4
And so, we managed to safely wrap up our work again on that day.
For the first time in several days, I was able to prepare my giba sauté arrabbiata and meat and chatchi stew for the inns, and the stalls managed to sell a hundred meals each. We really did seem to be getting even more customers now compared to how things had been before our last break.
Thanks to the rumors spread throughout the post town by Zasshuma, a lot of the customers asked about what was going on. And most of them were southerners and easterners, concerned and wanting to know, “Will you be able to keep on doing business?”
Meanwhile, Cyclaeus didn’t seem to be making any moves.
Though the town guards shot us some rather stormy looks, they never approached, and nobody attacked us, either. Even those bandits dressing like people of the forest’s edge seemed to be lying low ever since I returned from Cyclaeus’s manor.
“At least on the surface, things are quite peaceful...” Ai Fa murmured as she stood right behind the driver’s seat in our wagon, which was being pulled along by Gilulu.
In the wagon itself were the three Ruu women and Li Sudra along with one of the youths from the branch houses acting as one of our bodyguards, while the others were accompanying us on the backs of totos borrowed from the Ruu and Lea clans, two hunters per bird. Meanwhile, Tsuvai and Ama Min Rutim were walking back, with the six hunters who arrived when the sun hit its peak watching over them.
“There are only three days remaining until the meeting. It would be best if nothing were to happen until then, but still...”
“Yeah. I’ll be praying that things stay peaceful till the day of the meeting.”
It wasn’t just Dora, as folks like Milano Mas and Nail also seemed to be seriously concerned about the future of the people of the forest’s edge.
The clash between us and Cyclaeus was liable to have an impact on the fate of Genos itself. This really was the aftereffects left by Zattsu Suun’s actions.
“Hey, I see you made it back safely again,” Bartha called out as we returned to the Ruu settlement and headed for the main house’s kitchen, to find them chopping firewood around back again. “Are you getting started on dinner right away? Think I could watch again?”
The hunters aside from Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu all dispersed, and the remaining members of our group once more headed for the kitchen. Ryada Ruu also went home, but aside from that, it was just like yesterday.
However, the group in charge of making dinner had been randomly swapped out, so today we were joined by Granny Tito Min and Rimee Ruu.
“Lala, you’re supposed to be the other one on duty, but are you switching with Sheera Ruu again?” Rimee Ruu asked as we entered the kitchen.
“You got some sort of problem with that?” Lala Ruu snapped back, her face quickly turning red.
“Nope. It’ll make Shin Ruu happy too, so it’s fine with me!” Rimee Ruu replied with a brilliant grin.
Despite the fact that this was basically what Ludo Ruu said yesterday, she just seemed so pure and innocent. And so, this time Lala Ruu only went beet red rather than exploding with rage.
“Hey, what are we making today?” Rimee Ruu asked, clinging to my chest and making the same expression she had worn when crushing her sister just moments earlier.
“For today, I was thinking of preparing a completely different dish from what I’ve made up till now. And I want to have as many folks try it out as possible, to determine whether or not it’s a proper meal for the people of the forest’s edge.”
“Really? Hooray!” Rimee Ruu shouted, rubbing her reddish-brown hair up against my chest. Ever since I returned from Cyclaeus’s manor, the girl had been showing me even more affection.
“Hey, runt! Asuta’s still technically a man, you know. So you shouldn’t go hugging him like it’s nothing,” Ludo Ruu rebuked, sounding a bit angry.
But with her cheek still pressed to my chest, Rimee Ruu adorably stuck out her tongue.
“Quiet, you meanie! I can decide for myself who I get to hug, right?”
At that, Ludo Ruu rustled his hair.
In order to maintain the peace, I chimed in, “Well then, shall we get started?”
First up came the preparations for tomorrow’s business.
Just like yesterday, I began by silently slicing up meat for the myamuu giba. Though it took quite a while to prepare enough for one hundred meals, the work itself wasn’t especially difficult.
Once that was finished, it was finally time to prepare dinner.
For today, I’d be taking a stab at my long-awaited fried giba meat dish... Giba cutlets.
“Now then, how did the fuwano turn out?” I asked, checking the dough that had been resting atop a wooden plate since yesterday.
Just as Polarth described, it had dried out.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it stiff as a rock, it was tough enough that I couldn’t really pinch any off. It seemed like making it less than a centimeter thick had paid off, as it appeared to have lost quite a bit of the moisture inside.
“Alright, this seems like it’ll work. Reina and Sheera Ruu, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your jobs, if you want, why not—” I started to say, only to find their intense gazes turned my way as they kept working intently.
“Hey, what’re you gonna do with that?” Rimee Ruu questioned as she baked up the poitan for dinner.
“With this, first we’ve got to make it back into a fine powder,” I replied, holding out a grater of the sort they used in the post town, which had no holes, just notches, and was made from the flat shell of some sort of crustacean.
Fortunately it didn’t prove difficult using that to grate the fuwano, which came crumbling apart. While it was a notably primitive piece of cookware, it didn’t have any trouble handling the fuwano, since it wasn’t especially tough.
Before long, I had a little mound of fuwano crumbs sitting atop my cutting board.
“Then, you dry roast this in a pot without any fat,” I explained more toward Reina and Sheera Ruu rather than Rimee Ruu as I got to work.
With that, the moisture was pretty much completely removed from the fuwano crumbs, leaving them good and parched. They had taken on a bit of a creamy color, and so at least visually they looked to me like a proper panko substitute.
“Next up is the meat. First you sever the tendons in the back meat, then beat it with a pole. And we want it more tender than with the steaks, so do it thoroughly.”
For the cut, I went with sirloin.
If I was thinking of calories then it would be better to pick the fillet or thigh meat instead, but I had been told before that using the sirloin would keep down the fat content. That was because the fillet and thigh meat lacked in fat to start with, which meant they absorbed more oil during the frying... That bit of trivia had actually come from my childhood friend Reina of all people.
“That’s why I eat sirloin cutlets instead of ones made with fillets!” I remembered her saying with a carefree smile as she stuffed her cheeks with the tonkatsu my old man had prepared.
Reina’s statement had ultimately just been that of an ordinary high school girl, so maybe it was dangerous to go accepting it without question. But I had another reason for choosing the sirloin instead of the fillet: the shape of the meat.
Since the fillet was long and narrow, normally you would cut into it sideways to make some small, round cutlets. But when they were that small, that only increased the amount of surface area for coating, and I figured that would lead to a greater amount of oil in the meal.
I was conflicted, torn between a desire to show everyone how delicious cutlets were, while also not wanting to make a dish so far removed from what I had prepared up till now.
At any rate, those various thoughts were what led to me selecting the sirloin.
And so, I went ahead and thoroughly pounded the flat cut of sirloin in front of me. Since I wanted as many people as possible to sample it, I picked out an extra large five hundred gram chunk. It started as three centimeters or so thick, and when it was pounded down to around half of that, it was ready. At that thickness, it wouldn’t take long at all to heat through.
“Then we rub salt and pico leaves onto it, and once that’s done, we make the coating,” I said, opening up the cloth bundle I had sat atop my work station.
As she kept on working away at baking the poitan, Rimee Ruu let out an excited, “Ooh! What’s that?! It’s sorta cute, isn’t it?”
“This is a kimyuus egg. Kimyuus are a type of bird eaten by the townsfolk.”
I had purchased it from a place that specialized in raising kimyuus and selling their meat.
The people of the forest’s edge never had any issue getting enough animal protein in their diets, and I had never encountered kimyuus eggs being sold around the stalls either, so for most everyone present, this would be their first time seeing one.
“First we crack it open onto a wooden plate, then we stir together the yolk and the white. Next, we cover the meat evenly in ordinary fuwano flour, then dip it in our stirred egg, then finally give it a layer of the fuwano crumbs we just dry roasted. Take care not to make the coating too thick, though.”
“Right,” Reina and Sheera Ruu replied from a distance.
“And then, it’s finally time for the lard.”
“Lard?”
“It’s boiled down giba fat. Even here at the forest’s edge, you make the stuff normally for candles, right? It’s pretty much the same thing.”
I had prepared it in advance, and had Ai Fa bring it from back home in the morning. After all, she had already been riding Gilulu each morning since yesterday to manage the pantry and bring back giba meat.
Before, I had stored the lard in a leather bag, but lately I switched to a lidded jar, which was more airtight. It wasn’t like it would spoil that easily, but if it oxidized, the flavor would clearly worsen, so I even added an inner lid made of a suurub leaf.
When I pulled that inner lid loose, there was a sticky strand of cream-colored lard clinging to it. Using a wooden spatula, I added enough to the pot to safely submerge a chunk of meat with depth to spare.
“Now we should heat up the lard, then add the meat and let it cook through. Managing the flames here is the toughest part, so if you decide to make regular use of this recipe, I’ll teach it to you again separately.”
“Right,” they once again answered.
As I added firewood to the stove, the lard soon turned transparent as the surface started to tremble.
Several minutes passed while I kept the heat to a medium flame.
When I poked it with my long grigee chopsticks, fairly large bubbles floated up, so I went ahead and tossed in a pinch of those baked fuwano crumbs.
With a crackling sound, the fuwano crumbs jumped to the surface.
It seemed to be ready. I wanted to cook each bit of meat for the least amount of time possible, so that it wouldn’t suck up any more oil than was necessary. And so, I aimed for around 180 degrees.
“Alright, let’s try frying some up. Ah, Rimee Ruu, could I borrow several metal skewers?”
Since Rimee Ruu had just finished baking the poitan, she swiftly answered my request.
I laid out some suurub leaves atop a wooden plate, then layered the skewers in an alternating pattern along the outer edge. Naturally, the idea was to make a replacement metal rack to temporarily deposit the fried cutlets onto.
With that done, I picked up a bit of coated meat and gently placed it into the pot.
And this time, the lard started seriously crackling away.
“Whoa, amazing!” Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed.
Ai Fa, Ludo Ruu, and Bartha all watched on with great interest, while Reina and Sheera Ruu seemed a bit anxious as they handled their own work while glancing over. And all the while, the smell of heated lard filled the kitchen.
“Hmm... This seems like the most elaborate dish you’ve shown us since the hamburger steak,” Granny Tito Min proclaimed with a smile as she walked on over, apparently having finished preparing the giba stew.
The color of the coating steadily shifted. Once it had fried to a nice golden brown, I lifted it out with a metal skewer.
“Now we just need to wait for the excess oil to drip off and it’ll be done. Rimee Ruu, there’s one more thing I’d like to ask you to do. Could you go get four or five of the men?”
“The men? But why?”
“Well, just like Tito Min Ruu said, this dish is unique, just as much as hamburger steak. So I’d like to see if hunters more stubborn than Ludo Ruu and Ai Fa still think it’s fitting for a dinner here at the forest’s edge.”
“Got it. But the men are all out in the forest setting up traps and stuff... Ah, then how about I go ask Ryada Ruu?! And Mida and the men who came back from the post town could try it, too!”
Having solved the problem on her own, Rimee Ruu went running out of the kitchen.
I certainly wouldn’t call Mida stubborn, but I figured it was still alright since I hardly ever got a chance to feed him my cooking.
“Asuta, we’ve finished with work on our end for the time being.”
With that, Reina and Sheera Ruu finally joined in directly.
“This really is just as mysterious a dish as hamburger steak, isn’t it? For some reason, I’ve felt my heart beating terribly fast for a while now.”
“This will be my first time tackling it, too. I really hope it turns out well.”
The first issue would be making sure it wasn’t half-cooked. Then came the question of if it suited the tastes of the people of the forest’s edge. And finally, there was the matter of determining whether or not the dish would act as a poison when added to their lives.
Personally, I was feeling more nervous than I had been since I presented the steak and roast giba to Donda Ruu.
“Asuta, sorry for the wait!” Rimee Ruu called out, arriving just before the sample finished cooling down.
“Thanks,” I started to reply, and then suddenly found myself at a loss for words.
Sure enough, Ryada Ruu was also standing there, but he was accompanied by his elder brother and that man’s son... In other words, Donda and Jiza Ruu.
And behind them were Shin Ruu and Mida.
“These two just happened to be on their way back from the forest! Dad and Jiza are the stubbornest ones in the whole Ruu settlement, so they should be fine, right?” Rimee Ruu said, puffing out her chest with a giggle.
As I held back my urge to flinch, I went ahead and bowed my head instead.
“Sorry about this. I’m sure Rimee Ruu already explained, but would you mind participating in this taste test?”
“Looks like you went and made another oddity of a dish,” Donda Ruu grumbled. “Is that seriously giba meat? It just looks like a lump of earth or something to me.”
“This is giba back meat, and it’s coated with fuwano crumbs and kimyuus eggs. I’ll go ahead and cut it into several pieces now...”
There were six men and five women, so adding me, Ai Fa, and Bartha to that count, you got fourteen in total. Still, the cutlet was a big five hundred gram chunk of meat, so a single piece per person would work out.
I started by cutting it straight down the middle, and it was immediately clear I didn’t have to worry about it being undercooked. There wasn’t any red left at all, and the meat had turned a beautiful ivory shade. And the way there was a bit of transparent oil slowly seeping out from between the meat and the coating was seriously stirring up my appetite.
Once I had finished cutting it up into pieces, I also went ahead and sprinkled some juice from the lemon-like sheel on top.
I had been aiming to create something akin to tonkatsu, and at least in terms of appearances, it seemed to have come out perfectly.
The real issue, though, was how the people of the forest’s edge judged it.
“Please, dig in... No wait, this is my first time making this dish, so let me give it a shot first,” I declared, picking up a chunk of giba cutlet.
When I tossed it into my mouth and took a nice, firm bite, first I was impressed by the pleasant texture, and then I felt plenty of piping hot oil seep out.
The fuwano crumb coating was pretty much ideal in terms of both thickness and texture. And maybe it was because I had used lard, but it had an incredibly rich flavor.
To be honest, this was the first time I had ever used lard to fry cutlets. But you could get lard-fried croquettes in the shopping district, or buy it from the butchers’ shops, which was what gave me the idea.
Was this flavor from the giba meat or the lard? I could sense that the deliciousness of the meat had seeped into the coating, but it fortunately wasn’t overpowering. But adding even more deliciousness onto the wonderful taste of the giba meat made it feel like an explosion of flavor in my mouth.
And the sour accent from the sheel fruit juice was nice and pleasant, too.
At least for me personally, this flavor really was the best.
Yup, with this I could safely listen to everyone’s opinions without feeling any regrets.
“I’m definitely satisfied with how it turned out. Everyone, please go ahead and give it a try.”
The women used the skewers, while the men all just picked the giba cutlet bits up with their bare hands before popping them in their mouths.
“Whoa...” Ludo Ruu exclaimed.
He stared at me in shock. However, as his mouth was currently full of food, he couldn’t say anything further at the moment.
Rimee Ruu’s big, round eyes opened wide.
Reina and Sheera Ruu wore serious looks.
And Donda Ruu was completely expressionless.
For a moment, the kitchen was filled with the light sound of chewing.
Feeling a bit on edge, I turned and looked toward Ai Fa. Sure enough, she was also chewing away with her eyes closed.
“Um, how does it taste...?”
Even though each sample was only a single bite’s worth, everybody was taking quite a while to swallow.
Ultimately, the first one to finally respond to me was Rimee Ruu.
“It was super tasty!” she declared, her big eyes sparkling. “It may be the tastiest thing you’ve ever made, Asuta! Ah, but the stew’s really good, too... Think I can say they’re both the best?” she said, putting her hands on her cheeks.
As I watched that adorable sight, I went ahead and breathed a sigh of relief.
With that, I suddenly started hearing comments from all around.
“This... This is a wonderful flavor.”
“I was so taken aback I couldn’t even speak.”
“What’s with this dish?! It’s amazingly tasty!”
“Aah, this is definitely the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in my whole life.”
Sheera, Tito Min, and Ludo Ruu all offered such praise along with Bartha.
Ryada and Shin Ruu listened to what their comrades had to say while wearing gentle expressions.
Reina Ruu... Her eyes had closed, and she looked to be sorting out how she felt.
And then, there was Ai Fa.
Ai Fa was holding back any expression that might show on her face, and she had her eyes shut just like Reina Ruu.
“Hey Ai Fa, how is it...?”
My clan head opened her eyes and looked at me. It was a very calm, gentle gaze.
“It was delicious... It’s true that this really may be the greatest dish you have ever created.”
I could feel my heart leap a little.
Unable to hold myself back, I leaned in close and whispered into Ai Fa’s ear, “Then would you say I’ve finally served you something that surpasses hamburger steak?”
At that, Ai Fa hid her face so that nobody else could see, and broke out in a frown.
“Hamburger steak is special.”
“Special, huh?” I repeated, giving a grin.
Seeing that, Ai Fa angrily kicked me in the leg, and then she suddenly turned to glare at Mida.
“Hey, don’t start crying again, alright?”
“Yeah... I won’t cry...”
When I looked, I found Mida standing in front of the entrance to the kitchen, his cheeks trembling.
“Asuta... this is really, really tasty...”
“Thank—” I started to reply, only for a voice to chime in from another direction entirely.
“This dish... I may well sense a giba’s strength in it more than anything I have ever eaten before.”
I turned and looked in shock. Why? Because it was Jiza Ruu who said that.
“Why is that, I wonder? Even though you used ingredients that should be entirely unnecessary for us people of the forest’s edge, like fuwano and kimyuus eggs... I can truly sense the giba’s strength flowing into me.”
“That may be because I used a lot of giba fat. And it should have soaked into the coating around the meat quite a bit, too,” I explained, then felt the need to keep going. “Thanks to that, it should provide more nutrition than just boiling or grilling meat. My one concern is that it might go too far on that point, so—”
“There’s no need to worry about that. Nutrients are the source of our strength, right?” Donda Ruu grumbled.
I turned his way, still feeling quite nervous.
“Right. But I believe it really is true that too much medicine can turn into poison. Back where I come from, there was no shortage of people who got sick from improper nutrition... Besides, like I said last night, even here in Genos there’s illness of the innards resulting from overly extravagant dining.”
“Hmph. You’re talking about what that Cyclaeus noble’s suffering from, right? Like I said, there’s no need to worry about that... We need greater strength, after all,” Donda Ruu said, his blue eyes blazing bright as he faced me head on. “As the Fou clan head told you, eating food prepared by the women you taught fills our bodies with strength... Rather than anything to do with taste, that’s simply down to your dishes being packed with nutrition, isn’t it?”
“Well, that’s because the small clans in particular were eating nothing but giba meat, aria, and poitan, plus I guess the salt used when making jerky. Many of my dishes introduce salt even outside of jerky, then there’s the sugar from the fruit wine, plus other vegetables like myamuu, making for a robust bit of nutrition.”
“Never mind the details. What you’re saying is that a dish this overflowing with strength could be a poison to the people of the forest’s edge?” Donda Ruu questioned in a firm tone.
My thoughts raced.
“That’s right... It may be as dangerous as hamburger steak. If that dish was one that threatened to weaken the strength of your teeth and jaws, this is one that could unbalance your nutrition. So even back in my home country, it was seen as best to eat it with lots of vegetables or stuff with high acidity.”
“Then why not just do that?”
“Right, that was my intention from the start. If such a dish is going to be part of a dinner, it really should be along with plenty of veggies like tino, tarapa, and gigo. The reason I also sprinkled sheel juice on top was to guard against too much oil being absorbed.” I just kept on answering with everything that came to mind. “Still, just like with the hamburger steak, I believe the key point is that you can’t just keep eating it for every meal. Of course, the real issue comes from the giba fat used in it, so as long as you take care in regards to how much you use, I believe it shouldn’t have too negative of an impact.”
“Hmph. This is how that strength of yours can prove medicine instead of a poison. And in order to take on the nobles of Genos, we need even greater strength... Asuta of the Fa clan.”
“Y-Yes.”
It was incredibly rare for Donda Ruu to actually call me by name. Without even thinking, I stood up straight, and he shot me an even more intense glare.
“If you’re one of our people, then prepare us proper food in order to grant us proper strength in turn. That’s the task given to you as a person of the forest’s edge.”
“Right... Understood,” I answered with a nod, directly meeting his gaze.
Donda Ruu also nodded, then he said something that shocked me even further.
“Well then, as one of the leading clan heads of the forest’s edge, allow me to ask something of you. Make dinner for the main Ruu house two nights from now. Rather than you assisting the women, they’ll be helping you out, so prepare something fitting for that night.”
“Fitting for that night...?”
Two days from now would be the night before the meeting with Cyclaeus. What exactly would be happening then?
“We’ll be bringing along the seven former members of the main Suun house with us to that meeting. So the night before, we’ll be having them gather here in the Ruu settlement. Zuuro Suun, Diga, Doddo, Oura, Tsuvai, Yamiru Lea, and Mida... I’m ordering you to make a dinner not just for the members of the main Ruu house, but for those seven, too.”
“Right... Of course I’ve got no objections, but why exactly—”
“They’re still our comrades. That even goes for Zuuro Suun, a criminal awaiting his execution. And they’ll be standing before those nobles three days from now as people of the forest’s edge.” Donda Ruu’s tone was solemn, brimming with both strength and dignity. “Mida and Yamiru Lea have already eaten your cooking, but the other five have only eaten food prepared by Suun women you instructed. What you bring to the forest’s edge, and your reasoning for doing business in the post town... There’s a need for them to understand all of that more deeply. So I’m telling you to have them eat your cooking.”
“Right.”
Some sort of unfamiliar powerful emotions started running wild in my chest. I felt like my body would start trembling if I didn’t firmly clench my fists.
“Let me just say now, I’ve got no intention of paying you. If you’re calling yourself a person of the forest’s edge, then I’ll have you show them that you’re one of us through your convictions and resolve. Just like you did with the Ruu, as well as your clan head there.”
“Right. Thank you.”
Donda Ruu gave a snort that seemed to say, “What’re you thanking me for?” Then with a flutter of his hunter’s cloak, he lightly pushed aside Mida’s massive frame with the back of his hand and exited the kitchen.
Jiza Ruu soon followed after him, leaving behind a heavy silence hanging in the air.
“I don’t really get it. In other words, he wants to have those fools taste your cooking, I guess?” Ludo Ruu bluntly murmured, finally breaking that silence.
I didn’t know Donda Ruu’s true intentions. I just might have been feeling uplifted at being ordered to do my duty as a person of the forest’s edge.
Still... I had to agree it was important to properly let those six born with Zattsu Suun’s blood flowing through their veins know just what the people of the forest’s edge thought, what resolve they held, and how they planned to face the crimes committed by their comrades.
And if Donda Ruu figured my cooking would help teach them that, then I wanted to do whatever it took to see that task through.
“It’ll be fine...” a voice quietly whispered into my ear.
When I turned to look, I found Ai Fa shooting me a resolute look.
“I know you can handle it, Asuta,” she stated, her expression gentle, but a firm light gleaming in her blue eyes.
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