Chapter 4: A Tiny Visitor

1

How many times was it now that I’d gone “Hmm...” today?

My hated enemy, the poitan, lay there before my eyes.

It was now the fifth afternoon since I had come to this other world.

I already completed my daily routine of washing the utensils and checking on the pantry, and then I went ahead and made jerky.

This may end up being a bit of a long digression, but that actually didn’t end up being mere jerky, but more of a smoked meat. To give a rough explanation, I rubbed salt and pico leaf all over the surface of the giba meat, and then wrapped it up in that pseudo-rubber tree leaf (now that I thought of it, I never actually got the proper name for that one.) On the night of the third day I washed the salt and spice off, and then let it dry overnight. The next morning, I hung the meat on a tree just outside, then roasted lilo herbs and fresh pico leaves beneath it, and let it smoke until the sun reached its peak. And thus, I finished making some smoked giba meat.

Anyway, today was my fourth morning here, so I had been entrusted with finishing the smoked meat rather than gathering firewood and herbs. The task just involved adding firewood and herbs so that the flames didn’t grow any stronger, which was pretty simple. That wasn’t to say it was easy, though, as it meant manning the fire over the course of several hours. But with that said, I made it all the way to midday without any unexpected problems striking, allowing me to safely complete a large amount of smoked meat.

As I waited for Ai Fa to return from her usual gathering work in the forest, I stowed away the smoked meat in the usual storage space, bringing my current task to an end.

Once I had finished my work for the morning, I was permitted to spend the time between early afternoon and evening experimenting with the poitan. During that time, Ai Fa had headed back out into the forest in order to hunt a giba. We still had plenty of giba meat left, but in order to get ahold of the necessary poitan and aria, she still needed to hunt down one giba every five days. And since I was an absolute amateur when it came to hunting giba, I’d just get in the way, so I was able to get ahold of this free time.

Perhaps it should be called only natural, but over the course of these last five days, Ai Fa still hadn’t taken down a giba. Before I came along and added another mouth for her to feed, she could keep a pace of one giba every 10 days, and they probably weren’t exactly easy to hunt. And I mean, she had already caught one five days ago (albeit as the result of unexpected circumstances). Ai Fa just said that she’d be lucky if she could manage to catch one either today or tomorrow.

Anyway, back to me. On that first day I had dissected the giba, and then in the four days since, I had been spending every afternoon experimenting with the poitan. It was proving to be quite a tricky foe, though.

To put it bluntly, I just plain didn’t know what it was. All I could figure was that this vegetable didn’t exist back in my world.

In terms of its outer appearance, it looked just like a potato. I got the feeling that it was a bit pale for one, but otherwise it was identical to your average spud.

And yet, it was something completely different on the inside.

You couldn’t eat it by biting straight into it, as it was terribly bitter, yet also excessively floury. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was really a vegetable at all, because it was just so utterly lacking in moisture and flavor.

As you already know, when you cooked it in water it fell apart under the heat and turned into a nearly flavorless muddy water. When I had to go and add it to my completed giba soup, it certainly didn’t improve things in the least. But even so, it apparently contained crucial nutrition, so for the past four days I’d been been adding it to the remaining soup after I’d had my fill of meat and aria, then chugging it down.

Finishing off a stew with some rice gruel or udon makes me so happy, but that honestly felt more like a punishment. I couldn’t help but wallow in self-pity, wondering why I had to gulp down this muddy water.

That was why I was worrying about it so much, but... I still hadn’t found a means of overcoming it just yet.

I had Ai Fa’s permission to waste one a day for the sake of research, so I’d tried out all sorts of stuff, but nothing had worked yet. When I heated it, it collapsed into a mush. When I baked it, it crumbled into a powder. I tried soaking it in water, but nothing changed. When I fried it in animal fat, I just got a floury lard. On top of that, I tried mashing it, frying it without any fat, exposing it to sunlight, and everything else I could think of, but I had yet to find anything that looked promising.

I had no clue how many times I’d done it today, but I ended up letting out yet another “Hmmmmmm...!”

And then, I was suddenly slapped on the back of my head.

“You’re too noisy. Do you really have to make so much of a racket when you’re worrying about something?”

Naturally, that bit of violence had come from Ai Fa.

Rather than heading out into the forest all that much, she had spent most of the day rummaging around in the storage shed, though she had apparently finally finished her work in there. Now, she stood there dauntingly in her usual light attire, glaring at my face.

“That hurt! And it’s not like I’m whining because I want...” I started to say, but then I noticed she was holding something under her armpit. What was that? It was some sort of bundle of cloth that had some seriously beautiful coloring to it.

Perhaps because she had noticed where I was looking, Ai Fa went ahead and spread out one of them.

“These clothes belonged to my father.”

I see. Apparently it was a sleeveless vest that opened in the front. It didn’t have any buttons, instead being made so that you tied it with a cord at the bottom. The design was simple, but the whirling patterns and various colors made for a rather chic outfit.

“Ooh, that’s pretty nice. I’m sure it’d look good on you, Ai Fa,” I earnestly responded, only for Ai Fa’s cheeks to turn red for some reason.

“A-As if I could wear an outfit like that! It may be true that I carry out the giba hunting as head of my household, but I’m still technically a woman!”

“Huh? It’s not like I was telling you to wear just that!”

It was the sort of vest that Aladdin might wear, so the front was left wide open, with nothing to cover the wearer’s chest... Yeah, that was no good. That just plain wouldn’t meet social standards.

“Naturally, if you wore that, you’d leave on that top you have on now! And I mean, there’s no way I’d treat someone with such a pretty face like a man in the first—”

“Oh shut up already! This is for you to wear!”

As she flipped her lid for the first time in a little while, Ai Fa threw the outfit right at my face.

“That outfit of yours stands out way too much! I’m sick of getting strange looks whenever I’m out with you!”

Oh, so that’s it. I knew full well from my morning trips to the stream and the like that my pure white outfit attracted an awful lot of attention. Plus I was sort of lacking in outfits, so I had to alternate between my t-shirt and uniform every day, and when it came to my pants and underwear, I had no choice but to put them back on sopping wet after washing them. Well, the climate was so warm that they would dry in a few hours, and you could never tell when a localized squall would sweep through and get you wet anyway, so I had already given up and accepted that... Though it did make me feel a bit sad seeing my pure white chef’s uniform grow more and more dirty as I took it out into the forest.

And so, I truly felt deeply grateful to my enraged benefactor.

“T-Thank you so much. But isn’t this really precious to you?”

“That may be so, but if there’s no one to wear it, then it may as well be mere garbage,” Ai Fa said, still looking angry and reaching down for the knife at her hip.

I instinctually took a step back, but Ai Fa thrust it at me still in its sheath.

“This was also something my father left behind.”

Now that I looked closely, I saw that Ai Fa had another identical knife dangling from her hip.

“So... I can use this, too?”

“I’m just loaning it to you, though! It’s a pain having you always getting my knife all smeared in fat! But let me just say that if you fail to take proper care of the grip or the blade rusts or the like, I swear I’ll cut off your ears!”

“Got it. And thank you. I really do appreciate it. I’ll be sure to treat your father’s mementos right. That’s a promise.”

Ai Fa suddenly looked away, but rather than going anywhere she sat down beside me.

“So, did you find a way to make poitan taste delicious?”

“Not yet. It looks kind of like it’s fought me to a standstill. I mean, I can’t think of any vegetable from my world that resembles this thing. Giba are just like boars, and aria are just like onions, but this thing just plain doesn’t have a counterpart.”

“Then how about just admitting defeat? I’m... not at all displeased with how things are now.”

Ai Fa kept stubbornly looking away, so I took the opportunity to look at the side of her face from point-blank range.

“You really aren’t the least bit dissatisfied? I’m so darn annoyed that I can’t even stand it! The giba soup is approaching perfection, but thanks to this thing, it’s all for naught! I may still just be a trainee, but this whole ordeal is thrashing my self-esteem as a chef to bits!”

“Self-esteem...?”

“I mean it’s crushing my pride.”

“Hmm... Well, as I am now at least, I would naturally prefer something to taste good rather than bad. But you can’t just keep on wasting ingredients forever, either.”

“Yeah. I get that, but still...”

“These tusks and horns aren’t solely for exchanging for food. They can be exchanged for a knife if one breaks, or clothes if you lose your clothing, or medicine if you fall ill,” Ai Fa said, clutching the necklace dangling in front of her chest. “Up until now, I could obtain enough aria and poitan by hunting down a giba once every 10 days, so I was able to build up this surplus of tusks and horns. But now that I need to defeat a giba every five days, I worry that I may need to eat into this surplus. That’s all the more reason that we must treat our food stores as precious.”

“Right. But still, you gave your word that I could use one poitan per day as I pleased.”

With that said, though, I’d already gone and wasted four poitan. That made my comment just now more than a little pathetic.

“But from today on, I’ll stop wasting them. I’ll just take one out of my portion to experiment—”

“You can’t,” Ai Fa yelled out in a surprisingly firm tone, bringing her face closer to mine. “How many times do you intend to make me repeat myself? Two poitan and three aria. That is what the people of the forest’s edge determined as the bare minimum required to live a healthy life. If you decrease that number, then no matter how much giba meat you may eat, you will eventually become ill.”

A blue flame burned bright in Ai Fa’s eyes. I suppose the ethics of the people of the forest’s edge wouldn’t allow for something like me sacrificing my health for the sake of research. No... That wasn’t just limited to them. A chef should never allow such a thing to happen, either. A chef who failed to properly monitor his own eating habits was like a doctor who neglected his health, or a dyer who only wears white.

I mean, I get all that...

A chef supplies their customers not only flavor, but also nutrition. No matter how delicious a dish may be, there was no point if it caused harm to the person eating it. And no matter how well balanced a dish may be nutritionally, if it tastes bad then it’s pointless. Being a chef meant aiming to achieve both of those goals. I don’t know about other chefs, but at the very least, that was the sort of chef that my old man was.

Naturally, there were plenty of dishes out there that prioritized taste over nutrition. I mean, I was rather fond of greasy tonkotsu ramen myself.

But that couldn’t be the norm when it comes to food. Food that prioritized taste heavily was so impactful and delicious precisely because you only ate it every now and again.

It’s because that’s how we get the nutrients our bodies need that we desire to eat. We humans may have destroyed our natural instincts as animals, and we may have lost sight of it by and large, but that key premise is something we can never do away with.

Giba meat was truly delicious.

I could sense the fact that it included nutrients that my body needed. And I could feel it being converted into flesh and blood inside of me. Perhaps you’d laugh that off as me just imagining things, but that’s how I truly felt.

It was a powerful enough dish to make me think that... And I had been the one to make it.

To have that precious person eat food that was delicious, and also good for her...

Eating poitan should be good for you. Ai Fa is proof of that.

Ai Fa was stronger and more lively than anyone else I knew. And what she had grown up on was giba, aria, and poitan... There had to be some way to cook it so that it tasted good.

I mean, the poitan contains nutrients that are essential for humans...

...Hmm?

Essential nutrients...?

Something that humans need?

In other words...

“That’s it! So that’s what it was!” I yelled out loudly without even thinking and, similarly without thought, grabbed Ai Fa by the shoulders. “I was barking up the totally wrong tree! I mean, what was it that was missing?! Man, I can’t believe that was it...!”

“Have you suddenly lost your senses...?”

Ai Fa tried to pull away like I was being a real nuisance, but I unconsciously pulled her closer.

“It’s because of you that I figured out the answer! You really are the best, Ai Fa!”

I swear I was just doing this all inattentively.

Anyway, I unconsciously threw my arms around Ai Fa’s body, which was slender yet also taut like a leather whip.

It was only natural that a rain of blows came down upon my head seconds later, but my heart was still trembling with excitement at the thought of my victory.

2

“I’ll be tackling a brand new dish today, Ai Fa!” I declared near sunset, only to get a muttered, “Do as you please,” back from the sour-faced young woman. Perhaps my blunder from earlier in the afternoon was still having a lingering effect. Still, it was the kind of incident where I’d be sure to lose in court if she accused me of sexual harassment, so I suppose there was no helping her doubting my character a bit as a result.

“I mean, the giba soup has turned out pretty well, but if you eat the same thing every day, you’ll end up getting bored of it. Look forward to a serious surprise this time around, Ai Fa.”

“Do as you please.”

“...By the way, I decided to go ahead and try on your father’s clothes right away, but what do you think? Does it suit me?”

“It doesn’t. You just look ridiculous. In fact, I wish I never loaned it to you.”

Hmm... Yeah, she was being pretty deeply contrary right now.

Well, I’m sure that once I feed her something tasty, her mood will improve.

By the way, I felt uneasy in the fluttery vest with only my waist down covered, so I had on my t-shirt underneath. It may not be the proper way to wear it at all, but hopefully that can be pardoned out of consideration for my fear of getting burnt while cooking. Plus, hopefully it was acceptable that I still had a white towel wrapped around my head as per usual.

“Anyway, there’s no point in hiding it any more: the poitan is already done cooking. Also, I used up a lot of firewood, but I’ll try to make up for it when I’m out gathering tomorrow, so hopefully you can forgive me.”

Ai Fa remained silent, her face expressionless. Eventually I realized I wasn’t getting a response.

After hitting me she headed off for the forest like always, so she shouldn’t have seen any of me cooking the poitan. Was she really not curious in spite of that?

“Well, whatever. It’s a little early, but should I go ahead and start cooking? If you’re not hungry yet, then go ahead and use the time to build up an appetite.”

I may have been the opposite of Ai Fa right now, being that I was in something of a manic state. I couldn’t help it, though, since I was looking forward to taking on a new dish.

Originally, the plan was to tackle yakiniku for the first time today. I also had all kinds of ideas like steam-grilling or teriyaki, too. But after I figured out what the poitan was, I put those off for later and decided to take on a special dish tonight.

Now, I have no intention of putting on airs: Tonight’s dish was going to be giba hamburgers. Or shortened, giburgers.

I headed off into the pantry while humming a tune, and then carried the necessary ingredients to the stove.

I had about 500 grams each of giba thigh and rib meat.

Six of those pseudo-onions, the aria.

Two pinches of pico leaves.

Fruit wine.

Rock salt.

And then that magical extract I got from the poitan.

There wasn’t all that much of it, so I was just storing it in a little container I had made out of one of those pseudo-rubber tree leaves.

Now then, time to get cooking!

First, I needed to cut off a bit of the roughly one centimeter thick fat clinging to the blocks of thigh meat. It was kind of a shame, but I needed it to serve in place of lard. All of the fat that came off the pelt this time had been processed to be used in the candles, so I’d have to be sure to secure at least a bit for cooking next time around.

It had already been five days since I’d prepared this meat, but it wasn’t showing any signs of going bad. It seemed that pico leaves really were a first-rate preservative.

But apparently, despite that impressive preserving power, meat would still end up going bad by the time that 15 to 20 days had passed. If that happened, I’d have no choice but to smoke it in order to preserve it. I still had time left since it had only been five days, but there was still a mountain left to use, so I spent each day thinking about how I could best use it.

But anyway, I was cooking now.

I fired up the stove, and as the pot was heating up, I diced two aria.

Once that was done with, I moved onto the meat. I minced up both the thigh and rib meat into little bits, and then finally pounded away at them with my knife. For the first part I used the memento from Ai Fa’s father, and for the back part I used the knife that was my old man’s heart and soul.

It was roughly a kilo of meat, but it wasn’t really all that hard to handle. Hamburgers were a popular dish at the Tsurumi Restaurant, so I was already an old hand at this kind of work.

In less than 10 minutes, I had minced giba lying before me.

I turned around to look at Ai Fa, only to find her sitting in a Buddha-like pose and staring back at me with a displeased look.

Normally she would just sit there silently, like she was showing some degree of respect for me as a cook. But she was looking rather cranky today... Didn’t she have any interest at all in why I had turned the precious giba meat into this strange, pink little mound?

While holding back the unnerved feeling I had inside, I went ahead and checked the flame. When I put in a drop of water it evaporated in no time at all, so it seemed to be about right.

I added in a glob of fat, then spread it out with a wooden spatula (self-made), then threw in the minced aria. It was a bit troublesome that you couldn’t move a metal pot around the way you could with a frying pan, but I didn’t let that get me down and just kept on stirring with the spatula.

Once I saw them gain a certain degree of color, I added in the fruit wine. Then, I carefully stirred it around until the alcohol evaporated. Once the green aria reached a golden brown, I scooped them out into a separate bowl using the spatula.

Back home, we kept a ratio of one fourth of an onion for every 200 grams of minced meat, so two whole aria for one kilo was a bit on the high side. But the giba meat had a fairly quirky flavor, so there was no issue with going heavy on the aria.

I couldn’t move on to the next step until the cooked aria cooled down, so for now I went ahead and chopped up the rest of them. Rather than mincing these, though, I cut them into thin slices parallel to the fiber. When you want to heat them up and get them nice and soft, it was best to cut perpendicular to the fiber, but that texture was going to be important today so I changed up how I cut them.

I piled up the four aria worth of slices atop a pseudo-rubber tree leaf... If you’ll allow me to speak a little selfishly, I really do wish I had a few more containers to work with.

At any rate, the aria seemed to have cooled down in the meantime. I went ahead and dumped them on top of a pseudo-rubber leaf along with the minced giba meat. Then I covered it with powdered salt and pico leaf, and finally... It was time for my magical extract to make its appearance. I went ahead and drizzled the sticky, cream-colored paste over the mountain of meat. And then I just started intently mixing it.

After a couple of minutes of kneading it, it stuck together just like I had expected.

I’d shaved the fat off of the thigh meat, but I made sure to add plenty to the rib meat, making for something that was just perfect in terms of feel and color.

I could feel the excitement tingling in my spine in anticipation of my victory.

I scraped off the meat paste that had stuck to my hands, then rubbed the leftover giba fat on them to act as a lubricant and prevent that from happening again. Then, I set about molding the meat.

Regulating the heat would be difficult if I made them too big, so I scooped out one sixth or so of the bundle of meat, then formed it into an oval. I threw it back and forth between my hands with a pat, pat, pat, not forgetting to make sure I got all of the air out of it.

In the end, I had six miniburgers, around 160 grams each. They sure were cute... And they were a really beautiful pink color that just made me want to bite into them right then and there. That would have to wait, though. Now, how was the heat looking...?

Hmm. That may be just a bit high. I pulled out the firewood just a bit, which tested my nerves a tad at the same time.

Having to measure out the heat by eye while cooking was the big obstacle this time around.

First the fire would be too high, and then too low... Having to regulate all that was honestly pretty tricky. But nothing comes from nothing, so I just had to tackle this to the best of my ability. It would be a test of my flexibility and creativity. And lastly, my decisiveness.

I dropped some fat into the pot, then waited for it to get crispy and the grease to boil out, at which point I finally added the giba patties. An absolutely intoxicating smell filled the room alongside the satisfying sizzling sound.

The bottom of the pot was rounded, so I had to take care that the patties didn’t all stick together as I hurriedly added them and then waited a few seconds.

If I messed up here, it would all be ruined. While paying attention to even minute changes in smell, I used the wooden spatula to check the sides that were cooking.

Did I need to weaken the flame? I’d already been regulating it for six minutes now.

Well, it was better to do that than to burn them, right? Even if a bit of the flavor dissolved, I still believed that wouldn’t be enough to exhaust the giba meat’s deliciousness.

After a few more seconds of waiting, they looked to be the right color, so I flipped them.

And so, I hurried on to prepare the next step and... I stepped backwards, only to run into something. At some point, Ai Fa had started peeking into the pot from behind my back.

“Gah, you scared me! You were back there, Ai Fa?!”

“Why should I have to leave my own house?”

“No, that’s not what I meant... Ah, sorry, I’ve just got something I need to prepare.”

Dodging around Ai Fa, I picked up the teapot full of fruit wine and the pseudo-rubber tree leaf bowl full of sliced aria. When I got back to the pot I put down the teapot and checked the color of the patties. They looked about 80% of the way there, so I figured it was about time.

“Ai Fa, something hot may come flying, so watch out, alright?”

I didn’t get a response back, but there was no time left for hesitating. After pouring in the fruit wine, I hurriedly put the lid on the pot.

There was a grand sizzling, crackling sound, though it was a bit muffled.

This cooking method was my own original idea that I came up with for the giburgers.

Normally, with a hamburger you’d first quickly fry both sides using a high flame so that the flavor wouldn’t escape, then slowly heat it on a low flame so that it’s cooked all the way through, or perhaps move it into an oven instead.

Those options weren’t available to me, though, so I chose to bake it in a covered pot. This way, I could heat it all the way through without burning the surface.

I’d made the patties small and thin for exactly this purpose.

I wasn’t able to do any fine adjustments on the heat, but it was absolutely necessary that I cooked both sides on high flame... In that case, I had no choice but to leave it all up to a strong flame. In other words, I had to make the patties small and bet it all on a sudden death battle.

But even at this size, if I waited for the flame to heat them all the way through to the center, they would end up completely charred. In that case, using a quick bake was my only choice.

It was an incredibly simple, logical conclusion.

“Alright, it should be good now.”

As I opened the lid, a powerful explosion of scent burst forth, this time with the fragrance of the fruit wine added in.

Using the wooden spatula, I split one of the patties in two. The meat inside was a beautiful ivory-white, without any red left to it whatsoever.

“Ai Fa, could you grab me a bowl?” I yelled out as I fiddled with the other patties using the spatula to prevent them from burning. In no time at all, a wooden bowl was passed my way without a word. I hurriedly moved three of the patties into it, then I took a second bowl and placed the remaining three inside of that one.

“Alright, now I just need to deal with the aria.”

In the bottom of the pot, I simmered the sauce made from fat, meat juices, and fruit wine. And then, I threw in just a pinch of salt and pico leaf, as well as the thinly sliced aria. Once the aria were nice and soft, it was complete.

“Could I have one of the bowls again, Ai Fa?”

Just as I’d asked, I was handed one of the bowls with the patties. Hmm? I wasn’t certain because I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off of the pot, but had she been holding the bowl and waiting all this time?

She certainly was thoughtful. It was proof of just how good and honest this blunt girl was, to even pick up on something like that.

But I should set that matter aside and return back to the task at hand.

I placed an equal amount of aria in each bowl, then poured the sauce overtop, finishing off the giburgers.

“Oh, could you just have a seat and wait a moment?”

I ran off to the pantry, and brought back the poitan that I had left in waiting. It probably wouldn’t be possible to recognize them as poitan at this point, though.

When she saw what was resting atop the pseudo-rubber tree leaf, Ai Fa tilted her head.

They were rounded, evenly shaped, slightly burnt-looking cream-colored little things. If anyone from back home saw them, they may be tempted to call them Indian naan, or perhaps just really plain okonomiyaki.

This is what the poitan really were.

“Now then, let’s dig in before it gets cold! I’ll explain it all later.”

3

I’ll start from the conclusion I had reached: The poitan was a grain, in all likelihood.

Naturally, this was all just me guessing, as I didn’t have any way to research it properly. But at any rate, thanks to that hypothesis, I was finally able to find a way to cook it.

The big hint had been “nutritional value.”

It actually wasn’t anything all that complex in the end. Heck, even an elementary schooler may be able to figure it out.

The protein and fat came from the giba meat. The vitamins and dietary fiber came from the aria, which was a green vegetable. So then where were the carbohydrates coming from? When that question came to mind, I finally had my revelation.

I didn’t know how exactly the bodies of this world’s people were laid out. But we looked so similar that applying a bit of my world’s common sense shouldn’t be a problem.

At the very least, I could see that Ai Fa was incredibly healthy. Her skin was simply stunning, and her finely toned body was probably stronger than mine, frankly.

For her to be in that sort of shape, she had to be eating a properly balanced diet.

So, I knew that Ai Fa ate meat, as well as vegetables. In that case, it would be weird if she wasn’t eating her carbohydrates. I mean, to start with, those are our source of energy. I couldn’t imagine that Ai Fa, who had more strength and energy than most wild animals, wasn’t eating any carbohydrates whatsoever.

“The poitan is a grain, which makes it a carbohydrate.”

The other big hint that helped me reach this conclusion was the poitan’s texture.

The first time I ate it, I thought, It’s almost like someone went and dissolved flour in water.

Flour. In other words, milled wheat, which was a type of grain.

There was no need to roast it or parch it or bite into it raw. I mean, the answer had been right before my eyes from the very start.

I should have paid more attention to the eating habits of the people of the forest’s edge. Boiling it was the one perfect answer, after all. When it was heated to a high temperature, the poitan’s astringency was released, and it dissolved into the water. That allowed it to meet the base qualifications of being edible.

It was just muddy water without any taste like that, though. It was ultimately still roughly the same as flour dissolved in water. But if you dissolve flour in water, then all you need to do is turn it back into flour.

Thanks to that thought process, I realized how to overcome the poitan.

I heated the poitan in a small amount of water to make a sort of mushy poitan broth, then heated it further right up to the limit. By heating it just up until when it was about to burn, I was able to make it into a sort of slime-like batter. Then I exposed it to sunlight for an hour, finally hardening it into a solid shape.

I broke that apart and gave it a taste, and... it was just a powder, without any real flavor to it.

It really did resemble flour... And in that case, it meant I could treat it like it was flour.

My hunch really had hit the mark.

I dissolved the powdered poitan in water, then heated it, but I didn’t boil it the way I had with the original poitan, so instead it sputtered and started to burn a bit. It really did look just like okonomiyaki with nothing added to it.

I only had a little bit of my sample batch left, so I went ahead and cooked up the slime that hadn’t been exposed to sunlight, but that was no good. All that happened was the moisture evaporated, leaving just a burnt powder behind.

Apparently completely drying it out once was the real clincher.

I had no idea what sort of change was going on in the poitan’s molecular structure or whatever, but I didn’t really feel the need to know that, either.

At any rate, I’d figured it out. At least for my purposes, this was the right answer.

And also... When I finally accepted that I had won out over the poitan, I was overcome by a great, uplifting sense of joy. If I had a “flour” to act as a bonding agent, then I could take on the challenge of making hamburgers right away, even though I had put it off for later.

A “bonding agent” referred to a food that helps to connect together the minced meat. Normally, you would just use egg yolks or breadcrumbs or something.

Naturally, it was still possible to make hamburgers even without any bonding agent. Heck, I’d heard adding it in was something that was unique to Japan in the first place. I’d also heard people say all sorts of stuff, like “As long as you add salt, you’ll be fine,” or even, “You don’t need to add anything at all. Just mix it all up.”

But at any rate, the Tsurumi Restaurant used a bonding agent in theirs, and I had no experience making them without any, so I just couldn’t come to grips with the idea of making them that way.

If I had a bonding agent, though, well that was a different story.

I could take on steam-grilling or teriyaki anytime I wanted, and I honestly didn’t think it would be that much harder than making a stew. So in that case, I wanted to at least give it a try.

Hamburgers were what was referred to as a processed food. It was a type of cooking that didn’t keep the meat in its original form. To me it was pretty much the most standard dish imaginable, but to the people of this alternate world, it was sure to come across as some sort of profound mystery.

Just how much would I surprise Ai Fa if I could pull this off...?

As that thought ran through my head, I could feel my heart throbbing in my chest like a lovesick maiden.

◇

After many twists and turns, it was finally time for dinner on my fifth night in this new world.

“The shape has changed quite a bit, but this is a poitan. It still doesn’t have much flavor in and of itself, but if you chew into it alongside meat, it should be plenty passable.”

I had placed the sliced onions atop the three little giburgers, and slathered on plenty of the sauce that I made with a fruit wine base. And then there were those round little okonomiyaki-looking baked poitan. They were about 30 centimeters in diameter and roughly one centimeter thick.

“Well then, let’s dig in!”

Ai Fa once again ran a finger on her left hand alongside her lips, then muttered something inside her mouth. Then she grabbed her bowl and spoon, and unsurprisingly looked scrutinizingly at the giburgers.

While sneaking a glance at her, I went ahead and scooped up some of a patty with my own wooden spoon.

Yeah, there didn’t seem to be any issues in terms of firmness. And I was seeing from the cross-section that it was insanely juicy, so this was looking like it may have turned out really well.

Still, the issue remained of whether or not the ingredients would prove to be compatible. I mean, I couldn’t imagine there were that many people out there who would make a burger with boar meat. My guess was that meant boar meat wasn’t all that suited to being cooked up as a hamburger.

Boar meat was softer than pork, but that probably only held true when you were boiling it. I mean, I’m pretty sure the fat content was the reason, but at any rate, boar meat just got softer and softer the more that you boiled it. But if you ate it after using some other cooking process, you’d probably categorize it as a pretty tough meat.

Naturally, if you followed the proper steps when preparing it, it wouldn’t end up all that tough. But still, it would probably never be softer than beef or pork.

And besides, beef was considered the easy choice when making a hamburger. The next choice after that was to use a mix of beef and pork, which was quite popular in its own right. I haven’t really heard of a pure pork hamburger before, though. And seeing how boars were the ancestors of pigs, their meat was unsurprisingly similar.

So boar meat absolutely wasn’t suited to being made into hamburgers, and giba meat had the exact same taste. Just how would a burger made with giba meat turn out, then? Even if I did manage to surprise Ai Fa, would I end up being satisfied with how it turned out? At any rate, that fight was already on.

Using the wooden spoon, I tossed the chunk of giburger I had scooped up into my mouth. The meaty juices were still so hot that it felt like they may end up burning me as they spread through my mouth.

My initial impression was... That’s sweet.

What the heck? It was seriously sweet. Was boar, no wait, giba meat’s fat this sweet?

Alongside that mild sweetness, there was also the slightly quirky taste of the meat, and the fragrance of the fruit wine sauce... Yeah, it was tasty.

Sure enough, the meat had a pretty chewy texture for a hamburger. It was still like this even after I minced it up so carefully...? Still, it wasn’t an unpleasant texture. Rather than the sort of thing I’d say was overly tough, it was something that you could really bite into. And when you did bite into it, even more juice came spilling out and filled your mouth with deliciousness.

Ah, but that won’t do...

I really did have a much stronger fondness for meat with a quirky taste than most folks. Whether it was boar meat, or lamb, or duck, I loved those sorts of powerful flavors. And so I earnestly did think this was delicious... but I couldn’t really offer an objective opinion.

Seriously though, it was crazy good!

I added in some sliced aria and a heaping helping of sauce, and brought it all into my mouth.

It was delicious. Just so, so tasty...

I’d probably end up thinking exactly the same thing about a boar meat hamburger, I’d imagine.

It was a bit embarrassing giving such high praise to something I made, but it really was good.

If I were to give one critique, it would be that I really would like to try it with thicker patties. As is, the thoroughly cooked outsides just had a lot more relative importance to the dish when compared to the juicy inside. That was the one thing I could think of that was bugging me.

I bit off a chunk of poitan, and sure enough, that was good too.

The ideal would be to have some white rice, but it really was essential to have meat, vegetables, and carbs. Well, that may not be the case in other countries, but it was at least true of the one I was raised in. And it was the case for the house I grew up in, too. You needed meat, carbs, and vegetables. If any of those were lacking, it couldn’t be called an ideal meal.

And it had been a while since I had experienced this familiar dull, grainy taste.

I apparently had been craving carbohydrates a lot more than I had thought.

Poitan wasn’t as puffy as white bread or naan, and in the end it was like an okonomiyaki without anything in it, not even eggs. But even so, I couldn’t help but find it delicious.

I only had one single poitan for my three burgers. The giburgers were pretty rich in flavor, so I got the feeling that I could easily eat two more of the poitan alongside them.

I broke out in an awkward chuckle, thinking on how much I had tried to avoid the poitan. And then I got a cold, “Just what are you laughing about?” back.

That was my first time hearing Ai Fa talk in a little while.

That’s no good. I got so absorbed in eating that I stopped paying attention to her.

I reflected a bit on how stubbornly fixated I could be on eating.

“Ah, Ai Fa, what do you think of the taste?”

Looking over her way, I could see that Ai Fa had chewed off more than half of her poitan, and was already finished with her second giburger. Man, she was fast. I only just finished my first one.

After she finished swallowing what was in her mouth, Ai Fa simply responded with, “Tasty.”

“I’m glad to hear that! But it would also be nice if you could offer a bit more detailed impression...”

All I got back to my earnest request was a, “Don’t want to.”

“You don’t want to...?”

“I don’t feel like telling you my thoughts.”

“Huuuuh? Why? Are you still angry about what happened around noontime?”

“Noontime?” she questioned, tilting her head. “Ah. You mean when you lost control of yourself and acted insolently. I had already completely forgotten about that.”

“You forgot... Then why won’t you tell me your thoughts?”

“Stop asking! If I don’t want to tell you, then that’s all there is to it!”

And then, an inexplicable phenomenon occurred: Ai Fa hung her head down and seemed to try to cover her beet red face with her bowl.

“Just drop it! Don’t look at me!”

I just plain didn’t get it.

Well, whatever. Her emotions seemed to be all over the place today, so I’d just have to ask her what she thought some other time. At the very least she seemed to be dodging my questions, but she did say it was tasty... That alone was enough to make me super happy.

While such thoughts were running through my head, an unexpected voice from an unexpected direction said, “Hey, what is that that you’re eating?”

Ai Fa and I both looked in that direction, dumbfounded. It had come from the window beside the stove. It had grown pretty dark out, but I could see a small face staring at us from beyond the bars.

“Hey, hey! It smells really good! Is that giba? What’s that white thing there?”

“Rimee Ruu... I thought I told you not to come near my house.”

When I saw the surprise vanish from Ai Fa’s face as she nonchalantly said that, I calmed down a bit. If she was an acquaintance, then it shouldn’t be a problem. And it’s not like we would do anything shady, anyway.

Still, just what was the deal with this kid? She was short enough that all I could see through the window was her reddish-brown hair and round eyes, so I couldn’t even tell what her face looked like.

“No way! This is my first time seeing you in a while, so why are you being so mean? Hey...! What are you eating? What does it taste like? Who made it? Is that guy your husband, Ai Fa?”

“Don’t be stupid! Why would I go and marry this pale fool?!”

Those words inflicted quite a bit of damage on me.

But... As she was ranting and raving, Ai Fa’s face was redder than I’d ever seen it before. Hmm...

Let’s just go ahead and say those two things cancelled each other out.

“Hey, who exactly is that kid?” I asked Ai Fa, but the girl herself was the one to respond.

“I’m Rimee Ruu! The youngest daughter of the Ruu household! And also, Ai Fa’s friend!”

“Stop messing around. I don’t recall ever becoming friends with you, Rimee Ruu,” Ai Fa said in an even chillier voice than usual as she scooped up the last patty with her spoon. “I’m not fond of noisy brats like you. Now hurry on home.”

So then... The girl who called herself Rimee Ruu stared blankly for a second, and then an instant later, exploded with a, “Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” and started sobbing uncontrollably.

“H-Hey, Ai Fa, you shouldn’t act so immature towards—” I started to chide, but the wailing drowned out my voice.

She seriously could cry. I mean, I could even feel my eardrums pounding.

“But I looooooove you Ai Faaaaaaaaaaaaa!” I somehow managed to make out from within her sobs.

At any rate, that was how my meeting with the youngest daughter of the Ruu family, Rimee Ruu, went. Little did I know how it would affect my fate...

4

“See, I really love Ai Fa, and I loved Gil Fa too. When Gil Fa was still alive, he and Ai Fa played with me lots and lots!”

A few minutes had passed.

The mysterious young visitor, Rimee Ruu, was jammed in between Ai Fa and me, smiling widely as she talked. It was hard to imagine that she had just been bawling her eyes out.

I had invited her into the house and tried to console her to get her to stop sobbing, but those tears kept on flowing from her big old eyes. And yet she stopped in an instant when Ai Fa said, “I was lying when I said I hated you,” while rubbing her temple like she had a headache.

“But still, it isn’t a good idea for any member of the Ruu family to come near me, when I’ve earned the animosity of the Suun clan. I must have explained that to you countless times by now.”

“We’re not afraid of the Suun family! My papa is always saying so! And they won’t last long with that dummy of an heir they’ve got, either! The Ruu clan will be leading the people of the forest’s edge before too much longer!”

“The fact that the head of your household, Donda Ruu, is that sort of person only makes the matter that much more important. If your two clans fight, it could lead to the destruction of our entire settlement!”

Once Rimee Ruu’s tears had stopped, Ai Fa started acting even colder than usual. But in spite of that, there was a bright smile on the young girl’s face. She sure did look cute...

She must have been around seven or eight years old. I mean, she certainly was small. She only reached up to around my chest. Her hair was short and reddish-brown, and was fluffy in a way that reminded me of a dandelion. Her skin was naturally a dark, chocolaty sort of color, and her eyes sparkled the hue of a clear spring sky.

Her clothes were made of a beautifully patterned cloth and wound from her right shoulder to down past her hips, making for a little miniature one-shouldered dress. Her slender legs and arms were completely exposed, but she was still just a child so there was nothing wrong with that.

And hanging in front of her chest was a necklace made using three fangs and tusks. There was no way such a young child went out hunting giba, so I figured it either had to be some sort of amulet, or was just purely for decoration.

“Hey, you’re an outsider, aren’t you?” Rimee Ruu asked, looking at me with her big round eyes. They really were a pretty shade of blue. And though they were both blue, they were completely different from Ai Fa’s eyes, which were a deeper color that sometimes reminded me of a burning flame.

“Supposedly a ’spicious outsider is staying at the Fa house. And he may be a forn... foreigner who will cause us trouble, so until we know who he is, I shouldn’t go there. That’s what my papa told me!”

“Hmm. And yet you went and came right here?” I responded in a kindly manner, despite the fact that my attention was half on the giburger steadily losing its heat.

“I didn’t! But then today, I saw you wearing Gil Fa’s clothes! I thought that meant you weren’t an outsider anymore!”

I’d already more or less figured as such, but it seemed that Gil Fa really was the name of Ai Fa’s father. At the moment, I was having trouble figuring if it was alright or not to keep throwing his name out there so lightly.

“Hey! Since you gave him clothes from our people, that means he’s part of your household, right? So that makes him your husband, doesn’t it, Ai Fa?”

“As if I was following that ancient custom! It was an eyesore always seeing him look so filthy, so I simply lent him some spare clothing!”

Yeah, that stung. But still, her face was beet red. I prayed that wasn’t purely out of anger, to offset the pain.

“Rimee Ruu, it’s time for you to leave! I have no intention of being the spark that kicks off a battle between the Suun and Ruu families. Leave this place, and never return.”

“I don’t wanna! My papa only told me not to go near outsiders. So if this guy isn’t an outsider anymore, then it’s fine,” Rimee Ruu responded with a chuckle.

The red-faced Ai Fa simply responded, “Do as you please,” and picked up the half-eaten plate of food. All of a sudden, the little girl’s face lit up with curiosity.

“Hey, what’s that? Why does it smell like that? Is it giba meat? And what’s that flat thing that’s the color of a poitan?”

Rather than responding, Ai Fa silently resumed eating. I reached out to do the same, but the young girl’s head suddenly turned towards me.

“You two carried a whole giba back before, right? Is this the meat from that giba? Why is it in a shape like this? And where’d the poitan soup go?”

“Um, you see... I made this. It may be a weird shape, but this is giba meat, and this one is a poitan.”

I didn’t have the skills necessary to ignore such an innocent child, so I ended up responding as such. The look of curiosity in Rimee Ruu’s eyes grew even stronger, and the words I had been expecting ended up coming out of her tiny mouth next.

“What does it taste like? I want to try it!”

While holding back a sigh, I turned and looked at Ai Fa.

“Hey, Ai Fa. Is there any taboo about giving food to people from another household?”

“As if such a thing would be a taboo...” Ai Fa responded with a look of extreme displeasure, but at least for now she didn’t stop me.

Well, I didn’t mind then. I could be a bit of a glutton, but not that much of one. Besides, as a chef, getting a third-party’s opinion was incredibly valuable.

“Alright then, go ahead and have a taste. It’s completely different than usual giba meat, so don’t be too shocked, okay?” I said, offering her my plate. Then the young girl smiled and opened wide with an “Aah.”

Didn’t she have any wariness about her at all?

While sensing Ai Fa’s cold glare on my right cheek, I cut a mouthful sized bit of burger and sliced aria in half, then spooned it into her little mouth.

The girl’s tiny mouth closed shut, and she started to chew. Suddenly, her big, round eyes grew even rounder.

“Um, how’s it taste?”

“Aah.”

That’s no surprise.

Well, I suppose I could let her have a second bite. But any more than that and it might have an impact on my nutrition, you know?

As that thought passed through my mind, I broke her off a bit of poitan, too.

Chomp.

Nom nom.

Gulp.

Her eyes went wide.

It was rare finding a kid who made so many faces that perfectly matched such varied sound effects.

“It’s...”

“Hmm?”

“It’s delicious!”

With that, she grabbed hold of me.

Ah, so it felt this shocking to suddenly get grabbed by someone who lost control of themself, huh? I really will have to apologize to Ai Fa for doing that.

No, wait, this was no time for that!

Rimee Ruu’s tiny fingers had a tight grasp on my t-shirt, and she was now shaking my body with an amount of force that was hard to imagine coming from a child.

“It’s delicious! Seriously yummy! How is it this tasty?! This is giba meat, right?! So how is it so soft?! Come on, tell me!”

It took so much effort to squeeze that praise out of Ai Fa the first night, but now it was being fired off non-stop like it was nothing.

But still, it was high praise, and as a chef that was definitely nice to receive.

And man, she was way too strong. Did people in a hunting community really start building up their muscles differently when they were this small?

“Will you please stop that? You’re interrupting the meal,” Ai Fa butted in, saving me. She then grabbed hold of the girl by the scruff of her neck and easily pulled her off, apparently having finished cleaning her plate at some point.

“A meal is a means to stay alive. Did the head of your house not teach you that to interrupt one is taboo, as to do so is to threaten the life of another in a way?”

“I’m sorry...”

Rimee Ruu quickly bowed her head, still half suspended in the air by Ai Fa. Then in no time at all, a downhearted expression shot across her face.

“It really was yummy. Thanks. And I’m sorry for getting in the way. I...” she said, then tilted her head to the side suddenly, looking rather cute. She really was an expressive kid.

“I don’t know your name. What is it?”

“I’m Asuta Tsurumi. If that’s too hard to say, you can just go with Asuta.”

“C-Churu...? Okay, Asuta. I, Rimee Ruu, offer a sincere apology to Asuta of the Fa household.”

“No, it’s fine. You just surprised me is all. And thanks for the praise. Oh, and thanks for stopping her too, Ai Fa.”

“Hmph,” Ai Fa let out a curt snort, and she sat back down where she was originally seated.

Rimee Ruu sat right down where Ai Fa released her, but then she wrapped her arms around her little legs and didn’t say a word.

I don’t really get the people of the forest’s edge...

Still, though she may have acted pretty wild, this was the first person of the forest’s edge that I’d met after five days in this other world who didn’t avoid Ai Fa. The rest of them were too afraid of the Suun family to have anything to do with her. In comparison, this girl was showing such open fondness towards her that it was hard not to smile. It really wouldn’t be so bad to get along with her a little more openly...

In the end, though, neither of the two girls said another word, so I just sat there and silently kept on eating. It had gotten pretty cold, but it was still tasty. The dish had turned out great, at least in my opinion.

“That was good. Now then... It’s gotten pretty dark out, so will you really be alright heading home on your own, Rimee Ruu?” I asked. In response, the girl suddenly looked up from her cradled knees, making a face as if she had just remembered something.

Just when I thought she was about to stand up, she instead planted both legs on the rug, then presented both of her arms to me.

“I, Rimee Ruu of the Ruu household, have a request for you, Asuta of the Fa household! Please, won’t you lend me your strength?”

Troubled by the sudden question, I looked to Ai Fa out of the corner of my eye. She was seated with her knees up, furrowing her brow in displeasure.

“Please grant the elder of the Ruu household, Jiba Ruu, the blessing of your different cooking! Jiba Ruu, she... At this rate, she’s going to die soon!”

The tears started pouring from Rimee Ruu’s big blue eyes once again. She wasn’t sobbing wildly this time, though. Instead, she seemed to be bearing it, not letting out a sound as they rolled down her face.

5

“Do you intend to go to the Ruu house, Asuta?”

It was nighttime now.

“I’ll come again tomorrow morning,” Rimee Ruu had said with a bow, and then she left. “You can wait till then to give me your answer. I’ll spend tonight getting my family to say yes,” she added on the way out.

After placing the utensils and cookware we had used into the metal pot, my work for the night was done. Normally I’d spend some time talking to Ai Fa, and then drift off into sleep. But this time, Ai Fa had sat there, expressionless and silent, for a long while.

I really did need to learn the common sense of this other world. So before sleeping, I’d ask her about all sorts of things like the vow held by the people of the forest’s edge and their taboos, or anecdotes about the kingdom and gods, or about the Genos post town I still hadn’t seen. But today, I didn’t try to ask her anything.

And when she finally did talk, it was just to ask me that question. She was sitting with her back against the wall, and her gaze was fixed on the darkness out past the window, rather than trying to look at me.

The stove had died down, leaving only the candles to light the dark room. In that light, the side of Ai Fa’s face looked strangely cold. As I stared at it, I quietly responded, “I was thinking... that I’d like to.”

To let the elder of the Ruu household, Jiba Ruu, taste my food... Rimee Ruu’s request had come out as a bit of a mess, but it wasn’t all that confusing of a matter.

As an 80 year old woman, Jiba Ruu had lost almost all of her teeth, and was no longer able to eat proper meals. For now, the most she could do was wash down finely minced giba meat and vegetables with soup, and apparently she could handle less and less each day.

“There’s no point to living on by having to constantly fill the inside of your mouth with this awful muddy soup...”

Apparently she had spent each and every day saying things like that, tears streaming down her face.

Just a few years ago she had been happy and healthy, but now her heart was completely withering away too. Just how much must Rimee Ruu, the youngest daughter of the family, have suffered?

When I thought about her pain, it made me really want to go.

“But you can’t give your approval, right, Ai Fa?”

“The Suun family leads the people of the forest’s edge, but the Ruu family is no lesser in terms of size. And there has been animosity between them for generations,” Ai Fa responded in an emotionless voice.

“Animosity?”

“Over 20 years ago, one of the Suun clan kidnapped a girl who was supposed to marry into the main Ruu house. The men of the Ruu house charged the Suun home in a frenzy, but the former leader of the Suun clan said that girl had committed infidelity with someone from another house and was punished for her crime, and then presented her corpse to them.”

I was at a loss for words.

“In all likelihood, she killed herself before they could have their way with her. But as there was no proof, all the Ruu men could do was sheathe their blades while muttering curses. After all, a battle between the Suun and Ruu would effectively mean civil war for the people of the forest’s edge, and perhaps our total annihilation. But if the Suun family hadn’t returned the girl, the Ruu family would have taken up blades. They wouldn’t do that for the sake of a corpse, though. So the clans cut their ties, and even now the animosity between them remains.”

“That story just sickens me. So the Suun family is a clan of good-for-nothings, then?”

“Well, at the very least, it seems the bloodline of the family head can’t produce a man who’s a decent a human being,” Ai Fa muttered, her expression and tone unchanging. “And then two years back, after my quarrel with Diga Suun began, the head of the Ruu clan, Donda Ruu, came and asked me to marry into his family.”

“M-Marry...?”

“He said with a laugh that if I did so the Suun family couldn’t lay a hand on me, and if they tried to anyway, he’d grind them into dust. But when I turned down that offer, my relationships with the Ruu family were also cut off.”

“Ah... So that’s what you were talking about when you said you didn’t want to be the spark that kicks off a battle between them.”

“Even without the backing of the Ruu clan, I won’t go and yield to someone like Diga Suun. I don’t intend to have anything to do with either side.”

“I see. I get it, now. So if I lend my support to the Ruu family while being under your care, that wouldn’t exactly be something you’d be happy about.”

With that, I gave a heavy sigh.

Ai Fa remained looking away, but her lips twisted into a scornful smile. That grin was just way too unlike her.

“But even so, you want to help Rimee Ruu, don’t you? That’s the type of man you are, Asuta.”

“Hmm? Well, yeah... She seems like she’s a good kid, and I’d also like to help her grandmother remember the joy of eating, too.”

“That’s what I thought. In that case, do as you please.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing complicated. If you want to help Rimee Ruu and Jiba Ruu, then just cut all ties with me. Then you just need to rely on the Ruu family. See, simple, isn’t it?”

“What’re you saying? I can’t go changing partners so willy-nilly, like some kind of hussy.”

I shrugged my shoulders, still completely unable to grasp how Ai Fa truly felt.

“It’s not like I’m that worried about it. It’s a shame, but I’ll go ahead and turn down Rimee Ruu’s request.”

“...Why?”

“No matter how cute of a kid she may be, I only just met Rimee Ruu, and I’ve never even seen her grandmother. You may think me cold-hearted for it, but I’m not willing to support them strongly enough that it puts you in a bad position.”

“But why...?” Ai Fa asked, whipping around. There was a look of utter shock frozen on her face. I couldn’t help but smirk at the way that she was acting more and more unlike her usual self.

“I mean, you’re more important to me than someone I only just met and a complete stranger. Geez, don’t make me go and say something so embarrassing!”

Ai Fa didn’t respond.

“What? It’d be a problem if I got involved with the Ruu clan, right?”

“As you’re at least temporarily considered a member of the Fa clan, if you were to help the Ruu clan, then it’s possible that Donda Ruu would repay that debt by once again offering to have me marry into the family. And if I were to turn them down again it would be like dragging their family’s name through the mud, which would truly earn me their animosity.”

“That old guy sure sounds like a pain in the butt... By the way, aren’t there any charming young gentlemen in the main Ruu house? I mean, we’re talking about Rimee Ruu’s big brothers, right?” I asked, half out of jealousy and half out of pure curiosity.

The response I got back was a blunt, “I decided to live my life by hunting giba. Women gather herbs, tan hides, and simply wait for the men to return home, which doesn’t suit me. Instead, I plan to live my life in the forest as a hunter, and die there too. That was the decision I made when my father, Gil, passed away.”

“Hmm... What a waste, when you’ve got such a pretty face.”

She didn’t respond to my teasing. Instead I just saw some unknown passion in her eyes, flickering like a will-o’-the-wisp.

“At any rate, it’s not anything for you to worry yourself over. I’ll turn down Rimee Ruu’s request and we’ll keep on going as we have been. I mean, it doesn’t seem like the people of the Ruu clan will get angry with us over that.”

Rimee Ruu had said something like, “I’ll talk my papa into it!” In other words, this whole thing was her idea alone, and the other members of her family would likely be against the idea of seeking help from some suspicious outsider.

“Why...? If you just cut ties with me, you would be able to do as you pleased. So why won’t you do so, then? And it should be far more desirable for you to rely on the Ruu clan rather than a loner like me.”

“That wouldn’t be desirable in the least. You’ve helped me out so much, so I can’t stand even the idea of leaving you like this to run off with some complete strangers. Hey... You’ve been acting odd for a while now, haven’t you? Just what exactly do you want me to do?”

Ai Fa didn’t answer me. So I stood up, and plopped myself back down right in front of her. Though that passionate flame still burned in her eyes, Ai Fa looked down.

“Ai Fa... If I’m nothing but a burden to you and you want me to leave here and now, then that’s what I’ll have to do. But that’s not how it is, right? If it was, then you could just come out and say so.”

“...”

“I don’t understand, so please tell me what you’re thinking. I want to hear it in your own words. I’ll base my actions on what you want me to do most.”

Ai Fa slowly lifted her face, and looked straight at me. With that violent flame still in them... her eyes started to water up just a bit.

“It’s been two years now since my father, Gil Fa, passed away,” she whispered with her cherry blossom-colored lips. “Up until then, both my father and I got rather close to Rimee Ruu. We didn’t have any official relationship with the Ruu clan, but I had met Jiba Ruu, who doted on her granddaughter, many times since I was very little.”

“I see...” I responded, my heart breaking upon seeing her eyes wet with tears.

Ai Fa furrowed her brows, looking a little pained.

“I don’t wish to enter into a relationship with the Ruu household. But even so... It would pain me to see Rimee Ruu and Jiba Ruu suffer.”

“Then... Do you want me to cut all ties with you, and then help Rimee Ruu and them as someone completely unrelated?”

The instant I said that, I was grabbed by the collar. Her eyes that were like a blue flame glared at me, almost as if they were eating into me. And then... The tears that had been pooling in those eyes started to slide silently down her silky cheeks.

“I...” she started, her voice shaking a bit. “...I don’t know what I want.”

Why didn’t she know? If I just cut my ties with her, then Rimee and Jiba Ruu would be saved. If she wanted to lend them support from the shadows without directly becoming involved with the Ruu family, then that would be the only option. But...

Ai Fa’s fingers were still firmly gripping my collar. It was as if she was worrying that if she let go, I would just up and disappear.

“I see,” I said, placing my hands on Ai Fa’s shoulders.

I could feel the warmth coming off her smooth, exposed shoulders... and also the way that they were trembling ever so slightly. Without even thinking, I pulled her in closer. Ai Fa’s slender body fell up against my chest, offering no resistance whatsoever.

“Well if you don’t know, then there’s no helping that. I mean, I’m not exactly sure of the best path, myself.”

That smell of Ai Fa’s that I loved so much gently tickled my nose. As the scent filled my heart, I quietly came to a realization.

“But I know clearly what I want most. If you won’t tell me how to proceed, then is it alright if I choose what to do?”

Ai Fa didn’t say a word.

“I want to help out Rimee Ruu. However, I also don’t want to have to leave you. So as a freeloader of your household, I want to fairly and openly help those people you hold dear,” I said, giving Ai Fa’s complexly done up blonde hair a gentle pat. “Who cares about the animosity between the Suun and Ruu clans? I mean, do you really have to abandon people you care about over such a stupid grudge? Just leave the heavy matter of the future of the settlement up to the old fogeys, since it’s their responsibility anyway. It’s not right to bury your own feelings over something like that.”

“...”

“I’ll save them. As if I care about what Rimee Ruu’s father will say about that. And if he starts bugging you about marriage again, then tell him to bring you a man who’s even tastier than any giba first!”

Ai Fa didn’t respond to what I had said. She just kept on clinging to my collar as her tears streamed down onto my t-shirt.