Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 25 - Chapter 3.2

2

Northerners... A group of people from the kingdom of Mahyudra, far to the north.

Five such northern women were approaching us, guided by a guard. All of them were tall, not a one of them being shorter than me, and I wouldn’t call them slender either. None of them looked as strong as Bartha, but based on my recollection, they seemed to have sturdier frames than the average western woman from my old world. Chiffon Chel was undeniably pretty in a slender way, like a taller Vina Ruu, but that might have been because she hadn’t been assigned to physical labor. All of the women gathered here were clearly burlier than her.

They were all wearing hooded rain gear. Peering underneath those hoods, I could spy curly auburn hair, purple eyes, and ruddy tanned skin. Folks from Jagar had skin tones that went from white to faintly pink, but these women were much more distinctly tan, almost brown in color, and now that I thought back on it, Eleo Chel had looked similar back when I’d met him.

Their ages looked to be really varied, with the youngest probably around twenty and the oldest likely about forty. They all had chiseled features, and by my own personal beauty standards, I thought they were all quite attractive. However, their legs were hobbled by chains that were only about thirty centimeters long. Criminals at the forest’s edge were restrained in a similar way, in order to prevent them from being able to run.

The women lined up before us in the little bit of remaining space under the overhang. For some reason, they seemed to have a really intense presence about them. There weren’t many really big westerners out there. Even men were only around 170 centimeters tall on average, with well-built ones like Melfried being rare, so there weren’t maybe people present who were taller than them. Even out of the people of the forest’s edge who were currently with us, only Jiza Ruu and Dari Sauti were taller than those women.

Speaking of Jiza Ruu, Rimee Ruu was tugging on his arm. He bent down to see what she wanted, and his younger sister whispered into his ear.

“Rimee Ruu wishes to know if she and the others can start working now, and also if they may converse with these women as they normally would.”

“That will not be a problem, naturally. We already informed you that our mission is to observe how you conduct yourselves. That is why we had you gather slightly later than usual,” Melfried stated.

Hearing that, Rimee Ruu stepped forward with a smile. “It’s been a while, everybody! I’ll be helping out again today, so I’m looking forward to working with you!”

Rimee Ruu had also visited the Sauti settlement on her day off five days ago, which was when she had taken on the teaching job I had been planning to handle myself. That meant this was the second time they had met...but their reaction to the young girl’s words was more than a little surprising to me. The northern women went from looking as expressionless as statues to smiling brightly in a matter of moments.

“It’s nice to see you again, Rimee Ruu. We look forward to working with you too,” the oldest of the women said with a bow of her head. Her speech was a little childlike, with clumsy intonation, but in a different way than an easterner.

The other women clad in rain gear also started bowing one after another. Undaunted by the respect they were showing, Rimee Ruu gave a bow of her own back.

“Well then, let’s get to work! Is everyone else already gathered in the kitchen?”

“Hey Rimee, you runt! Don’t move around on your own!” Ludo Ruu called out as he followed after his little sister, making the two of them the first to set foot in the kitchen. The five northern women and the guard watching them followed after, and then Melfried turned toward us.

“It would be difficult to fit everyone in the kitchen all at once. I believe we should have four or five people at a time enter, taking turns. What do you say?”

“I have no objections. You’ve been rather curious about how it’s been going, haven’t you, Asuta? You can observe first,” Dari Sauti offered.

Taking him up on that, Ai Fa and I entered in the first group. Among those from the castle town, Melfried, Polarth, and one of the soldiers tasked with guarding them joined us.

Mil Fei Sauti and company were already waiting for us there in the kitchen. Since Mil Fei Sauti had come to visit me once earlier, she just gave me a silent nod now. The other four women, meanwhile, gave me little bows, their expressions filled with joy and relief.

“Well then, if there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask! We’re here to look out for you, after all!” Rimee Ruu declared.

It had been ten days now since the cooking lessons had started. Rimee Ruu and the other chefs moved around the kitchen with the northern women, but they didn’t interfere at all during this initial stage.

The northern women worked at a steady pace, neither rushing nor slacking off. After lighting the stoves, they started boiling some karon and kimyuus bones, and while waiting for that to finish, a few of them selected their ingredients from the pantry.

At the same time, two of the women swiftly added water to some fuwano and began kneading it. There were over a hundred northerners brought here and forced to work to clear the land, which meant the number of manju they needed to make was on the same scale. I had only been able to lend them half of the steaming baskets we owned, so it took numerous rounds of cooking to finish them all.

Still, there was no hesitation in their actions. They had seemingly learned the steps quite well over the course of the last ten days. The three who had been selecting ingredients added the appropriate vegetables to the pot, after which, two of them minced up fillings for the manju, while the last one set about separating out milk fat from the karon milk.

“Hmm. I don’t know what it was like before so I cannot say for certain, but they certainly seem to have a smooth workflow,” Polarth muttered to himself. I had no objections to that statement. They looked rather detached, but I wasn’t seeing any mistakes. They only looked so dispassionate because they never opened their mouths, and their lack of communication wasn’t causing any slipups because they were all well aware of what they needed to do.

A woman who was chopping up vegetables suddenly turned toward Rimee Ruu, who noticed after just a moment and hurried over. Atop the woman’s cutting boards sat a big pile of bamboo-shoot-like chamcham cut into chunks.

With a cute tilt of her head, Rimee Ruu said, “Hmm... Chamcham’s really tasty in both manju and stew! Looks like we have a lot today, so why not add half to each?”

The woman gave a single nod, transferring half of the chamcham to a wooden plate, and then starting to swiftly dice up what was left.

“Can the northerners gathered here all speak the western tongue?” Melfried asked.

“Sir!” a guard replied with a salute. “It was decided that having a decent command of our language was essential for this work, which is why these five were selected! At the very least, they should be able to accurately understand all instructions!”

“I see,” Melfried said, and the soldier nervously returned to his post along the wall. To a common guard like him, it must have felt like Melfried, the leader of the ducal guard, was someone impossibly high up on the chain of command. Of course, for those who lived outside the stone walls, that was how they tended to look at all nobles.

But for the people of the forest’s edge, there isn’t much difference between the nobles and the townsfolk. They’re indebted to us, so they’ve been placing a lot of weight on our words up until now...but it’s different when northerners are involved, huh? I thought to myself as I stole a glance at Melfried’s chilly expression. Still, it wasn’t like I had any doubts about his character at this point. I hadn’t heard from Marstein in a long time, and there was a lot I still wasn’t certain about when it came to the duke, but I was sure that Melfried was someone I could trust. Of course, there was plenty I didn’t know about him either, since we had only ever exchanged a handful of words. And it had always been as hard to tell what he was thinking as it was with Jiza Ruu. It was only when his wife and daughter were with him that I could catch a glimpse of his more human side shining through.

Also, Melfried had lent us his aid to take down Cyclaeus. At the very least, I had no doubts that he valued justice and the law above all else. He never let things like old traditions or political concerns get in the way of his pursuit of justice.

In order to expose the Suun clan’s crimes, he had lied about his identity and set himself up to act as bait, and he had invited hunters of the forest’s edge to participate in a combat tournament to rouse his own spirit as a swordsman, so he certainly wasn’t opposed to thinking outside the box.

Today had been the first time in a while that he had directed such a harsh gaze toward our people. That must have been rooted in his strong desire to uphold the laws of this land. But he had also said he wished to form proper bonds with our people, and I wanted to trust in those words.

But in that case...what do western nobles like Melfried see when they look at these women?

To me, they of course just looked like any other human being. They were a bit on the tall and robust side, but they were healthy and attractive. Though they were dressed in shabby clothing, they didn’t look particularly filthy or anything. Their hair was disheveled and scratches could be seen on their skin, but they must have been bathing daily. They had an acceptably clean appearance overall, no different than that of the people of the forest’s edge or the townsfolk.

The chains on their legs were the only thing that felt out of place. With criminals, it was necessary to bind them that way, but the northerners brought to the Turan lands had never been soldiers, from what we had heard. They had never attacked the west, and had been made slaves simply because they were northerners.

And Kamyua has northern blood flowing through his veins too. If he were still in Genos, would he have come here too?

After things had been settled with Cyclaeus, he had carefully avoided approaching Chiffon Chel. According to him, it would have been a serious hassle if folks thought he had taken Cyclaeus down in order to save the northerners, so he had intentionally kept his distance.

That was just one example of the difficulties westerners had when it came to dealing with northerners. Perhaps things were easier for westerners who hated them. However, to keep people as slaves not because you held any ill will toward them, but simply because that was the law of the land... It was a little late to be realizing this, but it really was quite a complicated situation.

“Ah, hold on! Don’t stir those ingredients in yet!” Rimee Ruu suddenly called out, causing my heart to skip a beat. The women who had been about to transfer their diced ingredients to a plate quietly turned to face Rimee Ruu. “I was thinking we could try to change how we make the manju a bit today... But is it okay for me to do something I thought up all on my own?” Rimee Ruu asked me.

“Of course,” I replied with a nod. “You’re the one in charge now, so you don’t need my permission. What exactly is this idea?”

“Well, it looks like there’s a lot more arow and ramam than usual today, so I was thinking we could try making fruit manju in addition to meat ones! I mean, we’ve got a lot of minmi too, right? It’s such a waste, considering how expensive it is!”

Minmi was a peach-like fruit that came from Jagar, so it cost a good bit more than arow and ramam, which were harvested in the west.

Just as Rimee Ruu had said, they did indeed have plenty of ingredients brimming with sweet and sour flavors today. There were arow berries, apple-like ramam, and sheel, which looked like a durian on the outside but was actually a citrus on the inside.

“We can use sugar now, so wouldn’t a sweet fruit manju be nice? If we use sugar, we should be able to make the arow and sheel taste delicious too.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. And as an added bonus, the quality of the meat manju should improve too if we take those superfluous ingredients out of them.”

“Eh heh heh,” Rimee Ruu happily giggled. “In that case, why don’t we dig out the sour bits of the sheel and use the skin in the normal manju? The skin is bitter and tough, so I don’t think it’d go well in a sweet manju.”

The instructions she gave the northern women were also quite precise. It seemed that Rimee Ruu had firmly secured her spot as the third best chef in the Ruu clan. I was secretly impressed, watching her work.

Then, the young woman who had been kneading fuwano dough all this time expressionlessly turned my way. “Are you Asuta of the Fa clan?”

“Ah, yes, that’s me. Nice to meet you.”

“I am very grateful to you,” she said with a little bow of her head, and then she silently resumed her kneading.

Had they previously been told my name, then? I couldn’t exactly picture these women shedding tears, but that brief exchange gave me a glimpse of how they truly felt.

Around then, Polarth interjected, “Hmm... I believe I have at least come to understand how skillfully they are working. Sir Melfried, I am thinking of trading places with Sir Torst now.”

Following his lead, we went ahead and yielded our places to Jiza and Reina Ruu as well. As those three took our places in the kitchen, we stepped out under the overhang with Polarth.

“That Rimee Ruu girl truly is skilled when it comes to manning the kitchen! She kept a watchful eye on the entire workspace, yet didn’t interject unnecessarily. For someone her age, her performance was quite impressive,” Polarth said.

“Indeed,” Ai Fa replied with a swift nod, surely happy to hear Rimee Ruu praised. But then, she quickly turned her gaze downward and added, “My apologies.”

“There is nothing to apologize for. It is now an official duty of mine to converse with people of the forest’s edge, after all, so I welcome you speaking candidly with me at informal gatherings such as this one.”

“Informal?”

“Yes. At formal gatherings we hear the consensus of your people from the leading clan heads, but at informal gatherings, I wish to hear your personal thoughts and feelings. There is no need for formalities here.”

Ai Fa deeply furrowed her brow, considering his words carefully. Seeing the look on her face, Polarth let a little chuckle slip out.

“I believe your frankness is part of your people’s charm. Having to separate one’s personal feelings from the official stance one takes publicly just complicates things.”

“Are you saying you all have personal feelings you have hidden from us, then?”

“Well, let us say that I cannot imagine many people in the castle town go around always letting their true feelings show, though I do admit I personally tend to let people see mine quite often.” The frown on Ai Fa’s face was growing deeper, so Polarth said, “Umm...” as he pinched his round cheek and searched for what to say. “Take Lady Lefreya, for example. Her true desire is to better the lives of the northerners. But if she pushes for that openly, the capital could deem her to be guilty of treason. Instead, she decided to take the official stance that improving our treatment of them would also benefit Genos. To you people of the forest’s edge, do her actions seem mistaken?”

“Well... It is of course best to be truthful, but...that ‘official stance’ you speak of is not lying, is it?”

“Of course not. It is the result of her worrying over how to improve the lives of the northerners while still upholding the laws of the kingdom.”

“In that case, I believe her actions are correct,” Ai Fa readily declared, causing Polarth to break out in a wide grin and nod.

“I believe our opinions and those of the people of the forest’s edge do not differ so greatly regarding the northerners. That is why Sir Melfried is taking care to make sure no minor misunderstandings or mistakes get in the way.”

As Polarth was saying that, Melfried himself exited the kitchen, and though Jiza Ruu and Torst had just entered the room, they were now coming out again behind him.

“It seems they will be continuing to do the same tasks for the next while, so I believe we should observe the worksite now. Would that be acceptable?” Melfried proposed.

“Yes, I have no objections,” Dari Sauti replied, then he leaned in close to me. “My apologies, but could I join you in your wagon, Asuta? Ours lacks a roof, so it’s quite awkward to use during the rainy season.”

“Of course, that’s fine. It’s just me and Ai Fa in ours, after all.”

Dari Sauti, the Vela clan head, Jiza Ruu, and Shin Ruu all boarded the wagon along with us. Ludo Ruu would be remaining in the kitchen as a guard, and Reina Ruu would do the same as an observer.

With Ai Fa driving, we exited the Sauti settlement and headed south down the path through the forest’s edge. It was my first time heading farther south than this. According to Dari Sauti, the Fei and Tamur, two subordinate clans of the Sauti, were down that way. The path itself was the same as always, though, even if all the rain was making the area dimmer.

After driving the wagon for a few minutes, Ai Fa let slip a low “Ugh...” from up in the driver’s seat. Still clad in my rain gear, I immediately leaned forward beside her. In a way, what I saw there was exactly what I had expected.

Ahead of us, groups of northerners were using axes to cut down trees, which were then being loaded into carts and wagons. Dozens of men were working at the site, watched over by guards holding spears. The men looked like they were built as rugged as boulders, and were all at least as big as Donda Ruu, with some even being as big as Ji Maam. They technically had rain gear on, but it probably didn’t serve much purpose when they were doing this kind of work—they were all soaking wet and coated in mud.

The majority of the laborers were brawny men, but there were women sprinkled here and there throughout, cutting branches off of the felled trees. Once the trees were stripped bare, they were loaded onto roofless wagons. However, since they stuck out from the back of the cargo beds a good bit, the northerners had to support them from behind as they were transported out into the world. Notably, the drivers of the wagons were all westerners, which meant that only the totos and the northerners were forced to do manual labor.

The path that led out into the world, which connected to the southern extreme of the Daleim lands, had been cleared to be pretty wide. Before they had acquired a wagon, the Sauti and their subordinate clans had purchased aria and poitan from a village there, because it would have taken them a couple hours to walk to the post town from this area.

The old part of the path extended to the southwest, while a new part was being cleared to the east. Adding in the path we had come here from the north on, it formed a kind of awkward three-way intersection. The trees in this area were sparse, so the work seemed to have progressed a good bit more than I had expected. There were already hundreds of meters of road laid out, and trees were being carried from the far end one after another.

Now that I think about it, there’s always been enough space here to allow large groups of wagons to pass through, hasn’t there? Leito’s father, Milano Mas’s brother-in-law, had found out about this gap in the forest, which was what had led him to conclude that transiting through was possible. Then he’d sought permission to pursue the idea from the castle, and had been introduced to the Suun clan by way of Cyclaeus...but in the end, he lost his life to a giba that had been spurred on by giba summoning fruit.

The northerners kept on working in silence as our three vehicles approached, taking no note of us as we all stepped down to the ground, nobles and people of the forest’s edge alike. They had their hoods pulled up far over their heads, so I couldn’t see their expressions, but unsurprisingly, they too were working mechanically and disinterestedly, neither hurrying nor going too slow.

“You certainly have quite a few guards keeping watch,” Jiza Ruu muttered as he stepped out of the wagon and into the rain.

The guards were standing at regular intervals off to the side of the cleared path, so as not to get in the way of the work. A few were walking around, giving instructions to the northerners, but for the majority of them, their only job seemed to be standing in the rain with their spears.

“There are around one hundred twenty northerners here in total, to whom we have assigned roughly sixty guards. Ten of them are directing the work, while the other fifty are keeping watch,” Melfried replied in a low voice.

“I see,” Jiza Ruu said with a nod. “So around fifty of them are standing around with nothing to do? If they were to assist with the work, it would be completed much quicker, would it not?”

“While we have no concerns about the northerners plotting escape or rebellion, they have been given axes and hatchets, so more caution than usual is necessary... Though if they were plotting rebellion, fifty or sixty guards would not be enough to suppress it.”

“That’s only natural. In terms of arm strength, it appears that they would even be a match for us hunters of the forest’s edge. Of course, that’s only taking their physical strength into account.”

As I listened to them talk, I couldn’t help but feel terribly on edge. It wasn’t like I had assumed that the northerners were being constantly whipped to force them to work, and I had certainly been praying that wouldn’t be the case. And it had turned out that I was right; they were just solemnly working away without a single whip in sight, carrying out the harsh labor of cutting down huge trees in the rain and carrying them out of the forest systematically, like robots.

What’s going on...? Something feels strange here...

Perhaps it was only natural for people living as slaves to not let their suffering show. Even so, they were still far too silent. Although actually, it wasn’t like they were a bunch of clay dolls, utterly devoid of life. In fact, the members of the Suun clan had once been even more lifeless and pathetic than this.

Now that I think about it...I never would have guessed that Chiffon Chel was a slave if someone hadn’t told me so.

Perhaps slaves in Genos differed from my preconceived notions. After all, slaves didn’t even exist back in my home country to begin with. The ideas I had about them all came from history and fictional tales. It wasn’t like the nobles of Genos fit perfectly with my mental image of nobles either. Perhaps that went for the townsfolk, merchants, and hunters too.

Even so, the fact remained that they were slaves. They hadn’t been brought here of their own volition, and their legs were bound with chains. No matter how hard they worked, they would receive no payment, and they weren’t permitted to marry, nor would they ever be allowed to return home. It was an unbelievably tragic fate.

“As you said before, Dari Sauti, we have been left with the question of what to do to make amends for having let the previous head of the house of Turan, Cyclaeus, run free,” Melfried eventually stated in a voice I couldn’t possibly hope to read any emotion from. “I believe that is undoubtedly true. My father, Duke Genos, has not been granted the authority to control what each count does with their own lands... However, the Turan county is still a part of Genos as a whole, and any fault that originates there naturally falls upon him as well. This is yet another unfortunate legacy Cyclaeus has left for us.”

“Are you saying you do not see using these people freely without paying them anything as being to Genos’s benefit?” Dari Sauti questioned.

“Of course I do not. It is not as if we harbor hatred toward northerners. And furthermore, we are not so wanting as to need to rely on slaves in any case. Yet, we find ourselves with no choice but to use them... I most certainly do not find that desirable.” Melfried’s gray eyes shone as if he was glaring at some invisible enemy. “Furthermore, the idea has been raised that we should sell these slaves to another town. But if we were to do that without warning, the Turan lands would suddenly be short on workers, and there are no other towns nearby that use slaves regardless. Also...” Melfried started, only to hold his tongue.

“Also?” Dari Sauti pressed. But Melfried remained silent, so Polarth spoke in his stead.

“Also, there is no guarantee they will be better off in some other land, so there is no benefit to us going far out of our way to find a buyer.”

Dari Sauti and Jiza Ruu both silently stared at Melfried. With eyes as chilly as moonlight, the noble clad in rain gear continued to stare out at the sight of the working northerners. “My previous explanation may have been somewhat incomplete...but this is what I mean when I say you people of the forest’s edge should not advocate on behalf of the northerners.”

“I see. Well, I don’t think it’s wrong to tell us not to stick our necks into such a troublesome matter,” Dari Sauti said.

“It is said that people should work within their means... Furthermore, it is our duty as nobles of Genos to be the ones to concern ourselves with the northerners living here.” After saying that, Melfried finally turned back to us. “There is no need for your people to worry about the northerners. However, we may ask for advice in the future in regards to their meals, and we would greatly appreciate any assistance you may provide.”

“Understood. We can discuss the rest in a proper meeting.”

Dari Sauti calmly looked out over the northerners, while Jiza Ruu looked at both them and Melfried.

It was then that I finally came to realize a certain fact. Kamyua Yoshu had changed gods from the north to the west, and he and Melfried were close enough to be called sworn friends. I had no clue what their relationship was really like, but even so, if Melfried called Kamyua Yoshu his friend...then whatever we felt about all this, he had to be more conflicted than any of us.

I wonder where that guy’s wandering has taken him now? I’m sure someone who’s traveled as much as Kamyua Yoshu would have some good advice to give about how to handle the northerners.

But even if that easygoing man had been here, it was possible he’d just play the part of an onlooker, offering nothing but a faint smile. It was pointless to try to imagine what he would do anyway. Kamyua Yoshu wasn’t by Melfried’s side now. The heir to the title of lord of Genos had no choice but to carry the full weight of responsibility for this matter on his shoulders as he dealt with the presence of these northerners directly.