Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 25 E-Book

EDA

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

Seitenzahl: 415

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

As always, a great deal has been changing throughout Genos and the forest’s edge. Asuta and company attended their first dance party and had a decently good time. Knowledge about how to prepare delicious meals has at long last reached the final few clans at the forest’s edge. And perhaps the most revolutionary development of all, Shumiral has been accepted as a member of a clan after finally returning to Genos!

However, major issues are on the horizon as the rainy season arrives. With it, Asuta will face all sorts of new changes in his day-to-day life, including a shift in which ingredients will be available for him to use. Furthermore, slaves from the north have been brought in as part of a grandiose project to clear a path through the forest’s edge. Will Asuta be able to help them out in any way? And what will he do when he learns of a peculiar illness which supposedly only afflicts children?

See all this and more in the exciting twenty-fifth volume of Cooking with Wild Game!

Leseprobe

Chapter 1: The Rainy Season Has Arrived

1

The rainy season had arrived in Genos.

Apparently, the southern portion of the vast territory held by the Western Kingdom of Selva where the town was located saw an especially striking change in climate. During this season, it was only sunny out for extremely brief periods of time, with most of each day filled with damp and dreary rainfall. Normally, rain in Genos came hard in brief bursts, like a squall, but now the pattern was the exact opposite of that.

Moreover, the average temperature had dropped quite a bit. During the rest of the year, the climate in Genos felt similar to early summer in Japan, but now it had suddenly dropped to the sort of chill I would have expected from late autumn.

As a result, I ended up having to get some new clothes for the rainy season, since this was my first one. Before the weather had started to change, I followed the advice everyone I worked with in the post town gave me and bought a long-sleeved coat and undershirt. Both were made from sturdy cotton, and they closed in the front like a dress shirt. The buttons were made of nuts, which you could hold in place with string. The coats were sold with all sorts of different designs, but everyone recommended I purchase one with a Sym-style geometrical pattern sewn into it.

As for pants, my current ones covered me down to the middle of my shins, and if they were any longer, they’d get muddy too easily, so I did not switch those out for a different style. However, I did buy new shoes. My old shoes had been made in Japan, brought along from my old world, and a lot of folks advised me that they’d get wet with rain and coated in mud and be hard to clean, so I finally went ahead and purchased the same sort of leather footwear everyone else used. They were essentially sandals, so they exposed quite a bit of skin. It was a given that your feet would end up getting dirty, wearing them. During the rainy season, the custom at the forest’s edge was to leave a water jug by the front door so you could clean your feet before going inside the house.

I had been really stubborn about only wearing my original shoes out of fear of blisters and the like, but surprisingly, the sandals sold in Genos didn’t feel half bad. They had leather straps that wrapped around your ankle, which made them nice and stable, and there was bark stretched out over their soles, so they were durable too. They didn’t exactly have anything in the way of cushioning, but we used wagons whenever we had to move significant distances, so there didn’t seem to be any need to worry about the burden on my legs.

With the purchase of this new attire and footwear for the rainy season, I had finally replaced all of the clothing I had been wearing when I arrived here. Considering that I had been wearing the same clothes for nine months straight, though, it was no surprise that my T-shirt and shoes were showing significant wear, so it was high time for a change anyway.

That just left the white towel I wrapped around my head, which was actually the most difficult thing to replace, in a way. There were a fair number of types of cloth and other fabric sold in the post town, but many of them were stiff and didn’t feel good to the touch, and none of them felt particularly good wrapped around my head.

I ended up having to consult with Yang—a chef from the castle town I knew—and just two days later, an item was delivered to me that was pretty much ideal for my purposes. It wasn’t as fluffy as my old towel, but the pure white woolen material was plenty thick and soft. Apparently, it was used to make some kinds of sheets in the castle town, and since the piece sent to me was of that size, I cut it up and made around ten replacements for my white towel.

With that, I had completely changed my outfit. Once the rainy season ended, I would need to look for casual wear to replace my T-shirt, and I was already wondering if something could be fashioned from the same white fabric as my new head towels.

As for my old clothes, I couldn’t bring myself to simply toss them now that they had served their purpose, so I carefully stored them away alongside my chef’s uniform with the Tsurumi Restaurant logo on it. As for the underwear and socks I had once used, I gave them a thorough wash and then stowed them in the uniform’s pockets. Even if I was never going to be able to return home... No, because I was never going to be able to, they were precious mementos to me.

There was also one more thing the Fa house needed to purchase: bedding. I picked some of that up as well, based on Ai Fa’s advice.

“Nights are chilly during the rainy season, so you need a heavy sheet to sleep under. Unfortunately, I threw out the ones my family and I used two years ago, since they were getting old.”

“Then what did you do for the last rainy season?”

“I have my hunter’s cloak, so I had no issues.”

And so, I went ahead and purchased the sheets I had been thinking of grabbing for a while now. Naturally, I got enough for Ai Fa as well. Considering the size of the Fa house’s main hall, we wouldn’t have to worry about them getting in the way as long as we made sure to fold them daily.

With that, our preparations for the rainy season were complete. We had stocked up on firewood starting the previous month, and if we ran short, we could still purchase charcoal. There was, of course, a lot more that needed to be considered, but we had at least taken care of everything we could do in advance.

As the end of the gold month approached, the temperature slowly crept downward. Then one morning, it started raining and didn’t let up all day. The rainy season officially arrived on the fourth of the brown month, eight days after the dance party held by the house of Daleim.

On that day, we were working in the post town as always. However, the flow of customers had clearly dropped off. In fact, the number of passersby walking down the street in general had diminished significantly. There were a lot of inconveniences inherent to this season, and it seemed not many travelers cared to go out of their way to visit the southeastern reaches of Selva.

The number of stalls along the side of the road had also been cut by about half. Those selling snacks in particular needed to prepare dining spaces with some kind of covering to do business, so only those who were equipped to do so continued to operate.

The sky was full of gray clouds, and the townscape was a hazy white from the fine rain, almost like mist. The rainwater collecting on the rooftops came streaming down, and the sound of splashing footsteps along the street felt somehow melancholy. Normally, the post town was illuminated by brilliant sunlight, so now it was almost like we were in a completely different city. I had my new coat on, and the pot in front of me was over a flame, so I wasn’t feeling cold in the least, but surrounded by the sound of light rain I had grown unaccustomed to, staring out at the blurry sight of the street, I couldn’t help but get a sense of emptiness from the scene in front of us.

This is definitely what they call an offseason.

The amount of fresh meat and giba meals the inns were ordering had decreased to about thirty percent of the norm during this period, and for our stalls, we reduced the number of meals we were preparing from eight hundred down to four hundred. Our current aim was to observe and try to figure out how much food we needed to make to serve the citizens of Genos and the few travelers still passing by.

However, we didn’t cut back on the number of employees we were bringing to town. The Gaaz and Ratsu had put in a request to swap out their people for others from related clans, though, so they were currently in training. Normally, we would have seven employees plus trainees, but we currently had seven in total. This way, we didn’t have to increase our personnel expenses, unlike when we trained people during a busy period.

Our new employees came from the Matua, a clan under the Gaaz, and the Meem, a clan under the Ratsu. And as for the old hands joining them, we had me, Toor Deen, Yun Sudra, and Yamiru Lea, as well as Fei Beim, who joined us on a rotation. I was going to have the Matua and Meem women working consecutive days in order to get them accustomed to the job, while the Beim, Dagora, and Ravitz women swapped out every three days.

As today was their first day, I took on the Matua girl myself and entrusted the Meem woman to Toor Deen. Then Fei Beim and Yamiru Lea were paired up, leaving Yun Sudra in charge of the restaurant space. If Toor Deen or I were needed elsewhere, we could simply call for Fei Beim to take our places.

“It didn’t occur to me that your first day of training would coincide with the start of the rainy season. Are things going to be okay back home?” I called out.

“Yes,” the Matua girl replied with an energetic nod. “This season is inconvenient in all kinds of ways, but it happens every year, so it’s nothing we can’t handle. The only real change we need to worry about right now is how much longer it’ll take to dry out our poitan than before.”

Right, it took about an hour of direct sunlight to dry out boiled-down poitan. The sun being hidden behind the clouds for so much of the day was sure to be a significant issue going forward.

“Still, that’s a small price to pay for the sake of delicious food. I certainly wouldn’t want to go back to simply throwing poitan into a pot at this point... Besides, it’s kind of funny to see people from all the different clans rushing outside to dry their poitan when the sun comes out,” the Matua girl said with an open smile.

The Matua and Meem had both selected young women to help out in the post town, with the girl working with me being especially young at just thirteen years old. Still, Toor Deen and Rimee Ruu worked the stalls too and were even younger. She was the same age as Lala Ruu and Tsuvai, so I didn’t see any real issues there.

“By the way, you don’t need to speak so politely with a young novice like me. Please, treat me like you do the other young women.”

“That’s true. Sorry if I sounded too distant there. I’ll try to talk to you normally.”

Though this must have been her first time meeting everyone here, she didn’t seem to be intimidated in the least. In fact, she just seemed earnestly cheerful, and she was able to interact with the townsfolk quite naturally too. As long as she wasn’t an especially poor learner, she’d probably wrap up her training period in no time.

Oh, and like the new jacket I was wearing, the women of the forest’s edge also had different clothes for the rainy season. The translucent veils were the only part that remained. Their new outfits consisted of something that looked like a poncho on top, while their lower halves were covered by wrap-around skirts that went down to below their knees. The clothes had the same swirling patterns as the women’s usual attire, though, so they were still incredibly colorful.

Whenever they had to leave the cover of our canopy, they also put on a giba pelt cloak. However, in order to distinguish these cloaks from a hunter’s cloak, they were made inside out, and the furless surface was dyed red and green with extracts from flowers. They were quite colorful too, with some being monotone while others almost looked like they were tie-dyed, and some even used numerous colors in a way that reminded me of camouflage.

The stiff fur had been softened, as would be done when making a rug, which also made it effective at keeping heat inside. The cloaks had hoods too, so you could completely prevent your upper half from getting wet by having one on. Of course, the drizzle would still soak your lower half, but it seemed in that case they would simply replace the wrap around their legs with a dry one when they got home.

“Ugh, what irritating weather! If it’s gonna rain, it should all just come down at once!” a lively voice called out as a customer rushed over to our stalls to take shelter. When he lowered the hood of his leather cloak, I saw that he was from Jagar. At this time of year, even they needed to dress like their hated enemies from Sym.

“Thank you for coming. It sure is tough working out in the rain, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s for sure! I’m jealous of how you all get to work with a canopy over your heads!”

From what he was saying, it seemed he was a construction worker or something rather than a merchant. At any rate, after grumbling about the rain for a while, he went ahead and peered into our pot.

“So, what sort of dish do you have today? It sure smells tasty!”

“Today, we have a tau bean stew. It also uses tau oil for flavoring, so we recommend it for customers from Jagar.”

In addition to tau beans, the stew also used chatchi and nenon. The stock was made from dried seaweed, then we flavored it with soy-sauce-like tau oil, sugar, and nyatta spirits, giving it a salty-sweet taste. Like the tau oil, the sugar and nyatta spirits also came from Jagar, which made it even more geared toward the tastes of southerners. Nyatta spirits were like refined Japanese sake, so they were a perfect ingredient for stews.

“That sounds great! It’d be too much of a hassle to go around to the other stalls, so just give me three red coins’ worth of that! Oh, and one of those manju too.”

“Of course. They cost two red coins,” Fei Beim said, passing a giba manju to us from the other stall. The customer from Jagar accepted it along with his plate of stew and fuwano bread, which he hid inside his cloak and then rushed over to the covered outdoor restaurant space.

Aside from the daily special that I was in charge of, the other stalls were all serving the same dishes as usual. However, the side dishes had been swapped from poitan to fuwano. As of today, we were officially in the rainy season, and soon the selection of vegetables that could be bought in the post town would start changing. For the time being, the storehouses in Daleim still had some tino, tarapa, and pula from the last harvest that we could use, but in around half a month, the vegetables specific to the rainy season would finally go on sale.

Out of everything we needed, poitan was the only ingredient that we hadn’t been able to secure enough of for our business. Or rather, we could have gotten what we needed if we had abused our wealth to monopolize all the poitan, but doing that would have made the townsfolk pretty mad, so we had decided to use fuwano instead.

Fuwano cost one and a half times as much as poitan under normal circumstances and became fifty-to-one-hundred-percent more expensive during the rainy season. Some businesses directly increased their prices, while others decreased their sizes, but some places did neither, going for quick sales with low profit margins. We were going the quick sales and small profits route, using the same amount of fuwano as we did poitan and retaining the same price.

Naturally, that sent our costs soaring and really brought down our net profits. On top of that, we were looking at our consumer base decreasing to anywhere from half to even a third of what it had been. Still, this would only last for two months out of the year, so we just had to tough it out for a bit.

“It’s amazing to think that poitan is actually selling out. Is it because you came up with a way to make it delicious, Asuta?” the Matua girl asked me.

“Yeah. I’m glad we were able to secure enough for everyone from the forest’s edge to eat. On the off chance we couldn’t get what we needed, I was planning to use the Fa clan’s funds to buy fuwano, though.”

Fortunately, I had been able to put in an advanced order for an amount sufficient to feed all of us from the forest’s edge. As long as there weren’t any accidents or the like with the fields, we would be completely fine on that front. Still, since the Fa and Ruu were planning to buy the poitan all at once, I’d had some concerns about how we would distribute them. Rather than having each clan purchase them from town, the Fa and the Ruu were going to bring them back to the settlement at the forest’s edge, which meant we needed a way to get them to everyone.

Ultimately, we had decided that I would pick up the poitan from Dora on the way back from work. Then I would bring them back to the settlement and exchange them for coins with the various clans. Furthermore, since the Fa house was often empty, the distribution point would be the Ruu settlement instead. The clans located farther away could use wagons to get there if they needed to. Most clans were closer to the Ruu settlement than the post town to begin with, the only exceptions being the ones that lived out toward the northern extreme, like the Suun and the Ravitz.

Working all that out got really hectic at times, but now that we have a plan in place, we shouldn’t have any issues next year or the years after that.

However, there was still another matter for me to worry about this year: the plan to clear a path through the forest’s edge.

Since fuwano couldn’t be harvested during the rainy season, the slaves from the Turan lands didn’t currently have work to do. Normally, they would be assigned to repair the fence that protected the Turan lands during this time of year, but because of a proposal a merchant from the east named Kukuluel had made, they would instead be used to clear a path through the forest’s edge.

It was a grandiose plan to construct a new highway to connect not just Genos, but the Western Kingdom of Selva as a whole to the Eastern Kingdom of Sym. On top of that, it was the same basic plan that had been proposed ten years ago by Milano Mas’s brother-in-law, Leito’s father.

If the plan succeeded, it would be possible to travel between Selva and Sym quicker and more safely than ever before. And Genos stood to benefit the most out of all the domains of Selva, as it would serve as the starting point for the highway. That was precisely why Duke Marstein Genos had decided to embark on such a major endeavor.

Work on the project had already begun in earnest. The fuwano harvest had wrapped up at the end of the gold month, with construction beginning at the start of the brown month. That meant a large number of northerners were currently being forced to do harsh labor at the forest’s edge.

Apparently, the arrangements for that took quite a bit of effort too. Dari Sauti’s been working hard lately.

Clearing of the forest was to start at the southern end of the settlement and advance east. For that reason, discussions with the people in charge of the project had been left up to Dari Sauti, as he was the leading clan head located farthest to the south. With over a hundred slaves from Mahyudra assigned to the task, as well as numerous guards from town overseeing them, Dari Sauti needed to plan things out carefully so that they could all safely carry out their work. That was undoubtedly a huge undertaking in and of itself.

Dari Sauti had also made a request to consult with me. I still didn’t know the details, but I had been asked to stop by the Sauti settlement after work today. I had to wonder what use I could be to him under these circumstances. I hadn’t the foggiest idea, but of course, I had no objections. And I did have concerns about how the work was being carried out...and about the man named Eleo Chel.

Eleo Chel was the brother of Chiffon Chel, who had worked in the Turan manor as a maid. I had met him in town once, right before the sun god’s revival festival when he had been assigned to clear out more space for stalls and the like. He had auburn hair, purple eyes, and skin tanned from his time spent out in the sun, and he was a massive muscular man around the same height as Donda Ruu, but even girthier still, to give an idea of the scale of him.

According to the guards, he’d learned that I had spent some time in the Turan manor. That was why he had taken a chance to slip away from his work to come and find me, so he could ask how his sister, Chiffon Chel, was doing. The two of them had been separated from each other years ago.

Northerners are treated as slaves not only in Genos, but all throughout Selva, so it’s not something I can do anything about...but I still want to help them in whatever small ways I can...

I owed Chiffon Chel a great debt. When I had been abducted and taken to the Turan manor, she had shown me a lot of concern after being put in charge of taking care of me. In particular, when I had tried to make a reckless escape attempt, she had warned me of the danger, but still secretly provided me aid. She had helped me, even though it could easily have led to her being whipped. Ever since she and Lefreya had moved, I no longer had any chances to see her. However, that just made me feel even more indebted to and sorry for Chiffon Chel.

It may be presumptuous of me to think I can help them... But still, isn’t there anything I can do? I thought to myself, as a tall figure was walking up to my stall. When I looked up, I saw a familiar face nodding to me from under a hood.

“Oh, Radajid, welcome. Thank you for always stopping by.”

“Of course. What is, this dish?”

Radajid was the new leader of the merchant group from Sym known as the Silver Vase. At 190 centimeters in height, he was especially tall even for an easterner.

“This is a Jagar-style dish, using tau beans and the like. If you’d like, I could add finely crushed chitt seeds to it.”

“Yes, please. I would like, a half size.” The neighboring stall was serving giba curry, so that must have been his main interest. After paying the Matua girl, Radajid continued, “The rainy season, has arrived. And yet, Shumiral is in, the forest, correct?”

“Right. Apparently, they have to hunt no matter how rainy it gets. The number of giba they take down is definitely going to drop, though.”

“I am worried. Rain dulls, the senses, of hunting dogs.”

“Yeah. But it’s the same for giba too, so I don’t think it should be all that much more dangerous...or at least, that’s what I was told Shumiral said about it.”

Over ten days had now passed since Shumiral had become a person of the forest’s edge, but I had hardly had any chance to talk with him. Shumiral was living with the Ririn clan, who were located farther south than most of the clans under the Ruu. The Fa house was located well to the north of the Ruu settlement, so unless I went well out of my way to go there, we wouldn’t run into one another.

I had only gone there once so far, on the day off after the dance party. Shumiral was out in the forest from the time the sun hit its peak until the evening, which made it rather difficult to align our schedules on working days. On top of that, Shumiral’s current aim was to do everything he could to earn the Ririn name. I felt awkward about the thought of visiting him just because I was worried. It didn’t feel right to do so. The people of the forest’s edge didn’t normally visit other clans without a clear practical reason.

It was the same for Vina Ruu. She had been heard sighing a lot recently, to the point that it was apparently becoming distracting, and Mia Lea Ruu had even chewed her out for it. The sisters all seemed to be rather worried about her, especially Lala Ruu.

“Still, I’ve got business near the Ririn settlement today, so I was thinking of stopping by on the way back. I’ll tell you how Shumiral is doing tomorrow.”

“Thank you. I greatly, appreciate it, Asuta,” Radajid said. Then his gaze drifted pensively downward. “There are ten days, left until, we return to Sym. Would it be possible, to talk with him, at least once, before then?”

“If it’s in the morning or the evening, he should be able to make time for you. I’ll ask the Ririn clan head about it.”

“Yes, please do so.” With that, Radajid also placed an order for giba curry, then headed over to the restaurant space.

The Silver Vase had delayed their return home by half a month for Shumiral, which meant that half of their stay would be during the rainy season. That wouldn’t cause them any issues when it came to their main business—selling goods to the residents of the castle town—but it apparently made sales in the post town rather slow. That was no surprise, though, with how few people there were out on the street.

Even so, Radajid and the others didn’t blame Shumiral for it at all. They were just worried about his safety. The bond between them had to be incredibly strong or they wouldn’t have allowed Shumiral to remain in the Silver Vase after he had changed over to the western god.

Still, he’ll have to spend around ten months apart from them... Is Shumiral doing okay with the folks from the Ririn clan?

Rain really had a way of stirring up a sense of ennui.

Staring out at the drizzle pelting the street in front of me, I was barely able to keep myself from sighing.

2

After wrapping up business in the post town, we then headed to the Sauti settlement. I was the only one who had been summoned, though, and since I intended to stop by the Ririn settlement on the way back as well, I was going to need Toor Deen and the others to handle the preparations for tomorrow. My original plan was to send everyone else home in Fafa’s wagon and head to the Sauti settlement alone, but the members of the Ruu clan had asked to accompany me. Dari Sauti was in charge of overseeing the clearing work, and Donda Ruu had apparently said they should be there if he was going to make a request of me.

Speaking of Donda Ruu, he had finally resumed his hunting work at the start of the brown month. The lord of the forest had gored his right shoulder, forcing him to take three months off to recuperate, but he had finally regained the strength to work as a hunter. Reina Ruu and the others had told me that he had been in unusually high spirits the night before, and had drunk an exceptional amount of fruit wine.

And so, I ended up heading to the Sauti settlement with the members of the Ruu clan—Rimee Ruu, Vina Ruu, Ryada Ruu, and Bartha. Two members of the main house who weren’t busy, and two guards to accompany them. Normally, there would be no need for guards to come along when visiting another clan, but there were lots of northerners and guards from town near the Sauti settlement at the moment. It would be worrying to send chefs to such a place all on their own, so those two had been chosen to come along, as they didn’t have any hunting work to take care of.

Bartha was of course dressed as a warrior, and Ryada Ruu was equipped with a sword and bow. Thinking back on his training with Donda Ruu the other day, Ryada Ruu didn’t seem to have weakened at all, his right leg aside. It would be difficult for him to run, carry heavy loads, or walk for long periods of time, so he could no longer serve as a hunter, but he was perfectly capable of dealing with folks from town.

“One wagon should be plenty for five people. And the Ruu settlement is on the way back, so you can come with us in Gilulu’s wagon.”

And with that, we were on our way to the Sauti settlement. Perhaps this goes without saying, but I had asked them all to ride along with me so that Vina Ruu would get pulled along for the visit to the Ririn clan. After all, there was no way they’d want to walk back on foot in this rain. The diligent people of the forest’s edge didn’t visit other clans without business to take care of, so I had concocted this little scheme to get around that.

I can just tell everyone I want to stop by the Ririn settlement after we wrap things up with the Sauti. With any luck, we’ll be staying at the Sauti settlement until it’s almost evening. That’ll guarantee that we’ll be able to meet with Shumiral.

If I had to, I knew I could leave the prep work for tomorrow up to Toor Deen and the others. That morning, I had talked with Ai Fa about letting them use the kitchen without me. From there, it was all down to the mother forest’s guidance.

“I haven’t been to the Sauti settlement in a long time! Not since Papa Donda got hurt, and now the violet, silver, and gold months have gone by...so it’s been around three months!” Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed. She was sitting beside Vina Ruu, who still hadn’t stopped sighing. Having Bartha and Ryada Ruu with us too on this trip made it feel like a fresh and new experience. “By the way, are you still not planning on doing study sessions at the Ruu settlement? Reina’s been disappointed that you haven’t, especially since Mikel and Myme are around.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard about that. I just wanted to finish our cooking lessons for the Dai and the Suun first. Repeating a lesson after letting some time pass is a good way to get it to stick.”

“Hmm, really?”

“Besides, it’s still going to be a little longer before Mikel can walk without any problems, right? As long as Mikel can’t move around on his own, Myme will want to keep nursing him as much as she can, so even if we invited her to a study session, she would probably turn us down. The way I see it, there’s no need to rush. We can wait until both of them are able to join us.”

“I see! You’re so smart, Asuta!”

My cooking skills earned me tons of praise, but it was pretty rare to hear someone call me smart like that. I really adored Rimee Ruu.

“The rainy season around here is even worse than I’d heard. Is there any danger of landslides when it keeps pouring like this all day?” Bartha interjected.

“That’s no issue,” Ryada Ruu replied. “The ground is firm throughout the settlement at the forest’s edge. The rain washes away sticky sand, but there’s no risk of our houses or paths getting damaged. I recall the elder saying that’s what makes this land unsuitable for farming.”

“Huh. And thanks to the elevation, the rain all flows down into town, right? But even if it isn’t dangerous, I still can’t wait for this gloomy season to hurry on by.”

“Fair enough. However, this rain brings prosperity to both the forest and the town, from what I’ve heard. It is all down to the will of the forest and the gods.”

Like Ryada Ruu said, I wasn’t having any serious issues with driving the wagon, even through this rain. Visibility was poor, of course, but the well-trodden yellow path supported the vehicle’s weight just fine. And as long as I avoided any large puddles, I probably wouldn’t get a wheel caught in the mud or anything.

Gilulu and the other totos didn’t seem to have any issues with the rain either. He had the same unaffected look on his face as he energetically ran down the path, just like always. It was a really reassuring sight.

We continued with our friendly chatting for a while, interrupted by the occasional sigh, until the Sauti settlement finally came into view. For now, I couldn’t see any guards or northerners around. The Sauti were located close to the southern tip of the settlement at the forest’s edge, though, so we would probably be able to see the work site if we went just a little bit farther.

I pulled the wagon into the Sauti settlement. The rain was still coming down, so there didn’t seem to be anyone out in the plaza either. However, I did notice one thing that had changed compared to last time. The plaza, which was a touch smaller than the one at the Ruu settlement, had a large leather tarp canopy stretched over it. What was that all about? It was wide enough to provide shelter to nearly half of the plaza. A number of wooden supports had been driven into the ground to hold it up, creating a rain shield that even outdid our outdoor restaurant space in the post town.

As I tilted my head in confusion, we detoured around that space and headed for the main house. And right as I was descending from the driver’s seat onto the damp ground, the house’s door swung open. They must have been watching us from the window. The one who appeared from inside was Mil Fei Sauti, who had attended the dance party along with us.

“Welcome to the Sauti house. We have been waiting for you, Asuta. And are these all people from the Ruu clan?”

“Yes. Donda Ruu ordered them to come along in case anything bad had happened.”

“Anything bad...? No, no such thing has happened. We simply have something to discuss with you. Please, come this way.” Mil Fei Sauti, who was wearing the same sort of hooded cloak as us to protect against the rain, turned and started walking toward the rear of the house. I followed after her, tying Gilulu to a tree along the way, and we were all led to the kitchen.

It was a nostalgic sight, as I hadn’t been here for three months. We stepped inside and hung our wet rain gear on the wall, at which point Mil Fei Sauti once again faced us.

“First, allow me to thank you for coming all this way. As our clan head, Dari, is currently carrying out his work as a hunter, allow me to be the one to speak with you.”

“Ah, so Dari Sauti is finally back to hunting too?”

“Yes, thanks to the assistance you all lent us. Aside from the two who lost the capability to work as hunters, everyone else has been able to recover.” Mil Fei Sauti wasn’t generally a very expressive person, but she smiled faintly for a moment with narrowed eyes before shifting back to a serious expression as she continued. “I should start by explaining the situation... Four days have passed since work on clearing the forest began. Since then, the workers have been eating lunch here at the Sauti settlement.”

“Oh, so that’s what the cover outside is for. I was wondering about that.”

“Right. We have subordinate clans located farther south, but they do not have plazas big enough to handle such a large crowd, so they borrowed ours instead. There aren’t any people who get married during the rainy season, so it shouldn’t prove any inconvenience.”

“I see. So, what is it that you needed to discuss with me?”

“Well, you see...it has to do with what those northerners have been eating,” Mil Fei Sauti replied, giving a little sigh. “We set aside some of the food they’ve been getting. I’ll heat it back up. Would you be willing to try it?”

“Huh? I don’t mind, of course, but now I’m feeling even more confused.”

Mil Fei Sauti nodded, then lit one of the stoves, setting a very small pot on top of it. And when she removed the wooden board covering the pot, it revealed something strange underneath.

“What is that? It almost looks like oatmeal.”

“Oatmeal?”

“That’s a dish from my home country. But this...”

To put it briefly, it looked like a really crude dish. Still, perhaps there was no helping that, since it was being made for slaves. There was a mysterious milky white paste, and I could spy at least a couple chunks of vegetables and meat scattered here and there throughout.

Before long, the smell of the reheated dish filled the kitchen. Rimee Ruu’s eyes were sparkling with curiosity, and her nose was twitching like a bunny’s.

“It smells pretty tasty! That white stuff is karon milk, isn’t it?”

“Yes. They used karon milk and a poitan-like ingredient called fuwano.” There was only enough of the dish left to fill a single bowl, so it heated up quickly. After transferring it to a wooden plate, Mil Fei Sauti said, “Here you are,” as she handed it to me. “I tried it earlier today, and I swear to the forest that it shall do your body no harm.”

“I wasn’t worried about that at all. The northerners have been eating this stuff, after all.”

I scooped some up with a spoon, then popped it into my mouth. Instantly, I let out a pathetic groan. “Ugh... How should I put it...? I think I’d have trouble calling it good even if I was trying to be polite.”

“Yes. Still, it may be easier to eat than soup made with giba meat that hasn’t been bloodlet.”

Mil Fei Sauti was certainly right on that front. It wasn’t as if there was anything odd about the taste, and the smell was okay too because of the sweet aroma of karon milk. But its texture was just awful. It was as floury as the poitan soup I had eaten in the past, and the ingredients were all mushy. I couldn’t even clearly make out what meat and vegetables had been used, and the only flavors I could taste were karon milk and salt.

If I were to classify it as good or bad, then I’d have to say it was bad. The sweet karon milk and the saltiness didn’t pair well. Despite the sweet smell, the salty taste was the stronger of the two, and the texture was akin to botched oatmeal. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as muddy water, but it would be difficult to find anything to praise.

While I was doing my analysis, Rimee Ruu shouted, “I wanna try it too!” so Mil Fei Sauti pulled out a fresh spoon. For taste testing, even people who weren’t clan members could share a dish as long as they didn’t double-dip with a spoon. At any rate, everyone aside from Ryada Ruu had a single bite of the bungled dish.

“Ah ha ha, gross!” Rimee Ruu laughed.

“It would certainly be difficult to call that delicious... I would prefer not to taste any more...” was Vina Ruu’s opinion.

“It’s like they just tossed whatever they had lying around into it, huh? If you could do something about this floury texture, I might be able to handle it, though,” Bartha said.

“To be sure. Would you like to see the ingredients they used?” Mil Fei Sauti put her rain gear back on and led us to the pantry next. The room was jam packed with huge jars and wooden boxes taking up every last bit of floor space to the point that there wasn’t even anywhere to stand. “They use these ingredients to make that dish from before. Please, take a look.”

The jars and boxes all had lids covering them, so I had to look through them one by one. The majority were filled with vegetable scraps. Aria, nenon, nanaar, sheema, gigo, pula, chan, ro’hyoi... There were bits and pieces from all sorts of vegetables crammed inside, regardless of whether they were cheap or expensive. Some of them were parts of high-class ingredients, like the stalks of mushrooms, while others were things even I threw away, like sheel skins.

Aside from that, there was also karon milk and meat pickled in salt. The meat was all scraps as well, including stuff like karon meat stuck to the ribs and whole kimyuus feet. I did spot one solid chunk of meat in there, but a moment later I noticed that it was starting to turn blue. With meat like that, even if it was pickled in salt, it would need to be eaten by the following day at the latest to not wreck your stomach.

The karon milk must have been around for a while too. It didn’t smell like it had spoiled yet, but I was still a bit worried. At least the temperature was cooler than usual now that we were in the rainy season.

“From what I’m seeing, these seem to be leftover scraps gathered from the castle town.”

“You think so too, Asuta?”

“Well, there are ingredients in the mix that not many folks in the post town can get their hands on, so yeah. This is the food they’re giving to the northerners?”

“Yes. Apparently, they ate the same thing in the Turan lands as well.” Most of them had probably been slaves there for years at this point. It seemed pretty clear what sort of food they had been provided in that time. Furthermore, as someone with ties to a huge number of restaurants, it would have been easy for Cyclaeus to establish a system for collecting such unused scraps. “The only difference between this and their usual diet is that now it’s being made with fuwano rather than poitan. It used to be made with poitan before the rainy season, but there isn’t any available anymore. Not even a single one.”

“Yeah, the residents of the post town have been struggling to get them too. Still, it feels a bit ironic that they’re having to use fuwano instead, since it’s more expensive than poitan.”

“It’s the northerners who are left to suffer in the face of that irony, though. Because fuwano cost more, the sizes of their portions have been decreased to make up for it.”

I was left at a loss for words.

Mil Fei Sauti was staring at me with a deadly serious gaze. “The nobles of Genos have decided that the northerners should be given shabby meals. But now, they aren’t only shabby. They are also small. What do you think about that, Asuta?”

“What do I think...? It feels really bad to hear that, of course. I never expected the northerners would have to deal with a problem like this.”

“Our clan head feels the same way. I’m glad to hear you agree, Asuta,” Mil Fei Sauti said, her gaze growing ever so slightly gentler. “Of course, it was only the amount of fuwano that decreased, but that is just as important of an ingredient as poitan, isn’t it? Here at the forest’s edge, when those who become impoverished are unable to eat enough aria and poitan, they grow weaker. Our clan head is worried that the northerners might grow weaker as well over the course of the rainy season.”

“Right, I definitely think so too. And they’re being forced to work even harder than they usually would, which makes this that much more of a concern.”

Doing some basic math, fuwano cost one and a half times as much as poitan. That meant if the budget was kept the same, they would get two-thirds of their normal amount each day. Decreasing your carbohydrate intake by that much while forced to do intense physical labor would be incredibly rough.

“Our clan head only learned about this yesterday. He discussed the matter this morning with the heads of our subordinate clans, and we will be sending messengers to the Ruu and Zaza tonight. If the other leading clan heads agree, we plan to tell the nobles that we people of the forest’s edge would like to purchase enough fuwano to make up the difference.”

“You do? Ah, were you thinking of using the reward money...?”

“Yes. We’ll need to do calculations to determine if it will be enough, though.”

There were over a hundred northerners being used in this project. To pay for one-third of the fuwano for each of them every day... Yeah, that would definitely require some calculations.

“If it’s not enough, the Fa clan will pay for it. Actually, I’d like to have us pay for all of it. I’m the reason poitan have been selling out, so...”

“But you came up with the new method for eating poitan so we people of the forest’s edge could have delicious meals, did you not? And from what I am told, that knowledge was then spread around town to strike a blow against some wicked nobles.”

“Yes, that’s true, but...”

“Then this isn’t a problem for the Fa clan to shoulder alone. And you’re a fellow person of the forest’s edge, so we should all be sharing the burden between us regardless,” Mil Fei Sauti stated, her gaze both strict and kind at the same time.

“Sorry,” I replied, bowing my head. “That was foolish of me. It’s embarrassing how little thought I put into these things.”

“You’re still young, Asuta, so you don’t need to let it worry you so much. But if our actions are bringing misfortune to others, that’s certainly not something we can overlook. I am certain Donda Ruu and Gulaf Zaza will both listen to what our clan head has to say.”

That was what it meant to be a person of the forest’s edge. Seeing once again how noble they were as a people left me awestruck.

“We were thinking of sending out messengers to the Ruu and Zaza soon. And this is where I should bring up the request we have of you, Asuta.”

“Right. Ask away, please.”

“In that case, I shall convey our clan head’s words directly. Asuta, would you use these ingredients to make a more delicious dish?”

“Huh? Using these ingredients?”

“That’s right. It pains our clan head to see the northerners fending off starvation with food that’s just as bad as poitan soup. We tried to suggest cooking the fuwano like poitan to make their meals a bit better, but the guards rejected that idea.”

Cooking enough fuwano for over a hundred people would require fuel. And we were currently in the rainy season, so fuel was a precious resource. It was probably only natural for the nobles of Genos to think that such expenses and effort would be wasted on slaves. But personally, I very much agreed with Dari Sauti.

“Understood. I need to use the same ingredients, keep to the same budget, and prepare it in the same amount of time, right? I’ll give it some thought.”

“Thank you. But you work from morning until midday, correct? The northern women prepare the food in the morning, then they need to help the men soon after.”

“Oh, so they prepare the food themselves? How many women are there, and how long do they spend on it?”

“There are five of them. And as for the time...they start shortly after the sun rises and cook until the sun is about halfway to its peak, I’d say.”

The time from dawn till noon was roughly six or seven hours. Considering the transit time from the Turan lands, I figured they took roughly three hours.

“Just five people preparing enough food for a hundred is quite an undertaking... Okay, got it. I should start by thinking about what type of dish to make...”

“But you can’t step away from your work, can you, Asuta?”

“No, I can’t. But there’s no need for me to teach the Mahyudra women directly. I can tell all of you what to do, and then you can teach them in turn, right?”

“Huh? W-We’ll be instructing the northerners?”

“Right. I don’t think it should take long.”

“No, it’s not a matter of time. With our skills...”

“That’s not an issue. We’ve cooked alongside one another, so I know what level of skill you all have. And if what I’m thinking of works, the Sauti women should be perfectly capable of handling it.”

“You already know what to make, Asuta?”

“Yeah. Or rather, it’s more like I have so few options that I’m kind of being forced into it.”

Mil Fei Sauti started shaking her head, looking impressed. “I truly am shocked. Our clan head and I had half given up, thinking it would be too difficult for even you to make these scraps into a proper meal.”

“That’s definitely not the case. Even if they’re scraps, this is a mountain of treasure that even includes high-class ingredients. There may not be many seasonings here, but it shouldn’t be difficult to make something tasty.”

There was plenty of karon milk here, after all. It was a cheap ingredient, so the chefs of the castle town would buy large amounts, knowing some of it would go bad. Thinking back on it, while I had been at the Turan manor, they’d had a lot of karon milk in stock with no particular use in mind for it. That was why I wanted to make karon milk the spearhead of my attack strategy.

“The issue is that the preparations will take some time. Are we allowed to mess with the ingredients right now?”

“Yes. They are borrowing this space, so they shouldn’t have any issue with that.”