Chapter 5: The Ruu Clan

1

And so, we ended up heading to the Ruu’s main house. I was glad that was what we decided on, but it wasn’t as if there weren’t any issues whatsoever. I first learned of that the next morning, when Rimee Ruu showed up as promised.

When I returned from cleaning and started working on my old man’s knife she suddenly popped up. And when I told her, “I’ll help,” she broke out in a huge smile of pure joy and yelled out, “Thank you!” And then she added, “In that case, come to my house before sunset! I’ll be sure to get the ingredients all ready!”

I couldn’t help but tilt my head with a, “Huh?” upon hearing that. “What do you mean, ‘ingredients’? I was planning on cooking here and then delivering the finished dish.”

“You can’t! You need to eat food in the house where it was prepared!”

I didn’t really get it so I asked for more details, and apparently that was part of the vow taken by the people of the forest’s edge. Or to be more precise, it said, “When treating someone to food, you must eat the same dish in the same place as them.”

In other words, it was probably meant to prohibit people from harming others using cooking.

“Hmm. It still hasn’t fully clicked with me, but does that mean I just need to go to the Ruu household, cook food, and have your grandmother eat it along with me?”

It added a bit of pressure, cooking in a place I was visiting for the first time, but that wasn’t enough to discourage me. The real issue was still to come, though.

“Yeah. But it’s not just Granny Jiba. It’ll be tough because there are a lot of people in my house, but I’ll try hard to help!”

“Huh? So I have to make enough not just for your grandma, but the rest of your family too?”

“Yeah. I mean, that’s what it means to borrow someone else’s stove, right?”

“Is that how it is?”

“Of course it is! You’re really weird, Asuta!”

I’d finally been recognized by the girl of seven or eight years old as a weirdo. Come on, give me a break... I mean, I just haven’t studied all the customs of the people of the forest’s edge just yet.

“Alright, got it. So I just need to make food for the whole family, right? It’s not like I don’t want to, and it’s honestly more worthwhile to cook for a large group of people anyway. So, how many people are there in the Ruu household?”

“Um...” Rimee Ruu murmured, and then she started counting on her fingers. By the time she had folded down the little fingers on both of her hands, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, Oh, come on!

“So, counting me, it’s 13 people!”

“T-Thirteen, huh? That’s quite a large family.”

“Ah, but Kota Ruu is still just one year old and only drinks milk, so you just need to prepare for 12. And the other women in the family who were supposed to be in charge of the stove will help out!”

“12 people, huh? Well, if that’s all then I should be able to manage. There’s no problem if we go with the dish from last night for everyone, right?”

“Yeah, of course! I’m really looking forward to it, too!”

“Hmm... Well, thinking more on it, just feeding your grandma this one time wouldn’t have solved the issue here anyway. If I give the women of the Ruu family a lecture on how to make a delicious meal, then that would make things easier from tomorrow on...”

“What’s a ‘lecture’?”

“Ah, well, I can’t be manning the Ruu stove each and every day, right? So I’ve got to teach you and the rest of the women how to cook tasty food for your grandma.”

“Huh?! We’ll be able to make food that yummy?!”

“The way I managed the heat last night was a little tricky, though. Hmm... Ah, if you have a family of 13, then you probably have more then one pot, right?”

“Pots? We have four of them.”

“Four?! That’s great!”

Ultimately, I ended up getting a little worked up. I’d be using four pots to make food for 12 people... No wait, adding in me and Ai Fa, it was 14 in total.

I was up against an old lady with hardly any teeth, as well as a powerful man in the settlement who was likely less than fond of outsiders. Honestly, I could feel my spirit as a chef getting a bit fired up by this development.

“Got it. Well then, I’ll prepare the giba meat over here, so could you make sure we’ve got enough aria and poitan for everyone? And then we’ll also need rock salt and fruit wine.”

“Huh? But we’ve got lots of meat at our home, though.”

“The meat’s the most important part. If I get the chance, I’d love to instruct you all on how to prepare giba meat so it’s nice and tasty, too.”

In the back of my mind, I had already started plotting out how the cooking would go. As I did, Rimee Ruu walked on over my way and timidly grabbed onto the hem of my clothing.

“Thank you so much, Asuta. Now Granny Jiba won’t have to keep sobbing and saying how she wants to die. I’m really grateful you’re doing something so big for us.”

“Don’t cry, you big dummy. I mean, it’s not even like it’s a guarantee just yet that everything will go smoothly.”

“No, it’ll be fine! Your cooking really is yummy!”

Then Rimee Ruu turned to Ai Fa, who had been silently working on her blade in a corner of the room.

“Thank you too, Ai Fa! Once Granny Jiba’s all better, we’ll all play together again! Well then, see you this afternoon!”

“Ah, my cooking needs some extra time to prepare, so is it alright if I show up a bit earlier?” I added, in place of the still silent Ai Fa.

“Yeah! No problem!” Rimee Ruu responded with a brilliant smile, and then she left the house.

Geez, that girl was a bundle of energy in a completely different way than Ai Fa. I couldn’t help but break out in a smile, too.

“What are you grinning to yourself about? You really are gross.”

“Oh hey, you finally said something, Ai Fa! What you said may have been incredibly rude, but I’m still a little relieved!”

“You’re so tiresome...”

She just kept on carefully looking over her gleaming, silver blade, not even so much as glancing my way as she sat with her back against the wall. And her face remained every bit as expressionless as always, too. Well, she showed her weakness to someone like me just last night, which I’m sure she was seriously regretting. I could certainly sense something like that about her.

“Still, I never figured we would get pressured into sitting down to dinner with them, too. You must have known it from the start though, right?”

“Of course. That’s what it means to man someone else’s stove.”

Hmm... That was a splendid custom, having some responsibility behind manning the stove.

“That means I’ll definitely be meeting Rimee Ruu’s father face to face, though... You’ll be coming with me, right?”

“What are you, an idiot? You think I’d send off someone who doesn’t even properly know the ways of this world to someone else’s house, all on his own?!” she practically roared as she glared at my legs. “...If you don’t intend to cut ties with me, it’s only natural that I accompany you.”

“Right. You’re really saving me. I mean, I’d feel pretty lonely on my own.”

I walked a few steps closer to Ai Fa, and sat down so that I was just barely out of reach. Her gaze remained fixed in place, so it fell somewhere between my feet and my chest.

When I planted my hands on the floor and looked up, though, rather than her gaze, it was the tip of her blade that pointed at me.

“I’m sorry. It was just a joke.”

“I can’t believe you... Do you honestly think that you can man the Ruu family stove like that?”

The tip of her blade pulled back, but her glare remained every bit as sharp.

To be honest, this was the first time since waking up that I’d locked eyes with Ai Fa today.

Sometimes her face was really easy to read, and right now she was clearly getting worked up. She soon declared in a harsh tone, “To man a house’s stove means to take that family’s very lives into your hands. So if a member of the Ruu clan becomes sick from your cooking, neither you nor I will get off lightly. We may have both ears cleaved off, or all our teeth broken, or even be exiled from the forest’s edge!”

“Huh... I’m surprised you gave such an important task to me like it was nothing.”

“I don’t give the slightest damn about such old-fashioned customs! Many of the people of the forest’s edge still do, though!”

“Okay, I get it. But there’s no way that I’d give anyone food poisoning. Just who do you think I am?”

I had intended to get a quip like, “A 17 year old chef trainee?” back, but Ai Fa just bit down on her pink lips and didn’t say anything for a while. Her face was flushed beet red, and she was wearing the expression of an unruly child.

However, this was all very much just like her. Compared to how she was all down in the dumps and acting unlike herself last night, this way was far more adorable.

Anyway, after a rather long period of silence, Ai Fa muttered, “I was just telling you not to take this too lightly. I’m more aware of your skill than anyone. I’m sure you’re capable of saving both Rimee and Jiba Ruu. But it’s also still very possible for you to let your guard down and get tripped up.”

“Whoa... I’m honestly a little moved, here.”

I’d love to move a little closer and take her by the hand if I could, but with the way she was today she may really kill me if I did that, so I restrained myself.

“If you’re willing to say all that, then I’m sure I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I swear on what little honor I have that I’ll save them.” And then I dared to add, “For your sake too, Ai Fa.”

I’d be wielding my kitchen knife for the sake of people who were precious to Ai Fa. As if I’d let my guard down or get conceited in a situation like this!

As I looked at Ai Fa’s perpetually angry face, I could feel a burning-hot fighting spirit running through my entire body.

I would complete my task, no matter what. All for the sake of the first person I thought of as precious in this other world.

2

“Wow... So this is the Ruu clan’s headquarters, huh?” I said in admiration without even thinking about it.

Judging from the position of the sun, I estimated that the main Ruu home was about an hour south of the Fa house. There wasn’t any big imposing building there, though. In exchange, there were a greater number of buildings clustered together here than anything I had seen yet in this world. Naturally, there was still plenty of space between them, but the difference between this and how other dwellings were spaced out was pretty easy to notice.

In the center of the buildings was a yellow, trodden down space that looked like a sort of plaza. The total area was about half the size of a school’s grounds, and surrounding it were seven wooden houses. And each of those homes were at least twice the size of Ai Fa’s.

Even if the family has 13 people in it, they still shouldn’t need this many houses, I thought, tilting my head.

“The one to succeed the family becomes the new head of the clan, while their brothers take wives and live in a new residence nearby. Most of these belong to such brothers, I’d say,” Ai Fa explained while holding a bundle of five kilos of giba thigh meat carefully wrapped up in a pseudo-rubber tree leaf.

I gave a nod and said, “I see,” holding a similarly wrapped 5 kilo bundle of shoulder roast. “So what about this plaza in the center? It seems big enough that you could probably hold an athletic meet here.”

“An ‘athletic meet’? This space is meant for wedding or funeral services. If you gathered everyone related to the Ruu family, without a doubt you would end up with more than 100 people.”

So of the 500 people of the forest’s edge, one fifth of them were related to the Ruu family? Well, if you think of it as just being a settlement of 500 people, I suppose it’d be full of relatives in no time at all without fresh blood coming in.

“Anyway, that’s enough idle chatter. Let’s get going,” Ai Fa said and got moving into the plaza, with me following along after her. When we reached the center of the plaza, a small figure came darting our way from out of the shadow of the middle of those seven buildings.

“Ai Fa! Asuta! Welcome to the Ruu home! You really did come early, huh?”

Naturally, this was Rimee Ruu.

By the way, the sun was currently midway between its zenith and when it started to set. By my estimate, it was probably a bit past 3 PM.

“Is it still too early? I was just thinking I’d like to have some leeway for getting things done.”

“You’re fine! Oh, and let me hold onto your steel!”

Ai Fa silently handed over her blade and knife. I hadn’t considered this, so I was left feeling a bit flustered.

“Hey, Rimee Ruu... I wanted to cook using my own knife, but is that not going to work out?”

“Hmm? We have plenty of knives for cutting meat, though.”

“No, you see, mine’s made a bit differently,” I said, pulling out my knife from its sheath at my hip like I was in a yakuza movie or something.

By the way, back in Japan wearing a colorful vest over a t-shirt, with my waist to my shoes covered all in white, and a white towel wrapped around my head would be considered a rather unique sort of hybrid fashion. I really would have liked to undertake this challenge in the pure white outfit chefs prided themselves on, but I ultimately ended up deciding it was best not to play up how I was a foreigner too much, resulting in this ensemble.

Anyway, Rimee Ruu looked over my knife with great curiosity, and then let out a, “Hmm...” and tilted her head. “Then just let me hold it until we get to the stove! I can’t show you around the house while you have a weapon, after all!”

I gave a sigh of relief, and then handed the young girl the kitchen knife.

While reverently holding a large blade, two small knives, and my kitchen knife in her little hands, Rimee Ruu said, “Well then, follow me!” and turned around.

There was no telling what may happen, but at any rate I stood at the entrance to the Ruu household. The people we ran into between the entrance and the back of the building, though... were all soft, supple women.

Right, I suppose the men must all be out in the forest at this time of day.

I still compared pretty darn pathetically to them, while Ai Fa looked perfectly normal, but at any rate, we both soon found ourselves with six women standing in a row in front of us.

“I brought some visitors! This is Ai Fa and Asuta of the Fa clan!”

None of them so much as hesitated to shoot curiosity-filled gazes my way. I’d been politely ignored by everyone for the last five days, so this frankly came as unexpected. Rather than being treated as if I wasn’t there, I was actually the center of attention.

There were thirteen people in the family, and it wasn’t strange at all for half of them to be women. Still, this was kind of overwhelming, somehow.

There were three married women wearing a single long cloth outfit each. The other three were all unmarried, with long hair and only their chests and waists covered.

One of the married women was an old lady. However, she didn’t seem to be the Granny Jiba I had heard so much about. After all, she was pleasantly plump and still seemed to have plenty of energy about her. Plus, the smell of animal fat was positively wafting off of her.

Another of the married women was middle-aged. She must have been about my old man’s age. She looked to have a seriously healthy and robust physique, and on top of that she was also pretty tall. Honestly, she was giving off the impression of a dyed-in-wool mother.

The rest of the group, meanwhile, were still young. Two of them seemed to be older than me, both looking to be somewhere around 20. Of those two, one of them was wearing a long outfit and was cradling a very small baby.

Then there was one who looked to be around my age, and one who looked to be younger.

That added up to six of them in total. Adding in Rimee Ruu and the baby brought the total up to eight.

“That’s Granny Tito Min, and next to her is my mama, Mia Lea. And then there’s my brother Jiza’s wife Sati Lea, and her baby Kota. And lastly there’s my big sisters, Vina, Reina, and Lala!”

“Hey, don’t just throw them all out there at—” I started, only for my heart to skip a beat. “Hey, did you just say Reina?”

“Yes?”

The girl who seemed to be about my age tilted her head, looking confused. Her hair was black, a somewhat unusual color for the people of the forest’s edge, and she had it done up into two braids. The way she was short and compact with a totally innocent expression on her face reminded me of Rimee Ruu... And sure enough, she had dark skin and blue eyes.

Well, that’s no surprise. Seriously, what was I thinking?

This girl just happened to have the same name as my childhood friend is all. And she was completely different from the Reina I knew, anyway. My old friend had a more childish face, and she wore her hair short. Plus she just plain wasn’t this much of a beauty. The only real similarity was that they both only came up to about my shoulders.

“Sorry, it’s nothing. I just happen to know someone with the same name, so I reacted without thinking.”

“Oh, my. You’re acquainted with someone who shares my name?”

The way she broke out in a positively cherubic smile was just like Rimee Ruu, too.

Ah, my Reina could probably pull off a smile like that, as well. Actually, the way that she was more innocent and childish than her age would imply was also a lot like this girl and Rimee Ruu.

“I am the head of the Fa clan, Ai Fa, and I have come here together with this man, Asuta. At Rimee Ruu’s request, we have been invited to man your home’s stove,” Ai Fa declared, using a somewhat stiffer tone than usual.

The old woman who smelled of animal fat responded, “Welcome, Ai Fa and Asuta of the Fa clan,” her voice deep yet gentle in a way that perfectly suited her appearance. “The Ruu family welcomes you. Lala, take her hunter’s cloak.”

“Huh? Me?!” said the girl who looked to be the youngest, sounding clearly displeased. She must have been around 13 or 14. She had a stubborn look on her boyish face, and her limbs and torso were slender, but she was actually a bit taller than that Reina girl. Her hair was a more brilliant shade of red than Rimee Ruu’s and was done up into a ponytail, and her eyes were a vivid blue that was like the color of the sea.

Although she was reluctant, the girl named Lala approached Ai Fa and took her cloak. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Tito Min granny giving a wide grin.

“You said you wanted to start working the stove as soon as possible, so we hurried up and dealt with the fat already. We’ll leave the rest up to you, though. Um, who was supposed to be in charge of the stove today, again...?”

“Me, Granny Tito Min, and big sis Reina!”

“Ah, that’s right. Me, Rimee, and Reina will help you out.”

“Got it. Thank you!”

This honestly felt like something of an anticlimax. I’d worked myself up to be plunging into enemy territory, but these people... I mean, they all seemed totally gentle and downright friendly.

The only one who didn’t look to be having a good time was that red-haired Lala girl, as everyone else was wearing wide grins. The difference between them and the people I met at the river where I did the washing or along the way there was positively striking.

They seriously were calm and composed despite being faced with Ai Fa, who had once turned down a request from the head of their clan to marry into the family, and some stranger from a foreign country (actually another world entirely).

“Um... There’s something I’d like to confirm before all that...” a strangely coquettish voice called out. It had come from the younger girl who was still older than me, but didn’t have a baby. Her long chestnut-colored hair ran down in a straight line over her right shoulder. And her body, with only her chest and waist covered, had some insanely sexy curves about it.

“Asuta of the Fa clan... You were born in a foreign nation, weren’t you? Is there some reason that you didn’t raise the matter of where you were born?”

“No. It’s not like I’m trying to hide it, exactly.”

I had discussed that matter with Ai Fa pretty early on. What sort of stance I should take in this world when I couldn’t prove who I was, I mean. I didn’t exactly have many options, though, so it made for a pretty easy decision.

“Apparently the country I was born in is completely unheard of in this land... I come from a place called Japan.”

This was the path Ai Fa and I had chosen: Telling the truth.

“Six days ago, I awoke at the forest’s edge at the base of Mount Morga, but I frankly haven’t the foggiest as to how I got here. The people here know nothing of a country called Japan, and I’ve never heard of the Amusehorn continent before, either. And yet we’re still able to converse with one another. I still have absolutely no clue as to what happened.”

If you keep on building up your lies, eventually it will all come tumbling down. And on the off chance there was someone else in this world who had the same thing happen to them, trying to do so may lose me the chance to find them.

And so, I decided to leave what I didn’t know as a big question mark and openly expose my background. I did leave out the particularly crazy point about how I was supposed to be dead only to come back to life in a whole other world, though.

“Hmm... A foreigner who hasn’t ever heard of Amusehorn? And for such a person to be right smack in the middle of the continent...”

Her strangely drawn out way of talking and the sidelong glances her eyes made, along with everything else about her made this girl seriously sensual. But the way that she had her doubts about that matter showed that she was surprisingly the most cautious member of this group, and that she may have been a pretty quick thinker. I made sure to make a mental note of all that.

“I really don’t have any clue about what happened. Anyway, Ai Fa is the one who found me out there in the forest, and she’s been helping me out a lot ever since. Well, apparently she’s also been worried about letting me wander around when I don’t even know the laws of the forest’s edge, too.”

“Hmm... I didn’t know that you were such a good-natured girl, Ai Fa of the Fa clan... I thought the only thing you had any interest in was hunting giba like a man...”

There wasn’t exactly any ill-will behind those words, but it was a combative enough statement to make Ai Fa break out in a frown. The older girl, meanwhile, just shot the naturally silent Ai Fa a sidelong glance and gave a little “Hehehe...” Then she continued on, “Well, at any rate, I’ll be looking forward to all this. And I mean, you came here for the sake of our precious Granny Jiba, didn’t you? Apparently Papa Donda wasn’t too happy about it, but we’re all welcoming you with gratitude, right?”

“Right. Much obliged,” I responded, looking like an idiot. This time around she brought her fingertip up to her plump lips and gave a little giggle. Was she the sort that had to imbue her each and every action with sex appeal...?

“I’m Vina Ruu, the oldest girl of the Ruu family. The next youngest is the black-haired Reina, followed by the red-haired Lala, and lastly Rimee. You’ll meet my brothers when they get back from the forest, alright?”

Next up, her smooth arm with just the perfect amount of oil on it moved to point out the older women.

“This is Tito Min, the wife of the previous head of the clan. She’s our grandmother, and she’ll be helping you out. Next to her is our mother, the current clan head Donda’s wife, Mia Lea. And then there’s my eldest brother Jiza’s spouse Sati Lea, and her son Kota. Our poor great-grandmother who you’re trying to take pity on is sleeping inside the house. We’re counting on you, Ai Fa and Asuta of the Fa clan.”

3

“Please, follow me.”

The one leading the way was the second daughter of the Ruu household, Reina Ruu.

Rimee Ruu was dealing with our blades, Tito Min Ruu was cleaning up from when they wrung out the fat, and the rest of the women each departed for their own tasks, meaning our little gathering dispersed pretty quickly.

The stoves were installed in the rear of the house. Apparently, when a house was this big, the reception room and kitchen were kept separate. There was a small separate building less than half the size of the main home, which served as the kitchen and pantry, as well as the place where giba were dissected.

“Huh? Those are stoves there too, aren’t they?”

Off to the side of the building were two stone stoves like the one in Ai Fa’s home, sitting there conspicuously. They were outdoors, but were stocked with firewood and even had roofs installed overhead. And both of them were wide open in the front, making it sort of feel like I was being stared at by blank faces.

Neither of them had an iron pot on them, though.

“These are used for grilling meat. Papa Donda likes it better to have giba that way than in a stew,” the slender girl with long, black, braided hair said with a smile.

“I see! Giba meat makes a lot of smoke when you grill it, so something like this sure would be helpful. If you don’t mind, could we use these today, too?”

“Huh? You’ve grilled giba meat before, Asuta?”

I was a little taken aback when I looked into the girl’s big round eyes. What was that about? It felt strange, somehow, having this girl with the same name as my childhood friend call me by name. Well, my Reina kept on calling me “Asuta-chan” even when we were in high school, though.

“Yeah. In fact that was actually part of tonight’s schedule. Is that odd or something?”

“Yes, well... I heard from Rimee that she had eaten incredibly soft meat. I was sure that meant you were going to boil the giba meat...”

“Oh, I see. That really did use a cooking method that involved grilling, though. Well, it involves all sorts of crazy techniques, but I’ll handle all the confusing parts, so just lend me a hand, alright?”

“Of course! Jiba Ruu is a precious, irreplaceable member of my family, so I’m truly grateful to you! And I’ll give my all, too!”

This girl really may have been a lot like Rimee Ruu. She was bright, innocent, full of energy, and had an incredibly honest look in her eyes. On the other hand, though I don’t really care myself, she was pretty darn short, and in terms of build, she seemed to have inherited the same genes as that bundle of sex appeal that was her older sister.

She had a fine amount of meat on her arms and legs, and her chest and rear had some rather womanly curves. Her waist pulled in tight so she certainly wasn’t fat, but... Well, let’s just say I had trouble knowing where it was alright to look.

In the first place, the women of this settlement just wore way too little. Not only did they just cover their chests and waists, but it was with a thin cloth wrapped around them, which made the contours of their bodies stand out more than they needed to.

And unlike the other women I’d seen around the settlement up until now, these girls had on “decorations.” A bracelet made of grigee fruit was the norm around here, but in addition to that, they had on shiny, dark grey, metallic hair accessories, earrings, leg bracelets and the like. And also...

“...Ah. That necklace...”

“Huh?”

“You’re all wearing necklaces with three horns or tusks or whatever. Is that a good luck charm or something?”

“Yes. You see, we women don’t hunt giba, after all. So the men give us horns and tusks. They’re imbued with the hope that we live a healthy life here at the forest’s edge,” the girl explained with a joyous smile, holding the necklace that had been swaying on her boldly rising and falling chest. “Children receive them from their fathers, and wives from their husbands. As proof that we didn’t hunt them ourselves, they’re made with just three tusks and horns, rather than a full set.”

“Hmm... That’s an interesting custom,” I responded. As I did so, I felt a sort of crackling feeling on the back of my neck and turned around, only to find Ai Fa glaring at me with a truly chilling gaze as she leaned up against the wall of the building.

I hadn’t gone and forgotten you, of course. My attention just got a little diverted when we arrived at the building, my master.

“Umm, you said you had four pots, right? For now, let’s just light up one of these ones outside.”

“Right. I’ll show you the way,” Reina Ruu said with a smile, then walked in Ai Fa’s direction.

After giving a slight bow to my blank-faced benefactor, Reina Ruu slid open a door that was right next to Ai Fa.

“This is the kitchen.”

I walked forward with a “Hey there,” to Ai Fa, but my beloved benefactor simply frowned and passed through the door before me.

What was that about? I didn’t really get it, but this may turn into a real pain. But at any rate, I walked on inside, too.

“Wow... This certainly is something, isn’t it?”

The room looked to be only about twelve square meters in size, but it also didn’t have all that much furniture, making for a rather open room. In the center were the four stoves, lined up facing one another. I was a little impressed by the way that there was a log set up off to the side of each one as a surface to work on, as well as a jar with plenty of water.

The floor was simply the exposed ground, the walls were made of wood, and the ceiling had the beams showing, which wasn’t much different from Ai Fa’s home. However, along those walls were knives both big and small, ladles, what looked like a wooden pestle, and a doorless shelf lined with bowls and wooden utensils.

This really was a proper kitchen. A cookhouse.

Though I hadn’t expected it, I could feel my heart beating a little faster.

As I inspected the various tools on display, Reina Ruu, who had been crouched down in front of the stove, gave another carefree smile and then called out, “Is it alright if I light the fire? I’m prepared to do so.”

Prepared to do so, she says... She was incredibly innocent, but she also had some definite elegance about her.

By the way, they lit their stoves the same way that Ai Fa did. That meant tying something called lana grass that had been all dried out to the tip of a thin bit of firewood, then quickly rubbing it across the other firewood until the friction ignited it like a match. Then you simply transferred the fire to the firewood before that ember died out.

I still failed two out of the three times I tried, but Reina Ruu naturally managed it on her first try.

“Great. Now could you fill up the pot halfway with water? And use a strong flame?”

“Right,” Reina Ruu responded, then briskly transferred the water.

...I soon sensed a gaze on my neck again, but at this stage I still shouldn’t have made any mistakes yet.

“Alright, Ai Fa, hand me the giba meat. And um, you, is it alright if I lay the meat out on this surface?”

“Yes, of course. Um, and if you don’t mind, could you please call me Reina Ruu?”

“Ah, right. It just feels a little strange, since I know someone with the same name.”

After receiving the package of giba meat from Ai Fa, I opened up the pseudo-rubber tree leaf. As I did so, I caught sight of Reina Ruu staring at my face from the side and smiling.

“Was this other Reina an important girl in your life, perhaps? Is that why it’s hard to call me by that name?”

“It’s not exactly like that, but still...”

Why was it, then? I didn’t even know the answer myself. But I mean... She was probably the person I had spent the most time with outside of my family, so even though I didn’t have even a hint of romantic feelings for her, when I thought of how I’d never see her again... It really hurt.

So I didn’t want to say that name too often, or hear it either.

I figured that wasn’t the kind of thing I should be telling to someone who just happened to have the same name, though.

“Huh...?”

As I opened the leaf bundle, a small, dark brown hand overlapped with mine. When I looked up in surprise, I found that Reina Ruu’s face had gone from a bright smile to looking like she was about to cry.

“I’m sorry. I said something I really shouldn’t have, didn’t I? I never intended to make you look so pained, Asuta...”

“No, not at all! I’m totally fine! I was just doing a bit of thinking!”

What was going on? I didn’t come all this way to act out a romantic comedy, did I?

Ugh, the back of my head was hurting. It felt like a drill made of ice or something was grinding on in. Did I have the talent of a master fencer or something, to be able to sense someone’s glare physically like that?

It was then that I felt something slash across my back as someone said, “Thanks for waiting! Here’s your knife, Asuta!” causing me to scream out, “Agh!” I had thought a certain someone had gone and cut me with a kitchen knife.

“Rimee, you shouldn’t play around with knives!”

“Huh? But it’s in the sheath still, so it’s fine!”

As I wiped cold sweat from my brow, I quickly snatched the knife away from Rimee Ruu.

“A-Anyway, I’m going to cut up the meat, so could you get me enough poitan for everyone? And then add all of them to the pot once it reaches a boil.”

“Got it! Let’s go to the pantry, big sis!”

“Right.”

The two close sisters left the kitchen, leaving just me and my benefactor there. I hurriedly got to work brushing off the pico leaf stuck to the block of thigh meat, then took a quick glance to the side as I inserted the knife.

My benefactor was sitting cross legged with her back to the wall.

“...It doesn’t seem there’s any task for me here at all.”

“That’s not true! You’re my emotional support! It’s because you’re sitting there watching over me that I’m able to relax and cook!”

“What are you getting all worked up over?”

I am not getting worked up. If anything was getting to me, though, it’s the way that your voice is cold and low right now.

Still, this was a valuable chance to have a one-on-one conversation with Ai Fa. At any rate, I decided to force out the feelings that had been building up inside of me, even while wincing from her cold glare.

“You know, the Ruu family are a lot friendlier than I’d been expecting, somehow. I kind of imagined a much more hot-blooded family of hunters, you know?”

“As if I’d understand how you think. And besides, this is my first time meeting any of the women of the family aside from Rimee and Jiba Ruu.”

“Ah, so you’ve met the men, then?”

“Donda Ruu took his three sons along when he asked me to marry into the family. If you want to see hot-blooded folks, then just wait for sunset.”

“Hey, it’s not like I wanted that...”

By the time we reached that point in the conversation, the two sisters had made it back. They were each holding what looked like a sort of flat basket, which had a mountain of those pseudo-potatoes, the poitan, in it. 14 people x 2 each = 28 total, which was certainly a sizeable amount.

Still, the sisters had one more helper behind them now. It was Granny Tito Min Ruu, with her plump physique and hair that was going white.

“Sorry for the wait. I’ll be helping out now, too. Ooh, this is a splendid giba leg.”

With her wrinkly face with a great complexion to it, she then turned towards Ai Fa.

“Ai Fa of the Fa clan. I heard that you’ve been managing the Fa house all by yourself, so does that mean that you’re the one who finished off this giba?”

“Yes, that’s right,” Ai Fa responded with a nod, her tone completely unchanging. She did move to stand up, though.

“That’s certainly something. And the Fa bloodline has grown much thinner than the other houses, hasn’t it? I truly can’t even imagine your way of life, for a woman like you to live all on her own without relying on anyone.”

“It’s really not such a big deal. My father had taught me how to hunt giba, as well as everything else I needed to survive at the forest’s edge. I’m able to keep on living just fine on my own.”

“Living, and then dying too?” the old woman asked, wearing a smile as if she had seen through something. Ai Fa opened her mouth to respond, but then closed it again without saying anything. “If a woman goes hunting, then she can’t give birth to children, right? You’ll live on your own and die the same, and the Fa clan will go down with you. Would you be satisfied with that, Ai Fa of the Fa clan?”

“There are countless examples of clans that have died out like that even here at the forest’s edge. It’s not as if every house possesses the power of the Ruu clan.”

“Oh? And what is power, then? Reina, Rimee, or I most certainly couldn’t take down a giba. No, not just that, there likely aren’t many men who could hunt down a giba on their own, either. By that way of thinking, there are few folks out there as powerful as you, wouldn’t you say?”

“That’s...”

“But the Fa bloodline is wasting away while the Ruu bloodline prospers. Now why is that...? If you think on that question, maybe the Fa bloodline won’t need to end after all.”

“Hey, what are you talking about, Granny Tito Min?” Rimee Ruu asked, looking quite bored as she poked at a poitan. Her grandmother looked back and narrowed her eyes, seeming like she was rather enjoying herself.

“The day will come when you understand, Rimee. Now then, it looks like the pot has started boiling, doesn’t it?”

Apparently they didn’t use last names when talking amongst family.

“Ah! I’ll put them in!” Rimee joyfully declared, grabbing a thin kitchen knife from the wall. Then, she looked down at the bubbling pot and let out a, “Huh?” along with a tilt of her little head. “Isn’t this way too little water? And also, we’re gonna heat all these poitan in just one pot?”

“Yeah, that’ll be fine. If you want to eat poitan like you had last night, then chuck them all in.”

“Alright!”

She cut into the poitan in the mountain, and then plopped them into the pot one after another. It was around that time that I finished cutting the thigh meat. After cutting off the fat that I’d use for cooking, I cut up the red meat into bits that would be easy to mince, so it wasn’t that big of a hassle. There was probably roughly five kilos of the stuff in total.

Then, Granny Tito Min turned to me with a smile.

“Asuta of the Fa clan. You’re more skilled at cutting meat than even women are, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I was a chef in training back in my country.”

“Hmm...” Granny Tito Min shot back, her eyes narrowing even further. “A woman who hunts giba, and a man who specializes at the stove. You two certainly make for an interesting pair. I suppose there may not be any need for me to go butting in, after all.”

“That’s right, Granny Tito Min. It’s not good to go butting into the affairs of other houses,” Reina Ruu chimed in, using a somewhat childish tone.

There was a really cozy feeling in the air, somehow. I didn’t let that get my guard down too much, though.

I looked over to see how Ai Fa was getting along, only to find my benefactor with a rather sour look on her face.

4

Now then, time to change gears and focus.

I got the feeling that I had been distracted by the voices all around and had been starting to neglect the task at hand. And doing something like that would soil my honor as a chef, wouldn’t it? And if that happened while I was using my old man’s knife, he would never forgive me.

“The cooking method for these poitan isn’t actually that tricky. I’d imagine you could even start making them yourselves tomorrow, assuming your grandmother Jiba Ruu likes them.”

As I made that statement, I saw the poitan start to boil. When I went to stir them with a ladle so they wouldn’t burn, I found that they were already getting pretty sticky.

“Um, could it be that you intend to heat them until all the moisture is gone,” Reina Ruu asked.

“That’s right,” I replied, only for a troubled look to appear in her round eyes.

“But if you do that, the poitan will harden like clay, won’t they? I don’t think it would be possible to eat that...”

“Huh? You’ve heated a poitan that much before, Reina Ruu?”

Reina stopped and stared for a second, but then responded, “Yes!” with a twinkle in her eyes. “I tried out all sorts of methods to see if there was a way to make poitan easier to eat. Everyone yelled at me not to waste food, though.”

Huh? Despite what she was saying, there was a wide grin spreading across her face. Why would she make an expression like that now? It couldn’t be because I called her by name for the first time, right?

Gah. Focus, focus...

“Well then, I’ll leave the poitan up to you, Reina Ruu. Still... I’m glad to hear someone amongst the people of the forest’s edge was experimenting with cooking methods, too.”

“Right. If Granny Jiba hadn’t ended up like that, I don’t think the matter would have ever bothered me, though... So I just need to wait for all the moisture to be gone?”

“Yeah. And take care so that it doesn’t burn.”

“Right!”

Now then... There was still some time till sunset, but we had taken care of everything that we could for now.

“Now then, I’m going to start preparing the giba meat. Regulating the heat is pretty tricky with this cooking method, by the way. But I think you could apply it in a lot of different situations, so definitely feel free to memorize it.”

As I said that, I went ahead and opened up the bundle of shoulder roast. When I did so, Rimee Ruu let out a big, “Huh? That’s a weird shape! Is it really giba meat?”

“Hmm? What’s so strange about it? It’s just the meat from between the giba’s back and shoulder.”

“Wow! I’ve never eaten that before!”

“Huh? But big families like the Ruu clan bring back the whole giba, right?”

“That’s just to skin off the pelt. We only eat the rear legs, Asuta,” Granny Tito Min replied.

“But why? The rear legs alone shouldn’t be enough feed such a large family, surely.”

“It is, because the men of the main Ruu house hunt two giba a day. The hind legs provide enough meat that sometimes we even have some go bad.”

“Two a day...?” I was a little shocked to hear that.

Well, if we’re talking a giba in the 70 kilo range, then the rear legs would amount to about 20 kilo, which meant two would add up to 40 kilo... It certainly would be hard to eat such a large quantity of meat in a single day. Even considering the amount that they smoked, the legs really may be enough.

Something else came to mind, too: One giba’s horns and tusks only got you enough aria and poitan for ten people. That meant that hunting one giba a day wouldn’t provide enough for the 12 people (plus one infant) of the Ruu family. It left quite a surplus, but they needed to take down two a day.

Of course, I did understand that this system would always result in excess meat. That was plainly clear even from looking at our pantry.

The meat from the giba Ai Fa took down six days ago was around 45 kilos, which shrunk to about 40 kilos after the pico leaves absorbed the moisture. But Ai Fa and I could only eat around a kilo a day and it would only stay preserved for about 20 days, so at this rate I’d end up having to smoke over half of it.

On top of that, Ai Fa needed to hunt down one giba every five days for their tusks and horns, so the only choice for handling that excess was to simply leave it for the animals out in the forest.

And so, since it was a waste to use all that meat I had carefully bloodlet and prepared just for smoking, I was actually happy for the chance to use up around 10 kilos of the stuff today. Plus it was just sad to imagine a family this size having only ever eaten thigh meat.

As I cut up the shoulder roast, I glanced up at the bright, cheerful face of Granny Tito Min, who was standing right in front of me.

“So after you skin the giba and removes its tusks, horns, and hind legs, you just throw the rest of it away?”

“That’s right. So that it does not end up in the hands of the people of the forest’s edge, we throw it down into the valley. There’s a mundt nest down there, so they return the souls of the giba to the forest.”

“Wait, ‘so that it does not end up in the hands of the people of the forest’s edge’...?”

“Yes. If someone who lacks the strength to hunt giba was to find it they may end up eating nothing but discarded meat, giving birth to a people lacking in pride.”

The pride of the people of the forest’s edge, huh?

Seeing as I was born in another world, I couldn’t just accept that quite so easily.

Well, what I could accept least of all, though, was the way that they treated such delicious roast and rib meat as garbage!

“Just for reference, what becomes of families whose men are injured or grow old and are unable to hunt giba?”

“They have no choice but to rely on extended family. And in cases where family cannot support them, they need to rely on a more powerful family in turn. But as long as they are capable of at least doing some sort of work, everyone should have the right to eat giba meat, even if they cannot hunt them down.”

“I see.”

That explanation was enough to quell the ethical concerns I was having.

“I got it, now. Thank you. Now then... After the meat is more or less cut up like this, the next step is to beat it into ground meat with your knife.”

Once more, my attention turned back to cooking. It wasn’t the time to be gathering information right now.

“It’s easier to use a bigger knife to start with. You can rely on the weight of the knife rather than putting too much strength into it, then tenderize the meat thoroughly like this.”

“What’s that?! It looks fun! I wanna try!”

“Hmm? Right, then... I suppose I can leave that much up to you.”

We still had leeway left, after all. And as long as I handle the finishing touches, it should be fine. Plus thinking of tomorrow on, it was important to teach them at least a bit about making giba meat taste delicious.

“Whoa, it’s all slimy! This is neat!”

If you just heard that you would think she was playing around, but I couldn’t see anything unsafe about the way that Rimee Ruu was handling her knife. Though she was still young, she seemed plenty capable when it came to work around the house.

“U-Um, Asuta...! I’d like to give that a try, too!” said Reina Ruu, looking over my way as she continued to stir the poitan soup.

Even if she didn’t ask so desperately, there was still 14 people worth of giba meat, 7 kilos or so in total, to make into hamburger meat. If she wanted to pound it, she could do as much as she pleased.

“Ah, the poitan are looking pretty good. Um, could you carry them like that?”

“Two of us can carry them if we pass a pole through to act as a grip!”

“That would be a big help. Well then, Ai Fa...”

“If this is all you need, then I should be able to handle it,” Reina Ruu said with a smile and a grigee pole in her hands.

In that case, it would be Ai Fa and Reina Ruu... Or so I thought, but my animal instincts were screaming that I shouldn’t pair those two up.

And so, I passed the grigee pole through the sideways handles while taking care not to get burned, and then Reina Ruu and I carried it on outside.

Ai Fa didn’t have as much of a chilling gaze right now, but ever since she had that conversation with Granny Tito Min, she seemed to have been thinking about something with a bit of a gloomy look in her eyes. And man, I hated that. Ai Fa all down in the dumps was the last thing that I wanted to see.

“So, what do we do with this pot now?”

“Right, we should place it in a spot where it’ll get lots of sunlight, and then let it dry out. And I suppose we should spread a bit of water around the outside of the pot so that it doesn’t burn.”

“Got it!”

In spite of my current concerns about Ai Fa, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the work ethic of this Reina Ruu girl. Not only did she work swiftly, she was also a quick learner. I guess this was what you’d call being highly intuitive. You could tell her one thing, and she’d learn ten. And just like Rimee Ruu, she seemed to earnestly have a strong desire to learn the techniques in order to help out her grandmother.

Not long after we carried out the poitan, Reina Ruu set to work pounding the meat and did an even better job than Rimee Ruu, resulting in such beautifully minced meat that I didn’t even need to add any finishing touches. And there were plenty of knives so Granny Tito Min joined in too, meaning it wasn’t long before the seven kilos of giba meat was converted into a little pink mountain.

They really were excellent pupils.

“Huh? Asuta, there’s still meat left over here! Should I make this all slimy, too?”

“Ah, just leave that as is. It’s for a bit of something different.”

I figured if her teeth were so bad we might need some soup, so I set aside three kilos of the roast for that in addition to the seven kilos of meat we had for the burgers. Rimee gave a disappointed sounding “Tch!” and pouted.

“It’s a little out of order, but let’s prepare the aria next. We need a number of other things for this, so could you lead me to the pantry, Rimee Ruu?”

“Yeah!”

“Ah, and could you please light the stove for another pot soon? Ai Fa, I’ll need your help carrying things, alright?”

With an indifferent expression on her face, Ai Fa took her back off of the wall.

Tito Min took charge of the stoves, while the other four of us headed off for the pantry.

There were three doors to the small building, leading from the right to left to the kitchen, the pantry, and the dissection room. When Rimee Ruu led me through the middle door, I couldn’t help but let out a “Wow...”

I hadn’t been expecting this.

The pantry had rows and rows of ingredients I had never seen before all lined up.

“What is all this? It’s amazing, like some sort of mountain of treasure!” I yelled out, unable to stop myself.

Doorless shelves lined the roughly 12 square meter-large room. On them were stupidly big pumpkin-looking fruits that were bright red like a tomato, green vegetables that looked like roses made of lettuce, some mysterious mass that looked like a bundle of coiled snakes, a blue-skinned fruit that was all spikey like a durian... At any rate, there were a whole ton of ingredients aside from just aria and poitan.

There were the familiar pico and lilo leaves hanging from the walls. Hanging next to them, though, was a mysterious two meter-long plant that was thick like bamboo but also hairy like burdock root, as well as what looked like yellow dried persimmons.

And yet, I didn’t see the giba meat anywhere. There was a door in the back of the room, though, so that was probably where they stored it. In other words, this 12 square meter-large space was almost entirely filled with new ingredients. Honestly, it made for a truly heavenly sight.

“Asuta, the aria are over here!”

Rimee Ruu had been darting amongst the shelves, and now she was approaching a corner on the right side of the room. Sure enough, there were both aria and poitan over where she was. And a truly impressive number of them, at that.

“So there really is a huge variety of vegetables in this world, too...”

“World...? But yeah, it’s neat how the taste changes depending on what you put in the pot! I really like tarapa! And big sis Reina, you’re fond of tino leaves, right?!”

“But Rimee Ruu, people can live off of just aria and poitan, right?”

“Hmm? Ah, yeah, apparently so! But it’d get boring eating the same thing each and every day, right?”

I see. So all these foods were luxury items for a powerful family, huh? But I’m sure they were still highly nutritious. Even if they were luxury items, they probably weren’t full-on indulgences.

Now that I thought of it, all the women here had some meat on their bones, aside from Rimee and Lala Ruu. Plus, they looked incredibly healthy on top of that. And ever since I figured out the poitan was a grain I had been thinking that the aria being the lone vegetable in a diet may be a little insufficient, so I assumed they must have been getting the missing nutrients from these vegetables.

But still... No matter which vegetables they may be using, they’re still just chucking them in a giba stew with dissolved poitan, right?

What a waste. I mean, just imagine all the fantastic dishes I could make with all these ingredients... Ah, just thinking of it caused me to tremble.

“Do you want to use these ingredients too, perhaps?” Reina Ruu asked with a reserved smile.

Though I could feel myself being incredibly tempted, I ultimately gave a firm “No,” back. “There’s no time for tasting, so although it’s a shame, we’d better not. It would be a real issue if I used ingredients I had never seen before and ended up wrecking the dish, right?”

I mean, it had taken me four whole days to figure out the poitan. I couldn’t exactly just toss aside Ai Fa’s feelings and my pride as a chef to head off on that adventure.

Now that I think of it... I thought, turning around to look at Ai Fa, only to find her looking at the various ingredients with little interest. Right... She needs to take down one giba every five days in order to obtain the bare minimum amount of food we need. I can’t let myself go getting all envious of folks who are better off...

As someone who grew up in an eatery, I had nothing to do with ingredients like caviar and foie gras. So I just had to think of these as similar luxury items, outside of the reach of common folk.

At any rate, we grabbed enough aria, fruit wine, and bundled up rock salt for 14 people, and left the pantry.

And then... they were there waiting for us.

“What’s this? Giba crap? Don’t go leaving junk in the middle of my path!”

His thick, vulgar voice resounded like thunder. And I could clearly see the tension in Ai Fa’s face.

“Hmm? Oh, Papa Donda, welcome home! You’re pretty early today, aren’t you?!” Rimee Ruu happily exclaimed while holding the wine flask as she ran towards him.

Immediately after we left the pantry, we had found four men with an animalistic stench about them standing in our way. The large man in the lead who had stared down at the pot of poitan in disgust was now glaring straight at me past Rimee Ruu.

“Oh, so you’re the outsider who’s been staying in the Fa house? I’d heard you were pale, but man are you ever one white kid!”

Even the breath of this large, bearded man stunk of animals.

Naturally, this was Rimee Ruu’s father, the head of the Ruu clan, Donda Ruu.