Hokuou Kizoku to Moukinzuma no Yukiguni Karigurashi Chapter 14

Chapter 14: The Hunting Life Continues Even Today.
Volume 1 — The Temporary Snow Country Life of the Northern n.o.bleman and the Raptor Wife

It has been a month since Sieg has arrived.
The temporary life was not by any means sweet, but the time with her was joyous enough just from the fact that I had someone to talk to.

In that life, I knew that Sieg was trying her best in a new environment.
She was learning the language of this country, was socialising with the villagers, and was learning hunting techniques. She barely had any free time.

I felt sorry for making her struggle so much, but her appearance as she tried was beautiful, that I just watched her from the sidelines.

Already welded into daily life, we were hunting everyday, taking plenty of time, as preparation for polar nights.
Though she was a novice hunter, as expected of a woman from the military, her sharpshooting skills were superb. The time she took to calculate the time it took the bullet to impact and the time she took to reload the gun were both fast.

Like always, we went out hunting today.
Searching for prey in the snowy forest and leading the prey into the guns’ range is the job of the hunting dogs.

To hunting dogs, we give them ears of freshly hunted animals to make them remember the smell. We raised the dogs like for generations.

We followed the tracks of those dogs into the forest.

On our way, we came across a thin, brown-haired animal, which had white fur on its face.

“Ritz, what’s that?”
“Black marten.”

Black marten pelts were loved as luxury goods by n.o.ble madams, but because their numbers dwindled from excessive hunting, the country banned the hunting of these animals.

Even in this village of hunters, since it was ruled by n.o.bles, the law applied here too. However, martens were never really hunted that much for meat nor for fur. The reason being that the creature had a bad stench. There is a method to remove the smell, but to create one hat it took many martens so it was bothersome to process too.

Having seen us, it jumped a little and escaped to safety.

To such a lovely creature, I waved it goodbye as we proceeded.

“Ah, we can’t go here.”
“?”

As we walked through the forest, I found something.
In front of us, there was a tree slashed open, lightly chewed up inside.

I blew the dog whistle and turned around.

“What’s that?”
“A bear claw mark. This is a bear’s sphere of action.”
“!”

I told Sieg to remember the mark. After I confirmed that the dogs had returned, I quickly left that place.

Bears are the most dangerous creatures in the forest.
Many people in the village lost their lives to bears. The catastrophe three centuries ago was caused by a bear.
A bear who remembered how humans tasted attacked the village, creating tens of victims.

Was it five years ago? The first time I met a bear when I went hunting with Teoporon.
Teoporon used his wild senses(?) to find prey. Back then, I thought it was interesting so I followed him on hunts many times.

Walking a short distance behind Teoporon, we would always find animals.
Rabbits, deers, boars and foxes. Teoporon did not use a gun, but just a spear.

Still, back then, I thought I would learn a lot just from watching.

However, we finally came across the worst possible opponent, a white bear.

The bear charged towards us. I quickly lifted up my gun, but because of Teoporon’s sudden shout, I lost my timing to shoot.

As expected, the bear changed course towards Teoporon who shouted.

The bear knocked Teoporon over in a blink.

The bear was even bigger than that big man. I had thought that all hope was lost.

While I was considering whether I should shoot the bear or not, the big white beast was attacked by him. In its chest, a spear was impaled deeply through it.

I realised that he fell over on purpose only after the bear died.
However I imagined it, it was an impossible hunting method for me. At the same time, I decided that I should stop following someone on hunts when I couldn’t even understand him.

“Bears truly are dangerous.”

I taught Sieg about its sphere of action and its behaviour.
I explained about the scratched trees, the excrements that had whole heads, characteristic of carnivores, and the footprints. I also told her that the holes with branches, that were shaped like a big bird’s nest, were holes that bears made after they spat up berries.

“Though it was tasty. The bear.”
“……It doesn’t really look nice.”
“If it’s on sale, I would gladly buy it up. Though no one would dare try hunting it to sell the meat.”

Really, bear meat tastes great.
Most of its body consists of fat, but once the smell is removed and the meat is cooked, every part of the meat is top-quality. The organs are sold at a high price to pharmacists to be made into medicine, and its paws are treated as delicacies.

As I went back, I carved a cross mark on a tree.
This was to tell others that bears are in the area in front.

Although the villagers don’t communicate much outside of their family members, in the hunting grounds we have a custom to share as much information.
Crosses for bears, triangles for lynxes, stars for wolves, and squares for wolverines. We have set marks for different species.

We returned home as we chatted about those things.

After we returned, we butchered some animals for a few hours, and then we bathed. Since there was only one bath, I always told Sieg to go in first. In our house, the ladies always went first.

After dinner, we usually spent the time playing.
Today, we had a board game, consisting of a checkered board and little pieces that were carved in the shapes of a queen, a king, bishops, knights, and castles. Strategy was important in this game, and it took a lot of concentration. I soon got hooked up on the game.
{TN: Chess I suppose}

As always, my territory was trampled over, and my king faced an ultimatum.

“A~a”
“One more round?”
“No, tomorrow. I want to a.n.a.lyse why I lost.”

After I remembered the positions of the pieces, I stored the game back into its box.

Then, I opened the exchange diary that was on the edge of the table. As always, ‘Nothing out of the ordinary’ was written.
I told her that it’s not a military report, but she replied that she had nothing special to write about since she asked verbally about anything she was wondering about.

Although she was in front of me, I started writing in it.

‘What’s your favourite colour?’ I wrote.

Now that it came to this, I need to lead her to write something in.
So I wrote in a question in the diary.

“I never really thought about what colour I like.”
“It’s meaningless if you answer now! And please think about it a little!”
“What will you do with such information?”
“I want to know more about Sieg and get closer.”
“……”

Because there was no response, I unconsciously looked at her face, but sadly, she was expressionless.

She was my wife, yet she was full of mysteries. She was taciturn, and her feelings did not show on her face.
Even though I calmly observed her, I still did not know what she liked and disliked. That was my tentative wife, Sieglinde.

“Really, from the bottom of my heart, I am happy to spend every day with Sieg. I really want you to stay here, and if possible extend the contract to two years.”

Although, at the second time, instead of a tentative contract, I want to make a full contract.

“But still, it’s this kind of environment, so I won’t stop you from leaving.”

Since I should not pressure her, I said that in show. Though when I thought about the other person that came before, I had a strange hurting feeling in my chest, but I tried to hide it from showing on my face.

Sieg grabbed a pen and the exchange diary, and started writing something down. Then it was shown to me.

This was what was written:

——I will try finding out what colour I like this time. Also, the life here is very exciting and immensely pleasant.

After reading it, my frozen face loosened up.

“You mean, it’s not too bad here?”
“Was it not meaningless to answer now?”
“!”

Saying that, Sieg smiled playfully.

From the sudden ambush, I ended up clutching my heart.

Like so, our temporary life continued.