Characters / Cooking with Wild Game

Characters for the light novel series Cooking with Wild Game.

The Fa House

In General

• Back from the Brink: For all intents and purposes, the house was dead just a year before the start of the series. That's how unexpected it is for loners to survive Forest's Edge.
• Big Fancy House: A remnant left from when there were a lot more people in the family.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Unconventional but diligent, and better at what they do than anyone else.

• Cultural Rebel: This house switches the village's gender roles.
• The Face: As the only house who regularly interact with foreigners, they play a role in basically all of the village's diplomatic interactions.
• Honor Before Reason: Its members ignore Kamyua's increasingly obvious hints that the totos is a gift for them because they don't want to be "indebted". Also because they distrust him... for some reason.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Consists of an orphaned huntress, a crazy foreigner weakling, and a giant ostrich.
• Seven Heavenly Virtues: Charity. The house was reborn when its leader gave a total stranger food and shelter. Eventually, it became the village's economic pillar, giving poor families training and employment.

Tsurumi Asuta

A moment where Asuta catches Ai Fa off guard.

The protagonist. He rushes into his father's burning restaurant to attempt to rescue the family paring knife, an ancient heirloom passed down for generations, and the one thing his father would mourn losing more than the restaurant itself. He wakes up in the jungle just next to the village of "Forest's Edge" with no idea how he got there, how to get back, or what's going on, until he's chased by a giba into a pit-trap set by Ai Fa.

• Above the Influence: He tries to break free of Ai Fa's drunken hug in Volume 6; unfortunately, she is significantly stronger than him and not in the mood to care that there are people watching.
• Accidental Pervert: Highly justified. He sees Ai Fa naked while she's bathing in a river, but only because he's coming to her aid, after she cries out for help when she was set upon by a Moba, a giant snake, which she could not fight off by herself. He makes a point of narrating that he has never violated that particular taboo again. (Only a woman's husband can see her naked in the village of Forest Edge.)
  • The second time it occurs was a direct result of a prank by Ludo Ruu who claimed to be showing him where to wash dishes, but in fact led him to where Ai Fa and other women were bathing.
• Action Survivor: Though weak, he is eventually accepted by the village because of his business ability and genuine desire to be useful. In particular, his observant nature is what allowed them to peacefully resolve the Suun issue.
• Accidental Proposal: He calls Lala Ruu "charming." Among the people of Forest Edge, this is universally considered an open declaration of pursuing a woman as a bridal candidate. Asuta was not aware of this at the time, and Ai Fa was clearly not pleased upon finding out either. Fortunately, the ladies of the Ruu clan let the slip pass and accepted his words as a genuine compliment, nothing more.
• Amazon Chaser: While he started feeling drawn to Ai Fa after she threatened him with a knife for ruining her pit-trap, he notes "her attack strength doubled" when she removed her traditional Badass Cape and he saw just how well-toned her muscles are.
• Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me: He is subjected to a non-sexual example after being kidnapped and drugged by Pyschkurewuss. The person forcibly stripping him is also a slave, but it still makes him feel dehumanized and vulnerable. Which was probably the point.

• Birds of a Feather: With Ai Fa, because they both know how it feels to be threatened by honourless brutes. He's as defiant to the Suun Clan as he was to the yakuza hurting his family.
• Blade Enthusiast: Over the course of the series, he amasses a collection of cooking knives that are both useful in his work and highly symbolic.
  • His father's precious Santoku knife, an heirloom passed down through many generations of their family. It was the only Japanese thing that Asuta was able to bring with him, other than the clothes on his back.
  • A vegetable-cutting knife sold by the Eastern merchant Shumiral.
  • A meat knife of Southern make sold by Diel.
• Call to Agriculture: A non-farming example. He is very content living among the primeval tribesmen of Forest Edge, because he admires their courage, self-reliance, diligence, etc.
• Chekhov's Skill: His experience on the family farm butchering pigs helps immensely when he gets to work drawing and quartering a giba before preparing to cook it for Ai Fa.
• Chick Magnet: A justified example. Since he's- to the people of Forest Edge- a foreigner from a very distant land, and is gentle and kind to them, as opposed to the loud, rambunctious, and in some cases, destructive, testosterone-poisoned macho-men they're used to, not to mention great in the kitchen, he's a curiosity and highly desirable to the women of Forest Edge. Ai Fa really does not like it.
• Constantly Curious: Being an isekai protagonist, he is always asking questions- especially about ingredients, since he hasn't seen many of them before. One of the conditions his hostess sets is that he ask only her for information, and only in private, because otherwise people will be annoyed.
• Did Not Think This Through: After his (smoky) first attempts at grilling giba, he is told very definitively to do his cooking experiments outside the house.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: While he’s still a weakling by the standards of the people of Forest’s Edge, Asuta’s active lifestyle with them has resulted in him unwittingly building up some muscle, making him a good bit stronger than the average resident of Genos, as he accidentally finds out while trying to restrain Roy during his captivity.
• Endearingly Dorky: He is easily engrossed by cooking details and Squees upon seeing the array of strange ingredients in the Ruu clan's pantry. Ai Fa actually likes to watch him while he's 'in the zone'.
• An Entrepreneur Is You: At Kamiya Yost's urging, he sets up a stall in Post Town selling giba dishes. Just the aroma of his cooking forces him to expand to two stalls and sell meals to all three of the local inns in order to meet the demand. His profits rival the entire income of the largest clans in Forests Edge.
• Eyes Never Lie: Rimee's first thought about Asuta is that he doesn't look like a native... but he has the bright, alert eyes of one, even though he's lugging a heavy carcass around.
• Fish out of Water: A major aspect of the story is him getting accustomed to the vastly different way of life in Forest Edge.
• Good with Numbers: Downplayed, but it comes up from time to time that the simple fact that Asuta had a modern education means he can do simple multiplication and division much faster than the average person, or even average businessman, in the new world.
• In the Blood: He loved working in the restaurant just as much as his father, and has done so since childhood.
• Ironic Name: 'Asuta' can be read as 'becoming fat tomorrow' (his dad is a chef, after all), but he's slender.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: While the women, and most of the children, greatly appreciate his cooking skills, especially the revered elder Jiba Ruu, the men of Forest Edge hold him in contempt, not only for his lack of physical strength, but because they're all so testosterone-poisoned that they believe their food has to be bitter and hard to eat so they can show the world how tough they are by being able to eat it. In fact, Donda Ruu specifically calls the meal that was so delicious it gave Jiba Ruu Tears of Joy rubbish, nearly shattering his plate to the ground, because it was actually tender and delicious.
• Like an Old Married Couple: To everyone who sees them interact, particularly Rimee Ruu, they look like they've been married for years.
• Limited Wardrobe: Justified. The only clothing he has to his name is his chef's outfit. (Ai Fa later gives him a traditional male tribal vest belonging to her deceased father.) Needless to say, this only serves to draw the wrong kind of attention to himself.
• Love at First Punch: He falls for Ai Fa, hard, because she forcefully brought him into line with the customs of Forest Edge by threatening him with her hunting knife. He does not comprehend this. He just knows he's smitten with her, but doesn't understand why.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Feminine boy to Ai Fa's masculine girl. The elders of the Ruu clan lampshade it.
• Master of the Mixed Message: He replies to Ai Fa's request that they sleep together by telling her why he feels that would be a bad idea... then enters her bed anyway. He just wanted to express his anxieties, not necessarily to act on them.
• Memento Macguffin: The Santoku knife Asuta carries is actually his father's, but they were separated before he could return it. At first it's the only tool Asuta uses to cook, but as he establishes bonds with Amusehorn merchants, he buys other knives. He still takes great care of the Santoku, hoping that he will return to Earth someday.
• Motor Mouth: When talking about cooking, or his worries, or his worries about cooking.
• Mundane Luxury: He does his best with the few ingredients Forest Edge has, but when he learns that staple Earth ingredients like salt and vinegar also exist on Amusehorn, he Squees with delight.

• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Where it concerns cooking, and only then. His skill is considered legendary among the people of Forest Edge because they've long ago foregone experimenting with learning how to cook, as dealing with the dangers of Forest Edge takes up most of their time and efforts.
• #1 Dime: He keeps the first tusks he ever earned- the ones given to him by the Ruu clan for restoring Jiba's will to live- because of their emotional value.
• One of the Guys: Women, in this case. For one thing, he can talk shop with them. For another, hunters' strength and curtness puts him on edge.
• Property of Love: He refers to Ai Fa as "milady", and many of his culinary accomplishments are motivated by giving her the happiness she deserves.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to Ai Fa. Having come from a world that was very politically correct, he doesn't understand that the people of Forest Edge can say very insulting things and yet have no threatening intent. Fortunately, Ai Fa is usually around to keep him from starting actual fights.
• Security Cling: When the protagonists need to cross a primitive ^note vine-woven bridge, he takes comfort in clinging to Ai Fa's cape.
• Serious Business: He considers cooking an ~art~ and begs strangers like Donda to give him another chance when his food fails to please them.
• Single-Target Sexuality: He literally only has eyes for Ai Fa. When Ludo Ruu tricks him into walking into the river area where Ai Fa and several other women are bathing together, he is unable to see or hear any of the others, even when they are screeching like banshees and throwing things in his direction.
• Stepford Smiler: He prefers not to think about the world he came from.
• Supreme Chef: Even in his native Japan, his talents in the kitchen were highly praised.
• Through His Stomach: He wins Ai Fa's heart by showing her what "delicious" means through his cooking. Since she's a full-blown type-a Tsundere, and he's all but clueless concerning the norms of Forest Edge, he fails to pick up on this.
• Think Nothing of It: Success aside, Asuta doesn't want to be perceived as a fully-trained chef in his own right because it distances him from his past as an apprentice on Earth. He dislikes any reminders that that time was months ago.
• Took a Level in Badass: After several volumes, he notes that the ceaseless labor of life in Forest's Edge has honed his body.
• Tragic Keepsake: His father's paring knife is this to him.
• Trapped in Another World: He ran into his father's burning restaurant in Japan. Woke up in the jungle of Forest Edge with no idea how he got there, or how to get back.
• Translator Microbes: He lampshades this when he first meets Ai Fa. Since Forest Edge has never heard of Japan, and Asuta hasn't even heard of the continent where he winds up, let alone the nearest country or village, he wonders how the heck he and the people of Forest Edge can perfectly understand each other when a common root language would have to be the most profound Contrived Coincidence on record.
• Weak, but Skilled: Compared to everyone in Forest Edge, he's a hopeless weakling, yet not only is he legendary in the kitchen, but his knowledge of anatomy was instrumental in driving off a Moba, in single combat, which is something not many people in Forest Edge can boast.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: A rare male example. His courage and diligence means he adapts quickly to village life, although socially he is quite humble.

Ai Fa

A rare moment where she's not too ashamed to be happy.

The first inhabitant of Forest Edge that Asuta meets. She rescued him from the pit trap he fell into... to threaten him with her hunting knife for ruining the trap and letting the giba she was hunting get away. He's been head over heels for her ever since.

• Animal Motifs: When in... altered... states of mind she acts rather like a cat, speaking in feline onomatopoeias and rubbing her face over things she likes. Her hunting ability and "jaguar-like" grace contribute to this theme, as does the astrologer's statement that Ai is represented by the Cat Star.
• Bathing Beauty: The author never misses an opportunity to show off Ai Fa bathing, whether it's being attacked by a Monta as she's bathing in a river, having Asuta walk in on her, or gracing the cover of volume 10, if she can be shown in a pool of water, she will be.
• Battle Couple: On occasion. Immediately after Asuta drove off the Moba that was trying to smother and eat her, she flawlessly takes out the giba that managed to sneak up right behind Asuta.
• Beneath the Mask: She conceals it admirably well, but she is desperate for human contact. Hence the crying when Asuta says he will stay with her, and the daily treks to the city while he is held prisoner.
• Big Eater: When she cooks, she eats two bowls of "stew" and Asuta had to choke down three, to fill his stomach due to the horrific taste. When Asuta cooks, and she learns what "delicious" means, she happily scarfs down five bowls of the same size before she's satisfied. She lets him do the cooking from that point on.
• Book Dumb: Naturally, given her village's technology level. She is illiterate, but has a comprehensive memory of everything from politics to migration cycles.
• Cassandra Truth: She does not believe Asuta's insistence that special wine has a higher alcohol content than the one she's used to, because she's only had fruit wine before and her society does not really have a concept of "alcohol content".
  You are annoying… I won’t get drunk from just this much wine.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: She somehow knows judo-like martial arts. She's thrown some quite muscular men- Diga Suun, Darum Ruu, and Dan Rutim.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She clearly does not like it when other girls get close to Asuta, or when he unknowingly flirts with them.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Her mother died of illness, her father died hunting giba, she was nearly raped by the heir of the Suun clan, and she was exiled for the "crime" of fighting him off and literally throwing him out of her home, that he broke into, with the intention of raping her. Eesh. No wonder she's... shy.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's very, very slowly warming up to Asuta. His skill in the kitchen helps.
• Domestic Abuse: She's very physically violent towards Asuta when angry, which is often.

• Everyone Can See It: She is hopelessly smitten with Asuta, and loves watching him work in the kitchen, but he's the only one who fails to pick up on it... because she's too embarrassed to let him see it.
• First Girl Wins: As lampshaded by Asuta himself. He muses that had he met any of the other women of Forest Edge in the jungle and been rescued by them from the giba trap, he could see himself falling for them, but it was Ai Fa who took him into her home, so he's hers and hers alone, no ifs, ands, or buts.
• Godiva Hair: Barring any other form of Scenery Censor, Ai Fa's hair will conveniently cover her nipples when she's illustrated bathing.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's golden haired blonde and is actually a very sweet and kind woman, once you can get past her rough edges.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: She's very rough and tumble because she has to be, but anybody who can get past her rough edges will find that she's actually very sweet and kind.
• Hypocrite: Due to her past. She likes physical contact, but prefers to be one initiating it. Things like surprise hugs are usually met with violence.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Prone as she is towards violence when Asuta upsets her, if someone else dares to lay hands on him, there will be ... consequences.
• Icy Blue Eyes: As fits a Defrosting Ice Queen, her eyes are cold and hard as ice most of the time, but as she grows more and more fond of Asuta, or whenever she's genuinely happy, they thaw and become far more affectionate. When she's really battle-ready, on the other hand, Asuta notes that they burn with a blue fire, and he's really drawn to her then.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Inviting foreigners into Forest's Edge is frowned upon, but Ai Fa brought Asuta in anyway because a), he would've died if she didn't, and b), she was really, really lonely.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: While taking Asuta through her pantry and explaining every type of ingredient in it to him, she briefly pauses to gulp down some wine.
• Instant Expert: After about ten minutes of riding a totos, she is better than people who do it on a daily basis.

• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: She self-enforces her ostracization, because the Suun might lash out at anyone who supports her. For this reason she tells Asuta that he should move to the Ruu Clan, even though she wants him to stay with her.
• Loophole Abuse: She is vehemently against the idea of getting married ^note because village rules state that a woman must join her husband's house and leave her own family behind, but not of sharing her life and bed with a man. Ai Fa's chosen spouse doesn't have a family for her to be subsumed into, so it all works out in the end. Also if two people of different faiths marry, one or both of them must abandon kin and god. Since her chosen husband has no local god, it works out even more so.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The masculine girl to Asuta's feminine boy.
• Masochist's Meal: The first time she tastes standard "Chitto giba," it burns her mouth, makes her cry, and has her smack Asuta upside the head for making her eat it, yet she insists on wanting more "as if someone put an evil spell on the ingredients." When Asuta prepares the dish again, as Shumimaru is visiting Forest Edge, and Asuta makes a milder version on her behalf... she secretly swaps out the bowl so Asuta gets the mild version instead, and then gets mad at him when he figures it out.
• Mistaken for Badass: An odd variant; she is genuinely badass, but Zattsu Suun believes her to be some manipulative seductress whose adoption of Asuta was all some big plan to make herself rich. The idea that her generosity was completely selfless, with no strings attached, never occurred to him.

• Security Cling: After she and Asuta are forcibly separated in Volume 6, she pulls him into a long hug after they reunite.
  Ai Fa: You are not permitted to leave me.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Ai is always obviously beautiful, but when she wears aristocratic clothes for the kidnapping negotiations, she looks so regal and elegant that Asuta doesn't recognize her at first.
• Shout-Out: A lady warrior surnamed Fa? Hmm...

• Sleep Cute: She is gradually coaxing Asuta into being comfortable sleeping (platonically) with her. Both of them quite like it.
• Sole Survivor: She's the last of the Fa clan.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Asuta's "hamburger steak." While she always appreciates Asuta's cooking and lets him treat her as his guinea pig, she's ambivalent about everything he makes... except when she gets that giba hamburger steak, at which point she becomes putty in Asuta's hands.
• Tragic Keepsake: Whatever remains of her father's belongings. The fact that she shares her father's vest with Asuta is a huge honor that he understands and gratefully accepts.
• Tsundere: A full-blown type-A.
• Unsuspectingly Soused: In volume 6, the Suun drug her with meremere smoke so they can kidnap her. Then, to wake her up, Tay poured wine into her mouth. Although the latter was successful, the alcohol and sedative's combined effects left her a bit woozy for the next few hours.
• Weak, but Skilled: Compared to the testosterone poisoned macho-men of Forest Edge, but she's one of the village's best hunters, and defeated the Suun heir in single combat when he was trying to rape her. Literally throwing him out of her home in the process.
• What You Are in the Dark: She remains unflinchingly honourable and respectful of the village, even though they seem to have forgotten she exists.
  Celice: My house, which is the Fou house, didn’t have many men, and can’t hunt enough giba. But ever since the Fa house gifted us with these hides, this child finally has enough to eat...
• When She Smiles: Just look at the page image. Small wonder Asuta loves to cook for her.
• Worf Had the Flu: She made a phenomenal showing in the yearly "contest of might" where Asuta was catering the celebration. Unfortunately, an earlier dislocated shoulder injury kept her from giving her all, which is the reason she lost to Dan Rutim.

The Ruu Clan

The second most powerful clan in Forest's Edge.

In General

• Category Traitor: To the people of Jagar. They are despised as cowardly traitors, despite the fact that they were driven out of their native fruit forest and forced at swordpoint to convert to the god of the Forest Edge.
• Gossipy Hens: It was an accepted fact long before any Ruu actually met Asuta that he was courting Ai Fa. Even though he had only known her for a week.
• Hot-Blooded: Boisterous and assertive, even the women.
• Noble Bigot: Conservative to a disrespectful degree, but they prioritize the village's wellbeing above all else and participate in projects to make it more prosperous.
• Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: They are the only clan economically comfortable enough to care about the Suun jeopardizing the village's future, and most Ruu are looking for political justification to do something^note war about it. Their boredom is shared by Ludo, who spends most of his time pranking people, and Vina, who spends most of her time hoping a reason to leave her backwater hometown will present itself.
• The Lost Lenore: An unnamed Ruu woman was raped by Suun men prior to the story's beginning, and killed herself out of shame. Her clan wanted- and still want- justice, but "we don't fight for dead people." The village's survival was too high a priority at that time to allow inter-clan conflict.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: They chose to share power after the events of Volume 6, because doing so will make them less prone to corruption in the future.
• The Starscream: A rare heroic example. They don't attack the Suun because of the deaths an outright war would cause, but it's no secret they want them gone.

Rimee Ruu:

Look at that face!

The first of the Ruu clan introduced to the audience. A sweet young girl that's been Ai Fa's friend for years, and clearly does not take Ai Fa's exile well.

• Annoying Younger Sibling: How Ai Fa sees her. While Rimee is adorable, she has a habit of innocently poking at old wounds best left alone, like Ai Fa's exile.
• Cheerful Child: She is very happy and upbeat. Even more so when she actually gets to play with Ai Fa, whom she adores.
• Children Are Innocent: Sweet, gentle, kind, well-behaved, and completely adorable.

• Curious as a Monkey: She just can't resist poking her head into the window of Ai Fa's home and her nose into Ai Fa's business.
• Cuteness Proximity: Bawls at the thought that the village won't be able to keep the totos they found.
• The Cutie: Oh, she is just so adorable.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Even more so than Ai Fa. She's blonde and she's a very sweet child who will bend over backwards to make her friends and family happy.
• Please, I Will Do Anything!: As she's recruiting Asuta to cook for the Ruu clan's elder, Jiba Ruu, her great-grandmother.
• Shipper on Deck: She really wants Ai Fa and Asuta to get married.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: While the rest of Forest Edge was being horribly xenophobic, expecting Asuta's very existence to bring disaster, she snuck up to Ai Fa's window and spied on them, scouting out his character. She was rewarded for her wisdom by being the first Ruu clansman to taste Asuta's cooking.
  • Furthermore, it was her idea to have Asuta's cooking for Jiba Ruu, so the latter could find her happiness again. Rimee was 100% correct.

Donda Ruu:

Compare and contrast to the giba below.

The clan head of the Ruu clan and Rimee's father. While he's the most vocal about suspicions and disdain surrounding Asuta, he's not the most worrisome offender, by far.

• The Alcoholic: He is well-known to quaff numerous bottles of Fruit-wine a day, and when he saw Rimee Ruu bringing the Fruit wine to the kitchen for Asuta's cooking, he tried to take it, thinking it was for himself.
• Animal Motif: A boar. He takes the phrase "you are what you eat" a bit too literally. Not only does he look like a half-man, half-giba, which Asuta lampshades, but he's got a very boar-like personality, including a notorious Hair-Trigger Temper, and penchant for smashing things he doesn't like.
• Brutal Honesty: The man does not mince words, period. He tells you how weak and pathetic you are to your face, and if he doesn't like your cooking, he will smash the dish it's sitting on to the floor while verbally chewing you out about it.
• Bureaucratically Arranged Marriage: Not for himself, but for his son and Ai Fa. He once tried to hook up Ai Fa with one of his grown sons, after Ai Fa beat the Suun clan head in open combat. While he was indeed concerned about Ai Fa's and his son's happiness, he did it primarily to boost his own clan's strength, and to rightly spite the Suun clan who wanted to exile her. It didn't work out because neither his son nor Ai Fa had any interest in each other.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: He's enraged because the food Asuta prepared is "disgustingly sweet and soft as if rotten" yet fails to realize that Asuta was asked to prepare said meal for his grandmother, an 85-year-old woman who had lost her teeth and needs food made very soft so she can eat it.
• Good Parents: Surprisingly enough. Whatever other flaws he may have, he is a good father to his many children, one of whom is Rimee Ruu.
• Graceful Loser: Despite his temper, he is fair and honorable. When he loses a bet with Asuta concerning catering a feast for the Rutim clan, he comes to Asuta and Ai Fa's guest room, has a pleasant chat and openly blesses him with a large giba tusk.
• Hot-Blooded: He is quick to anger and prone to loud outbursts when enraged. He also tends to smash things he doesn't like.
• Knight Templar: He is very rigid in following clan laws and customs, but not as much as his eldest son, who makes him seem open-minded by comparison.
• Might Makes Right: He believes that physical strength is the greatest virtue a man has. As such, he's utterly disgusted by Asuta, who- being an average Japanese citizen- is pathetically weak even compared to middle-school aged children in Forest Edge.
• Testosterone Poisoning: He is so fixated on proving how "tough" he is, that he is enraged when he actually tastes good cooking because he completely believes food is supposed to be near-inedible, in both taste and texture.

Jiba Ruu:

Jiba Ruu is in the background, after having tasted Asuta's cooking.

The revered elder of the Ruu clan. It is for her sake that Rimee Ruu pleaded for Asuta to cook.

• Despair Event Horizon: She had been teetering on it for generations, due to the horrific taste of the "meals" in Forest Edge, the great loss of life learning about the jungle's dangers, and the sheer inability to go home, then passed it, on the loss of her teeth, wasting away and waiting to die... until she tasted Asuta's cooking, and it brought her back to her full vigor, shutting down her hot-headed grandson, hard, through sheer force of personality.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: She's tiny compared to her grandson, Donda Ruu. She's also quite short compared to the rest of the adult clans-members, and she's 85-years-old.
• Nice to the Waiter: She had nothing but good things to say towards Asuta's meals and his efforts in preparing it.
• Sole Survivor: She's the last of the people in Forest Edge to remember the fruit forest that was their previous home. All others are long dead.
• Stealth Insult: Her response to Donda Ruu's angry tirade, calling Asuta's meal "mundt fodder" is nothing but this.

  Jiba Ruu: "If this is the food of mundt, then mundt are more high-class than humans. It's alright for you to think that way."

• Tears of Joy: Her immediate response to being served giba meat "hamburger," soft enough for her to chew without teeth, and tasty enough to utterly dwarf the sweet taste of fruit from her native fruit forest, that only she remembers, and sorely misses, but can't return to because it was burned to the ground, long, long ago.
• Women Are Wiser: By far the most mature and level-headed member of the Ruu clan.

Reina Ruu:

One of the women who helps Asuta in the Ruu kitchen. Asuta is immediately struck by the fact that she doesn't just share the appearance of a friend of his from Japan, but her name.

• Cordon Bleugh Chef: To the people of Forest Edge. Unlike most of the women of the Ruu clan, who cook by rote (due to both the "peculiar" taste of the men, and the very real danger of illness or death in deviating from the recipe) she prefers to "experiment" in the kitchen. She almost came to the same realization that Asuta did, that Poitan is actually a cereal and should be cooked like flour, not simply thrown into the stewpot, all by herself. In fact, when she saw Asuta prepare poitan, she immediately recognized what he was doing.
• Identical Stranger: She has a personality that's very, very much like Asuta's friend from Japan, and has the same name, but doesn't know anything about him or Japan.
• The Rival: Once she learns enough about cooking to prepare quality meals, she begins seeing herself as this to Asuta. He approves.
• Tears of Joy: While she does indeed enjoy Asuta's cooking, and is proud of her role in helping him in the Ruu kitchen, what really makes her happy is Jiba Ruu's sudden enjoyment of the meal, and returning to her true vigor and force of personality. Something that hasn't happened in decades.

Lala Ruu:

Lala can be seen peeking between women in the back.

Also unique among the people of Forest Edge as she sports vermilion hair, and is completely taciturn.

• Fiery Redhead: Proves to be this after her first encounter with Asuta.
• Indifferent Beauty: As can be seen in the page image, she's gorgeous, and she apparently knows it, but simply does not care. Asuta's Accidental Proposal gets a tiny bit of amusement at most, but no more.
• The Stoic: All her lines are delivered in a matter-of-fact way, and show no emotion.

Sheera Ruu

• Born in the Wrong Century: She is an enthusiastic (if physically frail) chef born into a tough hunter-gatherer society where no-one has the freedom or spare resources to specialize in anything. Just having food to eat is enough of a blessing that no one cares about how it tastes.
  And obviously, her family didn’t realize the effort she had put in. No matter what she served up, her family would eat that all gratefully. This was a responsibility of the denizens of the Forest's Edge in the first place. The Forest's Edge did not permit anyone to be picky about the taste of the food.

Darmu Ruu

The clan's second eldest son, who unsuccessfully proposed to Ai Fa two years ago.

• I Was Beaten by a Girl: He did not take his loss in the contest of might to Ai Fa well.
• Loving Bully: He publicly mocks Ai Fa and calls her "garbage", but his sister and Asuta believe he just doesn't know how to express his feelings towards her.
• Noble Bigot: He offered to marry Ai Fa, partly to save her from being alone (and therefore unprotected from the Suun). The conditions of this marriage were that she give up life as a hunter and let the Fa name die out.

Vina Ruu

The clan's eldest daughter.

• I Just Want to Be Free: She wants badly to leave the village and see new places, since she's lived there her whole life.
• Love Makes You Evil: When not around Asuta or doing a job, she's perfectly respectful. When alone with him, though, she has this tendency to ignore the word 'no'.
• Loving a Shadow: She doesn't seem to love Asuta so much as she loves the idea of travelling (he being exotic by Forest Edge's standards) and/or not being bothered by unwanted proposals anymore. Most of her advances on him are made while intoxicated.
• Mistaken for Prostitute: In Post Town, one of Kaimya's fellow "guardians" offered her copper plates for sex. Although she was seething at the suggestion, she very calmly, but firmly, turned him down.

• Old Maid: In Forest Edge, if you're over 20 and unmarried, it's widely considered that there's something wrong with you. She's introduced as a 20-year-old.

• Sympathetic Adulterer: She openly says that she will try to wreck Asuta's (potential future) marriage with Ai Fa. However, she feels guilty about it and asks him not to marry her sister because she doesn't want to hurt her like that.
• Work Hard, Play Hard: On the job, she's the paragon of integrity and responsibility. At a party, she crawls off into a corner and drinks fruit wine by the bottle.

The Rutim Clan

A powerful sub-kin of the Ruu clan which winds up becoming the best friends of the Fa House.

Dan Rutim

The leader of the Rutim Clan.

• Big Fun: He's fairly overweight, and a very cheerful man, as long as he's not pissed off.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Have we mentioned he can lift and throw a 60 kg giba, one handed?
• Expy: Asuta constantly compares him to an Arabian djinn.
• Love It or Hate It: In universe. He only has two modes. Either he loves you like a long lost brother, or he hates your guts. There's no in-between.
• Stout Strength: He's fat and can both lift and throw, one-handed, a 60 kg giba.
• Super-Senses: He has a near bloodhound sense of smell. It proved handy when Diga Suun used melemele leaves to sedate the rest of his clansmen. He smelled it, covered his face with a cloth before Asuta was taken away, and then came to the rescue.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Giba spare-ribs. The first time he tastes Asuta cook them, he not only eats all the meat, he tries to crack open the bone with his teeth to get at the marrow. He's loved them ever since.

The Suun Clan

Physically the strongest clan in Forest Edge, as such, they get to prance around the place as if they own it, because they do. They are universally loathed, for many reasons.

As a whole

• Empathic Environment: The clans people and their living area look opulent and powerful from a distance, but up close and beneath the surface, it's all rotten and ready to collapse.
• Happily Adopted: After the clan falls, it's decided that executing the innocent members of it en masse would be unjust, so they're split up and taken in by various other families. It takes a while for them to heal from Zattsu's abuse, but they eventually, happily, learn how to be people again.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: It doesn't take a war to bring them down. Just one hearth-tender willing to ask the right questions.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: There are no giba in their part of the forest because Zattsu illegally plucks the fruit they would normally eat, and they're too ashamed of their sins and afraid to disobey Zattsu to ask other clans for help, so a lot of them have starved to death. The surviving Suun are weak and emaciated, dependent on carrion and the scavenged leavings of other clans. And the aforementioned forbidden fruit, but most villagers would sooner die than dishonour themselves by eating that.

Diga Suun

The second "human" Asuta encounters, and the first of the villagers he encounters in Forest Edge.

• Attempted Rape: He once broke into Ai Fa's home through the window so he could rape her, purely to make her his wife, for his own greed. He was openly shocked that she was both strong and skilled enough to both defeat him and literally throw him out.
• Bullying a Dragon: He repeatedly antagonizes people way, way above his weight class, up to and including bringing his two brothers, Doddo Suun and Midda Suun on a several hour walk purely for the express purpose of trashing a Rutim Clan wedding that Asuta was hired to cater, when Dan Rutim, who can pick up and throw a 60 kg giba is the one officiating the ceremony.
• Hate at First Sight: Asuta takes an immediate dislike to him upon their meeting, though Ai Fa keeps Asuta from acting on it.
• If I Can't Have You…: Since Ai Fa "rejected" him, he's been trying to provoke her into doing something that allows her to be executed.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Though not aware of it, even though he was the first born, he was never going to lead the clan.
• Insane Troll Logic: He calls Ai Fa "a weirdo" because she didn't like the idea of him trying to rape her on the night her father died.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: He is humiliated that Ai Fa was able to beat him in single combat, when the odds were greatly and unfairly in his favor. In return, he had Ai Fa exiled and has been harassing her ever since, hoping to provoke her into some law-breaking he can use to have her executed.
• Japanese Delinquents: The immediate impression Asuta gleans from their encounter. Asuta's instinct happens to be right. (The delinquents not Japanese part.)
• Marital Rape License: As with all the men of the Suun clan, it's "preemptive" in nature. If a male Suun-clansman rapes a woman, she's going to be his wife, or the Suun clan gets to execute her as "an adulteress."
• Miles Gloriosus: Simply because he's the heir of the Suun clan, he prances around like he's the mightiest warrior in Forest Edge, constantly provoking Ai Fa, but he dares not challenge her directly because he knows she can beat him.
• Mugging the Monster: He figured Ai Fa would be easy prey for him when he broke into her home to rape her, especially since she was mourning her father, who died that very day. He never dreamed she'd take enough offense to literally throw him out of her home and into the nearest river.
• Never My Fault: As is the case with all of the Suun clan males, if Ai Fa's testimony is correct, he honestly believes that if he desires a woman, she's the one that somehow "invited" him (despite the women of Forest Edge all dressing and acting in near identical manners), and if she somehow manages to fight him off, she's the one who shamed him. The fact that he tried to rape her first is something she should have taken as an honor, and should have been happy to "marry" him.
• Punched Across the Room: Ai Fa didn't just throw him out of her house, he landed in the nearest river when she did.
• Smug Snake: When he isn't being directly threatened, he prances around like he's untouchable. When he is being threatened, he shamelessly begs for mercy, then immediately goes right back to being smug and provocative the moment he thinks he's out of danger.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Until the start of Volume 7, he lived as if he believed he was in an NTR Hentai, where all he needed to do was pin Ai Fa down, rape her, and then she'd be so impressed with his sexual prowess that she'd fall madly in love with him... He had to have it spelled out for him, repeatedly, that the Suun clan's sub kin didn't share this mindset, and were none too pleased that he kept trying.

Doddo Suun:

The second oldest of the Suun clan leader's children.

• Adapted Out: He doesn't appear in the manga. Diga fills in when needed.
• The Alcoholic: He makes Donda Ruu look stone-cold sober by comparison.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: When sober, he claims to have no memory of what he does when he's drunk.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: When drinking, he defaults to violence at the slightest provocation, real or imagined, and he doesn't hesitate to unsheathe his blade, even in town.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Him shouting the Suun clan name around is his go-to method of getting himself out of trouble.
• Smug Snake: Like his elder brother, Diga Suun, he prances around like he's untouchable.

Mida Suun

The youngest child of Zuuro Suun.

• Ambiguous Innocence: Asuta describes him as being unable to tell right from wrong. He just does as he's told by someone he recognizes as an authority.
• Animal Motif: He's often compared to an elephant.
• Big Eater: He's known to eat enough to feed eight people, and he's still hungry. Also deconstructed as this seriously affects his health.
• Friend to All Children: He's shown getting along well with children. Playing with them by letting them jump on his belly.

Zuuro Suun

The nominal leader of the Suun clan, though his father, Zattsu Suun is the one calling the shots.

• Animal Motif: A bullfrog. Asuta constantly compares his appearance, mannerisms and posture to a frog in the narration.
• Fat Bastard: He's bloated, and a highly unpleasant individual.
• Never My Fault: It's not the Suun clan's fault that they're criminals for breaking the law. It's the law's fault for existing that forces the Suun clan into crime.
• Rules Lawyer: To Insane Troll Logic levels. When challenged with irrefutable evidence of his clansmsen's crimes, he responds that the actions undertaken by the victims in self-defense should be equally punished without regards to the circumstances or situation. Even if those victims happen to be forced to look upon a naked woman against their will.
• Too Important to Walk: He never stands or walks on his own. He always holds meetings seated.

Yamiru Suun

The eldest daughter of the clan. Post Volume 6, she is adopted into the Lei house.

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: In Volume 6, she kidnaps Asuta and tells him that if he doesn't marry her, she'll kill him. Asuta is in the middle of refusing when The Cavalry arrive to save him.
• Beneath the Mask: She is far more confident in public than she is in private.
• Blood Magic: What she thinks she's doing as she's bathing in giba blood. What she's really doing is making herself all stinky and putting her health at risk. She gets called out on it, to her chagrin.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: She talks casually about the physical abuse common in her family, and the fact that Mida is usually kept in chains.
• Femme Fatale: Pre-Character Development, she is both incredibly beautiful and Obviously Evil.
  Her slightly dark eyes had a strong gleam in them.
  It was a cruel, cold, and merciless light as if belonging to a venomous snake.
  The smile on her face had a hint of poison too.
• Guile Hero: During her more heroic moments, and post-adoption. Yamiru keeps a close watch on anything that could spark a war, even things as small as Diru's womanizing or Ai Fa adopting a foreigner. She knows it's all part of the bigger picture.
  Vena: You are forcing him to marry for something like this…?
  Yamiru: Ahh, a war between the Suun and the Ruu clans is a serious matter though? If that really happens, the Forest's Edge settlement would be destroyed.

• I've Come Too Far: She refuses to change because she feels her clan is doomed anyway: they have committed a capital crime, so nothing she can do will make a difference.

• Took a Level in Kindness: Once the immense burden of covering for her family's crimes is lifted off her shoulders, her threatening aura completely fades.
• Tragic Monster: She may not listen to her conscience, but she still has one. The village's impending civil war is only averted because she tips off Asuta as to her clan's sins, and she submits peacefully to justice.
• Xanatos Gambit: She pulls a truly epic one in Volume 6. When she has Asuta brought to her, and deliberately parades herself naked in front of him, so he'd be forced to marry her. Either she gains the clan a very business-savvy Heir-In-Law, eliminating powerful competition, or the clan's sins are exposed, and the clan's corruption ends. The last one happens, and she's grateful.

Oura Suun

The clan head's (most recent) wife; daughter of Tay and mother of Yamiru.

• Awful Wedded Life: She is clearly not happy to be married to the head of the Suun clan.

Zattsu Suun

The true ruler of the Suun clan. Even on his deathbed, nobody dares defy him, with good reason.

• Defiant to the End: Even being ill unto death does nothing to deter him from his villainy.
• The Dreaded: Even on his death bed, his clan and subjects fear him. This fear proves well founded in Volumes 6 and 7.
• Insane Troll Logic: He's firmly convinced that the only way people will see the Suun clan as the bastions of nobility and courage is to act as dishonorably and despicably as possible.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: His father was the epitome of honor, strength, pride and courage. Zattsu inherited everything except honor.
• Moral Myopia: He's incensed that people despise the Suun clan until his dying breath. The fact that people hate the Suun clan for acting badly is irrelevant.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: He uses the same tactics in Volume 7 that he did ten years ago, and is shocked that the caravan he attacked was ready for him.
• Villain Has a Point: The people of Forest Edge are the reason giba don't overwhelm Post Town and Genos City behind them. Yet the denizens of Forest Edge are treated with disdain precisely because they hunt giba, and eat them, by virtue of the fact they are expressly forbidden, by law, from either foraging in the forest or taking up farming. There have been deaths in the thousands among the people of Forest Edge just from the dangers of hunting alone. Unfortunately, whatever sympathy might have been well earned by pointing this out is lost the moment Zattsu took control of the Suun clan and set his clan upon flaunting the law and committing capital offenses, including banditry and murder.

Tay Suun:

A solemn man who's usually escorting his brother Mida around.

• Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder: He tries to rein in Mida's antics and stop the boy from causing too much damage. He isn't always successful.
• Killed Off for Real: The first character to die on screen.
• Last Request: He claims to want to eat Asuta's cooking one last time before letting himself be arrested. It's a lie to get past Ai Fa.
• Made of Iron: After using a strange herb, he is able to shrug off numerous sword slashes on his body.
• Mouth of Sauron: When the Suun clan implodes, he becomes the voice for all the Suun clan's resentments.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: He is utterly incapable of having his own will. He obeys the orders of the Suun clan leadership, no matter how despicable.
• Shame If Something Happened: He is able to initially avoid arrest by saying that Ai Fa could defeat him, if she didn't mind risking Asuta in the process.
• Taking You with Me: He tries to do this to Asuta when cornered in Volume 7.

Tsuvai Suun

A young girl notable for her intelligence and outspoken personality.

• Adorably Precocious Child: She will protect her people from financial exploitation!... if a grown-up escorts her to the local entrepreneur's house.
• Book Dumb: She is a mathematical prodigy in a village that doesn't even have a school, and she can calculate economic factors on a level that even a first-world student twice her age is hard put to match.
• Cultural Rebel: Among the people of Forest's Edge, caring about things like wages or budgeting is considered a bit unsavoury. (This is one reason why the village's death rate is so high.) Tsuvai is pretty much the only villager who's willing to call out an employer for shady behaviour.
• Mr. Vice Guy: She is a touch obsessed with money, but only because her clan is desperately scrounging for survival. In a situation like that, you learn to make every coin count. After her adoption into the Rutim house, she channels this habit into making sure everyone gets equitably paid for their labor.
  Tsuvai: But if you have the coins, then you can buy anything, right?
  Asuta: Really? I don’t think you could buy bonds and trust between people.

Outsiders

Reina

An Earth girl who was friends with Asuta and his father.

Kamyua Yost

A gregarious "guardian" of travellers; his job is to keep the peace. For reasons he has not disclosed, he is deeply interested in Forest's Edge.

• Acting Unnatural: He never does anything wrong, technically, but his attempts at persuasion are so obvious and persistent that everyone distrusts him anyway.

• Too Good to Be True: He is so obnoxiously friendly that the protagonists are convinced he must have some personal angle of his own. (They haven't found it yet.)
• Shame If Something Happened: He asks who would take control if the Suun clan lost their rank.
• Warhawk: He seems to be trying to manipulate Forest's Edge into overthrowing the Suun clan.

Tara

A young girl who lives in the Post Station Town.

• Birds of a Feather: She and Rimee Ruu bond instantly over their love for Asuta's cooking.

Shumiral Zi Sadumtino

Leader of the Silver Vase trading caravan.

• Blow Gun: His weapon of choice when attacked on the road, as it can be shot easily from totos-back.
• Love at First Sight: He was completely enthralled by Vina, even though they had only met briefly.
• Nice Guy: He's one of the few people open-minded about Forest's Edge from the beginning, and calmly protects Asuta from hecklers.
• Stars Are Souls: He explains to Asuta the Sym belief that each person is represented by a star in the sky, and warns him that a "malefic star" (unbeknownst to him, Zattsu Suun) is threatening Forest's Edge.
• The Stoic: In accordance with the Sym people's hat.

Milano Mas

An innkeeper who rents out stalls to shopkeepers.

• Noble Bigot: Although he deeply distrusts the people of Forest's Edge, he treats them with the same fairness as any other client.
• You Killed My Father: He vehemently insists that Zattsu murdered his dearest friend, disguising it as an attack by a herd of giba on the ill-fated caravan. While some evidence was found, it wasn't enough to convict in court.

Mikel of Turan

An ex-chef who used to work for Cyclaeus.

• Debt Detester: The reason he agreed to meet with Asuta and warn him about Cyclaeus is that he owed Shumiral a favor.
• Game-Breaking Injury: He was once a very talented chef, but he can never wield a kitchen knife again, as a direct result of Cyclaeus severing nerves in his hand.
• Trade Your Passion for Glory: He warns Asuta not to be lured by money into serving evil people.

Diel

A merchant's daughter who Asuta befriends.

• Lady Looks Like a Dude: Due to her short hair and masculine clothing, Asuta believes she's a boy at first.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In her first scene, she heckles Asuta while he's working and vocally denigrates other races' intelligence. After he wins their 'bet', she realizes she was wrong and apologizes.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Because she bragged about Asuta's cooking, Lefreya had him brought to the Cyclaeus mansion to "prove her wrong."

Jeeda

A hunter from Masara who's the son of Goram Red-Beard.

• Animal Motifs: He wears the pelt of the leopard he killed singlehandedly to prove himself a hunter.
• Stealth Expert: There is hardly anywhere he cannot sneak in or out of, including the Cyclaeus estate.

Cyclaeus' house

Cyclaeus

This is not over...

The lead administrator of Post Station Town.

• Animal Motif: He's compared to a Monta (a giant snake).
• Aristocrats Are Evil: He's a noble in Genos, and he's a Devil in Plain Sight.
• Corrupt Politician: Though there's no hard evidence, as of this writing, it is strongly suspected that all the Genos victims of the Suun clan's villainy were orchestrated by him for the "crime" of being political rivals.
• Devil in Plain Sight: He's extremely odious and clearly as guilty as sin, but since there's no direct evidence of his involvement in the numerous crimes of which he's the primary suspect, nothing can be done... which he loves to lord over everyone.
• Evil Redhead: Asuta describes his hair as being tomato or chestnut colored, and he's a right evil sot.
• Exhausted Eye Bags: His blueish skin and bruise-like markings under his eyes show that he's clearly not sleeping well.
• Expy: When described in person and illustrated, he bears a striking resemblance to Emperor Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious.
• If I Can't Have You…: If you're a talented chef in Genos, and fail to deliver meals he likes, or worse, refuse, for any reason, he will cut the nerves in your hand(s) so you can never work in a kitchen again.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: He's a very difficult man to deal with. He even demanded Asuta keep his stall open when two dangerous Forest Edge felons were making death threats. Had Asuta refused, Cyclaeus would have forbidden Asuta from operating business in Post Town ever again.
• The Paranoiac: His home is surrounded by very high walls, his yard has vicious man-eating dogs released every night, to both protect against imaginary possible intruders, and to keep guests in their rooms, and he has slaves taste both his meals and those of his daughter for poison in every dish... And this is at the heart of Genos, where the drawbridges are closed at night, and even in the day, the guards won't let anyone enter or leave without a special pass. His pallor shows that even with all these precautions, he's clearly not sleeping well at night. He proves to be Properly Paranoid when we learn about the crimes of his elder brother, Shileru.
• Perpetual Smiler: He's always smiling, but not in a good way. Eyewitnesses claim his smiles are just a mask to hide his true emotions.
• Plausible Deniability: He's always got a handy excuse ready if he should ever be challenged on his shady practices.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes are described as bloodshot and filled with hatred, contempt, and disgust.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: He is guilty of many crimes, especially against chefs, but having authority second only to the lord and landlord of Genos, he makes any and all witnesses "disappear."
• Secretly Dying: As revealed by Michael in volume 11, his obsession with delicious meals and exotic spices has taken a massive toll on his body. Asuta speculates which organs are compromised. Rather than taking the proper medicine and curb his diet to more mundane and bland meals, Cyclaeus prefers to simply add medicinal herbs that he thinks might help, and forces his indentured chefs to work around them. Whatever relief he gets is entirely temporary, at best.
• Smug Snake: He knows he's the prime suspect for numerous crimes, and there's no hard evidence against him, so he loves to denounce and berate those who dare to suspect him, or even voice the fact that he's even suspect in the first place.
• Villainous Glutton: He is obsessed with eating delicious food. Every chef in Genos is at his beck and call. If he doesn't like the meal, that chef is driven out of the industry, if not the town. If a chef in Genos refuses to cook for him...

Lefreya Turan

You! Cook me a snack! NOW!

A ten-year old girl who is Cyclaeus' daughter.

• The Cake Is a Lie: She promised to release Asuta if he prepares a dish that "satisfies her." Asuta knows better than to trust those words, but cooks anyway for fear of Cyclaeus' wrath.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: When Moose was going to be arrested, she insisted that he alone is not guilty, and that she should be punished too.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Chiffon infers that Cyclaeus arranged the kidnapping, but not the violence with which it was carried out.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She honestly can not understand why Asuta would rather go home to friends and family than be her exclusive chef and be paid a silver plate a day for his efforts.
• Evil Virtues: Though the bar is set pretty low, she certainly has more honor than her father, Cyclaeus.
• Idle Rich: She is so wealthy she can toss around silver plates like most people toss pebbles out of their gardens, and is yet to be shown doing anything aside from lazing around in the Cyclaeus mansion. In her defense, this is the way Cyclaeus arranged it for her. She does not like it.
• Freudian Excuse: She has had no parental love or guidance to speak of.
• Gilded Cage: To add to the toxicity of her environment, she is given any and every luxury available, simply for the asking, but she can never, ever leave the house. In fact, she can't remember the last time she played in the yard, that's surrounded by a very, very high stone wall...
• Moving The Goal Posts: First she promises to release Asuta if he serves her a meal that pleases her. When he does, she pays him a silver plate, then insists he'll be freed when Cyclaeus returns. Then when Cyclaeus shows up, she insists that he's not going anywhere until she's "satisfied." At that point, even Cyclaeus is fed up, and over-rides her, telling her to be silent, releasing Asuta with what may be the only sincere apology from him in his history.
• Parental Neglect: Cyclaeus is physically present in her life, but completely ignores her whenever possible. She's almost constantly acting out to force him to pay attention to her.
• The Resenter: According to Dell, Lefreya is not only a Sore Loser, but resents the fact that Dell actually gets to leave the Cyclaeus mansion, while she's stuck there, bored out of her skull because her father, Cyclaeus , leaves her nothing to do, and ignores her whenever possible.
• Sore Loser: The reason she had Asuta "recruited" to cook for her is because she bet Dell that there's no way a "loser from Post Station Town" could outcook her head chef. One bite of Asuta's cooking, side by side with the best chefs in Genos, and she decided to hold him captive, indefinitely, out of spite, to cook for her whether he wants to or not.
• Spoiled Brat: Orders that Asuta be kidnapped and threatens to drive him out of business if he fails to please her.

• Tragic Villain: At no point in the narrative is she not a neglected, imprisoned child, but there's no way Asuta can save her- especially because she's bent on getting him trapped with her.

Chiffon Chel

Asuta-sama, my master is calling for you.

A Mahildran slave charged with taking care of Asuta during his entrapment.

• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Compared to the agony of being whipped, she calmly accepts having stuff thrown at her.
• Covered in Scars: Her back's been lashed, repeatedly, and she's not ashamed to show it...
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Golden-haired blonde, and a very sweet, sensitive woman, willing to risk grievous harm for Asuta's well-being.
• Happiness in Slavery: Clearly in the "slavery is the lesser evil" manner. Her life sucks as a slave, but as she's a war-captive, her fate would be worse otherwise.
• Only Friend: She's the only person in Cyclaeus' house who acts decent to Asuta, so he relies on her company.
• Questionable Consent: She forcibly bathes Asuta, but only because her masters ordered her to. The experience is degrading for both of them.
• Secretly Selfish: She helps Asuta escape at great risk to herself but later confesses she wished he would stay so she wouldn't be alone anymore.
  • She's also sorry to see him go because she won't get to taste-test his dishes any more...
• Sex Slave: One of her duties.
• Stepford Smiler: Her life is relentlessly shitty in ways she can't change, so all she can really do is try not to think about it and accept whatever small bits of happiness come her way.

Roy

So many questions. You are so annoying.

Pyschkurewuss' current chef.

• Always Someone Better: He's an extremely skilled chef for his time and place, but compared to someone who was practically raised in a restaurant and has the recipes and experience of Earth chefs to draw on, he is clearly inferior. And he hates it.
  Roy’s face started to turn nasty. […] The next instant, Roy threw the ladle beside the pot at Chiffon Chel. The ladle hit her temple, and Chiffon Chel yelled weakly.
  “Don’t be retarded, lowly slave!”
• Asshole Victim: Like Shela and Reina Ruu, he is limited by being born in a medieval world. Unlike them, however, he is a dick who feels entitled to physically and verbally abuse anyone 'beneath' him. So it's hard not to feel satisfied when Asuta outshines him.

• Ignorant Of His Own Ignorance: Like a frog at a bottom of a well, looking up at the sky and thinking that's all there is to the world, he just can't bring himself to consider that there may be places and people who can do things differently or better than his own. Asuta's stint in his kitchen hits him like a rather rude wake-up call.

• Jerkass Realization: In chapter 4 of volume 10, he realizes he's been a dick for throwing things at Chiffon Chel, and had no just cause to do so.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As Asuta describes him, he may be arrogant and harsh, but he's not an evil person, and in a different time and place, the two could have been great friends, sharing their love of cooking.
• Pet the Dog: He saves Asuta when the latter's experimenting causes an oil combustion.
• Skewed Priorities: He cares more about proving his prowess as a chef than the fact that his employer is a dangerous criminal.
• Technician vs. Performer: A Technician. Part of his... inferiority?... to Asuta comes from Roy's belief in traditional and aristocratic dishes. He point-blank refuses to use "common" ingredients like the ones that 90% of the population eat, or accept that foreign chefs might have invented good meals.
• Who Are You?: He yells this out word for word upon realizing that Asuta, at 17, can not only outshine him, a Child Prodigy at 19, but outshines the top chefs of Genos, who have been in the art most of their lives.

Moose

Lefreya's bodyguard and primary minion.

• Curbstomp Battle: On the wrong end, and combined with Laser-Guided Karma. When he jumps onto the Cyclaeus dining table, smashing several dishes underfoot and lashes out at Ai Fa's party, she grabs him by the scruff of the neck and slams him to the ground hard enough to slam the breath out of him, on a padded carpet floor.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: In a truly unhealthy manner. His response to "go recruit Asuta to be my chef" is to kidnap Asuta, and there's no crime he'd ignore to carry out Lefreya's wishes, including murder.
• Too Dumb to Live: When Cyclaeus himself orders him arrested under Genos law (which Cyclaeus can manipulate), he goes feral and tries to attack Asuta, Ai Fa, and a visiting noble, thus all but guaranteeing that Cyclaeus has to come down on him harshly in order to save face and keep the rest of Genos from looking any deeper into his affairs... Even Lefreya calls him out on it.

Sanjura

Forgive me, Asuta.

A random customer of Asuta's who is actually the son of Cyclaeus.

• Antagonistic Offspring: He hates his father, and who can blame him.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: He reveals that he deliberately stabbed his hand with a knife to lure Asuta in by sympathy.
• False Friend: Though not by choice, he "befriends" Asuta to make it easier to kidnap him.
• Forced into Evil: He is forced to do the villainy of the Cyclaeus house, because if he refuses, the house will send someone worse to do the deed. He even admits that Asuta's kidnapping would have been more violent if he did not participate.
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: He's perfectly willing to face the death penalty for the wrongs he heaped upon Asuta.
• Undying Loyalty: To Ifuria.
• Walking Spoiler: The full details of this character would reveal a great deal about volume 10.

Shileru

Cyclaeus' older brother and captain of the guard.

• Card-Carrying Villain: Doesn't bother to hide his villainy.
• Combat Pragmatist: Prepares an ambush at the conference between Forests's Edge, Post Station Town, and Genos. It still fails him.
• Evil Gloating: He brags about killing the former captain of the guard, having the political rivals of the Suun house meet "accidents," and trying to sour relations between Forest's Edge and Post Station by sending thugs disguised as Forest Edge hunters to cause trouble in town, and a slew of other crimes.
• Expy: Corrupt guard, master swordsman, and is named Shileru? Sound familiar?

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