“....You may be a reincarnation of a G.o.d of disaster.”
Ai Fa said that word from her mouth after she finished tying her hair up, wearing her clothes and putting on her fur mantle gallantly.
“Although It’s my honor, what do you mean by that?”
“The big snake Madarama wasn’t supposed to appear like that at this foothill. Attacked by wandering giba when the sun still haven’t reached middle. Because only bad things happened.”
Hmm, I see.
Come to think of it, I did worship the naked body of an unmarried woman, right?
(TL: well he did hug her naked body, it’s like j.a.panese way of saying gochisou after seeing something delicious. *you know what kind of delicious I mean :D)
Although I wanted to retort back, but because I didn’t want my picked up life to become rougher, I stopped.
That decision was apparently right.
Because after seeing my straight face fell silent, Ai Fa made an expression like someone’s face who regretted their action immediately.
“....However, although it’s an unexpected situation, to be not able to sense the Madarama was because I let my guard down. And also, because it’s a fact that you saved my life…..I express my grat.i.tude about that point.”
She looked down a little as it is, with an upward glance, while jiggling and holding the necklace to her chest. She said in a low voice that was in the limit of human hearing. “......Thank you.”
(TL: try googling Uwamezukai and feel the force xD)
She somehow looked like a small child.
While my chest throbbed without any reason, I said “Uh, well, It’s ok.” in a stupid way of answering.
“I am also the same, because I didn’t even notice one approaching giba near me immediately at all. To me, you are a benefactor of my life….Thanks.”
Besides, when I saw Ai Fa had revived energetically, I felt like I would be forgiven.
If Ai Fa died because of that big snake like that...When I imagine it, I really want to die.
“Well. Anyway, that Giba. Should we tidy it up while it is still fresh?”
The giba whose head was smashed by Ai Fa was still twitching at my feet.
Although the size was quite small compared to yesterday’s, it’s body length was still around 150 cm, weight was about 70 kg. The fang and tusk were also good. Even if I fought bare-handed, I couldn’t win.
“Yeah. First we should cut the foot.” while looking at Ai Fa who’s holding her machete, I stopped her. “Wait wait.”
“Rather than dismantling, the bleeding process comes first right? What will you do if it suddenly falls apart?”
“Bleeding? …..Blood will flow even if you leave it alone.”
“Please wait! You didn’t do the bleeding process up until now? Then of course the meat would be smelly!”
As I yelled, Ai Fa’s face looked like she had a really puzzled face.
Un. Although I liked her blank like face, for the people of Morihen this was quite a big problem.
“Hey now, that meat smell is the smell of blood. If you bled it, giba’s meat aren’t supposed to be stink right?”
“.....I don’t understand the meaning of your talk. Doesn’t blood flow out by itself?”
“That’s why, it’s not enough…..It’s not the time to talk carefreely like this. If that giba’s heart stopped then it will be too late. Oi, I will do the explanation later, anyway please lend me the small sword.”
After I received the knife from Ai Fa who had doubtful face, I crouched to the back side of the lying giba.
Now then….Although I said it bossily, I had only seen the members of Hunting friend a.s.sociation practiced it. There was also no guarantee that giba’s and wild boar’s interior body structure are the same. Whether it’s a success or not, it would depend on luck.
(The location of wild boar’s blood vessel and internal organs are almost similar to that of humans.)
I weighed the giba’s huge body while remembering Hunter-san’s word.
I pointed the knife near the base of the giba’s thick neck and chest.
It was pierced at once.
Blood...hardly went out.
Is it a blunder?
The world is not that easy.
I pulled the knife to the chest reluctantly.
Carotid artery or heart’s aorta. Either one of them, If it’s cut then it’s okay.
While having a hard time on the hard fur, I moved the tip of the knife little by little...Then, fresh blood spouted out.
Success. Maybe, I couldn’t damage the heart directly.
“The heart is the organ that can circulate blood to the whole body. If you cut the artery without damaging the heart, then you can let the blood out from it’s whole body efficiently.
That’s why even though carotid artery was also good, when you damaged an organ of the throat, giba’s heart would stop because of suffocation. Either way, there were some risk.
“Actually, it’s better to hang it on a tree, it’s quite a heavy labor though. So this is enough for now.”
When I looked back because there was no answer, Ai Fa still had that blank look.
“....Even though we only need to bring back the foot. Why is it necessary to let out the blood from the whole body?”
“Yes?”
“Even if you brought this large giba home, It’s not possible to eat all of it and it will rot. In case of families with many relatives, they usually bring all of it back to skin the fur, only the hind leg mostly left.”
“That is too wasteful! Are you gonna just discard this delicacy?”
“If you put it back in the forest, corpse eating munto and other beast will clean it away. If you left the meat to rot, it’s a sin.”
“Ah, I see. If it’s that I won’t mind. But then why are you bringing the leg back home? Thigh meat is not bad, but there are many other parts which are delicious.”
“There is no such thing. The smell from giba’s meat, the hind legs are the one place that don’t stink.”
Ah, was that so? If you didn’t know the bleeding process and prefer to let the blood flow on site, it might left stronger smell than the foot. When you cut the foot, artery would also be cut and blood would flow.
Even though they had lived 80 years by hunting giba, to not even discover the process of bleeding was too careless. In case of bad meat, you needed to eat delicious meat to be able to experience it. That kind of greed was what developed human’s great food culture.
(TL: because you don’t know a meat is bad or delicious if you never eat a delicious meat, that’s why Ai Fa said food is not good nor bad)
While thinking about that, the blood flow stopped.
The Giba’s body which was twitching a bit also stopped.
It died.
Namu amida butsu, I prayed in my heart.
“Okay. Now to the next step….Oi, I will bring it all back in one piece okay?”
“Do what you want. If the horn and tusk are safe, then it’s okay.”
With a somehow complicated expression of whether she had interest or not, Ai Fa shrugged her shoulder.
While giving a doubtful look, I stabbed the knife in the giba’s abdomen.
This knife seemed to have excellent sharpness than the knife used at the farm camp. I opened giba’s abdomen while being careful to not stab deeply.
Removal of internal organs.
Although this was not very difficult, there was one point that you must be careful. Large Intestines, Gall Bladder, and Urinary Bladder. Do not damage internal organs with strong smell. If their smell got into the meat, the previous bleeding process would be wasted.
(TL : You don’t even want to know how stink these organs are, it won’t be gone for days if washed by normal means)
Various organs were pulled and peeled away including the Thoracic Diaphragm.
First of all, small intestines and large intestines.
Next up were, Tripe, Liver, Pancreas, Lung, Heart.
Interestingly, It could be removed like mushy things. (TL : TLC can you check. this is the dero dero)
As expected, there was no great difference to a wild boar in it’s body structure.
The last obstacle was waiting at the bottom of the almost empty abdominal cavity.
It’s the Urinary bladder.
Don’t tear it. Careful. Careful.
.....Hmm?
There was still an organ I didn’t remember left under it.
Was this giba’s unique organ?
For now, let’s peel this guy away carefully too.
It’s oval-shaped, quite large. There was two row in left and right, it’s quite steady.
…..Ah.
t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, huh.
Because the wild boar I handled before was female, this organ didn’t exist.
I put it on a rock, with respect.
Removal of internal organs, was complete.
When I looked back, Ai Fa still had that blank face.
“Somehow, it looks like the kind of ritual that shamans done that I heard. Is work like this necessary to eat the meat?”
“It’s necessary, but, from now on, it’s impossible to do it here. If we can somehow brought it home in this condition...What should we do?”
Ai Fa let out a small breath, and said “Wait a minute”, she went and hid herself in the woods.
In the meantime, I would wash giba’s abdomen that was now empty and also the fur on the whole body.
Although there were dirt, gra.s.s and excrement there and there, fortunately, tick didn’t seem to exist. Because if it’s there, it should have jumped to my warmer body because giba’s temperature had fallen.
“Here. It will be fine with this.”
Ai Fa’s hand when she came back after 5 minutes, held a long wooden stick that was around my height.
The color was strangely black, the shape was a straight cylinder, there were some places where branches and leaves were cut. The thickness was about my wrist.
“It’s gurigi tree. It’s durable and strong and hard to break.”
“Fumu fumu. What do we do with this?”
Ai Fa crouched near the giba in silence, with leather straps taken from her mantle, she began to tie giba’s limb to the gurigi tree.
“I see! Are you used with this?”
“It’s by watching others. A male servant of Sun Family and Ruu Family bring a whole giba home in this way to peel the fur at the house.”
“Fumu fumu. Ai Fa doesn’t do leather tanning? That mantle is from giba’s fur right?”
“A number of people is required to tan the fur, and this is the work of women.”
I wondered if “Aren’t you also a woman” showed on my face. Though I didn’t say anything, Ai Fa’s face frowned like an annoyed face.
“You can buy the fur with the fang, so it’s better to hunt giba while the fur is being tanned, after all if I don’t hunt giba, I will just starve and die….Also I don’t have any family to help me tan. Do you have any more complaint?”
“I am not saying a complaint. It’s just….I think that if tanning is women’s job then hunting is man’s job.”
“Of course. There is no woman who hunts giba.”
“Because you are a woman.”
In the end, it came out from my mouth.
Ai Fa averted her pouting face and restraint her forefoot.
“Before I am a woman, I am the head of Fa family. I learned how to live through hunting giba from father. It’s doesn’t inconvenience me.”
“Is that so.”
But, what was Ai Fa’s dead father thinking, making his own daughter learn the techniques of “giba hunting”.
The day Ai Fa was isolated from the village should be the day after her father pa.s.sed away. Because Ai Fa made a grudge with influential person of the village, Diga Sun.
Because of that, Ai Fa couldn’t rely on anyone else power and lived alone. The techniques of “giba hunting” that her father teached her ended up becoming the benefactor of her predicament. There was no way her father knew that she would be isolated from the village.
“No…..It isn’t something difficult to think.”
Even I, father’s cooking techniques were driven into me. Because of that, I was said to look for something else besides cooking that I interested in. Her father, maybe was the same.
“But, she is…”
Unlike me, she had no choice.
She had no choice but to hunt giba and lived as a man..
Although she was such a kind and beautiful woman…
“.....You, what are you looking at with strange eyes?”
Ai Fa stood up slowly.
That eyes that looked like a wild cat was glaring and burning.
And her brown face blushed a little.
“You hear me? You violated a taboo. Normally, you are at the viewpoint where you can’t complain anymore and your eyeb.a.l.l.s have to gouged out. But because you saved me from a difficult situation, it will be ignored. If you make the same mistake like that, I will make you feel the pain you know…?”
“Ha?” I inclined my neck and became very panicked.
“It..It’s not because I particularly recall your naked body! You, what do you think am I? Even though I finally put it in my mind’s treasure box. I ended up remembering it again!”
(TL: 記憶の宝箱 : kioku no takarabako xD literally mind’s treasure box)
“Noisy! Do you want your tongue to be cut first before your eyeball!?”
“Aaaamouuu I quit, this is stupid! Look, preparations are finished right? Just carry it quickly!”
As I escaped the angry Ai Fa, I crouched near the giba’s head.
At that time, the mountain entrails came into sight.
“I really wanted to cook this guy too. It’s impossible without my world’s refrigeration tool technology after all.”
“.....You, are you seriously saying that?”
“Of course. Is there any part of giba that isn’t eaten besides it’s fur and bones?”
I said, while hanging the hooking tip of the stick on my shoulder.
Hmm. As expected of 70 kg cla.s.s. It’s really heavy.
“If you want to say any complaints on the way, go home directly on the spot.”
The back side was lifted. The load on my shoulder was somehow reduced.
“If it’s for delicious food, I will work hard. What about you. Didn’t you got strangled a while ago. Is your body alright?”
“You are noisy! Don’t mention that time anymore!”
Aree. Could it be that scene a while ago gave Ai Fa more damage than I thought.
Well, that of course. She was a girl in p.u.b.erty even though she did “giba hunting”. Even though the taboo was forgiven, of course it’s natural that she would still be embarra.s.sed.
“Then let’s depart! I will make you something good to eat to par with the trouble, Best regards!”