Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1: Moonlit Intermedio

1

The elder of the forest’s edge, Jiba Ruu, said that she had remembered the joy of living, and both Ai Fa and I had been granted blessings. I truly was overjoyed by that. Heck, calling it the perfect outcome wouldn’t even be enough to cover it. It was a powerful feeling to become involved with the life of someone so precious to Ai Fa in this manner, so much so that I could feel my heart tremble with emotion.

And yet, just a few hours later, I was left worrying all alone in a vacant house.

Ai Fa wasn’t there, and neither was Rimee Ruu.

I was sitting there squirming in the middle of the silent room, awash in anger and humiliation.

Damn it! What the heck is the deal with that?!

I wasn’t especially being confined or anything like that. I was just left to hold down the fort as Ai Fa and Rimee Ruu were with Jiba Ruu in the elder’s bedroom, in the midst of rekindling their old friendship.

This house, one of the homes belonging to the Ruu, apparently had been owned by Donda Ruu’s little brother or nephew or something. But apparently that relative had lost family and was having a hard time getting by as of last year, so he had moved to a different house and left this one empty.

And so, since the Fa house was so far away, we gratefully took the Ruu up on their offer to let us stay here for the night. But that ended up leaving me sitting there stewing in my displeasure. With that said, I didn’t even know who I should be pointing this frustration at to begin with.

If I had to say, though, I’d probably choose myself. And so, I just sat there floundering and writhing, my chest full of emotions with no place to vent them.

◇

A few hours prior, we were still in the main Ruu household’s banquet hall.

“You’re sleeping here tonight, yes, Ai Fa...?” Granny Jiba said as she slowly continued to eat her dinner. “It’s completely dark out, after all. It’s dangerous outside at night, so stay with us in our open house.”

“No, we couldn’t. It should be perfectly safe as long as I prepare a fire, so if you could just loan me a candle, that would be plenty.”

“Oh, my... It’s true that you certainly appear to have grown into quite the splendid hunter, but please take a rest here, for this old woman’s sake too.”

“But...”

“You have your responsibility as head of your clan, so you can’t come out here to the Ruu home so often, can you? And this old woman lacks the strength to walk all the way to the Fa home... So with that being the case, can’t you at least spend tonight keeping this old lady company? We were finally able to meet for the first time in several years, after all...”

Even Ai Fa couldn’t flatly refuse a request like that. That didn’t seem to be a problem in the least, though. I mean, I figured that Ai Fa should use this chance to deepen her bonds with Granny Jiba and Rimee Ruu, since Donda Ruu didn’t seem to have even the slightest intention of repeating the offer to have her marry into the family.

So that wasn’t where issue arose. No, that came next.

Apparently, the custom was that no one could leave their seat until everyone finished eating, so Rimee Ruu took over helping out Granny Jiba, while Ai Fa and I returned to our dinners. And all the while, the clan head Donda Ruu kept heaping abuse on my cooking.

“This isn’t proper food for a hunter.” “How dare you make me eat the same thing as a mundt?!” “I can feel my life force being dirtied,” and other such disparaging remarks came raining down upon me. But I figured this rowdy mountain of a man must have had some sort of reason for insulting my cooking, be it his distrust towards outsiders or his position as head of his clan or whatever, so I didn’t let it get to me. And besides, Granny Jiba had gone and said all that she did, so I was feeling completely content.

What caused that to crack, though, came right before Ai Fa and I finished eating.

“Won’t you please cut it out?! Why do you have to say such mean things about Asuta’s cooking?! Don’t you see how happy it made Granny Jiba?!” Reina Ruu shouted, having finished her dinner just a step ahead of us. Donda Ruu’s burning blue eyes shot an annoyed glare at his adorable second daughter.

“What’s wrong about calling something bad when it is? Our elder there just said so, didn’t she? It’s up to folks to decide what they think is right, I mean. And the only ones who would be grateful to be able to eat this mundt crap food would be old folks who’ve lost their teeth.”

Reina Ruu sat there in silence for a while, looking frustrated. Then, she suddenly stood up.

She removed the fang and tusk necklace from around her neck, and then slowly approached me and Ai Fa.

“Hey...” said Donda Ruu, a restless look in his eyes, but Reina Ruu paid him no heed as she took a knee and offered a piece of her necklace to each of us.

“I, Reina Ruu of the Ruu clan, offer this heartfelt blessing to Ai Fa and Asuta of the Fa clan for saving Jiba Ruu’s soul, as well as bringing peace of mind to the Ruu clan.”

“Huh? Hey, is it really alright to be doing that, Reina Ruu...?” I went to whisper into her ear. But then, Ai Fa gave me a quick push on the shoulder before I got close enough.

“Just shut up and accept it. To the people of the forest’s edge, offering a giba tusk or horn is a sacred act. Turning it down is akin to trampling upon the giver’s dignity and pride.” Then, Ai Fa said, “I gladly accept this blessing, Reina Ruu,” and took the white tusk.

Figuring there was no helping it, I followed along and said, “Thanks.”

“Reina... Are you trying to disgrace the Ruu family name?” Donda Ruu murmured, his low voice so grave that it sounded like an omen of some great coming earthquake. “Do you really think you’ll get away with giving some fake blessing in order to spite me?”

Though Reina Ruu was turning pale with fright, she stared firmly right back at her father.

“It’s not fake! Even putting aside the matter of Granny Jiba, I earnestly think from the depths of my heart that Asuta’s cooking is amazing. I never knew that giba meat could be this delicious. To eat is to live. So what I’m saying is, eating made me feel the joy of living so strongly just now, the same as Granny Jiba!”

“You... Have you gone mad?” Donda Ruu muttered in a low voice. I was taken aback by the puzzlement I could hear in his voice. But before I could figure all that out, Rimee Ruu stood up suddenly and yelled out, “Me too!” She turned back and looked at Granny Jiba, who gave a nod and said, “It’s alright.” And then, the little girl left her grandmother and came running over to our side. Naturally, she had broken out in a wide, happy smile.

“Asuta! Ai Fa! Thanks so much for everything today! It was really, really tasty, so I’m going to give you a blessing, too!”

With that, a third blessing, something that didn’t seem to come so lightly, was plopped into Ai Fa’s and my hands.

“Yes... That was certainly a wonderful dinner, truly worthy of a blessing,” the eldest daughter Vina Ruu said in a needlessly coquettish voice as she slowly stood. “I didn’t even know a ‘splendid’ meal could exist here at the forest’s edge in the first place. This really was enough of an experience that it can’t just go without a blessing.”

“That’s for sure. It’s just as you say, Vina,” Granny Tito Min added, standing up too.

“I can’t believe this! What in the world are you people doing?!” Donda Ruu yelled out again. Rather than anger, though, his passionate voice was full of astonishment. “Has my whole family gone lunatic? Was there madness-inducing apas venom in that crap food after all? But then we would surely all be crazy, right?!”

I stared at Donda Ruu, my gaze fixed as I gripped the five horns and tusks I had received tightly. He looked to be seriously bewildered, like he was actually doubting his family’s sanity.

“Could it be that the rest of you aren’t speaking up because you’re scared of me yelling at you? If so, you don’t need to hold back! Just do as you please, already!”

With that, the oldest son Jiza’s wife, Sati Lea Ruu, stood up, looking incredibly timid. She appeared to be about the same age as Vina Ruu, and her bright brown hair was cut neatly at her shoulders. She had a real neat and clean air about her.

Before she fully stood, she looked back at her husband, who gave a cool, composed smile in return. Looking rather relieved, she finished standing and then headed over towards us.

“I, Sati Lea Ruu of the Ruu clan, offer the Fa clan head Ai Fa and clan member Asuta my blessing. Thank you for the strange, wonderful meal.”

After she returned to her seat, the well-built woman sitting next to her rose up. Her reddish hair had just a bit of white mixed into it, and her eyes were a deep brown. There was some definite muscle on her exposed arms and shoulders, and she looked to be quite the gutsy middle-aged woman.

She was Mia Lea Ruu, Rimee Ruu and her siblings’ mother, and Donda Ruu’s wife.

“I don’t quite understand. When something’s delicious, it just is, right? It was so powerful that I almost feel weak in the knees.”

After casting a sideways glance at her husband, who was sitting still as a stone statue, she walked our way in firm, confident strides. Then, with a cheerful smile, she handed us a fang and tusk.

“It was delicious. And I’m really grateful for what you did for Granny Jiba, too. Hmph, I don’t know what our clan head’s being so ornery about.”

That unwavering smile really made her look like an embodiment of the phrase, “moms are strong.” I couldn’t help but feel earnestly impressed at the fact that this woman had birthed seven of the people here.

At any rate, with this we had received a seventh blessing.

“...Dad, do you really mean what you said before? You won’t go and whack me for this later, right?” the still youthful voice of the youngest son, Ludo Ruu, asked as he rose.

He awkwardly trod on over towards us, rustling up his yellowish-brown hair all the while, and then roughly plopped down on the ground.

“Hey, what’s with you? I heard there’s some weird group called magicians in the eastern kingdom. You didn’t use magic to cook giba meat so it ended up like that, did you?”

“It wasn’t magic. It was pure technique using a kitchen knife... a blade, and fire,” I responded, since Ai Fa wasn’t saying anything, and it was obviously a question for me, anyway.

“Hmph,” he snorted, sounding unamused, and then his pale eyes turned and looked at Ai Fa.

“You really have turned into a good woman, Ai Fa of the Fa clan. What a waste... If you would just act a bit more girly, I wouldn’t mind taking you as a wife in my brother’s place.”

Ai Fa didn’t say a word.

“Anyway, it’s no exaggeration to call that meal absolutely delicious. To be honest, it was so good that it makes me want to cry thinking about going back to the same old poitan soup from tomorrow on. If you aren’t Ai Fa’s husband, then you should marry one of the girls from our family.”

“N-no, I mean, the other person has the right to choose, too...”

“Hmph. You could have any one of them you wanted, except for that runt Rimee,” he said, muttering the last part. Then, he removed his necklace made from the spoils of battle, which wouldn’t lose out to Ai Fa’s in the least.

“It was unimaginably delicious, so I’m giving you my blessing. This is the first time I’ve given one, so you better appreciate it.”

After the cheeky youngest son of the family returned to his seat, a strange silence hung in the air.

“So, anyone else...?” Donda Ruu asked while stroking his beard and looking around. “So only three of you share my opinion that it’s not food fit for humans, huh?”

“I wouldn’t go all that far. Could you please stop using yourself as the standard for everything?” the third daughter, Lala Ruu, said with displeasure. Her red hair was tied up atop her head, and she was every bit as cheeky as Ludo. Those two were probably the only ones amongst the greatly differing seven siblings who were at all alike in terms of facial features and overall impression. She looked to be even younger than Ludo Ruu, and must have been 12 or 13 at the most.

“I thought the baked poitan and giba soup were seriously amazing. But the giba meat is crucial, and it was all gooey and gross, so I just didn’t think it was worth giving a blessing. Honestly, though, I could have given a blessing just for the matter with Granny Jiba. But everyone seemed to seriously think it was tasty, so I held back.”

“I see... What about you, Darmu?”

The shrewd, wolf-looking second son just replied, “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Hmph. And you, Jiza?”

“I don’t think there’s any need to fixate on the matter so much, Clan Head Donda. No matter what form or taste they may come in, giba is still giba, and poitan is still poitan. Regardless of whatever clever plans may be used in preparing it, it’s all the same once it’s resting inside your stomach.”

“There’s no need to go saying something like that now!” the chief roared, his eyes like burning flames. His eldest son, meanwhile, just looked back at him with those thin eyes, and gave a composed smile.

“So it’s a question of taste, is it? It’s just as Lala said. I was surprised to see that poitan could be prepared in this manner, and I could strongly sense the life force of the giba from the way that its filthy stench was absent from the soup. However... that meat drenched in red nectar was so soft that it didn’t even feel like I was eating giba. I fear that if I ate such a dish every day, my teeth would lose all strength and fall out one after another.”

“Yes... that’s it! That’s why I felt it wasn’t a suitable meal for a hunter of the forest’s edge!” Donda Ruu yelled out, the life rushing back into his face now that he had apparently found his answer. “These teeth of mine are meant for tearing into tough giba meat! Just like these arms are meant for finishing off giba and these legs are for running through the forest, they’re valuable tools for living here at forest’s edge! And tools grow rusty if you don’t use them. What you fed me was an improper meal, one that rusted away my life force!”

“That’s...” I started to object, but Ai Fa gently grabbed my arm. I could see in her calm blue eyes that she was telling me to stop.

“Of course, that’s because I’m a hunter and a man of the forest’s edge! And so... This is a perfectly proper meal for a toothless old woman,” Donda Ruu carried on with an arrogant smile, looking at the old woman in question. “My grandmother, our elder Jiba... what you said was absolutely right. If it helped bring your soul back to life, then I’ll graciously swallow my words. That’s not mundt food. It is medicine, meant for saving our honored elder who has lived longer than any of the people of the forest’s edge, and strove to work for our sake all this time! It’s a treasure!”

“Hmph... You’re being unusually earnest, aren’t you, Clan Head Donda...?”

“I’m always earnest! I acknowledge things that are right, and call out things that are bad. As if I could serve as clan head without the resolve to do that much.” Then, that fierce gaze pointed towards Ai Fa and myself. “Ai Fa of the Fa clan! And your clan member, Asuta! You saved the Ruu clan’s beloved elder, Jiba Ruu! As head of the Ruu clan, I apologize for my impoliteness up until now, and offer thanks to you once again!”

Ai Fa gave a silent nod.

As I was awash in the clear praise, I stared straight at Donda Ruu. The beast of a man was now wearing a pleasant smile on his face. It was a truly refreshed expression that he wore, as if years and years of doubts had finally been cleared away.

“To me, the food you cooked was poison. But for our elder, it was medicine. My soul won’t rust from one night of poison, so I’ll overlook the crime of making me eat it. And the fangs and tusks you received were the proper and just blessings for your deeds. Go ahead and convert them to your own flesh and blood, without feeling indebted to anyone!”