42 – The Flower Town’s First Beachcombing
“The tide has started to ebb, My Lord.” Said Thomas while pulling Tremblingwoods.
“Give Tremblingwoods to me. You, Tom, and Jesse go looking for seafood according to the way I told you.” Liszt took Tremblingwoods’ rope.
Tremblingwoods still wanted to go for a run, to go chase the wave spray.
Liszt suddenly shouted: “Quiet, Tremblingwoods!”
Tremblingwoods did not listen.
Liszt dismounted his horse. He pressed Tremblingwoods against the sand, making it unable to move. He ordered loudly: “Tremblingwoods, quiet!”
“Uh uh…” Tremblingwoods let out two unclear barks as it struggled before obediently lying down.
Then, Liszt slowly loosened his grip.
Tremblingwoods started struggling again, wanting to go for a run.
Liszt once more pressed it down and gave it the order to keep quiet. After repeating it several times, Tremblingwoods finally no longer moved. At this time, the retainer knight, Karl, hurriedly handed Liszt a piece of dried meat, which was then given to Tremblingwoods as a reward: “You will be given meat to eat if you stay quiet. Understood, Tremblingwoods?”
“Uh uh…” Tremblingwoods frantically tore the dried meat apart and wolfed it down.
Before going out, Liszt had specifically told Thomas not to feed it. Only hunger could make animals deeply remember things and form better conditioned reflexes, achieving the obedience training.
“Sir, you are quite talented at taming magic beasts. I can envision Tremblingwoods as a standard domestic magic beast in the future.”
“Of course, I will slaughter it midway if it fails to reach that standard. The Flyingdust Dog’s smoked meat tasted quite good last night. Even in the Longtaro Castle, I have have not eaten magic beast’s meat many times.”
The Flyingdust Dog mother’s meat was not sold, but instead stored in the castle after being marinated and dried.
“It is really delicious. After being eaten, one can feel its magic power nourishing their body.” Marcus had eaten it in the castle last night.
After training Tremblingwoods for a while, Liszt handed Tremblingwoods to Karl. He galloped on horseback towards the shore to see how the servingmen were doing after the tide had ebbed.
Thomas, Tom, and Jesse, the three servingmen each wore a pair of thick leather gloves. They busied themselves while carrying buckets, hammers, and iron shovels.
Thomas was in charge of turning the rocks over to look for seafood above and below the rocks.
Jesse was in charge of shoveling the sand to look for seafood under the sand.
Tom was in charge of picking up all kinds of stranded seafood that did not manage to return to the sea.
“Teacher Marcus, do you know of the relationship between the moon and the ebbing and flooding tides?” Liszt was in a good mood and raised a question.
Marcus shook his head: “I do not know.”
“The moon is constantly moving. It attracts the seawater, causing flooding or ebbing tides. Of course, the sun also has its own attraction, just that it is too far away and its attraction force is not as great as that of the moon.”
“Sir, I cannot make head or tail of it.”
Marcus had already been polite.
The moon and the sun being capable of attracting the seawater? If it was someone else, he would have definitely spat at the other party’s face. Then he would retort by saying ‘you say that the moon and the sun attract seawater, then why do we humans do not attract the heavens? Would we not be capable of flight, would we not be Sky Knights? Stop lying and read less nonsense’.
Seeing Marcus’ expression, Liszt felt it to be boring as well as fitting of an ignorant aboriginal.
After sighing with regret, he secretly thought: “Since the moon here can also cause the tides, does it mean that this world is indeed a planet? Then, can one circle around this planet and return here by sailing along the Azure Waves Sea? If it is indeed so, then perhaps one day I will be able to send a fleet to sail around the world?”
This idea was a bit distant, so Liszt did not continue to ponder over it.
He rode his mount up to Tom.
Tom hurriedly saluted: “My Lord.”
“Be at ease, I am just look around.” He saw at a glance that Tom’s bucket contained sea snails, starfish, crabs, mussels, clams, seaweed, as well as some bugs similar to sea centipedes and ligiidae.
However, the sea centipedes and ligiidae were falling out of the bucket as they tryied to escape.
Thus, Tom had to clumsily pick them up again.
“The two types of bugs trying to escape are not seafood. They can be thrown away.” Warned Liszt.
“Oh, okay, okay, My Lord.” Tom panicked and threw the bugs away. If the lord was not around, he might have worked up a sweat by trying to catch them again and again.
Not far away, Thomas, who was moving a rock, turned his head and smiled smugly when saw Tom’s stunned look. Among the castle’s three servingmen, only he was good enough to be the butler’s successor.
On the other side, Jesse, who was digging in the sand, had dug for a long time, with the result being that the lord had to explain to him that he had not found any razor shells or pippi shrimps because of digging carelessly. Basically, he did not know that he had to dig along the small holes left for ventilation by the seafood.
“Two good-for-nothings!” He secretly said inside.
Thus, he happily hit with the hammer below a rock, knocking down clams, mussels, and oysters one after another. Occasionally, he could also pick up a few small crabs.
“The oysters have to have their flesh extracted like this.” Thomas broke an oyster’s shell with the hummer, and then dug out the soft flesh.
Before leaving, the sir lord had said that the oyster’s flesh was delicious.
Thomas did not think that this ugly, soft thing tasted any good. However, he followed the sir lord’s words to the letter.
It did not take much effort.
There were oysters and mussels everywhere on the exposed rocks after the tide ebbed.
In just two hours, Thomas had filled up the two buckets he had brought, with one of the buckets being solely filled with flesh dug out from oysters.
He looked at Tom again. Although his bucket was full, but the sir lord had to tell him several times not to pick up some things, yet he still picked them up.
The bugs were obviously the same, yet he thought them to be different.
So stupid.
As for Jesse, that one could be ignored. He was covered in perspiration from all the digging, all the while only managing to cover the bottom of the bucket with a few plump shrimps and a few clams looking like sticks, which the sir lord called pippi shrimps and razor shells respectively.
He put down his bucket filled with oyster flesh and stuck out his chest, awaiting the sir lord’s inspection.
……
While atop his horse, Liszt had spent most of the time enjoying the cool breeze below a coconut tree. Seeing that noon was approaching, that the sun was already scalding, he called to stop the beachcombing experiment.
He steered the horse over before looking into each bucket.
“Tom, you have to strive harder and learn to distinguish between pests and seafood, not everything that comes from the sea is edible. Anything poisonous would be dangerous.”
Tom lowered his head in shame: “I have let you down, My Lord. I am too stupid and do not know how to distinguish them.”
“It does not matter. Tom, This was your first time beachcombing, so it is normal being inexperienced. Do not worry about it.” Liszt said a few words to comfort Tom, then turned to Jesse’s bucket. “Oh. Jesse, I can see that you are hardworking, but obviously, you had not managed to apply the method I had teached you.
“My Lord, I dug with all my strength. I dug and dug but did not see the holes.” Said Jesse in flustration.
“You have to dig in the direction of the holes.”
“I… I can stay here digging. My Lord, I will definitely fill a bucket.”
“If you stay here, there will be no one to carry water in the castle. Jesse, I am not blaming you. Digging out pippi shrimps and razor shells is not an easy matter.
Lastly, Liszt went to the buckets in front of Thomas. One bucket was packed full with oyster flesh, while another one was filled to the brim with crabs, mussels, and other seafood.
“Nicely done, Thomas.”
“Thank you for your praise, My Lord. This is what I should do. I will do my best to accomplish the work entrusted to me by My Lord.” Thomas had a beaming smile.
Liszt returned an elegant, noble smile to Thomas, expressing his approval of his gentleman’s valet. He naturally had an idea regarding Thomas’ thoughts. Carter had long since told him that Thomas was ambitious. But as a lord, he paid it no mind. Because no matter how grand Thomas’ ambitions were, he would at most be thinking about becoming the castle’s butler.
If he had the ability and Old Carter did not act against him, then letting Thomas become the butler would not be a big deal.
No servant could overturn the sky above them.