2
When we returned to the Ruu settlement, we found Lem Dom awaiting us there.
“Ah, Ai Fa... I have been waiting for your arrival.”
Ai Fa stepped back and positioned me as her shield. Since she hadn’t exited the wagon at all in the morning, this was her first time seeing Lem Dom since yesterday.
“You seem like you’re doing well, Lem Dom...”
“I am, though my back has been aching from being slammed into the ground... It’s almost as if you were embracing me all night long, Ai Fa.”
“Don’t utter such sickening nonsense, you fool.”
As they shot us questioning looks, the other women started unloading the luggage. But as the only one with a real understanding of the circumstances, Yun Sudra looked rather concerned as she did so.
“By the way, why are you hiding behind your clan member like that? I have been greatly anticipating the moment I would finally get to see your beautiful figure...”
“It’s those sickening things you say that make me wish to hide.”
“What a cruel statement...and yet, just having you address me brings me such joy...” Lem Dom said, her gaze toward Ai Fa growing oddly more sensual.
As my clan head gripped my shoulders tightly, I was left at a real loss as to what I should be doing.
“So, ah...this is very difficult to come out and say...” Lem Dom continued.
“Then simply leave it unsaid.”
“No, I’ll say it... For the next half a month, I wish to place myself in the care of not only the Ruu, but the Fa as well.”
“I cannot understand the meaning of your words in the least.”
“I wish to be allowed to stay at the Fa house every other day. The Ruu clan head Donda Ruu already gave his approval.”
That statement left me dumbfounded, and it must have been the same for Ai Fa too.
“Wh-What are you saying? I cannot imagine Donda Ruu ever approving of such a thing. To begin with, did you even reveal to him your ridiculous idea of wishing to become a female hunter?”
“Of course. It wouldn’t do to make a request of a leading clan head while hiding my true intentions. And now my own clan head will know of my intent as well,” Lem Dom stated, a firm light suddenly shining in her eyes. “But it’s fine. My clan head Deek had surely already vaguely sensed as much, and I had intended on revealing it to him when I turned fifteen... And on top of all that, I intend to give everything I have to trying to live as a hunter.”
“Did you think carefully about what I told you?” Ai Fa questioned in a firm tone.
“Of course.” Lem Dom nodded back. “Even without needing you to tell me, it is obvious that if I wish to live as a female hunter, I will be shunned by those around me. Even so, I cannot simply cast aside my feelings. Wasn’t that also the case with you, Ai Fa?”
My clan head didn’t seem to have an answer.
“You persisted in your desires regardless, and for that, I respect you more than anyone. I want to learn the will of a female hunter from you. I won’t ask that you take me into the forest, of course. Yesterday I had it thoroughly beaten into me that I wasn’t yet qualified for that.”
Ai Fa simply stared at her.
“I swear I won’t interfere with your work. I’ll simply wait at your home for you to return. My hope is just to observe you from up close. And I intend to work hard at manning the stove as well, naturally. So...won’t you please let me stay by your side, Ai Fa?”
“Every other day for half a month, correct?”
“That’s right. But if the Rutim and the north are able to exchange women after that, it could end up being extended.”
I could clearly sense Ai Fa’s fretting on my back. She herself had unsparingly tried to shut Lem Dom down, but the girl was still saying she wouldn’t give up on her wishes. Just what did my clan head really feel about her?
The idea of wanting to be a hunter despite being a woman was territory that had belonged to Ai Fa alone, but now this Lem Dom girl had set foot there as well. As long as she wasn’t being half-hearted about it, that wasn’t something my clan head could just ignore.
“Asuta, what do you think?”
“I’ll agree with whatever my clan head decides, of course.”
The thought of living together with some other woman was definitely awkward in a number of ways, but if it was just for half a month, then it was no big deal. What mattered most were Ai Fa’s feelings on the matter.
After a few moments of silence, Ai Fa quietly gave her answer. “In that case...as the Fa Clan head, I shall permit your stay, Lem Dom.”
“Really?!”
My field of view suddenly did a big flip. Lem Dom’s burly arms had sent my slender body flying, and I swiftly ended up on the ground.
“Thank you! I will use every last bit of strength I have, Ai Fa!”
“Cut it out, you fool! What in the world is the matter with you?!”
Ai Fa was now desperately struggling, having been hugged from the front by Lem Dom. But since the younger girl was superior in terms of raw muscle strength, my clan head was having quite a time trying to shake free.
“I take back what I said! I cannot allow a fool like you to stay in my house!”
“Oh, as a person of the forest’s edge, you would go back on your word? It’s wrong to tell lies, Ai Fa...” Lem Dom stated with a blissful smile, rubbing her cheek against Ai Fa’s hair. That expression really made her look her age in spite of her muscular build.
◇
After that I experimented some more with the giba curry, then back at the Fa house I worked on the combined fuwano and poitan dish as well as the eyeballs and brains delivered by the Fou clan. And that was how it went until night approached.
I ate the test dish made with the brains and eyeballs with members of the Fou and Ran clans, then for tonight’s dinner at the Fa house I made cubed giba meat stew and giba soup prepared with tau oil, which were dishes offered at The Great Southern Tree. Since Lem Dom would now be staying with us every other day, I figured I would have her taste those dishes tonight so she could start helping me make them in the morning. Then I added baked poitan and a bit of a salad, which I figured would give it a perfect nutritional balance.
“Asuta, I cannot bring myself to lie, so allow me to speak frankly...” Lem Dom started in on me as we were eating the night’s meal. “All of your dishes have been truly shocking. It feels foolish to even try to compare what I have eaten in the past to them.”
“Ah, I’m glad to hear it.”
“But how should I put this...? I don’t think that all of your dishes are equally tasty. I believe that spicy dish I had midday at the Ruu settlement was more delicious than this sweet and soft meat.”
“Oh? I’m still developing the giba curry, but you liked it better?” That was definitely an intriguing opinion to hear. “For reference, what dishes were to your taste out of the ones Toor Deen prepared for that banquet?”
“Let’s see... Of the dishes made that night, the ones I found tasty were the soup dish using entrails...and the meat grilled together with myamuu.”
“So the tarapa offal hot pot and the steak with myamuu sauce, huh? I suppose that means you like heavily spiced dishes. Ah, but you seemed to enjoy that karon milk soup from yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes. Perhaps I’m more fond of dishes that make me feel like they grant me strength.”
I couldn’t tell if she had an unbalanced diet or an acute sense of taste. Those examples alone weren’t enough to make the call, but her cooking skills didn’t seem half bad, so it seemed like Lem Dom had a surprising amount of potential as a chef.
And that direct manner of speaking was something she shared with Lala Ruu, which I couldn’t say I hated. But my own clan head had a sour look firmly affixed to her face and was just silently continuing to eat. Since she couldn’t use her back tooth on one side, she seemed to be having trouble even with the cubed giba meat stew, which I had boiled up to be extra tender.
“Do you have any dishes you especially like or dislike, Ai Fa?” Lem Dom asked with a sidelong glance, only for my clan head’s eyebrows to instantly rise.
“My preferences have nothing to do with you.”
“Such a tease... But it’s wonderful how much dignity you display as clan head.”
Ai Fa offered no response to that.
“Hey, Ai Fa, I heard from the Ruu men that you ended up in the top eight in the Ruu clan’s contest of strength. And you even fought on an equal level with the Rutim clan head?”
“It wasn’t equal. I lost to Dan Rutim.”
“But back then, the injury to your left arm still wasn’t fully healed, right? To display strength close to the Rutim clan head in spite of that... That’s truly amazing, isn’t it?” Lem Dom replied with a seductive look shining bright in her eyes that reminded me of Vina Ruu. “I’ve always believed either my clan head or Gulaf Zaza was the strongest hunter at the forest’s edge. But I have sensed that the Ruu and Rutim clan heads possess a similar level of strength... That means that you are a hunter who can stand alongside the four of them.”
“Can you really measure the strength of others so precisely, Lem Dom?”
“I wouldn’t say I can tell too exactly. After all, I completely underestimated you, Ai Fa... But I believe only the Ruu and Rutim clan heads can measure up to Deek or Gulaf Zaza. I haven’t seen anyone stronger than that at the Ruu settlement at all.”
Now that I thought about it, I had noticed before how Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu had an eye for judging how strong someone was because they had been able to see the great strength of their fathers from up close and personal. That was also supposedly thanks to the fact that they didn’t have the robust builds of Jiza or Darmu Ruu, making them painfully aware of their own weaknesses. With that in mind, perhaps Lem Dom had ended up with a not-so-different point of view, having grown up in a similar environment thanks to the Dom settlement being so full of such intimidating hunters.
As she slurped down her soup, Ai Fa shot Lem Dom an annoyed glance.
“A contest of strength is ultimately no more than that, a contest. What is important to a hunter is their ability to defeat giba, not one another.”
“But you also hunt down a truly shocking number of giba all on your own, don’t you? I feel truly blessed to be living in the same era as a female hunter such as you, Ai Fa.”
“I am still just an inexperienced seventeen-year-old myself. You should look up to hunters like Donda Ruu instead, who have displayed their strength for quite some time,” Ai Fa stated in an annoyed tone, setting down her plate. “Furthermore, Bartha of Masara is there at the Ruu settlement. Have you yet formed a bond with her, Lem Dom?”
“You mean that guest of the Ruu clan? Yes, we’ve talked at least a little...but her son is the one hunting giba.”
“But from what I am told, she hunted beasts every bit as ferocious as giba back where she comes from. She is also someone who can show you a path forward.”
“Hmm.” Lem Dom tilted her head, not really getting it. “All right. If you say so, then I’ll try talking to her more if I get the chance. But being by your side today is already enough to fill my heart to the brim.”
“How many times do you intend to make me tell you to stop with such foolish statements?”
“Aah, that piercing look... It sends shivers down my spine,” Lem Dom uttered, her gaze positively clinging to Ai Fa. Looking desperate, my clan head tore into a baked poitan.
“By the way, about that banquet Polarth mentioned...” I interjected, figuring changing the topic would help smooth things over. “The official decision will have to wait for the response from the leading clan heads, but what do you think, Ai Fa?”
“I am not especially fond of the idea, but I also can see no reason to refuse. As long as we have several hunters accompany you as bodyguards like last time, it should be no issue.”
“I see. Then I guess it’s fine, from the sound of things.”
“What, are you not fond of the idea either? In that case, you should tell the leading clan heads what your real opinion is.”
“No, I wouldn’t say that. It’s just... I think I might be getting a little too worked up.”
“Worked up? Why is that?”
“Because a chef who’s supposed to be Mikel’s equal is going to be manning the stove on the same day, of course. I just can’t stay calm after hearing that.”
“Hmm?” Ai Fa mused, furrowing her brow. “But the chefs from the castle town use different techniques. I believe Mikel himself said as much, and that Timalo chef made nothing but strange dishes, correct?”
“I’m not so sure. Mikel said that most of the chefs in the castle town hadn’t mastered their ingredients. So this Varkas guy could be a fine chef with skills that Mikel would see as legitimate.”
“I can’t speak on such hypotheticals. And I also don’t care either way about chefs from the castle town. However...if you are excited, then I’m glad to hear it.”
“I see. In that case, I’ll let myself get good and energized.” I chuckled, making Ai Fa break out in an ever-so-faint smile.
Instantly, Lem Dom lamented, “Aww... Hey Ai Fa, can’t you point such a gentle expression my way too, at least every once in a while?”
“Quiet, you,” Ai Fa shot back, that hard-earned smile disappearing.
When I thought about how much of a hassle all this was, a strained grin found its way onto my face. “Still, Dan Rutim’s birthday celebration will be coming up first. I intend to put everything I’ve got into it, so go ahead and look forward to that.”
“Right,” Ai Fa nodded, still pouting.
And so, the first night of Lem Dom staying with us came to a silent close.
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