And so, after collecting dozens of branches, I finally received a passing grade from Elga. I was now sitting cross-legged on a rock, fishing. With his guidance, I had made everything by hand with only things from nature, including the pole, hook, and line. Though it was unbecoming of someone my age, I couldn’t help but feel excited to fish using a fishing rod I had made myself.
“Heh heh,” I chuckled.
I cast the line into the river, then closed my eyes and felt the nature around me. My previous life had been a busy one, which was maybe why listening to the swaying of trees and flowing of the river made me feel so calm. What a luxurious way to spend time...now this is supreme happiness.
“They aren’t bitiiing,” Luna whined.
“Yeah, they aren’t,” Elga said.
Unfortunately, it seemed that I was the only one who was enjoying myself in that way. The two Divine Beastfolk were already sounding a bit bored. I liked this sort of leisure time, so I was completely unbothered by it, but they seemed like they were starting to give up.
“This is exactly what makes fishing so fun,” I said to them.
“Really? I’d rather be hooking ’em one after another,” Elga said.
“Me too,” Luna said.
“Hmmm...”
To be honest, I could probably do it if I wanted to. If I really tried, I could accurately pinpoint the movements of the fish in the river, so if I found a spot with a lot of fish and cast my line there, they’d probably bite as soon as the bait hit the water. However, I had felt like that would be blasphemy against the art of fishing, so I purposefully hadn’t done so.
“C’mon, take it easy for a bit longer,” I said.
“Whaaat?” Already getting bored, Luna wore a dissatisfied expression. From her perspective, she had come all the way here to play with us, so it being boring must have been disappointing.
“All right, if there’s no other choice...”
I consciously strengthened my senses, perceiving the movements of all the creatures in the river. I discovered fish congregating in the shadow of a rock not too far from us.
“Try over there,” I said, pointing my finger. Without a word, Luna darted over and cast her line in the water. It instantly began to twitch—she had gotten a bite.
“Ah! I got it!” she said.
“Oh, is that a sweetfish?” Elga said. “Those are tasty when grilled.”
The fish looked similar to one from my previous life, and apparently it had the same name as well.
Luna looked thrilled by her first catch, and she happily came over to report it to me.
“That’s great, Luna,” I said.
“Yep! All right, I’m gonna catch a bunch now! Heh heh heh, I won’t lose to you, Elga!”
“Not if I have anything to say about it! Hey, Arata, I’m going fishing over there too!”
“Sure. I’ll be here, waiting until something bites.”
Spurred on by Luna’s taunting, Elga went over to the spot with more fish. I watched him go, then cast my line alone from the rocky shore. It didn’t seem like I was going to get any bites anytime soon, but this felt like a good way to enjoy fishing in its own right.
There’s an episode from Chinese history about a general named Jiang Ziya, who in his old age once sat fishing by a river without using bait or a hook, waiting for the fish to bite on their own. In Japan, another one of his names, Grand Duke Wang, is used to refer to someone who loves fishing. That was sort of how I felt right now.
“I feel just like a master strategist, ha ha... Oh?”
While I was enjoying my fantasies, my line was pulled taut. It looked like I had finally gotten a bite. The river was rather deep, so I couldn’t yet see any fish, but it was quite a big one.
“Hah hah hah! After this, I think I’ll brag to Luna.”
As far as I had been able to tell just a short while ago, Luna and Elga’s fishing spot had only smaller fish. In other words, if I reeled in this one, I’d get a fish that was bigger than any of theirs.
“Hmph!”
I didn’t really sense that it was struggling, but it felt quite large. This’ll make for a good story! I thought, yanking my rod. The fish made an arc above my head before falling to the ground behind me.
“Hnguh!”
“Hm?”
Are fish supposed to make that sound? I wondered, turning around. There I saw a woman with silver hair and ears longer than a human’s, lying on the ground unconscious.
“I didn’t catch a Sea Dragon... I caught someone who looks like an Elf...”
I suddenly remembered what Elga had said earlier: If a troublemaker like you goes fishing, you’ll definitely catch something strange!
“Who knows what he’ll say when he sees this? What should I do?” As a rule, fish that you caught but weren’t going to eat were returned to the river. So, if I released her...
“But I can’t do that.”
Whatever the circumstances may have been, I would be tormented by my conscience if I released something humanlike back into the river. Then, as I was wondering what to do...
“Just as I expected, Arata,” Elga said.
“You’re amazing, Mister Arata!” Luna said.
✦ ✦ ✦
The two of them looked over at me, impressed. I could sense a kind of trust in their eyes—in other words, they had been absolutely certain that I would cause some sort of incident.
“This isn’t what it looks like...”
I wanted to say that I hadn’t done it on purpose, but they didn’t believe me at all.