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Chasing Sweetfish
「Torr! The sweetfish went that way!」
「I know!  Leave it to me!」
Asmo and Torr are frantically running around in the river, trying to catch sweetfish.
Inside the water, there are three sweetfish that Asmo chased away and heading toward Torr’s direction. Torr - who had been waiting for them - lowered his body and prepared himself, then he immediately reach out for them. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
「Uraaa!」
「How is it?」
「Not good, they escaped!」
Torr disappointedly says while pulling out his hands from the water.
There is certainly no sweetfish in his hands.
「Good grief, get a grip will ya? How many times has this been?」
「Shaddup, you even made so many mistakes anyway!」
The two of them are arguing since they failed to catch the sweetfish.
Both of them have failed to catch the sweetfish many times. And the situation where they were going to catch the sweetfish but in fact can’t catch them also probably accelerate their frustration.
「Now now, let’s stop arguing now, get inside the water, and chill out」
「Rather than that, Al you should also help! You also eat the sweetfish, right!」
When I admonish them while sitting on top of a stone, Torr turns around and shouts.
「Err, I still have the tomatoes given by Igma-san though.....」
「

Al, when you grill sweetfish with salt, they will taste delicious, you know? When you completely stuff yourself with grilled food, the characteristic of the bitter and salty taste will spread throughout your sweaty body.....」
Even when I raise the summer vegetables at them, Asmo’s detailed explanation makes the thoughts of eating them completely vanish into thin air. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
「

what the, what’s with that detailed way of putting it. It makes me want to eat salt-grilled sweetfish, you know」
I don’t particularly mind even if they don’t catch the sweetfish since we have the chilled summer vegetables with us. But despite thinking like that, now I was completely in the mood of eating salt-grilled sweetfish.
「Right? So that’s why Al, you should also come here and help us」
And so I entered the water in the river as I was being enticed by Asmo’s words.
I’m already set on eating sweetfish right now. I can’t eat anything else without eating sweetfish first.
What a terrifying kid, that Asmo. As expected since Asmo is also Torr’s friend. They’re good at dragging people astray.
「So, what should I do?」
「Let’s drive the sweetfish over there with the three of us. That way, the sweetfish that has nowhere to escape will swim toward our direction」
「After that, it’ll be fine even if each of us manages to catch one」
After understanding the content of the plan, we nodded to each other with serious expressions.
It may be difficult for two people to corner the fish, but now that we have three people we will be able to corner and catch more sweetfish.
「Now then, let’s look for the sweetfish!」
Nodding to Torr’s heroic words, we split up and start searching for sweetfish.
Sweetfish, sweetfish. It’s not like the small fish from earlier. It has a big, firm body.
As I steadily walked to look for them, I found five sweetfish swimming ahead of me.
「There are five sweetfish over hereăƒŒă€
「There are three of them here!」
「Six here!」
When I shout at them, Torr and Asmo also shout to trap them simultaneously.
Doing that, later we will just have to drive them onward to our drive point to catch them1. There is a natural trapping spot over there, where stones are piled up so the sweetfish will be unable to escape from there.
And when the sweetfish are to swimming away from that place, they will come to us themselves, trying to find a way to escape. And next someone just has to catch them.  www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
We continue to carefully lead them toward that spot so that they won’t escape far.
As expected, I can’t lead all of them, there was only one that escaped and I was left with four but they should be enough.
We slowly drive the sweetfish toward the trapping spot so that the encirclement will shrink. There are more than 10 sweetfish swimming leisurely in front of us.
We continue to silently make the encirclement smaller without raising any thoughtless remarks.
And when the encirclement has become smaller and the sweetfish has nowhere to run to,
「Now!」
We swooped down on the sweetfish that panicked since they had no place to escape.
I can feel something slippery going past my outstretched arm and shin.
Darn it, they got away.
However, it would be fine even if I can’t catch them.
At a glance, around ten sweetfish were driven in and crowded together. So it wouldn’t be strange if Torr or Asmo catch one, or even two simultaneously.
Then I raise my face with a look of expectation and ask them.
「「「I missed them. How about you guys?」」」
And then, we completely turn stiff with shy-looking smiles on our faces.
Ah, every one of us failed to catch sweetfish.
「Blasted, what the heck is wrong with you all, each and every last one of them escaped! I thought someone could catch at least one of them!」
Torr’s words splendidly express the thoughts in our hearts. I’m sure that each one of us thought that someone will be able to catch them in this situation where the fish escaped happened, right?
「Come on, Torr, Al. Let’s do it one more time」
「Yeah」
We just failed once so I guess they don’t plan on giving up yet, thus the two of them start to look for escaped sweetfish.www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
Of course, I don’t have any intention to give up since I also want to eat salt-grilled sweetfish, but as expected, it’s inefficient trying to catch fish with bare hands.
Thus, if I can catch them quickly with magic.....
「Ahh!」
I know something to help here. It’s the magic used by the gorilla twins at Eric’s territory to fish.
I’d forgotten about it until now. If I use that and gather the fish in one spot, then I can catch them right away, right?
「What’s wrong Al?」
「The sweetfish will be alarmed and escape if you shout loudly like that」
Torr asks me - who suddenly exclaimed - in puzzlement while Asmo tells me to be careful.
「I remembered a more simple method where we can catch the fish using magic」
「Oohh! The usual magic, huh! So, what should I do?」
「I’ll do anything as long as we can easily catch sweetfish」
When I tell them that, Torr and Asmo come to my side and wait upon my instruction without hesitation to get wet. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
I don’t dislike these guys' honest mentality when it comes to this kind of situation.
「Just do what we have done before. It’s fine to chase and gather the sweetfish as much as possible」
「「Okay!」」
And after I explain it to them, Torr and Asmo reply with serious expressions on their face before scattering. After that, they move around while looking into the water in order to look for sweetfish.
I can probably do it if I use magic in the same manner from the start, but it will be better to use magic when they have been gathered in one place.
I also start to move and search for them in order to gather them at the place I was before.
The sweetfish from before had scattered but I guess it’s thanks to the clear water that I can easily find them again.
However, it’s troublesome to lead two or three sweetfish as they swim with such a distance between them. It might be that the sweetfish have become more cautious due to our actions earlier.
Even so, I stealthily approach the sweetfish using my technique of suppressing my presence which I’m proud of.
Having done that, the fish didn’t sense me anymore. I’m happy about that fact, but I’ll be troubled if you can still feel my presence and still not move away.
Rather, I feel like I can catch them with my hands if it’s now. But, I will only be able to catch one or two of them that way so it’s very inefficient.
When I release my presence a little bit, the fish swam away as though surprised, I guess they felt my presence then. With this, three of them were heading to the gathering spot, but the remaining two are still far from it.
Should I use Water magic to manipulate the water current and make them head there indirectly?
I cast Water magic around the two swimming sweetfish from a distance. And as I intentionally make the water current flow, the fish are letting themselves get carried by the flow without swimming against it and move toward the gathering spot with the flow.
And when I was slowly guiding five sweetfish to our gathering spot like that, Torr and Asmo came closer while doing the same thing.
The two of them are guiding two sweetfish. It could be that the sweetfish have become wary of us and hard to gather in one spot due to our actions before. However, if there are nine of them gathered, it would be enough for the three of us to eat.
Torr and Asmo silently make eye contact with me, so I nodded and move forward.
Perhaps they understood my intention with that, Torr and Asmo immediately start to slowly shrink the encirclement. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
And when the nine sweetfish have mostly gathered in one place, I cast Water magic in that whole area.
A water ball is created at the center where the school of sweetfish gathered. Then, the swimming sweetfish in that area are captured while also making sure that they are rolled up in the water ball.
「OohăƒŒ! Amazing!」
「You can catch as many fish as you want with this!」
And after the water ball with nine sweetfish inside has floated in the air, Torr and Asmo shout in admiration.
As expected from the convenient magic. The degree of difficulty and efficiency in catching them when compared to catching them by hand is on another level.
Nevertheless, the sweetfish that swim around inside the water ball looks quite pretty. Fish are naturally swimming in the water below, so you seldom have a chance of staring at them swimming from below like this. You wouldn’t be able to see such a scene if you don’t go to places like public aquariums like the one in my previous life.
「Now then, shall we quickly eat them!」
「Torr and I will gather branches to turn them into skewers」
However, it seems like food have already filled Torr and Asmo’s head, and they started to run off to look for branches to turn into skewers without any particular interest in admiring the scene.
I headed up to the river bank while smiling wryly at those two. www.ihavesinnedtranslation.com
TL note :
Drive fishing/fishery