I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 430: Let the Fishing Begin

"You grab logs, I’ll start to cut a hole in the ice," Irene directed.

"Why do you always get to do the fun parts?" Arne asked, slightly pouting, reminding Irene that he was still young despite how much he had grown up.

She turned to her brother from where she was crouching and tying her saddlebag into a pack that could fit on her back while they traversed over the ice. A smug expression appeared on her face as she reached towards the strap that held one of the most important tools for ice fishing.

"I’m older," Irene insisted. "And I’m also the one who brought the right tools."

Her hand wrapped around the bearded axe, and she pulled it out triumphantly. There was no better way to cut through ice. Her father had lender it to her that morning.

Seeing as Arne only had a regular axe, which was better for cutting trees, he relented that much. In his mind, he was doing Irene a favor by letting her have fun now, because when they actually got to fishing, he was going to shame her with the amount he would catch over her. Her competitive nature was going to be tested when she faced disappointment.

Soon ,the two siblings went off in different directions as they began their final ice fishing preparations. Arne was off to the forest and Irene was off to the ice. She brought with her the same stick she had used to hit snow off of the roof

As soon as she stepped onto the slippery surface—worsened by the sprinkling of snow along the top—she listened for any signs that the ice was cracking, but found none. She pressed on slowly.

When it came to the perfect spot to fish on top of the ice, there wasn’t really a way to tell what was best. Towards the middle would simply have to do.

Once she got further out, she occasionally kicked her boot and moved the snow to see if there was anything to be seen through the snow, but nothing interesting was revealed. Even though the lake was likely still when it was frozen, the ice was still dark and revealed nothing.

She settled on a spot and took her pack off. As her eyes scanned the slippery ground beneath her feet, she got a bit pickier and soon found perfectly smooth ice before she began to delicately carve out a circular shape that would be adequate enough to fit their lines.

Once satisfied with the circle, she was then able to begin striking it more firmly with the axe. Not only did it cut cleanly through the ice, it also dragged the cut a bit further with its additional bearded edge that a regular axe didn’t have.

Irene took her time cutting the ice, but with each strike, she felt a bit warmer until she was sweating from the hard work it was taking to cut the ice. However, she knew she wouldn’t be made a fool by the winter weather. She knew the second she removed her coat, it would be unbearably cold as her sweat froze.

With a final strike, Irene felt that she had broken through enough for the stick she had brought with her. When she turned to her supplies, she was shocked to see her brother had somehow deftly snuck up and taken command of the stick, already knowing what it was for as he waited for Irene to finish the hard part.

Being that the purpose of this trip was to cheer him up, Irene gave in.

"Do the honors," she directed as she stood up.

It was already something she had done many times in her life. Since she was the oldest, her father often let her do the things deemed too hard for the younger sibling. Perhaps that was also why she was a stubborn girl who did whatever she wanted.

Arne nodded once before he stepped closer to the circle. He then balanced the sturdy stick on its center and pushed down as hard as he could. What followed was a clean break that pushed the cylindrical chunk of ice underneath and opened their hole for fishing. Water quickly filled the empty space.

Irene nodded in approval, but she soon realized something else.

"Where are the chairs?" she wondered.

"Had to leave them on the shore. I wouldn’t have been able to sneak out here so quietly with them," he explained.

Irene rolled her eyes. "Fine, I will carry one to make your life easier."

In less than twenty minutes, they were back to the center of the ice where their hole had been pushed through, and they were able to take a seat on top of their cross sections of wood so that they wouldn’t freeze to death while sitting directly on the ice. The wood also helped if someone else came by, they would know that there was likely a hole in the ice somewhere nearby and to be careful.

The fishing poles were simple—if they could even be referred to as such. They were two short pieces of wood with horse hair lines. If the feather connected to the top of them on the line started to get pulled, they would rotate them to roll up the line and hopefully catch a fish on the hooks at the very end.

For now, the only bait Irene had was jars of old fish eggs that smelled worse than death, in her opinion. But when it came to fish, the stinkier the better.

With their fishing poles ready, they were able to drop them in. All that was left was waiting as they settled onto their respective logs.

Irene let out a sigh and she directed her eyes to the clouds above, causing her loose, fur-lined hood to fall off of her fiery hair. Everything out there was white. It made her eyes hurt after a while. Even her mother said that the strain from squinting all the time would eventually cause lines to appear on the sides of her eyes. She didn’t think that was such a bad thing, though. It couldn’t be worse than freckles, at least.

Her attention dropped back down to her brother who was quietly staring at the hole in the ice. It was probably the longest she had ever seen him sit still. He was contemplative about something.

"Well, is this better than sword fighting each morning?" she wondered. "I figured we could use a break from our monotonous schedule."

"It’s monotonous even if you aren’t here," he admitted. "The same thing every day. At least in the summer mother cares much less if I’m late home since the sun sets so late."

"What do you like to do the best?" Irene asked. "Last I wrote, you were all about the autumn hunting."

"Hunting is good any season," he explained. "But it’s more necessity than for fun. Fishing, too. Except this year, there were plenty of extra cows for jerky and a few fresh cuts before the meat could spoil."

"Father bought more?" she wondered.

"Nah," he responded. "More wealth in the duchy because of the new Duke. He’s made sure everyone is comfortable, even though Father insists on managing his lands himself."

The new Duke. Henry.

She did everything she could to not think about him. Yet her thoughts always seemed to go there. Each time she smelled a pine tree, she was reminded of when he hugged her or was close to her. It must have been the soap he used.

She shook those thoughts off.

"Of course," she responded. "He’s been making sure the knights are comfortable as well. We’ve all been much better off."

Before Arne could ask why his sister was being a bit strange, tiptoing around the topic of Duke Mattson, he saw that one of the feathers were bouncing on the line. Just so happened, it was his line.

"Fish!" Arne shouted. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Don’t scare them away!"

Irene dropped to her hands and knees as Arne crouched and began rolling the log so that the line would wrap around the wood. Occasionally, he would pull it higher to see if there was still weight on it and there seemed to be.

They both waited with bated breath as Arne pulled up the line. When he seemed to be close, Irene retrieved a net.

Soon enough, a massive trout with a pink stomach and brown, speckled sides came from the water and nearly fell off of the hook if it weren’t for Irene’s quick dive to get the net underneath such a wonderful catch.

"Nice save," Arne breathed out, relieved.

Irene could only nod.

"First catch of our trip goes to you!" Irene exclaimed.

Arne picked up his wiggly catch and proudly displayed it. He measured it certainly over a foot long by putting it on the ice next to his boot.

"Don’t get discouraged," Arne responded with a smirk. "This won’t be my last catch. Who knows about you, though?"

Irene could only roll her eyes as she loaded up the hook with more fish eggs and made sure the stone that was keeping it from floating up was tied onto the string tightly. She then dropped it back into the water.

"It’s too good to use as bait fish. We’re going to have to eat it for dinner," Irene explained.

"Well, we might have to eat only that for dinner if you never catch anything else," Arne continued his tormenting.

However, before they could settle into their makeshift seats for much longer, there was a scream from beyond one of the crops of forest that stood behind their fishing cabin.

Irene stood up immediately, and her wide eyes set on Arne for a moment.

Without hesitation, she unsheathed her sword and set off in that direction.

"You’re going off just like that?!" Arne asked. "Without knowing what you’re up against?"

Irene only cast another glance over her shoulder before she proudly smiled and answered, "It’s just what knights do."

It seemed Arne had no other choice as he stood up and unsheathed his own sword. He wasn’t going to let her do it all on her own. What sort of coward would he be?