4
When we arrived at the Fa house, Toor Deen swiftly departed back for her clan, stating, “I stayed late yesterday, so I have to hurry back today.”
That just left me, Lem Dom, and Yun Sudra.
Though I wasn’t all that familiar with Yun Sudra, we were at least technically acquainted. And so, I figured it was at least better than being left alone with Lem Dom, who felt oddly overpowering even before that warning from Yamiru Lea not to let my guard down. I went ahead and started preparing dinner.
“Err, I wasn’t planning on making anything too complicated today, but up in the northern settlement you’re still making the same meals as before, right, Lem Dom?”
“Yes. There are plenty of folks who at least want to learn how to bake poitan as soon as possible,” Lem Dom replied, crossing her arms under her prominent chest as she stared down at me with a cynical look. “Even so, just learning bloodletting from the Rutim men has made for quite a change in terms of dinner. You brought that technique to the forest’s edge too, didn’t you?”
“I did. But it’s nothing special, and I would say that everyone does it in town.”
Lem Dom’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Asuta, how old are you?”
“Huh? I’m seventeen.”
“I see. That means you’re two years older than me, so could you please stop sounding so formal when talking to me?”
I had figured she might be younger, but she was only fifteen? It was a bit of a shock, hearing she was the same age as Ludo Ruu and Morun Rutim.
“Err, so how old are you, Yun Sudra?”
“A-Ah, I’m also fifteen!”
I looked back and forth between the pair in utter disbelief. Yun Sudra couldn’t have been more than 160 centimeters tall at the most and had an adorable girlish appearance, while Lem Dom looked to be around 180 centimeters and was burlier than I was. The pair was just so dissimilar that they felt like different species entirely.
“I suppose you’re right, I shouldn’t be treating you differently in that case. So one more time, nice to meet you, Lem Dom.”
“Yes, I feel the same.”
Even now that everyone but Yun Sudra was gone, Lem Dom still had the same arrogant aura lingering about her.
It wasn’t like I thought she was a bad person or anything, but it was my first time meeting a woman of the forest’s edge like her besides Yamiru Lea, which put me on edge. Still, it wasn’t as if I had any choice but to ignore that and keep on working.
“Well then, let’s get to work on dinner. First up is preparing the soup dish.”
The first step there was removing the astringent taste of the nanaar. Since the spinach-like vegetable had a strong bitter taste and squeaky texture when eaten raw, it needed that sort of extra effort. Still, it wasn’t all that major of a task. It just involved boiling it a bit in water with salt, then chilling it in cold water. Next I chopped up that blanched nanaar with aria, nenon, and chatchi, which I slowly boiled along with giba thigh meat in a somewhat low amount of water.
“If you boil giba meat over a low flame for a longer period of time, the meat gets softer and more flavor seeps into the broth. And the cloudy stuff that comes out of the meat and vegetables can end up as an off-flavor, which is why we remove it in advance.”
Since Lem Dom was still just a beginner, I was trying to give detailed explanations as I worked. And though she must have already understood this much, Yun Sudra was passionately nodding along as I worked.
“Now we maintain a low flame while making sure it doesn’t go out, and meanwhile we’ll bake the poitan on the neighboring stove. In the Sudra clan, do you mix in gigo with the poitan?”
“W-We don’t! The clan head’s decision on the matter was that we didn’t need such expensive vegetables!”
“I see. It’s true that the price of gigo is no joke if you’re using it every day... Lately here at the Fa house, we’ve been mixing in fuwano rather than gigo.”
“Fuwano? You mean that flour that’s like poitan after you boil it and dry it out?”
“Yeah. By mixing it into poitan, it changes the texture, so I’ve been trying out all sorts of stuff. And it would definitely be cheaper than gigo.”
I was secretly thinking I could make something pretty interesting by combining the chewiness of poitan with the springy texture of fuwano. But that was something I was still experimenting with, so for today I just baked them up flat like usual.
“Now it’s finally time for the meat dish. This one uses aria, nenon, pula, and giba chest meat.”
The dish in question was made with tarapa-flavored sweet and sour sauce.
After thoroughly sauteeing the meat and vegetables, I finished things off by pouring a sweet and sour sauce over it, made using mamaria vinegar, sugar, tau oil, tarapa, and aria, with added chatchi starch to thicken it up. There was still plenty of time left till sunset, so I went ahead and cooked up enough for a sample and held it out for the two chefs-in-training.
“What do you think? I kept down the sourness, so it shouldn’t be so hard to get down.”
Yun Sudra timidly reached out, while Lem Dom showed no hesitation whatsoever.
“Ah, it’s delicious. Your skill is always so amazing, Asuta,” Yun Sudra stated after eating her single bite. Her smooth cheeks had turned red, and her light brown eyes were tearing up ever so slightly. “Sugar really is a wonderful ingredient. The members of my house are always warning me not to use too much, since it costs more than salt.”
“Ah, you like sweet flavors, Yun Sudra?”
“Yes, I love them,” she smiled, her cheeks still red. I secretly thought to myself how this was a fresh sort of reaction from a woman of the forest’s edge.
As that was going on, Lem Dom mumbled, “What an odd taste. The dishes Toor Deen made didn’t taste anything like it. I think I may prefer just sprinkling salt and pico leaves over the meat instead.”
“Yeah, the sweetness from sugar and sourness of vinegar were unheard of at the forest’s edge up till now. I’m sure there are still plenty of folks out there who aren’t especially familiar with either.”
Fortunately Ai Fa didn’t seem to have much of a problem with sugar or vinegar right from the start, so I was able to ask her opinion on all sorts of things. In fact, when I made her sweet and sour meatballs before, it seemed to really put her in a good mood.
“By the way, I’ve heard people say that the folks from the northern settlement live even simpler lives than most people of the forest’s edge. Do they have a resistance to the idea of buying herbs and seasonings?”
“By ‘simple,’ do you mean how we don’t like to waste coins? If it is determined that delicious food is something we need as a people, then there’s no need to be stingy. After all, our clans should be the next most prosperous after the Ruu,” Lem Dom replied, and then she shot Yun Sudra a glance. “But from what I hear, the Sudra clan has earned quite the fortune assisting the Fa and selling them meat, correct? It really feels strange to think that small clans who can’t hunt many giba at all can earn more than the large clans up north.”
“That’s right. There are only nine members to the Sudra clan, so as long as the men hunt down one giba a day we can manage to keep going. But thanks to the Fa clan, we have been able to gain great strength,” Yun Sudra replied, showing no fear of Lem Dom as her eyes sparkled away. “In fact, lately the men haven’t been getting injured, and it’s not rare at all for them to hunt down three giba every two days. Plus, Li is now with child, so I’m certain our clan will only grow stronger in the future.”
“Now that you mention it, the Sudra no longer have any branch houses or related clans, right? So are you Li Sudra’s little sister, then?” I asked, only for Yun Sudra’s cheeks to instantly flush red. But what she said next spoke to the harsh conditions of the forest’s edge.
“No. Li was originally a member of a branch house, while I come from the Meema, a clan that once followed the Sudra. Once it seemed like our houses were about to fall into ruin, we were taken into the main Sudra house, which somehow managed to survive. Otherwise, our only option would have been to abandon the Sudra name and live on as members of some other clan we had no blood ties with.”
“I see...”
To the people of the forest’s edge, blood ties mattered above all else. And so, both the clans that were prospering and those that were struggling felt like extremes to me.
For example, the Ruu and the former Suun were both large groups with a hundred people to their name when including the clans under them. Among them, the Ruu and Suun, as the parent clans, each had thirty to forty people each, while the smallest clans under them didn’t even reach ten in number.
With more subordinate clans, that allowed for maintaining strength through marriages, but smaller clans would end up dwindling and having to consolidate in the end like the Sudra had done.
From my point of view, it would be better to intermingle between clans much more frequently and form even further blood ties...but things weren’t quite that simple. After all, to the people of the forest’s edge, forming such bonds meant becoming family. If you couldn’t treat someone as equally important to you as your parents and siblings and risk your life for them, then you couldn’t go forming ties of blood.
And I had come to think that way too when I saw how the Ruu had gained such strength, while the Suun neglected those bonds and fell into decline.
“Still, the Fa are the only clan here at the forest’s edge with just two members to their name,” Lem Dom stated in a sarcastic tone. “Our main Dom house is also just myself and the clan head, but when you add in the branch houses we number fifteen in total. And there are nearly seventy in total under our parent clan, the Zaza. Would you not say a clan of just two like the Fa are simply awaiting the day of their inevitable ruin?”
“But the Fa clan can grow by taking in a husband or bride! By forming blood ties with other clans like that, they could avoid their ruin!” Yun Sudra firmly insisted before I could say anything.
When I looked her way in surprise, I found that the girl was squaring her shoulders and glaring right at Lem Dom. It was sort of like a toy poodle facing down a doberman.
“That’s true... The Fa clan has earned an enormous fortune, so they should be able to use that strength to gain new blood ties,” Lem Dom replied, not looking at all intimidated as she shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not as if I was trying to make light of the Fa clan, you know. I have no intention of critiquing how other clans live... If I touched a nerve, then I apologize, Asuta.”
“If that’s the case, then it’s no issue. Do you mind backing down too, Yun Sudra?” I asked, causing the girl to swiftly turn toward me. Once again, her face turned beet red.
“I-I’m so sorry! That was uncalled for... I’m so embarrassed...”
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” I replied, though I was feeling at a bit of a loss myself.
Maybe it was weighing a bit heavily on my nerves, having to deal with both the oddly sarcastic-sounding Lem Dom and also Yun Sudra, who acted overly defensive of the Fa clan. When it came to the future of our clan, I really didn’t want outsiders to interfere too much.
“Now then, how about we continue working on the soup dish?” I declared as I picked up a container left on the workstation, trying to focus on the task at hand. It contained skim milk, which I had produced the other day while making milk fat. And so, I went ahead and poured the entire contents into the pot.
“Ah, so is that karon milk?”
“Yeah. I end up with this stuff left over when I make milk fat, so I have to make frequent use of it.”
The soup had grown cloudy from the stock and was now a distinctly milky color. Taking care not to let it boil, I added salt and pico leaves, as well as just a bit of tau oil. Then, I finished things off by adding poitan for a bit of gooeyness.
This dish was something like a simplified cream stew. Normally I would have used milk fat and fuwano flour to make a white sauce, but that would leave me with more skim milk from making the milk fat and I’d end up going around in circles.
“So the Sudra clan hasn’t been ordering karon milk, right? Have you ever given this dish a taste test before?”
“Yes, but only once... Ah, but if you don’t mind, could I give it a try again today?”
“Of course, go right ahead.”
After scooping out some karon milk soup onto plates, I held them out to the two women.
It didn’t look much different than cream stew, and it had a nice gooey texture. But I hadn’t used any milk fat and had even used skim karon milk, so it had a rather refreshing feel to it. For an accent, I had added pico leaves, which were akin to black pepper. That all made it pretty much identical to the recipe I had given The Kimyuus’s Tail and The Westerly Wind.
“Aah, this one is delicious too,” Yun Sudra proclaimed with a look of supreme bliss, while Lem Dom raised a single questioning eyebrow.
“You used milk from the animal known as a karon in this?”
“That’s right. Do you like it?”
“Yes. It somehow feels like this flavor is granting me strength.”
Apparently Lem Dom possessed her own particular tastes. If you wanted to take that in a negative light, you could call her a picky eater, but it was also possible to see it as her having a good tongue for knowing her likes and dislikes.
Folks like her can actually be better at cooking, ironically, I thought to myself as Yun Sudra started looking back and forth between the pots.
“Umm... That meat dish is red like a tarapa, while this soup is white like karon milk... Those colors are real pretty, aren’t they?”
“That’s right. Appearances are important too when it comes to cooking.”
“Plus, it feels like the sourness from the tarapa and the sweetness of the karon milk help each other stand out.”
“Yes, the sourness of the mamaria vinegar on its own would probably clash with the taste of the karon soup, which is why I used lots of tarapa.”
I was surprised by how keenly she had pointed that out.
In response, Yun Sudra was smiling like a puppy having its head petted.
It was then that I heard the sound of footsteps on sand.
“Ah, welcome home, Ai Fa... Wait, what happened to you?!” I shouted without thinking when I saw her.
“What are you talking about?” Ai Fa shot back with a displeased look.
I was shocked she even needed to ask, considering how out of the ordinary her appearance was. Her hair was normally worn up in a complex braid, but now it was all disheveled and both her cloak and limbs were coated in dirt. Her mouth even looked to be a bit bloody.
However, she still had a firm stance and a piercing look in her eyes. That much was why I was able to hold back the unease I was feeling.
“Two giba came at me at once in an attack from two sides. I took down one of them, but the other slipped away. And I drove my blade in at an odd angle too, which is how it ended up like this,” Ai Fa explained, pulling out her sword.
At that point, I once again gasped. Her blade had been cleanly snapped off around the middle.
“The giba I managed to take down ended up with too many wounds and I wasn’t able to properly bloodlet it, so I let the Fou clan have the meat and pelt.”
“I see... I’m just glad you weren’t seriously hurt.”
“Hmph. I got some slight injuries, though,” Ai Fa retorted with a wild spit.
Actually, that wasn’t spit that came out, but blood. Apparently she had cut not just her lips, but also the inside of her mouth.
“Asuta, you didn’t use any chitt seeds in tonight’s dinner, did you?”
“N-No, at least not yet.”
“In that case, make certain not to put any in. It would be a real mess trying to eat chitt seeds with my mouth like this.”
I felt truly glad that I had taken care of experimenting with the giba curry back at the study session.
At any rate, in the midst of all this Ai Fa’s displeased gaze moved over to my side.
“By the way, you are a Dom woman, are you not? Weren’t you supposed to be receiving instruction at the Ruu settlement?”
“Yes... I’m surprised you knew I belonged to the Dom clan, Ai Fa of the Fa clan.”
I turned toward Lem Dom in surprise, as something had clearly changed in her voice compared to before.
With a strangely passionate look in her eyes, Lem Dom stared right at Ai Fa, and then she broke out in an oddly daring grin.
“The Dom are the only clan at the forest’s edge to use giba bones as accessories like that. And I had heard from Asuta that a Dom woman was coming to the Ruu settlement. So why are you here at the Fa house receiving instruction from Asuta?”
“I wanted to meet you, Ai Fa.”
This was news to me.
Ai Fa’s eyes narrowed in suspicion as she used her fingers to comb out her disheveled hair. Since it was no longer tied up, those long golden locks flowed all the way down her back and over her chest.
“I don’t know what business you may have, but I’m in quite the bad mood today. If it’s anything complicated, I ask you to come back some other day.”
“You truly are beautiful, Ai Fa... I had heard you weren’t an especially large woman, and it’s not as if you have prominent muscles... If it weren’t for that look in your eyes, you would be even more lovely than most women.”
“Did you come here just to babble nonsense, Dom woman?”
“My name is Lem Dom. Younger sister of the Dom clan head, Deek Dom. I came here to meet you, the only female hunter at the forest’s edge,” Lem Dom said with a sensual lick of her lips. It was as if she were a carnivore that had found its prey.
“Hmph, you seem to have trained your body quite a bit for a woman, Lem Dom. Are you in charge of some sort of intense manual labor at the Dom settlement?”
“Oh, you think so? Well it’s true that if we stood next to each other, I could see anyone thinking I was the hunter.”
With an indifferent expression, Ai Fa started bundling up her loose hair.
Meanwhile, Yun Sudra and I just watched over the uneasy exchange.
“There are men out there who are smaller than me but possess greater strength. Frustrating as it may be, there’s a gap between men and women on that front to begin with. But if we’re both women, then the bigger one should be stronger, wouldn’t you agree?”
“It’s true that with such a fine build you may be able to carry heavier things about. But what of it? I don’t understand what you’re trying to say in the least.”
“It’s nothing all that complicated. I simply wish for a contest with you.”
“A contest?”
“Yes, a contest of strength between hunters,” Lem Dom replied with an even more daring grin.
But instantly Ai Fa seemed to lose all interest as she looked away from Lem Dom. “Ridiculous. I have no time to spend on such a farce. Asuta, I’ll be cleansing myself inside the house, so don’t enter for the time being.”
“Hold on, Ai Fa. You may not have any interest in it, but to me this is an important event that will determine my future,” Lem Dom stated, her bone accessories jangling as she stepped forward.
Ai Fa then shot her an annoyed glare out of the corner of her eye.
“What is there to gain from a contest of strength between a woman and a hunter? Such deeds are meant to display one’s strength to the forest, or as an act of training.”
“That is the reason. This is a chance to show the forest my strength, and to train as a hunter,” Lem Dom replied, her lips twisting into a grin. “You’ve managed to take down enough giba to prove yourself a fine hunter, haven’t you? So if I prove myself stronger than you, then wouldn’t that mean I have a hunter’s strength myself?”
“Your words may be correct, but a woman who is no hunter would never get the better of me...”
“How can you say that so confidently? Despite what you might think, I’ve done plenty of training in my own way.”
“Among the women who aren’t hunters, there might not be any who are a match for you. And it’s possible you could even take down most men from town. But that’s the end of it. You wouldn’t be able to do a thing against a full-fledged hunter.”
“I came here to have a contest of strength, not an argument, Ai Fa.”
“You certainly are stubborn,” Ai Fa grumbled. “As I said, I’m in a bad mood today. If you don’t wish to suffer a painful experience, then go back to manning the—” Ai Fa started to reply, only for Lem Dom to make a sudden move.
Kicking off the ground, she closed the three-meter gap between her and Ai Fa in an instant.
Yun Sudra shrieked, clinging to my arm.
Showing no panic whatsoever, Ai Fa twisted her body and dodged Lem Dom’s assault.
With animal-like agility, Lem Dom once more pivoted to face Ai Fa.
“I guess it’s no surprise that that wasn’t enough to make you flinch. But can’t you tell I’m no ordinary woman now?”
“It seems you won’t understand without getting hurt...” Ai Fa stated in an utterly unmoved tone, calmly removing her hunter’s cloak. And keeping her gaze fixed on Lem Dom, she hung it on a nearby tree branch.
“P-Please stop, Lem Dom! It’s not acceptable for us people of the forest’s edge to fight among ourselves!” Yun Sudra firmly interjected. However, she was still clinging to my left arm.
“This isn’t a fight, it’s a hunter’s contest of strength. We aren’t to hurt one another, and victory comes from your opponent’s palms or the back of their legs touching the ground. That’s fine with you, right, Ai Fa?”
“Indeed. Aside from the fact that you’re no hunter, none of that is mistaken.”
As soon as Ai Fa offered that response, Lem Dom went on the attack again. Her long arms reached out, trying to grab my clan head from both sides.
Ai Fa gracefully stepped forward, letting the attack flow over her left side. And then she grabbed hold of Lem Dom’s left wrist.
Using all her might, Lem Dom tried to twist her body to shake free.
Ai Fa leapt back as if being thrown, her right heel brushing up against the stove built into the ground.
The fire was already out, but there was still a hot pot sitting on it. Whether she noticed that or not, Lem Dom leapt forward again for the third time.
“Aah!” Yun Sudra shrieked. If Ai Fa dodged, Lem Dom would definitely plunge into the stove. Even I was about to reflexively close my eyes.
Sure enough, though, Ai Fa wasn’t shaken. She didn’t try to dodge Lem Dom’s charge either. My clan head ducked down and let Lem Dom’s arms pass over her head, then grappled her tight waist and twisted her body to the right.
Lem Dom’s frame was lifted into the air as if weightless, passing just beside the stove as her back slammed into the ground.
For just a moment Ai Fa’s posture was a back bridge, then she more or less did a backward somersault and landed on her feet. She might have just been using Lem Dom’s momentum, but it came out like a showy pro wrestling move.
“Are you satisfied now? What a truly foolish woman...” Ai Fa stated, turning to shoot us a glare. “By the way, you are a Sudra woman, correct? It’s against the customs of the forest’s edge for an unmarried woman to cling to a member of another clan like that.”
“Huh?” I questioned doofily, only for Yun Sudra to leap away from me. And as she did so, her face was redder than ever before.
“I-I-I’m so sorry! I-I acted without thinking...”
“Ah, er, yeah,” I unintelligibly responded, then I looked over beyond the stove. Instantly, Lem Dom energetically rose to her feet.
“Just what I’d expect from a full-fledged hunter! I never thought you would handle me so easily!” Even now, there was a daring smile on her face, and her black eyes were blazing like a hunter’s. “I won’t be giving up from just that single bout, though, Ai Fa!”
“If that one clash was not enough for you to understand the difference in our strength, then I cannot call you anything but unqualified to be a hunter.”
“Hmph!” Lem Dom snorted, lowering her stance. It seemed that despite falling for that explosive pro wrestling move, she hadn’t taken any real noteworthy damage.
Seeing that, Ai Fa narrowed her eyes, looking displeased. “If you want to suffer further, then let’s move elsewhere. After all, what if dirt or the like got into the food?”
“Ha ha ha, so you’re finally ready to seriously take me on? I’m glad to hear it, Ai Fa.”
“Today really has been an awful day...” Ai Fa muttered, brushing up her bangs as she let out a long-suffering sigh.
◇
Several minutes later, I heard the sound of a totos’s talons beating the ground coming toward the Fa house.
“Hey, long time no see, Asuta!”
“Huh? Ah, Ludo Ruu.”
The energetic youngest son of the Ruu tugged up on the totos’s reins, bringing it to a halt. The huge bird’s plumage was a touch on the pale side, which meant this one was Ruuruu rather than Jidura.
“It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? So, what brings you here today?”
“Well, Vina and the others told me that Lem Dom headed to the Fa house, so I came to see what was going on.” As he hopped nimbly to the ground, he looked over at Yun Sudra by my side. “Hmm? Who are you?”
“I’m Yun Sudra of the Sudra clan,” the girl replied with a somewhat nervous look on her face, and then she bowed her head. It seemed like someone from such a small clan couldn’t just casually interact with a member of one of the leading houses of the forest’s edge.
“Hmm... I’m Ludo Ruu. Nice to meet you. So, where did Lem Dom get to?”
“She’s over that way,” I replied, pointing behind me, prompting Ludo Ruu to peer over my shoulder.
Lem Dom had both hands on the ground as she gasped for breath. Ai Fa, meanwhile, stood before her, seeming perfectly composed. Over the past few minutes, she had already easily thrown Lem Dom over ten times.
“Jeez, so that really is how things turned out, huh? I figured. That’s why I hurried here by totos...”
“Huh? You know Lem Dom, Ludo Ruu?”
“Yeah. Remember when you made the croquette sandwiches before? Well, I ended up spending the night at the main Dom house that day.”
Now that he mentioned it, I had made some croquette sandwiches for Ludo Ruu to bring along with him when he went to the northern settlement back in the ashen month.
“She told me that she wanted to become a hunter. I guessed that she might challenge Ai Fa to a contest of strength if they met.”
“I-If you knew, then I wish you would’ve told me. I had no idea what in the world was happening when she suddenly lunged at Ai Fa.”
“Well, I did think that maybe I should bring it up. I mean, she seemed super driven to become a hunter. But it also felt like it wasn’t really my place to say anything,” Ludo Ruu replied, looking guilty as he scratched his head. “Besides, I couldn’t imagine her ever being any threat to Ai Fa, no matter how hard she went on the attack.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true, but still...”
Ai Fa had managed to take down powerful hunters like Ji Maam, Darmu Ruu, and Rau Lea, and even competed evenly with Dan Rutim, who was either the strongest or second strongest of the men under the Ruu. Even if she was a woman with an unusually robust build, it seemed there was no way Lem Dom could even make Ai Fa work up a sweat, much less bring her to the ground.
“You lack the resolve and spirit needed to be a hunter, Lem Dom...” Ai Fa coldly stated as she looked down at the woman’s powerless figure. “No matter how strong your body may be, you will never defeat your opponent without a powerful heart. And furthermore, if you lack the technique to utilize your strength, then it’s no use for anything but carrying heavy loads. The strongest person you could hope to compete with now is a young man who has yet to even enter the forest.”
Lem Dom offered no response.
“But that’s nothing to be ashamed of. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who wishes to see more women as hunters in the first place, so you should focus on the work that is yours to do, Lem Dom.”
As she again received no response, Ai Fa gave a little sigh and turned to walk away.
However, Lem Dom grabbed hold of her ankle.
“What is it? I can’t exactly throw someone who cannot even stand under their own power, you know.”
“Ai Fa, you’re...” Lem Dom squeezed out while gasping for air. “You’re an amazing hunter, aren’t you?”
“Hmm?” Ai Fa murmured, her brow furrowing questioningly. And then suddenly, Lem Dom threw her arms around my clan head’s graceful legs.
“I’m so glad I came here so we could meet... I want to become a fine hunter like you, Ai Fa...”
Lem Dom’s expression looked somehow ecstatic as she lay there on the ground, hugging Ai Fa’s legs.
After exchanging a glance with Ludo Ruu, I hurried over to them.
“Don’t utter such foolishness. You don’t understand at all just how much hardship there is in trying to be a hunter as a woman.”
“Even so, I want to be a hunter... I can’t just keep on suppressing these feelings, doing nothing at all with them...”
Lem Dom closed her eyes as she joyfully rubbed her cheek up against Ai Fa’s smooth thigh. It was at this point that Ai Fa’s cool-headed expression finally started to crack.
“Then just go ahead and do as you please! This has nothing to do with me to begin with! A-And could you stop touching me already?!”
“No, just let me stay like this a little longer...”
At that, Ai Fa shot us a look of uncharacteristic bewilderment. “What’s going on here?! Asuta, Ludo Ruu, save me already!”
“Hmm? It’s fine for women to touch one another even before marriage, isn’t it?” the woman on the ground opined.
“That’s not the issue here! I can feel a shiver running down my spine!”
Ai Fa tried to coldly shove the other girl’s head away, but Lem Dom just let out a seductive “Mmm” and refused to separate. For the first time, Lem Dom’s well-trained muscles had a chance to shine.
“What’s going on here?” Ludo Ruu questioned, looking my way as he scratched his head.
“I’m not really sure, but I think Ai Fa may have looked a little too cool there.”
Now that I thought about it, when Gilulu had first come to the Fa house, Ai Fa had earned some shrill cheers of excitement from women in the area as she rode around gallantly.
As I found myself lost in such recollections, Ai Fa woefully cried, “Hurry up and save me already!”
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