Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.3

3

“Ooh, a customer from the forest’s edge, huh?” the old-timer said with a tight smile as he turned to face us.

The shop was a small produce vendor near the northernmost tip of the bazaar. It was a rather plain store, consisting just of vegetables laid out atop a cloth on the ground, as well as the unstable-looking framework of a roof. However, there was also a large wagon behind that man running the shop, full of a mountain of sacks that looked full to bursting.

“This is a big help. If you folks don’t come by at least once every three days, my aria will go bad.”

The old-timer had a white cloth like mine wrapped around his head, a loincloth, and sandals on, but that was it, and he looked to be a bit past his 40s. His eyes, hair, and stubble were all a dark brown, and his skin was a yellowish brown. He had a rather large physique but looked pretty well in shape, and seemed like he was probably pretty damn strong. Faced with Ai Fa, though, the look in the man’s eyes was downright cute, like that of a pomeranian.

“So, you want aria and poitan today, too? The price is the same as always, so how much do you want?”

“Two whites worth of poitan, and two whites plus four reds worth of aria.”

“Ooh, that’s quite a lot! I wonder if I can close down with that...?” he said with the sort of flattery you’d expect from a shopkeep, but his smile remained just as taut as always. It seemed that when it came to dealing with the people of the forest’s edge, his fear won out over his contempt.

“Two white and four red worth... Alright, go ahead and check it,” he said, thumping down a sack that looked like it was made of hemp on the grass next to his stall. Just when I was thinking that was a lot, he brought out another similarly sized sack. They were big enough that, well, it wouldn’t look for Santa Claus to have one slung over his shoulder.

“H-hey, Ai Fa, just how many days of food did you just buy?”

“20,” she replied while sitting down in front of the bags.

It seemed important to check the numbers here, too.

Earlier, Ai Fa had exchanged four giba’s worth of horns and tusks for currency. I had been told that one giba would allow you to get ten meals worth of food, so with two people, that meant 20 days worth would be 40 meals in total. The numbers all seemed to check out.

But still, you needed three aria and two poitan a day per person, so that would mean 60 aria and 40 poitan for 20 days, right? And then for two people, that meant it would be 120 and 80, yeah?

“Hey, hold on! Why did you buy that many? It’ll take an hour to get back home from here, right?!” I yelled out, but then I recalled that they didn’t have clocks at the forest’s edge. I wonder if there are any here in this post town? I got the feeling that they’d probably at least have a sundial.

That didn’t matter at all, though. By my estimations, each aria and poitan weighed around 200 grams. That would mean 120 aria would total up to 24 kilograms, while 80 poitan would work out to 16 kilograms. I couldn’t think of it as anything but reckless, carrying that much weight all the way from this post town back to the forest’s edge.

“Just hurry up and count. If I keep sitting here forever, then nobody else will come close, right?” Ai Fa muttered while counting the poitan. The old-timer pretended he didn’t hear that, and just went about reorganizing his display.

It was too late for me to talk about reducing the amount, both to the side who sold them and the one who did the buying.

I gave a sigh, and then took a seat next to Ai Fa.

“Alright. There’s no issues with the poitan.”

As Ai Fa stuffed the poitan back into the bag, I set to work splitting the aria into groups of ten on the grass.

However, when I hit the thirtieth one, I stopped.

“Hey, old-timer, this aria seems mushy.”

The middle-aged man shot me a dubious look, but he didn’t come any closer.

“There’s no way that’s right. I harvested those just the day before yesterday, after all. It’ll be nice and crisp for another month.”

“No, see, it’s got a weird feel to it. You can’t tell just by looking at it, but I’m certain it’s rotten on the inside.”

“P-please stop making such false accusations! You may be a person of the forest’s edge, but you’ve still got to respect this post town’s rules.”

“The post town’s rules...? Hey, Ai Fa, are you not supposed to lodge a complaint when someone tries to sell you something rotten like this?”

I made sure to check that with Ai Fa in a quiet voice just to be safe, and he was pretty far away, but apparently the old-timer still picked it up. He still didn’t come any closer to us, but now he was clearly pissed.

“Hey! I-I worked hard to grow that aria! And I made sure to eat all the poor little ones that didn’t turn out right myself! I-If you have a problem with my aria, then never come to my shop again!” the old-timer shouted, a real do-or-die look on his face.

Ai Fa took the aria from my hand while furrowing her brows.

“Hmm... It does seem a little soft, I guess.”

“No, this thing is already unusable. Hey, old-timer, I’m going to split this open now, so if it’s rotten could you replace it with another one? And if there’s nothing wrong with it, I’ll be sure to apologize.”

“D-Do what you want!” he yelled back, so having his permission I went ahead and took out the knife that was a memento from Ai Fa’s father, then gave it a clean slice down the middle. Sure enough, the bottom half had turned all purple and soggy. There was no way that I could use that part of it.

“See, it’s rotten, right? Sorry, but could you grab us a fresh one?” I said, holding it out so he could see. The old-timer had been turning red, but now his broad face went completely pale.

“M-My apologies! I was in the wrong! I’m begging you, please forgive me! I-I’ll give your money back, too! Please, just spare my life!” the old guy said, bowing down on the ground and holding out the two colors of currency.

He seemed to be in a pretty unstable state mentally, there.

“Ai Fa, what should I do in a situation like this?”

“Who knows? But I won’t accept food that I haven’t paid for.”

“Yeah, right? Um, could you stop bowing, old-timer? We don’t want the money, just the aria. My teeth aren’t exactly tough enough to chew through something like that, after all.”

While thinking to myself that Donda Ruu could probably bite through it no problem, I placed my hand on the old guy’s shoulder.

“A-are you not a person of the forest’s edge...?”

“I wasn’t born one of them, but as you can see, the forest’s edge is looking after me nowadays.”

The old-timer was looking up at me like a pomeranian staring at a pitbull.

“You’ll forgive me...?”

“Yeah, as long as you switch this aria out for a fresh one.”

His hands trembling with fear, the man grabbed an aria from the ones lined out on top of the cloth, and then offered it to me.

“Right, thanks. Um, maybe it’s none of my business, but even if you have pride in your work, you should make sure to check it properly before getting mad, right? I mean, that’s just better for business.”

I think I heard him mutter, “I do when it’s not a person of the forest’s edge...” but it was so quiet that it was hard to say for sure.

There weren’t any problems with the rest of the aria, and the numbers checked out, so I placed them back in the bag. With that, Ai Fa pulled out a dried vine from inside of her pocket (probably that fibaha stuff) and tied the two bags firmly shut. Then she wrapped the excess vine around her hand and slung the bigger bag, the one with the aria, over her left shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

She was taking 1.5 times as much, so even a weak chef like me couldn’t exactly go complaining. And so, while sighing at the thought of just how I’d deal with the rope bridge, I played the part of an unseasonable Santa Claus.

“Well then, excuse us. We may be back in another 20 days, so we’ll be counting on you then.”

The old-timer shot a listless glance our way, but he didn’t respond. I still didn’t know if I should feel sorry for him, or indignant.

“Now then, considering the bonus the old woman from the exchange counter added, we have a good bit of excess to spend. Is there anything else you need, Asuta?” Ai Fa asked, stopping as she weaved between the stalls.

I immediately placed the bag by my feet and replied, “We need fruit wine.”

“Fruit wine can be bought for one red each, so we would still have five left even if we purchase two.”

“Hmm... I don’t have a feel for the currency rate at all. What about rock salt?”

“Rock salt costs three red pieces... Right, well, since we’re now using it for other things than drying meat, we should buy it sooner than later.”

It was a bit of a strange feeling, discussing shopping with Ai Fa in the midst of all these people. It wasn’t unpleasant in the least, of course.

“So, that leaves two red, huh? Well then, should we buy some of that tino and pula that we had at the Ruu house yesterday? I don’t know how much we could get, though.”

“I’m fine with anything. I leave it to you.”

Looks like it was left to me, then. As I tilted my head and wondered what to do, my stomach gave a cute little gurgle.

“Ah! How about a snack from a stall, Ai Fa?”

There were plenty of places around selling a variety of light snacks, not just smoked meat.

However, Ai Fa opened her eyes wide in amazement.

“If you’re hungry, then I brought along dried meat.”

“No, it’s just that this is the chance to eat something we usually can’t, because we’re here at this post town, right? Ah, or would that break one of the taboos of the forest’s edge or something?”

“We are free to use the money obtained from giba horns and tusks however we please. I can’t imagine any person of the forest’s edge ever using it in such a manner, though.”

I see. The idea of enjoying food was hardly a thing at the forest’s edge, so I suppose that much should have been obvious.

“Then I guess you’re not interested either, huh, Ai Fa? Well then, I’ll just behave myself and buy some tino, I guess.”

“I don’t especially care. I said I leave it up to you, didn’t I?”

“Hmm. But we bought all the aria and poitan with your savings, so I would feel awkward wasting it all on my own.”

“What are you saying? I’m your clan head, you know,” Ai Fa said, her eyes gently narrowing.

I felt bad not even paying one of the nine horns and tusks I had, but maybe it was all related to her dignity as head of the clan? And Ai Fa had been in a nice calm mood up till now, so I definitely didn’t want to wreck that.

“Well then, how about if I just use one of the plates for new vegetables, and then the other on a snack? To be honest, I’m really interested in the cuisine of this world.”

With that, Ai Fa’s brows unwrinkled and she said, “Do as you please.”

It was like I was playing her role of being the pampered one. Maybe that was the right sort of relationship between a clan head and the one who mans her stove, though. As a proud Japanese male, though, it hurt my pride a bit.

Still, seeing Ai Fa look satisfied sure did make me feel at ease.