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

Intermezzo: The Young Sage

Gazraan’s honest opinion upon their first meeting was that the boy had an unusual feel about him. That was his impression when he was introduced to Asuta of the Fa clan, who was manning the stove for the celebratory banquet before his wedding.

From his black hair and eyes and his ivory-tan skin, it was clear that the young man was a foreigner. He was far frailer looking than the hunters of the forest’s edge, and his face seemed soft like that of a woman. He surely lacked the strength needed to hunt a giba. Yes, the boy appeared so frail that it was hard to imagine him surviving outside of the city of stone.

However, there was a strong, bright light in his eyes, unlike those of the city dwellers that Gazraan Rutim had seen up to that point.

This young man didn’t fear the people of the forest’s edge.

That was surely the source of the strange impression he gave.

He was a city dweller surrounded by the people of the forest’s edge in the middle of their settlement, and yet he was perfectly calm. On top of that, he was wearing attire from the forest’s edge and had introduced himself as being part of one of their clans. Considering how much the people of the forest’s edge were thought of as heathens in the Genos domain, such a thing would normally be considered simply impossible.

Well, he’s right here in front of me, though, so I guess it doesn’t make sense to call it “impossible.”

Even so, Gazraan Rutim simply couldn’t understand why Donda Ruu had entrusted someone like him with the stove.

His father Dan Rutim had been going mad with anger, and Ama Min was casting her gaze downwards and looking troubled.

At this rate, this could end up leading to friction between his father and Donda Ruu.

That was Gazraan Rutim’s greatest concern.

Right now, they were in the midst of amassing strength to oppose the treacherous Suun clan. They needed to hunt a great many giba, birth more children, gain more subordinate clans, and eventually take down their foes. If a rift were to form now between the Ruu and their largest subordinate family, the Rutim, it could cast a darkness over the future of the entire forest’s edge.

Still... Donda Ruu looks no less indignant about this than my father Dan...

This youth named Asuta had gone and presented the meat from a giba torso of all things for a celebratory banquet.

There wasn’t anything especially wrong with eating torso meat. It was just as that Fa clan head, the rumored female hunter Ai Fa, had said.

Calling such meat mundt feed really may have been nothing but pure disdain and slander towards clans that had grown weak. It was true that it was an unwritten rule of the forest’s edge that weakness was a sin, but if they were to make light of the weak, they would be no better than the Suun clan. The weak should simply serve as a warning to instead strive to obtain greater strength, and there was no purpose to scorning or abusing them.

But still, Gazraan Rutim just couldn’t see the purpose of intentionally eating torso meat.

The Fa clan head had said, “Because it’s delicious,” but he couldn’t understand that, either.

The moment he bit into that giba rib in the midst of that suffocating atmosphere, though, he understood entirely.

Gazraan Rutim had been paying a lot more attention to his father and Donda Ruu’s actions than he was to the boned meat he was bringing to his mouth, only to be hit by a strong enough impact to almost lose sight of himself.

This is...

The taste was different than what he expected, and any animalistic stench was completely absent.

And what was this thick red sauce? It had the sweetness of fruit wine with the taste of rock salt and pico leaves mixed in, and it had a huge impact on the taste of the giba meat.

This is... delicious meat?

An unknown sensation was spreading through his mouth.

It was... pleasurable.

He felt euphoric, and experienced the joy of being alive.

It was no exaggeration to say that such thoughts were running through Gazraan Rutim’s head.

When he saw his family’s joyful smiles, took down a large giba, laid his exhausted body down to rest, or held his beloved in his arms... A joy similar to those had exploded in his mouth and was now racing through his body.

Before his mind could understand what had happened, his heart and body were awash in pleasure. It made for a very strange experience.

When one was parched, water and fruit wine seemed delicious.

When one was starving, the same was true of meat and vegetables.

But what Gazraan Rutim was experiencing now was nothing so common. No, it was something deeper... It was a joy and sense of satisfaction that caused his very soul to tremble.

He felt someone looking at him and turned to look, to find Ama Min smiling his way.

She must have been feeling the same thing that he was.

Unable to wipe away the surprise and impact he had felt, Gazraan Rutim ended up breaking out in a smile too, without even noticing it.

He still didn’t properly understand what had happened. And yet, the premonition of some great revolution had gripped Gazraan Rutim’s very soul.

◇

The following day, Gazraan Rutim visited the Fa house alongside Ama Min to request that Asuta man the stove for their wedding.

When Gazraan Rutim heard that his father Dan Rutim had made such a request, he thought the man had gone and done something crazy again. But when he heard that Asuta had turned down the offer, he felt oddly shaken.

To ask someone unrelated to you to man the stove for such an important occasion went against the traditions of the forest’s edge.

But even bearing that in mind, he couldn’t come up with any significant reason to object. And when he started thinking like that, he could no longer contain himself.

When he earnestly told Ama Min how he felt, she responded, “I feel the same way.”

And so, they ended up visiting the Fa house like this.

However, Asuta still stubbornly refused.

“My apologies, but could you wait until tomorrow to hear his response?” the clan head Ai Fa had asked, so Gazraan Rutim and Ama Min ended up returning to the Rutim settlement.

“It’s alright. I’m certain our feelings made it across to Asuta,” Ama Min said on their way back. “He may have been born in another nation, but I feel that Asuta has a soul fitting of a person of the forest’s edge. So I’m sure it will all be fine.”

“Yeah... He sure is a strange person, isn’t he?”

“You think so?” Ama Min responded. “I don’t have any real issue with thinking of Asuta as one of our brethren. It would feel much more natural if Ai Fa were a man and Asuta a woman, though.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true. A woman clan head and hunter, and a man who tends to the stove, huh? What a strange pair they make.”

“They looked very happy, though. So perhaps that’s the proper way for them to be after all,” Ama Min said, giggling in a childish manner that was very much like her. “Do you remember how they were when they had just returned? Ai Fa had a very gentle expression on her face, and looked like an ordinary young woman. I’m sure she normally only ever shows such a face to Asuta.”

“Hmm? I didn’t notice at all.”

“Really? While Ai Fa is a very strong hunter, she also seems to stubbornly avoid getting close to others. Yet now, she has a member of her clan like that by her side, so she can likely spend her days in a peaceful state of mind,” Ama Min said with a smile as she looked up at Gazraan Rutim. “I’m sure before I met you I would have been jealous.”

“Is that so?” was all he could think to say in response.

As they walked along, Ama Min wrapped her arm around Gazraan Rutim’s.

“If Asuta accepts this job, then our wedding banquet is sure to make for an even more joyous occasion. Even if he refuses again tomorrow, I intend to keep on visiting the Fa house until he says yes.”

◇

Fortunately, Asuta ended up accepting the job.

On top of that, they also got Donda Ruu’s approval without any issues when they informed him of the conditions.

“I heard all about it, Gazraan Rutim! You asked Asuta to man the stove for your wedding, right? That sure was daring of you!” Ludo Ruu called out when he was passing through the Ruu settlement.

The youth was always cheerful, but he had an especially brilliant smile on his face at the moment.

“And Asuta will be taking charge of the Ruu stove every day up till then, yeah? That makes me super happy!”

“Is that so? It was a rather extreme request to make of Donda Ruu, so hearing that makes me feel at least a little relieved.”

“You sure do have a stiff way of speaking! But still... I heard you’re going to give Asuta 20 giba’s worth of horns and tusks, right? He seems like he’d accept with no problem even without that, though.”

“That wouldn’t feel right to us. A price must be paid to have someone utterly unrelated man a wedding’s stove, yes?”

“Hmm? We never paid him anything, though. We each gave him a horn or a tusk as a blessing, though.”

“...Why was Asuta manning a Ruu stove to begin with?”

With that, Gazraan Rutim learned of the connection between the Fa and Ruu for the first time. He also learned then that Ai Fa had been friends with Jiba and Rimee Ruu, and had been invited to marry into the Ruu clan when her father died.

“So, Jiba Ruu was saved by Asuta’s cooking...?”

“Yeah, that’s right. But Jiza and Darmu still won’t acknowledge him. It looks like my dad’s thinking changed a whole lot with that last dinner, though.”

After a bit of thinking, Gazraan Rutim decided he should talk to Jiza and Darmu Ruu, too.

The sun was already nearing its peak, so Asuta would be arriving here in the Ruu settlement before long. And so, he needed to take care of this matter before then.

“Jiza Ruu, Darmu Ruu, could I have a little of your time?”

Conveniently, the two of them were together in the corner of the plaza.

They seemed to be resting up now that they were prepared to head off for their work as hunters. They were in the comfortable, breezy shade of the trees, quietly discussing something.

“Gazraan Rutim? I was just wishing to talk to you as well,” Jiza Ruu responded, his narrowed eyes firmly staring back. “I just heard tell of your wedding banquet from our clan head, Donda... Just what were you thinking, making such a request of Asuta of the Fa clan?”

“I believe this will grant my relatives further strength.”

Jiza Ruu had the same calm expression on his face as always, but Gazraan Rutim was well aware that underneath that exterior, the man possessed both passion and cool-headedness fitting to his position as Ruu heir.

“You mean by making them feel greater joy at being alive, and in turn increase their desire to stay that way? I won’t say there’s any particular issue with those words, but... Asuta of the Fa clan is a foreigner.”

“Yes. But now he’s a member of the Fa clan, is he not?”

“As long as the clan head acknowledges it, any sort of person can become a member of a clan. But in our 80 years since we moved here to the Mount Morga forest’s edge, a foreigner has never been welcomed as one of our people.”

“Indeed, meaning Asuta is the first. There isn’t any law prohibiting that, so I can’t see how there should be any issue.”

“...Asuta wields a power that he mastered outside of the forest’s edge. Can you firmly say that the change that it will bring about is proper?”

“I can’t, but I don’t believe you can firmly state that it’s wrong, either. And so, I chose to believe that this path is the right one.”

Jiza Ruu folded his arms, the same expression fixed on his face.

Darmu Ruu, meanwhile, just stood there staring at Gazraan Rutim with a glare in his eyes, and made no sign of trying to say anything.

“I understand your concern, Jiza Ruu. It’s not as if I have no doubts myself. However... You also can’t say with certainty that it’s correct to blindly reject all outside power, can you? It seems impossible to me to declare that all such power is wrong, as the world outside our forest’s edge is unbelievably vast.”

“Our brethren only exist here at the forest’s edge, though. The outside world has no relation to us.”

“Is that really so? We were born and raised at the forest’s edge, but it’s not as if we sprouted forth from tree roots, Jiza Ruu.”

He didn’t expect that statement to earn him any approval, but he still felt the need to say it.

To Gazraan Rutim, Jiza Ruu was undoubtedly one of his precious brethren, as well as the heir to his parent clan. Even if talking it out wouldn’t reconcile their differing opinions and feelings, they wouldn’t be able to keep working together hand in hand if they simply tried to hide their disagreement.

“80 years ago, our ancestors lived in the forests of Jagar. Perhaps back then our people truly did live solely in the forest without any interaction with city folks, but since moving to the forest of Morga, we sell giba horns and tusks in the post town, and abide by the laws of the Genos domain. Even so, we’ve kept on stubbornly rejecting city folk, but... Is that really the proper way of doing things?”

“Can we not reach a definite conclusion about that? After all, the Suun clan has firm ties with the capital, and you can easily see the depths of depravity that they have fallen to.”

“But that’s precisely it. Having been forbidden from partaking of the blessings of the forest, we have no way of living left to us but becoming involved with the outside world and purchasing provisions using coins. No matter how much we may try to reject it, we cannot keep on living without associating with the outside world. In that case, does it not make sense to try to make sure our ties with it take the best form possible?”

“And you say... that is why we should accept Asuta?”

“I can’t say I’ve thought it through that far. I simply don’t believe that the fact that he was born in another nation is reason enough to reject him.”

Jiza Ruu gave a small sigh, then firmly shook his head from side to side.

“At any rate, our clan head has accepted your request, and we have no choice but to abide by his decision. All that’s left is to pray that your estimation of Asuta didn’t miss the mark, and that he doesn’t invite disaster.”

“If anything does happen, then I shall offer myself up in atonement.”

Gazraan Rutim then ended things by calling out to the silent Darmu Ruu.

“Darmu Ruu, do you hold the same concerns as Jiza Ruu?”

“I... I don’t understand such difficult matters,” Darmu Ruu replied, sounding displeased. “I just can’t stand that pale brat.”

Apparently, that wasn’t any more serious of a matter than Gazraan Rutim had assumed. In fact, Darmu Ruu actually felt a bit like a sulking child.

...Now that I think of it, Darmu Ruu was the one that Donda Ruu offered to have Ai Fa marry.

Had that matter left him nursing a grudge?

Though he was getting married in just a few days, Gazraan Rutim wasn’t all that well versed on the subtleties of male/female relations.

At any rate, I’ve already chosen this path.

All that was left was to push forward and keep on trusting in the choice he had made.

Gazraan Rutim said farewell to the pair, then awaited the arrival of his strange brethren who had been born in another nation entirely.

◇

The hectic days passed by, and sure enough, Gazraan Rutim stood before Asuta once more, filled with joy and a sense of satisfaction.

This was around when the wedding banquet had come smoothly to a close.

“I’m seriously relieved that everything ended just fine,” Asuta said after receiving the necklace that held his payment.

He looked pretty thoroughly exhausted. His eyes were half shut and his back was leaned against the wall of the vacant house, looking like he could collapse at any moment.

Yet his eyes reflecting the bonfire seemed to be filled with just as much satisfaction as Gazraan Rutim’s.

The same was also true of Ai Fa, who was for some reason looking away, her face red.

...She really doesn’t look like a female hunter right now.

Ai Fa was clad in banquet attire. But that wasn’t all, as she also looked even more beautiful than she had before, like she had opened her heart up to Asuta.

The female hunter Ai Fa, and Asuta who mans the stove. Gazraan Rutim could sense that no matter how much of a strange pairing they may make by the standards of the forest’s edge, their souls were firmly tied together as family.

“You are a strange man, Asuta,” Gazraan Rutim stated, his back facing the hustle of the banquet. “You are undoubtedly a foreigner, yet I also truly believe you are one of our brethren here at the forest’s edge. Even though your physical strength, disposition, and appearance are completely unlike those of the people of the forest’s edge... I truly find it strange.”

“I see. It really is strange, for me to be accepted so easily...” Asuta replied, his tone sounding a little sleepy. “Well, it’s all thanks to Ai Fa. The only reason I have a connection to the forest’s edge in the first place is because she went and picked me up.”

“Oh, shut up,” Ai Fa retorted, crinkling her nose.

But even so, her smooth cheeks remained red.

I see... If Asuta had not met Ai Fa, we really may never have had a day like this.

There couldn’t be many folks out there who would bring a foreigner back home with them after finding them out in the forest. Most would either abandon them, or at most escort them to the post town. With a violent natured hunter, he may have even met a rather tragic end.

He was picked up by Ai Fa, then was tied to the Ruu and Rutim through her bonds with Jiba Ruu... And then I met Asuta, too.

This meeting would have some some sort of effect on the forest’s edge.

Gazraan Rutim was no seer, so he had no way of saying if that was true or not, but that was just the feeling that he got.

The paths of Asuta and myself overlap.

He had thoroughly experienced that by way of this banquet.

Asuta had brought him such overwhelming joy, so he was already someone utterly irreplaceable to Gazraan Rutim.

They were no blood relation, but even so, Asuta of the Fa clan was one of his comrades at the forest’s edge.

I’m sure I will keep on plunging forwards with Asuta from here on out.

He had no idea what sort of future awaited him. But even so, that thought was more a belief than a mere prediction.

If someone tries to harm Asuta, I will act as his shield. If some tries to reject Asuta, I will be the mouth that persuades them. Asuta gave me more than enough today for me to claim that.

Gazraan Rutim quietly thought to himself that there couldn’t be anyone happier than him this night, having gained both a beautiful bride and a precious friend.

“Asuta, you...”

“Sorry. It seems he’s fallen asleep,” Ai Fa interrupted.

Looking, it seemed Asuta had indeed collapsed to the ground at some point, and was now sleeping up against the wall.

There was an innocence about him as he slept with a satisfied look on his face.

“He ended up falling asleep without eating a thing. He really still has a long way to go when it comes to things like that,” Ai Fa said, sounding angry.

However, the light of affection was overflowing from her eyes.

“My apologies for bothering you when you are so exhausted. Please, get your rest.”

“Right... Has the banquet still not ended?”

“Yes. Apparently none of them will rest until the last drop of fruit wine is gone.”

“I certainly can’t keep them company that long. Well then, farewell.”

Ai Fa shoved her head under Asuta’s arm and lifted him up.

Even so, Asuta didn’t awaken, and just kept on peacefully snoring away.

“Ai Fa, let me offer you my thanks as well.”

“Hmm? You already paid such a fee for this work, so what purpose is there in tediously offering further thanks?”

“No, I don’t just mean for tonight. You have my gratitude for inviting Asuta here to this forest’s edge.”

“That truly... does not make sense to thank me for.”

Ai Fa frowned and looked away.

If Asuta hadn’t been there, she surely would have never shown such an expression in front of him.

“Well then, excuse us.”

They would surely face all sorts of hardships from tomorrow on, be it from their worsening relationship with the Suun clan, or that mysterious visitor from the city known as Kamyua Yoshu.

And he would offer all of his strength if it would help to save them.

He hoped that they would rest well within the safety of the Ruu settlement for today, and then make all the necessary preparations.

Gazraan Rutim burned the sight of his new comrade into his pupils while such thoughts ran through his head, and then he turned around to return to his beloved bride.

The ceremonial fire kept on burning with the same momentum, sending red flames up into the night sky.