Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 35

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-7183-3468-7
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 35, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Cooking with Wild Game

The massive earthquake that hit Genos quite literally shook things up a great deal for Asuta and his comrades. Immense effort has gone into rebuilding, and in the middle of all that, Asuta was forced to deal with the complex emotions caused by learning of the death of a former enemy. And even though the quake is behind them, there's still a lot going on! When Toor Deen opens a new stall selling desserts, will it prove to be a success? And how will it go when Asuta hires a new chef to fill the gap left by the young chef's departure? What disaster is the Suun clan facing, and will it be possible to overcome? And of course, how will the banquet with the southerners end up going? See all this and more in the exciting thirty-fifth volume of Cooking with Wild Game!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Eda

Weitere Mitwirkende

Kochimo

Warner, Gwendolyn

Leseproben

I tended to think of gigi leaves as something of a luxury ingredient. If you used a lot of them, costs would skyrocket and you wouldn’t be able to sell your product in the post town. But each manju only used a small spoonful of the cream, which kept their price reasonable. The little manju were around six or seven centimeters in diameter, and four of them cost a single red coin. Of course, people could also use a split coin to purchase two instead.

Originally, Toor Deen had planned on selling something similar to cookies. It was easy to make a lot of them with a stone oven, and adding chocolate to them would have been a great way to introduce a delicious new flavor to the post town. That was the idea I’d had in mind when I had proposed the idea of chocolate chip cookies.

However, there weren’t any ovens in the post town, so no matter how popular her treats got, there wouldn’t be any way for other people to make or sell something similar, so that option ran somewhat counter to our objective here. We were aiming to popularize sweet foods in the post town so that more sugar and honey would be purchased. But if the people who came to love desserts couldn’t order them from other stalls and dining halls, that would never come to pass.

With that all in mind, we had eventually arrived at the idea of these gigi manju. Plenty of inns had already purchased steaming baskets after our last study session with them, and it was possible to purchase gigi leaves as long as you could afford them. That meant it would be possible for the townsfolk to follow her example and sell similar treats.

“Apparently, the gigi leaves in these things come from Sym. How irritating,” Pops grumbled as he tossed a giba manju into his mouth. It was hard to tell how many he had purchased, as he still seemed to have several more.

“Hey, Toor Deen. Looks like you’re really busy,” I called out, and the young chef shot me a timid smile.

“It wasn’t like this until just a little while ago. But it seems these people are very fond of this manju.”

With so many people making such a commotion, it was sure to attract attention. The people going to line up at the giba cooking stalls were stopping and looking to see what was going on.

After diverting around that crowd, the envoy walked over to the side of the stall.

“My apologies for the wait. Are you perhaps selling desserts now, Lady Toor Deen?” he asked.

“Ah, thank you for coming. You’re here for Odifia’s treats, right? I’ll go get them.”

Toor Deen left the stall to the Liddo woman, then went and grabbed a wrapped bundle out of one of our wagons. The envoy accepted it, but he also kept looking back and forth between the bundle and the steamer basket they were using to prepare the manju.

“Are these confections different from the ones you are selling here?”

“Uh, yes. These ones aren’t all that elaborate, though, since it’s important for us to keep costs down,” Toor Deen replied. Then she suddenly looked up. “B-But, well, I’d still like to have Odifia try them. Would it be possible to have you deliver a few to her?”

“But of course. I’m certain that is what Lady Odifia would want as well. Could you pack them up in here?” the envoy asked, and an attendant waiting behind him quickly held out an empty box. Since they picked up the sweets once every three days, they always brought a box with them so they could give us one.

“Lady Toor Deen, are you planning to sell these again tomorrow?”

“Y-Yes, I’m set to keep selling desserts for the next while.”

“Then I am certain Lady Odifia will want them daily. We shall bring you another container when we come again tomorrow,” the envoy said with a relaxed smile, looking like he didn’t find that bothersome in the least. He seems like he fully accepted Odifia’s desire to purchase sweets from a stall in the post town despite the fact that she was the daughter of a ducal house.

“How much do these buns cost?”

“Ah, th-they cost one red coin for four of them.”

“I see. In that case, could I ask for twenty?”

“Huh? T-Twenty?”

“Yes. I imagine others will want to try them too, after all. Should we use a steaming basket to reheat them?”

“Y-Yes. As long as you eat them today, I’m pretty sure they won’t go bad.”

And then she proceeded to fill the empty box with hot gigi manju.

“Thank you. Now then, I also come with a message from Lady Eulifia, wife of the first son of Duke Genos.”

Sure enough, it was a request to have Toor Deen and Rimee Ruu make sweets for a tea party. We had known for a while now that they were planning to make such a request at some point during the blue month.

“I am certain your people must be busy repairing homes after the earthquake that struck Genos recently, but would you be able to accept?”

“Y-Yes, as long as the leading clan heads grant their permission. But we’d like to wait until we have a day off from the stalls.”

“Of course. Your next day off will be the twenty-eighth of the blue month, correct?” Since this envoy had visited the post town three days ago too, he had a proper grasp of the schedule for our stalls. “Well then, we shall be counting on you. And Sir Asuta, would it be possible to have you attend as well at that time?”

“Yeah, though I’d prefer to go as a cooking assistant.”

“I am glad to hear it. The head of the house of Turan has been invited to the upcoming tea party, and she has expressed a desire to see you.”

I had last seen the head of the house of Turan, Lefreya, four days ago, when she came to inform me that her father, the criminal Cyclaeus, had passed away. Though she had mostly managed to keep it together, she had broken down sobbing like a small child at the end of our meeting.

“Well then, we will plan for the tea party to be held on the twenty-eighth of the blue month. Please send our regards to the leading clan heads of the forest’s edge.”

The messenger then departed, and Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed, “Yay! It’s been forever since the last tea party! I think the last one was around the end of the rainy season, so that was, um... Well, it’s been a real long time!”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it too,” I said.

Just then, a member of the construction group standing close to the stall called out, “Hey, I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything, but are you all really getting invited to the castle town?”

“I’m only tagging along as an extra. These two were the ones who’re actually getting invited. They’ll be making treats to serve to noblewomen.”

“Wow! They invited those two little girls for something like that?! No wonder these buns are so delicious!”

Toor Deen shrank back from the gazes that were being directed her way from all around. Rimee Ruu, who was standing next to her, just giggled and smiled.

“Well, I can’t speak for the people of Genos, but southerners will definitely be really satisfied with this stuff. I think we’re definitely going to end up telling a bunch of other folks from Jagar about your new stall back at the inn, so you should probably prepare a whole lot more for tomorrow.”

“Th-Thank you. It’s very reassuring to hear you say so,” Toor Deen replied. Then she glanced up at me. When I smiled down at her, she broke out in an embarrassed grin of her own.

More customers continued to gradually gather around the dessert stall, so it seemed that Toor Deen’s new business was going to do just fine.

3

After wrapping up work at the stalls without incident, we headed back to the settlement at the forest’s edge. Since today’s study session was being held at the Ruu settlement, we met up there. By this point, the two houses under reconstruction had completed foundations and framework, and it looked like the Ruu were starting work on the roofs and walls.

“It looks like work has progressed quite a bit since I saw it this morning. At this rate, they’ll probably be done in less than half a month, right?” I asked Ryada Ruu. Since most of the men had gone out giba hunting, that just left Ryada Ruu, Bartha, and the youths under the age of thirteen continuing to work. Meanwhile, the women seemed to be working around the house like always.

“Honestly, I have no idea. But if it were a break period, I’m sure we would have long since been finished,” he told me.

As we greeted everyone, we all headed around to the main house’s kitchen. And all the while, Marfila Naham was glancing around restlessly.

“I-I-I was thinking about this earlier today too, but the Ruu really are a large clan, aren’t they? Th-They have eight whole houses, but they don’t live together with their subordinate clans, right?”

“Yeah. The only ones who live here are the members of the Ruu clan and their four guests. I believe there are around forty or so members of the clan.”

“Forty?! Th-Th-That’s an incredible number.”

As we were having that discussion, we arrived at the kitchen. And when we stepped inside, we found Sheera, Mia Lea, Vina, Lala, and Tari Ruu were all handling prep work for tomorrow.

“Ah, welcome to the Ruu house. We’ll be all done soon, so hold on for just a moment.”

“Of...