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1.

This outing had a particular vibe.

The vibe of a father bringing his reluctant daughter to a fishing trip.

Then, the moment they arrived, the daughter started whining that the trip was boring.

Only for the father to be too excited to care.

It was common knowledge that the natural scenery of Gehenna remained untouched.

Especially in no-man’s-land like this, the place with rivers full of fish, untouched by people.

Even with Siwoo’s clumsy fishing technique, he was getting bites after bites every five minutes.

But catching fish wasn’t the only source of his joy.

He even had the lady luck’s blessing.

Originally, he had only planned to catch some freshwater fish, but this was the time of the year that salmon were swimming upstream, and they were passing through this particular spot.

Thanks to that, large, plump salmon, whose bodies had not turned red yet repeatedly hooked by the lure he had blindly cast.

He could feel the satisfying feeling of witnessing his fishing rod bending under the strain of the salmon’s weight.

And the strong, vibrant pull of it as he reeled in the line.

Seeing the 50 cm long salmon flop on the surface of the water like a skipping stone, he couldn’t help but think, ‘This is what fishing’s all about!’.

Usually, he could barely catch a couple fish after a whole day of fishing, but this time, he already caught two in no time.

Both were his best catches in his entire life even.

“Crazy. Are you sure you’re not going to try?”

“I told you already. No.”

“Miss Diana! Look at this! It’s huge!”

Siwoo proudly held up the heavy, still thrashing salmon for Diana to see.

Even though the fish flapped its tail, splashing water all over his cheeks, he was all smiles.

Diana, who was sitting far away from where he was with a grumpy look, glanced at him as a baffled expression appeared on her face.

Salmon.

She had eaten it plenty of times, but this was the first time she had seen one alive and flopping like that.

Actually, all this time, she had been observing the expressions on his face as he reeled in his line with the bending rod. Though she was initially reluctant, a sense of curiosity rose from within her.

What’s so great about fishing anyway? Why does he enjoy it so much?

She couldn’t help but ask about such things inwardly.

At this point, she figured that there was no point to try and save energy or whatever.

Maybe I should try it at least once instead of just sitting around.

“Just try it once! It’s way more fun than you think.”

“Only once.”

After that, she grabbed the fishing rod beside her and took off her shoes.

When she dipped her foot into the shimmering water, the ice-cold touch sent goosebumps all over her skin.

“What am I supposed to do again?”

“Nothing much. You don’t need to cast the line too far, but don’t cast it too close either. So, hold this part, flick the line out, and just let the current carry the hook.”

From his explanation and the way he demonstrated it, she surmised that what she needed to do wasn’t something difficult.

“Like this?”

She took the rod Siwoo had set up for her and flicked the line.

The shallow water and the strong current made the line flow quickly.

“Perfect, just like that. If it goes too far, reel it back and do it again.”

“This isn’t difficult.”

“Right?”

And it was indeed as easy as it looked like.

It seems I’ll be reeling in big fish like he did in no time.

“I’ll move away a little so our lines won’t cross. If we get unlucky, they might get tangled.”

After he said those words, Siwoo moved 15 m away from her before continuing to fish.

Diana watched him for a moment before casting her line again.

The hook leisurely drifted in the water, following the current.

It reached a considerable distance, but she felt nothing pulling it, so she reeled it back in.

Then, she cast the line again.

The lure drifted away again.

She reeled it back in again.

Cast.

Drift.

Reel. Cast. Drift. Reel. Cast. Drift. This repeated over and over again, but…

“…”

No matter how many times she repeated the process, there was no sign of her rod making a catch.

Meanwhile…

“Oh, got one, got one!”

“Damn, how long is this thing?”

“You might be no average salmon, but you’re still no match for me! Got you!”

Siwoo had a pile of salmon sitting beside him. Diana took a glance at him before looking back at her own line.

-Drip drip drip drip

“…”

Her line had drifted away again, carried by the current.

She quietly reeled it back in and inspected the hook closely.

He didn’t tamper my fishing rod, did he?

But, the lure, the sinker, and the hook look the exact same as the one he showed earlier…

“Yes! Got another one!

“Hahahaha!”

“Damn, there’s more fish than water here!”

While Siwoo was having the time of his life, Diana was starting to get frustrated.

If she was on her own, she would have probably gone, ‘This is boring’ and gave up right there and then.

But watching him pulling one fish after another while she got nothing made her competitive spirit rage.

After a brief moment of hesitation, she walked over to Siwoo.

“Hey.”

“Yes? Ah, did you catch a lot too?”

“…No. Let’s switch spots. It seems there are more fish here than where I am.”

“Sure!”

Siwoo easily agreed and switched places with her.

And so, their fishing continued.

He has been reeling in fish non-stop from this place, so this has to be the best place.

Also, I’ve checked everything, our fishing rods are the exact same.

He also didn’t seem to use any special technique.

Finally, I can reel in a bunch of salmon at once!

“Whoa, this spot’s pretty good too!”

“Guess we’re having salmon for dinner tonight!”

“Huh, what is this fish? It’s the first time I’ve seen it.”

But the same thing happened again.

Even after they switched spots, Siwoo kept reeling in fish non-stop. He was doing it from the same spot where Diana failed to catch anything.

Meanwhile, Diana had only been dunking her lure in the water over and over again.

“…”

Diana could feel her frustration bubbling up beneath her calm expression.

She was quietly fuming inside.

Seeing Siwoo’s joyous demeanor irritated her, because it felt like he was taunting her.

“Hey!”

So, she called out to him, who had just reeled in another salmon that was as big as her arm.

“I want to have some fun too, you know? Pay attention to me as well!”

“A-Ah, right. Sorry, I got carried away.”

“Show me some tricks.”

“Sure. Watch closely, okay?”

Siwoo gave her a more detailed explanation, but even after that the result remained the same.

She even tried borrowing his fishing rod, thinking that hers brought in bad luck.

But the results were the same.

Seeing Diana come up empty time after time, Siwoo tilted his head, puzzled, and that reaction only annoyed her even more.

“Thirty minutes have already passed. I’m going to cast one more time. If I don’t catch anything, I’m going home.”

“Okay.”

After hearing Siwoo’s lukewarm response, Diana cast her line again.

The float drifted along…

But there was still no bite.

As she was about to let out an exasperated sigh, thinking that it wouldn’t be any different this time…

“Huh?”

It happened.

A strong bite came.

Diana felt a powerful tug, a sign that she managed to hook up a fish.

She grabbed the rod tightly after almost dropping it in surprise.

“I-I got one!”

“B-But, what do I do? What do I do?!”

Since she never expected this would ever happen, her eyes went wide in surprise.

With the massive bite clearly visible in the water, Siwoo, who became excited, was about to give her some advice, but…

A scene straight out of a comic book unfolded.

“Kyaa!”

Still clutching the bending rod, Diana let out a sharp scream as she was suddenly pulled forward.

The strong current made it difficult for her to keep her balance, even though the water was shallow.

Add that to the intense pulling force on the rod, it wasn’t a wonder that she ended up falling forward into the water with a big splash.

-SPLASH!

Reacting a beat late, Siwoo lunged forward, using his ribbon to catch Diana while grabbing the fishing rod with one hand.

2.

Diana sat by a campfire next to a folding chair, wrapped in a blanket.

While she had used magic to dry the water from her clothes and hair all at once, that didn’t mean it was okay for her not to keep her body warm.

“…”

“Um, are you okay?”

Because of the series of bad luck that ended with her getting thwarted by a salmon that occurred in less than an hour, Diana was currently in a foul mood.

Her expression was dark, it was as if a storm cloud was hanging over her head.

Siwoo—who had caught over thirty salmon today, and released all of them except one for dinner—cautiously watched her reaction.

So, they actually ran into another unexpected trouble.

Since Siwoo had only been catching pink salmon about the size of an arm and a few rainbow trout, he assumed that those were the only types of fish they could find here.

But his assumption was completely wrong. The salmon that dragged Diana into the water was a whole king salmon, which could reach up to 1,5 m long and weigh as much as 60 kg.

It wasn’t surprising that Diana, who was already caught off guard by the fact that she had caught something, got dragged down by that salmon, since it was easily as heavy as she was.

“…”

“All things considered, you ended up catching the biggest one, Ms. Diana.”

Technically, it was the salmon who managed to catch her, and Siwoo managed to catch both the salmon and her, but…

Obviously he wouldn’t want to piss her off by mentioning that, so he sugarcoated his words as much as he could.

“Look at it! It’s huge.”

Anyway, the salmon was easily 1 m long.

He held the salmon that was flopping weakly, drained of energy, in front of Diana.

“Yes, it’s big.”

But that didn’t erase her gloomy expression. She just stared at the fish before getting up from her seat.

“Let’s go back. It’s been more than two hours.”

He actually ended up enjoying the fishing more than he expected, so he planned to persuade Diana to stay for the rest of the evening, but with how things had gone, he knew that there was no chance that it would happen.

Well, we can always come back later.

So, he packed up their things, put everything on his backpack, tied up the salmon with a ribbon and slung it over his shoulder.

While he could just use Dimension Shift to go back quickly, he figured that they should just enjoy the beautiful scenery instead, as it was part of the outdoor experience.

As they strolled down the hill, he called out to Diana, who still seemed to be in a foul mood.

“Miss.”

“What?”

“There’s something I’ve been curious about. May I ask about it?”

“Go ahead.”

Indeed, he had been curious about this particular thing for a while.

He knew that some people simply disliked going out, but in Diana’s case, she took it to the extreme.

Of course, he didn’t just straight out ask her, ‘Why are you so lazy?’. He carefully phrased his question beforehand.

“It isn’t laziness.”

“Huh?”

“It is deeper than that… I’d rather call it a bias toward maintaining the status quo.”

Puzzled, Siwoo glanced at her. As usual, she wore an expressionless face when their gazes met briefly.

“My mother, and a lot others too, always labeled laziness as a sin, but this bias has served as a key throughout human history.”

“…”

“Isn’t the drive for convenience, both in science and magic, born out of the thought of, ‘Ugh, this is such a hassle,’?”

He expected a simple answer, but instead, she gave him a rather deep one.

“That’s why don’t bother dragging me out on these trips again. Let’s just play Witch Board instead. I’ll tell my mom about it.”

“I’m afraid I can’t, Miss… I can’t just ignore my contract with the countess…”

“Tch.”

In any case, that marked the end of today’s lesson.

After that, he returned to the mansion together with Diana.

As they entered through the front gate, Siwoo saw Countess Yesod in the distance, he quickly handed the salmon to Diana.

“Hold this for a moment.”

“W-Why are you giving me this—?! It’s heavy—!”

Diana staggered under the weight of the incredibly heavy salmon and shot him a glare.

At that moment, the countess spotted Diana from a distance and hurried over.

“Oh, my baby…! Did you have a good trip?”

It was only then that Diana finally realized what Siwoo was up to.

He gave her a little nudge with a smile.

“Go on, show it off.”

The annoyed look on her face vanished as she quickly turned away.

She slightly nodded before dragging the huge salmon toward the countess.

“I’m home.”

“Oh my, my! Did you catch this, Sweetie?”

“…Yes.”

“That’s amazing! Let’s take a picture right now! I’ll get the camera!”

Watching Countess Yesod patting Diana’s head, hugging her before showering her with praises, Siwoo felt that today’s outing had been worth it.