She then carefully dropped the peifei claws onto my palms, and they made a little rattling sound as they settled. There were twelve of them, all less than a centimeter thick and around ten centimeters long, with a slick sort of shininess to them that almost made them look like some sort of decoration. “I’ve repaid another little toenail’s worth with this. That’s wonderful,” Tia said with another smile. Then she jumped again, the same way she had before, to hang the pelt back over its pole. But after that, as she turned back toward me, I noticed that the expression on her face suddenly looked all disappointed. “I’m sad, though, because I’ve heard the people of the forest’s edge only enjoy giba meat. Peifei meat can grant you great strength, so I wanted to give it to you too.”
“Ah, I see... But this meat hasn’t been bloodlet, right?”
“Yes. It’s been many hours since I finished it off, so I wasn’t able to extract the blood. Peifei blood grants great strength as well.”
“Huh? You drink peifei blood?”
“When we can’t extract the blood, we eat it along with the meat. There are many blessings to be gained from a peifei.”
As I was tilting my head in confusion, Bartha went ahead and offered another explanation.
“The blood of snakes and lizards is used to make medicine on Mount Masara. Gaaje and giba blood is rather toxic, but that varies from creature to creature.”
“Ah, I see. I’ve heard that you can eat karon raw too, if it’s fresh enough.”
But even so, butchers still bloodlet karon meat when processing it. I was naturally very curious to find out what peifei meat tasted like when the blood hadn’t been extracted from it.
Then again, I guess it’s probably dangerous to eat the meat of an unfamiliar animal. Tia and her people eat it, but I don’t know how it might impact other people. As soon as I had that thought, though, I immediately found it a little strange. Looking back, giba, karon, and kimyuus had all been unfamiliar beasts to me once upon a time, so it felt wrong to look at peifei as possibly being uniquely dangerous. This must be how the townsfolk felt when first eating giba meat, I thought. Then I turned to face Tia directly. “In that case, I’ll speak with the leading clan heads and Ai Fa about it. If they give their permission, I’ll accept it as a gift.”
“Really?” Tia asked, her eyes sparkling.
“Yeah,” I replied with a smile. “Plus, you didn’t seem all that fond of giba cooking, so maybe I could cook this meat for dinner tonight?”
“There’s no need to make dinner for me. I’ll be dying soon, so it would just be a waste.”
“Hey, that hasn’t been decided yet.”
“But there is no other option. I’m very glad I was able to repay you at least a little while I was still alive, though,” Tia said with another earnest smile. It was the same expression as before, but now it seriously pained me to see it.
My emotions must’ve been showing on my face, because Bartha then scratched her head and whispered into my ear, “There’s no need to look so worried. If Donda Ruu’s the kind of man I think he is, there’s no chance that he’ll say that she should be executed.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way, but still...”
“It’ll be fine. What I said before doesn’t just apply to Donda Ruu. No person of the forest’s edge would ever condemn such a pure and earnest girl. Honestly, she’s a lot more similar to the people of the forest’s edge than the townsfolk are, right?”
I understood what Bartha was saying painfully well. But even so, the people of the forest’s edge had recently sworn to live as citizens of the kingdom. That meant that when Marstein directly ordered us to do something, we couldn’t not do it.
How can we make sure that Tia stays safe...? Maybe Gazraan Rutim would be able to come up with something. As I stared at the smiling young girl, I felt overcome with the desire to protect her.
It would be quite late in the evening before my worries were cleared away.
“I see... So that’s why you accepted the meat of that peifei beast?” It was now night, and we were back at the Fa house. Ai Fa was sitting on the floor cross-legged, looking displeased again.
“Yeah, since the leading clan heads didn’t object. They just said they don’t approve of eating it raw.”
“Naturally. If you eat raw giba meat, you’ll become terribly ill. Consuming the uncooked meat of any animal should always be avoided.”
“Would you mind if I try grilling it as part of our dinner, though?” I asked. I was already preparing our evening meal, and I had a single slice of peifei meat sitting by the stove, ready to be cooked.
Still looking displeased, Ai Fa scratched her head and replied, “I can’t see much point in people of the forest’s edge eating meat that doesn’t come from a giba... Still, if that peifei is a beast of Morga, you could say that it is closer to a giba than karon and kimyuus are.”
“Thanks. In that case, I’ll grill this up for us.”
I excitedly placed a metal tray atop the stove and added a little reten oil. Peifei meat was all red, so if I tried to grill it completely dry, it would probably burn. As a pleasant sizzling sound filled the air, the thin slice of meat took on an ivory-white hue in no time at all. After sprinkling a bit of salt and pico leaves on top, I quickly flipped it over.
“It smells good, but its scent is certainly unique,” she noted. And she was right—its smell did differ quite a bit from that of giba, karon, and kimyuus. In my past life, I had eaten deer and sheep meat as well, and it didn’t match those either. “Asuta, I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, it’s fully cooked now. Sorry for the wait.”
I transferred the freshly grilled meat to a plate, put out the stove, then returned to my spot. Ai Fa then launched right into her premeal chant, and once that was done, I picked up the plate again.
“What do you think, Ai Fa? You can have half if you’d like.”
“I don’t need any.”
My clan head immediately grabbed her plate of keru-fried giba and started satisfying her hunger. After glancing at her for a moment, I used my handmade chopsticks to pick up the peifei meat.
Its smell really was distinctive. There was an herbal component to it, even though I hadn’t used any. Tia had said peifei didn’t go bad very quickly because they eat a lot of ramoramo leaves, so maybe the meat took on the scent of those leaves as well.
Well, at any rate, I’ve just gotta give it a try.
I went ahead and took a small nibble on the edge of the oval slice of meat. It seemed to be tougher than karon but less so than giba. As I chewed, a bit of meat juice came out of it, which tasted rather sweet, in a way that seemed like it might have come from fruit sugars. It had a very unusual flavor.
“That’s so odd.”
It didn’t resemble the meat of giba, karon, kimyuus, or any other animal. Aside from that fruity sweetness, there was a sharp sourness to it as well. It was also fairly resilient—I was chewing it, but it didn’t seem to want to break apart. It wasn’t sinewy, though, and had a very pleasant texture to it. And the more I chewed, the more the sweetness and the deep, delicious flavor seemed to fill my mouth.
“It wasn’t bloodlet, but the blood isn’t making it foul at all. It seems like really high-quality meat. I can understand why Tia thinks it’s so great,” I said as I glanced over at Ai Fa, and found my beloved clan head staring back at me. Even though she wasn’t saying anything, I could easily tell what she wanted, so I returned the partially eaten meat to my plate and smiled at her. “Should I prepare some for you too, Ai Fa?”
“That is unnecessary,” Ai Fa replied as she reached out toward me with a metal skewer. Then she pierced what was left of the slice of meat and popped the whole thing into her mouth.