3
One of the youths let out a helpless “Gah!” and slumped to the ground.
The other youths were all pulling back, their faces completely pale.
Meanwhile, Mida Suun, third son of the main Suun house, was coming up towards my stall so quickly that it looked like he was going to kick them out of the way, then he grabbed hold of it. It, not me. As in, my stall.
He had a hand around each of the pillars that supported the roof, and was panting heavily.
Mida Suun asked in a shrill voice, “What are you doing...? It smells really good. Hey, what are you doing...?”
His voice was high-pitched and had a lisp to it, making it sound like the voice of a small child.
The youth slumped on the ground let out a pathetic shriek of “Eep!” That was just how creepy and repulsive Mida Suun looked.
His face, body, arms, and legs all swelled out like fleshy balloons. In a manner of speaking, that was what they were, but combined with his ridiculous height, he looked like a real monster. His upper arm alone must have been as thick as Vina Ruu’s waist. And the legs supporting that massive frame were so thick and short that they just plain felt unreal. His torso was pretty much a perfect sphere, so it wasn’t even clear to me where his chest ended and his stomach began.
Technically, he was wearing a familiar outfit from the forest’s edge, but his must have required as much material as the one-piece outfits of two or three married women. He also wore a giba cloak, but it was so short in comparison to him that it looked downright tiny.
Plus, I didn’t see any of the giba tusks and horns that were a hunter’s pride and joy around his neck, but he had a massive club dangling from his hip.
No matter how I looked at him, his appearance was simply outrageous.
Ultimately, though, what made him look so utterly inhuman was that face of his. It was swollen to an unnatural degree, and all of his facial features were clustered around the center. And he was quite strikingly balding, with only a bit of disheveled dark hair clinging around his ears.
His expression was incredibly childish too. Actually, more babyish than childish... No, I guess it actually reminded me more of some sort of animal.
His nose, eyes, and mouth were all small. And his eyes were almost completely blocked by his plump eyelids, plus his nose hardly protruded out at all, just looking like two dark little holes. His lips were thick, but they weren’t especially large. Overall, his face was easily bigger than the average man’s, but it was like it had been put together using a nose and mouth that were a size too small, causing the proportions to look totally out of whack.
That blob of meat was holding onto the pillars of the stall and breathing heavily, a fire shining in his tiny eyes. Seeing his grotesque appearance in the light of day only stirred up the shock and fear I was feeling even stronger.
“Hey... I’m hungry now... And that smells really good, right...?”
The stall’s pillars had started to creak.
Hearing that ominous sound was what finally brought me back to my senses.
“W-What are you doing?! Are you trying to break the stall?!”
“But... I’m hungry...” Mida Suun muttered, looking down at me with a look of displeasure.
I felt like an orangutan squaring off against a lowland gorilla or something.
I had yelled loudly at him by reflex, but now I brought my hands to my chest and got my breathing back under control.
I had to stay calm... Completely calm while I was dealing with him.
“You were asking what I was doing, right? As you can see, I’m here selling food... But as I said before, could you please remove your hands? At this rate, the stall will end up breaking.”
If a member of the Suun clan appeared, how should I deal with them? That was naturally something I had taken under serious consideration with Gazraan Rutim and Donda Ruu.
At any rate, I would abide by the laws of the town. And if he moved to break them, I would call for the guards.
Even if they were in the wrong, I couldn’t go breaking any laws of the city or the forest’s edge, as that would just lend legitimacy to the Suun clan’s tyrannical acts. That was my basic policy here.
“Do you understand what I’m saying? If you want my cooking, then you’ll have to pay coins... And this stall was borrowed from someone in town, so if you break it, you’ll have to pay the money to have it repaired. So please, remove your hands,” I stated, trying to make it as easy to understand as possible.
With an animalistic look that made it impossible to read him, Mida Suun stared down at me.
His brothers are just plain tyrants... But I think he’s probably a different type...
The natural question then was what type he might be, but that was hard to explain. I guess I’d say rather than being some cruel fiend, he was likely the type of person who couldn’t tell right from wrong.
And so, as long as I didn’t slip up with what I said, he wouldn’t suddenly get violent... Or at least, that’s what I’d like to believe.
“But Tei Suun has the coins...” Mida Suun muttered in disappointment, but even so, he removed his giant caterpillar-like fingers from the stand.
As I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, I replied, “Really? And where’s that Tei Suun person now? Did you come to town together?”
“Yeah...”
“Then where did he go?”
“I don’t know... We were together till just a bit ago...”
Man, it really was a lot like talking with an unreasonable toddler.
“...There was a nice smell, so I hurried up and ran here... It’s a really nice smell, isn’t it...?”
Now that I thought about it, back at the banquet Mida Suun had ignored what was happening around him and just reacted to the smell of the cooking.
I was wondering whether I should offer him a sample, and was reaching out towards the plate... and then someone new appeared.
“...What happened, Mida Suun?” He was an older man from the forest’s edge, looking to be somewhere in his fifties. He had appeared from behind the bundle of flesh while making no sign of his presence whatsoever, and was clad in the attire of a hunter.
Immediately, Mida Suun let out a big gasp. “Tei Suun! I’m really, really hungry...”
“I see,” the man replied, then he looked at me and Vina Ruu.
At a glance, he looked like a perfectly ordinary person of the forest’s edge. His grey hair was combed back, and he had a similarly colored beard and moustache. Overall, he was an older gentleman, but he had a nice clean-cut look.
He wasn’t all that tall, but he had a fittingly burly physique for a man of the forest’s edge. And there was nothing out of the ordinary about his hunter’s outfit, with his long giba pelt cloak, clothing with swirling patterns, shining horns and tusks dangling in front of his chest, and set of steel blades large and small.
But, what was it...? Everything about his appearance was perfectly in order, but something felt seriously out of place.
There was no strength at all shining in his dark eyes.
His expression was completely lifeless, like some sort of clay doll.
Though he looked able-bodied, I couldn’t sense any vitality or vigor about him.
It really may have been the first time I had ever seen a person of the forest’s edge so lacking in spirit.
“...How many coins does this food cost?” Tei Suun asked in a low voice.
“Two red coins... Do you want to make a purchase?”
“Yes.”
“Y-You can try the meat from this plate first to confirm the taste if you’d like.”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
It was an extremely ordinary response. In fact, it was so ordinary that it somehow circled around to feeling a bit creepy.
Wasn’t there something he should be asking about before the price?
Such as why a woman of the forest’s edge like Vina Ruu and some random person who wore their attire like me would be running a shop in the post town, for example. Did he have no doubts or objections to that at all?
...Apparently, he didn’t.
Tei Suun just looked up at the bundle of meat by his side without so much as a hint of emotion.
“How many do you wish to buy, Mida Suun?”
“I want to eat lots and lots...”
“The clan head gave you one white coin. If you use that all now, you won’t be able to buy anything else later.”
“But I want to eat lots and lots...”
“I see,” Tei Suun replied, then turned back my way and placed down the white coin.
“Well then, five please.”
“Very well... But this customer here placed her order first, so please hold on just a moment.”
The customer in question, the girl from the west known as Yumi, still had a completely pale face, and she started to tremble. The rest of the youths were all in much the same state, too.
As I stifled a sigh, I added some firewood to the brazier and set it back in the stall.
Vina Ruu just kept on glaring at the pair from the Suun clan the entire time, the look in her eyes unchanging.
What the heck is going on...? This Tei Suun oldtimer is every bit as baffling as Mida Suun.
With the way he was deferring to Mida Suun, he must have been from a branch family.
But at least in the Ruu clan, I couldn’t imagine an elder man submitting to someone younger like that. Of course, the men of the branch families paid Jiza, Darmu, and Ludo Ruu an appropriate amount of respect, but it ultimately seemed like they treated each other as equals.
Did the Ruu or the Suun represent the proper way for the people of the forest’s edge to be? I wasn’t qualified to decide such things, but at the very least, I could firmly say that I found Tei Suun undeniably creepy.
“Ooh... It smells tasty, really tasty, Tei Suun...”
Excited by the aroma of the meat cooking, Mida Suun placed his hands on Tei Suun’s shoulders and started shaking away. And as he was being vigorously jerked around, Tei Suun just quietly replied, “I see.”
It was even harder to read his emotions than it was with folks from the east.
Actually... did he even have any emotions to begin with?
Was Kamyua just playing at merely acting as a spectator after all?
I certainly hoped that was the case.
If any more unfathomable characters showed up, I felt like my ability to handle them would steadily start crumbling away.
“Here, thanks for waiting.”
I handed the finished myamuu giba over to Yumi.
Yumi’s gaze remained fixed on Mida Suun, even as she half unconsciously grabbed the completed dish.
When I finished the next one I handed it over to Tei Suun, who in turn handed it to Mida Suun.
“Ooh...” Mida Suun exclaimed, his tiny eyes twinkling as his mouth opened wide.
His throat was buried in his fleshy chest, though, so his jaw didn’t look like it could lower all that much. And so, Mida Suun had to lean his head back in order to open his mouth nice and wide.
Just as I shrugged my shoulders, thinking that his mouth being so wide open made it look like his jaw may dislocate as his fatty cheeks rippled, he tossed the myamuu giba on in.
He took it all in one bite, and then licked his lips.
It was like something out of a nightmare.
Afterwards four more dishes made it to Mida Suun by way of Tei Suun, and in no time at all, five myamuu giba had disappeared from this world.
“It’s delicious... Really delicious...”
“Thank you,” I replied, forcing a smile.
As long as they paid, a customer was a customer. Even if I was dealing with a member of our hated enemies, the Suun clan, I had to treat them all equally.
“Tei Suun... I want to eat more...”
“But we already used all of the money.”
“But... I want to eat lots and lots more...”
“You only receive one white coin from the clan head per month. You’ll just need to wait till the next month.”
An allowance that came once a month, huh?!
I honestly felt really relieved, though I felt bad for thinking so.
Even if he didn’t actually have any ill intent, Mida Suun visiting my shop every day would definitely have an effect on the amount of customers I saw. Poor Yumi, for example, had gone and bought one, but she had been left standing there looking like she didn’t even know what she was holding the whole time.
“I want to eat lots and lots more...”
“In that case, let’s come back again next month,” Tei Suun replied without so much as a hint of emotion to his voice, then he finally nodded our way. “Well then, pardon us.”
“R-Right. Thank you for your purchase.”
Then they left, with Tei Suun looking like he was practically pushing Mida Suun along to the north.
Thinking about it, I’d heard that the Suun settlement was pretty far north, so perhaps they had a different route to get here from that way.
That was all well and good, but... Did they really come all the way to the post town just for Mida Suun’s snack?
On the one hand, I was relieved that they didn’t cause a huge disturbance, but on the other, I felt not just disappointed but also incredibly foolish, and ultimately just down in the dumps.
Seriously, what’s their deal...?
Not only did they not ask how the giba meat was made so delicious, they didn’t even ask what sort of meat it was in the first place.
I couldn’t tell if they were even aware that I was staying at the Fa house.
Perhaps they didn’t even know Vina Ruu was a member of the Ruu clan.
I didn’t know anything about them at all.
I was about to unleash my pent up sighs, but Vina Ruu beat me to it with a pronounced, “Haaaaah...”
Then she slumped to the ground and grabbed the fabric around my waist with her trembling fingers.
“Give me a break... Why out of all of them did he have to show up? Ugh... I feel like I’m going to vomit...”
“W-What’s the matter? Hold it together, Vina Ruu!”
“I can’t... At all... I just can’t stand him... That bloated, flabby body alone is enough to truly gross me out...”
“Is that so? You were making a brave face like one of the men, though...”
“Well, I didn’t want to look pathetic in front of the Suun clan of all people, you know? Ugh, so gross...”
“...That sure is impressive. I guess I should’ve expected that much from a woman of the Ruu clan, though,” I said with a sigh, feeling that from the depths of my heart.
Then, Yumi chimed in, “W-What was that monster just now...?” in a dumbfounded voice.
“You mean the customer from the forest’s edge, right? My apologies for all the commotion,” I called out, and Yumi’s shoulders suddenly jumped.
After that, Yumi’s eyes made it look like she had at last regained her senses, and then she stared at my face.
“You... You’re so skinny, but you’ve got some real guts, don’t you? These guys were shaking in their shoes and couldn’t do a thing.”
“W-We were not shaking! Besides, you looked like you were about to cry, didn’t you?!” the youth who had collapsed to the ground quipped back, rising to his feet with a beet red face.
It was around then that the other stupefied members of the group seemed to come back to their senses.
“I’ve met him once before. It’s a real shock the first time you see him, isn’t it?” I commented, forcing a smile to try and smooth things over. “Now then, please eat up. If it cools off too much, it won’t taste as good.”
“Ah, right...” she replied, biting into the myamuu giba while still staring straight at me.
Once again, her eyes opened wide in shock.
“Whoa, it’s so good... Hey, is this seriously giba meat? It’s even tastier than karon.”
“Yes. It’s one hundred percent authentic giba meat. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it.”
“Yeah... It’s super tasty,” Yumi replied, now shooting me upturned eyes. “Um... I’m sorry about before. I just kept talking shit about your shop...”
“Huh? Ah, think nothing of it. I’m well aware of how people think of giba here in Genos. And yet you all gave it a try today, which makes me very happy,” I replied, flashing yet another smile.
And then, after biting into her myamuu giba again, Yumi smiled back at me like it was only natural.
She may have looked like a mean girl normally, but she looked nice and innocent when she was smiling.
“What the heck’s wrong with you?! Don’t go making eyes at a man from the forest’s edge! If you do that, you’ll get dragged away to the forest, you know?!” the youth who had just been on the ground yelled out in a huff, only for Yumi to turn and shoot him a displeased glare.
“What are you, stupid? Why would you even think that?! All I did was say that good food was good.”
Yes, that’s exactly right.
I just wished that Vina Ruu would get that too and stop shooting me such a chilly glare.
“So? Are the rest of you not going to buy any after all? No matter what you say, you’re just scared of giba and the people of the forest’s edge, aren’t you? In that case, you shouldn’t have come over here in the first place. You were trying to look cool, but now you just look like asses.”
“What was that?! You were making fun of the idea of people of the forest’s edge opening a shop in town too, weren’t you?!”
“That’s because I didn’t know giba meat was this delicious... Plus, I only hate the people of the forest’s edge who break the law,” she said, her eyes glancing my way. “Besides, this guy’s so twiggy that he probably couldn’t make much trouble even if he wanted to. Plus, he’s not even a person of the forest’s edge to begin with.”
I wondered if I really looked all that weak, but I still kept a smile on my face.
“There are all sorts of folks among the people of the forest’s edge too. There may be scary people, but there are also kind people. And I believe that it’s only a small handful of the people of the forest’s edge who act poorly towards you townsfolk.”
“T-Then what about that monster from before?! He was a person of the forest’s edge too, wasn’t he?!”
I was about to reply that he was the only one of his type even at the forest’s edge, but a newcomer suddenly cut in and asked, “What are you all fussing about?”
He was from Jagar, and had a bit of a stern-looking face.
“If you’re not customers, then hurry up and get out of the way. I won’t let you off easy if you’re trying to interfere with this kid’s business.”
“W-What? You’re not involved, so butt out already!”
“That’s my line. If you’re not a customer, then you better be butting out,” he bluntly stated, then he turned my way.
Instantly, he broke out in a grin.
“So you managed to stay open this late for once, huh?! I had work this morning, so I’d just about given up on having a chance to taste your cooking today.”
“Thank you for that. We still have over ten meals left for the day, and if things keep going smoothly, I intend to add a second stall from tomorrow on.”
I recognized him, but only vaguely. He was probably one of the customers who had arrived first thing yesterday morning. The man may have had a stern face, but he also had a really gentle smile.
“The sun’s just about to hit its peak, but you still have around ten meals left, huh?! In that case, you’ll probably always stay open at least that long from tomorrow on, right? That’ll make a lot of folks happy, I’d imagine.”
“Ah, but the dish I’m selling today is different from the one I was selling up until yesterday. If you’d like, you can try a sample.”
As I said that I placed a new toothpick on the plate, but the customer from Jagar just said, “Nah, it’s fine,” and waved me off. “I can tell it’s delicious just from the smell. Hurry up and make me one. And how many coins does it cost?”
“Two red coins.”
“So cheap! It’s great for me, but the other food stalls around won’t be able to do any business like that, right?” he said with a hearty laugh, and then he turned and stared at the youths from the west. “I’m sure you all won’t eat giba meat because you’re scared of it, right? Then you’re just in the way, so get lost already. If you’re that afraid of giba, then you can just go and eat kimyuus or karon or whatever, right?”
“I-I already said I wasn’t scared! Don’t go shoving your nose in all high and mighty, you outsider!”
“Don’t be stupid. This whole post town is made up of outsiders, isn’t it? And if there weren’t any outsiders around, then who would you all do business with? Wait... your ancestors must have moved here to Genos from somewhere else too, right?” he said like it was all a pain, waving his hand as if swatting away a fly. “Well, whatever. If folks from the west are too scared to try it, we’ll just help ourselves to all of it. Hurry and serve it up, kid.”
“Right. Thank you.”
It wasn’t like I was caught up in their conversation and neglecting my work, as I had just been waiting for the pot to heat up.
Figuring it was about time, I went to toss in the diced aria... only for the youth with high eyebrows to slap down coins on my counter.
“Hey! Give me one too! I’m not scared of giba or anything!”
With that, just one of the group of frozen youths timidly approached. He looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he just silently offered up his coins.
“Hmph. I paid first, though,” the customer from Jagar said with a scary look on his face.
“It’s no problem! I can have enough for three people ready in no time at all, so just hold on a moment.”
“Ah... Hey, make one more for me, too,” Yumi said and held out her own coins, having completely finished her dish.
“What are you doing that for?! Are you that into this guy from the forest’s edge?!”
“I’m telling you, no! I want to take it back to my mom! I wanna see the face she makes when I tell her it was giba meat after she eats it.”
This girl certainly had some mean thoughts rolling around her head.
Still, despite the fact that she really looked the part of a delinquent, she was thinking about bringing back a snack for her mother, which I took to be rather charming.
“Thank you,” I replied, then I tossed in enough aria for four.
Then, around when I added in the giba meat, the youth who had looked like he wanted to say something finally chimed in.
“I... I know about that monster from before. Around once a month he comes into town, eats food from the stalls like that, and then leaves... And apparently if it doesn’t meet his tastes, he smashes the stall to smithereens.”
“T-The guards wouldn’t just stay silent about something like that though, would they?”
“Yeah. But in the end someone from the castle comes out and settles things like it’s nothing. If the people of the forest’s edge get angry at us, we’ll end up with giba ransacking our fields like they used to,” he said in an annoyed tone, then he looked me and Vina Ruu up and down. “I’m not especially scared of giba. But don’t you think that as long as something isn’t done about those guys, people will never really look at you as part of Genos like us?”
“...Thank you for the advice. I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”
Despite what he said, this youth had bought my cooking too.
My power couldn’t do anything about the Suun clan... But still, all I can do is keep on fighting in my own way.
When I handed over the completed myamuu giba to the three youths from the west and the one man from the south, that left 11 meals.
As the sun rose higher in the sky, the crowds passing by also increased. No other people from the west really came close after that, but around when the sun hit its peak, we managed to completely sell out.
Selling out with 20 or 50 meals proved to be no problem here in the post town, and even with 70 we sold all of them in around two and a half hours.
And this time around, roughly ten percent of them had sold to folks from the west.
Mida Suun showing up had certainly been unexpected, but even so, I felt a far greater sense of satisfaction from this than I had on the previous days.
“With this, I can go ahead and increase the number of stalls from tomorrow on without any reservations,” I murmured as we were handling the cleanup.
With a bit of a gloomy look on her face, Vina Ruu replied, “That’s true... But that child of the Suun clan concerns me... Asuta, make sure you don’t get nabbed by him, alright?”
“Nabbed? Me?”
“Yes... He seems like he would do something that foolish, doesn’t he?”
“...If he tries, then I’ll run away as fast as I can. Fortunately, I’m at least pretty confident that I’m faster than him.”
“Yes, if he happens to come after us on the way back, then you should run away on your own... I’ll manage to get the luggage back by myself, somehow.”
There really may have been a need to form a plan like that.
Mida Suun didn’t seem like he’d recognize the power of the Ruu, and he may not have even recognized Vina Ruu as a member of that clan in the first place.
“Ugggh, he’s so gross... I just can’t stand that babyish face and voice of his... Asuta, do you know how old he is?”
“No. And I don’t especially want to know, so you don’t need to tell me.”
“...Despite appearances, he’s even younger than Ludo.”
“I said you didn’t need to tell me!”
Somehow, I felt a chill run down my spine.
And also... I found that Tei Suun man every bit as creepy as Mida Suun. It wasn’t about liking him or not. No, I just plain found him eerie.
“From tomorrow on, let’s be even more watchful of our surroundings, alright...?”
“Yeah.”
I was doing something this flashy, so I didn’t expect to escape the Suun clan’s notice forever. Still, apparently I needed to watch out not just for Diga and Doddo Suun, but everyone from the clan.
It was a battle being fought atop thin ice, but still, I just had to keep giving it my all.
With those feelings refreshed, I pushed the cart alongside Vina Ruu, through the now more crowded highway full of passersby.
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