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

Bonus Short Story

The Mizora Flower Accessory

It was the day after her birthday when Lala Ruu visited Jiba Ruu’s bedroom.

“Oh, what is it, Lala...?” Jiba Ruu asked with a wrinkly smile as she sat atop her bedding. As she looked into her grandmother’s clear eyes, Lala Ruu muttered, “Um... The thing is... I actually had something I wanted to ask you, Granny Jiba...”

“Hmm, what is it...? It’s rare for you to make a request of me, Lala...”

“I-It’s nothing that serious. But if it’s too much of a pain, then don’t worry about it.”

“I can’t imagine you ever asking too much... Go ahead, my dear...”

The girl sat there fidgeting for a bit regardless, but soon enough she thrust out her right hand that she had been hiding behind her back. And in her fingers she held a truly splendid mizora flower.

“Oh, what a fine mizora... I’ve never seen one with such brilliant yellow petals before...”

“Yeah, isn’t it amazing?” Lala Ruu replied with a proud grin, but then she started fidgeting again. And when she saw that, Jiba Ruu adopted an even gentler smile.

“So, your request has something to do with this lovely mizora...?”

“Yeah... You’re really good at making accessories with mizora, aren’t you? I heard you made the one that Rimee wore at the banquet...”

“Yes, that’s right... There are a number of tricky steps required to make a living flower into an accessory that can be worn for many years...”

“C-Could you teach me how to do it?”

“Of course I wouldn’t mind...” Jiba Ruu said, looking up at her granddaughter’s joyful grin. “However...” she continued on, “To do so, you have to first remove the petals and dry them out one by one... Is that alright...?”

“Huh?! You’d have to pull this flower apart?!”

“Yes, that’s right... When Rimee heard that, she was so troubled she almost cried...”

Lala Ruu bit her lip rather than tearing up.

Jiba Ruu reached out and gently touched her granddaughter’s hand that was gripping the mizora flower.

“Both flowers and humans are all fated to eventually fade away... Even if someone hadn’t picked that flower for you, it still would have eventually withered and returned to the forest... And even if you make it into an accessory, in ten or twenty years the same will be true... So I would say that no matter what path you choose, it shouldn’t change anything for that flower, right...?”

Lala Ruu was silent.

“Even so, your memories of this mizora’s beauty, and your gratitude towards the one who gave you this lovely gift will still remain... Those most precious of gifts are already there in your heart, so I would say you can go ahead and feel free to do as you please with the flower itself...”

“Yeah...”

Even so, Lala Ruu couldn’t help but stare at the flower with a troubled gaze.

As Jiba Ruu pulled back her hand, she gently smiled once again.

“Still, if you were to make that flower into an accessory and wear it at a banquet, it would make the boy who gave it to you very happy, wouldn’t you say...?”

“H-How did you know it was from a boy?!”

“You should give your granny at least that much credit...” Jiba Ruu replied with a grin as her granddaughter’s face went red.

Before the day was over, that yellow mizora flower was reborn as an accessory.