yemalu

So… Real talk, I have never actually fished in my life before so this would be my first time…

Even in the other World, I never actually got a chance to go fishing surprisingly, even though I had wanted to try it at least once.

Thus, I was quite excited when we were given a chance to do that in this World.

I thought we would join another group of people to fish, but apparently Prifa thought it would be better if we were separated from the masses and brought the rods and bait to us on the reserved section of the poop deck instead.

That\'s fine too since I wouldn\'t mind just enjoying my time with the people close to me instead of with some strangers.

She even brought along one of the instructors that were meant to teach first timers on how to fish as well.

He gave us a quick lesson on how to tie our tackles and how to assemble our fishing rods that were about half the thickness of my arm and made of some kind of wood. The rod only had a single line attached to it with no reel and we were expected to simply pull our catch up when it bites.

Not the kind of fishing I was expecting but hey, it\'s another World after all.

All of us prepared our own fishing rods like the instructor had taught us except for Mary and Katsuki who simply watched over us. Sebastian was positioned a short distance away and watching the deck of the ship with his arms behind his back.

Odeta was looking at her rod with a frown on her face, "How does something so flimsy even catch any fish? Back in our village, we would wade out into the water with spears in hand and catch fish that way."

Lisa chuckled, "Ehehe~ There\'s no way you can climb down to the side of the ship and fish with spears here, can you?"

Odeta shrugged and cast out her line like the instructor had taught us.

I also picked a spot nearby and cast out my line, watching my hook soar through the air to plop into the waters below.

I already know that it would usually take a really long time for the fish to even take a bite of the bait so I was prepared to simply wait here while enjoying the sea with my friends and family.

Before I could do that though…

"Ara, ara? My little one already has a bite~" Mama pointed out.

The moment she said that, I realised there was something tugging on my line and I quickly gave the fishing rod a heave to fling the fish out of the water and onto the deck.

Unfortunately, I misjudged my own strength and whatever I had hooked flew over my head and detached itself from my hook, landing somewhere on the deck below. Judging by the sudden cry of surprise, I think whatever I caught hit someone down there.

Ah… Err… Whoops? Hopefully they think that fish jumped out of the water and hit them by themselves…

I quickly tried to pretend I was busy by reattaching a bait to my hook before casting my line again while ignoring the uncontrollable giggling from Lisa beside me.

No sooner had my hook sunk into the water did I feel another tug on the line. Are the fishes here starving or something? Why else would they be biting so easily?

I pulled my rod up again, this time making sure to use just enough to lift the thing I caught up onto the deck instead of flinging it over my head.

When the line appeared in front of me, I quickly realised it wasn\'t a fish that was caught on the line but instead, it was a single red heeled shoe.

Right then, an angry Mahun stomped up on the poop deck while waving a similar looking shoe in the air.

"Who threw this shoe at me?! Do you have a death wish?!"

I quickly hid the other shoe with my body, trying to act as innocent as possible by fiddling with my rod.

Prifa and the instructor then went towards the angry guest, escorting him away while informing him that this was a restricted area.

He made some more angry noises before tossing the shoe onto the ground and stormed off in a huff.

Odeta came to me, "Sister Aster! Do you want me to beat that guy up?"

"Umm… Why would I want that?"

"Eh? I thought you had something against him since you threw that shoe at him?"

"That was an accident! I didn\'t mean to do it!" I explained quickly.

"Mistress, here\'s the shoe you caught."

I turned back to see Katsuki presenting the shoe that man had thrown on the ground earlier to me like it was the most normal thing to do.

That made me take a look at the shoe that I was holding and I frowned a little when I saw it.

"Hey… Aside from it being a little wet… Don\'t you think these shoes are of quite good quality?"

"Ehhh… If Aster wants new shoes, I can always bring you to some shops I know. You don\'t need those!" Lisa called out from across the deck.

Mother also perked up from the side, "Ufufufu~ That\'s right my little one~ Mama would be willing to take you to go shopping too~ We haven\'t gone on a shopping trip for a while have we? In fact, I believe there are shops below deck that we could visit too?"

I rolled my eyes, "I\'m not planning to wear this, I was just pointing out the fact that this pair of shoes still look relatively new and well maintained, why would it be tossed into the sea like that?"

Katsuki looked towards the railing and shuddered slightly, as though remembering her fear of the sea not so long ago, "Do you think… Someone fell overboard and drowned?"

Odeta gasped, "Then we should jump in and save them!"

Lisa appeared beside me while still holding her fishing rod, "Oh, oh! Maybe someone got assassinated and the body was dumped overboard recently! Or it could just be a suicide!"

Why are you even talking about such morbid things so happily, Lisa?

"Actually, if it was a suicide… Shouldn\'t the shoes be left on the deck?" I asked.

Lisa blinked at me, "Eh? Why would they be? Who bothers taking off their shoes before doing that?"

I see this World doesn\'t have that kind of idea…

I shrugged, "Or maybe someone just accidentally dropped it or something. Let\'s just hold on to it just in case. Shall we continue?"

Right as I said that, something started tugging on Odeta\'s line and the Amrap almost lost her grip on it, pulling it back at the last moment.

"Ara, ara? It seems like you caught a big one little Odeta~" Mother remarked casually.

Odeta grunted and tugged on her rod, using all her strength to pull at her catch while the fishing rod groaned from her efforts.

With a mighty roar, she swung her arm upwards and at the end of her hook was… A bag?

More precisely, it looked like some kind of burlap sack with its neck tied with a length of rope.

Odeta frowned at her catch and lowered it onto the deck, prompting Mary to move forward immediately.

"Miss Odeta, please allow me. Step back please."

I only realised later that Mary wanted to do this just in case there was a dead body inside of the sack, though I\'m pretty sure everyone here has killed monsters before but maybe finding a dead Mahun in a sack would hit differently.

With a knife that seemed to have appeared out of thin air, she cut the rope tying the sack and it opened up to reveal its contents to her.

Her brows furrowed before she took a step back, revealing the contents to be a sackful of weapons tied up together.

There were swords, knives, maces and even bows with arrows too. I would have thought Odeta accidentally caught something from inside the ship\'s armoury if it wasn\'t for the fact that this looked like it was waterproofed. Then again… That could be possible too.

But there\'s no way she actually punctured a hole in the side of the ship, right?

"Ehhh… Did some Mercenary drop their luggage or something?" Odeta asked while peering into the sack.

Or… A Mercenary got killed and also got dumped overboard and those heels belonged to them? Yeah right… There\'s no way that could be possible right?

That was when Prifa returned and her eyes widened at the sight of the sack.

"Honoured guests… What is that?"

"We do not know, this was something that one of us caught from our fishing line just now," Mary explained.

Prifa scrunched up her face, "Could I ask to have that, honoured guests? I will have to report this to Emilia… I believe it\'s a sabotage attempt on the ship where they threw our weapons overboard."

Seeing no reason to deny her request, we stepped aside and let her carry the sack away.

Seems like the issue with that saboteur was not completely solved yet.

Deciding not to think too much on it, I casted my line once more and everyone else did the same too.

And as though fate was mocking me, my hook caught on something right as I did so.

"Ara, ara? My little one seems really lucky today~" Mother giggled beside me.

I said nothing as I struggled to pull on my fishing rod, the thing caught at the end seemed even more heavier than the first two catches.

I pulled hard and my catch was flung up onto the deck, only to crash into me and send me falling back onto the ground.

Looking down, I realised… It\'s a dead woman…