3
When I woke up, I found that it was pitch black out.
Ai Fa, who had been transferring flame from the stove to the candles, suddenly shot me a sharp glare.
“So you’re finally up, are you? I was just about to throw some water over you if you didn’t wake up soon.”
“That’s just plain mean... How many hours was I out for?”
Ai Fa silently turned her head back around and threw some fresh firewood into the stove.
Maybe here at the forest’s edge, people really didn’t have a habit of dividing up time into units. When the sun rose you got up, and when it sank you got ready to go to sleep. That was an unwritten rule out there in nature.
“I threw the giba remains down into the valley, and cleaned off the sliding door... I’m quite hungry by now, naturally.”
“Got it. Then I guess it’s time for me to get to work!”
Feeling a little amused at how well this division of labor was working out, I headed off into the pantry. I grabbed six of the pseudo-onions, and four of the pseudo-potatoes, plus one of the giba’s rear legs which I placed atop one of those rubber tree leaf looking things.
Naturally, the giba meat I grabbed wasn’t the stuff that had already been in storage, but came from the one that I had prepared earlier. Normally it would be best to use up the older meat first, but I wanted to let Ai Fa experience the joy of real cooking and a proper meal as soon as possible, so I begged her to let me do so.
“Now then... This is our quota for the vegetables, right?”
I couldn’t help but wonder if the meaning of the word “quota” made it across. At any rate, Ai Fa just shot back a, “If you don’t eat anything but meat, you’ll die.”
Of course, humans needed to eat a properly balanced diet in order to live healthy lives. But even so, I still hadn’t figured out how to deal with these vegetables just yet.
Well, whatever. For now, I’ll just do what I can.
I started off by washing the large board that served as the lid to the pot, then carefully enshrined the giba meat atop it.
And then, I grabbed hold of my old man’s Sakaki knife. The one that held his very heart and soul.
Gripping the ebony handle tight, I pulled it loose from its white magnolia sheath, revealing its 20 centimeter long steel blade.
Even though my old man had used it for more than 20 years, its cutting edge was still perfectly straight and incredibly sharp. Engraved on it was the single word, “Sakaki.”
I’m going to go ahead and borrow this, pops.
I gently, carefully slid the knife into the giba meat. It was pretty tough compared to aged pork, but even so the blade slid on in without any resistance.
I may have been awash in the glory of its cutting edge, but my hands remained calm and composed, starting off by cutting the meat from the bone.
The surface was coated in white fat, but inside it was tightly packed red thigh meat. I went with a pretty rough cut to allow some room so that the blade wouldn’t hit the bone, and then I followed that up by thinly slicing the meat.
I may have called it a relatively tough meat, but it was still plenty fresh. It wasn’t the sort of thing I could go and cut super thin right off the bat, and with my skill 7-8 millimeters was about as good as I could hope for, but fortunately that was just the right thickness for a stew.
After slicing off around 500 grams, I left the rest as a block and returned it to the pantry. As long as I shaved off the rest of the meat still clinging to the rather impressive femur, that would be plenty for a dinner for two.
“Ah, right, I forgot to ask a pretty crucial question. Hey, Ai Fa, do you have any other ingredients or seasonings?”
Ai Fa had been silently watching me as I worked, and now she looked up at me with a quizzical look.
“Eating giba, aria, and poitan should be enough to stave off any immediate issues.”
“Right. But you had some other smell coming off you too, didn’t you? I don’t know if it was a flower or a fruit or some sort of herb, but there was definitely something else there that I haven’t been able to pin down just yet.”
I seemed to spy a hint of red about Ai Fa’s face after I said that.
“Asuta, I thought I had driven this point in thoroughly enough yesterday, but... Stop saying such strange things about my scent and the like.”
“Hey, don’t worry so much about it. Saying you smell good is a compliment, after all!”
“Maybe so, but I’ll never last if you keep trying to eat me as a result!” Ai Fa yelled, holding the left side of her neck as she stood up in a huff. I guess those teeth marks hadn’t gone away just yet... That made me feel a little embarrassed, too.
Anyway, Ai Fa went stomping off towards the pantry, then returned before long holding some strange little things in her hands. It was a teapot with a wide opening and a round body, and one of those pseudo-rubber leaves that was in the shape of a sphere.
The teapot looked like it would hold about a liter of liquid, while the leaf bundle was around the size of a human fist.
“Fruit wine and salt.”
“Salt!” I yelled out before I could stop myself, much to Ai Fa’s displeasure.
“The salt is used to make jerky. Just this small amount goes for a copper coin, which is the equivalent of one giba horn.”
I opened up the package as a little fanfare went off in my head, and found a clump of beautiful, wonderful crystals with a bluish tint.
This was probably rock salt. The rock salt I was familiar with was pink or yellow, but I’d heard that a bluish type existed, too.
I scraped up a bit of the fine powder with the tip of my finger and gave it a taste, only to be hit by a striking explosion of salty flavor.
Yeah, that was good. Maybe it was because I’d sweated out all the salt in my body over the course of the day, but it was so delicious I could just die.
“Salt is a precious resource. Don’t waste any.”
“Of course I won’t! So, you said this one was fruit wine?”
When I removed the wooden cork-like stopper, the scent of a sour wine filled the air.
“Give that here,” Ai Fa said, violently snatching the teapot from my grasp. Then, after a quick gulp, she thrust it back at me.
“Umm... Exactly how old are you, Ai Fa?”
“17,” she casually answered, licking the corner of her mouth. It was a real wild, sexy look.
“I see. I’m 17 too, so I guess that makes us the same age... Is this fruit wine valuable, too?”
“I just traded for it with the excess I had left after purchasing what I needed. I mean, I didn’t exactly feel like bothering to bring copper coins and the like all the way back here with me... So it doesn’t exactly have all that much value when compared to the salt and ingredients.”
“I see. This sure seems like it’ll be a big help in the future, too... Neither of them seem related to your smell, though, do they?”
“How would I know?! I haven’t even touched anything else but the fruit used to ward off poisonous insects, and the herbs used when making jerky!”
You don’t need to get so angry...
Well at any rate, this was plenty for the time being. And the introduction of salt to the mix was something I was indescribably grateful for.
“Ai Fa, could you loan me your blade one more time?”
After taking the knife from the sour-faced girl, I used it to shave the rest of the meat off the bone.
With that, my preparations were complete.
Giba thigh meat, roughly 500 grams.
A pile of shavings of meat cut off the bone, about 400 grams.
Pseudo-onions, six.
Pseudo-potatoes, four.
A pinch of dried pico leaf, which had the flavor of black pepper.
And lastly, rock salt.
Those were my ingredients for the day.
I started off by crushing the rock salt into powder with Ai Fa’s guidance, then added just a tablespoon’s worth into the boiling water in the pot.
Just like last night, the pot was a bit under halfway full of boiling water. I got the feeling that I could go even lower, but this was the amount I needed to use for the sake of trial and error.
Next up, I added the 900 or so grams of giba meat. The red and white flesh swayed and danced within the pot.
“Ah, Ai Fa, you don’t need to add more firewood just yet.”
Ai Fa, who had been moving towards the stove, turned and shot me a quizzical look.
“But if you don’t carefully heat the giba meat after adding it to the pot, it won’t exactly end up as something edible.”
“Right. That’s why the plan is to slowly heat it over a low flame.”
Last night, Ai Fa had rapidly continued to stoke the flames. It had only taken around 20 minutes or so to do it using a strong flame like that. That had been enough to make it so you could tear it apart with your teeth, but it still more or less had the texture of rubber to it.
Boar was the type of meat where the more you heated it, the softer it got. That was probably the greatest difference between it and domesticated pigs.
“Ah, there it is!”
Around a minute after adding the meat in, an impressive bit of scum made its appearance. Using a wooden ladle and bowl I had prepared in advance, I carefully scooped up all the scum and foam that was bubbling up. Perhaps because I had left even more fat on it, it was bubbling up even more fiercely than yesterday.
Yeah, now that I think back on it, the thigh meat from last night had been a bundle of red flesh with hardly any fat on it. Both boars and giba only had fat in their thighs between the meat and skin, so with Ai Fa’s cooking method of shaving meat off the surface, almost all of the fat would be used up the first time around.
As it was low on fat, boar meat (and likely giba meat too) wasn’t well suited to for being used in a stew. I figured that was why it ended up with that rubber texture last night. Then what if I used the leftover meat from last night for yakiniku or something... I thought to myself as I scooped up scum, the scope of my plans rapidly expanding.
“Now then, the real issue is these guys...”
After I got rid of most of the scum, I went and placed the lid back on. Then I took a seat where I could keep an eye on the stove’s flame, and faced off with those imitation onions and potatoes.
“The pseudo-onion... No, the aria, was it? It’s pretty much just like an onion, so I feel like I’ll be able to do something with it. The real issue is this guy... Hey, just what is this poitan thing, anyway?”
“...A poitan is a poitan.” Ai Fa was seated with her back against the wall again, her chin resting on her hands and a sour look on her face. “Two poitan and three aria. Eat those alongside giba meat covered in pico leaves, and you’ll have the energy needed to get through a day. That is the knowledge my people gained over the course of 80 years living here at the forest’s edge.”
And they must gain the necessary amount of salt from the jerky they ate every day.
I replied, “I see,” and gave a nod of my head. “By the way, what’s the average life expectancy for the people of the forest’s edge?”
“‘Average life expectancy’? If you’re asking how long we live for, then it varies. Most die not from illness, but rather from being attacked by giba or other beasts, after all.”
Ai Fa’s gaze suddenly shot downwards. Perhaps she was thinking back on her father.
“But, let’s see... I believe none have died before the age of 60 without either starving or becoming a corpse out in the forest. The oldest amongst us, Jiba Ruu of the Ruu clan, has already passed the age of 80.”
“Hmm... So it doesn’t seem like you people are all that short-lived compared to the ones from back home.”
As I said that, I crawled over towards Ai Fa on all fours. Despite the displeased look on her face, I closely inspected her upper left arm. Her dark brown skin positively shined in the orange light of the fire. There may have been white scars about it here and there, but it was still incredibly smooth.
With a “hmm...” I reached out and touched it, confirming just how soft it was. Naturally, a fist immediately came slamming down onto the top of my head.
“Ah, sorry. Those are some seriously high quality muscles you have there. They’re soft to the touch, but still have some real tension in them. I figure they’re just about the best that an athlete could hope for.”
I had intended to tease her a bit to break the solemn mood in the air, but apparently I didn’t quite stick the landing on that one. Ai Fa had a dangerous look about her now, like a wildcat with its hackles raised.
“No, you see, I just wanted to check how healthy the people of the forest’s edge are! At the very least, it looks like there’s nothing seriously wrong with your diet, Ai Fa.”
That meant I really did have to meet the quota of those vegetables each and every day, then.
“Hmm, this is a real tough one! I’ll have to start tackling how to deal with those poitan from tomorrow on. But for today, I’ve already got my hands full taking care of the giba meat.”
Ai Fa still had a scary look in her eyes, so I hurriedly retreated back towards the stove. I scooped out the fresh scum that had bubbled up, and carefully regulated the firewood so that the flame didn’t grow too weak. For a while, I just kept repeating those steps.
“...I’m hungry. Just how much longer do we have to wait before eating?”
“Hmm? I’d guess it should be 60-90 minutes... My estimate is that it should take 3-4 times longer than what you did yesterday.”
Once the look of shock passed from her face, Ai Fa gave a seriously disappointed sounding sigh.
“Sorry. I’m getting hungry, too... Looking back on it, maybe I should have started cooking right after I finished the dissection.”
“I’m the one who told you to rest, and I’m also the one who left the cooking up to you. There’s no need for you to feel responsible.”
Despite her kind and fair words, Ai Fa’s face looked pained.
I couldn’t help but feel a little amused at the fact that she was so hungry. After all, an empty stomach is the greatest seasoning you could ask for.
If this didn’t satisfy Ai Fa, then it would be solely down to my skill coming up short.
Win or lose, the outcome of this battle would be decided in the next hour or so.
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