A few days later, we reached the first of the blue month, when the friendship banquet was to be held. Normally, it would have been a day off from work at the stalls, but we had decided to shift our schedules in order to accommodate our guests. All we had to do was make it through the day, and then we would finally get our long-awaited break. This was the last stretch of a long chain of events that had started with the festival of the hunt, followed by the study session, and was now ending with the friendship banquet.
The stalls associated with the Fa were the only ones doing business. The members of the Ruu clan were preparing for the banquet, so we were putting lots of extra effort in to make up for their absence. That meant running five whole stalls with our full complement of workers on duty: me, Toor Deen, Yun Sudra, Fei Beim, Lili Ravitz, and the Gaaz, Ratsu, Matua, Meem, and Dagora women, for a total of ten of us. Of course, all of them were experts when it came to manning the stalls by this point, so they were able to handle things with no issues at all. And aside from Lili Ravitz, who had a face like a Jizo statue that made it impossible to read her emotions, everybody looked happy and content.
“You’re holding that banquet at the forest’s edge tonight, aren’t you?” Pops Balan, leader of the Jagar construction group, said to me. His stern face usually made him look like he was in a bad mood, but now his expression was downright depressed.
“Are you still sulking, Pops? It’s an event to deepen the friendship between the people of the forest’s edge and the westerners. Of course outsiders like us wouldn’t be invited. And besides, if we went to an event like that, we’d have to take the next day off work, yeah?” Aldas said with an awkward grin, patting Pops on the back.
“I know, I know,” the older man muttered with a sigh.
Personally, I would’ve really liked to invite the members of the construction group too, but just like Aldas had said, our main goal today was to deepen our friendship with the people of Genos, so it had been decided that we would refrain from inviting southerners and easterners. Diel, our metalwork dealer friend who was staying in the castle town, had been rather displeased about that too.
“You guys start work really early in the morning, don’t you? But if you have a day off, would it be possible to invite you to a banquet at the forest’s edge then?” I asked.
Aldas titled his head questioningly. “I’d love to visit the forest’s edge, but we don’t really have days off. Taking breaks would only delay our return to Jagar, which’d mean we’d have to pay more inn fees.”
“I see. Then what about the night before you all leave Genos? We could call it a send-off banquet,” I suggested.
Pops’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’d seriously just invent a pretext like that in order to be able to invite us to your forest?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t gonna bring it up until after I got permission from the leading clan heads and the nobles, but not being able to invite all of you to today’s banquet was really disappointing, so I was thinking we could have one to send you off instead.” I was very fond of the members of their construction group, and they were only in Genos for two months out of the year, so I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible during that short time. “Oh, but if you want to spend that last night by yourselves and hold some kind of private event...”
“We spend every day together; why would we want to hold a private event?!” Pops shouted.
“Hey now, you’re making it sound like you’re angry at Asuta,” Aldas said with a strained chuckle. “But yeah, if you’re serious about this, Asuta, we’d be happy to come.”
“Of course I’m serious. I’d really like to bring all of you to the forest’s edge. And I’m sure the leading clan heads will give their permission too.”
“We’re big eaters, though, so if you’re throwing a banquet, you can expect us to eat about twice as much as a westerner would.”
“No worries there. The people of the forest’s edge are the same.”
“Then it’s decided!” Aldas said with a big grin. “But you need permission from your leading clan heads and the nobles first, right? We’ll be looking forward to the end of the green month, but we’ll try not to get our hopes up too much.”
Their food was ready, so Aldas headed off to the restaurant space, grinning all the way. As for Pops, he poked me in the chest, looking almost angry, then he followed after Aldas.
After that, the rest of the construction group walked off too, and behind the stall next to mine that was selling keru giba, Yun Sudra turned to me with a big smile. “I had a thought, Asuta. Why not hold that banquet at the Fou plaza?”
“Huh? Instead of at the Ruu plaza?”
“Yeah. You’d obviously have to hold a banquet like today’s at a leading clan’s place, but you’re the one who’s closest to those southerners, right? So holding it at the Fou settlement, which is close to the Fa house, makes a lot more sense,” Yun Sudra replied with an amused smile on her face. “I’m sure a lot of folks from the Ruu will want to be there too, but they can be invited as guests. It’ll be the opposite of today, where we’re being invited to the Ruu settlement.”
“I see. Well, I feel bad about always imposing on the Ruu clan, so that’s actually a pretty good idea.”
“In that case, make sure to invite us too!” the Matua woman helping out at both my stall and Yun Sudra’s chimed in with a smile of her own.
I turned toward her and nodded. “Of course. Everyone who works in the post town like this should be given a chance to attend. I’ll make sure to bring that up when I discuss this with the leading clan heads.”
I had never been to a banquet with any members of the Gaaz, Ratsu, or Ravitz in attendance. This was starting to sound like a great opportunity to have one that would be very different from a festival of the hunt or the various events that were held at the Ruu settlement.
Before that, though, we’ve got the clan head meeting on the tenth of the green month. I would be shocked if they decided to make us stop running the stalls at this point, but I still need to be ready for any outcome.