Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 20 E-Book

EDA

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Cooking with Wild Game
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 392

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

A great deal has occurred lately in the lives of Asuta and the people of the forest’s edge. From the fight with the fearsome lord of the forest, to a tea party held for noble ladies, to the celebration of a festival of the hunt at the Ruu settlement. And yet, there’s still even more change to come, as the biggest event of the year is fast approaching: the sun god’s revival festival.

How will it go when the Fa clan joins the Ruu in their outdoor restaurant, expanding it further? When Myme opens a stall of her own, will she find success? What developments will there be in Lem Dom’s quest to be acknowledged as a hunter? What will happen when everyone visits the Daleim lands again? And just who exactly are these circus performers who’ve rolled into town for the festival?

See all this and more in the exciting twentieth volume of Cooking with Wild Game!

Leseprobe

Chapter 1: Preparations for the Revival Festival

1

After the festival of the hunt at the Ruu settlement, there was a day off, and then the sixteenth of the violet month arrived. Starting today, the Fa clan would begin running an outdoor restaurant of its own.

It had already been around twenty days since the Ruu clan opened their outdoor restaurant. And with just six days left till the sun god’s revival festival, our preparations were complete as well.

Prior to this, the outdoor restaurant had been using four stall spaces with seven tables and forty-two chairs. The plan was for the Fa clan to make an investment to provide the same amount of seating. In other words, from here on out, our two clans would be running an outdoor restaurant that was twice as large together.

“All right, now we’ve just gotta wait for the food to heat up.”

We had set up everything for the new expanded seating yesterday on our day off. We had simply needed to clean off the tables and chairs this morning, and then were able to start our final prep work at the stalls themselves.

I had also increased the number of my stalls from two to three, starting today. Since we had invested in the outdoor restaurant, I was now able to serve dishes that required customers to have a seat and utensils. I had decided to alternate between the old giba manju and poitan wraps at one stall, and unveil new dishes at the other two stalls.

For one of them, I went with both curry and pasta. I had incorporated some of what I had learned from Naudis into the curry. And as for the pasta, I hoped it would draw attention because it was so novel.

Still, even if the curry and pasta were dishes I felt proud of, I couldn’t really call them proper “giba cooking.” Put simply, it would be completely possible to make delicious versions of the dishes with kimyuus or karon meat. That meant they neglected the crucial point of helping to spread the delicious taste of giba meat. Because of that, I decided to sell them alternating day by day at the same stall, alongside a separate meat dish as a daily special.

For our opening day, that meant selling giba curry, giba manju, and the special dish, giba steak. It would soon be half a year since I had started doing business in the post town, and I had finally made up my mind to try selling the meat in the style that would allow the customer to most directly enjoy its taste.

The flavor of giba steak was pretty quirky, compared to kimyuus or karon, so I had no clue how well it would be accepted by the townsfolk. But by treating it as one of the specials, I could test that out. And if it drew enough interest, I intended to also give whole roast giba a try in the post town.

With all that expansion going on, it seemed like it would be difficult to keep doing the lottery for the giba cutlet sandwiches, so for the moment the plan was to give that gimmick a rest and instead add the dish to the list of specials.

“With you guys expanding your stalls so much, it’s really starting to feel like a festival is coming. I’m gonna enjoy seeing everything you’ve got for us to eat now,” a customer from Jagar who was standing in line remarked.

“You can give the new dishes a taste test, so please do try them all. The giba curry over there uses lots of herbs from Sym, but it’s actually a dish from my home country.”

“Hmm? I’m not exactly fond of Sym, but I guess if I can try a sample first, I’ll at least give it a shot.”

When unveiling my new menu, I was the most concerned about my customers from Jagar.

Folks from Sym tended not to be too concerned about quirky meat due to eating gyama raised in the mountains, which had a strong scent to them, and they generally didn’t have any issues with ingredients from Jagar either. Meanwhile, southerners were often really direct by nature and held a strong antipathy toward Sym, not to mention a lot of them were a bit pickier than even westerners when it came to the taste of meat. With that in mind, I added a highly aromatic tau oil and myamuu sauce to the giba steak.

For garnishes, I prepared a sauté of aria, nenon, and the pseudo-brown beech mushroom. I kept the meat at just around 120 grams and sold it for two red coins. I chose that size and price because I wanted to allow people to enjoy all sorts of combinations of cooking from the stalls.

With the other new dish—the giba curry—I chose to go with the same system the Ruu clan did with their soups. In other words, one ladleful was one and a half red coins, and two ladles would be three.

Just like the Ruu clan did, though, I referred to the half size as a whole portion. Tsuvai had advised us that if an overwhelming majority of the customers ordered the smaller size, we should treat that as the baseline. As such, one ladleful became a full serving, and if that wasn’t enough, people could order a double serving.

Furthermore, the soup, curry, and specials came with a half-sized baked poitan. Half a poitan wasn’t very much food, so I still expected folks would order another dish alongside them.

The Ruu clan also had a change on their end too. Which is to say, they reevaluated the size and cost of the giba burgers and myamuu giba that they alternated between. Up until now, both had used quite a bit of meat, around 180 grams, and sold for three red coins. That price-quantity ratio was determined by the castle of Genos, and so there was no changing it. But it would be difficult to enjoy alongside other dishes like that, so they went ahead and lowered both the price and volume.

The giba burgers and giba manju both had 120 grams of meat for two red coins, while the myamuu giba and poitan wraps were 90 grams of meat for one and a half coins.

I was worried that making the giba burgers smaller would change how substantial they felt but ultimately decided that size wouldn’t be an issue after all. Besides, using 180 grams of meat was rather non-standard to begin with.

It was a pretty distant memory at this point, but the patties at a certain famous burger restaurant from my old world weighed in at just 30-40 grams. At some point, they started selling a burger that had more volume to it, with a patty that weighed a quarter of a pound. When I did the math out of curiosity, it worked out to about 113 grams. In other words, even after needing to downsize them, the giba burgers were still bigger than a quarter pound of meat.

Another important point was that we decided to stagger the alternation for some of the dishes. That was because if everything was swapping daily, there wouldn’t be as much depth to the variety of combinations on offer.

The Fa clan’s specials and the Ruu’s soup dishes were set to rotate daily. The Fa clan would switch between the giba curry and the pasta every two days, while the Ruu would do the same for their giba burgers and myamuu giba every three days. Our giba manju and poitan wraps would change out every four days. It was about half a month between now and the end of the revival festival, so customers with a long stay would be able to enjoy all sorts of combinations.

As for the number of meals, we didn’t know which dishes would prove most popular, so for today we prepared a lot of everything. We’d play it by ear and make adjustments from here on based on the sales.

For today, we had three hundred servings of giba hot pot stew, two hundred of giba curry, one hundred and forty of the myamuu giba, one hundred and twenty giba manju, and one hundred giba steaks.

If we sold all of that, it would work out to 1,400 red coins. So far, our sales had maxed out at around 1,150 coins, and today would be a test to see just how much we could expand.

If we end up with a lot of leftovers, the Kimyuus’s Tail should purchase them off of us...but I wouldn’t want to trouble Milano Mas like that if I can help it.

Of course, expanding the stalls and restaurant also meant bringing more people onboard to help. Up until now, our full-time team had consisted of me, Toor Deen, and Yamiru Lea, while Yun Sudra came around the time the sun hit its peak. But from here on out, we would all be working for the entire business day, and we were bringing in two more chefs. They came from the Gaaz and Ratsu clans, who had previously expressed their support for the Fa clan’s actions and had women to spare.

As for the Ruu clan, Reina and Sheera Ruu alternated daily, and Vina, Lala, and Rimee Ruu had a three-day rotation, with only Tsuvai working every day. That was all kept the same, while Ama Min Rutim switched from only arriving when the sun hit its peak to being full-time, and they also took in newcomers from their subordinate clans, the Lea and Min. The idea was to bring on new help before the busy period arrived, just as we had done.

That was the plan for the sun god’s revival festival that the members of the Ruu clan and I had put together.

“Hey there, Asuta. Did I get here a bit too soon?” a voice called out from off to my side while I was heating up a metal tray in the stall. It was Dora and Tara, who we had just passed by on the way here.

“Wow, you showed up early. We’ll need just a bit more time before opening.”

They usually didn’t show up until the morning rush had died down, at the earliest. Placing a hand atop his beloved daughter’s head, Dora shot me a strained smile.

“Well, I asked the pot seller’s son to watch the shop so I could hurry over. He wanted to come as soon as possible too.”

“Oh, is that so? I feel like I should apologize to you. You’re gonna be wasting even more time with us now that we’re operating as a sit-in restaurant.”

“What are you saying? If it means there’s even more delicious food for us to eat, then any extra hassle is worth it,” Dora said as he glanced around. “Still, this is quite a sight to see. Back when you started out, I never would have imagined your business would get this big.”

There were now five stalls in a row lined up selling giba meat. And beyond that were eight stalls’ worth of space dedicated to the outdoor restaurant’s seating.

The number of people working here had grown from eight to twelve. Things really had expanded an awful lot compared to when it was just me and Vina Ruu starting out, selling a mere ten giba burgers a day. The thought was starting to make me kinda emotional.

“Yumi and that Myme girl will be opening stalls soon too, right? Then things will get even more lively.”

“Ah, Myme’s set to open up shop today. She’s going to be using that open space over there once she arrives.”

Since we wouldn’t be able to talk with each other if our seating was between us and her, yesterday we shifted our whole setup in order to make space for two more stalls next to us. Myme and The Westerly Wind would be setting up their stalls there, while The Great Southern Tree would supposedly set up shop further south, where things were more lively. The Kimyuus’s Tail was just supervising the stalls for now.

“Things are completely open across the road, though. From what I hear, something big will be going in there,” I said.

“Yeah, last year a group of traveling performers put up a huge circus tent for the revival festival. They seemed to pull in quite a bit of business, so it could be the same group doing that again,” Dora explained.

“Huh?! Those guys are coming to Genos again?! I really want to see them with Rimee Ruu!” Tara said, her eyes sparkling as she tugged on her father’s arm.

“So there are performers coming? And you saw them last year, Tara?” I asked.

“Yeah! It was a little scary, but also really fun! There were animals I’d never seen before, and I just loved it!”

“I see. Animals you’d never seen before, huh?”

Karon and kimyuus had been brand new sights for me, but she must have been talking about animals that were even more unusual if they were supposedly that much of a spectacle. Back in my own world, circuses would bring along animals like elephants, giraffes, and lions.

While I was thinking about that, Dora gave a troubled, “Hmm... I’m not too fond of tents like that. Still, I can at least appreciate the lovely young women.”

“Ah ha ha. It certainly does sound like a good time. I’d love to go along too, as long as my clan head gives her permission.”

“And I’d feel a lot more comfortable if you all went along. Those guys aren’t such bad folks, but there are a lot of shady traveling performers out there.” After saying that, Dora’s eyes opened wide. He seemed to have noticed the non-chef part of our group standing behind the stalls. “Huh? So you’re here too? It’s been a while, um...”

“My name is Dan Rutim! You’re the vegetable seller from the Daleim lands, aren’t you? I’m glad to see you looking well!”

Yes, we once again had hunters come along to act as guards. From what I had heard, you needed to be extra cautious during the revival festival, as lowlifes from other towns would sometimes come wandering in. It truly was fortunate that the Ruu clan’s break period overlapped with the revival festival.

As he peeked his face out from behind Dan Rutim, Ludo Ruu casually greeted them. “Hey! If it isn’t Dora and little Tara. So you showed up before opening?”

Tara’s face instantly lit up. “Yay! You all came to town too, Ludo Ruu?!”

“Yeah, ’cuz the Ruu clan is in a break period. The men’ll be taking turns coming into town each day from here on out.”

We would be having a random assortment of five to six hunters accompany us as guards. For today that meant the two of them, plus Ai Fa, Rau Lea, and the second son of the main Rutim house.

This was the first time since things got complicated with Cyclaeus that we had guards come along to the stalls. Back then we had gone with young hunters who had gentle appearances so as not to frighten the townsfolk, but we did away with that requirement this time around.

There were two reasons for that. Back when I was kidnapped by Lefreya, brawny hunters came to the post town en masse, so the townsfolk had built up something of a resistance to them. And I also suggested to Donda Ruu that it would be good to try to see how the relationship between the men of the forest’s edge and the post town was shifting.

Furthermore, for better or worse, people from elsewhere didn’t have much fear of the people of the forest’s edge, so it was decided that fierce-looking hunters would act as a better deterrent.

The reason we ended up with so many familiar guards today was because it was the men with the strongest sense of curiosity, like Dan Rutim and Ludo Ruu, who were the first to volunteer, but we were scheduled to have men from the other subordinate clans like the Maam, Muufa, and Ririn help out too.

“Hey Ludo Ruu, is Rimee Ruu on duty today?” Tara questioned.

“Yeah.” Ludo Ruu nodded back. “She’s working over there. And she’s been itching to see you again.”

“Hooray! I’m so happy I get to see both of you at once!” Tara said with an earnest smile, and Ludo Ruu flashed the whites of his teeth back at her. Ever since Tara’s visit to the forest’s edge, the bond between them had grown steadily deeper.

“Hey, sorry to interrupt when you’re having a good time chatting, but when is the food gonna be ready?” the customer from Jagar chimed in, looking rather impatient. He must have been getting annoyed because I had only warmed up the tray but hadn’t done anything further.

“Ah, sorry. I’m waiting for the preparations for the other dishes to be ready. If I started serving people on my own, I’d probably have the whole crowd lining up in front of me.”

I was in charge of the special dish, the giba steak. Looking to either side, I was met by nods from Yamiru Lea at the giba manju stall and Toor Deen at the giba curry stall.

The Gaaz woman was beside Toor Deen, while the Ratsu woman was standing by in the outdoor restaurant alongside Yun Sudra. Sheera and Rimee Ruu were set to show them the ropes over there.

Over past the giba curry stall, Ama Min Rutim waved at us from her post where she was handling the giba hot pot stew. Tsuvai offered no reaction from the myamuu giba stall, but as long as she had her tray warmed up, there wouldn’t be any issues in terms of preparations.

“Okay, that’s all of us ready to start, so we’ll go ahead and open up for business. This dish is being unveiled for the first time, so you can give it a taste test if you want,” I said, pulling out a leather bag of fatty sirloin meat we had prepared for this dish. After tenderizing it to deal with the fibers, the meat was roughly one and a half centimeters thick.

I brushed off the pico leaves used to preserve the slab of meat, then placed it atop the pan, and the fat started crackling right away. There was a strong aroma of curry in the air, but the closest customers would definitely smell the meat grilling.

After I checked the color on the bottom, I flipped it over, then pulled out my secret weapon: a domed metal steak cover. I was using a pot lid that I had purchased through Diel’s metalworking group.

After pouring fruit wine over the cooked surface, I sealed the sirloin under the steak cover. Cooking it with a cover was meant to shorten the overall time it took to grill. The smell of grilling meat and sweet fruit wine mingled together, growing even more potent.

Once a minute or so had passed, I removed the lid, then cut into the center of the meat and found it had been properly heated through. I started slicing it into roughly one-centimeter-thick pieces and moved them onto a large wooden plate, quickly pouring the tau oil and myamuu sauce over the top before stabbing them with some wooden skewers I had purchased from a craftsman.

“These are free, so please go ahead and take one. Just return the skewers once you’re done with your taste test.”

Instantly, a number of arms reached out. As I prepared more samples and prayed that this would swiftly lead to some orders, I laid out a number of slabs of meat atop the tray.

“Ooh, this is delicious!” a rather gruff-looking customer from the west proclaimed before anyone else. “Not that it’s a surprise, but kimyuus and karon leg meat just can’t compete. Hey, how much does this cost?”

“For this size with vegetables on the side, it’s two red coins. And each meal also comes with a half-sized baked poitan.”

“Hmm, two red coins for that, eh...? Doesn’t sound bad, but I wanna fill myself up more.”

“If you wish, I can add another half cut of meat for three coins total. But we’ve got all kinds of soup here, and we recommend trying them together.”

“Oh right, those soups sell for one and a half red coins. Add that to one of these, and it’s three and a half red coins, huh? All right, let’s go with that!”

“Thank you. Please hold on just a moment.”

Once the first customer had made up his mind, the other customers started flooding in. The concept of samples hadn’t been much of a thing in Genos before, so folks just wanted to fill their stomachs as quickly as possible. At this rate, it was possible that I wouldn’t need the samples at all for the time being.

“Asuta, could I get an order here too? Hmm... Is the only other new dish you have today that spicy-looking one?” Dora asked, pointing at the giba curry stall.

“That’s right,” I replied with a smile.

“Okay, then if we could each get a portion of soup as well, that should be good enough. I’m really looking forward to this.”

Dora added an order of both the curry and the steak to that, which he split with Tara. It really was charming to watch.

I also took out a leather bag full of sautéed vegetables and poured them out along the edge of my cooking tray. I had already fully prepared them back at the house, so they just needed to be heated back up.

Then I loaded the grilled steak and sautéed vegetables onto a series of plates alongside the baked poitan, one after another. Since this dish took a bit more effort to finalize than the others, the line ended up longer than for the giba manju and giba curry, making things quite busy for me.

As I worked, Dan Rutim leaned forward close to me. “Asuta, I’m getting hungry myself, so when can I eat?”

“Huh? Um, I can make you a snack, of course, but could you wait until I handle this line?”

“What?! Such cruelty, making me wait with such a delicious aroma in the air!”

Regardless, the morning rush would settle down in thirty minutes or so. I just needed him to hold out till then.

Hmm. We have more stalls than the Ruu, so it’s a bit tough even with these numbers. Maybe it’ll be different once the two newcomers get used to the job, but if things get any busier, we may need to bring in even more employees. In which case, it would probably be best to train them now too. The Fou and Ran had said they would have a difficult time letting us hire any of their women, which would leave the Liddo, who had ties to the Deen. Or perhaps it might make sense to send a proposal to the Beim and Dagora.

The Beim and Dagora were clans who stood in opposition to the Fa clan doing business in the post town. But the Zaza were the head of the opposition faction, and yet they let a member of their subordinate Deen clan, Toor Deen, work with me in order to better understand the situation. Maybe it would be possible to persuade the Beim and Dagora in the same way.

“You certainly seem busy, Asuta...” someone said to me out of nowhere.

“Gah, you scared me there! What do you want, Ai Fa?”

“Is that any way to respond when your clan head is trying to show her appreciation?”

Rimee Ruu had pulled Ai Fa away, and they had been hanging out together in the outdoor restaurant. But my clan head must have been freed up when things got busy over there too.

Ai Fa had injured her ribs in the battle against the lord of the forest and was currently taking a break from her hunting work. Even so, she insisted that she could take down any townsperson who tried to cause trouble regardless, and had volunteered as a guard. With the expression on her face as gallant as ever, Ai Fa shot me a probing stare.

“Your stall seems the most shorthanded. Why aren’t you having the Gaaz or Ratsu women help?”

“Well, because the steak is a daily special. I don’t know when we’ll be serving it next, so it would be more helpful down the road to have them learn at the other stalls, right?”

“Hmm... So rather than this being a case of you haphazardly overburdening yourself, this is actually an arrangement you came up with after careful consideration?” Ai Fa remarked, and then she suddenly began removing her cloak, exposing the bandages wrapped around her abdomen. “In that case, I shall lend you a hand.”

“Huh? You’re saying you want to help run the stall, Ai Fa?”

“Indeed. There are four hunters here, aside from myself, which should be more than enough to act as guards. Besides, nothing seems to be particularly out of sorts in town today.”

It was pretty shocking for me to hear her make such a suggestion. But to be honest, I was so busy right now that I’d even be willing to ask a cat for help, so I certainly wouldn’t object if my wildcat of a clan head was offering her assistance.

“Well then, could you take the coins from the customers? That alone would be a big help.”

“Very well.” Ai Fa nodded, stowing her cloak in the stall and moving to stand next to me.

“The price is two red coins. You just put them here in this bag. This doesn’t happen very often, but if a customer pays with a white coin, they would get eight red ones back as change.”

“Understood.”

Since I was cooking some more meat at the moment, Ai Fa had nothing to do yet as she stood there. The customers wouldn’t be able to spot her blade too easily like this, so as long as they didn’t take too much notice of her piercing gaze, she would make a fine saleswoman.

I never imagined the day would come when Ai Fa would help out with the business.

With a sense of joy welling up inside me, I continued to give my all to my work.

Perhaps it was an omen of what was to come during the revival festival, or maybe it was just the new menu drawing people’s attention, or it could even have been a consequence of having taken yesterday off, but at any rate, we were getting even more customers than usual crowding around the stalls.

2

“Hello! Looks like I’m really running behind!”

Myme arrived in the post town around thirty minutes after we opened for business.

By this point, we had managed to serve all the customers in the opening rush and the flow of new ones had finally started to slow down. Our hunter guards had gotten their snack too.

“Your restaurant really seems to be a success. You’ve got so many seats now, and they’re still all filled,” Myme noted.

“Fortunately, we’ve had a great flow of customers. Once the sun hits its peak, things will pick up again, and I’m sure your cooking will sell really well too.”

“Right! I don’t want the ingredients to go to waste, so I’m hoping I can sell out by the lower second hour,” Myme said, and I could see Bartha behind her holding the reins of the Ruu clan totos, Jidura. In order to transport her supplies from her house in the Turan lands, Myme had needed to borrow not only a guard but also a wagon. These were the totos and wagon that had been bought for the clans under the Ruu to use, so once Bartha finished up her guard duty, the plan was to have her go around and buy whatever the clans needed before returning to the settlement.

The Fa clan was actually using the totos and wagon bought for our local clans in a similar manner. After all, Gilulu and Ruuruu’s wagons alone couldn’t quite handle twelve chefs and five or six guards.

And just a trivial little aside, the local clans had decided to name their totos Fafa. It was a sign of respect, as the massive bird had been a gift from the Fa clan.

Around the Fa clan we had Gilulu and Fafa, the Ruu had Ruuruu and Jidura, and the Rutim had Mim Cha. There were also totos that I didn’t know if they had a name or not, belonging to the Lea, Zaza, and Sauti clans, meaning there were currently eight of them living at the forest’s edge.

“Well, I’m gonna go pick up my stall, so I’ll see you later.”

“Right. Take care.”

Based on my recommendation, Myme was renting her stall from The Kimyuus’s Tail as well. She had gotten acquainted with Telia Mas the other day when they both visited the forest’s edge, and I would really be glad if that led to her making a connection with Milano Mas too.

I also couldn’t help but wonder just what sort of giba dish Myme had come up with after all that preparation time. I knew I’d be impatiently looking forward to trying it for the rest of the day.

“So someone who isn’t a person of the forest’s edge is finally selling giba cooking,” Ai Fa muttered from her position next to me. “Well, I suppose they’ve actually been selling it at the inns for a while now, but this is the first time I’ve personally seen it done. It’s a rather strange feeling.”

“Yeah. The inns have been serving tons of giba meat to the townsfolk in their dining halls for months, so it’s nothing to be surprised about now. And besides, I’ve been selling it, and I look different from the rest of the people of the forest’s edge myself.”

“Even so, you are a full-fledged member of our people.”

“Yeah, I know. You don’t have to give me that scary look.”

That said, back when I first opened my stalls, I had folks ask questions like, “Why is someone who isn’t even a person of the forest’s edge selling giba meat, of all things?”

But at any rate, a natural-born citizen of Genos like Myme would now be selling giba cooking from a stall. This was surely another big step forward.

“Ooh, there certainly are a lot of giba dishes for sale,” a deep male voice said from directly in front of me. When I turned my head to face forward, I found a rather well-built customer from Jagar standing before the stall.

He was even larger than Aldas, the construction worker I had been acquainted with in the past. In terms of sheer body mass, he might have even been a match for Dan Rutim. His dark-brown hair and mustache were disheveled, he had a piercing look in his green eyes, and his expression appeared both calm and stern at the same time. A traveler’s cloak fully concealed his bulky frame.

“Welcome. They’ve cooled a good bit, but you can sample the meat atop that wooden plate for free,” I replied, only for the customer to simply give me a big enough smile that it made his eyes narrow.

At that, Ai Fa jabbed me with her elbow. “Asuta, he’s the man from that one time.”

“Hmm? Which man?”

She turned to address our customer. “My apologies, but I’ve completely forgotten your name as well.”

“Ah, think nothing of it. We’ve only met once, after all. And it can be difficult to tell people from other nations apart, so it’s no surprise that you wouldn’t remember, Sir Asuta.” He certainly was being polite. Folks from Jagar tended to be so frank and open that it was quite rare to hear them talk that way, aside from Diel’s attendant, Labis. “My name is Bozl. We met in the Turan manor in the castle town.”

“The Turan manor? Ah, then you’re...!”

“Yes, I am one of the apprentices of Chef Varkas. It’s been roughly a month since our last meeting, Sir Asuta.”

Varkas, the chef from the castle town, had two other apprentices in addition to Shilly Rou. One was a tall older man who looked to be an easterner, and the other was a large southerner. The latter of those two was Bozl here.

“I’m terribly sorry about that. What brings you to the post town?”

“I had some minor negotiations to do with a merchant from Jagar. Not all merchants have passes to the castle town, so I occasionally have to head out myself,” Bozl answered with a smile. “And since I had already come all this way, I decided I should see how your business is doing, Sir Asuta. But this is quite a surprise. I never imagined I would find such a large operation in the post town.”

“We actually just expanded the restaurant today. Also, half of it belongs to the Ruu clan from the forest’s edge.”

“Is that so? In that case, it seems I picked a good day to come,” Bozl remarked with a nod, staring down at the plate of samples. “So, this is giba meat? From what I can tell, it seems to be a rather straightforward dish.”

“That’s right. I just grill the giba meat on a metal tray and then add a sauce made with tau oil, myamuu, and a few other things. That’s all there is to it. If you’d like, please go ahead and give it a try.”

“I appreciate it. Ever since I tasted your cooking, I’ve been highly interested in giba meat.” Then, after saying “My thanks” with a western-style show of gratitude, he grabbed one of the small skewered bits of steak and tossed it into his mouth. Since I had gotten some orders in the meantime, I went ahead and grilled up some more meat. “This is delicious...” Bozl said with a beaming smile. “Thanks to how straightforward the dish is, I was able to appreciate the taste of the meat fully. Just what cut is this, exactly?”

“It’s back meat.”

“Back meat, is it? It seems a bit tougher than karon meat, but it has just the right amount of fat to it, and a powerful flavor. It seems with the meat of wild beasts, it naturally comes with both a characteristic scent and a strong taste that can’t be avoided.”

“That’s true. Is it to your liking?”

“Yes, very much so. If it were not forbidden by the castle, I would surely be making plans to buy up your giba meat myself.”

Since we were still figuring out the appropriate market price for giba meat, it was forbidden for citizens of the castle town to purchase it. That was because Duke Marstein Genos had concerns that some noble may attempt to buy it all up and corner the market.

“My apologies, but I would like to sample the other dishes as well. That one there has a wonderful herby smell.”

“Yeah. If at all possible, I’d love to have Varkas try that one someday too.”

Varkas was incredibly skilled at handling herbs, so I couldn’t help but wonder what his impression of my giba curry would be. It was something I had really wanted to know for a while now.

Bozl nodded and then headed off to the right toward the giba curry stall and those belonging to the Ruu clan. At the same time, I spotted Myme and Bartha returning with a stall. Perhaps because it was her first day doing business, Milano Mas was also with them.

“Okay, I’ll be taking the spot next to you,” Myme said with a smile as she started hurriedly setting up the stall. Part of that involved placing a large lidded pot over a flame. Maybe because the giba manju stall was between us, though, the smell of her dish didn’t make it over to me.

“Hey Myme, how many portions did you prepare for today?” I loudly asked, with Yamiru Lea standing between us at the giba manju stall.

Myme sent me a smile back. “Well, since I’m just getting started today, I went ahead and prepared thirty meals.”

“Huh?! Only thirty?!”

“That’s right. From what I’ve heard, you’re doing well if you can sell thirty to fifty meals in the post town, so I figured that would be about right for now.”

That might have been true, but it was now normal for our giba dishes to sell into the triple digits. Not that I had room to talk, considering I had started out with just ten meals in the past, but I still couldn’t help but feel that such a small amount would sell out in a flash.

“I prepared three extra portions for you, someone from the Ruu clan, and the innkeeper to try, so please go ahead, if you’d like.”

“I see. Thanks, that’s good to hear,” I replied, and then I turned the other way toward Toor Deen.

The young girl gave me a bashful smile while watching over the Gaaz woman as she worked. “I’ll buy one of Myme’s meals tomorrow or some other time.”

“Sounds good. I’d like for everyone to have a chance to try it, so could you prepare ten or so extra meals tomorrow?” I asked Myme, but Bozl returned before I could get an answer.

“I sampled all of the dishes that I could, and every last one of them was delicious. I still have room left in my stomach, so I’m trying to figure out what I should order,” he remarked with a smile, and then he brought his face close to mine with a serious look in his eyes. “That curry dish in particular...it was most splendid. Now I not only want to hear what Varkas has to say, but also Tatumai as well.”

“Tatumai is Varkas’s other apprentice, right? Was he born in Sym?”

“No, he was born in the west, but one of his parents supposedly had blood from the east.” So in that case, he had mixed blood from the east and west, just like Sanjura. “Sir Asuta, if you do not mind, could I bring a serving of soup and that curry back to the castle town? It would allow me to fill my stomach fully with the other dishes as well. If that would be acceptable, I shall go purchase some lidded pots from a craftsman.”

“Yeah, it should last till nighttime with no issue, so I have no problem with your plan. And I would be really glad if you could get the others’ impressions too.”

“Then I shall bring some back for Tatumai and Shilly Rou as well. It seems that Shilly Rou was dissatisfied with your sweet from the tea party the other day...but if she tries these dishes, it will surely have quite an impact on her,” Bozl stated with the sort of wide grin I had come to expect from southerners. “As I recall, that morning was quite the ordeal. Varkas was in such a sulk over the fact that he could not attend the tea party due to work...”

“A sulk? Varkas was?”

“Indeed. He was like a child, asking why he couldn’t go rushing over there, to the place where you had been invited.” I had hardly seen Varkas’s expression shift at all, and my meager imagination wasn’t enough to picture what exactly the man would look like if he was sulking. “Well then, I shall finish up my work first and then return to purchase the meals once I’ve bought those containers. You wouldn’t expect any of the dishes to sell out in the next hour or so, would you?”

“No, I don’t imagine that will be an issue since we prepared a lot for today. But, well...” It must have been some twist of fate that I had met Bozl here today. After a bit of hesitation, I made up my mind to tell him about Myme. “Um, Bozl, do you know of a man named Mikel?”

“Mikel? Ah, he was considered to be one of the three great chefs several years back, alongside Varkas. I heard he had disappeared from Genos, though...”

“No, he actually moved from the castle town to the Turan lands. And his daughter is selling meals here in the post town starting today.”

“Oh?” Bozl remarked, his eyes opening wide. “Sir Asuta, are you close to Sir Mikel? The web of connections between people can be truly inexplicable at times...”

“Yeah, seriously,” I agreed, and then I pointed over toward the other side of the giba manju stall. “Mikel’s daughter’s stall is that one there. She didn’t prepare all that much, so how about giving it a try now while you have the chance?”

“Hmm...” Bozl pondered, stroking his disheveled mustache.

“On top of that, she uses giba meat too. And despite how young she is, I find her to be an exceptionally skilled chef.”

“Is that so? If that is your viewpoint, Sir Asuta, then I’m certain it must be true,” Bozl replied with an amused smile. “I suppose I shall have to give it a taste before I leave. It being giba cooking is enough to draw my interest in and of itself.”

After watching Bozl walk over that way, I turned toward Ai Fa. “Sorry, Ai Fa, but if any customers come by, could you ask them to hold on for a bit? I’d like to try Myme’s dish before things get too crowded.”

“Yes, just leave it to me.”

Leaving my reliable clan head to hold down the stall, I called Sheera Ruu over from the outdoor restaurant, and we hurried over to Myme’s place.

The young girl greeted us with a bright smile. “Ah, Asuta. I just got the food heated up. This man placed an order just a moment ago as well.”

Bozl was in front of the stall wearing a nonchalant look. Since Myme wasn’t offering samples, he’d had no choice but to make a purchase. Meanwhile, Milano Mas was standing there next to the stall looking bored.

“I’ll go ahead and get things ready. That will be two red coins.”

“Right. Here you are.”

After accepting the coins from Bozl, Myme removed the lid from her pot. Instantly, a sweet smell spread through the air. It was the scent of karon milk.

Now that I thought back on it, during our trip to Dabagg, Myme had been struck by inspiration and had said she’d like to use karon milk in the recipe for her stall. That was why the stall’s opening had been delayed to today, right before the start of the revival festival.

Inside the large pot was a milky-white soup boiling away. It looked to have a thickness akin to a stew, and there were, of course, scents other than just the milk coming from it. It was a dense, sweet aroma.

Additionally, I could spy dozens of wooden skewers poking up from under the surface. Though I couldn’t see what the soup looked like under the surface, it was reminding me of oden.

“Please hold on for just a moment.”

She then pulled some baked poitan roughly twenty centimeters in diameter from a bag and placed them on top of her work station. Next, she grabbed one of the wooden skewers and stirred it through the broth a bit before pulling it out. Apparently, the liquid was even more viscous than a stew, as the milky-white broth wrapped around the skewered bits like cheese fondue. However, now I could just about make out what she had on those skewers: giba meat, aria, and nenon.

The skewers alternated between three bits of meat and one of each of the vegetables, like what you’d see with a kabob. The vegetables were cut into round slices, while the meat was all rolled up.

Myme grabbed a baked poitan and sandwiched the skewered ingredients in the middle. Then, she gripped the poitan and pulled the skewer out. The result was a semi-circular dish that looked like a massive unsealed gyoza.

“Please, dig in,” Myme said as she handed it to Bozl and then got to making the portion for us. Though she had to get her hand in close to the boiling contents of the pot, she didn’t show any concern about the heat. She must have toughened up the skin of her hands through years of practice, just like I had. “Here’s one for you too.”

“Right. Thanks.”

I started intensively inspecting the dish. Fuwano and poitan wrapped around meat and vegetables was a staple among the stalls. Nothing about it struck me as especially novel in terms of appearance or aroma. However, my expectations were still quite high as I bit into it.

The poitan was springy, yet also soft. Just dissolving the poitan in water and then baking it wouldn’t give you this texture, so she must have mixed in gigo or something.

More importantly, though, the fillings were incredibly delicious. To start with, the thickness of the white soup was a complete mystery to me. It was sticky like grated gigo, but had a smooth texture to it. Naturally, there was a strong karon-milk flavor about it. Aside from that, I could taste milk fat and the saltiness of tau oil. Not to mention the strong umami of the meat and veggies.

Myme had perfected the technique of drawing out a dish’s richness and flavor though her use of a stock made out of grated vegetables and bones, which she had utilized to great effect here.

The closest dish I could think to compare it to was probably creamy chicken and vegetable stew. However, the essence of the dish was different. Even if they were similar, they were still pretty distinct.

And as if that mysterious broth itself wasn’t enough, you had the ingredients on top of it. The rolled meat, which had a wonderful gelatin-like texture, was definitely giba rib meat. The sweet broth had seeped all the way into the middle of the wrap too.

The meat was cut thin, but then rolled up until it was several layers thick, so it still felt more than substantial enough. It tasted even more delicious when eaten together with the soft aria. The proportions of the various ingredients you got in each bite of poitan you took were so perfect that it seemed like there had to be actual calculations that went into it.

When I took a second bite, I found another trick to it: that second bit of meat wasn’t from the ribs, but rather the thighs. It was even chewier than the other one, and the meaty taste was strong enough to not get lost in the richness of the soup.

After the nenon—which was every bit as soft as the aria—I found sirloin meat waiting for me. It was more solid than the rib meat, but also had a finer texture than the thigh meat, which made for another welcome change.

Since it only cost two red coins, there seemed to be about forty grams of each cut of meat. Because the price was set by the castle, there wasn’t really any way to change those quantities. Still, it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to eat a whole lot more. It was just that delicious.

After carefully savoring the last bite and swallowing, I turned back toward Myme.

“That was delicious. It’s been a while since I last had your cooking, but you really have grown exceptionally skilled at handling giba meat compared to a month ago.”

“Thank you. I’m overjoyed to hear you say that about my giba cooking, Asuta,” Myme replied with an incredibly proud smile.

As she stared down at the young girl, Sheera Ruu also quietly said, “It’s so good.”

“It’s always shocking to see just how skilled you are, Myme. How did you give the broth that mysterious texture?” I asked.