Chapter 3: Various Paths

1

It was now the sixth of the indigo month, six days after my chance encounter with the star reader of eastern heritage, Arishuna. Having slipped away from the stalls just after the sun hit its peak, Reina Ruu and I were now strolling through the post town while carrying a small pan.

Inside that pan was giba curry. I’d been making progress on it simultaneously with preparations for the welcome banquet, and as I was finally satisfied with the taste, I decided to once again hear the opinions of the various innkeepers.

However, we didn’t head to any of the familiar inns first, but rather a place called Tanto’s Blessing. It was the largest inn here in the post town, and ever since last month, Yang, the head chef for the house of Daleim, had been using their kitchen once every few days.

Apparently, the Tanto in the name referred to the largest river in Genos. I assumed somewhere along the way it met up with the Lanto river that ran through the forest’s edge.

“Welcome, Sir Asuta. I’ve been waiting for you.”

Yang was a slim older chef. He was polite and rarely ever smiled, but he was also clearly passionate about cooking. The man was someone pushing toward the same goal as I was, and also someone I felt was worthy of respect.

Yang had been entrusting his stall to someone else lately, so it had been a while since I last saw him. As the man offered me his usual polite bow, his eyes narrowed questioningly. “My apologies, but is that person also with you? She does not appear to be a person of the forest’s edge...”

“Yeah. She happened to stop by the stall while we were getting ready to leave, so I figured this would be a good opportunity... This is Mikel’s daughter, Myme.”

Myme gave an energetic bow. “My apologies for the sudden intrusion. Since I wish to become a chef too, I wanted to come along. But I’ll leave if it’s a problem.”

“I see. So you’re Sir Mikel’s... Ah, I do not mind. I feel honored just thinking about Sir Mikel’s daughter eating my cooking.”

Since Yang had also been developing a new dish, the plan for today was to sample one another’s cooking. And since he was a chef who respected Mikel, for a while now I had been wanting to bring him and Myme together.

Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen Roy at all since he tasted Myme’s cooking. Was he so shocked by her skills that he’s been holed up in a kitchen somewhere practicing ever since? I thought to myself.

Then, Yang gestured to the side. “Please, I’ve prepared seating over there, so you may start by tasting my dish.”

“Right, thank you.”

At that, Myme, Reina Ruu, and I took our seats.

I had visited Tanto’s Blessing numerous times in the past, but still, it always impressed me just how big the dining hall was. It had to be at least double that of The Kimyuus’s Tail, which was a mid-sized inn.

However, just like with other inns, there weren’t many customers around during the day. Generally in the post town, folks ate midday meals at the stalls and then dinner at the inns’ dining halls.

“Pardon me...” a girl’s listless voice stated, as she laid out an appropriate number of utensils. When I turned to thank her, I instead gave a surprised, “Huh? You’re that Nicola girl I was introduced to before, aren’t you? So you’re not just helping out with the stall, but here too?”

“Yes...” Nicola replied in an unfriendly tone, and then she swiftly fell back. It didn’t exactly look like she was enjoying the job.

“What a graceful woman. Is she from the castle town too, perhaps?” Myme whispered in my ear.

“Yeah,” I replied. “If I recall correctly, she worked in the Daleim manor in the castle town. But is she really all that graceful?”

Rude as it might have been to think so, she seemed more aggressive to me than anything. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say she gave an impression of being brazen.

“Hmm, I didn’t mean her attitude, but more the way she moves and how her skin looks. That’s what reminds me of a noble lady about her... But please don’t pay my opinion any heed. My judgment isn’t exactly reliable.”

She said that, but my judgment was historically terrible.

Thinking back on it, Rimee Ruu had said Nicola looked sad. Maybe she was the sort of girl who gave off a different impression depending on who was looking at her.

“My apologies for the wait. These are the dishes that I prepared,” Yang stated as he returned alongside Nicola, each of them holding wooden plates. They laid out a helping of a soup dish and some vegetables boiled in tau oil atop the table for everyone. But since it was just a taste test, each portion was rather meager.

“This soup uses sheema and chan.”

A familiar sweet aroma tickled my nose. It was the smell of that cinnamon-like herb he had used before at his stall.

In the soup were daikon-like sheema cut into rounds, and zucchini-like chan that had been cut in half. The boiled chunks of dark brown meat had to be karon leg. The lumpy shapes had been boiled quite thoroughly and seemed incredibly tender. And judging from the creamy white of the soup, he must have used karon milk in it.

“For the tau-oil-boiled vegetables, I used a mushroom from Jagar and ma gigo.”

This dish seemed to involve boiling kimyuus breast meat in tau oil along with herbs. And those were supplemented by a brown-beech-like mushroom and the taro-like ma gigo.

“Well then, let’s go ahead and give these a taste test.”

Picking up a wooden spoon, I started by slurping down some of the soup dish.

Despite the scent, it wasn’t sweet. With the sourness and tingling spice, it reminded me more of tom yum goong. He must have combined a variety of herbs in order to create it. But when mixed with the mellowness from the karon milk, it wasn’t hard to get down in the least.

He had gotten plenty of stock from the karon leg meat, making for a dish that definitely stirred up the appetite. However, I couldn’t help but question a bit if the sheema and chan were really a proper fit.

Meanwhile, the boiled tau oil dish had a bit of a very familiar Japanese style to it. In addition to the tau oil, he had unsurprisingly also used a number of herbs. It felt a touch bitter and earthy, certainly, but it wasn’t bad. And I felt the mushroom and vegetable he had chosen were fitting too.

However...

I felt a sense of doubt in my mind that I never had before in regards to Yang’s cooking. What was this sensation, exactly? It wasn’t as if it had come out worse than his previous dishes or anything, but something didn’t quite feel right, somehow.

“What do you think? Please, tell me your earnest impressions,” Yang insisted, calmly staring my way.

Yang was standing here now because he had also been entrusted with the important task of introducing new ingredients to the post town. Actually, to be more accurate, I had just decided to agree to help Polarth and Torst with this in my spare time between selling my giba cooking since I saw no harm in it, but Yang had been solely devoted to the matter.

“Hmm...” I pondered. “Let’s see... To be frank, I think some other vegetables than sheema and chan would be more suited to this soup.”

“I see. Then what vegetables do you think would be suitable, Sir Asuta?”

“What do I think? Well, if it were me, I’d use aria and tino...and I might want to add in some chamcham and mushrooms too.” Chamcham was an ingredient like bamboo shoots that I used when making giba manju and the like. “And I believe dried seaweed and fish stock would go very well with this blend of herbs. I can’t say for certain without trying anything out, though.”

“Dried seaweed and fish, you say? I cannot say I have any experience with how to use such ingredients.”

“It’s nothing difficult. And as long as the prices don’t end up being ridiculous, I’d imagine those ingredients would bring joy to the folks in the post town too.”

Yang slowly shook his head, and then once more looked my way. “This is the first time you have given me such specific guidance, so that makes me quite glad. And what about the boiled tau oil dish?”

“I think your combination of mushroom and vegetables here is suitable. However...it’s a little difficult to explain, but I think there may still be room for improvement in your combination of herbs.”

“My combination of herbs, you say?”

“Right. Is it the bitterness and earthiness that’s bothering me...? No, that isn’t ruining the taste or anything, but I sort of feel like there’s some unnecessary flavor mixed in there.”

By explaining it out loud like that, I finally grasped what felt off to me. Without realizing it, I had been comparing Yang’s cooking to Varkas’s.

There was no great difference between their cooking methods, or those of Roy and Timalo for that matter. From what I could sense, they were all more or less aiming for the same taste, the same ideal delicious flavors. And maybe now that I had tasted the perfected version of the flavor they sought, thanks to Varkas, I could see the “holes” in Yang’s cooking.

Of course, it was also possible that I was just completely mistaken. However, I couldn’t stop myself from feeling that Varkas could fill in those holes.

“And what do you two think?” Yang asked, his calm gaze turning toward Reina Ruu and Myme.

The second Ruu daughter set down her spoon and stared straight back at him.

“As a person of the forest’s edge, I don’t believe I can properly judge whether or not the dishes you make are delicious. But as Asuta said, something seems lacking in this combination of herbs, or perhaps there’s something there that shouldn’t be.”

“So it really is the combination of herbs, then?”

“Yes. I can’t say anything for certain, as I have a very limited knowledge of herbs myself...but even so, when I tried that Varkas chef’s dish, I couldn’t help but feel there wasn’t anything lacking or unnecessary in it.”

“None in Genos are as skilled at using herbs from Sym as Sir Varkas, so it is only natural to think that way.” Yang nodded, and then he turned toward Myme.

The young chef’s eyebrows drooped and she looked troubled as she said, “In the Turan lands and the post town, you almost never see dishes that combine more than two different herbs. My father taught me that in order to sell cooking here, it was best not to use overly complex seasonings.”

“I see. Perhaps I was too fixated on using herbs from Sym and strayed from the proper path. It seems these dishes are still in need of a bit of improvement.”

“N-No! I’m still nothing but a chef in training, so please don’t take my words so seriously!”

“No, the words you three have offered have truly resonated with me. I choose to give them weight of my own volition,” Yang said, and then he sighed. “When word got out that a chef from the castle town would be manning the kitchen, that drew a great deal of attention to this dining hall at first, but lately the number of customers seems to be decreasing bit by bit. That, if nothing else, serves as evidence of my lacking skill. I need to work even harder from here on out.”

“No, but...” I started to argue, only for Yang to hold up a hand to stop me.

“It is fine. While it pains me to learn of my own inexperience at this age, at the same time, I also feel glad. After all, it means there is still more out there for me to learn,” Yang said with a smile.

It was an incredibly gentle smile, the kind that this earnest chef rarely showed. And even though he was middle aged, there was a vivid desire to improve shining in his narrowed eyes.

“Still, you seem to have used a great deal of herbs in your dish, Sir Asuta. I’m terribly looking forward to tasting it.”

“Right, then I’ll go ahead and borrow the kitchen.”

Since I was just heating up the completed dish, it took no time at all. Once I handled that alongside Reina Ruu, we divided it up onto three plates.

“Three portions? I assume one is for Miss Myme, but who is the other one for?” Yang questioned as he sat down in a chair with a back. At that, I turned my gaze upon the girl standing there behind him.

“Well, since we prepared extra, you can have some too if you’d like, Nicola.”

The girl narrowed her eyes questioningly. But at Yang’s encouragement, she silently took a seat.

“Wow, what a striking scent!” Myme exclaimed with a smile, picking up her spoon. This would be the first time she had tasted my giba curry. And a moment later, she passionately declared, “Delicious! It’s an unusual taste, but it’s so good! Just how many different herbs did you use in this dish, exactly?”

“In the end, I went with eight different varieties. That was enough to finally recreate the taste I had been aiming for.”

By making a blend with the initial five herbs I had picked out, and three more I had brought back from the Turan manor, I was finally able to perfect my giba curry.

The impression it gave was like a cross between Indian curry and Japanese curry. Though I had actually seasoned it to be paired with baked poitan, it would probably go well with rice too.

Based on Yumi’s impressions, I adjusted it to a medium level of spiciness. In terms of appearance, it was a rather dark brown color, and it certainly did smell spicy.

For vegetables, I employed my standard set of aria, chatchi, and nenon, and I also added chan and the one mushroom I had that was like a common mushroom. On the meat end of things, I used giba ribs and added in just a bit of minced meat. Then in addition to the karon milk, milk fat, and roux made with herbs, I added sugar, salt, tau oil, and myamuu for seasonings, and I dissolved plenty of tomato-like tarapa and apple-like ramam fruit in it. With all that together, I was finally able to give my giba curry the rich yet mellow feel I had been seeking.

“Whoa, that’s spicy!” Nicola suddenly exclaimed in a critical tone. We all looked at her in surprise. With a sour expression on her face, she bowed her head and said, “My apologies...”

“It is indeed spicy. However, there is a harmony to the flavor that makes it difficult to believe eight different herbs were used. How are you able to utilize them so skillfully, Sir Asuta?” Yang asked, wearing a truly bewildered expression.

“Err, that’s probably because I was aiming to recreate a dish that had already existed back in my home country. I can’t imagine I would have been able to figure out how to combine them without a past example in mind.”

“How splendid. I find it difficult to analyze with such powerful spiciness, but I’m certain this delicious flavor comes from the vegetables and meat stock... Sir Asuta, do you intend to sell this dish in the post town?”

“Yes. It doesn’t really use any fresh ingredients aside from the herbs, but I figured it should help to popularize giba meat.”

“I truly am impressed. Despite having such an intense aroma, this dish truly is delicious. I certainly cannot see it failing to become popular.”

“I’m not so sure. I’m honestly still somewhat worried that the folks in the post town may not accept it, since they aren’t accustomed to complex flavors.”

“This dish’s flavor doesn’t feel complex to me. So much so that it is difficult to imagine you used eight herbs in creating it. It’s simply an intense, delicious flavor,” Yang said, once again breaking out in a smile. “This has been an unparalleled impetus to drive me onward too. I feel truly ashamed to have served you such incomplete dishes earlier. And I intend to push myself as far as I can so that I do not keep falling behind you, Sir Asuta.”

After that, we departed from Tanto’s Blessing.

As we walked along the street, Myme turned my way, brimming with energy.

“I’ve seen once again just how skilled you truly are, Asuta! I want to work even harder from now on too!”

“Thanks. By this point, you’ve gotten pretty used to handling giba meat yourself, haven’t you?”

“Yes! I believe I’ll be able to complete a new dish soon. When that time comes, could I ask you to taste test it again?”

“Yeah, of course. By the way, do you have any plans to open a stall in the post town?”

“Hmm, I really would like to test out my skills that way...but spending time on business would mean less time to train my skills, which is not a change I’m sure I’m willing to make,” Myme said, and then she shot me a smile. “But contracts for renting stalls are for ten days each, right? So if I can put my worries to rest, I think I would like to try running one for just one cycle.”

“You’re really something. When the time comes, go easy on me, okay?” This was undoubtedly just as big of a deal to me as manning the kitchen at the same time as Varkas.

With a huge grin, Myme called out, “Thanks for everything today! I’m heading back home to keep on practicing!” before taking off running down the street.

After a moment, Reina Ruu sighed and said, “Somehow, I also have a feeling like I just can’t sit still. Do you think Sheera Ruu and I should spend all day training like that Myme girl?”

“I wouldn’t say that. When you go out like this, you might find all kinds of things that could inspire you. But you don’t get that chance if you’re always holed up in the kitchen.”

“I see. Personally, I want to stay by your side all day. Ah, I don’t mean in that way or anything!” Reina Ruu said, her face going beet red as she waved her hands in a fluster.

“Ah ha ha,” I chuckled, laughing it off.

“But that really is how I feel. It’s not easy to just come out and say, but I’m so jealous of how Toor Deen gets to spend pretty much the whole day working with you.”

“Right. Well, there’s no need to rush or anything. You and Sheera Ruu have improved so much in just half a year, so things will work out fine as long as you keep trying hard,” I said as we headed for the next inn. “You know, I’ve been thinking... It might be good if you and Sheera Ruu started trying to aim for more originality in your cooking.”

“Originality?”

“Yeah. For example, take the giba sauté arrabbiata served at The Sledgehammer. It’s so spicy that it’s tough for you to eat even a single serving of it, right? Generally, I’d say cooking a dish you don’t find tasty feels like putting the cart before the totos.”

“Yes, but...”

“Of course, this is business, so in a way there’s no helping that. But don’t you think the job would be even more enjoyable if you could make the customers happy in the same way you do your family? Personally, I have a great time day in and day out. And I believe that enjoying what you do feeds back into an even greater desire to improve...”

Reina Ruu held her tongue, a serious look on her face.

In order to reward that seriousness, I tried to put my feelings into words as best I could.

“Even when working the stalls, you season the myamuu giba stronger than you personally prefer, right? But that isn’t my stall anymore. It belongs to the Ruu clan. So rather than trying to imitate my cooking, you should try to sell your own dishes. Or at least, that’s what I’ve started thinking lately.”

“Our own cooking...”

“Right. I believe both you and Sheera Ruu should be skilled enough to handle it by this point. That teriyaki stew you had me taste test before was good enough to be served anywhere.”

Reina Ruu was staring at me intently.

As we walked down the street, I gave her a firm nod. “It would be good to consult with Sheera Ruu about it. After all, you’re the only ones who can decide which path is right for you.”

“I understand... Thank you. I feel incredibly honored to hear you say all that, Asuta,” Reina Ruu replied back, nodding with determination.

2

After that, we next headed for The Great Southern Tree.

Naudis had been holed up in the kitchen, and when he saw us he greeted us with a smile, saying, “Ooh, I’ve been waiting for you.” Lately, it seemed that he had been manning the kitchen a lot more than his wife. “So that’s the finished dish that uses all those herbs? I’ve been excited all morning to see just what in the world it will taste like.”

“I’m glad to hear it. That’s a nice smell... Are you already preparing dinner?”

“Ah, yes. Well, you see, I actually have something I’d like for you to taste test as well. I went ahead and tried to put together a dish of my own as soon as I could with those new ingredients.”

That news definitely got me excited. After all, Naudis and Nail were both rather skilled at cooking, for residents of the post town.

“I really would like to hear your honest opinion of it.”

He set plates of the boiled tau oil dish down in front of me and Reina Ruu. It contained karon leg meat cut into bite-sized chunks, thinly sliced aria, those mushrooms that looked like orange shiitake, and daikon-like sheema that had been cut into wedges.

There was a strong aroma of tau oil and myamuu about the dish. And with a big helping of a dark brown broth similar to the one used in my meat and chatchi stew poured over top, it really did look tasty.

“Well then, let’s dig in.”

With a wooden spoon, I picked up a bit of sheema and karon leg meat and popped them into my mouth.

I could tell right away that he had used tau oil, myamuu, sugar, and fruit wine. The dish had an appropriately salty-sweet taste. The karon leg meat seemed really tender too. The leg meat got softer the longer you boiled it, and this really was superb.

To compare it to the recipes I knew, it seemed closest to a Japanese-style stew. The aroma from the myamuu was a bit strong, but it wasn’t enough to ruin the dish. While it was fairly simple overall, there was some definite depth to the flavor.

“It’s very good. You used the dried fish stock in it, didn’t you?”

“Yes, indeed. I did as you said, and that alone was enough to add such depth to the flavor.” Naudis, who was even shorter than me, puffed out his broad chest. “And since I was even able to get ahold of sheema and mushrooms from Jagar, I’m truly satisfied with how it turned out. I’m proud to say that it’s every bit as good as the cooking I once enjoyed in my father’s homeland.”

“The meat is fantastically tender, but the other flavors have only seeped into it a small amount. Did you parboil it first?”

“Ah, no, I marinated it in fruit wine first, and then boiled it,” Naudis said, breaking out in a wide grin. “I recalled how my grandmother taught me that tough meat softens up when you marinate it in sparkling wine from Jagar. And when I tried it out with the sparkling wine you brought me, it certainly did just that. But I didn’t want to waste anything so valuable, so I tried using fruit wine instead.”

“Ah, I see. And did you perhaps marinate it with aria alongside the fruit wine?”

The answer was yes.

Now that I thought about it, marinating beef in red wine was a method to soften it up back where I came from too. And I could recall hearing that when you did so, it was more effective if you added stuff like onions, vinegar, and yogurt. Oh, and lately The Kimyuus’s Tail had taken to soaking leg meat in karon milk in order to soften it up.

“This is good. I’m not especially fond of karon leg meat, but the flavor is definitely tasty,” Reina Ruu chimed in with a look of satisfaction. This might have been the first time she offered such direct praise regarding the skills of someone from the post town. That just went to show how simple yet delicious Naudis’s dish really was.

“While it of course doesn’t reach the level of your giba dishes, Asuta, I feel confident it will do just fine at a cost of four or five red coins. I intend to add it to the menu right away, starting tonight.”

“Well, it certainly is delicious. I could see it becoming just as popular as the giba dishes.”

“I think that’s going a bit too far. I cannot possibly imagine beating the cubed giba meat stew, for example, now that the taste has reached such heights after the introduction of ingredients from Jagar.”

At The Great Southern Tree, I continued to offer the cubed giba meat stew once every ten days, just like before. The most recent time I made it, I used sheema, chamcham, and that shiitake-like mushroom rather than aria. Naudis had been overjoyed at the time, but I no longer knew how to react.

“Okay, now let’s try your dish, Asuta,” Naudis said with a serious look in his eyes.

It was time for him to taste test my giba curry, which used a bunch of herbs from Sym. Would folks from the south really accept it? Would Naudis think it was worthwhile to even try selling it to them? It was finally time for all that to be decided.

“This...really is shockingly good,” Naudis said after taking a bite of the reheated giba curry. “I thought it was good to begin with, but... Hrmm... Still, you said you didn’t want to sell the dish itself, but rather the base ingredients to make it, didn’t you?”

“Yes. At least for now, that’s my intention.”

“Can people like my wife or I really make such an alien dish? We don’t have any knowledge at all when it comes to herbs from Sym.”

“I don’t believe that should be an issue. You just need to toss this into a pot with boiling meat and vegetables,” I replied, pulling out a small leather bag from my hip and showing him the curry base.

I had blended together eight different spices, sautéed aria with milk fat, added fuwano flour, and then finally dried it out so it hardened up. At first I was nervous that the milk fat might cause it to go bad, but after discussing the matter with Nail and his customers from Sym, I determined that by using this many herbs, it should last for at least ten days or so.

“Naturally, when I made this, I used the seasonings and ingredients that I thought would work well, but it should still come out really good with different ones too. I’ll explain the basic steps, but from there you should be able to use whatever ingredients you prefer.”

“Hmm...”

“Sheema might not quite fit with it, but chan, ma pula, and mushrooms in a Jagar-style curry sound like they would be pretty good.”

Naudis gave a sigh, then stared back at me with a determined look in his eyes.

“Understood. At any rate, if there’s a chance other inns will start carrying this dish, then I need to at least try it out. I think I’ll have the customers give it a shot tonight at dinner.”

After teaching Naudis the basics of the recipe, we left The Great Southern Tree. Our next destination was The Sledgehammer.

“Asuta, there’s one thing I just don’t understand...”

“Hmm? What is it?”

As we walked down the now more crowded street, Reina Ruu looked deep in thought.

“I truly thought that dish made by the innkeeper was actually good. I’m sure Sheera Ruu or I, maybe even Rimee, could adjust the flavor to be more to our tastes, but I didn’t have any real issue with it as it was.”

“Yeah. Naudis is pretty darn skilled.”

“Honestly, to me, that innkeeper seems more skilled at manning the stove than that Yang chef. Am I mistaken?” Reina Ruu asked, a deeply thoughtful look on her face.

“Hmm...” I murmured, pondering the matter myself. “I’m not sure. Yang is definitely on top in terms of the knowledge and skills he possesses...but that may actually be hindering him.”

“Hindering?”

“Yeah. For example, you’ve grown really skilled at manning the stove, so you ended up wanting to use some tricks other than just grilling and boiling meat, right? But the chefs in the castle town believe using lots of ingredients makes for a better dish, and I think that viewpoint will only keep growing stronger.”

“Right... I understand that.”

“And as someone born in the castle town, I don’t think Yang has a good grasp of what people from the post town like. I figure he’s just stabbing in the dark, trying to find the ideal taste to meet the expectations of the townsfolk while also taking care not to let the flavor get too complex.”

On the other hand you had Naudis, who had been dissatisfied over how he wanted to use ingredients from Jagar, but couldn’t. And now that that had changed, his passion must have erupted all at once.

“Naudis and Nail have actually eaten cooking from Jagar and Sym, and they’re trying to recreate that for their customers. I figure that’s a lot like how I’ve been trying to recreate the taste of dishes from my home country. When you have that to guide you from the start, you know what sort of ingredients you need and how you should flavor it, which leaves less of the trial and error Yang has to go through.”

That was probably why Naudis and Nail were a step ahead of Milano Mas and Yumi’s mother Sill. Actually, it wasn’t just Milano Mas and Sill, as the majority of the post town was left in a state of confusion over how to handle all those newly introduced ingredients. And perhaps it was the same for the chefs of the castle town, who had to master all those different ingredients, whether they were introduced decades or even a full hundred years ago.

“In other words...Mikel of Turan had his daughter polish her skills with a limited set of ingredients so as not to cause her to experience that confusion, right?”

“Yes, that’s exactly it. And I’m sure Mikel built his skills into a strong foundation first before trying to develop his ideal dishes, rather than getting caught up in the values of the castle town.”

“So what about that Varkas chef?” Reina Ruu asked, the look in her eyes growing all the more serious.

As I thought it over, I replied, “I don’t know any more than you do about him, so this is all speculation, but...I think he’s someone who just adapted especially well to living in the middle of all that chaos. He fully embraced the idea that using all sorts of ingredients makes a meal better, and raised his ideal recipes to perfection that way.”

“He raised them to perfection?”

“Yup. Putting things in terms of totos, even if we can handle several of them at a time, we still need to manipulate their reins carefully and watch their footings, right? But Varkas feels like he’s standing in the middle of a herd of totos trying to run off in every direction, grasping all their reins and holding them in place by force.”

Reina Ruu couldn’t help but giggle at my crappy analogy.

“I feel like I sort of get it. Each of those totos are things like sweetness and spiciness, right?”

“Yeah. Even though one wrong step could ruin everything, Varkas’s cooking maintains an exquisite balance.”

“Right. I get that too,” Reina Ruu replied, giving a small sigh as she fiddled with the tips of her long black hair. “To be honest...I find that Varkas chef a little frightening.”

“Frightening? Why’s that?”

“He’s doing something as a chef that I never could. If it turns out that that’s the right way of doing things for a chef...all of my hard work would be for naught.”

Her feelings about him and mine might not have been that far apart, honestly. However, I had no intention of giving up on my own skills because of it.

“Don’t worry. Cooking isn’t really about striving to see who’s superior. After all, everyone’s tastes are different, right? So we just need to keep trying in our own way to make dishes that we find tasty.”

“Yeah... I don’t think you’re wrong about that,” Reina Ruu said, sounding as if she was trying to persuade herself.

It seemed Varkas had left an even deeper impression on this skilled chef from the forest’s edge than I had expected.

At The Sledgehammer, the curry once again earned open praise.

That was no surprise, considering how much Nail liked it when it was still a work in progress. At any rate, when he tasted the completed giba curry, his whole body started trembling, perhaps because he was restraining himself from breaking out in an expression.

“It’s terribly delicious. I’m sure my customers from the east will be exceptionally pleased. So much so that I worry my other dishes may even stop selling.”

“I think this dish should be sold in small portions, so maybe you could make it part of a set.”

Though I didn’t have much experience with them, I remembered that Indian restaurants often bundled curry and naan with kebabs or tandoori chicken and the like. And I was sure that not only my giba sauté arrabbiata but also the spicy meat dishes Nail made would pair well with the giba curry.

Oh, and about my giba sauté arrabbiata, I had revised the recipe to employ fish stock, dried seafood, and herbs from Sym.

“I’m currently experimenting with karon and kimyuus herb-grilled dishes using the herbs from Sym that you brought me. Though they can’t compare to your cooking, I’m sure they’ll make my customers happy.”

“It was Duke Genos and Polarth who introduced those ingredients to the post town, though. Not me.”

“But you were the one who made it all possible. I have offered my thanks to Selva and Sym over and over for the good fortune of having met you.”

After Nail saw us off, we next headed for The Kimyuus’s Tail. Since we had planned in advance to run around to all the inns like this, I had prepared dinner in the morning.

Milano Mas was also surprised, saying, “The flavor has improved a whole lot. It’s gotten real spicy, but how should I put it...? It doesn’t feel like it’s running wild in my mouth. And the meat and vegetables are incredibly tasty too.”

“I’m glad to hear you like it,” I said, feeling relieved. The Kimyuus’s Tail was the one place I had been worried about. “So, what do you say to trying to cook this yourselves, including the meat and vegetables? I don’t think it’ll be difficult to prepare.”

I actually hadn’t sold The Kimyuus’s Tail any fresh meat yet. That was because Milano Mas was concerned that if he increased the number of giba dishes on offer, the kimyuus and karon dishes would stop selling. And he figured that they wouldn’t be able to make anything all that good with giba meat regardless.

Even after I succeeded at persuading The Westerly Wind, Milano Mas still hadn’t changed his mind. I figured he was probably concerned that if they served crude dishes, it would hurt the reputation of giba meat.

“But you and Telia Mas can make such tasty dishes with kimyuus and karon now, can’t you? To be honest, I don’t think you two are that far behind the folks at The Westerly Wind in terms of skill. So there really isn’t anything to worry about.”

Even here in the post town, manning the stove was generally seen as women’s work. Nail and Naudis had taken charge of their kitchens in spite of that, out of a desire to offer their customers from Sym and Jagar delicious meals.

Since Milano Mas’s wife had passed away so young, she didn’t have a chance to teach her daughter, Telia Mas, how to cook. That was how The Kimyuus’s Tail ended up with the unfortunate reputation of not having particularly good food.

“If you think I’m trying to trick you, then please just try cooking the giba curry at least once. If you’re not satisfied with the taste, then I’ll give you some more lessons, so...”

“You don’t have enough free time on your hands for more lessons. And there’s no reason for you to help us so much to begin with.”

I felt another sigh coming on at how distant he was still acting. But still, I figured that was all part of Milano Mas’s charm.

“If it helps to show people how delicious giba meat is, then it doesn’t matter to me how much extra work it takes. And it may not be all that important to you...but The Kimyuus’s Tail is the inn I’ve had a relationship with the longest, so it means a lot to me. I can’t help wanting it to earn just as good of a reputation as the other inns, if not better.”

Unsurprisingly, Milano Mas’s expression remained just as sour as always. However, I still somehow got him to accept my proposal. What clinched it was definitely Telia Mas giving her backing, saying that they should offer the dish.

After giving them the same instructions as the other inns and some curry base to try out, we left The Kimyuus’s Tail.

Finally, we headed for the last inn, The Westerly Wind. There, we demonstrated how to make giba curry on the spot.

I went with a simple selection of three vegetables—aria, chatchi, and nenon—and a bit of excess skim milk. Just adding the curry base to that was enough to create a perfectly satisfactory flavor.

Then using some dried fish stock, I made a bit of mock curry soup. If they didn’t want to buy comparatively expensive dried fish, they could also get a good enough stock by slowly boiling giba, karon, or kimyuus meat.

It earned a very strong reception. Or at the very least, Yumi and Sill sang its praises.

“Yes, I could see this taste becoming a bit addictive. I’m sure some folks won’t like it, but I would love to serve this,” Sill said, glancing over at her husband. But as usual, Sams wore a sullen look.

“The inside of my mouth hurts. Will this stuff really sell?”

“It definitely will! If nothing else, it’s at least tastier than the karon soup we served before we started buying giba meat, right?” Yumi commented, in quite the good mood.

“Tch,” Sams clicked his tongue.

“If you don’t mind, please go ahead and offer this portion to your customers. If they don’t like it, then I’ll go ahead and back down,” I chimed in, even though I felt bad applying such pressure. But if you didn’t act with confidence when dealing with this innkeeper, you would end up pointlessly ruining his mood.

“It’s decided, then. You’re one heck of a businessman, Asuta,” Sill declared cheerfully, sipping down the rest of her curry soup.

Yumi similarly focused on cleaning her plate, and then she suddenly turned my way. “By the way, you’re going to be cooking in the castle town soon, aren’t you? Are you going to serve this giba curry dish there?”

“No, I decided not to since apparently Banarm doesn’t have much of a custom of using herbs. And besides, I developed this dish with everyone from the post town and the forest’s edge in mind.”

“Hmm? You mean for nobles you need a dish that’s much grander?” Yumi replied, sounding rather unamused.

“No,” I answered. “It’s true that I want to tailor the dishes to the tastes of nobles, but it’s not like I set out to make something luxurious. Maybe what I came up with just happened to turn out that way?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The prices of ingredients here in Genos don’t line up with things back in my home country. For example, smoked fish is incredibly expensive here, but back where I come from, anyone could buy them with ease. The same was true for salt, sugar, vinegar, and tau oil.”

“Just how well off was your home country?”

“I guess the average person is pretty well off back there, yeah. But more than that, things just had different values. For example...to buy these white clothes I’m wearing, you would probably need a white coin.”

“Huh?! For those rags?! Ah, sorry...”

“Well, these were brand new half a year ago.”

Still, if you equated a red coin to 200 yen and a white one to 2000 yen, that was about how things worked out. As an aside, I got a good deal on this white T-shirt, since it was on sale for 1980 yen.

“From my point of view, it was a real shock to find that a single bottle of tau oil cost one white coin. I mean, aria and poitan go for around the same price as similar vegetables in my home country... At any rate, the costs of things are out of sync. Maybe the nobles would be happier with something that uses expensive ingredients, but I don’t personally feel like I’m making anything extravagant in the process.”

“Hmm, I see... Now that you mention it, this curry dish uses plenty of herbs from Sym, so it’d be normal to consider it pretty luxurious.”

“Yeah. But I want the folks from the post town and the forest’s edge to eat it, not the nobles. It was a dish the people close to me ate back in my home country,” I replied, shooting Yumi a smile. “I’m a commoner to begin with, so the cooking I make is all aimed toward ordinary folks. But it seems that if I do use the expensive stuff, I can satisfy the nobles of Genos with my cooking, so we somehow came to an agreement, and I want to give the job my all.”

“Right. No matter what sort of dish you’re making, you always seem to put just as much effort into it.”

“I guess that’s true. I just try to think about what sort of dish will make the person eating it happy.”

There were dishes out there that were suitable for nobles. And the same was true for the folks from the post town and the people of the forest’s edge too. I was just trying to pick the dishes that would make them happiest out of my repertoire.

“I’m sorry for going off on you there... I just was a bit annoyed at the thought that you would be working harder than usual for nobles.”

“Nothing’s changed on my end. No matter who I’m dealing with, I always give it everything I’ve got.”

“Yeah, I’m relieved... But you’d better not end up a personal chef to some noble, okay?”

“Ah ha ha, I’ve got no interest in anything like that.”

No matter how many coins I might be offered, I definitely wouldn’t choose that path. After all, my home was at the forest’s edge now.

“That’s all, sorry for taking so much of your time. I’ll stop by again tomorrow, so please tell me what people said about the giba curry then.”

With that, my trip around the inns came to an end, and it was finally time to head back to everyone else.

3

We arrived back at the Ruu settlement right on schedule, at half past the lower second hour, where we discovered some sort of commotion going on. Off to one edge of the plaza there was a crowd, made up of women and children since the men were out right now.

As I wondered just what exactly was going on, I hopped down from the driver’s seat and approached while holding the reins...and when they sensed my presence the crowd parted, bringing a strange sight into view. It was Mida, lying down and holding a huge giba atop his stomach.

“Mida! What are you doing?!” Tsuvai shouted, leaping out of the Ruu wagon and dashing over. But Mida didn’t respond, as he just remained on the ground breathing heavily. “What’s going on here?! Somebody explain this!”

Three hunters stepped forward in front of the raging Tsuvai. Though they were hunters, they were all boys who were on the smaller side: Ludo and Shin Ruu, and the clan’s guest, Jeeda.

“It’s just what it looks like. After carrying the giba this far, he ran out of strength,” Ludo Ruu replied, joining his hands behind his head.

Tsuvai shot him a glare. “It looks to me like the giba is crushing him! Why isn’t anyone moving it?!”

“Because that’s Mida’s job. The three of us carried two huge giba ourselves, you know.”

“What does that matter?! And why is Mida carrying a giba to begin with?!”

“Mida is a hunter, starting today,” Shin Ruu calmly interjected. “But since he grew too tired to run even though the sun was still so high in the sky, he was tasked with carrying back the giba everyone had hunted down. If we help him out now, it’ll mean he was even more useless. Are you really okay with that?”

“But...!” Tsuvai wailed.

Then, Mida and the huge giba started to sway.

“Don’t worry... I’ll do my work...”

Now that he had sat up, I could see that Mida’s whole body was coated in sweat and dirt. And the giba he held had to be around eighty kilos, which made it bigger than I could lift on my own.

“Your strength ran out on you because you ran around recklessly. You’ve got to think ahead at least a little,” Ludo Ruu chastised.

“Right...”

“Can you really carry it? We’ve got to skin it and remove the guts before my old man and everyone else make it back, or there won’t be any point to us having come home first.”

“I’ll carry it... I’m gonna try real hard on my work too...”

Mida rose to his feet, his body trembling as he went.

As she watched him, Tsuvai snorted, “Hmph! If you’re okay now, then hurry up and carry it already. A big lump like you lying on the ground just gets in the way.”

“Yeah... Thanks, Tsuvai...”

“I didn’t do anything you should be thanking me for!” Tsuvai retorted while turning away in a huff, but she didn’t move from the spot. And Yamiru Lea was also quietly staring at Mida from behind me in the wagon.

The former members of the main Suun house were all striving their hardest to live properly as people of the forest’s edge in their new clans. They had to, considering Tsuvai and Yamiru Lea never manned the stove at all back when they belonged to the Suun clan.

By practicing, they were able to reach the point where they could help me out with the stalls, and Mida’s days of tough training had finally brought him to the point where he could hunt giba too. There must have been extraordinary emotions swirling about in Tsuvai and Yamiru Lea’s hearts. Even I couldn’t help but feel greatly moved by the sight of Mida mustering up all his strength to carry that giba.

As everyone watched over him, Mida staggered to the rear of the main house with the huge beast. And after breathing sighs of relief, we followed slowly after.

“Hey Asuta, Reina. Looks like you guys didn’t have any trouble today? Good work,” Ludo Ruu called out with a relaxed grin as he walked over to us.

As I stared at Mida’s rounded back, I nodded, “Yeah, we didn’t have any issues on our end. More importantly, Mida’s finally able to enter the forest, huh?”

“Yep, but he just ran around recklessly and wasn’t any help at all. He can’t hide his presence in the least, so he almost caused some giba to slip away.”

Despite his harsh critique, Ludo Ruu was acting as always. Shin Ruu and Jeeda were the same. They didn’t seem to want to blame Mida for what had happened. Still, they likely weren’t allowed to lend him any aid as more experienced hunters.

Shin Ruu turned to his cousin. “Well, it seems he didn’t do anything hunter-like in the past aside from dragging back the giba caught in traps around the Suun settlement. So maybe now that he’s finally able to head out into the forest, his excitement got the better of him.”

“Considering how ridiculously strong he is, Mida should eventually become a great hunter as long as he applies himself. There’s no need to rush.”

“That’s true. In fact, since he placed in the Ruu settlement’s contest of strength, it’d look bad if he didn’t become a fine hunter.”

While Ludo and Shin Ruu had that back and forth, Jeeda remained silent beside them. I went ahead and called out to him while pulling on Gilulu’s reins.

“It’s been a while since I last saw you, Jeeda. Is your shoulder injury all better?”

“Yeah.”

“You seem to be doing a great job hunting giba. I’m sure Bartha must be very proud.”

“You think?”

Like always, this boy with the unkempt red hair and yellow eyes wasn’t very talkative, and he acted like he was in a bad mood. He really did remind me of Darmu Ruu somehow. It might have been how neither of them spoke very much, but had a lot of intense emotions buried inside.

“Hey there, good work everyone. Did you make a killing again today?” Bartha called out, having been waiting for us behind the house. I noticed that she and her son didn’t greet each other, but maybe they already did earlier. “You’ll be working on the menu for the castle town again, right? Would I be getting in the way?”

“No, of course not.”

There were four days left until the welcome banquet. We were finally approaching the final stages of our training for the occasion.

“Well then, we’ll see you around. We’ve got to teach Mida how to skin a pelt and remove the innards, after all,” Ludo Ruu told me, and with that, he and the others left for the dissection room.

As for us, we set about handling our own work.

“Now that I think about it, the leading clan heads of the forest’s edge were invited to the welcome banquet too. Will Donda Ruu be attending as their representative?” I asked as we prepared to start working in the kitchen.

Reina Ruu was closest to me, and she answered, “No. He mentioned it either yesterday or the day before, but it looks like Dari Sauti will be the one attending. They thought about going with Gulaf Zaza because his clan happens to be in a break period, but Dari Sauti nominated himself instead. He said he could make time for it after work since the gathering’s in the early evening.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. My father has been eating the leftovers from our test dishes each day, so he’s already enjoyed them enough. Not to say that he liked all of them, of course.”

“I see. Well, that’s only natural, seeing as this food is meant for nobles. Though I hope that Dari Sauti won’t feel let down.”

Still, Donda Ruu had given his approval to our tireless experimentation here at the Ruu settlement. In a way, this was an act of diplomacy to retain proper relations between the nobles and the people of the forest’s edge. Though I hadn’t asked the leading clan heads their true intentions or anything, I figured that was what they were thinking when they so quickly approved of me taking the job.

I recalled Donda Ruu grumbling, “What a ridiculous ruler...” while wearing a brazen grin after the previous banquet. It was a daring smile that seemed to say he had found a worthy rival or something.

The nobles of Genos aren’t enemies to be defeated. For the people of the forest’s edge to keep living lives true to themselves, they have to somehow manage to form a relationship of mutual trust with the nobility.

As I was thinking that, an energetic voice proclaimed, “Sorry for the wait!” as a small girl dashed into the kitchen. It was Rimee Ruu, who had been off duty from her work in the post town today. “Thanks, Lala. I’ve finally got my work done here, so swap out with me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lala Ruu replied with a shrug of her shoulders, exiting the kitchen. It would cause some issues with their housework if I borrowed the aid of all the women from the main Ruu house, so Lala Ruu would be staying behind for this banquet. We worked things out so that after work in the post town wrapped up, she traded places in the kitchen with Rimee Ruu.

“Huh? You’re here too Vina? Do you need something?” I heard Lala Ruu ask from behind. When I turned around, I found Vina Ruu standing in the kitchen door, even though she was also set to stay home.

“Yeah... I have a bit of business with you, Asuta. But are you too busy right now...?”

“Me? No, I don’t mind.”

Having lined up the necessary ingredients atop my work station, I casually walked over to her.

Something seemed different about Vina Ruu, though. She was hanging her head a bit as her fingers fiddled with the tips of her chestnut-colored hair. And she was making a face like she was really anxious about something.

“What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“No... I wouldn’t particularly say that...” Vina Ruu replied, shrinking back as she did so.

Following after her, I exited the kitchen.

“Umm, you served the giba curry to the innkeepers today, didn’t you...? How was it received?”

“The giba curry? Well, it got pretty positive reviews for being such an unfamiliar dish, I’d say. Though for everyone aside from Nail, I figure they half saw it as a curiosity.”

“I see... But you consider it a completed dish, don’t you?”

“That’s right. I can’t imagine the base of the flavor changing without me encountering any new herbs. At this point, I figure the key point is how tasty it can be made using all the components other than the herbs.”

“The innkeepers will be handling everything but the herbs themselves, right?”

“Yup. Though of course I gave them advice on how to make it.”

I really couldn’t tell where this conversation was heading at all. And considering how Vina Ruu was fidgeting, her body shifting around as her eyes were cast down, she looked excessively sensual at the moment.

“Umm, this may be a bit of a strange question...but how do my skills measure up to the innkeepers?”

“Your skills? You mean as a chef? Hmm, let’s see... Well if I’m not mincing words, I’d say I figure you’re just about equal.” To be more precise, I’d say she was better than Telia Mas and Sill, but didn’t quite measure up to Nail and Naudis.

Even though Vina Ruu had been seen as below average at the Ruu settlement, she really had improved a lot over the past several months. If she kept up the rotation of participating in our study sessions once every three days, she was sure to eventually catch up to Nail and Naudis in terms of knowledge and techniques.

“I see... So I’ve come that far, then...”

“You have. I’m already asking Reina and Rimee Ruu to help out with the job in the castle town, so I can’t also ask for you or Lala Ruu, but it’s not as if that came down to an issue of skill level.”

Now, I had asked Toor Deen, Ama Min Rutim, and Morun Rutim to help out, and it was true that they might have been more skilled than Vina Ruu. Still, Toor Deen was the only one who really stood out in terms of talent, and I wouldn’t have had any issue swapping the eldest Ruu daughter in for either of the pair from the Rutim clan.

“I don’t care either way about the castle town, but...well...in that case, could I make delicious giba curry too?”

“Huh? Well, I’d say you should be able to make it just as good as the innkeepers. It’s the sort of dish where slipups don’t really stand out, so I can’t imagine there being a big, noticeable difference, at any rate.”

“Right...” Vina Ruu murmured, hanging her head even farther. The look on her face had grown more and more anxious, and her fingers had moved from fiddling with the tips of her hair to her necklace. The light pink accessory had come from Sym and was meant to ward off disasters.

It was then that things finally clicked for me. “Still, if you put in a bit of extra effort, you can definitely improve the flavor. Once the job in the castle town is over, how about I offer you some personal lessons?”

“Don’t worry about that... That wasn’t why I wanted to talk to you...”

“Oh, really? Well there’s still time, so even without me interfering, you should still naturally improve.”

“What do you mean ‘there’s still time’?”

That had been a definite slip of the tongue on my part. And I could spy an ever-so-faint blush on Vina Ruu’s face.

“Oh, nothing. Anyway, I’m sure you can make curry or anything else you want that tastes good.”

Vina Ruu drew in closer, a reproachful look in her eyes. But then, suddenly, a cheerful voice called out from beside us.

“Asuta, Vina, what are you doing? Are you done with work already?”

Vina Ruu cowered and let out a listless, “Aah!” Ludo Ruu was peeking his head out from the dissection room located beside the kitchen.

“L-Ludo... You were listening...?”

“Huh? I might have picked up some talk about giba curry. Was it something you didn’t want me to overhear?”

“N-No, it wasn’t anything like that...”

“Giba curry sure is tasty! I’ve really started to love it after all that taste testing! And I’m sure that Shumiral guy from Sym will be real happy when he makes it back to Genos too.”

Vina Ruu’s face went even redder, and she shot me and Ludo Ruu a glare before swiftly walking away. As we watched her leave, the youngest Ruu son snickered.

“Jeez, Vina sure can be childish, even if she is twenty. Guess that’s why she still hasn’t managed to get married.”

“That’s not true at all. I think it’s really good of her, how she’s trying to face her feelings head-on.” An obstinate blockhead like me might not have been the right person to say it, but that was how I honestly felt.

It had already been three months since Shumiral left Genos, so we were around the midpoint of his promise to return in half a year. I couldn’t help but wonder what that sincere, kind foreign friend of mine was thinking about right now as he traveled around.

Holding that thought close, I returned to the kitchen where everyone was waiting.

4

“Thank you for feeding me dinner again. I truly appreciate it.”

That night, Lem Dom visited the Fa house after the sun had completely set. She was holding a wooden tray she had crafted herself, atop which sat a lit candlestick and tonight’s dinner.

“Hey Lem Dom, I know it isn’t all that far, but isn’t it dangerous to be out walking at night? Can’t you come while it’s still at least a little brighter out?”

“My apologies. When I’m training, I tend to forget the passage of time. I’ll do my best to avoid interfering with your dinner plans as much as possible, though.”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about us...”

“And you needn’t worry about me either. If I run into a giba or a mundt, I’ll just hide up a tree,” Lem Dom replied with a daring grin before elegantly turning around. “I’ll see you again tomorrow. And please give my regards to Ai Fa.”

With a sigh, I closed the door. Then after patting Gilulu on his tilted, questioning head, I returned to the main hall where dinner was waiting.

“So she left? Good work,” Ai Fa calmly called out. As I sat down in my own spot, I looked over at her.

“It’s been seven days now since Lem Dom left her clan. Just how long does she plan on living like this?”

“I couldn’t say. Only Lem Dom herself knows what she’s thinking. It isn’t something outsiders should involve themselves in.”

“I get that, but aren’t you still worried about her? I mean, Deek Dom’s every bit as stubborn as she is. If neither of them bends, Lem Dom will end up never returning to her clan.”

“That is what it means to aim to become a hunter despite being a woman... In my case, my mother was opposed until the bitter end,” Ai Fa said, a somber look in her eyes. “Still, I might have been more fortunate than Lem Dom, considering how my father raised me to be a hunter...but at any rate, you cannot become a female hunter at the forest’s edge without overcoming such suffering.”

“It doesn’t seem like Bartha had to face any of that. But, well, I can’t say I know much about Masara.”

“Masara has its own customs, as does the forest’s edge. There is no point in comparing them... Let’s hurry up and eat before the food gets cold, Asuta.”

“Ah, yeah. Right.”

With that said, though, my dinner was almost finished already. Ai Fa’s plate was nearly empty too.

“What did you think of tonight’s dinner? I’m sorry for having you do nothing but taste tests for a while now, so I worked extra hard to make it good,” I asked, getting myself back on track, only to earn a glare for some reason.

“Do I look like I’m dissatisfied to you?”

“No, you look very much the opposite.”

“Then stop asking that every single night.”

Since tonight’s dinner was hamburger steak for the first time in a while, that really might have been a thoughtless question.

“Well then, what about the taste test from last night? Since it was a meal meant for nobles, I doubt you were quite so happy with it.”

“Not so. I’ve never complained, even when you offered that kind of food for dinner, have I?”

“But it’s not like you loved all of them, right?”

In response to my question, Ai Fa gave a cute tilt of her head.

“Well...if nothing else, I don’t feel much need for that appetizer and the sweet dish.”

“Right, guess that’s no surprise when it comes to the raw fish and the dessert. Though Rimee Ruu seems really fond of sweets.”

“And then there’s that poitan dish. At first I was surprised you were making something so bizarre...but after a few days, I can’t say I especially dislike it.”

She was referring to a dish I had been developing for a while now. I had been trying out a whole new way of eating poitan, which involved blending it with fuwano and adding kimyuus egg. Since it seemed appropriate, I was planning on unveiling my new recipe in the castle town.

“I have no issues calling the meat and soup dishes delicious. As for the vegetable dish...well, I cannot see any strong reason to hate it, I suppose,” Ai Fa added, thinking as hard as she could on the matter. “As a whole, I would say it was enjoyable. Still, the meat dish seems even more complicated than the giba cutlets... And how should I put this? I can’t imagine wanting to eat it every day. Perhaps it would be fitting for banquets here at the forest’s edge, though.”

“I see. I didn’t have any plans for making those dishes here at the forest’s edge either. And if I were to make them, I’d want to revise them to better fit the tastes of the people who’d be eating them.”

“Then I see even less of an issue,” Ai Fa replied, placing her now empty plate down atop the rug. With that in mind, I figured I had a decent enough chance of satisfying Dari Sauti with the food at the welcome banquet.

But at any rate, that night’s dinner came to a smooth close. As I cleaned up the utensils I had used, I called out, “Oh, right. Now that I think about it, what’s your opinion about that one thing? We somehow managed to get Donda Ruu’s permission.”

“You mean the idea of heading outside of Genos?” Ai Fa asked back as she similarly picked up her utensils, her eyes shining like a cat’s in the dark. “I’m surprised Donda Ruu approved. If you head to that Dabagg place, you won’t return for two days, correct?”

“Yeah. Donda Ruu was real reluctant at first, but supposedly Reina and Rimee Ruu managed to convince him after a few days. But he said he wants to have the same number of hunters as chefs guarding us, minimum.”

I had expressed a desire to go observe a karon ranch in Dabagg to Ai Fa and Donda Ruu. After she set her utensils down beside the stove, my clan head stood there in front of me with a frown.

“So how many chefs wish to visit that town? I believe there was Reina, Rimee, and Sheera Ruu.”

“Yeah, and if you approve, I was thinking of discussing the matter with the Deen clan too. So that would make for five of us.”

“Can you truly get five hunters to accompany you when it isn’t even a break period?”

“Well, Jeeda and Bartha are apparently locked in. They aren’t from the forest’s edge to begin with, so there’s no need to worry about them neglecting their giba hunting duty or anything. And having those two from outside Genos to guide us on the journey makes it feel a lot safer,” I replied, recalling what I had heard during the day at the Ruu house. “And supposedly Dan Rutim and one more member from his clan will join in. Remember, Dan Rutim and that novice hunter who was injured along with him will already be guarding us for the welcome banquet, right? Since they’re both still recovering, that makes them a good fit for leaving the forest’s edge.”

“In other words, you’re saying they’re still injured. Can you really leave guard duty to them with that in mind?”

“Even if they are injured, I can’t imagine bandits or whatever being any match for hunters of the forest’s edge. And besides, supposedly Donda Ruu selected them personally.”

Ai Fa crossed her arms and gave a displeased pout.

“Even so, that’s still only four. That’s one short of matching the number of chefs.”

“Right. Donda Ruu kind of assumed you’d be coming along...but can you really not take two days off from hunting after all?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. As if I could ever let you leave town on your own,” Ai Fa shot back, scratching her head.

“But you don’t like taking time off hunting because of us chefs, right?”

“I have been hunting down more giba than is necessary for a hunter. Ever since the end of the break period, I have been taking down roughly one a day, and yesterday I even caught two.”

“Yeah, it really has been an incredible haul. I mean, since there are only two of us in the Fa house, hunting down just one every five days would be plenty,” I agreed, looking back at Ai Fa while feeling both anticipation and unease.

With one more big frown, Ai Fa asked me, “Is heading to that Dabagg place really so important to you? That is the one point I just can’t understand.”

“I think it’s essential. Maybe I won’t be using karon meat all that often in the future, but milk, milk fat, and dried milk are all important ingredients, so it should be a good experience for all of us.”

And if everything worked out, it was possible even Mikel and Myme could join us. I figured just having Mikel along would make the journey that much more meaningful.

Besides, there was also an element of research to it, seeing what sort of cuisine there was in the town closest to Genos, what they thought of the people of the forest’s edge, and whether or not giba jerky and sausages could be sold there. The goal wasn’t just to satisfy a passing curiosity on my part. If it was, Donda Ruu never would have allowed his beloved daughters to leave Genos.

“In that case...” Ai Fa started, her voice clearly sounding displeased. “You have my approval too.”

“You mean it? And you’ll accompany us too?”

“Of course.”

“Hooray! Thanks, Ai Fa! I really owe you one!”

At that, Ai Fa’s pout vanished, and she shot me a confused look.

“Does it really make you that happy?”

“Of course it does. To be honest, I half thought you would refuse! Besides, I never imagined we would be going on an overnight trip together. Even if it’s ultimately for work, it still makes me really happy.”

Ai Fa’s brow deeply furrowed. A moment later, she abruptly grabbed my head with both hands. “That feels unfair somehow, Asuta.”

“U-Unfair? What do you mean?”

Ai Fa’s face pressed in close, and then she rustled my hair. “First you look all worried like a child, then suddenly you’re making such an adorable face...”

“A-Adorable? Me?”

“It’s so unfair that it annoys me.”

“Owww! Not so rough, boss!”

“Quiet, you,” Ai Fa grumbled as she released my head.

Just as I was feeling relieved, those slender arms containing the strength of a hunter wrapped firmly around my torso.

“Gyah!” I shouted, but she didn’t let go. I felt a tingle of premonition run up my spine, that she might seriously break my ribs.

“I’m glad you’re not worrying...”

“Aggggh... Huh? Did you say something just now?”

“You had a terribly pained look in your eyes on the day that Sym girl who was accompanying Polarth made those strange comments to you. But that shadow no longer seems to be hanging over you.”

That Sym girl... The star reader Arishuna.

My body now half supported by Ai Fa’s arms, which had mercifully loosened up, I told her, “I’m fine. She just reconfirmed something I already knew, so it’s nothing to worry about. And now that I think about it, the star reader from the Silver Vase said he couldn’t see my star either.”

“Sym fortune telling is of no concern to me. You exist here before me now, and that’s all that matters.” Ai Fa’s sweet-smelling hair brushed up against my cheek. “I believe that you feel the same.”

“Yeah, and I won’t betray your trust.”

Had I really been letting my feelings show that much? If so, I regretted making Ai Fa worry.

“Being tossed around by your selfish whims is nothing compared to that. Still, it’s quite unfair of you to make me feel that way, Asuta...”

“I get it, I get it. But could you please not injure my ribs any more than you already have?”

With a “Hmph,” Ai Fa tightened her grip around my body.

Though my bones were creaking just a bit, even that pain brought me joy.