“You’re a visitor from another world. Either that, or a crazy person who thinks so. I understand all that.”
“So you believe my crazy story?”
“...At the very least, I can tell that you aren’t trying to deceive me.”
Ai Fa suddenly averted her gaze, reached down and picked up the onion-esque vegetable by her feet, then started to chop it up while still holding it in her hand. And though the inside was every bit as vivid green as the outside, it really was otherwise just like an onion.
First Ai Fa peeled off the thin, dry outer layer and chucked it into the pot. She then followed that up by simply slicing the vegetable in two and throwing the chunks in as well.
“You’re not some massive liar. In other words, you’re probably just crazy.”
Splash, sploosh.
She threw in around five or six of the pseudo-onions in total.
While gazing at that sight, like some sort of boiling pot out of hell, I muttered, “Thank you...”
“What are you thanking me for? Are you somehow happy to have me call you a madman?”
“Yeah. Or at least, it’s better than being called a big fat liar. I mean, it means you believe what I said, more or less.”
“I really don’t understand you...” Ai Fa said, sounding a little ticked.
Next up, she grabbed one of those cream-colored pseudo-potatoes. She didn’t even peel the skin off this time, instead just giving it a single slice through the center and then plunking it on into the pot.
The pot itself was pretty darn deep, but the foam was bubbling up to the rim.
As she stirred the concoction with what looked like a thick wooden pestle, Ai Fa shot me another hostile glare.
“So, what do you intend to do next?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“I mean, how do you plan on living your life from here on out? Are you going to look for a way back to your old world?”
“I don’t know... I mean, even if there is a way back to my old world, it may just throw me right back into the middle of that inferno. And if that was the case, I’d just be going back to get immediately burnt to a crisp.”
If there was a chance I could get my old man’s knife back to him, maybe it’d be worth risking my life. But if I ended up as a pile of ashes, so would the knife.
“Well anyway, I still haven’t got it all figured out just yet. And hey, it may not have anything to do with what I want, and I may just suddenly get dragged back to my old world. At any rate, I’ve got no clue what caused this crazy phenomenon in the first place, so pretty much nothing else that could happen would surprise me at this point.”
“I see...”
“If you’re regretting having picked up such a pain in the butt, then just go ahead and say it. I’ll leave here right away if I have to. The climate around here seems pretty well suited for camping outdoors, fortunately...”
“If you spend the night outside, the giba will trample you to death and the mundt will ravage your corpse. By morning, only your bones would remain,” Ai Fa bluntly stated in response. “And on top of that, Diga Suun saw you and me together. You’re clueless about even things like the fours great gods, and if you go and unwittingly break some sort of serious taboo, the responsibility will fall squarely on me.”
“Huh? But that’s not...”
“For the time being, make sure not to leave my sight,” Ai Fa warned me in a rather displeased-sounding voice as she stirred the boiling pot, looking just like a witch out of a fairy tale. “At the bare minimum, I’ll pound the basics of this world and the laws of the forest’s edge into that head of yours. After that, you can go ahead and die in a ditch for all I care.”
“Got it. Seriously, thank you Ai Fa...”
“Hey! Why are you bowing your head like that?! Do you like being told to die in a ditch or something?!”
“I mean, it’s better than being told to get the hell out,” I replied, taking care to make sure I didn’t sound overly serious. On top of that, I also took a step back from Ai Fa. I somehow got the feeling that I’d end up unable to stop myself from hugging her if I kept looking at her from so close. I was just that concerned about my future. I was despairing just that greatly from having lost it all. And Ai Fa had been the one to tell me to stay with her, and say that I was no liar.
Even though I was stuck shouldering this ridiculous fate, I was seriously eternally grateful that the first person I met in this world was this kind, stubborn woman.
“It’s done cooking...” Ai Fa muttered, still sounding a bit angry as she turned her back to me.
This time she went through the middle door, and when she came back, she had two sets of deep bowls and something that looked akin to Chinese soup spoons, plus an elliptical ladle. Naturally, all of these were wooden.
Ai Fa used the ladle to scoop up the contents of the pot, which was now pure white inside thanks to all the steam and foam, then poured it into one of the bowls and handed it to me without saying a word.
“Thanks.”
I may have been full of emotion, but my stomach was still running on empty. And so, I happily accepted it, then took a seat down on the fur.
As Ai Fa prepared her own portion, I excitedly observed the contents of my bowl. It was a thick, white soup that looked just like clam chowder, but it had the distinctive smell of boar stew. And here and there across the white surface, I spied brown chunks of meat and green vegetables. The bits of the pseudo-onion looked to be just about the right size, but the pseudo-potato was nowhere to be seen. Had it seriously gone and disintegrated in such a short period of time? Now that I think of it, the broth was actually the same sort of cream color those pseudo-potatoes had been...
Well, they may look alike, but they aren’t actually onions and potatoes. Just what exactly do they taste like, though...?
I was a little concerned by the fact that she hadn’t skimmed off any of the scum despite how much had bubbled up, but well, when in Rome... And I mean, while so-called “scum” can be an off-flavor that ruins a dish, it also can be a real bundle of flavor too. It wouldn’t be right to say it was the sort of thing you should always be sure to get rid of.
And besides, this place must have its own cooking methods. It would be awful presumptuous for someone from another world like me to butt in.
While I was thinking through all of that, Ai Fa also took a seat.
“Why aren’t you eating? Did you decide that you really aren’t willing to eat giba after all?”
“Not at all. It’s just the custom in my world that everybody should eat together. And this looks absolutely delicious, seriously!”
After shrugging her shoulders and looking like she didn’t care in the least, Ai Fa muttered something under her breath, then started eating. With that, I said “thanks for the meal!” and took my wooden spoon in hand.
I scooped up the brown chunks of meat and white soup together, kicking off my first dinner in this new world.
I brought the spoon to my mouth, giving thanks to the abundance of this world and Ai Fa for cooking the meal. And then, I screamed out, “Gross!”