Chapter 1: The Fourth Day—Frivolous Gluttony
1
The fourth day of work had arrived.
I got to the post town at the usual time alongside Vina Ruu, borrowed the stall from the grumpy-as-always owner of The Kimyuus’s Tail, Milano Mas, then finally we headed for the northern tip of the bazaar while getting the usual suspicious looks from passersby.
I could see a crowd was forming a couple dozen meters removed from our usual spot. I braced myself and approached, and the people from the west who had gathered mainly out of curiosity parted to make way.
Waiting on the other side were folks from the south with rather scary-looking faces, and expressionless people from the east staring back at them. There must have been around thirty of them in total, making for an even bigger crowd than yesterday.
On top of that, there were the guards standing between the two and glaring our way as we approached, looking like judges.
“Hey, did you properly prepare enough meals this time, like we discussed?”
“Yes. I have 40 of the first dish and 30 of the second, making it enough to feed 70 people in total.”
Yesterday, I had prepared 40 meals for the shop, but we still sold out before the sun even hit its peak. And if that was all that happened, it wouldn’t make sense for anyone to complain about it, but the folks from Sym and Jagar were pretty much fated enemies to begin with, so they ended up causing a commotion over my food.
If something like that happened again, the guards might force me to shut down the shop. And since I wanted to avoid that no matter what, I had prepared 40 giba burgers and 30 myamuu giba for today.
“Alright, first off we’ll start with the giba burgers. Vina Ruu, could you please get the fire ready?”
“Right!” Vina Ruu replied, sounding like she was in a good mood once again today.
It looked like she barely even noticed the hatred seething around the customers and the guards. And that was definitely reassuring to see.
“Oh, my, that’s a nice fruit wine smell... That’s the new dish, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. In addition to fruit wine it also uses a spice called myamuu, so I decided to call it myamuu giba,” I replied, pulling up the sealed bag filled with six kilos of giba meat and marinade.
I narrowly opened up the mouth of the bag, then poured just the marinade into a different bag.
I had determined it needed an hour for the marinade to soak in, so the time spent traveling from the Fa house to the post town was perfect for that.
“Once things quiet down a bit, how about you try the myamuu giba?”
“Right. Teeheehee, I’m looking forward to it...” Vina Ruu said with a seductive laugh while stirring the tarapa sauce in the pot. Her always drowsy-looking eyes peered into the pot, looking puzzled about something.
“Oh...? This one seems like it smells a bit different than it did yesterday, too...”
“Ah, I tried adding a bit of myamuu to the tarapa there, too. Today’s a test, so I just went with a tiny amount, but you still can tell, huh?”
“Yeah, it smells really good... I feel like I just got hungrier, somehow...”
Myamuu was a spice with a strong aroma and taste that resembled garlic. And so, it went without saying that it paired well with the pseudo-tomato, the tarapa.
It seemed like a bit of a stir was starting to spread among the folks from Jagar surrounding the stall. I was certain that was down to the massive impact of the myamuu and tarapa aroma on their appetites.
I tried not to pay it any heed, but even so, the number of folks standing around staring was growing steadily as I worked.
“There sure are a lot of people... It’s like all the folks from Sym and Jagar in town have gathered...”
“And I’m certainly grateful for it. But with this, the giba burgers we’re starting with will sell out in no time, huh?”
I was planning on shifting to two stalls and increasing the amount of food from tomorrow on. And so, I just prayed in my heart that we’d somehow safely make it through today.
“Does it look about ready? Well then, we’re open for business!”
Under the guard’s guidance, the folks from Jagar came forward first. They had shaggy, dark brown hair and beards, as well as firm, stout builds. They also had white skin with a tinge of red to it, and every last one had an intimidating face.
At the head of the group was the man in the prime of his life known as Aldas, who seemed to be the vice-leader of the construction group. He was pretty tall for the generally stout people of Sym, so you couldn’t mistake him for anyone else.
“...Hey, sorry for causing that commotion yesterday.”
“Ah, no, I messed up by not preparing ten more meals to start with, so please don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah, you got that right. With food that good, you’d never satisfy demand with just 40 plates, so that really was clumsy of you,” he said while looking discontent, but his eyes somehow still looked pretty sorry. “But still, I’m sure glad you didn’t end up getting driven out of the post town. We were the ones making a fuss, so why’d the guards have to go and blame you?”
“That’s... because we’re people of the forest’s edge, I suppose,” I replied while preparing a giba burger, causing Aldas to look even more displeased.
“The people of the forest’s edge cast aside the southern god, Jagar, so I can get why older folks from the south curse them as traitors, but I simply can’t understand your new comrades in the west looking down on you. If the people of the forest’s edge didn’t hunt giba, this Genos region could never have turned out as prosperous as it has.”
I was completely in agreement.
But I couldn’t stand around having a discussion with a customer right now, so I handed over the completed giba burger.
A sour look had remained fixed on Aldas’s stern face up until that moment, but suddenly he exploded with joy.
“Hey, why don’t you work till night time? I’d love to have your cooking for dinner, too.”
“Hmm, that’d be a bit tricky... It’d be nice if the inns wanted to start handling giba meat too, though,” I said, gently extending my feeler, but Aldas just shook his head and looked disappointed.
“Giba meat is one thing, but the bottom line is, your skill’s just that good. Ever since that day, Pops has been in a bad mood... Apparently, he doesn’t like us all happily discussing how delicious your food is. I figure if you used karon or kimyuus meat, Pops would probably drop his work right away and come flying.”
“I’m honored you’d say that. Um... Like I discussed yesterday, once morning passes, I should be selling a new dish, so could you tell Pops that I’d love to have him come again sometime to try it?”
“Hmm? Got it. I’ll tell him.”
As we discussed that, someone from behind impatiently called out, “Hey, are you still not done?”
And so after that, I just focused intently on preparing giba burgers.
Nobody insisted on trying a sample, so I flew through those first 20 giba burgers in no time, selling to the full set of Jagar customers and two or three from Sym.
“Sorry! Please hold on a bit longer while I get the next 20 prepared!”
Considering the size of the pot, 20 patties and sauce was the most I could cram in at once.
I diced up the two tarapa I had bought from Dora on the way here, and then threw them into the pot.
“Asuta, I should turn up the heat, right...?”
“Yeah, please do.”
As I replied, I picked up two fruit wine containers, then shook the lighter of the two into the pot. Inside was diced aria and myamuu that I had sauteed back at the house, and then about 1/4th of the contents was actual fruit wine. The other container was just full of fresh water, for when the temperature of the pot went too high.
The folks from Jagar had mostly dispersed while I was heating up the extra sauce, so the guards left too, looking exasperated.
The onlookers burning with curiosity also started leaving around then, just leaving the dark skinned, slender folks from the east.
“Teeheehee... It kind of reminds you of the Rutim banquet somehow, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah, this hustle and bustle certainly is familiar.”
“I’m not skilled at manning the stove, and I never especially liked it, but... When I’m with you, Asuta, it’s not a bother at all...”
I felt honored to hear that.
Plus, Vina Ruu wasn’t putting on a coquettish look or anything. No, she just plain looked happy.
When she was focusing on work, it wasn’t hard to deal with Vina Ruu in the least. It sure would be nice if that could lead to a nice peaceful relationship between us... But I still didn’t think I could afford to let my guard down.
“Alright, I guess that’ll do it.”
I added just a bit of water, then tweaked the flavor with pico leaves and salt.
Then, I pulled patties which I had only cooked on the surface out of the third bag.
That leather bag had cost 15 red coins, so it was a notable expense, but it had a wide mouth making it convenient to use, and apparently it was meant for carrying fruit wine to start with, so it was made such that the smell of the food wouldn’t transfer to it. In fact, coming across this convenient item was precisely what caused me to make up my mind to sell myamuu giba in the shop.
I had to make sure it sold, so that the bag wouldn’t turn out to be a wasted purchase.
“Thank you so much for waiting! I’ll be selling the next 20 meals now!”
As soon as I said that, the customers from Sym started approaching.
Folks from Sym seemed to generally like wearing leather cloaks with hoods, but it wasn’t like there weren’t people in lighter clothing, too. And those folks all had on cloth outfits with beautiful swirling designs like what the people of the forest’s edge wore, accessories made with layered stones and metals, and thin short swords hanging from their hips.
I couldn’t help but think that those people reminded me of the people of the forest’s edge. It wasn’t just the outfits, but also the way that they didn’t really show much expression and were quiet with their movements, which was just like the men of the forest’s edge.
However, most of the men of the forest’s edge were ferocious, with intimidating builds. And their skin was more of a creamy chocolate color, too.
But I guess guys like Shin Ruu are a bit like the people of the east. He’s quiet, plus he has those almond shaped sort of eyes...
As that thought ran through my head, I sold 12 giba burgers. In no time at all, we were down to just eight of them.
On top of that, a cloaked group of ten was just a bit removed, staring straight at the stall. Just as I started wondering if they might be The Silver Vase, one of them pulled back his hood and approached.
And sure enough, when he did so his long silver hair came into view.
It was the leader of The Silver Vase, Shumiral... something or other.
“Is the giba, still not, sold out?”
“It isn’t. I just have eight of these dishes left, but as I mentioned yesterday, I’ll be selling another type of giba dish.”
“Eight...” Shumiral said, looking like he was pondering something.
Then he returned to his group, only for five of them to approach in turn. They just silently slapped down their coins, so I said, “Thanks,” and set about preparing five giba burgers.
“So, three left?” Shumiral asked, coming up to me again.
“Yes. What do you want to do?”
“...We’ll wait.”
“What?”
“We want, to eat the new dish. Five of us, had work, so they gave up. Me and the other four, will wait.”
“I see. But I was thinking I’d start selling the new dish first thing in the morning tomorrow, too.”
“We can’t wait, till tomorrow. So we will wait, today.”
As we had that exchange, someone even taller than Shumiral smoothly approached.
“Well then, I guess I’ll jump ahead of you and make a purchase. Two please, Asuta.”
It was Kamyua Yoshu.
I’d built up enough of a resistance by now that such sudden appearances no longer surprised me.
“Thanks for your continued business... Sorry that we ended up selling out yesterday.”
“Seriously! There was nothing I could do about it, so I bought a snack from another place yesterday, but I felt so dissatisfied that it was like I hadn’t eaten at all. I’m really interested in the new dish too, but I’ll save that for tomorrow.”
When I was returning the cart yesterday, I ran into Kamyua Yoshu at The Kimyuus’s Tail and explained the situation to him.
He made quite a look of surprise when I told him, but I assumed he’d probably watched the whole thing from the shadows.
“Right, here’s your two. Thanks for waiting.”
“Thanks! Well then, keep on giving it your all!”
After giving one last bow to Shumiral, Kamyua Yoshu then casually departed.
He didn’t seem to be getting much involved with me while I was working, perhaps out of consideration and not wanting to interfere with my business.
“...That person, is he an acquaintance?”
“Huh? Ah, yes. I’m reluctant to say so, but he is.”
“I see... His hair and eyes, are the color of the north. His skin color, matches the west. How odd.”
Ah, so for people of this world, it was possible to guess at Kamyua Yoshu’s mixed blood just from looking at him, huh?
Still, I shouldn’t go leaking the oldtimer’s personal information to an ordinary customer like this. And so, I just agreed with a “Yeah.”
“...Also, his heart, is like the people of the east. It is hard, to read, his thoughts, and feelings,” Shumiral said with a pensive look. “He smiles. And yet, I can’t see, how he’s feeling... How strange.”
Once again, all I could respond with was “Yeah.”
I couldn’t read how either Shumiral or Kamyua Yoshu were feeling at all.
At any rate, I figured it would be dangerous to try to push the remaining one left on his numerous companions, so I was just going to set about preparing the next dish... when a lone man from Jagar came running up.
“Hey! Are you already sold out?!”
“No, I have exactly one left.”
“Ah, thank goodness! I ended up oversleeping today, so I almost ended up missing out!”
I didn’t especially recognize him, but he must have been one of the customers who came yesterday, too. And so, I gave a friendly, “Thanks for your continued business!” and prepared the final giba burger.
When I saw off the customer with a big grin on his face, I had completely sold through the giba burgers.
Sure enough, it hadn’t even taken an hour. It was a truly shocking sales pace.
“Alright. Now let’s move the tarapa sauce into the leather bag... But, well, we probably need to let it cool down a bit first.”
“Yeah... There’s a lot left today, isn’t there?”
Vina Ruu shot me a joyful sidelong glance, but I thought with a “Hmm...”
“Well, it only took a little bit to all sell out, so the sauce couldn’t have heated up all that much. If we reuse it tomorrow, we could probably cut down the expenses a fair bit.”
“Huh...?” Vina Ruu questioned, looking like she was about to cry.
She just looked so sad that I sighed without even thinking.
“I’m just kidding. Heated tarapa would probably last for two days, but since there are meat juices mixed in, it would be safest to eat it tonight. Please, go ahead and take it home with you.”
“Asuta, you’re so mean...” Vina Ruu said, puffing her cheeks.
So she was the type to do that rather than just pouting, huh?
And then, Shumiral muttered, “So lovely...”
“Huh? Did you say something?”
“She’s lovely. And also, very beautiful.”
Even while he was saying such things, his facial expression didn’t budge in the least.
As for Vina Ruu, she gave a smile that was shockingly lacking in warmth and replied, “Thank you for saying so...” Perhaps she’d grown sick of hearing praise from the opposite sex by this point.
At any rate, after three minutes of letting the pot cool, we transferred the tarapa sauce to the leather bag and I finally set about making the myamuu giba.
Well, from what I can tell, the pace of people passing won’t be picking up for a while yet, so for now I’ll just make enough samples for the folks present.
First up, I sauteed the aria I had sliced, then I eyeballed out about a kilo of the giba meat that had been steeped in the marinade and tossed it in. That alone was enough to cause the scent of myamuu, fruit wine, and cooking giba meat to explode forth.
It was a shame that there weren’t many passersby around. After all, this dish had an even more stimulating smell than the giba burgers. Even Shumiral, with his face naturally still completely expressionless, couldn’t help but mutter, “The myamuu, smells good.”
Once it was done cooking, I moved it to the wooden plate, coated it in plenty of heated marinade, and then wrapped it up in a poitan together with the diced tino.
“Ah, Vina Ruu, could you move the brazier outside?”
“Got it.”
If we didn’t move the brazier out when few people were around like this, the inside of the pot would end up burning. That made it a bit more of a hassle than the giba burgers, but on the other hand that meant it used up less firewood, so I suppose that made them about equal.
As I thought to myself that a charcoal fire or something would probably be ideal, I put together five myamuu giba. With the remaining meat, I made up samples.
“Thanks for waiting. This dish costs two red coins each.”
Sure enough, the group with Shumiral at their head just silently nodded and handed over their coins. Apparently they didn’t feel the need to try a sample.
Then, they bit into their myamuu gibas while minding their manners, but... What did they think of the taste? The way that their expressions were so hard to read sure was inconvenient at times like this.
“...That was delicious. From tomorrow on, we will eat them, in order.”
“Huh? In order?”
“Yes. It’s hard to say, which is tastier. And so, we will eat them, in order.”
At any rate, it seemed that they liked it.
I couldn’t help but think how reserved they were, giving a smile.
“Thank you. It makes me incredibly happy to hear that.”
“I am also happy, to have encountered, such delicious food.”
As he said that, Shumiral suddenly turned his gaze towards Vina Ruu.
“Asuta, may I ask you, one question?”
“Yeah. What is it?”
“Is she, your wife?”
I was so caught off guard that I momentarily couldn’t even respond, but in that moment Vina Ruu gave a wide grin and coiled about my arm.
“That’s a secret...”
“I see. Excuse me.”
Shumiral then let an ever so slight bit of emotion show via his mouth. The silver haired youth from Sym gave a gentle, relaxed, and ever so slightly pained... smile.
Then he put his hood back on, and left with his other four comrades.
“Thanks for your continued business!” I yelled out, then yanked my arm free of Vina Ruu. “Hey! Vina Ruu, don’t you think stuff like that is kind of a problem?”
“But... It’s nothing but a hassle, isn’t it? Having someone from the east like me... Or are you saying I should have turned on the sex appeal...?”
Vina Ruu was always giving that off and causing chaos to begin with. But well... Figuring it was probably best that she kept things nice and simple with the customers after all, I gave a bit of a sigh.
“Still, it sure is amazing... We only just opened, but we’ve already sold even more than yesterday, right?”
“That’s true. Well, I get the feeling it was because all the customers worried about us selling out swarmed us immediately, though.”
And once that was over, the number of people passing by suddenly petered out. We were dealing with some serious extremes here.
“At any rate, we have 25 myamuu giba left. As long as we really do sell out of them, I’d like to move to the plan that we discussed yesterday.”
“You mean increasing to running two stalls, right...? It seems the intention is to lend you one woman from the main house and one from a branch family to help out...”
“Ah, we’ll be getting help from a branch family, too?”
“Well, there’s still work to handle around the house, so we can’t exactly loan out three women from the main house all at once, now can we...?” Vina Ruu said, then gave a little sigh. “Geez... So today may be the last day it’s just the two of us working together, huh? It was a blissful four days...”
“I-I mean, it should be fine having other people around, right?”
“But, I mean... Doesn’t it seem like Reina will be chosen from the main house...?”
I’d already firmed up my resolve for that.
Carrying the pots would be too much for a little girl like Rimee Ruu or Granny Tito Min, while Sati Lea Ruu had Kota Ruu to take care of. Setting aside Mia Lea, as she was the one who led the women, that just left Reina and Lala Ruu.
And this time I asked for at least one of the women to have some skill at manning the stove, so it was practically like I had gone and specified Reina Ruu.
Vina Ruu was doing a great deal better than I had expected with focusing on the work. Ideally, it would be nice if I could form the same sort of peaceful relationship with Reina Ruu.
“Someone from the main house should be coming here to the post town soon, so when they do, perhaps they’ll tell us who was chosen to help out...?”
“Huh? But wasn’t tomorrow the day that the Ruu family was set to stock up again?”
“Yeah... But I asked them to take care of something else too, so they moved it up by one day to today.”
I was about to ask just what she was talking about, but before that, she said, “Oh, my... We were just talking about them, and there they are. They sure are here early...”
I followed Vina Ruu’s gaze, and spied an unexpected pair. No, well, one of them wasn’t really all that surprising, but still...
Either way, the second son and daughter of the main Ruu house were heading straight our way.
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