Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 8 - Chapter 3.3

3

After the sun hit its peak the following day, I had arrived at The Sledgehammer with the same group as before.

“Sorry for the wait, but these are the dishes I made with the pickled chitt.”

With that, I placed two plates each in front of Nail and Shumiral, who were standing there expressionlessly.

For the chitt stew, I reheated what I had made at home, whereas the giba chitt was prepared fresh here in this kitchen.

When it was heated up, the aroma of the pickled chitt was seriously amplified. And though Vina and Shin Ruu maintained polite, neutral expressions, they casually evacuated over towards the window.

“I see. These certainly are different from dishes made with raw chitt. I look forward to trying them,” Nail stated, grabbing his plate of giba chitt. “Still, doesn’t purchasing the pickled chitt from me add quite a bit to the cost of ingredients? Will you be able to turn a profit like this?”

“Yes. The cost of making these dishes is around double that of my other ones, but it would take a good bit longer to prepare something using raw chitt, so I figured it would be good to go with this.”

Using raw chitt seeds would certainly bring my costs down quite a bit. However, I figured it would require quite a bit of experimentation to come up with dishes that could match these ones that used Nail’s homemade pickled chitt.

Of course, I did intend to try my hand at coming up with such dishes from here on out. After all, I didn’t want to just rest on my laurels because I could get giba meat for so cheap right now, and go around treating costs as some sort of secondary concern.

And besides, Shumiral would be leaving Genos in less than half a month. And so, I wanted to present him with the best possible dish, here and now. That was another reason I was going forward with the giba chitt and chitt stew.

“Well then, thank you for this food.”

Nail and Shumiral both picked up their spoons, and the two of them started with the giba chitt.

And after eating that one bite, Shumiral’s narrow eyes opened wider than I had ever seen before. However, rather than offering any impressions, he instead grabbed the chitt stew and sipped some, then silently closed his eyes.

“What do you think?” I hesitantly questioned.

That was instantly drowned out by the loud shout of, “Delicious!” though.

Naturally, that had come from Nail rather than Shumiral. The inn owner was standing there trembling as he held the plate of giba chitt.

“What a striking flavor! It really is the taste of my pickled chitt, but that’s not all, is it? Myamuu? Is that what you added?”

Mere seconds ago the man had been just as expressionless as Shumiral, but now he was facing me with a look of clear astonishment.

“Ah, y-yes, that’s right. And I also used a bit of tau oil.”

“Tau oil, is it?! Hmm, this is delicious! Still, the real clincher is clearly the giba meat! It just goes perfectly with the pickled chitt!” With that, Nail grabbed hold of the chitt stew and audibly slurped some down. “This is great, too! The flavor has such depth to it! It’s completely and utterly different from a stew made by just adding crushed chitt seeds! I never imagined pickled chitt could be used like this... Ah, it’s so good! I feel like I could eat plate after plate of it!”

“I-I’m honored.”

As I stood there utterly dumbfounded, Nail finished gulping down the chitt stew in no time flat. I didn’t know if it was from his excitement or the spiciness of the chitt seeds, but his pale skin had gone bright red and he was sweating heavily.

“This is absolutely certain to make my customers happy! Ahh, to think my pickled chitt could be used to make such dishes! You’re just as skilled a chef as I had heard, Asuta! I must give my thanks to both the western god Selva and the eastern god Sym for having been given the chance to meet you! This cooking is just so—!” Nail exclaimed, only to suddenly snap back to his senses and turn in a panic towards Shumiral.

The youth from Sym looked back at the inn owner with just as expressionless of a face as always.

“I-I’m so sorry! I went and so openly exposed my emotions in front of you, a customer from the east...”

“It is, no issue. You are, a precious friend, Nail,” Shumiral calmly responded. Even so, Nail remained red-faced and hanging his head.

“What did you think, Shumiral?” I threw out there, feeling a little awkward thanks to the long silence.

The man from Sym turned my way, his eyes narrowed even more than Jiza Ruu’s.

“It was, very delicious... More so, than any other dish, I have tasted.”

With that, for the first time ever, I saw the corners of his thin lips lift up ever so slightly, forming a clear yet subtle and gentle smile.

“I am also, embarrassed to show, such emotion... But it is, very tasty.”

“Th-Thank you very much.”

I could feel a bit of a lump forming in my throat.

Meanwhile, Nail had pulled out a hand towel to wipe away his sweat, then stated, “Ah, that really was a surprise,” sounding like he had mostly regained his composure. “They’re both delicious. I honestly don’t feel like I could choose between them. Would it be possible to offer both, changing each day?”

“I don’t mind, but this soup dish requires time to boil. If it’s alright, I would prefer if you could keep heating it with a light flame until the meat gets soft after I finish up and leave...”

“That’s no issue. I’ll turn a profit just from you buying thirty orders of pickled chitt each day, so I’ll gladly accept that task.”

Apparently, the number had been set at 30 meals at some point.

And with that, my work with The Sledgehammer was fully set in place.

“You’re an unusual man, Asuta. What’s a chef like you doing in the post town? Do you perhaps come from a castle town somewhere?”

“Ah, no, I wasn’t born anywhere that grand. It’s just that back where I come from, it wasn’t rare at all for someone to make a living as a chef.”

“My apologies if this is too personal of a question, but where were you born? It must have been somewhere in the western kingdom, right?”

It was my first time in a while getting that question.

“I don’t come from this continent. I was actually born in an island nation known as Japan. And I don’t know how, but one day I suddenly woke up in the forest of Morga.”

“Japan... I haven’t heard of it. The Northern Kingdom of Mahyudra is the only one with ties to anyone from overseas though, right?”

“Is that so? I honestly don’t have even the slightest idea how I ended up here on this continent.”

Nail tilted his head and looked puzzled, while Shumiral narrowed his eyes and seemed to be thinking. Somehow, that made me feel real nervous.

“Well, it certainly makes sense to me that you weren’t born here in the western nation. I suppose that’s how you’re able to live at the forest’s edge without any problems, and get along so well with the people there,” Nail stated, maintaining a polite neutral expression, but now seeming quite a bit more talkative than when I first met him. “I think that’s simply wonderful. When I was young I visited Sym and was entranced by the wondrous culture I saw, but I wasn’t able to bring myself to abandon the western god and move there. But still, I can’t help but think... Why aren’t the people of the four great kingdoms more able to compromise with one another?”

“Ah, but the western kingdom is friendly with both Sym and Jagar, isn’t it?”

“That’s certainly true. But that doesn’t mean that their citizens can become family. If a child is born between them, then they have to choose a god and be raised without either their father or their mother.”

That was my first time hearing that.

With that, Nail broke out in a thin, awkward grin.

“And so, even though I had decided if I were to take a wife she would be an easterner, I couldn’t work up the resolve to either give up the western god or force her to give up her god. That’s how I ended up still unmarried at this age.”

In that case, the owner of The Great Southern Tree, Naudis, had to have a rather complex background, having both southern and western heritage. I had thought such hardships were limited to people born of enemy nations, like how Kamyua Yoshu was a child of both the west and north.

“Thanks to that, I’ve had a strong interest in you for a while now, seeing how you overcame such barriers and live as a person of the forest’s edge. To be frank, I was jealous of how freely you acted, but... You were never a child of the four gods to begin with, were you?” Then, Nail brought his face in rather close. “Abandoning a god isn’t something just anyone can bring themselves to do. That’s surely why the people of the forest’s edge have lived with such misfortune, having abandoned Jagar to become children of Selva. And that fact always pained me greatly. But Asuta, you have no god, and I’m sure you coming to them will prove a great turning point. Please, continue guiding them towards a better fate.”

“All I’m capable of doing is cooking food, though...”

“Isn’t that plenty?” Nail replied, this time unable to hold back his smile. There was enough warmth behind it that I couldn’t help but wonder if he would be better off not forcing himself to be so expressionless.

◇

After that, we wrapped up at The Sledgehammer without any further incidents of note, and then left the place with time to spare.

As we walked down the small path, there were occasional passersby, though not as much as on the main road.

But at any rate, Shumiral quietly called out as we went, “So Asuta, you are not, from this continent?”

“Huh? Yeah, that’s right. I guess I hadn’t really had a chance to bring that up...” I believe I had mentioned I came from a country called Japan, but I must not have gone so far as to explain that it wasn’t on this continent. In my mind, folks wouldn’t care one way or another about stuff like that, but Shumiral looked listless for some reason when he heard. “Sorry. Should I have brought it up sooner? I wasn’t really trying to hide it or anything...”

“No. Where you were born, doesn’t matter. I think of you, as a foreign friend. But now, I understand a bit, why you seem, so mysterious... Asuta, your star, can’t be seen.”

“Star?”

“My comrade, reads the stars. He saw, the fell star, disappear. But he could not, find your star.” I could spy his beautifully shining black eyes behind his narrowed eyelids, staring thoughtfully my way. “I was worried, about your future. So I tried, to have that comrade, read your star. However, he couldn’t do so... He said, you do not exist.”

“That’s...” I started to argue, but then I stopped.

It felt like a concern I kept buried deep inside was suddenly bubbling up. But before I could firmly grasp it, Shumiral suddenly grabbed hold of my hand.

“But you, do exist, Asuta. You are, my precious friend... As long as, you will, accept me, as such.”

“I think of you as a precious friend, too, Shumiral.” My face was stiffening up, but I forced myself to smile. “Perhaps this isn’t the sort of thing I should be saying to a customer, but I’ve felt that way for some time now. It makes me very sad to think that we’ll have to say farewell in just ten more days or so.”

“Even apart, we will still, be friends. And the Silver Vase, will return, to Genos. Even after, returning to Sym, we will come back, to Genos, many times. I will, look forward, to seeing you again.”

At the end of the blue month, the merchant group that Shumiral led would leave Genos to continue doing business throughout the western kingdom. They would finish up by heading to the capital and then returning to Genos in half a year’s time. Then, they were set to return to their home country of Sym.

As long as we both kept on living, we would have countless opportunities to see one another.

Yes, as long as we lived...

And, as long as I wasn’t flung into some other world again.

Still, even if that did happen...

I would surely never forget the people I met here.

Even if I was sent to another new world, or even returned to my old one and met my end in that blazing inferno, until the moment my consciousness burned up, I would never forget this life I lived and the people I met. With that determination burning anew in my chest, I smiled back at Shumiral.

“Thank you. No matter how far apart we may be, I’ll always keep on praying for your safety.”

“This feels sort of like watching a man and woman exchange vows, somehow...” Vina Ruu chimed in from the side, sulking quite a bit. “Besides, you all are staying in town for over ten more days, aren’t you...?”

“Yes. We will be here, till the end, of the blue month.” Shumiral’s eyes narrowed and he looked a bit troubled as he let go of my hand. “We have, 12 more days. I would be glad, to get to eat, your cooking throughout, Asuta.”

“Right. I’ll strive my hardest to make something good and tasty for you each and every day.”

Perhaps it was none of my business, but I couldn’t help but wonder if he had given up on Vina Ruu.

And then, I thought that over again. Shumiral and Vina Ruu were born serving different gods. At least officially, the people of the forest’s edge were citizens of the Western Kingdom of Selva, after all.

If the two of them got together, then one of them would have to change gods. And I had just heard from Nail how difficult of a matter that really was.

And besides, Shumiral was the leader of a merchant group with ties to Genos castle and even the western capital, while Vina Ruu was the eldest daughter of one of the clan heads now leading the forest’s edge. Abandoning a god also meant casting aside that position and status... as well as a great many comrades. It certainly wasn’t something that could be done lightly.

Wait, I don’t even know for certain if Shumiral has feelings for Vina Ruu to begin with, so what point is there to me worrying about it?

But on the off chance that my hunch was true, all I could do was pray that things turned out in a way that wouldn’t leave anyone feeling devastated.

Even if they had different gods, they still were born in the same world, weren’t they? So if they couldn’t find happiness, then my future sure looked awful bleak.

And so, even though it wasn’t quite in my nature, I prayed deep down in my heart that my precious friends had a bright path stretching out ahead of them.