"No… nooooo—!"
Inside the counter of the goldfish scooping booth, 'Battle of Red Cliffs,' the student running the booth extended his palm, shouting mournfully.
"It's just goldfish, no need to shout so sadly, right?"
Asakura sighed and put down the paper scoop that had continuously scooped five goldfish without any damage, complaining, "And it's not the same name as what was said at the beginning…"
"Compared to that—" Asakura shook the basin beside him, where five goldfish were swimming leisurely, seemingly unfazed by their recent transfer from the large tank. "This should be enough to get the reward, right?"
"Of course, no problem…" The student running the stall took Asakura's paper scoop and curiously poked the paper with a finger. The already damp paper instantly tore. "Someone actually managed to do it. You must have played a lot of goldfish scooping at festivals, haven't you?"
"Absolutely." Asakura gave a thumbs up. "Give me a paper scoop, and I can scoop up a whale."
Actually, the paper scoops at this stall were quite exploitative; their quality was even worse than those at festival goldfish scooping stalls. Once wet, they would tear with just a little force, making it quite a feat for someone to scoop up even one goldfish with a single scoop.
However, Asakura had barely been to any festivals to scoop goldfish since transmigrating to this world.
Well, in fact, this was his first time scooping goldfish. Before this, his deepest impression of goldfish was nothing more than strange thoughts like, 'Hehehe, little sister, uncle will take you to see goldfish.'
But 'knowing how' and 'being able to' are two different things.
As long as he coated the paper scoop with a layer of "Scale," let alone scooping goldfish, it could even block bullets.
"Archimedes would jump out of his coffin if he heard you say that."
"Even if he did, the first people he'd look for would be the Romans." Asakura mumbled.
"This is the prize from the Student Council," the student running the stall said, throwing a keychain to Asakura. "Are you sure you don't want our stall's prize? According to the rules, scooping five goldfish with one paper scoop means you could get a super-sized Mr. Pan plushie from us."
"I'm not interested in Mr. Pan." Asakura took the keychain and glanced at the boy who was pulling plushies out from under the stall.
He carefully examined the keychain in his hand. It was an acrylic plastic plate with a golden goblet printed on it, and the back had 'Can grant wishes' written in marker.
The appearance was secondary, the most important thing was the magic attached to it.
Asakura nodded almost imperceptibly.
It seemed his guess was correct. The seven 'Holy Grails' indeed contained magic and possessed the magic of 'granting wishes.' The flesh-colored Holy Grail he had obtained from Amakusa Shino earlier likely had no magic because it had been completely depleted after granting the Student Council President's wish.
Some might find it strange that these seven Holy Grails had passed through many hands since leaving the Student Council, yet the Holy Grails obtained from the shooting stall and the goldfish scooping stall still had magic and hadn't granted anyone's wishes like the one Amakusa Shino had.
Asakura believed this was probably because the Holy Grail's magic had difficulty reacting to Muggles' wishes. It likely only reacted to the wishes of those who possessed a certain degree of aptitude to become Witches.
Of course, since there was currently no sufficient evidence or clues, this was just his conjecture.
Asakura gathered his thoughts, took out his phone, and sent a message in the Magic Club's group chat.
[Asakura: The Holy Grail from the goldfish scooping stall has been recovered. It indeed has magic. Please be extra careful when recovering the other Holy Grails.]
Soon, others in the group chat started popping up and speaking.
[Yukino: The reward for Nervous Breakdown has been taken by other students from outside the school. I am currently looking for those two people as the stall owner described.]
Reliable Miss Yukino seemed to have completed the challenge, but the prize had been snatched by someone else.
[Yanami: I'm still eating a hamburger.]
[Asakura: It's been so long… Is the Gourmet Research Club giving you trouble?]
[Yanami: Ah, no, actually, the requirements for the new eating challenge have already been met, but didn't you say I wasn't allowed to eat dinner today? So I at least have to make up for the evening's portion…]
It's really you, Yanami.
It felt like after acquiring the magic [Crowd], her already considerable appetite seemed to have grown even larger.
[Asagumo: The sugar painting is unexpectedly difficult. Sorry, it might take some more time…]
Asakura could somewhat understand Asagumo Chihaya's situation.
Sugar painting is quite difficult to carve entirely from the sugar board. There's a relatively simple, almost conventional 'cheating' method, which is to lick the sugar painting to make it thinner, making it easier to carve.
But in Asakura's impression, Asagumo Chihaya always acted like a lady, with a strong idol persona, so she probably found it hard to stick out her tongue and lick the sugar board in public. This would naturally lead to slow progress.
However, that child is bold yet meticulous, and very skilled with her hands. Even if the sugar painting is quite complex and difficult, she should still be able to complete it in the end.
[Yuigahama: My brain feels like it's trembling. Help, help, help, help—]
Yuigahama Yui seemed to have been mentally polluted.
Wait a minute, it seems that besides himself, everyone else's progress isn't very ideal?
This is not good. Should he change his strategy…
Just as Asakura was thinking this, the magic on the keychain in his hand suddenly began to pulsate, as if responding to his thoughts, climbing up his arm towards him.
Asakura frowned, activated charger mode, and absorbed all the magic, giving the other party no chance to cause trouble.
After all, although this item could seemingly grant wishes, it was essentially a cursed artifact, and would inevitably have negative effects. Not giving it any opportunity to plant hidden dangers was the most correct choice.
Shoving the keychain into his pocket, Asakura thought, 'Since it's come to this, let's eat first,' and walked towards the nearest Big Bang Burger stall.
However, on the way, he saw a blonde little girl who seemed lost, being pushed around aimlessly in the crowd. Her delicate and cute face was filled with panic and fear from being abandoned in an unfamiliar place.