Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter SS

Intermezzo: The One in Charge of the Ruu Branch Family’s Stove

Sheera Ruu had a weak constitution by nature.

She was prone to sickness as a child, and she was smaller than other children her age. Perhaps that was what led to her becoming so timid, too.

To the people of the forest’s edge, strength was of great importance. Even as a woman, a certain degree of stamina and arm strength was essential to properly carry out work around the house. And as someone who couldn’t carry out her work as well as most, she felt just plain pathetic.

Naturally, she wasn’t persecuted just because she was weak. She didn’t know how it was in other clans, but at the very least, no one was that cruel in the Ruu settlement.

That didn’t stop her self-condemnation from growing ever stronger, though. Contrary to what one might expect, it made her feel even more sorry, how no one scolded her or got angry over the fact that she wasn’t as useful as everyone else.

It took her several times longer than others to chop wood or skin pelts. In fact, she wasn’t even able to draw water on her own. And there were plenty of healthy women in the well-off Ruu settlement, making Sheera Ruu thoroughly aware of her own faults.

The one job that Sheera Ruu did enjoy, though, was manning the stove. That task didn’t require all that much strength. Thanks to all of that, Sheera Ruu grew up feeling more at ease in the kitchen than anywhere else.

In a way it was fortunate that Sheera Ruu was the eldest child but had three younger brothers, so she could leave a fair bit of the manual labor up to them. Furthermore, her mother Tari Ruu was a small woman but very strong, so she made up for Sheera Ruu’s shortcomings in order to allow her daughter to immerse herself in manning the stove.

Since her family helped her out so much, she felt that the least she could do was give her all in the kitchen. Just chopping meat and vegetables and heating them up was enough to man the stove, but there were numerous tricks that could be done in ways that weren’t necessarily visible.

For example, meat was easier to eat if you cut it along the tendons. If aria were heated too long they got mushy, but if you heated them too little they had a sharp taste and remained hard. And so, she enjoyed experimenting as she cooked, seeing how strong of a flame she should use and how long she should cook it for.

Naturally, those tricks never got across to her family. No matter how she did it, her family looked satisfied as they ate, which was also what was expected of the people of the forest’s edge. It wasn’t permitted for any of them to complain about taste.

And so, the tricks she used while manning the stove provided nothing but personal satisfaction. But even so, she felt earnestly happy when her mother Tari Ruu praised her skills.

“When it comes to manning the stove, nobody could possibly beat you. Could you teach me about adjusting the flame again?”

Tari Ruu must have said that because she saw the guilt that her daughter was feeling. And yet, it still made Sheera Ruu happy to hear.

After that, the mother and daughter pair experimented with all sorts of cooking tricks.

There were also some people that Sheera Ruu secretly admired: the four daughters of the main Ruu house.

They possessed the sort of strength and brilliance that you would expect from members of the main house of the Ruu clan, which had over 100 members to its name.

The eldest daughter, Vina Ruu, was an incredibly beautiful woman. And she had wonderful charm as a woman not just on the outside but on the inside too, so the number of men wanting to marry her was endless.

The next daughter, Reina Ruu, was also quite a beauty. She was overshadowed by her older sister, as she was on the short side and had a bit of a childish appearance, but her charm was no less. And unlike Vina Ruu, who was hard to get a read on what she was thinking, Reina Ruu was very bright and kind, and she seemed like the ideal woman of the forest’s edge.

The third daughter, Lala Ruu, was still just 12 years old, so she was more than a little blunt with her emotions. However, she had a side to her that was even wiser and more full of affection than her older sisters, too. Sheera Ruu’s little brother Shin Ruu was friends with her, so she was the one she had the most contact with. Thanks to that, she got to know the girl’s true nature surprisingly quickly.

The youngest daughter, Rimee Ruu, was an innocent, adorable eight year old girl. You just naturally broke out in a smile when you saw her, as she was so endlessly charming. Sheera Ruu couldn’t help but think how blessed she would feel if such a girl were her younger sister or daughter.

Sheera Ruu truly admired those girls.

They were so far above her that she didn’t even feel jealous of them, either. In fact, she even felt proud of the fact that they were her relatives.

However, sometimes she would have her doubts.

Why was she the way that she was?

They were especially closely related, even for relatives. Her dad Ryada Ruu was the younger brother of their father, Donda Ruu.

Ryada Ruu was a splendid hunter, and her mother Tari Ruu was in no way lacking as a wife. Her younger brothers would surely grow into wonderful hunters, too. The eldest of them, Shin Ruu, was already doing a fantastic job hunting alongside their father.

So why couldn’t she live dauntlessly like that?

Sheera Ruu was already 18, but not a single man had offered to marry her. That was how pathetic of a woman she was.

That made sense, though. She was no longer forced to stay in bed with illness like when she was young, but she still couldn’t even carry a water jug on her own. She wasn’t pretty, either. So why would any member of the forest’s edge want her?

The only hope she had was to marry into one of the clans under the Ruu. Small clans like the Ririn, Maam, and Muufa would surely welcome her just for being a Ruu woman. After all, they all served under the Ruu clan.

But then, they were sure to be disappointed. Even if she was a Ruu woman, that didn’t mean she held the power of her clan in any way.

Vina and Reina Ruu weren’t married yet either, but for them they were surely just waiting for the right man. That just made sense, as they were members of the main house. Surely, there wasn’t a man at the forest’s edge who would turn down such lovely women as his bride.

But Sheera Ruu was already 18. Three years had passed since she was able to receive such requests. Her house only had her and her mother, but there were plenty of other women in the settlement, so it probably wouldn’t be any issue at all if she wasn’t around. The time came when she firmed up her resolve, and decided she just had to marry into one of the clans under them already.

But I...

She wanted to stay in the Ruu settlement for just a bit longer.

There was someone whose future she absolutely wanted to watch play out.

If she could see him get married, then surely she could work up the nerve. She could separate herself from her family and leave the Ruu settlement to live somewhere else.

Sheera Ruu lived with such thoughts secretly floating around her mind, but then they came to the Ruu settlement: Asuta and Ai Fa of the Fa clan.

“Well, thanks to them, Granny Jiba’s been doing a lot better lately,” Lala Ruu had told her.

She said that after being invited to the Ruu settlement by Rimee Ruu, they had given the elder Jiba Ruu back the will to live through a single dinner.

For some reason, hearing that caused her to tremble.

“You ate the same meal, didn’t you, Lala Ruu? Just what sort of dinner was it?”

“Hmm, well you see... how should I put it? At any rate, it had a totally unbelievable taste.”

“An unbelievable taste...”

“It was supposedly giba meat, but you would never think it was! The grilled and boiled meat had this really nice, gentle smell... Hmm, I don’t think I can really explain it right.”

“But at any rate, it was really amazing cooking, right?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t feel like coming out and praising it like everyone else! Plus my dad got all angry, saying cooking like that rusts the soul.”

“I see...”

However, less than half a month after that, Lala Ruu visited Sheera Ruu’s house again, looking like she didn’t know what to say.

“Asuta and Ai Fa came to the house again yesterday. And last night’s dinner was just plain delicious, with nothing to complain about... Agh, geez, it’s so frustrating!”

A delicious meal.

Just what must such a thing taste like?

Sheera Ruu felt a strange beating in her chest once again.

Then the very next day, it was announced under the clan head Donda Ruu’s name that Asuta of the Fa clan would man the stove for the Rutim and Min clan wedding.

Asuta started staying at the Ruu settlement five days before the banquet, and on the second day he was there Sheera Ruu was invited to assist him.

“Ah, you’re one of the helpers from the branch families, right? I’m probably going to be asking a lot of you, but I look forward to working together.”

Asuta was a truly unusual man.

He had a slender physique like a woman, and his expressions and overall manner came across as very gentle. His skin was the sort of sunny tan shade she had seen with folks from the west in the post town, but his eyes and hair were black like someone from the east.

And he felt a bit different from the people of the post town, too. It was hard to say how, but Asuta was a strange person who fit the word “foreigner,” not feeling like anyone else she had ever seen.

On top of that, Sheera Ruu was completely overwhelmed when she first tasted Asuta’s cooking.

Just like Lala Ruu had said, it was hard to describe the giba meat that used that special technique called bloodletting, but it was clearly delicious.

And furthermore, Asuta used fruit wine, pico leaves, and rock salt to bring forth all sorts of new flavors like magic. He didn’t just boil the poitan but instead dried it out and then baked it. Then the poitan-less broth went down nice and easy, plus the vegetables like aria, chatchi, and tarapa were used in a totally different way to create an entirely new dish.

He could do this much, knew this many tricks for manning the stove? Compared to Asuta, what she had done was mere child’s play.

Sheera Ruu kept on silently helping Asuta with such thoughts running through her mind, but...

“Sheera Ruu, you seem really used to handling a knife and managing the flame,” Asuta suddenly stated two days before the banquet. “I was thinking that on the day of the banquet, I would have you and your mother Tari Ruu take charge of preparing the hamburger in the main house’s kitchen.”

The “hamburger” dish that Asuta mentioned was the most difficult to handle out of all the dishes he had come up with. Meat finely chopped, mixed with aria and thickened with poitan, then formed back into a patty and seared in an exact way to trap the juices inside, served with fruit wine sauce.

Sheera Ruu was at a loss for words, but by her side Tari Ruu had a big smile on her face.

“That’s an honor. My daughter is better than anyone at manning the stove, so I guess her skill rubbed off on me a bit as a result.”

“Yes, that’s true. Sheera Ruu, you really are amazing,” Asuta said, also wearing a smile. “I can tell how you’re thinking carefully even about how you cut the meat. So please, lend me your strength.”

Somehow, those words made her feel like she had ascended to the heavens.

Sheera Ruu had never even dreamed someone as wonderfully skilled as Asuta would recognize her abilities at manning the stove.

She was able to surprise her family by incorporating the skills Asuta had taught her into the dinners she prepared, too. Her littlest brothers couldn’t stop exclaiming how delicious it was, and even the untalkative Ryada and Shin Ruu looked incredibly satisfied as they ate.

In that way, she was able to grant her family happiness.

Asuta had once said that he wanted to be a medicine rather than a poison, bringing the people of the forest’s edge greater strength through that joy. He may have been a foreigner, but using that unbelievable strength, he was finding his own place at the forest’s edge. Sheera Ruu couldn’t help but be impressed at his incredible confidence and resolve.

She was undoubtedly a member of the forest’s edge, but all she could do was hesitate and worry. But Asuta made food with every bit as much force to it as a blade, and had his strength acknowledged in turn.

He may have looked weak and soft on the outside, but inside Asuta there was surely pride and bravery that wouldn’t lose out to any of the hunters.

Perhaps...

Perhaps she could live proudly like Asuta, too.

She may have been far weaker than the other women, but she was able to make delicious cooking. So could she take pride in that, and live with her head held high?

Even after the Rutim banquet ended and Asuta left the Ruu settlement, such thoughts still ran through her head.

And when a mere ten more days had passed, Sheera Ruu received another report from Lala Ruu.

“They said they need more people for the shop in the post town! My mom Mia Lea said they were thinking of giving that work to me and you, so what do you say?”

For a moment, Sheera Ruu was left at a loss as to how to respond.

Her thoughts were full of the question of why she would be entrusted with such an important task, as well as joy at the thought of getting to work with Asuta again.

“Apparently Asuta said he wanted at least one woman who was skilled at manning the stove. That’s why you got chosen, Sheera Ruu!”

“But... There’s still Reina Ruu from the main house, isn’t there?”

“Hmm, but the main house is already loaning Vina. If both of the oldest sisters weren’t around, it’d make it real tough to do work around the house, right? So if you turn this down, I’m sure we’ll have to loan out Reina and someone else from a branch family, and ask for help with the work around the main house.”

Sheera Ruu stared at Lala Ruu with eyes full of both excitement and concern. Lala Ruu had completely opened up to Asuta, so she must have asked to help out with the work in the post town.

“Still, it’d be rough for you to have to carry a pot or whatever all the way to town. So it’s up to you to decide what you want to do!”

Sheera Ruu was at a loss. She still wasn’t all that strong. In fact, a little bit of pride had only just started to take root in the depths of her heart. But if that tiny bud wasn’t given the light and water it needed, it would shrivel up and die in no time at all.

And so, Sheera Ruu stared Lala Ruu straight in the eyes the best she could manage and responded, “I’ll do it. Please, let me help out with that work.”

So that she could live proudly like Asuta.

So that she didn’t have to hide away her own feelings.

With such thoughts racing through her mind, Sheera Ruu had firmed up her resolve and taken a step forward.