Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 1.5

5

I didn’t recognize the young man at all, but he was clearly a person of the forest’s edge. He had on a giba cloak, as well as a vest and loincloth with complex swirling patterns. There was a knife and blade dangling from his waist, as well as a necklace of giba horns and tusks around his neck. His loose and disheveled hair was blackish brown, he had darker skin, and his fiercely glowing eyes were blue. He wasn’t overly tall, but his body was covered in well-toned muscles, and he had a stern face like a lion dog statue.

The youth from the forest’s edge had picked up the rotund shopkeep by his collar, and was squeezing so tight that the man’s plump face was turning beet red.

“Asuta, you stay here,” Ai Fa said, then she steadily paced towards the crowd. For some reason, she still had the fruit wine dangling from her hand.

Still, I couldn’t just sit there and quietly watch. I may not have been suited for breaking up that fight, but I couldn’t just leave that poor girl to her fright, right?

Ai Fa was pushing her way forward straight through the crowd, but I went ahead and circled around and snuck my way towards the girl.

“Hey, why don’t you try saying that again? Who’s a ‘stinking giba eater,’ huh? You said it was ruining the taste of your food, didn’t you? Why don’t you say that all again clearly so I can hear, you high and mighty stone city dweller?”

It sure seemed that young man from the forest’s edge was good and drunk. He had a container with a familiar design in his hand, his face was red, and he was raising his voice, and I couldn’t imagine that was all just due to him being mad.

Guess there are folks out there who chug down wine in the middle of the day like this, huh? But what about his work hunting giba? I thought to myself as I hurriedly approached the girl.

When I was about five meters from the goal, though, fresh screams of astonishment filled the air. This was accompanied by the ominous sound of something breaking with a crash.

The man from the forest’s edge had thrown away his wine and drawn his knife. Well, I call it a knife, but it had a thicker blade like a hatchet, and looked about 20 centimeters long. It was a real dangerous tool meant for severing giba pelts and meat.

He went and drew it! That’s just way too violent, no matter what!

There wasn’t any more time for taking a relaxed detour, so I started full on running, pushing aside the onlookers.

The half-eaten manju fell from the girl’s hands, and was soon trampled to paste under the feet of the scuffling men. That was just how close they were now.

Then, there was suddenly another new sound: Ai Fa hit the man in the back of the head with the fruit wine container she was holding. It shattered to bits, filling the street with even more of the sweet smell of fruit wine.

The man fell down, turning a somersault... And I fortunately somehow managed to scoop up the girl before he tumbled on top of her.

“If you like wine that much, then you can have mine too, you fool!” Ai Fa said with a voice like steel, cutting through the commotion in the air. “There’s a strong taboo against causing a disturbance in the city of stone, you know. You bring shame to the forest’s edge.”

The man was squatted down and holding the back of his head, and he tilted his neck to look up at Ai Fa. Those dull eyes were swirling with such hatred and bad will that it was hard to look at them.

“You’re that female hunter from the Fa clan, aren’t you...? D-Do you think you’ll get off lightly after treating me this way...?”

“Who exactly broke the laws of the forest’s edge, here? I have nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Ooh... What a cool woman...” someone muttered, but it wasn’t the man from the forest’s edge. Rather, it had come from some guy I didn’t recognize who had kneeled down beside me at some point.

“This is my first time seeing a female hunter. If that necklace is the real deal, then she sure seems to be good at it.”

“W-What the...? Who are you?” I asked the man following me as I moved away from the center of commotion, so I wouldn’t get in Ai Fa’s way.

“Who, me? I’m just a passerby. I was planning on protecting that poor girl there, but you ended up beating me to it.”

He seemed like an aloof, easy-going guy, somehow. His ivory-white skin hadn’t been tanned much at all by the sun, his hair was a golden color that was rare both here in the post town and at the forest’s edge, and his eyes had a bit of a violet color about them.

His long cloak wrapped around his body so I couldn’t quite make out his physique, but he had a seriously long face, and he seemed rather tall, too. Right now he was stooped over, though, and looking me over.

His hair on both his head and his face had grown out in a way that made me suspect it was from pure laziness, and he had drooping eyes and a prominent nose. Those unusually colored eyes of his strangely seemed to have both a mature calm to them as well as a childish look of innocence, which made it really hard to guess how old he really was.

“Ooh, it looks like those lazy officials are finally on the move, huh?” the man said while pointing a lanky finger. I looked in that direction, and saw some men carrying long spears pushing their way through the crowd, looking seriously like they were caught flat-footed and scrambling to respond.

“You all, what are you doing in the middle of the street?!”

They had on leather helms and chest plates, and had yellowish brown skin and some rather sturdy looking physiques. From their imposing equipment, they seemed to be guards or something in charge of protecting the tranquility of this post town.

I gave a sigh of relief, but then I saw the tips of those spears pointed Ai Fa’s way too, causing me to freeze in place from astonishment.

The girl started quivering in my arms.

“People of the forest’s edge, huh...? Hey! You’re supposed to be firmly forbidden from causing a disturbance here in the post town! Are you trying to trample all over your agreement with Duke Genos?!”

The guards didn’t appear to have the same sort of excessive fear of the people of the forest’s edge as everyone else. Looking at his eyes and face, though, the man sure didn’t seem calm and composed in the least.

“...I was simply dealing with a fool who broke our taboos, in order to protect that agreement,” Ai Fa emotionlessly stated while glaring at the tip of the spear thrust right up against her nose.

The guards’ gazes turned towards the man now, who was still sprawled out on the ground. And with that, the man broke out in a truly repulsive sneer.

“Guards from the city of stone... I’m Doddo Suun of the Suun clan,” he said, a voice like venom slipping through his wicked lips out onto the street. “You all are just petty officials, right? But I’m part of the Suun clan, which rules the forest’s edge... Arrest this woman.”

The guards all exchanged confused looks. Seeing that, the man calling himself Doddo Suun continued on, “This woman suddenly attacked me in the middle of the street! Can’t you tell just by looking around? I didn’t do anything wrong! This woman is the idiot who broke the taboos of the forest’s edge and the agreement with Genos!”

“The Suun family, huh...?” one of the soldiers said, pulling back his spear and leaving me even more astounded.

The weapons pointed Ai Fa’s way still hadn’t been lowered.

“Woman, come with us to the station. Then, we’ll carefully investigate your crimes. Son of the Suun clan, we have to ask that you accompany us as well. Will you comply?”

“Yeah, of course,” Dodda Suun replied while licking his lips and getting up off the ground.

I felt like I couldn’t help myself any longer from yelling out, but someone beat me to the punch: the girl I was holding in my arms.

“That’s not right! The one causing trouble at the start was that man, and the woman just stopped him!”

Silence descended over the street once again. There was an eerie feeling in the air, somehow.

“What is this about, son of the Suun clan?” one of the guards asked Doddo Suun with a grim expression on his face. Doddo Suun just sneered again in response, though.

“That’s just slander, naturally. I mean, you can go ahead and ask the folks all around us. It was such a commotion that I’m sure plenty of people saw the whole thing, right?”

And then, something unbelievable happened: The onlookers who had just been burning with curiosity all made faces like it was too much of a pain to deal with and started leaving.

“Oh, well this is no good at all,” the man in the long cloak muttered in a nonchalant voice.

When he finally stood up straight, I saw that the man really was over half a head taller than me. In terms of height alone, he must have been around Donda Ruu’s size. But he had a stooped back and sloping shoulders, plus he was pretty darn skinny after all, so he gave off more of the impression of a sort of lanky praying mantis.

All that didn’t matter at all right now, though.

“Damn, what the hell...? Ah, right, what about the old guy he was hassling?”

“That guy went and fled the moment that drunkard was sent flying, not even bothering to say thanks. It sure is a tough world, huh?”

I gritted my teeth, and then walked up towards the guards. At the same time, Doddo Suun’s dull eyes glanced my way. Then, a repulsive look of joy crossed his face.

“Guards of the city of stone... Apparently that kid there has been living at the forest’s edge, despite being a foreigner. He’s probably that fool’s comrade, so I bet he forced that girl there to say those ridiculous things about me, right?”

Now the tip of the spear that had been pointed at Doddo Suun was now facing my way.

“Hey, put that girl down.”

Instantly, the girl clung to my neck tight.

“No! My name is Tara, and this guy saved me! That man is the bad guy, so why won’t you believe me?!”

“That’s what we’re going to look into at the station. Now be a good girl and just head on home, alright?”

“I don’t want to!”

“Good grief. It’s thanks to all that red tape you throw up that you can’t earn respect from the people on the streets, right? I mean, I can’t exactly praise you all when you’re trying to avoid the hassle of chasing down the truth because it’s a pain dealing with the people of the forest’s edge.”

Naturally, that had come from the man in the long cloak butting in.

Thanks to everyone jumping in ahead of me, I actually hadn’t even had the chance to get a single word in, yet.

“And just who the heck are you? This has nothing to do with you, so you should butt out.”

“I may not have been involved, but I saw the whole thing from start to finish. And wouldn’t you say my testimony has more credibility and value precisely because I wasn’t involved?” the man started in an arrogant tone, then continued on, “A man who was selling fruit here was together with a man who appeared to be another merchant and his friend. He pointed sneakily at that man from the forest’s edge, and they laughed for one reason or another. With that, this man’s face changed color and he grabbed that merchant-looking fellow, knocking down these boxes of fruit into the road as you can see. The fruit seller fled, and this man yelled out, ‘If you’ve got some sort of problem, then come out and say it! You’re all proud citizens of the city of stone, aren’t ya?!’”

A giggle slipped out of the girl in my arms. I mean, that just went to show how little seriousness there was behind the man’s voice.

“Huh? Was my impression of him bad? Well, whatever... So then, they started going back and forth. ‘I-I didn’t say anything!’ ‘You liar!’ ‘I mean it!’ ‘I heard you! The ears of the people of the forest’s edge aren’t like your rotten ones!’ ‘S-Somebody, save me!’ ‘Hey, why don’t you try saying that again? Who’s a “stinking giba eater,” huh? You said it was ruining the taste of your food, didn’t you? Why don’t you say that all again clearly so I can hear, you high and mighty stone city dweller?’ Anyway, I guess that’s about how it went.”

Amazingly, this lanky man seemed to have memorized that entire exchange.

The guards clearly looked to be at a loss, while Doddo Suun glared at the man with eyes like those of a wild dog. And Ai Fa... Ai Fa looked more puzzled than I had ever seen her.

“Then, this man tossed aside the container of wine he had been holding and drew the knife from his hip. Over there you can smell the sweet remains of that wine, and the knife fell over there, you see?”

Doddo Suun and the guards looked down by our feet, clearly taken aback. Sure enough, there was a knife without a guard lying there on the ground. And the empty leather sheath was still attached to Dodda Suun’s waist.

“That was when that woman got involved. She smacked him in the back of the head with her own container of fruit wine like bang! Then, she calmly said, ‘If you like wine that much, then you can have mine too, you fool!’”

The girl couldn’t stifle her giggles any longer. Well, I could totally understand that, from the way he was mimicking everyone’s voices.

Though Ai Fa had just looked puzzled before, she was now wearing a clear scowl.

“And then she continued on, ‘There’s a strong taboo against causing a disturbance in the city of stone, you know. You bring shame to the forest’s edge.’ Well, that should be enough, right? Does that help out with your investigation?”

The guards turned back towards Doddo Suun again, looking annoyed.

“Son of the Suun clan, that’s what this man has to say, but—”

“It’s all nonsense! This is clearly slander!” Dodda Suun yelled out in a shrill shriek, his blue eyes going red.

He was obviously out of his depth.

“Then you’ll need to offer an explanation more consistent with the facts, right? I’m sure nobody here but you would deny what I said. If you’re calling me a liar, then could you explain what the circumstances were behind this wooden box being broken, this fruit wine container shattering, and your knife lying there on the road?”

His words were biting, but his expression and tone were just as easy-going as always.

It wasn’t like with Jiza Ruu, where I couldn’t read how he was feeling. This man was simply staying calm and composed. He just said what he was thinking, not getting particularly worked up in the least.

“...Very well. We’ll look into this more thoroughly at the station. You all will need to come with us.”

“Huh? Well, that’s going to be a problem. I mean, I’ve got an appointment with Duke Genos after this,” the man said, nonchalantly throwing out an unbelievable statement. The guards’ eyes opened so wide that it looked like they were about to pop out of their heads.

“I’m already past the arranged time, so being any later would be simply inexcusable. If you need me there, could it wait until after I’ve explained the gist of the situation to Duke Genos?”

“Just who are you...? Uh, sir?”

“There’s no need to be so tense. I’m just an upstanding member of the common townsfolk. A bodyguard who protects travelers, Kamyua Yoshu.”

With that, he presented the necklace he had on from inside his long cloak. It was a stone with a complex coloration like agate dangling from a silver chain. It really did look quite chic.

“We just happened to have a bit of a relationship, so when Duke Genos needs a bodyguard for a trip to the capital, that favor falls my way. It’s not like I have nobility, much less the crown, so there’s no reason to be so afraid around me... Ah, this is a pass into the Genos castle town that Duke Marstein Genos awarded me.”

Then, he pulled out a long silver plate-looking thing that shone far more radiantly than the coins from before. It was about the size of a credit card, and had an elegant design I didn’t recognize finely carved into it, as if to prove its honored and proper lineage.

When the guards saw that plate, their faces turned ghostly pale and they froze in place.

As all sorts of different gazes fell upon his lanky body, the man named Kamyua Yoshu gave a relaxed, pleasant smile.