Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 9 - Chapter 2.1

Chapter 2: The Visitor to the Forest’s Edge

1

It was now the following morning.

When I rode on up to the Ruu settlement in the wagon, it ended up causing something of a commotion. Of course, I had been expecting that to some degree, since I had asked Lala Ruu and everyone to inform the rest of the clan. And so there were little kids shouting out excitedly and people staring with surprised looks, but nobody seemed to be judging us, so I figured that was fine.

Ultimately I stopped Gilulu by pulling on the reins before entering the settlement’s plaza. Then I got down from the driver’s seat and we walked on in.

“Welcome to the Ruu settlement, Asuta. It seems you’re able to handle the wagon just fine after a day’s practice,” Sheera Ruu said, running over from her house.

“Yeah. I actually squeezed in some special training with Ai Fa this morning too, and so I managed to at least get the basics down. I should be fine even on the thin trails closer to town, as long as I take things slowly and don’t try to rush.”

Thanks to that, Ai Fa was probably gathering firewood and herbs all on her own around now. I felt bad about that, but she had also had an unusually high level of interest in the wagon, so I played into that, got up early with her, and together we did some training. When we finished that up and it was time for me to head out towards the Ruu settlement, she had looked really reluctant to step down from the wagon.

“From here on out, I’ll pick everyone up and drop them off. I guess we should start by loading up the luggage from your house, Sheera Ruu. Though now that I think about it... I guess we don’t need to borrow a pot from you guys anymore now that we have this wagon.”

Since I got a hold of the iron tray, we ended up having to go to the trouble of bringing the tarapa sauce I made to town in a leather sack, meeting up with Sheera Ruu there, and then transferring the contents into a pot that she brought. It had been too much to expect Vina Ruu to carry both the tray and the pot together, so we really didn’t have any other choice.

But now, we could bring as much from the Fa house as we needed. In the wagon, I had a pot full of tarapa sauce, the tray for the myamuu giba, 60 patties, 90 meals’ worth of meat soaking in marinade, and enough baked poitan for 60 dishes. And then, there was the meat for the cooking I’d be doing at the inns, and even two kilos of jerky.

Looking at it again, it really was quite a bit of luggage. And to think, just Vina Ruu and I were carrying everything but the pot day after day...

That did serve to build up my stamina, but I felt truly grateful for the fact that I wouldn’t have to lug it all over that terrifying rope bridge anymore.

At any rate, Sheera Ruu added the baked poitan for the other 90 meals to the wagon, and then we headed over to the main Ruu house.

When we got there, we found Rimee Ruu waiting for us along with the totos named Ruuruu.

“Ooh, a wagon! This is amazing, Asuta!” Rimee Ruu said from atop Ruuruu’s back as she had the bird walk over. She seemed to love totos just as much as Ai Fa, and had been practicing riding from early in the morning onwards. “It’s so cool! But it looks heavy, too! Good work there, Gilulu!”

Of course, Gilulu responded with the same blank look as always, along with a slight tilt of his head. And Ruuruu just sort of stood there staring at Gilulu.

“Hello there, Asuta. Welcome to the Ruu settlement. This is all the firewood we’ve got for you today,” Mia Lea Ruu called with a cheerful smile as she stepped out of the house to see what all the fuss was about. Reina and Lala Ruu had also circled around from behind the dwelling holding the large bundles of firewood, which brought our preparations to a close.

“Well then, let’s get going. Everybody, please hop into the wagon.” With that, Reina, Lala, and Sheera Ruu all excitedly did as I asked. And as I watched them out of the corner of my eye, I called out to Mia Lea Ruu, “Um, so does it seem like Vina Ruu will still need some time to recover after all, then?”

“That’s right. Even if she could make it there and back in this wagon thing, having to keep standing on the job would still be too much for her. It looks like it really will be two more days or so till she can work in town again, like I told you before.”

“I see. Then about the easterner, Shumiral...”

“Well, for now we’re willing to welcome him into the house and have a look at him. The clan head and I will check him out, and if we feel satisfied, then we’ll let him meet with Vina.”

“Right. I’ll certainly vouch for the fact that he’s a trustworthy man, and I hope that you see him the same way.”

With a sigh of relief, I guided Gilulu on foot over towards the exit to the plaza. And as the wagon rolled along, the girls riding inside of it started getting excited.

“Well then, let’s get going. It’ll sway a bit, so take care not to fall, alright?” I said as I climbed up into the driver’s seat and gave Gilulu’s leg a smack with the riding crop. With that, the totos started bobbing along. Despite all the weight he was now pulling, there wasn’t any change in his light and easy stride.

However, we had time to spare, so I kept Gilulu at a walk rather than a run.

On human feet, walking to the post town from the Ruu settlement took between 40-50 minutes, while it would be 20-25 for a totos... But considering the narrow winding trail, it would probably be safer to make that around 30 minutes. Still, as long as I didn’t screw up, that meant we should get there a good bit earlier than usual.

“Asuta, you’re helping us out like this, but you’re still paying us the same amount? I just don’t feel right about that, somehow...” Sheera Ruu called out from behind. Since there was no divider between the driver’s seat and the wagon itself, as long as you just spoke up a little, having a conversation was no problem at all.

“Don’t worry about all that. The key point of the job has always been what happens while we’re in the post town, so you really don’t need to concern yourself so much about what comes before and after.”

“Really? But it seems like this will cut down on the travel time quite a bit... If that means we’re going to be getting back to our houses earlier than usual, then I think I’d like to use that extra time to gather firewood.”

I could feel myself breaking out in a bit of a strained smile in response to how earnest Sheera Ruu was. However, I swiftly changed gears in my head instead.

“But the amount of firewood we pull in now should already be plenty. So would it be possible to leave a different task to you instead?”

“A different task? What do you mean?”

As we rounded a gentle curve in the path, I went ahead and revealed the plan I had previously thought up.

“Making the giba burger patties and the tarapa sauce... Either that, or cutting up the meat for the myamuu giba and making the marinade. I was thinking of leaving one or the other up to you, but what do you say?”

Perhaps feeling perplexed, Sheera Ruu didn’t say anything in response. Rather than rushing her for an answer, though, I simply waited.

“But... If I do that, then there wouldn’t be anything left for you to do on the dish, right...?”

“Yeah. In fact, that’s precisely the idea. It may take some time to actually see it through, but I was thinking I’d like to hand one of the stalls over to the Ruu clan to manage.”

Again, silence. And so, this time I decided to keep talking.

“I first had the thought a while back. You would need to enter into a contract with the inn owner, prepare the food, make sure the taste is just right, and figure out the net profits by subtracting out your businesses expenses. But if you can do all that without me, then all the earnings from the stall would naturally go to the Ruu clan.”

She still wasn’t saying anything.

“I still haven’t gotten Donda Ruu’s approval, though, so I’m certainly not trying to rush it. But I was thinking the first step would be having you memorize how to prepare the dish. What do you think?”

“B-But why...? That would only decrease the number of coins the Fa clan can earn, so there shouldn’t be anything for you to gain by doing such a thing...” Sheera Ruu replied in a weak, trembling voice.

“That’s not true. If I can leave one of the stalls up to the Ruu clan, then that lightens my workload so I can focus on something else. And I’d been wanting to do more experimenting and studying for that...”

“Experimenting and studying...?”

“That’s right. If things go well I may end up offering my cooking through lots more inns, and even if that doesn’t happen, I’d still like to reexamine the dishes I currently prepare. The cubed giba meat stew just takes too long to cook, and the pickled chitt I’ve been using drives up the cost of the ingredients too much.”

“Right...”

“And then there’s the dishes for the stalls. Right now we prepare 150 meals each day, 90 myamuu giba and 60 giba burgers, but we always end up with ten or so extra myamuu giba, don’t we? With that in mind, I was thinking of bringing the number of myamuu giba and giba burgers down to 50 or 60 each and introducing a third dish.”

“Huh? You’re going to open a third stall?”

“Ah, no, that’s ultimately just one of the things I’m considering. And at any rate, I can’t increase my amount of prep work with things as they stand. So that’d have to wait till I hand over one of the stalls to the Ruu clan.”

Even setting aside the matter of the fees for the stall and location as well as personnel costs, increasing the number of stalls would likely end up decreasing my net profit. However, I still had a desire to try out new dishes bit by bit while still maintaining my current popular offerings.

If I could offer up 60 each of three different dishes, then that would allow more people than before to enjoy giba meat cooking, and maybe three stalls selling 180 meals would fall better in line with the surrounding shops than two stalls selling 150.

At any rate, though, our goal behind running these stalls wasn’t to earn a profit, but rather to further spread the knowledge of how tasty giba meat is. The grand plan was to reach the point where folks wanted to buy the meat itself rather than just my cooking, so this was sort of like a presentation I was putting on to further that cause.

“I’m probably getting repetitive here, but I’m really not trying to rush it along. I mean, it’s only just barely past a month since I started doing business in general. And things seem pretty up in the air in general right now, so I’d like to be careful in how we progress. But still... From what I’ve seen of how hard you all work, I really don’t think it would be a problem to have you all take over one of the stalls.”

And if the Ruu clan were able to handle running a business on their own, then even if I did happen to up and disappear, the plan to bring prosperity to the forest’s edge could still carry on. Honestly, that was one of the reasons I had the thought in the first place.

Still, you never knew when anyone may die. Even without a background like mine, that was just common sense here in this world, so it certainly wasn’t a bad idea in the least to put such preparations in place.

And besides, even though that was one of my reasons, it still wasn’t the biggest one.

A month back, when Sheera Ruu first came to help out just five days after I started doing business, the thought just naturally occurred to me that with her level of skill, I could someday leave one of the stalls to her. And so, I was just now voicing the idea that had been simmering inside me for a month now.

Mia Lea Ruu had astoundedly asked me why I would go forward down a path that would only result in losses on my end. But the Fa clan’s goal was to bring prosperity to the forest’s edge. As clan head, Ai Fa most definitely didn’t want us to just amass a fortune for ourselves.

When it was a job only I could handle, I would push myself as hard as possible. But I truly felt that if it was a task someone else could handle, it would be more effective to yield that to them and start working on something different.

And when someone possessed a certain strength, it only seemed right for them to be paid fairly to use it. And from what I could tell, that most certainly applied to Sheera Ruu.

“What do you think? Even putting aside all that talk of the future, it would seriously help me out if you could start by learning the preparations.”

“Ah, no, but I...”

“I don’t think there should be any issue at all in regards to your cooking skills. You can already make the tarapa sauce all on your own, and putting together patties was one of your specialties, wasn’t it? Of course, what’s important when doing business is making sure you can maintain the same taste day after day. So I’d probably want to give you some pointers there, too.”

Sheera Ruu didn’t say anything.

“Still, I guess it’d be easier to make the myamuu giba, huh? As long as you remember how to cut the meat, the rest should be simple. But if I’m being honest, it’d be a bigger help on my end if you took the giba burgers instead, since those take longer.”

“That would be fine! Hamburgers are one of my specialties, after all!” a voice responded with more enthusiasm than I would expect from Sheera Ruu. Which made sense, considering it had come from Reina Ruu instead. “Asuta, you use a stronger seasoning with the myamuu giba to match the tastes of the townsfolk, don’t you? So in that case, it would be more fitting to have the Ruu clan take on the burgers instead. I’d imagine it would be difficult having to make a dish in a way that seems less than ideal to us, after all.”

“Ah, I could see that.”

“Also, I think it would be tough on Sheera Ruu to ask her to single-handedly take over for you, Asuta. I would find that difficult to do, too. But with the two of us working together, I figure we could manage to work at least half as hard as you do!”

“You’re really overestimating me, there. With the two of you together, you should certainly be capable of making a tastier giba burger than I do, don’t you think?”

“I’d say you’re the one overestimating us, Asuta,” Reina Ruu replied, though her tone remained firm all the while. “I’m sorry for going and butting in there, Sheera Ruu. But I really would like to give it a try... To see just how far my skill can take me. And if we succeed, then we won’t just earn coins, but also the sort of honor Asuta gets for our cooking abilities.”

“Honor for our cooking abilities...” Sheera Ruu quietly repeated, her voice no longer trembling like before.

For a moment, the only sound in the air was the rattling of the wagon, but right around when the thin path leading to the post town came into view, she spoke up again.

“You’ll show us the ropes to help make up for what we’re lacking, won’t you...?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“In that case, I’d like to put my cooking skills to the test, too.”

Feeling glad to hear that, I replied, “Thank you,” and tugged on Gilulu’s reins to get him to slow down a bit.

◇

Fortunately, we didn’t run into any issues even after arriving in the post town.

We were permitted to park totos and wagons in the space behind the stalls. However, since totos would eat leaves when tied up there, the rate for the space was increased by two red coins per day. I had some questions about the way the costs were laid out there, seeing as the space itself just cost one coin per day, but it was so cheap to begin with that I didn’t feel any need to get upset over it. And besides, checking Gilulu in at a proper totos stable would cost three red coins for half a day, so it was still a lot more reasonable to do things this way.

But at any rate, business went quite smoothly.

The folks from the east and south all lined up in front of the stalls first thing in the morning, and once they started to dwindle off, westerners began appearing here and there. In total, the southerners and easterners each made up 40% of my clientele, while the remaining 20% came from the west. And so, there was no real change in the ratio there, for better or for worse.

Of course, I really should feel grateful for the fact that I’m not seeing a big drop off after all that commotion...

Still, it felt like a bit of a stalemate for me in regards to the westerners.

The faces I had been seeing from the south and east had changed quite a bit over this past month. Naturally, there were longtime regulars like the Silver Vase and Pops’s construction group, but I was getting plenty of customers besides them too.

Thanks to the reputation I’d earned at The Great Southern Tree and The Sledgehammer, newcomers to the stalls would frequently show up even as others left Genos. Selling my cooking through those inns really had a remarkable effect on that front.

On the other hand, I wasn’t seeing much change in my western clientele. A number of them came from out of town for work, but the overwhelming majority were all residents, naturally.

In other words, of the roughly 30 or so western customers I got per day, nearly all of them were regulars who had been coming around for nearly a month now.

How many westerners lived here in the Genos post town to begin with? I honestly had no clue. I believe Ai Fa said it was several thousand at some point, but that was ultimately just shaky second-hand information.

From how lively the streets were and all the rows of houses stretching out to the west, it seemed clear it wasn’t just one or two thousand. Even if it didn’t reach all the way to 10,000, I’d certainly say “several thousand” seemed about right.

Of course, it wasn’t like all the residents of the post town came out to the stalls to eat. The clientele around here ultimately all came from folks staying in the inns or working nearby. And even then, some of that crowd just chose to eat lunch at their inn instead.

Then just how big of a pie was there for me to take my slice out of?

I figured I could roughly calculate that out based on the number of stalls.

How many snack stalls were there in this vast space...? It couldn’t be less than 50, at least. I’d probably put it at somewhere in the 60 to 70 range. And from what I heard, they generally sold between 20 to 50 meals per day. So the average would be 35 meals.

Roughly 60 stalls selling 35 meals each would work out to 2100 customers.

With that in mind, the fact that we were selling around 140 per day with just two stalls sure was something.

And so, the issue really did just come down to the ratios.

From what I could tell by looking at the traffic passing by, it really did seem like the majority of folks around were from the west. By my estimate, they seemed to make up somewhere between 60-70% of the crowd.

So based on my estimate of 2000 people, that would mean there were 1260 westerners or so. And bottom line, less than 30 of them came by our stalls. In terms of percentages, we’d be talking a piddly 2.4%.

For now, that was ultimately the most westerners I could get to come by the stalls without hesitation.

As for my foreign customers, I seemed to be seeing around 110 out of 840 coming by the stalls, or 13%.

Over one in every 10 easterners and southerners bought from me, while for westerners it was only about two out of a hundred.

Even though I was selling quite well, that was still a worrying set of circumstances for me.

Our location had been pretty secluded to begin with, and there was that whole incident ten days or so back. Yet in spite of that, this many people still kept on coming by to purchase my giba cooking rather than abandoning us. That was something to feel glad about, but still... I was finding it pretty difficult to determine just what my next step should be.

Ah, if I keep overthinking things like this, then Ai Fa will think I’m all in a rush again...

And so, I put a stop to my wild thoughts and calculations, just in time for there to be a tug on the sleeve of my t-shirt.

“Asuta, are you alright? We have a customer, you know...” Reina Ruu, who was working the giba burger stall alongside me, questioned with a look of concern.

I nodded back at her, and then lightly slapped my own cheeks.

“Sorry about that. I was just doing a bit of thinking, but now wasn’t the time for that. Welcome!” I said with a smile, only for my grin to soon fade.

There was a beardless youth from the south standing there and shooting me a sour look.

“Ah, hello... So what did you come here today for?”

Reina Ruu seemingly hadn’t noticed just yet, but it was the man named Labis from yesterday.

“I’ve come here today as a customer. Will you still sell me your cooking despite yesterday’s commotion?”

His expression looked displeased, but his tone and actions were all perfectly polite.

I glanced left and right, and when I didn’t see hide nor hair of that little troublemaker, I replied, “Of course. I acted rudely yesterday, too. Um, do you just want one?”

“Yes.”

“The taste of the meat in this dish is stronger than the one from yesterday, though, and it has a unique texture to it. A number of customers from the south have told me they weren’t fond of that, so would you like to try a sample before buying?”

There had been a remarkable drop-off in customers trying samples lately, so I would have to sacrifice one of the patties meant for selling, but there was really no helping that. And besides, the chance to earn a new customer was worth a lot more than the two red coins I would get from a sale.

However, the young man just looked all the more displeased upon hearing my words.

“Is that so...? Is the taste of the meat really that strong?”

“Hmm, well, there are customers from the south who are completely fine with it, too. But if I had to pick one, then that myamuu dish is more popular with southerners.”

“What should I do...?” the young man questioned, tilting his head.

I was about to say, “I’m not really sure how to respond to that,” only to gasp “Gyah!” instead.

From behind the young southerner’s stout frame, I could now spy speckled dark brown hair and a beautiful green eye like jade staring my way.

“A-Ah, you’re here too. Um... I’m truly sorry for my rude statement from yesterday,” I stated, taking the towel off my head and giving a thirty degree bow.

I could only spy part of her hair and her left eye from where I stood.

“How do you want me to proceed? It seems you can also confirm the taste first,” the young man stated, turning to look at her.

Instantly, Diel wailed out, “You dummy! Don’t move! He’s gonna see me!”

“Um, I can already see you a bit, so I don’t think there’s much point to hiding any longer...” I gently pointed out, only for the bit of her pale skin showing to turn red.

“Are you mad...?”

“Huh?”

“I hit you twice yesterday, but you’re not mad at me?”

“I mean, I was the one who went and acted rudely first. Not that I particularly approve of violence, though. Still, I’d say I brought that on myself, so I’m definitely not angry.”

Unfortunately I couldn’t quite bring myself to force a smile, but I was at least able to calmly get out that response. And it honestly wasn’t a lie that I wasn’t angry.

“You’re really not mad...?”

“Yup, that’s right.”

“I’m still angry, though...”

“Ah, yeah, I really am sorry about that.”

“Do you still think that I’m a boy...?”

“I don’t! I just had the dumb preconception in my head that there could never be any southern women in Genos. I’m seriously sorry, so could you find it in yourself to forgive me?”

Perhaps because I was behaving so humbly, the girl finally stepped out from the shadow of the young man.

She really was small and slender, with an adorable face. Looking now, it really was hard to see her as anything but a woman. Seriously, what had my brain been doing, reading her as a cute, girlish boy? The human mind could be seriously baffling at times.

Though with all that said, if she didn’t like being mistaken for a boy, she could’ve dressed more girly. The sleeveless vest and cylindrical pants she wore were the same as the young man accompanying her, and the coloring was chic but also a bit utilitarian.

With both westerners and the people of the forest’s edge, women tended to wear flashy, feminine attire, and they also usually showed off quite a bit of skin. As to whether this girl had especially womanly proportions, well, I preferred not to answer, but if she got dressed up in girly attire then she’d surely be cute enough to turn heads.

“That girl is incredibly pretty...” Diel stated with a harsh glare pointed Reina Ruu’s way.

In response, the second Ruu daughter gave a bit of a troubled smile and said “Huh?” with a tilt of her head.

“And that one is too, and the girl with the red hair next to her is super cute. Is the forest’s edge just full of beauties?”

“W-Well, I can’t exactly deny that...”

“I guess it makes sense that someone like me would look like a man when you’re always surrounded by such beautiful women...”

“That’s not true at all! You’ve got as cute a face as anyone, don’t you?!” I replied without thinking.

Diel’s pale face went bright red in response, and Reina Ruu’s cute round eyes narrowed and grew just as chilly as my clan head’s. I really was shocked to see the latter girl give a look like that, and couldn’t help but give a mental sigh.

“Wh-What are you, stupid? Trying to suck up to me with nonsense like that only makes me trust you less, y’know. You really are an inconsiderate guy, Asuta!”

“Yeah, even I can’t help but hate myself sometimes... Anyway, if you really did come here for my food again in spite of all that, then please go ahead! I’ll make up a sample for you to try out, so—”

“I don’t need to taste it first. But will you really sell your cooking to me...?”

“I can’t see any reason why not. In fact, it’d make me really glad if you bought some.”

Then, with her cheeks still red, Diel broke out in a truly joyful smile.

It may have been that innocent grin that finally cleared away the last bit of reservation I had been feeling. Her words and actions made her a bit tricky to handle, but at the very least, she seemed to be incredibly open when it came to her emotions. To relate her to someone I knew more closely, she may just have been pretty similar to Lala Ruu.

And when a person like that smiled, it really was quite charming. For some reason, it really reminded me of when Pops first shot me a grin.

“Well then, go ahead and sell me one! How many coins is it?”

“Ah, thank you. That will be two red coins.”

“So cheap! Can you really make a profit like that?”

“Yeah, at least as much as other stalls do.”

Since Ai Fa had resumed hunting, we once again had some days when we didn’t need to buy meat from other clans. Those circumstances meant our baseline expenses fluctuated quite a bit, but we most certainly shouldn’t have been any worse off than the other stalls.

Ah, as for today’s meat, we had purchased it from the Ran clan rather than the Ruu. And rather than paying 12 red coins for one giba’s worth, we went with 120. In other words, thanks to the negotiations with Tsuvai and Mia Lea Ruu, we had finally revised the cost of meat to something more proper.

Depending on the size of the giba, we would pay anywhere from 100 to 140 red coins. We also determined that we would pay half the price for half of a carcass, too. That was out of consideration for the fact that small clans also needed to keep meat for themselves too, unlike the Ruu who were able to hunt down a constant amount.

“Well then, one please! Ah, you really don’t want any, Labis?”

“That’s right. I already ate before we left,” the young man replied, pulling out a small cloth bag from near his chest. Then he pulled out a single white coin and placed it down with a clink.

“Thank you. And your change will be eight red coins.”

I was working on preparing the giba burger, and so Reina Ruu dealt with the change. However, even after she held out the coins, Labis offered no reaction.

Seemingly sensing what was going on, Reina Ruu gave a small nod and placed the coins down on the counter. With that, the young man silently grabbed the eight red coins.

So he didn’t want to touch any people of the forest’s edge if he could avoid it, huh?

The people of the forest’s edge had come to Genos from the black forest of Jagar, and converted from the southern god to the western god when they did so. And so, a portion of southerners avoided them even now.

However, the number of folks from Jagar who felt that way seemed to be few in number, and they wouldn’t exactly approach these stalls in the first place anyway, so this was an unusual sight for me.

Hmm... They don’t seem to be such bad people overall, but they really are a bit tricky to handle, I thought to myself as I handed the finished giba burger over to Diel.

“Thanks for waiting. And take care so that the tarapa doesn’t spill out, alright?”

“Yup! Thanks!” Diel replied with a bright smile, her mood seemingly having completely recovered. And as she bit into the dish with none of the hesitation she showed yesterday, her eyes narrowed even further with joy. “This is so good! I knew I didn’t need to taste it first! This is just as delicious as that dish from yesterday, Asuta!”

“Thanks, I’m glad to hear it.”

“Still, this meat is pretty darn soft. Is it still giba?”

“That’s right. This dish is made by chopping up the meat first and then balling it up and cooking it.”

“Hmm, how elaborate! I certainly never expected I’d be able to eat proper cooking here in the post town!”

Proper cooking, huh?

That statement definitely stirred up my curiosity.

“Hey, you normally eat in the castle town, don’t you? So, are the dishes they serve there really that much more lavish than what we have in the post town?”

“Hmm? Yeah, that’s right! Even the ingredients they use are on a whole other level! But your cooking’s really tasty... How is it so good when you can afford to sell it for two red coins?” Diel said with a smile, looking down at the cross-section of the giba burger she had bitten into. “This diced up vegetable is tino, isn’t it? And this boiled stuff is tarapa, right? Cheap tarapa’s supposed to be way more sour, but this is sweet and tasty.”

“Huh? Are you saying there’re less sour sorts of tarapa out there? I cooked it along with diced aria in order to counteract that. And the taste there should be coming from the fruit wine and myamuu.”

“Fruit wine, huh? But that’s cheap stuff too, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. A container this large just costs one red coin.”

“A single red coin! That’s so cheap it’s almost laughable!”

Her words just sounded so haughty and arrogant. Was that mouth on her just something she was born with? Honestly, I couldn’t help but have conflicted feelings, seeing how she was both praising my cooking skills and insulting my ingredients.

“Still, you really must have quite some skill to make food this delicious with such cheap ingredients. What’s someone like you doing working in the post town?”

“I don’t know what to say, except that I’m a person of the forest’s edge. I’m sure we’d never be allowed to do business in the castle town, right?”

Diel’s eyebrows drooped in response to those words. She really did seem to shift emotions awful quick.

“I’m sorry. I went and insulted the post town again, didn’t I? But it’s not like I hate this place, y’know. It’s the castle town that I find all stuffy and unbearable, which is why I slip out every day. Still, the cheap food from the post town is one thing I just can’t stand...”

“Ah, I wasn’t all that hurt by it.”

“You don’t like how I keep calling the ingredients you use cheap either, right...? Sorry.”

“No, I’m really not upset! And hey, hurry up and eat your food before it gets cold!”

“Right...”

Diel stopped and stared at my face with a concerned look for a bit, but she changed gears before too long and started eating again.

It was then that a tall group clad in leather cloaks approached, and I sighed without thinking. The timing was awkward... though with that said, they more or less showed up at the same time each day. After all, it was my group of regulars, the Silver Vase.

Diel tried to casually move out of the way, but when she saw silver hair peeking out from under one of the hoods, she froze in place.

“Asuta, five please.”

“Thanks for your continued business. Um... the promise from yesterday is still valid, right?” I asked Diel in a bit of a worried tone, only to get back an annoyed, “Yeah, yeah!”

Then, the girl looked angrily up at Shumiral.

“Hey! There’s something I want to say to you!”

The easterner silently looked down on Diel. And his expression remained utterly devoid of emotion as he did so.

As I stood there wondering if this difference in temperaments was part of what led to their nations becoming enemies, Diel’s eyebrows raised as she looked all the more annoyed.

In the next instant, though, she shouted out, “I’m sorry! I hate folks from Sym, but I may have been in the wrong there, insulting you like that in the western kingdom. So I’m sorry, alright!”

When she said that last “sorry,” it was in the sort of tone you’d use to shout out, “you damn jerk!”

However, that was probably about as close to a compromise as this girl could get.

With the same look on his face as always, Shumiral gave a small nod.

“I await the day, the war between, Sym and Jagar, comes to a close. I do not, hate Jagar.”

“Well I mean, I was born in Jeland, which is in the west of Jagar, so I don’t really know much about the war myself, but... Ugh, whatever! Stop making me talk so much! Something rude’ll end up slipping out again!” Diel shouted before biting down on the giba burger as if to put a lid over her own mouth. Then, she shot me a glare as if to say, “That was good enough, right?”

Naturally, I didn’t have any problems there. In fact, I felt glad to see that she was able to earnestly go ahead and say sorry.

“I saw you, yesterday in the castle town, at the yellow manor. Are you perhaps, part of, an ironsmithing group?” Shumiral calmly asked while waiting for me to finish the giba burgers.

Meanwhile, Diel looked up with an antagonistic glare at Shumiral, who stood around a head taller than her.

“I told you not to make me talk so much! But that’s right... We came from Jeland, so naturally that’s the field of work we’re in.”

“Jeland iron, is famed. We lost business, as the client decided, he would buy, blades from there instead.”

“Ah, you were the folks from Sym who sold blades to that old guy? That’s a shame! But I mean, Jagar would never lose out to Sym when it comes to metalworking!” Diel said while proudly puffing out her chest, only to turn and shoot me a worried look. “Um, I wasn’t badmouthing them right now...”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t need to worry that much about it.”

Besides, Shumiral was the one who brought up the subject there. However, I couldn’t imagine him launching into small talk with someone from Jagar just because he felt like it, so it was probably a conversation he felt was important to have.

“We sold blades, each year. But we were told, he doesn’t need them, anymore... Because he, is buying them, from you.”

“Hmm? Ah, apparently my dad and that old guy had some sort of special agreement. I don’t know the details, though, and even if I did I wouldn’t exactly go telling them to a business rival! Wait... you’re an ironware seller?”

“No, I am not. We sell blades, pots, glass, cloth... anything and everything.”

“Huh? Well anyway, I guess you’d better start refocusing your business from here on out. Jagar is famous for its iron, and even there Jeland is a step above! So we won’t lose out to some petty merchants who deal in whatever they can get their hands on!”

Every time Diel made a harsh comment, she shot me a worried look.

Right now, though, she was acting more amusing than aggravating. Besides, it made sense to me for merchants to ruthlessly compete with one another.

“We strive, to make, good blades. However... May I say, one thing?”

“What is it? You sure do talk a lot for someone from Sym, y’know.”

“I enjoy, conversation. I would like, to learn, to better speak, the language, of the west. But the old man, of the yellow manor, broke our agreement. We prepared blades, for no reason, now. I warn you, to take care, as well.”

“Eh? You’re being way too naive, there! If you didn’t have a contract, then you’ve got no right to complain about someone changing business partners. I’m surprised you call yourself a merchant, thinking like that.”

“We did, have a contract. But he still, broke the agreement. He said, if we complained, he would take, our pass into, the castle town. That would prove, problematic, and so, we gave up, on the matter.”

With those words, Diel’s cute expression gave way to a more stern one. Though with that said, it was still more like the expression of a puppy that had its meal interrupted.

“What the...? That old guy’s seriously that crooked? Well, I guess he really does feel more like a greedy merchant on the outskirts of town than a noble... Still, what were you thinking, giving that information to your business rivals?”

“I have, no particular, reason,” Shumiral replied, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. It was the sort of expression that I had pegged as meaning he was enjoying himself. “It’s just, that you, apologized. You are, unusual for, a citizen of Jagar. And so, I wanted, to talk to you.”

“Hmph! What a weirdo!” Diel retorted, turning away. But then, she went ahead and glanced back over towards Shumiral. “But well, I guess I’ll tell my dad to watch out just to be safe. But I won’t go thanking you until I know if it’s true or not!”

“I do not, need thanks. Let us both, strive to make, the best blades, that we can.”

With that, the back and forth finally came to a close, and Shumiral was able to eat his own giba burger.

Now, I wanted to let Shumiral know as soon as possible that he had permission to visit the Ruu settlement, but that seemed best left till after a certain belligerent young girl left. And so, I decided to just make some small talk for the time being.

“Doing business in the castle town sounds pretty tough in its own way. You do business with nobles, Shumiral?”

“Yes. It was, by chance. That old man, bought many blades. For cutting vegetables, and meat.”

“Ah, so you were talking about cooking knives there, huh?”

In that case, we were talking about knives like the one I had sitting right in front of me, a splendid vegetable knife I had bought from Shumiral for 18 white coins.

“That old guy really is a sucker for tasty food! He’s apparently got links to all sorts of restaurants, and he’s even got cooks living in the manor we’re staying at. He’s super hard to like, but he really does treat his guests well!” Diel chimed in, resolutely butting into the conversation.

“You’re staying at that noble’s manor? That sure is a shock.”

“Yeah, I guess! He was even saying if things go well, he’d order the swords and spears for the soldiers in the castle from us too... Ah, I probably shouldn’t have said that!” the girl stated, hurriedly covering her mouth.

I gave a strained smile and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t go spreading it around. I’ve got no interest in fighting with nobles, after all.”

“Yeah, I mean, that old guy’s got a real lousy personality! And to nobles, money’s more important than the lives of commoners.” Then, Diel’s eyes suddenly started to sparkle. “Ooh, how about if I introduce you to him, Asuta? You’d be set for life if you became a noble’s personal chef!”

“Ah, no, no! This post town fits me way better! And I don’t know if I could make food that would suit a noble’s tastes!”

“Really? I couldn’t see you losing to the cooks from that manor, though...” Diel muttered, puffing her cheeks and looking a bit upset. “Still, it might be best not to get involved with a nasty guy like that. It seems like it’d be a real pain, having him go finding fault with everything. Ugh, but I really wanted to have everyone there eat your cooking. I’m sure your food would surprise those nobles even more than it shocked me. I mean, they’d never think giba meat could be that tasty!”

For me, the castle town was some far off, distant presence. And besides, I had my hands full just trying to figure out how to tackle the post town.

Still, a nasty old noble, huh...?

I got a bit of a bad feeling about that for some reason, and so I decided it best to go ahead and check.

“By the way, what’s the name of that noble anyway? Ah, but you don’t have to answer if that question’s a problem.”

“Hmm? His name? What was it again...? Cyrun or Taran or something...?”

Oh good... I thought to myself, feeling a bit relieved.

There was a certain noble I didn’t want anything to do with, even indirectly. And now that I’d finally gotten closer to this girl, I didn’t want to have to suspect her of being a spy, either.

Well, there had to be plenty of nobles in the Genos castle town, so it was probably pretty unlikely to hit the mark to begin with...

“That’s wrong,” Shumiral suddenly stated. “The old man of, the yellow manor, is called, Count Turan. The Turan domain, is to the north, of Genos. There are many, orchards and, fuwano fields there.”

“Yeah, that was it! Turan! But wait, that’s his title, not his name, isn’t it?”

“Yes. He is the head, of the Turan family, Cyclaeus. One of the three, lords of Genos,” Shumiral calmly stated.

I looked up at the sun approaching its peak high in the sky, and sighed with all my might.