Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 20 - Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2: The Gamley Troupe

1

It was now the seventeenth of the violet month.

We had once again done an enormous amount of preparation for today before we departed from the forest’s edge, and when we arrived at The Kimyuus’s Tail to borrow our stalls, we found Telia Mas waiting there.

“Good morning. These are the meals for today, as well as three days’ worth of fresh meat.”

“Thank you. You came to pick up the stalls, right?”

Even with Ai Fa and Ludo Ruu accompanying us, Telia Mas greeted us with a gentle smile. After she had come along on the field trip to the forest’s edge, her fear of hunters seemed to have softened a good bit.

However, after she took the meals and meat into the kitchen, she took a step outside the inn alongside us and then suddenly froze. Ji Maam was standing there with the wagons, having accompanied us to the post town as a guard for the first time.

“M-My apologies. I was just taken off guard.” Though she had gone somewhat pale, Telia Mas still put on a brave smile.

Looking like he wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for, Ji Maam tilted his head. He was the eldest son of the main Maam house, a clan that fell under the Ruu. Though he was nineteen years old just like Darmu Ruu, he was nearly two meters tall, making him abnormally large even for a person of the forest’s edge. His build was just as brawny as Donda Ruu’s too. In the festival of the hunt before last, I had been terrified half to death, watching him face off against Ai Fa in the contest of strength.

Even so, this little encounter didn’t turn into anything more serious than that, and we all headed around to the back of the inn. As she gripped her chest and got her breathing under control, Telia Mas said to me, “Your business with the stalls seems to be going quite well, doesn’t it? My dad said you aren’t having any trouble at all despite how much you’ve expanded.”

“Right. I was worried we might have a little trouble until the proper start of the revival festival, but for now everything’s just fine.”

“There are five days left till the day of dawn, right? There seem to be a few more people around even now, but the number of customers will probably double by then.”

The sun god’s revival festival officially started on the twenty-second of the violet month, and the first day was a holiday known as the day of dawn.

Four days later on the twenty-sixth was the day of the sun’s peak. The thirty-first was the last day of the year, the day of the downfall, and then the silver month began with the day of the return on the first. Those four holidays were when the revival festival would be its most jubilant.

On those special days, the castle provided a large amount of kimyuus meat and fruit wine. People were supposed to cut down on labor as much as possible during the day and instead celebrate the sun god’s revival while enjoying those offerings.

We people of the forest’s edge were planning on unveiling our whole roast giba by doing much the same thing. Even if it was forbidden to do business during the day, there was no issue with offering free samples. We would stay the night before at Dora’s place, then head to our usual space first thing in the morning and get to work on the roasting.

Of course, we had Yang convey a message to Polarth, who in turn got in touch with Duke Genos, and he gave his permission for us to do this. We were told that it wasn’t as if it would be blasphemy against the sun god to provide something other than kimyuus meat, and that it didn’t seem like a bad idea at all to offer free giba meat for the festival.

The festival was also really bustling during the night on those holidays, with even more lighting provided along the streets than usual and large crowds packing in around the stalls. That was when the real competition among the stalls would happen.

We people of the forest’s edge would be doing business in the post town at night, which was really exciting. A nighttime festival would be a great place to have exchanges between them and the townsfolk. It was an opportunity I had been eagerly waiting for.

“By the way, is The Kimyuus’s Tail really not going to put out a stall?” I asked as Telia Mas pulled the stalls out of storage.

“We aren’t,” Telia Mas replied with a shake of her head. “We’ve only just gotten to the point where we’re selling meals with giba meat in our dining hall, and we decided that things wouldn’t go well if we tried to do too much all at once.”

Yes, The Kimyuus’s Tail had finally started buying fresh giba meat too, with the introduction of giba curry, and had been selling freshly prepared giba meals.

Their menu included the giba curry I had taught them how to make, giba meatballs, and a meat and pepe sauté. And fortunately, those dishes were apparently selling just as well as the sweet and sour giba and tino rolls the Ruu clan and I provided for them.

“Now that I think about it, my dad said he wants to up the amount of giba meat we purchase next time. Would that be all right?”

“Of course that’d be fine. Please let me know when you’ve decided on how much you’ll need.”

Because of the incredible amount of preparatory work now needed for the food for the stalls, we couldn’t increase the number of meals we offered to the inns any further. For that reason, The Sledgehammer and The Great Southern Tree were keeping their meal orders the same but had drastically increased the amount of fresh meat they asked for.

I had figured those two inns could get by with the products of their own kitchens alone at this point, but then they had passed along some information that I found rather embarrassing—that it was great publicity for them to be able to say they offered cooking prepared by Asuta of the forest’s edge. So we were still set to keep on selling them our dishes too.

And though we would be using a lot more giba meat during the revival festival, by asking a bunch of other clans from all around the forest’s edge for help, we’d be able to handle it with no problem. The Ruu were entering into their break period, which meant their stock of usable entrails would soon be exhausted, so they were set to start purchasing those from other clans soon.

The Ruu were also steadily interacting more and more with the smaller clans they didn’t have strong ties to in the past. That was yet another result brought about by our business in the post town.

“Here are all the stalls. Good luck in your business today.”

“Thank you,” Reina Ruu replied with a smile. Though the two had been rather awkward around one another when they first met, they were now close friends.

“Ah, and I have a message from my dad. He says to take care not to cause trouble with any outsiders.”

“Outsiders?”

“Yes. He must have been talking about those traveling performers. They’re apparently setting up their tent right in front of your stalls.”

That Gamley Troupe who passed by us yesterday, huh? They really were a mysterious group, and an unspecific word like “fishy” or whatever certainly didn’t seem like it would sum them up properly.

“It’s my first time seeing traveling performers. Do we really need to be cautious around them?”

“I’m not sure. Just looking at them is enough to frighten me a bit, so I’ve never really gone near them... But if they cause a commotion, they’ll be banned from entering Genos ever again, so I wouldn’t really expect them to do anything violent.”

In that case, I hoped we could work together to help get people fired up for the revival festival.

“Okay, let’s be off. Please give Milano Mas our regards.”

With that, we headed back toward the stall area once more.

It really was feeling like the numbers of passersby and guards were on the rise. There was also a feeling of cheer in the air, undoubtedly because the revival festival was fast approaching.

After purchasing the necessary vegetables from Dora’s stall like always, we headed for our reserved space. Once again, we found dozens of customers waiting there. However, today there was a fantastical sight towering over that familiar scene.

“Whoa, what’s that?” Ludo Ruu asked.

On the other side of the street from the space reserved for our outdoor restaurant, something truly astonishing had been set up. A patchwork tent had been erected there, filling enough space for ten stalls or so. It had to be the traveling performers’.

The roof had a somewhat flattened cone shape, and at its highest point it must have reached five meters. Was the tent made out of leather, perhaps? The colors were different in various places where patches had been added, so it must have been pretty old.

Just like the tents I was familiar with, it was held in place by sturdy ropes anchored to the ground, but it had a bit of a lopsided look to it. Parts of it here and there looked squashed, making the whole thing seem kind of distorted. The way it was massive yet shabby made me think of a dinosaur’s remains and reminded me of the Suun clan’s ritual hall.

“So those guys from yesterday put this up? How do you make something this ridiculously huge in just a single night, though?” Ludo Ruu wondered.

“Well, it might not be too difficult to just raise some supports and stretch the roof and walls out over it... Still, this is pretty surprising, huh?” I responded.

After all, the width alone was the equivalent of ten stalls. Even with our stalls and restaurant space combined, the tent could still cover the whole thing. And it was located right on the opposite side of the street from us too. It was only natural that Milano Mas would have concerns.

The majority of the folks waiting for our arrival were staring up at the tent with curiosity written all over their faces. But the huge tent just stood there silently, knowing nothing of their bewilderment.

“It’s kind of eerie somehow... This is what Rimee’s been so excited about?” Vina Ruu questioned with a troubled frown. Rimee Ruu must have already heard about the traveling performers from Tara.

“Well, Tara seemed really excited about them. And that eeriness might just be part of their overall staging to attract attention.”

Though I wasn’t all that familiar with them, circuses in Japan were supposed to be pretty otherworldly too. But if this was something Tara was that excited about, I wanted to believe they wouldn’t be showing off anything cruel or grotesque.

“Well, they don’t seem to be open for business yet anyway, so let’s just ignore them and get everything prepared. We’ll start by cleaning up the restaurant space.”

Getting back on track, we went ahead and set the stalls in place. Before long, the group that had been delivering meals to the other inns arrived, and our preparations advanced without a hitch.

The Fa clan’s special for the day was roast giba, which we hadn’t served in a while. We, of course, used sirloin for the cut, which was sliced to a thickness of around one centimeter, then presented along with warm vegetables boiled in a special sauce.

The special sauce used finely chopped aria as a base, which was comparatively simple. I still added tau oil, sugar, and red mamaria vinegar even so. I had done a lot of experimentation with it in order to draw out the taste of the roast giba meat to its fullest.

For the warm vegetables, I went with the cabbage-like tino, arugula-like ro’hyoi, and zucchini-like chan. I heated those back up on-site along with the sauce, then cut off a slice of the meat I had roasted back home and added it on top. Just like yesterday, I had brought along a hundred portions of the meal.

The amount of meat worked out to 120 grams for the price of two red coins, and it also came with half of a baked poitan. The plan was to keep all the specials around the same volume. Though it was possible it wouldn’t have as strong of an impact as the steak, I could confidently recommend it based on how it tasted.

It was also the day that the Ruu clan would be unveiling their teriyaki meat stew for the first time. Other than that, the menu and meal counts would be the same as yesterday. We kept the baked poitan with the giba curry at the same half size as the ones with the soups and specials for now.

The Fa and Ruu had also both increased our staff by one each. We added a Dagora woman to our roster, and the Ruu did the same with a Muufa woman. And so, aside from me handling the specials on my own, that allowed us to put two people on each stall.

We had also decided to not do any rotation during the festival period. Since it would be so busy, we figured it was best not to move people around unnecessarily, so each group would stay in their current positions until the end of the sun god’s revival festival.

The giba curry and pasta would be handled by Toor Deen and the Gaaz woman.

Yamiru Lea and the Dagora woman were in charge of the giba manju and poitan wraps.

Tsuvai and the Muufa woman handled the myamuu giba and giba burgers.

Ama Min Rutim and the Min woman took care of the teriyaki meat stew and giba hot pot stew.

Finally, the outdoor restaurant was staffed by the two Ruu women, the Lea woman, Yun Sudra, and the Ratsu woman.

That was how we had things laid out.

I was in the middle of negotiating with the Beim clan head to get someone to help out with my stall too, but I had been told that he would make a decision after hearing how today went from the Dagora woman, who fell under his clan. If the Beim pulled out, that Dagora woman would also stop working with us, and we would need to scout two more people from other clans.

But at any rate, there weren’t any issues today as I was preparing the roast giba, which took less time to prepare than the steak. And since the Ruu and their subordinate clans had provided five hunters to act as guards, Ai Fa came over to help me out right from the start.

On top of that, we had two members of the Zaza clan along today to observe: Sufira Zaza and Mei Jeen Zaza, who had been staying at the Ruu settlement for some time now. Lem Dom was accompanying them too, likely on Sufira Zaza’s request. Since she had been dragged over to the post town despite not having much interest in it, Lem Dom had a really sulky look on her face the whole time.

That meant we had fourteen chefs, seven guards including Ai Fa and Bartha, and three observers, making for a large group of twenty-four in total. We were also bringing along an extraordinary amount of food, which left our four wagons packed to capacity.

“Well then, let’s go ahead and open for business,” I declared once I got the signal that the other stalls were all ready.

The gathered customers rushed the special dish and teriyaki meat stew stalls first. They unsurprisingly wanted to sample the new dishes.

After I cut off some meat for taste testing and added the special sauce over the top, I went ahead and offered it to the customers. Just like yesterday, a number of hands scrambled to reach out for it.

“Yup, this is just as tasty as the meat from yesterday!”

“Really? I’d say that grilled meat was better...”

“That was good too, of course, but you know...doesn’t this seem even meatier somehow?”

Those customers from the west and south were freely sharing their opinions. Meanwhile, a customer from the east slipped past them and held out his coins.

“Hey, no cutting!”

“Are you, buying? My apologies. If you are, please, go ahead.”

“Of course we are! Hey, give me a plate of this!”

“Right, thank you.”

I left it entirely up to Ai Fa to accept payment, while I swiftly cut off slices of roast giba. After ladling out some of the boiled vegetables onto a flat plate, I placed the meat on top. As I prepared one dish after another, folks kept on showing up in front of the stall.

Once around twenty minutes or so had passed, the familiar clear voice of a girl commented, “Ooh, so this is giba meat? It has an awfully appetizing color, doesn’t it?”

Without thinking, I stopped working and glanced her way.

She had long black hair, pale skin, big black eyes, and red lips... It was that same girl who had tossed a red flower to me from the roof of a wagon on our way back yesterday. For some reason, I gulped, but then I called out, “Welcome. You’re one of those traveling performers, aren’t you? If you’d like, you can go ahead and take a sample from this plate.”

“My, it makes me happy to hear that you remembered me.”

Somehow, the way she spoke didn’t seem to match her young age. Actually, she looked young, but just how old was she, actually? She was only about as tall as Tsuvai, no more than around 130 centimeters or so, but her manner of speech and just the general aura about her felt oddly mature.

Just like yesterday, she wore her glossy black hair in a number of braids, which hung all the way down to around her knees. Her bangs were cut evenly above her eyes, giving her an appearance that somehow reminded me of a Japanese doll. Her brilliant scarlet haori had wide flowing sleeves, and I couldn’t help but see it as Japanese attire. But it only came down to the middle of her thighs, fully exposing her shockingly white legs. The unusual piece of clothing had sparkling decorative strings attached to it, and there were a number of small bags dangling from her hips. The bags appeared to be made of a high-quality fabric rather than ordinary cloth.

Her eyes were big, her nose was small, and her lips were bloodred. Her face was almost shockingly well-proportioned. Still, I just couldn’t quite feel calm with her around. She really did look like a doll that someone had breathed life into.

She was so small and incredibly slender, yet had an incredible sense of presence about her. That wasn’t just because of her striking appearance, but also the otherworldly feel she gave off. Beside me, Ai Fa’s eyes also narrowed in a probing gaze.

“We gather unusual creatures from all over the world. We’ve even talked about wanting to capture a giba from the forest of Morga. I certainly never imagined I would be eating one first, though,” the girl said in a strange intonation, sounding almost as if she were singing. It was a very pleasant voice that crept deep into my ears. And yet, I still didn’t feel at ease hearing it. Just like yesterday, the girl then broke out in a crescent moon-like grin and said, “You don’t mind if I have a taste test? In that case, I’ll go right ahead.” The folks gathered around the stalls were all now watching the girl while looking rather dumbstruck. But she paid them no heed and casually grabbed one of the skewers from the plate, then brought the meat on the end to her red lips and popped it in. “My, how delicious... It certainly feels like it would provide some real strength.”

“Th-Thank you.”

“I’ll have to let everyone know about this... By the way, could I make a request of you?” she asked, standing tiptoe and bringing her face close to mine. “If folks like us were to use your seating, it could end up drawing a bit too much attention, right? So would you mind serving us your cooking on plates we bring ourselves?”

“Of course. That wouldn’t be an issue at all.”

“Glad to hear it. In that case, I’ll come back with some plates and trays.”

After shooting me one last coquettish glance, the mysterious girl left with her haori fluttering behind her as she went.

“What an unusual girl... If I ran into her at night, I might mistake her for some sort of ghost.”

“Did you see her eyes? They looked as black as the cursed jewels of Sym.”

“Ugh, I felt a chill run down my spine. I should go buy some fruit wine to cheer me up.”

Apparently, the customers felt the same way I had. With her eyes still narrowed, Ai Fa kept her gaze fixed on the girl as she left.

“Well, whatever. Hey, give me one of those. It’s two red coins, right?”

“Ah, yes. Thank you,” I replied, getting my head back on straight and resuming business.

The girl reappeared when there was a bit of a lull in the flow of customers.

“Sorry for the wait. This blockhead wasn’t listening to what I had to say at all.”

The girl had brought along four other members of her group. Fortunately, they didn’t have overly eccentric appearances. Still, they didn’t look particularly ordinary either.

One was a rather good-looking young man in a flat cap. He wore a couple layers of vest-like garments with stylish patterns, and he had a guitar-like stringed instrument on his back. He was just a touch taller than I was and was rather slim, seeming pretty lanky overall. If I had to guess, I would say he was a bit over twenty. His longish hair was dark brown and his eyes were sparkling and brown too, while his skin color fell somewhere between ivory-white and tanned. I had no doubt at all that he was a westerner. The previously mentioned blockhead was probably this guy, since he responded to the comment with a strained chuckle and shrug of his shoulders.

Beside him were two adorable girls who looked like twins... Actually, one of them might have been a boy. They looked so similar, I figured they had to be identical, but now that I thought about it, I had never seen any other twins before, so I couldn’t really say for certain.

At any rate, they had very dainty and clean-cut features. They were both smaller than the girl in the haori and were clearly younger too. Probably not more than ten. They both had beautiful chestnut-colored hair, light reddish-brown eyes, and porcelain-white skin.

The two wore delicately embroidered outfits that looked similar to ponchos, and their hair was cut evenly and somewhat short, so it was hard to tell what their gender was. Their hair was a little curly too, making them look like twin angels. But they seemed somewhat timid, huddling together as their little hands held a plate and a tray. Their eyes looked somehow unsettled and ill at ease as they stared back at me.

The last member of the group stood out in terms of his strange appearance. He was only around 150 or so centimeters tall and was wearing a mask. I clearly remembered seeing him leading a wagon yesterday.

He was about as small as the Sudra clan head Raielfam Sudra, yet the arms coming out of his cloth vest were absurdly long, and were ruggedly muscular too. He had a bit of a slouched posture, a long torso, and short legs. He looked like he would be strong in a fight, with a real intensity about him that you didn’t usually see from townsfolk.

His mask was leather and completely hid everything from his neck on up. It had a brim that extended out right above his eyebrows, so I couldn’t even tell what sort of look his eyes had. There were a number of narrow air holes around his mouth, like you’d see on a western helmet back in my old world, but all I could see through them was darkness.

“Really, why do I have to act as an errand boy? Wasting time means less earnings, you know,” the young guy in the flat cap remarked in a sarcastic tone. “I earn dozens of coins with each song I sing. Can you reimburse me for those losses, Pino?”

“Oh, be quiet. I don’t have coins to spare for a blockhead who slept in till the sun was this high in the sky, Neeya.”

It seemed the girl’s name was Pino, while the guy was Neeya.

With a bewitching grin, Pino glared at Neeya’s slender face from the side.

“Feel free to raise that sickly-sweet voice of yours as much as you please once we’re done here. But if you don’t want the troupe leader to roast you whole, then stop grumbling and get to work.”

“Hmph,” Neeya started to say, but then his eyes suddenly shot open in wonder. He was looking straight at Ai Fa. “My, how exquisite! A beauty most unsuited for this filthy post town! Charming lady, what is your name?”

Ai Fa’s eyes instantly closed halfway, filling with an unspeakable apathy.

“Ah, I am the minstrel Neeya. Though I may currently be living as a traveling performer, once I return to the capital, I am set to be welcomed as a court musician. Won’t you join me on the path that will take us there?”

Though Ai Fa remained silent, Pino’s lips twisted as she remarked in my clan head’s place, “Let me just warn you, this scoundrel here is a blockhead who has tried to walk the world relying on lip service alone. If you believe what he says, you’ll lose everything and be left out in the cold.”

“Do be quiet, Pino. Even here in Genos, I am the only one with a pass to the castle town, am I not?” Neeya retorted with a smile. While plenty of young women out there would surely find him charming, unfortunately for him, he was dealing with Ai Fa. No matter how many words he spewed, her gaze only kept growing chillier.

“Jeez, there’s no point wasting time on this fool. Let’s hurry up and finish with our business,” Pino said, swiftly giving up, and then her mysterious black eyes scanned the line of stalls. “Hey mister, are all the stalls lined up here serving giba?”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. You can sample everything but the manju from the neighboring stall, so please, go right ahead.”

“Oh, no, I’ve already gotten a taste of giba meat, so I can’t imagine having any complaints at this point. But having so many options makes it difficult to choose. There are thirteen of us, so roughly how much would we need to buy to fill our stomachs?”

“Thirteen, huh? Let’s see... An average man would be full after eating two of our servings, while a sparse eater or a woman could get by with just one, I’d say.”

Apparently, there were eight other people in the troupe in addition to these five. That sounded about right, considering they had brought seven wagons along with them.

“Hmm. Even our women and old folks can really eat, though, so I guess we’d need two helpings for each of us.”

“Huh? But...” I started to reply, looking over at the twins without thinking. The two young children gave a start and huddled together extremely close in response.

“Ah, it’s true that Arun and Amin only eat about as much as a kimyuus pecking at feed, but we’ve also got some big eaters who would happily help themselves to whatever’s left over.”

Now that she mentioned it, their troupe did have that one guy who was even bigger than Ji Maam. He certainly seemed like he could eat more than most.

“Well then, we’ll go with two meals for each of...”

“Ah, could you please not include me in your calculations? I’ll be heading to the castle town after this, so I have no intention of eating any pitiful, shabby cooking from the post town,” Neeya interjected with a haughty shrug. Ai Fa’s gaze grew ever chillier, while Pino broke out in an even more amused grin.

“You always do fail to woo the ladies right at the key moment, don’t you, you imbecilic minstrel.”

“Hmm? Did you say something, Pino?”

“Oh, nothing. Ugh, it’s a real pain trying to think this all through. Mister, could you put together two dishes for twelve people so that everyone would enjoy themselves?”

“Huh? You want me to do it?”

That was an unexpected proposal, but it wasn’t anything all that difficult, so I went ahead and consented.

“In that case, could you possibly bring a larger container? It would be a real pain to carry each portion of soup one by one, but everyone could just portion it out as they please from a big bowl.”

“Ah, that definitely makes sense. Sorry, Zan, but could you go fetch two pots?”

The little masked man named Zan gave an absentminded nod, thrusting the tray and plate he was holding onto the minstrel and heading back to the tent.

With that, I had now learned everyone’s names. The first girl was Pino, the minstrel Neeya, the little masked guy Zan, and the twins Arun and Amin.

“So, how much will it cost?”

“Um, it’ll be...exactly forty red coins.”

I decided to give them a bit more of the easy-to-eat giba teriyaki stew, at seven portions, and five of the giba curry. For the roast giba, giba manju, and myamuu giba, I went with four portions each. That would work out to enough for twelve people, with the stew and curry acting as side dishes.

“That works out to about three red coins per head, huh? That’s a rather cheap price to pay to fill our stomachs.” As she spoke, Pino rummaged around in a small bag at her hip and pulled out four dull silver coins, which she held out toward me.

I tilted my head and said, “Huh?” in response to the unfamiliar shape. “Sorry, this is the first time I’ve seen coins shaped like that...”

“Ah, these are coins from Sym. I forgot to have them exchanged.”

The coins I was acquainted with were shaped like long and narrow boards, but these were round ones about the size of a five-hundred-yen coin. The writing engraved on them seemed to have lots of strange winding shapes, very different from the characters seen around Genos.

“Sorry about that. Here, these are western coins.”

“Thank you. Um... So, you do business in the eastern kingdom too?”

“Of course. There aren’t many places in this world where we haven’t set foot, Mahyudra aside.”

They made their living by traveling literally all over the place. But in this world, long journeys meant putting your life on the line. Was that how such a young girl had ended up with such a mature air about her? As I was pondering that, I went ahead and accepted her coins.

“Thank you. You can go ahead and load up on everything aside from the soup dishes for now.”

After handing the necessary amount of cooking to Pino, I gave instructions to the other stalls. Then I asked Ai Fa to give Tsuvai the sixteen and a half coins owed to the Ruu clan for the sale.

First, we placed the giba manju and myamuu giba on the tray held out by the twins. As she watched us with delight, Pino said, “They both look delicious.”

They have a really different feel about them, compared to the townsfolk, but they seem pretty nice.

At the very least, I couldn’t see anything off about Pino’s speech or conduct, and, well, I supposed Neeya’s frivolous nature had its charms. The small masked man felt a bit eerie, but Ai Fa didn’t seem especially on guard around him, so he couldn’t be all that dangerous. Instead, my clan head’s attention seemed to be fixed entirely on Pino right from the start.

“Hey mister, did you throw out the paplua flower I gave you?”

“Huh? You mean the red flower from yesterday? No. It was pretty, so I put it up to decorate the house.”

“I see. That flower is a small gift from us. If you bring it with you, you can enter our tent for free one time.”

“Oh, is that so? I appreciate it.”

In other words, it was a free ticket. Definitely a nice gift.

“We actually have a friend from town who’s really been looking forward to your arrival, so we were planning on visiting together. Um, I believe that will probably be the day after tomorrow.”

Rimee Ruu would be on duty again that day, and she had made a promise to go together with Tara then.

Pino smiled kindly in response. “I’m glad to hear it. Will you be coming during the day or at night?”

“We were planning on midday. Our friend said that you have different shows at night, and that she definitely wanted to come see your performance before that.”

“Yeah, we only have the animal tamer’s tricks during the day. Of course, we’re proud of those too, but the night show really is the main event,” Pino replied with a giggle. Really, just how old was she anyway? “Anyway, we’ll be putting on a performance in the middle of the day today in order to draw in customers. It’ll probably cause a good deal of noise, but we’re hoping you can let it slide for the sake of both our businesses.”

“All right. I’m looking forward to working next to you too,” I replied, at which point the little guy, Zan, returned carrying a pair of metal pots. All the while, Neeya had been persistently talking at the current target of his affections, while Ai Fa ignored him with a steely, expressionless look on her face.

At any rate, it seemed we were steadily growing closer with the Gamley Troupe.