It was now sunset, the lower sixth hour.
As the sun disappeared from the sky, the ritual flame was lit, and the banquet finally began. The five hunters who had emerged from the contests of strength as champions were sitting on a platform constructed out of logs. Since Radd Liddo was one of them, his oldest son and heir took charge of the event from that point forward instead.
“Now then, it is time to give our five champions their crowns to celebrate their victory! Firstly, the target shooting champion, Cheem Sudra!”
Cheem Sudra’s lips tightened as he slowly rose. When a Liddo woman stepped forward and placed a grass crown atop his head, everyone in the plaza cheered for him again.
“The weight pulling champion, Radd Liddo!”
After his son called his name, Radd Liddo stood up too, smiling as he was crowned.
“The tree climbing champion, Raielfam Sudra!”
With his usual solemn expression, Raielfam Sudra accepted the crown. Up until this point, all of the champions were the same as they had been last time.
After taking a quick breath, the Liddo heir announced the next name. “The pole tugging champion, Zei Deen!”
A louder round of cheering reverberated throughout the plaza. Though we had all gathered together for this banquet as equals, it was only natural that people would be especially happy to see one of their relatives crowned as a champion, so the members of the Deen and Liddo clans were all cheering for Zei Deen with all their might.
Toor Deen had made sure to grab a hand towel in preparation for this moment. As soon as her father’s name was called, tears started streaming down her face as her small body trembled.
“The combat champion, Ai Fa!”
My clan head’s name was finally called, and the cheers grew even louder still. There were plenty of shrill shrieks from the young women who loved how gallant she had looked. And of course, the men were shouting out with just as much passion.
“Four of these five champions are the same as last time! That is proof that they possess true, unshakable strength! Our new champion, Zei Deen, and Jou Ran who lost his title this time, as well as those of us who failed to claim victory must continue to hone our skills in order to measure up to them!” the Liddo heir declared, earning a hearty response from the hunters.
He then held up a container of fruit wine and declared, “Now, let us begin this banquet! Members of the Fa, Fou, Ran, Sudra, Deen, and Liddo, give your thanks to the mother forest and make the strength of this blessing your own!”
“Thanks to the mother forest!” everybody shouted out in response. Incredible passion filled the air, no less intense than what I had experienced at the Ruu clan’s banquets. After repeating the chant myself, I walked over to a simple stove set up at the edge of the plaza.
“You still have more work to do, Asuta?” Tia asked as she followed along after me.
“Yeah,” I replied with a nod. “I have to serve the food now. Enjoying the banquet myself will have to wait until after that.”
“I see. Then I will wait until you’re done working as well.”
Tia must have been feeling pretty hungry by now. Despite her small figure, her appetite was as hearty as Ai Fa’s. Still, this wouldn’t take all that long, so she would only have to endure for a little while longer.
“Now then, this should be ready to eat shortly. I just need everyone to wait a moment while the pasta finishes boiling.”
Once again, I was in charge of two types of pasta. Like last time, one was a giba bone soup, while the other featured a meat sauce. Both of them were really popular, so there was no way we could remove them from the lineup.
Giba bone soup took a fair bit of time and effort to make, so to the small clans, it was one of the most luxurious dishes they could imagine. During the Sudra clan wedding celebration, I had gone with a gnocchi-style pasta, but today I had made it in more of a spaghetti style, ending up with a soup and pasta dish that reminded me of tonkatsu ramen.
The bone soup had a rich white broth. I hadn’t held back at all with it, filling it with tino, nenon, nanaar, and the mushrooms that resembled cloud ears and common mushrooms. I had also prepared a huge amount of giba rib char siu for it.
“Asuta, five plates of each over here! We’ve got to serve the champions first!”
“Got it! It’ll be finished boiling soon, so hold on just a little longer.”
I wouldn’t be able to congratulate Ai Fa until I was done with this. I had to drop loads of pasta into the boiling pots in several batches before there was enough. Then I flipped over an hourglass and got to work on some other things.
Fifteen minutes later, a large figure approached my stove.
“Asuta of the Fa clan, huh? It feels like it’s been quite a while.”
“Oh, Geol Zaza. Did you just arrive?”
“Yeah. I’m about to go greet the heads of the six clans,” Geol Zaza replied, a deep shine in his eyes as he looked down at me with a giba pelt over his head. Then his gaze shifted over to Tia. “So, that’s the red savage, huh? She really does have a strange appearance, just like my old man said.”
Tia stared up at Geol Zaza with an unflinching gaze, devoid of even a hint of fear. “I remember that amusing outfit. Are you family to the leading clan head Gulaf Zaza?”
“Yeah. I’m Gulaf Zaza’s son, Geol Zaza.”
“I see. I’m deeply grateful for the kindness the leading clan heads showed me,” Tia replied with a casual bow of her head.
“Hmm...” Geol Zaza stroked his chin in exactly the same way that his father did. “I’ve heard that she’s even stronger than our hunters are, but I’m not very good at sensing that kind of thing. Is this little girl really that strong?”
“I saw the strength of the hunters of the forest’s edge a little while ago. I’m sure they would be stronger than me in a battle on the ground,” Tia said.
“On the ground?”
“Yes. The red people don’t fight on the ground much, since it’s really dangerous to take on madarama like that.”
“I don’t really understand, but it’s not like the people of the forest’s edge and the red savages would ever cross blades anyway...so I guess there’s no point in trying to measure your strength,” Geol Zaza said with a shrug of his burly shoulders, then he turned back toward me. “Anyway, I’m gonna go greet the clan heads. That food’s not gonna be gone before I get back though, is it?”
“Of course not. We prepared a lot more than last time.”
“That’s good... Also, where’s Toor Deen?”
“Toor Deen? She should be manning a stove somewhere on the other side of the ritual flame. I’m sure Sufira Zaza will be there with her.”
“I see,” Geol Zaza grumbled. Then he walked away. He was as intense as always, but he didn’t seem as rough as he used to be. Or maybe we had just gotten a little closer after that candid conversation we’d had with each other during the whole incident with Sufira Zaza and Leiriss.
We haven’t really had many chances to interact, but I’d like to get closer to everyone at the northern settlement too, I thought as people started approaching me one after another. Now that the festival of the hunt we had all been waiting so long for was finally happening, everyone looked positively overjoyed. And naturally, I shared in their joy even while I was hard at work. To me, festivals of the hunt were the most exciting events that ever happened at the forest’s edge.
The sun had fully set by this point, so we only had the light from the ritual flame to rely on now. It shone brightly in the darkness that surrounded us, illuminating my comrades who were all so full of life. The young women were all dressed up in their banquet attire, while the men were casually drinking from containers of fruit wine. I’d seen sights like these many times now, but they never got any less exciting. Before I had come to the forest’s edge, I had never had a chance to see an event so filled with passion and vigor. It felt like something out of the pages of myth, and I found it incredibly moving.
The people of the forest’s edge had pledged to live as citizens of the kingdom, but it was important that they never lost the passion that defined them. Not that I could even imagine that ever happening anyway. As long as the forest remained their mother, they would continue to be steadfast, zealous, joyful, and blessed.
“Everyone’s acting all excited like children,” Tia suddenly muttered. After throwing some fresh pasta into the pot I turned to look at her, and saw her rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. “You don’t have to worry about me. I was just thinking about my family,” she told me before I could say a single world.
After flipping over the timer and adding more firewood to the stove, I smiled and asked, “Are the red people’s banquets as lively as this?”
“The red people don’t light fires like this even during big events. But we bring out special wine, and everyone shares their joy with each other.”
“Oh? You make wine on Mount Morga too?”
“Of course. If you crush up peruli fruit and seal it in a numo shell, you can make delicious peruli wine out of it,” Tia said, and then she wiped her eyes one more time.