Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 18 - Chapter 4.3

Intermezzo: The Customers of the Outdoor Restaurant

It was the second day since the opening of the outdoor restaurant and once again, Dora and his daughter, Tara, were enjoying a giba meal there.

Plenty more seating had been prepared for the place since yesterday, so all the customers were able to be seated without issue. But the flow of customers through the place seemed even higher than before, making things noisier still.

In the middle of all that, Tara was slurping a giba soup dish with a smile. Dora probably had a similar look on his face too. This new dish that the members of the Ruu clan were selling really was even tastier than the one they had prepared at his house not that long ago. And the people around him, regardless of age or standing, all looked to be enjoying that same wonderful taste.

“Hey, good to see you again,” a voice called out from Dora’s side. When he turned to look, he found Yumi smiling there holding a giba dish in each hand.

When Tara noticed, she looked even happier than before. “Ooh, it’s Yumi! You should eat with us again today!”

“Yeah, I’d love to, but it looks like the chairs at your table are already filled.”

“Then sit together with me! Look, I’ll give you half the seat!”

Tara shifted her position atop the log chair, making Yumi ponder aloud, “Hmm? But is there enough room? I mean, two people in one chair...”

“I’ll be fine. But maybe there won’t be enough room since your bottom is so big...”

“It’s not big, jeez!” Yumi snapped back as her cheeks went quite red, and she thumped down beside Tara. Though she was still young, her figure was already voluptuous enough to compete with Vina Ruu. “See? I fit just fine, didn’t I? So take that back about me having a big butt!”

“But why? Isn’t it good for a woman to have a big bottom?”

“That’s just something men decided by themselves. Even if you end up working in the post town too, you should try not to pick up such vulgar ideas,” Yumi replied, giving Tara an angry poke in the cheek after sitting down her food.

The young girl didn’t seem ashamed in the least, though, just laughing back. “Ah ha ha.”

“You two sure do get along well. Do you have younger siblings, Yumi?” Dora interjected.

In response, Yumi tilted her head a bit and questioned, “Why do you ask?”

“Well, you just seem used to handling young children. Despite what you may think, Tara’s actually pretty shy.”

“Really? I don’t see how that could be. She’s been like this ever since I met her,” Yumi said back as she took a bite of giba cooking. It was the dish Asuta called a poitan wrap, which was made by wrapping poitan around salty-sweet grilled meat.

“That’s why I figured you might have a little brother or sister. Was I wrong?”

“Yep. I’m an only child. Still, I always had little brats who lived nearby following me around since I was about Tara’s age, so maybe I did get used to handling kids like that.”

“I see,” Dora said, sounding satisfied with the answer.

Apparently, Yumi had been born in the slums of the post town. Dora lived in the Daleim lands, and when he first started working as a street vendor in the post town, he was warned by the guards to never go near the slums. As a consequence of the prosperity of Genos, there were a great number of homeless people unable to get jobs and dangerous outlaws living there, supposedly.

And it was true that it would be hard to call Yumi a proper upright young lady. Her attire only wrapped around her chest and waist, and she wore flashy jingling accessories. The Daleim territory was largely farmland, and not a single girl there dressed like that.

However, Dora didn’t look upon Yumi with caution. If she were an ill-natured girl, Tara would never have warmed up to her so quickly... And besides, she also was friendly with Asuta and the people of the forest’s edge. It was impossible to imagine those brave, earnest folks opening up to a bad person.

“What is it...? Is there something stuck to my face?” Yumi questioned, giving a sigh of satisfaction after trying the soup dish.

“No, it’s nothing,” Dora replied in a fluster, shaking his hands. “I was just letting my thoughts wander a bit. Now that I think about it, is your clothing in a Sym style, Yumi?”

“Hmm? I’m not sure. I’ve never seen women from Sym, and this was made in Selva. Fabrics from Sym cost a lot, after all.”

“Is that so? But don’t the people of the forest’s edge wear fabrics from Sym?”

“Ah, I think that might be true. Don’t the swirling patterns look like leaves and flowers? I guess it makes sense that the people of the forest’s edge would prefer them,” Yumi replied as she once again slurped some soup. “Anyway, what I’m wearing is just what’s trendy in the post town right now. There are some hardheaded folks around who hate stuff like this, though.”

“Hmm. I’m fond of a seductive look myself... Ah, not that I’d ever look at you that way.”

At that, Yumi gave him an amused grin. “Of course not! Tara’s mom would rake you over the coals for that, right? Hey, wait, are you the one who’s teaching Tara that vulgar stuff?”

“Come on, cut it out,” Dora said while scratching his head, to which Yumi gave an amused chuckle. And then as she kept on smiling, Yumi brought a hand up to her slender jaw.

“Now that I think about it, the women of the forest’s edge have been dressing like that since forever... So, are they the reason this became a trend, I wonder?”

“Huh? There’s no way that’s how it happened. I’ve been coming and going from the post town for ten years now, and I’ve always seen girls dressed like you.”

“But the people of the forest’s edge moved to the Morga forest decades ago, didn’t they? And if they’ve been dressing like that all this time, it’s certainly possible.”

“Hmm, I’m not so sure. I mean, townsfolk tended to not look so fondly on the people of the forest’s edge up till recently, so I don’t think they’d try to emulate their attire...” Dora replied, his voice getting a bit quieter. Reina Ruu was right nearby washing dishes, and Dora himself had been one of those people who looked down on them, which was a fact he couldn’t help but feel guilty for now.

However, Yumi looked just fine as she tilted her head and said, “You think? But the women of the forest’s edge are all so pretty. Even people who are prejudiced against them can’t deny that. So it doesn’t seem strange at all to me, wanting to be pretty like them.”

And so, young girls started wearing clothing similar to that of the women of the forest’s edge... Was such a thing truly possible? As someone only interested in how his vegetables turned out, Dora hadn’t the foggiest.

“So, did you keep your guard up around the people of the forest’s edge until you met Asuta and everyone too, Yumi...?” Dora questioned, trying to shift the conversation.

“Yeah.” Yumi indifferently nodded back. “My dad hated them, and that had an impact on me. In fact, I only approached Asuta’s stall in the first place in order to complain.”

“Oh really?”

“Yup. Did Tara not tell you about this? That ridiculously huge guy from the Suun showed up to buy food in the middle of what I was doing...and I guess that’s when I met Tara too.”

“Yeah!” Tara energetically nodded.

As she patted the younger girl on the head, Yumi broke out in a bright smile. “Well, it’s no surprise that’s how things went back then. I mean, the members of the Suun clan really were causing trouble in the post town. And someone I knew had their inn’s stall smashed. It was this big commotion... Plus, there was a drunk guy who threw his wine bottles at people too.”

“I see. I had only ever heard rumors about that, but I was still so cold to the people of the forest’s edge. It makes me feel so ashamed to think back on it.”

“You don’t have to feel that way! Those people have all been properly judged now and the misunderstandings have been cleared up, so there’s no reason to worry about it. Right, Reina Ruu?”

Reina Ruu looked up from her work cleaning plates in a water-filled barrel and smiled back as she answered, “Right. We pointlessly disliked the townsfolk too. So now we want to form proper bonds with everyone from here on out.”

“Yeah, you see?! There are still plenty of stubborn folks like my old man left out there! So the first step will have to be clearing up their misconceptions!”

At that point a small figure sneaked over and hugged Tara from behind. After giving a little surprised shriek, though, Tara realized who it was and her expression grew bright.

“Ah, Rimee Ruu! Are you done with your work at the stalls?”

“Yeah, I traded places with Ama Min Rutim!”

The young girl was Rimee Ruu, Reina Ruu’s little sister. She was eight years old just like Tara, and was as adorable as they came.

Rimee Ruu’s reddish-brown hair swayed as she rubbed her cheek up against Tara, who closed her eyes happily. Neither of them had many friends their age, and perhaps that was why they had become so very close so quickly.

“I’ll clean up any plates you’re finished with! Are you all done, Dora?”

“Yes, and it was truly delicious. I’m going to have to come and buy some every single day.”

Dora handed his empty plate to Rimee Ruu, and stood up while holding his partially eaten giba manju. As soon as he did, a southerner with a freshly purchased dish swiftly took his place. Even though they had increased the seating so much, there were still customers continuously packing in.

After Tara gulped down what little food was still on her plate, she followed Dora’s example and stood up as well. Now that she finally had the seat to herself, Yumi just said, “Good grief,” and crossed her legs, then turned to face Reina Ruu. Tara was down hugging her knees next to Rimee Ruu as the young girl started helping her sister clean dishes, everyone chatting happily.

“This really is an incredible turnout. But, well, guess that’s only natural when you’re selling something this delicious,” Dora chimed in.

“Right,” Reina Ruu replied with a smile and a nod. “I’m truly grateful that people are enjoying the new dish. I’m enjoying doing business with the stalls more and more all the time.”

Though Reina Ruu was polite, she never felt especially distant. At least when it came to Dora and Tara, she was always perfectly friendly. That just went to show how much of a bond they had formed over the last few months.

Now that he thought back on it, Reina Ruu and Dora must have been seeing one another for years now. He had sold countless bags stuffed with aria and poitan in the post town, and most people of the forest’s edge made purchases from his stall.

However, Dora hadn’t been distinguishing between them. He had been on guard and tried not to look at their faces any more than necessary, so none of them had remained fixed in his memory. The most he ever thought about them were things like considering one of the young women to be a bit voluptuous, or thinking how strange it was for a woman to be a hunter.

But now he knew so many people of the forest’s edge who treated him kindly. These days, he could casually ask unfamiliar folks who came by his stall, “So, which clan do you belong to?” And though they would generally look surprised at first, they would soon reply with an amicable look on their face.

From what he could recall, he had met Asuta around the end of the green month, so it would soon be five months since then. It felt like a surprise that it had already been five months, yet also that it had only been that long...but at any rate, they had formed such a strong bond over that period.

When he thought back on his first meeting with Asuta, he had a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach even now. Asuta had an issue with an aria he had been sold, and Dora worked up the nerve to argue back, only for it to turn out that Asuta had been in the right. Dora hadn’t wanted to admit fault, having decided that it must have been a groundless complaint because it had come from a person of the forest’s edge. He had ended up falling to the ground and begging for his life.

Just what had Asuta and Ai Fa thought when they saw him like that?

It really was depressing to think about.

But even so, Asuta hadn’t gotten sick of him and still kept visiting Dora’s stall. And then he’d met Vina and Ludo Ruu and learned how they were just friendly, normal people. Then when he had tasted Asuta’s amazing cooking, he felt great joy and pride in the fact that his vegetables were the ones being used. At that point, Dora had finally started facing the people of the forest’s edge properly, head-on.

If I hadn’t met Asuta, would I still look down on the people of the forest’s edge even now?

It was difficult to imagine at this point.

But at any rate, Dora had met Asuta. And he had talked to not just Reina and Rimee Ruu, but even the leading clan head Donda Ruu. Dora felt truly grateful for the lot that fate had dealt him.

“What is it, Dora? You look like you’re fretting about something...” Reina Ruu asked with a look of concern as she kept on washing dishes while crouching.

As he gulped down the final bite of giba manju, Dora replied, “It’s nothing. Just... I’m glad that everyone seems to be enjoying themselves so much.”

There were a huge number of people there happily eating away in the space assigned for the outdoor restaurant. Not just southerners and easterners, but a great many citizens of Genos, like Dora. Five months ago, such a sight would have been utterly unimaginable.

The people of the forest’s edge would surely keep on forging bonds with all sorts of people in the future, just like this.

And that thought made Dora truly happy, as if it were something he was personally involved with.

“You say that, but are you sure you weren’t just fascinated by how adorable Reina Ruu is?” Yumi teased, standing up from her seat after finally finishing her meal. “How concerning. I mean, you just called me seductive, didn’t you? Even though your daughter Tara was right there!”

“My,” Reina Ruu said, her eyes opening wide, and then she started to giggle.

“Cut me a break here,” Dora replied, scratching his head once again.

I’ll be reaching a stopping point in my work with the fields soon. When that time comes, maybe we can finally visit the forest’s edge... I’ll have to ask Asuta about that.

Tara and Rimee Ruu were smiling blissfully at one another down at Dora’s feet.

If the day came when all the people of the post town and the forest’s edge could smile together like that...then they could puff out their chests with pride and consider themselves true comrades.

Would such a future arrive in Dora’s lifetime? It was impossible to know, but at any rate, he had no hesitation about continuing down the path he believed was correct.