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“What exactly... do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. I would like to be able to offer your cooking at my inn for dinner. It’s difficult to bring in a chef from the castle town, but if I’m just buying your cooking, then it should be possible to add it to my menu. Ah, my apologies.”
There had been a customer from Sym, standing there silently behind Naudis.
“Welcome. Do you just want one?”
Then, another man from Sym appeared from behind him, looking so similar that they could be twins. The two stood side by side, holding out their two coins.
“Two, is it? Thank you.”
Naudis started stroking his dark brown beard and looking apologetic.
“The sun will hit its peak shortly. I should have come earlier, but I do also have work to take care of for the morning.”
“Ah, of course... In that case, could you hold on just a little bit longer? Once I cook up some extra meat, I should be able to step away from the stall for a bit,” I called out while preparing the myamuu giba, and Naudis replied, “Yes, of course,” and stepped off to the side of the stall.
Yumi followed to the same spot, shooting him a suspicious glare all the while.
“Hey, what do you mean when you say you want to offer Asuta’s cooking? You’re just planning on buying his cooking, then selling that at dinner time?”
“That’s correct. After all, the people of Jagar seem quite fond of it. The customers all keep complaining and saying they want to eat giba meat, which has led to them being quite displeased with the dinners at my inn. As the owner, I feel quite chagrined over that fact.”
“But if you wanted to turn a profit with it at your inn, you’ll have to raise the price, right? Then nobody will want to buy it.”
“I don’t know about that. If I’m concerned about pure profit, I would certainly have to do just that. But if it was just a bit more expensive than other dishes, I believe I could still expect it to sell to some degree.”
“But then your inn won’t be turning a profit on it, right?”
“It’s true that the earnings from food would drop. But if the number of customers grows, then profit could still go up as a result.”
I stole a sideways glance as I cooked the meat, and saw Naudis’s stern face break out in a gentle expression as he talked with Yumi.
He had the wildness of the south about him, but also the slender build of the west, and his disposition felt rather complex and hard to pin down.
“For example, if I set a giba dish at five red coins, karon at four, and kimyuus at three, I would be able to provide for the customers who wanted to eat it badly enough to pay more. So as long as karon and kimyuus dishes keep selling well enough, I shouldn’t have to worry about profits severely dropping.”
“Hmm... It seems like you’ve properly thought this through.”
“I had to take several days to think it over properly before coming to a decision. I’ve been racking my brains over the matter ever since the night I first heard my customers talking about how delicious this cooking was.”
At that point, the meat finally finished cooking.
“Sorry. I’ll be back soon, so please take care of things,” I said to Sheera Ruu, then moved over towards Naudis. “Sorry for the wait... Thanks to you discussing all that with Ms. Yumi, I was able to sort out my thoughts pretty well.”
“Don’t call me ‘Ms.’ It feels all weird.”
“Sorry. Um... I have preparations and work around the house to take care of too, so I need to return home before dusk. With your proposal, you just wanted my cooking, not me personally, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. If at all possible, I would like something like the dish from the neighboring stall, where it can be served after just heating it up. And in portions enough to serve as dinner rather than just a snack. I would think between thirty and fifty meals would be appropriate to start with.”
“I see. You need something you can sink your teeth into a bit more for dinner... What size were you thinking for one meal, and how much would you be willing to buy it for?”
“Let’s see... I was thinking one and a half times the size of these, for three red coins. Though if you could sell for just a bit cheaper, I would be grateful. I think ten meals for 25 red coins sounds appropriate, but what do you say?”
I ran over the numbers roughly in my head, but as far as I could tell, at the very least it wouldn’t go pulling us into the red.
And in order to accomplish my original goal of spreading the deliciousness of giba meat, this was certainly a promising proposal.
But still, I felt the need to take one step further.
“I’m sorry, but would it be possible for you to tell me the price you pay for karon meat itself...?”
“Karon meat, is it? At my shop, we pay about one red coin per meal’s worth.”
“Huh? So you’re saying that’s the price for one and a half times the amount of meat we use at this stall?”
“Yes, that’s quite right.”
This required more calculations.
My shop used roughly 180 grams of meat. One and a half times that would be 270 grams.
One red coin for that... That meant 100 grams would be 0.37 red coins. That meant the price at wholesale was less than half of what people paid for use in their own homes.
Now that we were on the tenth day, I was finally starting to see the specific numbers at play.
“Let’s see... I’m interested in the idea of selling my dishes, but preparing the poitan takes time, so it may be best if you used fuwano as you have till now. If you do that, I think it would be possible to prepare an extra fifty meals after wrapping up with what’s needed for the stalls.”
“Oho, that would naturally change the price I pay.”
“Yes. I don’t mind if you just go ahead and subtract the cost of the fuwano. If enough for three snack sized meals costs one red coin, then that should mean two dinner sized meals should cost the same.”
Poitan were definitely cheaper, so I would be eating the difference a bit, but it really did take time to prepare them. Thinking of it like that, it didn’t really feel like a loss.
“However, I can’t predict what might happen over the coming months, and it’s also always possible other inns or restaurants could come to me with similar jobs.”
“Yes, of course. That most certainly is a possibility. My inn isn’t the only one that sees frequent use by customers from the south, and there are also a similar number of inns favored by folk from the east,” Naudis calmly stated with a big nod. “And if my shop starts serving giba meat, it’s entirely possible such places will copy me... Actually, I would call that an inevitability, sooner or later.”
“Really? I’m truly honored to hear that. However... My time is limited, so I couldn’t possibly be able to handle all of their requests.”
“That’s certainly true...” Naudis responded, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
Perhaps he thought I was trying to use that as an excuse to drag up the price of my cooking.
I was thinking something else entirely, though.
“If that were to occur, I think I would try to offer the possibility of selling just the giba meat rather than my cooking.”
“Huh?!” Naudis and Yumi shouted in unison.
“So I believe it would be a good idea for your Great Southern Tree to also consider someday moving towards a path where you purchase and cook the giba meat yourselves. In that case, you would also be able to earn a similar amount of profit as with other meats...”
“Hold on a second! If giba cooking ends up getting sold all over, then your shop will do a lot less business, won’t it?!” Yumi questioned while grabbing my arm and looking awfully flustered. “You’d definitely make a better profit just by selling your cooking! Or were you thinking you’d be better off in the business of selling meat...?”
That wasn’t it at all.
As of yesterday, the Fa clan had already run through its supply of meat, and as of today we had to start buying it from the Ruu clan. If I was just thinking of how to best profit the Fa house, then naturally it would be better to only sell my own cooking.
But our goal wasn’t primarily to turn a profit.
And so, I smiled back at Yumi and said, “It would be a little hard to explain, but that path seems more desirable to me.”
“Really? In that case, whatever, I guess...” Yumi trailed off, letting go of my arm but not sounding all that convinced.
Meanwhile, Naudis went, “Hmm... Hmm...” as he stroked his beard. “That’s certainly an interesting thought, but for now, I would be satisfied if you would just start by selling me your cooking. I’ll think about what comes next when the time comes, I believe.”
“Right, thank you. Now then, do you mind if we hammer out the details after I’m done with work? The sun’s about to hit its peak, after all.”
“That’s true. I need to be hurrying back to the inn, too. Also, please make sure you inform the owner of The Kimyuus’s Tail of this matter, too. It wouldn’t be good to have any misunderstandings.”
With that, Naudis bobbed off.
As I watched him leave, Yumi let out a “Tch,” and said, “An inn serving giba meat, huh...? I’d like to try that out at our place too, but we hardly ever get any customers from the south or east. And with mostly customers from the west, I couldn’t imagine we’d be getting many orders for it.”
“That’s certainly true, at least for now.”
For now, there was nothing I could do about that.
A mere ten days wasn’t enough to pull the discrimination shown by folks from the west up by its roots.
However, I did manage to score a ton of points with the people of the south and the east.
We had managed to bridge the first gap towards our ultimate goal.
For now, I just had to see whether or not I would succeed in my dealings with The Great Southern Tree.
“Man, now even if you end your contract with The Kimyuus’s Tail today, my place won’t really have a chance to shine... Well, no matter who you’re contracted with, it’s not like the taste of your cooking will change, so it’s fine,” Yumi stated, ending with her usual carefree smile and a slap to my arm. “Okay, my friends are waiting, so I’ve got to get going too! I’ll be looking forward to coming back from the day after tomorrow on, though!”
“Right, thank you.”
With that, I said my farewells to Yumi, and finally returned to the stall.
I had left Sheera Ruu to run the myamuu giba stall all on her own, but she had a very gentle smile on her face.
“Welcome back. We now have 26 meals left over here.”
“Huh? You sure sold a lot.”
“We have 24 left on our end...” Vina Ruu called out from the giba burger stall.
“Added together, that’s exactly 50 left... At this rate, it seems like we’ll wrap up early sooner or later.”
As soon as I said that, yet another group of customers arrived.
It was a group of three rather boorish-looking men with yellowish-brown skin.
“Welcome. Three, right?” I greeted with a smile.
I recognized these customers. Several days ago, they started throwing out complaints in front of the giba burger stall, only for Vina Ruu to handle them and ultimately get them to make a purchase.
That was how things started with them, but by now they were full-on regulars.
“Hmph... Looks like business is booming again today, kid.”
“Yes, fortunately.”
“Geez, just where did I go wrong that I’m paying money for giba meat of all things nowadays?”
It seemed he hadn’t been drinking today, as his speaking was boorish but his expression remained calm.
“Sorry for the wait,” Sheera Ruu said as she offered the completed goods. As he accepted it, one of the men squinted and brought his face in close to mine.
“Man, there sure are a lot of beauties among the people of the forest’s edge. Giba meat’s this delicious and there are beautiful women all around, so I guess it’s not so insane that someone would go and do something as crazy as try to live there.”
“Ahaha. That’s not exactly how it went.”
“If that’s not it, then what was? One of these ladies has got to be your ladylove, right?”
“Ah, no, not at all! A fledgling like me could never try to go and do something so outrageous.”
I glanced over at Sheera Ruu, but she just remained politely expressionless and allowed the customers’ nonsense to float by her.
When the three customers left with their myamuu giba, I breathed a sigh while wiping imagined sweat from my brow.
“They certainly are a rowdy bunch. Sorry about that, Sheera Ruu.”
“You have nothing to apologize for, Asuta. Still... A lot of people seem to be mistaking me for your bride, don’t they?”
“Huh? R-Really?”
“Yes. I hear that several times each day. Townsfolk certainly have a strange way of thinking, believing a pathetic woman like me could be your wife.”
“Hey, I’m the one who’s pathetic here! I mean, the thought of a wonderful woman like you as my wife is... Wah!”
I had been suddenly slapped on the shoulder, causing me to shout out loudly.
When I turned around, I found Ai Fa standing there with numerous aria cradled in her right hand and scowling.
“Don’t shout all of a sudden. You shocked me, you know.”
“I-I-I’m the one who was shocked! I already told you not to hide your presence and sneak up on me like that, right?!”
“So you’re telling me I have to intentionally walk around while making noise? That’s just plainly foolish.”
Sheera Ruu didn’t look shaken in the least despite all that, and she calmly accepted the aria from Ai Fa.
“Thank you... You were busy, Asuta, so I asked Ai Fa to take care of the last bit of shopping a while back.”
“T-Thanks for being so considerate. Huh...? Did Rimee Ruu leave already?”
“The Ruu siblings came back to pick her up a while ago. It was while you stepped away from the stall and were absorbed in some sort of conversation,” Ai Fa said as she stared at me and Sheera Ruu.
“W-What is it, Ai Fa?”
“No, it’s just... Taking another look, I really can see how someone would think that you’re husband and wife.”
So she really was listening carefully, huh?!
As I racked my brain over how to respond to that, Sheera Ruu smiled and chimed in before me, saying, “I don’t think that’s true at all. There is no way that Asuta would ever choose me as his bride... And while I trust and respect him deeply, I could never choose him as my husband.”
“I see...” Ai Fa replied, then suddenly turned around.
Once she was resting in the shade of a tree again, Sheera Ruu whispered apologetically into my ear, “I’m sorry. I said something incredibly rude about you, there... It’s just, I needed to clearly tell Ai Fa how I feel.”
“Yeah, I think you definitely made the right decision... And I have a lot of trust and respect for you too, Sheera Ruu.”
She shot me a brilliant smile, and then promptly faced forwards again. After all, there was another customer approaching.
The sun had finally hit its peak, and there were even more people passing by than usual.
And sure enough, I got the feeling that the number of customers we had from the west was also slowly but steadily increasing.
“Sheera Ruu, there are just 20 giba burgers left... Do you want to change places...?”
“Right,” Sheera Ruu replied and headed over to the giba burger stall, while Vina Ruu took her place.
We had prepared 80 giba burgers, and now we were finally down to the last 20, huh? And there were only 23 myamuu giba left, too.
“It looks like we’ll be selling out for the first time in a while, doesn’t it...? It really is more enjoyable to do that than to have leftovers, isn’t it...?”
The flow of customers showed no sign of stopping, as if in response to Vina Ruu’s statement.
This was the last of our initial ten days, and it was going at an even higher pace than ever before.
We sold one meal after another, and about an hour after the sun hit its peak, we were finally down to the last three myamuu giba.
“Ooh, it seems like we might actually sell out first today,” I happily proclaimed, only for a certain someone to approach: Milano Mas.
“Ah, hello.”
This was the first time Milano Mas had ever approached either of the stalls during business hours.
He stared at the meat left on the plate and gave a snort.
“Once you sell that, you’ll be done, huh? Just how many meals did you prepare today?”
“For this stall we prepared the usual 90, while we went with 80 for the other one.”
“So 170 in total, is it? Geez, that’s a ridiculous number.”
As he said that, Milano Mas held out two red coins.
“Huh? You’re buying one of my meals?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you. Um... You can try one of these small samples from this plate first to confirm the taste...”
“You sure can talk my ear off. I already held out my coins, so hurry up and sell it to me. I don’t need to try anything first.”
Then, in his usual displeased tone, he added, “This’ll be the last time, after all...”
“‘Last’? What do you—?” I started to ask, but then a man and woman from the west approached.
“See, this is it. The sign says giba, right? This is that giba cooking people have been talking about.”
“Wow, gross... Hey, we should just leave, right...?”
“I thought so at first, too! But weirdly enough, it’s actually super delicious!”
Then, the rather young looking man stood there a little stiffly and held out four red coins.
“Hey, we’ll take two.”
“Right, thank you!”
Added together with the one for Milano Mas, that was enough for us to completely sell out.
I finished up the three dishes, then Vina Ruu handed them over to the customers.
And without saying a single word, Milano Mas started walking down south towards where the bigger crowds were bustling.
“Vina Ruu, please take care of the fire,” I said, then I followed after him.
“Milano Mas, please hold on!”
He showed no signs of stopping. And yet, he didn’t pick up his pace any, so I was able to catch up to him a bit after the giba burger stall.
“Um, what did you mean before, when you said it would be the last time?”
Milano Mas didn’t stop walking as he bit into his myamuu giba. Though, I couldn’t see any change in his expression as he ate.
“What are you getting so worked up over...? You’ll be contracted with The Westerly Wind from the day after tomorrow on, right?”
“Huh...? No, but, about that...”
“Or are you changing over to The Great Southern Tree? At any rate, it doesn’t matter at all who you have a contract with. The stall rental fees amount to nothing more than my daughter’s allowance. I’m not going to whine about it, so go ahead and sign up with a shop that values you highly.”
Milano Mas walked over to the side of the road and then stopped there. A disgruntled glare came my way from a bit lower than my height.
“I hate the people of the forest’s edge. Plus, my daughter’s terrified of you folks, too. I can’t think of a single reason to stop you from going.”
“If you say... that you honestly think it’s better that way, then it’s of course no problem on my end, but...”
But in that case, why didn’t he just tell me so two days back?
And also... Why was he making such a grave face as he ate the myamuu giba, then?
“Even if it just amounts to pocket change, it’s one white coin per rented stall. Just handing that over to another shop is bad business. And I may hate the people of the forest’s edge, but it would be downright stupid to take losses over that. I just took time to mull it over till I was satisfied because that thought was running through my head.”
“So after thinking on it, you decided to yield the contract to another place?”
That was disappointing, but the most important thing was to respect Milano Mas’s feelings.
And yet, Milano Mas just looked down at the partially eaten myamuu giba and muttered, “That’s not exactly it...”
“Huh? Then why?”
“As a businessman, I believe I should keep the contract with you. But I also figure there’s no point in clinging on and causing unpleasant feelings for both of us. After all, there’s no chance of me or my daughter ever forgiving the people of the forest’s edge.” Still looking down, Milano Mas muttered, “My close friend was killed by a person of the forest’s edge. And as a result, my wife also died. That was ten years ago at this point, though... Thanks to that, I’m good with the whole of the forest’s edge dropping dead. I don’t give a damn about what happens to the fields, and the hunters are worth less than dung to me.”
“But that’s...”
“If the folks who went and committed atrocities were judged properly, I wouldn’t keep complaining about it forever. But the people of the forest’s edge are under the lord’s protection, so they can do as they please. My friend fell from a cliff and died, and he was gripping a giba horn and tusk necklace in his hand. And yet, the people of the forest’s edge didn’t face any judgment for it.”
I stealthily gripped my fist.
Yumi had said things ended up unsettled because there was no proof... But there had been evidence. And on top of that, the people of the forest’s edge were never investigated, huh?
My feelings were seriously thrown for a loop, but Milano Mas looked even calmer than usual. What I saw vaguely in his light brown eyes wasn’t anger, but sadness.
“Then my wife just stayed in bed with worry, until she passed before much longer... The man who died was my friend, but for my wife, he was her precious older brother who raised her in place of their parents. And so, my daughter and I will probably keep on hating the people of the forest’s edge forever.”
“But, that’s...”
Dora had once said that the people of the forest’s edge attacked travelers, stole crops, and kidnapped women. And Ai Fa hadn’t refuted that point, either. It was an absolute certainty folks like that existed at the forest’s edge.
Are the Suun clan behind all of that, though...?
I had no idea.
However, the discord between the Suun and Ruu clans had grown firm 20 years ago, the era of the previous clan head. Back then, the Suun clan kidnapped a woman set to marry into the Ruu clan, then drove her to suicide. So back then, the Suun had already fallen to corruption.
“But still...” I started to say, but I held my tongue.
But still, it wasn’t as if all of the people of the forest’s edge were such villains. I couldn’t stand the thought of Ai Fa, the Ruu, and the Rutim being lumped together with folks like that.
That one weak-looking woman I met just the once also came to mind. The one who introduced herself as Saris Ran Fou, and was cradling a little baby.
The small clans who lacked the strength to hunt the necessary number of giba simply starved to death. Saris Ran Fou had even said that if Ai Fa hadn’t secretly given them pelts, she wouldn’t even be able to produce milk for her baby.
No matter how much edible fruit and the like was growing in the forest, they had to starve themselves rather than let the same happen to the giba. Those people of the forest’s edge died in order to protect their agreement with the lord of Genos, and their pride as hunters.
The prosperity of the Genos domain had been built atop their noble sacrifices. And yet hatred, fear, and contempt swirled around the hearts of the people living there.
How could such an insane thing possibly be true?
The small fraction of people who committed terrible acts and those who protected them faced no trouble at all, while in both the forest’s edge and the post town, the common folk were the ones who had to suffer.
Or to be more precise, the ruling class of Genos and the Suun clan who led the forest’s edge were lining each other’s pockets, while thrusting the suffering and misfortune on everyone else, right?
“But what? Are you trying to say not all of the people of the forest’s edge are fiends?” Milano Mas asked in a low voice. “I know that full well. If every one of the 500 people living at the forest’s edge were such monsters, the corpses would be piling up each and every day. Everyone knows that much. Otherwise, do you think I ever would have done business with you?”
With that, Milano Mas tossed the rest of his myamuu giba into his mouth.
“Plus, us townsfolk aren’t idiots. If you were that vile, nobody would ever buy your cooking... So while I have no intention of stopping you, I’m not trying to drive you away either. But the Great Southern Tree and The Westerly Wind would value you a lot more, so there’s not a single reason for you to stay with my place, right?”
“Ah, no... If you don’t want to drive me off, then I’d like to keep working with The Kimyuus’s Tail.”
“What?” Milano Mas questioned, his eyes opening wide. “Why? You don’t get anything from doing that, right?”
“I mean, I don’t really know how to answer that... I guess because it made me really glad that you ate my cooking.”
Plus, Milano Mas spent three days worrying about the matter, trying to sort out his feelings. And on top of that, he ended up deciding he neither wanted to stop me nor drive me away. And so, I couldn’t see any reason to leave The Kimyuus’s Tail.
“As a fledgling shop owner, I’m sure I’ll come up short in all sorts of ways, but I intend to keep giving it my all, so I hope to keep working with you.”
With that, I took off my towel and bowed my head.
“...You really are a baffling kid,” Milano Mas muttered with a sigh. “This is nothing to go bowing your head over. If you’re fond enough of unpleasantness that you want to pay for it, then do as you wish.”
“Right! Thank you!”
By the time I lifted my head, Milano Mas already had his back to me and was walking away again.
With that, I put the towel back on and hurried to return to the stall.
And yet, there were still restless feelings swirling around in my chest.
Since it was ten years ago, Diga and Yamiru Suun would have been too young to be involved. But was someone from the Suun clan the culprit after all?
I had no idea what the truth was.
But still, it would be impossible to bridge the gap between the people of Genos and the forest’s edge while such a criminal was still at large, right?
And even if our shop acted to bridge that gap, and most of the people around started eating giba meat without any worries... That still wouldn’t be enough to clear up the regrets of those who had been harmed directly, like Milano Mas.
The criminal had to be brought to justice. That much was completely obvious, but as long as it wasn’t carried out, mutual understanding would be truly impossible.
But just what should be done, then...? I vaguely worried as I returned to the stall.
And when I made it back, I spied a blond, spindly man standing in front of the giba burger stall.
“Hey there. Looks like I made it over for the first time in a while.”
It was Kamyua Yoshu, of course. And standing by his side was the flaxen-haired youth who served as his apprentice.
“It really has been a while, Kamyua Yoshu. I’m glad to see you doing well,” I said with a light bow as I headed into the stall.
Suddenly, Lala Ruu shot me a smile.
“These guys were the last ones. We sold all of the giba burgers, too!”
Only a bit over an hour since the sun hit its peak, we had sold all 170 of the meals we had prepared.
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