Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 4.4

4

I arrived back at the Fa house around when the sun had halfway set off to the west.

After finishing up the prep work for tomorrow, I had gone around to several of the clans in the area in order to attach labels to the shelves and jars where various ingredients were stored. In a single day, I had done so for the main houses of the Fou, Gaaz, Ratsu, and Deen, and we would be expanding our project to their various branch houses and related clans starting tomorrow.

“What a busy day,” I couldn’t help but say to myself. It really had been packed. After all, we had participated in the meat market in the morning too. Plus, since the Gaaz and Ratsu were located fairly far away, the amount of traveling back and forth I’d had to do was pretty uncommon for me.

When I finally arrived back at the Fa house, I took a moment to give a big stretch up in the driver’s seat of our wagon, then hopped down and knocked on the door of the main building. Since there was light streaming out through the windows, I knew that Ai Fa must have been home.

“It’s me, Asuta. I’m back.”

“Good. Dinner will be ready shortly,” my clan head called out from beyond the door. I gave a little smile, feeling glad that she had made it back from the forest safely.

“Okay. I’ll take the stuff we made for tomorrow around back, and be in shortly.”

“Understood,” Ai Fa replied.

I led Gilulu around to the back where the kitchen was. Stepping into the pantry, I placed the dried pasta, curry base, sliced giba meat, and so on in their respective wooden boxes and then peeked into the kitchen, which I noticed was still fairly warm.

Ai Fa had cooked for me and me alone. Even when I had collapsed from illness, she had left the cooking up to others like Toor Deen, so honestly...I was pretty sure I hadn’t tasted Ai Fa’s cooking since the day when we had met.

A long while back, she helped out with some banquet preparations, but lately the most she’s done is help carry things. This might have even been her first time making baked poitan.

Saris Ran Fou had been concerned that our dinner tonight might come out really bad, but I wasn’t worried at all. Even if she served giba meat that had been reduced to a scorched lump with a side of half-done poitan, it would still be food that Ai Fa had prepared for me. That made me so happy that how the food actually tasted hardly mattered.

Actually, she did know how to grill meat before she met me, so it’s probably rude to underrate her that much.

After closing the door to the kitchen, I headed back over to the main house. Along the way, I released Gilulu from his wagon and grabbed his reins to bring him with me. After knocking once more and opening the front door, I was greeted by Brave looking up at me in the entranceway as he gnawed on a giba thighbone. Gilulu walked past him and curled up, and I removed my leather sandals. Ai Fa was there waiting for me, sitting cross-legged with one knee up, the same as always.

“Welcome home. Dinner is ready, so you can sit.”

“All right. Thank you, Ai Fa.”

I went ahead and sat directly across from my clan head. Between us, numerous wooden plates were laid out. But before we could get to those, the birthday ritual came first.

As soon as I was seated, Ai Fa began talking with a solemn expression and tone. “I wish to offer a blessing on this, the day that my clan member Asuta turns eighteen. May you continue to live a healthy life and bring no shame to the Fa clan’s name.”

“Of course. As a member of the Fa clan, I swear to live a life that won’t bring any shame to the mother forest,” I said, repeating the words I had learned back at Rimee Ruu’s birthday.

“And so you shall,” Ai Fa said with a nod, then she stepped around the plates of food and approached me. “I grant you this flower alongside my blessing. Continue walking the path that you believe is right, as you always have.”

“I will. Thank you.”

With that, she placed a mizora flower with truly splendid petals on my chest. It was yellow, similar to the one Shin Ruu had once gifted to Lala Ruu.

“Well then, let us begin the celebratory meal.”

And so, I went ahead and recited the premeal chant. It was kind of strange, having Ai Fa’s name be the only one included in it. But I held back the joy I felt welling up inside as best I could so I could say, “Well then, thank you for the food. It looks like a really luxurious meal.”

“Well, it is a celebratory dinner, after all.”

I couldn’t help but be impressed by the number of dishes on offer. There was a main dish, soup, a hearty helping of meat-and-vegetable stir-fry, fresh veggie salad, and baked poitan.

Naturally, the main course was hamburger steak. Of course, this was the first time that Ai Fa had ever prepared the dish, but at least in terms of appearance, it looked just fine. The meat was well-done and nicely browned. It looked truly delicious. There was a reddish-brown sauce on top of the patty, and it was accompanied by grilled chatchi and nenon. She seemed to have done an excellent job of replicating the hamburger steak I always made.

“This is amazing. You really made all of this by yourself?”

“What point would there be in keeping others out if I didn’t intend to do it alone? Now eat up before it gets cold.”

“Right. Well then, thanks for the food!”

I went ahead and picked up a plate and started with the hamburger steak. The more I looked at it, the more impressed I was by how it had turned out. The scent of the meat juice and fruit-wine-based sauce was amazing, and it was really stimulating both my hunger and excitement.

Using a wooden spoon, I scooped up a single bite’s worth, and as soon as I did, cream-colored cheese came spilling out of it. Apparently, it was hamburger steak with dried milk inside.

“Th-This is incredible. I honestly didn’t think you could make something this complex all by yourself.”

“I decided that I should make the foods that I find most delicious for tonight. This is ultimately just something I learned how to do through imitation.”

As Ai Fa watched me with a serious look on her face, I bit into the piece of patty on my spoon that was dripping dried milk. It must have been the last dish that she had prepared, as both the meat juices and the gooey dried milk were still plenty warm. She had even added minced aria to the patty, and it almost seemed to melt in my mouth. From the way it had been heated through, to the amount of salt and pico leaves, and even how she had prepared the sweet and aromatic sauce, it had all come out fantastically.

“Oh yeah, this is delicious. In fact, it’s so delicious that it’s blowing me away.”

“Aren’t you going a bit far there?”

“Not at all. I know I’m repeating myself here, but it really is hard to believe that you made this all on your own.”

“I see,” Ai Fa replied, breaking out in a smile for the first time. It was a truly joyful, incredibly charming expression. “I didn’t think it was anything all that amazing, but I trust that you wouldn’t lie to me.”

“It’s the truth. I intended to avoid speaking negatively about your cooking, obviously, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want to give it overblown praise.”

“Of course not. You would never dissemble like that, especially when it comes to cooking.” My clan head brought a hand to her chest and breathed a little sigh. “I put the most effort into the hamburger steak, so if you found it delicious, then I am truly glad. I feel as if the strength has drained right out of me, somehow.”

“I’m glad too. Thank you so much, Ai Fa.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, her eyes narrowing. Seeing her joyful expression was making the happy glow in my chest get brighter and brighter.

“Still, it really is amazing that you were able to make something like this. You didn’t have someone give you lessons, did you?”

“As I said, I learned through imitation. I have watched you prepare hamburger steak countless times by now, after all.”

“That’s really impressive. It came out well enough that you could serve it for pretty much any occasion just fine.”

As a sweet sense of euphoria filled me up inside, I went ahead and picked up the next plate. It was the soup dish—a giba soup, naturally. From the aroma and coloring, it looked like it had tau oil in it, and she had used aria, chatchi, nenon, ma gigo, and sheema as well. She had gotten an excellent stock from the giba meat and vegetables, and there weren’t any issues with how she had flavored it with the tau oil. The taro-like ma gigo and daikon-like sheema were a bit tough, perhaps, but that was about all I could complain about.

This must have been Ai Fa’s very first time working with ma gigo or sheema, so I wouldn’t have expected them to have turned out even this good.

Overall, the soup was wonderful, and filled me with pure bliss. While I recognized that it was rude to compare people to one another, I would say that she had done as well as the Fou and Ran women who I had taught would have.

As for the fresh vegetable salad, it was mainly composed of sheema and gigo cut into strips. The shapes were a bit uneven, but that didn’t do anything to harm the taste. The dip she had prepared using dried kiki and tau oil, meanwhile, had a simple, pleasant flavor to it.

“Everything I’ve tried has been delicious. Considering how skilled you are with your hands, you might make a pretty good chef too,” I said as I reached out for the last dish. It was the meat-and-vegetable stir-fry, which had a number of different ingredients in it. Since this was a celebratory meal, she hadn’t skimped at all. From what I could tell, she had used aria, nenon, pula, ma pula, ro’hyoi, pepe, and the brown-beech-like mushrooms. “Hmm, this one looks tasty as well.”

I scooped up a big spoonful of the dish, popped it into my mouth, and was instantly hit with an indescribable flavor, strikingly full of the saltiness of tau oil and the sourness of mamaria vinegar. The sweetness of sugar was noticeable in it too. Unfortunately, she hadn’t managed to make those various conflicting tastes magically come together in harmony the way Varkas could, so I ended up letting out a strange sound like “Gymph!”

“So you can’t tolerate it either, huh?” Ai Fa said with a terribly apologetic look on her face. “I got the feeling that it was lacking something so I added all sorts of seasonings to try to fix it, but I couldn’t get it to come out right in the end. My apologies for serving such a poor dish.”

“N-No, it’s not that bad. Though it does certainly have a unique taste.”

“Are you trying to say that it’s as good as the other dishes?” Ai Fa asked with a sad frown. “It’s a crime to lie. If it is bad, then say so clearly.”

“No way! I’m not going to complain about the food you made to celebrate my birthday!”

“Then why are you crying?”

“That’s just the mamaria vinegar stinging my eyes.” As I chewed apart and gulped down some pula that still had its core inside, I shot Ai Fa a smile. “It’s fine. And anyway, if you had managed to do everything perfectly when you were manning the stove for the first time in nearly a year, that would be kinda awkward for the other women, wouldn’t it?”

“In other words, you’re saying it’s bad, right?” Ai Fa said with a displeased look. “When you talk in such a roundabout manner, all it does is make me feel even more pathetic. Don’t mince words. Tell me directly how you feel.”

“R-Really? Well then, um... The hamburger steak and soup were so amazing that it’s hard to believe the same person made this dish.”

“What part of that is direct?”

“Come on, give me a break. Just having you cook for me makes me unbelievably happy.”

Ai Fa continued to sulk for a little longer, but eventually she seemed to pull herself back together as she picked up a plate. Now that I thought about it, she had been watching me the whole time and hadn’t taken even a single bite herself yet. She bit into the hamburger steak, slurped some soup, and had a bit of the meat-and-vegetable stir-fry. Once she had tried all three, she smiled in a way that looked rather strained.

“It is bad indeed. Even as the one who made it, I still have no idea how I did such a poor job.”

“With stir-fries, if you don’t cook them quickly, the ingredients will burn. It’s also difficult to adjust the flavor while you’re making it.”

“Hmm. It would have been better if I hadn’t tried to use tau oil, sugar, and vinegar all at once, wouldn’t it? But because it was a celebratory dish, I added unnecessary ingredients, and this was the result.” My clan head then smiled gently once more. “If I had a bit more room in my stomach, I could have eaten this entire bungled dish myself and remade it. But I was already at my limit from the hamburger steak.”

“Hmm? What’s that about the hamburger steak?”

“Dealing with my failed attempts at it filled my stomach up quite a bit. I messed up three times before getting it right,” Ai Fa said with a little giggle. “Still, I wanted to share in this celebratory dinner with you, so I wasn’t able to eat anything else while I was cooking. I ask for your forgiveness.”

“There’s nothing to...” I started to say, but then I suddenly found myself at a loss for words.

Something warm was welling up inside of me. I felt incredibly strong love for Ai Fa as she smiled away, looking a little embarrassed and a tiny bit childish.

“I will take half of this ruined dish, so we’ll have to manage to eat it somehow. Even if it is bad, we cannot simply throw it out,” she said.

“Of course. As if I’d let any go uneaten,” I managed to reply before I resumed eating.

It was a rare experience for me, feeling so much bliss that it caused my chest to ache. But no matter how much it hurt, it didn’t change the fact that I was truly happy. Just spending time alone with Ai Fa was enough to bring me incomparable joy. And as we happily ate our meal together, all sorts of memories raced through my mind.

The oldest memory of them all was the one of Ai Fa pointing her blade at me, her blue eyes blazing bright. When she was facing someone she deemed hostile, my clan head could be every bit as intense and intimidating as Donda Ruu, and that was exactly the kind of look she had hit me with upon our first meeting.

At the time, I had been nothing but an unidentified trespasser to her, one who had set foot in her hunting grounds without permission and ruined a giba trap she had set up, which only made things worse. To top it all off, I had insisted that I hadn’t even known how I had gotten there, so it wouldn’t have been unusual at all for her to have executed me on the spot. But instead, Ai Fa had taken me back to the Fa house and had even fed me. That had been my first and last opportunity to try Ai Fa’s home cooking.

However, its quality hadn’t exactly been what I expected from home cooking. She had just tossed some roughly chopped giba meat, aria, and poitan into a boiling pot, and once they had all been heated through, she’d called it good. The giba meat hadn’t been bloodlet, so it’d had an overwhelming animalistic stench, the onion-like aria had only been half cooked, and the dissolved poitan had given everything a texture like muddy water. It had been so bad that it had made me ask her if I could make the food myself starting the following day.

However, the Fa house had only had giba meat, aria, and poitan available, so it had been quite a difficult task to prepare a delicious meal under those conditions. But during the day, I’d happened to be present when Ai Fa had taken down a giba, so I used what little knowledge I had managed to gain back in Japan in order to carry out the bloodletting and butchering. Then I had prepared a soup even though I’d been completely and utterly exhausted. And when we had tried it, I had seen a faint, gentle smile from Ai Fa for the first time.

At first, my clan head had insisted that there was no good or bad taste when it came to food, and that it was simply a means to keep on living. But when she had seen how much effort I put into preparing the meal, she had acknowledged my actions as proper and called my cooking delicious.

Ai Fa’s words and smile in that moment were what had ultimately decided my fate.

I had been cast into this unfamiliar world after losing everything, but I had decided then and there that I had a reason to keep living: to make delicious food that would bring her joy. Of course, in the year that had passed since then, I had put my efforts toward all sorts of different endeavors, but ultimately, all of it had been for Ai Fa.

For the sake of the forest’s edge where she lived, for the domain of Genos that the people of the forest’s edge belonged to, and for the world that Genos was a part of... The reason I had been able to find the resolve to go on in this world was because Ai Fa had been the first person I had met, and she had accepted me into her home. I was able to live in this world because Ai Fa was here with me.

A whole lot had changed over the last year, and our little corner of the world had undergone some serious upheaval, but the feelings I held in my core hadn’t changed in the least.

“Why are you staring at my face so intently?” Ai Fa asked, looking puzzled.

“Well,” I said, smiling vulnerably. “I was just thinking back on everything that’s happened. It really has been an eventful year.”

“Indeed. First we reconciled with the Ruu clan, then the crimes of the Suun and the house of Turan were exposed... You started running stalls in the post town, and earned the favor of the nobles in the castle town... It truly is amazing that it has only been a single year,” Ai Fa said, sighing quietly. “I was prepared to perish alone, bringing an end to the Fa clan, but instead I have found myself pulled along on quite a wild ride. And it all started with me bringing you back to the Fa house.”

“Ah ha ha, if you have anything you want to complain about, I’m certainly willing to listen.”

“How could I ever?” Ai Fa replied, and then she smiled softly.

It was the same smile she had shown me when she had first eaten my cooking. However, the affection shining in her eyes was much deeper than it had been back then. That was proof of how strong the bond we had forged over the past year had become.

Later that evening, following the conclusion of our blissful dinner, yet another reason to be happy came my way. After we had cleaned up the tableware, Ai Fa called out, “Hold on a moment,” and then vanished into the storage room. When she reappeared, she was holding a long and narrow bundle.

“Asuta, this is for you.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“A present for your birthday.”

My clan head got down on one knee in front of me and presented the bundle, which I accepted, feeling rather surprised.

“A present? Isn’t the custom here at the forest’s edge to just give flowers?”

“But you have given me gifts on all sorts of occasions, have you not? First there was this necklace, and then you gave me this hair accessory for my birthday. I simply wish to follow your customs as well,” Ai Fa said, seemingly unable to help herself from breaking out in another smile. “I didn’t make any requests for accessories, but receiving them made me indescribably happy nonetheless, so I wished to share that same happiness with you. Please, simply accept it without complaint.”

“Th-There’s no way I’d complain about getting a gift!”

Still half dazed, I went ahead and unwrapped the beautiful cloth bundle.

What I found inside was a huge cooking knife held in a leather sheath. When I carefully pulled it out, I was greeted by a silver shine. The blade itself had to be over thirty centimeters long, with thickness and heft to match that size. It was a splendid meat carving knife. The grip was made of metal, with a wave pattern engraved into it to prevent it from slipping in your hand. The shininess of the sharpened blade was really attention-grabbing.

“Th-This is a meat carving blade from Jagar, isn’t it? Where did you get something like this?”

“I had that chef Yang purchase it for me from the castle town.”

“W-Wait, Yang? But how?”

“After you left for the post town, I borrowed Fafa from our neighboring clans and visited the inn where he works. I was careful to make sure that you wouldn’t learn of the gift until today, following your customs,” Ai Fa said, staring at my face. “You purchased your own knife for cutting meat, but when you perform tasks like removing giba meat from the bone, you use the knife you received from me, correct? That was a memento from my father Gil, so it was originally meant for cutting through branches and vines. I felt a knife specifically meant for carving meat would be more fitting for a chef such as you, so I decided it was a worthy purchase.”

“I see... But this must have been really expensive, right?”

“Indeed. However, since we barely touch the coins earned from the tusks and horns of the giba I hunt down, it was no issue at all.” There was a remarkably gentle light in Ai Fa’s blue eyes as she looked at me. “It will bring me joy if you are able to use that knife to prepare delicious food. Please.”

“Yeah, of course. Thanks, Ai Fa... Seriously, thank you so much.”

As I resheathed the meat carving blade, I sent her the brightest smile I was capable of, and the smile on her face brightened even more too.

A gentle silence fell over the room. I was so happy that I could feel a lump forming in my throat again as she continued to smile at me.

“I feel your joy as if it is my own, Asuta,” she said, almost in a whisper. “Seeing your good cheer makes me feel the same way.”

“Yeah.”

“It has been a year now since I welcomed you in as a member of the Fa clan. When I first saw you, I thought that you were strange and suspicious.” Though Ai Fa’s voice was quiet, there was no chance of me missing anything she was saying in the silence of the night. “But you also looked like you were suffering terribly. Having lost your homeland, your family, and your comrades, you were even more isolated than I was. And that was why I couldn’t simply leave you be.”

“Yeah.”

“But before I knew it, you had saved me. I came to think of you as a true member of my family. Our meeting was the forest’s guidance, and now I’m certain that the best path forward for me is here by your side.”

“I feel the same way.”

“And I trust that those words represent your true feelings. That brings me great joy, and I feel blessed.”

With that, Ai Fa’s eyelids finally started to flutter as a film of tears rose to coat them.

“On top of that, you have given your all to bring joy not just to me, but to all people of the forest’s edge. Those efforts have borne fruit, and today, raw giba meat has at last started being sold in town. Surely, no one could have ever expected that our people would one day go among the townsfolk selling meat like that. You consulted with Gazraan Rutim, borrowed Donda Ruu’s aid, and started doing business in the post town. And now, a year later, you have helped accomplish something truly incredible.”

“That’s thanks to your strength, and the strength of all the people of the forest’s edge. And besides, we’re still only partway done.”

“That is true. However, it does not diminish everything you’ve done for us. I am truly proud of you, and you are the source of my joy.” Ai Fa placed her hands on the floor and leaned farther forward. Smiling and looking like she was about to cry, she came in close enough that our noses were almost touching. “Asuta... There is just one request that I would like to make of you.”

“What is it? You can ask me for anything.”

“You should not answer this so lightly. It is a completely selfish, unfair request.”

I stared straight back into Ai Fa’s eyes. Even if she said that, I couldn’t possibly imagine refusing.

“I wish to live my life as a hunter. I cannot imagine myself even doing anything else. But, even so...” She trailed off hesitantly.

“Go on.”

“Even so...as Raielfam Sudra once said, a time could come in a year, or five, or ten...when I feel I have completed my work as a hunter. And if it does...”

“Yeah?”

“Will you take me as your wife?”

Though I was seated on the floor, I could still feel myself reeling dizzily. “There’s no way I’d turn that down, right?” I said.

“No, but I’m asking you to save yourself for the sake of a day that I don’t even know will ever come. I lack the determination to cast aside my work as a hunter, yet I am saying I don’t wish to let any other woman have you. It’s truly unfair to...”

“It’s not unfair. Hearing you say that makes me happier than anything I could possibly imagine.” It was possible that I was both crying and smiling at this point. “Whether it’s a year, or five, or even ten, that’s just fine. Being your husband would make me happier than anything. I’m happy enough as I am now, but that would be on a whole other level.”

“I trust that you are speaking truly,” Ai Fa said while still smiling, the tears now finally flowing.

With my fingertip, I gently wiped a tear from her cheek. I only touched her lightly, but it was enough to let me feel her powerful warmth. Holding back a desperate urge to hug her tight, I held out the pinky finger on my right hand toward her.

“Ai Fa, my home country has a custom of doing this when you make promises. Could you hold out your pinky too?”

“Hmm?” she questioned with a light tilt of her head, but she did as I asked, and I wrapped my pinky around hers.

“If the day comes when you decide you have finished your work as a hunter, we’ll get married. Until then, I will wait for you.”

“I promise to keep on loving you and you alone.”

I could feel the heat coming off of Ai Fa’s graceful pinky finger. There was no question in my mind that we were sharing in the same blessed joy. Just as Ai Fa had said, being able to trust someone else like this was a wonderful feeling.

Someday, Ai Fa could perish out in the forest. Eventually, I might vanish from this world too. But in that moment, we felt such overwhelming happiness that there was no room for such awful thoughts to get in the way.

And that was how my wonderful first year together with Ai Fa came to a close.

What kind of future awaited us? We had no way of knowing, but we would set forth into this new year with hope and joy in our hearts nonetheless.