Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 1 - Chapter 5.3

3

“Please, follow me.”

The one leading the way was the second daughter of the Ruu household, Reina Ruu.

Rimee Ruu was dealing with our blades, Tito Min Ruu was cleaning up from when they wrung out the fat, and the rest of the women each departed for their own tasks, meaning our little gathering dispersed pretty quickly.

The stoves were installed in the rear of the house. Apparently, when a house was this big, the reception room and kitchen were kept separate. There was a small separate building less than half the size of the main home, which served as the kitchen and pantry, as well as the place where giba were dissected.

“Huh? Those are stoves there too, aren’t they?”

Off to the side of the building were two stone stoves like the one in Ai Fa’s home, sitting there conspicuously. They were outdoors, but were stocked with firewood and even had roofs installed overhead. And both of them were wide open in the front, making it sort of feel like I was being stared at by blank faces.

Neither of them had an iron pot on them, though.

“These are used for grilling meat. Papa Donda likes it better to have giba that way than in a stew,” the slender girl with long, black, braided hair said with a smile.

“I see! Giba meat makes a lot of smoke when you grill it, so something like this sure would be helpful. If you don’t mind, could we use these today, too?”

“Huh? You’ve grilled giba meat before, Asuta?”

I was a little taken aback when I looked into the girl’s big round eyes. What was that about? It felt strange, somehow, having this girl with the same name as my childhood friend call me by name. Well, my Reina kept on calling me “Asuta-chan” even when we were in high school, though.

“Yeah. In fact that was actually part of tonight’s schedule. Is that odd or something?”

“Yes, well... I heard from Rimee that she had eaten incredibly soft meat. I was sure that meant you were going to boil the giba meat...”

“Oh, I see. That really did use a cooking method that involved grilling, though. Well, it involves all sorts of crazy techniques, but I’ll handle all the confusing parts, so just lend me a hand, alright?”

“Of course! Jiba Ruu is a precious, irreplaceable member of my family, so I’m truly grateful to you! And I’ll give my all, too!”

This girl really may have been a lot like Rimee Ruu. She was bright, innocent, full of energy, and had an incredibly honest look in her eyes. On the other hand, though I don’t really care myself, she was pretty darn short, and in terms of build, she seemed to have inherited the same genes as that bundle of sex appeal that was her older sister.

She had a fine amount of meat on her arms and legs, and her chest and rear had some rather womanly curves. Her waist pulled in tight so she certainly wasn’t fat, but... Well, let’s just say I had trouble knowing where it was alright to look.

In the first place, the women of this settlement just wore way too little. Not only did they just cover their chests and waists, but it was with a thin cloth wrapped around them, which made the contours of their bodies stand out more than they needed to.

And unlike the other women I’d seen around the settlement up until now, these girls had on “decorations.” A bracelet made of grigee fruit was the norm around here, but in addition to that, they had on shiny, dark grey, metallic hair accessories, earrings, leg bracelets and the like. And also...

“...Ah. That necklace...”

“Huh?”

“You’re all wearing necklaces with three horns or tusks or whatever. Is that a good luck charm or something?”

“Yes. You see, we women don’t hunt giba, after all. So the men give us horns and tusks. They’re imbued with the hope that we live a healthy life here at the forest’s edge,” the girl explained with a joyous smile, holding the necklace that had been swaying on her boldly rising and falling chest. “Children receive them from their fathers, and wives from their husbands. As proof that we didn’t hunt them ourselves, they’re made with just three tusks and horns, rather than a full set.”

“Hmm... That’s an interesting custom,” I responded. As I did so, I felt a sort of crackling feeling on the back of my neck and turned around, only to find Ai Fa glaring at me with a truly chilling gaze as she leaned up against the wall of the building.

I hadn’t gone and forgotten you, of course. My attention just got a little diverted when we arrived at the building, my master.

“Umm, you said you had four pots, right? For now, let’s just light up one of these ones outside.”

“Right. I’ll show you the way,” Reina Ruu said with a smile, then walked in Ai Fa’s direction.

After giving a slight bow to my blank-faced benefactor, Reina Ruu slid open a door that was right next to Ai Fa.

“This is the kitchen.”

I walked forward with a “Hey there,” to Ai Fa, but my beloved benefactor simply frowned and passed through the door before me.

What was that about? I didn’t really get it, but this may turn into a real pain. But at any rate, I walked on inside, too.

“Wow... This certainly is something, isn’t it?”

The room looked to be only about twelve square meters in size, but it also didn’t have all that much furniture, making for a rather open room. In the center were the four stoves, lined up facing one another. I was a little impressed by the way that there was a log set up off to the side of each one as a surface to work on, as well as a jar with plenty of water.

The floor was simply the exposed ground, the walls were made of wood, and the ceiling had the beams showing, which wasn’t much different from Ai Fa’s home. However, along those walls were knives both big and small, ladles, what looked like a wooden pestle, and a doorless shelf lined with bowls and wooden utensils.

This really was a proper kitchen. A cookhouse.

Though I hadn’t expected it, I could feel my heart beating a little faster.

As I inspected the various tools on display, Reina Ruu, who had been crouched down in front of the stove, gave another carefree smile and then called out, “Is it alright if I light the fire? I’m prepared to do so.”

Prepared to do so, she says... She was incredibly innocent, but she also had some definite elegance about her.

By the way, they lit their stoves the same way that Ai Fa did. That meant tying something called lana grass that had been all dried out to the tip of a thin bit of firewood, then quickly rubbing it across the other firewood until the friction ignited it like a match. Then you simply transferred the fire to the firewood before that ember died out.

I still failed two out of the three times I tried, but Reina Ruu naturally managed it on her first try.

“Great. Now could you fill up the pot halfway with water? And use a strong flame?”

“Right,” Reina Ruu responded, then briskly transferred the water.

...I soon sensed a gaze on my neck again, but at this stage I still shouldn’t have made any mistakes yet.

“Alright, Ai Fa, hand me the giba meat. And um, you, is it alright if I lay the meat out on this surface?”

“Yes, of course. Um, and if you don’t mind, could you please call me Reina Ruu?”

“Ah, right. It just feels a little strange, since I know someone with the same name.”

After receiving the package of giba meat from Ai Fa, I opened up the pseudo-rubber tree leaf. As I did so, I caught sight of Reina Ruu staring at my face from the side and smiling.

“Was this other Reina an important girl in your life, perhaps? Is that why it’s hard to call me by that name?”

“It’s not exactly like that, but still...”

Why was it, then? I didn’t even know the answer myself. But I mean... She was probably the person I had spent the most time with outside of my family, so even though I didn’t have even a hint of romantic feelings for her, when I thought of how I’d never see her again... It really hurt.

So I didn’t want to say that name too often, or hear it either.

I figured that wasn’t the kind of thing I should be telling to someone who just happened to have the same name, though.

“Huh...?”

As I opened the leaf bundle, a small, dark brown hand overlapped with mine. When I looked up in surprise, I found that Reina Ruu’s face had gone from a bright smile to looking like she was about to cry.

“I’m sorry. I said something I really shouldn’t have, didn’t I? I never intended to make you look so pained, Asuta...”

“No, not at all! I’m totally fine! I was just doing a bit of thinking!”

What was going on? I didn’t come all this way to act out a romantic comedy, did I?

Ugh, the back of my head was hurting. It felt like a drill made of ice or something was grinding on in. Did I have the talent of a master fencer or something, to be able to sense someone’s glare physically like that?

It was then that I felt something slash across my back as someone said, “Thanks for waiting! Here’s your knife, Asuta!” causing me to scream out, “Agh!” I had thought a certain someone had gone and cut me with a kitchen knife.

“Rimee, you shouldn’t play around with knives!”

“Huh? But it’s in the sheath still, so it’s fine!”

As I wiped cold sweat from my brow, I quickly snatched the knife away from Rimee Ruu.

“A-Anyway, I’m going to cut up the meat, so could you get me enough poitan for everyone? And then add all of them to the pot once it reaches a boil.”

“Got it! Let’s go to the pantry, big sis!”

“Right.”

The two close sisters left the kitchen, leaving just me and my benefactor there. I hurriedly got to work brushing off the pico leaf stuck to the block of thigh meat, then took a quick glance to the side as I inserted the knife.

My benefactor was sitting cross legged with her back to the wall.

“...It doesn’t seem there’s any task for me here at all.”

“That’s not true! You’re my emotional support! It’s because you’re sitting there watching over me that I’m able to relax and cook!”

“What are you getting all worked up over?”

I am not getting worked up. If anything was getting to me, though, it’s the way that your voice is cold and low right now.

Still, this was a valuable chance to have a one-on-one conversation with Ai Fa. At any rate, I decided to force out the feelings that had been building up inside of me, even while wincing from her cold glare.

“You know, the Ruu family are a lot friendlier than I’d been expecting, somehow. I kind of imagined a much more hot-blooded family of hunters, you know?”

“As if I’d understand how you think. And besides, this is my first time meeting any of the women of the family aside from Rimee and Jiba Ruu.”

“Ah, so you’ve met the men, then?”

“Donda Ruu took his three sons along when he asked me to marry into the family. If you want to see hot-blooded folks, then just wait for sunset.”

“Hey, it’s not like I wanted that...”

By the time we reached that point in the conversation, the two sisters had made it back. They were each holding what looked like a sort of flat basket, which had a mountain of those pseudo-potatoes, the poitan, in it. 14 people x 2 each = 28 total, which was certainly a sizeable amount.

Still, the sisters had one more helper behind them now. It was Granny Tito Min Ruu, with her plump physique and hair that was going white.

“Sorry for the wait. I’ll be helping out now, too. Ooh, this is a splendid giba leg.”

With her wrinkly face with a great complexion to it, she then turned towards Ai Fa.

“Ai Fa of the Fa clan. I heard that you’ve been managing the Fa house all by yourself, so does that mean that you’re the one who finished off this giba?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Ai Fa responded with a nod, her tone completely unchanging. She did move to stand up, though.

“That’s certainly something. And the Fa bloodline has grown much thinner than the other houses, hasn’t it? I truly can’t even imagine your way of life, for a woman like you to live all on her own without relying on anyone.”

“It’s really not such a big deal. My father had taught me how to hunt giba, as well as everything else I needed to survive at the forest’s edge. I’m able to keep on living just fine on my own.”

“Living, and then dying too?” the old woman asked, wearing a smile as if she had seen through something. Ai Fa opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it again without saying anything. “If a woman goes hunting, then she can’t give birth to children, right? You’ll live on your own and die the same, and the Fa clan will go down with you. Would you be satisfied with that, Ai Fa of the Fa clan?”

“There are countless examples of clans that have died out like that even here at the forest’s edge. It’s not as if every house possesses the power of the Ruu clan.”

“Oh? And what is power, then? Reina, Rimee, or I most certainly couldn’t take down a giba. No, not just that, there likely aren’t many men who could hunt down a giba on their own, either. By that way of thinking, there are few folks out there as powerful as you, wouldn’t you say?”

“That’s...”

“But the Fa bloodline is wasting away while the Ruu bloodline prospers. Now why is that...? If you think on that question, maybe the Fa bloodline won’t need to end after all.”

“Hey, what are you talking about, Granny Tito Min?” Rimee Ruu asked, looking quite bored as she poked at a poitan. Her grandmother looked back and narrowed her eyes, seeming like she was rather enjoying herself.

“The day will come when you understand, Rimee. Now then, it looks like the pot has started boiling, doesn’t it?”

Apparently they didn’t use last names when talking amongst family.

“Ah! I’ll put them in!” Rimee joyfully declared, grabbing a thin kitchen knife from the wall. Then, she looked down at the bubbling pot and let out a, “Huh?” along with a tilt of her little head. “Isn’t this way too little water? And also, we’re gonna heat all these poitan in just one pot?”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine. If you want to eat poitan like you had last night, then chuck them all in.”

“Alright!”

She cut into the poitan in the mountain, and then plopped them into the pot one after another. It was around that time that I finished cutting the thigh meat. After cutting off the fat that I’d use for cooking, I cut up the red meat into bits that would be easy to mince, so it wasn’t that big of a hassle. There was probably roughly five kilos of the stuff in total.

Then, Granny Tito Min turned to me with a smile.

“Asuta of the Fa clan. You’re more skilled at cutting meat than even women are, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I was a chef in training back in my country.”

“Hmm...” Granny Tito Min shot back, her eyes narrowing even further. “A woman who hunts giba, and a man who specializes at the stove. You two certainly make for an interesting pair. I suppose there may not be any need for me to go butting in, after all.”

“That’s right, Granny Tito Min. It’s not good to go butting into the affairs of other houses,” Reina Ruu chimed in, using a somewhat childish tone.

There was a really cozy feeling in the air, somehow. I didn’t let that get my guard down too much, though.

I looked over to see how Ai Fa was getting along, only to find my benefactor with a rather sour look on her face.