Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 3.2

2

After wrapping up our investigation of the meat market, we promptly headed back to the settlement at the forest’s edge.

Once we got everyone back to the Ruu settlement and returned to the Fa house, we took care of a few chores, like chopping firewood for our own use. When it came to bigger tasks, such as preparing the pico leaves and firewood for our business, we paid the nearby clans to handle it for us, but Ai Fa’s stance was that we should take care of as much of what needed to be done to meet our personal needs as possible.

When the sun hit its peak, Ai Fa and Brave went hunting, while I set about preparing for business the next day.

On days off, I generally started on prep work around this time. It took about ninety minutes to finish, after which I would hold a long study session with the members of our neighboring clans. But since we had Rimee Ruu’s birthday party today, I wrapped up the study session early. After all, the Ruu clan had asked me to prepare a dessert for after dinner.

Rimee Ruu was the most skilled chef in her entire clan when it came to making sweets, but it wouldn’t be right to have her cook for her own birthday, so that task fell to me instead.

“When it comes to desserts, though, I really can’t measure up to Rimee Ruu at this point. This is gonna be a pretty tough job.”

“So what are you planning on making, then, Asuta?” Yun Sudra asked with open curiosity as we cleaned up together after the study session.

“We did some trial and error with baked desserts at that one study session a little while ago, remember? I’m going to go with the same thing we made that time, basically.”

“Oh yeah, that was definitely tasty. But if that’s all you’re going to make, wouldn’t it feel a little lacking?”

“Yeah, but I’m planning to add a variety of little twists. If I get the chance, I’d love to show them off to everyone eventually.”

Of course, I was sure that once I did that, Toor Deen and Rimee Ruu would come up with better versions than mine in no time at all. But that was perfectly fine with me. I was fully aware at this point that my role was simply to give them a starting point to work from.

“Well, I’ll see you again tomorrow. And we’ll leave Fafa’s wagon here as planned,” Yun Sudra said.

Once we finished cleaning up, the Gaaz and Ratsu women headed home in a separate wagon—one of the three that had been bought for making purchases. We were keeping Fafa’s wagon here so that Ai Fa could use it later.

After saying goodbye to everyone, I headed south. After meeting up with Bartha at the Ruu settlement, we took another quick trip to the post town to pick up Tara, who had also been invited to Rimee Ruu’s birthday party. Tara was basically Rimee Ruu’s best friend at this point, so naturally, the farmer girl really wanted to come too. Fortunately, both girls’ parents had agreed.

After picking up Tara, we turned around and went right back to the Ruu settlement. It was currently around the lower third hour, about when Dora would typically be wrapping things up in the post town.

“I’m surprised that you’re still forbidden to head into the post town on your own, Asuta. In town, it’s considered normal for even weak little girls to walk around by themselves,” Bartha jokingly remarked along the way. Naturally, she had only come along because I had asked her to accompany me as a guard.

“Well, my clan head is a bit overprotective... And besides, we’ve been earning a fortune in town, so we have to be careful of outlaws.”

“I see. Well, considering what happened to Mikel and Myme because of all the money they started bringing in, I guess it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”

Not long after we finished that little discussion, we arrived at the Ruu settlement.

Since usually a person’s birthday party was only attended by members of their house, there didn’t seem to be anything different about the plaza as we entered it. Even the members of the branch houses were just going about their work like always. Though, since the Ruu clans were currently in the middle of a break period, there did happen to be a few lightly dressed men around, chopping firewood and playing with children. In fact, I could spy a ton of kids gathered around Mida Ruu in front of Shin Ruu’s house.

After saying hello to everyone, I parted ways with Bartha and walked over to the main house, along with Tara. First we greeted Jiza Ruu’s family inside the house itself, and then we headed around to the kitchen. There were around ten women there making dinner and handling the prep work for business the next day.

When I spotted Sheera Ruu, I called out, “Hey there. So you’re working here today too, Sheera Ruu? The initial celebrations finally start tomorrow, don’t they?”

“That’s right. I’m getting nervous, to be honest, so I’ve been trying my best not to think about it,” Sheera Ruu replied, but she looked quite calm to me. Of course, I could sense some real joy behind that calm.

Then Tara, who was standing next to me, tugged on the sleeve of my T-shirt. “Hey Asuta, what did you mean by ‘initial celebrations’?”

“Oh, the Ruu clan has a custom of going around to each of their subordinate clans before they have a wedding. Including the Ruu themselves, there are seven clans, and they go to one each night to eat a celebratory meal together.”

The bride and groom would also be accompanied by the heads of their houses. In this case, that would be Donda and Shin Ruu. The wedding date had been set for the fourteenth of the yellow month, so that the initial celebrations wouldn’t overlap with Rimee Ruu’s birthday.

“I’m really looking forward to the wedding banquet. I’m sure you must have a lot to deal with right now, but I know you’ll do just fine, Sheera Ruu.”

“Yeah. Thank you.”

Though I felt a bit reluctant to end our conversation so soon, I had my own work I needed to take care of.

As I started to get to work with Tara next to me, Mia Lea Ruu approached us and said, “Oh, hello. You’re here as well, Tara? I believe Rimee should be over at Shin Ruu’s house helping to tan pelts.”

“Yeah, but I’m helping Asuta! I want to make a delicious dessert for Rimee Ruu to eat!”

“I see. Well then, once you’re done helping, could you go see Rimee? Now that you’re here, I’m sure she’ll be very eager to see you.”

With an energetic nod, Tara replied, “Okay!” Though she could be a bit timid compared to her friend Rimee Ruu, she was no longer even the slightest bit nervous about spending time here at the forest’s edge.

There weren’t any girls the same age as Rimee Ruu at the Ruu settlement, so meeting Tara in the post town had made her incredibly happy, and the two of them had ended up becoming the best of friends. It was hard to believe that they had known each other for less than a year, considering how close they were now.

When they’re old enough, I’m sure they’ll spend a lot of time discussing romance and that kind of thing with each other. That abrupt bit of musing had probably come from all the talk of marriage lately. While it was a bit presumptuous, I kinda felt like a proud parent when I thought about those kids.

“Well then, first up is the poitan and fuwano. I hope you’ll be able to remember the steps. It would be great if you could make this for your family back home,” I said, and with that, the two of us set about preparing dessert.

A few hours later, around when the sun was setting, we gathered in the main hall.

There were thirteen members of the main house and three guests, bringing the total up to sixteen. Ai Fa didn’t arrive until right before it was time to begin, but fortunately, we didn’t end up needing to wait for anyone.

Normally, Rimee Ruu would have been seated the furthest down in the lineup, but today she was at the head of the group between the clan head and the elder. As a result, we guests were seated pretty far away, but she had met up with Ai Fa in the morning and had gotten to play with Tara for a while shortly before this, so she looked incredibly happy nonetheless.

“Today, we welcome the two members of the Fa clan and Tara from the Daleim lands as our guests... Normally, birthdays are to be celebrated with family alone, but the three of you are precious friends to our youngest daughter Rimee, and I hope that you will grant her your blessings as we do,” Donda Ruu stated with a solemn look on his face, and we all nodded back. The clan head then slowly turned to face his daughter. “Let us celebrate Rimee living a healthy year, and pray that her next year goes much the same.”

He then placed a bright red mizora flower in Rimee Ruu’s hair with his large hand.

The young girl looked up at her father’s face with a big smile. “Thanks! As a member of the main Ruu house, I’ll live a life that won’t bring any shame to the mother forest!” she stated, speaking with even more conviction than Lala Ruu had back at her birthday party.

Donda Ruu retained his perfectly solemn expression as he nodded and replied, “Of course.”

After that, Granny Jiba, Jiza Ruu, Darmu Ruu, and Ludo Ruu all offered Rimee Ruu flowers one by one, all of which were a brilliant red. I remembered her also wearing a red flower as an accessory at celebratory banquets, so I had made sure to pick one of the same color from the forest.

Mia Lea Ruu, Granny Tito Min, Jiza Ruu’s wife Sati Lea Ruu and his young son Kota Ruu, Vina Ruu, Reina Ruu, and Lala Ruu all gifted their flowers next. And then, it was finally time for us guests. We each said a few congratulatory words and offered her our flowers, starting with Ai Fa, and then me, and Tara last. But when Tara stepped forward, she fidgeted as she stared at Rimee Ruu.

“You like red flowers, Rimee Ruu? But I got you a white one...”

“I’m just happy to have you here!” Rimee Ruu replied, her eyes narrowing as she smiled happily. Tara gave a relaxed smile back, then placed the small white flower on her friend’s chest.

Though it was small, it had fine petals that reminded me of a lily. Amid all the red she wore, that single white flower seemed to shine all the brighter.

“Well then, let us begin the celebratory dinner. Tara of the Daleim lands, you also helped to cook, did you not?” Donda Ruu said.

“That’s right. She and I were in charge of preparing dessert. We’ll bring it in once everyone is almost done with the main course.”

Because of that, Tara’s name was also included in the premeal chant. She looked kind of embarrassed to hear it, but also seemed very proud at the same time.

“Okay then, let’s dig in! Birthday meals are always really extravagant, so I’m sure this is gonna be great!” Ludo Ruu earnestly exclaimed, grabbing hold of a plate.

He wasn’t wrong; we had quite a selection to choose from. Most of the food was sitting on large plates, with utensils provided for us to grab portions for ourselves. This sort of buffet-style dining, where everyone could eat as much of each dish as they pleased, was something they did a lot here in the main Ruu house, and that made a lot of sense when you had so many people eating together. There were thirteen people in the main Ruu house, after all, so it would be quite difficult to dole out the right amount of each dish for everyone.

One of the plates had a big stack of thick sirloin steaks, and next to it there was a mountain of meat and vegetable stir-fry cooked in a sweet and salty sauce.

Then we had thin strips of raw daikon-like sheema and yam-like gigo, topped with a dressing made from pickled-plum-like dried kiki. On top of that, there was a potato-salad-esque chatchi salad, plus a tino-based vegetable salad. I had often told people that they should eat plenty of vegetables too in addition to meat, and Reina and Mia Lea Ruu seemed to have taken that advice to heart.

For the soup dish, they had made a spicy tarapa-based one. It seemed they had also employed kimyuus bones to make the stock, which was wonderfully seasoned. There were a variety of vegetables and mushrooms in it too, and it was sure it would become very popular if they sold it at the stalls.

For the final dish, they had taken a shot at preparing gratin, which I had taught them how to make after the Ruu festival of the hunt. Granny Jiba had really enjoyed it, so they were quite passionate when it came to studying the dish. Outside of celebrations, the Fa house didn’t have much use for the large plates meant for gratin, so we had let the Ruu clan borrow three of them (half of the total number we had). By now, the method for making it must have spread to the branch houses as well.

“Wow, amazing! They’re all so tasty! My dad’s gonna be really jealous!” Tara told me with a smile as she dug into the meat and vegetable stir-fry.

When she heard that, Mia Lea Ruu chimed in from a distance, “Has your father been very busy? You came on your own to the festival of the hunt as well, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. He’s been expanding the poitan fields again, and that takes a lot of work. He’s gotta go out to the fields every morning, so the only time he’ll be able to come over is during the next revival festival.”

“I see. Your father is a very splendid man.”

Tara smiled bashfully. Ludo Ruu, who had been chowing down heartily on chatchi salad, then gulped down his food and turned to talk to Tara as well.

“You’re not going to be at Darmu’s wedding, are you? I thought for sure you’d come along for that one too.”

“My dad said I shouldn’t intrude too much. I mean, I just came here for Granny Jiba’s birthday celebration.”

“Hmm. Well, I guess you’re not all that close to Darmu or Sheera Ruu, so I suppose that makes sense.”

Darmu Ruu simply kept biting into his steak as people talked around him. He was even harder to read than Sheera Ruu was.

“Well, it would be a little much to invite her to every single one of our events. After all, Ai Fa and Asuta did say they won’t be coming to any more of our festivals of the hunt,” Mia Lea Ruu said while portioning out some sheema and gigo salad. “I think that for the most part we should only invite townsfolk to banquets meant for that purpose, like we did back in the silver month. I’m sure that would be more appropriate than inviting them to events meant for clan members.”

“Huh?! But I want to invite Tara, Ai Fa, and Asuta next year too,” Rimee Ruu whined.

“It’s fine if you invite the people precious to you to your celebration, Rimee. That’s why they’re here today even though they’re going to stop coming to our festivals of the hunt, right?”

“Yes, though we made that decision at Jiza Ruu’s urging,” Ai Fa calmly replied.

Jiza Ruu set down his plate and turned toward us. “That’s what it means to draw a clear line, is it not? For example, if you had invited someone who wasn’t very important to Rimee today, I would likely have objected.”

“Hmm? Like Yumi or Telia Mas?” Rimee Ruu asked, and her older brother tilted his head ever so slightly in response.

“Do you consider those two to be as precious to you as Tara?”

“Huh? They’re important friends, of course, but Tara is special!”

“Then I would likely have objected to them. It is clear that Tara is an irreplaceable friend to you, so I have no problem with her coming.”

“I didn’t think you paid that much attention to their friendship, Jiza,” Ludo Ruu said, sounding suspicious.

“I do,” Jiza Ruu replied. “At the festival in town, in the Daleim lands, and at Ruu clan banquets, that girl was always by Rimee’s side. That is evidence enough.”

“Oh? I’m amazed you were able to see all that when you’ve got your eyes closed all the time... Uh, I’m just joking, so don’t get angry!”

Since Ludo Ruu had apologized right away, we thankfully didn’t get hit with that intense invisible aura Jiza Ruu had. The heir to the clan simply moved on, saying, “Anyway, these three guests are clearly all precious to Rimee. And the same goes for Ai Fa and Asuta when it comes to our elder Jiba. I have no issue with such close friends being invited to our family’s birthday celebrations.”

“Huh? Then what about my birthday? Ai Fa and Asuta were there last year, so it should be fine this year too, right?” Lala Ruu chimed in.

Reina Ruu, who was sitting next to her younger sister, chimed in before Jiza Ruu could respond. “That was because it was still hard for us to make really good meals back then, remember? After your birthday and Granny Tito Min’s, though, that stopped being a reason to invite them.”

“But they’re here now for Rimee’s birthday!”

“That’s because Rimee and Ai Fa have been friends for years now. And Asuta is the one who reminded Granny Jiba of the joy of living. Rimee is the one who invited Asuta to the Ruu settlement that first time, so her relationship with him is of a different sort than ours.”

“It’s no fair if only Rimee gets to do it, though!”

“Vina and I didn’t invite them, you know...so from our point of view, it would be unfair if you get to.”

“You two not inviting Asuta has nothing to do with me!”

“We didn’t invite him because we believed it wouldn’t be appropriate to invite outsiders to birthday celebrations so frequently. And it also wouldn’t be fair to Asuta and Ai Fa to trouble them like that.” Reina Ruu had simply been chiding Lala Ruu at first, but it seemed like she was steadily getting more and more angry. “It’s not like you’re closer to Asuta and Ai Fa than Vina and I are, right? So it wouldn’t make sense to only invite them to your birthday, Lala.”

“But I’ve gotten along with Asuta and Ai Fa pretty much since the beginning! Didn’t you and Vina dislike Ai Fa at first?!”

“N-No, we didn’t. And besides, it’s not as if you were especially quick to warm up to Asuta. You didn’t give him a tusk as a blessing that first night, remember?”

“Hey, you’re really gonna bring up something from that long ago?! Besides, I gave him one pretty soon after that!”

“But you still didn’t decide you liked Asuta right away, did you?”

“Maybe, but you two hated Ai Fa! Both of you wanted to get with Asuta, but you thought she was in the way!”

“Th-That’s not true at all! And Ai Fa is an important friend to me now!”

“Enough,” Donda Ruu grumbled, cutting through their arguing. “We’re in the middle of dinner. This is no time to be going on and on like that. Seriously, what do you two think you’re doing, fighting when we’re here to celebrate your little sister?”

Lala Ruu held her tongue with a frown, while Reina Ruu’s face went red from embarrassment.

Looking like she wanted to help calm them down, Granny Tito Min said, “If we were to always invite everyone we consider a friend, it would get out of hand very quickly. That was why Jiza wanted to draw a line. The Fa clan are very important to the elder and Rimee, so it makes the most sense for them to only be invited to those two birthdays.”

“Huh? But...” Lala Ruu said hesitantly.

“We were just lucky that the two of us were able to invite them to our birthdays last year. But even if they aren’t going to be invited to this kind of event as much, we can still deepen our bonds with the two of them, right? That’s what I intend to do.”

Last year, I was only invited to the birthdays of Lala Ruu and Granny Tito Min. Everyone else must have had birthdays as well after that, but it was true that I hadn’t been invited to any other ones aside from Granny Jiba’s and Rimee Ruu’s. And it made sense that the reason was because the Ruu could now make elaborate food to celebrate with all on their own.

“That’s true. And didn’t Dan Rutim and Rau Lea want to invite them too? You’ve gotta set a limit somewhere, or there’ll be no end to it,” Ludo Ruu interjected.

However, this earned him a rather sharp look from Lala Ruu out of the corner of her eye. “Dan Rutim did invite them to his birthday!”

“Oh, yeah. Still, I mean, we’re talking about Dan Rutim, y’know? I consider them important friends too, but I didn’t try to invite them to my birthday either. Celebrating our birthdays with family is plenty,” Ludo Ruu said, and then he shot us a smile. “Still, it was really fun getting to come to your birthday, Ai Fa! You’ll be inviting Rimee and Granny Jiba again next year, right? So I guess I’ll tag along to guard them again.”

“What the heck?! You’re being the most unfair of all, Ludo!”

And then the commotion that had been settling down flared right back up again. Donda Ruu had seemingly lost the motivation to put a stop to it, and was now just gulping down fruit wine. Jiza Ruu also did nothing more than shrug before resuming his meal.

Rimee Ruu, thankfully, smiled happily through all of it. She must have been feeling quite satisfied, considering that she had essentially been given permission to keep inviting the two of us and Tara every year. Ai Fa and Tara were looking back at her from the other end of the group with incredibly fond expressions on their faces.