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The sun was currently midway between dawn and when it would hit its peak... By my estimation, around nine in the morning. Clad in my now fully-dried t-shirt under my vest, I was heading to the Ruu settlement with time to spare.
There were several routes from the settlement at the forest’s edge to the post town. The only ones I had actually walked personally, though, were the one closest to the Fa house over that terrifying rope bridge, and the one closest to the Ruu settlement.
By taking the route near the Fa house, we could get to the post town in less than an hour even on foot. However, thanks to the rope bridge in the middle, we couldn’t exactly take a totos-drawn wagon that way.
As for the route closer to the Ruu, that would take nearly two hours on foot. It would be one hour to reach the Ruu settlement, and then another 40-50 minutes from there into town. However, that commute time could be shortened drastically by using a totos. As the days passed by I was getting better and better at driving the wagon, and at present I could make it all the way to the post town in just 40 minutes.
Of course, considering the direct route only took around an hour on foot, I had only managed to shave off 20 minutes. However, the wagon also made it possible to carry far more supplies and personnel than before, so it still was saving us an awful lot of trouble.
On top of all that, I used to have Vina Ruu walk to the Fa house each day in order to help carry everything. Having her use those two hours or so normally spent on the round trip on other work made for a massive increase in efficiency.
Naturally, the other work in question was the prep for the giba burgers. Sheera Ruu had already taken on the task of baking the poitan, and the plan was to have them cooperate on this.
To get more into the details, the two who came directly to the post town from the Ruu settlement also got at least a little more time to work out of the deal. Using a totos, it took 40 minutes to get to the post town from the Fa house, and just 20 from the Ruu settlement. Walking, it would be around 40-50 minutes for them, so they got an extra 20-30 minutes. In other words, with the round trip in mind, they were generally getting a bit under an hour extra to work on other tasks each day.
At any rate, since their work hours had been the only thing we carefully locked down in my contract with the Ruu, Mia Lea Ruu insisted that the extra time needed to be used to assist the Fa clan. And so, we decided it would be used to help with the prep work, and anything left could be spent chopping firewood.
With that new agreement in place, I met up with everyone again today at the Ruu settlement, after which we headed out for the post town.
Today’s group was made up of Reina, Sheera, and Lala Ruu, as well as Ludo and Shin Ruu and two additional youths from the branch houses whose names I didn’t know on guard duty. The two branch family boys rode in the wagon with the rest of us, while Ludo and Shin Ruu rode alongside us on the Ruu clan’s totos, Ruuruu.
“When the sun hits its peak and you head off towards the inns, two men each from the Lea and Rutim will come to guard the stalls, apparently,” Reina Ruu informed me on our way to the post town.
So four guards for each, making for eight in total... That was the same number that they sent when guarding against an attack by Zattsu and Tei Suun.
It certainly did feel imposing. However, while we didn’t know what Cyclaeus was thinking, Jeeda had gone and openly declared his desire for revenge against the people of the forest’s edge, so it was definitely necessary.
Still, when we actually arrived in the post town and stepped foot on the stone highway, we really did seem to be faced with looks of much greater unease and caution than ever before.
Naturally, the four hunters solemnly took the lead in front of us chefs. Compared to the day before yesterday, when it was just Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu guarding us, we were clearly disturbing everyone a lot more. But I just had to accept all that, at least until we could fix things with Jeeda.
“Ah, good morning, Milano Mas.”
We had happened to arrive at The Kimyuus’s Tail just as its owner was stepping outside.
Milano Mas nodded back, “Yeah,” then cut in front of us and circled around to the back of the inn. Reina, Ludo, Shin Ruu, and I all followed after him in order to pick up the two stalls.
“We had an inn meeting yesterday...” Milano Mas muttered as he rolled one of the carts out from inside the fence. “You’re selling your cooking to The Westerly Wind, too?”
“Huh? That hasn’t been settled just yet...” I responded in surprise.
“I see,” Milano Mas replied, turning away. “The owner’s daughter was saying that she was planning to head to The Great Southern Tree to confirm your cooking skills.”
“Really? But I’ve heard the owner there has a strong dislike for the people of the forest’s edge and giba, so I still have no clue how all that will play out,” I said, and felt like I couldn’t let this opportunity to mention my other ideas pass on by. “Also... If we’re talking about selling my cooking, I would like to do that with The Kimyuus’s Tail first.”
“What?” Milano Mas questioned, his eyes opening wide in shock. “Is that some sort of joke? Or are you seriously saying you want to sell your food to my place?”
“I am. If I’m going to sell my cooking to inns that serve westerners, then I want The Kimyuus’s Tail to be first. Of course, The Great Southern Tree and The Sledgehammer have customers from the west too, but still... The core of their clientele comes from the south and east.”
“I don’t get it. I can’t see any reason for you to be so fixated on my place.”
“It’s just, I owe you a whole lot, and how should I put it...? It doesn’t feel right to work with a business rival of yours like The Westerly Wind first...”
Milano Mas went silent, a sour look on his face.
As I stared back at him, I continued on, “But... right now I’m planning to hold back on expanding my business. After all, I’d really hate it if expanding our relationship brought trouble your way.”
“What? Even if your talks with the folks from the castle have soured, that shouldn’t be any reason for messing with your business, right?”
I had opened up to my business partners like Milano Mas, Dora, Nail, and Naudis from the start about why I was bringing along bodyguards again. But with that said, it seemed too dangerous to mention Cyclaeus’s name, so instead I just explained that we were having a disagreement with the folks from the castle on how to deal with the criminals who pillaged the fruits of the forest.
“I thought the same up till yesterday, but something else cropped up.”
“What, you got yourself into even more trouble?”
“Yeah. I was waiting for a good time to mention it, but...”
With that, I told him about Goram Redbeard’s son Jeeda. That he was the child of the bandit leader who had been executed for crimes committed by people of the forest’s edge, and had shown up here in Genos burning with thoughts of revenge.
I couldn’t go spreading that information around lightly, as doing so would mean risking it reaching Cyclaeus’s ears. However, Milano Mas was the one person I felt I absolutely needed to tell. After all, he was closely tied to that incident too.
“The Red Beards, huh? Haven’t heard that name in quite some time,” Milano Mas grumbled, crossing his short, thick arms in front of his chest. “Still, that’s no reason for you to stop yourself from moving forward with your plans. As long as you lot don’t have any skeletons in your closet, then you should just keep on going with your heads held high, right?”
“No, no skeletons, but it’s still a fact that some of the Suun committed those crimes.”
“But the criminals were dealt with. You’re saying someone’s still looking to punish you even more on top of that?” Milano Mas questioned, looking around not just at me but also the rest of our group. “I mean, ten years ago you guys must’ve been nothing but snot-nosed brats, right? What sense does it make to blame you for something from way back then? But you say that Jeeda kid attacked you out of the blue regardless...?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“No matter how much he may hate the people of the forest’s edge, stuff like that just isn’t right. Even if people used to love his old man as a heroic outlaw or whatever, I’m sure he’s gotta be up there in the afterlife moaning about his son’s actions.”
It seemed that Milano Mas was getting rather worked up.
However, I felt like he was perfectly within his rights to be angry about what Jeeda had done. After all, he had also lost family and had to bear that grief.
“At any rate, you should just leave that kid to the guards. Besides, I can’t imagine anyone would be stupid enough to attack an inn right in the middle of the post town. If he did, they’d skewer him for sure.”
“Right... So, what do you think, Milano Mas?”
“Hmm?”
“Would it be possible to have my cooking served here at The Kimyuus’s Tail? Putting aside our issues with Jeeda, I really would like to make that happen before I do so with The Westerly Wind, or at least at the same time.”
Milano Mas gave a clear frown and muttered, “Can’t be done.”
“It can’t, huh...?”
“Of course not. If I start offering your cooking, I won’t be able to sell a single one of my other dishes, right? I can’t go taking on such lopsided business dealings.”
“Huh? But your clientele is mostly westerners, so it’s not like all of them would choose my giba cooking, right?”
“Yeah, but if they eat your food even once, they won’t pay any more attention to the stuff me and my daughter make. It’s not like we were an inn known for our meals to start with, after all.”
From what I could recall, Kamyua Yoshu had said that Milano Mas’s wife had passed away young, and as a result The Kimyuus’s Tail’s cooking started falling short of other inns.
With that, I clenched my fists and resolutely replied, “In that case... What if I offered cooking lessons?”
Now, Milano Mas looked completely taken aback as his eyes opened wide.
“Sorry. I know that may be a real rude proposal... And I’ve never handled kimyuus or karon meat before, so I don’t know how much I’ll be able to do with it, but maybe I can at least be of a little help to you.”
“T-There’s no reason for you to go that far! Or are you planning on swindling me out of money for the lessons...?”
“I certainly wouldn’t want any payment in exchange. I just see it as a chance to pay back some of what I owe you for all the help you’ve given me up till now.”
“Hey, I don’t recall doing anything special to help you out at all!”
“Really? Then that means you’ve been helping us out without even realizing it, huh?” I replied, naturally breaking out in a smile.
Milano Mas frowned even deeper.
“If everything goes smoothly, I think I should be able to start finishing up my work at The Great Southern Tree earlier from tomorrow on. If that happens then I’ll be able to spend that newly freed-up time at The Kimyuus’s Tail, so could you let me borrow your kitchen to give it a try?”
After chewing over the idea for a good long while, Milano Mas finally replied, “I won’t know until I talk to my daughter.”
By that point, according to my internal clock it was around 10am.
We left The Kimyuus’s Tail along with our two rented stalls, and then headed towards Dora’s place to purchase some fresh vegetables.
“Hey there, Asuta. Will you be wanting your usual amount again today?”
“Ah, I won’t need pula for a while from now on. I’m switching out the dishes I offer at The Sledgehammer.”
“Oh, is that so? In that case, I’ll subtract out the pula...”
Before, we would stop by while working, and often on our way back too, but since getting the wagon I had been buying everything I needed at this point in the morning.
For the stalls, I needed 48 aria and 8 tino. And then the inns added an extra 100 aria.
On top of that, I needed an additional 30 aria, 150 poitan, and 5 tarapa for prepping the food for the stalls for tomorrow.
That was just how large my orders from Dora’s place had gotten.
Even after taking out the pula, it still added up to 82 red coins in total.
“It certainly is something, having a customer buy this much aria and poitan each and every day. To be honest, our wallets have been getting pretty fat as a result, too,” Dora said with a big grin on his face. And Tara was smiling away at his side, too.
Dora was pleasantly plump while Tara was even skinnier than Rimee Ruu, but their eyes looked just alike when they smiled.
“Normally, selling out of aria and poitan would be unthinkable. Once enough time passes after harvesting them and they start spoiling, you’ve got to sell them to the butchers in Dabagg to use as karon feed. But in that case you have to sell them for around half price, so I’ve really been raking in the profits for these past two months.”
“Well it’s been a big help for me too, being able to buy all my vegetables from you without having to worry about you running out. Speaking of which... If I were to add on an additional 100 aria, would that still be alright?”
“Huh?! You want to buy even more?”
“Ah, it hasn’t been all hammered out just yet, but if I’m able to expand my business with the inns, then I think that’s around the number I’d need.”
With that, Dora nodded his head up and down, looking thoroughly astounded.
“If you really mean that, then I may be left without a single aria left over to sell to Dabagg! It would be a huge help on our end, of course!”
“I’m glad to hear it. Oh, but that won’t result in the cost of karon feed going up and the price of the meat rising, right?”
“Of course not. I’m certainly not the only one growing aria. There are enough out there that even the butchers can’t buy them all and some just get thrown away, so I can hardly imagine it would be an issue in the least.”
“That’s a relief,” I replied while counting out the aria. As Dora similarly counted the coins I had handed him, he tilted his head.
“It seems like you’re always worrying about other shops, Asuta. You sell giba meat, so wouldn’t the price of karon going up just be to your benefit?”
“Ah, no. You see, I’d be scared of provoking the other stalls and butchers and the like. I just want to keep on peacefully doing my business as is.”
“Hmm. But it’s only natural for business rivals to compete, so I really don’t think you need to worry about all that.”
“Yes, I agree that’s a fair way of looking at it too... But as a person of the forest’s edge, I want to avoid antagonizing others as much as I can.”
Those words made Dora look troubled, which was rare for him.
“You’re just trying to do your business fair and square. You’ve got nothing to worry about. All the criminals are gone now, so everything should start moving in a good direction, right?”
It would certainly be nice if that were true. But at the very least, we still needed to settle things with Cyclaeus and Jeeda.
As I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to respond, Tara chimed in, “Hey,” after silently listening to our whole exchange, tugging at her father’s clothing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you shouldn’t cause Asuta trouble, Dad.”
“Ah, no, it’s fine, Tara. Thank you, Dora.”
“I didn’t say anything for you to thank me for,” the vegetable seller replied with an embarrassed wave of his hand, and then finally brought that hand to rest atop Tara’s head. Even though she hadn’t really grasped what we were discussing, Tara gave a satisfied smile.
While feeling warmed by the sight of the father-daughter pair, I opened up about the details of yesterday’s attack, just leaving out all the proper nouns. In other words, I said that we were attacked at midday by someone with a deep grudge against the people of the forest’s edge, and that the two of them should take care too.
“Well, I suppose there is still no shortage of folks like that out there. We’ll be fine, but you all are the ones who really need to be taking care.”
After giving one more, “Thank you,” we departed from Dora’s place.
And so, our business with the stalls for the day began.
Once we arrived at our usual space all the way to the north, we found 30 or so customers waiting there again today. Though we had lost 18 regulars in total between the 10 from the Silver Vase and the eight from the construction group, there didn’t seem to be any change to how busy we were first thing in the morning.
Lala Ruu and I took the myamuu giba stall, while Reina and Sheera Ruu were in charge of the giba burgers. That had been our basic arrangement since yesterday, in preparation for the Ruu clan eventually taking over the giba burger stall.
“Now that I think about it, Li Sudra’s already been helping out for half a month now, huh? She’s only at the stalls for around half as long as us, so she really has improved remarkably fast,” Lala Ruu stated once the morning rush ended and we had a chance to catch our breath. “To be honest, I’d say she’s more or less caught up to me and Vina. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to rethink how much you’re paying her?”
“Ah, right. I always trade places with her, so I’ve hardly ever gotten a chance to see her work and had completely forgotten about all that.”
I had raised everyone else’s initial salary by 50% and brought them up to nine coins total. Li Sudra was currently working for three red coins, so if I did the same for her then that would equal 4.5, or a full five after rounding up the fraction.
“Actually, didn’t you say that you wanted to spread the chance to earn coins around to the smaller clans fairly, so you were going to switch around the lineup often?”
“Yeah, that’s true. The plan was to make the switch every 20 days or so, so I guess it’s about time to start making a move there. Thanks, Lala Ruu. It feels like my head’s been full just thinking about developing new dishes lately.”
“No problem,” Lala Ruu said with a shrug of her shoulders, and then she added, “Oh, and while I’m at it let me just add, Rimee was throwing a fit again last night. She was yelling how it was no fair that Reina gets to help with the stalls but she still doesn’t.”
Ah, that made sense. Because of Vina Ruu getting injured, Reina Ruu had taken a turn helping out too, meaning that now out of the four daughters of the main Ruu house, Rimee Ruu was the only one who hadn’t worked at the stalls.
“Hmm, but still... I had originally been planning on having both Reina and Rimee Ruu hold off till after things settled down between us and the castle. Wouldn’t it be too dangerous to have her help out now, when we even have bodyguards watching over us?”
“I don’t know. You’d have to ask our mom that question. And well, I guess it makes a bit more work for her and Granny Tito Min when we just leave Rimee and an injured Vina back home with them.”
I’ll have to consult with Mia Lea Ruu, then.
“Ah, but in that case it may end up being you alternating with Rimee Ruu. Would you still be okay with it, then?”
“I wouldn’t especially mind, as long as I still got to come along every other day. Working at the stalls is fun, so I’d like to continue with it as long as I can,” Lala Ruu replied, flashing the whites of her teeth. That smile of hers really did remind her of her brother, Ludo Ruu.
It was then that a well-built westerner approached the stall.
“Welcome!” I called out, only to suddenly hold my tongue. This was no customer.
“Hey there. Looks like you’re making a killing again today. Good to see you’re still doing well.”
His hair and moustache were dark brown, his eyes light brown, and his skin a tanned gold. There was a sand-colored turban-looking cloth wrapped around his head, and he had on a sleeveless vest and cylindrical pants. Overall, the middle-aged man had the bold yet jovial look of the leader of some band of thieves. This was the one who had once played the role of merchant caravan leader in Kamyua Yoshu and Melfried’s plot to entrap the Suun clan, the bodyguard Zasshuma.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Zasshuma. I actually have something I need to report to you.”
Now that Kamyua Yoshu and Leito had left Genos, this man had been tasked with stopping by the stalls each morning to check whether or not anything had happened.
I had heard that three bodyguards had been staying at The Kimyuus’s Tail just to be on the safe side, but apparently this guy couldn’t be one of them because Milano Mas was familiar with him.
“Hmm? Then how about we head behind that wagon and talk? Ah, wait, it’d look suspicious if we move too soon... You should keep working for a bit longer first.”
After saying that, Zasshuma promptly departed. Was he planning to circle around through the thicket to the rear after getting enough distance from the stalls? At any rate, Kamyua Yoshu’s group had been considering the possibility that these stalls were being watched by someone even before we had a chance to tell them about Jeeda.
“That guy seems real shady, somehow. Well, I guess that’s only natural when he’s friends with that suspicious blond guy.”
It seemed that Lala Ruu wasn’t all that fond of Zasshuma.
Well, he was enough of a faker to gladly take on the role of pretending to be a caravan leader, so I guess it was no surprise that people of the forest’s edge wouldn’t really care for him.
Still, I didn’t actually see him as all that similar to Kamyua Yoshu. Zasshuma just didn’t seem quite as unfathomable, but in exchange, he also didn’t possess the same mysterious charisma of that aloof bodyguard. I guess in the end, what I was saying was that oddballs on Kamyua Yoshu’s level didn’t come around too often.
“Well then, I’ll be stepping out for a bit. Take care of things while I’m gone, alright?”
“Yeah. Take care,” Lala Ruu replied with a relaxed wave of her hand as I went and circled around to the rear of the wagon.
Shin Ruu had been waiting there carrying out his guard duty, and he was now shooting me a look of confusion.
“One of Kamyua Yoshu’s allies showed up, and I’m going to report the events from yesterday to him.”
“I see,” Shin Ruu replied with a single nod. Since Jeeda’s attack had occurred just yesterday, there was naturally still a clear, blue bruise on his face.
Then, after a minute or so of me playing with Gilulu and Ruuruu, Zasshuma appeared from the trees escorted by a boy from the branch houses.
“Asuta of the Fa clan, this man says he is a comrade of someone named Kamyua Yoshu and that he has an agreement to speak with you. Is that all true?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Thanks for bringing him.”
“Right,” the boy nodded, and then he left.
“Good grief,” Zasshuma muttered with a strained grin as he watched the youth leave. “You’ve sure got some pretty imposing guards. The hunters of the forest’s edge really are something else, even when we’re talking about a kid like that. And it seems like all the women are real beauties, too,” Zasshuma quipped, which was something else I was sure the people of the forest’s edge wouldn’t appreciate.
Still, despite how rough and crude he was, he didn’t seem all that bad of a guy deep down.
“So, what is it anyway? Things look pretty peaceful around here from what I can see.”
For the third time now, I gave the details of yesterday’s events.
As he rubbed his tanned cheek, Zasshuma let out an impressed, “Ooh, Goram Redbeard’s son! You sure ran into a key player, there. But still, the Northern Whirlwind is after the mother. That son of his wouldn’t quite fully serve our needs.”
“Right. And he seems to have quite a bit of hatred towards the people of the forest’s edge.”
“Hmm... Guess he grew up hearing his mother tell him how his old man was taken down by a cowardly plot. From what I’ve heard, that kid would’ve been just three or four, ten years back.”
In that case, he really was younger than me or Shin Ruu.
That made sense considering his height, but well... It pained me to think that he could be so driven by hatred at such a young age.
Through his wild red hair, I had spied the yellow eyes of a carnivorous beast. They really did look every bit as fierce as those of the hunters of the forest’s edge.
“Zasshuma, if this means that his mother is hiding out here in Genos too, then Kamyua’s group are just completely wasting their time. Isn’t there some way we could let them know?”
“Hmm, maybe you could make it if you pushed a totos past its breaking point to catch up, but I figure that’d be pointless. As long as we don’t actually know where the mother is, we shouldn’t just pull the Northern Whirlwind back here. We have to let them keep on searching on their end, and do the same over here too.”
Right, that made sense.
“Still, a hunter of Masara, huh...? If that’s true, then he could end up proving pretty troublesome.”
Upon hearing those words, Shin Ruu turned towards Zasshuma. There was now a hunter’s light flickering in his usually calm eyes.
“Allow me to interject. Westerner, are you saying you’re aware of what a hunter of Masara refers to?”
“Hmm? Well, yeah. Not that I’ve ever seen one myself, mind you... Masara’s a mountain about three days from Genos by totos. The barobaro birds caught there are famed for being real exquisite.”
“Barobaro birds...”
“However, extremely vicious gaaje leopards also live there, so it’s not like any halfhearted hunter can go hunt those birds. They say that the hunters of Masara are only considered proper adults when they can take down a gaaje leopard.”
So that yellowish-brown pelt cloak the boy wore was his hunter’s attire, huh?
As he stared at the bruise on Shin Ruu’s face, Zasshuma added, “From what I’ve heard, gaaje leopards are vicious carnivores about as big as a human being. If he’s skilled enough to take one down at just 13 or 14, then I could certainly see him managing to catch one of you hunters of the forest’s edge off guard.”
“I see... You have my thanks for that valuable information,” Shin Ruu replied with a bow, and then he held his tongue.
Zasshuma gave another, “Hmm...” and turned my way while rubbing his cheek. “This means Goram Redbeard’s wife and son have probably been hiding out near Masara for the past ten years. If we guess that the wife may have remained around there, then... Well, it’s around three days one way to Masara, so I can’t say we’ve got all that much time to spare.”
There was half a month left until the next meeting.
If the round trip was going to take six days, then that left less than ten to move freely... And it wasn’t like it was certain that Kamyua Yoshu and his team were heading right for that Mount Masara place.
“What should we do, then? Of course, if Jeeda appears before us again I’d like to try to at least explain the situation to him properly without fighting. But isn’t there anything else we can do?”
“Not much in particular, no. If you go and piss off the mother then the Northern Whirlwind’s plan will go up in smoke too, so you’ve just got to handle him as gently as possible. Still, that kid got injured, right...? It’d be a pain if the guards caught him like that.”
“Ah, so it’d be a problem if the guards got a hold of him after all?”
“Yeah, that’d be real bad. If that count’s the sort of man we think he is and he finds out about that kid, then he’ll either shut him up permanently or use him as a tool to keep his mom from talking,” Zasshuma ominously stated with a shrug of his shoulders. “Well, if the kid’s using an inn, then I’ll hear about it eventually. A hunter of Masara can’t help but stand out here in Genos, after all.”
“Really...?”
“Yup. My job is to go around to the various inns each night while guzzling down booze and gathering information. So I might get a hold of something in the process,” Zasshuma said, breaking out in a twisted grin. “By the way, it seems you’ve gotten pretty darn close to that one vegetable seller, huh? Ever since those criminals from the Suun clan were dealt with, I’ve been running into him in a lot of random inns.”
“Huh? Do you mean Dora?”
“I don’t know the guy’s name. But he’s the vegetable seller you visit every morning.”
That couldn’t be anyone but Dora.
I could feel my heart starting to pound a bit faster.
“What’s going on with him? I don’t want him to get mixed up in anything.”
“You’ll have to talk to him, then. You see, he’s been going around to various inns each night like I do, and going on and on about you people of the forest’s edge. That you’re really pleasant folks, and that now that the criminals have been dealt with the rest of you lot are innocent, and that we should be more grateful to you. Stuff like that.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
“A couple times, things have gotten real heated with folks who especially hate you people of the forest’s edge, but at least for now they’ve stayed peaceful enough that the guards haven’t gotten called yet. Still, he works a farm to the south of the post town, doesn’t he? I can’t see any need for him to be eating at inns to begin with.”
“I see...” was about all I could force out.
Just how greatly had I been helped by folks like Dora, Milano Mas, and Yumi...?
I desperately held back the warmth welling up inside of me so that Zasshuma wouldn’t notice as he grinned away.
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