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Volume 8 Chapter 4 Part 10

「Yes, desu. Fishing, desu.」

Miria answers me. The question now is: Will Miria really be content with fishing for the fish normally? Well, I just have to hope that she’s going to be on her best behavior. And besides, if she’s happy, then I’m happy as well.

However, whether she understands what fishing really means or not is also questionable.

* * *

Next morning, after we had our early morning Labyrinth-foraging session, we went to the library in the Imperial City after eating some proper breakfast.

My Item Box is filled with the items I picked up earlier in the morning, so it was definitely a worthwhile trip, but the only downside to it is that I won’t be able to sell any of those items since the counters at the Guild buildings are going to be closed for today.

I send Sherry off to the library after giving her one gold and five silver coins of allowance. I see her off until she was gone inside, but for some reason, Sherry turns back towards me when she reaches the reception desk.

「What happened, Sherry? Did you forget something?」

「No, I asked for the location of the fishing shop. They said it is located in the opposite direction of the Adventurers Guild, towards the Imperial Palace. It should be on the second street to the right.」

「You went to the trouble of asking about it in my name? Thank you so much Sherry, that’s awfully nice of you.」

I was planning on asking for the directions to the fishing shop at the Adventurers Guild, but since Sherry asked about it here, she saved me the trouble of going there and doing that myself. I am so grateful to her for doing that, since I don’t know what I would have done if it turned out that no one was actually there because it is a holiday today.

After Sherry finally went inside of the library, I head out with Roxanne and Miria to make our way to the fishing shop. We moved behind the library, toward the white wall of the palace. Lined up in front of us are all sorts of magnificent-looking mansions that definitely belong to the nobility of the Imperial City. Well, actually, it’s not enough to just say that they were just 「lined up」, because all the buildings are separated by the equal amount of empty space between them. It really gives the feeling of a noble district.

Even the road is different from the one on the main street. The style has completely changed into the stone-paved one, and all of that makes me feel like we have just stumbled into some secluded, otherworldly place where we definitely shouldn’t be. I feel totally out of place, like the commoner that I am.

If I continue onward, will I find the Emperor’s residence?

「I think that it should be over there.」

Roxanne points to a certain direction. In that direction, there’s a store where many fishing tackles are placed on display, so I guess that this must be the Fishing Shop… or I guess I should say, Fishing Tackle Shop.

The rods are all made with some kind of wood that I do not recognize and when I tried taking one of them into my hands to see how it would feel the response that I got was pretty dull, but other than those details, they really look like the genuine fishing rods that can certainly be used for fishing.

「Welcome.」

When we entered the Fishing Tackle Shop, the clerk behind the counter gave us the usual greeting.

「I want to do some deep-sea fishing. Is it possible for you to prepare the necessary tools to make that happen?」

I ask the shop clerk after I greeted him back. In comparison to the outside, not many fishing rods were on display inside the shop. I also don’t think that the preparation of the rod for us is going to be so simple, since the mechanism needs to be changed depending on the targeted fish and the specific location. They can’t just be mass-produced or made to be universally adjusted to all types of fish and environments.
The clerk’s job is Merchant, so he should know his trade, so It’ll be quicker to have him prepare it for me than to bother with it myself.

「Are you going to be fishing for the very first time?」

「Yes, and I think Miria have never done any proper fishing either.」

「No, desu.」

Miria was looking at the fishing gears with great interest, but she came over when I asked her if she ever fished before. As expected, she hasn’t done anything like that just yet.

「Of course, sir. Let me prepare something for you then.」

「Thank you. I will leave it to you.」

The clerk prepares a tackle, rod, reel, fishing thread, weight and hook for us. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of float, which means that its going to be just good old thread fishing, then?

「As for the fishing rod, I think this one is good for beginners. When you get used to it, you will also get to understand your preferences and then it can be adjusted appropriately for different fishing locations.」

「Got it.」

「There is one reel and two fishing threads in a set, including a spare. The weight and the thread can be changed depending on the location and the fish you want to catch. For this reason, we provide different types of it. By connecting these, you can achieve your desired settings.」

The clerk shows us an example of how to set the entire fishing rod up. The thread goes out from the fishing rod, and a hook is then attached to the tip of the thread. So far, it doesn’t seem to be anything particularly different from what I saw back in my world.

「I see.」

「The bait will sink after it has been attached to the hook. Let’s see… as a bait, you can either use worms or shrimps. You can get them by the seaside. They are great to catch small fish. The shell can’t be used as bait, however, so don’t waste your time trying that.」

That’s most probably because in this world the shells contain poison.

「I see, I see.」

「I see, desu.」

「Use heavy weight when the wind and the currents are strong. However, if it sinks completely, it will get damaged in case it gets jammed somewhere. Therefore, you need to adjust the weight, so it doesn’t sink completely.」

The clerk explains to us how to do fishing, and even though his explanations are complex and he seems to really know how to do it, I only listened to about half of what he said.

As for Miria, she was eager to learn everything with the assistance of Roxanne’s translation. As expected of someone who was catching fish by never done any real fishing before.

「I see, desu.」

「Regarding fishing, I heard there are certain rules that need to be followed and areas where fishing can be done. Is that true?」

「Yes, that’s right. The place where you are fishing has to be officially approved by the Empire. Furthermore, there is a limit of one rod and one hook per person. Attaching more than one hook to the line is strictly prohibited.」

「Got it.」

Just one hook per person?

Because there are no floats in this world, fishing with one hook will not cause any kind of damage to the fishing ground, so I guess from that point of view it’s definitely going to be efficient.

I look at the completed fishing rod in the clerk’s hand. It’s a fairly standard three-piece fishing rod. It’s made of regular wood that is also quite soft. As nice as it looks from the layman’s perspective, I think that it’s a pointless use of something high-tech in this world.

The reel itself is dull, though. There is also no bail arm attached either, so the cast can’t really be used, so I guess I am really just supposed to be using this thing by winding the thread, huh?

「This fishing rod is the pride of our store. I’m sure you will be able to use it for a long time, provided that it won’t get damaged or destroyed and you’ll be performing regular maintenance of it.」

「I see. What do you think about it, Miria?」

I pass the base piece of the fishing rod to Miria and ask her for her opinion on it.

It’s about one meter long. When all the pieces are connected together, the entire fishing rod measures about three meters.