Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5: The Ruu Clan

1

And so, we ended up heading to the Ruu’s main house. I was glad that was what we decided on, but it wasn’t as if there weren’t any issues whatsoever. I first learned of that the next morning, when Rimee Ruu showed up as promised.

When I returned from cleaning and started working on my old man’s knife she suddenly popped up. And when I told her, “I’ll help,” she broke out in a huge smile of pure joy and yelled out, “Thank you!” And then she added, “In that case, come to my house before sunset! I’ll be sure to get the ingredients all ready!”

I couldn’t help but tilt my head with a, “Huh?” upon hearing that. “What do you mean, ‘ingredients’? I was planning on cooking here and then delivering the finished dish.”

“You can’t! You need to eat food in the house where it was prepared!”

I didn’t really get it so I asked for more details, and apparently that was part of the vow taken by the people of the forest’s edge. Or to be more precise, it said, “When treating someone to food, you must eat the same dish in the same place as them.”

In other words, it was probably meant to prohibit people from harming others using cooking.

“Hmm. It still hasn’t fully clicked with me, but does that mean I just need to go to the Ruu household, cook food, and have your grandmother eat it along with me?”

It added a bit of pressure, cooking in a place I was visiting for the first time, but that wasn’t enough to discourage me. The real issue was still to come, though.

“Yeah. But it’s not just Granny Jiba. It’ll be tough because there are a lot of people in my house, but I’ll try hard to help!”

“Huh? So I have to make enough not just for your grandma, but the rest of your family too?”

“Yeah. I mean, that’s what it means to borrow someone else’s stove, right?”

“Is that how it is?”

“Of course it is! You’re really weird, Asuta!”

I’d finally been recognized by the girl of seven or eight years old as a weirdo. Come on, give me a break... I mean, I just haven’t studied all the customs of the people of the forest’s edge just yet.

“Alright, got it. So I just need to make food for the whole family, right? It’s not like I don’t want to, and it’s honestly more worthwhile to cook for a large group of people anyway. So, how many people are there in the Ruu household?”

“Um...” Rimee Ruu murmured, and then she started counting on her fingers. By the time she had folded down the little fingers on both of her hands, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, Oh, come on!

“So, counting me, it’s 13 people!”

“T-Thirteen, huh? That’s quite a large family.”

“Ah, but Kota Ruu is still just one year old and only drinks milk, so you just need to prepare for 12. And the other women in the family who were supposed to be in charge of the stove will help out!”

“12 people, huh? Well, if that’s all then I should be able to manage. There’s no problem if we go with the dish from last night for everyone, right?”

“Yeah, of course! I’m really looking forward to it, too!”

“Hmm... Well, thinking more on it, just feeding your grandma this one time wouldn’t have solved the issue here anyway. If I give the women of the Ruu family a lecture on how to make a delicious meal, then that would make things easier from tomorrow on...”

“What’s a ‘lecture’?”

“Ah, well, I can’t be manning the Ruu stove each and every day, right? So I’ve got to teach you and the rest of the women how to cook tasty food for your grandma.”

“Huh?! We’ll be able to make food that yummy?!”

“The way I managed the heat last night was a little tricky, though. Hmm... Ah, if you have a family of 13, then you probably have more then one pot, right?”

“Pots? We have four of them.”

“Four?! That’s great!”

Ultimately, I ended up getting a little worked up. I’d be using four pots to make food for 12 people... No wait, adding in me and Ai Fa, it was 14 in total.

I was up against an old lady with hardly any teeth, as well as a powerful man in the settlement who was likely less than fond of outsiders. Honestly, I could feel my spirit as a chef getting a bit fired up by this development.

“Got it. Well then, I’ll prepare the giba meat over here, so could you make sure we’ve got enough aria and poitan for everyone? And then we’ll also need rock salt and fruit wine.”

“Huh? But we’ve got lots of meat at our home, though.”

“The meat’s the most important part. If I get the chance, I’d love to instruct you all on how to prepare giba meat so it’s nice and tasty, too.”

In the back of my mind, I had already started plotting out how the cooking would go. As I did, Rimee Ruu walked on over my way and timidly grabbed onto the hem of my clothing.

“Thank you so much, Asuta. Now Granny Jiba won’t have to keep sobbing and saying how she wants to die. I’m really grateful you’re doing something so big for us.”

“Don’t cry, you big dummy. I mean, it’s not even like it’s a guarantee just yet that everything will go smoothly.”

“No, it’ll be fine! Your cooking really is yummy!”

Then Rimee Ruu turned to Ai Fa, who had been silently working on her blade in a corner of the room.

“Thank you too, Ai Fa! Once Granny Jiba’s all better, we’ll all play together again! Well then, see you this afternoon!”

“Ah, my cooking needs some extra time to prepare, so is it alright if I show up a bit earlier?” I added, in place of the still silent Ai Fa.

“Yeah! No problem!” Rimee Ruu responded with a brilliant smile, and then she left the house.

Geez, that girl was a bundle of energy in a completely different way than Ai Fa. I couldn’t help but break out in a smile, too.

“What are you grinning to yourself about? You really are gross.”

“Oh hey, you finally said something, Ai Fa! What you said may have been incredibly rude, but I’m still a little relieved!”

“You’re so tiresome...”

She just kept on carefully looking over her gleaming, silver blade, not even so much as glancing my way as she sat with her back against the wall. And her face remained every bit as expressionless as always, too. Well, she showed her weakness to someone like me just last night, which I’m sure she was seriously regretting. I could certainly sense something like that about her.

“Still, I never figured we would get pressured into sitting down to dinner with them, too. You must have known it from the start though, right?”

“Of course. That’s what it means to man someone else’s stove.”

Hmm... That was a splendid custom, having some responsibility behind manning the stove.

“That means I’ll definitely be meeting Rimee Ruu’s father face to face, though... You’ll be coming with me, right?”

“What are you, an idiot? You think I’d send off someone who doesn’t even properly know the ways of this world to someone else’s house, all on his own?!” she practically roared as she glared at my legs. “...If you don’t intend to cut ties with me, it’s only natural that I accompany you.”

“Right. You’re really saving me. I mean, I’d feel pretty lonely on my own.”

I walked a few steps closer to Ai Fa, and sat down so that I was just barely out of reach. Her gaze remained fixed in place, so it fell somewhere between my feet and my chest.

When I planted my hands on the floor and looked up, though, rather than her gaze, it was the tip of her blade that pointed at me.

“I’m sorry. It was just a joke.”

“I can’t believe you... Do you honestly think that you can man the Ruu family stove like that?”

The tip of her blade pulled back, but her glare remained every bit as sharp.

To be honest, this was the first time since waking up that I’d locked eyes with Ai Fa today.

Sometimes her face was really easy to read, and right now she was clearly getting worked up. She soon declared in a harsh tone, “To man a house’s stove means to take that family’s very lives into your hands. So if a member of the Ruu clan becomes sick from your cooking, neither you nor I will get off lightly. We may have both ears cleaved off, or all our teeth broken, or even be exiled from the forest’s edge!”

“Huh... I’m surprised you gave such an important task to me like it was nothing.”

“I don’t give the slightest damn about such old-fashioned customs! Many of the people of the forest’s edge still do, though!”

“Okay, I get it. But there’s no way that I’d give anyone food poisoning. Just who do you think I am?”

I had intended to get a quip like, “A 17 year old chef trainee?” back, but Ai Fa just bit down on her pink lips and didn’t say anything for a while. Her face was flushed beet red, and she was wearing the expression of an unruly child.

However, this was all very much just like her. Compared to how she was all down in the dumps and acting unlike herself last night, this way was far more adorable.

Anyway, after a rather long period of silence, Ai Fa muttered, “I was just telling you not to take this too lightly. I’m more aware of your skill than anyone. I’m sure you’re capable of saving both Rimee and Jiba Ruu. But it’s also still very possible for you to let your guard down and get tripped up.”

“Whoa... I’m honestly a little moved, here.”

I’d love to move a little closer and take her by the hand if I could, but with the way she was today she may really kill me if I did that, so I restrained myself.

“If you’re willing to say all that, then I’m sure I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I swear on what little honor I have that I’ll save them.” And then I dared to add, “For your sake too, Ai Fa.”

I’d be wielding my kitchen knife for the sake of people who were precious to Ai Fa. As if I’d let my guard down or get conceited in a situation like this!

As I looked at Ai Fa’s perpetually angry face, I could feel a burning-hot fighting spirit running through my entire body.

I would complete my task, no matter what. All for the sake of the first person I thought of as precious in this other world.