2
We made it safely back to the Ruu settlement at half past the lower second hour.
We had four wagons transporting our comrades, while our guests rode in two. One of the wagons carrying six of our guests from town was being pulled by a totos that was mainly used to work Dora’s fields. It seemed to be fairly old, with its dark-brown plumage looking pretty raggedy. Even so, it was an essential part of Dora’s family, bringing Dora to and from town each day, and hauling the vegetables they grew to their storehouse.
“This is his first real trip in quite some time too, so he must be happy. Now then, you all take care getting down,” Dora said.
Their wagon was meant for transporting vegetables and had no roof. Tara and Yumi stepped down from its cargo bed, and Rimee Ruu immediately hurried over to them after exiting Ruuruu’s wagon. It was no surprise that she was so excited. She was finally getting the sleepover she had wanted for a long time. Tara and Rimee Ruu clasped each other’s hands tightly and beamed at each other with smiles so similar that they almost looked like sisters.
A box carriage had also come to a stop a small distance away, and the members of the Gamley Troupe promptly appeared from inside: first, Shantu (who had been holding the reins), then Pino, Rolo, and Gamley. The traveling performers had finally come to the forest’s edge.
“Welcome to the Ruu settlement, dear guests. I must say, it’s been far too long. Our family owes all of you from the Daleim lands a great debt,” Mia Lea Ruu said in greeting as she approached us with a smile.
Dora smiled back at her while holding the reins of his totos and replied, “Not at all. We did have a bunch of you over during the revival festival just a few days ago. Not that I’m saying we’re visiting you today because we want you to repay us for that.”
“Oh, of course not. We don’t have much to offer in the way of hospitality, but please make yourselves at home. After all, there’s going to be a lot more people from the other clans around during your next visit.”
Three days from now, on the tenth of the silver month, we were throwing a banquet with twenty people from the Ruu’s subordinate clans planning to attend. We were having it on that day because we had the next day off from our work at the stalls, which would allow the members of the Ruu clan plenty of leeway to host such a large event.
As for why we had invited our guests from town to come over today in addition to having them join us for the banquet, that was because we had spent the night in the Daleim lands four times recently, so only having them over once in return wouldn’t be good enough to repay them—or so Rimee Ruu had firmly insisted, and Mia Lea and Donda Ruu hadn’t really offered any objections to the idea.
Dora and Tara expressed their gratitude, followed by Yumi and Myme. Meanwhile, at some point Sheera Ruu had walked over to stand next to Telia Mas, seemingly having a calming effect on the timid girl. It was heartwarming to see them interact like this.
I turned toward the Gaaz woman holding Fafa’s reins. “Please give everyone my thanks. Oh, and Ai Fa...”
“Right. As the head of the Fa clan, I grant the women assisting Asuta in his work permission to open the Fa house’s door and go inside.”
“Thank you. Well then, see you tomorrow.”
Among the chefs from our part of the forest, only Toor Deen and Yun Sudra were staying here. The others would be meeting up with the Fou and Ran women waiting at the Fa house to make curry base and pasta, as well as to cook poitan. The base level of cooking skill they now had was high enough that the other veterans and I no longer needed to help out with that kind of work.
Our plan was to take care of the meat cutting here at the Ruu settlement first, then spend any excess time we had on a study session—the first we’d been able to do in a while. We wouldn’t be returning home until after dinner.
“So, you’re the traveling performers I’ve heard so much about?” Mia Lea Ruu asked, turning toward Pino and company as Yamiru Lea and Ama Min Rutim departed with Fafa’s wagon. “I am Mia Lea Ruu, wife of our clan head, Donda Ruu. I’m the one in charge of the women here at the Ruu settlement, at least supposedly, so I hope you’ll remember my name.”
“How polite. The name’s Gamley. I’m the troupe leader of these traveling performers. These three are Pino, Shantu, and Rolo.”
Gamley gave a theatrical bow, even though his eyes kept blinking weakly in the sunlight. Meanwhile, Ludo Ruu’s group had gotten down from the wagons and casually dispersed, while the women working around the branch houses nearby and their children stared at the visitors with eyes open wide.
Gamley was dressed in dazzling crimson attire and only had one arm and one eye. Pino had her hair in a braid that came down to her legs and was wearing what looked like a vermilion furisode. Shantu was a white-haired old man in gray clothes that looked like rags. The three of them were really attention-grabbing. Rolo, on the other hand, was kind of hiding in their shadows, her appearance being completely unremarkable aside from being dressed like a man.
“There’s quite a crowd here today, so let’s finish greeting each other outside of the house. I’ll summon the clan head, so please wait out front.”
With many interested gazes still following those four, we went ahead and crossed the plaza together.
Though this was the Gamley Troupe’s first time coming here, they didn’t show much interest in the settlement or the people around them and just silently walked onward. The timid Rolo did look oddly nervous, however. And despite being guests themselves, Dora and the other local townsfolk kept glancing at the members of the Gamley Troupe as we walked along. Dora aside, everyone here had visited their tent and should have been familiar with them already, except for Rolo, who was currently out of costume.
Gamley really did seem to have a hard time dealing with sunlight, while Pino and Shantu had a way of drawing people’s gazes just by walking along. It wasn’t just their unusual appearances that made it hard to take your eyes off them. Something about them just felt different from the townsfolk. They seemed like a totally natural part of the scene when there was a festival going on, but in normal times like these, they looked like a bunch of weirdos and misfits.
“Ah, you’re here? Welcome back,” Donda Ruu called out, emerging from the main house after having been summoned by Mia Lea Ruu. His left shoulder was wrapped in bandages and his arm was suspended in a sling, but he seemed just as formidable as always. With his blazingly bright blue eyes, the leading clan head of the forest’s edge looked over the ten guests standing in front of his house. “There’s no need for any of you to introduce yourselves. Let me start by giving thanks to you, Dora of the Daleim lands, for taking care of my clan members and comrades. For the rest of today and tomorrow morning, we would be honored to have you as our guest.”
“Thank you, Donda Ruu. My daughter Tara is delighted as well.”
Tara smiled bashfully, still holding hands with Rimee Ruu. Donda Ruu offered Dora a firm nod, and then turned to regard the Gamleys.
“It has been some time since we’ve met as well, traveling performers. I welcome you to the settlement at the forest’s edge, as ordered by Duke Marstein Genos.”
“You have our gratitude, leading clan head Donda Ruu. We swear not to disturb the peace here at the forest’s edge and simply ask that you guide us to the giba,” Gamley said with another affected bow.
Glancing at the performers suspiciously, Donda Ruu snorted, “Hmph. Hunters at the forest’s edge enter the forest when the sun hits its peak. If you wish for us to accompany you, then you will be waiting until that time tomorrow.”
“As you say... But there are one or two things I’d like to ask. Would it be possible for all of us to stay here at your homestead from tomorrow until we capture our giba?”
“What?” Donda Ruu said, glaring intensely. “There are thirteen of you, aren’t there? We don’t have enough spare houses to host you all, and I can’t see why we should have to go to that much trouble to look after you to begin with.”
“Oh, no, our seven wagons are our homes, so a place to leave them would be plenty. Even the corner of this plaza off to the side of the path would do. I swear that we won’t go prowling about on our own or doing anything to disturb the fine folks who dwell here,” Gamley said, breaking out in a cheerful smile. “Only four of our number will go out hunting giba. The rest of us will wait patiently for their return from noon until dusk, as we won’t be earning much in the way of coins right after the end of the festival. And I don’t want to split us up too much. The thirteen of us are like family, after all.”
“Hmph. Sounds like it’s just for your own convenience... So, who will those four be? Anyone who goes after a giba halfheartedly is sure to lose their life.”
“The three of us here today besides myself will be entering the forest, alongside the beastman Zetta. You remember him, right? The one you all thought might be a red savage of Morga.”
“What?” Donda Ruu growled. “Never mind your beastman. You’re saying you’re going to bring a girl like her and an old man into the forest? Don’t you have someone strong enough to compete with Ji Maam among your number?”
“Ah, you mean Doga. He may be big, but he’s gentle in nature and not really suited to hunting giba.”
I was surprised to hear that. Doga and Zan seemed so strong, and yet they were being left behind, while Pino and the others would be heading into the forest.
“Ah, but allow me to correct myself. We would like to have those four and three of our animals enter the forest. A gaaje leopard, an algura silver lion, and a black vamda ape.”
“You intend to bring outside animals into the forest of Morga?”
“Yes, which is why we need to have Pino and Shantu come along. They’re the only ones who can talk to them, after all.”
Donda Ruu’s eyes were blazing intensely as they glared at Gamley.
Gamley, meanwhile, was just smiling away with his right eye fixed on the leaning clan head.
“Our animals would never attack a human, so you have nothing to be concerned about. And they would hardly just die, even if they are attacked by a giba, wouldn’t you agree? Oh, and of course they won’t consume the fruits of the forest either. I know that would be a terrible breach of the laws of Genos.”
“Ludo,” Donda Ruu grumbled, calling for his son. “Send a hunter to the castle town. Get them to ask for a decision from Melfried as to whether or not those animals are permitted to enter the forest of Morga.”
“Understood.”
Ludo Ruu looked over the hunters who had come along with us as guards and picked out the oldest man among them. If I remembered correctly, he belonged to a Lea branch house.
The man took up Jidura’s reins after the totos had been released from its wagon and left the settlement in a hurry. And as he watched the hunter depart, Gamley stroked his goatlike beard.
“Guess we should have gone over this in advance. My apologies for the trouble.”
“This whole matter is nothing but trouble. You’re having us play along with an asinine notion like capturing a live giba to make it perform tricks!” Donda Ruu replied so forcefully that Yumi’s shoulders started trembling as she stood next to me. “Let me just say, a large number of giba will be returning to the forest in this area soon. Once that happens, we won’t have any more time to devote to your nonsense. So you will either succeed in your foolish ambition before then, or you will give up on it and leave Genos empty-handed.”
“Yes, we intend to complete the task in the next few days. And we will be happy to show you all the amusing tricks our giba will be able to perform when the next revival festival rolls around.”
With that, their conversation came to a close.
Donda Ruu turned to leave, but then Pino called out, “Um... This is a personal request of my own, but would it be possible to observe how you all live here, at least a little bit?”
Donda Ruu turned and sent the girl an incredibly displeased glare.
Pino brought her sleeves together in front of her chest and tilted her head in a childlike way. “We’ll be heading into the forest starting tomorrow with the nobles’ permission, so we won’t have time to take it easy and see how you live at that point. I can’t help but find that a little disappointing, since I’ve been interested in the people of the forest’s edge for some time now.”
After thinking about it for a moment, Donda Ruu grumbled, “Do as you please. But I will not permit you to walk around on your own. Ludo, you take responsibility for keeping an eye on them.”
“Got it. I just need to watch them until they return to town, right?”
“Yes, that will be plenty,” Donda Ruu said, turning his back to us again and vanishing into the house.
Then, Gamley turned toward Pino. “Hey, what’s this about observing the settlement? I’ve been so tired this whole time that I can hardly think straight.”
“You can go sleep in the wagon. All you’re gonna do when we make it back to town is sleep anyway, so it’s all the same, right?”
“That’s certainly true. Well then, you all take care.”
With a large yawn and an unsteady stride, Gamley returned to their wagon. Instantly, Ludo Ruu signaled with his eyes for one of the hunters to follow him.
Apparently, Gamley was the only one who was heading back to their carriage, as Shantu remained where he was with a smile fixed on his face and Rolo was timidly glancing left and right.
Mia Lea Ruu looked the three of them over with her arms crossed. “Hmm. I’ve heard about you from Jiza, young miss. Just what is it that you want to see?”
“Just as I said, I want to see how you live. Your other guests are here at the forest’s edge for the same reason, aren’t they? I’d just like to observe a bit from off to the side.”
Pino seemed to be quite skilled at creeping her way into the hearts of others. Even though it was impossible to tell what kind of person she actually was, even Jiza Ruu had relaxed his guard around her. There was naturally no way someone as bighearted as Mia Lea Ruu would ever refuse.
As a result, we ended up heading to the kitchen with an unexpectedly large group: five chefs, five hunters acting as guards, nine guests, and Sufira Zaza, who had been silently accompanying us this whole time. With Mia Lea Ruu joining us as well, that made for a group of twenty-one in total.
Rolo seemed to be more comfortable staying with Pino than going with her sleeping troupe leader, so she bobbed along at the tail of the group. No matter how many times I saw her, I still had a hard time believing that she was as tough as Shin Ruu.
“Welcome, everyone, to the Ruu house.”
Reina Ruu and several others were currently doing prep work for tomorrow in the kitchen, though they seemed to be wrapping up now, as Granny Tito Min was putting out the flames under the stoves.
“Hey, these people wanna watch some cooking!” Rimee Ruu announced.
“Is that so?” Reina Ruu said with a polite bow. Apparently, having Pino, Shantu, and Rolo there wasn’t enough to put her on guard. “We’ve already started cleaning up here. Asuta, once your group is done with work, you’re going to do a cooking lesson, right? It’s been a while.”
“I’d say it’s more like we’ll be looking at some new ingredients. I think it would be good to try a couple things with the stuff we brought back.”
“I’m very much looking forward to it. I still don’t know much about how to use herbs and the like when you’re not around to help.”
After that, we did another round of introductions with our guests. Reina and Vina Ruu were there, as were Granny Tito Min and a couple women from the branch houses, some of whom had participated in the banquet on the day of the downfall.
Pino and her troupemates stood silently outside the door to the kitchen, watching us work and not intruding. As I listened to the pleasant chatter filling the air, I instructed Toor Deen and Yun Sudra on what I needed them to do, and we got to work on preparations for tomorrow.
“By the way, where is Lala Ruu?” Dora cheerfully asked.
Reina Ruu replied, “Lala is gathering firewood at the edge of the forest with some women from the branch houses right now. After all, it never goes to waste no matter how much we collect.”
“I see. You people of the forest’s edge sure are hard workers. The revival festival only just ended... We’ve just been tending to our fields a bit in the morning, but taking it easy otherwise. This is the only time of year we can relax this much.”
As everyone was talking, women from the other houses kept popping in to greet Dora, Yumi, and the others. They must have participated in the banquet in the Daleim lands too. Though I didn’t know their names, it really warmed my heart to see them enjoying themselves while chatting with our guests from town.
“Hey there! It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Myme?”
“Oh, Bartha! You look lovely today!”
“Well, I’ve got no reason to wear armor around the settlement,” Bartha said with a hearty chuckle as she approached, clad in the attire of the forest’s edge. Myme had stopped doing business after the day of the downfall, so it must have been seven days or so since those two had last seen one another.
“I’ve cleaned up around the house a bit, so we should have room for around five of you to sleep there.”
“Thank you! I’m really looking forward to it!”
Tara had promised to sleep next to Rimee Ruu in the main house, but everyone else was going to stay the night in the house where Bartha and Jeeda lived. If Dora was going to be sharing a room with the deeply unsociable Mikel and Jeeda, I had to wonder what they would end up talking about. I honestly wouldn’t have minded getting a chance to see that.
At any rate, time steadily passed on by, and around when we finished our preparations, the final member of our cast appeared.
I let out a surprised “Huh?” while Sufira Zaza’s eyes began to gleam from her position standing up against the wall. After all, it was none other than Lem Dom jauntily standing there at the entrance to the kitchen.
“Why are you here, Lem Dom? Weren’t you supposed to have dinner with the Sudra because we’re not eating at home tonight?”
Though she was a woman, Lem Dom was nearly 180 centimeters tall and struck an imposing figure as she stood there adorned with giba bones. I saw her every day, but this was the first time in a good while that we had met at the Ruu settlement. Had she run all the way here from the area around the Fa and Sudra houses? I could see her muscular chest rising and falling just a bit, but then she gave us a daring grin.
“Don’t worry. I have no intention of intruding. This girl here is the one I came to meet.”
“Huh? Wh-Who, me?” Rolo shrieked in amazement. Her powerless gaze rather pathetically shifted about, as if she thought there must have been some sort of mistake.
“One of the Gaaz women told me what you looked like, and I came running. You’re that girl Ludo Ruu mentioned, right? The one who’s as strong as the top eight from the Ruu clan.”
I hadn’t seen her here in quite a while, but Lem Dom still came by to help Jeeda and Bartha hunt wild birds early in the morning. She must have talked to Ludo Ruu then, as he was a surprisingly early riser.
“I find it hard to believe you could be that strong, looking at you now. But I suppose that’s just because of my lack of experience... Hey, why not have a contest of strength with me? I’ll do whatever I can to repay you for the favor.”
“A-A contest of strength?! Pino, what should I do about this?!”
Obviously, Pino didn’t understand why this was happening either.
When Lem Dom saw the acrobat’s questioning gaze, she smiled boldly and earnestly said, “I want to build up experience as a hunter.”
“How should we be handling this?” Pino asked Ludo Ruu, who simply shrugged.
“Just go ahead and do as you please. Lem Dom belongs to a different clan. The Ruu clan decided not to get involved with her desire to become a hunter either way.”
“Oh? So does she have a bad relationship with the Ruu clan?”
“I won’t call our relationship good or bad, but all people of the forest’s edge are our comrades.”
“I see,” Pino said, letting her wide sleeves flutter like birds as she turned back to Lem Dom. “In that case, do whatever you want with her. You are, of course, not talking about anything that will lead to bloodshed, are you?”
“A contest of strength doesn’t involve anything like that. Your strongman already did one with somebody from the Maam, right?”
“You mean pole tugging? Or a shoving contest? Well, whatever you have in mind, I don’t particularly care how you treat her, as long as it doesn’t result in any injuries.”
“Hey, Pino!”
“Oh, be quiet. We need to repay our debt to the people of the forest’s edge, right? So stop grumbling and go get tossed about.”
And so, the armorless knight king Rolo was dragged off to act as Lem Dom’s training partner.
“Hey, don’t go so far that we can’t see you.”
“Got it... Thanks, Ludo Ruu,” Lem Dom said, with her honest gratitude surprisingly audible in her voice.
Ludo Ruu had a bright smile on his face as he waved her off. I did feel bad for Rolo, but we couldn’t step away from our work, so all I could do was shrug in response to the shouts of “Gyah!” and “Eek!” that started filtering in to us from outside.
“H-Hey, is this really all right, Ludo Ruu?”
“Yeah. Lem Dom’s gotten a lot more hunter-like in her movements, so we don’t have to worry about her getting injured.”
“Getting injured? Not doing the injuring?”
“If we had any reason to worry about that, she would’ve long since been accepted as a hunter.”
Despite what I was hearing, was Lem Dom actually the one getting completely beaten down out there? Well, if Ai Fa’s assessment was correct and Rolo really was as strong as Shin Ruu, that would be exactly the outcome I’d expect.
Yumi and Myme seemed interested and peered outside of the kitchen, but soon returned with their eyebrows drooping.
“That was amazing. It was like acrobatics...”
“Yeah. But I don’t like that kind of fighting.”
Honestly, I didn’t enjoy watching it much either. Sufira Zaza cared greatly for Lem Dom, but she was unable to go outside right now because she needed to do her duty, so she had closed her eyes and looked to be praying.
Out of curiosity, I looked over at Ai Fa, who was leaning against the wall calmly with her arms crossed.
“You’re not gonna watch, Ai Fa?”
“There’s no need to, and it’s not something I should be doing either.”
“I see.”
Ai Fa’s match with Lem Dom was fast approaching. Would Lem Dom be able to claim her place as a hunter? I couldn’t help but wonder that as I wrapped up my work while listening to Rolo’s endless shrieks and wild cries.
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