Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 2.2

2

When we arrived at the Fou settlement, we found that the women were still working hard. There was a little over an hour left until sunset, when the banquet would begin, so they were in the midst of the last push to get ready.

Their plaza was definitely smaller than the one at the Ruu settlement, but it was still a really nice space for gatherings. And just like during a festival of the hunt, it was filled with excitement.

Firewood was piled up in the center of the plaza for a ritual flame, and there were simple stoves constructed all around it. There was even a whole-roast giba cooking on top of one of them.

They must’ve been working on the other dishes in the kitchens of the various houses. I could see women hurriedly running between the houses holding ingredients and pots and the like. It felt like it had been quite a while since I’d been able to watch other chefs hustling around like that as a bystander.

There were also a few children setting up bonfires around the perimeter of the plaza. They were the boys and girls too young to work as either hunters or chefs. The Fou and Ran didn’t allow children under the age of ten to handle fire or blades.

“Let’s go say hello at the main house,” I suggested.

After stopping the wagon at the entrance to the plaza, I stepped down alongside Ai Fa and Brave. Then we cut across the plaza, pulling the wagon behind us, smiling and saying hello to the people we passed along the way. Today, the Fou, Ran, and Sudra woman were all hands on deck to man the stoves.

“Excuse us. Is anyone home?” I called out while knocking on the main Fou house’s door. However, there wasn’t any answer. It seemed that there wasn’t anyone in the main part of the house at the moment.

We circled around to the back where the kitchen was located. The place was like a battlefield. It was the biggest kitchen in the settlement, so there were an especially large number of people gathered there.

“Asuta, Ai Fa. Hey there. Welcome to the Fou house. You’re rather early, aren’t you?” a middle-aged woman who looked like she was in charge said with a smile. She was the wife of the Fou clan head, Baadu Fou.

“Looks like you’re working hard here. We brought our wooden plates as promised. What do you want us to do with them?”

“Ah, I really appreciate it. We’ll distribute them ourselves, so could you just leave them by the entrance?”

“Got it.”

None of the other clans owned as many plates as the Ruu and Fa. We had several boxes full of them in the wagon, but as we were unloading them, a woman approached us, her eyes opening wide as she said, “Oh my. I almost didn’t recognize you in those gorgeous banquet clothes, Ai Fa.”

“I may be a hunter, but I am still an unmarried woman, so my noisy clan member talked me into dressing up for tonight.”

“It looks really good on you. Even more so because it’s rare to see a woman as beautiful as you.”

Ai Fa fell silent and looked like she was on the verge of pouting. The forest’s edge had no rule against frivolously praising the appearance of others when both were of the same sex, so she couldn’t even really complain about it.

“We still have plenty of work left to handle, unfortunately. If you’d like, you can rest up at the branch house to the east.”

“The one to the east?”

“Yes, the one next to this house. The young children are gathered there, and I believe Saris Ran is there now.”

It was common knowledge among the Fou and Ran that Ai Fa and Saris Ran Fou were childhood friends. My clan head looked to be in a slightly better mood now as she nodded in response.

We headed over that way and knocked, and this time we got a response of “Yes?”

“Excuse us. I am Ai Fa, head of the Fa clan, and I have my clan member Asuta with me.”

“Oh, Ai Fa and Asuta. Please, come inside.”

Having gotten permission, I went ahead and opened the door. When I did, though, I found myself letting out a “Whoa!” before I could stop myself, because inside the house there was an entire crowd of kids between the ages of one and four. They must have been all the young children from both the Fou and the Ran.

One of them noticed Brave and delightedly called out, “A hunting dog!” Most of the other kids soon started getting excited as well. Only those who were around a year old didn’t. Of course, Brave himself remained perfectly calm.

“Welcome to the Fou house. I’m glad to see you again, Ai Fa,” Saris Ran Fou said while approaching us from the middle of the crowd of children.

“So am I,” my clan head replied with a gentle smile.

“My, what lovely clothes you’re wearing. I’ve really been looking forward to seeing you all dressed up.”

“I wasn’t looking forward to it at all, myself. I’d prefer not to spend too much time talking about fashion, if you don’t mind.”

“My...” Saris Ran Fou said once again with a giggle. “Ah, and welcome to you as well, Asuta. You can bring your hunting dog and totos inside as well if you’d like.”

“Thank you.”

I released Gilulu from the wagon, and then we all stepped inside.

The little kids surrounded Brave in no time flat. The Fou clan already had a hunting dog of their own, so none of them seemed to be wary of him.

“Sorry for the commotion. Please, come inside, you two.”

“It’s no big deal...” I started to say, but then I gulped. I had spotted someone in the room whom I hadn’t seen in quite some time. “Li Sudra! I didn’t know you were in here!”

“Yes, I wasn’t feeling the best, so I’ve been resting.”

Li Sudra was the wife of the Sudra clan head, Raielfam Sudra. I hadn’t seen her since the combined festival of the hunt that we’d held back in the gold month. However, she looked very different now compared to back then. Her belly had gotten a whole lot larger, even more than Ama Min Rutim’s. Li Sudra had also been pretty slender before, but now her neck and limbs seemed to have plumped up. She had gotten pregnant a little more than two months before Ama Min Rutim, so over seven months had passed since she had noticed her pregnancy.

“Asuta. Ai Fa. It’s been some time, hasn’t it? The festival of the hunt was at the start of the gold month, so it must have been around four months now, right?”

“Sorry about that. I’ve stopped by your place plenty of times when dropping off Yun Sudra, but I figured it was best not to disturb you during such an important time.”

“Yes, Yun mentioned that to me. You were simply concerned about my health, so you have nothing to apologize for.”

Li Sudra was a gentle and polite woman, but she also had a very strong will. That part of her was still readily apparent, but her gentle side seemed to have grown even stronger.

“I’m just glad to see you looking so healthy. And your child seems to be doing well too.”

“Yes. They should be born around halfway through next month, at the earliest.”

I had received news of her pregnancy seven months ago, but calculating backward from there, that would probably make sense.

“I’ve lost young children twice now...so I would very much like to raise this child properly.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine. There’s no more need to worry about starvation, after all,” I said.

But then, I felt Ai Fa poke me in the arm for some reason. “Hey, the Sudra wedding shouldn’t be affecting you this much, should it, Asuta??”

“Huh? What are you saying that for?”

“I’m asking why you’re crying.”

I wiped my eyes in a fluster. “I’m about as close to Li and Raielfam Sudra as I am to Ama Min and Gazraan Rutim, so you can forgive me for getting a little emotional, can’t you?”

“It’s not a question of forgiveness,” Ai Fa said, frowning and shooting me a glare.

Honestly, I didn’t think I was that much of a crier. Still, I’d lost my mom at a young age, so maybe that made this kind of thing hit me harder than it would other people.

“It’s thanks to you that the Sudra no longer need to starve. This is the first time my belly has ever grown this large... Now I can eat as much delicious food as I like, and that’s helped the child inside me to grow,” Li Sudra said while rubbing her large stomach.

Saris Ran Fou—who had stepped to the side while we had been talking—then smiled at me and Ai Fa. “Please, feel free to rest a bit here. The men should be back from the forest soon.”

We ended up sitting directly in front of Li Sudra, as well as another woman sitting next to her. Yes, there was one other woman in the house aside from Saris Ran Fou and Li Sudra.

“Thanks for welcoming us in, um...”

“Asuta, this is Ia Fou,” Saris Ran Fou interjected from where she was sitting beside Ai Fa.

“A-Ah, so you’re Ia Fou? This...isn’t our first time meeting, is it?”

“That’s correct. I’ve visited the Fa house quite a few times to take cooking lessons,” Ia Fou replied with a smile. It felt to me like there were a lot more charming and gentle women than energetic ones among the smaller clans. Ia Fou belonged to the former category. Her long brown hair hung over her right shoulder in a braid. She looked fairly tall, but she was slender and seemed like a modest person.

“We can’t have the bride prepare the banquet food, so Ia Fou is here to help look after the children,” Saris Ran Fou explained, as one of the little kids toddled over—none other than her own child, Aimu Fou.

“Hey there, Aimu Fou. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you too,” I said.

Saris Ran Fou occasionally brought him along to the Fa house, but I hadn’t seen the kid for around half a month. But apparently, that was plenty of time for him to have grown noticeably bigger. Aimu Fou had turned two years old sometime in the last few months.

Now that he was two, he was able to walk properly, and his face looked a lot less babyish than when I had first laid eyes on him. But even so, with his big puppy dog eyes, he was still absolutely adorable.

“Aimu avoided starvation thanks to the Fa clan as well. If you hadn’t delivered those giba pelts, Ai Fa, I don’t know what would have become of him.”

“No, like I told you—”

“Yes, yes. I’d feel bad about making you keep committing the crime of lying, so I’ll stop talking about it now.”

Having been cut off by Saris Ran Fou, my clan head held her tongue with a sulky look.

When Aimu Fou—who had been staring at Ai Fa for a while—saw that expression on her face, he awkwardly said, “Pretty.”

“Hee hee, even little Aimu can tell how beautiful you are, Ai Fa.”

“Aimu Fou was surely just praising my accessories,” Ai Fa said with a small shrug, but then Aimu Fou reached out his tiny hand and stroked Ai Fa’s golden hair that was hanging down in front of her chest.

“Hair, pretty...”

“Yes, Ai Fa’s hair is every bit as shiny as any accessory, isn’t it?”

Ai Fa stared down at Aimu Fou with a very complicated expression on her face.

“I can’t help but be reminded of when I first met Rimee Ruu. As I recall, back then she was around the same age that Aimu Fou is now.”

“My, you made friends with such a young child, Ai Fa?”

“Indeed. She had Granny Jiba with her, after all. However, I believe it took around a year before I could have a proper conversation with Rimee Ruu,” Ai Fa explained while giving Aimu Fou’s plump upper arm a light poke. Saris Ran Fou, Li Sudra, and Ia Fou all narrowed their eyes happily as they watched over the pair.

Despite the young children energetically chattering away behind us, our time together felt surprisingly calm and quiet. There was just such a relaxed feeling in the air that it was hard to think about the excitement of the banquet yet to come.

“By the way, is Cheem Sudra taking a break in another house?” I asked.

“No,” Li Sudra replied with a shake of her head. “Cheem is out in the forest. If he had stayed home, he wouldn’t have had anything to do.”

“Huh? He’s out hunting even on the day of his wedding? With the Ruu clan, they take the day off so they can go visit all of their subordinate clans.”

“Between the Fou and Sudra, there wouldn’t be many houses to visit. And besides, the women and children have all come to the Fou settlement already, so the Sudra and Ran houses are empty.”

Then Saris Ran Fou chimed in, “That’s right. And a man of Cheem Sudra’s ability won’t have any trouble making it home safely, I’m sure. It’s a great honor to have a woman of our clan marry such a fine hunter. I haven’t interacted with him much yet, but he has been your friend for some time now, hasn’t he?”

“Well, I only actually learned his name fairly recently, but yeah, I’ve known him for quite some time. The Sudra men guarded us in the post town for a while.”

That was back when we had needed extra protection because of Tei and Zattsu Suun. Four hunters from the Sudra had joined us as guards for several days, alongside a few members of the Ruu.

“Ia hasn’t been to the Fa house that often either. She hadn’t even spoken to Ai Fa until recently,” Saris Ran Fou casually remarked.

With a soft expression on her face, Ia Fa nodded and said, “That’s true. My last visit to the Fa house was back when the townsfolk were holding their revival festival. But of course, there were quite a few women helping out during that period.”

I could only recall meeting Ia Fou a few times, but the night when I had attended the inn meeting a few days ago, Ai Fa had visited the Fou house, which must have been when they had first spoken.

“A lot of women from the Fou visit the Fa house fairly often, but you haven’t gone there much, have you, Ia? You’re so reserved,” Saris Ran Fou commented, causing Ia Fou’s cheeks to go red with embarrassment. “Still, you’re also rather skilled as a chef. I’m sure you won’t disappoint Cheem Sudra on that front.”

“Is that so? I’d love to have you help out again sometime if you’d like,” I said, and then I decided to bring up the question that had been lingering in my mind for a bit. “By the way, you two seem rather close. Since you’re referring to each other without clan names, do you live in the same house?”

“Yes, Ia is my husband’s younger sister.”

In other words, Saris Ran Fou’s sister-in-law was marrying Cheem Sudra. It felt like sort of a strange twist of fate.

“So if Cheem Sudra and Ia Fou have a child, they’ll be Aimu Fou’s cousin? Y’know, thinking about this stuff makes me feel kinda emotional.”

“Yes, that’s how blood ties go.”

If the discussions about the other two marriages bore fruit, the Fou, Ran, and Sudra would come to share deep bonds, and their bloodlines would endure for many years to come.

“Speaking of which, Li Sudra, what’s the relationship between you and Cheem Sudra?”

“Cheem and I came from different branch houses originally. I believe our grandmothers were sisters, but I don’t know too much about all that... In all likelihood, our grandmothers both married into the Sudra, which would have been their parent clan at the time.” Despite her personality, Li Sudra had to be around twenty-three or twenty-four. Meanwhile, Cheem Sudra was around sixteen or seventeen, and apparently they were second cousins. “As you already know, the Sudra branch houses and subordinate clans were all consolidated together until only a single house of nine remained, so even though we all lived together, we aren’t really very closely related by blood. There’s only one other married pair in the Sudra aside from us, and they only have a single child.”

“I see. Once he’s married, will Cheem Sudra be moving out?”

“Yes. Cheem and Ia Fou are going to have their own house where they’ll have plenty of space to raise their children. Fortunately, we have a number of empty houses to spare. Of course, we’ll still do our housework together and will all have dinner in the main house as a clan.”

In that case, their circumstances were similar to Darmu and Sheera Ruu’s. After those two got married, they were going to live together in a new house, but would eat dinner at Shin Ruu’s house.

“In other words, Cheem will become the new head of the branch house he was born into. A year ago, it seemed like the Sudra were fated to dwindle away to nothing, so this is a big step forward.”

“Yeah, and if things go well, you’ll be bringing in a woman from the Ran too, won’t you? Then you’ll be able to start another branch house.”

“Yes. And when that happens, the older married couple will move out as well. The man expected to marry the Ran woman is their son, you see.”

“Oh, so they’re related? I didn’t know that.”

There were only four men in the Sudra clan, so since Raielfam and Cheem Sudra were already spoken for, there were only two others she could be referring to. I hadn’t known that those two were related, but the Sudra men all had a similar feel about them, so it wasn’t exactly a shock.

“And then when one of our women marries into the Fou, there will only be four members left in the main house. Thinking about that makes me feel a bit lonesome, but this child will help counter that.”

Four members left in the main house, huh? They would have to be the clan head and his wife, Yun Sudra, and the one older woman who had lost both her children and her husband. That certainly could seem lonesome compared to the numbers they’d had up until this point, but when Li Sudra’s child was born it would undoubtedly fill their lives with hope and joy.

“It will also be a great blessing to the Fou clan to receive nine new members. And considering that in the future we’ll be inheriting the blood of the Sudra’s hunters, all of whom are incredibly impressive, it’s hard to imagine a happier occasion than this,” Saris Ran Fou said, stroking Aimu Fou’s head. “I’m sure Aimu Fou and Li Sudra’s child will someday walk hand in hand, carrying the fate of our clans on their shoulders. And that thought fills my heart with joy.”

“Yes, it really does,” Li Sudra agreed, and the two women shared a smile with each other.

During all the banquets their clans had been holding lately to get to know one another better, the two of them must have gotten very close. It really moved me to see Ai Fa’s childhood friend Saris Ran Fou getting along so well with Li Sudra, who had been one of the first women to work at my stalls.

Ai Fa was watching the two of them as well, but then she suddenly glanced up, like a wildcat that had detected a concerning smell.

A second later, Saris Ran Fou said, “Looks like the men are back. They went into the forest with the Sudra today, so I’m sure they caught even more giba than usual.”

At that point, I noticed that the sunlight streaming through the window had taken on the colors of sunset. The banquet that would unify the Fou and the Sudra was finally about to begin.