Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 3.5

5

“Now then, eat.”

Yamiru Lea, Oura, and I had lined up plates of food in front of the men. As we did that, Zuuro Suun and Doddo listlessly sipped at their soup, while Diga began eating the meat and chatchi stew anxiously.

After watching them for a bit, Yamiru Lea picked up a single plate and turned around, to approach the fierce hunter with a giba head sitting atop the pelt he wore.

“Won’t you eat too, Gulaf Zaza? Though he also objects to the Fa clan’s actions as you do, the Beim clan head seems to be quite passionately sampling the flavor of these dishes.”

“I’ve got no reason to go listening to your impertinent remarks...”

“Oh, is that so? Well, do as you please.” Yamiru Lea elegantly left the plate in front of Gulaf Zaza, before returning to her own seat. “Well then, let us eat, Asuta.”

“Right.”

I had lost the chance to return to my own seat, and so I took my place sitting across from Yamiru Lea.

And then, I heard a strange “Ungh...” sound.

Turning to look, I found that Diga had bit into the giba cutlets and frozen in place.

“This is my first time seeing that dish,” Yamiru Lea remarked, taking a bite of the giba cutlet on her own plate.

And then, her eyes opened wide in shock.

“This... This dish is amazing, Asuta.”

“It seems those giba cutlets are super popular with the people of the forest’s edge. But eating too much of that stuff could make you put on weight, so you should watch out for that.”

Since I didn’t want to use a nasty word like “poison” when everyone was eating, I softened my statement, but Yamiru still worriedly went “Huh?” and ran her hand over the graceful contours of her stomach.

“Ah, no, this much shouldn’t be any problem. You don’t have to be that worried about it.”

I must have been smiling more than she cared for, as she said, “What an unpleasant man you are...” with an upturned glare.

“It’s very tasty, isn’t it, Tsuvai?” I suddenly heard a voice whisper.

It had come from Oura, who was eating some myamuu giba Mida had shared while gently staring Tsuvai’s way. As for the young girl, she just silently kept munching on the contents of her plate.

Then, I noticed that Diga and Doddo were passionately chowing down, too. Their plates of soup were now empty, and they were stuffing their cheeks with meat and vegetables. And before long, large tears started streaming down from Diga’s eyes. As he held back his sobbing as best he could, he bit into his meat and slurped down tarapa broth. Despite being coated in stubble, his face was as messy as a child’s. Doddo, meanwhile, was silently yet desperately scarfing down food. It was like watching a starving wild dog devouring prey for the first time in too long.

“It looks like that wasn’t enough, huh...?” Rimee Ruu said to no one in particular as she timidly watched them go. “I’ll go get more. What do you wanna eat, Mida?”

“I want to eat everything...”

“Got it!” Rimee Ruu replied before she took off running with the boys.

In their place, two new figures approached, one very small, and the other holding her hand: Granny Jiba and Ai Fa.

“Do you mind if we interrupt a little...?”

The pair sat themselves down next to me, with Granny Jiba now facing the former leading clan head.

“Zuuro Suun... I’m certain this is the first time we’ve ever met face to face... I am the mother of the Ruu clan head Donda Ruu’s father, an old bag of bones by the name of Jiba Ruu...”

Zuuro Suun’s vacant eyes turned toward Granny Jiba.

In his hands, he held a partially eaten plate of soup.

“I haven’t ever met Zattsu Suun, much less you... The Suun settlement is far from where we Ruu dwell, after all... But I did know Zattsu Suun’s father, who was clan head before him...”

Zuuro Suun didn’t say a word.

“I suppose it was seventy years ago now... The Gaaze had been the leading clan, but they were taken down by giba... And the Reema who were their followers had also fallen... The Suun and Ruu clans were the only ones left with the strength needed to lead our people... We had split to the north and south and each kept to our own giba hunts...”

Still no response.

“At that point I was the only one left with the blood of the main Ruu house flowing through my veins, so the Suun were entrusted to become the new leading clan... After all, no matter how many members our clan and those under it may have had, a woman like me would not be allowed to lead our people... But the Suun clan head had been a splendid hunter, and so we had no concerns allowing him to take on that role...”

Her wise blue eyes remained fixed on Zuuro Suun’s flaccid face.

It seemed to me like there was a ripple slowly but surely spreading in the former leading clan head’s murky gaze, like someone had thrown a pebble into a lake late at night.

“The clan head of the Suun, our new leader, was a truly fine man... Even the wild Zaza and Dom devoted themselves to him... And Zattsu Suun was raised with the example of that splendid father of his ever in front of him...”

Zuuro Suun remained silent.

“Even so, Zattsu Suun strayed from his path... And yet, I’m sure the man still had many thoughts about how he wished to lead us people of the forest’s edge properly... He just chose to turn onto a path that was ever so slightly wrong... Or perhaps he had been walking the wrong path from the very start...”

Even now, the former leading clan head didn’t say a word.

“Eighty years ago, when we moved to the Morga forest’s edge, the Gaaze were still our leading clan... And it’s possible the Gaaze clan head chose wrongly when forming ties with the lord of Genos... In the black forest of the south, we interacted with no one and lived with the forest as our god, so we didn’t know how to properly connect with outsiders... I have thought about that a great deal...”

Zuuro Suun still wasn’t responding.

“But no one could ever blame the Gaaze clan head... No matter who was in charge, things would have turned out the same in the end... But if we have been walking an improper path, then we need to get back on track... Though the post of leading clan has passed from the Gaaze to the Suun, and now to the new three leading clans... I believe we must all come together and search for the right way forward...”

Granny Jiba gently placed her fingers like withered branches over the back of Zuuro Suun’s swollen hand.

The man’s shoulders trembled, but he didn’t show any signs of further movement.

“And so, Zuuro Suun... You too must please lend us your strength until the very end, as a comrade here at the forest’s edge... And don’t say such a sad thing, that you wish for your own death... When your crimes must be paid for, your comrades will swing their blades at the correct and proper moment, after all...”

Zuuro Suun didn’t respond even to that.

“But you know... Zattsu Suun already paid for his crimes with his life, so I don’t believe seeking his son’s death as well is the right path to take...”

At that, Granny Jiba’s clear gaze turned to Zuuro Suun’s right, so that she was now looking at Yamiru Lea.

“You’re Yamiru Lea, aren’t you...?”

“Yes,” the woman replied, fearlessly staring back at Granny Jiba.

The Ruu elder’s wrinkled face shifted into a grin.

“That goes for you, too... You shouldn’t go offering up your life like that for your family, understand...? That sort of pride may be beautiful in its own way, but it definitely isn’t right to try to take anything and everything on your own back... You’re another of our comrades here at the forest’s edge, after all...”

Yamiru Lea looked like she was holding herself back from clicking her tongue as she glared my way.

Granny Jiba had to be referring to how Yamiru Lea had said if Cyclaeus was demanding the Suun clan be handed over, we should just offer her up as Zattsu Suun’s successor. Naturally, I hadn’t just gone and spread that all over the place, but I figured it probably reached Granny Jiba’s ears by way of Rau Lea.

At any rate, I really hadn’t ever imagined the day would come when I would find Granny Jiba and Yamiru Lea having a conversation.

“Ruu clan elder Jiba Ruu, it is not as if I don’t understand that point of view, but I have my own way of thinking as well.”

“Hmm... And what would that be, then...?” Granny Jiba asked with a smile, while Yamiru Lea stared back with a defiant look.

“If that Cyclaeus noble is plotting to reinstate the Suun clan, then the people of the forest’s edge only need hand over Zuuro Suun and myself,” Yamiru Lea stated while brushing up her finely braided blackish-brown hair. “Then I would become the new head of the Suun, as well as the leading clan head. At that point I simply need to pretend to obey Cyclaeus, then expose what he’s really plotting.”

“Ridiculous. Who’d accept a woman like you as the leading clan head?!” Gulaf Zaza shouted in a crackling voice, apparently having been listening in attentively.

Yamiru Lea shot the man a bewitching glare out of the corner of her eye.

“It may be a completely foolish method, but is it any more so than this gaggle preparing to take up blades against the nobles if things come to it? At the very least with my way of doing things, no one will have to shed their blood for the time being.”

“Are you really a person of the forest’s edge...? Even Gazraan Rutim doesn’t go around dreaming up such crafty plots. That sort of trickery is fit only for nobles to wallow in!”

“And what’s so wrong about using trickery against someone attempting to employ it against us? I believe that’s far wiser than trying to solve anything and everything through force.”

“That won’t do, Yamiru Lea... We cannot have you commit to such falsehoods to protect ourselves... And besides, a slight mistake, and you and Zuuro Suun would lose your lives under that plan, would you not...?” Granny Jiba replied while wearing the same smile and shaking her head. “You are now a member of the Lea clan, rather than Zattsu Suun’s flesh and blood... And so, you don’t need to keep trying to take everything on your own shoulders...”

“It’s not like I truly believe such thinking will get through to those stubborn leading clan heads, either...” Yamiru Lea stated in a displeased tone, stealing a glance at Zuuro Suun for just a moment.

Yamiru Lea might have thought up this plot back when Zuuro Suun panicked and shouted how they should scalp him rather than hand him over to the nobles... Perhaps she thought the man could act at least a little more resolutely if she were by his side.

But sure enough, there was no way Gulaf Zaza or Donda Ruu would give permission to a sneaky plot like that.

“It certainly is reassuring, having someone like you around... Please lend the leading clan heads your strength tomorrow, Yamiru Lea...” Granny Jiba said, then she thrust a plate of food toward the former leading clan head. “Now then, go ahead and eat Asuta’s cooking, Zuuro Suun...When I lost my way too, it helped me somehow find my strength once again... Let Asuta’s dishes restore your strength, so you can give everything you have as well...”

As an irregular light was kindled in his murky eyes, Zuuro Suun accepted the plate. As he held onto it with trembling fingers, he scooped up some of the cubed giba meat stew, which had been boiled until it was nice and soft.

And when he listlessly bit down on the giba meat... a single stream of tears spilled down his flaccid cheeks.

“I...”

“Yes, what is it...?”

“I was afraid... of my father Zattsu...” Zuuro Suun murmured in a tone that reminded me of a sleepwalker as he chewed the meat.

And Granny Jiba just quietly listened to what he had to say.

“But I wasn’t able to find a path forward other than the one my father had forged... I just had to believe his words... That someday we would all walk that same road with the clans under us, and live new lives together where we didn’t need to bend to the nobles... I thought that otherwise we would all be destroyed by the Ruu clan...”

“Right, the fates of your dozens of relatives living in the Suun settlement depended on your every move... I was once a clan head myself, so I know how difficult that can be...” Granny Jiba said, her eyes narrowing as her gaze seemed to drift to some far off point. “But you’re not carrying anything on your shoulders any longer... The rest of us are taking care of your precious family and those who committed crimes under your command now... So you can share that responsibility with everyone else, and help search for what we think is our best future...”

As the tears streamed down his face, Zuuro Suun kept on eating.

“Allow me to ask just one last question, Zuuro Suun...” Gulaf Zaza chimed in, his voice rumbling. “Did you really not know about the crimes committed by Zattsu Suun and his ilk in town...? Answer truthfully, on your pride as a person of the forest’s edge.”

“I didn’t know... Or actually, I had thought it strange when my father Zattsu suddenly brought in so many coins from nowhere... But I was so frightened I couldn’t bring myself to ask him where they had come from...”

“Your crime is your weak character, Zuuro Suun,” Gulaf Zaza uttered in a truly resentful tone, and then he suddenly grabbed a plate of food. With his white, sturdy teeth like fangs, he bit into the giba cutlets. “You feared your father Zattsu Suun, the Ruu clan, those nobles from Genos... and in the end, you even feared the Zaza and Dom clans that fell under you. That sort of weakness is unacceptable for a person of the forest’s edge. It will always be my greatest shame, having respected a weakling like you as the leading clan head.”

Zuuro Suun offered nothing in response.

“But if you were even half as strong-willed as your father or your oldest daughter there, Zattsu Suun would have revealed everything to you and plotted to have you succeed him. Then even more blood would have been shed throughout Genos,” Gulaf Zaza stated, his wild, bestial eyes blazing just as fiercely as Donda Ruu’s did. “Your weakness is something we people of the forest’s edge cannot accept... But in a ridiculous twist of fate, it served to put a stop to Zattsu Suun’s obsession and grudge... Or maybe that’s just down to the forest’s guidance, too,” Gulaf Zaza said, washing down the giba cutlets with fruit wine. “At any rate, your punishment will have to wait till after things with the nobles are settled. So until the final moment before your soul returns to the forest, keep on living as a person of the forest’s edge.”

Though Zuuro Suun didn’t speak a word, tears came trickling down his cheeks.

Granny Jiba gently smiled.

Diga and Doddo kept on silently eating.

And even Gulaf Zaza was sinking his teeth into the remaining giba cutlets.

It was then that Rimee Ruu’s group returned with a “Thanks for waiting!” holding fresh plates of food. They were rather late coming back, so perhaps they had been held up by other family until Granny Jiba had finished talking.

And at last, it seemed like this long back and forth had come to a close.

But then, someone unexpected suddenly spoke up.

“Hmph! So everyone’s just gonna listen to the new clan heads’ decision?!”

It was Tsuvai.

She had stood and puffed out her slender chest as she glared around at everyone present. And when her eyes reached Yamiru Lea, they fixed in place.

“Hey, Yamiru, if you’re talking about Zattsu Suun’s successor, wouldn’t I be way more fitting than you?”

“What are you saying? As the youngest of us siblings, you’re unsuited for that role,” Yamiru Lea replied, shooting Tsuvai a dubious look.

“Hmph!” Tsuvai snorted again. “But Zattsu Suun and Grandpa Tei are the only ones who were judged as criminals, right? And I’m the only one who shares both their blood equally! So I’m the one most suited to be the successor to those criminals!”

Zattsu and Tei Suun were Tsuvai’s two grandfathers. And Tei Suun’s daughter Oura was currently staring at her child with a bewildered look.

“Tsuvai... There’s no logic behind saying the child of criminals is a criminal themselves...” Granny Jiba calmly called out.

Tsuvai’s big eyes glared back at the old woman, burning with a rebellious spirit.

“I don’t care! I just don’t care about all this stupid nonsense at all! If you want to go to war with the nobles, then just go ahead!”

“Tsuvai!”

Slipping away from her mother’s grasp, Tsuvai suddenly fled into the darkness.

And in a fluster, I rose to my feet to chase after her.

She should have been completely safe as long as she remained in the Ruu settlement, but there was no way I could just leave her be. And so, I followed after her, relying on the moonlight to guide my way. Fortunately, though, she was even more slow-footed than I was.

“Tsuvai, what in the world is going on with you?” I questioned as I grabbed the shoulder of that small figure clad in her dress.

Instantly, she shouted, “Don’t touch me!” as she scratched the back of my hand. And she also glared at me with eyes like flames. “You must be feeling awful good about yourself, Asuta of the Fa clan! The Suun clan has fallen, and everything’s gone your way! You really are the number one hero at the forest’s edge!”

“Hero...?”

As I found myself at a loss for words, I suddenly noticed someone standing at my side.

Unsurprisingly, it was Ai Fa. She must have entrusted Granny Jiba to someone else and followed after us.

And even here out in the dark, where the light from the bonfires didn’t reach, Tsuvai’s eyes were still burning bright.

“You mean how you said the one who earns the most coins is the most admirable? That probably comes from Zattsu and Zuuro Suun teaching you that strength and justice come from prosperity... That sort of thinking is prejudiced and wrong, though.”

“Hmph! Then what are you earning all those coins for?! Wasn’t that part of some plan to bring prosperity to the poor forest’s edge?!”

“Yeah, that’s true, but...”

“So you’re right, while the Suun clan was wrong! That’s why the Ruu clan who backed the Fa are thriving, while the Suun were destroyed! There’s no mistakes there! You all are heroes, and the Suun are just criminals!”

“Zattsu and Zuuro Suun are criminals for the mistakes they made while acting as leaders of our people. What issue could you have with that, exactly?” Ai Fa calmly asked, only for the flames burning in Tsuvai’s eyes to grow even more intense.

“But Zattsu Suun and my father weren’t the only criminals! Grandpa Tei was one too! He got executed as a criminal, didn’t he?!”

“That was because Tei Suun pointed a blade at us and the townsfolk, so—”

“Grandpa Tei just couldn’t go against Zattsu Suun! No one in the Suun clan could have, so why is he the only one treated like a criminal?!”

“Like I said, that’s—”

“I know! Grandpa Tei killed a lot of townsfolk along with Zattsu Suun! And then in the end he tried to kill you, Asuta, and the Sudra clan head struck him down for that crime! You didn’t do anything wrong! Grandpa Tei did! And he had to pay for his crimes with his life!” Tsuvai wailed while stomping her feet. And then, tears started gushing forth from her big eyes. “I hate you all!”

“Tsuvai...”

As I stood there dumbfounded, Tsuvai thrust out a tiny finger toward my chest.

“If someone doesn’t hate you, even if it’s just me... Then it’d be way too sad for Grandpa Tei, wouldn’t it?!”

At that point, Tsuvai pushed her forehead up against my chest and started sobbing like a child. Actually, she was still twelve... This small girl really was just a child.

Still unable to speak, I turned my head and found Ai Fa’s eyes narrowing ever so slightly as she quietly stared at Tsuvai’s back.

Placing my hands on Tsuvai’s slender shoulders, I got down on my knees. And with her face now buried in my shoulder, Tsuvai sobbed even harder.

“Tsuvai... Just like Donda Ruu said, no matter what crimes they may commit, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still fellow people of the forest’s edge,” I said, gently placing a hand atop her head, with her hair pulled back into an onion-like bun. “Zattsu and Tei Suun both lived as people of the forest’s edge, and died that way too. Donda Ruu and everyone are doing the best they can to inherit their anger and the regrets they left behind, and carry them forward the right way... Or at least, that’s what I think.”

“I hate you all... I really, really hate you...”

“I know.”

As we stood there under the blue light of the half moon hanging in the night sky, no one approached us.

And as every single one of us carried our own unique thoughts and feelings in our hearts, the day before the showdown with Cyclaeus came to a close.