Today was the day we will all go fishing in the nearby river. Unlike the last time, Diana, who is probably not used to fishing, is with us this time. Besides me, there is another candidate who can’t catch anything. It’s not that I’m competing with her, but it’s always good to have a comrade like that, I guess……?
I placed the tinder, a basket with our lunch, a pot to be used to boil water and other things inside the rucksack and carried it with me. Okay, let’s go!
The river where we are going to fish today is a little far from the house. I checked it with Samia and Diana and they said that the biggest river is further away from here. This is a tributary, or one of the rivers flowing out of the lake. It’s a bit far to get to the big river and it takes almost the same time as going to the town. It’s certainly far. Besides, that big river is probably very deep so it would be difficult to cross it. I’d like to see it once though.
The four of us search for a suitable spot for fishing. The area where we had fished before was also good but we looked for other good spots. Eventually, we found a good spot for fishing. I then laid out a mat on the riverbank and placed the basket with our lunch in it. After turning over some rocks to secure some bait, we started fishing.
Diana was also able to normally attach the worm to the hook. I was expecting her to be flustered even a little but it didn’t happen at all. It is somehow a let-down.
When I asked her,
“Well, when I was a kid, I used to play with my older brothers.”
Is what she said. Ah- right… I could somewhat imagine her father’s trouble.
Then the four of us dispersed and we dropped the fishing line on the surface of the river. The sun is shining brightly, the current is not that fast and there is also slight breeze blowing so it is a very good place to relax. As I was thinking that this kind of tranquil day off is nice, I heard the sound of water splashing. It seems that Samia caught a fish this soon.
“Ho-, that’s big!”
I exclaimed involuntarily. A river fish of about 15cm is flailing at the tip of the fishing line. I was a little worried that the line would break but Samia pulled it smoothly with her hand and then she quickly remove the fish from the hook.
“How’s this!”
Samia proudly raises the fish she just caught. I could understand her feeling of wanting to do that because it’s really a big catch. We held the rod under our arm and we clapped our hands while saying, “Oohhh-“. The first catch was taken by Samia but we were not to be outdone. Now we could have an extra dish for dinner. And with this, there is no longer a story about us sharing the pain for none of us caught anything.
After that, whether the fish were alarmed by our first catch or whether we made too much noise, we didn’t get any bites.
“It’s just about time. Shall we take a break and have lunch?”
When I said that, all three of them unanimously agreed so we all started preparing our lunch. We look for some broken branches, turn them into firewood, built a fire, and then we boil some water fetched from the river in the pot. After boiling the freshly picked mint leaves, I poured them into a wooden cup and then we start having our lunch. In the previous world, I saw an anime where girls camp like this. Now there’s one old man mixed in, well yeah, it’s not that interesting.
We are having some conversation while we eat our lunch. Samia, who already caught one fish, was giving a lecture on how to fish in a relaxed manner. She said that when she was living alone, she once caught a fish with a rough net made of tree bark. Right now, I don’t have a net at home and I’m fishing to relax not just to catch them for eating. However, if I were to go fishing to have something to eat, I’d better use a net or a longline (though I think it should be thick enough to be called a rope). I might have to think about making a longline……
After lunch, we settled down and took up our positions again to cast our lines. Perhaps because the position of the sun has changed, the surface of the river looks different from that of the morning. I hope the fish will be dazzled by the light and come out to feed.
“Kyaa!”
It was Diana who let out a small scream. Apparently, the fish took the bait. Samia is right next to her and is giving various instructions. Diana followed the instructions and successfully caught the fish with her hands. I don’t know if it had anything to do with the fact that she wields a sword on a daily basis during her training, but, even though she was listening to the instructions, there was no waste in her movements. The fish was easily placed in Diana’s hands.
“Look, how’s this?”
With a delightful expression, she showed me the fish she had caught. It’s a bit smaller than the one Samia caught but it’s still big enough.
“You did it. Congratulations.”
I praised Diana honestly. I’m sure that if this is in the previous world, I would have taken a picture with my smartphone, but unfortunately, there seems to be no picture in this world, let alone a smartphone. There may be similar magical tools or magic, though. If in the future I meet someone who has knows how to make it, I’ll ask him to sell it or teach me about it in exchange for a magic sword.
After that, Rike also caught one, and I was the only one who had no catch again. The previous time, I felt like I was spinning from here, so I’m sticking to it. While he was sticking, Samia caught another one, and as soon as the quota of the Eizou family was reached, they strolled around the vicinity. No, it was Samia’s kindness, saying that the probability of me catching a fish would be higher if she were not there. Yeah, I hope she’s right…
Eventually, when we were about to leave, I decided to make one last throw. Of course, I didn’t get any bites until this point. I waited for a while and thought it was over but then I felt a tug on my rod.
“Uh!”
Just as I was about to pull it, I lost the response. It got away…. With a thud, I fell to my knees. Apparently, the production cheat I possessed doesn’t work for fishing. Sigh, of course it won’t!
“Well, uhm-, it’s fine since there is enough for us. Right?”
Diana asks Samia and Rike to agree.
“Y-Yeah. I’ll even give the big one to Eizou!”
“That’s right. This is what a family do for each other, Boss!”
“Thank you everyone…….”
Their follow-up is really heart warming. The time was almost up so we quickly cleaned up and went home.
Uh-, I thought I had salted the grilled fish just right but, I felt that mine was strangely salty.