Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 28 - Chapter 4.2

2

Around the time when the sun started setting in the west, the wedding banquet kicked off. The world was awash in twilight, and over a hundred people under the Ruu were now gathered in the plaza, looking like black silhouettes.

Only four people present didn’t have blood ties with the clan: Ai Fa, me, Mikel, and Myme. Shumiral hadn’t been granted a clan name yet, but he was still considered to be a member of the Ririn.

“Tonight, the second son of the main Ruu house, Darmu Ruu, and the eldest daughter of Shin Ruu’s house, Sheera Ruu, shall be wed. May they show one another affection and bring new strength to both the Ruu clan and the forest’s edge until the day their souls return to the forest,” Donda Ruu called out from the center of the dimly lit plaza, his voice coming across clearly through the calm night air.

Darmu and Sheera Ruu were seated atop the stage behind him. Illuminated by the reddish twilight, Sheera Ruu had a divine presence about her, like a carved idol or a priestess delivering a revelation from the gods.

“This is an incredibly happy day for me as well, seeing my elder sister Sheera wed as everyone grants her their blessings. I’m glad that we will be able to continue following the correct path alongside the rest of the Ruu clan,” Shin Ruu followed up from his position beside Donda Ruu.

After waiting for the cheers to die back down, Donda Ruu held up a bottle of fruit wine. “Now, let’s all fill our stomachs with the blessings of the forest we have gathered! And cheers to Darmu and Sheera Ruu!”

“Cheers!” echoed out throughout the plaza, and at the same time, the ritual flame was set alight.

The bonfires located all around the plaza were also lit one by one, quickly filling the area with light and warmth.

A hundred people were cheering and tapping fruit wine bottles together. I had gone to a wedding at the Fou settlement just the other day, but the smaller clans really couldn’t compete with how lively Ruu clan banquets were. In addition to them having so many more people, they were also one of the greatest powers at the forest’s edge.

The energy in the air was almost overwhelming as it flooded my senses. I felt like I needed to straighten my spine so I wouldn’t be bowled over as I turned to face Ai Fa.

“It feels like tonight’s party is as wild as one on Granny Jiba’s birthday. How about we step back and watch for a bit until things settle down?” I suggested.

“Sure,” Ai Fa replied with a nod. She was in banquet attire once again today. Vina and Lala Ruu had helped her to get dressed.

There were already sizable crowds forming around the simple stoves that had been set up here and there. Also, everyone who saw my clan head kept reacting with obvious surprise.

“Whoa! It’s been a while since I’ve seen you in banquet attire, Ai Fa!”

“I was wondering who was over here, but I never thought it would be you. That really is a stunning outfit.”

“So pretty... It suits you incredibly well, Ai Fa.”

Though there were over a hundred people gathered, there probably wasn’t a single one of them who didn’t know our names. My clan head maintained a dignified expression as she nodded back in response to the compliments.

“You seem really calm today, Ai Fa. I’m impressed,” I remarked, earning me a glare from out of the corner of her eye.

“Enough people poked fun at me at the Fou banquet that I’ve gotten used to it. I still find it just as unpleasant, however.”

Ai Fa had also worn banquet attire to the wedding between Gazraan and Ama Min Rutim, but that didn’t stop pretty much everyone from offering her an admiring comment. Of course, that last wedding banquet had been almost a year ago now, and the actions of the Fa clan hadn’t been fully accepted at the time, so even if they had admired Ai Fa’s beauty back then, they wouldn’t have had the sort of relationship that would’ve allowed them to express that directly. But now, nobody hesitated to speak to her when they wanted to. Seeing how much our bond with them had developed over the past year made me seriously happy.

“I’m getting all emotional again,” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the stage.

Illuminated by the ritual fire, Sheera and Darmu Ruu seemed to shine. The groom was sitting cross-legged, while the bride had her legs out to one side. In accordance with the Ruu clan’s traditions, no food was delivered to them, but people were constantly climbing the stairs and offering their blessings. Until their relatives had filled their own stomachs a bit, the pair to be wed were expected to simply watch over the proceedings.

During the Rutim and Min wedding, I was so busy dealing with the food that I didn’t really have time to observe. That time, I had come up with the menu all on my own and I had handled the preparations while also teaching everyone the things I needed them to do. I had at least had the twenty or so women who lived at the Ruu settlement working with me, but we had lacked eating utensils and had been using suurub leaves in place of plates. I had never handled anything close to a banquet with a hundred participants when I was living in Japan, so I’d been nervously fumbling in the dark the whole time, trying to figure out how to get everything done.

And that was when I first met Sheera Ruu.

The Ruu clan had a lot of lively and jovial members, so a reserved girl like her stood out among them. But she had been a really quick learner when it came to cooking, and I had ended up entrusting a lot of the important tasks to her and Tari Ruu. That had soon led to Sheera Ruu helping out at the stalls. Mia Lea Ruu had been the one to choose her, but her efforts during the wedding banquet had been a major factor in that decision.

Then Darmu Ruu got that injury to his head and face and couldn’t hunt for a while, so he ended up coming with us to the post town for a while when Reina Ruu joined our team. That was when I first realized how Sheera Ruu felt. Back then, Darmu Ruu had been still fixated on Ai Fa, so Sheera Ruu and I had had worries that were somewhat related to each other.

Then I had confirmed how she felt directly at my first festival of the hunt, when almost everyone had been watching the contest of strength and I’d been left alone with her in the kitchen. Though she hadn’t openly discussed her feelings, she had gotten all flustered during the conversation and had been desperate to hide how red her face had turned.

And then Sheera Ruu said she wasn’t worthy of having a husband, seeing as how she couldn’t even properly carry a water jug.

When I had heard that timid statement from her, I made the roundabout suggestion that she deliver the banquet food she made to Darmu Ruu. Of course, I never heard if she really did it or not. All I had seen in the dim light was a figure that looked like the Sheera Ruu following Darmu Ruu. But I did get the impression that her behavior had shifted after that point.

Now that I’ve gotten everyone to see the appeal of good food, cooking skills are sure to be highly valued here at the forest’s edge in the future. That should mean even someone without much strength and stamina like Sheera Ruu ought to be able to live with her head held high. That’s what I was hoping for back then, and Sheera Ruu has really exceeded my expectations.

Darmu Ruu had also cast aside his fixation on Ai Fa during that first festival of the hunt. When he lost to my clan head in the contest of strength, he decided he no longer had the right to criticize her way of life, and completely gave up.

That was undoubtedly the point when things started developing between Sheera and Darmu Ruu. Though the two of them had been childhood friends who lived together at the Ruu settlement, Darmu Ruu had become obsessed with Ai Fa two years before I showed up, while Sheera Ruu had come to believe that she was worthless. But eventually, both of them were set free from the curses that bound them.

While we were staying at the Sauti settlement to help take down the lord of the forest, I overheard a conversation between the two of them. If I remember correctly, Sheera Ruu was so worried about Darmu Ruu that she ended up crying... No, wait, I think the actual reason she cried was that she was happy to see him trying to acknowledge how she felt. I was feeling pretty anxious back then.

Ever since that first festival of the hunt, I had made an effort to not meddle in Sheera Ruu’s affairs any further unless I really needed to. From then on, she had pursued Darmu Ruu with her own strength alone. And tonight, they were finally being joined together.

I can’t even imagine a happier outcome. If I could, I’d love to chat with Sheera Ruu all night about everything that’s gotten her to this point, I thought as I finally pulled my gaze away from the stage.

“Okay, it looks like things have finally settled down around the stoves. Why don’t we get some food too and... Gah! What’s the matter, Ai Fa?!” I suddenly realized that my clan head was staring at my face really closely, her blue eyes deadly serious. “Is there something stuck to my face? I haven’t cried or anything today.”

“Did you mean to say you aren’t crying right now, rather than that you haven’t today? The corners of your eyes are a little red.”

“H-Hey, you don’t have to scrutinize me that closely.”

“You were spacing out. I’m right here beside you, but you’ve been ignoring me this whole time,” Ai Fa said with a frown as she shot me another glare.

“Sorry about that. I was reminiscing. Come on, why don’t we get some food?”

And so, we headed over to the nearest stove. The initial rush had settled down, but there was still quite a crowd gathered around. When we went to get in line, though, someone called out to us from atop a nearby mat that had been laid down. “Why, if it isn’t Asuta and Ai Fa!”

When I turned to look, I saw the members of the Rutim clan there, with Dan Rutim being the one who had spoken. It reminded me of when we had encountered them at the last festival of the hunt. The only differences were that Morun, Tsuvai, and Oura Rutim were there too, and that Mida Ruu had joined them as well.

“You’re all here together, huh? How are you feeling, Ama Min Rutim?” I inquired.

“I’m doing just fine, and so is the child inside of me.”

It had only been half a month or so since the festival of the hunt, so Ama Min Rutim didn’t look all that different. Even so, seeing her sitting there beside Gazraan Rutim, radiating affection, was enough to cause my heart to flutter.

“Oh, and how is your leg doing, Dan Rutim?” was my next question.

“I’ve been able to run around in the forest again without any issues for the last few days! Whenever this break period ends, I should be able to go back to work no problem!”

It had been nearly half a month since the festival of the hunt, so their break period wouldn’t last much longer. It had started with a banquet, and it would end with one too. It had been a pretty incredible few weeks for the Ruu clans.

“That banquet attire looks wonderful on you, Ai Fa. I heard about it from Lala Ruu and the others, but I was very much looking forward to seeing it myself,” Ama Min Rutim said.

With a nonchalant expression, my clan head brushed the comment off with an “Is that so?”

“Why don’t you two take it easy with us?! Morun, could you go get some food?” Dan Rutim asked.

“Of course. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Oh, but you must have a lot to talk about too, right, Morun Rutim?” I said. “I mean, this is the first time you’ve come back from the northern settlement in half a month or so.”

“Not really. It hasn’t been long enough for much to have changed. Besides, we’ll have plenty of time to talk later,” Morun Rutim replied with a smile, and then she headed off toward a stove.

We sat down on top of the cloth mat too, and Dan Rutim let out a hearty laugh.

“Ai Fa! You’re dressed in banquet attire, but you’re acting just the same as always!”

My clan head was sitting cross-legged with one knee raised. As Dan Rutim’s laughter washed over her, she gave a curious tilt of her head. “No matter how I may be dressed, I am still me. I have no intention of changing my behavior.”

“But sitting cross-legged in banquet attire just looks silly, don’t you think? And it’s technically against our customs for a woman to sit with her legs wide apart like that!”

“I don’t really know how to reply when you try to bring up customs to a female hunter such as myself... Does it really look comical?”

“It does! Not that I would normally pay attention to that kind of thing!”

Ai Fa stopped and thought for a moment, then brought her raised knee down so she was in a more feminine posture with her legs out to one side.

“Yes, that’s a much better pose for when you’re in banquet attire!”

“I see. Then I suppose I shall follow that custom, at least for tonight.”

She was being surprisingly docile. And honestly, I wasn’t sure I had ever seen her sit with her legs to the side like that. Together with her dazzling banquet attire, it was leaving me seriously flustered.

Since she had entrusted her sword to the care of the main house, she just looked like a beautiful woman. If you examined her appearance carefully, you’d be able to see that the muscles on her arms and stomach were much stronger than the average woman’s, but that most certainly didn’t mean that she was lacking in charm. Instead, she looked graceful in a way similar to a leopard or wildcat resting in the shade of a tree.

“Still, seeing you in banquet attire, Ai Fa, I can’t help but think back to the wedding between Gazraan and Ama Min,” Dan Rutim said. Then he turned to face Mida Ruu. “That was when you and those other two dumped that old giba corpse on the ground in the middle of our celebration, wasn’t it?! I got so mad that I could barely breathe!”

“Yeah... Sorry,” Mida Ruu said regretfully.

“You three did all kinds of stupid stuff when we weren’t around, huh? But I’m sure you only went because Diga and Doddo dragged you along with them, right?” Tsuvai Rutim commented, turning a prickly gaze toward Mida Ruu.

The large hunter’s cheeks began trembling sadly. “Yeah. They asked me to carry that giba all the way here. It was really hard work, because it was so heavy.”

“Working hard to do something bad is nothing to be proud of. I’m amazed you weren’t cut down just like that giba for doing something so barbaric at a Ruu banquet!” the young girl said.

“I know. I won’t do anything bad again.”

Dan Rutim then cut into their conversation with a hearty laugh. “There’s no need to get all worked up over something we’ve long since put behind us! Mida Ruu has already atoned for all his crimes, so there’s no need for him to apologize any further!”

“You’re the one who brought this up, you know! I swear, you’re such a bothersome old man!”

I didn’t think I’d ever get bored of watching Dan and Tsuvai Rutim interact like that.

“By the way, Tsuvai Rutim, have you put any thought into our discussion about you helping to sell giba meat at the market in town?” I interjected, earning me a glare from the big-eyed little girl.

“Hmph! What’s there to think about? It’s not like I can refuse the work allotted to me.”

“That’s not true at all. If you don’t want to do it, no one will force you to do so,” Gazraan Rutim calmly chimed in.

However, his words only made the look on Tsuvai Rutim’s face grow even more hostile. “If you leave it up to someone other than me, some crafty townsperson is probably going to swindle them! Seriously, why can’t anyone keep track of money properly?!”

“Because it hasn’t been necessary in the past. But if you provide lessons on how to do it, everyone should be able to gain that skill eventually.”

Tsuvai Rutim went silent with a pout, so I added, “It would really help us out if you could do it. But we’d like you to teach people from other clans as well, so if you’re worried about that—”

“What do you mean, worried? You think I’ll get into arguments with them or something?”

“No, I wouldn’t go that far, but it might be difficult for you to interact with people in that way when you don’t know them very well, don’t you think?”

“Hmph! They should be the ones worrying about that! No matter who I’m dealing with, it makes no difference on my end!”

“Yes, it’s rare to find anyone as direct as Tsuvai! She can open up to anyone right away!” Dan Rutim remarked with another chuckle, patting Tsuvai Rutim’s head with its onion-like bun.

“Stop touching me!” the girl shouted, but Dan Rutim’s glove-like hand remained in place for a few moments longer.

The day after being given their clan names, Tsuvai and Oura Rutim had officially joined the main Rutim house. There had been an extra room available for them, since Morun Rutim had left, and Ama Min Rutim was pregnant, so she needed to have women around. And besides, the members of the main house were quite fond of the two of them, Dan Rutim most of all.

“We’re currently discussing which clans to task with the work. But we’ll be counting on you once we figure that out, Tsuvai Rutim,” I said, bringing the topic to a close just in time for Morun Rutim to return. She was holding some of the herb-grilled meat that was one of Reina Ruu’s signature dishes. The aroma of the spices filled the air, seriously stimulating my appetite.

“Go ahead and eat as much as you’d like.”

“Ah, thanks for the food.”

Ai Fa and I went ahead and each started eating from our own plates. The dish contained giba meat and vegetables grilled with three different herbs. It was quite popular at the stalls, especially among easterners. There was plenty of aria, tino, and onda in it, and it had a powerful flavor that had become well-known for going great with fruit wine.

But when I took a bite of the rather familiar dish, I tilted my head with a “Huh?” It seemed to taste even better than the herb-grilled meat I remembered. To be specific, the sirloin and thigh meat seemed even juicier, and the flavor of the herbs seemed to stand out more strongly. “Did they use an oven to cook this meat?”

“I’m amazed you could figure that out from just one bite, Asuta. Still, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Morun Rutim said.

“Ah, no, I was half guessing there, but I figured that might be the case based on how it was cooked through.”

“You’re right. They mentioned that they used an oven when I was getting this for you all. That pizza and gratin from before were also quite tasty, so maybe the northern clans should have ovens built as well.” Morun Rutim smiled brightly at me, and then she turned toward Ai Fa. “What do you think? Is it to your tastes as well?”

“Indeed. I’ve liked this dish for some time, though. It isn’t as spicy as it smells.”

“Yeah. I really love it too.”

When Morun Rutim was added to the mix, she really did a lot to make the atmosphere feel warmer and more relaxing. Mida Ruu and Oura Rutim were also happily eating away. Even Tsuvai Rutim—despite the sour look on her face—and the elder Raa Rutim must have been feeling very much at ease. Personally, I adored the dynamic of the main Rutim house.

“Are you two still planning on walking around the stoves?” Dan Rutim asked.

“Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “It’s become something of a habit for us to start with a lap around the plaza. It also helps us run into lots of different people while we’re here. Though honestly, I’d be perfectly happy to keep talking with all of you from the Rutim clan the whole time.”

“Oh, I’m glad to hear that! You’ll come back around later, won’t you?”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“In that case, it wouldn’t do for us to monopolize your time! Go ahead and mingle as much as you like!”

With those words from Dan Rutim urging us onward, Ai Fa and I rose to our feet.

This momentous day was still only just getting started.