Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 2.3

3

And then, night fell.

Once again, we had planned to run our stalls and do some nighttime business in the post town.

As for the amount of food we had prepared, we had added thirty servings of the daily special and fifty each of the soup and pasta, which was the most we could manage at the moment.

Furthermore, we were trying out something new today: once the giba burgers and giba manju that took longer to prepare sold out, we would switch to selling myamuu giba and poitan wraps out of the same stalls.

Since they used minced meat, giba burgers and giba manju required more preparation than the other dishes. Therefore, we had only made 120 of each of them. But when we served myamuu giba or poitan wraps, we always made 160 of those. Since there was a difference of half a red coin in their costs, they all ended up being equally profitable for us.

However, the number of customers we served was more important to us than our profits. Right now, our immediate goal was to teach as many people as possible how delicious giba meat actually was. Since the more labor-intensive giba burgers and giba manju had just happened to be on the schedule today, we had decided to make the same number of them as usual and try for another forty each of the myamuu giba and poitan wraps. If we could sell all of those as well, I figured we could maintain the same number of customers while also raising profits.

And so, we had ended up preparing 1150 meals in total. If we could sell that many with just five stalls, we would be seeing several times as many customers as other places did. Naturally, being able to have 400 servings of soup was a huge part of that, but still, it really was an extraordinary number. This was 160 more servings than we’d had on the day of dawn, but since we had sold out much earlier than expected that night, I figured the odds were in our favor, as long as the flow of customers didn’t fall off drastically.

We’d also finally gotten a canopy to put over the space without tables and chairs, and we had some leeway this time in terms of tableware. Having learned from the events of the day of dawn, we had made every effort to be as ready as possible for tonight.

As for guards, Granny Jiba was no longer present, so we had gone back to our original number of twelve. But once again, they were specially selected elites. The stalls and the restaurant space had six hunters assigned to each of them, under the supervision of the three brothers from the main Ruu house. Also, even though Sufira Zaza was supposed to be just an observer, it seemed like she was helping out in the restaurant space too.

“This really is like a banquet for the townsfolk...” Fei Beim muttered from beside me, where she was working her first-ever night shift.

It was true that it was feeling more and more like a festival as the days went by. For tonight, there were flutes and drums being played all about, and I had even seen people happily dancing in the street. A group of mainly young women had formed a ring off to the side of the road, where they were twirling about merrily. There were even a large number of traveling performers and minstrels scattered about, aside from those of the Gamley Troupe. You could hear some sort of music no matter where you went, making the festive atmosphere all the stronger.

The Gamley Troupe’s tent also seemed to be drawing a large crowd today. There was a line forming outside, and it didn’t show any signs of getting shorter. Some of the other performers were even setting up to do their acts in that area off to the side of the road in order to take advantage of the waiting crowd and earn some money. With everything that was going on, the celebration here at the northernmost part of town was definitely just as lively as it was at the center of the stall area.

“And this banquet continues for over ten days, right? Truly astounding.”

“Yeah. But it seems that the evening of the day of the downfall is the festival’s climax. Supposedly, everybody’s going to be exhausted once the silver month arrives, so the celebration is going to last for a total of ten days in the end.”

“That’s already plenty long, I’d say. I suppose that means we’re finally halfway through as of today.”

She sounded like she was displeased with all of this, but I wasn’t particularly worried. That sour, unsociable look she always wore wasn’t a big deal either once you got used to it, and then you’d realize that she was actually a rather sensitive young woman. The disparity was honestly kind of charming. Even Sufira Zaza thought so.

The two of us were in charge of selling a brand new dish tonight: deep-fried giba. Honestly, it was pretty much just a simplified version of the giba cutlets. It had only been two days since we’d last offered the cutlets for sale, but they were so popular that people were calling for us to add them to our menu permanently, so I had come up with this dish as a last resort.

The method for making them was simple and involved taking thin slices of sirloin and flavoring them with salt, then coating them in kimyuus egg and fuwano flour, and finally frying them in a large amount of reten oil. Since we kept the meat thin, it didn’t take very long to heat through. The final result admittedly looked kind of flat, but the cuts were wide, so it was still a pretty hearty dish. Just like with the giba cutlets, I added Worcestershire sauce to half of the servings, and the other half got sheel juice. Both versions also included a fresh vegetable salad with a special dressing made from kiki juice.

We had decided to go bold and prepare 180 servings of this new dish—not as many as the 400 servings of the teriyaki stew we were offering, or the 250 of the carbonara, but it was a more expensive item at a price of two red coins. I just hoped it would make our customers as happy as our other dishes did.

Meanwhile, Myme and Yumi were there too, excited and working hard. This was also Myme’s first time running her stall at night, and she had used the extra time during the day to prepare more meals, resulting in her having 150 ready to sell.

As the days went on, customers had started coming to Myme’s stall at a faster and faster rate. To be honest, they might have been coming to her the fastest out of any of the giba cooking stalls. In fact, there seemed to be a fair number of customers who would order her cooking first, and then stand in line at Yumi’s stall or ours while eating it.

Of course, her dish could be eaten with just your hands, and it didn’t take all that long to prepare. However, lots of customers still seemed to prefer it over the giba manju and giba burgers, which were similar in those ways. There was definitely something particular about her dish that was drawing people in.

As the lower sixth hour approached and the braziers in the street were set alight, two of the three pots Myme had prepared had been emptied out. As long as the flow of customers didn’t slow down, she would sell the last of her hundred and fifty in another thirty or forty minutes. Yumi was over next to her and had opened her stall last, and it looked like she had still only sold around fifty or so servings.

“That’s great! Round two starts for me as soon as all of you close up shop! There’s no way cheap cooking like mine without any expensive ingredients could ever compete with what you make,” Yumi said with a laugh. “But things are still pretty lively around town after you all leave. There are sales to be made in the later hours too.”

She was a real natural-born child of the post town, something that made her incredibly reliable. I really could feel how Yumi and Myme were both wonderful allies and rivals for the people of the forest’s edge.

“This certainly is quite a crowd,” a voice called out around the time when the sun finally set to the west. When I turned to look, I found someone who made me feel a little nostalgic smiling at me: Zasshuma the bodyguard.

“Hey. It’s been a while. So you’re back in Genos?”

“I just arrived this evening. It’s been more than a month since we last saw one another, hasn’t it?”

Zasshuma had accompanied the investigators sent from Genos to deal with some disloyal individuals in Dabagg that we had discovered, and I hadn’t seen him since. I had heard rumors he’d taken off on a journey to elsewhere, but had never gotten the details.

“I had planned to come back sooner, but another job came in while I was over there. I decided to take the opportunity to earn a few extra coins so I could enjoy the revival festival properly. Anyway, the crowd around here is incredible...”

“Ah ha ha. This is your first time seeing our outdoor restaurant, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, and you’d better believe I’m astonished by it. I never expected giba cooking would get this popular here in Genos,” Zasshuma said with a chuckle, then stroked his sturdy chin. “Well then, could I try some of your food now, as promised? You’ve got so many dishes I’m at a bit of a loss, so what do you think I should order?”

“Let’s see... This is a dish I made, and it may just be a limited-time item, so I would recommend it for you now. Also, that soup dish...and the pasta dish over next to us is a bit of a novelty, so that could be good too.”

“Hmm? Are you saying one dish isn’t enough to make a meal? Normally, just ordering two servings should be plenty.”

“Well, the price of giba meat has gone up, so we’ve been trying to keep both the amount and the price of each dish down. One or two may not be enough to fill you up, Zasshuma.”

“If it isn’t, then I can just order another dish. As long as giba meat’s as good as karon like you say, that is...”

It had probably been half a year at this point since I had first met Zasshuma, and finally, the time had come for him to give giba meat a try. It was enough to make me feel a little emotional.

“Oh, Dan and Gazraan Rutim should be over there in the restaurant. The two of them are on guard duty tonight.”

“Now, that’s something to look forward to. I should have bought more fruit wine.”

Zasshuma ordered the three dishes and disappeared, only for another unusual customer to arrive: the craftsman from the post town whom we often made use of.

“Huh? It’s pretty unexpected to see you here around the stalls.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t have any work I need to be doing right now.”

This was the man who had helped us out with the totos wagons, restaurant seating, and even our tableware. Though I didn’t see him all that often, we had been acquainted for around five months now. He was someone who didn’t get out and about very often, so I was pretty sure this was the first time I had ever seen him in the stall area.

“Even I head outside and stretch my legs a little for the festival. And the younger folks at our place have been really praising your stalls too.”

Despite having a somewhat rough appearance, he was a good-natured fellow. Those younger folks he had mentioned were there behind him, drinking from their containers of fruit wine.

“Still, I never expected it to be this crowded. Looks like you’re pulling in more business than any of the other stalls around.”

“Yes, thankfully. Things have been going very well since the start of the revival festival.”

“Well, you just keep earning money and sending more business our way. We’ll make wagons, tables, chairs...whatever you need.”

The people of the forest’s edge were currently in the process of considering how to handle the reward money sent from the castle. If they decided to use it to purchase new wagons, we would surely be counting on him again.

“Well then, what should I order...? Hey, you were all going on and on about that weird winding dish, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right! It’s a bit tricky to eat, but it’s really tasty!”

“Oh, and that soup is excellent too.”

We always brought along some giba cooking whenever we went to see him, but the pasta and the stew would be totally new to him. He went ahead and ordered based on the recommendations of his young workers, then walked over to the restaurant space.

“You form bonds just as easily with the townsfolk as with us, don’t you, Asuta?” Fei Beim commented.

“Yeah, of course. They’re pretty different from the people of the forest’s edge, but they’re not all bad, you know.”

She went silent in response. Her expression remained just as displeased as always, but I could sense something had changed a little there as well.

When she next spoke up, it was after finishing another order and handing it over to the customers waiting in front of us.

“The members of the Beim don’t think fondly of the citizens of Genos...”

“Right. I’d imagine that’s true for most of the people of the forest’s edge.”

“Not really. The Beim have more of a reason to hate Genos than the other clans.” With the giba meat crackling away as it cooked, Fei Beim continued. “Have you heard about the person of the forest’s edge who was executed in Genos decades ago?”

“Yeah. A member of his clan was injured by criminals in town, and he broke the law in order to get vengeance, right?”

“That’s right. That hunter was the head of a clan under the Beim.” Fei Beim was speaking quietly, and with the crowd in the streets still just as lively as ever, the noise threatened to swallow up her words. “Since the crime was committed by the clan head, the clan lost its name. Those who remained all became members of the Beim. One of them was my mother, who was the daughter of the executed hunter and is now the wife of the current clan head.”

“I see...”

“Of course, my grandfather decided on his own to run off and get revenge rather than listen to those above him, so it made sense that he was executed. I know it’s illogical for us to hate Genos for that...but it was townsfolk who broke the law first, so isn’t it only natural to find it sickening that this tragedy befell the Beim?”

“Yes, it is...” I replied as I pulled some freshly fried meat onto the wire mesh.

The customers waiting for the completed dish hadn’t heard Fei Beim’s comments and kept on happily indulging in their fruit wine.

“It’s not like I think we should raise a complaint about it after all this time, though. I just want you to understand that my father and mother aren’t opposed to the idea of doing business in the post town for no reason.”

“I understand. Thank you for telling me all that. I never knew that the Beim clan had something like that in their history,” I said while coating some fresh meat and adding it to the pan. “I had heard it was a terrible incident, but I hadn’t thought about how his clan members must have felt. Even if it did happen decades ago, it’s only natural that the people involved wouldn’t just forget about it... It’s embarrassing, how shortsighted I’ve been about this.”

Fei Beim didn’t say anything in response.

“I’m grateful that the Beim clan is trying to do a proper job of observing our actions despite feeling that way. Really, thank you so much...”

“I can’t see any reason for you to thank me...” Fei Beim bluntly replied as she laid out some vegetables atop a couple plates. Then I added Worcestershire sauce and sheel juice to the cuts of meat that had finished having the oil drip off them and moved them to the plates as well. Our customers paid for and accepted their food, then headed over to the restaurant. Of course, a new set of customers immediately took their place.

“Fei Beim, the inn owner who loans us these stalls, Milano Mas, lost relatives to the actions of the Suun clan ten years back,” I said, making her shoot me a questioning look. “His wife and her brother both died because of them. But since Zattsu and Tei Suun have been judged now, he’s let go of his hatred for the people of the forest’s edge. Well, at least I’d like to think so. I don’t know how he truly feels. But he has been warming up to quite a few of us.”

“I see...”

“Because people like Milano Mas and the Beim clan who have suffered so much are starting to put aside their grudges, the forest’s edge and Genos have been able to forge a new bond. I don’t know what will happen from here on out, but I want to make sure we all remember that as we keep trying to find the best path forward for us.”

Unsurprisingly, Fei Beim simply replied, “Fair enough.”

However, I couldn’t see any doubt or hesitation shining in her eyes. The Beim hadn’t come nearly as far as Milano Mas had in terms of casting aside their anger. But even so, they were at least trying to determine whether they should keep holding on to their hatred and rejecting Genos, or if they should instead listen to the words of the Fa and Ruu and form a new bond with Genos in order to become more prosperous.

The people of the forest’s edge had all sworn to live proper lives in order to atone for the crimes of the Suun clan. Meanwhile, the people of Genos were keeping watch in order to determine whether or not that oath would hold true. At the same time, we were observing them in turn. It wasn’t just those with strong doubts like the Beim, the Zaza, and Jiza Ruu, as even Donda Ruu and Ai Fa were watching carefully to determine whether Genos was worthy of their friendship as we did business here in the post town.

I couldn’t help but recall the exchange between Granny Jiba and Granny Mishil the night before. The past wasn’t something to simply be cast aside. Our efforts to move forward from here were meaningless if we didn’t fully acknowledge the painful past. I once again felt that truth very strongly as I watched the folks before me drunkenly enjoying their banquet.

Time passed steadily onward, with our sales proceeding smoothly.

Just as expected, Myme sold out of her dish first, roughly an hour and a half after opening for business, and she returned to the Turan lands with Bartha escorting her. Roughly forty to fifty minutes later, the giba burgers and giba manju sold out, so we swapped the pot and steaming baskets out for a metal tray and started selling myamuu giba and poitan wraps.

I was pleased to note that the deep-fried giba sold out next. It took a good bit of time and effort to prepare, but still not as much as the carbonara. We had brought fewer servings of it than the carbonara, though, so it seemed sensible to conclude that the two dishes had proven to be similarly popular.

Fei Beim and I moved over to the restaurant to help wait tables and wash dishes, and before long the myamuu giba sold out too. Despite being the oldest dishes on offer, giba burgers and myamuu giba remained just as popular as always.

Now four of us had been freed up, meaning we had quite a bit of leeway with the work around the restaurant. While that was a good thing, I couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t quite ideal. In particular, Toor Deen was having to deal with the most troublesome of the dishes at the three remaining stalls—the carbonara—which I felt bad about.

The dish that’s selling best is the soup, but they fully prepare it beforehand, so they just need to reheat it. Toor Deen has to constantly boil pasta and then cook it some more with the other ingredients once that step is done, so she must not have any time to rest.

If we kept our rotation schedule as it was, the next holiday would see Toor Deen in charge of the carbonara again rather than the giba curry. Maybe when the time came, I could set things up so I could cook some of the carbonara at my stall too after the daily special sold out in order to lighten her load?

No, maybe I should make curry the special on that day. Fortunately, it seems to have been well received, so I don’t think I’ll hear any complaints... In that case, even if Yamiru Lea sells out of giba manju first, I could leave the curry up to her and move over to handling the pasta.

Forming such plans was also an enjoyable part of my job.

Not long after, the poitan wraps were all gone, and the teriyaki stew bottomed out after that. That just left the carbonara, which sold out as well around three hours after we had opened.

“We really did sell all of it. So, what should we do for tomorrow?” Reina Ruu asked while washing a stack of plates. Even if we had sold all of our meals, there were still customers in the restaurant, so we were currently in the process of cleaning up after them.

“Hmm... We could be bold and prepare the same amount as today, but will we see more customers than we did yesterday? We have preparations to handle too, so we can’t extend our business hours too much during the day.”

“That’s true. Then why don’t we go ahead and just make the same amount of soup as today? If there’s any left over, we can use it for dinner.”

“Right. I’ll leave that up to you. In that case, though, maybe I should prepare a dish of my own that we could still use even if there are leftovers.”

The Ruu clan were running a fine business of their own, with Reina and Sheera Ruu handling the cooking while Tsuvai was in charge of managing the money. We might have been fumbling around a bit during the festival, but they were really handling it admirably.

“Then three days later, we’ll finally be heading to the castle town. It’s been a while since I last saw Varkas, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Reina Ruu said.

“Yeah. I haven’t shared a kitchen with him since before we went to Dabagg...so it’s been roughly fifty days now.”

Timalo was going to be there too, and I hadn’t seen him in even longer. Reina and Sheera Ruu didn’t really care about him, but now that I had learned a fair amount about the methods used in the castle town, I was looking forward to having an opportunity to analyze his cooking from another angle.

And then there was that one other concern I’d had in the corner of my mind.

“Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Roy for a while. I wonder what he’s been up to, and where.”

“Who knows,” Reina Ruu replied with a frown. “That man lives in the castle town as well, so it isn’t strange at all not to see him.”

When Roy had tried Reina and Sheera Ruu’s giba hot pot stew, he had been seriously shocked by it and hadn’t shown his face before us since. He’d also had an argument with Reina Ruu that time, so the matter had been weighing on my mind.

“For some reason, whenever I talk to him I get all worked up and I can’t help noticing how petty I can be, so I don’t see any issue with him vanishing.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

I didn’t want Reina Ruu to have to deal with any more stress at a time like this, but I still thought to myself that once the revival festival was over, I would use my connections through Yang to ask about what was going on with Roy.

“Asuta, Reina, we’re all done over here... The only things left to do are to wait for the rest of the customers to leave and wash the remaining dishes, so do you want me to handle that?” Vina Ruu asked, having been given the task of cleaning up the stalls. After this, we were set to head to the Gamley Troupe’s tent.

“Thank you. But do you really not want to come with us?”

“No. If you bring even more people than you currently are, it will be tough on Jiza... I don’t mind holding down the fort...”

It was true that our group today included five chefs and Tara, but that was basically the same number as last time. Rimee Ruu hadn’t been scheduled to be on duty today, but she had used the same method Lala Ruu had last time in order to join in.

“All right, we’ll take you up on that kind offer and head over now. After all, it’s already past the time everyone would usually be in bed at the forest’s edge.”

“It certainly is... All of you sure do have a lot of energy...” Vina Ruu said, seeing us off with a sensual sigh as we hurried over to Jiza Ruu. Next we needed to determine who would be our guards for the night.

“You’ll be going with Asuta, Reina, Rimee, Ama Min Rutim, and the Sudra woman, as well as the vegetable seller’s daughter for a total of six, correct?” Jiza Ruu asked, stroking his cheek and thinking deeply. “Then for guards we’ll have Ludo, Ai Fa, and myself...as well as Gazraan and Dan Rutim, and one more...”

“Ah, if you don’t mind, could I join in again, Jiza Ruu?” Giran Ririn chimed in.

With narrowed eyes, Jiza Ruu replied, “Very well. I have no concerns at all about your skills. In that case, I’ll ask you to take care of the guard work here, Darmu.”

“Right, understood.”

“We’ll form pairs of one man to one woman again. Reina can come with me, and the rest should work out the same as last time,” Jiza Ruu ordered. Lala and Shin Ruu were absent, and Reina Ruu had been swapped in for Sheera Ruu, but otherwise the arrangements were identical. “Even if there’s no need to fear another bandit attack happening, make sure not to let your guard down. Now then, let’s get going.”

And so, we once again closed out the day by heading to that giant tent for a nighttime show.