4
“Hey there, sorry I’m late.”
Our guest came wandering back in just around when the sun touched the treeline to the west.
“Only 500 people live here, yet this settlement sure is vast. It’s my second time visiting, but I still haven’t grasped the full picture of its scope.”
“Is there a need for you to do so?”
“Ah, no, well, I mean, it is a big job, after all...”
A few hours may have passed, but Kamyua Yoshu still seemed just as sketchy as always.
“Still, that sure is a wonderful smell! It was worth not chewing on dried meat along the way so I could get nice and hungry! Ah, right, here’s my sword.”
“Please, come this way. I just finished preparing.”
We weren’t really planning on throwing our schedules out of whack, so we had been planning on just going ahead and eating if Kamyua Yoshu was late to arrive.
And then, he went and returned with such perfect timing that I couldn’t help but worry that maybe he really had been listening in on us this whole time.
More so than any concerns about him overhearing what we had discussed, I really just didn’t want to imagine him seeing Ai Fa unwittingly trap me in such close proximity like that.
“Whoa, this is amazing! Why is the meat in such a round shape?”
“This is made by dicing up the meat and then balling it back up.”
“Hmm... So why go through all that trouble?”
“Because it’s delicious.”
Did no dishes like hamburgers exist in this world?
Well, maybe it was just that this old-timer wasn’t aware of any.
“Anyway, let’s eat. We’re good and hungry by now, too.”
“Yeah! Let’s go ahead and do it!”
I had decided to stop thinking so much about dinner, and just went ahead and treated him to the Fa house’s staple dinner. That meant giba meat hamburgers, stir-fried aria and tino, and baked poitan.
I really wanted to hurry up and buy a new pot so I could add soup to the menu, too.
“Hmm? Is this fuwano? But I had heard that the people of the forest’s edge ate poitan as a staple dish...”
“It is poitan. What’s fuwano?”
“The skin of that manju Tara was eating was made from it. In the west, it’s frequently eaten along with meat and vegetables, so... Huh? This is poitan? Seriously? How?”
So even outside of the forest’s edge, nobody had discovered this way of eating poitan?
My curiosity was flaring up a bit, so I leaned forwards.
“Um, by the way, how do they eat poitan in town?”
“Nobody eats poitan in town. People just keep it in reserve to eat when they’re traveling. You don’t have to worry about it going bad like with fuwano, and when you want to eat it you just have to heat it up in warm water. Plus, it’s cheap, making it the perfect food for a long trip... But it’s not tasty or anything, which is the one issue with it.”
“That’s an unfortunate issue,” I chimed in, only for Ai Fa to tug on the sleeve of my t-shirt. Apparently her hunger had reached a critical point.
“Well then, go ahead. Just please try to restrain that hidden face of yours if at all possible.”
“I’ll handle it! Well then, I appreciate this blessing.”
“Let’s dig in!”
“...”
Having each kicked off the meal in our own way, we picked up our wooden plates.
I may have prepared a whole ton of hamburgers yesterday, but this was the first time in a while that I was actually eating one. But it seemed like after making so many, I really had controlling the flames down pat, which made me a little happy.
I went with a big size for them, around 500 grams each. As I bit into the fruit wine sauce-coated patty, warm meat juices came flowing out and satisfyingly filled my mouth. And as I chewed more and more afterward, the deliciousness of the meat and fat kept on spreading... Ah, giba meat really does suit hamburgers.
The balance between the grilled outer surface and the soft inside was incredibly pleasing. Tasting this really was enough to make miniature burgers seem somehow lacking.
And the onion-esque aria and cabbage-like tino I added as toppings were also a great match for the meat. Tino apparently didn’t last as long as aria or poitan, so I had to keep on using it up like this.
Now then...
When I looked up to check how our guest was doing, I fortunately wasn’t greeted by the face of the Grim Reaper. However, this time around he was making a sort of relaxed, teary face.
I didn’t especially want to involve myself with all that, but I went ahead and did my duty, at least asking, “How was it?”
“Delicious,” he replied, looking like he was about to break down in tears. “I’m trying my hardest not to lose control of myself, but how is it working? Is everything alright?”
“I don’t know exactly what would qualify as ‘alright’ here, but it’s at least not scary.”
“I see. I’m glad,” Kamyua Yoshu said, and then he bit into a poitan.
Instantly, the expression drained from his face, and I felt like I was about to scream.
“Hey, that’s scary! What’s going on? Are you trying to get a laugh or something?”
“I’ve got no such intention. And it’s your fault for surprising me.”
His tone was so grave that it made it feel like he was going to follow that up with, “And so, I’m going to kill you here and now.”
Was this old-timer really alright?
Ai Fa seemed to no longer have any intention of playing along with Kamyua Yoshu’s facial expressions, as she just kept on diligently eating away at her hamburger.
Someone other than a person of the forest’s edge was eating giba meat. I’m sure that point was concerning her, but she didn’t let so much as a speck of that show. Or actually, maybe she was just that absorbed in her hamburger.
Ai Fa always somehow looked happier eating hamburgers than steak or soup. If I didn’t carefully adjust the menu, it really did seem frighteningly plausible that we’d end up eating nothing but hamburgers each and every day.
But still, she sure did look happy...
Did the Ruu and Rutim women look this happy when chewing on their food?
Thinking on it, I just got along way too poorly with the men of the main Ruu house, aside from Ludo Ruu. Could family sense what even such curt men were feeling inside, though?
I thought that would be nice.
“Man, that was tasty! It was a strange, delicious flavor! Seriously, just who exactly are you, Asuta?” Having finally regained his usual casual nature after finishing eating, that was what Kamyua Yoshu said. “It’s my first time eating such unusual food! You said you diced up the meat and then balled it back up? How in the world did you ever come up with such a wonderful cooking method?”
“I’m not sure. It’s a normal technique back in my home country, after all.”
I vaguely recalled hearing something about it coming from Mongolia or something, where they chopped up hard horse meat to make it easier to eat, but that information wouldn’t exactly be meaningful here in this world.
“Hmm... It’s really good. Shockingly so. This may just be the most delicious thing I’ve eaten in my entire life.”
“That’s an exaggeration. You said you’ve dined with the city of stone’s duke, right?”
“I mean, that’s noble cooking. It’s interesting and uses rare ingredients, but honestly, I can’t tell how good it really is... But I know for sure that your cooking is delicious, Asuta,” the Northern Whirlwind, Kamyua Yoshu, said while nodding his head with crossed arms.
It felt a bit theatrical, but still, it didn’t feel bad to hear.
“But the deliciousness of a meal isn’t determined by taste alone, Asuta.”
“Huh? Ah, right.”
“I had heard giba meat stunk and was hard, but you made it this soft and tasty. And you changed that poitan that’s like muddy water into something akin to fuwano. Plus you went and made things taste so good using nothing else but aria and tino... I believe all of that helped to elevate the overall deliciousness of the meal.”
“Right.”
“For example, if this was served in the castle, I would probably think, ‘I see, this certainly is an unusual dish. It must have cost quite a bit,’ and my surprise would’ve been a whole lot lower. After all, a more elaborate dish just makes sense with a higher cost. But this dish was made with giba meat plus aria and poitan, which are generally considered cheap and not especially tasty. That had a serious impact on me!”
“Ah, aria is thought of like that too?”
“Hmm? No, they frequently eat aria about town, too. After all, it’s cheap and nutritious, making it a staple alongside fuwano. But you don’t see it in the castle town much, for example. That’s because it’s so cheap that people think using it makes you seem poor. But it’s considered a staple food in the post town and farm villages.”
“Hmm... So it’s a food for the masses that nobles rarely eat, huh?”
“That’s right. But... Still, I wonder. I think that even removing the surprise factor, this is still plenty tasty. You were made the chef for that huge banquet because you’re this skilled, right?”
Suddenly, the conversation had taken a crucial turn.
I was rather interested in this mysterious man’s thoughts on cooking, but this was no time to be happily chatting away.
“Um, I forgot to ask before, but why were you peeking yesterday? To be honest, that’s in bad taste.”
“Ah, sorry. I just couldn’t hold back my curiosity. I mean, they were clearly setting that plaza up for a large banquet back when we met at the Ruu settlement, right? And when I heard you had work in two days, I figured it may be related and ended up sneaking on in.”
“I suppose that may not exactly be a crime... But still, just where were you hiding?”
“In the bushes lined up in front of the plaza. After all, I figured it would be a bad idea to step foot inside... And then those ruffians went barging in far more blatantly than me.”
“...And you knew they were from the Suun clan because Doddo Suun was with them, right?”
“Yeah. Plus I overheard the conversation. That’s also how I figured out you were the chef for that banquet.”
Mentally, I gasped. In that case... he must have clearly heard Dan Rutim and Donda Ruu’s angry voices.
There really may not be much left to hide at this point.
“That reminds me, Ai Fa, you sure did look beautiful back then! There’s nothing unsatisfying about how you look now, but still, I guess you don’t wear anything like that when it’s not a banquet, huh?”
Ai Fa just tilted her head, as if to say, “Is there any need for me to respond to that?”
It would seem she had grown rather accustomed to handling him.
I’m sure she was full of doubt inside as to what to think of him, as he had gone and praised giba meat over and over again, but at least on the surface she remained perfectly calm.
Meanwhile, I was still left fumbling. It was like trying to catch an eel, where no matter how firmly I tried to hold him he would still slip away. It seemed like it’d take quite some time to properly feel him out.
However...
“Well then, I suppose it’s about time for me to get going,” Kamyua Yoshu said, starting to stand up, leaving me awkwardly sitting there looking like a fool.
“Y-You’re leaving?”
“Yup. I mean, it’s the custom for the people of the forest’s edge to go to bed shortly after dinner, isn’t it? I’m very much a night person, but I would feel bad keeping you all up.”
“Kamyua Yoshu... Seriously, just what did you come all this way for?”
“To deepen my bonds with you. I said that at the start, didn’t I?”
Ah, this was no good. I really couldn’t keep up with this old-timer, it seemed.
I had worried about whether I could somehow use this man’s power and position to restrain the Suun clan’s corruption and protect both Ai Fa and myself, but I still had no idea what he was thinking... He was just too far out of my control.
It may have been better to just completely forget that he even existed.
“Ah, one last thing. I’ve got a sort of proposal for you, Asuta.”
“Huh? What is it?” I half-heartedly asked.
I’m sure nothing good would come of it. And if that were the case, maybe I should use this as an opportunity to cut ties with him...? That was what was running through my head, but then he turned out to be far crazier than I had thought.
“Would you like to try opening a shop in the post town?”
He really insisted on throwing reckless comments out there till the bitter end.
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