Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3: The Night Before

1

It was now the following day, the 13th of the white month.

Having handed off the stalls to Li Sudra and Ama Min Rutim around when the sun hit its peak, I was heading out while feeling more than a little excited. That was because for today, the plan was to stop by Yang’s stall for a snack on my way to the inns.

We had the same members in our group as yesterday, meaning I was accompanied by Reina Ruu and six hunters, including Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu.

And my clan head was walking right alongside me as she questioned, “Asuta, why exactly are you wearing such a giddy expression?”

“Hmm? I really look that excited? It’s just that I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of stall that Yang guy has set up.”

“Really? But why?”

“I don’t really know how to answer that, but... Well, I feel like I can relate to the man on a lot of levels, and I also can’t help but be curious to see how it’ll turn out when a chef from the castle town makes a dish using ingredients from the post town.”

“Right? I’m quite curious, too,” Reina Ruu agreed with a smile.

As she glanced at that grin, Ai Fa murmured, “I see... Still, even if you share a common enemy, by opening a shop, does that not make him a... what was the term, business rival?”

“Wow, so you know terms like that, Ai Fa?! But yeah... That might be part of why I’m so anxious to find out what sort of dish he’ll make, actually.”

And this was also a part of the grand yet somewhat hare-brained plot to spread knowledge of what baked poitan was like throughout Genos.

Considering what I saw from Yang yesterday, I had no doubt that he was putting his pride as a chef on the line with this job. And I couldn’t help but get my hopes up thinking of what sort of dish he would be making, as someone who believed the value of a dish wasn’t solely in the cost of its ingredients.

“Asuta, is that the place, perhaps?” Reina Ruu asked, tugging on my sleeve.

Looking ahead, I saw there was a crowd gathered in the direction we were heading.

It was on our right, directly in between the section of town with the stalls and the one where the inns were all lined up. There had to be forty or fifty people there, and they were half-blocking off the ten-meter-wide road.

“Yeah, looks like it.”

Feeling impatient, I headed right on over to the crowd. And instantly, the fragrant aroma of heated milk fat filled my nostrils. That was even more evidence that this had to be Yang’s stall.

“Whoa, there are so many people around I can’t even tell what’s going on. Looks like business is booming even more than expected.”

“Indeed. If you wish to get a better look, would you like to get up on my shoulders?” Ai Fa asked with a dead serious look.

And she even started to bend down, so I replied in a fluster, “No, I’m fine! Let’s just wait our turn. I mean, buying Yang’s cooking is the reason I came here in the first place.”

“I see.”

With that, we joined the end of the line.

Still, we were in a large group with six hunters. And when they noticed our presence, the part of the crowd who were just staring with curiosity started to look troubled and retreated. As that reaction implied, roughly eighty percent of the people gathered around the stall were clearly westerners.

Dang, at this rate we’ll be interfering with his business.

Still, thanks to that, his stall came into view, no longer hidden by the crowd.

The stall was built the same as the ones we rented, and there was a young woman smiling and taking orders from the customers.

Next to her was Yang in a chef’s uniform, passionately cooking away, and there were soldiers standing guard on either side. Since they were clearly better equipped than the town guards, they must have been men under the house of Daleim. And the stall was flying a flag embroidered with the emblem of the house of Daleim, too.

This sure is something. So he started doing business without hiding the fact that he was a chef employed by a noble, huh?

And considering they even had soldiers guarding it, I would have thought their set up would be too showy for the townsfolk and cause them to avoid it... but the stall seemed to be flourishing.

This spot at the southern extreme of the stalls was definitely a prime location, which I doubted could be claimed without paying the appropriate premium. Since it was adjacent to the area with the inns, there was a lot of foot traffic, and the sun had just about hit its peak at the moment, so it was the middle of the busy period for such food stalls.

Still, this was the first time I had ever seen so many customers lined up for a single stall. It was every bit as bustling as our giba cooking stalls were for the morning rush.

“Ah, Sir Asuta. So you really did come,” Yang called out when our turn arrived, looking up from his cooking.

He was wearing a white chef’s uniform very similar to the one I had been forced to wear while being held at Cyclaeus’s manor, along with a cylindrical hat. Though he was skinny, his face was a nice, healthy color, and it was coated in sweat as if to prove just how hard he had been working.

“I’m glad to see business is booming for you. Good work there.”

“Yes. Things seem to be going adequately for the first day,” Yang replied with a solemn look and a nod. “My apologies, but since there are customers waiting behind you, could you please place your order?”

“Right, um...”

At that, my gaze turned toward the woman beside Yang.

Her long, dark-brown hair was tied behind her head, she was wearing what looked like a scarf around her head, and she had on what looked to be a high-quality frock and apron. Yes, she certainly seemed like one elegant young woman.

In all likelihood, she was probably frightened by the hunters surrounding me. After all, her face had gone rather pale, even as she forced a weak smile.

“Welcome. It is one red coin each. Which color would you like?”

“Huh? Color?”

The woman nodded, pointing to the right hand side of the counter in front of her. There were three different types of poitan sitting there on display.

All of them looked to have a diameter of around fifteen centimeters. That made them a size or two smaller than the ones I used for the myamuu giba, and they were round and flat in shape.

What really surprised me, though, were the colors. While one was the familiar cream color I had expected, the other two were pale orange and green, of all things.

“The white one uses gigo, while the orange one is nenon, and the green has nanaar mixed in. They all cost a single red coin, so please choose whichever color you like best.”

I was even more surprised to hear they had used vegetables to add color.

While I had been the one to inform them that mixing in gigo made the texture fluffier, that vegetable was also cream colored to start with, so it didn’t produce any changes in the coloration.

Nenon were a vegetable with a very similar color to carrots, and nanaar... I still hadn’t used any in my own cooking, but it seemed to be something similar to spinach.

Still, the cost is just one red coin, huh?

I ultimately accepted that the reason for their pricing was the size. Each one looked to use about half as much in terms of ingredients as what I used in my myamuu giba.

That first kimyuus manju I had ordered in the post town had cost one red coin for a small one, too. One would be enough for a child, while an adult could just order two. The plan must have been that by keeping costs down, even people stopping by for the first time could afford to give it a try without really worrying about what they were spending.

“Umm... Is something the matter?” the girl asked with a slightly worried businesslike smile.

“Well then, we’ll take one each of the orange and green ones,” I replied.

We had decided that Reina Ruu and I would each order one of Yang’s dishes.

“Thank you. Please hold on for just a moment.” This girl must have also been a resident of the castle town with ties to the house of Count Daleim. After all, I hadn’t seen anyone here in the post town handle customers so elegantly before.

At any rate, Reina Ruu and I each paid a single red coin, and Yang prepared the snacks in response.

Inside the stall was a massive metal pan, which held a light brown filling as it cooked. And wafting through the air was the sweet scent of karon milk fat and herbs. Soon, that gooey brown paste was wrapped up in poitan. The shape used was the same as my myamuu giba... In other words, a triangular crepe shape.

“Thank you for waiting.”

“No, thank you. Anyway, I’ll let you know my thoughts later.”

“Right. And you have my gratitude for coming all this way,” Yang replied, his tone still quite formal, with a slight bow of his head.

I couldn’t imagine he had ever done business directly facing customers like this in the castle town. But he seemed like a straight-laced, sincere man to begin with, and he was concentrating fully on his work rather than falling prey to distractions. And ever since meeting with Mikel, it seemed his distrust toward the people of the forest’s edge had relaxed, and his superficial politeness had started feeling far more real.

Having gotten what we came for, we hurriedly departed from the stall. And with that, the crowds of onlookers once more gathered around the place. I gave them one last glance, and then we took a breather a bit further away.

“The scent is simply wonderful, isn’t it? So this is the smell of karon milk fat?” Reina Ruu asked, a serious expression on her face as she looked down at the snack Yang had prepared. Hers was orange, while mine was green.

“That’s correct. And then there’s the smell of the karon meat, and it seems like he used herbs, too.”

“I see. Honestly, I’m a bit nervous at the thought of eating meat that isn’t from a giba.”

However, Reina Ruu had already tasted kimyuus and karon meat while helping out with the cooking lessons for Milano Mas at The Kimyuus’s Tail. That meant she was preparing to taste this dish knowing how bland skinless kimyuus and karon leg meat were as ingredients, as well as how many steps I had used to prepare them.

“Well then, shall we give it a try?”

“Right.”

Simultaneously, the two of us bit down into the poitan.

Instantly, the smell of the butter-like milk fat and some unfamiliar herb filled my nose. It seemed to be nicely harmonized, and also rather sweet. In terms of what I was familiar with, the herb seemed like it might have been something close to cinnamon.

And then, the deliciousness of the well-cooked karon meat and vegetables spread throughout my mouth.

What vegetables had he used, exactly? At the very least I could sense the sweetness of aria and nenon, but it seemed like he had employed a variety of others, too.

That nanaar vegetable he had mixed into the poitan was supposed to be fairly leafy tasting, but it seemed to be lost in the overall flavor of the ingredients. And since he hadn’t used gigo, the poitan tasted somewhat dried out, but thanks to the juices from the fillings, it wasn’t all that big of an issue.

If I had to sum it up briefly, I’d say the dish was made to emphasize its sweetness. The sweetness from the milk fat, the karon meat, and the vegetables... And that cinnamon-like herb was likely what was tying it all together.

On top of that, it seemed like he hadn’t used any further seasonings aside from that herb. The karon leg meat must have been pickled in salt, but there was no real salty flavor to the dish. It was possible even the salt was to make the sweetness stand out further.

He must have come up with this while thinking about how to put the milk fat at the dish’s core.

It was difficult to get a hold of any proper seasonings other than rock salt here in the post town, so I had decided to make the aroma of myamuu, the sourness of tarapa, and the sweetness of fruit wine the core of the flavors I employed. By pairing salt and pico leaves with those, I had managed to create dishes I could feel satisfied with.

In contrast, Yang had built his flavor around milk fat and that cinnamon-like herb I didn’t even know the name of.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was shockingly tasty. Personally, I wasn’t all that into dishes that focused strongly on sweetness, and so I would have chosen a different direction myself. Still, I could sense it must have taken extraordinary skill to draw the sweetness out of that meat and those vegetables, and then bring it all together with the milk fat and herb.

To cut to the chase, it felt like a flavor that had been perfected. And I’d never had a dish in the post town before that I had felt was this well put together.

“Did he grill the meat and then cook it together with the vegetables?” Reina Ruu asked, her expression as serious as always.

“Yeah. He must have grilled the surface of the karon with milk fat, then boiled it together with the vegetables and some herbs until it got nice and soft. He used aria and nenon... and maybe tino and chatchi?”

“I do believe he used tino, yeah. Though the shape is completely different.”

“Ah, and I think he added skim milk when boiling it too. That should be why it has such a mellow flavor.”

Though the portions were quite small, Reina Ruu and I got wrapped up in analyzing it after taking a single bite. As for the hunters surrounding us, they were pointedly paying attention to the highway rather than us.

“The color of this poitan surprised me a bit at first, but it doesn’t seem to have impacted the taste, does it? I’d say that the one with the gigo mixed in must be tastiest then, right?”

“Yeah. I figure this is probably a trick meant to catch customers’ attention. So the nenon doesn’t impact the taste at all...?”

“I... don’t believe it does. But it may just be that I can’t sense it.”

“No, I’m not getting any taste from the nanaar either, so I think you’re probably right. Still, should we give each other’s a try just to be sure...?”

Instantly, Reina Ruu’s face went bright red.

And in the same instant, I got a fairly strong kick in the leg from behind.

Turning around, I found Ai Fa turned aside in a huff.

“Umm, Asuta... My apologies, but to eat the same dish as someone who isn’t a member of your house... Well, it’s considered best to avoid that when possible for people of the forest’s edge.”

“A-Ah, sorry. I wasn’t thinking there, huh?”

I remembered sharing my hamburger steak with Rimee Ruu in spite of that, and Ludo Ruu had given some of his manju to Tara, so maybe small children just didn’t count.

At any rate, this was clearly an error on my part, so I just earnestly accepted the pain in my calf.

“It certainly smells real tasty, though. Reina, could I have just a bite to try?” Ludo Ruu called out, his gaze remaining fixed on the road all the while.

Reina Ruu just replied, “Alright,” and held out the partially eaten dish toward her younger brother.

“Ah, Ai Fa, if you want, then—”

“I don’t need it.”

And so, I went ahead and took a second bite.

In the meantime, Ludo Ruu bit down on his sister’s snack and let out an unintelligible, “Hrngh... Is this tasty? I mean, it’s not especially bad, but still...”

“I think it came out wonderfully for something devised in just two days. How should I put it...? The flavor feels properly thought out.”

“I don’t really get it... I definitely think the cooking you two make is way tastier, though.”

That was down to us having the advantage of giba meat on our side. But at the very least, I didn’t feel this dish fell short of the kimyuus meatballs or fried karon strips I prepared for The Kimyuus’s Tail. Of course, Yang had his own advantage in the form of milk fat, but even so, this felt like a nearly perfected dish nonetheless.

On top of that, the colorful poitan and smell of milk fat captured the eyes and noses of passersby, and he was selling the dish for just one red coin. All of that was key in a business strategy too, beyond just the taste. Nobody was a chef by trade here in the post town, and so Yang’s skill was definitely on full display.

“Hey there. So you showed up after all, eh?” a voice called out with a chuckle. The large westerner who had spoken had his cloak’s hood pulled far down, but I could see gray bandages wrapped around his mouth. In other words, it was the bodyguard Zasshuma.

“Ah, hello. It seems like things are off to a smooth start.”

“That’s right. This level of interest should be plenty for the first day. It seems to have calmed down quite a bit by now, but at first there were tons of folks shocked that those were really poitan,” Zasshuma said as I saw his eyes clearly grinning over the shoulders of the hunters. “And man, you chefs sure are something else. It’s not often you can get such good cooking at a place in the post town. I’d prefer something that goes a bit better with booze myself, though...”

“Ah, so you tried it too?” I asked, causing Zasshuma to scratch his head through his hood.

“I mean, that is a crucial part of our plan, y’know. Though I feel a bit bad now for still having never tried your cooking...”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.”

From looking at him, was Zasshuma born somewhere near Genos? If so, that would also likely make him someone who had always avoided the people of the forest’s edge.

Polarth had also said he had trouble bringing himself to eat giba cooking, but there was likely no helping that. And he was fighting alongside the people of the forest’s edge despite his background, so I had no intention of complaining.

However, there was one other point that was bothering me.

“Now that I think about it, it looks like pretty much only westerners gathered around Yang’s shop.”

“Yeah, but there’s no surprise there. I mean, the easterners and southerners all head to your place instead. And we won’t get anywhere fighting one another for customers, now will we?”

That perspective might well have been correct if you were only considering immediate sales. But our ultimate goal was teaching westerners just how good giba meat tasted. With that in mind, Yang’s shop had a good chance of ending up as our greatest rival in the future.

Of course, if that happens, we’ll just have to face him head on.

And I figured this rivalry was sure to get me fired up in a good way.

On top of that, other shops would definitely start handling milk fat after this, so I had to figure there was a good chance cooking in the post town would level up as a whole.

But I can use milk fat too, and I’ve got new ingredients like fuwano and kimyuus eggs to work with. If I can just secure the personnel, I should try increasing the number of stalls and selling new dishes.

That would all have to wait till after settling things with Cyclaeus, though. If things didn’t go well there, then at that point popularizing giba meat wouldn’t be my concern anymore.

“Well, it’s unheard of up till now for a chef employed by a noble to go opening a shop in the post town. That alone is enough to attract plenty of attention. And it’s also good news for us to have the townsfolk notice the place, with the emblem of the Daleim house flying so clearly,” Zasshuma chimed in, seemingly having collected his thoughts. “It’s already known throughout the post town that a member of that house played a key role in rescuing you when you were abducted by Count Turan’s daughter. I figure anyone who hates you people of the forest’s edge will want nothing to do with a shop like that... But on the other hand, I can’t imagine the place would be doing this well if it was flying the emblem of Count Turan instead.”

“I see... Yeah, I think you’re right.”

The majority of the westerners present had looked shaken seeing hunters of the forest’s edge. But it was true that they didn’t look all that fearful or disgusted by us.

“News of the conflict between the people of the forest’s edge and Cyclaeus has spread a good bit, and there’s been a good bit of criticism toward that noble’s character. It seems that Gazraan Rutim fellow sure has a knack for reading the flow of the times. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I was honestly a bit surprised to find out there was a guy like that living in the settlement at the forest’s edge.”

“Yeah. He’s surprised me plenty, too.”

“It’s nice to talk to someone like him. Once all this trouble clears up, I wouldn’t mind sharing a drink with—” Zasshuma started to say, but then his eyes suddenly narrowed. “Well, guess it’s no time to be saying stuff like that, though. Hey, I’m going to ground for the time being, so you all should take care, too.”

“Huh? What do you—?” I began responding, only for Zasshuma to swiftly blend into the crowd. I looked all around in utter confusion, only to notice Ai Fa glaring to the north.

“Ludo Ruu, those soldiers fall under Cyclaeus.”

Instantly, the hunters formed a circle around me and Reina Ruu. And thanks to the close quarters, our shoulders were bumping into each other in the center of the ring.

“People of the forest’s edge... How fortuitous to run into you here.”

A larger figure had approached from the north, stopping in front of us. He was clad in formal white leather armor and a helmet, with a long sword dangling from his hip. From what I could recall, this was one of the officers who I had seen guarding Cyclaeus back at his manor.

“You are Asuta and Ai Fa of the Fa clan, are you not? I am the commanding officer of Count Turan’s first bodyguard unit, Jimon. Are there any members of the leading Ruu clan among this group?”

“I’m the youngest son of the main Ruu house, Ludo Ruu. Exactly what business do you have with me?” Ludo Ruu questioned with a hunter’s gaze burning bright in his eyes as he stepped forward toward Jimon.

The crest of Count Turan was emblazoned on the officer’s chestplate, and so his confrontation with a hunter of the forest’s edge was gathering a lot of attention from passersby.

In the middle of that uneasy murmuring, Jimon calmly stated, “I have a message from my lord, Count Cyclaeus Turan. I ask that you accurately convey it to the leading clan heads of the forest’s edge. The content relates to the meeting in two days...”

With that, Jimon informed us of two matters. And when she heard the second one, Ai Fa’s blue eyes blazed with fury as she shouted back, “Don’t be ridiculous!”