Flower Town's First Tide-Pooling

"The tide is starting to recede, My Lord." Thomas tugged on Dousen and spoke to Liszt.

"Hand Dousen over to me. You, Tom, and Jesse go and search for those seafoods using the methods I told you about." Liszt took the leash from Thomas.

Dousen still wanted to run off to chase the waves.

Liszt barked instantly, "Quiet, Dousen!"

Dousen did not listen.

Liszt swung off his horse, reached out, and pinned Dousen to the sea sand in one motion, leaving it unable to move, and shouted his command: "Dousen, quiet!"

"Whimper..." Dousen let out two confused cries; unable to struggle free, it could only lie down obediently.

Then, Liszt slowly loosened his grip.

Dousen tried to struggle and run off again.

Liszt pinned it down and issued the command to be quiet once more. After repeating this several times, Dousen finally stopped moving. At this moment, the squire Karl hurriedly handed over a piece of cured meat, which Liszt used to reward Dousen: "Quiet, and you get meat. Dousen, do you understand?"

"Whimper." Dousen tore into the cured meat frantically, devouring it greedily.

Before leaving, Liszt had specifically instructed Thomas not to feed it; only hunger could make an animal remember things deeply, better forming conditioned reflexes to achieve obedience training.

"My Lord, you have a real talent for taming Magic Beasts. I can foresee that in the future, Dousen will be a qualified domesticated Magic Beast."

"Of course it will. If it can't, I'll slaughter it halfway through. The smoked meat from last night's Violent Earth Dog tasted quite good; even at Long-Yam Castle, I haven't had the chance to eat Magic Beast meat many times."

The meat from that large Violent Earth Dog hadn't been sold; it had all been kept in the castle to be salted and air-dried.

"It is indeed a delicacy. Eating it, one can even feel the magic power nourishing the body." Marcus had also dined at the castle last night.

After training Dousen for a while, Liszt handed the beast over to Karl and rode his horse toward the shore after the tide had receded to see how the manservants were faring.

At this time, the three manservants—Thomas, Tom, and Jesse—were busy, each wearing a pair of thick leather gloves, carrying buckets, and holding hammers and iron shovels.

Thomas was responsible for overturning rocks to search for seafood on and under them.

Jesse was responsible for shoveling away the sea sand to search for seafood beneath it.

Tom was responsible for picking up various seafood that had been stranded and unable to return to the sea in time.

"Teacher Marcus, do you know the relationship between the ebb and flow of the tide and the moon at night?" Liszt was in a good mood and posed a question.

Marcus shook his head: "I do not."

"The moon is constantly moving, and it attracts the seawater, causing the tide to rise or fall. Of course, the sun also exerts such an attraction, but the sun is much further away and its pull is not as great as the moon's."

"My Lord, I cannot understand these things you know."

Marcus was being polite.

The moon and sun can attract seawater? If it were anyone else, he would surely spit in their face and tell them to stop spouting nonsense. Then he would retort: if you say the moon and sun attract seawater, why don't they pull us humans up into the sky? That way, everyone could fly and become Sky Knights. Don't try to trick me just because I haven't read much.

Seeing Marcus's expression, Liszt felt bored—ignorant native.

After sighing, he thought to himself: Since the moon here can also cause tides, does that mean this world is indeed a planet? If I sail along the Azure Sea, could I circle the planet and return here? If that's true, perhaps one day I can dispatch a fleet to make a circumnavigation?

The thought was a bit distant, and Liszt did not dwell on it.

He rode his horse over to Tom's side.

Tom hurriedly saluted: "My Lord."

"Go about your business, I'm just looking." At a glance, he saw that Tom's bucket was filled with clams, conchs, starfish, crabs, mussels, clams, and seaweed, as well as some insects similar to sea centipedes and sea roaches.

However, the sea roaches and sea centipedes kept running, occasionally scrambling out of the bucket.

Consequently, Tom had to clumsily try to catch them again.

"These two types of crawling insects are not seafood; you can throw them away," Liszt reminded him.

"Oh, right, right, My Lord." Tom scrambled to throw away the insects, flustered. He didn't know if it was because the lord was nearby, but he kept trying to grab them and failing, breaking into a sweat.

Not far away, Thomas, who was moving rocks, saw Tom's flustered state, turned his head, and smiled triumphantly—of the three manservants in the castle, only he was capable enough to be a suitable successor to the butler.

Because on the other side, Jesse, who was digging in the sand, had been at it for a long time, yet he hadn't caught a single razor clam or mantis shrimp that the lord had mentioned. He was digging randomly, having no idea that he should follow the small holes where the seafood breathed.

What a pair of losers! he thought to himself.

So, he happily carried his hammer, tapping and knocking under the rocks, knocking down clams, mussels, and oysters one by one, occasionally finding a few small crabs.

"You need to pry the meat out of the oysters, like this." Thomas used his hammer to crack the oyster shells and then dug out the soft meat inside.

Before they left, the lord had said that oyster meat was a delicacy.

Thomas didn't think this ugly, squishy thing was particularly delicious, but he would complete the lord's instructions meticulously.

It was effortless.

On the exposed rocks after the tide receded, there were oysters, mussels, and the like everywhere.

In just two hours, Thomas had filled the two buckets he brought, one of which was entirely filled with oyster meat.

He looked at Tom again; although his bucket was full, the lord had already told him several times not to pick up certain things, yet he kept picking them up anyway.

Even though it was the same type of insect, he thought they were different.

Stupid as they come.

As for Jesse, he could be ignored; he was drenched in sweat from digging, yet his bucket had barely covered the bottom. There were a few plump shrimp—which the Lord called Mantis Shrimp—and a few stick-like clams, seemingly called Bamboo Razor Clams.

He set down his bucket filled with oyster meat and puffed out his chest, waiting for the Lord's inspection.

Liszt, who had spent most of the time cooling off under the coconut trees while mounted on his horse, saw that it was nearing noon and the sun was burning like fire, so he called an end to this beachcombing experiment.

He rode over and inspected every bucket.

"Tom, you need to work harder at distinguishing between pests and seafood; not everything by the seaside is edible. If it's something poisonous, it could kill a person."

Tom lowered his head in shame. "I'm sorry, My Lord, I'm too clumsy and can't tell them apart."

"It's alright, Tom. It's normal to lack experience during your first time beachcombing; don't feel guilty about it." Liszt offered a word of comfort before turning to Jesse's bucket. "Hmm, Jesse, I can see your diligence, but it's clear that you haven't put the methods I taught you into practice."

"My Lord, I dug with all my might, but the holes kept disappearing as I dug," Jesse said in a panic.

"You need to dig following the direction of the hole."

"I... I can stay here and keep digging, My Lord. I will definitely be able to fill the bucket."

"If you stay here, there will be no one to carry water at the castle. Jesse, I don't mean to blame you; digging for Mantis Shrimp and Bamboo Razor Clams is not an easy task to begin with."

Finally, Liszt walked over to Thomas's buckets. One was filled to the brim with oyster meat, and the other was overflowing with Crabs, Mussels, and more.

"Well done, Thomas."

"Thank you for the praise, My Lord. This is what I should do; I give my all when working for you." Thomas beamed with joy.

Liszt returned a smile full of aristocratic grace to show his affirmation of Thomas—he certainly knew what was on Thomas's mind; Steward Carter had already told him that Thomas was ambitious. But as a lord, he did not care, for no matter how great Thomas's ambition was, it was merely to become the castle steward.

If he truly had the ability, and old Carter could no longer manage, what would it matter if Thomas became the steward?

No servant could ever turn the world upside down in front of him.