Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 26 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3: The Fa Clan Head’s Birthday

1

For the remaining five days of the brown month after the starving giba incident, work on the path through the forest’s edge was temporarily halted. Dozens had been injured by a single giba, so the safety concerns surrounding the project became a matter of debate once again.

Apparently, the discussions eventually shifted to questioning whether a highway through such a dangerous area could even be used, but that was settled with the answer that it would be no issue in a totos wagon. If enough width could be cleared to run totos-pulled wagons through, the entire path could be traveled in three to four hours—as long as you didn’t stop for a break—and the giba would pose no risk.

The real issue, ultimately, was how to continue with the construction. However, the final determination was that the incident had only happened because the fearful guard had provoked the giba, and if they had stayed calm, everything would have been fine. Giba were unable to jump higher than their own heads, so if everyone had evacuated into wagons or trees and used the giba-warding fruit provided by the Sauti clan, the situation could have been resolved without anyone getting injured.

In other words, the critical point was the mental state of the guards. They had become victims of their own fear after their first encounter with a terrifying giba out in the forest. Fortunately, no one had died, but a single giba had caused an incredible number of injuries and left the guards deeply shaken.

Naturally, if the nobles ordered the construction to continue, the guards had no right to disagree. But if the same tragedy repeated itself, it could easily result in fatalities. On top of that, if the guards became too afraid of giba, it would become difficult for them to keep watch over the northerners, so the slaves could end up escaping.

Furthermore, the northerners had proven they were perfectly capable of keeping their composure, even in a situation as chaotic as a giba attack. In fact, they were the ones who had taken the giba down in the end, not the guards. That information had only made the nobles feel more uneasy about what had happened.

After five days of meetings, the nobles finally decided that they would have to recruit hunters from the forest’s edge for the worksite. Rather than being workers or guards keeping an eye on the workers, though, they would be there solely for protection. If another starving giba were to appear, they would take the appropriate measures to defeat it. That would be their one and only task at the worksite.

“Still, a giba ordinarily wouldn’t come anywhere near an area with that many people making noise. The only reason that one did was because it went crazy from hunger, so bringing in hunters as guards now will probably be useless,” Ludo Ruu had criticized.

However, what the nobles ultimately wanted was peace of mind, and they were willing to offer a lot of reward money to ensure that everyone at the worksite would feel at ease as they did their jobs.

“But we’d have to stand out in the rain from morning till night, wouldn’t we? I can’t imagine a duller job. There’s no way I’d ever want to do something like that!”

Plenty of hunters probably felt the same way as Ludo Ruu, but this was an official job request issued under the authority of Duke Marstein Genos himself, and since the people of the forest’s edge lived just within the boundaries of his domain, we were obligated to go along with it to the best of our ability.

“Still, we can’t neglect our work as hunters, so the task will have to be given to clans who are taking a break.”

That was the decision the leading clan heads ultimately came to. As for which clans were currently on break, that turned out to be the three clans under the Ravitz. The northern clans had just finished a break period at the beginning of the brown month, with the Suun clan’s break starting shortly after that, followed by the Ravitz entering theirs a few days ago.

“Getting paid to stand around all day sounds like a nice and easy way to make money. Still, what an utterly ridiculous task they’ve given us,” the head of the main Ravitz house, Dei Ravitz, had apparently proclaimed when he’d heard.

At any rate, that meant the worksite now had its protectors for the next ten days to half a month. The Ravitz’s break period would end halfway through the red month, at which point the Sauti would take over for them.

As for the reward money, Donda Ruu had said, “For this particular job, it should all go to the clans who are doing the work, since the other clans won’t be putting in any effort,” and that had settled the matter. Of course, if the Ruu clan had been in a position to take the job, they probably would have insisted that the money be shared with all the people of the forest’s edge instead.

At any rate, with that, everything was finally settled. We chefs continued our work in the post town like always, with news steadily coming to us through the Ruu and Fou about how everything was playing out.

“What an absolute hassle. And it just had to happen when we were so busy celebrating.” That grumble had come, unusually enough, from Mia Lea Ruu. During those five days, the leading clan heads had been repeatedly invited to the castle town for meetings and had also had to scramble to find time to discuss matters among themselves—and as if that weren’t enough, the birthdays of Donda, Ludo, and Kota Ruu also fell within that time frame. Donda Ruu in particular was the head of the main Ruu house, so the celebration for his birthday had to be grander than that of anyone else in the clan.

However, we were currently right in the middle of the rainy season. Normally, the Ruu celebrated birthdays by holding banquets out in their plaza, but that would be difficult in these conditions, so instead they had a big dinner party early in the evening, after which there was a drinking party where the members of the branch houses and the heads of the subordinate clans came by to celebrate.

“In years that have a gold month, the end of the brown month falls right in the middle of the rainy season. In years without one, though, we’re usually able to hold all those celebrations outside in the plaza without too much difficulty.”

As she had mentioned, this year happened to have a leap month, as every third year did. If not for that, the rainy season apparently wouldn’t normally arrive until the red month.

The main Ruu house was an especially large structure, but there was still a limit to how many people it could accommodate at once, so guests had to keep coming and going rather than hanging around for a long period of time. That created a totally different set of issues for Mia Lea Ruu and the others in charge of managing the festivities to handle, compared to your usual banquet out in the plaza.

Still, that was a problem only the Ruu and their subordinate clans could solve. I hadn’t attended, so all I knew about the five birthdays they had celebrated recently was what had come to me through the grapevine.

I had previously been invited to the birthdays of Lala Ruu and Granny Tito Min as a guest and chef, but the Ruu had started preparing the food for such celebrations completely on their own ever since. It made me feel a little left out in a way, but birthdays were generally meant to be celebrated with blood relatives alone.

The only birthday I had been invited to after that was Dan Rutim’s. Of course, afterward he had told me, “I’m looking forward to next year too!” with a hearty chuckle, but he was just really broad-minded that way. Gazraan and Ama Min Rutim had also grown a year older in the months that followed, but I hadn’t been invited to those celebrations. It wasn’t that they were shunning me or anything. That was simply how they did things here at the forest’s edge.

Toor Deen’s, Mida’s, and Tsuvai’s birthdays had also passed recently, and I only knew about them because people had incidentally mentioned them to me in small talk. It wasn’t the sort of thing that folks would go out of their way to bring up with members of other clans. And on a related note, at the moment, most of my attention was dedicated to the upcoming birthday celebration for Ai Fa.

We were finally heading into the red month, and with it, the back half of the rainy season. Now was the time for me to officially start preparations for my clan head’s birthday.

It had now been ten days since work had resumed on the path through the forest’s edge. This was the day Ai Fa had been born, the tenth of the red month.

I did have to work in the post town that day. Unfortunately, our day off had been the day before. Of course, it would have been possible for us to move our break to another day, but Ai Fa had told me, “That’s not necessary. As long as you prepare a delicious dinner, that will be enough for me. Even if you do go out of your way to shift your schedule around, it’s not like there’s anything special that you need to do, right?”

She had been so solemn when she had said it too. But, well, birthdays at the forest’s edge really were modest events. You had a nicer meal than usual, and your clan members offered you flowers. That was all it typically amounted to. The feelings conveyed were far more important than the event itself.

Soon after the beginning of the red month, I had consulted with Ai Fa on one matter in particular. Birthdays were meant to be held with blood relations. I understood that, certainly, but I suggested that it would be nice if we could invite some guests as well.

“What would you like to do, Ai Fa? I want to celebrate the day in whatever way you would enjoy the most.”

The guests I was suggesting were Rimee Ruu and Granny Jiba. I knew that Ai Fa terribly regretted how cold she had been when she turned Rimee Ruu away on her birthday last year, so inviting them now would help to soothe feelings on both sides.

However, my proposal turned out to be one my clan head really agonized over.

“But to bluntly drive her away last year only to invite her as a guest now... It would make me seem quite selfish, wouldn’t it?”

“Rimee Ruu would never think that way. I’m sure she’d be overjoyed.”

“Hmm... That may be so, but still...”

Ai Fa had been maintaining a stoic expression for quite a while, but now she looked like a worried child.

“Then, would you be willing to bring it up with Rimee Ruu for me? And if she looks at all upset about anything, you have to be honest and tell me so.”

“It’s fine. You’re a real worrier, Ai Fa.”

Naturally, she was worrying for nothing. The next day when I spoke to Rimee Ruu about it, she was pretty surprised at first, but that quickly turned into pure joy.

“Is it really okay? Doesn’t Ai Fa want to spend her birthday just with you?”

“The two of us spend every night alone together. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“Then we’ll come! Granny Jiba’s gonna be real happy too!” Rimee Ruu said, tearing up a bit as she leaped at my chest. “This must’ve been your idea, right? Ai Fa never thinks to do stuff like this on her own.”

“Yeah. You know Ai Fa really well, Rimee Ruu.”

“Of course I do! She’s my best friend in the whole world!”

That night, I told Ai Fa everything I had noticed, holding nothing back.

She placed a hand on her brow and hung her head deeply. “I see... I’m truly glad to hear that Rimee Ruu wasn’t unhappy with me. Asuta...”

“Yes?”

“I’m deeply grateful for the consideration you have shown,” Ai Fa said, her voice ever so slightly trembling.

I suspected that she might be tearing up. However, I pretended not to notice and simply answered with, “Of course.”

And then, the day arrived.

We did run the stalls in the morning, but as one might expect, I skipped the study session afterward. Once I was finished with everything I needed to do for work, I headed to the Ruu settlement to meet up with Rimee Ruu and Granny Jiba.

Donda Ruu had one condition for allowing the elder Granny Jiba to visit the Fa house, and that was to have a man accompany us.

There was no real chance of us running into trouble within the settlement, but it would be too much of a violation of the customs of the forest’s edge to send the elder and a young child to another house for dinner without anyone to accompany them. Jiza Ruu in particular was strict enough when it came to the rules that we had no choice but to accept.

As for the man chosen to go with us, it was none other than Ludo Ruu. Out of all the Ruu clan men, he and Shin Ruu had the closest friendship with the Fa, and since Ludo Ruu was part of the same household as Rimee Ruu and Granny Jiba, he was the best choice for our escort. Donda Ruu had gone out of his way to give Ludo Ruu the day off as well, so we certainly had no reason to complain.

“I’m so happy that you arranged this for us, Asuta. Thank you, truly,” Granny Jiba said with a gentle smile as she exited the house, clad in rain gear with Ludo Ruu holding her hand.

They would have to make a return trip, so they were taking Ruuruu’s wagon. Granny Jiba had traveled to the Daleim lands and the post town recently, so I was sure that this short trip would be no problem for her. In fact, judging from how her steps looked as she walked, I felt like her legs seemed to have more strength in them than they had before.

“Well, I’ll try to stay out of the way in a corner. But I can count on you for some tasty food, right, Asuta?” Ludo Ruu called out as got up into the driver’s seat. And with that, they departed for the Fa house.

I dropped off Toor Deen and Yun Sudra next and then returned to the Fa house, where I found a whole lot of women waiting in our kitchen. That was no surprise, though, as I had asked them to handle the preparations for business tomorrow.

“Welcome back, Asuta. We just got finished with our work here.”

“Thank you. You’ve really been a huge help.”

I wanted to dedicate all of my time from here on out to cooking dinner, so I had asked them to come early in order to ensure that they’d be done by the time I returned.

With the cooking all finished, the women went about cleaning up. Even without Toor Deen and Yun Sudra there to lead them, they were able to complete the work smoothly thanks to the Fou clan head’s wife taking charge.

“Excuse us... Oh my, it certainly is lively here,” Granny Jiba said as she stepped into the kitchen, her group having arrived shortly after I did. At that, everyone stopped working and turned toward her.

“You are the Ruu clan elder, Jiba Ruu? I never imagined the day would come when I would see you with my own two eyes,” the Fou clan head’s wife remarked, giving a polite bow. As Rimee Ruu pulled back the hood of her rain gear, Granny Jiba smiled kindly at everyone in the room.

“You don’t need to act so polite toward an old bag of bones like myself. Please, continue with what you were doing.”

The women all bowed to her before resuming work as she had requested. However, I noticed that the younger women in the group kept stealing glances at her from time to time. Even putting aside her title as the Ruu clan elder, it was rare to see someone that old in general. Toor Deen and Yun Sudra had reacted in much the same way when they had first met Granny Jiba too.

“Okay, that should do it. We’ll be heading out now, Asuta.”

“All right. Seriously, thank you so much. I’ll look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow morning.”

“We’ll be bringing that thing over around when the sun sets too,” a Ran woman added. They had prepared something of a surprise themselves.

“I know, I know!” I replied with a smile, then I watched them all leave the kitchen. “Okay, time to get started on dinner.”

“Yeah! Let’s make all sorts of tasty food!” Rimee Ruu proclaimed, running over to me. She had been waiting for this moment. The two of us would be preparing dinner for Ai Fa together. That made inviting her all the more worthwhile. “We’re starting with the prep for the stew, right?! We don’t have much time, so we’ve gotta hurry up and get the kimyuus bones boiling!”

It was currently almost the lower third hour, which meant we had around three and a half hours until sunset. We would only just be able to make it in time if we started work on the bone stock now, but I had decided that I didn’t want to have the others take care of it for us. We needed to complete today’s dinner with our skills alone.

“Jiba Ruu, do you really not want to go rest in the main house? The stoves are lit, so it isn’t too cold in here, but I can’t imagine it’s all that comfortable.”

“I’m fine. I came all the way out here to the Fa house, so I want to share as much joy as I can with you.” Granny Jiba was sitting on a mat that was laid out along one of the walls. She had taken off her rain gear and was now wearing a shawl she had brought from the Ruu house, and Ludo Ruu was right next to her, stifling a yawn.

From what I had been told, this was apparently the first time Granny Jiba had visited the Fa house. Though they had been friends for quite some time, it went against the customs of the forest’s edge for the Ruu clan’s elder to visit a small clan without a good reason, and the distance had been an issue as well until recently. After all, a round trip between the Fa house and the Ruu settlement took around two hours on foot.

I recalled that Granny Jiba and Rimee Ruu had happened to grow acquainted with Ai Fa while they were out taking walks. One day, when they had headed north from their home at the same time as Ai Fa had been going south from hers, the three of them had ended up running into each other somewhere in the middle, and ever since then, Granny Jiba and Rimee Ruu would always go to the north on their walks, while Ai Fa would always meander south when practicing tree climbing, in order to intentionally increase the number of coincidental run-ins they had. It didn’t take long for a bond to form between them after that. They didn’t talk much about what sort of conversations they’d had back then, but when I imagined the still-young Ai Fa and Rimee Ruu acting like playful puppies, I felt all warm inside.

“It’s been about six years now since you two met Ai Fa, right?” I asked as Rimee Ruu and I worked on the kimyuus bones together.

“Yes,” Granny Jiba replied with a nod. “To think, it’s been more than six whole years. Ai Fa was just about to turn twelve back then, and now she’s turning eighteen.”

“So Rimee Ruu was only two years old, and you were seventy-nine, right, Jiba Ruu? That’s amazing.”

They had been two, eleven, and seventy-nine... Normally, people who were that far apart in age would have a really hard time becoming friends, no matter how well they got to know each other. And yet, they had become friends, and even now, after more than six years had passed, they were still precious to one another.

“But then my legs started giving out on me, right around when Ai Fa lost her father. When she needed me by her side the most, I wasn’t able to be there for her.”

“That must’ve felt terrible for both of you, to have such awful luck hitting you at the same time.”

“Yes. But after that, I started to find my life here at the forest’s edge to be more and more difficult. As Ai Fa was suffering, all of my attention was focused on my own pain. I truly, deeply regret that fact.”

“I’m sure Ai Fa feels the same way. If her situation had been better, I’m sure she would have rushed to your side, even if it meant sneaking into the Ruu house.”

But since the two of them had been unable to do so, Rimee Ruu had been the only one capable of going back and forth between the Fa and Ruu houses.

Back in the present, the young girl was now swiftly scooping up the scum that was rising to the surface of the soup, and once she was finished, she turned toward her great-grandmother with a smile. “But now, we’re even closer than we used to be, and that makes me really happy! We had two really hard years, but the forest rewarded us after!”

“Yes, that may be so.”

Ludo Ruu had just been standing off to the side looking bored, but now he decided to join the conversation. “That’s right. Besides, if anyone was in the wrong, it was the Suun, don’t you think? If they hadn’t gone and meddled, Ai Fa wouldn’t have felt the need to cut her ties with every other clan.”

That was definitely true too. And if Ai Fa had never taken down Diga, Donda Ruu wouldn’t have set his eyes on her and asked her to marry Darmu Ruu. That incident had caused Ai Fa to distance herself further from the Ruu, so it was a chain of bad blood causing even more bad blood.

“But Diga and the others have been punished, so it’s fine now! You don’t need to keep getting all sad about the past anymore, Granny Jiba!” Rimee Ruu said.

“It is as you say, Rimee and Ludo. It seems like you young people are always showing me what the proper path forward is lately,” Granny Jiba replied, breaking out in a smile. And it was true, Rimee and Ludo Ruu’s earnestness and cheerfulness had proven to be really helpful time and time again.

“By the way, when is your birthday, Jiba Ruu? You haven’t had one since I met you, right?” I asked, figuring I should clear away the solemn feeling hanging in the air by changing the topic.

“My birthday is in the vermilion month, which comes after this one. I believe the same is true of Reina.”

“The rainy season will be over by then, so does that mean you’re going to have a grand celebration?”

“Well, last year and the year before, I was so weak it didn’t seem like I would be alive for much longer. I wasn’t even able to eat proper food.”

“But before that, we used to have big parties in the plaza! And you can eat lots of tasty food now, Granny Jiba, so we should bring everyone together again to celebrate!” Rimee Ruu declared.

“If everyone else can enjoy it, then that would make me happy too.”

“Of course we’d enjoy it! We weren’t able to go all out with our old man’s birthday this year, so yours has to be that much bigger to make up for it!” Ludo Ruu said. The atmosphere in the room felt like it had instantly become charged with energy, as if a bit of the liveliness of the gigantic Ruu family had been shared with me.

If Ai Fa and I had spent her birthday alone together, I would have been perfectly satisfied with that, but having others with us to celebrate the occasion was undeniably wonderful too. That’s what I was thinking about as I finished what I was doing and got to work on the next task.