Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4: A Day of Fulfillment

1

Several more days passed, and the fourteenth of the yellow month rolled around—the day that Darmu and Sheera Ruu were to be wed.

On that momentous day, we carried out our work with the stalls as always. Though Darmu Ruu had entrusted me with a task that I was honored to receive, I was essentially only going to be making enough food to feed one person. Since I would still have a few hours to prepare the food after finishing up at the stalls, I hadn’t seen any reason to take the day off.

Of course, the Ruu clan were taking today off. To compensate, the Fa clan was operating four stalls and had prepared eight hundred meals, the same way we’d handled things on the day of the festival of the hunt.

“The big wedding banquet is finally happening today, right?! Ugh, I wish I could go too!” Yumi complained as we were about to start shutting down for the day. She had wanted to attend the wedding banquet, but both the Ruu clan and her own parents had chided her for it. The pair getting married weren’t especially close to Yumi, and on top of that, she had gone to the festival of the hunt only half a month prior, so this time she ended up having to exercise some self-restraint.

“So if Sheera Ruu and I were as close as Tara and Rimee Ruu, it would’ve been okay? I guess I really missed out on that, then!”

“The Ruu clan might have given their permission in that case. But if you keep on slipping out, won’t it be a problem for your family’s inn?”

“There are plenty of people to help out, so it’s no big deal! And I’m always working my butt off, so I don’t see how they could complain about it.”

“I see. But, well, if you try to rush things too much, you might trip yourself up. Why don’t you take your time and let your bonds with the people of the forest’s edge develop naturally from now on?”

“My parents keep on bugging me about taking a husband, though. Think they have any clue that I want to marry into the forest’s edge? Ugh, I can’t stand this,” Yumi said as she stood in front of the stall and sipped her cream stew. Then she gave a strangely anguished sigh. “Is it just impossible to get close enough to someone to make them want to marry you when you hardly ever get to interact with the group they come from? If I could, I’d love to become a person of the forest’s edge first and take my time picking a partner.”

“Yeah. But weren’t you saying you would work up your resolve to move to the forest’s edge after you found someone you were seriously in love with?”

“That’s right! Honestly, though, I mostly just meant the resolve I’ll need to talk to my parents and convince them. If they were okay with it, I’d gladly become a person of the forest’s edge right away!”

It sounded like Yumi was pretty troubled about all that. But then, I was sure her parents were going to be pretty troubled too, once their daughter told them about her wild idea.

“Well, whatever. It’s stupid to be worrying about something like that on their big day, so congratulate them for me too, okay?!”

“Got it... Though with that said, I’m sure Sheera Ruu will be back in town again the day after tomorrow. She’s supposed to take some shifts at the stalls after her time off.”

“Heh heh, then I’ll be sure to tease her a lot the next time she comes to town! But anyway, I’ll see you around!”

Soon after Yumi departed, we sold the last of the food we’d brought. Checking our sundial, I saw that we hadn’t even been working for two whole hours. Myme was on break today too, so that meant there were a hundred fewer meals than usual being sold, which explained why we had sold out so quickly.

Adding up all the stalls offering giba meat, we’re selling nine hundred meals a day. Our sales have stabilized at an unbelievably high level.

On top of that, the post town in general seemed more lively to me than it used to be. At first I had thought that it was simply because we were coming out of the rainy season, but that didn’t seem to be the whole story. There appeared to be more people visiting Genos than there had been before the rainy season.

I didn’t know why that was, but I had a number of hypotheses. For example, now that there were so many new ingredients available in the post town, the merchants selling them were probably making all kinds of new deals, which would directly cause an increase in the number of people visiting.

Then there was the grandiose plan Polarth had boasted about, to make Genos a town famed for its fine cuisine... I didn’t know how much progress he had made on that, but news of the changes in Genos had likely spread pretty far by now. There must have been talk in Sym and Jagar and all sorts of places about the unique giba cooking being sold here, as well as the wide variety of ingredients that had once been monopolized, but were now readily available.

And there was one other point. The bad reputation surrounding the people of the forest’s edge had been wiped away. There must have been some nasty rumors about Genos in the past, about a band of barbarians who wandered freely around the post town—a consequence of the wrongdoings of the Suun clan from ten years ago, as well as what Doddo and Mida Ruu had gotten up to more recently. It made sense that people would avoid Genos if they heard about that, as well as how the nobles would unjustly protect those criminals, no matter what they did.

But it had already been many months since those criminals from the forest’s edge had been punished, by official decree of Duke Marstein Genos. If the people who actually visited Genos were able to see that things had really changed, they would bring that news back home with them and help clear away the town’s bad reputation.

Genos has certainly undergone some major changes in the past year. And if that’s led to the town becoming more lively, well, that’s a good thing, I thought to myself as we headed back toward the forest’s edge.

Toor Deen and the other people riding with me transferred to another wagon in front of the Ruu settlement. We had done the same thing before the last festival of the hunt.

“Well then, see you tomorrow. And thanks for taking care of the prep work,” I said.

“Thank you, and you take care, okay?” one of the women told me. Then the nine of them in their two wagons headed off to the north. After watching them leave for a moment, I stepped into the Ruu clan’s plaza.

It was just as lively there as it had been back during the festival of the hunt. A lot of women from the clans under the Ruu had been invited to come today, and they were working hard to man the stoves.

Originally, it had been customary for the members of the clan hosting a banquet to handle the preparations alone. That was why only Ruu women had been involved in preparing food for Gazraan Rutim’s wedding. But they had started finding themselves coming up shorthanded due to the elaborate dishes they had been making lately, so the Ruu had adjusted their customs to allow them to borrow the help of their subordinate clans during such events.

“Hey there, Asuta. Welcome back to the Ruu settlement.”

“Oh, Asuta. It’s been a while.”

“You sure are here early. Could you not wait for the banquet?”

Friendly voices called out from all around as I walked across the plaza. Only a very small number of people had been informed that I would be preparing food today, so whenever someone greeted me like that, I laughed them off with a “Ha ha, yeah,” as I headed toward the main house.

It’s true that I can’t wait for the banquet, so it’s not like I was lying, right?

Still, the idea that I was supposed to prepare food in secret under these conditions was pretty ridiculous. That was why I had worked together with Reina Ruu in advance to prepare for today, as she was also in on the secret.

“Darmu just doesn’t want Ludo and Lala to tease him, so we should be able to let a few women who need to know in on it. I’ll explain things to Darmu myself,” Reina Ruu had said a number of days back. And as we had planned, after I said hello to the people in the main house, I headed straight over to Shin Ruu’s kitchen.

“Oh? You’re here already, Asuta?” Mida Ruu asked, his cheeks trembling. He was playing with a number of young children in front of Shin Ruu’s house today.

“Yeah. I was asked to take care of something. So, as of tonight, you’re a member of Shin Ruu’s house, right?”

“Yup. I’m really happy about it.”

Since Sheera Ruu was leaving the house, they were about to have an unoccupied bedroom, so as of tonight, Mida Ruu would be joining Shin Ruu’s household.

Then Darmu Ruu would become the head of a new branch family and move into the house where Mida Ruu had been living, along with Sheera Ruu. There had been some discussion about whether to build a new house, but unused houses tended to fall apart quickly, so they had decided that the new family should live there.

As for their dinners, Sheera and Tari Ruu would continue to make them as they had up until now, and the two households would eat together. Mida Ruu had already been eating dinner at Shin Ruu’s house anyway, so Darmu Ruu would be the only new addition. There would be eight people there in total: Shin, Mida, Ryada, Tari, Darmu, and Sheera Ruu, as well as the two younger brothers. Thinking about how that interesting collection of people would interact with each other made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Well then, I’ll be off for now, Mida Ruu. But my work shouldn’t take too long, so we can talk later.”

“Okay. I like talking to you, Asuta.”

As Mida Ruu and the little kids all waved, I circled around to the back of the house, where I found Ryada Ruu silently chopping firewood.

“Oh, Ryada Ruu, sorry to interrupt. Are you working back here?”

“No. I just felt on edge, so I decided to find something to do. That’s why I didn’t ask Mida Ruu for help,” Ryada Ruu explained while wiping the sweat from his brow. From my point of view, he looked pretty much the same as always: calm and composed. But it made sense that even a guy like him would get a little antsy on the day of his daughter’s wedding. “I already heard from Tari. You’re going to be cooking food for them, right? Thank you for doing that.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I’m grateful to have been given such an important task.”

“I’m not simply talking about today. I can never thank you enough for everything you’ve done, Asuta,” Ryada Ruu said, setting aside his hatchet and walking over to stand in front of me, dragging his injured leg a bit as he went. “Before meeting you, Sheera was a rather gloomy girl. She’s always been a bit weak, and that made her feel inferior to others as she grew up. If she hadn’t met you and gained confidence through her work as a chef, I don’t think there’s much of a chance that she would’ve ever had such a happy wedding day.”

“I disagree. Sheera Ruu was a wonderful person to begin with.”

“Even so, the old Sheera never would have been able to ask Darmu Ruu to marry her. That’s why I’m so incredibly grateful to you,” Ryada Ruu said, lowering his chin in a small nod. “I want to thank you, as Sheera’s father. I hope that you’ll continue to light her path forward.”

“I owe Sheera Ruu a great deal myself. And I’ll be glad to keep working with her in the future.”

Ryada Ruu gave a slow nod, laugh lines forming around his eyes.

After that, I completed my journey to the kitchen, feeling a little worked up as I went.

“Oh, Asuta, welcome back to the Ruu settlement. Thank you so much for your help today,” Tari Ruu said as I stepped inside. There were six or seven other chefs with her in the room. They seemed to belong to several different clans, but the only one I knew by name other than Tari Ruu was Granny Tito Min. “The women here have already heard what’s going on. Please, do your best for Sheera and Darmu Ruu.”

“Of course. I’ll give it everything I’ve got.” With that, I went ahead and lined up the ingredients I had brought along atop a workstation. Across from me, Tari Ruu was slicing meat, and her eyes narrowed as she watched me. “Sheera and Darmu Ruu are away since they’ve been visiting the subordinate clans, right?” I asked.

“Yes. The majority of our women were asked to come here today, but fortunately we’re in the middle of a break period. The two of them should be receiving blessings from the men, young children, and old folks of the last subordinate clan right now.”

“I see. It’s really starting to sink in that the two of them are finally getting married. Are they already wearing their wedding clothes?”

“Of course. They should be here soon.”

Granny Tito Min, who was tending to a boiling pot, looked at me with a smile too. “It’s been almost a year now since the Rutim and Min wedding, hasn’t it? There have been a few more weddings among the Ruu clans since then, but you haven’t been to any of the others, have you, Asuta?”

“That’s right. And the Ruu clan’s plaza hasn’t been used for a wedding banquet since then either, has it?”

“It hasn’t. As long as it’s not the head of a main house or their oldest son, none of the subordinate clans use the Ruu plaza,” Granny Tito Min replied, her smile widening across her plump face. “I feel just as happy as Tari Ruu. It’s quite rare for one’s grandchildren to be married to each other here at the forest’s edge.”

“Oh, yeah, Sheera Ruu is your grandchild too, isn’t she? That should’ve been obvious, but it never occurred to me before.”

Granny Tito Min was the wife of the previous head of the main house, which made her the mother of Donda and Ryada Ruu.

“I can understand why it didn’t. Donda and Ryada Ruu aren’t alike at all. And Darmu and Sheera Ruu are as different from each other as their fathers. But those two will surely bring great strength to the Ruu clan.”

Apparently, the official custom at the forest’s edge was to address children who left your household with their clan names included. So in the future, Donda Ruu and the rest of the main house would call Darmu Ruu by his full name, and Tari Ruu and her family would do the same for Sheera Ruu. It felt a bit sad, but at the same time, it seemed like the custom was meant to show the greatest possible respect to the young men and women who left to start new families.

As of today, Darmu Ruu would become the head of a new branch house, and Sheera Ruu would be the wife supporting him. Then they would either go on to have lots of kids and form a fine household like Ryada Ruu had, or prove to be lacking in strength and end up needing to join another branch house. That would all depend on their own actions.

“Now that I think about it, Ryada and Tari Ruu got married, and now we have Sheera Ruu and Darmu, and it seems likely that Shin Ruu and Lala will eventually be wed as well... Your household certainly does seem to make a habit of marrying people from within the Ruu clan, don’t they, Tari Ruu?” Granny Tito Min remarked.

“I suppose so,” Tari Ruu replied with a smile. “But that’s not a bad thing, is it? Deepening bonds with our subordinate clans and within the Ruu clan itself are both equally important. Besides, you get the greatest joy from marrying someone you have feelings for.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true,” Granny Tito Min said with a gentle smile. The two of them weren’t directly related, but they really felt like a mother and daughter all the same. They were around the same height and were healthily plump, plus they were both kind women with a lot of inner strength, so they were incredibly similar.

Everyone seems so happy. Well, I’m bubbling with joy myself, despite belonging to a different clan, so I guess that’s no surprise, I thought to myself as I got started. But since the food wouldn’t be eaten for several hours yet, I was just doing prep work for now. As such, I was able to finish up quickly and then exit the kitchen.

After giving a small bow to Ryada Ruu as he continued chopping firewood, I headed back toward the plaza, where I found Mida Ruu and the little kids playing tag. Perhaps it was meant to be a bit of extra stamina training for the young hunter; I couldn’t say for certain. But I decided to indulge in my childish side and joined in.

“By the way, I haven’t seen Rimee Ruu anywhere. Is she helping to prepare the feast?” I asked while we were taking a breather after playing for a bit.

“No,” Mida Ruu replied. “Rimee Ruu is going around to the other clans with Sheera Ruu and the rest. She’s Darmu Ruu’s little sister, so she’s with them.”

“Oh yeah? Then, are Sheera Ruu’s little brothers with them too?”

“Yeah. The younger of the two is.”

Sheera’s youngest brother was roughly Rimee Ruu’s age, while the older one was probably around eleven or twelve, so he would probably become a hunter in training soon.

“Sheera Ruu’s little brothers get along well with you, don’t they, Mida Ruu? Are you happy that you’ll all be living together?”

“Yeah. Really, really happy.”

Mida Ruu had just been granted a clan name, but soon the members of Shin Ruu’s house would simply be calling him “Mida” again. Up until recently, he had been called by his given name alone after losing the Suun name, but now he would be called that because he would have a new family. It was only natural that he would be happy about this development.

As we chatted away, some more little kids gathered around us. None of the kids from the subordinate clans should’ve arrived yet, but there were already a lot of them. The crowd around us likely included every young Ruu child that was capable of walking on their own.

A number of them asked about the post town and castle town, so I had some fun playing the role of an amateur storyteller. Their eyes sparkled as I told them about the travelers coming and going down the road, the rows of houses and inns, and the paved streets and finely dressed nobles of the castle town. I normally never would’ve found myself in a situation like this.

After about half an hour of that, things started to get lively around the entrance to the plaza. The group that had been going around to the subordinate clans had made it back. The kids all excitedly cheered, and Mida Ruu and I stood up and headed in that direction.

There was quite a crowd coming into the plaza, probably around thirty people in total, and almost all of them were tough-looking men. The women were already busy preparing the banquet, so it was pretty much only men who were returning with this group.

At the head of the party was Donda Ruu, and he was flanked by two small figures at his sides: Rimee Ruu and Sheera Ruu’s youngest brother. Rimee Ruu was already clad in banquet attire, while Sheera Ruu’s little brother was wearing a tiny hunter’s cloak. In their hands, they held woven baskets filled with a ton of tusks and horns.

Behind them stood Ludo and Shin Ruu. Then there were a number of young folks I didn’t know by name from the branch houses, as well as an older hunter covered in scars. Ryada Ruu had difficulty walking long distances, and Mida Ruu was watching the young kids, but aside from them, the group probably included every single Ruu hunter.

And last but not least were Darmu and Sheera Ruu, who were being guarded by several of the burly hunters.

Darmu Ruu was wearing a giba pelt cloak with the head still attached. However, he wasn’t wearing the beast’s head over his own like the northern clans did. Instead, just like at the wedding a year prior when Gazraan Rutim had worn a similar cloak, he had the giba head facing frontward over his right shoulder.

At his hip, he had a sword and a dagger. However, rather than the usual rigid leather scabbards, they were held in ceremonial ones with all sorts of adornments. On top of that, there was an emerald green grass crown atop his head. But even though that was all that was different about him, he looked even more gallant and awe-inspiring than he had when he’d been dressed up in the banquet clothes of the castle town.

Sheera Ruu was walking alongside him, dressed in brilliant banquet attire that looked a lot like what Ama Min Rutim had worn.

Iridescent, translucent fabric wrapped around her entire frame. Her long black-brown hair was hanging loose, and a large number of accessories had been woven into it. She had rather slender limbs for a Ruu woman, and they too were well adorned. She was slowly walking forward with her hands held together in front of her.

Underneath her veil, which was being held in place by her own grass crown, Sheera Ruu’s gaze was cast downward. The iridescent shine was half concealing her face, leaving me to wonder what kind of expression she was making. I raised myself up onto my toes to try to check, but then the plaza was suddenly filled with cheering voices. The women in the kitchens had noticed the group’s return, and they were all rushing outside to offer the happy couple their congratulations. Rimee Ruu gave a bright smile and energetically waved her hands, while Ludo and Shin Ruu were pumping their fists in the air and saying something to stir everyone up.

The noise of the crowd got Sheera Ruu to raise her head and look around at everyone. And when she saw me and Mida Ruu, I could tell that behind her shining veil she was smiling at us with more joy than I had ever seen from her before. And when I saw that, I couldn’t stop myself from crying.

My self-restraint crumbled to dust as I flashed back to how she had timidly greeted me when we had first met, then to her helping Tari Ruu cook banquet food, her working so incredibly hard at the stalls, and her staring longingly at Darmu Ruu.

If Ai Fa had been there, she probably would have poked me in the head and told me not to get worked up over every little thing. However, Mida Ruu was the only person standing close to me now, excitedly waving his log-like arm back and forth.

I’m so, so happy for you, Sheera Ruu. As I thought those words—words that I would surely say to her again and again in the future—I started waving at her as well. She then raised one of her hands up to around chest level and waved back.

I couldn’t see her face very clearly, but behind Sheera Ruu’s shining veil, she seemed to be crying too as she smiled at everyone around her.