Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1: Genos Post Town

1

“Genos” referred to one of the territories in the Western Kingdom of Selva. It was at the easternmost tip of the kingdom’s vast territory and a bit to the south, a frontier town at the base of the undeveloped Mount Morga.

Still, even if it was classified as the “frontier” of Selva’s territory, it was extremely close to the friendly Southern Kingdom of Jagar and Eastern Kingdom of Sym, making it very important in terms of trade and distribution.

Furthermore, it had a warm climate and plenty of water, making it a rich and fertile land.

The so-called “city of stone” referred to the castle town at the center of the domain. It was protected by solid ramparts, and apparently you needed a pass in order to come and go there.

To the north was an orchard run by the nobles, and to the south, the plantations run by tenant farmers spread far and wide.

And splitting that Genos domain and Mount Morga in half was a stone highway, running straight across from north to south. As you walked along that road, there were plenty of residents of the domain working away on either side.

Between the castle town and the plantations, there existed a smaller, more open town where a great many travelers and merchants were free to come and go: the Genos post town.

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“Whoa...” was my first reaction, as I was unable to formulate a proper response to what I was seeing.

After conquering that terrifying rope bridge and walking just thirty minutes, the world suddenly opened up before me.

Considering our route here from the Fa house, we couldn’t have walked more than about an hour in total. Honestly, it didn’t even seem all that different from our trip to the Ruu house. But in spite of all that, the world had completely shifted.

“This sure is a shock... It feels like I’ve stepped foot in a whole other world...”

I had finally regained my words, but that irrelevant comment was the best I could manage. Still, the world around me had just undergone that great of a transformation.

“What are you surprised about? We people of the forest’s edge are living there in order to protect the Genos domain’s fields from giba. It only stands to reason that the Genos land spreads out nearby on our western edge, doesn’t it?” Ai Fa responded, looking more than a little displeased, but her cold hard logic simply couldn’t restrain my astonishment.

The people of the forest’s edge made a living by running about the forest in fur cloaks, hunting giba. So how was Ai Fa able to so easily accept this cultured domain existing right next to the settlement of such daring hunters?

Naturally, the buildings were still made of wood. They weren’t all single-story, though, as most of them had a second floor. Some of them used stones and mortar too, and they just looked sturdier all around.

There was white stone paving laid out at our feet, in the form of a highway. It was roughly ten meters across, and was surrounded by crowded buildings on either side, which continued straight off into the distance to the north and south.

More importantly, though, it was packed with people. There were all sorts of folks about, wearing more than just hunter’s garb.

There was a slightly chubby man in a little hat, yellow vest, and baggy, cream-white pants hurrying along with a large basket on his back. There was a sexy girl (though not quite as much as Vina Ruu) sashaying along gracefully, her chest covered, a loose shawl resting over her shoulders, and a long cloth wrapped around her all the way from her waist to her ankles. There was a large man lumbering by wearing a camel-colored cloak made from some other animal than a giba, and he had on a loincloth and leather sandals, plus a hatchet and a leather bag hanging from his waist, making for an outfit sort of like that of the people of the forest’s edge.

There were just so many different folks around that I could never describe them all one by one, even if I tried.

There was a skinny old man wearing what looked like a turban and a long, dark gray robe, kids running around in shabby looking clothes, half-naked brawny men carrying things around on their backs, and men hiding their faces under the hoods of leather cloaks.

The majority of them had tan-white skin like ivory, not so different from Japanese people, though they looked to mostly have a bit darker of a hue. Their hair color wasn’t just limited to black, though. Most of them had blackish brown or chestnut colored hair, and they all had deeply chiseled features that made them stand out from the folks back home.

Plus, there were people mixed in that had reddish white skin, as well as those who were even darker skinned than the people of the forest’s edge.

Everyone was hurrying down the road, taking care not to bump into anyone’s shoulders.

Rather than the variety of people and buildings on display, though, I was more shocked by the way they were all mingling together.

“Whoa, what’s that?!”

There was an object poking out roughly a meter above the crowd, bobbing up and down as it approached us.

“A totos bird,” Ai Fa said as if it was nothing special.

It was an absolute monster of a bird that must have been three meters long, like if someone had enlarged an ostrich even further. In fact, just like an ostrich, it had a long neck, a round body, and thick legs... but its whole body was coated in dark brown plumage. There was a leather strap around its sharp beak which connected to handles at the base of its neck. The one pulling on them was a large dark skinned man wearing just a hat with cloth around it and a loin guard. And there was luggage held in place with cloth on either side of the massive bird’s body.

“There’s nothing but inns on this block. The booths that sell food are further to the north.”

“Hey, hold on a minute, Ai Fa!”

I instinctively reached out and grabbed Ai Fa’s hand as she prepared to plunge into the crowd.

At first she turned around with a look of anger on her face, but that quickly shifted to shock and she drew close.

“What’s the matter, Asuta? Your face is completely pale. Are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m alright. I’m fine, but just... give me a minute, okay?” I responded, closing my eyes tight while feeling the warmth of her fingers.

My head felt like it was swaying back and forth, and it felt hard to breathe. I could feel my heart pounding hard, and the veins in my forehead throbbing at the same rhythm.

My logic was refusing what it was seeing. It was just way, way too different of a world.

I mean, the forest’s edge was plenty separated from how things were back home. A clan of folks who wore their prey’s pelts and hunted animals out in the forest was the sort of thing I could only imagine in fiction.

But, how should I put it...? They wielded metal weapons, built houses of wood, and prepared food in a stove, so they definitely had some plenty fine culture there. But they lived in tune with nature, and honestly it felt more to me like I had wandered into some unexplored region in the depths of the jungle rather than another world.

This post town was different, though.

The buildings were still made of wood, but the ground was paved with stone, which looked to be carefully maintained. The people didn’t have eyes that burned like those of beasts, and seemed to enjoy peaceful lives, but they still moved about in a hurry.

The sight was familiar to me. It really closely resembled the world I came from.

I’m sure there wasn’t electricity running through town, and their metalworking techniques probably weren’t all that advanced. Their culture was probably around the same level as it was in the Middle Ages. And yet, it definitely resembled my world.

And it was because of those similarities that it felt so alien.

This wasn’t the city of stone, just a rustic post town sprawled out alongside the highway... and yet, it was definitely a town. And the people living here weren’t hunters, but rather townsfolk who made their living through trade.

Seeing that similarity to my old world threw me into great confusion.

This definitely isn’t the world I came from. I was thrust into a whole other world that I don’t understand. I can’t... ever return back home.

“Asuta.” I could feel something strongly gripping my neck from behind, pulling my body in close, and bringing a mouth to my ear. “Are you alright? If you’re feeling unwell, you should lay down for a bit. You... you’re so pale it looks like you’re on the verge of dying.”

“I-I’m fine. I’m just a little dizzy...” I responded half unconsciously, then went ahead and finally opened my eyes again.

Ai Fa’s blue eyes were staring me from up so close that I was little shocked.

My nose had been paralyzed by there being so many people nearby, but now Ai Fa’s aroma was flowing into it. Perhaps because she no longer manned the stove, the smell of meat on her had grown a bit weaker. It was the sweet smell of fruit, and a strong refreshing herb aroma, and it was the most pleasant scent I could imagine. And bit by bit, it cleared away the numbness from my head.

Now that I think of it... I still don’t know where that sweet part of her smell comes from...

The aroma of lilo and the powerful scent of pico, as well as that of meat and fat, was something I smelled coming off every person and house at the forest’s edge. This sweet scent, though, didn’t seem to come from anyone else.

Just what is it? It’s a strange scent... I think it’s from some sort of fruit, but why can I only smell it on Ai Fa...?

As I felt a hand grip mine tight, that thought suddenly flew from my head and disappeared.

“Are you really alright? Don’t push yourself. Can you see me?”

“I can... I really am fine. I’m alright now.”

My whole field of view rapidly grew clearer.

Everything but Ai Fa’s eyes had been blurry, but now I could clearly make out her facial features. Her slender nose, her smooth brown cheeks, her little pink lips, and her blonde bangs dangling over her forehead were all clearly burned into my retinas, and I was starting to feel the warmth from the fingers on her right hand touching the back of my neck.

As I felt the firm sensation of the stone path under my unsteady legs once again, I knew that I had finally pulled myself back to reality.

“The light seems to have finally returned to your eyes. What exactly just happened, Asuta?” Ai Fa asked, removing her hand from my neck and stepping back. She kept on holding my hand though, which brought some relief to my still-exhausted heart.

“It’s a little hard to explain. The feel of this post town is kind of like where I came from... But even though it’s similar, the whole townscape and people around are completely different, so everything got all jumbled up in my head.”

Ai Fa furrowed her brows, looking like an elementary schooler who’d been presented with an especially baffling problem.

“I don’t quite get it, but you looked terrible. Please try not to worry me so.”

My eyes darted about unintentionally in response to that rather direct statement, only for Ai Fa to give a “Hmph” and gently let go of my hand.

“If you’re feeling better, then we’re heading for the street stalls. Make sure not to get separated from me.”

“Got it. If it comes down to it, I’ll just grab you from behind again.”

Seeing that I had recovered enough to joke around like that, Ai Fa gave my leg a merciless kick.