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

Epilogue: Walking the Same Path

“Well then, I’ll see you back to Turan in the wagon,” Ai Fa had said after we finished dinner and enjoyed some pleasant chatting for a while.

Myme looked pretty sleepy as she watched Ai Fa attach Gilulu to the wagon under the light of the moon.

“You look quite tired. I’ll lay something out to rest on in the wagon, so go ahead and lie down.”

“Sorry. It’s like all the anxiousness poured out of me as soon as my work was done,” Myme replied, and then she turned to face me with a bit of a drowsy look in her eyes. “Thank you so much for today. I learned so many things that I don’t think I could even begin to list them all.”

“I feel the same way. And let’s both keep giving our all, okay?”

After grinning joyfully, Myme then swayed on over into the wagon.

She must have been hitting her limit even more than I had expected. But, well, that was no surprise considering she was only ten years old.

“Ah, Mikel, could I have a moment?” I called out, inviting him back inside before he could follow after his daughter.

I took off my shoes and headed for the pantry. And when I returned, Mikel shot me an intense glare.

“What is that?”

“As you can see, they’re ingredients. As long as you don’t have any objections, could you please accept them?”

Packed in a leather bag were a variety of cuts of giba meat equaling roughly ten kilos, about a liter-sized bottle of tau oil, a container with about the same amount of mamaria vinegar, and five hundred grams of sugar from Jagar.

I laid that bundle of ingredients I had been cradling in both arms down at my feet.

“I think the idea of building up experience with a limited number of ingredients really is wonderful. So if you say she doesn’t need any of the seasonings, then I won’t force the matter...but I really would like you to at least take this giba meat back with you.”

“Why...?”

“Because I want Myme to polish her skills at cooking giba meat even more, of course,” I muttered as I stared up at Mikel, who was just a bit taller than me. “Before, she compared ingredients to totos. So putting it that way, I’d like to see her get better at riding them.”

“Again, why...?”

“Because...I think that would provide a great stimulus for me too,” I earnestly answered. “I’ve met numerous chefs around here, but I had always felt we were aiming for something very different. With Myme, I get the sense we’re both attempting to move in the same direction... That makes me really happy, and it also seriously spurs me onward. I mean, I feel like I absolutely don’t want to lose to her.”

“You don’t want to lose, but you’re giving her ingredients?”

“Yes. Since we can’t exactly compete properly with things as they are... Actually, it might be that I’m irritated with the way things are, where I’m losing every time in my head but coming out on top in actuality.”

“So you want to compete with Myme under the same conditions, eh?”

“No. I don’t think that cooking is actually about competing with your skills, so at its core it isn’t actually about who wins or loses... I simply want to see more of Myme’s abilities. And then, that’ll get me even more stirred up than ever.”

“You sure do say some cheeky stuff, kid...” Mikel said with a little sigh, then he started stroking his cheek with his left hand. “Still, there’s not anything for Myme to gain from improving her giba cooking skills.”

“You think so? We’re now finally able to sell giba meat, and we’re spreading the taste of giba cooking throughout Genos. So if Myme’s aiming to be a chef, I don’t think it would be a waste to study how to handle giba meat.”

Mikel didn’t say anything in response.

“Mikel, you’ve been trying to raise Myme to be a chef, haven’t you?”

“I’ve got nothing to do with it... She started dreaming of being a chef all on her own.”

“I don’t think it’s just a dream at all. With her level of skill, she could even start selling her cooking now. And the former head of the house of Turan who hurt so many skilled chefs has no power at all now.”

Mikel silently stared down at the half-spread fingers of his right hand. Because the tendons had been severed, three of those fingers could no longer move.

“Myme mentioned that she looked up to me, of all people. But over the course of these past few days, I’ve come to really admire her too. And I feel like there would be a whole lot more to gain if we could see one another on the same footing. So won’t you please accept these gifts...?”

“I’m not especially hard up for money or anything... For the past five years, I’ve been desperately saving up coins to send her out into the world,” Mikel suddenly stated in an emotionless tone. “If she was aiming to be a chef here in Genos, she would have fallen into the hands of the house of Turan in the end. That’s why I wanted her to get away from this place... If possible, I had planned to take her to the capital of Selva, Algrad. I kept on living despite my disgrace in order to earn the coins for the traveling expenses, wagon, and bodyguards we’d need to hire.”

“Disgrace? That’s...”

“There’s no more need to flee from this town, though. She should be able to make a living as a chef here in Genos just fine. And as one of her potential business rivals, you’re trying to take pity on her...?”

“It’s not pity. This is for my sake too, and for the people of the forest’s edge. If Myme becomes skilled at preparing it, then the delicious taste of giba meat can spread even further throughout Genos.”

Mikel slowly shook his head. “I’ve got no reason to accept your charity. After all, since we no longer need to head for the capital, that money no longer has a purpose. So if she needs ingredients, I can buy as much as I please.”

“I see...”

“So I’ll just take this,” Mikel stated, grabbing hold of the bag of giba meat with his left hand. “Of course, I’ll pay you for it too. After all, this stuff is the highest-quality meat on offer in the post town.”

I broke out in a grin.

And then, something truly unexpected happened: Mikel shot a lively grin back at me.

“Even without you rushing things, I had already intended on letting Myme use tau oil, sugar, herbs, and so on,” Mikel added with that grin.

It was the first time I had ever seen the man smile. It was a bold and daring grin, like what you’d expect from a seasoned general heading for the front...and it was quite charming too.

“That’s thanks to you people making it so these ingredients could be found even in the post town. From here on out, you won’t have an easy time selling food there if you can’t handle that stuff... She’s been planning on copying you and opening a stall in the post town.”

“Really?! That’s a wonderful idea.”

“Hmph,” Mikel snorted. “After these past four years, Myme has finally managed the bare minimum of learning how to manage her flames and level of salt. If she adds a variety of other ingredients on top of that and masters the handling of giba meat, I’m sure she’ll be able to make something unbelievable. She’s still nothing but a little brat, but I’m certain she’s hiding what it takes to become a better chef than I ever was. I hope you won’t regret giving her giba meat, Asuta of the Fa clan...”

“I definitely won’t. And I’ll give it everything I’ve got so I don’t lose to Myme.”

“I’m sure you’ll learn first hand from here on out just how huge of a task that really is,” Mikel replied, returning to his usual frown. And with a firm light in his eyes, he stared right at me. “You should definitely be able to thoroughly draw out Myme’s strength. As I am now, that’s not something I can do anymore...”

“No, but it’s thanks to your guidance that Myme—”

“That’s why I brought you and Myme together,” Mikel murmured, cutting me off. “The fact that I was able to meet a chef like you before I became an old bag of bones and dropped dead might just have been one last blessing from the western god...The western god took my wife and my future from me, but gave me you and Myme. I guess that’s what you’d call a balance of good luck and bad.”

“Mikel, you...”

“You aren’t the sort of chef who will end up as just a stepping stone for Myme. If you don’t want her to crush you, then you better not go back on your word from before... You’ve got enough skill for it, after all.”

“Got it,” I replied, a greater shiver than ever before running down my spine as warmth filled my chest.

And so, my relationship with that father and daughter pair with their checkered fates and quick wits grew even deeper.