Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 2.5

5

And so, before I knew it, 10 days had passed. In other words, more than two weeks had passed now since I first came to this other world.

The first five days it was just me and Ai Fa, but then I met Rimee Ruu that night, and we visited the Ruu house on the 6th day. The next morning we returned home, and then 10 days passed... making this my 16th day, huh?

I felt like I’d been living here for way longer than that, yet at the same time I was also astounded that so much time had already passed.

At any rate, it had been a dense 16 days.

And I mean, this past week I’d spent all my time burning kindling and cooking meat. But the time had finally come. Tomorrow morning we would head to the Ruu house and deliver our declaration of war.

There was no limit to how much I could experiment with regulating the flames, so I had to cut it off somewhere. And that ‘somewhere’ ended up being today.

Ai Fa gave me her approval, having stated, “It’s about as tasty as hamburgers,” after trying the final experiment for tonight’s dinner.

It was a menu prepared with the goal in mind of making a meal fitting for the people of the forest’s edge... for making them happy. And when I saw Ai Fa looking so earnestly overjoyed, I couldn’t help but think this would surely do.

“Thinking practically, if I hadn’t met you, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything and would’ve died out there in the wild within a few days, huh?” I suddenly asked, having finished cleaning up the utensils and lying out happily atop the rug.

As I listened to the animal fat candle slowly burning away and dimly lighting the room, I saw Ai Fa look a little disgruntled.

“No matter what dilemma you found yourself in and regardless of who picked you up, you’d be fine... Is that what you want me to say?”

“I don’t overestimate my own abilities, nor do I look at the world so lightly. I was incredibly lucky that the first person I met in this land where I don’t know my left from my right was you, Ai Fa. I want to say I became aware of that within the first day or two.”

“Why is it that when night falls, you always start talking about serious topics or getting emotional without any chain of reasoning connecting it to the discussion at hand? It’s a real pain, since I’m the one you’re always talking to.”

Ai Fa combed up her hair underneath the light of the candle’s flame. When it was time to sleep, she let her long hair hang down naturally like this.

My eyes narrowed at the beauty of her hair sparkling in the dim light, and I broke out in a relaxed smile.

“Is that so? Well, it’s been a good bit of time since I came to this world, but I guess I still haven’t shed off my feelings and intuitions from my old life. To me, it’s only natural to have quiet heart to hearts when you’re hanging out in dim light like this. It just makes it easy to get sentimental.”

Now that I said it, each and every day really was sort of like a school trip, huh? Talking bit by bit till you fall asleep, barely able to see the other person’s face under the orange light of the flame... I’m sure I just hadn’t adapted fully to this world yet, since it still felt like an unreal situation to me.

“If I’ve been too gloomy and got you down, then I apologize. But when I’m talking to you like this, it’s... How should I put it...? It’s just really comfortable and nice.”

“...I’m telling you it’s gross when you say things that are so serious and unlike you.”

Ai Fa had been leaning up against the wall in a somewhat slovenly manner, and she slumped down even more to lay down on the rug, then kicked me in the leg.

So as not to waste the candles, Ai Fa only kept one lit after we were done with dinner. And so, we weren’t ever too far apart at night, so we wouldn’t lose sight of each other.

Ai Fa was there relaxing, not far from me. That thought was very soothing to me.

I couldn’t help but feel on edge at first, being alone at night with a young woman like this, but now I felt quite calm about it. And it wasn’t just because we had spent so long together that she felt like family, or that her presence felt as natural as the air around me. Naturally that was there, but I hadn’t exactly come to see Ai Fa completely as family. If she was family, the beauty of her face, and the incredible smoothness of her skin, and how she occasionally let a bit of her sorrow slip into her expression, or her slightly childish actions... All of that wouldn’t make my heart quake or pound the way that it did.

I was from another world... If it wasn’t for the sense of inferiority that caused me to feel, I would probably have fallen for her at first sight. No, I may actually be in love with her now... At the very least, aside from my family and my childhood friend, no one else in my 17 years of life had grabbed such a firm hold on my heart and refused to let go. And on top of that, Ai Fa had charmed me so thoroughly in just a matter of days.

Even so, I didn’t want to ruin the relationship we had. I didn’t even know what tomorrow would bring, and I was gripped by a fear and anxiety that I could be dragged back to those flames in my original world at any time, so I had no intention of taking any actions I may not be able to take responsibility for. And so, even though the feelings in my chest got all stirred up by Ai Fa’s charms, I was still able to spend these tranquil nights together with her, feeling totally satisfied and fulfilled with my lot.

You know, the way that bundle of sex appeal known as Vina Ruu came after me may be part of why I was able to clearly recognize those feelings now.

How do the folks of the Ruu clan spend their nights, I wonder?

Aside from Rimee Ruu, I had only spent a single night together with them. They didn’t seem like such a bad group, though.

Naturally, I had no intention of forgiving that Darmu Ruu bastard, and the jury was still out on Jiza and Vina Ruu. But aside from them... Well, I still hadn’t talked much to most of them, but they certainly didn’t give off a bad impression.

The clan head’s wife, Mia Lea Ruu, seemed like a real good-natured lady. And the eldest son Jiza’s wife Sati Lea Ruu appeared to be a very kind, gentle woman.

The grandmother of the seven siblings who I manned the stove alongside, Granny Tito Min, was an old lady with a commanding presence despite her calm exterior.

The second daughter, Reina Ruu, was still just an earnest, adorable girl.

The youngest son, Ludo Ruu, well, he definitely wasn’t easy to deal with, but I really couldn’t bring myself to hate him.

I’d hardly been involved with the third daughter, Lala Ruu, and I’d never so much as seen her smile, but she didn’t seem to be all that bad.

Rimee Ruu was a really good kid. She was an absolutely adorable little girl, and just seeing her smile was enough to instantly cheer me up. Plus, she was someone important to Ai Fa, so I couldn’t help but hope that she would get raised right.

And then there was Granny Jiba... Their precious elder. She was like some mysterious character out of a fairytale, and she had lived the sort of turbulent life I could only imagine. I really was incredibly glad and proud to have been involved with her life in such a positive manner.

Finally, the one leading those folks was the head of the clan, Donda Ruu. To me, he was the guy who shattered my pride as a chef.

My desires to bring joy to the Ruu dinner table and make up for my own thinking coming up short were equally strong, but at the same time, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to get the better of that narrow-minded old guy and leave him speechless. But still, I decided that it shouldn’t be out of anger or hatred.

If that loudmouthed mountain of a man really were as savage and arrogant as he appeared, I never would have strove to reach a mutual understanding with him. But he was the father of Rimee Ruu, and he was also Jiba Ruu’s grandson.

And in the first place, it was wrong for a chef to cook out of anger.

It may be reasonable to cook for the sake of pride or self-esteem. But still, what I wanted wasn’t to force him into submission. No, I wanted to satisfy him.

And also, I’d never heard of a chef shoving their way into someone’s house and forcing food upon them. I was just a blockhead who couldn’t restrain his own frustration. So at the very least, I wanted to aim for harmony rather than discord.

Just what sort of conclusion would be waiting for me? Tomorrow’s meeting would be the first step in determining that.

“Hmm...?”

I heard a gentle thud so I looked up, and saw that Ai Fa had slumped down from her position sitting against the wall, and was now slovenly splayed out across the floor.

“What, you’re asleep? Guess I should put out the light, then.”

“I wasn’t... actually sleeping.”

While thinking to myself there was no need to be so stubborn about it, I broke out in a strained smile, forced my dead-tired body up, and placed the cover over the candle in the window. The world around me was instantly plunged into darkness, but my eyes soon adjusted to the moonlight.

Ai Fa was still lying down by the wall, her position unchanged. Her long blonde hair was spread out across the floor, illuminated by the pale moonlight. Taking care not to step on any of it, I approached and leaned over Ai Fa’s head. After brushing the hair off of her soft cheek, I moved a bit away and then laid down.

“...No matter what dilemma you found yourself in and regardless of who picked you up, you’d be fine...” a voice said, so quiet that I could only just barely hear it.

“That’s not true at all,” I responded just about as quietly, and closed my eyes.

That was how the time till our showdown with Donda Ruu passed, at times quiet and calm, and at other times incredibly noisy and restless.