Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.4

4

It was the second day of business for the giba cooking stall under the direct management of the Fa clan in the Genos post town.

While I sold out of everything on my first day, I had still been left with more disappointment than a sense of satisfaction, but I turned that around and used it as fuel to push me forwards from this morning on.

“Today I’ve prepared enough for 20! If we sell all that on our second day, it’ll be amazing! Let’s get fired up, Vina Ruu!”

“Right... But Asuta, you made all of this on your own, right? Are you okay in regards to your other jobs...?”

“Yeah. I learned first hand between yesterday and today that preparing 20 was no problem at all. It’d be plenty simple for me to keep on making this much each and every day,” I replied, and I wasn’t just acting tough or anything.

Making the tarapa sauce and the hamburger patties was something I could knock out in advance the day before. And I could prepare it all alongside dinner, and whatever I didn’t finish then I just needed to wrap up after we ate. That just meant my usual nighttime chats with Ai Fa now happened while I was cooking.

That just left cooking the poitan and patties for the morning.

I’d already practiced making large quantities of food for both the dinner at the Ruu house and the Rutim banquets, so this much was nothing. I figured with things like this, even if we were talking the initial upper limit of 40 that I had predicted, I could make them just fine without needing to cut into my sleep or other work.

“So it’s totally fine! And so, let’s do this thing in high spirits!”

“There really aren’t a lot of people around at this time though, are there...?”

We didn’t get hit with a sudden downpour like yesterday, but there still just plain weren’t many people passing through.

Since we were at the very northern tip of the post town, all that was past this point was the Genos castle and that stone highway and forest that stretched on as far as the eye could see, so the only ones coming by were genuine travelers.

From what I heard there were plantations to the south of the post town, which also meant there would naturally be a farm village, with lots of folks opening stalls down that way. On top of that, the inns were also to the south, so it just made sense that the travelers would do their shopping at the stalls on that end after waking up.

At any rate, until the sun hit its peak and the crowds picked up, the best we could hope for was pinpointing the few travelers passing by to sell to.

“Now that I think of it, I know that the castle town is to the northwest of here, but if you ignore that and keep going further north, where does this connect to?”

“Who knows...? Wouldn’t it be the Northern Kingdom of Mahyudra...?”

“Isn’t Mahyudra way up north? And well, I heard Genos is pretty far south as far as the Western Kingdom goes, so I get the feeling there must be all sorts of towns in between.”

“I don’t know anything about all that... If I think too much about stuff like that, I feel like I’ll just start wandering that way, so I try to keep it out of mind the best I can...”

“Is that so?”

“Yes... I see, so there are all sorts of towns even here in the Western Kingdom... I wonder if we people of the forest’s edge would still be mocked as ‘giba eaters’ even in places other than Genos...?”

With that, Vina Ruu stared off towards the distant north, ennui in her eyes.

“So you want to go somewhere far away because you hate hearing that?”

“No... That’s not it, but... Well no, maybe it is. But at any rate, I want to live a naked life...”

“N-Naked?”

“Yes... At the forest’s edge, I’m the eldest daughter of the main Ruu house. In the post town, I’m just a giba eater woman... The only ones to acknowledge me for who I am are my family. But I want all sorts of people to see the real, naked me. Or at least, I think that’s what I want...” She shot me a coquettish glance. “Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you... The common sense of both the forest’s edge and the post town don’t weigh you down. So I figured, maybe you could see me as just me...”

“Y-You hadn’t thought things through that deeply back when you made your move at me, did you? I mean, back then the two of us had hardly even talked...”

“Right... At first I was just attracted to your background, how you had come from so far away that you didn’t even know the name of the continent. But I still don’t think I could even have done something like that if I wasn’t also drawn to you personally, too...”

Vina Ruu definitely seemed passionate when working, but it seemed that her emotions started to get all stirred up when she had too much time on her hands.

I started to wonder secretly to myself if Tara would pop up around now and glanced around the highway. And then, I spotted a nice looking target.

“Ah! Is that a foreigner, from somewhere other than Genos?”

It was a man with skin that was neither yellowish-brown nor ivory, but rather white with a touch of ruddiness to it. He was very short and stout, and his hair was a dark brown. And he was still a bit far away so it was hard to make him out in detail, but he looked like he had some facial hair.

He had on a sleeveless vest and cylindrical legged pants, making for an outfit that reminded me a bit of the one young Leito wore, and he was walking along from the south while browsing the shops to his left and right.

“What country was a pale-skinned guy like that born in?”

“Huh...? He’s from the Southern Kingdom of Jagar, isn’t he?”

So that was it, huh?

Well, ruling out the enemy nation to the north, that had to be where he was from, using process of elimination. The people of the forest’s edge had originally come from the south and had light brown skin, so it made sense that the other folks from there shared a similar lineage.

“So the folks with yellowish-brown skin are the Genos natives, right? But there are just about the same amount of ivory skinned folks around, so where are they from?”

“They’re all citizens of the west... When I was little, Granny Jiba once told me that Genos was far and away the most peaceful and abundant land in the country, so people from all over came here to live and work.”

Ah, I see.

So there were folks who settled here in Genos decades ago, as well as folks who were born and raised here. I felt like now I could understand why even though they were detached from the situation, so many people from the south and east seemed to fear and despise the people of the forest’s edge more than pureblooded Genos citizens did.

They weren’t all travelers, so some of them must have had that mindset to begin with. But if it was possible to break that mindset, that could surely spread to the indigenous people of Genos, too.

Well, putting all that aside, I had business to take care of.

The southern man was still steadily walking along and browsing, so things were looking good.

He didn’t have much in the way of luggage about him and was pretty lightly outfitted, so he probably wasn’t going to cut on through and keep heading north. While praying to myself that he would come close enough that I wouldn’t have to shout, I started stealthily chopping up a mini burger to use for samples.

“Asuta... Since he’s from the south, I think it would be better for you to handle him.”

“Huh? Why’s that?”

“There are still quite a few older folks from the south who view the people of the forest’s edge with hatred. They call us nothing but betrayers who tossed aside the southern god, Jagar...”

So not contempt and fear, but downright hatred, huh?

But even though I saw roughly the same proportion of white-skinned southerners as dark-skinned easterners, I didn’t recall sensing that many threatening glares.

“Yes, well that’s because there are more people from their enemy nation of Sym wandering around, so normally they have their hands full glaring at them, I guess...”

“Huh? The Eastern and Southern Kingdoms are enemies?”

“You really don’t know anything, do you Asuta...?” Vina Ruu asked, half looking astounded but also half pleased, and she wore a smile. “There’s just as old of a feud between the east and south as there is between the north and west. But since the west is friendly with both of them, they’re forbidden from causing any trouble here... And if they break that rule, they won’t be allowed to step foot on western land ever again, so they apparently won’t go causing a commotion so lightly.”

It seemed the people of the Ruu clan may possess a whole lot more information than Ai Fa, who lacked any relatives.

But at any rate, I had to focus on business.

It seemed like the man from the south was just killing time, as he was carefully looking over each stall, but he didn’t appear to be buying anything.

When I saw he had finally stopped at the accessory shop next to us, I went, Yes! in my head and gave a little fist pump.

It was then that my gaze met with the man’s.

He was older than I had been thinking. In fact, he may have even been in his fifties.

He had a big head and a square face, and his back was short but well built. In fact, he looked more well built in general than the citizens of Genos. And he had an impressive moustache and beard combo going on, too.

The green eyes that sparkled under his bushy eyebrows didn’t quite look calm and gentle, though.

Once the man finished with the accessory shop, he stomped on over towards our stall.

“Giba? You’re selling giba meat of all things?”

I was trying to respond with a smile, but the man kept on pressing and cut that off.

“What are you, an idiot? Who’d eat something as smelly and hard as that? You’re the only ones who will dare eat that crap. And then you impertinently went and used tarapa, too. You fools don’t even know what good food tastes like, so you should just stick to eating aria and poitan. You really should close up shop and get lost, before you lose all your precious horns and tusks.”

His cutting words came like a machine gun, not giving me a chance to get in a single word edgewise.

And then, once he seemed to have said his piece, the man turned to leave.

“Um! You say all that, but giba meat is delicious. If you’d like, please taste one of these bits of meat here.”

“Huh?” he questioned as he turned around, shooting me a disgruntled glare.

“Are you a complete and utter idiot, boy? Why should I have to eat damn giba meat? They sell kimyuus and karon here in town. There are much better meats all around to be had. It’s downright nonsense trying to sell giba in the middle of all that, you fool. Besides, if I eat that crap my skin’ll turn brown like you people, and everyone’ll turn a cold shoulder to me too.”

“T-That’s nothing but pure prejudice! I mean, I’ve eaten a ton of giba meat, and you can see how I look.”

I’d expected to run into a customer like this eventually. In fact, it might even be reasonable to say he was relatively light on fear and contempt compared to most, making him not too bad to handle.

“What’s a kid like you doing dressed up like a person of the forest’s edge and selling giba meat...? Aha. So you were seduced by that temptress there, weren’t you? You’re a real fool. But well, no matter how stupid you may be, your life is yours to live. If you like that woman that badly, then just go live in the forest with her. Then nobody would give you any grief.”

“No, but giba meat really is tasty. I thought it would be a shame if this delicious meat could only be had at the forest’s edge, so I decided to open this shop. These samples are free, so if you don’t mind, why don’t you give it a try and see for sure whether or not I’m just being tricked?”

My sales smile was perfect, I figured.

And yet, the man just snorted, “Hmph,” and stood directly facing me. Then, he glared at the plate of samples and said, “Looks real unappetizing.”

He’d been heaping a storm of abuse my way this whole time, but perhaps because he wasn’t raising his voice, I wasn’t sensing much animosity or ill will from him.

The main impression I was getting was that he was surprisingly talkative despite his boorish appearance.

“So this is free, right? You won’t make me pay you anything, no matter what?”

“Yes, of course,” I replied with a smile and a nod.

As frustrated wrinkles formed on his brow, the man reached out and grabbed a toothpick with his thick fingers.

Then, he tossed the chunk of mini burger, which I had cut into six parts, into his mouth, chewed thoroughly, then swallowed.

Finally, he glared at me once again.

“...It was crap. You really are being led along.”

“Huh?”

“It didn’t stink as bad as I expected, and it wasn’t hard at all. But it was all gushy and had an unpleasant texture, and the taste was too heavy, like I could feel it clogging up my nose. It doesn’t even compare to kimyuus or karon. You seem to have cooked up the tarapa real nice, but it just got completely ruined by everything else. You really think anyone would pay you coins for this? The fact that you’re happy with crap like this is why people mock you and call you ‘giba eaters,’ you know.”

Could it be...? Was he really, truly someone whose tastes it just didn’t suit? That seemed to be the case for both the texture of the hamburger and the taste of the giba meat.

It wasn’t as if I hadn’t predicted this ever happening, but it was just such a sudden development.

“Asuta...” Vina Ruu whispered, gripping the fabric at my hip.

I was feeling a bit shaken, but regardless I followed Vina Ruu’s gaze...

And saw a group in familiar leather cloaks rapidly approaching.