Thor!　Ayu went that way!

I know!　I got it!

　Asmo and Thor were running around in the river, trying to catch the sweetfish.

　In the water, three of the ayu fish that Asmo had chased away were heading towards Thor. Thor, who had been waiting for them, sits back and sets up and reaches out his hand at once.

''Uraa!''

How's that?

No, he's gone!

　Thor says ruefully as he pulls his arm out of the water.

　There's no sign of an ayu fish in his hand, of course.

d*mn it, get a grip. How many times have you done this?

Bullshit, you know how many times Asmo has failed!

　The two of them are bickering over missing a sweetfish.

　Both of them had already missed catching the sweetfish many times. The frustration of not being able to catch it seems to be increasing.

Let's just soak in the water and be cool.

I mean, Al, help us out!　You want to eat an ayu fish too!

　I sit down on a stone and admonish him, and Thor turns around and shouts.

'No, I have some tomatoes and stuff Igma-san gave me...'

''Well Al, you know how good it is to eat an ayu fish grilled with salt?　Freshly baked and chewed over your head, the distinctive bitterness and saltiness seeping through your sweaty body...

　I hold up my chilled summer vegetables, but they are completely fogged up by Asmo's specific words.

''........What's that specific way of saying it? You made me want to eat salt grilled sweetfish without a second thought.

　Even if I couldn't catch an ayu fish, I had some summer vegetables to chill. I was thinking about this, but now I'm completely in a salted sweetfish mood.

Right?　Then come on over here with Al.

　Asmo invites me into the river.

　I have a sweetfish stomach now. I can't eat anything else without eating an ayu fish.

　Asmo is a horrible boy. Asmo is Thor's friend, after all. He's a guy who knows how to pull people down the wrong path.

So, what should I do?

The three of us will chase as many sweetfish as we can over there. That way, any sweetfish that have nowhere to run will be headed our way.

Now if we could just get one of them, we'd be good to go.

　We nodded at each other with a serious look on our faces as we grasped the details of our strategy.

　It may have been difficult to chase ayu fish with just two men, but with three of us, the number of ayu fish we can chase will increase. There is a possibility that you may fail to catch the fish as Thor did earlier, but the chances of catching it will increase dramatically.

Well then, let's go find a sweetfish!

　I nodded at Thor's brave words and we scattered around looking for an ayu.

　An ayu, an ayu. It's not a small fish like the one we just saw. It was a big one with its body firmly attached.

　As I continued on my way, I found five ayu fish swimming in front of me.

There were five of them over here.

There's three of them!

There's six of them!

　As I raise my voice, Thor and Asmo also raise their voices to capture the ayu fish at the same time.

　The only thing left to do is to drive it to the corner. It's a natural trap area with stones piled up to prevent the ayu from escaping.

　The ayu fish will come to us to find an escape route. It's just a matter of time before someone else catches them.

　We carefully guide the sweetfish to keep it from escaping.

　As expected, we couldn't take all of them, and only one of them was far enough away to make it to four, but it was enough.

　We gradually drive them to the trap point to shrink the encirclement. In front of us, there were more than ten sweetfish swimming comfortably.

　We do not shout in silence, but silently shorten the circle of encirclement.

　When the circle was closed and the sweetfish couldn't escape, we were greeted by

Now!

　We pounced on an ayu fish that had panicked at its inability to escape.

　I felt something slippery pass over my outstretched hand and leg shins.

　d*mn, I must have let it get away.

　But it wouldn't matter if I couldn't catch it.

　Poof, I'd driven at least ten of them into the ground and they were crowded together. It's not surprising that Thor and Asmo could have caught one or two of them at a time.

　I look up and ask with an expectant expression on my face.

''It didn't work. How's it going over there?

　We froze in place with a sly smile on our faces.

　Oh, that's the one we all missed.

"d*mn it, what are you doing, letting us all get away with it? I was hoping to catch at least one of you!

　Thor, who brilliantly speaks for us all. I'm sure we let him get away with it because he was feeling like he was counting on these others.

'Come on, Thor, Al. Let's do it again.

Yeah.

　They don't want to give up after failing once, so they start looking for the escaped ayu fish.

　I also want to eat grilled ayu fish, so of course I'm not going to give up, but it's still not efficient to grab it by hand.

　If only I could catch it by magic....

"Ah!

　There's a guy who's been doing it. Gorilla twins fishing with water magic in Eric's territory!

　I'd forgotten about it until now. You can use that to catch them as long as they're dense enough.

What's up, Al?

"If you scream too loud, the sweetfish will get scared and run away.

　Thor calls out suspiciously to me, who lets out a voice, and Asmo, who flies in with a note of caution.

'I've come up with an easier way to catch them with magic, or so I remembered.

'Oh!　The magic of the ages.　So what do you want me to do?

I'll do whatever it takes to make the fishing easier.

　As I say this, Thor and Asmo come over to me, and they are willing to get wet, and I'm willing to get my feet wet.

　I don't dislike this graceful spirit of these guys.

What we're going to do is the same as before. We just need to chase and gather as many sweetfish as possible.

Okay!

　I explain, and Thor and Asmo reply with serious expressions before scattering. Then I move while looking at the surface of the water to find the ayu fish.

　I can probably do it if I use the same water magic from the beginning, but it's better to use magic when I've solidified it in one place.

　I also start to walk in search of an ayu fish to collect at the place where I saw it earlier.

　The ayu was scattered, but thanks to the clear water, I was able to find them easily.

　However, there were two and three ayu fishes swimming around and it was difficult to guide them. The ayu might have caught me off guard by their behavior earlier.

　Still, I gently approach the ayu fish with my signature distraction technique.

　Then the sweetfish doesn't notice me anymore. That's great, but they need to sense our presence and move.

　If anything, I think I can catch it now, even if I grab it by hand. But that would only catch one or two fish, which would be inefficient at best.

　When I showed my presence of mind, the ayu fish noticed me and surprisingly swam away from me. Three of them were heading for the guidance area, but the other two were still far away.

　Should I use water mages to control the flow of water to get them to come to me?

　I activated the water magic technique around the two ayu fish that were swimming far away. I intentionally let the water flow and the ayu fishes flow to the guide spot without going against it.

　While I was guiding the five ayu fish little by little, Thor and Asmo came in the same way.

　They guided two ayu fish each. They must have been alarmed by the previous incident and had become difficult to collect. But nine fish would be enough for the three of us to eat.

　I nodded my head and continued on my way as Thor and Asmo made eye contact with me silently.

　I don't know if they understood my intentions, but Thor and Asmo are slowly shrinking the siege net as it is.

　And when the nine Ayu fishes are gathered in one place, I activate the water magic method in the area.

　I make a water ball around the spot where the ayu fishes are gathered. Then the ayu that was swimming there gets caught in the water ball.

'Oh!　Awesome!

You can catch as many as you want with this!

　A cry of admiration rises from Thor and Asmo as he lifts a water ball containing nine sweetfish into the air.

　As expected of a useful magic. The difficulty and efficiency of this magic is far different compared to the hand-held grab earlier.

　It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for. Fish are naturally swimming in the water below, so it's unlikely that you'll be able to look at them from below. Unless you go to an aquarium like in my previous life, you won't see this sight.

In that case, let's eat right away!

Me and Thor are going to go gather some branches for the spit.

　But Thor and Asmo seemed to be full of appetite already, and they ran around gathering branches to be skewered without particularly looking at them.

　I chuckled at the two of them and went up to the shore.