Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 2

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3402-1
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 283 Seiten

Reihe: Cooking with Wild Game

Though Asuta saved the soul of Jiba Ruu, his troubles with the Ruu clan aren't over just yet! After all, he still hasn't satisfied the head of the clan, Donda Ruu! Fueled by his frustration over the beast of a man's harsh insults, our hero decides it's time for a rematch! But are he and Ai Fa up to the challenge?
It will require a whole different sort of dish entirely to take down this obstinate foe. And when Donda Ruu ups the stakes, will it prove too much for Asuta? Or can our hero turn up the heat himself? And perhaps more importantly, will he be able to survive another mishap with his benefactor and the women of the Ruu clan?
Find out all this and more in the second volume of Cooking with Wild Game!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eda

Weitere Mitwirkende

Kochimo

Warner, Matthew

Leseproben

After the cheeky youngest son of the family returned to his seat, a strange silence hung in the air.

“So, anyone else...?” Donda Ruu asked while stroking his beard and looking around. “So only three of you share my opinion that it’s not food fit for humans, huh?”

“I wouldn’t go all that far. Could you please stop using yourself as the standard for everything?” the third daughter, Lala Ruu, said with displeasure. Her red hair was tied up atop her head, and she was every bit as cheeky as Ludo. Those two were probably the only ones amongst the greatly differing seven siblings who were at all alike in terms of facial features and overall impression. She looked to be even younger than Ludo Ruu, and must have been 12 or 13 at the most.

“I thought the baked poitan and giba soup were seriously amazing. But the giba meat is crucial, and it was all gooey and gross, so I just didn’t think it was worth giving a blessing. Honestly, though, I could have given a blessing just for the matter with Granny Jiba. But everyone seemed to seriously think it was tasty, so I held back.”

“I see... What about you, Darmu?”

The shrewd, wolf-looking second son just replied, “I’ve got nothing to say.”

“Hmph. And you, Jiza?”

“I don’t think there’s any need to fixate on the matter so much, Clan Head Donda. No matter what form or taste they may come in, giba is still giba, and poitan is still poitan. Regardless of whatever clever plans may be used in preparing it, it’s all the same once it’s resting inside your stomach.”

“There’s no need to go saying something like that now!” the chief roared, his eyes like burning flames. His eldest son, meanwhile, just looked back at him with those thin eyes, and gave a composed smile.

“So it’s a question of taste, is it? It’s just as Lala said. I was surprised to see that poitan could be prepared in this manner, and I could strongly sense the life force of the giba from the way that its filthy stench was absent from the soup. However... that meat drenched in red nectar was so soft that it didn’t even feel like I was eating giba. I fear that if I ate such a dish every day, my teeth would lose all strength and fall out one after another.”

“Yes... that’s it! That’s why I felt it wasn’t a suitable meal for a hunter of the forest’s edge!” Donda Ruu yelled out, the life rushing back into his face now that he had apparently found his answer. “These teeth of mine are meant for tearing into tough giba meat! Just like these arms are meant for finishing off giba and these legs are for running through the forest, they’re valuable tools for living here at forest’s edge! And tools grow rusty if you don’t use them. What you fed me was an improper meal, one that rusted away my life force!”

“That’s...” I started to object, but Ai Fa gently grabbed my arm. I could see in her calm blue eyes that she was telling me to stop.

“Of course, that’s because I’m a hunter and a man of the forest’s edge! And so... This is a perfectly proper meal for a toothless old woman,” Donda Ruu carried on with an arrogant smile, looking at the old woman in question. “My grandmother, our elder Jiba... what you said was absolutely right. If it helped bring your soul back to life, then I’ll graciously swallow my words. That’s not mundt food. It is medicine, meant for saving our honored elder who has lived longer than any of the people of the forest’s edge, and strove to work for our sake all this time! It’s a treasure!”

“Hmph... You’re being unusually earnest, aren’t you, Clan Head Donda...?”

“I’m always earnest! I acknowledge things that are right, and call out things that are bad. As if I could serve as clan head without the resolve to do that much.” Then, that fierce gaze pointed towards Ai Fa and myself. “Ai Fa of the Fa clan! And your clan member, Asuta! You saved the Ruu clan’s beloved elder, Jiba Ruu! As head of the Ruu clan, I apologize for my impoliteness up until now, and offer thanks to you once again!”

Ai Fa gave a silent nod.

As I was awash in the clear praise, I stared straight at Donda Ruu. The beast of a man was now wearing a pleasant smile on his face. It was a truly refreshed expression that he wore, as if years and years of doubts had finally been cleared away.

“To me, the food you cooked was poison. But for our elder, it was medicine. My soul won’t rust from one night of poison, so I’ll overlook the crime of making me eat it. And the fangs and tusks you received were the proper and just blessings for your deeds. Go ahead and convert them to your own flesh and blood, without feeling indebted to anyone!”

2

And so, that brings us back to the present. Ai Fa left, telling me to go to sleep first before heading off to Granny Jiba’s bedroom. But I just couldn’t drift off. I just kept on floundering and flailing, tossing and turning about the large, empty house.

In all likelihood, Donda Ruu had grown anxious seeing his family give us blessings one after another. He was wondering if they were in their right minds, or perhaps even if they had gone completely mad. But when he heard his eldest son Jiza’s words, he finally understood. As Granny Jiba so aptly put it, it’s up to each person to decide what they find delicious. And so, he could feel relieved with the fact that no one had gone crazy.

But at the same time, that meant that he seriously thought the giburgers I gave my all to make tasted bad.

I really did think that, too. But in the end, it was my decision that led to hamburgers being the dish for that dinner. Trusting in the praise I’d received from Ai Fa and Rimee Ruu, I went ahead and presented them without even a hint of doubt, as if it was only natural despite the dish being utterly alien to the people of the forest’s edge. I mean, it was literally cooking from a whole other world, after all.

If I had carefully examined the circumstances, I would have been able to present another meat dish alongside the hamburgers. But I hadn’t been able to read the situation that thoroughly, and so I was the one at fault here.

Was my cooking really all that awful? Enough so to be inferior to their usual dish, the giba stew with that meat that hadn’t been bloodlet, in that muddy poitan gruel?

That was surely the root of the sense of defeat I was feeling. Was I being conceited, thinking this way? Was I wrong to feel defeated over something like that?

As I ground my teeth I touched the necklace Rimee Ruu had made, which was dangling in front of my chest. It was made by chaining together eight tusks and horns, and it jangled pleasantly when it moved.

It was the very first payment I had received in this other world. Eight people out of the group of twelve acknowledged my cooking as delicious, and I felt it was alright to be proud of that. I couldn’t say I felt firmly on the matter, but I honestly didn’t want to exchange them for poitan and aria. It certainly may have been the right thing to do, trading them for food that would become my flesh and blood, but I figured it would still be a while till I could make up my mind to do so.

This was proof that my very existence had been acknowledged. That I was judged as having value.

That made me happy, and proud. It felt like it was alright for me to keep on living, even here in this other world.

But at the same time, my work had also been negated.

It was frustrating, and I felt annoyed. It was as if my very existence had been . It wasn’t the sort of feeling that could be brushed aside by the simple argument that people’s tastes vary.

I had succeeded in teaching the women how to mince meat. Thanks to that, they’d be able to keep on making meals that would be easy for the weak-toothed Granny Jiba to eat. But if I couldn’t impart the technique of bloodletting, then the taste would still be seriously affected. And since it was meaningless if it wasn’t done right after the finishing blow, I needed to teach it to the men rather than the women.

With the way things turned out, I’m sure Donda Ruu wouldn’t even consider studying the technique. I’d screwed up on that matter, too. I’d blundered, and failed...

I just hadn’t thought things through enough.

It was around when I was thinking that that I heard a on the door.

“Yes, who is it?”

I figured maybe it was Ai Fa, but would she really knock?

And now that I think of it, this was actually the first I heard of the custom of knocking even existing in this world.

And wait, there’s no way it’s Ai Fa, right?

“It’s not barred, right? You can open it,” I called out, and then went ahead and stood up.

As I wondered who it was, Reina Ruu’s innocent smiling face suddenly came to mind. That beautiful black-haired second...