CH 67

“By the way, what were you two doing there?”

“We came out to search for snow-strawberries.”

“Aah. That reminds me, we promised to go look for it when winter started.”

Aria showed a gloomy expression after saying that.

As I stood confused wondering why she made it while tilting my head, Kili whispered the reason into my ear.

“We used to talk about this when we weren’t sure whether the village would even survive or not. We did it to cheer ourselves up, so it must have reminded her of that time.”

“Ah, I see.”

This village was at the tip of extinction before I arrived.

So that’s what came to her mind when I brought it up.

Aria must have felt the pressure far more than any of them, on account of her being the village-head.

“Can I come too? I also want to have some. Snow-strawberries.”

“…Yeah. Of course you can.”

“Let’s go together.”

Aria says that brightly, as if trying to to dispel her gloomy memories.

We went searching for snow-strawberries together.

***

“By the way, do you know where Reno went, Aria?”

“Reno? Aah, I think she went with Sui to the lake to fish. I saw the two of them carrying fishing poles somewhere.”

As soon as we stepped outside the village, Kili questioned Aria on the whereabouts of Reno and Sui.

Now that she said that, I didn’t feel their presence at all inside the village.

Putting Sui aside, Reno was the type to stand-out wherever she was.

“Fishing!? I hope those kids are okay.”

As if she was nervous after hearing that word, Kili started fidgeting.

She looked like she wanted to go look for them at once.

“They’re probably fine. Milia went with them after all.”

“…Is that so. I guess, it’s okay then.”

If Milia went along with them, they should be fine as long as nothing happened outside the ordinary.

She would stop them in case they attempted to do anything dangerous.

Even in the one-off case where monsters appeared from the forest, they should be able to manage between the three of them.

Those two were strong, and if you added Milia’s backing, then there was nothing from the Demon Forest that they couldn’t beat.

Despite that, Kili looked worriedly towards the direction of the lake.

“…We don’t even know where to start looking, so should we begin with the grounds near the lake?”

Upon hearing my words, Kili made a surprised expression, but Aria quickly agreed and began heading towards the direction of the lake.

I’m sure Aria too realized how much Kili was stressing over Reno.

It wasn’t like she was insensitive or anything, so she was bound to notice.

I followed after her, while Kili came after me with delayed steps.

“…Thank you, both of you.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’ll miss our chance to get snow-strawberries by going to the lake first.”

“Yup. I’m sure there are lots growing around the lake as well.”

The three of us, headed by Aria, went towards the lake.

***

“Woo-hooo! I reeled it in–!!”

“This one’s, also, big.”

“That’s splendid.”

Heading near the lake, we hear Reno and the rest’s joyous wails.

It seems that the three of them were fully enjoying fishing as much as they could.

“I’ve fished so much!”

“This is, the tenth one.”

“We might not be able to eat any more than this.”

They seemed to have had a large catch.

How much could a group of six actually eat?

No, I did say everyone was finding their own food today, so this must be for the three of them.

“Ah! Lain onii-chaaaaan!”

As we came near the lake, Reno approached us at her full-speed.

“Nii-chan nii-chan! Today, I caught a super large amount of fishes! Let’s eat together!”

“Oh, you really have! In that case, let me join you for lunch.”

“Over here, look!”

I was dragged to the lakefront by Reno.

They had created a fish hole the size of a kids’ pool, from which they fished.

“I caught all of these!”

“Let’s see. Wha-, they’re huge!”

“Right? It was my first time fishing something this big!”

There were around 10 fishes the size of those found in the Amazon rainforest, swimming in the fish hole.

Besides, she caught 10 of those despite it still not being noon.

That’s amazing.

“Ooh, that’s a lot.”

“Can we possibly…finish all of that?”

Aria, who was also noticing the fish hole with me, was simply taken aback by it.

Kili was feeling anxious about the number of fishes that were there.

“Well, in case we can’t, we could always make dried fish out of it. I know how to make that.”

“…You’re right.”

Kili relaxed slightly, upon hearing my opinion.

We would have quite the stock if we decided to pickle this.

The method to make it is simple, which is why I know it.

“Did Lain nii-chan and Kili-nee also come for fishing?”

“We came here to look for snow strawberries.”

“Snow strawberries! Nice! I wanna look too!”

Reno said so with sparkling eyes.

It seems that Reno has also joined our party for the snow strawberry hunt.