Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 12

Cyclaeus had acted all modest yesterday, but it was hard to say just how exactly he would behave now that a new day had dawned. Had he really been unaware of the whole incident? Would Lefreya and her underlings be properly judged? With only five days left until the meeting that would determine how the Suun clan would be dealt with, the relationship between Cyclaeus and the people of the forest's edge had grown more strained than ever before.

"Now that I think about it, Gulaf Zaza must be awfully mad at all this trouble I stirred up, huh?" I asked as we were walking down the path.

With a rather intense look my way, Ai Fa replied, "Indeed," with a nod. "He really came after Donda Ruu and myself, saying we invited this by going and doing business in the post town of all things. But more than that, he seemed furious that you were kidnapped by those fiends."

"Huh? You don't mean he was worried about me, do you...?"

"Yes. Though you were born in another nation entirely, the fact that you were welcomed as one of our comrades means you must be treated as a person of the forest's edge. And anyone who points a blade at one of our number can never be forgiven... Blood is to be met with blood, and blades with blades."

"I see..."

"Donda Ruu was also enraged in his own way, and refused to budge from his firm assertion that Cyclaeus was behind this incident. If it weren't for Gazraan Rutim and Dari Sauti insisting we mustn't take up arms without any proof, all the hunters of the forest's edge could have ended up storming the castle gates."

There were roughly five hundred people of the forest's edge in total. Assuming half of them were men, and subtracting out children under the age of thirteen... there still had to be around two hundred hunters in total.

I didn't know how many soldiers there were in Genos, but regardless I couldn't imagine them managing to keep their cool when faced with that many hunters. If things went badly, it could even end up as a literal battle for survival between Genos and the forest's edge. Just imagining that was enough to send a chill running down my spine.

"Seriously, this time around we had to build up some real resolve, too. Plus, the whole thing was caused by us failing to protect you in the first place..." Ludo Ruu chimed in, the same sort of look in his eyes that Ai Fa had. "The Ruu clan had four whole hunters present, but just two thugs got the better of us. It was so shameful we were just about ready to smash our own heads open over it."

"I seriously am sorry. I wasn't anywhere near cautious enough, either."

"That's not true at all. It was our job to protect you, Asuta. Geez, my old man yelled at me, and Ai Fa was crying, and-"

"Ludo Ruu..." Ai Fa growled, cutting the youth off.

"Ah, no, I didn't mean it like that. I'm not talking about some childish sobbing, y'know. She had a scary look in her eyes like my old man, and the tears just-"

"Ludo Ruu!"

"Alright, I get it. Anyway, we won't go screwing up again. We'll work like crazy and make sure we carry out our task."

I was just about drowning in guilt as I listened to Ludo Ruu. From last night all the way up until now, no one from the forest's edge had directed so much as a single word of blame my way.

Apparently, that was because everyone knew that a pathetic chef like me could never protect himself. So despite all the self-condemnation Ludo and Shin Ruu were awash in, I was getting a complete pass. And I found that incredibly painful to bear.

"Oh, we finally made it," Ludo Ruu called out.

I looked up, and found we were already in the shadows of the town's buildings.

The wagon was loaned out to Reina Ruu's group, and we wouldn't use Gilulu for a group this size, and so we had just been walking the path.

By this point, the sun had already nearly hit its peak. In other words, Cyclaeus and the leading clan heads would be starting their meeting at any moment. That was just how long it took us to swing by the Fa house and take care of the bare minimum chores we had to do after staying overnight at the Ruu settlement.

"Sorry you've had to take multiple days in a row off from hunting, Ai Fa..." I whispered.

"Don't say that," Ai Fa replied with a bitter look. "I did it all of my own volition. You should feel no responsibility in the matter."

"Oh, that's right. Since it's only the two of you in your house, hunting just one giba in five days would be enough work to keep you going just fine. And since Ai Fa's been going and catching more than that left and right for a while now, nobody could possibly blame her for taking a bit of a break," Ludo Ruu remarked.

With a gloomy look, Ai Fa replied, "Right..." with a nod. Even so, I figured Ai Fa's pride wouldn't accept putting her work as a hunter second even if the Ruu clan were asking for a skilled bodyguard.

By the way, in the past half month Ai Fa had kept on hunting down giba at a pace of one every two days rather than five. Including the money I had been making, the Fa clan was amassing more and more fortune that we didn't know what to do with.

"More importantly, it's time to finally cross over into the post town. I can't imagine anyone here would be dumb enough to do this today of all days, but don't let your guards down, alright?"

The young hunters of the branch houses surrounding me all nodded, piercing looks in their eyes.

As for me, well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. Thanks to that whole commotion surrounding me, it was possible a crucial fracture had occurred in the relationship between the people of the forest's edge and the townsfolk, and I was about to find out firsthand.

Of course Reina Ruu and everyone had kept doing business, and from what I was told, sales remained steady, so perhaps there was no need to worry. And yet, I just couldn't feel all that optimistic about matters.

"Alright, let's get going," Ludo Ruu commanded, and we slipped past the buildings and set foot on the stone highway.

The sun was already high in the sky, and so the street was packed with people.

As we walked further along, a southerner hurrying the other way went, "Huh?" and turned to face us. "Hey, if it isn't the giba seller kid!"

I somehow recognized the man, so he must have come by the stalls numerous times. Since southerners were generally around the same stature and always had those disheveled dark brown mustaches, though, a lot of them tended to blend together in my mind.

"You really did make it back! I had heard rumors, but still! So you were kidnapped by some noble girl and trapped in the castle town?"

"Huh? People have already spread that around the post town?"

As I stood there shocked, Ai Fa glared at me out of the corner of her eye.

"I already told you that everyone tied to you was informed of last night's happenings in advance, did I not? We only asked them to hold their tongues until sunset, and to actually spread the information after that point... By doing so, even if I was also captured after setting foot in the castle town, it would be possible to make further moves. Or at least, that was how Gazraan Rutim's plan went."

So in that case, the fact that Cyclaeus's daughter Lefreya had her underlings Mussel and Sanjura kidnap me was already widely known throughout the post town?

"Of course, if it turned out that Jeeda boy was lying it would mean we had sullied Cyclaeus's name without proof, but we had no time to worry about such niceties. After all, it had already been five days since you were kidnapped by that point..."

The southerner shot us a suspicious look as we whispered away, then adjusted the load on his shoulders and turned around.

"Well, at any rate, I'm glad things ended up alright. I'll be looking forward to the day you're open again for business, alright?"

"Ah, yes, thank you!"

With that, the man disappeared into the crowd.

Even after that, though, plenty of folks called out to us as we walked down the street.

Despite there being six hunters in our group including Ai Fa, around half of the passersby didn't seem concerned by that fact in the least. Did that mean the townsfolk really had built up a resistance to seeing hunters after sixty of them were coming into town for several days on end?

The easterners we passed had their faces hidden under their hoods and just gave small nods, while cheerful southerners called out stuff like, "Glad to see you got your buddy back," to Ludo and Shin Ruu, which surprised me.

On the other hand, it was true that some percentage of the crowd looked even more cautious and tried to distance themselves from us. That trend was strikingly more common among westerners in particular.

But the people of the forest's edge had been attracting more and more attention ever since the commotion with Tei Suun anyway. And while they were watching us so intently, trying to figure out just what kind of people we were, an incident like this happened.

Perhaps some of them saw a truly honorable people who did whatever it took for the sake of one of their comrades.

On the other hand, some probably saw a terrifying...