Part 21 (1/2)

At this time, the float of his fis.h.i.+ng rod began to quickly sink. Nis.h.i.+da wasted no time in pulling it in. It seemed that his fis.h.i.+ng skill level was pretty high, as well as his actual ability to fish.

”Woah, it's huge!”

As I strained to lean forward, Nis.h.i.+da calmly reeled in the fis.h.i.+ng line and quickly pulled up the s.h.i.+mmering blue fish. The fish flapped in his hands a few times and then vanished into his inventory.

”Amazing...!”

Nis.h.i.+da gave an embarra.s.sed smile as he raised his head to reply: ”It's nothing. All you need to do here is raise your fis.h.i.+ng skill.”

Then he added while scratching his head: ”But, even if I can catch them, I still didn't know how to cook them properly... I wanted to eat sas.h.i.+mi or grilled fish, but I can't do anything without soy sauce.”

”Ah...yeah...”

I hesitated for a moment. We had moved here to avoid other people, but I figured that this person wouldn't really be interested in rumors and gossips.

”...I know of something that tasted a lot like soy sauce...”

”What!?”

Nis.h.i.+da leaned closer with his eyes s.h.i.+ning behind his gla.s.ses.

As Asuna greeted my return and saw Nis.h.i.+da, her eyes went wide with surprise, but then she smiled and said: ”Welcome back. A guest?”

”Yeah, this is Nis.h.i.+da oji-san, a fisherman. And-”

My voice trailed off as I turned towards Nis.h.i.+da and was unsure of how to introduce Asuna. Then, Asuna smiled at the old fisherman and introduced herself: ”I'm his wife, Asuna. Welcome to our home.”

She nodded confidently.

Nis.h.i.+da was staring at Asuna with his mouth open. Asuna was dressed in a plain long skirt, a hemp s.h.i.+rt with an ap.r.o.n, and a headscarf on top. She looked very different from the imposing warrior image of her as a KoB member, but her beauty didn't change.

After blinking several times, Nis.h.i.+da finally came to his senses and said: ”Ah, ahh, I apologize. I was mesmerized for a moment. I'm Nis.h.i.+da. Sorry for intruding upon you like this...”

He scratched his head and laughed.

Asuna applied all of her impressive cooking skills on the huge fish that Nis.h.i.+da had caught, and brought it onto the table after turning it into sas.h.i.+mi and grilled fish with soy sauce as a seasoning. As the aroma of the handmade soy sauce wafted through the house, Nis.h.i.+da widened his nostrils with a look of delight on his face.

It tasted more like a yellowtail with just the right amount of oil rather than a freshwater fish. According to Nis.h.i.+da, you needed to have at least 950 points in fis.h.i.+ng to be able to catch it. After a brief conversation, the three of us focused on eating with our chopsticks.

The plates were empty within the blink of an eye, and Nis.h.i.+da sighed with an expression of bliss as he held a cup of hot tea in his hands.

”...ah, that was very satisfying. Thank you. To think that soy sauce actually exists in this world...”

”Oh, it's handmade. You can take some back with you if you like it.”

Asuna retrieved a small bottle from the kitchen and handed it over to Nis.h.i.+da. I thought that it was a good idea not to tell him the recipe. Asuna then smiled and said to the grateful Nis.h.i.+da: ”Don't worry about it; you also brought us such a good fish.”

She then continued: ”Kirito-kun never caught anything.”

At this sudden attack, I simply sipped on my tea in silence before responding: ”The lakes in this area are all too hard.”

”No, not really. It's only the lake that Kirito-san was fis.h.i.+ng in.”

”Eh...”

What Nis.h.i.+da said made me fall speechless. Asuna grabbed her stomach and began to laugh without stop.

”Why did they set it like that...?”

”Well actually, in that lake...”

Nis.h.i.+da lowered his voice before continuing, so Asuna and I leaned forward.

”I think the local G.o.d lives there.”

”Local G.o.d?”

As Asuna and I echoed each other, Nis.h.i.+da smiled, pushed back his gla.s.ses, and then kept talking: ”In the village item shop, there is one bait that's much more expensive than the others. I was curious about its capabilities, so I decided to buy it once to try out.”

I swallowed instinctively.

”But I couldn't catch anything with that bait. After trying it out in various locations, I finally thought of taking a shot at that high-difficulty lake.”

”Did, did you catch something...?”

”Well, something took the bait.”

Nis.h.i.+da nodded deeply, and then his expression became one of regret: ”But I couldn't pull it out with my strength and ended up losing my fis.h.i.+ng rod to it. I only managed to see its shadow during the last moments. It wasn't just huge; one could call it a monster, but in a different sense from the ones that appeared in the fields.”

He spread his arms wide apart. This was probably the reason behind his meaningful smile when I said, ”There are almost no monsters on this floor.”

”Uwa, I want to see it!”

Asuna exclaimed as her eyes sparkled. Then, Nis.h.i.+da caught my gaze and said: ”So I have a proposal-do you have confidence in your strength stats Kirito-san...?”

”Well, it should be alright...”

”Then how about we fish for it together?! I'll hold it until it bites and then leave the rest to you.”

”Hmm, so we'll ”Switch” while fis.h.i.+ng...would that be possible...?”

I tilted my head to the side.

”Let's try it, Kirito-kun! It sounds interesting!”

Asuna said this with ”excitement” written all over her face. But, it was true that I was also quite interested.