Chapter 7 - Trapped

*******

Rei's party that arrived at the shoreline moved along the coastline as is. Rei wanted to immediately start floating the ship stored in his smartphone, but Rei couldn't float the ship around here because it was shallow. They move to find a place deeper in the sea.

After moving for about half a day, they saw a fishing village. Not very prosperous, but not declining. It's like an ordinary fishing village in this world. If you pushed it with a lot of people it could confuse, so the group decided to approach with just Rei and a few people.

As they approached the village, several men appeared. Maybe a village representative. It seemed they had already noticed Rei and the others' visit due to the sound of the magic armored car's engine. The man immediately spoke to Rei and happily invited them to tell him that Rei was a merchant.

It was a village where there weren't many merchants, and there were many things they wanted. Rei welcomed and a few of them were invited to the village mayor's house and talked for a bit. When you enter the village mayor's house, a large amount of fish is hanging there.

"I apologize for the fishy place. It's a good catch this season, and every house is stocking up on food for the winter."

"Salmon...? Because this area often runs out?"

"Yes, there is a river a little farther on, and this time of year we go up the river. You know that very well."

Salmon are running around here. There was a river near Kuraki Country, but they had never seen it before. Villagers hang the caught salmon indoors to make the salmon dry. It should be possible to store it for a sufficiently long period by burning it indoors to be heated and smoked with the smoke.

Also, Rei didn't know if the village head's wife's cooking would suit his mouth, so the village head brought over a thin piece of dried salmon. The hard-looking salmon is the famous salmon in Hokkaido. You can eat it as is, or you can grill it over low heat.

Rei tried to bite it, but it didn't seem to be torn apart by its violence. They regretted that Rei had to eat it after cutting it in half, but the more they chewed it, the more flavor came out, so Rei kept on chewing it.

Those accompanying Rei bit normally. As expected, they had strong jaws due to being a beastman. Or is Rei too weak?

"So... you all want to cross the sea? Unfortunately, you have to wait a bit, because it's already whirlpool season."

"Whirlpool season? Are there whirlpools? On the high seas like that?"

The whirlpools are created by complex ocean currents in complex terrain locations. The whirlpools in the Naruto Strait are famous, but this is the open sea. There is no sign that such a whirlpool could occur.

"Fish make whirlpools. At this time of year, when you go out to sea, you get caught in a whirlpool and the boat sinks. Wait for the whirlpool to come out and then go out and fish again. Around January. It's wise not to go out to sea until then because the whirlpool will continue."

"Is it right..."

Moreover, it didn't seem like it was a monster, but a whirlpool created by a very ordinary fish. Thus, Rei had no idea when the whirlpool would occur. While talking about that, Rei heard a voice saying that a whirlpool was formed from outside.

When Rei and the others went to check, there must be some whirlpools off the coast. Is it about three? They varied in size, and the largest was a whirlpool about 10m in diameter. Then the village people started moving in a hurry. It seems to do something.

"What would you do?"

"I threw a fishing rod into that whirlpool from the shore. There were a lot of fish in that whirlpool, so I caught it. I got it before... I cast it using a slingshot over there. It was quite a good fish. Would you like to eat?"

"Please join us. Oh, I will still help you."

Rei's group was supposed to help out with the fishing, but for a while they just watched. It's easy to do. All you have to do is place a weight attached to a fishing line on the slingshot and shoot it into the whirlpool. This seems very easy and quite difficult.

If the weight is too heavy, it will hurt the fish. That's why Rei tries to make it as light as possible, but if it's light it will be swept away by the sea breeze. It was a very technical task, but the people of this village showed success on one occasion.

Then wait about 5 minutes before proceeding to withdraw. However, it is quite difficult. It was difficult to withdraw because the momentum was swallowed up by the whirlpool. Still, it takes 30 minutes to stop with the village man and Rei's escort. Finally, the fish is removed.

"That? Is this... Atka Mackerel?"

"Do you know this fish? It's usually on the ocean floor, but somehow it makes an eddy and rises to the surface at this time."

This is amazing Atka mackerel. The plump and fat Atka mackerel with a body length of 40 cm or more looks delicious and sprinkled with fat. Atka's mackerel creates eddies called Atka's mackerel pillars. It's rarely seen now, but it seems like before when there were a lot of people, they used to make Atka mackerel poles.

However, the regular Atka mackerel pillar eddies were small. It seems to be big enough to swallow a ship when it becomes a pillar or a Mackerel in another world. And at this time, Atka's Mackerel was getting fat toward spawning. Rei immediately called the chef to cook.

Keep Atka Mackerel on your Smartphone for a simple overnight drying. However, it is best to grill and eat the Atka Mackerel. Apart from that, we also make salmon and chan-chan-yaki Atka Mackerel on fried Atka Mackerel. The brand makes a variety of dishes, but they all go well with sake. When that happened, a grand banquet started in the village.

They had run out of fish tonight, but the fishermen seemed to be hungry for meat and vegetables. If you treat yourself to a salad and a steak, you will be very pleased and even more excited.

"Thank you for the kindness of merchant Rei... Kanpai!"

"Kanpai! "

"How many times have you toasted..."

They drink a lot. It will be drunk tomorrow. Meanwhile, the village's mayor, who seems to be the most popular, approaches Rei.

"Master Rei... You've helped and done this much... that... we can't repay this. What do I have to apologize for..."

"Village Chief. Don't worry about it. This is the treat. I don't need anything in return... But if I can't get a boat, I want to be the bully of this village for a while. Just... can you ask?"

"Of course! You can have as much as you like. We will do our best to serve you every day."

"Well, don't be scared. Oh, and tell me about this area. I just didn't know about it in a land I was visiting for the first time. Well, let's talk about the details another time. Mosquitoes?"

"No, I like that..."

"Then let's have a drink. Don't worry about anything. I won't copy it later."

The village mayor looked relieved and started drinking. And once you start drinking, you start drinking more and more. It's quite a drinker. Rei was relieved to see the village's mayor who seemed to have parted ways quietly.

"But I don't think there's any such fishing. If I tell Viscount Andrew, I think he'll fly. I wonder what he's up to now… It's been a while since I joined Miral and I wonder if I got along with Good..."

"Boss? It's Viscount Andrew, but... a bit bad." Dochi

"... Viscount Andrew ... did you put up a strange flag?"