Chapter: 12. The Lake and the Fish
On the way back from the palace to the villa, Xialet was very happy.
Hehehe… look at these wooden boxes piled up in half the carriage~ it’s simply a joy of a bountiful harvest!
That’s right, these boxes that took up more than half of the spacious carriage, each one is filled to the brim with precious ingredients from various races across the world. I heard that even the world-renowned, exquisite cabbage mushrooms unique to the Elf Race’s forest are included, which are treasures that many big merchants can’t buy despite spending a fortune.
Now, Princess Xue Fei can definitely enjoy delicious food!
Thinking about how cute Princess Xue Fei would look sitting at the dining table enjoying the food, Xiya couldn’t help but hum a happy little tune, her radiant golden long hair swaying beautifully back and forth with her graceful movements, full of rhythm.
The sky darkened.
The two horses pulling the carriage heard their master’s song from the carriage and neighed in response, adding speed toward the setting sun. They were probably eager to return to the villa to enjoy the grass by the lake.
Xiya lightly patted the wooden boxes beside her, recalling the process of obtaining these ingredients from the king in the council chamber earlier.
After stepping forward, she expressed her opinion to the king.
These ingredients were given by the Church State, and returning them wouldn’t truly proclaim the kingdom’s majesty.
However, if given, then these ingredients belong to our country, and how to handle them should be up to us, right?
If that’s the case—why not distribute these ingredients to the loyal ministers, huh?
Because these ingredients were originally a gift from the Church State to the king and queen.
If the king received them and promptly handed them over to his vassals, in a sense, wouldn’t that imply that the kingdom looks down on such gifts?
This way, the ingredients that were meant to ridicule the kingdom for its resource scarcity turned into a mockery from the Church State towards them.
Of course, Xiya didn’t put it so directly, but the meaning was conveyed.
The king was greatly pleased upon hearing this!
He immediately ordered the maids to distribute the ingredients taken from the warehouse to the nobles and ministers. Naturally, as the proposer of this idea and the kingdom’s greatest contributor, Xialet received the largest share.
Remember how Prime Minister Philex’s face turned green back then with anger!
Watching the ingredients that he had brought here at the Pope’s behest to showcase the Church State’s prestige being distributed away—how could he not be furious?
But getting angry was useless; when the meeting concluded, he could only leave cursing and embarrassed, tripping over his own feet outside the hall.
It was just a pity for the king and queen.
Under the queen’s reminder, the cheerful king looked at the empty warehouse, his face suddenly darkened.
He then realized… he hadn’t saved a single box for himself; the ingredients had all been taken by the ministers!
There was nothing he could do; after all, he had commanded so readily to vent his anger without considering the consequences.
Regretting now was too late because Xiya had already begun her journey home with most of the ingredients!
Hmph, Xue Fei, I told you I’m not as foolish as you think, I can adapt to the situation!
Facing the moonlight and starlight, Xiya pushed aside the curtain and saw the outline of the villa appearing in the distance.
—Almost home.
Princess Xue Fei must feel lonely after staying home all afternoon.
Sister is coming to make delicious food for you.
But as the carriage crossed the little road leading to the villa and stopped by the lake in front of the villa…
Xialet jumped down from the carriage, and when she looked around…
The kingdom’s Hero was stunned.
The horses waiting for grass were also dumbfounded.
The scene in front of them was shocking.
Originally, the wide lake in front of the villa… why was there no water?
The water plants that was thriving in the morning… why had they all withered now?
Xiya wanted to ask, where is my lake?
The horses wanted to ask, where is my grass?
In the midst of their shock, Xialet heard a series of footsteps approaching rapidly, along with a light and lovely voice.
“Yoha!! Xiya, you’re home!”
“Xue Fei…”
“Hmm?”
“What on earth did you do at home?!”
…………………………………..
Poor Princess Xue Fei’s head received another impact from a soft and fluffy hand blade.
At this moment, she was kneeling by the dry lake with a wronged expression, sincerely repenting.
Xiya puffed her cheeks with anger as she listened to Xue Fei’s explanation.
The horses that had galloped back were trying to break free from their reins; if they could be free, they would undoubtedly charge at Princess Xue Fei to take revenge on the grass!!
“Explain, Xue Fei. I find it really hard to imagine how your slight ‘play’ could cause such a large lake to disappear?”
“But I was just fishing…”
“Are you sure you were fishing, not draining the lake?”
“So it wasn’t that…,” Xue Fei said with her small hands fidgeting in front of her, looking a bit guilty, “I was indeed fishing at first… but while I was fishing, an accident happened.”
“An accident…?” Xiya’s face suddenly tensed a bit, “Could it be that someone attacked you? Was this self-defense? Then we can’t stay here!”
“No… the accident I mentioned is… the fish wouldn’t bite.”
“Ha…?”
“I mean the fish wouldn’t bite! Just think about it, I came to catch fish, and used so much bait! If they wouldn’t bite, how could I fish? These fish are simply… ah, ow…!”
“I haven’t even hit you yet.”
Xiya raised her hand symbolically, and Xue Fei already pitifully protected her head.
So, when fishing, was it the fish’s fault for not biting?
Xue Fei observed anxiously, realizing that Xiya had lowered her hand, and only then felt emboldened again.
Having already explained about the “fish,” now it was time to explain about the “lake.”
“So the fish wouldn’t bite was bad, so I thought… I thought I’d use the method of cutting off the root! To fundamentally solve the problem, making fishing an efficient activity.”
“Such as…?”
“Such as draining the lake of water, leaving only the fish, and then catching the fish.”
“!”
Xiya’s world-view logic received a massive shock!
Huh…? Is fishing really like this? But the fishing I know is not… huh?
She stared blankly for a while.
Finally, Xiya dazedly asked the most fundamental question.
“Then what about the fish you caught…? What about the lake?”
“Oh oh! I was just going to say that, to wait for you to come back to show you the results, I specifically used Storage Magic to store them! Look!”
“?”
Princess Xue Fei suddenly jumped to her feet, dark purple light swirling between her palms, her hands pointed toward the wide empty land by the lake.
What Xiya saw next… left her dumbfounded.
It was raining in broad daylight…
No, it was raining fish in broad daylight!
From the large purple magic array descended an array of big fish, splat, splat like raindrops covering the lakeshore.
Each big fish that fell on the ground was still trying hard to flop, eager to bounce right in front of the silver-haired girl, giving her a big fish slap!
What a scene from hell…!
Meanwhile, Princess Xue Fei turned back, smiled while touching the back of her head, appearing as if she was still happily delighted.
“Xiya, see? I told you, I’m quite steady at fishing!”
“Ugh… Xue Fei, just stop talking.”
“Right?!”
“But what are we going to do with so many fish… if we leave them here, won’t the outside of the villa be full of the smell of fish tomorrow?”
“Ah? No, no! I’m just showing you the results, I’m about to send them home; the fish we can’t eat must be released; that’s the basic virtue of a fisherman, I understand that!”
“Release? Where to?”
A school of fish larger than the land of the villa, along with the dried lake.
Those horses quickly protected their water troughs to avoid losing their food and water source.
Princess Xue Fei changed the direction of her hand that released the Storage Magic.
This time, she pointed at the dry lakebed.
Boom, boom, boom…
“Hmm?”
Xiya heard a strange sound and couldn’t help but let out a cute murmur.
Boom, boom…
Bang!!!
“Hmm?!!!”
Her cute murmur turned into a panicked shout!
What does it mean for the Milky Way to fall from the sky!
The magic array instantly extended to cover the area parallel to the lakebed.
What followed was a rush of lake water filling the originally dried-up lake in an instant!
The splashing water droplets drenched Xiya’s face, her golden hair sticking to her extraordinary profile.
She didn’t even bother to wipe it.
After all, the slowly dying look in her eyes had no energy left to deal with such trivial matters.
In just a moment, the vast lake water surged as if it had never changed, deep and unfathomable.
And that wasn’t all; the fish along the lakeshore, drawn by Xue Fei’s magic, jumped into the lake one by one as if they had grown wings, making the shores wide open once more, a spectacular sight.
Xue Fei even stepped to the lakeshore, waved her small hand, and the previously wilted water plants regained their vitality.
The neighing horses immediately quieted down.
Xialet was completely speechless…
She stared at the rolling lake water ahead, her mood as calm as the bright moon hanging high.
Until Xue Fei ran over to her holding a fish larger than her head, Xiya finally snapped back to reality.
“Xue Fei, this fish is…?”
“I kept one! We’ll cook it for dinner! Um, it’s quite lively!”
The big fish desperately slapped Xue Fei with its tail, the last defiance of a fish before being cooked.
Little did they know, Xue Fei was even more stubborn!
She directly bumped her head against the fish’s head!!
Her steel-like forehead knocked the fish out cold.
It could no longer flop.
Xialet looked down at the fish, then at the smiling Xue Fei.
Finally, Xiya patted her own head and sighed lightly.
“Ah… this really is… completely beyond my common sense.”
“Are you angry…?”
“Not really angry… just think it’s very absurd.”
As Xiya finished speaking, Xue Fei’s entire little self instantly slumped in disappointment.
At the same time, she placed the large fish she was holding on the ground, and the smile on her cute little face quickly faded.
“I’m sorry… actually… I was thinking that since I came to your house on the first day, I’d prepare the dinner ingredients myself, so you wouldn’t have to buy this and that… so that when you come back at night, we can eat fish directly.”
“Xue Fei… did you do this because of me…?”
“Not that much… ugh, it’s just that, so we can eat big fish.”
“I…”
Xiya’s deep blue eyes sparkled frantically.
Emotion drove her to take a sudden step forward, kneeling down to hug Xue Fei in front of her!
“I’m sorry, Xue Fei… I thought you were just being playful and mischievous… I didn’t know it was for me… please don’t think like that. When you come to my side, I’ll take care of you; you don’t have to find ingredients yourself! I’ll… I’ll make you steamed fish soon, okay?”
*Cough, too close, too close…! Well, since Xiya understood… then I’ll forgive you! Oh right.*
“Hmm? Does Xue Fei have anything else?”
“No steaming, can we do braised instead?”
“Okay!!”
