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

Bonus Short Story

At the Sudra House

“You certainly look like you’re enjoying yourself, Yun.”

A voice called out to Yun Sudra as she was in the midst of preparing dinner on the Sudra house’s outdoor stove. When she turned to look, she found the clan head’s wife, Li Sudra, standing there with a smile.

As Yun Sudra added fresh firewood to the stove, she sent the older woman a smile of her own and replied, “I am! I’ve been having so much fun lately that I’m sure anyone could tell how happy I am just by looking at my face. But don’t worry, my heart hasn’t gone all mushy too.”

“Yes, I know I needn’t worry about that when it comes to you, Yun,” Li Sudra said, her smiling growing gentler as she stepped closer. She was with child, and her belly already seemed to have grown a bit larger, which made Yun Sudra feel even happier.

“Shouldn’t you be sleeping, Li? We have dinner preparations covered, so please get your rest. You don’t need to push yourself.”

“Oh my... I’m still several months away from giving birth. Being idle for such a long time would have a negative impact on my child, without a doubt,” Li Sudra replied, staring at Yun Sudra with a kindly gaze. The younger girl was especially fond of that look.

Though the two of them were both members of the Sudra clan, they were barely related by blood at all. Yun Sudra had come from a former Sudra subordinate clan, the Meema, so her blood ties were especially thin.

However, Yun Sudra had never felt left out because of that. She didn’t have any living parents or siblings, but the same could be said for nearly all of the nine members of her clan. Every last one of them was equally precious to her as a part of her family whom she had lived with hand in hand all this time.

Along the way, Yun Sudra had become especially fond of Li Sudra. They were only ten years apart in age, but the older woman was always so calm and composed and had such a strong core, plus she was kind to everyone. That was why Yun Sudra secretly looked up to her a lot.

“Still, are you all right, Yun? You’ve been working non-stop ever since the sun god’s revival festival began,” Li Sudra commented with a concerned expression.

“I’m totally fine!” Yun Sudra replied with a bright smile. “Honestly, the busier it’s gotten, the more fun each day has been. I’m so glad that I’ve been allowed to help Asuta with his work.”

“That’s because you’re more passionate than anyone when it comes to manning the stove. You’re the greatest chef in the whole Sudra clan at this point,” Li Sudra remarked, once again showing a gentle smile. “Asuta has told us that you’ve been doing really well. Just please take care not to push yourself too hard, Yun.”

“Yeah, I know! You wanted to keep helping Asuta too, didn’t you, Li?”

“Well, of course. But I’ve been granted an even greater blessing than that, so I certainly won’t complain,” Li Sudra said as she lovingly stroked her stomach, which had been getting bigger and bigger by the day.

Li Sudra had given birth twice before. However, the souls of both those children had returned to the forest at a young age, all because of the terrible poverty the Sudra clan had been enduring at the time. They’d had few clan members to their name and had always been starving, since they hadn’t been able to hunt a sufficient number of giba. As such, it had proven impossible for them to produce enough milk and food to feed a young child.

Yun Sudra could still clearly remember the times when they had lost those two. She herself had bawled her eyes out, as had Li Sudra and the clan head, Raielfam Sudra... Every last member of the Sudra had shed tears of grief over the deaths of their little ones. To a clan on the verge of destruction, children were their one and only hope, and yet that hope had been mercilessly taken away.

But even then, Li Sudra had never allowed herself to just fall to pieces. She had forced down her grief and sorrow, which ran deeper than anyone else’s, and simply shed her tears in silence.

As she recalled Li Sudra’s calm crying face, Yun Sudra’s chest felt tight. So, in order to keep herself from starting to weep now, she smiled instead.

“I’ll be sure to feed your kid lots of delicious food full of giba meat once they’re born! And until then, I’ll make sure to keep polishing my skills every day!”

“Thank you. But you’re already fifteen yourself, Yun... By the time my child is big enough to eat solid food, you might already be married and pregnant with a child of your own.”

“Huh? I’m still a long way off from getting married. I won’t have time for it until your child has grown up a little.”

“My... You sure can be troublesome at times,” Li Sudra remarked, a different shine now showing in her eyes than before. “Of course, there’s no need to rush into getting married... But please don’t treat your own happiness so lightly, Yun. You’re far too kind, so I find myself worrying about that sort of thing now and then.”

“I’m not treating it lightly. And I’m nowhere near as kind as you...”

“Really? You don’t find it difficult at all, working under Asuta?”

“Huh?” Yun Sudra said, her eyes going wide and her face rapidly heating up. “Er, Li... You know how I feel about him?”

“It’s obvious, even at a glance, seeing how you look at him.”

Yun Sudra felt so embarrassed that she wanted to just vanish into thin air. However, she wasn’t going to do anything that would make Li Sudra worry about her, so she somehow managed to maintain the smile on her face.

“I-I really am totally fine. If Asuta and Ai Fa get married...I’ll smile and give them my blessing. That’s what I decided.”

“So it isn’t painful for you, being by Asuta’s side? If you’re letting yourself suffer for the sake of the Sudra clan...”

“That’s not it at all! I truly am enjoying each and every day,” Yun Sudra replied, speaking from the bottom of her heart. Lying was considered a crime at the forest’s edge, but she had no need to do so in the first place. “I really respect Asuta, so I’m incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to work under him. And if that means I can become a fine chef who brings joy to everyone in the Sudra clan with my delicious food...nothing would make me happier than that. I give my thanks to the mother forest for allowing me to meet Asuta.”

“I see...” Li Sudra said, reaching out toward Yun Sudra’s head. Her graceful fingers gently stroked the younger girl’s hair. Their warmth caused tears to unwittingly slip from Yun Sudra’s eyes.

“Will I be able to become a wonderful person like you, Li...?”

“You’re already so wonderful that anyone would be proud to know you, Yun. Just like I’m proud to have you as a member of my family.”

Yun Sudra smiled up at the older woman as brightly as she could, even as tears were streaming down her face out of control, and Li Sudra continued to look down at her with unending kindness in her eyes.