“You want us to...compete?” Mia’s expression froze.
“Oh... Um...” Mia tried to avert her gaze, but Orania looked straight into her eyes, blocking off her escape. “If you win, I’ll tell you what you want to know... About my father, about Ganudos... You said you wanted to share a meal with him, right? If you need my help...I’ll offer it.”
“No, but... There’s no need to rush all this,” said Mia, jumbling her words a bit. She was desperate to escape!
“But in exchange, if you refuse to compete...I’ll never be speaking to you again, okay?”
Aauuugh! Why in the moons is this happening?!
This was supposed to be a calm, relaxing chance to catch some fish and deepen some bonds. She had no intentions of anything so uncouth as deciding anything via competition.
Ugh, but...
Mia glanced back at Orania. She wasn’t sure why, but she had clearly offended her. She glared back at Mia with icy, sharp eyes.
I really messed this up! Refusing seems nearly impossible, but just where did I go wrong?
Still, no amount of thinking could fix what had already transpired. Now that things had come to this, Mia couldn’t rely on her friends, and she doubted a good scolding from Rafina would change Orania’s mind.
Then my options are either to win or to minimize the damage my loss would incur...but the latter seems nearly impossible! Winning is my only hope! Agh! B-But can I even win against a fish maniac?! Mia saw her chances of victory against a woman who had trained her fishing arm on the Galilea Sea her entire life as incredibly slim.
Hmm? I’m competing...against a fish maniac. That’s it! Mia had a flash of inspiration! She snickered. “I see refusing isn’t an option. I’ll accept your challenge,” she said with a dramatic nod. Orania’s grin grew triumphant, but that’s when Mia stuck a finger in her face. “But I’d like to make a small correction to those rules.”
“A correction...? Do you want to compete for the most fish caught instead...? I won’t lose that contest either,” she said, sounding wholly unamused.
Mia shook her head. “Not at all. I simply thought settling our disputes with such a competition sounded awfully boorish,” she said, her grin turning devilish as she attempted to rile Orania up. “Let’s make this a competition to see who can first catch the King of Noelige Lake!”
“The...King?”
“Exactly. I heard at the harbor that this lake has a King,” she said with a dramatic nod. “If we’re going to compete in a fishing contest, then it needs to be grand! And since we have all these children around, I’d love to show them such a ginormous fish,” she said, tacking on a reason that made her offer even harder to refuse. Then, she stared at Orania, ready for her next move.
Yes, this was how Mia planned to return from the brink of death! Her chances at victory were abysmal, but contests weren’t simply win or lose—there was another path! They could end in a draw, so she sought to set the victory condition as something impossible—catching an uncatchable fish. Orania was bound to catch a bigger fish than Mia, but one so big it could unabashedly be called the King of Noelige Lake? Now that didn’t sound nearly as likely.
And even if she does catch a gigantic fish, I can probably just get out of it by refusing to accept that it’s actually the King! Mia could be a dastardly devil.
“But doesn’t that mean...we’d end in a draw as long as you don’t admit any of the fish I catch are the King...?” said Orania, looking straight into Mia’s eyes.
She had hit her where it hurts, eliciting a peculiar groan from Mia. That’s when some unexpected reinforcements arrived.
“That’s an awfully rude assumption to make about her, no?” This girl’s words were calm and serene, but also frightening enough to send a chill up your spine. Mia turned around to find Rafina, and despite her smile, she was mad—absolutely furious! The lion had woken up! “Mia would never resort to such underhanded methods. Right, Mia?” She spoke with absolute confidence.
Mia made her judgments instantly! Orania’s sharper than I expected! There’s a chance she’d see right through it if I chose to lie. That leaves...!
Mia put on a mischievous grin and chuckled. “Not at all, Miss Rafina. I’m not purely innocent; I’m perfectly capable of thinking up such underhanded methods myself,” she—ahem—“joked” with a shrug. “But since you’ve seen through my plot, I think this calls for a judge. Hmm...” Mia’s eyes darted about, landing on the perfect man for the task! “Could you serve that role, Santeri?”
“Me?” he asked, seeming awfully shocked by this development.
“Of course. You’re the most knowledgeable among us when it comes to fishing, after all.”
A fish maniac like him...must have some sort of fixation on the King! He’s got to have the strictest rules on what could qualify! Mia made her calculations in real time, and she didn’t forget to add on an extra reminder. “I’d like you to serve as a judge with your pride as a fisherman on the line.”
Yes, she implied that determining any old fish to be the King out of consideration for the princesses would tarnish his fisherman name, and she did it all with a smile!
Santeri nodded. “Understood. I swear on my life as a fisherman—I vow to be a fair judge,” he said, sounding awfully grim and grand.
“Hmm...” said Orania, pondering the situation.
Mia took the opportunity to give one last push! “You’re not afraid you can’t catch the King...are you?” She riled her right up! “Well, if that’s the case, then it’s perfectly possible this contest will end in a draw. That is, if you don’t think you can catch it, of course!” And she only kept riling away!
There’s a fish here so huge it’s called the King of Noelige Lake, and you really don’t want the chance to catch it yourself? But you love fishing! Are you sure? she implied, her expression infuriatingly smug.
“I really was excited to give the children here the opportunity to see such a ginormous fish, but if you really don’t have the skills, then I guess I’ll have to give up on that,” she added, slumping her shoulders.
“Fine... I accept your offer.” The look in her eyes as she glared at Mia could cut like a knife.