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

Bonus Short Story

The Sudra Clan’s New Member

The day after her wedding, Ia Fou Sudra woke up beside her new husband, Cheem Sudra.

White morning light was gently streaming in through the latticed windows. They had celebrated until it was late yesterday, but she seemed to have still woken up with the break of dawn.

Still lying on her side, Ia Fou Sudra stared at her sleeping husband, Cheem Sudra, observing how his face looked so much more childlike than usual as he snored away.

The two of them were still only sixteen years old, but marriages were permitted at the age of fifteen at the forest’s edge, so it most certainly wasn’t as if they had married too early. Especially since people from poor clans tended to marry and have children as soon as possible.

But the Sudra were so poor that they lost all their drive to get married and have children... How painful must that have been? Ia Fou Sudra wondered. Though she had been born into the Fou clan, the thought still pained her. The Fou most certainly weren’t well off, but it was still hard to imagine being so impoverished that you give up on marriage entirely.

However, thanks to Asuta, both of their clans were living prosperous lives nowadays, which had directly led to Ia Fou and Cheem Sudra getting married. As she looked at the sleeping face of the man who was her husband, Ia Fou Sudra couldn’t help but be filled with bliss.

“Hmm...? You’re already awake...?” Cheem Sudra mumbled, opening his eyes slightly. Hunters of the forest’s edge were highly sensitive to what other people were doing around them, so her gaze must have been enough to wake him up. Though she felt terribly sorry to have done that, Ia Fou Sudra still smiled happily.

“Good morning. Please, Cheem Sudra... Ah, I mean Cheem, go back to sleep.”

“But you’re already up, aren’t you, Ia Fou?”

“Yes. We women have work to do in the morning, after all.”

“Everyone should at least be allowed to take a break after a wedding...but I suppose you’d find lazing about all day pretty unsatisfying, huh?” Cheem Sudra remarked with a happy smile of his own. “I’ll go ahead and get up too, in that case. If there’s firewood that needs chopping; I can help out with that.”

“No, you really should rest, Cheem. You’ll have to head out to hunt once the sun hits its peak.”

“But I don’t feel like spending time apart from you, Ia Fou.” Cheem Sudra seemed more than a little embarrassed, but that hadn’t stopped him from saying the words.

Ia Fou Sudra felt so much bliss that it felt like it would light her whole body ablaze. Even though the two of them had only spent a single night together, she couldn’t help but feel their hearts were already fully bound together.

And so, the two of them got dressed and stepped out of the house, where they were met with a surprise: All eight members of the main Sudra house were already awake and standing around together outside.

“What are you all doing up so early?” Ia Fou Sudra asked, caught off guard.

The clan head Raielfam Sudra greeted them with a solemn nod and said, “It seems we were all so excited that we awoke with the rising of the sun. And it seems to be the same for the two of you.”

“Yeah. But we were the ones who actually got married, so what has all of you so worked up?” Cheem Sudra asked back in a polite tone.

Raielfam Sudra shrugged. “Well, this is the first marriage in a long time for the Sudra clan, so it shouldn’t be that surprising. I figured we could handle the haircutting ritual before you started your morning work, but what do you think?” he asked Ia Fou Sudra.

“The haircutting ritual? Yes, I suppose that would be fine,” she said.

At the forest’s edge, it was traditional for women to grow their hair out starting at the age of ten and to give them a haircut after they got married. But that only needed to be done sometime on the day after the wedding, so doing so this early felt a bit rushed to her.

“It’s also been some time since we Sudra have performed this particular ritual, so I’d like all of us to observe it. That may sound strange to you as a new member of our clan, Ia Fou, but, well, this is the Sudra way of doing things.”

Because of all the hardship he had endured for so long, Raielfam Sudra always seemed to have a sour expression on his face, but he had a very kind look in his eyes. And so, Ia Fou Sudra earnestly replied, “All right. But normally, wouldn’t Cheem’s family be the ones to perform the haircutting ritual? Who will do so now?”

“Before you two were married, Cheem was a member of our household, so we would all like to help cut your hair.”

There had only been nine members in the Sudra clan prior to her joining them through marriage, so they had all lived together in the main house. Now that he had a wife, though, Cheem Sudra had become the head of a new Sudra branch house, which their clan hadn’t had any of for several years.

All of the members of the clan were now clustered together. The oldest and yet smallest of them all was the clan head Raielfam Sudra, and beside him was his pregnant wife Li Sudra. There was also another man who was a bit younger than the clan head, and he had his wife and son with him. Next was an older woman who had lost her children and husband both, along with two young women without any parents or siblings. And finally, there were Cheem and Ia Fou Sudra, bringing the total number up to ten.

“Well then, let’s go ahead and get ready. Yun, bring two sheets here.”

One of the younger women, Yun Sudra, replied with a cheerful “On it!” and disappeared into the house. All of the other clan members were looking at Ia Fou Sudra with kind, gentle gazes.

“I’ve heard that the Sudra haven’t had a wedding in quite a while, but how long has it been, exactly?” Ia Fou Sudra asked.

With a solemn expression, Raielfam Sudra pondered the question and answered, “Let’s see... The last wedding would have been six years back. A Sudra man took a wife from our subordinate clan, the Reema. But less than a year later, the two of them died of illness. The Reema abandoned their clan name and merged with the Sudra two years after that.”

“I see. I’m sorry for dredging up such painful memories.”

“No, now that you have joined our clan, you should know the history that brought us to this point. Still, such tales aren’t exactly enjoyable...so it would be best to just bask in the joy of the wedding for a while longer, I think,” Raielfam Sudra said, breaking out in a small grin.

Then Yun Sudra returned holding some large sheets. Rather than having been made from giba pelts, they had been purchased in the post town. A couple people laid one of them out on the ground, while the other was draped over Ia Fou Sudra’s shoulders to keep her outfit and legs from getting hair all over them. With the warmth of the Sudra clan members washing over her, Ia Fou Sudra knelt down on top of the first sheet.

“We’re up first. Li, give me your hand.”

With her husband’s assistance, the rather tall Li Sudra rose to her feet. Her child wouldn’t be born for some time yet, but her pregnant stomach was already bigger than any Ia Fou Sudra had seen in her previous clan.

Li Sudra was the tallest person present, as most of the members of the Sudra clan were rather small. Ia Fou Sudra herself was about three fingers taller than her husband Cheem Sudra, but Li Sudra was a whole half a head taller than she was. And apparently, Li and Raielfam Sudra were far enough apart in age to be father and daughter.

As Ia Fou Sudra watched the clan head help his young wife, she felt her hair being let down and fingers—Yun Sudra’s—combing through it. Then the young woman moistened her hair with water from a dish.

“Now then, let us begin the haircutting ritual. Though Ia Fou is young now, may she gain the strength of a mother and support the Sudra clan alongside her husband Cheem.”

After that solemn statement, Raielfam Sudra grabbed ahold of some of Ia Fou Sudra’s hair and slowly ran a dagger through it. And with that, a chunk of dark brown hair fell down onto the sheet.

“I’m so glad that you joined our clan. May we both have strong children.” After accepting the dagger from her husband, Li Sudra cut through Ia Fou Sudra’s hair in the same way.

In the meantime, the other clan members all gathered closer.

“I’ll be praying that you have a fine future together, Ia Fou and Cheem.”

“I’m very happy to welcome a fine woman like you as a clan member.”

“Eventually, I’ll marry a woman from the Ran. When that happens, I want you to welcome my wife to the Sudra clan too, Ia Fou.”

With that, the father, mother, and son all cut Ia Fou Sudra’s hair one after another. The son was around the same age as Cheem Sudra, and he had already agreed to marry a Ran woman.

“It truly is a joyful thing. I feel as if the wedding banquet still hasn’t ended. And I look forward to working to build up our clan alongside you, Ia Fou,” the one older woman said with a gentle smile, cutting off a small bit of hair. Ia Fou Sudra had no way of knowing what she looked like by now, but her head certainly felt a good deal lighter.

“I’m so glad that Cheem married a fine woman like you. I hope that you’ll be able to take care of him from here on out,” the young woman around Ia Fou Sudra’s age said, running the blade along her now short hair. There were talks of her marrying a Fou man, but nothing official just yet.

And then lastly came Yun Sudra, the youngest. Still, even she was only a year or so younger than Ia Fou Sudra was.

“I’m really happy to have you join our clan too, Ia Fou. I’m out of the house a lot, but I’d still like to get to know you better, just like everyone else,” Yun Sudra said with a smile that felt both dazzling like that of a child and yet also calm and mature. She had been helping out with the Fa clan’s stalls for quite a while now, and she had proved at the banquet last night and the festival of the hunt how skilled of a chef she truly was. “Anyway, your hair’s cut pretty short now, so I’ll go ahead and even it out.”

“Thank you. You’re such a skilled chef that I’m sure you must be good with your hands.”

“Ah, no, I still have a lot to learn,” Yun Sudra remarked with a giggle as she set about working on Ia Fou Sudra’s hair.

The other clan members and Cheem Sudra formed a circle around them and watched. Though it felt kind of embarrassing, the warmth and joy of it all was even greater still.

“I imagine it wouldn’t even be possible for other clans to have all their members participate in the haircutting ritual. I hope you weren’t too surprised by the request, Ia Fou,” Raielfam Sudra said.

Ia Fou Sudra smiled back and said, “Not at all. But there is one thing I’d like to ask. Cheem and I are now members of a branch house, aren’t we? But you’re still referring to us without clan names?”

“Indeed. That may go against the customs of the forest’s edge, but it just wouldn’t feel right to use Cheem’s full name. And so, it wouldn’t make sense to refer to you that way either, as you’re his wife. It would be as if we weren’t accepting you as family.”

“I see. I’m glad to have gained not only Cheem, but eight other family members as well. Would you allow me to refer to you all without clan names too?”

“Of course. It would be rather strange if you didn’t, so I would appreciate it if you did just that.”

“Thank you. In the fairly near future, the Sudra will have weddings with the Fou and Ran as well, but...I’m both proud and overjoyed to have become your first new member,” Ia Fou Sudra said earnestly, getting a full and unmistakable smile from Raielfam Sudra in return.

The other clan members all began smiling too, and the older woman even started tearing up. When she saw that, Ia Fou Sudra teared up a bit too.

After the Fa, the Sudra had been the smallest and poorest clan at the forest’s edge. But now, they had grown strong enough to have two victors in a combined contest of strength between six clans. It brought Ia Fou Sudra great joy to be able to marry into such a fine clan.

On top of that, her husband Cheem Sudra had been one of those victors. Despite the time he had spent suffering from poverty, he had a very likeable personality. And yet, before his clan’s fortunes had changed, he surely would not have been permitted to form blood ties with the Fou. And so, Ia Fou Sudra was extremely grateful for the fact that she had been able to meet him under such happy circumstances.

“Ia Fou, there’s no need for tears on such a happy day. We should share the joy of the day together,” Yun Sudra said, staring at Ia Fou Sudra’s face. However, her bright eyes were tearing up as well.

Now there are ten members of the Sudra clan, and next month a new child will be born as well. With the new blood ties between the Sudra and the Fou and Ran, there shouldn’t be any more fear of them dying out. Mother forest, please continue to watch over us as we live proper lives. Awash in the affection of her new family, Ia Fou Sudra offered up that fervent prayer.

And looking just as magnificently grand as always, the mother forest seemed to accept it.