“Okay, why don’t we head to the next stove?”
My approach to banquets was to make a lap around the plaza and have a bit of each type of food on offer. Talking to all the different people we met along the way was the real fun of events like these for me. After all, with six clans coming together for this, there were plenty of people I didn’t know all that well around. Of course, with my unique background, everyone knew who I was, and it made me happy to hear all the friendly voices calling out to us wherever we went.
“Hey there, Asuta. If you’d like, you can have some of this dish as well,” an older Deen woman called out as we approached a stove where they were serving meatballs, each of which had about a cubic centimeter of giba tongue blended into them. They were a variation on the tongue hamburger I had come up with the other day. The tongue meat was kind of like the bits of octopus hidden inside takoyaki, and it was pretty interesting to have those two very different textures in each bite.
“Yeah, it’s really good. What have people been saying about it?”
“Well, we’ve been serving it in our house for dinner already, but everyone trying it for the first time looked really pleased with it.”
“Glad to hear it. Have you already had some of this one too, Ai Fa?” I asked.
“I’ve had a bit of all of the dishes. Still, I’ll take three of those,” she replied.
Ai Fa was a big fan of hamburger steak, so it was no surprise that she was fond of meatballs too. She looked really pleased as she chowed down, but next to her, Tia seemed to be troubled as she tried one for herself.
“This meat is rather strange. I’ll just have the one,” the young girl said.
Instantly, Ai Fa glared at her. “Do you have some sort of issue with this dish, Tia?”
“Hmm? No, not especially. But Asuta told me I only have to eat what I want today, and like I said, I’m fine with only having one of these.”
“But before you said that, you called the meat strange, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. The fact that it’s so soft makes it feel weird to me. The tough bit inside was better, though.”
The red people apparently didn’t employ minced meat in their cooking. When people encountered novel styles of food like that, there was no way to know if they would enjoy it or not. It varied from person to person.
Ai Fa looked seriously displeased, as if someone had insulted her beloved hamburger steak. Realizing that, Tia tugged at the wrap around my clan head’s waist with a worried look.
“Did I do something to upset you again, Ai Fa? If so, I’d like to apologize.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, so there’s no need for that.”
“But if I hurt your feelings, that would make me sad.”
After placing her now empty plate down, Ai Fa breathed a sigh. As we started walking again toward the next stove, she explained herself to the young girl. “It is a crime to lie, so allow me to speak directly. Most of the food prepared at the forest’s edge now consists of dishes Asuta thought up, so hearing you complain about so many of them really gets on my nerves.”
“I see. In that case, I won’t talk about the things I eat.”
“There’s no need for you to suppress your feelings like that. It would be better for you to simply stop worrying about every little shift in my mood.”
“But I don’t want to make you feel bad, Ai Fa.”
As my clan head walked along, she slowly shook her head. “It’s far more upsetting to have someone as young as you be so concerned about what I think. And besides, there’s no point in trying to please me by withholding your opinions, so stop fretting and just be yourself.”
“I understand. You really are kind, Ai Fa. That’s why I hate upsetting you,” Tia said with a smile. “And you care so much about Asuta too. You should hurry up and get married and have lots of babies.”
Instantly, Ai Fa’s face went bright red and her clenched fists started trembling. “Your people’s customs differ from ours in many ways. Don’t speak of such things so casually.”
“But you said there’s no need to hide my feelings, Ai Fa. That’s why I said what I really felt. If I made you angry, though, you can hit me.”
“Quiet, you! Do not talk about marriage!” Ai Fa shouted out right before we arrived at the next stove. Fortunately, it was the stove with pasta that I was currently taking a break from, so nobody was around to hear.
“All right, why don’t we do one more lap and have a little more of our favorites? After that, it’ll be time for me to get back to work at this stove,” I said, trying to force the matter to a conclusion.
Tia was still in a pretty good mood despite their little dispute, so she simply smiled and said, “Okay,” with a nod.
Meanwhile, Ai Fa was holding her clenched fist over her heart, seemingly trying to calm her emotions a bit.
Before we could get going, though, a hunter approached us from another direction—Jou Ran. As he came closer, he nodded to us and said, “Hello.”
“Hey there, Jou Ran. Is something the matter?” I asked.
“No, I just thought I would greet you since I happened to catch sight of you.” Despite the smile on his face, Jou Ran looked like he was dealing with some rather complicated feelings. “Ai Fa, Asuta, you seem to have formed something of a bond with that savage girl.”
“Huh? Yeah, I’d say we get along pretty well.”
“Seeing you from a distance, it almost looked like she was your daughter. I could tell that Ai Fa was angry about something, but she looked more like a mother scolding her child than anything else.”
Ai Fa directed a rather intense glare at Jou Ran as she approached him. “Jou Ran, I’m in no mood to listen to your frivolous chatter.”
“Huh? Did I do something to upset you, Ai Fa? If so, I apologize.”
Unlike Tia, who was very innocent and extremely straightforward, Jou Ran seemed to be something of an airhead. And right now, his timing was just the worst.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, really,” he said. “I guess I simply had the thought that Asuta would make a fitting husband for you.”
“Silence! Are you trying to threaten the relationship between the Fa and Ran once again?!”
It felt like Ai Fa was seriously going to hit him at this rate, so I tried to mediate between them. “Come on. I know why you’re feeling annoyed, but it’s not like Jou Ran heard what Tia said, so if you take it out on him, that wouldn’t be fair, right?”
Ai Fa’s shoulders trembled, but she finally turned away with a “Hmph!” Meanwhile, the pair who had unintentionally launched a team attack on her were standing there looking dumbfounded. Before Jou Ran could make any more upsetting comments, though, I decided to change the topic.
“By the way, you got really close to winning in a couple of those contests of strength. I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed about with how you performed.”
“Ah, yes. Ai Fa and the other four hunters who won were all worthy of being called champions, so it’s no surprise that things turned out the way they did. If anything, I did better than I should have at the last festival of the hunt,” Jou Ran replied with a listless smile. “That said, I feel like I trained harder than I ever have before in preparation for today. Since that still wasn’t enough, the only thing I can do is put in even more effort for next time. I’ll keep on training, and aim to become as fine of a hunter as you, Ai Fa.”
“Stop comparing yourself to me at every turn,” Ai Fa said, her face still turned away. “You might not have been crowned as a champion, but that is simply because there are so many excellent hunters related to the Ran gathered here, is it not?”
“That’s true,” Jou Ran replied with a sigh. “At any rate, I definitely realized how inexperienced I truly am today. I really don’t feel like I’m ready to take a bride the way I am now.”
“Oh, did you get a new marriage proposal?” I interjected.
“Yeah,” Jou Ran weakly replied. “After I caused that whole mess with Ai Fa and Yun Sudra, the Ran and Fou clan heads told me to not get involved in that kind of discussion for the time being. But there are a lot of unwed women among the Ran and Fou, and a few of them approached me in secret.”
“Ha ha. You sure are popular, Jou Ran.”
“It was nothing all that serious. Only two or three of them reached out to me.”
He really was a natural airhead if he could go around saying stuff like that in earnest. Fortunately, though, I wasn’t in any position to feel jealous about something like that. If anything, I felt bad for him since he had to deal with so many people expressing their affection for him.
“Well, you’re still young, Jou Ran. And there’s going to be some discussions about marriage customs at the next clan head meeting, so it might be better to wait until after that anyway.”
“Yes, that’s what I intend to do. But even if they do decide to allow marriages between members of any two clans, there’s no other woman like Ai Fa out there.”
Ai Fa started grinding her teeth at that, but she somehow managed to hold herself back from audibly complaining. Jou Ran just grinned at me, though, apparently not noticing how irritated she was getting.
“I’m surprised that you’d care enough to offer a guy like me advice, Asuta.”
“Huh? Well, of course. The Fa and Ran are friends, aren’t we?”
The only thing I was worried about was whether giving him that kind of advice might have been a little presumptuous. But instead of being offended, he was looking at me with an almost pleading expression.