Chapter 4: A Time of Parting

1

The next day, on the 31st of the blue month, we increased the number of bodyguards to four. That was thanks to both Kamyua Yoshu’s ominous warning, as well as Ai Fa’s opinion that someone had been keeping an eye on us.

The additions were Shin Ruu and a boy from one of the Ruu branch houses who I didn’t know all that well. Unfortunately, the Lea clan head Rau Lea apparently wasn’t someone we could ask so lightly to take up the job.

“Besides, Rau Lea’s got a real short temper anyway. It’s a bit iffy, having him deal with townsfolk, right?” Ludo Ruu chimed in.

If that was Donda Ruu’s opinion too, then I’d have to say he definitely put some thought into it. After all, those folks from the castle seemed like they would exploit any weakness they could get their hands on.

Still, it was uncertain what we even needed to be on guard for with how things stood, so we just had to keep working away at the stalls for the time being.

Plus, I had an additional concern that felt every bit as serious to me as Cyclaeus’s plotting. Naturally, I was thinking about the fact that after today Shumiral would be leaving Genos, and the question of how things stood between him and Vina Ruu.

“How’s your leg doing, Vina Ruu?” I called out from the myamuu giba stall over to the giba burger stall.

“Ah, it’s okay...” was the relaxed reply that came back.

Fortunately, Vina Ruu was back to working with us as of today. Still, her sprained ankle apparently hadn’t fully healed yet, and from what I heard the trip would’ve been difficult for her if we couldn’t provide the wagon for transportation.

But Mia Lea Ruu said they didn’t need to worry about having Vina Ruu around to handle things since there were bodyguards anyway, so it was decided for the time being she should alternate with Reina Ruu on a day-by-day basis.

“Hey, when do you think that easterner’s going to come by?” Lala Ruu whispered as she worked alongside me in the myamuu giba stall.

“I’m not sure. Normally, this would be around when he’d stop by.”

“Ugh, for some reason it’s got me feeling all on edge. It’s not even like he’s asking her to marry him, but for some reason it’s got me all worked up.”

My heart was pounding too, but I wasn’t sure I was feeling the same emotions as Lala Ruu. Wait, what had her feeling like that, anyway? I asked her about it.

“I’ve got no idea! But he seems as serious as if he actually was proposing, right? So that’s just got my heart pounding, somehow,” Lala Ruu stated, bringing her hands to her chest and breathing a sigh. “Vina really should hurry up and get married already, too. Then she wouldn’t have to deal with all this hassle.”

“It really would be difficult for Shumiral and Vina Ruu to get together, huh...?”

“Of course! Actually... I can’t say I really know all that much about it, but they consider it a pretty big deal in town to go changing gods, don’t they?”

“I don’t really know either, but from what I hear, that’s the case.”

“Ah, you didn’t know anything about the four great gods to start with, did you? I still can’t believe that! Anyway, changing your god means cutting ties with your family, right? There’s no way I could do something like that!”

“Mmm, but even if you have to live apart, it’s not like you can’t ever see each other again... Hmm, I still don’t know. I guess it’s not really my place to say, though.”

“You’d have to live apart anyway if you married into any other house, but I’d hate it if Vina had to leave the forest’s edge and wasn’t one of our people anymore,” Lala Ruu replied, her eyebrows drooping a bit as she sucked in her lower lip.

This girl was a tough one, but occasionally she made some pretty cute faces.

“Then could a foreigner marry into the Ruu clan...?”

“Hmm? Why not? Then Vina could stay as part of our family.”

“Ah, that would work?”

“I wouldn’t really mind. And I don’t think my mom would, either. Dad could be tricky, though...”

Donda Ruu, huh?

How did that man feel about this matter, I wondered...

“Well, I guess it’s just not possible after all, though. Even if we took him into our clan, that easterner wouldn’t be able to serve as a hunter, and besides, he’s someone who does business in Genos’s castle town, right? I can’t imagine a guy like that just abandoning his life up till now to marry into the forest’s edge.”

“But personally, you wouldn’t be upset about it?”

“That’s right. I don’t care who Vina marries, as long as they can make her happy.”

Lala Ruu resembled Ludo Ruu not just in terms of her face, but in her way of thinking, too. But, well, her brother had assumed there was a chance Vina Ruu would leave the forest’s edge, and wished for his sister’s happiness even so.

Still, it seems like it’d be difficult for them to get married either way...

An extreme outsider like me could only imagine just how hard it would be to give up your home, friends, family, and very life up till that point in order to marry into the forest’s edge.

But what about the other way around?

Vina Ruu had a yearning to see the world outside of the forest’s edge. Plus, her people worshiped the forest, not any of the four great gods. So in that case, she shouldn’t have any strong objections to switching gods, either.

That still felt like it would be quite difficult even so, though. Even if she personally didn’t have strong objections to the idea, changing gods would mean she couldn’t keep living in western territory... at the forest’s edge.

Shumiral didn’t have any family, and on top of that, he strove hard at his work with the merchant group. From what I could recall, he said that after leaving his homeland of Sym, he would spend nearly a year traveling around towns to the west and north. He couldn’t just leave Vina Ruu all alone in Sym during that time, without so much as a single relative to keep her company.

Then what if they didn’t have kids, and Vina Ruu traveled the world with him...?

No, that didn’t seem realistic either.

Shumiral must have thought all this over himself, which was surely what led to him saying it would be difficult.

Anyway, I guess I’ve just got to hope that Vina Ruu accepts that gift from Shumiral for now...

As I felt a strange sense of ennui, I gave a sigh along with Lala Ruu.

It was then that Ai Fa coldly stated, “You’ve come again...?” It was like she was some kind of gatekeeper.

“Quiet, you! What sort of attitude is that to take with a customer, anyway?”

It was the girl from the south, Diel.

After sticking her tongue out at Ai Fa, she then walked up to the myamuu giba stall with a smile.

“Hey there! I made it out again! I’ll take one please, Asuta.”

“Ah, thanks. Huh...? If you were switching every other day, then shouldn’t you be buying a giba burger today?”

“Hmm? I mean, they’re both tasty, so I’m good with either! And you’re over here, so I went with this one,” Diel said with a smile so bright it made it hard to believe she had been so abusive back when we first met. Meanwhile, Ai Fa crossed her arms and glared out of the corner of her eyes at the girl’s innocent grin.

We had actually opened up to Kamyua Yoshu about this girl yesterday, too. Which meant we told him the circumstances of how she ended up at our stalls, and asked him if there was much of a chance that Cyclaeus had a hand in that.

“Ah, someone related to that merchant group that came from Jeland? Oh, right, the iron sellers that Cyclaeus invited to his manor, yeah? Since they showed up in Genos at a time like this, Melfried of course looked into them. They’re just ordinary merchants, so they wouldn’t be messing with the people of the forest’s edge under Cyclaeus’s orders or anything.”

And so, thanks to those words from Kamyua Yoshu, she was cleared of any suspicions for the time being.

However, the fact remained that she had ties to Cyclaeus, so it really was best to maintain an appropriate distance. And so, I retained a perfectly neutral business smile when facing the girl.

“Ooh, that smells good! Hey, do you think this would heat back up well on a stove?”

“Huh? Why do you ask?”

“I wanna have those guys back in the castle town give it a try! They said there was no way giba meat was edible, and they didn’t believe my story at all!”

That statement gave me goosebumps.

“A-Ah, if you let too much time pass, it may end up going bad! And it would be a real problem if that wrecked someone’s stomach. So please don’t go taking my cooking back to the castle town.”

“Huh?! But once I pay you my coins, I’m free to do what I please with it afterwards, right?” Diel asked, her smile giving way to puffed up cheeks.

Thanks to that, I ended up having to hurriedly rack my brain.

“B-But there are a lot of folks around Genos who aren’t too welcoming to the people of the forest’s edge or giba meat. You’re at least aware of that much, right?”

“Hmm? I don’t really pay attention. Isn’t it just that lots of people of the forest’s edge have scary faces, so everyone’s afraid of them?” Diel said while shooting Ai Fa a hateful look.

My clan head fired back with a chilly glare in response.

“It’s not quite that simple. Giba were originally seen as a symbol of calamity, so the people of the forest’s edge came to be seen the same way because they eat meat from the beasts. Um, and also... Since they changed from the southern god to the western one, people don’t really see them as part of the same community, and there hasn’t been a very good relationship between the forest’s edge and the town up till now.”

“What’s with that? That’s just bizarre! It’s been decades since the people of the forest’s edge cast aside Jagar, but they’re still not accepted as comrades?”

I was astounded to hear that she didn’t even know that much.

Still, I guess that made sense for someone from a group of foreigners who only did business in the castle town. Even if they were all citizens of Genos, the people of the forest’s edge and the folks from the castle town pretty much had nothing to do with one another. The one exception was of course Cyclaeus, but I couldn’t see him going out of his way to talk to his business partners about these issues.

Right... It’s not exactly unthinkable for someone from the castle town to go their whole lives without ever seeing anyone from the forest’s edge. I guess to them, the relationship between the folks of the post town and the people of the forest’s edge may just be somebody else’s problem.

This was a new discovery.

But if I brought it up to the people of the forest’s edge, they might not see how it matters.

However, I drew myself back from those thoughts to the problem at hand, and replied to Diel, “At any rate, I can’t even imagine what sort of commotion it would cause if you brought giba cooking into the castle town. We’d like to just keep on doing business without making waves, so could you please reconsider?”

Diel groaned “Ugggh,” for a bit, but eventually she gave a downhearted, “Alright... I just wanted to really leave them speechless. But if that’ll cause you trouble, then I’ll just drop it...”

Somehow, her face reminded me of a puppy with both ears drooping down.

At any rate, I replied, “Thanks,” as I moved the meat and aria to the center of the iron tray. “You just want the one, right? This dish is two red coins, too.”

“Right! I’m starving, so be sure to make it nice and tasty, alright?” Diel retorted, her mood seemingly recovered as she broke out again in a grin.

I felt like I was about to start smiling too in response, only for another customer to arrive and call out, “Hey, long time no see!”

When I turned to look, I found a western girl with long, dark brown hair and a smile just as bright as Diel’s standing there. And with her proportions that were even a match for Vina Ruu on top of that, I immediately identified her as Yumi, from The Westerly Wind.

“Ah, thanks for coming. It really has been some time.”

“I mean, I’ve got work back at the inn too, so it’s not easy to slip out before the sun hits its peak! But I’ve still been coming by every day, you know.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. Thank you so much for your continued patronage.”

Yumi was one of my precious few regulars from the west, along with Dora and Tara. And even though we hadn’t had many chances to see one another lately, I never forgot my gratitude towards her.

Diel wouldn’t go and pick a fight with my western customers too, right...? I thought, worriedly glancing over. She had both hands on the stall’s counter, looking at me like a puppy begging for food. And her companion Labis had already paid Lala Ruu for the dish.

“Ah, sorry! I’ll make it right away, so hold on just a moment.”

“Okay!” Diel replied with a big grin. She really was unmatched with how quickly she shifted her expressions.

But for some reason, Yumi’s smile then drew back as she started looking Diel up and down.

“I’ve never seen you before. Are you one of Asuta’s friends or something?”

“Hmm? I wouldn’t especially say we’re friends or anything,” Diel replied, turning her way and looking puzzled.

Yumi gave a “Hmph,” back while brushing aside her long hair. “Then are you a regular here at this shop? Not that I’ve ever seen a southern girl like you around up till now, though...”

“I guess you could say that. I mean, this is my fourth day in a row coming here, now!”

Not that you paid on that first day, though, I thought to myself with a shrug of my shoulders.

This was no time to just stand here all carefree, though. After all, Yumi was now shooting me a real prickly glare.

“Asuta, what’s going on here...?”

“Huh? Wh-What do you mean?”

“You said that you talk to me all polite because I’m a customer, right?! So in that case, why are you talking to this girl who only showed up four days ago like she’s a friend?!”

Ah, so that was what had earned me Yumi’s wrath?

Now that I thought about it, Yumi had made the same assertion even when it came to young Tara, too. And back then, I had managed to end things without incident by saying that Tara was an acquaintance from before we opened the stalls.

“No, um, you see... I suppose it just sort of ended up that way...”

“What do you mean, it ‘ended up that way?’ That doesn’t explain anything!”

“You’re so noisy. If you came here to buy Asuta’s cooking, then just be quiet and eat already,” Diel nonchalantly stated while biting into the myamuu giba I had handed her.

I couldn’t help but think, You’re one to talk! but I was at least relieved to see she wasn’t getting drawn up in Yumi’s emotional outburst. Apparently when she was dealing with folks from the south or west, she could actually act pretty rationally.

“I’d say there are only two paths left open to you right now, Asuta...” Yumi stated, clearly in quite a nasty mood. And as she angrily glared at me, she held up two of her slender fingers and thrust them in front of my face. “Either you do something about that stiff and stuffy way you talk to me, or you treat all your customers the same. Which one will you choose, Asuta?”

“Umm... I’ve been doing business for over a month now, so revising the way I speak at this point would prove quite difficult...”

“Wait, you’re not going to go acting all formal with me now, are you?” Diel asked with an angelic grin. It was just such a carefree smile that it hurt just imagining whether she’d get angry or cry if I betrayed those expectations.

And so, I had no choice but to reply, “No, I’m not,” only for Yumi to wail, “No fair! Why do you keep picking just on me?! I’ve known you way longer!”

“Stop shouting, or you’ll get the guards called on you for interfering with business,” Diel said with a satisfied grin as she stuffed her cheeks with myamuu giba. I couldn’t help but sigh, but I took care so that Yumi wouldn’t notice.

It was around then that I finally picked up on the chilly glare drilling into my right cheek.

When I turned to look, I found that sure enough, it was my beloved clan head staring at me out of the corner of her eyes.

I tried asking with my eyes why she was angry, but she shot me back a look that said, “Quiet, you.”

That sort of borderline telepathy served as proof that the bond between us members of the Fa clan had reached max level.

“Umm... I don’t believe I’ll be able to make the change all at once, but I’ll try to work towards it, so could we end things peacefully for now...?” I asked, hoping to settle the matter, only for Yumi to bring her face in close with her eyebrows still raised.

“Are you really, honestly going to work on it...?”

“Yes... Er, yup. Well, at least where possible...”

Upon hearing that, Yumi gave a big sigh, then slapped down her two red coins.

“Thank you so much for... Er, thanks as always...”

“It doesn’t seem like you’re trying at all!”

“I-It really is tricky to change so suddenly.”

Still, I guess she’s at least not hitting me like Rau Lea, I thought as I set about preparing the myamuu giba.

“The food’s tasty, and you get all sorts of interesting customers here,” Diel cackled.

Yumi, meanwhile, shot her a sulky glare.

“So, what’s your deal, anyway? It’s rare seeing young women from the south in Genos. Are you part of a merchant group?”

“Yeah. We’re iron sellers from Jeland,” Diel casually replied, tossing the last chunk of her meal into her mouth.

“Iron sellers, huh...? Well, not that it really matters, but why are you dressed like a man?”

“Hmm? I certainly couldn’t imagine walking around the post town in such floofy clothing. Don’t you end up getting targeted by good-for-nothing scoundrels dressed like that?”

“You think I could live here in the post town if I was scared of guys like that? You must’ve had quite the pampered upbringing, huh?” Yumi retorted with arms crossed, looking down upon Diel.

Now that I thought about it, she was actually accompanied by some good-for-nothings back when I first met her. By the way, today she was wearing a narrow wrap for a top, some jangling accessories, and a long skirt that reached from her hips to her ankles, which was a very popular look for folks from the west. And her slender legs could be spied through a slit running down the side of that long skirt, which was quite seductive.

“Well, if that’s the custom for you southerners, then whatever. But you’ve got a cute face, so why not grow out your hair? You’ll get mistaken for a boy looking like that, right?”

Yeah, she was, I thought to myself.

Diel had remained calm and composed up until now, but with that I saw her face turning visibly redder.

“Shut it! The choice to grow it out or keep it short is mine to make, alright?! Don’t go looking down on me just because you’re a little sexy!”

“Wah!” Yumi wailed, letting out an odd yelp.

Of all things, Diel’s right hand had grabbed a hold of Yumi’s ample chest.

After shaking off the girl’s hand, Yumi’s face went bright red as she weakly collapsed to the ground.

“W-W-What do you think you’re doing?! Don’t go scaring me all of a sudden like that!”

“Hmph! So you wouldn’t have a problem if it wasn’t ‘all of a sudden?’ You want me to announce it in advance next time, then?”

Diel was sidling on up towards Yumi, her fingers on both hands curled up like claws.

Yumi, meanwhile, was cradling her own torso and shrinking backwards with a look of bewilderment on her face.

It was then that Ai Fa finally said, “Hey,” and grabbed a hold of Diel’s slender shoulder. “Don’t cause a commotion in front of the stalls. I see you still haven’t learned your lesson at all, southerner.”

Diel turned towards Ai Fa, clearly taken aback.

And though Labis had just stood there out of the way like a shadow up until now, he grabbed the handle of his long sword and approached my clan head.

“Woman of the forest’s edge, remove your hand from Master Diel. If you don’t, I will cut you down...”

“Oh? It seems quite a few of you southerners don’t have much respect for the law...”

Ai Fa didn’t look all that impressed in the least, but she still let go of the girl’s shoulder.

It was then that Diel gave an unrestrained shout of, “Cut it out, Labis!” and then grumbled, “I shouldn’t have done that... Sorry, Asuta.”

“Ah, no...”

“And I’m sorry to you, too. I just lose control when people say stuff about my hair...”

“Y-Your hair...?”

“Because it’s this dirty-looking color, I can’t grow it out and have it look all pretty like yours. If that weren’t the case, then I really wouldn’t ever be mistaken for a man, even when dressed like this...” Diel muttered, then she bit her lip and stopped talking.

Yumi slowly rose to her feet, then walked over towards Diel while guarding her chest.

“I wouldn’t say it’s especially dirty or anything. It’s just a bit uncommon.”

“How can you say that?! It looks like an animal’s fur!” Diel wailed, her face twisting up with sadness as she roughly rustled her hair.

That hair of hers was an unusual, speckled dark brown. And it was true that it had reminded me of a dog or cat or something. But I hadn’t ever thought it was “dirty” in the least.

“I see. Well, people all have their own preferences,” Yumi replied while placing a hand atop Diel’s rustled hair. “I didn’t think it was dirty at all though, which was why I said it would be good to grow it out. Still, if that made you mad, then I’m sorry.”

Diel just silently hung her head. Before long, though, she glanced up at Yumi, who had a truly apologetic look on her face.

“You’re not angry...?”

“Yeah. You just surprised me a bit, there.”

“Ah, I see. It was soft and felt nice, y’know.”

“Don’t go saying stuff like that!” Yumi shouted back, ruffling Diel’s hair even further.

The girl from the south just kept laughing away as she fled from Yumi’s hand, though.

“Sorry again. I’ll go ahead and leave for today. After all, I’ve got work to take care of once the sun hits its peak... Asuta, do you mind if I come again tomorrow?”

“Huh? Ah, of course not.”

“Thanks,” Diel replied, and with that she swiftly departed.

And after shooting Ai Fa one last glare, her companion Labis followed after her.

“What an oddball! But maybe she wasn’t such a bad person after all...” Yumi mumbled with a sigh.

“Are you alright?” I asked, only for her face to go red again for some reason as she hid her chest and shot me a scary look.

“Just hurry up and make mine already! I’ve still got work left, too!”

“Huh? Right, my apologies...”

“Wording!”

“Ah, sorry!”

It was like I was dealing with Mida or something.

Lala Ruu was looking away while stifling a laugh, while Yumi angrily snatched the myamuu giba out of my hand.

“Geez, I came here today to have a serious conversation, but everything got completely out of hand... Hey, Asuta, you sell your cooking to The Great Southern Tree and The Sledgehammer, right?”

“Hmm? Yeah...”

“You tweak the flavors there to meet the tastes of their customers from the south and east, don’t you? But if a westerner like me were to eat one, which would you recommend?”

“Huh? What would the purpose behind that question be, though?”

“You’re not doing that intentionally, are you...?”

“Of course I don’t mean to... Er, I’m not.”

Lala Ruu’s shoulders were trembling, and Yumi gave yet another sigh.

“Apparently a lot of customers from the west have been heading to those two inns, lately. And it seems that was enough to finally make my dad get up off his butt.”

“‘Off his butt...?’ What do you mean?”

“I still don’t know just yet. He might be thinking of trying to have you make food with karon or kimyuus meat rather than giba.”

Yumi’s father was the owner of The Westerly Wind, and he apparently didn’t want anything to do with the people of the forest’s edge or giba. However, he wasn’t a true child of Genos, as he had moved here from another town when he was young. Yumi’s analysis of the situation was that there was no real reason or circumstances behind his prejudice. It was just the result of having lived in the post town for such a long period of time. Her reasoning was that since she had the same sort of opinion about the people of the forest’s edge, and yet she was able to overcome it thanks to our meeting, then he could too.

“Hmm, but there’s no point if I’m not using giba meat. I think I said this before, but my goal in starting this business was more to spread how delicious giba is than to earn coins.”

“Right, I get that. But that stubborn old man of mine said I should go give it a taste to see how skilled you really are. Up till now, he would get angry when my mom or I would sneak out to buy your cooking! That’s amazing, isn’t it?” Yumi said, bringing her face in closer while looking a bit desperate. “The rest would be up to your skills, right? If I can convince him it’ll be tasty, then you could get him to eat your cooking, and then maybe that’ll finally break through that hard head of his! Er... was I being real selfish with my thinking there?”

“Ah, no! You’re definitely right. In fact, I’m super happy just to hear you got him interested.”

If I could sell my giba cooking to an inn both run by and serving westerners, that would be a huge step forward.

If it was possible, I would have liked The Kimyuus’s Tail to be the place I took that step, but I couldn’t exactly let a great opportunity slip away.

Plus, it seems like the evidence from that incident ten years back isn’t being treated as all that important. Once I can be sure that Cyclaeus isn’t keeping an eye on Milano Mas, I should push real hard to get The Kimyuus’s Tail to do business with me, too.

As that thought ran through my head, I went ahead and shot Yumi an earnest smile.

“Thanks. If your dad really does have an interest in my work, then I’ll give it my all to teach him just how delicious giba meat really is, Yumi.”

Yumi’s eyes opened wide.

Was that because of the heat coming off the iron tray from below? I got the feeling that her cheeks were turning a bit red, too.

“What the...? You’re talking to me normally?”

“Ah, yeah, I guess so. I still can’t help but feel a bit self-conscious about it, though.”

“And you remembered my name...?”

“Huh? How bad do you think my memory is?!”

Though with that said, I got the feeling that I really may not have had a chance to say it even once. And that didn’t just go for Yumi. I didn’t really have many opportunities to call Balan or Aldas by name, either.

With a giggle, Yumi pulled back.

“That makes me really happy, somehow...”

“Huh? How, exactly?”

“Never mind! Anyway, which one would you recommend? The Great Southern Tree, or The Sledgehammer?”

“Ah, um, let’s see... I’m planning to change the content of the dishes a bit starting from tomorrow on, but at The Sledgehammer I use a special spice from Sym called chitt seeds, while the dish served at The Great Southern Tree would probably be easier for you to adjust to. By the way, have you ever eaten anything that uses tau oil...?”

“No. That’s a condiment from Jagar, isn’t it? I only know the name.”

“I see. Well, it’s not as peculiar of a taste as chitt seeds, so it should definitely still be easier to eat. But honestly, I only had customers from the east and south in mind when I came up with both dishes.”

“Got it. Well then, I’ll give The Great Southern Tree a try first! I’m really looking forward to it,” Yumi said with a big grin. She looked happier than usual, which I was glad to see. And the fact that a westerner like her was so concerned about me made me even gladder still.

“Thanks. I’ll give it my all not to let this opportunity you’re giving me go to waste.”

“Yeah, good luck! But if I really don’t think it’s tasty, I’ll have to be honest and say so.”

“Right. I look forward to hearing your impressions, Yumi.”

With that, Yumi left with a smile and I breathed a contented sigh.

And then, I felt a stare on my right cheek again. When I turned to look, I found that sure enough, Ai Fa was silently glaring at me.

I asked, “What are you mad about?” with my eyes, and hers shot me back another “Quiet, you.”

Perhaps she wasn’t too fond of this telepathy thing we had going on?

Anyway, while I was thinking that, a tall man in a cloak approached from the north.

This was an eastern customer, but it wasn’t Shumiral or Sanjura. He was easily over 190 centimeters tall, which was rare, even for someone from Sym.

“Welcome. Do you just want one?”

“No, two, please,” the man replied, lowering his hood.

It really was uncommon for a customer from the east other than Shumiral or Sanjura to go out of their way to show me their face.

“Asuta, do you, remember me?”

“Huh?”

“I am, the assistant leader, of the Silver Vase, Radajid Gi Nafassiar.”

I honestly didn’t recognize his face at all. His hair and eyes were black, and he had a long, oval-shaped face like many folks from Sym.

However, I did recall that there was one member of the Silver Vase who was this tall.

“Right. Are you on your own today?”

“Yes. Today, is busy. So everyone, will come, separately to, make their, purchases,” Radajid stated, then he glanced over at the giba burger stall. “Asuta, I have, something to, discuss regarding, Vina Ruu.” Vina Ruu then slowly looked over our way, and in a voice so low it barely reached me, Radajid added, “Our leader, Shumiral, had sudden business, to take, care of. He will, be late, in coming, to see, you two.”

“Sudden business?” I asked back.

With his eyes still fixed on Vina Ruu, Radajid nodded and answered, “Yes. He said, he will come, around when, you wrap up, business with, your stalls, for the day. He will, meet you, without fail, at The, Kimyuus’s Tail. That is when, he shall say, his farewells.”

“I see. I suppose it’s your last day doing business here, so there must be all sorts of things to take care of... Wait... Shumiral already knew that Vina Ruu came to town today?”

“Yes. Shumiral has, been in, the castle town, since this, morning. But one of, our comrades, told him, about your, stalls. So Shumiral, is aware.”

“Got it.”

Thinking about my regulars, I realized the sun had almost hit its peak, but I still hadn’t seen Pops’s group, either.

The conversation with Yumi had gotten my spirits up quite a bit, but that ended up dashing them.

“Shumiral will, come without, fail. But for now, I will, hand him, this meal,” Radajid stated, looking back my way. “All ten, members of, the Silver Vase, will come, say our, goodbyes. We are grateful, to have met, you all.”

“Ah, that should be my line. I feel truly blessed having met you folks.”

“He will say, farewell after, your business, is done,” Radajid stated in an emotionless tone. However, his black eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and I couldn’t help but feel he looked just a bit happy, in the same way as Shumiral.

2

The sun was now at its peak.

After waiting for Li Sudra to show up to take my place, we headed on over to The Sledgehammer. And when we did so, we entrusted the jerky for Pops’s group to Sheera Ruu. There were 20 kilos of it there, which I had easily managed to gather from the Ruu and the six clans under them, as well as five other small nearby clans.

The payment of 30 white coins wouldn’t work out to all that much once it was split twelve ways. But this time around, rather than prioritizing small clans like I had done before, I simply distributed the work evenly wherever I could.

And with my clan head’s permission, I also went ahead and prepared a little something extra to show my appreciation for those regulars of mine.

It was something I was presently experimenting with when I could find the time and, well... I wasn’t quite sure whether or not it was worthy of the name yet, but I suppose I’d call it giba bacon. In other words, I was undergoing trial and error to see if I could make the jerky, which was as hard as tree bark, a little bit less firm.

Use salt to remove moisture, then after it’s dried out, grill it with herbs. That was the process for making jerky at the forest’s edge, and at its core, that was also pretty much how bacon was produced. But jerky prioritized preservation above all else, so it thoroughly eliminated all the moisture inside the meat. Thanks to that, it ended up so tough that a weakling like me had trouble even chewing through it.

Of course, considering there were no refrigeration devices here in this world, and the climate at the forest’s edge and around Genos was akin to early summer in Japan, prioritizing preservation certainly made sense. Still, could I manage to get it closer to the bacon I was familiar with, even so...? How much could I sacrifice preservation, and just how soft could I make it? I was trying out all sorts of things whenever we made jerky at the Fa house in order to find those answers.

The amount of salt, the time the meat was salted for, how long it was left to dry after being removed from the salt, how long it was smoked with herbs, whether there was room for improvement in the smoking process, if pico leaves could be used effectively to dry it out in the same way... There were just too many variables at play, and I was finding it difficult to arrive at an answer. At present, I could make it so that even I could bite into it, but in exchange it wouldn’t even last for a full week.

I definitely still hadn’t reached my ideal result. However, when I tried boiling it up with poitan and aria like a traveler would do, I found that it was still dramatically tastier than the current jerky was.

With the jerky, you needed to boil it till it got all mushy, leaving you with nothing but rubbery chunks of meat. But with this new pseudo-bacon, you could eat it while still leaving a good bit of the delicious flavor intact.

I of course used rib meat, and I left more fat clinging to it than with the jerky, which made a big difference in terms of taste. But at any rate, I added two kilos of that pseudo-bacon to the order.

Before leaving the stall, I left three messages with Sheera Ruu: That they needed to eat it within seven days, that it didn’t need to be boiled as much as normal jerky, and that this was my thanks to them for always coming to the stalls over this past month, so I didn’t need any payment for it.

Did such actions go against the customs of the post town?

Even so, at least when it came to Pops’s construction company and the members of the Silver Vase, I couldn’t help feeling the need to give them something to show my gratitude. But I was undeniably feeling a touch nervous as we walked south down the stone highway towards The Sledgehammer, thinking that if we all met up and they thrust the pseudo-bacon back at me, then I’d probably end up crying into my pillow over it.

Our current group consisted of me, Vina Ruu, Shin Ruu, and Ai Fa. Ludo Ruu and the boy from the branch house stayed behind at the stalls.

And as she stood next to me, Vina Ruu gave a sigh full of utter misery.

“Are you alright, Vina Ruu...?”

“Yeah... But if it’s possible, I’d prefer to get all the troublesome stuff dealt with sooner rather than later...”

As she walked unsteadily along, her right leg dragged ever so slightly. I couldn’t spy any expression on her face, but I’d still say she seemed rather uncertain even so.

Is she going to accept that gift from Shumiral?

I’d felt that question welling up in my throat for a while now, but I had somehow managed to hold it back so far.

Though it had been pretty bumbling, Vina Ruu was still someone who had tried to make a move on me. And so, it probably wouldn’t be good for me to be asking her that sort of thing about Shumiral.

What had Vina Ruu been feeling as she shot me those passionate glances? And what sort of emotions had been swirling deep inside her then? Was it curiosity toward my mysterious background? Had her longing for the outside world provided some sort of added value? Or was it just pure affection? I had no way of knowing, and maybe the same was even true for Vina Ruu.

The people of the forest’s edge likely relied on their intuition when choosing a partner even more than folks did back in my old world. Mia Lea Ruu had confessed her feelings to Donda Ruu after only meeting him twice, and her daughter Reina Ruu certainly hadn’t taken long to do the same with me.

Of course, maybe I was being a bit hasty extrapolating those two examples out into being true of the nature of their people in general. But Vina Ruu was related to both of them, and she had come at me rather hard and fast, too.

Still, just how exactly did she feel about Shumiral?

What were her thoughts on what he had said to her?

There was no way an awkward guy like me could even begin to imagine.

“What is it? You’ve been looking disheartened for a while now,” Ai Fa said, bringing her face in closer as we walked. “If there’s something concerning you, Asuta, then speak up rather than keeping it to yourself.”

“No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking a bit,” I said with a shake of my head as Ai Fa shot me a glare about 20% more piercing than usual. “What about you, though? Are you sensing that gaze again today?”

“No, not today. And I’m hoping yesterday was someone who just happened to be keeping an unusually persistent eye on us.”

But at least until that was certain, Ai Fa wouldn’t let her guard down.

Still, there was half a month left until the day of the next meeting.

The Ruu clan were in a period of rest, so it was one thing for them, but Ai Fa couldn’t exactly ignore her hunting responsibilities that long. After all, less giba being hunted around the Ruu settlement meant more of them appearing elsewhere, as they ate up all the food.

The period when the Suun clan were shirking their duty as hunters had caused quite a bit of disturbance, but at the very least in the area around the Fa house, the number of giba still hadn’t really started thinning out at all. And the nearby Fou and Ran clans also seemed to still be making rather steady catches, too.

“I plan to head into the forest every other day until the 15th day of the white month,” Ai Fa stated as if she had been reading my mind. And then, she shot me a glare from real close. “And so, I also intend to ask the Ruu clan to take over my guard duties every other day. But you better not go acting recklessly when I’m not watching, Asuta, or I’ll make you regret it.”

“Got it. Wait, when have I been reckless in the post town to begin with, anyway?”

“You got slugged by that girl from the south just a few days ago now, didn’t you?” she retorted, looking at me like she was a cat with its hackles raised, and then she poked me in the shoulder.

It seemed like her mood took a turn for the worse the second we started talking about Diel.

“You two have quite a dynamic going, don’t you...?” Vina Ruu murmured.

Ai Fa turned her way, reining in the anger on her face as she did so.

“You seem rather weakened. Does your ankle still hurt, eldest daughter of the Ruu?”

“No... It’s more my heart that hurts when I see you two acting so comfortable with each other...”

That statement caused my heart to skip a beat.

However, Ai Fa just tilted her head and looked confused.

“You have a lot of family in the Ruu clan, don’t you? So why should such a sight pain you?”

“You’re seriously asking, aren’t you? That’s what makes you so hard to handle...”

I could practically see the question mark forming over Ai Fa’s head.

As she glanced listlessly at my clan head, Vina Ruu gave a sigh.

“Whatever, don’t worry about it... This is my own personal issue to deal with, after all...”

“I see,” Ai Fa answered with a nod. Then, after looking unusually hesitant for a moment, she continued on, “Granny Jiba and Rimee Ruu are both part of the Ruu clan. They’re the only two I know intimately, but that’s enough for me to say... I think that your house is truly blessed.”

“I know all that... My family is precious to me, too...”

With that, Vina Ruu’s face disappeared behind her long bangs.

As for what she whispered next, I may have been the only one to hear it, as I was standing right next to her.

“What is it that I even want, I wonder...?” she murmured with a childlike unease to her voice.

◇

“As of today, my contract with you has come to a momentary close, Asuta,” Nail stated emotionlessly in the kitchen of his inn, The Sledgehammer.

He had a medium build all around, and hadn’t yet hit 30. His hair was dark brown, his eyes reddish-brown, and his skin ivory-white. Overall, he had the appearance of a perfectly normal westerner.

“Thank you for working with me up till now. And I would be truly glad to form a new contract with you starting from tomorrow onwards.”

“I’m honored to hear you say that. But like I mentioned before, I’d like to switch over to a dish that doesn’t use the pickled chitt starting tomorrow,” I replied while laying out the ingredients I had brought atop my workstation.

“I’ve been secretly looking forward to seeing what you’ll make,” Nail stated as he watched.

Despite the fact that his words were so polite and friendly, his face remained almost eerily expressionless. The man was a bit eccentric, in that he adhered to the customs of the east and strove not to let his emotions show.

“I somehow managed to get the flavor to come together. I’d like you to give it a taste today, so I’ll go ahead and get to work.”

The dish for today was the kimchi hot pot-inspired “chitt hot pot.” To make it, I boiled the giba meat, aria, and tino together, then added pickled chitt and tau oil. And so, my hands were completely free during that boiling step. Thanks to that, after I tossed the ingredients into the pot, I was able to swiftly set about preparing my new dish: the giba sauté arrabbiata I had served Ai Fa and Shumiral two days ago. And since I was just preparing enough for one person, it was an incredibly simple process.

As I silently worked away on the dish, I left Vina Ruu to watch over the chitt hot pot.

Meanwhile, Ai Fa stood by the far wall, which had a window, Shin Ruu guarded the kitchen’s entrance, and Nail watched me work from right next to me. The Sledgehammer was the smallest out of the inns I was familiar with, and so the kitchen was feeling rather cramped with five of us in it.

Back when we were prepared for Zattsu and Tei Suun to attack, there were four bodyguards assigned to us. Three of them stayed outside of the building and kept an eye on both the front and rear entrances. But this time there were only two guards, and so we kept our forces consolidated.

Naudis of The Great Southern Tree had definitely seemed afraid of the hunters of the forest’s edge. However, that didn’t seem to be true at all of Nail. As someone who admired the culture of the Eastern Kingdom of Sym, I guess if anyone would lament how distant the four great kingdoms could be, it would be him. And so, though the people of the forest’s edge faced discrimination for having abandoned Jagar and becoming children of Selva, he seemed to treat them fairly and justly.

He said he didn’t take a wife from the east because he couldn’t work up the resolve to abandon his god or make her do so...

It seemed that the act of changing gods was seen as a sort of taboo here in this world.

It was no surprise that the ones who were abandoned wouldn’t look fondly on such people, but they weren’t exactly welcomed with arms wide open by their new comrades, either. That was why the people of the forest’s edge were met with such a cold reception from the folks of Genos, right from the very start.

What’s their logic there, anyway? Do they find it hard to trust people who can change gods lightly?

But it wasn’t as if anyone was making that decision lightly, anyway.

Take Kamyua Yoshu, for example.

He was born with mixed blood from Selva and Mahyudra, and so he spent his childhood in the northern kingdom, but moved to the west after losing his mother. Of course, I didn’t know the circumstances behind his birth, especially considering the two nations were at war with one another. I just knew that he lived with his mother as a northerner, changed gods after his mother’s passing, and then became a westerner. And I had little doubt that complicated upbringing was what led to him having such a bizarre personality.

Kamyua Yoshu had said he couldn’t get proper work with a background like his, and so he had decided to earn a living with his skills as a bodyguard instead. And that he felt a one-sided kinship toward the people of the forest’s edge, who faced similar circumstances.

Neither Kamyua Yoshu nor the people of the forest’s edge changed gods lightly in the least. And yet, the Western Kingdom of Selva still didn’t kindly welcome them.

So I guess folks changing gods for the sake of marriage wouldn’t exactly receive the blessings of those around them, either.

I glanced over at Vina Ruu as she stood at the stove next to me, and stealthily gave a sigh.

At any rate, the meat and aria had heated up nicely by now, and so I added the tarapa sauce I had brought along into the pot.

“Is that the same tarapa broth you use at your stalls?”

“Yes. I’ve found that it pairs very well with chitt seeds.”

“I see. Like you, I often use chitt seeds and myamuu together, but hearing you recommend tarapa as well is honestly a bit surprising.”

“That’s because if you just use tarapa as is, it’s too acidic, right? That could be tasty in its own way, but I mix in finely diced aria to add some sweetness.”

As I was giving that explanation to Nail, I wrapped up with preparing the dish.

My giba sauté arrabbiata was complete.

“Please, go ahead and dig in. I believe this dish is a match for my giba chitt.”

“Right. At the very least, it smells just as good.”

With a serious look on his face, Nail picked up the spoon.

Then, when he took a bite of the loin meat coated in red sauce, he went, “Ah,” and covered his mouth.

“Wh-What is it?”

“This won’t do... I just can’t keep my mouth from grinning.”

“Ah, that makes me really happy to hear,” I replied, breaking out in a smile of my own.

It wasn’t like there was anyone from Sym around, though, so I didn’t see what the issue was with just letting his emotions show.

“I am incredibly ashamed... Ah, this is just so tasty.”

Nail kept on eating the dish, his mouth twitching constantly all the while. He somehow managed to remain properly expressionless all the way to the end, but the haste with which he ate made it clear just how much he enjoyed it.

“Yes, this flavor is simply superb. I can’t possibly imagine it being less popular than what we’ve served up till now,” Nail stated, his plate now cleared. However, his light brown eyes were shooting me something of a worried look. “But we’re just talking about this one dish, right...? Of course, I had you alternate the dishes day by day based solely on my inability to choose to start with...”

“Right. I was thinking of preparing two different dishes for you again, and so I’ve been experimenting with a new soup too, but I haven’t gotten that to come together just yet.”

I had attempted an arrabbiata soup to meet the same needs, but perhaps because I was using a still-incomplete tarapa stew for it, the taste seemed somehow lacking.

In the sauté, the meat was the star. And I felt the sauce worked perfectly to support that, with its wonderful mix of tarapa and chitt. But as a soup, it just seemed like it was missing something. Apparently taking my giba meat broth and adding just tarapa sauce and tau oil wasn’t enough to bring it into harmony with the spiciness of the chitt seeds.

“With the pickled chitt, you use, um... salted maru, was it? At any rate, it was a type of seafood. And apparently, that was playing a pretty huge role in the chitt hot pot.”

It was certainly possible that I arrived at that conclusion not through some sort of common sense, but instead based on what I could recall of the kimchi hot pots I’d tasted and what I knew of Italian cooking.

Even without seafood, there was still consommé and bouillon... But at any rate, the stock I was using was clearly lacking, and it was bugging me.

Just boiling the giba bones should give me a rich stock, so maybe that was enough. Perhaps like with the stew, if I carefully heated a variety of vegetables with it, that would do the trick.

But that would require a ton of time, effort, ingredients, and firewood. And so, that method just wouldn’t work when we were talking about selling at a price of one meal for two red coins, and just one hour to work with.

“The soup dish you’ve made until now has proven quite popular with my customers. If there’s no new soup to be added to the menu in its place, then I may end up hearing quite a few complaints,” Nail stated with a serious look in his eyes. “Asuta, as I said before, I have no issues whatsoever with the flavor of the meat dish you just presented to me. Would it be difficult to alternate between it and the soup dish you make using pickled chitt...?”

“Ah, hmm... Let’s see... Well, this is a personal matter coming from my side, but I currently need to reevaluate the cost of my ingredients.”

“Oh? Why is that?”

“You see, I went and revised the price I buy giba meat for throughout the settlement at the forest’s edge. I had been getting it for far too cheap up until now, so we raised it to a fair rate instead. Even so, though, it’s still cheaper than karon meat.”

Nail nodded in response, then said, “It’s true that I was worried about whether or not you would be able to make a profit when I heard you would be using my pickled chitt. How much do you make currently, then? Ah, but I don’t mean to force it out of you, so you don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t mind. Let’s see, as things stand... I make 9 red coins of profit for 30 dishes of the chitt hot pot.”

Surprising as it may sound, when we bought giba meat from other clans now, the cost-price ratio swelled up to 85%. It was enough to cause even Nail’s eyes to open wide in shock.

“You sell your cooking for 60 red coins, but only 9 of them end up as profit?”

“That’s right. Back when I was getting the meat for cheap I earned 30 red coins in profit, so I wasn’t all that worried about such matters. But this honestly doesn’t work as things stand, businesswise...”

However, I was the one who went and raised the price on meat. My own negligence was at fault here, for letting myself rely on the cheapness of the meat and not paying enough attention to the cost-price ratio.

The only thing I could say in my defense was that I had been working hard each day and had trouble squeezing in time to experiment with cooking, which was why I had little choice but to go with dishes based on kimchi hot pot and pork kimchi.

“Still, I understand what you’re saying. I’ll be working on developing a new dish from here on out, but until I’m happy with it, I’ll keep on preparing the chitt hot pot like I have up till now.”

“But your profits...”

“If I make the customers mad over something like this and giba cooking ends up with a bad reputation, that would really be putting the cart before the totos. So at least for now, I think this is the best path forward. And I’ll give my all to coming up with a new dish good enough for you to sell.” There was just one more thing I wanted to add after that. “Still, what’s really adding to my ingredient costs for the chitt hot pot is the fact that I use the pickled chitt I purchase from you to make it. But if you were to make the chitt hot pot yourself and sell it, you should certainly be able to earn a profit from that, right?”

Actually, he should already be making a profit from selling giba cooking to his customers, so if he made it himself, then logically he could add my profits to what he currently made. And yet, he just sadly looked down and shook his head.

“I have some degree of confidence in my cooking skills, but I don’t believe I could ever make the same dishes and provide the same flavor as you, Asuta. And if I put out something worse than what you make, then I would be inviting the displeasure of my customers.”

“You think so? That’s a shame.”

“But Asuta, from what you were saying... Does that mean it would be possible to buy giba meat from you?”

“Huh? Yes, of course,” I replied, my heart skipping a beat.

Nail had been looking downhearted, but suddenly, his eyes were brimming with anticipation.

“In that case, please allow me to do so. The flaws would stand out clearly if I attempted to make the same dish as you, but if I can make something that’s properly my own, then I believe that would be worth offering to my customers.” With that, Nail was no longer able to hold himself back from smiling. “And even more than that, I personally wish to eat giba meat, too. Lately, the fact that I feed my customers giba while I have to eat kimyuus and karon has been all I can think about...”

“You really want to buy raw giba meat...?”

“Yes. I can’t buy too great an amount, but, well... It doesn’t cost more than karon meat, right?”

“O-Of course not! Right now, I’m thinking of selling it for the same price that karon goes for around town. Though if things go well, I may want to revise the price at some point...”

“In that case, I certainly feel fortunate. After all, I’ll be able to buy giba meat while it’s still cheap,” Nail said, bringing his fingers together in the way that I’d often seen folks from Sym do. “Please, sell me giba meat. I’d like enough for ten meals each day to begin with, if that’s alright.”

Ten meals at an inn worked out to roughly 2.5 kilograms. And at the same price as karon, it would only be 10 red coins or so of profit.

But even still, I finally had someone who wanted to purchase raw giba meat. Honestly, I ended up turning towards Ai Fa without even thinking.

My clan head remained expressionless, but I could see some joy in her narrowed eyes as she stared back at me.

“Nail, thank you. Thank you so, so much.”

“I’m very glad at this turn of events, too. Giba meat has an entirely different sort of appeal to it than kimyuus or karon, and so I’m sure many more folks will end up seeking it out in the future,” Nail replied, then he said, “Excuse me,” and turned his back to me.

With that he disappeared into the pantry, and returned before long holding a small jar and a reasonably-sized cloth bundle.

“This is the salted maru I use in pickled chitt,” Nail stated, placing the jar atop my work station and removing the lid.

I peered inside with brimming curiosity, and saw that the jar was packed about halfway full with these little, white, translucent things. I couldn’t really make out their shape very well, but they were generally around a centimeter big and had long, slender bodies. If I had to guess, I’d peg them as something like krill or shrimp that had then been salted.

“These are caught in the western territory, so they’re not all that rare of an ingredient. You should be able to find it at pretty much any shop handling things like myamuu and rock salt. And one of these jars would cost you two red coins.”

“I see! You said it’s normally used as an appetizer when drinking, right?”

It was probably classified similarly to fermented squid paste. It might not go together if I just threw it into the tarapa sauce, but still, there apparently weren’t any nearby oceans and you couldn’t get much from the rivers around Genos. Even this little bit of seafood was invaluable to me.

“Thank you. I’ll go buy some today and start experimenting to see if I can use it in my dishes. What’s this bundle?”

“This is dried milk. A merchant from Sym dropped by this morning, and I purchased it just like we had agreed.”

“Ah, cheese! Ooh, and there sure is a lot of it!”

“Yes. I was able to buy five, and I will yield them all to you this time around.”

The Ruu clan had also asked to buy some, so I would equally divide it and each of us would get two and a half of these 400-500 gram blocks of cheese.

I turned again to face Ai Fa, and found my beloved clan head covering her mouth and shooting me an angry glare. As I well knew, her favorite dish was the dried milk-stuffed hamburger steak I made with the camembert-like cheese.

She’s not from Sym or anything, so she should just let herself smile when she’s happy, I thought to myself.

“Thank you! We ate up what we bought from you before in no time at all, so this is a big help.”

“I’m glad to hear that it brought you such joy... Though you looked even happier than that when you learned you could sell me giba meat,” Nail said, breaking out in a slight smile. “As a man of the forest’s edge, you find joy in dried milk from Sym, and though I am a westerner, giba meat brings me pleasure. It’s an exchange no one will ever know of, being in a tiny little shop such as this, and yet I find it quite precious. I hope that this bond between us lasts forevermore, Asuta.”

3

Once we finished up our work at The Sledgehammer, we headed out for The Great Southern Tree next.

The Sledgehammer was a bit removed from the stone highway, in the middle of what could be called a residential area. And so, we ended up having to pass through a complex web of narrower roads first.

Currently, it was about an hour or so after the sun had hit its peak. By this time most folks were working in either shops alongside the highway or the farms to the south, so there weren’t as many folks passing by.

“Man, today sure has been productive. My new dish went over well, we got a hold of some dried milk, and I even made arrangements to sell giba meat.”

Vina Ruu was still looking listless, so I didn’t want to get too worked up in front of her. Even so, I couldn’t help but want to whisper that to Ai Fa.

“It certainly sounds like good news. But you still need to prepare an additional dish for that shop to sell, correct?”

“Yeah, but thanks to Gilulu we can cut down the time spent commuting to the post town by quite a bit, and it looks like I’ll be able to leave preparing the giba burgers to Reina and Sheera Ruu, so that should earn me plenty of time to spare. I’ll be able to make it work out somehow.”

“Then are you saying you’re going to keep feeding me food made with those red seeds...?”

“...Maybe, but like I said, I’ll make your portions less spicy.”

“Such consideration from you only makes me feel all the more annoyed,” Ai Fa said with a pout, angled so that the others couldn’t see.

“Don’t sulk so much. I’ll make you some hamburger steak with dried milk in between the taste tests.”

“Do you think you can earn my favor whenever you please just by bringing that up?”

“Huh? Well, it makes you happy, right?”

That earned me a kick in the leg.

With that, I decided to hold myself back from getting too excited.

Still, Nail’s definitely a unique case. He was born here in the western kingdom, but his thinking may be closer to someone from Sym. But it’s not like everyone’s going to accept giba meat that easily.

Even so, this was still a big step forward.

It was possible that Naudis of The Great Southern Tree might grow interested in cooking with giba meat before long, and it was looking hopeful now that I could forge a bond with The Westerly Wind. Plus if I could talk Milano Mas into it, maybe I could even get him serving giba cooking at The Kimyuus’s Tail.

Just a few days ago things had been feeling hopeless, but today I had managed to make a huge breakthrough.

But it’s times like this where it’s most important to handle things slowly and carefully rather than rushing, I thought to myself, my footsteps growing lighter as I went. Today is the fourth day of my fourth round, so that means there are six days left till I enter into new contracts with the stalls. Maybe this time I’ll ask for two days off to devote to experimenting with my cooking...

I was talking about my first time off in over 20 days, and yet that was where my brain went. I really might have been a bit of a workaholic.

Anyway, as I walked along feeling exhilarated by such thoughts, Ai Fa suddenly grabbed my right arm. With that, I had to come to a sudden stop, and the same was true for everyone following behind us.

Before I could ask her why she had done that, though, I spied the answer walking our way.

“Asuta, what a coincidence. What are you doing in, a place like this?” a voice asked with a slightly stilted command of the western tongue.

And sure enough, when the man flipped back his leather hood and revealed his long chestnut-colored hair, I also recognized his smiling face. It was Sanjura, who had visited my stall just yesterday.

“Ah, hello there. It really is quite a coincidence. We’re on our way back from work.”

“You do work in a, place like this?” he questioned, steadily approaching.

Ai Fa still seemed oddly on guard, but he was wearing just as gentle of a smile as yesterday.

“Yes. I’ve actually taken on the task of making food for inns, and we’re on our way to another one now.”

“‘Inns...’ Could you perhaps be, speaking of The Sledgehammer?”

“Huh? Yes, that’s correct.”

“I knew it. After all, that place has been serving, giba meat dishes,” he replied, his lightly colored eyes narrow as he smiled even more deeply. What a truly charming grin...

“Ah, have you been staying at The Sledgehammer too then, Sanjura?”

“Yes. I was raised in the western kingdom, but I love, eastern cooking. And so I always choose inns, that serve easterners.”

It was true that if you just ignored the one point that he didn’t hide his emotions, Sanjura seriously looked like someone from Sym. And so, it seemed totally natural for him to be staying at The Sledgehammer.

Mixed blood from the east and west, huh...? I guess he probably had a rather complex upbringing, too.

I didn’t feel especially on guard or anything around Sanjura. But even so, he did have something of a mysterious feel about him. It wasn’t obvious what it was, but something about him drew my attention in a different way than Shumiral’s charms or Kamyua Yoshu’s fishiness.

Well, it might just be that it’s strange to see someone who looks like he’s from Sym letting his emotions show like that.

Whatever it was, it just gave me a real favorable impression of him more than anything. And so, I wore a big grin on my face as I went to say farewell.

“Well then, we have work to get to. But if fate allows, then I’m sure we’ll—”

“Hold on. Don’t go moving on your own, Asuta,” Ai Fa suddenly stated, once again grabbing hold of my arm.

And I was in for a shock when I turned to face her, as her blue eyes had a hunter’s fire burning brightly in them.

“W-What’s the matter? It’s not like he’s done anything, right?”

“This man has nothing to do with it. Someone is watching us again,” Ai Fa whispered. “It’s the same sort of gaze as yesterday, like a poison needle. There’s no one else around right now, so I may be able to trace their presence. Just keep feigning ignorance, and make sure not to interfere with what I’m doing.”

Taking care to move only my eyes, I glanced around the surrounding area. However, I couldn’t spy anyone other than us.

Sanjura, meanwhile, tilted his head and looked a bit perplexed.

“What’s the matter? I can’t sense anything...”

“Sorry, but shut up for now,” Ai Fa crudely stated, then she glanced over at Shin Ruu.

The boy gave a nod, then casually walked up beside my clan head.

“Well? Can you sense it?”

“Yes, faintly... But it’s like feeling out a hunter holding their breath.”

“Right. I can’t imagine any townsfolk are able to hide their presence this well... But anyway, they’re to the right.” Then, Ai Fa shot Sanjura a quick glance and whispered again to Shin Ruu, “I’ll stay here to protect Asuta and the eldest Ruu daughter. Now that you have hold of the presence, can I leave the rest to you? It may be something of a dangerous task...”

“Understood. It’s on the right, and ahead of us... Which means they’re between those two houses, right?”

“That may be so. Shall we walk a bit closer?” she asked, then shot Sanjura a clear, open stare. “Man of the east... no, wait, that’s not accurate, is it? At any rate, I have something to ask of you.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“I’d like you to swiftly depart from this place. Assuming you have nothing to do with this presence, that is.”

Sure enough, Sanjura’s eyebrows drooped and he just plain looked confused.

“I don’t quite understand. But Asuta has work to, take care of next, yes? In that case, I will leave.”

“Ah, sorry about this. Er, please don’t worry about it, alright?”

I hadn’t quite grasped what was going on yet myself, so that vague apology was the best that I could offer.

Sanjura shot me one last refreshing smile, and then he pulled back up his hood.

“I will come by your stalls again, tomorrow. Right now, I’m on my way back from, eating your cooking.”

“Ah, really? Thanks so much for the purchase.”

“Right. I’ll come earlier, tomorrow.”

Then, Sanjura likely intentionally took a detour around Ai Fa and Shin Ruu before departing down the path we were coming from, towards The Sledgehammer.

“Alright, let’s move. Asuta, eldest Ruu daughter, casually move over to my left side as we walk. As long as you do it before we reach that side road you can see there, that’ll be plenty, so make sure not to act unnaturally.”

With that, Ai Fa started walking, the hunter’s look blazing in her half-lidded eyes. But aside from that frightening glare, she was acting completely natural.

Was someone seriously observing us again?

What in the world is going on? The timing’s real questionable, with how it started yesterday morning. If it was someone under Cyclaeus, wouldn’t they at least wait till after the meeting to make a move...?

I could feel my heartbeat speeding up.

My legs were growing stiff but I forced them to move, and moved bit by bit over to Ai Fa’s left side.

There weren’t even five meters left till we reached that side path on the right. It was then that I noticed Shin Ruu was standing to Ai Fa’s right, while Vina Ruu was walking directly behind me.

Sure enough, I still couldn’t sense a thing. It would just take a few minutes of walking till we made it back to the main road, but for now, it was as quiet as a ghost town.

This certainly didn’t seem to be a wealthy area. The tightly packed houses were similar to the ones at the forest’s edge for the most part, just one-story homes made of wood. And there was a narrow side road between two of them... When we reached it, Shin Ruu suddenly leapt.

Until that very instant he had been walking along like normal, but suddenly, he vanished from sight. With his hunter’s cloak fluttering in the wind, he had taken off in a sprint down the side road.

“Ah!” I shouted without thinking. That was because a small rock had come flying towards Shin Ruu with incredible speed, out of the shadow of the houses. However, the boy charged forwards just as fast, and successfully dodged the attack just by slightly tilting his head.

There was another rock flying our way too, but Ai Fa deflected it with a flash of her sheathed blade.

In the same instant, a small figure leapt forth from the shadow of the houses. With its back to Shin Ruu, it was fleeing further down the path.

The figure was small enough to be a child, and was wearing a fur cloak of some creature other than a giba.

“Halt!” Shin Ruu shouted out in a piercing tone, then he reached out for the mystery figure’s shoulder. In that same instant, though, his body suddenly lifted off the ground.

I had absolutely no clue what was going on.

Regardless, Shin Ruu’s body flipped through the air, and his back slammed down into the ground.

As the boy let out a low groan, the assailant then turned our way. I couldn’t see their face, though, as their hood was pulled down as far as folks from Sym wore them.

They were certainly small, though. In fact, they looked even shorter than Ai Fa or Shin Ruu.

The fur cloak was a spotted yellowish-brown that reminded me of a leopard, but they just seemed to have plain clothing on underneath. As for their skin... it looked like an ivory white? Honestly, it was hard to tell, as it looked thoroughly tanned and a bit filthy. But at the very least, they didn’t look to be from Sym or Jagar.

That small assailant stood five or six meters from us along with the groaning Shin Ruu, and was looking us up and down. Then, they suddenly reached for their hips, slender enough to belong to a woman or child, grabbing for the small crescent-shaped blade dangling there.

“Stop!” Ai Fa loudly shouted. “It is forbidden to draw a blade in town! Why are you prowling around after us like this?!” my clan head demanded, brandishing her still-sheathed blade as she yelled. Then, with her glare firmly fixed on the assailant, she whispered to us, “Stay right behind me, no matter what.”

The assailant’s gaze also seemed to be firmly on us, their hand still gripping the handle of that crescent blade. At their feet, Shin Ruu was attempting to get up, looking to be in a lot of pain. However, in the next moment, the attacker’s small foot smashed into his face, sending blood flying as the boy once more collapsed to the ground.

“I said stop! If you intend to point your blade towards the people of the forest’s edge, then you’ll have to deal with me!”

That statement was quite unlike her, but she must have judged that she wouldn’t be able to save Shin Ruu otherwise. After all, at this distance, no matter how fast Ai Fa ran, the assailant’s blade would come down quicker.

The attacker shook their head, looking hesitant. Perhaps they were at a loss as to whether it was better to turn their back and run, finish off the opponent at their feet, or to go all out and try to strike down this second foe.

After a few seconds of intense silence, our assailant chose the third option: they came running towards us and Ai Fa.

“Get down!” Ai Fa shouted to those of us behind her, then she swiftly bent her knees.

The assailant covered several meters in a flash as they drew their crescent blade. Then, they leapt forwards with a strange yell, and Ai Fa also brandished her blade.

However, neither side’s sword cut into the other’s body. Instead, the assailant suddenly disappeared.

Even watching from up close, I couldn’t immediately tell what had happened.

The small attacker had disappeared from view, and in their place was now a tall figure clad in a cloak. The figure had swung down a sheathed sword like Ai Fa had done, and looking at his face from the side... It was Sanjura, of all people.

“My apologies for interfering, unnecessarily. I was just concerned, so I turned around,” he calmly stated, then stood straight up from his squatting posture. As for his long sheathed blade, he was holding it with just his left hand. “You aren’t injured, are you? I think the danger, has likely passed.”

With that, I breathed a sigh of relief and glanced to my left. Ai Fa’s gaze, of course, had long since been fixed that way.

Having been hit from the side by Sanjura, our assailant was now writhing in pain on the ground and clutching their left shoulder.

Sanjura took just three steps forwards, then placed his foot atop the crescent blade lying there.

“Thank you for lending us your aid...” Ai Fa muttered, still brandishing her blade and looking seriously on guard.

As he looked down on the anguished assailant, Sanjura smiled and said, “Think nothing of it. It is the duty of the people, to help protect order in our, society. We should hand this one over, to the guards.”

With that, there was a swift flash of his blade. With just the tip of his sword, he had flicked back the hood of our flailing attacker, revealing their face. And instantly, my vision was drawn by a brilliant red.

Our assailant was apparently every bit as much of a redhead as Lala Ruu.

“Please don’t resist. Are you a bandit?” Sanjura calmly asked.

With that, the little attacker who had been writhing on the ground sat up while holding their left shoulder.

“You’re calling me a bandit?! Don’t mess with me, asshole!”

That was a boy’s voice, and it sounded far younger than I had expected.

However, his face looked incredibly fierce. His disheveled hair as red as flames reached all the way down to his cheeks. And his yellowish eyes half-hidden behind it were like those of a beast.

On top of that, there were angry wrinkles centered around his brow and he was baring his teeth, with an expression that made him look like some sort of feline predator. His face was just so twisted with rage and hatred that I couldn’t even imagine what it looked like normally.

“You Sym bastard... If you’re going to call me a bandit, then should I take care of you first?”

“You’ve drawn your blade in town, and attacked innocents. If you are not a bandit, then what are you?” Sanjura calmly retorted, looking over the boy... No, that felt like too gentle of a word for this little hellion. “Still, with that appearance... You look more like a hunter of Masara than a bandit.”

“A hunter...?” Ai Fa repeated, reacting ever so slightly.

With that, the raging youth suddenly turned towards my clan head.

“I will never, ever forgive you filthy people of the forest’s edge...”

“What was that? If you have some sort of grudge, then speak it. But if you point a blade my way, then I have no choice but to respond in kind.”

“Shut up!” the boy shouted, suddenly shaking off Sanjura’s right hand.

Silver flashes tore through the air, only for Ai Fa and Sanjura to simultaneously deflect them. Being hit by both their blades, the small throwing knives fell to the ground.

They really did both have some insane reflexes.

Sanjura had needed to shift his posture to swing his blade, and the boy used that opening to snatch up the crescent-shaped sword he had been standing on. And he was inhumanely agile when he did that, too.

“You are all gonna get what’s coming to you! I swear it on my honor as Jeeda, son of Goram Redbeard!”

“What?” Ai Fa questioned, but the boy had already turned around.

For a second it looked like Sanjura was going to chase him down, but with a sigh, he returned his blade to his hip instead.

“He certainly is swift. I wouldn’t be able, to catch up to him.”

Ai Fa was making a face like she was holding herself back from clicking her tongue, but sure enough, she placed her blade back at her hip, too.

My clan head probably could’ve caught up to him considering how quick she was, but she apparently felt she couldn’t leave our side. At any rate, that small figure in the leopard-print cloak disappeared between the buildings in no time flat.

“Goram Redbeard... Hey Ai Fa, that’s the name of that bandit leader that came up yesterday, right?”

The leader of the Redbeards, Goram Redbeard... I was pretty certain that was what Kamyua Yoshu had said. And he had taken along hunters of the forest’s edge on a journey outside of Genos to search for the man’s wife and son.

“Oh, man. Kamyua’s group went the wrong way entirely, huh? What should we even do in a case like—”

“Don’t lose your composure. We have to treat Shin Ruu first,” Ai Fa stated, an intense look in her eyes.

Then, her gaze shifted over towards Sanjura.

“So, he really was a bandit? It is rare for them, to appear in town when, it’s bright out,” Sanjura said with a carefree grin.

I didn’t know if he had nerves of steel or what, but regardless, it looked like I definitely had to revise my initial impression that he wasn’t the sort to get involved with anything violent.

“Still, I felt his shoulder bone break. He won’t be able to get up, to any wrongdoing for the, time being. I think you just need, to let the guards know.”

“Right... Thank you,” I replied, but I was thinking all the while how that was the one thing we really couldn’t do. It seriously made me want to sigh.

Goram Redbeard’s wife and son were crucial witnesses Kamyua Yoshu was searching for. And ultimately, the town guards fell under the jurisdiction of Cyclaeus’s younger brother, the militia captain. So, we needed to capture that boy before the guards could get their hands on him.

When he said he couldn’t forgive the people of the forest’s edge, was he referring to how his father had false charges thrust on him and was executed? In that case, we’ll just have to tell him the truth.

And if the boy still keeps on hating the people of the forest’s edge even so... Well, we’ll just have to deal with that when we get there.

I almost sighed at how complicated everything was getting, but ultimately, I held it back.

This was surely an ordeal that the people of the forest’s edge needed to overcome. Zattsu Suun was the one behind all that wrongdoing, but his people were unable to call him out for his deeds. And there was no guarantee that everyone would think like Milano Mas and Leito, who believed Zattsu Suun’s death was enough to atone for the crimes of the people of the forest’s edge.

That kid’s even smaller, so for him to hate someone that deeply... It’s just not right.

As I stared down the street where the redheaded boy had disappeared, I prayed in my heart that we could meet him once more, and that he would get a chance to talk to the new leading clan heads.

4

“Shin Ruu! What happened?!” Lala Ruu asked, her face going pale as she grabbed hold of the boy. We had finished up our work for the day and met up with the group from the stalls in front of The Kimyuus’s Tail.

Shin Ruu had a large bruise under his right eye and the corners of his lips were all bloody, but he just flatly responded, “I met with an embarrassing defeat.”

“What does that mean?! You’re not saying someone attacked you?!”

“Stop shouting. You don’t want to upset the townsfolk, right?” Shin Ruu chided, still sounding perfectly calm.

And as Lala Ruu clung to Shin Ruu’s chest, she shot Ai Fa a glare.

“How did Shin Ruu end up like this when you were with him, Ai Fa?! You should be able to easily beat down any foe, right?!”

“Cut it out. Ai Fa carried out her duty just fine. It was my own weakness that resulted in me failing to complete my task properly, not some fault on her part.”

Ai Fa, meanwhile, was holding her tongue. In all likelihood, she had been on guard against Sanjura, which was why she was unable to leave our side. However, saying so would mean revealing that she felt like Shin Ruu would be incapable of guarding against an attack from the man. And as a result, she was left unable to say anything at all, steadfastly holding back from speaking up.

After glancing over at my clan head and seeing her determination, Shin Ruu firmly grabbed hold of Lala Ruu’s shoulders.

“These injuries are nothing. I just need to keep on training, so that next time I can carry out my task properly.”

“But...!”

“Geez, stop whining. You making a fuss isn’t going to solve anything, now is it? You know, instead of getting mad, it’s cuter if you cry when this stuff happens,” Ludo Ruu chimed in.

“Shut it, you!” Lala Ruu shouted at her brother, her eyes tearing up a bit.

“Oh, you’re crying after all? Hmm... I guess Shin Ruu’s at fault now, too. He should be saying how he’s sorry for worrying you and hugging you tight. That’d put things to rest, right?”

Shin Ruu remained silent, but the blood was clearly rushing to his cheeks.

Naturally, Lala Ruu was even redder still, and was so angry that she was gasping with rage.

Ludo Ruu just chuckled as he looked at them, but then he suddenly got a serious look in his eyes.

“Well, Asuta and Vina look just fine, so I guess it’s alright. But it must have been something for Shin Ruu to get injured like that. Could you tell me the details on the way back, Ai Fa?”

“Yes. I believe it would be best to avoid discussing it when strangers are wandering about, too.”

“Alright, then let’s hurry back to the—” Ludo Ruu started to declare, only for a cloaked group to approach us.

Naturally, it was the Silver Vase.

The man at the head of the group stood in front of me and Vina Ruu, then pulled down his hood. For a second it looked like the eldest Ruu daughter was going to turn away, but then she shot him an angry glare head on.

“Asuta, Vina Ruu, I’m sorry, I am late. I came to say, farewell.”

“Thank you, Shumiral. I’m glad we were able to meet up.”

I was filled with a mix of both relief and nervousness, but even so, I replied with a smile.

Ludo Ruu, meanwhile, just said, “Oh right, there was still that stuff with you too,” and ruffled his blond hair. “It sure has been a crazy day... Still, it seems like the guards might get called on us if we huddle together in a place like this, right?”

It might not have gone quite that far, but it was certainly true that we were attracting plenty of attention from passersby. After all, we were talking nine people of the forest’s edge, ten easterners, two totos, and one wagon all gathered together. Even though the stone highway was ten meters or so wide, we ran the risk of jamming things up with numbers like that.

“Um, should we head around to the back of the building? There’s a nice, open space right in front of the path back to the forest’s edge, after all.”

My proposal was quickly accepted, and we swiftly headed that way.

Sheera Ruu had been holding Gilulu’s reins up till now, but I took them from her as we headed south down the road. And as we were walking, Sheera Ruu fell back and got a small package out of the rear of the wagon, then approached me again.

“Asuta, I managed to hand the jerky over to that group of southerners without any issue. I put the coins from that together with what we earned from the stalls.”

“Ah, thanks. So um, what about the special jerky I had prepared...?”

“Right. They seemed quite happy about that, too,” Sheera Ruu replied with a smile. It was a real bright, clear smile for her. “And the leader of the group, that Balan man, handed me this.”

“Huh? What is it...?”

“Apparently it’s a type of fruit wine. And rather expensive stuff at that, too.”

When she unwrapped the cloth bundle, sure enough, what she pulled out looked to be bottles of fruit wine. However, it clearly wasn’t the one-red-coin stuff that folks were always drinking around the forest’s edge. No, it was the type of high quality fruit wine we had once received from Kamyua Yoshu, contained in a smooth, slick bottle. And there were two of them.

“Umm... He said to say that it’s not the custom of either Genos or Jagar to give such gifts. However, since you went and made a gift for them, you’re the one who started it.”

I could practically see Pops’s angry face ranting away.

“And he said something else too... That even at the latest, he’d be back in Genos for sure in a year. So he said you better still be alive and well when that time comes.”

“Got it... Thank you.”

Sheera Ruu nodded, then fell back to the rear to put the fruit wine away again.

In her place, Ai Fa leaned in close.

“Asuta, are you crying?”

“As if, you dummy!” I shouted without meaning to.

In response, Ai Fa pouted and said, “Why are you calling me a ‘dummy?’”

I of course replied, “Sorry,” then I glanced at Shumiral’s back as the man walked diagonally in front of me.

After today, it would be quite some time before I saw Pops, Aldas, or Shumiral again. And thanks to that, I could sense the feelings I had been holding back bubbling up inside me.

I’m not gonna cry, you dummy...

I didn’t even know who I was calling a dummy that time, but regardless, I just kept on walking.

We followed the stone street south, then took a narrow side path east between two inns, and then our field of view suddenly opened wide.

It was an empty space, with nothing but the bare dirt ground. And further past it was the forest, majestically sprawling onwards.

There were rows of buildings behind us, while the forest stretched out before our eyes. And there was just one long road winding off into the forest, connecting to the settlement at the forest’s edge.

Yes, we were currently at the border between town and the forest.

And it was the same place where a while back, those who opposed my business in town and those who welcomed it gathered together in a big, chaotic gaggle.

That was where we finally stopped and faced one another.

Since the forest spread out behind those of us who lived there while the town provided a backdrop for the easterners, it felt sort of like we were acting as representatives for those places as we stood there silently.

“Thank you, for serving us, delicious food, up until now,” Shumiral stated, bringing his fingers together in that unusual manner folks from Sym did and bowing his head.

With that, the men lined up on either side of him all pulled back their hoods together.

The only ones whose faces I had seen were Shumiral, the vice-leader Radajid who stopped by before the sun hit its peak today, and the youth who visited my stall on the first day, whose name I didn’t even know. In all likelihood, that young fellow was the one all the way on the left.

That youth was the first one to try out a giba burger sample, and in turn led his comrades from the merchant group to the stall. And he was also my second ever customer, after only Tara.

It was the following day that I met Shumiral for the first time.

While Pops was shouting about how giba meat wasn’t tasty at all, the members of the Silver Vase all arrived at once. And then Pops’s group showed up too, and it turned into a big mess.

It’s already been over a month since then, huh? Or should I say, man, it’s only been a month...?

As that thought ran through my head, Shumiral stepped forwards and stood in front of me.

Vina Ruu, meanwhile, was on the other side of Ai Fa, who was right by me.

However, Shumiral stopped in front of me first.

“Asuta, I’m sorry to, stop by, so late.”

“Ah, don’t worry about—”

“Today, I was in, the castle town, all day.”

“Huh?”

“I was gathering, information on, Lord Cyclaeus. Looking into, if the bad rumors, I had heard, were true.”

That caught me so off guard that I was left at a loss for words.

Shumiral, however, just apologetically narrowed his eyes.

“I am sorry, for involving myself, when it is not my business. But I wished, to be of help, to you, Asuta. I wanted to know, how dangerous, Cyclaeus was. Yet I had, too little time, and could not, discover the truth...”

“But... why did you...?”

“I did, meet someone who, knew the truth, however. That person, should be able, to aid you. And I believe, they should visit, The Sledgehammer, at some point.”

Someone who knew the truth behind the bad rumors surrounding Cyclaeus...

However, since we were talking about nasty stories Shumiral had heard, they probably weren’t matters directly related to the people of the forest’s edge.

Still, I didn’t care about any of that. I was just happy to hear that Shumiral was so worried about us... and I was also upset.

“Shumiral, why did you go and do something so dangerous? Weren’t you the one who warned us that Cyclaeus was someone we should keep our distance from as much as possible?”

“I understand, your anger, Asuta. But even so, I wanted, to be of help, to you,” Shumiral stated, his downhearted gaze drifting lower. “My apologies. I was unable, to restrain, my emotions.”

I didn’t exactly feel like complaining any further after seeing that sad look in his eyes.

“You’re pretty reckless, huh, Shumiral? Even though you look so calm and composed...”

“Yes. My comrades often, tell me, as much.”

Shumiral was both more of a talker and a lot more passionate than he appeared.

For some reason I felt like crying, but I smiled instead.

“Still, it makes me glad to hear you were thinking of us like that. Seriously, thank you.”

“It was, nothing... That person’s name, is Mikel of Turan. I believe, they will be, of use to you.”

Up until that point the members of the Silver Vase had just silently listened to our exchange, but now one of them slowly stepped forwards.

“The people of the forest’s edge, must meet, with that person. I read, the stars, last night.”

He was a somewhat older man from Sym, but he was just as tall and slim as the rest of the group. However, his face was deeply wrinkled, and I could see the veins on his neck and arms. He had a gentle gaze, though, and felt sort of like an older Shumiral in a way.

“If the, people of the forest’s edge, meet with, that person, they will gain, greater strength. Then a new path, will open up, for them.”

He must have been the star diviner, then. The one who had predicted that Zattsu Suun’s star of bad omen would disappear, and said that he couldn’t read my star at all.

For some reason, I felt a chill run down my spine.

After staring at me for a bit, that older man’s calm yet emotionless gaze turned towards Ai Fa.

“You... you fall under the cat star, do you not?”

“What?”

“After the fell star, disappeared, the fate of, the forest’s edge, shifted. The three lions, awakened, to guide, the future. And if the, cat star, monkey star, and hawk star shine, beside the stars, of the three lions, that future, will become, even brighter.”

“My apologies, but I have absolutely no idea what you’re saying. What is a cat?”

“There are no cats, at the forest’s edge? They exist in, the eastern kingdom. And they are, a sacred animal,” the star diviner stated, his eyes narrowing in a way that made him look just a bit amused.

Perhaps he was thinking that she really was catlike, just how the stars had stated.

With that, I looked back towards Shumiral.

“Got it... If nothing else, I trust your ability to judge someone’s character. I just need to talk to that Mikel of Turan person if they show up, right?”

“Yes. I’m certain, they’ll be, of help, to you,” Shumiral replied, looking relieved. Then, he extended his right arm out from underneath his long cloak. In his dark, smooth hand, he held a neatly wrapped cloth bundle. “Asuta, this is a gift, for you.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“Wine cups.”

That took me off guard, but I went ahead and unwrapped the package.

What appeared from inside were clear, cylindrical wine cups... The same type of beautiful wine glasses that we had once seen in the Silver Vase’s stall. And it was a set of two.

“Ai Fa, look—” I started to say, turning her way without even thinking.

And sure enough, her eyes had gone wide with surprise, too.

“Asuta, I feel blessed, to have met you. I was, at a loss, as to what, to give you... But then, Radajid told me, that you two, had looked at, these wine cups, with great, enthusiasm.”

That had to be over 20 days ago at this point, right? I mean, it was when Ai Fa and I had stopped by the Silver Vase’s stall, so that I could buy the vegetable knife and the charm necklace.

Now that I thought back on it, I believe Shumiral had been absent and a rather tall easterner had been manning the shop.

“Please, use them. Consider it thanks, for the dinner, you served me, at the Fa house.”

“That seems rather expensive as payment for a single meal...” Ai Fa solemnly stated, her eyes sparkling with joy as she did so.

Shumiral, meanwhile, just gently returned her gaze.

“Price has, nothing to do, with it. I wanted to, give you something, that would make, the two of you, happy. If I thought, a stone by, the roadside, would bring you joy, then I would, gladly give you, that. Its value, is irrelevant.”

“I don’t believe I could ever win an argument against a tongue as skilled as yours,” Ai Fa replied.

Meanwhile, I could feel a lump forming in my throat.

And so, I hurriedly turned around to go pull my own gift out of the back of the wagon, only to find Sheera Ruu already standing there holding a cloth bundle.

After thanking her, I took it and then presented it to Shumiral.

“Shumiral, this is a gift from the Fa house, to everyone in the Silver Vase. It’s jerky I made in a unique way, so please make sure to eat it within the next seven days. It’s a good bit softer than normal jerky, and I think you’d be fine just biting into it as is.”

Shumiral’s eyes narrowed happily, and he said, “You have, my thanks,” as he accepted the bundle.

That shine in his eyes and those words alone were already more than enough to satisfy me.

Then, the nine men from Sym standing behind him all bowed their heads.

With that, Shumiral handed the bundle to one of his comrades, then stepped in front of Vina Ruu.

“Vina Ruu, my apologies, for my sudden visit, two days ago...”

The eldest Ruu daughter just silently stared back at him.

And Shumiral quietly stared her way, too.

“Tomorrow morning, I will depart, from Genos.”

Vina Ruu remained silent.

“It will be, half a year, before I return. Then after, another month, of business, in Genos, I will leave again, for Sym. That is how, we members of, the Silver Vase, live.”

Still no reply.

“I will stay, for another, half a year, in my home country, after that. Then, I will spend, another year traveling. Until we grow, too old to make, such journeys, we will continue, to live, as such. We all love, to travel. We are, wanderers by nature. The people, of Sym’s capital, a city of stone, do not travel, but for us, people of the grasslands... traveling is, our lives.”

“So you spend longer traveling than you do at home... What a wonderful way of life...” Vina Ruu whispered. “I’ve envied people who live that way, and admired the outside world. But ultimately... I’m still a woman of the forest’s edge.”

There wasn’t any expression whatsoever showing on Vina Ruu’s face. However, it seemed less to me like she wasn’t feeling anything at all, and more like she was desperately holding back her emotions.

“I can’t simply cast my family aside. And for my people, our souls must one day return to our mother, the forest...”

Shumiral gave a small nod as he stared back at her.

“I believe, that is, only proper... But in these, past two days, I have done, much thinking. And at last, I made up, my mind.”

Vina Ruu silently stood there, listening.

“Vina Ruu, I wish, to marry you,” Shumiral clearly stated.

Lala Ruu, Sheera Ruu, and I all held our breath... and Vina Ruu slowly shook her head.

“Were you even listening to what I said...?”

“Yes.”

“Are you telling me to cast aside the forest’s edge...?”

“No.”

“Then you intend to give up your beloved travels...?”

“No.”

“Then what do you even mean...? I don’t understand what you’re saying at all...”

“I cannot quit, my work. But I have, no family, in Sym. My nine comrades, in the Silver Vase, are everything, to me.” Then, Shumiral calmly continued, “So I shall, abandon Sym, and become, a man of, the forest’s edge. I wish to continue, my work with, the Silver Vase as, a person of the forest’s edge.”

With that, Vina Ruu’s expression finally shifted. Her pale eyes stared at Shumiral as if she was looking at something utterly unfathomable.

“But abandoning Sym means giving up your god too, right...? Then all the people around you won’t be ‘comrades’ any more, will they...?”

“That’s right. But they have all, said they, will forgive me. We won’t be comrades, and I won’t, be a man, of the grasslands. But they will, keep working with me, as a man, of the forest’s edge, and a child, of Selva. We won’t, be comrades, but we will still, be friends.”

“That sounds a bit too convenient, doesn’t it...?” Vina Ruu asked, wrapping her arms around her body as if she was shielding herself from the cold.

Shumiral just kept on looking at Vina Ruu with the same gentle gaze as always, though.

“There are two, matters which are, inconvenient. If I am, a westerner, the Silver Vase, will not be, permitted to, enter Mahyudra. And I won’t, be allowed, to live in Sym. But my comrades, said that, was alright. Because even when, we aren’t comrades, we will remain, friends.”

“But...”

“We shall give up, on doing business, in Mahyudra. And my, other comrades, will handle, the preparations, in Sym. Radajid said, as much... He will become, the new leader, of our group, in my place. But I will keep, working hard, in the Silver Vase, as a westerner, and a man, of the forest’s edge.”

Vina Ruu didn’t respond.

“For the people, of the grasslands, our souls, return to those, grass-covered plains. But I offer, my soul, to the forest’s edge. It is painful, to abandon, those grasslands, which were my home, but I believe, I can live happily, with my nine friends, and you, Vina Ruu.”

Both Shumiral’s voice and his gaze felt incredibly calm.

But I was sure that he was trying his hardest to put all his emotions into those awkward western words.

“I said, we spend one year, away, and half a year, back home. But Sym, is far away. Heading between Sym, and Genos, take two months, both ways. So removing that, travel time, it means, eight months spent, away from home. And we spend, two months, working in Genos. It is only, half a year, that we are away, from both Genos, and Sym. I will spend, those six months, working and away, and the rest, of my time, will be spent, living at, the forest’s edge. And I would like, to spend it together, with you, Vina Ruu.”

“But... you can’t hunt giba, can you...?”

“I cannot. But I, travel throughout, the western kingdom. Thanks to that, I can gain, knowledge of, many things. And I can gather, all sorts of, weapons as well. It should certainly, be possible, to bring new, techniques for, hunting giba, to the forest’s edge. That is, my strength.”

“But my father is one of the leading clan heads. There’s no way he’ll accept a foreigner marrying into his house...”

“I will persuade, Donda Ruu. And I promise, I will bring you, happiness. I will demonstrate, my strength, when I return, to Genos, in half a year,” Shumiral calmly stated, removing an accessory from his hand. It was a metallic bracelet with a small pink stone. “Vina Ruu, I pray, for you, to find peace. Will you accept, this gift?”

“I...” Vina Ruu started replying, but she held her tongue.

After staying silent for a few long moments, though, she glanced up at Shumiral.

“I have a bit of trouble handling folks like you, whose emotions I can’t read...”

Shumiral tilted his head, looking a touch confused. But then, he suddenly broke out in a smile.

“If I am, to become a man, of the forest’s edge, then I shall strive, to let my, emotions show. It’s truly embarrassing, but I also, believe it’s, very important.”

It was a pure, gentle smile that was every bit a match for Sanjura’s.

Vina Ruu’s eyebrows drooped, and she looked completely at a loss.

“I worried over, the matter, for several days... Actually, I did so, for the whole month, but it got worse, when you, were injured. But I know. I need you, Vina Ruu. I wish to be, together with you.”

“But...”

“Vina Ruu, I am glad, to see you, thinking seriously, on the matter. Will you, ponder it, until I return, to Genos, in half a year? It would make me, very happy, to receive, your answer, when that time comes.”

Shumiral timidly reached out his hand and grabbed hold of Vina Ruu’s. In her palm, he placed the silver bracelet he had been gripping.

“For the next, half year, I promise, to think of you, every night. And Vina Ruu... I love you.”

As she held the bracelet tight, Vina Ruu suddenly hung her head, hiding her expression from view.

After staring at her for some time, Shumiral finally turned back towards me. And on his face, he wore a gentle smile.

“Well then, we will, head back. We will, meet again, in half a year. Asuta, Vina Ruu, Ai Fa, Ludo Ruu... and those of you, whose names I, do not know, I wish you all, good health. And I will pray, for a bright future, for the forest’s edge.”

“Yeah, you take care... I’ll be waiting for the day we meet again.”

Shumiral nodded, and then he turned his back to us. The rest of his comrades gave one last small bow, then also did an about face.

I just watched silently as the group of ten tall easterners clad in leather cloaks walked away.

This really was farewell.

Even at the earliest, it would be half a year before we met again.

By this point, I had lived here in this land for over two months.

Half a year from now, we could see each other again.

And a year from this point, I may be able to reunite with Pops’s group.

But still... It wouldn’t be strange in the least for me to suddenly disappear right here and now.

No one knew when they may die, so perhaps we were all in the same boat. But still, I just couldn’t completely wipe away the unease that I felt.

If that happened, this really would be goodbye forever. I wouldn’t ever again hear that calm voice or look into his gentle eyes.

Would I be able to see how things turned out between Shumiral and Vina Ruu?

The very thought was enough to cause me to feel a crushing sensation in my chest.

“Asuta, are you crying...?” Ai Fa asked.

“As if, you dummy,” I replied.

My clan head didn’t say anything further.

But for a moment, I thought she had reached out with her warm fingers to wipe beneath my eyes, only for her to roughly ruffle my hair instead.

With that, the blue month, which had been filled with all sorts of encounters and farewells, finally came to a close.