By the Lakeside

I left the city of Dalia, where I'd lived for a while, and rode the off-road motorcycle along the forest highway with Anemone and the Forest Cat behind me.

The sight of a self-propelled vehicle carrying such an impressive Forest Cat drew the eyes of everyone we passed.

Some merchants even came up to talk, but when I told them it was a new type of draisine powered by magic, they seemed satisfied.

Everything could be explained away with magic. It truly was a magic word.

Some people even begged me to sell it to them, but there was no way I could sell technology this far ahead of its time.

We certainly stood out like this, but for now, it was only while we were traveling to escape the nobles.

Once we settled somewhere, I probably wouldn't use the off-road motorcycle except in emergencies.

I'd traveled about a hundred kilometers according to the bike's odometer, and apparently the next city was another five or six kilometers ahead.

The city was called Astrantia. This forest was unbelievably vast.

Apparently, just like around Dalia, the forest continued almost all the way to the city.

If you wandered in, you'd never find your way out—Japan's famous Sea of Trees around Mount Fuji would look cute by comparison.

What's more, they said the deeper you went, the more vicious the monsters became.

Even so, many adventurers ventured in search of forgotten ruins and dungeons.

"Get rich quick"—it seemed the people of this world were just as vulnerable to those words. Most attempts ended in failure, though...

Azalea at the inn had told me that many people also entered the forest to take a shortcut between Dalia and Astrantia.

The reason was that when you first left Dalia, the highway headed north, then gradually curved east and looped around before reaching Astrantia.

As a result, it took quite a long detour, so plenty of people disliked that and tried to cut through the forest instead.

Apparently, the road had taken this shape because the forest had been cleared in areas where monsters were relatively scarce.

Where the forest thinned out a little, a stream ran beneath a small stone bridge.

I stopped the bike, and when I peered down from the bridge, I could see fish silhouettes glimmering beneath the sparkling surface.

"There are so many fish!"

Anemone and the Forest Cat got off the motorcycle and peered down below.

The fish seemed to be hiding in the bridge's shadow. Perhaps that was how they protected themselves from attacks by birds swooping down from above.

"Looks like I'll just have to catch some fish."

It was almost noon, so it was a good time to prepare lunch.

I stored the motorcycle in my Item Box and climbed down beneath the bridge. The river was about two meters wide, with the forest closing in on both sides of the riverbank.

The water was clear and beautiful, but quite cold, so its source might have been a spring somewhere in the forest.

"Now then, how should I catch them...?"

When I checked Shangri-La, I found a fishing rod set selling for about 2,500 yen. It was a kit containing everything I needed, ready to use right away.

How convenient—and cheap.

"Click."

A fishing rod set in its own carrying case dropped out. The rod extended and retracted, and it even came with a reel and fishing flies. It had everything I could have asked for.

How many decades had it been since I'd last gone fishing? Honestly, it was probably since elementary school—nearly thirty years ago.

Back then, you used a bamboo rod with fishing line attached and baited the hook with worms.

I'd never used a reel or fishing flies like these. My father had loved fishing, but I hadn't been particularly fond of it.

When I was a child, my father had sometimes dragged me along fishing against my will, but I had been bored out of my mind—I wasn't good at waiting.

And yet my father was short-tempered and hopeless in every other respect, but he would sit patiently when he was fishing. It made absolutely no sense.

For now, I set down an insect-repelling magic stone to secure our spot.

Carriages occasionally passed over the bridge, but they couldn't see below unless they leaned over to look.

I'd never fished with a reel like this, so I didn't even know how to do it. I decided to start by attaching a fly to the line and casting it onto the water.

The fly landed on the surface with a little plop, floated there, and drifted downstream.

So fish mistook it for an insect that had fallen into the water and bit it. But fish that ate algae, like ayu, wouldn't be caught this way...

I had heard there was a way to catch ayu with flies too, but no one around my home had used it, so I didn't know the details.

My father used to make a rig to snag ayu with hooks, but that was illegal.

Still, there probably weren't any fishing rights here, so I could catch them however I wanted. I just didn't want to use something like an electric shock.

That wouldn't exactly suit a slow life. If I were desperate for food, it might be different, but I wasn't having any trouble finding things to eat.

I reeled in the fly and cast it again—when suddenly, the surface of the water leaped.

I hurriedly began winding the reel, and a fish came splashing up through the water, its body marked with black spots and shining with rainbow colors.

"Whoa! I caught one! Is it really this easy?"

It was about twenty centimeters long. Was it similar to the rainbow trout from my original world? Its colors were incredibly beautiful, though.

I took a camera out of my Item Box and photographed it.

I wanted to collect pictures like this and make a field guide. Then I could teach Anemone about them too.

I didn't have an Appraisal Skill, but I could still appraise things. All I had to do was put this fish into my Item Box.

That way, if it had a name, the name would be displayed.

"Amazing!"

Anemone clapped her hands happily at the fish I'd caught. Having someone cheer you on really did make you feel more motivated.

I dug a hole in the riverbank with a shovel to make a livewell, then put the fish I'd caught inside.

"All right, let's catch some more!"

I gripped the rod with renewed determination, but when I glanced to the side, the Forest Cat was eyeing the fish I'd just put in the livewell.

"Hey, wait!"

In a blur, the Forest Cat threw a right hook, knocked the fish out, and ran away with it clenched in its mouth.

A Forest Cat with a fish in its mouth... The music from a certain beloved national anime began repeating in my head.

If you're that good at catching fish, you could have caught them from the start.

Well, if the Forest Cat could eat it, it was probably safe. I'd never heard of poisonous freshwater fish, but this was another world, after all.

Anything could happen here. Still, there were plenty of things that were poisonous to humans but harmless to animals.

For example, a mamushi bite was dangerous to humans, but dogs were supposedly fine afterward.

Whenever my father went sea fishing, he apparently caught pufferfish quite often, but they were too dangerous to eat, so he threw them away.

Then young gulls would eat them. Apparently, the gulls would merely stagger around numb, without dying.

But once a gull was poisoned, it apparently stopped eating them. They really did learn from experience.

Would the Forest Cat be all right after eating raw fish, with parasites and all?

Wild animals basically ate everything raw, after all. I assumed it must have some effect on them.

When I searched Shangri-La, I found 【Dewormer for Dogs and Cats】 being sold as a matter of course. Judging by that, parasites probably had at least some effect.

If the Forest Cat started losing weight, I would try giving it some.

While I fished, I had Anemone boil some water.

The water was river water with a water stone in it, but boiling it should make it safe. Living creatures inhabited the river too, so there probably wasn't any concern about mineral poisoning.

No matter how clean river water looked, it contained various plankton and protozoa.

There was also the risk of amoebic dysentery. Drinking untreated water was dangerous.

I cast the fly into the river again and caught five fish in all—or six, counting the one the Forest Cat ate.

I killed one of them and put it into my Item Box. It displayed 【Rainbow Trout】.

It was exactly what it sounded like.

I immediately took a cutting board out of my Item Box and filleted the fish into three pieces—not that I was going to eat it as sashimi.

Freshwater fish meant parasites, and I wasn't taking that risk.

I took a mobile battery and a food processor out of my Item Box and put the filleted fish inside.

Seasonings, salt, flour—and what else was it? Right, fish balls called for ginger.

I bought a jar of ginger from Shangri-La for 250 yen.

I put everything into the food processor and switched it on. The mixture became sticky in no time, so all I had to do was shape it into balls and drop them into the pot.

I added Chinese soup stock and closed the pressure cooker's lid.

In twenty minutes, the fish-ball soup would be ready. The fish balls would make their own stock, so salt or soy sauce would work too.

When the time was up, I lowered the pressure cooker into the river to cool it, and steam burst out with considerable force.

"All right! It's done. Let's eat."

"Yeah!"

I ladled the soup into deep bowls and took bread out of my Item Box as well.

Fishing by the riverside and making fish-ball soup—this really felt like a slow life. I was earning some serious slow-life points here, wasn't I?

At this rate, I could escape the violent, extraordinary life I'd been leading ever since the battle to subjugate Shaga.

That had been a nightmare! I wanted to pretend it had never happened!

"It's delicious! Kenichi's cooking is always delicious!"

Anemone had been eating quite a lot lately, but according to her own account, she was twelve years old. Even so, she was surprisingly small.

She had probably been malnourished because she hadn't had enough decent food to eat. At least, that was what I assumed.

I tried one of the fish balls myself. It was quite delicious. The ginger did a good job of neutralizing the fishy smell.

River fish such as yamame and iwana could taste fishy, so ginger really was essential.

Once we had eaten our fill, I began thinking over our next move.

I could go to Astrantia like this, but... That wouldn't exactly be a slow life, would it?

I wondered if there was somewhere nice along this river. It seemed to have plenty of fish too...

Maybe I should follow the river downstream...

But then I thought of something good.

"What about a drone? Couldn't I launch one from here and use it to survey the surrounding terrain?"

"A drooone?"

Anemone had heard me talking to myself and was looking at me curiously.

I immediately searched for drones on Shangri-La. The models with good reviews cost around 20,000 yen.

Buying something too cheap often just left you regretting it. Buy cheap, buy twice, as they say.

Basically, it was like a radio-controlled toy, so it should work in this world too. The transceiver had worked, after all.

But some models seemed to require a smartphone. Smartphones couldn't be used in this world.

Could I buy a used smartphone and run it standalone? I wondered about that, but apparently I would need to download and install an app.

No, that wouldn't work.

"Click."

A jet-black attaché case dropped out. Apparently, that was the drone's box. When I opened it and took out the black drone, I saw that it was a quadcopter with four rotors.

The controller came with an LCD monitor, which meant I could fly it while watching the monitor.

Wow. This was my first time buying a drone, but had they really become this high-tech already?

The world really was progressing. As you got older, trying new things became such a hassle.

Even when you knew you couldn't go on like that, you still found yourself dragging your feet.

No, no, that didn't matter right now. I should just try flying it.

I inserted the batteries into the drone and controller and switched them on.

The instructions said it had a gyroscope, making it easy to operate. I didn't need to fly it all over the place.

All I needed was to get it high enough to look around. The instructions said it could reach an altitude of about a hundred meters.

"All right! Up you go!"

I pressed my thumb against the controller's lever, and the drone floated gently into the air.

"Amazing! It's flying! Is this magic?"

Anemone danced around excitedly when she saw the drone.

"Well, something like that."

The drone stabilized, and it seemed capable of hovering. The monitor was displaying video from the camera mounted on the drone.

This thing was seriously amazing. Once I got over my initial excitement, I sent the drone straight upward to survey the surroundings.

What appeared on the monitor was a large lake visible across the river.

"Oh, so this river flows into a lake."

To the left of the river, I could see a small village.

There was a small side road branching off the highway, and its sign said Santanka, so that must have been the village.

I rotated the drone 180 degrees, and the walls of Astrantia appeared in the distance.

A fairly high cliff continued behind Astrantia, and the highway seemed to run alongside it.

"All right, it's decided! We'll head to the lake for now and look for a spot with a good view."

"Okay!"

I let the drone fly around a little longer, and black birds began gathering overhead.

Apparently, the drone had entered their territory, and they were preparing to attack it.

"This is bad, this is bad."

I immediately lowered the drone and retrieved it. It still had plenty of uses, and I couldn't afford to have it destroyed.

For example, I could use it to investigate what was on top of the cliffs or see what was inside abandoned buildings.

After cleaning up from lunch, I stored the drone in my Item Box and began walking downstream along the riverbed, with trees growing thickly on both sides.

The riverbed was a little too uneven to ride the motorcycle.

Come to think of it, I couldn't see the Forest Cat anywhere. Where had the Forest Cat gone? Perhaps it was prowling around and claiming the territory as its new domain.

The stream was gentle, so the route wasn't difficult. I had probably walked about three kilometers.

When the trees finally thinned out, a huge lake, ringed by deep green, spread out before me.

Straight ahead, beyond the forest, I could see mountains. Their elevation was probably around five to six hundred meters.

"This place is huge!"

The lake was so large, yet the trees of the forest hid it completely, making it impossible to know it was there.

People said a water surface could be like a mirror, but this really was a mirror. When I reached the lakeshore, tiny waves lapped against a small sandy beach.

"It's beautiful."

"Yeah."

The water was clear and cold. You could see deep down into it, and the colors changed beautifully in a gradient from blue to green.

With scenery this beautiful, it could easily have become a resort or a vacation-home area.

As far as I could see, the only structures resembling houses were in the small village.

I searched Shangri-La for binoculars and found a pair of 20x binoculars selling for about 2,500 yen. They were probably made in a certain foreign country, but the reviews weren't bad.

I pressed the 【Purchase】 button, and the binoculars dropped out.

I peered through them. They gave me a surprisingly good view. Expensive binoculars had image stabilization and such, but these were good enough.

When I looked toward the village, I saw several small boats. That meant it was probably a fishing village whose residents made their living catching fish from the lake.

Looking through the binoculars in the opposite direction, I saw a cliff about ten meters high running along the lake. There, partially hidden among the trees, I spotted a waterfall.

"Oh! A waterfall! Wouldn't that be a great place for a view?"

I let Anemone look through the binoculars too.

"Amazing! It makes faraway things look close!"

I took the off-road motorcycle out of my Item Box, had Anemone climb on behind me with the binoculars still hanging around her neck, and started riding along the lakeshore.

Anemone seemed to like the binoculars a great deal.

The sand along the water's edge had been packed hard, making it easy to ride. The waterfall was probably about five kilometers away.

As the off-road motorcycle moved slowly along, kicking up sprays of water, the waterfall came into view.

The waterfall was probably about a hundred meters from the water's edge. It wasn't carrying much water, and there was no deep rumble that resonated in my chest.

The trees thinned out around the river flowing from the base of the waterfall straight into the lake, and more greenery continued along the opposite shore.

The lake was surrounded by forest.

I wondered how dangerous the area was. There was a fishing village, so the shoreline was probably safe enough, but...

"Meow."

The Forest Cat emerged from between the trees.

Judging from the Forest Cat's expression, it seemed safe enough.

"This is nice. There's plenty of water here, so we won't even have to dig a well."

We could clear some of the surrounding trees and make a field. We might even be able to install a flush toilet.

How about we make this our second campsite?