Chapter 1: A Big Job at the Start of the Month
1
The yellow month had finally arrived.
This was a big deal because the previous yellow month was when I had appeared at the forest’s edge and first met Ai Fa. In other words, nearly a year had passed since my arrival, and what a chaotic year it had been!
I had been sent to this world at the end of the yellow month, where I had met Ai Fa out in the forest and she had taken me into the Fa clan. I had met Rimee Ruu a few days after that, which had led to me making hamburger steak for Granny Jiba.
In the green month, I had prepared food for Gazraan and Ama Min Rutim’s wedding, and after that, I had opened my first stall and started doing business in the post town.
The clan head meeting had been held during the blue month, which had been followed by that whole incident with Tei and Zattsu Suun, and then I had said farewell to Shumiral and Balan. That was also around when we had welcomed the totos Gilulu into our clan.
The white month was when we had settled matters with Cyclaeus and put an end to his villainous actions against the people of the forest’s edge.
In the gray month, Ai Fa and I had enjoyed our first break period together. We had also started building new bridges with the nobles of Genos, and our lives became peaceful, with business in the post town really taking off.
During the black month, I had met Myme, Varkas, and Arishuna. We had then invited Myme to the forest’s edge, along with Mikel, and they had shown off their skills for us and taught us about smoking techniques, so their visit had been good for both building our friendship and boosting our productivity.
In the indigo month, we had taken our trip to the neighboring town of Daleim, opened the outdoor restaurant, helped the Sauti clan bring down the lord of the forest, and spent a lot of time getting ready for what would be happening next.
After all, the violet month was when the sun god’s revival festival was held. That had been another really hectic period for us, and we had met lots of interesting people, like the members of the Gamley Troupe.
Then, the new year had rolled around with the silver month. That was when Dora and his family had been invited to the Ruu settlement for a friendship banquet. We had also gone to another banquet so we could make peace with the house of Saturas.
In the golden month, we had held a combined festival of the hunt with the clans that lived around us, and during the break period that followed, we had forged ties with a few clans that we hadn’t interacted with before.
The rainy season had then arrived with the brown month. Not long after, I had been infected by the illness called Amusehorn’s Breath, which very nearly killed me.
The rains had continued through the red month, which had also featured Ai Fa’s birthday. Also, down in the south, work on the path through the forest’s edge had been completed.
Finally, in the vermilion month, Sufira Zaza and Morun Rutim’s problematic romantic feelings had been revealed. Granny Jiba’s birthday party had been at the end of the month, during which Darmu and Sheera Ruu had decided to get married. That brought us all the way to the present month, the yellow one. The last year had been incredibly busy, filled with major changes for us and the town outside of the forest.
Of course, since this was a year with an extra month, which occurred every three years, I had already been in this world for more than twelve months, amounting to around 370 days in total. But I personally felt that I couldn’t say I had been here for a full year until I reached the anniversary of my arrival at the forest’s edge—the twenty-fourth of the yellow month.
Naturally, since we were still only at the beginning of the yellow month, it was a little early to be getting so emotional about it. However, there was a lot for us to look forward to in the next month. Just off the top of my head, there was Rimee Ruu’s birthday, the innkeeper meeting I was supposed to participate in, and two marriages, one between the Fou and the Sudra, and the other between Darmu and Sheera Ruu, both of which I would be attending. Every single one of those events was going to take place before the twenty-fourth of the yellow month, so I had a lot of things I needed to pour my energy into first.
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First on the docket was the inn meeting. It occurred on the first day of the yellow month, two days after the Ruu festival of the hunt where Granny Jiba’s birthday had also been celebrated.
We headed over to The Great Southern Tree, where the event was being held after finishing up work with the stalls. The meeting was scheduled to begin in the evening, and was going to last for a couple hours.
In this country, there were organizations called firms that businesses of the same type were members of. They held meetings regularly in order to maintain their connections, discuss any edicts the nobles might have handed down, and look into any problems that had arisen.
This time around, we had been permitted to participate as concerned parties related to The Kimyuus’s Tail. Most snack stalls were associated with one inn or another, so it had been agreed that we had reason to join them for this meeting.
To be honest, I had probably put this off longer than I should have. This firm had done a lot of the work when it came to distributing the new ingredients that had become available around the post town—the ones that Cyclaeus had been hoarding until we had stopped him. Now these precious foodstuffs were readily available even to the common folk of the post town. The firm had also been involved in spreading information about how poitan could be used in place of fuwano. Those were two huge changes that they had been involved in all the way back in the white and gray months, which was over nine months ago at this point.
Of course, I had been heavily involved in both of those changes as well. After all, I was the person who had invented the new technique for cooking poitan. Of course, Polarth and a few of his people were the ones who had come up with the plan to apply economic pressure to the house of Turan by spreading my method, so it had officially been an initiative directed by a noble. The fact that I had been the original source had been kept quiet, so that the people of the forest’s edge wouldn’t face blowback for the disruption it had caused. The firm’s network of contacts had been instrumental in circulating the information, and it had all started at a meeting like the one I was about to attend. Groundwork for the sale of karon milk and torso meat from the castle town had been handled in a similar manner.
Even when it came to spreading knowledge on how to effectively use the new ingredients that were becoming available, the nobles had asked me to be discreet in how I went about it. Apparently, Yang had been dispatched to inn meetings in the past to explain such methods to them personally. All I had done was keep on quietly doing business like I always had in order to show people what the ingredients could be used for in the most direct way possible.
As things stood, we people of the forest’s edge who did business in the post town were still outsiders in a lot of ways. When we had a complicated business issue to deal with, rather than going to the firm, we went directly to the nobles instead. Up until now, even though we had a big presence in town, our dealings with inns were limited to just selling giba meat to a small handful of them.
Of course, it wasn’t as if that was some sort of issue for us. Even if we didn’t belong to the firm, we still followed their established way of doing things. Our management system differed, but we were subject to the same rules, so that much was only natural. The merchants who visited from Sym, Jagar, and other towns in Selva all practiced business in more or less the same manner as well.
Still, I felt it was high time for me to take this step. The settlement at the forest’s edge was officially considered Genos territory, so it seemed sensible for us to operate similarly to the locals, and in order to continue building a healthy relationship with the people of the post town, it was a necessary step to take. Besides, I wanted to have a good rapport with the other inn owners too, just like we had with Milano Mas, Naudis, Nail, and Sams. And if it meant we’d be selling more giba meat, that was yet another reason to be looking forward to it.
At this point, many of the people of the forest’s edge were financially better off than they had ever been before. At the very least, the clans selling fresh meat to the post town through the Fa and the Ruu were undoubtedly earning far more money than they had in the past.
However, we were still far from satisfied with what we had accomplished. At present, fewer than half of the clans of the forest’s edge were getting any of that new wealth. And what was more, we had recently learned how incredibly helpful it was to have hunting dogs, but unfortunately, the Fa and Ruu were the only clans currently capable of purchasing dogs on their own. We were going to need more money if we wanted to buy enough dogs for all the clans to have as many as they needed. In order to reach that goal, we would have to work together with the clans who currently didn’t approve of the Fa’s actions, and expand our business even further.
By forging proper bonds with others, both in the post town and at the forest’s edge, we would be able to give everyone a chance to lead a fulfilling life. That was the ideal that Ai Fa and I had been pursuing right from the start. And so, in order to see our objective realized, we had to keep finding ways to push things forward.
That was certainly a long introduction, but now, the inn meeting was almost here.
After wrapping up business at the stalls, we headed over to The Great Southern Tree.
I was going as the representative for the Fa, while Reina Ruu would be representing her clan. The Great Southern Tree’s owner, Naudis, had arranged things so that we would be preparing dinner for the gathered crowd as well, so Rimee Ruu and Tsuvai Rutim were also accompanying us. Normally, I’d have wanted to have Toor Deen and Yun Sudra helping out too, but we needed them to head back to the forest’s edge to handle the prep work for tomorrow.
“Jeez, why do I have to help out with a hassle like this?!” Tsuvai Rutim grumbled on our way to The Great Southern Tree.
Reina Ruu turned to look at the younger girl with a soothing smile. “Sorry to burden you with this, Tsuvai Rutim, but as the one who understands matters of business the best out of anyone under the Ruu clan, we really wanted you to be there with us.”
“Hmph! If you’re calculating coins, Asuta of the Fa clan should have no trouble handling that on his own!”
“We can’t always leave everything to Asuta. After all, we’re now doing business in the post town separately from the Fa clan.”
Tsuvai Rutim frowned, not looking very satisfied with that answer, but she refrained from complaining any further. That was just the sort of girl she was, though. I was certain she wasn’t too annoyed, and she would never skip out on work. Otherwise, Gazraan Rutim never would have granted her the clan name that now belonged to her.
Two days ago, Tsuvai Rutim, her mother Oura Rutim, and Mida Ruu had all finally been given clan names. When she had gotten the news, the young girl had clung to her mother’s arm, looking like she had been about to break down crying, or like she might burst from sheer emotion. She almost never let her feelings show like that in her day-to-day life. Honestly, it was reassuring to see the young girl—who was short even for her age—striding down the street so resolutely.
“Even after getting a clan name, you’re still as noisy as ever. But I guess it’d be pretty creepy if you suddenly started being quiet all the time,” a voice called out from Reina Ruu’s other side. It was Ludo Ruu, who was accompanying us as a guard. Since we would be getting back late, both Ai Fa and Donda Ruu had insisted that we needed an escort.
Shin Ruu was part of our group as well, serving as our second guard. Those two were always the ones we brought with us when we were trying to forge new bonds with townsfolk, due to their benign appearances. Though, it had actually been quite a while since I had last seen the two of them on guard duty together.
“It sure is fortunate that the Ruu clans are in a break period. Otherwise, you would’ve had to choose Ryada Ruu and Bartha again,” Ludo Ruu added as we walked, surrounded by heavy foot traffic. He seemed to be in a good mood as he strolled along, holding hands with his precious little sister, Rimee Ruu. He had always enjoyed being in the post town more than most of our people. “It’s been a while since you’ve been to the post town too, right, Shin Ruu?” Ludo Ruu asked.
Shin Ruu calmly nodded and answered, “Indeed. Lately, it feels like I’ve been visiting the castle town more often than the post town. But it’s been a couple months since I’ve gone to either.”
“I’m just glad that Darmu and Sheera Ruu shifted their wedding date. If the pre-celebration had already started, neither of us would be able to be out here as late into the night as we’re gonna be.”
When members of the Ruu clans got married, they held a pre-celebration for seven days beforehand. Each night, the pair to be wed would visit the house of a clan head under the Ruu to present themselves. The first encounter I’d had with members of the Rutim clan had been during such an event, and as the head of his household, Shin Ruu would be accompanying his older sister as she went around to the various houses. Thinking about it warmed my heart.
“Darmu sure did take his sweet time, though, didn’t he? Because of that whole mess with Ai Fa, for a while there it seemed like he had absolutely no interest in any other woman.”
“Yes, but Sheera has had feelings for Darmu Ruu for a long time, so as the head of her house, I couldn’t be happier with how things worked out.”
“And before long, you and Lala will be next! It’s definitely rare to have two marriages between members of the same two houses!”
“It’s way too early to be talking about that. Lala Ruu’s still only thirteen,” Shin Ruu replied, his face red as he glared at Ludo Ruu.
The other Ruu hunter just snickered at him with a big grin on his face.
“Darmu and Sheera Ruu’s wedding banquet will be on the fourteenth of the yellow month, right? I’m really looking forward to it, Shin Ruu,” I interjected.
Rimee Ruu smiled up at me and said, “I’m so happy that you and Ai Fa got invited to the banquet! But don’t forget that my birthday comes before that, okay?”
“Yup, on the sixth of the yellow month. You’re very important to me, so of course I remember your birthday,” I responded, causing the smile on the young girl’s face to grow even brighter.
Ai Fa and I had actually been invited to the Fou and Sudra wedding being held the day before as well. Talks of Yun Sudra and Jou Ran being wed had fortunately been nixed, but there hadn’t been any problems with the other pairing, so their marriage was still on. We really had a lot of celebrations to look forward to in the first half of the yellow month.
As we were chatting, The Great Southern Tree came into view. I had to place Gilulu and his wagon into their care before anything else, so Shin Ruu and I peeked inside the inn first.
Naudis was at the reception desk, and he smiled and greeted us. “Welcome, Asuta. You need me to take charge of your totos and wagon, correct? Hold on for just a moment. Hey! Come handle the front desk!”
“Coming!” a voice called out, and then Naudis’s wife came down from the second floor. The inn owner himself had mixed blood from Jagar and Sym, but his wife was a pure-blooded westerner, though her short figure made her look kind of similar to Naudis in some ways.
After the married couple swapped places at the desk, Naudis stepped outside with us. We quickly moved the ingredients we had brought with us into the building, and then followed him to the back of the building, where there was a rather sturdy-looking storehouse. Just like at The Kimyuus’s Tail, there was a hefty lock attached to the door. Naudis unlocked it, then opened the heavy door and gestured at us to come inside.
“I’m not worried about bandits or the like breaking in here, but you should probably take your money along with you. And as for your totos, please lead it inside this fence. Hmm... This totos doesn’t seem to have been branded.”
“That’s right. We’ve given him a necklace of tusks and horns to identify him. Will that be okay?”
“Yes, of course. We don’t have any other unbranded totos, so there’s no danger that we might get them mixed up.”
The totos and wagons of the guests staying at The Great Southern Tree were all being held there. Taking a quick glance around, I spied five or six wagons and nearly twice that many totos. The wagons merchants used were usually quite large and made to be drawn by two of the massive birds. But despite how many wagons and totos were within, there was still a fair bit of room left to spare in the storehouse.
“This is really impressive. Is this storehouse actually bigger than the main structure?”
“Indeed it is. No matter how fine an inn may be, if it doesn’t have enough room to store people’s wagons and totos, you can’t accommodate a large number of guests.”
It was true that not many people traveled on foot, so that certainly made sense, but I still thought it was pretty remarkable as we exited the massive storehouse.
“Now then, let’s head on back. I must say, I’ve really been looking forward to this day. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to invite you all into my inn’s kitchen.”
In the past, we had prepared food in the kitchens of each of the inns we interacted with several times, but fairly early on, we had switched to selling completed dishes only, so it had probably been several months now since we had used his kitchen.
“Is it really all right for us to only prepare food with giba meat in it, by the way? I have to assume there’s gonna be at least a couple people in the group who won’t want to try it.”
“Anyone who doesn’t can simply have the karon and kimyuus dinners we prepare for our customers, but I doubt you’ll have much in the way of leftovers at the end of the night. The other inn owners all seemed quite interested in your cooking.”
Somehow, Naudis seemed to be grinning even wider than usual, and the smile didn’t leave his face for a moment as we returned to the inn and entered the kitchen.
“Well then, feel free to use whatever you please. We’ll move our own cooking off to the side so it doesn’t get in your way.”
“Thank you so much for everything. All right, let’s hurry up and get started.” With that, we four chefs cleaned our hands and got to work. Ludo Ruu took up a position next to the window, while Shin Ruu stood by the entrance. “The other inn owners should be arriving around the lower fifth hour, right?” I asked Naudis.
“Yes. We’ll talk for around an hour after that, and then it will be time for dinner. We deal with the most important topics first, then discuss the rest as we eat.”
“I feel kind of nervous, to be honest. I mean, it’s not like everyone there is going to have a good opinion of us.”
“Maybe, but the number of people who hate the people of the forest’s edge has gone down a lot over the last year. There might be one or two who still dislike you, but it won’t be anything to worry about.”
It was true that I couldn’t recall any townsfolk reacting to us with animosity lately. However, that was no surprise when most of the people we interacted with were our customers. Today we were attending a gathering of people who could reasonably see us as business rivals. We were earning a lot more profit than the other stalls were, so I had to wonder how these folks who were in the same industry saw us. Pretty soon, we were finally going to learn the answer to that question.
The chefs from the castle town have generally been pretty professional with us, but we were never directly competing with them as businesspeople. Well, whatever ends up happening, we have to make this work for the sake of Naudis, Milano Mas, and everyone else who’s been treating us so well, I thought to myself as I tackled my first big job of the yellow month.
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