Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 19 - Chapter 2.5

Intermission: People of the North

“Whoa, now that’s really something!” I exclaimed in surprise as we were heading toward the space for our stalls at the usual time on the eleventh of the violet month. On the other side of our roped-off outdoor restaurant situated at the northern extreme of the stall spaces, work had begun on cutting down the neighboring thicket.

The space that had previously been left open was now filled with a mountain of cut down branches and dug up tree roots. Fresh leaves were flying as far as the highway, and there was a bit of grit mixed into the air.

“Hmm, depending on the direction of the wind, we could end up with sawdust in our cooking.”

As I tried to think up some countermeasures, one of the guards standing beside the road and overseeing the logging came jogging over.

“So it’s already the upper sixth hour, is it? I wish you luck with your work again today.” This was a young guard I had grown acquainted with not long ago. Though he was a bit haughty, he also seemed to be good-natured.

“You too. I didn’t expect the work to clear more stall spaces would end up being so large scale.”

“Yes. We’ve had quite an increase in the number of stalls this past year, so we’re going to need to do several days of work to expand the available area before the revival festival,” the guard replied, shooting me a bit of a critical look. “And you’re still intent on expanding your business even further, aren’t you? That would leave us with even more of a space shortage.”

“Sorry about that.”

Our next day off would be four days from now, on the fifteenth, and the plan was for the Fa clan to also start operating an outdoor restaurant on the following day. However, it wouldn’t be separate from the Ruu clan’s restaurant, but rather a further expansion of it. Altogether, we would be borrowing an additional five stalls’ worth of space, which meant we would be filling up all the empty space currently being used to store felled lumber.

“The revival festival officially begins on the twenty-second of the violet month, but generally the number of stalls begins increasing five to six days in advance, so we need to finish this before then.”

“I see. Sounds rough.”

Still, if it was that big of a festival, then it was certain to have a tremendous economic impact. That was why the ruling class of Genos was sparing no personnel or effort in order to expand the stall spaces. Though the people of the forest’s edge were granted an exemption from taxes, every other shop’s success would help bring further profits to the town of Genos itself.

Now that I think about it, no matter how successful our businesses get, they’ll never bring in any income for the nobles. The most they can do is deduct tax from the space and stall rental fees we pay to Milano Mas.

I felt sort of sorry when that occurred to me, but considering how the people of the forest’s edge had suffered in poverty up till now, I was sure Duke Genos had no desire to start taxing them anytime soon. And everything that had happened with Cyclaeus would make it even harder to do so.

Still, eventually that would all just be water under the bridge, and then we might end up paying taxes too. Until that happened, though, hopefully we’d be able to have as many people as possible enjoy the novelty of giba cooking and help make the post town a livelier place.

“Whoa, what’s going on?! The tables and chairs are all coated in dust!” Lala Ruu lamented, already starting to clean up the outdoor restaurant.

The guard glanced over that way and gave a “Hmm...” as he stroked his chin. “The sawdust is indeed blowing in this direction. It’s only natural when we’re trying to cut the trees down so quickly. I suppose there’s no helping it... We’ll set up a curtain here between us.”

“Thank you. That really would be a huge help.”

“Hmph. I just don’t want you lodging a complaint later.” The guard then called for his nearest member of his unit and gave orders to set up a curtain beside the shop to block the sawdust. I started to turn to get to work on my preparations, only for him to call out, “Hold on. I’ve said this before, but don’t go causing a commotion with the workers, understood? If you get in a fight with them, we’re going to have a problem.”

“Understood. But we get quite a few rowdy customers at our stalls already, so I don’t think it’ll be an issue.”

“Ah, that’s not quite it. Normally, we would just hire your average ruffians in need of coin, but things are a little different this time around. They’re back in there a little ways so you can’t see them right now, but for today we have slaves from the Turan lands handling the work.”

After freezing in place for a moment, aghast, I turned toward the guard. The slaves from the Turan lands were citizens of Mahyudra. Northerners, who were hated enemies of the west.

As he furrowed his brow in disgust, the guard continued. “The fuwano harvests in the Turan lands have just wrapped up, so the slaves were no longer busy. It’s certainly cheaper than spending coins to higher laborers, isn’t it? However, most of our people aren’t used to the sight of citizens of Mahyudra, other than the residents of the Turan lands. The head of the guards has been at wits’ end trying to figure out how to not cause a disturbance.”

“So there are folks from Mahyudra working right over there?”

I didn’t know any northerners aside from Chiffon Chel, who worked at the Turan manor. There was Kamyua Yoshu, but he had mixed blood from Mahyudra and Selva.

Though Genos was a part of the domain of Selva, it was located quite far south, so there normally wouldn’t be any chance of encountering citizens of Mahyudra here. But in order to amass more wealth, Cyclaeus had gone out of his way to purchase slaves from distant parts of the country and put them to work.

“Now that I think about it, you’re a visitor from overseas, aren’t you, Asuta?” the guard asked, concern coming through in his voice. “Legend has it that visitors from overseas and the northerners share blood. It may be embarrassing for you to see them working as slaves; however...”

“Ah, it’s true that I wasn’t born on this continent, but I’m not one of what you call the people of the dragon god either. It’s just, slaves didn’t exist back in my home country, so...”

“Yes, it’s quite the same for the people of Genos. And not just us. No other towns nearby keep northerners as slaves,” the guard solemnly stated. “Since we’re so far removed from Mahyudra, we’re in no danger of getting mixed up in the ravages of war, so people tend not to carry the kind of anger and hatred toward northerners that you’d see elsewhere. That’s how the people of the forest’s edge ended up even more feared and scorned here than the citizens of the north.”

“Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that.”

“Even so, you mustn’t show the northerners pity. All along the far-off border, war continues even now between Selva and Mahyudra. I can’t understand why someone would want to show them mercy when there are westerners being used as slaves in the northern kingdom as well.”

Somehow, it sounded as if he was trying to convince himself.

When he noticed my gaze, the guard’s brow furrowed. “I was born in the Turan lands. From a young age, my father raised me to believe that to show mercy to northerners was to turn your back on the western god.”

Genos had a two-hundred-year history, but Cyclaeus had only wielded his influence as Count Turan for around twenty years. Up until then, the people of Mahyudra had really only been spoken of in legend and folklore, but suddenly they had been brought here to Genos. That had surely caused quite a bit of concern.

Kamyua Yoshu had also said that in modern times there were fewer people out there who treated slaves as tools to be used up and that some land owners would even pay productive slaves or allow them to marry.

However, Cyclaeus had been a man belonging to a previous age, who did treat slaves as mere tools. The man didn’t even recognize northerners as fellow humans and was hostile toward Kamyua Yoshu as a result, so that certainly made sense.

Maybe it even disturbed the people of the Turan lands to see those northerners, whom they bore no grudge against, be treated as slaves. That would be exactly why they needed to be told not to show them pity.

“At any rate, keep away from them. They won’t even be able to talk properly to you anyway, so it’s not like anything would come of going near them,” the guard stated before turning around to leave. “Well, I’ll be moving along now. The curtain for your partition seems to have been delivered, so you can go ahead and prepare to open for business. If you run into any further inconveniences, please let us know right away.”

“Understood. But, um, could I ask just one thing?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“If you don’t mind, could you tell me your name?”

The young guard turned around with a dubious look and answered, “I’m Marth, the second platoon commander of the fifth guard unit assigned to the Saturas territory. Now, farewell...”

With that, the guard named Marth returned to the highway, and I set about getting the stalls ready for business.

“I see, so there are people from Mahyudra working over that way?” Ama Min Rutim asked while grilling some meat for myamuu giba, having arrived when the sun hit its peak. “Back when you were kidnapped, I visited the Turan lands with Ai Fa. I got a brief glimpse of them working the fields.”

“Ah right, and you talked to Myme back then, yeah? Well, Ai Fa hasn’t mentioned any of that to me.”

“I see. Perhaps that’s due to her not wanting to remember the time that you were held captive unless absolutely necessary,” Ama Min Rutim said with a smile.

At that, I scratched my head.

I couldn’t help but recall the exchange I’d had with Saris Ran Fou. Thinking back on it, both she and Ama Min Rutim were the same age as me, but they seemed like such incredibly mature, good-natured people.

“Still, why exactly must slaves exist?” she wondered aloud.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“It’s just a thought I had when I went to the Turan lands with Ai Fa. Everyone living there seemed quite down. Apparently, that was due to the fact that they had lost their jobs because there are slaves to do the work...” As she moved the grilled meat to the edge of the pan, she quietly continued. “It seems the young folks all work elsewhere, so we only saw old people and children in the Turan lands. Slaves who don’t need to be paid may be a precious treasure for the nobles who use them, but they don’t seem to benefit the townsfolk at all.”

“Yeah, Polarth said something like that too. In the Turan lands, at the very least, the presence of slaves is only beneficial to the ruling class, while the citizens are forced to live difficult lives.”

In the post town ruled by the house of Saturas and the farms governed by the house of Daleim, the prosperity of those living there and those ruling over the land were directly tied to each other. The system was such that if the citizens profited, so did the nobles collecting taxes from them.

But in the Turan lands, the greatest source of income came from the fuwano and mamaria fields governed solely by the ruling house, and none of those profits made it to the citizens. That was why most people living there had moved elsewhere, leaving it with the lowest population of any county in Genos.

“Of course, now that fuwano sales have fallen drastically and the business deals Cyclaeus made need to be dealt with, the finances of the house of Turan are on the decline. Torst has had a lot of hardship to face as the guardian in charge of the house.”

The more I talked, the more I felt how deep the scars that Cyclaeus had left behind were. But the man had already been judged as a criminal, and those of us left behind had to fix those wounds bit by bit.

Not using slaves would help the Turan lands return to their proper state too...but the house of Turan can’t hire more people with the current state of its finances, and I have no clue what would happen to those folks from Mahyudra if there was no longer a purpose for them to be here...

Thanks to the curtain being raised, we could no longer see the logging work from our location. But I spotted folks here and there on the road trying to peek in that direction out of curiosity or otherwise shrinking in fear and leaving. Even if it didn’t impact us directly, it wasn’t exactly something I was all that happy to see.

“Asuta, this is the last one in this basket. Shouldn’t we get the next batch ready?” Yamiru Lea asked in a firm tone as she worked the giba manju stall next to me. “I don’t know why you’re in such a fog, but if you aren’t feeling well, shall I carry them over?”

“Ah, no, I’ll go. Just hold on for a moment.”

Getting myself mentally back in order, I headed around to the rear of the wagon.

Business was going great again today, and though there was still some time left until the start of the revival festival, there seemed to be a few more passersby than usual lately.

I’ll have to lock down the menu soon. Guess I should make the final plans with Reina Ruu and the others after work, I thought to myself as I rummaged around the wagon, when Gilulu uncharacteristically let out a cry.

“What’s the matter? Did you see something weird or...” I started to ask only for my words to catch in my throat as I froze in place.

Farther back behind the wagon stood a thicket, where I saw a massive figure lurking in the darkness.

“Not, panic... I, not, danger,” a solemn voice said, clumsily speaking the western tongue.

He was a citizen of Mahyudra. His disheveled hair was blonde and his eyes a light purple. His skin was burnt slightly red, and he wore crude cloth attire over his huge frame. The man was every bit as big as Donda Ruu, with some serious musculature on his arms and legs.

His square face featured sunken eyes and a large aquiline nose. An unkempt beard stretched from his cheeks down to his chin, making his appearance seem more rugged than even that of someone from Jagar.

Furthermore, there was a leather loop around the man’s neck, and his legs were bound with metal manacles. The connecting chain was around thirty centimeters long, so it was made to ensure that it would be possible to walk but not run. Even at the settlement at the forest’s edge, it was customary to bind prisoners in a similar way with leather straps.

“Wh-What is it? Aren’t you one of the folks from Mahyudra working over there?” I asked with a gulp.

The man nodded back like he didn’t fully comprehend. “Heard, guard, talk. You, Asuta of the Fa clan?”

“Y-Yes. That’s right, I’m Asuta of the Fa clan...”

“You, Count Turan, manor, went?”

It was a much cruder manner of speech than that of the easterners I knew. There was quite a mismatch between his awkward speech and how threatening his voice sounded, which left me unable to rein in my total confusion.

“You, Count Turan, manor, went?” the man expressionlessly repeated.

Despite not understanding what was going on at all, I replied, “Yes. I’ve been to Count Turan’s manor several times by now. But why exactly does that matter?”

Instantly, there was an intense shine in the man’s eyes. With a clanking sound from his chain, he took a step closer to me.

“Chiffon Chel, alive?”

“Huh?”

“Chiffon Chel, my, sister... I, Eleo Chel. Chiffon Chel, alive?”

Once again, I was dumbstruck.

Chiffon Chel was a maid at the Turan manor, and she had told me she had an older brother. As she had explained to me once, since she had picked up the western tongue quickly, she had been sent to the castle town and ordered to serve in her current role, while her brother was supposedly still being forced into harsh labor in the Turan lands.

“Ch-Chiffon Chel should still be working at the Turan manor. Ah, but the manor has a different lord now.”

The man from Mahyudra, Eleo Chel, shook his head as if to say he didn’t quite understand me. “Chiffon Chel, suffering?”

“She...” I started to speak, then hesitated.

I had last met her at the welcome banquet for the envoys from Banarm. It had only been a month since then, but never in any of the times when I’d been invited back to the Turan manor had I been given a chance to talk with her privately.

From what I knew, she had been assigned as Lefreya’s personal maid, and she was currently moving to a new residence alongside her masters. The only members of the old staff who were kept on under Lefreya should have been her and Sanjura.

Lefreya had become the head of the house on paper, while Sanjura simply wished for things to be nice and peaceful for her. I had no way of knowing what Chiffon Chel’s life was like with the two of them.

However...

“I can’t say for certain whether or not she’s suffering... But every time I’ve met her, she’s always been smiling.”

“Chiffon Chel, smiled?”

“Yes. She’s a very strong person, I’d say.”

Eleo Chel’s gaze fell downward to glare at his own feet. “Learn, words of west, can work, at Turan, manor. Chiffon Chel, chosen. I, not chosen.”

“Right...”

“Chiffon Chel, separated, difficult. But, happy, she smiled,” Eleo Chel said, lifting his face once more. The look in his purple eyes had shifted completely from before, now appearing perfectly calm. “Asuta of the Fa clan, grateful. Thank you, talking...”

“No...” I started to reply, only for there to be a rustling from the thicket behind him.

It was none other than the guard Marth, who soon appeared from within. “So this is where you were! Even if you’re on break, you can’t go leaving the area as you please!” Marth reprimanded him, his hand on the hilt of his sword as he hurriedly stepped between me and Eleo Chel. “And you were under strict orders not to approach anyone from town! Depending on the circumstances, you could be judged guilty of trying to escape, so...”

“H-Hold on, Marth! He just came here to talk!”

“To talk? There shouldn’t be any reason for you and a citizen of the north to have a discussion!”

“No, he...” I started to say, hesitating but then making up my mind to tell the truth. “He has a family member working as a maid under the current head of the house of Turan. And apparently, he somehow learned that I had been to the Turan manor, so he just wanted to ask about her well-being.”

“That’s...” Marth hesitated.

Meanwhile, Eleo Chel just stared back at him, unmoved.

“Even so, that doesn’t change the fact that he violated an order not to approach any townspeople. If it had been anyone but you, this surely would have ended in a massive problem.”

“So is he going to be punished in some way?”

With a sour look on his face, Marth shook his head and took his hand from his blade. “If he had caused a commotion, he would have been whipped for it. And by the way, you shouldn’t go thoughtlessly approaching northerners either.”

“Still, his sister really helped me out. When I tried to escape from the Turan manor, she did whatever she could for me, even though that also put her at risk of getting whipped.”

The expression on Marth’s face grew all the more sour. He strove to be a proud member of the militia, so the misconduct of the house of Turan had proved to be a really sore spot for him.

I had been kidnapped by Lefreya on the same day that he had declared to us how just and fair the elites of Genos were. Then just a few days later, Ciluel—the militia leader himself—had been proven guilty of serious crimes.

“I understand, so just hurry up and get back to work already. I’m sure nothing good will come of someone with ties to the nobility like you getting close to a slave.”

“Ah, but...”

“You certainly are stubborn. I already said I understand. At any rate, it’s forbidden for slaves to talk to townspeople. But, well, this man here is one of the few who have any command of the western tongue at all,” Marth said, sounding blatantly displeased. “If you intend to live here in Genos, you need to follow its laws diligently. It won’t end well if you try to get close to slaves.”

It really caught my attention that his tone sounded like he was actually telling himself. However, I didn’t want to trouble Marth any further.

“Got it. Sorry for all the trouble. And Eleo Chel, take care.”

At that, the northerner calmly nodded back at me, and then Marth led him away back into the thicket and out of view.

I don’t know the first thing about how slavery works in this world, so I guess it’s true that this is not something I should be carelessly sticking my nose into. In which case, it meant I would just have to discuss the matter thoroughly with someone well versed in the ways of this world.

Polarth had spoken to Chiffon Chel politely and showed no signs of looking down on her. The next time we met, I’d have to consult with him.

This isn’t anything too serious. I just want to let Chiffon Chel know that the brother she was separated from is still alive and that he’s worrying about her.

With that, I picked up the wooden box from the wagon and returned to the stall. The sun was now past its peak, and business was booming.

It would be several months before I would see Eleo Chel again, when these citizens of Mahyudra would be invited to the settlement at the forest’s edge in an unexpected turn of events. However, that was another story entirely.