As a civilian, life was quite a bit different for the former magic knight, though it had by no means become any less interesting and active. Having to bridge the gap between where he was now and the royal knights exams that were just over the horizon, not to mention the magic knight exams that were going to be taking place some time after that, there was one thing in particular that he could not do anymore in the mean time. Having already gone about killing the time by heading into a demon infested witches forest just to make a map that might aid those that had to head into the place after the royal knight exams had concluded, he had fallen upon a rare moment of boredom as he awaited his payment for the map he had made. Because they had to do some checking as to the legitimacy of the map, Griswold could have gone about trying to intimidate the people he had made them for by asking if they doubted his abilities, but refrained from doing so.

Now that he was no longer receiving his monthly pay as a magic knight, he had been taking on all kinds of odd jobs that most people did not want to do. After all, now that it had been made common knowledge that the witch queen was in fact one of the archdemons going by the name Lilith, no one in their right mind wanted to venture into the forests she ruled over because of the fact that she could see quite a bit of what was going on in her domain. That, and the stories about warped animals and lesser demons wandering about made even the most hardy knights think twice if not thrice before simply declining the offer of going in there. The same could not be said about him, because at the end of the day, money was money, and he had people counting on him to deliver the dough so they might one day be able to expand their farm into a far more capable business that might provide jobs to the poor peasants in the region.

It was also with that thought in mind that he had come across a fishing competition in Raque, one that awarded quite a bit of money to whomsoever managed to catch the biggest fish. While he did not exactly count on catching the “biggest” fish, he still figured he might be able to come in third, maybe even second if he got lucky, which would still gift him a fair amount of coin. As that was quite literally all that mattered, as well paying jobs for citizens were not all that common, he would at the very least bring in some money today. Wandering around the port city, he remembered the last time he had been here, which could not have been more than two weeks ago. At the time, he had still been a magic knight, and had been tasked with finding and bringing in a man who had murdered various civilians before his appetite for blood and torture had pushed him towards hunting and killing junior magic knights.

Having been sent out to do this mission along with a junior knight from the black bulls, it had been his idea to use the guy as bait, though things did not turn out the way he liked. For when he had sent the bait moving and planned on following close behind, he had in fact become the target that got attacked while out on the pier, where the two duked it out up until the point where Griswold eventually incinerated the guy alive. Clearly, the mission had been a bust and he had been awarded several black stars for his actions, though that was something he was more than fine with. Some people had to be put in their place, which was the bottom of the sea in his case. Just as his former vice-captain had told him once when she had murdered someone right in front of him, not all people deserved a second chance. Some people had become rotten to such an extent that sending them off to prison was just a waste of time and resources as they would just come out more bitter and motivated.

Still being able to point out exactly where he had murdered the guy as the scorch marks had been caked so deep into the tiles that they’d only be able to get rid of it if they installed entirely new ones, it would act as a constant reminder for himself that if people strayed too far from the proper path, they too would end up burned to ash and scattered across the seafloor. Once he reached the end of the docks, there were two specific vessels that were allowing people to set foot on their decks and get taken out into open waters, which was where they would get to go about their fishing endeavors. From the looks of things, they were loaded out with more than just bait, lures and fishing rods. The one he had his eyes upon was loaded out with plenty of artillery to take down a fortress, as the thing itself seemed like a fortress barge itself. Setting foot on board, it was then that he saw the man who commandeered the vessel.

As a former member of the crimson lions, Smack Caballero was someone he knew quite well, as the man was quite famous for being someone who had brought various pirate ships down to the bottom of the sea and wielded a powerful form of gold magic with which he created cannons that fired alongside the many other cannons he had installed inside of the ship known as the Revenge of King Anton. Having no idea why he had picked that particular name for a boat, Griswold decided not to really think into it too much as it was likely something he would not understand anyway. As was the case with the other crimson lions, the man was a noble, so the name likely had ties to nobility and royalty, as King Anton sounded like someone who might very well have been the actual king before the place turned into a matriarchy under the queen. Taking the time to go and greet the captain, it turned out that he had not yet heard about the fact that Griswold had stepped down as a crimson lion yet.

Claiming that it was a pity to not have him “on board” anymore as he was doing far, far better than the other junior knights that had come out of the same fresh batch as him, he understood how hard it might have been for a peasant to fit in with a whole squad of nobles stationed within the actual royal capital. For him, it had been the other way out, as it had been hard for him to adjust to life at sea, but once enough time had passed, he felt that it was next to impossible for him to turn in his sea legs and return to the capital. Having tasted the freedom of the ocean, the man had started living on this vessel, putting all of his earnings into making it one of the best and most destructive ships in the fleet. Feeling like this would be the perfect place for him to reside on for the duration of the contest, he shook the man’s hand before parting ways for the time being. Getting his things together as he prepared himself as much as someone who had no experience as a fisherman might, they would await for the last contenders to arrive before setting sail.

No matter how things would be turning out, as long as he would manage to have some fun out here today, the money from coming in third, second or first was just a nice addition. Not being the type that went out to have fun all that often, today might very well be the first of many such days if all went well.



1355

Staring out into the sea, he imagined that it would not be long now before everyone who wanted to take part in the contest would have gathered and the ship would be able to get sent out to open waters. While he would not show it in his posture or his expression, there were a lot of things that made him fearful of the ocean, as he believed that this was the primary emotion all land dwelling creatures should feel towards him. As fun as beaches and lakes were, actually being out so far that one could only guess as to just how deep the ocean went and how far down the floor was, it was not exactly filling him with a whole lot of positivity. During the short period in which he had been in the clover kingdom, he had been around port towns several times already, Raque being one of them. Passing by fishermen and their boats, he often paid close attention to what came out of the fishing nets.

Aside from your average haul of fish that could be found all over the country in stores that sold fresh fish, there were also a lot more frightening shapes coming out of them that were likely not what people had planned on catching. Things such as octopi that got entangled in the nets, large predatory fish called sharks that seemed to come in all shapes and sizes, as well as other predatory fish, as well as some venomous ones one should prefer not to touch. That said, when he had asked the fishermen about them, it seemed that all of these animals were at the very least good for something, especially since they were already dead by the time they pulled out their nets and brought them on land, meaning tossing them back out was a waste of a kill. On that at least, they could all agree. But that was just where his pondering had started.

The mere sight of such strange creatures like an octopus or a shark made him wonder as to what might be out there, lurking in the deepest depths and trenches where no human being could ever get to, unless they were some kind of water mage or had means of aquatic travel and a supply of air. But given how there were magic regions on land, there would probably be magic regions under water too, which might turn the ordinarily fairly small sharks and octopi into hulking monsters that would easily be able to drown a ship full of people. Even though the odds of such a thing happening were extremely slim, he would not fool himself into believing it wouldn’t happen. Given the amount of things that had happened to him in recent months that people claimed would “literally never happen to anyone”, he would not be surprised if such a fate were to befall him.

Trying to take his mind off of things, he looked around to see the final participants walking onto the ship, one of them being the girl he had taken on a mission not too long ago as a means of showing her what being a magic knight was all about. In a way, it was ironic that they were to be meeting again in a setting such as this, what with him having temporarily resigned from the magic knights in an attempt to figure out what he was really about. As a Crimson Lion, he felt like he was not doing himself nor the squad justice, what with him being more occupied with doing the kind of things one would ordinarily leave for the Black Bulls or the Green Mantises. His favor had always gone out towards helping those less fortunate in the forsaken region over aiding those that could, by all means, help themselves up in the noble region.

But that was something he did not really want to bother himself with right now, as he had come here to do some fishing. When the girl noticed him and came up to him, it seemed that she still had not found her tongue, making all kinds of gestures that were still just about as difficult for him to figure out as they had been the first time around. That said, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to understand if he tried, which again wasn’t all that different from the last time they met. Even though he made a few jokes here and there, he imagined they had gotten along well enough during their last encounter, even though a lot of Goblins had been put to death in front of her. For what it was worth though, he was glad that she had gotten to see what the world was like, and what it might at times take to be a magic knight, especially if the goal was to keep people safe.

When the captain walked up to him and began talking about the girl and how the two of them seemed to be standing in stark contrast to one another, Griswold just grinned a bit at the notion. The fact that people were vastly different from what he was like was a reality he had grown accustomed to. Hell, it was one of the primary reasons as to why he had decided to step down from the Crimson Lions as the noble members lived up to entirely different standards than he did. And while many were fine with doing just about any mission they got assigned to, Griswold was not at all so eager to just jump through any hoop a noble citizen held out in front of him while promising to throw a bunch of money at the squad in return. His focus had always been on the forsaken region, as well as the common region, as the nobles got plenty of help already.

“She might not talk a whole lot… or at all, but as far as I can tell, she’s quite capable at taking care of herself at this point. Though there is still plenty of room for her to grow, and for her to find her tongue, you’d be wise not to underestimate her and her poison magic. Who knows, one of her butterflies just might end up in your ale, old friend.”

Responding in kind by giving the man a good hard pat on the shoulder, the captain just shrugged it off and laughed for a bit as he returned to his position and began barking orders to his man. With everyone being on board, the ropes were being hauled in along with the walking plank and the anchor, as sailors were moving up and down the ship to free up the sails so that they might be able to move away from the docks of Raque. For what it was worth, all of the men here were doing a very good job at what they were doing, and what with Captain Smack and all of the cannons he had on board, he probably did not need to worry about the things that had been plaguing his mind earlier. So as a means of taking his mind off of things, he began preparing his stuff before others could get the good spots in the shade as he had no intention of sitting in the middle of the burning sun.

“If you hurry, you might be able to take the spot next to mine, though I would suggest you get your stuff ready before someone sneaks into it. Don’t want to be out in the sun all afternoon as you might not even notice the heat with the sea breeze brushing along your skin. It’s the sea’s way of messing with you and giving you a sunburn.”

Waiting a couple of minutes for the ship to actually leave the docks and get into the salty waters. Casting out the two rods he had taken from the racks, he had one of them attached with an artificial lure while the other had a piece of organic bait attached to it. Imagining the others would likely be chumming the waters soon enough, Griswold would actually refrain from doing so just yet. For the time being, he would just sit around and wait, keeping his eyes on the two bobbers in hopes of actually catching anything that might be worth while. Depending on just how hard the line would drop and how much the bobber would sink, he would be able to tell exactly how worthy the fish might be of his efforts to reel it in. With a bit of luck, things would end up going as smoothly as possible, and not like the horror show it could turn into if they went too far from the shore.

1468 (2803)

Doing what a fisher should, Griswold just maintained a cool and patient attitude as he just stared blankly into the waters that seemed to be getting darker and darker the further they moved away from the port. By the time the port, or even the mainland itself could hardly even be seen anymore, one of the two bobbers went down beneath the waves. Casually pulling up the one that had the organic bait attached to it, he took up a fairly sizeable fish, though it was nothing that would really bring in any real prizes unless the rest caught nothing. By the time he had the animal in his hand and fiddled a bit to get the bait and hook out of its mouth, one of the sailors mentioned that it was a grouper, likely a fairly young one given the size and its eagerness to go after such simplistic bait near the surface of the water.

Not really sure what to make of it, he handed it off to be weighed and to have the numbers added to his name on the scoreboard. Watching as they weighed it, wrote it down and tossed the fish back into the water, he was kind of glad that they wouldn’t just toss it into a net and leave it there until they made their way back to the shore. He had always considered such a thing to be rather inhumane, because once more and more fish got put into the net, they might actually crush those around them to death between themselves and the nets. Even though such a thing seemed quite normal among fishermen, he was at the very least happy that the fish they brought in were not for eating or selling, meaning they’d get tossed back to live however much longer they normally would out in the wild.

Most people would probably not think twice about these things, but given his elven upbringing, it was just one of those little things that were rather hard to let go of for him. The same went for when he had gone about fighting wolves to make sure they would not threaten a farm or their livestock out in the forsaken region. Things like that always brought up a certain duality in him, as he on one side wished to make sure nature could thrive without getting killed by people such as himself, but on the other hand he couldn’t risk letting anyone die because he refused to push nature back a bit. At times like those, he always believed himself to not be a hunter who was tasked with culling numbers once a population got out of hand, so he would not pretend either. So if he could help it, he would prefer to hurt the animals a bit and make them scurry off before he would actually go about killing them.

To him, fish were just as much animals as wolves, even though vegetarians claimed otherwise. Being the kind of people he had always considered to be rather full of their own lunacy, he knew that there were those who believed eating animals was sad, though they would still shove a fish down their throat because they apparently did not feel pain. When growing up, Griswold rarely if ever ate meat because they had the means to grow food in massive garden and fields through the use of magic, only eating meat when a mana beast broke through the borders around their enclave and threatened the people within. When such a beast got killed, the meat was prepared and shared among the populace so everyone would get a taste. Always looking forward to it, it was a lifestyle he had given up on ever since he became a citizen of clover.

Now that he could go about eating meat whenever he wanted, he had it about two or three times a week, which was still not that often. Especially when compared to his time growing up in the enclave, as this was a rare thing that happened a few times a month at best, which was why he believed the Shadesingers to be the true animal friendly lot, rather than just believing themselves to be. After all, they made no exceptions for fish as they did not differentiate between something that might or might not feel pain. Shaking the thought as the organic lure seemed to once again go under, he pulled it up just in time to see the fish dislodge itself from the hook and swim off to the safety of the depths. Quite the bummer indeed. Had he managed to bring this one up, he would have caught two fish that would most likely be of roughly the same size and weight.

So even if he might not be able to catch the single most heavy fish during the competition, he could still try to either catch the most or just get the overall highest total weight. And with that attitude in mind, he just attached a new piece of organic bait to his line and tossed it back out to sea. Several minutes later, it seemed like his luck was turning as both of his bobbers seemed to go under at the same time. Moreover, it seemed that the girls’ bobber went under at the same time as something large pulled at the three lines. Not being nearly as calm as the grouper, it moved rather erratically, causing the three lines to get tangled up in a rather annoying manner as it would take a lot of time just to get things back to normal. If this one got away, they would have to spend a lot of time just to get their fishing rods back in order, and that would be highly detrimental to their chances of winning.

Noticing how the girl was struggling to hold on to her rod, Griswold grabbed hold of both of his fishing rods as a means of keeping the creature steady. For as strong as he was, the fish had the advantage while in the water because it might tear the line if too much force was applied to it from both sides. Trying to steer the creature away from the ship, they would never manage to get the fish on board if it managed to get itself underneath the boat, as the barnacles and grime attached to the hull would certainly cause the lines to snap or get cut. Working with both his hands and his feet, he did his best to hold down one of the rods while trying to pull in as much of the line on the other as possible before rectifying the difference on the other rod. Even though he didn’t say it, he did it in a matter that would make it easier for the girl to see what he was doing so she might do the same.

If all three of the rods gradually reeled in their lines and kept tugging the creature out into the open rather than underneath the ship, they had the best chance at bringing it in after all. And judging by the amount of pressure it was applying to three rods at the same time, it meant that this might very well be a contest winner, or at the very least elevate them to positions two and three in case there were more seasoned fishermen around that had already brought in far more than they had. Truth be told, he had never really had the time to actually look at the scoreboard and see who was where. And with this development, neither did he have the time to actually go over it unless he wanted to lose this haul that was attached to their three rods at this moment. No, who was ahead at this point in time was not important, this fish was meant to be their prime focus.

“Keep doing what I’m doing. Pull the line up a bit when you see me pulling the line up, then give it a little bit of wiggle room while you bring in the line. Keep repeating that process until it has no room left to go and tires itself out, because that’s the only chance we have at bringing it in without one of us actually going overboard to bring it in by hand. Whatever we do, we have to keep it from going under the boat, because if it does that, the barnacles attached to the hull will either break or cut the lines. And even if they don’t all go at once, there’s no way we’re bringing this big boy in with just one line attached, it is way too strong for that.”

Making his intentions clear as they could really do a better job at syncing up their reeling and hauling, which only made sense since neither of them had actually said a word for as long as the fish had been hooked, which was more his fault than hers as she never spoke in any situation, he hoped that this would be able to make the difference. While the fish might be getting tired, and while the girl might even be getting tired, Griswold was nowhere near any level of fatigue, aside from mentally getting tired at all this going back and forth this fish was doing. Part of him wanted to just dive down the ship, give the animal a good pound on the head and drag it up, though there was no telling if he was actually physically strong enough to do such a thing. Such was the difference between fighting on land and fighting under water after all.

However, since he had mentioned what they should both try to be doing, it seemed that their timing was straightened out quite a bit as the lines were brought in, let go of for a bit and reeled in in a far more controlled and well-paced manner. Keeping this up for a few minutes longer, the threat of the animal making its way underneath the ship had at least been averted, meaning they just had to keep up their timing properly so they wouldn’t risk one of their lines breaking under the strain of the fight. After a little while, it seemed that the animal had finally stopped thrashing as much, having gotten tired from moving up and about in an attempt at getting away from the boat and the fishermen on top. Now was the time for them to strike back and bring it in, before it would regain its composure and continued trying to break the lines.

As the creature tired itself out, Griswold grabbed hold of the three lines with his bare hands as a means of mashing them together into one stronger line. Hoping that it would be strong enough to actually carry the creature, he began to see the fish a whole lot more clearly as it began breaking the surface, showing the amount of color it had to it. Not letting that draw him in, he kept his focus on the lines as he took a step closer to the edge of the vessel, reeling the fish in every time he placed his hands lower on the line and dragged it up towards himself. Doing so in a manner that was both careful and steady, he could now actually feel that his hands were beginning to tire as the animal itself was even heavier than he had expected. Believing most of the strain was due to how well it was adapted to moving under water, the fact that it was just incredibly heavy made it a slow and toiling process. But in the end, it proved to be a fruitful one.

By the time the fish was brought up onto the ship, it was only than that they could truly see the beauty of the creature and the plethora of colored scales it had all over its body. It was the kind of thing one would rarely see on the surface world, at least outside of a rare few birds he had seen during his time in the strong magic region near the fringe. As a lot of animals that were born there became mana beasts and gained a certain level of aggression to them, most of the birds that were born in it were different. They gained levels of beauty that were truly unrivaled as the colors and feathers they possessed grew to be more outlandish and magical at the same time. As unrivaled as they were, this fish was at the very least quite high up on the list of most beautiful beings he had ever witnessed with his own eyes. Leaving the fish to be hauled off by three other sailors for measuring, it was no surprise that both he and the girl now ruled at the top of the list.

That said however, he was not ready to call it a day just yet. Instead, he began diving into the tangled lines in hopes of separating the three rods so they could both get back to fishing and maybe bring in some more fish. While the chances of bringing in anything bigger than this one were slim to none, every little bit helped to be sure. Not sure just how long it would take him to do just that, they had at the very least managed to make a very positive impression upon the ship as Captain Smack looked down on him from his position near the helm, holding a thumbs up while smiling like an idiot. That, and he doubted anyone would catch anything bigger than they would. So for the time being, he would just focus on untangling his crap and get back to fishing.

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