My daily life of exorcising demons and falling in love with a witch.

Yoshiyuki tucked the wooden katana into his waistband, walked out of the school building, and returned to Erina and Hime's side.

The fish feeding is over.

Now, the mother and daughter are watching the goldfish scrambling for food in the pond, both wearing happy expressions.

Especially Xiao Ji.

Her smile carried a hint of relief.

It's clear that Yoto Hime really likes these fish. She probably takes good care of them.

From this perspective, Yoshiyuki suddenly realized that there was another reason why Arisa didn't go there to fish for food.

That is because he was afraid of angering Xiao Ji and then being killed.

Although he didn't know the exact strength of the black and white cat, Yoshiyuki felt that she probably couldn't beat Hime.

They will be quickly sent away by the Yellow Springs Sword Technique.

"Oh, you're back, you rascal!" Erina turned to look at Yoshiyuki, her attention quickly returning to the goldfish. Pointing at them excitedly, she exclaimed, "Look! These goldfish are so cute when they eat! So adorably silly!"

"Indeed." Yoshiyuki watched the plump goldfish gulping down their food and couldn't help but complain again, "But I feel like they might accidentally suck up a one-yen coin from the bottom of the pond... Is that okay?"

"It should be fine, right?" Erina said enthusiastically. "I was thinking, if this pond were a little bigger, it would be great! Then, maybe the King of Fish would appear!"

"If a King Fish appears, this won't just be a wishing well, it'll become a lake!"

The so-called "King of Fish" is the largest and strongest fish in a body of water.

Almost every large lake has them.

Generally speaking, the king of fish is the carp.

Some of these Magikarp possess spiritual power; they are not useless creatures that can only use Splash, nor do they need to evolve into Gyarados to possess great strength.

Some exceptionally powerful giant fish kings even possess the ability to summon wind and rain within a certain area, and therefore are subject to sacrifice.

There is a king fish in the lake in Yoda Village. It looks like a giant golden-red carp with long, thick barbels like tentacles and gorgeous scales. It can talk.

Its voice is strangely similar to that of Grandpa Erina, but it has its own echo and a very low pitch, giving it a very high-class feel.

The tribute demanded by the Fish King was a dumpling made primarily of a giant earthworm with a large amount of sugar. It smelled of a mixture of earthy, bloody, and sweet odors. Erina secretly ate one and almost threw up.

These special fish dumplings, made to be offered as tribute, were transported directly to the lakeside by cart and poured into the lake.

In exchange, it protected Yitian Village from drought and floods. It has always been effective.

The three of them watched for a while longer as the goldfish fought over their food.

As Yi Xing watched, a sense of reflection on life welled up within him.

These fish seem to have a very leisurely life, just swimming around here, eating and waiting to die.

But in reality, their lives are also fraught with undercurrents.

The strongest goldfish eat the sprinkled fish food first. The weaker goldfish can't squeeze through and can only wait on the side or below. Before the strong goldfish are full, they can only share the scraps that fall.

Therefore, the fish that use force to monopolize the most food become stronger and continue to dominate the next feeding time, creating an infinite cycle.

Fortunately, Xiao Ji gave them enough fish food to fill them up.

Otherwise, the pond wouldn't be filled with a bunch of fat goldfish, but rather a few fat fish and a bunch of skinny fish.

Erina looked at the goldfish pond and fell into thought.

Of course, she has always found it difficult to bear thinking alone, so she brought it up in this way.

"Hey, Yixing. Tell me, how do these goldfish perceive these coins?"

"I think they just categorize things thrown into the pool into edible and inedible categories," Yoshiyuki said after a moment of thought. "So they probably find these coins annoying, since they're not food, so it's best not to throw them in."

"Yes, that's true, but that's not what I'm asking," Erina asked earnestly. "I mean, how do they understand the coin falling?"

"What do you mean, young lady?"

"So, when Hime throws in the bait, the goldfish know that food is coming. And they realize that food occasionally falls to the surface for them to eat, right? But when the coin falls, how do these goldfish, who don't know that humans are making wishes, understand this phenomenon?"

"I understand." Yoshiyuki realized what Erina was thinking and was a little surprised: "So, Miss, you actually think about philosophical questions too."

"What do you mean 'actually'? You look down on me, don't you?" Erina complained, ruffling Hime's arm. "I think about all sorts of things every day too! Just as much as you do!"

"Yes, yes, yes," Yixing said with a wry smile. "I feel that fish don't necessarily understand why the coin falls. They probably don't even think about it actively. They just see it as an occasional natural phenomenon, no different from rain or anything like that."

"After all, ordinary goldfish can't think like humans. So from our perspective, we would naturally come to this conclusion." Erina pondered for a moment, then said again, "But I think the goldfish can probably still realize that the coin was thrown by a person."

"The coin might hit them and they wouldn't be able to eat it. Thinking about it that way, wouldn't the goldfish think the person who threw the coin was some kind of evil being, and that Hime, who fed them, was a kind being?"

"Maybe. Fish can recognize people too." Yixing thought for a moment and said, "Don't we have a fish tank at home? When the person who feeds it gets close to the tank, the fish will swim over and snuggle against the tank to touch him."

"That's right! That's the key!"

Erina said with great interest.

"So what if the goldfish also see evil and good beings as evil and good gods? Wouldn't they then venerate Hime as their deity and pray to her? If there are enough goldfish, wouldn't the believers' thoughts perhaps grant Hime divine power? Then Hime wouldn't just be the Demon Sword Princess, she could be the Goldfish Princess!"

"No, no, young lady, that's impossible! The faith of low-level intelligent creatures like goldfish is completely useless!"

Although his first reaction was to correct her, Yoshiyuki was shocked by Erina's thought process.

What shocked him was that Erina reminded him of a fact he had rarely realized before.

That is—human beings’ fear of many evil gods and strange phenomena is actually based on the same logic as that of goldfish.

These gods and the sources of strange phenomena may not have any malicious intent at all; they may have just unintentionally done something similar to "flipping a coin," which made people fear them and even presuppose that they were evil.

But it is precisely these unintentional acts that are most terrifying.