Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 4.5

Intermezzo: A Later Development After the Study Session

After circling around to the rear of the inn, Toor Deen reached out to knock on the door, only to hear a man shouting inside.

As a timid girl, she instantly drew back and pulled her hand away. Next to her, Yamiru Lea furrowed her brow suspiciously.

“What was that voice just now? A burglar, perhaps?”

“Y-Yamiru Lea, please don’t say scary stuff like that. This place is Yumi and her parents’ inn, you know.” Feeling terribly uneasy, Toor Deen took Yamiru Lea’s graceful arm and wrapped both of her own around it without thinking.

The older girl looked down at her, shrugged, and said, “I was only joking. Even if this is a slum with more than a few outlaws about, no one would ever try to rob a place like this in broad daylight. I’m sure it must be that Yumi girl arguing with her father.”

It was true that it was still morning, with over an hour left until the sun would hit its peak. That day, Toor Deen and Yamiru Lea had been the ones tasked with delivering giba meat to The Westerly Wind—the inn where Yumi lived—so the two of them had gone there first thing upon arriving in town. They would start their real work at the stalls later.

The inn was located a ways down a backstreet off the main road, in a slum. There were a lot of impoverished ruffians in the area, so it was apparently quite dangerous to walk around alone there at night.

“B-But what if it really is a burglar? Should we call for the guards before knocking on the door?”

“I’m telling you, that was just a joke. If we summon the guards over a simple family squabble, we could get charged with some sort of crime ourselves,” Yamiru Lea replied, brushing aside her long bangs with her free left hand. “By the way, how long do you intend to keep on clinging to my arm? We’re both women, so there’s no need to be concerned about anyone else seeing, but I still cannot help but feel a touch uneasy.”

“Ah, s-sorry!” Toor Deen quickly let go of Yamiru Lea’s arm, her face going red.

As she stared down at the girl, the woman’s eyes took on a cynical look. “You know, I’m even weaker than you are. Clinging to someone like me won’t do you any good.”

“Huh? But...you’re as reliable as a hunter.”

“I’m shocked you’d say that. Have you forgotten how awful I acted back when we were both part of the Suun clan?”

It was extremely rare for Yamiru Lea to bring that up so casually. It made Toor Deen falter for a second, but after a moment she said, “No. Y-You were certainly very frightening back then. You coerced us into participating in the wrongdoings of the Suun clan. But still...we were at fault too for not doing anything to correct the clan’s mistakes. We were weak. I couldn’t possibly allow myself to pin all the blame on you.”

“You won’t last if you keep taking every last joke I utter so seriously.”

“Even when you are joking, I want to accept all of your feelings and form a proper bond with you, Yamiru Lea.”

After giving a listless sigh, Yamiru Lea placed a hand on her tight waist. “I see you aren’t someone I can joke around with. Let’s hurry up and finish this job so we can head over to the stalls.”

“Ah, but there’s still some kind of argument going on inside, so we really should call a guard and...”

“I have no interest in going through all that hassle.”

Before Toor Deen could stop her, Yamiru Lea went ahead and knocked on the door.

Not long after, the arguing voices stopped, and the door opened a moment later to reveal Yumi, who had her usual bright smile on her face.

“Toor Deen, Yamiru Lea! Hey there! So it’s you two today? We’ve been waiting for the giba meat to arrive!”

“Ah, s-sorry. Um, Yumi...it sounded like there was a big commotion of some sort going on in there just now. Is everything all right?”

“Ah ha ha, you heard that all the way out here? My stupid old man sure is loud.”

“Who are you calling stupid, you stupid daughter?!” a deep, masculine voice shouted out from over Yumi’s shoulder. That was undoubtedly her father, Sams.

“Anyway, thanks for the giba meat! I’ll go get your payment!”

Yumi seemed the same as always, so Toor Deen and Yamiru Lea went ahead and carried the wooden boxes in their wagon through the door into the kitchen of The Westerly Wind.

However, as soon as Toor Deen stepped inside, she detected a foul stench. “Um, did you burn some sort of food?”

“Yeah. Well, it was more of a dessert, really. I gave those hotcake things you taught us about a try, but they ended up all burnt,” Yumi replied.

In the center of the kitchen, Sams snorted, “Hmph! Not only were you messing around with something we don’t plan to sell, you wasted precious ingredients to boot! You really think the folks who come to a place like ours would spend coins on something like that?!”

“Aw, shut it. I only messed up because you were hovering over me running your mouth the whole time, old man. And besides, we won’t know if our customers will pay for desserts until they actually give them a try.”

Sams had a really stern-looking face, but Yumi was sticking her tongue out at him without showing a hint of fear. Of course, since Toor Deen was used to being around hunters of the forest’s edge, the man’s face wasn’t scary to her either.

“Still, how did you mess up? With your current skills, it shouldn’t be difficult at all for you to make hotcakes, Yumi,” Toor Deen said.

“I told you, it’s because of my old man here. He was standing right next to me, babbling on and on and on, so my hand must have slipped or something.”

“Stop running your mouth while trying to gloss over your own screwup! You used sugar, eggs, and karon milk in that batter you burned! Do you know how much a single bag of sugar costs?!”

“Ugh, this is why I hate dealing with poor people,” Yumi moaned. “Anyway, don’t worry about me, Toor Deen. This sort of fuss happens all the time.”

As Yumi handed over a bag of coins to Toor Deen, the young chef shook her head and said, “No, if you messed up, then it’s possible there was some sort of issue with what we taught you. Would you mind if I try to figure out what exactly went wrong?”

Sams drew closer to them with a scary look on his face and said, “Hey, don’t go butting into our business. It’d be a real mess if she went and burned even more of our precious supplies.”

“But if there was a problem with the instructions we gave everyone, then we’re responsible for Yumi’s mistake. If something ends up going to waste, then I’ll pay for it, so would you please let me take a look and see for myself?”

“She screwed up because her skills weren’t good enough. You lot aren’t responsible for that in the least,” Sams replied, scratching his head with a frown.

Next to him, Yumi broke out into a big grin. “With Toor Deen here, we’ll figure this out in no time!” she declared. Then she looked down at the young chef. “We don’t need you to pay for anything. Just keep an eye on what I’m doing, okay?”

“Okay. Please, go ahead.”

“All right, let’s take a look at my screwup first. It got totally stuck to the pot, and it took some serious effort to pry it loose,” Yumi said, pointing at a wooden plate that was sitting on the workstation. There was a pitiful lump of burnt poitan on top of it.

“This really is a mess. I can’t believe you would mess up this badly, Yumi,” Toor Deen said.

“Heh heh, it actually stings a bit to hear you say that, Toor Deen. I’m not all that great of a chef!”

“No, your skills were good to begin with, and after you ran that okonomiyaki stall during the revival festival, you should be especially accustomed to cooking poitan.”

“I thought so too. But apparently things are different with these hotcakes, somehow.”

As she spoke, Yumi started tossing the ingredients for another round of hotcakes into a deep dish. The amounts she used were correct, matching the recipe she’d been taught at the inn meeting and the previous study session. There weren’t any issues with how she mixed them together with a wooden skewer either. Then she added some fresh firewood to the glowing embers under her stove and reached out for a container of milk fat.

When she did that, though, Sams said, “Hey, we don’t have any extra milk fat around, so don’t go wasting it. We just got giba meat delivered, so use some of that fat instead.”

“Huh? Giba fat’s tasty, but it doesn’t go with hotcakes at all! You’re such a cheapskate!” Yumi was glaring at her father, but she followed his order and pulled her hand back from the container of milk fat.

But then, Toor Deen called out in a fluster, “H-Hold on a moment! When you tried this before, did you cook the batter without adding any milk fat, perhaps?”

“Yeah. My stupid old man kept going on about it, so I poured the batter into the pan as is. Was that bad?”

“Y-Yes. Hotcake batter has sugar in it, so it burns very easily. That must be why you weren’t able to cook it properly.”

Yumi’s eyes shot open wide for a moment, and then she triumphantly said, “See?! It really was your fault! Burning the other ingredients just to spare some milk fat sounds like a big enough screwup that it could turn into some sort of saying!”

“Q-Quiet, you! You’re the one who poured the batter into the pan without thinking!”

“Hey, if it were just ordinary poitan, it wouldn’t have burned that easily. But these hotcakes are totally different!”

After that, Yumi cooked up the batch of hotcakes with milk fat like the instructions said. And sure enough, they came out perfectly, with their surfaces being exactly the right brown color.

“Ha ha, they’re so easy to make now! Just a little milk fat makes a huge difference!” Yumi said.

“Yeah,” Toor Deen agreed. “If you don’t have milk fat, you can also use reten oil. But I think the smell of milk fat adds a lot to hotcakes. Apparently, in Asuta’s home country, people even spread milk fat on top of them when they’re done.”

“Yup! I love the smell of milk fat too! And I bet our customers would probably be willing to spend some money on this stuff for the smell alone!” Yumi shot the young chef a bright smile. “Thanks, Toor Deen! I really appreciate the help, and I hope I can keep counting on you for stuff like this!”

“Ah, well, I’m just glad I was able to help. But we still have our work at the stalls, so...” Breathing a sigh of relief, Toor Deen started to slowly make her way to the exit, along with Yamiru Lea.

But before she could escape, Sams called out with a surly look on his face, “Hey, sorry for causing you trouble. But I have to say, if you don’t rein in your instinct to be helpful, it’ll come back to bite you eventually.”

“What are you on about now?” Yumi said. “Do you seriously think you’ve always gotta throw in some kind of extra comment? I swear, you’re so stubborn!”

“Th-That’s enough out of you!”

Even with the hotcake problem resolved, it seemed like things were going to remain as lively as always at The Westerly Wind.

After bowing one more time, Toor Deen exited the kitchen.

As soon as the door closed, Yamiru Lea broke her silence and remarked, “Heh, perhaps shouting at one another is how those two show affection? It certainly is a difficult relationship to understand.”

“True. You don’t really see stuff like that at the forest’s edge. Still, even if Yumi and Sams are a little rude to each other, it’s easy to see how much they care, which is something I really like.”

“Hmph, perhaps they’re just happy to have someone to shout at.”

That statement from Yamiru Lea caused Toor Deen to feel uneasy, so she clung to her companion’s arm once more.

“Y-Your blood ties with Zuuro Suun, the man who was your father, were severed, and you won’t be able to see him for ten more years, right? I’m sorry if I made you feel sad!”

“Listen... You had your ties to the Suun clan severed too, didn’t you?”

“But I was permitted to remain with my father.”

“Zuuro Suun and I didn’t have the sort of relationship you’re imagining. You really should do something about that excessively good-hearted nature of yours,” Yamiru Lea said, looking down at the girl with an expression that made it seem as if she was holding back a strained smile.

Looking a bit embarrassed, Toor Deen let go of her former clanmate’s arm. “A-About what you were saying before...” she said.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Y-You said that I wasn’t the sort of person you could joke around with. But then you knocked on the door, so we weren’t able to finish talking about that, remember?”

As Toor Deen spoke, Yamiru Lea raised a questioning eyebrow. “It wasn’t my intention to cut our discussion short. But still, what of it?”

“W-Well, I want to properly deepen my bonds with you, Yamiru Lea...so feel free to say anything you want to me, jokes included.”

With a deep sigh, Yamiru Lea reached down and lightly flicked Toor Deen’s forehead. It was the first time the young chef had seen the woman do anything like that, and it caused her to freeze in surprise for a moment.

“Wh-What was that for? Did I make you feel uncomfortable again?”

“That’s enough of that. If you don’t stop talking, I’ll pull your hair next,” Yamiru Lea said as she walked toward the cart. Normally, a comment like that would have left Toor Deen feeling uneasy for a bit, but for some reason, this time felt herself filling with warmth instead. And somehow, that warmth seemed to be coming from the spot where Yamiru Lea had touched her forehead.