Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 21 - Chapter 4.3

3

It was now the morning of the day of the downfall.

After traveling from Dora’s house to the post town, we were now preparing to hand out our whole roast giba from five stalls.

Of the five giba, two were young ones while the others were full-grown dressed carcasses. Before long, our reinforcements from the settlement at the forest’s edge arrived. We divided ourselves up into pairs with them and got to work cooking the giba.

The chefs who had joined us included Reina Ruu, Vina Ruu, Lala Ruu, Morun Rutim, and Fei Beim. Toor Deen had been acting in a support role for me up until now, but today I had her team up with Vina Ruu instead, and then I paired up with Fei Beim. Since we weren’t actually doing business at the moment, there didn’t need to be any boundaries between the small clans and the Ruu, which allowed us to deploy everyone so that each pair would be properly balanced. For example, the inexperienced Yun Sudra was partnered with Reina Ruu. The two of them made a pretty novel set.

On top of that, we even had Dari Sauti coming from the Sauti settlement to observe today. There was a young woman driving his wagon, but there were no guards anywhere to be seen. Perhaps he didn’t want to bring along any of the men from his area, who were probably getting ready to go out and hunt when the sun hit its peak right now.

With his left arm still held in a sling, Dari Sauti calmly smiled at us and said, “My right arm alone should be all I need to handle any ruffians from around town.”

Besides, the people who had joined us from the Ruu clan also included several hunters, so there was no need for the Sauti to provide guards of their own. With the five hunters, led by Jiza Ruu, added to Ludo Ruu and the others who had been with us last night, we had ten guards in total. It was hard to imagine anyone coming after us with a lineup like that.

Dari Sauti stood alongside Jiza Ruu and Sufira Zaza, and the trio of a leading clan head, an heir to the same post, and the youngest daughter of yet another leading clan head watched over us as we worked. Though the townsfolk would have no way of knowing, they were quite a distinguished group.

Furthermore, we finally had Yun Sudra and Fei Beim from the smaller clans participating. Since Toor Deen and I had been coming here for a long time, the clans in our area were already fully aware of the state of the post town, but it was still important for them to hear directly from their own clan members. With that in mind, I wanted to extend the opportunity to the Fou and Ran as well, as they hadn’t ever participated in our business.

In another month, all the clans in the area around the Fa would enter into a break period. That would be the perfect chance to ask them to join our business in the post town. The plan was to keep doing the outdoor restaurant even after the revival festival ended, so we were going to need more personnel than in the past. But, since it didn’t require cooking skills to work the restaurant, we could more easily swap people in and out.

For now, though, I needed to focus on the work in front of me. With each holiday that went by, the town seemed to get more and more lively. Today, when they handed out fruit wine at the upper fifth hour, I saw a whole bunch of familiar faces in the crowd, such as the members of Dora’s household, the bodyguard Zasshuma, the cloth and pot sellers, and even Myme and Mikel.

“Hey there. Seems that Geimalos guy finally admitted to his crimes. It’s causing a bit of a commotion over in the castle town,” Zasshuma told me with a grin, well informed as always. Ever since returning to Genos, he had been visiting our stalls daily and informing us of what was going on. “It’s pretty rare for skilled swordsmen to come out of a peaceful place like Genos, and Geimalos had an especially impressive reputation among those who did. To think a guy like that would get so scared that he’d resort to such a dishonorable trick... Still, if you asked me to face a hunter from the forest’s edge one on one, I’d turn you down right from the start.” I was surprised that he would say such a thing, considering that from what I had heard, bodyguards who received official recognition from the kingdom of Selva were all supposed to be strong, fearless combatants. “At any rate, the noble house of Saturas owes the people of the forest’s edge big-time at this point. Now, though, it’s going to be important for everyone to come to terms with one another, or all the effort everyone’s been putting in will go to waste.”

“That’s true. I really hope the leading clan heads can talk things through and reach a peaceful resolution.”

As we were having our talk, I was finishing up with whole-roasting the giba. Three of them had only lasted thirty minutes or so before, so what was it going to be like today? We were offering five this time, but I could still see them going just as quickly. That was just how big the crowd gathering around us was.

From there, we cut off the meat and served it up to the townsfolk just like before, and before long, a familiar group appeared: the Gamley Troupe.

“Hey there. We’ve still got plenty left here today,” I said.

Pino was standing beside my stall, staring at me with a look that was hard to read in her black eyes. “Ah, well...would it perhaps be possible for us to have some as well?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Normally we pay you in coins, but today you’re handing it out for free as an act of charity, right? I’m just wondering if we’re allowed to eat it too.” Even after hearing that, I still couldn’t figure out what she was getting at. However, Pino’s gaze then shifted over to Ai Fa next to me. “For example, you still take offense to how our blockheaded minstrel handles himself, right? But that dunce may as well be family to us, so we can’t just turn a blind eye to that.”

“It’s true that I have not forgiven how that man acted... If you take issue with that, then I suppose you should not approach me either.”

“That’s not it. Neeya was a real idiot, and it’s only natural you got angry at him,” Pino said, hiding her mouth behind the sleeves of her furisode-like outfit. Her beautiful eyebrows, which looked almost like streaks of ink, drooped in a pained manner. “But if you came to hate us too by association, it wouldn’t be right for us to just casually drop by and grab some free giba meat. It’s not the same as if we were paying coins as customers.”

“That’s quite an admirable position to take,” Ai Fa replied, her eyes opening rather wide in surprise. “I’ve always thought of you as being rather stubborn, but the way you’re speaking now seems much more appropriate for the sort of girl you appear to be.”

“Thanks for saying so. I’ve known old man Rai longer than Neeya, so I know how dangerous it can be to read someone’s fate. If old man Rai had known just how foolish that blockhead really was, he never would have told him about what he saw.”

After staring at Pino’s small figure for a bit, Ai Fa gave a sigh. “Jiza Ruu has said that he considers you trustworthy. It’s no small thing for someone from town to earn such an appraisal from him. As such, I can only believe that it must be true, and I have no intention of blaming such a person for the acts of someone close to her.”

“I’m nothing special. Still, you’re saying that’s enough for you to not let your hatred for Neeya spread to me too?”

“Of course. If you tried to insist that there was nothing wrong with how he acted, though, that would be a different story.”

Pino continued staring at Ai Fa, the same expression on her face as before. Meanwhile, Doga the strongman and Nachara the flute player were standing nearby, at the edge of the road.

“So that’s that. Please feel free to go ahead and take some giba meat. If you wait too long, everyone else will eat it up first,” I called out, finally getting Pino to smile at me. It wasn’t the same sort of smirk as always either. It was a strangely gentle expression that called to mind a Buddha statue.

“Thanks. But let me just say, when Ai Fa said that we’re ‘from town,’ that was a little off the mark.”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. As you can see, we don’t live in any town; we’re always drifting from place to place. I’m sure the townsfolk wouldn’t want to get lumped together with good-for-nothings like us.”

“Hmm... But the townsfolk do not seem to look down on your people,” Ai Fa noted.

“That’s thanks to the welcoming atmosphere of the festival. If not for that, we’d be seen as vagabonds. The type of people kids would throw stones at. So we’re just as shunned and despised as the people of the forest’s edge once were.” Pino’s mysterious smile vanished as she giggled. “We’re nothing but fools who cast aside the norms and customs of townsfolk in order to live freely. If everyone the world over acted like us, you’d never be able to maintain a kingdom. That’s why I can’t accept you treating us like respectable citizens.”

“But...”

“It’s fine. We chose this way of life because we wanted to, so we don’t have any hard feelings about it. If we did feel frustrated about it, we wouldn’t be living this way. That’s probably why I’ve always been drawn to the people of the forest’s edge, who don’t care at all about not only the customs that people who live in towns follow, but the four great gods in general,” Pino said, and then she gave an adorable tilt of her head. “And after actually talking to you, I learned that you’re all amazingly pleasant folks to be around, so now I’m really starting to love your people. That’s why I’m so happy to hear that you don’t hate us.”

“Mmhmm! Let me just say, I don’t hate you guys either,” a loud voice suddenly called out from beside me, seriously catching me off guard.

“D-Dan Rutim! I thought you were chatting with the others. Were you listening to our conversation this whole time?”

“Of course I was able to hear you when I was that close by! Still, you there, girl... It seems that frail young man’s actions have been annoying Ai Fa quite terribly. I may not understand exactly why she got so mad about them, but Ai Fa and Asuta are both my precious friends! So just don’t forget that if that guy angers Ai Fa again, I’m not going to just let it slide!”

“Of course. We’ll make sure he never acts so rudely ever again.”

After that, Pino and company took some giba meat and chatted with Dan Rutim and a few of the others for a while. Doga and Dilo remained silent, but Pino and Nachara really livened things up, and Shantu the beast tamer was smiling jovially. I wasn’t able to spot any signs that the townsfolk were looking down on them at all, especially considering that the captivating Nachara was attracting just as much attention from the men in the crowd as Vina and Reina Ruu did.

Wanderers without any homeland of their own, huh? I find it hard to even imagine living like that.

Even in this foreign land, I had found a place I could call home, and for that, I felt incredibly blessed. But even as I was thinking about that, sure enough, the five giba worth of meat once again ran out by the time thirty minutes or so had elapsed.

After that, we hurriedly returned to the settlement to prepare for doing business at night. Sheera Ruu had taken charge of the group that had remained back at the Ruu settlement. Supposedly, they’d been working hard ever since the morning, and I made sure to put just as much effort in when I returned to the Fa house as well. This was the last round of preparations I would need to do for this huge ten-day job. I borrowed the help of the local women, and together we prepared the largest amount of food we ever had, and after that, I also did the prep work for the food we’d be cooking at Dora’s house as well. I almost felt bad for Gilulu and Fafa when we loaded it all into their wagons.

“I’ll take it as slow as possible, but still, keep an eye on our luggage to make sure nothing falls over,” I warned the chefs hopping into the wagons, and then we departed from the settlement at the lower fourth hour.

Toor Deen, Yun Sudra, Fei Beim, and the other women who participated in our business had all gotten permission from their clan heads to attend the party in the Daleim lands. In the past half month, they had all definitely brought home no small amount of wealth for their clans. Though it wasn’t all that much compared to the earnings of the Fa and Ruu, who ran the businesses, they all had all been given wages of at least twelve red coins a day—about the same as the value of a giba’s horns and tusks. In other words, in half a month, they’d each earned the equivalent of fifteen giba. Once it had been explained to the clan heads that tonight we were throwing a party to show appreciation for all the hard work everyone had done, none of them were able to refuse.

Of course, none of us were the sort who would let ourselves be distracted from work just because we knew there was a party waiting afterward. In fact, everyone seemed even more serious than usual, though they still appeared to be enjoying themselves as they got things ready.

For the final day of the revival festival, the Fa clan had prepared giba curry, carbonara, and giba manju, while the Ruu had made teriyaki stew and giba burgers. When the giba manju and giba burgers sold out, we would switch to selling poitan wraps and myamuu giba, as we had done before. Ever since the day of the sun’s peak, we had been revising our setup daily, with an especially big revision for today. We had increased the number of poitan wraps and myamuu giba we had prepared from forty to sixty, and for the giba curry and carbonara, we had gone all out and prepared three hundred of each. The last time we had made curry base and dried pasta, we had prepared enough to last us for several days, but for this occasion, we had decided to use it all up.

Meanwhile, the Ruu had added another fifty on top of the four hundred servings of teriyaki stew they had already been preparing. This was what Sheera Ruu had been working so hard on in the morning. It was not an easy dish to prepare, and the baked poitan that were served with it required a similar amount of effort.

Even with all that, the Ruu clan had only added three new people on their side of things. But rather than the new additions being needed to compensate for their increased workload, it felt more like something they had done because all four sisters in the main house had wanted to participate. Normally, only Sheera and Rimee Ruu would be on duty, but Vina, Reina, and Lala Ruu had joined in as well. Dari Sauti had offered to assist with transporting everyone and everything, but there were still so many hunters coming along as guards that they weren’t all able to fit in the wagons, with some having to walk to town in advance.

And so, our business on the day of the downfall began with our preparations fully in place.

We had prepared 1410 servings in total, expected to earn us 2235 red coins, and had eighteen people working. We would keep on doing business until all of our dishes sold out. Since we were planning on taking tomorrow off, we were going to throw everything we had at our work today. Though the revival festival period technically ran through the third of the silver month, after today, apparently the townsfolk would start to take things easier and enjoy the aftermath of the festival, so we had figured it would be okay if we exhausted ourselves at this point. We could just recover the strength we would need for the day after tomorrow during our time off. We hadn’t actually discussed all of this explicitly, but it was clear from looking at everyone’s faces that we were all on the same page.

“Hey there. Looks like things are really going great, Asuta!” Yumi called out with a smile when she rolled up with her own stall around sunset at the lower sixth hour. “Yup. This is the kind of wild night you expect on the day of the downfall! I’ll have to work hard if I’m going to keep up.”

“Right. We prepared an especially large number of servings for today. Hopefully, we can sell them all before everyone starts getting sleepy.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like we townspeople are all a bunch of old fogies. You don’t need to worry one bit about us getting sleepy on the day of the downfall. We’ve all gotta stay up to celebrate the revival of the sun god together!”

After work today, Yumi was planning to join us in the Daleim lands for our party, and she was bringing her “partners in crime” along with her too. Of course, Yumi was the only one who called them that. It was true that they tended to look like delinquents, but I didn’t think that any of them were actually bad people.

“Still, I’m surprised your parents gave permission. Aren’t you supposed to celebrate the holiday nights with family?”

That was why Dora’s family had tended not to show up in the post town at night. Tara had slipped out of such gatherings to visit the Gamley Troupe’s tent with us, though.

“That’s just something a bunch of old folks say. Besides, I’m out here working on a holiday night, so they’ve got no right to complain about anything I do later! I always celebrate the day of the downfall with friends, so all we’re doing this time is changing the location to the Daleim lands.”

Things were kinda like that back in my home country too. I could remember overhearing some of my classmates making plans for ringing in the new year together.

Still, I just celebrated back at my place or Reina’s.

Reina’s family and my own alternated whose house we would celebrate each new year at. But regardless of where we were, my old man and I would always be the ones to make the New Year’s soba.

I’m pretty sure we were supposed to spend this year at Reina’s place... I thought, almost letting myself get overwhelmed with emotion. However, I hurriedly shook my head to clear the thought away.

“What was that about, Asuta?”

“It’s nothing. I was just remembering my homeland a bit,” I answered honestly.

“I see,” Ai Fa replied, seeming calm.

There was no helping that I sometimes got caught up in feelings about my old home. It was still such an important place to me, where I had spent seventeen years of my life. However, I had no way of returning there. The memories of my death and the seven months I had spent in this world since then had created their own spaces in my heart as well. If not for that, I never would have managed to adapt to this world as well as I had.

I had found a home here too. If you asked me whether this world or my past one were more important to me, there was no way I could possibly answer. If I were ever forced to choose between them, I would curse the fate that put me in that situation with everything I had.

What was it like for Misha, wandering the world after being exiled from Sym? I pondered, and the thought made my heart shudder. I had only been able to avoid falling into despair after losing my home thanks to my encounter with Ai Fa. Through her, I had grown acquainted with the people of the forest’s edge, which allowed me to believe I could still live a happy life. If I were driven from this second home, then I really would be lost.

I sighed as I ladled out the giba curry briskly as the orders came in. I still felt someone’s gaze on my right cheek and turned to look, finding Ai Fa staring straight at me with a serious expression.

“I’m fine. Do I not look it, or something?” I told her.

“It’s not that, it’s just... No, focus your efforts on your work for now.”

“Right, got it.”

I wanted to talk with Ai Fa too, but I just couldn’t make the time for that now. We would have to find a moment to have a discussion about it once this job was finished.

Despite having lost my precious family and my childhood friend, right now I was undoubtedly the luckiest guy in the world. There was no end to how far one could sink into the depths of despair, and I felt so fortunate that I was able to avoid that. I can’t imagine many people knew that feeling better than I did.

And it’s all thanks to you, Ai Fa.

I couldn’t say it out loud, so I imbued my gaze with the thought instead.

That earned me a stealthy kick to the leg, but even so, I felt truly blessed.