Cooking with wild game v.., p.19
Cooking with Wild Game, Volume 4, page 19
At any rate, until the sun hit its peak and the crowds picked up, the best we could hope for was pinpointing the few travelers passing by to sell to.
“Now that I think of it, I know that the castle town is to the northwest of here, but if you ignore that and keep going further north, where does this connect to?”
“Who knows...? Wouldn’t it be the Northern Kingdom of Mahyudra...?”
“Isn’t Mahyudra way up north? And well, I heard Genos is pretty far south as far as the Western Kingdom goes, so I get the feeling there must be all sorts of towns in between.”
“I don’t know anything about all that... If I think too much about stuff like that, I feel like I’ll just start wandering that way, so I try to keep it out of mind the best I can...”
“Is that so?”
“Yes... I see, so there are all sorts of towns even here in the Western Kingdom... I wonder if we people of the forest’s edge would still be mocked as ‘giba eaters’ even in places other than Genos...?”
With that, Vina Ruu stared off towards the distant north, ennui in her eyes.
“So you want to go somewhere far away because you hate hearing that?”
“No... That’s not it, but... Well no, maybe it is. But at any rate, I want to live a naked life...”
“N-Naked?”
“Yes... At the forest’s edge, I’m the eldest daughter of the main Ruu house. In the post town, I’m just a giba eater woman... The only ones to acknowledge me for who I am are my family. But I want all sorts of people to see the real, naked me. Or at least, I think that’s what I want...” She shot me a coquettish glance. “Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you... The common sense of both the forest’s edge and the post town don’t weigh you down. So I figured, maybe you could see me as just me...”
“Y-You hadn’t thought things through that deeply back when you made your move at me, did you? I mean, back then the two of us had hardly even talked...”
“Right... At first I was just attracted to your background, how you had come from so far away that you didn’t even know the name of the continent. But I still don’t think I could even have done something like that if I wasn’t also drawn to you personally, too...”
Vina Ruu definitely seemed passionate when working, but it seemed that her emotions started to get all stirred up when she had too much time on her hands.
I started to wonder secretly to myself if Tara would pop up around now and glanced around the highway. And then, I spotted a nice looking target.
“Ah! Is that a foreigner, from somewhere other than Genos?”
It was a man with skin that was neither yellowish-brown nor ivory, but rather white with a touch of ruddiness to it. He was very short and stout, and his hair was a dark brown. And he was still a bit far away so it was hard to make him out in detail, but he looked like he had some facial hair.
He had on a sleeveless vest and cylindrical legged pants, making for an outfit that reminded me a bit of the one young Leito wore, and he was walking along from the south while browsing the shops to his left and right.
“What country was a pale-skinned guy like that born in?”
“Huh...? He’s from the Southern Kingdom of Jagar, isn’t he?”
So that was it, huh?
Well, ruling out the enemy nation to the north, that had to be where he was from, using process of elimination. The people of the forest’s edge had originally come from the south and had light brown skin, so it made sense that the other folks from there shared a similar lineage.
“So the folks with yellowish-brown skin are the Genos natives, right? But there are just about the same amount of ivory skinned folks around, so where are they from?”
“They’re all citizens of the west... When I was little, Granny Jiba once told me that Genos was far and away the most peaceful and abundant land in the country, so people from all over came here to live and work.”
Ah, I see.
So there were folks who settled here in Genos decades ago, as well as folks who were born and raised here. I felt like now I could understand why even though they were detached from the situation, so many people from the south and east seemed to fear and despise the people of the forest’s edge more than pureblooded Genos citizens did.
They weren’t all travelers, so some of them must have had that mindset to begin with. But if it was possible to break that mindset, that could surely spread to the indigenous people of Genos, too.
Well, putting all that aside, I had business to take care of.
The southern man was still steadily walking along and browsing, so things were looking good.
He didn’t have much in the way of luggage about him and was pretty lightly outfitted, so he probably wasn’t going to cut on through and keep heading north. While praying to myself that he would come close enough that I wouldn’t have to shout, I started stealthily chopping up a mini burger to use for samples.
“Asuta... Since he’s from the south, I think it would be better for you to handle him.”
“Huh? Why’s that?”
“There are still quite a few older folks from the south who view the people of the forest’s edge with hatred. They call us nothing but betrayers who tossed aside the southern god, Jagar...”
So not contempt and fear, but downright hatred, huh?
But even though I saw roughly the same proportion of white-skinned southerners as dark-skinned easterners, I didn’t recall sensing that many threatening glares.
“Yes, well that’s because there are more people from their enemy nation of Sym wandering around, so normally they have their hands full glaring at them, I guess...”
“Huh? The Eastern and Southern Kingdoms are enemies?”
“You really don’t know anything, do you Asuta...?” Vina Ruu asked, half looking astounded but also half pleased, and she wore a smile. “There’s just as old of a feud between the east and south as there is between the north and west. But since the west is friendly with both of them, they’re forbidden from causing any trouble here... And if they break that rule, they won’t be allowed to step foot on western land ever again, so they apparently won’t go causing a commotion so lightly.”
It seemed the people of the Ruu clan may possess a whole lot more information than Ai Fa, who lacked any relatives.
But at any rate, I had to focus on business.
It seemed like the man from the south was just killing time, as he was carefully looking over each stall, but he didn’t appear to be buying anything.
When I saw he had finally stopped at the accessory shop next to us, I went, Yes! in my head and gave a little fist pump.
It was then that my gaze met with the man’s.
He was older than I had been thinking. In fact, he may have even been in his fifties.
He had a big head and a square face, and his back was short but well built. In fact, he looked more well built in general than the citizens of Genos. And he had an impressive moustache and beard combo going on, too.
The green eyes that sparkled under his bushy eyebrows didn’t quite look calm and gentle, though.
Once the man finished with the accessory shop, he stomped on over towards our stall.
“Giba? You’re selling giba meat of all things?”
I was trying to respond with a smile, but the man kept on pressing and cut that off.
“What are you, an idiot? Who’d eat something as smelly and hard as that? You’re the only ones who will dare eat that crap. And then you impertinently went and used tarapa, too. You fools don’t even know what good food tastes like, so you should just stick to eating aria and poitan. You really should close up shop and get lost, before you lose all your precious horns and tusks.”
His cutting words came like a machine gun, not giving me a chance to get in a single word edgewise.
And then, once he seemed to have said his piece, the man turned to leave.
“Um! You say all that, but giba meat is delicious. If you’d like, please taste one of these bits of meat here.”
“Huh?” he questioned as he turned around, shooting me a disgruntled glare.
“Are you a complete and utter idiot, boy? Why should I have to eat damn giba meat? They sell kimyuus and karon here in town. There are much better meats all around to be had. It’s downright nonsense trying to sell giba in the middle of all that, you fool. Besides, if I eat that crap my skin’ll turn brown like you people, and everyone’ll turn a cold shoulder to me too.”
“T-That’s nothing but pure prejudice! I mean, I’ve eaten a ton of giba meat, and you can see how I look.”
I’d expected to run into a customer like this eventually. In fact, it might even be reasonable to say he was relatively light on fear and contempt compared to most, making him not too bad to handle.
“What’s a kid like you doing dressed up like a person of the forest’s edge and selling giba meat...? Aha. So you were seduced by that temptress there, weren’t you? You’re a real fool. But well, no matter how stupid you may be, your life is yours to live. If you like that woman that badly, then just go live in the forest with her. Then nobody would give you any grief.”
“No, but giba meat really is tasty. I thought it would be a shame if this delicious meat could only be had at the forest’s edge, so I decided to open this shop. These samples are free, so if you don’t mind, why don’t you give it a try and see for sure whether or not I’m just being tricked?”
My sales smile was perfect, I figured.
And yet, the man just snorted, “Hmph,” and stood directly facing me. Then, he glared at the plate of samples and said, “Looks real unappetizing.”
He’d been heaping a storm of abuse my way this whole time, but perhaps because he wasn’t raising his voice, I wasn’t sensing much animosity or ill will from him.
The main impression I was getting was that he was surprisingly talkative despite his boorish appearance.
“So this is free, right? You won’t make me pay you anything, no matter what?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied with a smile and a nod.
As frustrated wrinkles formed on his brow, the man reached out and grabbed a toothpick with his thick fingers.
Then, he tossed the chunk of mini burger, which I had cut into six parts, into his mouth, chewed thoroughly, then swallowed.
Finally, he glared at me once again.
“...It was crap. You really are being led along.”
“Huh?”
“It didn’t stink as bad as I expected, and it wasn’t hard at all. But it was all gushy and had an unpleasant texture, and the taste was too heavy, like I could feel it clogging up my nose. It doesn’t even compare to kimyuus or karon. You seem to have cooked up the tarapa real nice, but it just got completely ruined by everything else. You really think anyone would pay you coins for this? The fact that you’re happy with crap like this is why people mock you and call you ‘giba eaters,’ you know.”
Could it be...? Was he really, truly someone whose tastes it just didn’t suit? That seemed to be the case for both the texture of the hamburger and the taste of the giba meat.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t predicted this ever happening, but it was just such a sudden development.
“Asuta...” Vina Ruu whispered, gripping the fabric at my hip.
I was feeling a bit shaken, but regardless I followed Vina Ruu’s gaze...
And saw a group in familiar leather cloaks rapidly approaching.
5
“W-What do you guys want?! This is western territory! You planning on starting something here?!” the man yelled, finally raising his voice for the first time.
The cloaked group, meanwhile, just wrapped around the man and the stall to half encircle the place.
And there were quite clearly more of them today than there had been yesterday.
“...We have no plan, to cause trouble,” one of the group said, shocking me by using the language of the west, albeit a touch awkwardly.
“We came, to buy, giba meat. We’ll wait, our turn.”
As he said that, the hood of the man’s cloak flipped back.
His skin was quite dark, and he had raised, narrow eyes, as well as a thin nose and lips.
Yes, his facial features were a lot like those of the youth from yesterday... but his hair was silver like Granny Jiba’s. And yet, he looked young. His hair wasn’t the result of old age, but rather he was just born that way.
“We will wait, our turn. We will have, ten, please.”
“W-What, are you all soft in the head? I can’t exactly imagine you’re sane if you want to pay for that disgusting meat. It’s like just throwing your money straight into the stove. Just let the people of the forest’s edge eat that crap. I can’t imagine it would make you all get any darker skinned, but still, it’ll just ruin your mood to eat awful meat like that, right?”
The silver-haired youth tilted his head, looking confused.
“I, still haven’t, eaten it. But, my allies, seven of them, ate it yesterday. They all, said, it was delicious. That is why, we ten, came here... Ten, please.”
“...Right. Thanks for your business!”
With that, I set about dicing up tino and aria, still feeling a little shaken up at hearing giba meat face such slander.
And in the meantime, my ten customers started silently clanking their coins down on my counter.
“I can’t believe this. So you folks from Sym don’t know what good meat tastes like, either? Because that crap’s not fit for normal humans to eat. If you want meat, then you should eat kimyuus or karon or something.”
It was some rather extreme interference with my business, but he still wasn’t raising his voice as he said it, and my customers from Sym didn’t seem to be paying him any heed, so it was nothing for me to worry about.
At any rate, I kept on working away at the ten giba burgers.
I handed the first of them over to the silver-haired youth, who sure enough silently ate it with a blank expression, gave a big nod, then turned to face the man from the south.
“Giba, tastes good. For two red, I am satisfied.”
“That’s just crazy talk. What the hell’s wrong with your tongue? Hey, everyone, get over here!” the man loudly yelled out.
With that, a new group came on over, all of them pale-skinned.
The cloaked group all smoothly clustered together, seemingly to make room for the newcomers. However, they kept munching away at their giba burgers all the while.
“What is it, Pops? Feels a little tense over here,” a young Jagar fellow from the new group asked in a bit of a coarse tone. Sure enough, the youth had dark brown hair, green eyes, and a short yet well built physique.
It seemed that in general, folks from Jagar weren’t built all that big. There were now eight people from Jagar gathered here including the first man, but only one or two of them looked like they may be taller than me. But all of them had sturdy physiques and rather fierce looking faces. Their hair colors and ages varied, but the majority of them had scraggly hair on their heads.
“Just look at them. They say that giba meat of all things is delicious and are eating it up. I had a bit too, but it wasn’t anything worth paying coins for. Did folks from Sym always have no taste?” There was a restlessness to his voice. It seemed he really was well and truly mad at this point.
“Pops, you ate giba meat? There’s no way that tasted good, right?” the youth from Jagar questioned, glancing over us and grabbing the man by his thick arm. “...Plus, it’s best not to get involved with the people of the forest’s edge. They’re even more trouble than guys from Sym. If you cause too much of a fuss, who knows what’ll happen to you later, right?”
“Nothing I’m saying is wrong. They’re the ones in the wrong. And if you think I’m lying, then you all try it, too.”
“I’ve got no interest in eating damn giba meat.”
“Enough already, just try it. Hey you, feed them your giba meat.”
It was an extremely heavy-handed demand... but it was also a precious opportunity. There were a lot of folks from Jagar around town, but if they didn’t like giba meat by nature, that would be a real serious issue.
These giba burgers were ultimately just a curveball. I had figured that even if their unique texture turned out to be a problem, I could always recover by offering some simple grilled meat dishes instead.
But this guy they’d been calling “Pops” had a problem with the taste of the giba meat itself. And that was in spite of the fact that I had used the rather strong tarapa sauce alongside it, too.
Was that down to the general tastes of folks from Jagar, or just Pops’s personal opinion? No matter what abusive language may come my way as a result, I couldn’t let this chance to give out samples and find the answer slip by me.
And so, I scooped out a mini burger from the pot onto the plate, then split it up into six parts. Five parts from the first sample were still sitting there too. I placed the plate atop the counter, held out enough toothpicks for everyone, and said, “Please, go ahead.”
Three of the group who looked to be on the older side went first and reached out without any hesitation.
Then, Pops chimed in and said, “Hey, you all try it too,” pushing the younger folks forward. And so, they started grabbing toothpicks, too.
By the way, the cloaked group had all finished their giba burgers in the meantime, but for some reason they didn’t leave, even though they didn’t look overly interested and were just standing there silently.
“Well? It’s gross, right?” Pops questioned, crossing his arms while looking over his allies.
As for the other men... Their expressions all seriously varied.
“If it’s gross, then come out and say it.”
Only two out of the group responded to him.
One of the old-timers said, “It’s bad,” and one of the younger crowd followed up with, “It isn’t especially good.”
“Just the two of you?” Pops replied, his eyes opening wide in shock.
It sort of reminded me of a look I had seen from Donda Ruu in days past.
“What about the rest of you? You’re not going to say it’s good, are you?”
“Now that I think of it, I know that the castle town is to the northwest of here, but if you ignore that and keep going further north, where does this connect to?”
“Who knows...? Wouldn’t it be the Northern Kingdom of Mahyudra...?”
“Isn’t Mahyudra way up north? And well, I heard Genos is pretty far south as far as the Western Kingdom goes, so I get the feeling there must be all sorts of towns in between.”
“I don’t know anything about all that... If I think too much about stuff like that, I feel like I’ll just start wandering that way, so I try to keep it out of mind the best I can...”
“Is that so?”
“Yes... I see, so there are all sorts of towns even here in the Western Kingdom... I wonder if we people of the forest’s edge would still be mocked as ‘giba eaters’ even in places other than Genos...?”
With that, Vina Ruu stared off towards the distant north, ennui in her eyes.
“So you want to go somewhere far away because you hate hearing that?”
“No... That’s not it, but... Well no, maybe it is. But at any rate, I want to live a naked life...”
“N-Naked?”
“Yes... At the forest’s edge, I’m the eldest daughter of the main Ruu house. In the post town, I’m just a giba eater woman... The only ones to acknowledge me for who I am are my family. But I want all sorts of people to see the real, naked me. Or at least, I think that’s what I want...” She shot me a coquettish glance. “Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you... The common sense of both the forest’s edge and the post town don’t weigh you down. So I figured, maybe you could see me as just me...”
“Y-You hadn’t thought things through that deeply back when you made your move at me, did you? I mean, back then the two of us had hardly even talked...”
“Right... At first I was just attracted to your background, how you had come from so far away that you didn’t even know the name of the continent. But I still don’t think I could even have done something like that if I wasn’t also drawn to you personally, too...”
Vina Ruu definitely seemed passionate when working, but it seemed that her emotions started to get all stirred up when she had too much time on her hands.
I started to wonder secretly to myself if Tara would pop up around now and glanced around the highway. And then, I spotted a nice looking target.
“Ah! Is that a foreigner, from somewhere other than Genos?”
It was a man with skin that was neither yellowish-brown nor ivory, but rather white with a touch of ruddiness to it. He was very short and stout, and his hair was a dark brown. And he was still a bit far away so it was hard to make him out in detail, but he looked like he had some facial hair.
He had on a sleeveless vest and cylindrical legged pants, making for an outfit that reminded me a bit of the one young Leito wore, and he was walking along from the south while browsing the shops to his left and right.
“What country was a pale-skinned guy like that born in?”
“Huh...? He’s from the Southern Kingdom of Jagar, isn’t he?”
So that was it, huh?
Well, ruling out the enemy nation to the north, that had to be where he was from, using process of elimination. The people of the forest’s edge had originally come from the south and had light brown skin, so it made sense that the other folks from there shared a similar lineage.
“So the folks with yellowish-brown skin are the Genos natives, right? But there are just about the same amount of ivory skinned folks around, so where are they from?”
“They’re all citizens of the west... When I was little, Granny Jiba once told me that Genos was far and away the most peaceful and abundant land in the country, so people from all over came here to live and work.”
Ah, I see.
So there were folks who settled here in Genos decades ago, as well as folks who were born and raised here. I felt like now I could understand why even though they were detached from the situation, so many people from the south and east seemed to fear and despise the people of the forest’s edge more than pureblooded Genos citizens did.
They weren’t all travelers, so some of them must have had that mindset to begin with. But if it was possible to break that mindset, that could surely spread to the indigenous people of Genos, too.
Well, putting all that aside, I had business to take care of.
The southern man was still steadily walking along and browsing, so things were looking good.
He didn’t have much in the way of luggage about him and was pretty lightly outfitted, so he probably wasn’t going to cut on through and keep heading north. While praying to myself that he would come close enough that I wouldn’t have to shout, I started stealthily chopping up a mini burger to use for samples.
“Asuta... Since he’s from the south, I think it would be better for you to handle him.”
“Huh? Why’s that?”
“There are still quite a few older folks from the south who view the people of the forest’s edge with hatred. They call us nothing but betrayers who tossed aside the southern god, Jagar...”
So not contempt and fear, but downright hatred, huh?
But even though I saw roughly the same proportion of white-skinned southerners as dark-skinned easterners, I didn’t recall sensing that many threatening glares.
“Yes, well that’s because there are more people from their enemy nation of Sym wandering around, so normally they have their hands full glaring at them, I guess...”
“Huh? The Eastern and Southern Kingdoms are enemies?”
“You really don’t know anything, do you Asuta...?” Vina Ruu asked, half looking astounded but also half pleased, and she wore a smile. “There’s just as old of a feud between the east and south as there is between the north and west. But since the west is friendly with both of them, they’re forbidden from causing any trouble here... And if they break that rule, they won’t be allowed to step foot on western land ever again, so they apparently won’t go causing a commotion so lightly.”
It seemed the people of the Ruu clan may possess a whole lot more information than Ai Fa, who lacked any relatives.
But at any rate, I had to focus on business.
It seemed like the man from the south was just killing time, as he was carefully looking over each stall, but he didn’t appear to be buying anything.
When I saw he had finally stopped at the accessory shop next to us, I went, Yes! in my head and gave a little fist pump.
It was then that my gaze met with the man’s.
He was older than I had been thinking. In fact, he may have even been in his fifties.
He had a big head and a square face, and his back was short but well built. In fact, he looked more well built in general than the citizens of Genos. And he had an impressive moustache and beard combo going on, too.
The green eyes that sparkled under his bushy eyebrows didn’t quite look calm and gentle, though.
Once the man finished with the accessory shop, he stomped on over towards our stall.
“Giba? You’re selling giba meat of all things?”
I was trying to respond with a smile, but the man kept on pressing and cut that off.
“What are you, an idiot? Who’d eat something as smelly and hard as that? You’re the only ones who will dare eat that crap. And then you impertinently went and used tarapa, too. You fools don’t even know what good food tastes like, so you should just stick to eating aria and poitan. You really should close up shop and get lost, before you lose all your precious horns and tusks.”
His cutting words came like a machine gun, not giving me a chance to get in a single word edgewise.
And then, once he seemed to have said his piece, the man turned to leave.
“Um! You say all that, but giba meat is delicious. If you’d like, please taste one of these bits of meat here.”
“Huh?” he questioned as he turned around, shooting me a disgruntled glare.
“Are you a complete and utter idiot, boy? Why should I have to eat damn giba meat? They sell kimyuus and karon here in town. There are much better meats all around to be had. It’s downright nonsense trying to sell giba in the middle of all that, you fool. Besides, if I eat that crap my skin’ll turn brown like you people, and everyone’ll turn a cold shoulder to me too.”
“T-That’s nothing but pure prejudice! I mean, I’ve eaten a ton of giba meat, and you can see how I look.”
I’d expected to run into a customer like this eventually. In fact, it might even be reasonable to say he was relatively light on fear and contempt compared to most, making him not too bad to handle.
“What’s a kid like you doing dressed up like a person of the forest’s edge and selling giba meat...? Aha. So you were seduced by that temptress there, weren’t you? You’re a real fool. But well, no matter how stupid you may be, your life is yours to live. If you like that woman that badly, then just go live in the forest with her. Then nobody would give you any grief.”
“No, but giba meat really is tasty. I thought it would be a shame if this delicious meat could only be had at the forest’s edge, so I decided to open this shop. These samples are free, so if you don’t mind, why don’t you give it a try and see for sure whether or not I’m just being tricked?”
My sales smile was perfect, I figured.
And yet, the man just snorted, “Hmph,” and stood directly facing me. Then, he glared at the plate of samples and said, “Looks real unappetizing.”
He’d been heaping a storm of abuse my way this whole time, but perhaps because he wasn’t raising his voice, I wasn’t sensing much animosity or ill will from him.
The main impression I was getting was that he was surprisingly talkative despite his boorish appearance.
“So this is free, right? You won’t make me pay you anything, no matter what?”
“Yes, of course,” I replied with a smile and a nod.
As frustrated wrinkles formed on his brow, the man reached out and grabbed a toothpick with his thick fingers.
Then, he tossed the chunk of mini burger, which I had cut into six parts, into his mouth, chewed thoroughly, then swallowed.
Finally, he glared at me once again.
“...It was crap. You really are being led along.”
“Huh?”
“It didn’t stink as bad as I expected, and it wasn’t hard at all. But it was all gushy and had an unpleasant texture, and the taste was too heavy, like I could feel it clogging up my nose. It doesn’t even compare to kimyuus or karon. You seem to have cooked up the tarapa real nice, but it just got completely ruined by everything else. You really think anyone would pay you coins for this? The fact that you’re happy with crap like this is why people mock you and call you ‘giba eaters,’ you know.”
Could it be...? Was he really, truly someone whose tastes it just didn’t suit? That seemed to be the case for both the texture of the hamburger and the taste of the giba meat.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t predicted this ever happening, but it was just such a sudden development.
“Asuta...” Vina Ruu whispered, gripping the fabric at my hip.
I was feeling a bit shaken, but regardless I followed Vina Ruu’s gaze...
And saw a group in familiar leather cloaks rapidly approaching.
5
“W-What do you guys want?! This is western territory! You planning on starting something here?!” the man yelled, finally raising his voice for the first time.
The cloaked group, meanwhile, just wrapped around the man and the stall to half encircle the place.
And there were quite clearly more of them today than there had been yesterday.
“...We have no plan, to cause trouble,” one of the group said, shocking me by using the language of the west, albeit a touch awkwardly.
“We came, to buy, giba meat. We’ll wait, our turn.”
As he said that, the hood of the man’s cloak flipped back.
His skin was quite dark, and he had raised, narrow eyes, as well as a thin nose and lips.
Yes, his facial features were a lot like those of the youth from yesterday... but his hair was silver like Granny Jiba’s. And yet, he looked young. His hair wasn’t the result of old age, but rather he was just born that way.
“We will wait, our turn. We will have, ten, please.”
“W-What, are you all soft in the head? I can’t exactly imagine you’re sane if you want to pay for that disgusting meat. It’s like just throwing your money straight into the stove. Just let the people of the forest’s edge eat that crap. I can’t imagine it would make you all get any darker skinned, but still, it’ll just ruin your mood to eat awful meat like that, right?”
The silver-haired youth tilted his head, looking confused.
“I, still haven’t, eaten it. But, my allies, seven of them, ate it yesterday. They all, said, it was delicious. That is why, we ten, came here... Ten, please.”
“...Right. Thanks for your business!”
With that, I set about dicing up tino and aria, still feeling a little shaken up at hearing giba meat face such slander.
And in the meantime, my ten customers started silently clanking their coins down on my counter.
“I can’t believe this. So you folks from Sym don’t know what good meat tastes like, either? Because that crap’s not fit for normal humans to eat. If you want meat, then you should eat kimyuus or karon or something.”
It was some rather extreme interference with my business, but he still wasn’t raising his voice as he said it, and my customers from Sym didn’t seem to be paying him any heed, so it was nothing for me to worry about.
At any rate, I kept on working away at the ten giba burgers.
I handed the first of them over to the silver-haired youth, who sure enough silently ate it with a blank expression, gave a big nod, then turned to face the man from the south.
“Giba, tastes good. For two red, I am satisfied.”
“That’s just crazy talk. What the hell’s wrong with your tongue? Hey, everyone, get over here!” the man loudly yelled out.
With that, a new group came on over, all of them pale-skinned.
The cloaked group all smoothly clustered together, seemingly to make room for the newcomers. However, they kept munching away at their giba burgers all the while.
“What is it, Pops? Feels a little tense over here,” a young Jagar fellow from the new group asked in a bit of a coarse tone. Sure enough, the youth had dark brown hair, green eyes, and a short yet well built physique.
It seemed that in general, folks from Jagar weren’t built all that big. There were now eight people from Jagar gathered here including the first man, but only one or two of them looked like they may be taller than me. But all of them had sturdy physiques and rather fierce looking faces. Their hair colors and ages varied, but the majority of them had scraggly hair on their heads.
“Just look at them. They say that giba meat of all things is delicious and are eating it up. I had a bit too, but it wasn’t anything worth paying coins for. Did folks from Sym always have no taste?” There was a restlessness to his voice. It seemed he really was well and truly mad at this point.
“Pops, you ate giba meat? There’s no way that tasted good, right?” the youth from Jagar questioned, glancing over us and grabbing the man by his thick arm. “...Plus, it’s best not to get involved with the people of the forest’s edge. They’re even more trouble than guys from Sym. If you cause too much of a fuss, who knows what’ll happen to you later, right?”
“Nothing I’m saying is wrong. They’re the ones in the wrong. And if you think I’m lying, then you all try it, too.”
“I’ve got no interest in eating damn giba meat.”
“Enough already, just try it. Hey you, feed them your giba meat.”
It was an extremely heavy-handed demand... but it was also a precious opportunity. There were a lot of folks from Jagar around town, but if they didn’t like giba meat by nature, that would be a real serious issue.
These giba burgers were ultimately just a curveball. I had figured that even if their unique texture turned out to be a problem, I could always recover by offering some simple grilled meat dishes instead.
But this guy they’d been calling “Pops” had a problem with the taste of the giba meat itself. And that was in spite of the fact that I had used the rather strong tarapa sauce alongside it, too.
Was that down to the general tastes of folks from Jagar, or just Pops’s personal opinion? No matter what abusive language may come my way as a result, I couldn’t let this chance to give out samples and find the answer slip by me.
And so, I scooped out a mini burger from the pot onto the plate, then split it up into six parts. Five parts from the first sample were still sitting there too. I placed the plate atop the counter, held out enough toothpicks for everyone, and said, “Please, go ahead.”
Three of the group who looked to be on the older side went first and reached out without any hesitation.
Then, Pops chimed in and said, “Hey, you all try it too,” pushing the younger folks forward. And so, they started grabbing toothpicks, too.
By the way, the cloaked group had all finished their giba burgers in the meantime, but for some reason they didn’t leave, even though they didn’t look overly interested and were just standing there silently.
“Well? It’s gross, right?” Pops questioned, crossing his arms while looking over his allies.
As for the other men... Their expressions all seriously varied.
“If it’s gross, then come out and say it.”
Only two out of the group responded to him.
One of the old-timers said, “It’s bad,” and one of the younger crowd followed up with, “It isn’t especially good.”
“Just the two of you?” Pops replied, his eyes opening wide in shock.
It sort of reminded me of a look I had seen from Donda Ruu in days past.
“What about the rest of you? You’re not going to say it’s good, are you?”
