3
“Well then, I’d like to get started cooking,” I said after we returned once more to the kitchen at Shin Ruu’s house.
Along with me were Vina, Sheera, and Lala Ruu, my usual stall group.
In the end, Shin Ruu lost to Ji Maam and had to retire with a record of one win and two losses. And so after that, we came back here to work on dinner.
I was still worried about Ai Fa as she got gradually dragged into continuing further and further in the contest of strength, but she had at least safely won her match with Darmu Ruu, so I just had to keep praying that there weren’t any unfortunate accidents for the rest of the event.
“We’ll start with the preparations for the heart. After all, freshness is key here.”
The innards from the giba Ai Fa had caught today were gathered in a pot by my feet. Since she was preoccupied, I actually ended up removing them all personally for the first time in a while.
It was decided that since Ai Fa had managed to catch it and bloodlet it properly, we would offer them as a side dish.
And so, we carried them along with us and headed for the river flowing in the rear of the settlement. The area used by the main house for washing was located further downstream. Apparently, the river ran along the east side of the Ruu settlement. Actually, now that I thought about it, they probably built the settlement where they did precisely because there was such a fine river right there. After all, the Ruu were a leading clan even 80 years ago, when the people of the forest’s edge moved here.
At any rate, once we reached the washing area, I taught the Ruu women the washing techniques I had only learned myself just yesterday. Fortunately, they were quick learners, so we got the bloody entrails nice and clean in no time at all.
“Please remember the color of these innards carefully. When a giba is ill they’ll be a more sickly shade, and you could get terrible food poisoning by eating them. So if you’re concerned at all about what you see, it would be wise to discard them in the forest instead.”
“Hmm, sounds like a real hassle in a number of ways... Are giba entrails really tasty enough to be worth all the extra trouble...?”
“I think that’ll vary from person to person. In fact, there may be a big split between people who like and hate eating them.”
After that we returned to the house and found Shin and Ryada Ruu waiting in front of the kitchen.
“Asuta, if you still need to skin the pelt, then we’ll help with that.”
“Huh? But what about the contest of strength?”
“Now that the final eight have been decided, they’re taking a short break over there, too. And I’m not a hunter anyway, so that had nothing to do with me to begin with,” Ryada Ruu replied.
With their long blackish-brown hair, eyes like someone from Sym, and calm, composed expressions, this father and son pair really were a lot alike. I could certainly imagine Shin Ruu ending up looking every bit as somber as his father when he grew older.
“Thank you, Ryada Ruu. Ah, Shin Ruu... Did Ai Fa manage to make it to the finals after all?”
“Yeah. One of the Lea men challenged her, and she defeated him. When added to the fact that she already beat Darmu Ruu and Ji Maam, she has certainly brought no shame to her title as a hunter. Ah, right... She asked me to tell you she was sorry for not helping out with manning the stove during this break. It seemed that Rimee Ruu was forcefully dragging her to Jiba Ruu’s bedroom instead.”
Was that why Shin Ruu had chosen to tactfully go ahead and accompany Ryada Ruu? I really was indebted to their whole family, Sheera Ruu included.
“Hey, so who else is moving on? There’s dad, Dan Rutim, and Ai Fa... And I’m sure Jiza and Gazraan Rutim must still be in it too, right?” Lala Ruu asked, and Shin Ruu nodded.
“The remaining three are Ludo Ruu, Rau Lea, and Mida.”
“Wow! Mida really did manage to keep on winning, huh?! That seems sort of cheeky of him, somehow! Wait... Ji Maam got knocked out?”
“Yes. Mida was the one to ultimately take him down.”
With that, Lala Ruu spread her arms out wide and reiterated, “He really is cheeky!”
Then, Sheera Ruu timidly stepped forwards. She had looked rather listless for a while now, too.
“So, um... Is Darmu Ruu alright?”
“I didn’t see him, but he should be. If he wasn’t, then Ai Fa would have been disqualified for injuring him, and someone else would have been chosen for the final eight. However... even though he only lost once, he apparently returned home rather than challenging anyone else.”
“I see...” Sheera Ruu muttered, then gave a sad sigh.
After watching over that, Shin Ruu’s gaze turned back my way.
“Well then, let’s get to work. The giba is in the shed, isn’t it?”
“Ah, hold on! There’s something else that needs to be done before skinning it.” With that, I returned the pot stuffed with organs to the kitchen, grabbed what I needed, and then followed Shin Ruu to the dissection shed. “Just a moment, please.”
In the middle of the room hung a giba a size bigger than the one from yesterday, looking to be somewhere in the 60-kilo range. I lowered down the beast, its torso already cut open and innards removed, and smeared the right rear leg with lard I had brought along from the Fa house.
“What exactly are you doing there, Asuta?”
“Ah, maybe it’s a bit wasteful, but I wanted to try burning the fur off of just this one rear leg.”
As I saw the father and son pair shooting me questioning looks out of the corner of my eye, I lit a single piece of firewood with lana leaves. When I brought that up close to the leg, the lard I coated it in and the black fur started smoldering. And man, did the bloody smell from the stomach and the stink from the burning fur ever make for one heck of an awful stench.
Of course, if I overdid it then I would burn the skin too, so when it looked about right I dashed water over it and called it done.
“Well then, would it be alright if I cut off just this one leg before you skin the pelt? I was thinking I’d try cooking with it for tonight.”
Though there were undoubtedly question marks swirling around their heads by now, neither Shin nor Ryada Ruu asked why. They were taciturn enough by nature that neither of them were going to say anything about my chef work, for better or worse.
“Is it any issue if we just skin the pelt like always from here on out?”
“No, and thank you. I’ve still got all my prep work for the stalls left, so you’re seriously helping me out here.”
After saying my thanks to the silent father and son pair, I triumphantly returned to the kitchen with my spoils of war in hand.
“Whoa, what’s that?” Lala Ruu asked right away, speaking as a representative for the not-at-all taciturn women.
“As you can see, it’s a giba leg. I burned just the fur off of it, so that should make it easy to handle later.”
However, the prep work for the innards had to be taken care of first. That meant burying the heart, liver, and kidneys in pico leaves, and dicing up the rest, then soaking them in a marinade made with myamuu, fruit wine, and tau oil. The plan with the former for tonight was to use just salt and pico leaves in place of pepper.
“So, with this leg, first up is getting rid of the rest of the hair that the fire didn’t take care of.”
It was already roughly cleaned off, but to get it the rest of the way, I let it soak for a bit in a water-filled pot, then went at it with a scrubbing brush made with hardened giba fur. It felt a little ridiculous, somehow, cleaning away giba fur with something made from the same stuff.
At any rate, once I was done with all that, the skin of the hind leg was now clearly exposed. It was a pale pink color, reminding me a lot of human skin, or maybe that of a pig.
This was an alternate technique for dealing with a pelt once taught to me in my previous life before coming to the forest’s edge, by a hunter in that camp I once attended. I had already tried it out once back at the Fa house, but Ai Fa hadn’t seemed too pleased with it, as it left you without a pelt to sell.
It was an open secret by now that she had been distributing the pelts from the giba she caught to smaller clans, but officially she just discarded them. And so she wasn’t able to complain about it, which made me feel bad for her and led to me only trying it out once.
“So, why go through all the trouble of doing that rather than just skinning the pelt...? And the pelt can be sold for plenty of coins when you do it the normal way, too, right?”
“Well, the only answer I’ve got to that is ‘because it’s tasty.’ And I figured this sort of extravagance would be allowed during a banquet. Or was I wrong on that point?”
“I don’t know... I guess it’s fine. And besides, Ai Fa was the one to take that giba down to start with, wasn’t she? In that case, the Fa clan is free to do with it as they please.”
I had thought similarly and chose that method as a result, but it was reassuring to hear that agreement, there. After all, the people of the forest’s edge liked to keep things plain and simple to begin with, so I had been rather concerned as to just how extravagant it was alright for me to get.
This time around, I effectively only had a single day to spare between being asked and having to do the job. And so, I had seriously racked my brains to figure out a tasty combination from the trial and error I had done at the Fa house that would also feel fresh enough for the banquet.
“So, what’re we doing with this leg? The contest of strength will probably wrap up just before the sun sets.”
“It’ll take some time for the seasoning to seep in, so that should be just fine... Sheera Ruu, I could teach you the cooking technique if you’d like. It’s a little different than usual,” I threw out there, as she had seemed like her mind was somewhere else at the moment, which was quite unusual for her.
“Huh? Ah, I’m sorry... We’re working right now, so I shouldn’t let my mind wander like that,” Sheera Ruu replied, then gave her own cheeks a slap. “I’m paying attention, now. But... I don’t think my house will be cooking giba with pelts still on like this.”
“I only left the skin on because I wanted to make things feel a bit more luxurious for the banquet. And if Ai Fa hadn’t gone and caught that giba, I was planning to just cook this dish using regular thigh meat. So, let’s start with the prep work.”
First off was cutting the meat off the bone in blocks as big as could be managed. Considering it was just the one leg, we would probably only get around four kilos. And so, the plan was to set aside one kilo for the champion in the contest of strength, while the other three would be used when needed in other dishes.
Once the meat was cut off we washed it nice and clean and then carefully beat it with wooden sticks. Then when we finished that step, I ground plenty of salt and pico leaves into just one kilo worth of meat. By my rough estimate, it looked to be around twice what I usually used for steaks.
Next, I added some cuts in several places along the block of meat for inserting some slices of the garlic-esque myamuu. With that, the preparations were complete.
“Now, we’ve got to let it sit for a bit. In terms of time, we’re talking about as long as you need to let the meat steep in the marinade for myamuu giba.”
In other words, around an hour. Then it would take roughly an hour to cook, meaning we were set to finish up just before sunset.
“Let’s try to finish up the preparations for work tomorrow in the meantime. Vina and Lala Ruu, you mince the meat for the giba burgers, and Sheera Ruu, please dice up aria.”
As for me, I went ahead and started cutting up meat for the other dishes. First up, that meant cutting the loin and rib meat off of the giba Shin and Ryada Ruu had skinned. Since the taste of the meat could change significantly based on how it was cut, this was the most delicate step and the one that I really couldn’t leave up to anyone else.
I handled the initial cuts with the knife I had been given by Ai Fa, then went with my kitchen knife for the following slices.
I’ve been overusing my old man’s knife, so I really would like to get a knife specifically for meat, soon.
That was what I thought, but the ones sold in the post town didn’t really cut much better than hunting knives, so I still hadn’t made up my mind and bought one. And I had been able to buy such a wonderful vegetable knife from Shumiral, so that made me feel even less like compromising.
They probably sell some pretty nice knives in the castle town, but I can’t go buying one without seeing it with my own eyes. If only Shumiral was selling a meat knife... I thought to myself, only for a cheer to erupt from the plaza again. The break must have ended and the competition resumed.
Around 15 minutes or so later, Rimee Ruu came flying into the kitchen, out of breath and her face beet red.
“It was so amazing! Ai Fa won again! If she wins just two more times, then she’ll be the champion!”
“Huh? Who was she up against?” Lala Ruu asked, voicing the same question I had been thinking.
“Rau Lea! He was really strong too, but Ai Fa threw him like whoosh! Whoosh!”
So she had fought Rau Lea, huh?
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she beat him after having already taken down Darmu Ruu, but I guess that meant she had made it to the final four. However, I couldn’t say for certain whether or not I felt earnestly happy about that fact.
“What about everyone else? How did Ludo do?” Lala Ruu asked.
“He lost! He tried to trip up Mida, but he ended up falling first!”
“Hmm, so he lost before he got to face off against dad, huh? He’s gotta be real frustrated, then. In that case, the matches left are...”
“Papa Donda and Gazraan Rutim, and Jiza and Dan Rutim! Jiza’s up next, so come watch!”
Donda Ruu versus Gazraan Rutim, and Jiza Ruu versus Dan Rutim... So oddly enough, it ended up being matches between the Ruu and Rutim clan heads and heirs. Those sure made for some crazy matchups, so much so that I almost felt intimidated by the idea of watching them.
“Jiza and Gazraan Rutim are strong too, but they’ll never beat dad or Dan Rutim. Those two have always faced off against each other at the end these past ten years,” Lala Ruu stated, which took me a bit off guard.
“T-Ten years? That’s one heck of a record. And these festivals of the hunt are held three times a year, aren’t they...?”
“Yeah. There’s a big one once a year, and two small ones. And today is one of the smaller ones. For the big one, everybody under the Ruu gathers.”
So that meant that over those ten years, it was always either Donda Ruu or Dan Rutim who won, 30 times in total. I had vaguely sensed as much, but it seemed those two really were exceptionally strong even among the people of the forest’s edge.
And... it was already set that Ai Fa would have to face off with at least one of them very soon. No matter how much her safety may be assured, I still couldn’t help but feel concerned by that thought.
Ai Fa couldn’t possibly win that match, right?
That thought somehow worried me, too. If Ai Fa ended up clashing with Donda Ruu in the final match, my heart might just stop right then and there.
At any rate, time flowed on and the end of the prep work finally came into sight. By my estimate, there was probably around an hour left till sunset, so that meant it was time to get back to working on the meal for the victor.
“Well then, let’s get started. We’ll begin by cooking the meat’s surface with a strong flame, like with the cubed giba meat stew.”
The seasonings had thoroughly been absorbed into the chunks of meat, and so I dropped them in and cooked them till they reached a golden brown. Just like with the steak and burgers, this was to make sure none of the juices escaped.
“Then, we’ll add the vegetables we cut up to this pot which we’ve got on a low flame.”
The vegetables in question were aria, neinon, and chatchi. The aria and neinon had been cut into four even wedges, while the chatchi was split in half. And so we spread those out across the bottom of the pot, and then added the grilled meat on top.
“Now all that’s left is to pour in a fourth of a container of fruit wine, then put on the lid and wait. Let’s place plenty of rocks on top of the lid for weight, too.”
“So, is that it? It certainly does seem to resemble that cubed giba meat stew dish a bit.”
“Right? But that’s cooked in water or sauce, while this just uses fruit wine to add a bit of flavor. Rather than boiling, it uses the evaporating moisture from the fruit wine and vegetables to steam the ingredients,” I said, adding more firewood while taking care not to make the flame too strong. “With hamburgers and steaks, we bake them in a covered pan to heat them all the way through, right? Well, this meat is even thicker, so please keep in mind that it takes longer to steam in turn.”
“I see... So, what sort of dish is it?”
“For now, I’m calling it roast giba.”
Rather than coming from my house or the family’s restaurant, it was based on the roast pork and roast beef we would sometimes make when I was camping with my old man or Reina.
It would have been better if we had a tight-fitting metal lid to seal the pot properly, but unfortunately those didn’t seem to be sold in the post town. Still, I guess it acted as proof of just how much I had practiced that I was able to use this method to steam a ten-centimeter thick block of meat.
At any rate, the theme this time around was just plain using thick meat. That seemed like the right way to go for a dish to be presented to the victor of the contest of strength, but I still didn’t actually know how it would go.
“What’s important here is managing the flame. You should try to retain it at this level, which is weaker than even a usual low heat. That’s because if it’s too strong, it’ll end up burning the vegetables directly touching the pot.”
After somewhere between 40-50 minutes of steaming, we would be done.
Since we had finished the prep work for the stalls, I was thinking it was about time to let the women go, only for Rimee Ruu to show up again.
“Asuta, are you still not done cooking?! Ai Fa’s up against Dan Rutim next!”
“Huh?! She’s going to be facing off against him?!”
“Yeah! Jiza and Gazraan Rutim ended up losing after all! So after Ai Fa’s match, it’ll be Papa Donda against Mida!”
Ai Fa versus Dan Rutim, and Mida versus Donda Ruu, huh?
I could feel my heart beating way quicker for some reason upon hearing those matchups.
“Asuta, why not go watch? If it’s just managing the fire, then I can take care of that,” Sheera Ruu chimed in with a gentle smile. “And Vina and Lala Ruu, you two must be interested in Donda Ruu’s match, right? Just leave things here to me.”
“Huh? Is it really alright?” Lala Ruu asked while squirming a bit and turning my way.
I felt super anxious at the moment, but I still somehow managed to hold back my selfish urges in spite of that.
“We’re mostly done with work here, so sure, you two can go ahead and leave. And Sheera Ruu, you can go too if you’d like.”
“No, nobody from my house will be competing. Are you really okay with not going, Asuta...?”
“Yup. I’m sure Dan Rutim would never go and hurt Ai Fa, and so I’ll focus on my own work here.”
“Well then, we’re off! We’ll come back to tell you how it turned out once the match is over!”
With that, the sisters of the main Ruu house exited the kitchen, leaving just me and Sheera Ruu.
However, we didn’t exactly have anything to do but add a single piece of firewood every couple of minutes. And as I stared at the flickering orange flames, I just kept on praying that Ai Fa would be alright.
“Ai Fa really does possess great strength as a hunter, doesn’t she...? After all, I believe Darmu Ruu and Rau Lea had become strong enough to compete with Jiza Ruu and Gazraan Rutim lately...” Sheera Ruu quietly murmured eventually as we sat there watching the flames.
“Really? Well, it’s true that it usually surprises folks to hear how many giba Ai Fa catches. Still... hopefully Darmu Ruu will be back to his usual self soon, right?”
All I got back to that was a pained sigh.
I still felt on edge, though, so I kept on talking.
“Um, last month, Darmu Ruu got that injury from protecting Shin Ruu, right? I’ve had the least interaction with him out of the main Ruu house, though. What sort of person is he?”
“Darmu Ruu, he... he has a very rough temperament. My father Ryada has said that he most resembles Donda Ruu out of the clan head’s sons.”
“Ah, yeah, his eyes really are just like Donda Ruu’s.”
“Yes... I believe both Donda and Darmu Ruu are splendid hunters, fitting for the main house of one of the leading clans.”
Unfortunately, I still hadn’t been able to establish much of a friendly relationship with those two.
Still, it hadn’t taken me long to realize Donda Ruu was more than just rough and wild, and even though I had trouble dealing with him, I didn’t especially dislike the man. As for Darmu Ruu... there was that quarrel with Ai Fa from the very start, which probably created a pretty serious gap between us. He had gone and said such awful things to her that I couldn’t help but find him just about as irritating as Diga.
“Does Ai Fa really intend to live as a hunter until she dies out in the forest...?” Sheera Ruu eventually muttered, sounding as if she was just talking to herself. “She was born as a woman, and yet she will have no children and instead live as a hunter... Ah, I don’t mean to criticize her way of living. I just can’t understand how she thinks like that.”
“I don’t get it either, but it really does feel just like her to me.”
Ai Fa had once said she’d hate a life of just waiting around for men to return. In all likelihood, she wanted to be a protector rather than one of the protected.
I still hadn’t truly come to understand that statement, but I remained firm on the fact that I wanted to respect her feelings. However, I didn’t just solely want to let her protect me, and hoped to help her out in ways that didn’t require arm strength, too.
“Ai Fa doesn’t intend to marry either, right...?”
“Yeah. That’s—” I started to answer, only to be taken aback. Sheera Ruu was sitting cradling her knees and staring intently at the fire, her face redder than I had ever seen it before. “W-What’s wrong, Sheera Ruu?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I mean... You look kind of out of sorts, somehow.”
“Really? Maybe that’s so...” I couldn’t see the bottom of her beet-red face from behind her cradled knees. Her eyes were shooting me a real uncertain look, though. “The thought that you know just what I’m feeling made me feel embarrassed all of a sudden, somehow. I’m so sorry.”
“Y-Your feelings? Do you mean about Darmu—”
“P-Please don’t say it!”
That had to be the first time I had ever heard Sheera Ruu that flustered. And she was usually so calm and composed, so I couldn’t remember her openly showing such maidenly feelings before, either.
Now that I think about it, despite how mature she seems, she’s only a year older than me.
For some reason, I was starting to feel uneasy. Maybe this overly unfamiliar feeling was a desire to protect her or something.
“Asuta...”
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell anyone, alright...?”
“Right! Of course!”
“And I don’t need you to worry or feel sympathy for me. A woman like me who can’t even properly carry a water jug couldn’t possibly be worth marrying.”
“That’s absolutely not true!” I stopped and thought for a second, then rose decisively to my feet. “Sheera Ruu, could you make a single meal’s worth out of the meat with skin on it that we’ve got left?”
“Huh?”
“I was planning on making a simple steak or something for everyone with that meat. I’d like to leave one meal’s worth of that up to you, Sheera Ruu. And please make the sauce yourself, too.”
“W-What are you telling me to do...?”
“That’s up to you, Sheera Ruu.”
With that, Sheera Ruu hung her head, her face still bright red. Then, she looked up and tilted her head suddenly.
“Now that I think of it, Lala and Vina Ruu still haven’t returned. Didn’t they say they would come back to announce how the match between Ai Fa and Dan Rutim went?”
“Ah, now that you mention it, that’s true.” At least 15 minutes had to have passed by now. And with that thought, the unease I had buried deep inside came bubbling right back up. “Um, does a single match usually last this long?”
“Not normally. That’s why I found it unusual.”
I was still hearing the same cheers as always from the plaza, though.
“In that case, maybe Donda Ruu and Mida’s match started so quickly that they weren’t able to slip away.”
“No, after it’s down to the final eight, there’s a small break inserted after each match. Asuta... Don’t you think it would be good to go check on her, at least for a short while?”
“Ah, but—”
“I want to pay you back for worrying about me. Please, go. Besides... I think I’d like to be alone for a bit right now, anyway.”
That may have been nothing but an excuse, because she sensed what I was thinking. But either way, the unease I was feeling was reaching a point where I wouldn’t be able to hold it back any longer.
“Sorry. I’ll go take a quick look, then,” I said, then I went flying out of the kitchen.
Ai Fa was up against Dan Rutim. He had called the Fa clan friends, so there should be pretty much zero chance of him doing anything to harm her. I truly believed that, but I still couldn’t help but feel shaken, too.
What if one of them ended up getting injured in a way that would never fully heal? Or maybe some ill-meaning third party could’ve jumped in...
With such concerns driving me forwards, I stepped into the plaza only for a hearty laugh from Dan Rutim to instantly wipe away my needless fears.
“Ai Fa, you really are a splendid hunter! You’re the first to ever give me this much trouble, aside from Donda Ruu!”
Dan Rutim was standing there in a daunting pose right in the center of the plaza. However, his plump face, shiny bald head, and pronounced potbelly were all pouring forth so much sweat it looked like a waterfall.
The same was true for Ai Fa, who was standing a few meters away. She had remained cool and composed when up against Ji Maam, but now her face was coated in sweat and her shoulders were heavily heaving up and down.
Did that mean they really had been having an even match for 15 whole minutes, then?
“Still, hurry up and let me finish this already! I’m starving over here!” Dan Rutim yelled out, spreading both arms wide and attempting to grab Ai Fa.
It really did surprise me just how nimble he was. He couldn’t have weighed less than a hundred kilos, yet he could move as quickly as Ai Fa and Darmu Ruu.
Ai Fa barely managed to dodge by leaping to the side, but Dan Rutim didn’t stop moving. As he groaned, one of his spread arms lashed out again for my clan head.
In response, Ai Fa kicked him in the side and jumped even further back. However, Dan Rutim pivoted and followed her just as quickly.
Seeing that, Ai Fa bent over and tried to use the same low sweep that took down Ji Maam. And yet, Dan Rutim swiftly leapt into the air and easily evaded her attack.
Without a moment’s delay, Ai Fa touched both palms to the ground and leapt like a wildcat. Dan Rutim’s hand then crashed into the space where her head had been just a second earlier.
The cheers that erupted were almost overwhelming, louder than any I had heard up till now. I was honestly at a loss for words at the fact that such superhuman fighting had been going on for 15 whole minutes now.
Dan Rutim really was something else. Despite that huge belly of his, he was able to move just as quickly as Ai Fa. It was pretty ridiculous, considering he had to have over double the body mass of my clan head.
On top of that, he’d let out a hearty, “Gyahaha,” whenever he could spare a moment. When you added the grin on his face, it was abundantly clear just how much he was enjoying himself.
Ai Fa, meanwhile, looked downright desperate. It was like I was watching a wildcat under attack by a massive brown bear or lowland gorilla or something.
“A—” I muttered without thinking. “Ai Fa! Don’t give up! Give it everything you’ve got!”
I had no idea if my voice reached her or not, but my clan head then leapt inside Dan Rutim’s guard with some serious resolve. Unlike Darmu Ruu, though, the Rutim clan head didn’t move to dodge in the least, instead firmly planting his feet and swinging his arms down towards Ai Fa.
My beloved benefactor dodged that attack, then moved to circle around Dan Rutim’s right side. At that point, the man had already grabbed hold of her arm. However, in the same instant, she stooped down and went to sweep his legs.
If Dan Rutim had kept holding onto Ai Fa’s arm then, another impressive throw may have decided things then and there. However, he instead just let go and lifted his one leg in order to avoid her attack.
With her assault missing its mark, Ai Fa stumbled forward and almost fell, only for Dan Rutim to once again grab at her from behind.
“Ai Fa!”
My clan head pivoted on one leg, swiftly turning back towards the mountain of a man. And with that, Dan Rutim’s thick fingers grabbed hold of one of her shoulders.
It was all over.
Ai Fa collapsed backwards, seemingly unable to stop Dan Rutim’s charge. But as she fell, her right arm grabbed hold of his collar, then she kicked at his right foot with her left before it could hit the ground.
For the first time, Dan Rutim’s stance seriously crumbled. But at this rate, Ai Fa would fall along with him and end up underneath his massive frame. And so, she sunk her right knee into Dan Rutim’s potbelly, then let her weight pull downwards.
Grabbing his collar, kicking his leg, and dropping her weight... All of those factors combined together, causing Dan Rutim’s body to lift into the air as he fell forwards.
In all likelihood, this was the sort of overhead throw you saw in judo. However, Ai Fa was trying to reach out backwards with her left hand as she did so. No wait, maybe I was just misunderstanding, since instead of doing so, she lifted his stomach with her left knee and followed through with her truly impressive throw.
Dan Rutim’s huge body did a half flip in the air, then came down with a loud crash.
With that, the crowd erupted in cheers, overcome with excitement.
However, that was once again cut off by Ra Rutim’s stern voice.
“The winner is Dan Rutim of the Rutim clan! Ai Fa of the Fa clan must withdraw!”
What followed was, unsurprisingly, a storm of complaints.
The bald-headed, white-bearded Rutim elder glared out over the crowd with eyes like a hawk.
“Ai Fa’s waist touched the ground before Dan Rutim fell. Therefore, the winner is Dan Rutim!”
So that was why she reached out with her left hand partway through, huh?
Right now, though, Ai Fa was sprawled out on the ground and panting heavily. And the man she had thrown, Dan Rutim, was doing much the same just two meters away.
Once I saw Gazraan Rutim push through the crowd towards his father, I also stepped into the plaza. As rough cheers mixed with complaints filled the air, I ran over to my clan head.
“Ai Fa! Are you alright?!”
“This is... nothing...” Ai Fa replied in a hoarse voice, her mouth open wide and her eyes closed. I had never seen her this utterly exhausted before. “Lend me... your shoulder... I don’t think I can... walk properly on my own...”
“Right.”
I took hold of Ai Fa’s right arm, then gently helped her up while supporting her back. As she listlessly leaned against me, her body was so hot that it felt like she was on fire.
“I’m getting you... all sweaty...”
“Don’t worry about that. You’re in no state to be concerned about stuff like that, anyway.”
It was then that Dan Rutim’s strong son helped him sit up, and the man, who had appeared to be dead tired, broke out in a grin.
“I thought for sure that I had lost! Ai Fa, why didn’t you support your body with your left hand? If you had, you would’ve won!”
“My left arm only just recently healed, so I wasn’t confident I could use it to support your weight. If the bone popped loose again as a result, then I would no longer be able to carry out my work as a hunter.”
“So that was it! I can certainly understand that!” Dan Rutim then approached us, though it was honestly more like Gazraan Rutim was dragging him. And then, he brought his sweaty smiling face in close towards Ai Fa. “You really are a splendid hunter! Not only in terms of that amazing strength, but also in how you firmly understand what’s most important in our way of life! I feel glad from the very depths of my heart to have someone like you as a friend, Ai Fa!”
“I’m greatly obliged for that excessive praise. Now then, excuse us...” she replied, kicking me in the leg as she did so.
That must have meant, “get moving.” And so, as Dan Rutim shot an overjoyed grin and Gazraan Rutim joined in with a bashful smile, I bowed back at them and then retreated along with my clan head.
And as we went, Ai Fa was showered in unending applause and cheers. I couldn’t help but break out in an awkward grin myself, realizing just how exceptional my clan head truly was.
“What...? Are you laughing at my unsightly loss, Asuta?”
“Huh?” I questioned, looking at her in surprise, only to find her frowning as she leaned heavily on my shoulder. “What part of that was ‘unsightly’? I can’t imagine many hunters under the Ruu could put up that much of a fight against Dan Rutim.”
“But a loss is still a loss...”
“Umm, didn’t Lala Ruu say victory is something to feel pride over, but a loss is nothing to be ashamed of? And I don’t think that was the sort of match to feel frustrated over...”
“What are you saying? Of course I’m frustrated, coming that close only to lose,” my clan head retorted, still wearing that adorable pout as her sweet-smelling blonde hair rubbed up against my cheek.
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