Cooking with Wild Game: Volume 14

Tsuvai was the only fixed member of the group, whereas Reina and Sheera Ruu alternated each day, and Vina Ruu was on a rotation with Lala and Rimee Ruu.

Reina Ruu and Sheera Ruu were the ones in charge when it came to their stalls, and they ended up alternating so that one could always stay behind at the settlement to handle preparations for the next day, making everything flow smoother. All this was possible because over this last month and a half all of the members in their group had learned how to prepare myamuu giba.

As for the other three sisters on rotation, that was because they all wanted to work in the post town, and it was also thanks to Rimee Ruu finally receiving permission from their parents. When the older Vina and Reina Ruu were both going to the post town each day, it had an impact on their work at the main Ruu house, which apparently led them to adopt this system.

Then when the sun hit its peak, one of them would leave the stalls along with me, while Ama Min or Morun Rutim would come to assist in their place. They had strengthened their lineup so that even though they were running two stalls now, they always had three people present.

As for the Fa clan stalls...

"Ah... I-I look forward to working with you again today..." Toor Deen said, now facing away from me.

Following her gaze, I found the other member of our group elegantly approaching.

"I feel much the same."

It was the former eldest daughter of the main Suun house and current member of the Lea clan, Yamiru Lea.

When I decided to also bolster the lineup for my stalls, I ended up recruiting from the clans under the Ruu. Right away, the Lea clan head Rau Lea firmly insisted that I take Yamiru Lea.

"She's awkward, lacks strength, and isn't all that skilled when it comes to cooking. So please, show her how it's done so that she can make delicious food like you!" the young Lea clan head had entreated.

Then there was Li Sudra who came to help when the sun hit its peak, rounding out our full group of four running the Fa clan's stalls.

"Well then, let's get going. Take care so that our luggage doesn't fall over, okay?"

"Of course," Yamiru Lea briefly replied before moving toward the wagon, and Toor Deen scurried out of her way in a fluster.

Still, she used to go pale just seeing Yamiru Lea, so that was progress. While she still got a bit nervous, Toor Deen was in the midst of trying to form a real bond with the older girl.

In the past at the Suun settlement, one was on top while the other was subservient. But now, Yamiru Lea and Toor Deen had been granted new clan names and were trying to live new and different lives. It really was a twist of fate that the pair would end up working together in the post town like this.

But at any rate, we had to be on our way. After getting back in place in the driver's seat, I took the path south and called out to Yamiru Lea behind me. "When you walked over, you came from the direction of Shin Ruu's house, didn't you? Were you meeting with Mida?"

"Indeed."

"He seems like he's built up quite a bit of stamina, don't you think? Ludo Ruu has been saying it may be all right to have him head out into the forest soon."

"I see."

She didn't seem to be in an especially bad mood. This was just how Yamiru Lea always acted lately.

If push came to shove, she could still break out her same sharp tongue, but her usual expression had grown much more gentle, and she felt a lot less like she was tormenting herself. It was honestly hard to imagine now how she had once worn a chilly grin with eyes like a poisonous serpent.

"Still, it certainly is impressive that you're able to prepare this much food each and every morning..." Yamiru Lea called out to me.

Lately I had taken to preparing the meals for The Sledgehammer and The Great Southern Tree in the morning, so they were already loaded into the wagon.

"It's not such a big deal. I have the folks living nearby help with the simple preparations, then Toor Deen lends a hand with the trickier parts."

"Hmm... But you're paying coins to those women you get help from too, aren't you?"

"Yes, but it's a cheap price to pay. And the work only takes two or three hours or so."

But for this past month and a half the wages for helping were upped to two red coins per hour plus extra based on ability, which was a significant increase. Considering the period back when I kept it at just six red coins for over seven hours, this was more than double. And I arrived at that number by taking into account the daily wages paid in the post town.

"Well, I suppose such expenses are nothing whatsoever to the Fa clan. From what I hear, the Ruu clan now has over twenty silver coins."

"Ooh, they still have that much left after buying a wagon and two totos? It's only been a month and a half since they actually went into business for themselves, so that sure is something."

The Ruu clan had purchased the wagon and totos not just for the sake of business, but also for their clan members. Their wagon was a simple wholesale one without a top, but even so, that purchase had to add up to over three silver coins in total.

By the way, a single silver coin was equivalent to one thousand red coins or a hundred white ones. And so, it was the absolute highest denomination of currency used in the post town.

"I'm sure Tsuvai's been carefully managing the finances. But still, those really are fantastic results."

"There's no need to keep on praising Tsuvai like that. Were the Ruu not able to earn such a fortune precisely because you allotted them so much work? If the Fa clan can manage to create everything needed for the inns without issue, then what need is there to share that with the Ruu?"

As we already planned out a while back, we were now alternating with the Ruu clan when it came to providing food for the inns.

At first the Ruu clan had offered giba soup while I'd had my meat and chatchi stew and giba sauté arrabbiata, but now Reina Ruu and the others could also make those dishes, so we were splitting things equally. On top of that, I was also now able to offer a brand new dish to The Kimyuus's Tail, so Reina and Sheera Ruu were in the midst of practicing to make it.

"Still, the Ruu clan also purchased the wagon and the totos for the sake of their clan members, so I'd say it was a good allocation of funds. And it's much healthier to do things like this than for the Fa clan to just stockpile a fortune, wouldn't you say?"

"Just how much of a fortune has the Fa clan amassed...? I would be interested in hearing, if it is all right to ask."

"I've got no reason to hide it. Hmm, adding together our current reserves, it should be around 37 silver coins."

"My, so you don't even have double what the Ruu clan possesses?"

"Right. That's because we have to buy more meat from other clans than the Ruu do."

Putting together what we used at the inns and stalls with the fresh meat we sold, we were currently using 130 kilograms of giba meat per day in the post town. Converting that into fairly sizable giba, you would be talking three of them worth of meat.

Around half of that came from the Fa clan, but there was no way that Ai Fa could hunt down the full amount all on her own. And what was more, the Fa clan entered its half-a-month-long break period starting in the middle of the ashen month.

To compensate, we had to purchase whatever extra we needed from other clans. And we had revised the rate to 120 red coins per giba, so it made for quite an expense.

But, well, thinking of it another way, it meant by buying so much meat, we Fa were sharing our wealth with other clans.

"At any rate, I'm really glad for the fact that we can sell so much meat and so many meals in the post town without facing a significant burden. It's not a problem at all," I replied honestly.

We had strengthened our personnel and optimized our business model. Thanks to that, regardless of how we increased our workload, we were able to keep on working while facing less of a burden than before. The majority of the reason for that was because I had started leaving a lot more to the Ruu clan, and the rest was that we had revised our work schedules.

Up until now, we had remained in the post town for five and a half hours, including preparations and clean up. But now, we had managed to shorten that to around three and a half hours.

Previously, we had a bit of a blank period between the morning rush and when the sun hit its peak, and even once that was past, we remained in the post town until the scheduled time arrived. We eliminated that excess time by restricting our operations to just before and after when the sun hit its peak.

However, our sales at the stalls had risen so greatly that that wasn't a problem at all. Our meals cost one and a half times as much as they used to and our business hours had shortened, but we were getting over double the number of customers we used to.

I figured that was down to the fact that the nobles of Genos had acknowledged the taste of giba meat, as well as justice being served for all those criminals, meaning that fewer folks felt the need to avoid the people of the forest's...