Let's Just Go Fishing

So, with a heart full of defeat, a whole year had passed since my transmigration.

I was fairly content with life on this side, leisurely enjoying the laid-back village lifestyle.

"Dad, I'm heading out to fish~"

"Again? We've got enough to eat for the month, don't we?"

"Nothing to do around the house but put on weight. Might as well."

"Aye, s'pose so."

My father nodded enthusiastically and pushed the boat moored at the dock out toward the lake.

Piiing... plop!

The bobber I'd cast out casually got yanked under the surface in an instant.

"Ohohoh!"

A heavy resistance rose up through the bending rod. This was... rare-tier at minimum, surely!?

Greeeak! — Splash!

After a few rounds of back-and-forth, I hauled up the big one. And the monster that had given me such grief from the start turned out to be an ultra-rare Rainbow Big-Whiskered Catfish.

"Haah, hooked a rainbow catfish on the first cast? What a catch. Slurp."

The moment I stuffed the forearm-thick catfish into the live well—

Ding.

A glowing blue system window popped up right before my eyes.

"Whoo~ All stats plus three, is this for real~?"

Lilium Crown had all sorts of growth mechanics, but fishing was by far the most efficient of the lot. I'd wondered whether someone who was neither player nor NPC could actually benefit from it — but the day I went fishing after my father, I found my path in life.

Strength — the single most revered stat in the entire game — was already at S. Worst case, even if I enrolled at the academy tomorrow, no one would beat me in a contest of raw physical power.

'If I were enrolling, that is...'

With a sigh, I gazed across the lake at the academy looming in the distance.

Arcadia Imperial Magic Academy. The main stage of Lilium Crown — where the Third Princess Iris, the game's main heroine, and Adrian, the player, battled through hardship side by side.

The game spans the three years from Iris's enrollment at the academy until her graduation, and the core objective is grinding through those three years to mold Iris into a true heir to the imperial throne.

'The difficulty was so notorious that even with over ten thousand hours logged, the first successful full-clear in the community galleries only happened... oh, about a week before I died.'

I'd transmigrated here exactly one year before the original story began.

'Which means next week is already the Third Princess's enrollment day.'

When the princess crossed my mind, the memory of Iris's true-ending sex scene — the one I'd fapped to right before dying — flashed through my head.

Ahh, I am so goddamn jealous of that protagonist bastard. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠One week from now, he enrols there, and every time he clears a single story branch he gets rewarded with an ecchi scene, right? Solve a problem, get laid, solve a problem, get laid, on repeat, every single day. How good could life possibly get?

'Ah, forget it. With my status, enrolling at the academy is flat-out impossible... might as well just build up my foundations quietly.'

Naturally, I'd love to slip into the protagonist's spot and propose a threesome, but approaching a princess without academy credentials is basically suicide. So all I can do is pray the protagonist's team saves the world properly while I fish day and night.

Why bother building up my stats at all, when the heroes will obviously take down the Demon King and save the world themselves?

...Well, you never know, do you. What if they fail and the Demon King runs rampant? Who'd protect this lakeside house and my father then?

That'd be me. Obviously me.

"Phew, I'm dead tired."

After another fully loaded stat-gain session, I dragged my exhausted body back and moored the boat at the dock. Lately, the rate my stats were climbing had slowed to a crawl. Maybe I should go dig up some herbs in the back hills.

Splash!

"Hm?"

I'd just confirmed the rope was tied down tight and was heading home when... the boat suddenly rocked violently. Wondering what the hell was going on, I peeked over the side — and saw something stark white undulating beneath the water.

"Wh— what the...!"

Before I could even think, I hurled myself into the lake and stroked down deep beneath the surface. Far below, I could see a silver-haired woman slowly being dragged down into the depths.

My lungs felt ready to burst, but I held on and hauled her back up to the surface.

"Pwah!"

My shallow breaths quickly regained their strength. ...While the perfectly healthy breath in my own lungs turned pitifully weak.

I was already dead tired — and what the hell is this now.

"Hup!"

I pushed the unconscious woman up onto the boat first, then clambered aboard myself, panting, and sprawled flat on the deck. The boat rocked hard, but thankfully I'd tied the rope down, so we didn't drift off toward the lakeshore.

"Cough...! Cough!!"

Ding.

"Huh?"

Just as I was thinking her face looked oddly familiar, a vivid blue status window floated up above her head.

"Oh, you have got to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be kidding me."

Carla Ballenstein? No, why the hell is the main villainess of this game HERE!?

"Why did you save me?"

Carla sat by the fire she'd hastily lit, staring straight at my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠face.

"Beats me."

Since I'd genuinely saved her without a thought, I just grinned awkwardly and handed her a cup of coffee. She examined the cup closely, then — warming herself with the coffee's heat and the bonfire's glow all over her body — let out a hearty laugh.

"Haha...! Right, I suppose when someone's drowning, you save them. That's duty. You don't need to be taught that."

"..."

I kept my mouth shut and stared very hard at the ground. Why am I suddenly staring at the ground, you ask? Because she was standing, obviously.

I'd been living by this lake for a full year now, keeping myself far away from the creature known as woman. And Carla, dripping wet as she warmed herself by the fire, her toned figure on shameless full display through her soaked clothes, was waking up the demon living in my pants.

It's an eroge world, right? That all-nighter I'd only ever heard about... maybe try it?

'By a guy with E-rank stamina? With what, exactly...'

My wandering sanity returned, and I hastily hunched over to hide my disgrace. Not that Carla failed to notice the change — she flushed crimson with an embarrassed little smile.

"Forgive me. I've caused you unwanted trouble. I should have thrown myself into deeper water. A woman like me, to the very end..."

"..."

Carla's face, flickering in the firelight, was every bit as beautiful as my beloved Iris.

'Why did the devs make such a spectacular woman an unromanceable lesbian... those absolute tasteless bastards.'

Carla Ballenstein. Looking back, she was a character pitiable beyond measure, both outside the game and within. Man or woman, anyone she set her sights on would lose their heart — and yet the one Carla happened to fall for was the protagonist herself, Iris, the queen of pure love.

'I'm sorry. I have a destined partner.'

The shock of rejection by the princess. And on top of it, the shock of her secret exposed before the entire world. The day she was excommunicated from her house, Carla vanished without a trace.

Fucking hell. You couldn't shoot one threesome scene with Iris before you disappeared? What was the rush...

'Wait, hold on. The Carla excommunication event happens at the very end of the story, doesn't it? Why is this woman already trying to die? And why, of all places, in our back yard??'

I steadied my voice and asked her calmly.

"Why were you trying to kill yourself?"

"My shameful secret was laid bare before the whole world. The precious feelings I never wanted anyone to know..."

"Doing what, exactly?"

"I mistook someone else's confession letter for mine. Funny, isn't it — the moment my heart got carried away..."

Carla buried her face in her knees, her expression gloomy.

"Then why did you try to die here, of all places?"

"I didn't know anyone lived in such a remote spot."

"..."

This crazy bitch, who are you kidding. Well... the suicide reason at least seems to match the canon I know. But the timing is way, way too early. This is before Iris has even enrolled — how on earth did the sequence get scrambled?

'...If you die now, things go catastrophically wrong in more ways than I can count.'

Honestly, whether she makes a surprise appearance as a mid-boss in the final act or not, whether her treatise on sexual identity gets pinned to the academy's central bulletin board or not — none of it matters. If anything, her dying now is, technically speaking, good for the whole world. The moment she dies, the final act's mid-boss vanishes and the vast majority of tedious missions get skipped.

But from the perspective of someone playing the game, there's no catastrophe like this catastrophe. Because if she exits the stage this early, right at the start, one huge problem arises for progressing the game.

'If you're gone, who's gonna deliver the growth quest for Leah Harben — the sub-heroine who tanks like an unshakeable rice-soup staple for the protagonist's party, you idiot woman...'

No you, no Leah. No Leah, and who takes the hits up front? If Leah falls, every early-game academy battle goes straight to hell. And if the early game collapses, is some miracle going to bail out the mid-game? Everything topples like dominoes through the late game, straight into the bad ending.

'I have to stop this... somehow I have to turn this woman's heart away from dying..!'

"Thank you for saving me."

"..."

"But I have no reason to go on living. Through my own foolishness, my family's name has been dragged through the mud, and my pride as a knight lies in complete ruin."

Having drained her cup, Carla set the coffee down and began stumbling toward the lake.

"W—wait a moment!!"

"Don't stop me. The moment you lay a hand on my body... you will regret it."

I yanked her back hard as she tried to sink beneath the lake once more, and knocked her to the ground.

"Khh..!?"

"J—just don't die for now, alright? There might be a way!"

"You think there's a way!? No... wait, what is this strength...!!"

Carla's stats were individually, insanely threatening — but before an S-rank Strength stat honed by fishing, all of it was useless. If I simply don't let go, what exactly can you do about it, huh? Kukku.

"Nngh... let go! Can't you... hear me!? Hah... hah..."

"Calm down first, and tell me everything. Who exposed you as a lesbian to the whole world?"

"You think I'd say it myself!? Who even are you...!"

"Oh dear."

"No, seriously, who are you..."

"Tch."

The struggling Carla's face grew redder and redder, until at last she dropped her head and answered in a frail voice.

"P—Princess Iris's fiancé... Adrian Belloc... please, just let me go..."

"Adrian Belloc?"

"Yes. As it turns out, that bastard was meddling behind the scenes... There, done now? Let... let go of me..."

"Hmm."

"Please."

Brief relief at hearing the name I'd heard until I was sick of it in the original — and then a deeply unsettling sensation swept through my mind.

Rough estimate, then. Some brat who'd only skimmed the surface of this game was fiddling with history left and right, trying to make the game easier for himself?

"Listen here, Carla."

"..."

"Oh dear."

"...What."

Carla, utterly deflated — even though all I'd done was spread my arms apart — turned pale and knelt before me.

"T—talk! Use words!"

"You want to die because the world found out you're a lesbian, correct?"

"Yes."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Then if the misunderstanding were cleared up, you'd want to live again, wouldn't you?"

"Obviously!!"

"Then let's go clear up the misunderstanding. Within a week."

"What...?"

I settled the bewildered Carla into a proper seat, brushed the limp strands of hair from her forehead, and flashed my friendliest smile.

"It's a fine world — why on earth would you die? Let's live, you and I."

"Honestly, what is this, some fake romance scheme of yours?"

"..."

"You're serious?"

Carla clutched her stomach in disbelief.

"What a backwater idea!! The one who excommunicated me is the Saint of the Lumina Holy Church — our state church! Whatever you and I might say would only make us look pathetic..."

"..."

Under my still-earnest gaze, Carla pouted and lowered her head.

"Fine, setting all that aside..."

"Yes."

"Are you okay with this?"

"With what?"

"I like women."

"So?"

"Th—that's not the point!! If you defend someone like me, the Holy Church will mark you! You're a commoner with no title, no family — you think you can bear that!?"

"My whole life is stuck in this sparsely-populated lakeside backwater. What difference does the world giving me the cold shoulder make?"

"But still..."

"And besides, what does it matter whether someone's gay or straight? As long as the taste is good— no. Wait."

I swallowed the nonsense that had almost slipped out, and looked at Carla long and hard.

"...All that matters is that Carla, as a person, is a good one. That's enough for me."

Hearing this, Carla made a dumbstruck face — then, like someone bewitched, lifted her eyes to mine.

"You mean that...?"