Kirito's POV
Three days later, Nishida informed us in the morning that he was
going to fish for the local god. Around thirty people would be there to
watch, as it seemed that he had told his fishermen friends about this.
"This is troublesome. Asuna...what should we do?"
"Hm~mmm..."
To tell the truth, we weren't all that happy about this. We had come
here to hide from the gossipers and Asuna's fans, so we were a little
hesitant about appearing before so many people.
"How about this?!"
Asuna gathered her hair and pushed it up. Then she covered her face
up to her eyes with a huge scarf. She didn't stop there and pressed
some buttons on her menu window to put on a plain overcoat.
"Y-Yeah. Pretty good. You look like a proper farmer's wife."
"...is that, a compliment?"
"Of course. In my case, they're not going to recognize me as long as I
don't equip battle gear."
Before the sun even rose, I walked out of the house with Asuna, who
was carrying our picnic basket. She could have just called it out when
we got there, but she insisted that it was part of the disguise.
Today was warm for an early winter day. After walking through the
forest of huge pine trees for a while, we could finally see the
sparkling water between the trunks. A lot of people had already
gathered there. As I approached nervously, a familiar stout figure
waved to us as he laughed.
"Wa-ha-ha, it's a relief that we have such great weather today!"
"Hello, Nishida oji-san."
Asuna and I nodded our heads. He told us that the assembly of people
here from various age groups were all members of a fishing guild that
Nishida ran. We greeted everyone nervously, but it seemed nobody
recognized Asuna.
Putting that aside, Nishida oji-san was far more active than I imagined.
He must have been a good team leader within his company. The
atmosphere was already spirited, as the group had been holding a
fishing competition before our arrival.
"Eh~ so, today's main event will finally be starting!"
Nishida loudly announced this as he walked towards us with a long
fishing rod in his hand, and the spectators cheered in excitement. I
looked at the fishing rod he was carrying, my eyes tracing down the
pole without much thought before the item at its end surprised me.
It was a lizard, an abnormally large one at that. It was as long as an
adult's forearm. Its poisonous-looking red and black skin shone as if
to emphasize its freshness.
