Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.4

4

My heart was pounding in my chest like an alarm bell.

Ai Fa’s warmth and scent had stolen away my normal mental faculties. As she leaned over me... she stretched her arm out past my body, towards the wall.

“Don’t move... If you do, it will create a disturbance in the air,” she whispered quietly, returning to her original position. However, her one hand remained over my mouth. As for her other hand, it was gripping her sword, which had been leaning against the wall. “Until just a moment ago, someone was peering into this room through the window. Now, they’ve circled around to the back of the house.”

Ah, so that was it. I could feel the strength drain from my whole body as my stupid misconception was cleared away.

This was no time to relax, though. Just a few days ago we had been attacked in our sleep and ended up with our backs against the wall.

Just who was trying to do what this time? I couldn’t even so much as sense anyone, so I had no idea.

“They’re on the far end of the room to the left. That’s exactly where the window is... Two years ago, the eldest son of the Suun broke that window’s lattice and entered the house.”

That was an incredibly ominous coincidence.

However, Diga had been taken away to the Dom clan at the northern end of the forest’s edge, alongside Doddo and Tei. Plus, they were regarded as dangerous due to their actions up until now, so they were surely being granted even less freedom than Mida.

“I’m going to head outside to see what’s going on. You wait here in the house. Once I leave, bolt the door while taking care not to make a sound.” I couldn’t talk right now, so instead I shook my head and gently grabbed hold of Ai Fa’s wrist. In return, she blinked her eyes and looked a bit annoyed. “Our lives could be in danger if they use a strange herb again or try to set the house ablaze. Don’t worry. At the most, there are two of them. And I’m not so helpless that they would get the better of me.”

I stared back at Ai Fa with as firm of a glare as I could manage. This time, she shot me back a bit of a strained smile.

“Even if they happen to be more skilled than me, I’ll lure them towards the Lanto River and knock them in. And besides, I couldn’t move freely with you by my side. Just wait here and pray that things go well for me.”

I silently stared back at her.

“It’s alright. I swear to you, I won’t pointlessly risk my life.”

With that, Ai Fa finally removed her hand from my mouth. Then, with her now free fingers, she pointed to the center of her chest.

“I’m certain your prayers will ward off all possible disaster.”

The blue stone I had given her must have been dangling there.

Keeping a grasp on Ai Fa’s wrist, I finally stood up.

“I’m heading outside... Don’t make a sound, alright?” Ai Fa said with the daring grin of a hunter as she also rose to her feet. Her movements really didn’t so much as stir the air. I wasn’t a hunter, though, so I had to move as slowly and carefully as I could manage just to not creak the floorboards.

After she crept smoothly over to the door like some sort of wild animal, Ai Fa handed the loose bolt to me, then brought her face in close again.

“I’ll close the door, and then you’ll have to bolt it. No matter what, don’t set a foot outside until I call out to you, alright?”

With that Ai Fa carefully pulled the door open, glanced around the darkness, then slipped outside. The door closed once again, and I asked myself, What in the world is going on? as I bolted it shut.

The threat of the Suun clan was gone now, so why was the Fa house getting uninvited guests? Could it be one of those men from the Ratsu and Gaaz who proposed to Ai Fa?

Regardless of who it was, they couldn’t be up to anything proper if they were peering into someone else’s home this late at night. At any rate, after bolting the door, I crept over near the stove, relying on the moonlight to guide me.

Atop a board sat my cooking, vegetable, and everyday knives. I grabbed the blade that Ai Fa’s father had left behind and hung it from my waist.

It’s fine... No matter who it is, they won’t get the better of Ai Fa so easily.

Just as that thought passed through my head, a man cried out, “Gyah!” from behind the house. That was followed by the dull thump of something hitting the wall, then a groan that called to mind an animal being strangled.

After that, it went silent.

I worked up my nerve and lit a candlestick with lana leaves, then headed towards a door further into the house. Naturally, I picked the furthest left of the three. The room was a storage area for firewood that was drying, lumber, saws, and other such things that we didn’t use all that often. I opened the door slowly so as not to make a sound, then stepped inside.

The window was all the way in, on the opposite wall. I approached and held up the candlestick, only to see the side of Ai Fa’s face from unexpectedly close, a hunter-like glare blazing in her eyes.

“So you came, Asuta... Well, that’s fine. In that case, hand me that candlestick.” Following her instructions, I passed it to Ai Fa through the lattice. Her gaze was fixated on one point in the darkness and she held her blade at the ready, so she took the candlestick with her free hand. “Don’t come out here no matter what, Asuta. There’s no guarantee that these fools were acting alone.”

“R-Right. But are you okay? And what fools do you...?” I started to ask while grabbing onto the wooden lattice, when my gaze was drawn to follow Ai Fa’s.

Out in the dark, I could see someone cowering. It was a man, and he seemed to be pretty well built. He didn’t have a pelt cloak, but the swirling patterns on his clothing marked him as a man of the forest’s edge.

“You shameless fools. I never imagined even you would go and do something so stupid. You’ve gone and trampled all over your final chance at atonement.”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong! We didn’t mean you any harm at all!” a young man’s voice yelled, clearly having lost all restraint. The voice was hoarser than I remembered, making it sound like it had come from a different person entirely... but there was no way I would ever mistake it.

“What... What are you doing here?!” I shouted, my voice coming out even angrier than I had expected.

In the darkness, I could see that curled-up man twitch in surprise, and then he replied in a sorrowful tone, “P-Please, believe me. We honestly didn’t run away with that in mind... W-We came to save you... And to have you save us, too!”

Though he was down on his knees, he looked up towards Ai Fa and tried to crawl her way. Without hesitation, Ai Fa thrust the tip of her blade right in front of his nose, causing the large man to wail, “Gyah!” and fall back.

With that, the pale moonlight illuminated his face... It was noticeably more gaunt then I remembered and was coated in dirt and tears, but that was undoubtedly the face of the former eldest son of the main Suun house.

“Fools... There’s no reason you deserve salvation. If you can’t even properly carry out your work as hunters, then you should simply die out in the forest.”

“No, I’m telling you, you’ve got it wrong! We didn’t run away from the Dom clan... Well, I guess we did, but still, it’s not what you think! I’m begging you! Please save us!”

“I don’t get what you’re saying. Asuta, there should be a bundle of vines in that room. Pass it to me. I’ll bind their limbs and then hand them over to the Dom clan.”

“Hold on! If you send us back to the Dom clan like this, they really will take our scalps!” he yelped in a terrified panic, his eyes making it look like he was on the verge of losing all sanity as he glanced around the darkness. “B-But alright! If you want to bind us, then go right ahead! We won’t resist! And we won’t run from the Dom again, either! You absolutely have my word! But before that, please just listen to what we have to say... And let us in your house as soon as possible! If he followed us, he may kill you too, Ai Fa!”

“Who is ‘he’? You should be the only ones here at the forest’s edge who would try to do us harm.”

“T-That’s not true! He must hate you two for destroying the Suun clan! So if you don’t want to die, then hurry up and let us in! He’s seriously a monster... No matter how strong you may be, there’s no way you could hold him back!”

“Tell me who you mean, already. Your words have been completely incoherent.”

The former eldest son of the main Suun house, Diga, finally broke out in a smile as he sobbed, and in a weak, trembling voice replied, “Zattsu Suun... The former clan head, Zattsu Suun! We ran away from him! I’m begging you! Please, let us in your house before he catches up to us!”

◇

Ultimately, we ended up welcoming our uninvited guests into the house.

There were two of them in total: Diga and Doddo. I hadn’t been able to see from where I was standing, but apparently Ai Fa had knocked Doddo over with a strike from the flat of her blade, then stepped on his back.

Anyway, our uninvited guests were currently seated on the ground, limply hanging their heads. Naturally, their arms were tied behind their backs and their legs were similarly bound, with only thirty centimeters of give. With that, they would be able to walk, but couldn’t run.

On top of that, they were unarmed from the start. They had run from the Dom clan with no blades or hunter attire, just the clothing on the backs.

“Zattsu Suun was being held by the Jeen clan as a prisoner, wasn’t he? So what do you mean by saying you want to be saved from him?” Ai Fa questioned, glaring at Diga and Doddo while sitting with one knee up in the air.

“Z-Zattsu Suun is the one who took us away from the Dom. He set fire to their settlement, and while they were running around in a panic, he came to save us... And so we fled the Dom clan together with him and Tei Suun...”

“Oh, so you ran away of your own will, then?”

“W-We didn’t exactly have a choice! He told us to either run away with him or stay there and die! If we defied him, he would’ve killed us then and there! That’s the sort of bastard Zattsu Suun is...”

That “bastard” was his own grandfather, though. It would be one thing for someone like Tei Suun from the branch families, but it was strange to refer to someone so closely related to you like that.

“But that Zattsu Suun man was terribly ill, wasn’t he? From what I heard, he was little more than a heap of dried skin and bones, and nobody was sure whether or not he would even survive the journey to the Jeen settlement.”

“Yeah, for the past few years, he had grown so weak that he couldn’t even walk on his own... But when he learned that the Suun clan had fallen, that must have resurrected him... He still looks like skin and bones, but those eyes... T-Those eyes were like they used to be, back before he fell ill. He would have died before long, but now he’s gotten back all the strength he used to have...” Diga said, his body starting to tremble once again.

Next to him, Doddo silently stared at the floor.

Both of them had emaciated cheeks, their faces were filthy, and dirt and leaves clung to their bodies all over. There wasn’t even a speck of the haughty pride they used to exude left in them. Had their spirits been worn down over the course of just three days, or were they that afraid of Zattsu Suun...? Honestly, it was probably both.

“Zattsu Suun said he would place the Suun clan back in charge. That he would bring judgment crashing down on the fools who betrayed us, and make us the leaders of the forest’s edge again...” Doddo chimed in. He sounded subdued and gloomy. Was that really his voice? That tone made him seem like an entirely different person, even more so than his gaunt appearance.

“T-That’s right! I thought for sure he was thinking of saving the rest of the family and leaving the forest’s edge... B-But then he started going on about that insanity...”

“If you thought it was insane, then shouldn’t you have told him as such when he came to you?”

“W-We said everything we could! We told him that folks from the Ruu clan were still at the Suun settlement, and that all the clans under us had joined together with them, and that we couldn’t possibly fight back against them now!”

“And then... he laughed,” Doddo added, his voice trembling helplessly. His dark blue eyes had once looked like those of a mad dog as he glared at us, but now he was clinging to us for help.

“He said the four of us were plenty, then he cackled like some sort of demon. He laughed like a madman, saying we could just rescue the clan head Zuuro and everyone else once we took back our right to lead and restored the proper order to the forest’s edge...”

“A-And so, we ran away while he was sleeping!”

“It sounds like that man’s mind has been addled with illness, too. What could he do with a mere four men?”

“H-He couldn’t do anything, right? All we could think of was attacking you all or the Ruu clan head,” Diga said, glancing back and forth at me and Ai Fa with a truly pathetic look in his eyes. “I-If he learned how the Suun clan fell, then he’ll surely want revenge against the Fa clan most of all for revealing our crimes, right? So that’s why we...”

“So you’re saying you came to warn us of this danger, then? In that case, why didn’t you just knock on the door to begin with?”

“Y-You two hate us, don’t you? We figured you wouldn’t open up if we did that, so we decided to look for a way to sneak in...”

“Did you really believe you could earn someone’s trust like that?” Ai Fa retorted in a harsher tone, causing Diga to curl up in a ball and shriek.

“Eek!”

It was utterly absurd, but by this point it felt more pathetic than anything. At least, that was the impression that I got.

Ai Fa rustled her hair, which was still down, and shot me an irritated look.

“What do you think, Asuta?”

“Huh? Well, let’s see... There’s one thing I’d like to confirm first. What happened to Tei?”

“T-Tei Suun said his fate was tied to Zattsu Suun’s. So we left him behind...”

“Is that true?”

“I-It really is! Even when Zattsu Suun was laughing like a madman, he just watched with that same vacant gaze as always. By this point, he probably isn’t even capable of forming his own thoughts...”

I got a bit angry hearing that, since it was the members of the main house who pushed the branch families to that point.

And I still hadn’t gotten a chance to ask Tei about that matter with Ai Fa yet. Was he the one who saved her on the night of the clan head meeting?

Had he become a threat to the forest’s edge again in spite of that?

With such complex emotions swishing around inside me, I continued on, “In that case, how did Zattsu Suun escape from the Jeen clan? He and Zuuro Suun were being treated as criminals and were constantly watched, right?”

“I-I’ve got no idea about all that, but... Z-Zattsu Suun’s face and clothing were dyed red with someone else’s blood, and he had a sword. There’s no way one or two men could possibly stop that monster...”

A skeleton of a man standing in the midst of a blazing settlement, coated in the blood of the people of the forest’s edge... The thought alone was enough to send a chill running down my spine. As for Diga, his teeth were chattering and he had gone pale.

“A-At night, they tied our arms together and bound us to a pillar. But the house we were in also caught fire, and the Dom women removed our bindings. We hurried outside in a panic, and that’s when Zattsu Suun appeared...”

“He told us to run away with him or die where we stood, then he thrust blades at us. The whole settlement was ablaze, so that had all the men’s attention, but I think a number of the women must have seen him...”

Doddo seemed to have a bit more of his wits left about him than Diga.

I gave a deep sigh, then turned back towards Ai Fa.

“Well... I figure they’re probably more or less telling the truth. If they wanted to attack us, they would have brought Tei along, right?”

A completely unarmed Diga and Doddo would never be any match for Ai Fa. But if Tei had come along and had a blade, how would that turn out...? I didn’t want to imagine it.

As for Ai Fa, she looked completely and utterly calm. I’d even say she would be glad to find that Zattsu and Tei Suun really had followed after these numbskulls and showed up here.

She was confident for sure. I just couldn’t help but think that I didn’t want to see Ai Fa cutting someone down, though.

Knowing nothing of those thoughts running through my head, Ai Fa just kept glaring at the pair.

“So, what were you two even intending? We really have no choice but to hand you back over to the Dom clan.”

“T-That’s fine! But could you at least tell the Dom that we weren’t the ones who set their settlement on fire, and that Zattsu Suun threatened us and left us with no choice but to flee...?”

“There’s no way I would say such a thing. Unless the Dom women happened to overhear your conversation, there’s no way to know what really happened.”

“Ah! But then the Dom really will kill us!”

Ai Fa placed her elbow atop her raised knee, rested her cheek on her hand, then gave a heavy sigh.

“Do you two have no pride whatsoever? You once heaped abuse upon us, so how can you bow your heads and tearfully say such things to us now? If I were in your position, I’d want to peel my own scalp.”

“A-Are you still angry about the past? If so, then I’ll apologize as much as it takes! I was just completely taken with your charm! I really did want to take you as a bride back then! And I didn’t intend in the least to ever cause the two of you harm!”

“Oh? But didn’t you say something about dumping me down into the bottom of the valley if I didn’t marry you?”

“W-We’d never kill one of our people! That was just an empty threat! I’m begging you! Please believe me!” Diga said, bowing so deeply his forehead touched the carpet.

Ai Fa scratched her head again, then shot Doddo an intense glare.

“Then what about you, former second son? You pointed your blade at Asuta and the Ruu men, didn’t you? And the mark left by your violence remains on Asuta’s stomach even now.”

“I-I was at fault...”

“What fault is that?”

“I-I drank and got a big head... When I didn’t like someone, I couldn’t just leave them be... I had a short temper...” His voice sounded seriously gloomy. He really reminded me of a wild dog that was wasting away to nothing. And those eyes of his were intently staring at us through his loose and disheveled hair. “Y-You probably won’t believe me when I say it at this point, but... I really do feel grateful that I didn’t harm you when the booze was spurring me on... I-I’m not a strong enough person to kill someone and then just go on like nothing happened...”

Those words had a powerful impact on me. This may well have been a once in a lifetime chance to determine what these hopeless men were really like.

“Diga, could you raise your face, too?”

Diga slowly did as I said. His face was flat, and looked childish in an unflattering way, contrasting with his large frame. Meanwhile, Doddo had gone from looking like a wild dog to a shriveling old hound instead. He had been small to begin with, and now that he had lost his ferocity, he looked so pathetic it was hard to imagine that he really was a man of the forest’s edge.

Zattsu Suun’s escape was a serious matter. The plan was to have Zattsu and Zuuro Suun atone for their sins with their lives, and on top of that, that intention had already been reported to the Genos castle. If he wasn’t captured tonight, it would obliterate the reputation of the people of the forest’s edge with them.

Thanks to that, I couldn’t imagine the Dom and Jeen clan heads forgiving Diga and Doddo. The same would be true with Donda Ruu and Gulaf Zaza. That made it all the more important for us to suss out the intentions of these massive fools.

“Diga, earlier you said you would never kill one of your fellow people of the forest’s edge, but what about if it was someone from town?”

“Someone from town?” Diga repeated with a tilt of his head, reminding me of an especially dense bull. “W-Why are we talking about the town, all of the sudden? I don’t get what you mean at all...”

“I mean, to the people of the forest’s edge the townsfolk are like your enemies, right? So I figured maybe you could hurt someone like that without feeling bad about it,” I said in as frivolous of a tone as I could manage.

Ai Fa’s eyes narrowed and she looked suspicious, but fortunately she ultimately stayed silent.

“H-Haven’t you been doing good business with the townsfolk? And wait, don’t you come from a town to begin with...?”

“I did, but I wasn’t born in Genos. To be honest, I’m disgusted by the way they look down on the people of the forest’s edge. And most of the folks who buy my cooking come from the south and east, anyway.”

“Ah, so that’s how it is... B-But I don’t really know. I don’t go to town very often...”

“Eh? Why’s that?”

“I mean... They’re frightening, aren’t they...?”

With that I completely forgot I was acting and let loose a loud, “Huh?”

Both of Diga’s shoulders twitched, so I had seemingly scared him with that.

“T-They shoot us such awful glares just because we’re people of the forest’s edge, you know? And if you go and walk on your own without being careful, you never know who could drag you into the shadows and do something to you... So I haven’t been to town in years...”

His statement left me at a loss for words. However, I calmed myself and now turned towards Doddo.

“Then what about you? When we first met you in the post town, you were trying to draw your blade on one of the townsfolk.”

“I hate the people from there... They’re all enemies to the forest’s edge.”

“Uh-huh. So that’s why you kidnapped women, attacked travelers, and pillaged fields?”

“Huh?” Doddo questioned, his small eyes opening wide.

Now that I thought of it, he had a rather grim-looking face that reminded me of a lion dog statue, but since he was Diga’s younger brother, he must have been around my age. And with his eyes going wide like that, he finally looked it.

“I’ve got no interest in the women around town. And why would I steal from the fields? If I did that, the guards wouldn’t just overlook it.”

“No, but what about from fields that aren’t protected by the guards?”

“I would never know where those are. And besides... We’ve been filling our stomachs with the bounty of the forest, so why would we go steal food from town?”

“Hmm? But there’s a lot of talk about town of people of the forest’s edge doing that stuff.”

“They must be talking about way in the past, then. That must have been before we started taking food from the forest, back when we were little kids.”

“Yeah, back then we ate aria and poitan like everyone else,” Diga nonchalantly chimed in.

I see... I thought to myself. It was true that Dora had never mentioned when that stuff happened. And if it was just ten years and some change ago, then it wasn’t all that long in the past. If people of the forest’s edge pillaged fields back then, it wouldn’t be strange at all for rumors of such things to still persist. It was possible Dora had suffered from such acts back when he was young, too.

That wasn’t a matter for me to be thinking over on my own right this second, though. After all, if I just asked Dora later, I could probably more or less work out the timeframe.

“Are you trying to figure out who did that stuff...?” Doddo asked, his gloomy gaze facing my way. “In that case, it was Zattsu Suun. Our father Zuuro was afraid of souring our relationship with Genos above all else, and Diga and I hate the town. Zattsu Suun is the only one who would try to do that stuff to the townsfolk.”

“Hmm. So you intend to pin all the blame on the former clan head, do you?” Ai Fa questioned in a chilly tone, causing Doddo’s face to pathetically freeze while Diga powerlessly hung his head.

“You’ve already gone and exposed the greatest crimes that we’ve committed. We’re just saying we had no reason to kidnap women from around town or steal food or whatever. I don’t really care if you believe us about that or not, though... It’s not like the lord of Genos has the guts to pass judgment on the people of the forest’s edge, anyway.”

That wasn’t true. In fact, just a few hours earlier Gazraan Rutim had advised that we shouldn’t leave those crimes unresolved.

However, these two were unaware of that fact. That must be why they didn’t feel such a strong need to defend themselves against those accusations. And so... It was possible everything they were saying was true.

“Hey, more importantly, about the Dom—” Diga started to pathetically whine, only for a violent knocking on the door to sound out.

Diga and Doddo froze in place as if they had been petrified, while Ai Fa grabbed the sword laying by her side.

“Clan head of the Fa, if you’re still alive, then wake up! We’re from the Dom clan!”

The tension drained from me when I heard that shout brimming with anger, while Ai Fa gave a small sigh. However, Diga and Doddo’s faces became even more pale and corpse-like.

“Some men of the Suun set fire to the Dom settlement and fled! Are you still alive, clan head of the Fa?!”

“I’m fine! I’m coming to the door now!” Ai Fa responded with a voice like a taut leather whip. Then she stood up, only for Diga and Doddo to stare up at her with eyes full of despair.

With a firm stride, Ai Fa approached the door.

“You have my gratitude for coming so late at night to warn us of this danger. You said men of the Suun clan had fled, but who precisely did you mean?” Ai Fa asked through the door. With that, the man on the other side seemed to regain a bit of his calm.

“So you’re alright after all, then? That will help preserve a bit of the Dom clan’s honor... The ones who fled were the three men entrusted to our Dom clan, as well as the former clan head who was being held by the Jeen. The Jeen man watching the previous clan head had his throat bit and torn and his blade stolen. From there, he fled from the Jeen and set fire to the Dom settlement, then set his three brethren free!”

“Hmm... So for now, it seems they weren’t lying...” Ai Fa quietly muttered while crossing her arms.

“Did you say something? And is your clan member fine, too? If so, then you can get back to resting. We men of the Dom clan will protect the Fa house. We will wash away this disgrace with the blood of those traitors from the Suun clan!”

So those frightening men wearing giba skulls had come in full force, huh?

Diga started violently trembling once again, while Doddo’s head sunk down deeply and it looked like he had given up on everything.

After shooting them an unconcerned glance, Ai Fa called out, “I’m grateful for your concern, but there’s something I have to tell you first. I captured the former first and second sons of the Suun clan by my own hand.”

“What?!” the angry voice bellowed again, and the door violently jolted.

“Agh...” Diga moaned, then he fell prostrate.

“Is that true?! Those traitors are in there?! In that case, open this door immediately, clan head of the Fa!”

“I will shortly. So please, don’t destroy my door, man of the Dom. However, before I do so, I have a question I wish to ask. They don’t seem to have come here to take our lives. Apparently, they fled in fear from Zattsu Suun, the very man who helped them escape from the Dom settlement.”

“Stop messing around and open up! Hand them over to us!”

“I will, of course. But you will hand them over to the leaders of our people so their fates can be properly deliberated, rather than immediately chopping their heads off, won’t you? They insist that the former clan head threatened them with a blade and forced them to flee. So if they had a change of heart and returned on their own, then wouldn’t that do a bit to absolve their crimes?”

“They sullied the Dom’s pride and trampled over our trust! There’s nothing left but to send their heads flying! So hurry up and open this door already!”

“If that’s the case, then I won’t open it. If that is the consensus the Dom have come to, then call for the three leading clan heads. Then if I hear enough to satisfy me, I’ll open the door,” Ai Fa stated, turning away and looking back towards us.

At some point, Diga and Doddo had turned just their heads to be facing Ai Fa. Thanks to that, I could only see the backs of their heads from where I was sitting, but Ai Fa had her arms crossed and was clearly annoyed.

“What’s with that look?! Don’t look at me with those eyes!”