Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 2.4

4

There weren’t any other incidents of note after that, and so we were able to safely finish out the day’s business.

But when we returned to the settlement at the forest’s edge and headed for the main Ruu house’s kitchen, the bouquet from Leeheim naturally became a matter of discussion.

“That noble sent this for me? What in the world could he want?” Reina Ruu questioned with a greatly troubled look as she accepted the bouquet, having been working on preparations for tomorrow.

Unsurprisingly, Reina Ruu wasn’t the only one troubled. Mia Lea Ruu and the others couldn’t help but tilt their heads while they worked on their own tasks.

“You can’t go accepting flowers when it’s not even your birthday. Even more so when they aren’t from family,” Mia Lea Ruu stated, and then she turned toward Bartha. “Just what is this all about? Do you have any idea?”

“Huh? What are you asking me for? It’s certainly nothing to brag about, but nobody’s ever given me flowers in my entire life. Haven’t given ’em to anybody either.”

“But you were raised in a town, weren’t you? Then you should at least be familiar with the customs of such a place.”

With a shrug of her thick shoulders, Bartha chuckled, “Ha ha. I may have been born in Masara, but half of my childhood was up on the mountain. I suppose with stuff like this, don’t you send them to someone you like?”

“Hmm, so that really was it, huh? Even I was able to guess that much...” Mia Lea Ruu said with a strained chuckle, unusual as that was for her. And then, she turned toward Reina Ruu. “Well, go ahead and put those flowers in water for now. We can just leave what comes next up to the clan head.”

“Right... But since this goes against the customs of the forest’s edge, wouldn’t it be better to return them?”

“It’s the clan head’s job to decide that. It’s not like he asked you to marry him, so you have nothing to worry about,” Mia Lea Ruu replied with a laugh. “Just to be sure, even if that noble did ask you to be his bride, you wouldn’t accept, right?”

“Of course not,” Reina Ruu immediately replied, briskly and without the slightest hesitation. “Dad would never accept me marrying someone from the castle town, and even if he did give his permission, I wouldn’t want to.”

“Hmm, so that noble isn’t especially charming?”

Mercilessly, Reina Ruu nodded back. “That’s right.”

By the way, Leeheim was an overly thin young man who always wore a faint, cynical-looking smile. It was difficult to say just what his true nature was like, and he was the sort where it seemed like it would take some time till we could truly understand one another.

“Besides, there’s no way he would ever ask a woman of the forest’s edge to marry him in the first place. I can’t even imagine a noble of the castle town doing such a thing,” Reina Ruu continued.

“Right, and that man has a fairly high standing among nobles too, doesn’t he?”

“Yes. As the oldest son of a count’s house, he’s supposed to be quite important. So he’s probably just teasing me, right?”

“No, not at all,” Bartha interjected. “It hasn’t been that long since the lord of Genos declared that proper bonds should be formed between the nobles and you people of the forest’s edge. So there’s no way one of them would mess with you at a time like this.”

“Then you’re saying this noble actually wants to marry me?”

“Nah, he’s probably just expressing his affection for you; it’s nothing as serious as what you’re thinking. I’d imagine most men out there would be fond of a looker like you, after all.”

Though Bartha’s claim was completely obvious, it was a notion that would be difficult for the people of the forest’s edge to accept. After all, to them, love affairs between men and women were directly tied to marriage.

Seeming to not fully grasp the matter even still, Reina Ruu glanced down at the bouquet in her hands.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this somehow... Hey Asuta, that Leeheim noble is the one who tried to buy up lots of giba meat, isn’t he?”

“Ah, yeah, that’s what I was told.”

“I don’t want to believe this could be true...but he wouldn’t have raised that idea in order to put the people of the forest’s edge in his debt, right?”

“I really can’t figure that’s the case. I think he just simply recognized the value of giba meat as a product to be sold.”

Still, ultimately Duke Marstein Genos put a stop to that. Now, after the price of giba had been reevaluated, we were observing to see what impact that would have on the sales of karon and kimyuus meat.

“Like I said, it’s nothing for you to worry yourself over. Just leave such difficult topics up to the clan head. I’m sure he’ll settle everything smoothly,” Mia Lea Ruu stated with a bright smile as she patted Reina Ruu on the head.

Looking embarrassed at being treated like a child, Reina Ruu shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Yeah...”

“We’ll never understand what nobles are thinking, no matter how much we try. We just have to keep on carrying out our own work. And the longer we keep dawdling about, the less time Asuta has to help instruct us.”

And so, under Mia Lea Ruu’s orders, work recommenced.

Meanwhile, my group also started with preparations for tomorrow.

While I cut up the giba meat along with Toor Deen, Reina Ruu seemed to get her spirits back and called out, “By the way, did you manage to talk to Myme and Mikel?”

“Yeah. I ended up inviting them to the settlement at the forest’s edge tomorrow. We’ll be stopping by the Ruu settlement first, so we’ll see you then.”

“Oh, really? I’ll be looking forward to it.”

While Toor Deen had seemed overjoyed, Reina Ruu now wore a serious expression. Since she was still doubtful of Myme’s skills, she saw it as a chance for the girl to show what she could do.

Still, if Reina Ruu acknowledges Myme’s cooking, then this is sure to get her seriously excited. Especially since, unfortunately, she found Timalo’s cooking to be such a letdown.

It had been quite a surprise for Reina Ruu when she first tasted the cooking from Yang’s stall in the past. And since she was so much more passionate about delicious food than most, meeting Myme was sure to be huge for her.

“By the way, it seems like we’ll be able to have Myme prepare a dish with giba meat, so if you don’t mind, I’d love to have everyone give it a try,” I commented.

“Ooh,” Mia Lea Ruu said with her eyes going wide. “So a girl from town is going to cook with giba meat? That certainly is something to look forward to.”

“Right, though there are already inn owners from the post town who cook with it.”

“Things sure have changed a lot in just a few short months... By the way, Dan Rutim showed up again today, before he headed out to the northern settlement.”

“The northern settlement? Oh, that business about taking in a Dom woman, right?”

“Yeah. That ended up getting approved too. Preparations on their end will take a couple days, and then she’s supposed to be brought here to the Ruu settlement,” Mia Lea Ruu replied with an amused smile. “A girl from town is being invited to man our stove, and we’re welcoming a member of the Dom clan into our homes. Just a little while ago, all of it would have been impossible to imagine. And then there’s the noble sending flowers too.”

“That thing with the noble isn’t exactly anything to be happy about, though,” Reina Ruu retorted in a sulky tone, but her mother just kept on smiling and shook her head.

“That may make for a bit of a hassle, but we’re still talking about someone liking you. So in the end I’d say that’s something to be happy about. After all, up until now none of us but the leading clan heads had so much as glanced at a noble.”

“But still...it really won’t be happy news if it leads to some sort of quarrel.”

“What’s a bit of a quarrel matter anyway? We’ve been granted much greater happiness than something like that could ruin. And regardless, it’s not like we can avoid every little issue as we keep moving forward, so we just have to keep on following whatever path we think is best.”

“I agree,” I chimed in without thinking, earning me a reproachful look from Reina Ruu.

“That sort of makes me sound like an unreasonable child or something.”

“Ah, no, I really do feel sorry for you, Reina Ruu.”

“Whatever,” the girl retorted, turning away.

While it was a very adorable response, I really did feel apologetic toward her. I mean, if some noble’s daughter went and gifted me flowers out of nowhere, I wouldn’t exactly be happy about it either.

“At any rate, our visitors tomorrow come first. And I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what sort of dish she’ll prepare, Asuta.”

“Right. I definitely am too.”

By this time tomorrow, Myme and Mikel would already be standing here in this space. Just imagining it was enough to get me all excited. And I was elated not just due to my personal interest in Myme, but also the fact that there were townsfolk being invited to the settlement at the forest’s edge as guests.