Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 11 - Chapter SS2

Bonus Short Story

The Eldest Sons of the Ruu and Rutim

Gazraan Rutim first encountered that person on the day that the head of the main Lea house got married.

The women under the Ruu had all gathered together in the plaza in the center of the settlement, and had been preparing for a banquet. It was in the midst of this that the two of them met off to the side of the plaza.

“Who are you...?” Gazraan Rutim called out because he spied the unfamiliar face.

The response he got back from the wary boy was, “I’m Jiza Ruu, son of the main Ruu house’s head, Donda Ruu.”

“Ah, I’ve heard rumors about you for some time now... I’m Gazraan Rutim, son of the main Rutim house’s head, Dan Rutim,” the older of the two precocious boys said.

“So you are Gazraan Rutim? I’ve heard tell of you, too.” As he replied, Jiza Ruu’s narrowed eyes calmly stared back at Gazraan Rutim. Normally they would make it look as if he was smiling, but instead he was making a rather unique expression there. “So, what is the heir to the main Rutim house doing here on his own?”

“I thought maybe I could do something to help, so I was looking for anything I could work on. What were you up to?”

“It was much the same for me. After all, it’s my first time participating in a banquet, so I don’t know how these things are done.”

With that, Jiza Ruu turned his gaze towards the plaza. Since the sun was high in the sky, the men were still out in the forest, and the only ones there were women.

“Isn’t it unusual for the subordinate clans to gather this early, even for a wedding banquet...?”

“Yes, but since the Ruu clan women alone weren’t enough, we all came here.”

“I see. A number of children were born to the Ruu branch houses recently, so that may be why we were shorthanded. My apologies for the inconvenience.”

“Think nothing of it. The Lea clan are also precious relatives to us too, so we’re happy to have such a chance to help out with the wedding banquet preparations. With that said, though, it’s not like I’m doing anything to help out now...”

“It’s the same for me, too. I’m looking for anything I can do so that I won’t be seen as useless.”

With that, one of the women busily working away noticed them and came running over. She was the wife of the clan head Donda Ruu, and Jiza Ruu’s mother, Mia Lea Ruu.

“Why, if it isn’t Jiza and Gazraan Rutim. What are the two of you doing standing around in a place like this?”

“Yes, well, we were wondering if there was anything we could do to help, and were looking for work we could take care of,” Gazraan Rutim replied.

“I see...” Mia Lea Ruu said back with a tilt of her head. “Then could you look after the young children gathered in the house over there? There are already a number of women on the job, but they must have their hands full taking care of the newborns.”

Children under five couldn’t participate in banquets, so they were all gathered together in one house. And it made sense women cradling young infants would have trouble handling energetic three- and four-year-olds on top of that.

“Understood. Well then, shall we get going, Jiza Ruu?”

“Right. We’ll finally be helping out, it seems.”

As she looked back and forth between the pair, Mia Lea Ruu broke out in a truly radiant smile.

“The two of you are already so mature. If everyone were like you, we’d really have no trouble at all.”

As Gazraan Rutim stood there taken aback and turned to face Jiza Ruu, he found the boy shooting him much the same look.

This was when Jiza Ruu was just five years old, a year younger than Gazraan Rutim, and was the first time he ever participated in a banquet. In other words, it was eighteen years in the past.