5
By the end of that day, we had sold 145 meals in total.
If we had stayed around for another half hour or so, we probably could have sold the remaining five. But I couldn’t make light of my agreement with the Ruu clan, so when it was halfway between when the sun hit its peak and sunset, we promptly started preparing to head back.
Incidentally, we ended up selling just 800 grams of the jerky. That only amounted to 12 red coins in earnings, but it only needed salt and meat to make. And so, even without the agreement with The Silver Vase, it still had the potential to be a significant addition to our arsenal.
But at any rate, our business day wrapped up without incident.
I had wanted to talk to Milano Mas about my coming contract, but he was holed up in the kitchen while the only one at the desk was his daughter, who was terrified of the people of the forest’s edge. And so, I decided to put that off till later.
Kamyua Yoshu wasn’t around either, so for both yesterday and today, I had only seen his apprentice, Leito. Somehow, it felt like my relationship with him was weakening just as I was seeing more and more of the Suun clan.
Was he purposefully avoiding us, taking Donda Ruu’s words to heart? Maybe he had some other reason in mind? Or perhaps it was just down to fate? I was no god, so I couldn’t even begin to guess.
Well, I guess it’s better than him indiscriminately poking his nose into my affairs.
When this thought cropped up, while the trio of myself, Ai Fa, and Vina Ruu were starting to head on back, it put most of my concerns about him to rest.
To start with, we had to stop by the Fa house to grab what we needed. What that meant was: all of the ingredients sleeping away in our pantry, everyday goods like clothing, whetstones, and leather straps, plus the money we had made up till now.
By this point, we had already earned more than 60 white coins. Once we finally hit 100 white coins, we would be able to exchange that for a silver. But until then, we would have to either store away the coins we had or walk around with them.
“We’re saying farewell to this house for seven days...” Ai Fa muttered emotionlessly while staring at the now empty pantry.
This was my second time being away from home for an extended period of time, but naturally, this was going to be a fresh experience for Ai Fa.
We shoved as much as possible into the pot, and then whatever didn’t fit, Ai Fa dragged along on the pulling board. And with that, feeling a bit like we were moving houses, we headed for the Ruu settlement.
“Ah, welcome home!”
After we handed over our blades we headed towards the kitchen, where we found Rimee and Reina Ruu preparing dinner.
“Ehehe. You’re really living at the Ruu settlement, right?!” Rimee Ruu said with a smile directed at me and Ai Fa. She hadn’t gotten much of a chance to hear what was going on yesterday.
“Yeah. We’ll be counting on your kindness for the seven days till the clan head meeting. Are you making hamburgers tonight...?”
“Yup! The two of us have gotten really good at making them! They’re really tasty, so look forward to it!”
Rimee Ruu’s smile was just so bright that I couldn’t help but grin back without even thinking.
After a bit of hesitation, Reina Ruu also looked up from dicing aria and smiled too.
“Welcome to the Ruu house. Will you be working here too, Asuta?”
“Yeah. I’ll be borrowing one of your corners for that,” I replied as I spread out a large amount of meat, vegetables, and fruit wine atop my work station.
My initial plan had been to start purchasing meat from the Ruu clan today, but considering the circumstances, I would instead use up the Fa house’s meat first.
But I was using up over 27 kilos a day, so I should run out by the day after tomorrow. Then, I would buy meat from the Ruu until Ai Fa’s wounds healed.
“Now then...” I started, lifting up my kitchen knife, only for Ai Fa to call out, “Asuta, I’m a bit tired. I believe after I talk to Granny Jiba a bit, I’ll rest in the vacant house until dinner.”
“Got it. Are you alright? Your fever hasn’t come back or anything, right?”
“I’m fine.”
Vina Ruu had already headed back to the house, so that just left me, Rimee, and Reina Ruu. The one other person manning the kitchen, Granny Tito Min, was outside baking poitan.
There was still around an hour and a half till sunset. It was pretty hectic last night in the Ruu house, so I hadn’t been able to finish off my work, but normally I wouldn’t be able to finish before dinner if I started this late anyway. In all likelihood, I’d have to borrow their kitchen for a bit after dinner, too.
Making the patties took the most amount of time, so I was dicing up aria for now for those.
“Ai Fa seemed really down, somehow. Does her arm hurt a lot after all?” Rimee Ruu muttered worriedly as I added the diced aria to the pot and started sauteing.
“I’m not sure. It’s already the third day, so I wouldn’t think it’d hurt that badly anymore. But I’ve never dislocated anything, so I honestly don’t know.”
“Is there going to be a meeting after dinner again tonight...?”
“No, I don’t think there’s anything new that needs discussing today. Ah, were the Rutim informed about how today’s meeting went with Yamiru Suun too?”
“Yeah. Ama Min Rutim was still in the kitchen when Lala and Vina returned, so I think she got told then.”
“Ooh, so she’s still studying cooking here?” I replied, turning to Reina Ruu. To my surprise, though, she had a big grin on her face. “W-What’s up? Did something happen with Ama Min Rutim?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” she questioned with a tilt of her head, but the smile remained plastered on her face. She seriously looked overjoyed.
“Reina, why are you all smiley?” Rimee Ruu questioned, finally addressing the elephant in the room.
Instantly, that smile disappeared and she went beet red.
“I-I was smiling? Sorry, it’s nothing... I was just glad I got to talk to you for the first time in a while, Asuta...”
She said “a while,” but it had only been three days or so.
And when we had parted ways three days ago I had caught a glimpse of her usual innocent self, but with that smile now... She looked earnestly happy, from the depths of her heart.
“Plus, our mother told me all about the clan head meeting. I’m truly glad to have the chance to help you with your work.”
“You’re so lucky! Why am I not allowed to help out, too?! I wanted to go with all of you...”
“You can’t. There are a lot of violent men in the Suun clan, after all. So you know there’s no way dad would allow it, right?” Reina Ruu’s now serious gaze turned my way. “Asuta, I’ll protect you no matter what. No matter what the Suun clan may be planning, I won’t let them touch so much as a single hair on your head.”
“T-Thanks,” I said, and tried to focus on dicing aria.
Then, Reina Ruu’s expression suddenly shifted again. This time, she looked somehow pained.
“By the way... Just what sort of person is Yamiru Suun of the Suun clan? Vina said she was very suspicious, but also incredibly beautiful...”
“Yamiru Suun? If I had to sum her up in one word, it would be ‘eerie.’ To be perfectly blunt, I find her even creepier than that youngest son of the main Suun house.”
“Really?” Reina Ruu replied, smiling broadly again.
Was I just imagining things, or were her emotions swinging all over the place? And right when Ai Fa left, too...
It hurt before when she was hiding her emotions away too, but still... She sure is a girl of extremes, huh?
Well, I suppose she just had to slowly course correct bit by bit.
After that, I enjoyed some idle chatter with the two of them, then when about half of the cut up meat was left to be handled, we hit our time limit.
When we arrived at the main hall of the house where everyone was gathered, we sat in the same spots as the night prior. For tonight’s dinner, we had hamburgers and baked poitan, soup made with aria, chatchi, and giba meat, and my personal contribution, a kilo of myamuu giba meat alongside the leftover tarapa sauce.
There were no issues at all when it came to the taste of the hamburgers or soup. It seemed the skills of the main Ruu house’s women really were steadily improving day by day.
“What, this is all you had leftover today, Asuta?” Ludo Ruu whined while staring at the large plate of meat coated in tarapa sauce.
“Yeah. I suppose it’s about half as much as yesterday? Sorry it’s such a small amount.”
“There won’t even be enough for everyone, will there? What’ll we do?”
“What a noisy child. In that case, why not just eat what you want? You’re the only one who’ll have an issue with that,” Granny Tito Min chided with an amused smile.
There was an undeniable tension in the air during last night’s dinner, but now that Yamiru Suun had accepted all of our demands without a fuss, that had clearly softened.
Though in the first place, none of the men of the family other than Ludo Ruu would ever crack a smile anyway. Jiza Ruu had been especially quiet lately, and he was rather hard to read to begin with, so I couldn’t help but feel concerned on that front.
“Still, the meat that Asuta shared with us is even more delicious when covered in tarapa sauce than normal meat, isn’t it? I think it would be even better if the flavor was just a little weaker, though,” Jiza Ruu’s wife Sati Lea Ruu gently chimed in.
“That’s true. That meat has been soaked in a marinade made of fruit wine and aria mixed with myamuu. I instructed Sheera Ruu on how to make it, but...” I started to say, but then I remembered something that needed to be mentioned sooner than later, so I turned to Mia Lea Ruu. “Sorry, I know we’re in the middle of dinner, but I still have a bit of work left to do afterwards. Would it be alright to discuss something now, Mia Lea Ruu?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“My shop is coming up on ten days of being open for business. Once that happens I was thinking I would like to take a single day off and have a study session on cooking as prep for the clan head meeting. What do you think?”
“Hmm? Do you mean to teach us cooking methods?”
“Yes. The dish that Mida Suun ate from my stall was called myamuu giba, and I would like to have everyone learn how to make it... It’s not an especially difficult recipe, but I don’t have much free time to spare when I’m working, so I was planning on trying to handle everything on that one day.”
“I don’t especially mind. But in that case, all the women who will be coming along to the clan head meeting will need to free up their schedules, won’t they?”
“I’ll have the whole day open, so I don’t mind if it’s done in groups of a few at a time. It’ll be necessary to let the Rutim women know, too.”
Then, I looked over at Donda Ruu, who was heartily devouring his hamburger dunked in soup.
“Also, considering the time and effort involved, I was thinking of splitting the payment equally among everyone helping out. Is that alright?”
“What did you say...?” Donda Ruu grumbled, a look of annoyance in his eyes. “You’re the one who accepted this ridiculous job from the Suun clan, aren’t you?”
“That’s true, but this isn’t like with the Rutim banquet. Plus, the Ruu and Rutim women also have the secret task of protecting me, so I think they should be paid fairly.”
I got no response.
“Also, the job they’ll be openly doing is already going to be plenty intense, don’t you think? Plus, it’ll be necessary to give the Suun women instruction since they won’t be experienced in such matters, so I believe Mia Lea Ruu’s group will be working just as hard as I will. So in that case, our payment should also be the same.”
Donda Ruu just said, “Do as you please.”
Mia Lea Ruu, meanwhile, gave a strained smile and added, “So distant... Is it the custom of the Fa clan to be that way? Like I said yesterday, the Ruu and Rutim consider you a precious friend, Asuta.”
“I really am grateful to hear that. And I also feel like you people from the Ruu and Rutim are very precious to me, too,” I honestly stated, even if it was a bit embarrassing. “That’s why I want to have a relationship where we don’t worry about debts... And to face the Suun clan as equals. It’s a bit of a presumptuous way to put it, but I want us to be allies, worrying about the future of the forest’s edge together.”
“That isn’t presumptuous in the least,” Granny Tito Min replied from Mia Lea Ruu’s side. “You may have been born in another nation, but you’re far more splendid a member of the forest’s edge than anyone in the Suun clan. And that’s only become all the more clear with this latest incident.”
“...Thank you, Tito Min Ruu,” I replied, only for Rimee Ruu to let out a sudden, “Ah!”
The contents of Ai Fa’s bowl of soup, which had still been around half full, spilled out over the ground.
Then, Ai Fa’s body started to sway, till I hurriedly supported her shoulders.
“My apologies... I went and wasted this precious food...”
“Ai Fa! You’ve got a fever again, don’t you?!”
I could already tell just from the heat coming off of her shoulders.
Ai Fa, meanwhile, placed her right hand on the floor and frowned, looking a bit pained.
“Shall I lay out the bedding in Jiba’s room...?” Mia Lea Ruu asked, getting up.
“It’s nothing so serious...” Ai Fa managed to wring out. “I have romu leaf on me, so if I just drink that and rest... I’ll recover soon...”
I turned and faced Mia Lea Ruu, supporting Ai Fa’s body all the while.
“Sorry. I know we’re in the middle of dinner, but I’ll be excusing myself for a bit... Rimee Ruu, the romu leaf is in a pocket inside Ai Fa’s cloak. Could you get it out?”
“Yeah!”
“Ai Fa, can you walk?”
“Yes...” Ai Fa said, placing her right arm around my neck.
I grabbed hold of her wrist, supported her waist with my other hand, then stood up as gently as I could.
Reina Ruu was busy assisting Granny Jiba, but now she was looking our way, her face full of complex emotions. This was no time to be paying attention to such matters, though.
“Sorry, but I have to get Ai Fa to somewhere she can rest.”
“That certainly seems prudent. Rimee, crush up the romu leaf and bring it here... Ah, you were still in the middle of eating, weren’t you, Asuta? In that case, we’ll bring over enough for the two of you, so just go ahead and stay with Ai Fa.”
“Right. Thank you.”
With that I headed for the door, lending Ai Fa my shoulder all the while.
She didn’t seem to be in any state to put on her footwear, so I just slipped on my own shoes and stepped outside.
It was then that Ai Fa suddenly collapsed to the ground.
It seemed she didn’t have enough strength left to walk on her own.
“Are you okay? You didn’t seem like you were doing that bad before eating...”
Even as I said that, I intuited the source of this fever: It was probably caused by emotional stress.
Considering everything about how Ai Fa had acted last night, that definitely seemed like a solid guess.
That was why I had hurried a bit in order to get her away from everyone. In all likelihood, Ai Fa wanted to avoid having others see her looking so weakened above all else.
“I’m pathetic, aren’t I...?” Ai Fa muttered weakly.
“That’s not true at all,” I said, wiping the sweat from her forehead with my palm. “You probably caused your fever to resurface by worrying too much about everything while you were injured. You really are bad at using your head, aren’t you?”
Ai Fa broke out in a pout, leaning up against my chest all the while.
“Whatever, let’s just hurry to our temporary lodging... I don’t want Rimee Ruu to see me in such an unsightly state, either...”
“I see. Well then, bear this for just a bit, alright?”
I supported Ai Fa’s back with my left hand and wrapped my right around the back of her knees. Then, with a firm, “ready, go!” in my head, I slowly stood up.
“Hmm, this sure is pretty tricky.”
There was hardly any height difference between me and Ai Fa. Plus, considering the density of her muscles and bones, there probably wasn’t a big weight difference either. And so just by lifting her up like this, I could feel my arms and legs about to start trembling.
“What are you doing...?”
As Ai Fa was resting her head firmly against my shoulder, I had lifted her up and cradled her in my arms, so now she was looking at me with a bit of bewilderment in her eyes.
“What? You wanted to hurry back, right? In that case, I can’t see any other option.”
If her left arm wasn’t injured then a piggyback ride would be easier, but it was only a couple dozen meters between the main Ruu house and the vacant one where we were staying. So I just had to give it my all and manage that far.
And so, I stepped forward carefully, making certain that even if something went wrong, I wouldn’t drop her.
“Doesn’t this just make me look all the more pathetic...?”
“It’s not pathetic. Family helps one another when they’re in trouble, right? Plus, I don’t want to see some other guy cradling you in his arms, no matter what.”
I was quickly sweating up a storm, but even so, I kept on advancing under the light of the moon.
If it weren’t for all the daily manual labor I had done, I may well have ended up needing a break partway through.
“Rest up properly, and get well soon. I need you, Ai Fa... I’m only able to work my hardest because you’re there for me.”
“I wonder about that... Aren’t you living more like a proper member of the forest’s edge than I am now...?”
“There’s no way that’s true.”
So she was worried about something like that after all, huh?
I had sort of got that feeling ever since last night.
“It’s got nothing to do with the people of the forest’s edge or anything. You’re just bad at relying on others, I figure. But you were able to get through the last two years all on your own, so I don’t think you have anything to feel embarrassed about.”
She didn’t respond.
“I wouldn’t have the strength for something like that. For me, I spent each and every day both relying on others and being relied on like it was only natural... But a while back, someone told me I was bad at relying on family, too.”
I didn’t think there was any contradiction there, though. I think it’s just that because I was that type of person, I became bad at telling the difference between relying on others and taking advantage.
Meanwhile, Ai Fa had a different reason entirely: She was so strong of a person that she worried asking others for help would make her look pathetic.
We were seriously complete opposites, but we may have also actually been a lot alike.
“I’m sure I could never live like you, and I don’t think you could live like me either.”
I was seriously running out of breath, but even so, I still managed to shoot Ai Fa a smile.
“So in that case, we can just keep on living while compensating for what the other is missing, right? It would make me happier than anything if we could do that for each other.”
“Don’t discuss such bothersome matters when I’m feverish...” Ai Fa said, then she smacked her head into my cheek.
Then she kept on grinding her burning forehead firmly up against me.
“Ow, ow... Anyway, what I was trying to say is that it makes me happy when I can help you out. Sometimes it seems like you don’t need me at all.”
“You really are a complete and utter fool...” Ai Fa muttered, sounding like her consciousness was fading. “I’m the one who needs you... So always...” she drifted off, and I didn’t catch the end of that statement.
And so, in my heart I quietly responded, “I’ll always stay by your side, Ai Fa.”
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