations to determine if it will be enough, though.”

There were over a hundred northerners being used in this project. To pay for one-third of the fuwano for each of them every day... Yeah, that would definitely require some calculations.

“If it’s not enough, the Fa clan will pay for it. Actually, I’d like to have us pay for all of it. I’m the reason poitan have been selling out, so...”

“But you came up with the new method for eating poitan so we people of the forest’s edge could have delicious meals, did you not? And from what I am told, that knowledge was then spread around town to strike a blow against some wicked nobles.”

“Yes, that’s true, but...”

“Then this isn’t a problem for the Fa clan to shoulder alone. And you’re a fellow person of the forest’s edge, so we should all be sharing the burden between us regardless,” Mil Fei Sauti stated, her gaze both strict and kind at the same time.

“Sorry,” I replied, bowing my head. “That was foolish of me. It’s embarrassing how little thought I put into these things.”

“You’re still young, Asuta, so you don’t need to let it worry you so much. But if our actions are bringing misfortune to others, that’s certainly not something we can overlook. I am certain Donda Ruu and Gulaf Zaza will both listen to what our clan head has to say.”

That was what it meant to be a person of the forest’s edge. Seeing once again how noble they were as a people left me awestruck.

“We were thinking of sending out messengers to the Ruu and Zaza soon. And this is where I should bring up the request we have of you, Asuta.”

“Right. Ask away, please.”

“In that case, I shall convey our clan head’s words directly. Asuta, would you use these ingredients to make a more delicious dish?”

“Huh? Using these ingredients?”

“That’s right. It pains our clan head to see the northerners fending off starvation with food that’s just as bad as poitan soup. We tried to suggest cooking the fuwano like poitan to make their meals a bit better, but the guards rejected that idea.”

Cooking enough fuwano for over a hundred people would require fuel. And we were currently in the rainy season, so fuel was a precious resource. It was probably only natural for the nobles of Genos to think that such expenses and effort would be wasted on slaves. But personally, I very much agreed with Dari Sauti.

“Understood. I need to use the same ingredients, keep to the same budget, and prepare it in the same amount of time, right? I’ll give it some thought.”

“Thank you. But you work from morning until midday, correct? The northern women prepare the food in the morning, then they need to help the men soon after.”

“Oh, so they prepare the food themselves? How many women are there, and how long do they spend on it?”

“There are five of them. And as for the time...they start shortly after the sun rises and cook until the sun is about halfway to its peak, I’d say.”

The time from dawn till noon was roughly six or seven hours. Considering the transit time from the Turan lands, I figured they took roughly three hours.

“Just five people preparing enough food for a hundred is quite an undertaking... Okay, got it. I should start by thinking about what type of dish to make...”

“But you can’t step away from your work, can you, Asuta?”

“No, I can’t. But there’s no need for me to teach the Mahyudra women directly. I can tell all of you what to do, and then you can teach them in turn, right?”

“Huh? W-We’ll be instructing the northerners?”

“Right. I don’t think it should take long.”

“No, it’s not a matter of time. With our skills...”

“That’s not an issue. We’ve cooked alongside one another, so I know what level of skill you all have. And if what I’m thinking of works, the Sauti women should be perfectly capable of handling it.”

“You already know what to make, Asuta?”

“Yeah. Or rather, it’s more like I have so few options that I’m kind of being forced into it.”

Mil Fei Sauti started shaking her head, looking impressed. “I truly am shocked. Our clan head and I had half given up, thinking it would be too difficult for even you to make these scraps into a proper meal.”

“That’s definitely not the case. Even if they’re scraps, this is a mountain of treasure that even includes high-class ingredients. There may not be many seasonings here, but it shouldn’t be difficult to make something tasty.”

There was plenty of karon milk here, after all. It was a cheap ingredient, so the chefs of the castle town would buy large amounts, knowing some of it would go bad. Thinking back on it, while I had been at the Turan manor, they’d had a lot of karon milk in stock with no particular use in mind for it. That was why I wanted to make karon milk the spearhead of my attack strategy.

“The issue is that the preparations will take some time. Are we allowed to mess with the ingredients right now?”

“Yes. They are borrowing this space, so they shouldn’t have any issue with that.”

“In that case, it should be just fine, yeah. I can come to help out like this after work, and I have every sixth day off, so I could come see how the Mahyudra women perform personally then.”

Mil Fei Sauti smiled gently in response to my words. That caught me a bit off guard, but it was quite a charming smile.

“Thank you. Our clan head is sure to be quite happy as well. I am truly proud to call you a fellow person of the forest’s edge, Asuta.”

“I’m personally glad to see you and Dari Sauti worrying so much about how the northerners are treated. It’s not like we have any reason to hold a grudge against them, after all.”

“Right. We aren’t in any position to speak about the war between the north and the west... But even so, the nobles of Genos knowingly made the decision to bring the northerners to the settlement at the forest’s edge. And so, while they’re here, we should be able to follow our customs with them, correct?”

Mil Fei Sauti spoke decisively, but it was abundantly clear that she wasn’t disregarding the nobles. But even though she acknowledged the superior position of the other side, she still refused to throw away her pride. Perhaps Mil Fei Sauti felt that way because she had set foot in the castle town for the first time just the other day for the dance party, where she had actually met nobles face-to-face.

Maybe I’m just doing it for my own personal satisfaction, but I really do want to give the northerners something good to eat... I wonder if Eleo Chel is with them?

While I was thinking about that, I stared out over the mountain of ingredients covering the whole floor. It felt as if the open black mouths of the jars and boxes were laughing and calling out to me, “If you think you can handle us, go ahead and try.”