Chapter 1: Unfulfilled Feelings
1
The popular consensus in Genos was that the rainy season had fully come to an end on the third day of the vermilion month. It had officially started back on the fourth of the brown month, so it had lasted for roughly two months.
A few days prior, the sky had started showing itself more and more as the amount of rain tapered off and the temperature rose. By the third day of the month, the skies had been clear from dawn till dusk, and it had gotten hot enough that you couldn’t wear long-sleeved coats any longer, so people had marked that as the proper end of the rainy season.
Of course, that didn’t mean the post town bounced right back to its usual hustle and bustle. The people who were visiting from Sym, Jagar, and various far-off towns would probably be hitting the road again soon. The hastier folks might have taken their totos and left already, but I figured it would take a little time for the rest to depart.
However, the residents of Genos were now free to head outside as they pleased. That alone was enough to make the roads throughout the post town feel so much more lively. On top of that, travelers and merchants started pouring in from nearby towns all at once, having been eagerly awaiting the end of the rainy season. As a result, the sales at our stalls were rising day by day.
We would be able to use tino, tarapa, and pula again roughly half a month from now. Until then, we would be sticking with the rainy season vegetables. Not that it mattered all that much. Our new dishes, the traip cream stew foremost among them, were once again earning loads of praise from our customers.
This wasn’t directly related to the rainy season, but there was one other thing worth bringing up: the brick oven we had ordered from Mikel was finally complete, and by sheer coincidence, we got the news about that on the third of the vermilion month as well.
“Whoa, this is really well made!” I said in admiration, having just arrived at the Ruu settlement for a visit after work. The oven had been built next to the kitchen of the house where Myme and Mikel were staying, with a leather canopy over it that had been set up first. Once the covering had been erected, it had taken several more days to construct the brickwork structure.
The oven was fairly large—around two meters wide and a meter tall and deep—so it could be used to bake a huge amount of poitan at once. The sides and top were built with a thick layer of bricks to prevent heat from escaping.
The bricks had been bought from town, while the clay used to join them had been collected from the forest’s edge. The people of the forest’s edge already used that kind of clay to plug gaps in stone stoves, so its durability was well established. There was a metal plate over the mouth of the oven, serving as a door. That part couldn’t be made with bricks and clay alone, after all. It was around a centimeter thick and slid over to the side. A slight depression had been carved into the bricks so the door would fit just right, and the plate had metal rings attached to it to allow it to be mounted on hooks.
“It’s pretty excessive if you’re only going to be using it for baking fuwano and poitan, but it can contain residual heat, so at least you’ll be able to cut down on the amount of firewood you need,” Mikel said with a sour look on his face.
Mia Lea Ruu was also present. “I’m glad to hear that,” she replied with a smile. Mikel still couldn’t move one of his legs properly, so the Ruu women were the ones who had actually assembled the oven. “Reina and the others have had quite a lot of trouble preparing the amount of fuwano and poitan they need for their business. If we can build more of these at the other houses, it should make their jobs a whole lot easier.”
“That’s right. And there are some dishes we can only make with a brick oven too,” I noted.
A brick oven could cook food at a much higher temperature than a stone stove was capable of. It could also cook food through both thermal conduction and direct infrared heating, so we would be able to use it to improve the cooking process for all kinds of broiled dishes, or dishes that involved baking things in covered pans.
“So, you want to teach the northerners living in the Turan lands how to make these too, right?” Mikel asked, shooting me an annoyed glare.
“Yes. We taught them how to make steamed fuwano manju, but with the end of the rainy season, poitan supplies will go back to normal, so they’re going to be getting that instead once again. But it’s difficult to knead water into poitan and have it bind together in a way that would let you make steamed manju with it, right? I’d feel bad for them if that meant they had to go back to eating poitan soup, so I’d really like to teach them how to make brick ovens.”
“Have you asked the nobles about that?”
“No, I haven’t even brought it up with the leading clan heads yet. After all, they did warn us not to involve ourselves with the northerners too much.”
But the northerners were only given metal pots to cook with. It would take far too long to cook poitan one by one under those conditions. If they had a brick oven, that problem would instantly vanish.
“But as you can see, these things need to have a metal door, and those are not cheap, even if the rest of the oven is,” Mikel said.
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure it would be able to pay for itself in the long run. It would mean a lot less effort needed to gather firewood or money to buy charcoal, after all.”
“Except that they wouldn’t need any extra firewood or charcoal in the first place if they were to go back to eating poitan soup like before.”
“Right. But delicious food motivates them to work harder, which will increase Genos’s profits. The nobles have already accepted that reasoning as valid.”
Since Mikel—who was currently sitting on a wooden box so as not to strain his leg—was under the Ruu clan’s care, he was of course already aware of that “Hmph. That’s the logic you used to get permission to give cooking lessons to the northerners, right? Didn’t the nobles warn you not to involve yourselves with the northerners beyond that?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.”
“So then, it sounds like you’re planning to go through a huge hassle just to get chewed out again at the end. That whole thing about carving a path through the forest’s edge is already over and done with, so there’s no sense in you going out on a limb to try to keep helping them at this point.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m fully prepared to get dismissed out of hand as soon as I bring this up.”
Mikel’s annoyed gaze then shifted over to Mia Lea Ruu. “How do you think the leading clan heads will react to this idea?”
“Hmm. It’s hard to say. The nobles told us in very clear terms that we shouldn’t involve ourselves with the northerners, and one of the reasons they gave was that it could easily lead to our people finding themselves in a worsening position, so the leading clan heads may very well decide that it’s best to follow the nobles’ instructions on this matter.”
“But didn’t they say they needed to put some more thought into how we should interact with the nobles of Genos and the northerners? So they might not reject the idea outright.”
Mia Lea Ruu smiled as if attempting to placate me. “But the nobles said to leave this matter to them, did they not? And since they did tell us that so explicitly, it’s pretty clear that we would be butting into their business if we were to interject at this point.”
“B-But the nobles don’t know how to make brick ovens...so our knowledge could be beneficial to them...” I desperately objected, but I was steadily losing confidence. It was a fact that Melfried and the others had warned us not to get involved with the northerners any further, so perhaps it would be best to pay attention to that warning.
“What if I propose it to the nobles?” Mikel suddenly suggested.
Mia Lea Ruu, Myme, and I all went wide-eyed and said, “Huh?”
“I’m a resident of the Turan lands, not a person of the forest’s edge, so it wouldn’t be all that strange for me to make a proposal to the nobles about the northerners.”
“You want to go directly to them about the brick ovens?”
“Of course. The nobles accepted the idea that better food makes the northerners work harder, right? I can just tell them that I’ll teach their slaves how to make ovens in exchange for payment,” Mikel stated, the same annoyed look on his face. “I’m a poor man, no doubt about it, and there’s nothing strange about a poor man racking his brain to think up a way to earn some money. Honestly, it’s not like I’d be doing it out of pity for the northerners or anything, so even if those observers from the capital come sniffing around, I shouldn’t be in any danger.”
The observers he had referred to were the actual reason that Melfried and the other nobles were concerned about our actions. There was apparently some chance that they’d notice what we were doing and take issue with what they would see as a bunch of frontier nobles giving northerners suspiciously preferential treatment.
“Nobles are always searching for ways to advance their interests, so if they think I’m working for my own benefit, they won’t look any deeper into it,” Mikel concluded.
“But you hate nobles, don’t you, Mikel? So do you really want to be the one to take the lead on this?” I asked, causing Mikel to furrow his brow even deeper.
“I’m simply trying to repay my debt, so stop nitpicking already. You sure are a noisy little brat, you know.”
“S-Sorry. I didn’t mean to seem like I was criticizing you or anything.”
“Jeez, dad. Asuta was just worried about you!” Myme said with a smile, gently placing a hand on her father’s right arm. That was the arm that had been permanently injured on Cyclaeus’s orders because Mikel had opposed him.
“At any rate, the nobles of Genos are the ones who’ll have to make the final decision. If they think it’s fine to keep having the northerners subsist on poitan soup, they won’t want to bother with all this anyway.”
“That part shouldn’t be a problem,” I said, thinking back on Melfried watching the northerners working in the rain and Lefreya offering her gratitude at the tea party. They were the ones who were the most worried about what to do with the northerners Cyclaeus had brought to Genos solely on his own initiative, so I couldn’t imagine them ignoring this little proposal from us.
At any rate, we now had a plan for how to give the northerners access to brick ovens. A few days later, the leading clan heads gave their approval, and I received word from Polarth shortly after that Mikel would indeed be allowed to go ahead with the construction. As a result, Mikel ended up commuting to the Turan lands for several days with Bartha guarding him. There, he oversaw the construction of a number of brick ovens beside the kitchen allotted to the northerners. It was possible that I’d never have a chance to see them in person, but the thought of Eleo Chel and the others being able to enjoy delicious poitan was enough to satisfy me.
After that, the vermilion month was mostly quiet as it continued to pass on by, but there were a number of things that happened in a short time span that seemed to me like they were triggered all at once by the end of the rainy season. I thought that because of the way certain events were celebrated at the forest’s edge. There wasn’t a law about it or anything. It was just a natural consequence of how people did things.
Which is to say, it related to weddings.
During the rainy season, it wasn’t possible to hold banquets outdoors. Because of that, there tended to be a whole bunch of wedding celebrations in a short span of time as soon as the rainy season ended. It probably also had something to do with the fact that hunters had a lot more days off during the rainy season, giving more opportunities for love to blossom between men and women. For one example of that involving just the clans that lived near us, the Fou, Ran, and Sudra had held a banquet during the rainy season to give people a chance to find a spouse.
They were the only ones who had done that, but men would often visit the houses of extended relatives during the rainy season, giving them plenty of opportunities to interact with others. Those who found partners in the process would wait until the end of the rainy season and then get married.
From what I heard, there were new pairings between the Min and Muufa, the Gaaz and Matua, and the Liddo and Havira. The Havira were a new name to me, but apparently they were a subordinate clan to the Zaza that lived to the north of the Suun settlement. Though they were located far away from the Liddo, they could visit one another using wagons, which had allowed them to form new blood ties.
I didn’t personally know any of those people, but it was still welcome news. These were joyous occasions that were sorely needed after the rainy season’s two months of darkness.
However, matters related to love weren’t always happy ones, as several incidents that happened around us amply demonstrated.
The Fa clan learned about the first such issue on the fifth of the vermilion month. This was the third day since the rainy season had ended. This was also the day when the nobles finally got around to accepting Mikel’s proposal. A chef by the name of Yang, who spent some of his time working in the post town, told me about it, passing along the message from Polarth so that I could deliver it to Mikel.
However, the issue at hand had nothing to do with that. Earlier in the day, right after I had finished preparing for work with some of the women who lived nearby and was getting ready to head to the post town, a totos approached from the north.
Rather than pulling a wagon, the bird only had a single person riding it in a saddle. He was a northern hunter who was wearing a giba pelt over his head. Was he heading to the Ruu or Sauti settlements to deliver some sort of news?
We went ahead and stopped our wagon so as to not get in the hunter’s way, and he passed by us. But then he seemed to notice that we were there, did a U-turn, and approached us. Then he dismounted the totos and suddenly grabbed the front of my vest.
“Perfect timing, Asuta of the Fa clan! I have something I want to say to you!” He was a huge guy, over 180 centimeters tall. There was a fire blazing in his black eyes, and he had a large scar over his right eyebrow. This was the youngest son of the main Zaza house and a candidate to be their next clan head, Geol Zaza.
“G-Geol Zaza? What’s got you so worked up?”
“As if I could be calm and just loaf around with what’s going on! And here you are, looking all nonchalant, not knowing a thing about it!”
“Y-Yeah, I have no idea what you’re talking about, so it’s only natural to be nonchalant, right?”
Ai Fa, having already noticed that something was off, came running over. “If it isn’t the youngest son of the Zaza. If you do not unhand him immediately, I will consider this a hostile act against the Fa clan.” Her eyes were burning intensely with rage, a sight I hadn’t seen in some time.
“Hmph!” Geol Zaza snorted, shoving me away. “The Fa clan is clearly at fault for causing this disaster! This is the result of letting you all run wild, so you will have to be the ones to take responsibility!”
“G-Geol Zaza, what in the world are you so mad about?” Toor Deen called out, appearing from inside the wagon, looking flustered.
When he saw the petite chef, the ferocity in Geol Zaza’s eyes receded a bit. “Toor Deen, eh? You’ve tagged along with them when they’ve gone to the castle town many times now, haven’t you? That’s perfect, I’ll have you hear me out too.”
“The castle town? What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s ridiculous! My old man and I have been left with a real headache thanks to those nobles.” Geol Zaza’s rage steadily waned until he started to look like a sulking child. It seemed the hot-headed youth had a bit of a soft spot for Toor Deen, who belonged to a clan related to his.
“You need to calm down and talk to us. What exactly did the nobles in the castle town do?” Ai Fa urged, moving between us to protect me. The other women were now peering out from inside the wagon.
As if trying to push back against the gazes now falling on him, Geol Zaza loudly declared, “My older sister Sufira has fallen for a noble! As if something that ludicrous would ever be permitted! We would never allow her to marry into a noble’s house!”
Every last one of us was taken aback by what he had said.
“H-Hold on. Sufira Zaza fell for a noble? Who exactly does she have feelings for?” I asked.
“That young noble Leiriss, the one who looks so prim and proper! It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?!” As Geol Zaza shouted, I could see that his expression was full of not just anger, but also confusion and sorrow.
This whole situation felt so absurd that we were having difficulty even grasping it.
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