Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 22 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Story

The Knight King and the Female Hunter

Rolo was a strange girl.

For starters, despite being a young woman, she dressed like a man. Her face didn’t look half bad, but the length of her hair was middling, and she always wore it tied up behind her head. Her typical attire was also pretty shabby, even more so than that of the average resident of the post town, so at a glance, she just looked like some timid boy.

She wasn’t especially tall, and her shoulders and back were always slumping, which made her look weak. Perhaps what stood out most were her eyes, which were always darting about restlessly. Lem Dom had never before seen anyone so nervous and lacking in confidence.

Well, what’s strangest of all is how this timid girl was judged to be as strong as the top eight under the Ruu, Lem Dom thought to herself.

Meanwhile, Rolo was looking her way with a terribly troubled expression.

“U-U-Um, I’m sorry, but you’re very much mistaken if you think I’m some kind of amazing sword master. I’m just an assistant to the traveling performers, with nothing interesting about me at all...”

“An assistant? But Ludo Ruu said his group saw your performance in the post town, and it was absolutely amazing,” Lem Dom replied.

“Gyah!” Rolo shrieked, her freckled face going bright red. “P-Please, stop. I’m completely useless, and my performance is nothing but filler. I’m just a worthless lump who holds everyone else back.”

“Never mind your performance. What I care about is the fact that you’re supposed to be stronger than most hunters of the forest’s edge.”

They were currently off to the side of a stand-alone cookhouse at the Ruu settlement. When Lem Dom had heard that the traveling performers were staying here, she had come rushing over, and now she was facing down Rolo in an empty space a short distance away from the kitchen where the chefs were hard at work.

Ludo Ruu was standing with some of the other members of the Gamley Troupe around the kitchen’s entrance. He was staring intently at the two young women who were about to fight each other, having been tasked with keeping an eye on the performers to make sure they didn’t get up to any mischief while they were at the settlement. Rolo’s comrades, on the other hand, seemed rather disinterested.

“Ludo Ruu over there is highly skilled at assessing people’s strength, and he says yours is worth acknowledging. That’s why I wanted to challenge you to a match.”

And yet, Lem Dom just couldn’t sense such strength from this spindly girl. She herself was about a hand’s width or so taller than Rolo, and her body was as toned as a man’s. Rolo, meanwhile, was lanky and skinny, and she seemed to lack any kind of spirit for battle.

“But you’re an official guest of the Ruu clan, so it would be bad for me to hurt you,” Lem Dom said, picking up a reasonably long stick that was on the ground next to her feet. It was perfectly straight and around the length of her arm. “Would you mind grabbing the opposite end of this stick?”

“L-L-Like this?” Rolo asked, gripping one end of the stick with her slender fingers. Lem Dom then wrapped her fist around the other end.

“It would be dangerous to just launch right into grappling, so we’ll start with a tug-of-war. We’ll pull on this stick until one of us loses their grip or gets swept off their feet.”

“Th-This kind of challenge is more Doga’s thing, though...”

“Oh, they do tugs-of-war in town too? In that case, let’s just get started,” Lem Dom declared, but Rolo didn’t move in the slightest. She just kept on staring up at Lem Dom, looking terribly troubled. “What is it? The match has already started, you know.”

“B-But I don’t know what I should do...”

“Oh, really? Then I guess I’ll help myself to this stick.”

With that, Lem Dom pulled back hard. However, Rolo just stretched her arms and body out as much as Lem Dom moved away, so the aspiring hunter failed to take possession of the stick. Also, Rolo’s feet had remained in place, leaving her bent over in a way that looked really unnatural.

Is this girl trying to mess with me? Lem Dom’s patience ran out and she pulled on the stick as hard as she could. And yet, Rolo didn’t fall to the ground. She was pulling back with just as much strength as her opponent, while staring at Lem Dom with a terribly apologetic look in her eyes.

Lem Dom’s blood boiled, and she started swinging her arms around recklessly. But this did nothing to wrest the stick from Rolo’s grasp, as if the knight king’s arms had fused with it, never to let go. And somehow, there didn’t even seem to be any resistance against the swinging coming from the other end.

“You little...!”

Lem Dom dropped her hips and thrust the stick forward with all the strength she could muster, as if she was drawing a sword.

Rolo’s torso was directly in the path of her opponent’s thrust, so if she continued to do nothing but hold on, the end of the stick would end up shoved into her solar plexus. Perhaps sensing that, Rolo deftly turned her body. Her feet hadn’t moved in the slightest, and yet she still managed to dodge the blow just by twisting her hips.

Lem Dom stumbled forward, having put all of her strength into the thrust, and the stick slipped from her hands, leaving Rolo as the only one holding it.

“A-Are you all right?! I’m so, so sorry! I dodged without thinking!”

Rolo was bowing her head over and over in a panic.

Lem Dom slowly rose to her feet and shot Rolo a smile.

“I get it now. You’re incredibly skilled at diverting your opponent’s strength. It felt as if I was chasing around a fluttering leaf.”

“I-I don’t quite get what you mean, but you aren’t hurt, are you? We should just stop now; it’s too dangerous to keep going, okay? Okay?!”

“What are you saying? The real fun is yet to come.” Lem Dom felt heat rushing through her whole body. At last, she was able to see a fraction of this girl’s mysterious strength. “I’ll take care not to injure you... Actually, that was a pretty arrogant thing for me to say, wasn’t it? Anyway, let’s start the contest of strength.”

“A-A contest? What sort of contest? I’m no good with rough stuff!”

“Never mind, just do whatever you want. Hurt me all you like; I promise not to complain!” Lem Dom said as she lunged at Rolo.

Rolo let out a strange cry of “Grah!” and bent down. And then...her right hand, now free of the stick, grabbed onto Lem Dom’s arm from below. At the same time, she swept Lem Dom’s legs, sending her opponent swiftly tumbling down to the ground.

It had all happened so fast that Lem Dom’s eyes hadn’t been able to follow the performer’s movements. She rose to her feet, feeling an intense emotion bubbling up inside her, though it wasn’t anger.

“You really are amazing. It’s time for me to get serious.”

“N-No, please don’t! This is dangerous!”

Rather than listening, though, Lem Dom circled around to her opponent’s side. Every instinct in her body was telling her that attacks relying on power alone wouldn’t work. She had to use swift movements to confuse her opponent and create an opening to strike.

Rolo stumbled backward, looking as if she was about to cry, and when Lem Dom started to reach toward her chest, she shrieked, “Ack!” and twisted her body.

There!

Lem Dom took a big step in the opposite direction from the way Rolo had turned. Now almost directly aligned with the performer’s side, she reached out and grabbed the girl’s left shoulder. At this point, she just needed to hook one of her opponent’s legs with her own and bear down with her weight, and Rolo would completely lose her footing.

Half convinced of her victory, Lem Dom kicked out with her right leg. However, it completely failed to connect with anything solid as it swung through the air. Then, before she realized what was happening, she felt her abdomen colliding with her opponent’s hips. She had no recollection of coming in that close.

Rolo’s body kept on twisting, despite the fact that her shoulder was still being gripped, dragging Lem Dom’s body along with her.

Ah...

Lem Dom’s left foot that had been planted on the ground was now rising up into the air as her hips were lifted up by her opponent’s. She spun through the air, and then her back slammed onto the ground.

“I-I’m so terribly sorry! When I’m frightened, my body moves on its own...” Rolo said, staring down at Lem Dom with a look of panic on her face.

Hitting the ground had badly winded Lem Dom, so she couldn’t immediately reply. Her vision was full of white stars.

“Wh-What should I do...? I’ve gotta go call for someone...”

Rolo was about to stand up, but Lem Dom somehow managed to grab hold of her collar.

“It’s fine... You haven’t broken my ribs or anything yet... Our fight’s only just getting started...”

“F-Fight? You really should stop. This is dangerous.”

“I won’t let you quit while you’re ahead... Jeez, what a strange woman you are...” Lem Dom placed her other hand on the ground and managed to sit up, but her first hand remained firmly on Rolo’s collar, to keep the girl from fleeing. “Phew... You really are incredibly skilled. How did you get that strong?”

“I-I’m not strong at all. I just keep running away, because I hate being hurt...”

“I guess it’s an innate talent, then. Still, it doesn’t change the fact that you’re incredibly capable,” Lem Dom remarked with a grin as she endured the throbbing pain running down her back. “You’re a smaller woman than me, yet you possess such incredible power... I truly admire that.”

“Oh no, I’m nothing special! You’re the one who’s amazing.”

“What’s so amazing about me?”

“Y-Your arms and shoulders are so muscular... And yet, you have such a pretty face...” Rolo replied with a limp smile, her face going red.

When she saw that, Lem Dom’s eyes opened wide and she said, “Oh? Could that be why you dress like a man?”

“What do you mean by ‘that’?” Rolo asked with a tilt of her head, and then her face went even redder. “N-No, that’s not it! I just dress this way because looking like a girl is dangerous when you’re traveling!”

“Aw, how dull. I was just thinking I could show you a fun time as thanks for having a contest of strength with me.”

“Huh...?! Y-You swing that way? O-Of course, I have no issue with how anyone swings, but...”

“It’s not about swinging one way or the other. It’s simply a way to kill time. I plan to become a hunter, so I have no intention of getting married. I just like to keep an eye out for opportunities to enjoy some pleasure without giving birth to a child. And in that case, it doesn’t matter if it’s with a man or a woman, right?”

It seemed that Rolo was quite an innocent young woman, judging from her bright red face and the way her mouth was flapping open and shut. “I-I-Is that so? I-I’ve heard that you people of the forest’s edge are supposed to be more chaste than the townsfolk, though...”

“Oh, yes. I’m afraid I’ve strayed quite far from the proper path that was laid out for me. Honestly, I had no business being born at the forest’s edge,” Lem Dom said self-deprecatingly.

Rolo seemed somehow taken with her words, and sighed. “Ah... That’s a feeling I know very well. People can’t choose where they’re born, after all...”

“Hmm? Are you talking about how you left your homeland behind to live as a traveling performer?”

“Well,” Rolo said, smiling in embarrassment and rustling her hair, “at this point, I’ve completely forgotten about my homeland. Now the Gamley Troupe is the only place I can call home.”

“I see... I’m glad to hear you were able to find a new place to belong,” Lem Dom said with a smile of her own. “But I’ve got no intention of abandoning my home, so I decided to forge my own path here at the forest’s edge.”

“Th-That’s wonderful. I’m sure you’ll be able to achieve your goals.”

“Thanks,” Lem Dom replied, rising to her feet. “But in order to do that, I need to gain the strength of a hunter, so could I get you to lend me a hand?”

“Huh? Y-You really want to keep fighting? Wouldn’t it be better to find a more peaceful way to go about this?”

“This is faster. I’ll show you a real fun time later, so hit me with everything you’ve got!”

“I-I told you, I’m not like that!”

As flustered as Rolo was, Lem Dom was enjoying herself just as much. It was awe-inspiring to know that this world had such an incredible person living in it. And it was all thanks to Asuta of the Fa clan and the way he kept stirring things up at the forest’s edge that Lem Dom was able to meet this young woman.

I suppose I should be grateful to our mother forest that Asuta suddenly appeared here one day... Lem Dom thought as she squared off against Rolo.

And the forest of Morga all around the two young women silently watched over their actions, just as it always did.