Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 13 - Chapter Ep

Epilogue

Five days after that, it was the fifth day of the ashen month.

“Ashen” felt like a strange name for the month, but apparently it was because the one before was the white month, while the one after was the black month.

At any rate, it was the fifth of the ashen month. On that day, Ai Fa and I were finally given permission to return to the Fa house. Thanks to the efforts of Melfried and his men, the grandiously-named bandit group, the Winds of Black Death, had been captured at last.

Supposedly the traitors in the militia also admitted to the crimes Cyclaeus had brought up. And Cyclaeus himself also finally recovered from his illness and was transferred to Castle Genos. Tomorrow, his trial would at last begin. What awaited him was ultimately either execution or a life of imprisonment. Marstein had given his firm promise to the leading clan heads of the forest’s edge that he would not face any punishment lesser than that.

Once that trial was over, Zuuro Suun and Bartha’s crimes would also be judged. Though, it had already been privately decided that Zuuro Suun would face ten years of penal servitude, while Bartha would be granted a pardon.

It would still be some time till we could say everything was truly over. However, at least for now, we had finally been able to reclaim our everyday lives.

“Man, I’ve missed all this so much that I feel like I’m gonna start crying...” I said as I worked to prepare dinner on the Fa house’s stove. Ai Fa had returned from hunting just a little while ago, and she was currently sitting a bit removed with one knee raised.

I had been kidnapped by Lefreya back on the fifth of the white month. And so, it had been a full month’s time since I had last returned home. Though we briefly dropped by a couple times to take care of some business here and there, and Ai Fa and I had of course spent plenty of nights with just the two of us in the Ruu settlement, I really couldn’t help being so moved.

Of course, Ai Fa had stopped in once a day to manage the pantry, so nothing had notably changed here in the Fa house. And during the day, members of the Fou, Sudra, and Deen clans had stopped in to say hello, keeping things lively. The Ruu settlement had also become a precious, comforting place for me too, but the Fa house really was still my home.

“Then tomorrow, we’ll be able to reopen the stalls for business too. Of course, we can’t let our guard down until the trial is over, but it really does feel like we’re finally getting back to our everyday lives.”

The arrangement ended up being that the ducal guards and Kamyua Yoshu would help protect the stalls. This time around, it really did seem that all of the criminals had been arrested, but Marstein proposed that we should keep bodyguards with us at least until the trial was over, just to be on the safe side.

“The soldiers will keep an eye on the stalls from a bit of a distance, while Zasshuma or I will accompany you to the inns. So none of you have anything to worry about as you do your work,” Kamyua Yoshu had said.

Once the trial was over, the aloof bodyguard was set to leave Genos for a while.

“I have to see Sir Welhide to Banarm, then I figured I’d journey all around the western territory after looking for work there. I mean, I dedicated over three whole months to this task, so I’ve really been itching to spread my wings.” Those words from Kamyua Yoshu clearly hinted that this whole incident was heading to a close. And then, that wanderer with his mysterious purple eyes and grin that put me on edge added, “I’m certain we’re approaching the point where the standing of the people of the forest’s edge in Genos is going to be reevaluated. Your fates were twisted out of sorts by Cyclaeus, Ciluel, and Zattsu Suun, and the time has finally come for them to be straightened back out. As I travel near and far, not a day will pass when I don’t think about how everyone will have changed and how they’ll be living when I next visit Genos.”

I figured it was just as Kamyua Yoshu said.

All of the misunderstandings were getting cleared up. The disquiet between the nobles of Genos and the people of the forest’s edge had been wiped clean, and those many, many crimes had been brought into the light of day. So now was when things truly got rolling.

Even with the criminals all dealt with, the people of the forest’s edge remained rather insular, and they still lived under a different set of morals and laws than the townsfolk. Just what sort of bonds should they have with the people of Genos...? That question was finally being asked again for the first time in eighty years.

But ultimately, what I could personally do was very limited.

“We may see all sorts of different ingredients start flowing into the post town too. If that happens, there’s a good chance the food on offer at other stalls and inns will improve by leaps and bounds. I’ll have to work hard to develop new dishes so that I don’t fall behind.”

“I’m certain you’ll carry out your work just fine,” Ai Fa said with a dead serious look on her face, but then her eyebrows drooped just a bit. “But for now, concentrate on the task at hand. I’m so hungry I can hardly stand it...”

“Ah, right, it’ll be ready soon, so hold on for just a little longer!”

The light streaming in through the window had taken on a reddish tinge. Ai Fa had caught a large giba today, which she returned home carrying while coated in sweat. And then she had to skin it and dissect it too, which left her unusually fatigued.

Apparently she was having to head pretty far into the forest lately, as the number of giba in the area had decreased. And she said in a few days, she would have to enter a break period.

“Now that you mention it, aren’t the members of the Fou and Sudra discussing if they should take a joint break period?”

“Indeed. Up until now, the clans had each decided on their break periods separately. But the Sudra clan head has suggested that it could prove convenient to have nearby clans align their breaks.” It may have been subconscious, but Ai Fa rubbed her taut stomach with her right hand as she said that. “The clans in this area are the Fa, Fou, Ran, Sudra, Deen... And one more with blood ties to the Deen.”

“Ah, I think they’re called the Liddo? I haven’t had any interaction with them yet though.”

“Indeed. The idea is that those six clans should take a break period at the same time. But the Deen and Liddo are subordinate clans to the Zaza, so that plan would require Gulaf Zaza’s approval.”

“Ah, but the Zaza clan’s located really far away. I can definitely see the logic to valuing distance over blood ties in that case.”

Back when the Suun clan was in charge, even if you came up with such an idea you wouldn’t exactly be able to bring it up. But the people of the forest’s edge had started to change too. No one used to pay any attention to small clans like the Fa or Sudra, but now their words were being valued, and the stage was being set so that they could openly exchange opinions with the leading clan heads.

Both Genos and the settlement at the forest’s edge were sure to face various reforms from here on out. Just how would they change after overcoming the crimes of their brethren...? As I was one of the elements that brought it about, I had a strong desire to see things to their conclusion.

“All right, it’s ready! Sorry for the wait, Ai Fa. But now, it’s time for the first dinner in the Fa house in a month.”

“Indeed.,” Ai Fa replied with a firm nod as I laid out the plates. Following the example set by the Ruu clan, I had gone ahead and grabbed more tableware for the Fa house too.

We each had our own soup and meat dishes, there were large plates for the fresh vegetable salad and baked poitan as well as little plates to portion them out onto, then handmade chopsticks, metal skewers, and wooden spoons for each of us. The food itself hadn’t really changed much, but it still made for quite a sight.

Ai Fa muttered off her pre-meal chant. She seemed to trace over her lips, before picking up a spoon. And then, she went, “Hmm,” with a serious expression on her face as she looked over the dish in front of her.

“It’s hamburger steak...”

“Yeah, it is.”

If I went and unveiled a different dish instead at this point, she probably would have strangled me.

On top of that, today was actually my first time trying out this variation. The brilliantly shining reddish-brown sauce drizzled on top was a sort of demi-glace I had made using a variety of vegetables and milk fat, and it was accompanied by sautéed chatchi, nenon, and aria heated carefully over a low flame. My goal was to achieve the sort of hamburger steak flavor I was most accustomed to.

“This’ll be the first hamburger steak in a month, so eat to your heart’s content.”

“Right.”

Maintaining a dead serious look on her face, Ai Fa grabbed hold of the plate with the hamburger steak. And as I slurped down the giba soup made with tarapa rather than tau oil, I stealthily observed.

After slicing off a single bite with her spoon, Ai Fa expressionlessly brought it to her mouth...and then her eyes opened wide in shock. They told me that she was no longer perfectly calm as she stared at the cross section of the hamburger steak.

“Asuta, this hamburger steak...”

“Yup. I tried adding some dried milk inside. I call it a dried milk-stuffed hamburger steak.”

“Didn’t you use up all of the dried milk some time back?”

“Well, actually, I secretly had Kamyua buy some of the excess dried milk from the Turan manor for me yesterday. After all, I’ve heard they have a real problem over there of having so much stock they don’t know what to do with it all.”

Ai Fa’s favorite meal had been hamburger steak with Camembert cheese-esque dried milk on top. And so I thought to add it inside the patty rather than on top as a bit of a surprise. I couldn’t imagine the demi-glace-style sauce was in any way inferior to the tarapa and fruit wine sauce either.

“I gave this dish a lot of thought, so I hope you like it.”

As Ai Fa chewed the meat and dried milk, she somewhat restlessly looked back and forth between me and the plate in her hand.

Eventually though, she reluctantly set the plate down, leaned forward swiftly, and then started rustling my hair.

“It’s delicious.”

“Thanks, glad to hear it.”

As I thought about how I was no longer going to let stuff like this shake me, I smiled back at her.

But then, Ai Fa took the soup from my hands and sat it down gently on the floor, before she circled around the food, moved over my way, and hugged me tight.

“It’s delicious.”

“I-I got that, already! Hurry up and eat already before everything gets cold!”

“I will.”

After squeezing me for exactly five seconds, so tightly it felt like my bones would shatter, Ai Fa returned to her own spot. Then, she carefully scooped up the gooey dried milk spilling out of the patty and popped it up into her mouth alongside the meat and chatchi.

“It’s delicious...”

“Yeah, glad to hear it.”

“I will tell you more later...”

“What do you mean, ‘later’?!”

“The food is cooling right now, after all.”

Ai Fa’s expression hadn’t shifted all that much, and yet she still looked incredibly joyful.

Her beautiful blue eyes were sparkling brightly like a child’s. And the blue stone jewelry I had once given her as a present was dangling in front of her chest, shining like a third eye.

Just how would Genos and the forest’s edge change from here on out? I wanted to live here together with Ai Fa, watching as this world shifted around us.

With such feelings planted firmly in my heart, I picked up my plate to have some of that specially-prepared hamburger steak.