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

Epilogue

And so, it was decided that I’d spend another night in a vacant house at the Ruu settlement. Apparently, the three guests were staying in the home of Donda Ruu’s nephew, who had especially close ties to the Rutim.

Though with that said, the banquet at the main Ruu house was still going on.

After the meal, the people of the Ruu clan (excluding the unmarried women) started drinking alongside the three guests.

After Ai Fa and I finished cleaning up after the dinner, we met with Rimee Ruu and had a bit of a chat with her and Jiba Ruu in the elder’s bedroom, and then we finally settled down in the vacant house for the night. My idea of settling down, of course, was letting out a big “Aah!” then collapsing into a sprawl on top of the rug.

“The meat was tough and I gave that big speech, so it’s been a tiring day for my mouth! I don’t feel like saying another word all night!”

Nothing from Ai Fa.

“You’re not going to say something like, ‘Then don’t go talking all loudly to yourself!’?”

I turned and looked at Ai Fa, only to find my benefactor with one knee up in the air, her back against the wall, and a serious look on her face.

“What’s wrong? Are you worried because Donda Ruu never really voiced his impressions in the end?”

Still nothing.

“It’s fine! If he wasn’t satisfied, then he would’ve said so then and there. And the folks from the Rutim clan were so happy that there’s no way he’d have the clan and all their allies cut ties with the Fa clan.”

“...I wasn’t thinking about such matters.”

She’d had a rather calm look in her eyes back in the banquet hall and Granny Jiba’s bedroom, but now it seemed to have gone too far, somehow, and she looked outright depressed.

There wasn’t anything I wanted to see less.

“What are you thinking about, then? Rather than brooding over it by yourself, how about talking it out?” I said as I slowly drew closer.

I figured this was where she’d yell out something like, “Stop acting so gross!” but she didn’t react at all. I was looking like a real idiot here. Well, I guess I was one, though.

“Asuta, you...”

“Hmm?”

“Are you planning on leaving the forest’s edge?” Ai Fa suddenly threw out there.

I was honestly completely shocked.

“Why are you asking that all of a sudden? I’ve got no idea where this is even coming from.”

“When you were giving that long speech at the banquet, it somehow felt like you were saying your farewells to everyone. Like you wanted to leave behind medicine rather than poison before you left...” Ai Fa was looking straight at me, her face half illuminated by the animal fat candle. “Am I wrong?”

“You are... But well, I guess maybe it’s something similar?”

I couldn’t exactly look serious while sprawled out on the floor, so I got up and sat cross-legged in front of Ai Fa.

“I really do feel just like I told you before. Even if I don’t know why I was thrown into this world, as long as there are people living here, I want to be involved with them in a positive way. I’d prefer to be helpful rather than cause harm. I just earnestly expressed how I was feeling.”

Ai Fa remained silent.

“But well, there’s something else I told you about before, too. If I was sent here for some unknown reason, then I may be yanked back the same way. And if that happens, I’ll probably end up burned to a crisp and squished flat. And in that case, I want to live in a way that won’t leave behind regrets if that happens. I guess that feeling spilled out a bit? I don’t really know.”

“...You’ve been living feeling that way all this time?”

“No, of course not! I’d never last like that! But it’s not just something I can forget, and suddenly it’ll hit me every now and then.”

Ai Fa looked at me with her somewhat obscured eyes and tilted her head a bit.

“...I never thought about that.”

“Hmm?”

“I’d never considered the possibility that you may someday disappear against your will.”

Ai Fa’s voice was incredibly quiet. It wasn’t emotionless or flat, though... No, just quiet.

“Well, as long as I don’t get hit again by that absurd event, I’ve got no intention of leaving on my own! In fact, I’m actually worried you’ll throw me out before that happens... Anyway, if I suddenly disappear, that’s definitely the work of either a god or a devil, so pray I find happiness in the next life, alright?”

Ai Fa opened her mouth to say something, but I never got to hear what it was. That was because for some reason, someone had knocked twice on the door with a bang, bang.

Ai Fa slowly raised herself up and stood in front of the door.

“Who is it?”

“...Head of the Ruu clan, Donda Ruu.”

So, the final boss had appeared at last.

Well, I’d figured this was plenty possible, but I still found myself surprised when it happened for real.

Ai Fa silently unlatched the bolt and opened the door. At once, a large black shadow like that of some massive carnivore slid into the room.

Then, he said “Pardon me,” and started removing his footwear.

To start with, I went ahead and confirmed that he didn’t have a blade on him. In its place, though, he was holding a container of fruit wine in his left hand. Could I... interpret that to mean this was intended to be a friendly meeting?

He lumbered on over my way, then plopped his huge body down near the candle sitting by the window.

Those glaring eyes of his glanced around the room, not looking amused in the least.

“What’re you two doing up this late without even drinking?”

“Ah, we were just about to go to bed...”

“Hmph,” Donda Ruu retorted as he tore out the stopper with his teeth and took a swig of fruit wine. He must have been a seriously heavy drinker, seeing how he was at a drinking party up till now.

As for his face, well, it was hard to tell due to his naturally violent features, but he didn’t seem to be feeling anything especially strongly. There was a piercing, unrelenting light in his wild beast-like eyes, but well, I’m sure he never had a weaker look in them anyway. In fact, he actually looked calmer than he usually was.

With that said, though, he was a little close for comfort.

He was always sitting at the head of the group looking all arrogant, but the pressure I was feeling now that he was sitting here in the same room, illuminated by the same candle, was seriously no joke.

Ai Fa re-bolted the door, and then sat down so that she, Donda Ruu, and I were in a triangle.

We were all so close that “face to face” would certainly be an apt way to put it.

Donda Ruu thrust the fruit wine in front of Ai Fa’s face and said, “Drink. Drink, and swear... that here and now, you won’t speak even a single falsehood.”

Ai Fa silently brought the container to her mouth, without even a hint of hesitation. Then, she took a rather hearty swig.

Next, the container came my way. Well, I couldn’t exactly use the excuse that I was a minor. I tilted it while taking care not to choke, and took just enough of a taste to wet my tongue.

Aah, it was sweet and sour.

“...Just what have you been plotting, kid?” Donda Ruu asked, kicking off the conversation. “You’ve got no ties or debt to the Ruu clan, so what are you doing prattling on about our bonds? What’s your plan?”

Even if he was being calm and quiet, the man was still a giba incarnate by nature. Those eyes glared at me in the darkness, and his massive frame was naturally exuding pressure.

I wanted to say I wasn’t planning anything, but that wasn’t technically true. Lying had been forbidden, so it was best to just be honest and open.

“I don’t know if you’d call it plotting, but there’s just one thing I’ve been thinking. I wanted to satisfy you, Donda Ruu.”

“Satisfy me...?”

“Yes. No matter what dish I make, it will only be for one night. I man the stove for the Fa clan, and besides, I’m sure you can’t go entrusting yours to me constantly, anyway. And so, I started to question whether or not it would even be possible to have you find value and meaning in just a single night’s meal.”

I hadn’t thought I’d be forced to give another long speech tonight. But still, it was to achieve today’s purpose, so I didn’t exactly have a choice.

“For example, even if I worked myself to the bone and presented you with a crazy delicious dish, would that really bring you satisfaction and relief? If I owned a restaurant and you were a customer, then maybe things really would end with that. But I plotted to force my way into the house of someone who said ‘When it comes to food, there is no good or bad taste,’ throwing around my cooking. So I figured even if I offered something incredibly tasty, you could cut me down just by saying, ‘And so?’”

“...”

“But you’re the head of the Ruu clan. I figured if you were able to enjoy delicious food together with your family, prepared not by some outsider but by their own hands, and if you thought it was tasty too, then maybe that would bring you more satisfaction and peace of mind than ever before.”

“...”

“And well, that was part of the reason I decided to go with three different types of meat. If I just went with steaks and hamburgers, some of the group may end up saying the hamburgers are tastier. Then they may end up feeling dissatisfied if they aren’t able to keep on eating hamburgers. That’s why I thought it would be best to use three different types of meat in addition to the hamburgers. That way, it’d be easy to bring to life that whole idea you and Jiba Ruu mentioned, about people deciding what they find correct and delicious.”

“But why...? What did you stand to gain from doing all that? You risked your life and that of your benefactor for something like that?” Donda Ruu asked in a low voice.

I gave a sigh.

“You’re the one who brought up all that stuff about cutting off ties. You just didn’t expect how much Ai Fa and I hate to lose... You were losing your nerves because we wouldn’t even listen to a lecture from Jiba Ruu, right? And you knew that at this rate, Rimee Ruu would end up hating you.”

Donda Ruu’s knee twitched. That alone was enough to make me feel like my life was in danger, but this was the one matter I simply couldn’t accept, so I paid him no heed and continued on.

“I don’t know what your intentions were and I don’t care to ask, but please don’t risk your relationship with your family so lightly. Did you think when you raised the stakes by bringing the Rutim into things, we would just turn tail and run? Shouldn’t your first priority have been the thought that if we screwed up and you cut off ties with the Fa clan, it might cause a rift between you and Rimee Ruu, plus other members of your family? I won’t go as far as to say you should treat an outsider like me kindly, but it’s real stupid to sacrifice your bonds with the people close to you just to mess with me.”

“Kid, you...”

“I don’t mind if you don’t care for me and Ai Fa or how we live. I just ask that you don’t forget that Rimee Ruu and Jiba Ruu do care for Ai Fa like she was family... If you’re really the head of the Ruu clan, that is.”

I was trying to express what I thought was right, in my own way.

If I lost my nerve or wavered even a bit, I probably would’ve ended up pissing myself or bawling as I bowed so deeply my head touched the ground. After all, Donda Ruu’s eyes had lost their calm from before, and became the strong, intense eyes of a wild beast. That light in their depths was that of a hunter of the forest’s edge, of a warrior, just like I had seen three days ago.

“I still don’t understand how things work at the forest’s edge all that well,” I said half unconsciously as that light scorched my very soul. “You all are just way too different from the sorts of people I used to know, after all... Even in the future, we really may not be able to sympathize with and understand one another. But even so, I want to be a medicine, not a poison. I really do feel that way. And my cooking’s pretty much the only thing I’ve got going for me... I want to keep on living here at the forest’s edge until I die.”

What was going on with Ai Fa? She probably had just as bright of a blaze in her eyes as Donda Ruu, but... I couldn’t take my eyes off of the mountain of a man in front of me right now.

“The rest is just like I said before. You don’t need a chef for home cooking. What you want isn’t a chef’s food at all. What would really satisfy you deep down was just sharing a joyous moment together with your family... If that conclusion I reached was wrong, then I’ll return this necklace of blessings I received from your family to the Ruu clan.”

The large shadow slowly stood. And sure enough, Ai Fa stepped in between the two of us.

“...Let me ask once more. Why did you risk your life for something like that?”

His voice reverberated like an earthquake, completely cold and devoid of emotion, perhaps because his anger had reached its peak.

“Because I’m a chef. Just like you’re a hunter, that’s what I am... Well, I’m still just a half-baked rookie, though,” I replied, trying my best to keep things light.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, Donda Ruu finally turned his back to us.

“I’m a hunter. I can’t understand the thoughts of someone like you,” he muttered in that same emotionless tone, then began walking towards the door. He picked up his shoes in his right hand rather than putting them back on, unbolted the door, and added, “...Speaking of things I don’t understand, I have a message from that idiot head of the Rutim.”

“Huh?”

“Apparently he wants you to man the stove at the wedding in seven days... If they have a man who says stupid stuff like that leading them, the Rutim must not be long for this world...”

Well that was a shock. Seriously, what was that old guy thinking?

As I stood there dumbfounded, something suddenly came tumbling to my feet. Donda Ruu must have thrown it my way through the door. It was... A white, impressively curved tusk and horn.

“It’s a blessing,” Donda Ruu said before disappearing into the darkness at last.

“...I guess that settles things?”

I picked them up and handed one to Ai Fa. My fingers were actually trembling a bit. Pathetic.

Ai Fa silently accepted it, then stood up to re-bolt the door.

“Man... How many years did my life just shorten by?”

I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, which was coming a little late there. But well, it looks like somehow, this fight had come to an end. It was a real once in a lifetime showdown, started by my own selfishness.

“Still, what kind of joke is that about manning the stove at the wedding? That’s just way too big of a responsibility, no matter how you look at it! I’ve seriously got to find a way to turn him down.”

Rather than responding, Ai Fa simply bolted the door and came back over. She’d been keeping silent for quite a while now, hadn’t she? Actually, I don’t think she even said a single word while Donda Ruu was here.

As I shot her a doubtful look, Ai Fa made it back to me without a bit of hesitation.

Her pink lips slowly opened once again, and she said, “...I don’t want that.”

“W-What?”

“I don’t want you to go away.”

Her voice was very quiet.

There weren’t any tears streaming from her wildcat eyes.

Her fingers didn’t touch me, and her shoulders didn’t shake.

Ai Fa just silently kept staring into my eyes.