"Here ya go!" Ruggie handed her three small fishes with a wide smile and snickered, "I must say, you know what you're doing, Lotus!"
"Eh?"
"Who would've thought that we would be catching catfishes today and you already ordered three decent-sized fishes from every club already."
"You give me too much credit." Lotus chuckled, "Why, I was planning to catch some when we finally settle from the move. Who would've known that catfishes would be today's priority?"
"Eh?" Epel walked over to them with a look of surprise, "But, how could you have known that there was catfishes here?"
Lotus pointed to the lake side, "See there?"
"You mean the muddy lake shores?" Ruggie raised a brow.
"That's right." Lotus nodded, "If you take a closer look, you'd see that the shore is still covered with lush greenery and a lot of mud. Catfishes and other small fishes prefer hiding amongst the greenery even if the waters are murky in those areas. When I saw that, I thought it'd be good to try and catch a big one to share with the other guys who has more energy to recover than me. However, those guys are pretty tricky."
"How so?" Epel looked to her in bewilderment.
"That..." Lotus chuckled, "Guess you'll soon figure it out."
"As I thought." Ruggie sighed, "As if you'll give away your trade secret so soon."
"By the way," Lotus turned to them just before leaving with a bright smile, "Don't forget. Some berries also grow on trees."
"Huh?"
Before they could ask her, the guy had already vanished back to her club fishing spot.
"He's gone..." Epel noted in bewilderment.
"Hey, Lotus! What is the meaning of this?! How dare you trick us?! That spicy herb wasn't there when we found the others!"
They noticed someone from the basketball club stomping over to her with an angry scowl across his face.
They watched as Lotus greeted him with a bright smile as she swiftly dodges one of the punches. However, what she spoke could hardly be heard by them as they could only see her open her mouth to speak in return.
"What do you mean we can't see it?! You're the one who's blind here!"
"Wait stop!"
Suddenly, Jamil rushed over to them shouting for the guy to stop his attack. However, he was a second too late as his club member swung a fist at her. With one swift movement, she grasped his wrist and smirked as she easily pulled him flying into the lake so smoothly as she finished it with a kick to the butt!
"Sir." She sneered again and loud enough for everyone to here, "I gave you the location of the herbs with those small fishes that you handed me earlier today. I believe I gave you a fair trade already. Everyone else has already followed good with their side of the agreement too and have even found where the herbs are. If you can't find it, how can you come to blame me? I don't have the ability or magic to make the appear or reappear, you know. I'm just a lowly student with no magic, remember? How dare I play tracks on you?"
"You-! That- That was just a fluke!" The guy lunged at her again as soon as he trudged out of the waters.
However, she quickly stepped back and took his wrist. Pulling it behind her, she smirked, "Oopsies. It seems you need to cool down a little more. Let me HELP YOU!"
With one swing, she tossed the guy back into the lake causing a big splash.
Seeing that the guy was tossed back into the waters, Ruggie cried out in bewilderment, "D-Did he just threw that big guy back into the lake twice?! I know he's not to be messed with, but nobody told me that he was strong enough to do a Judo Throw..."
"Lotus is very strong, even without magic." Epel sighed as they watched Jamil hurry over to retrieve the guy, "I once sparred against him under our dorm leader's supervision and he just defeated me with a long scarf. I was even using magic."
"Woah..." Ruggie wore a dry smile on his face as he muttered, "It's a good thing that we didn't mess with him then."
"I'll take this one." She said as she tossed the other fishes to them and took out a pocket knife then sliced long gashes across the bodies of the fish, "Put these on the hooks and start fishing. Work in groups of four when there's a fish on the line. Otherwise, the one being caught it you."
"O-okay."
"You-!" She turned to the Octavinelle sophmore from earlier and said, "You're coming with me and take those ropes."
"Ah, yes!"
With that, they made their way to the side of the lake before taking off her shoes and socks then jumping into the muddy part of the lake. Not long after diving into the waters with the fish in hand, something immediately lept onto the shores. Something extremely large!
"Woah!"
The sophmore jumped aside and was shocked to find that it was a gigantic flat head catfish probably three meters long!
"Th-This is a catfish!" The sophmore cheered, "Guys! We got our first catfish!"
"What?!" Ruggie jumped out in bewilderment with a cry of surprise before another shocking discovery was found when their fishing line was tugged super hard by a strong force, "Magift club! What are you doing slacking off! We got to help Epel so that he doesn't get dragged in!"
"Prefect! They're also gonna catch a huge fish!" Grim cried out bursting with excitement!
"I got the ghost camera ready!" Yuu prepared the film and the stance to take the pictures, "It's another photo opportunity!"
It was then that the sound of chimes could be heard!
"This sound!" Ruggie jumped in disbelief, "Don't tell me!"
"R-Ruggie!" One of their club members cried out, "The fairies are coming towards us!"
"I know!" Ruggie frowned but remained his cool once again, "Epel, focus on your fishing rod. Magift club, don't let your guard down! I'll drive them out!"
As soon as the first attack came, Ruggie quickly started to attack the fairies in response with some wind magic. The attacks went back and force for about ten minutes before before they finally left.
Epel with two other Magift members pulled out a giant 2 meters long cat fish as well much to everyone's surprise!
"W,we... caught it!" Epel cheered and was soon followed with the bright and enthusiastic voices of others.
"Yes! All right!"
"Y'all did well..." Ruggie complimented them with a wide smile as he sat down wearily.
As they gathered around a catfish, Grim stared at it in awe, "Woah~! This guy is huge!"
"It's smaller than theirs, but it has at least too meters..." Epel stared at it in awe, "It's like it's too big for a fish!"
"It's a catfish right?" Ruggie pointed out with a snort and he continued proudly.
"Yes," A ghost floated over to their side and handed them a badge, "Magift club, you've cleared the mission~! Take this [Vargas Badge]. And, that goes for you too, Horse-Riding club~!"
"Shishishi!" Ruggie snickered proudly with excitment as he took the badge, "Thanks! We've caught enough fish for lunch too, let's return to the campsite and cook! Ah, since we'll passby the forest, let's see how the Luminous Flower search is going!"
"We'll move along as well!" Grim agreed with a wide smile and tugged on Yuu's pants, "Let's go, Yuu!"
"Let's go to another area then!" Yuu nodded before he paused and frowned as he glanced up towards the side of the lake with a frown and his eyes widen only a few seconds later dropping everything and rushing towards the edge of the lake where the sophmore was already going into the lake, "Lotus!"
"Eh? Lotus?" Epel gasped, "Don't tell me... He never resurfaced!"
"What?!"
Hearing this, the horse-riding club jumped to their feet as well and was ready to rush after Yuu when Lotus finally resurfaced from the lake and reached out to grab the sophmore as she cried out, "It's a big, big one, guys! Call everyone over!"
"A big, big one?!" Ruggie jumped in bewilderment.
However, Yuu and Grim ignored this as they dove straight into the waters after her and the sophmore.
"Guys! Let's go!" Epel jumped straight in followed by a shocked Ruggie.
With the horse-riding club, everyone managed to pull in a super big and long cat fish with a body as plump as the previous three meters by four times including length! It was a twelve meters catfish! It took seven people and a demonic cat to pull it in!
"Such a huge catfish!" Ruggie and the ghost cried out in disbelief as everyone stared at the monstrocity of the creature as though it was a legendary beast.
"Finally, after baiting it for so long..." Lotus sighed in relief upon finally returning to shores.
"At least, Lotus is all right..." Jamil sighed in relief at the shore of the lake having arrived rather late.
"Lotus...!!!"
The crescendo yet low octave familiar voice brought a shock of chill down Lotus's already chilly spine as she jumped and slowly turned around hesitantly with great fear to a very, very angry Yuu! Probably even the most angry he has ever seen before!!!
"B-B-Big brother... Yuu..." Lotus jumped nervously with a very trying smile.
"What in the world did you thought you were doing?!?!" His voice rang in her ears with great fury that even shocked everyone around them.
They've never seen the prefect so upset before! In fact, they've never seen the prefect furious before either! Just super blunt!
"Wah!!! Whatever it is, I'm really sorry!!!" Lotus was ready to run for her life when she felt a strong forced grabbing her collar!
"You're coming with me!" Yuu scolded angrily before handing Grim to Epel and spoke with an anger he could barely contain, "Here, Epel. Please take Grim with you to check on the search group. I'm taking this guy with me for a bit..."
"A-Ah... Y-yes, sir..." Epel carried Grim as they quickly left the area.
"Ah! Thanks for the help everyone! Um, you guys can-"
"Leave the horse-riding club with the ghosts." Yuu interrupted coldly, "Let's go."
"Y-yes..."
Watching Yuu drag Lotus away in such a terrigying manner, the others watched dumbfounded.
"I've never seen the Prefect so angry before." Jamil noted in bewilderment, "Is this really normal?"
"It has been..." Grim sighed in dismay, "Ever since we decided to have a sibling bond with one another after the finals last semester."
"Sibling bond?"
"What does that mean?" Epel looked to Grim in confusion.
"Well..." Grim sighed and began to explain the situation to them.