Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 1.2

2

“Thanks for waiting.”

Considering the time of day, I didn’t exactly feel like making any sort of elaborate dish.

And so, I just cut giba rib meat to an appropriate thinness, heated it up together with sliced aria, then added some fruit wine after flavoring it with rock salt and pico leaves, making for a simple stir-fried meat and vegetables dish.

“You sure seem skilled at that. Were you a chef in town in your past life or something, Asuta?”

“Ah, well, something like that.”

As I replied, I offered our guest a wooden spoon and plate.

It was about 1/4th the size of my usual dishes. That was what I went with because I figured he would eat all of it even if it wasn’t to his taste.

“My, I sure am happy! I’ve run all around the western domain, and I’ve even visited the Eastern and Southern Kingdoms now and again, but I’ve never seen another animal like the giba. I’ve been interested for a while now in what such a gallant looking animal’s meat tastes like.”

I see. Apparently in my world wild pigs aside from boars had all died out, but did such animals not even exist in this world to begin with?

At any rate, we went ahead with our light meal.

Kamyua Yoshu said, “Thanks for this blessing,” while picking up the wooden spoon with a wide grin on his face. And then, he used it to scoop up a bit of giba meat and aria and chuck them in his mouth.

His unshaven jaw moved up and down greatly as he chewed, and then he swallowed it down.

And then, the expression completely vanished from Kamyua Yoshu’s long, narrow face.

I almost dropped my wooden spoon in surprise.

As soon as the thin smile pulled back from his face, Kamyua Yoshu’s aloof expression shifted to the ominous countenance of an assassin, or the Grim Reaper.

His eyebrows were raised while his eyes were caved in, and it looked like the flesh had been shaved away from his cheeks. Up until now I had paid no attention to the shading of his face, but suddenly it felt downright terrifying.

Ai Fa had regained her composure as I was cooking, but with this change she was staring at Kamyua Yoshu as if she didn’t want to miss a thing.

In the meantime, Kamyua Yoshu kept on moving his spoon until he had eaten up the contents of his plate in no time at all.

Thanks to all that, I hadn’t moved my spoon at all since eating my first bite.

A voice lower than the one he had used till now slipped out from his thin, wide lips.

“...What is this?”

“Ah, I mean, it’s a giba dish.”

“Yes, that’s right... This is my first time eating meat like this.”

His purple eyes looked towards me with a sharp, piercing light in them.

“This is insanely delicious, isn’t it?”

“Ah, really? I’m honored...”

“So, this is giba meat?”

“Yes...”

“This really is the first time I’ve ever eaten meat that was this tasty.”

“Um, sir! Your face is seriously scary!”

“Huh? What? Really? Sorry!”

With that, Kamyua Yoshu suddenly wrapped up his long, slender face on both sides with his large palms.

“That’s no good! I was so surprised that my hidden face slipped out! Both my public and hidden faces are the real me though, so don’t misunderstand!”

I not only wasn’t worried about misunderstanding, I didn’t even want to understand in the first place.

Rather than coming to understand one another through eating together, it had only made him seem all the more suspicious.

“Man, that sure was tasty! I’m moved! Your people have been keeping this delicious meat all to yourselves? That’s no fair!”

He had put away his hidden face or whatever, but he was still just as suspicious as always.

As I shot a sideways glance her way, I caught Ai Fa sighing. It scared me a little to notice that she was removing her grasp from the sword at her feet, which was partway out of its scabbard.

This man really had given off a seriously sinister aura.

“So the people of Genos have been calling you all giba-eaters while knowing nothing of this delicious flavor, huh? How utterly stupid! Did you all decide to keep this wonderful meat to yourselves as an act of revenge against them?”

“No, that’s not it at all,” I replied, then finally took my second bite of food.

When I did Ai Fa nudged me with her fist, her knee still up in the air.

“Asuta. I’m a little hungry now too thanks to that smell.”

“Huh? There’s nothing I can do about that now, though. I mean, that’s why I asked if you needed any back when I was making it...” As I said that, I scooped up some meat and aria with my wooden spoon. “Here. Say ‘aah.’”

The top of my head was hit with a jab. Then my plate was ripped away and she stole two bites before thrusting the remains back at me.

That was just plain mean...

“Hmm... I’m impressed! Still, this deliciousness is thanks to your skill too, isn’t it? The amount of salt is just perfect, and the fruit wine flavor is great too. Asuta, did you study under a famous chef?”

“Not at all. My family just owned a small restaurant.”

“In what country? I’ve never seen anything like it in any of the nations I’m aware of.”

So, the conversation shifted that way, huh?

Well, no matter who I was dealing with, my stance on that matter wouldn’t change.

“It would take a while to explain, but I was born in an island nation known as Japan. I’d never even heard of the Amusehorn continent, but one day I suddenly found myself waking up in the forest at the foot of Mount Morga.”

“...You’d never heard of Amusehorn?” Kamyua Yoshu questioned, his eyes opening wide once again.

Well, that came as no surprise. If I met a foreigner in Japan who had never heard of the nation, I’d probably be just as surprised.

“What do you mean? I was assuming you were of mixed blood from the east and west, judging by your appearance...”

“Ah, are people with mixed heritage from the east and west common?”

“They’re rare, but the countries are on friendly terms, after all. It needs to be firmly decided which nation they’ll belong to from the start, but they aren’t especially persecuted... Wait, are you saying you didn’t even know that much, Asuta?”

“Sorry, but I honestly didn’t.”

We had been far too busy lately, so Ai Fa’s lectures on the history of Amusehorn had to be called off. After all, I ended up drifting off to sleep whenever we were chatting about trifling matters after dinner.

Actually, Ai Fa herself was part of this unique isolationist tribe at the forest’s edge, so she didn’t seem to be all that knowledgeable to start with. When it came to matters concerning the world at large, she just passed on what she had heard from her parents or Granny Jiba.

“Hmm... So that’s why you decided to live as a person of the forest’s edge despite being a foreigner? To the people of the west, the people of the forest’s edge are symbolic of disaster, to those of the south they’re a tribe of traitors who abandoned their god, and to those of the north they’re sworn enemies... That’s why I had you pegged as having been born in the Eastern Kingdom, Asuta.”

“My kingdom was called the far eastern island nation. Do a lot of folks from the east look like me, perhaps?”

“Not really? A lot of them do indeed have black hair and eyes, but their skin is also often real dark. There were a lot of folks like that walking around the post town, right? They’re from the Eastern Kingdom of Sym.”

I see. Apparently there was no point in trying to apply my old common sense here.

“Well, I don’t really get it at all myself. I don’t mind if you just think I’m a fool who hit his head and started believing in some strange delusions or whatever.”

“Got it. That’s what I’ll do, then.”

I was seriously taken aback.

“Ah, but I don’t think you’re a fool, though. Hmm, still... It sure was a shock. I never imagined giba meat would be this tasty... The rumors about Genos all said that giba meat stunk and was hard, making it practically inedible.”

“I’m sure those rumors were spread by folks who had eaten meat that hadn’t been properly prepared. But giba meat is delicious.”

“Yeah! I’m well aware, now! A part of me had believed that since they primarily subsisted on aria and poitan, the people of the forest’s edge didn’t have much interest in food and just kept on living in honorable poverty. Preconceptions sure are frightening. Rather than living in noble poverty, it wouldn’t be strange at all for you to introduce yourselves as a race of gourmands. Hmm, this sure is a shock...”

“Ah, hold on a second. I was born in another nation entirely, so please take that matter into account. I believe your impression that they’re a race that lives in noble poverty with little interest in food was right on the mark.”

“Is that so? But this giba meat is just so delicious, so I don’t think the term ‘poverty’ suits them. Though I suppose even if they have such tasty meat, they otherwise just eat cheap aria and poitan, huh? Hmm, how interesting!”

What should I do here?

I didn’t feel like telling this suspicious guy everything just yet, but with that said, I also got the feeling that it would be dangerous to let him feed Duke Genos false information.

“Kamyua Yoshu, my apologies, but could I ask that you give us a little time?”

“Hmm? For what?”

“I was born in a foreign nation, so I still don’t fully understand the rules and taboos of the forest’s edge. To be frank, I’m not able to judge how much I should be talking to you about internal matters here at the forest’s edge. And so, I’d like to privately discuss that matter with my clan head.”

“Yeah, go right ahead! You’ve been the only one chiming in as I’ve been blathering on, anyway. So if you were to stop talking, I’d just be talking to myself! In that case, if you want, shall I leave for a few hours? To be honest I still haven’t finished my preparations for my job, so I wanted to check things out a bit further south, too.”

“South... The Ruu settlement is in that direction, isn’t it?”

“I won’t go near there today. It seems I’m not especially welcome, and I learned in the process that I really need to be a bit more careful in how I handle the people of the forest’s edge.”

In that case, I guess something good came from Darmu Ruu pointing a blade at him. Though with that said, I think it would have been better if he had realized it before things had come to that...

“But if you’re heading south, you won’t be able to avoid passing in front of the Ruu settlement. The settlement is set up as one long, narrow path, after all.”

“It’ll be fine. I’m skilled at hiding. I did a good job of it yesterday, didn’t I?”

“...What?”

“I stealthily watched the banquet yesterday from the shadows of the forest. It caused me quite a fright when those young folks from the Suun clan showed up, but fortunately things didn’t end up turning violent.”

Kamyua Yoshu didn’t look shy in the least about saying that, and he even gave a big smile.