'Haha ...... the water feels so nice. The sky is blue and the weather is nice, perfect for relaxing.

'Yes, time passes very slowly in this way.

We work as employees of the inn, so basically we don't have much time off. This kind of slow time is precious to us.

Me, Letty, and Ira dip our feet in the water and rest our backs against the slope.

The next time we see each other, we see endless blue sky and white clouds. Nothing else.

Perhaps because there is no unnecessary information in our vision, we don't have to think about anything.

Whenever I want to spend some time in a daze, the best thing to do is to meditate or just look at the sky like this.

The effect is so great that even Letty and Ira, who are usually impatient, take it easy.

I've been in a daze for about 30 minutes now. At this rate, I can probably do so for another 30 minutes or so.

Is it bad that I'm thinking like that?

Letty suddenly came to herself and jerked herself up.

'--Ha! Ira-sis, no! This is my brother's pace!

'No! I almost fell into Tori's pace and zoned out for the rest of the evening! Come on, Tori! It's time to start picking the ingredients!

'Eh, you two could have zoned out a bit more ......'

'You've rested long enough! I need to get back as soon as possible because I need to make them spit up shellfish and sand!

'Yes! Get up quickly or I'll splash you in the face!''

I complain that I want to be more spontaneous, but Letty and Ira won't let me.

d*mn, it's a shame, I thought I could relax more.

At Letty and Ira's urging, I reluctantly get up.

'What shall we do first? Do you want to fish?''

''Yes, that's right. Let's set traps for river fish first, and after that we can pick up shellfish.

You can fish leisurely or chase them and net them, but setting a trap first would be the most efficient and easiest.

But we've lost a lot of time. I should have set the trap in the first place. If we had done that, we might have caught a fish by now. ......'

'Well, well, well, don't think that way, just think of it as us taking our time. It's not like we're short on time.

Ira has a good point, but the world is not a fun or rich place to live if you only focus on efficiency.

Well, that's true. Since we're out in the world, we should stretch our wings a little.

'Yes, yes. So why don't we just zone out for another hour or so?

You're stretching your wings too much.

Since Isla was so open-minded, I made a suggestion to her, which was immediately rejected. I was afraid she would get angry if I persisted any longer, so I had no choice but to put on my sandals and set about setting up the trap.

A wooden box with a hole in it is filled with bait that river fish like and is submerged in the water.

The trap is designed to take advantage of the habits of river fish, so that once the fish is in the box, it is usually impossible to get out. Depending on the species of fish, some of the river fish here are caught in this trap.

Other traps are set up by piling up stones and throwing insects and other bait into them, and net-like traps are set up one after another.

'Big brother, I've finished setting the traps over here.

I'm done here, too.

It appears that Letty and Ira have also finished setting their traps.

All we have to do now is wait for the fish to enter the traps.

'Well then, let's go catch some shellfish or prawns or something!

After that, Ira and Letty hold buckets to catch shellfish and shrimps and stuff.

Both of them are used a lot for cooking, so we have to catch a lot of them!

'Yes, I guess so. Shellfish can be used in stir-fries and soups, and shrimp are delicious fried.

Considering not only what we serve in the cafeteria, but also what we eat ourselves, a little bit of food is not enough. We need to save a lot so that we can eat well.

I grab a bucket and move on.

Oh, there are a lot of clams!

A jigiri clam is a clam like the one I saw in a previous life.

The meat is not very large, but when cooked, it releases its flavor and is often added to soups and other dishes.

If you take a lot of these, you can make a tasty shellfish soup.

There are many such clams at the bottom of the river.

It seems that this area is a good place to find such clams, even though we had to go outside of the city.

I immediately reach out my hand to pick up a clamshell.

It is about the size of the first joint of my thumb, which is perfect for a clamshell.

I put it in the bucket in my left hand and heard a pleasant clunking sound.

However, there are dozens of them in my field of vision at a glance. I picked up one, two, three, and so on.

And when one hand is full, he puts it in the bucket.

Not only from me, but also from Letty and Ira, the sound of shells being put into the bucket is heard incessantly. It seems that there are a lot of shellfish there as well.

What's wrong, Tori?

Ira must have noticed my gaze, because he raises a curious voice.

No, it was lively just now, but as soon as we started picking up shellfish, it suddenly became quiet.

'There are a lot of shells in front of me, so I'm busy picking them up.'

Slightly embarrassed, Ira looks away and continues to pick up shells.

I know how you feel. With so many shells, you are more absorbed in moving your hands than in talking.

I found a strange shell! What's this?

As I was chuckling, Lettie picked up a shell and tilted her head.

Ira and I moved closer to see a long, thin, oval-shaped white shell on the palm of his hand.

'Ah, that's a sand clam, isn't it? They are not suitable for eating, because they tend to hold sand in their bodies, so even if you make them spit out the sand, they can't get rid of the sand.

It's edible, but it's so crunchy that you feel like you're eating sand.

Shellfish soup served at random restaurants sometimes contains this kind of mixture. When you have a very crunchy texture, you should usually assume that this is the culprit.

Then, you can't eat this. Yes!

Letty looked at the sand clams carefully, memorized them, and tossed them over the edge of the river.

Shells that were inedible or too small were released.

As we silently collected the sand clams, we gathered quite a lot of them. When we shook the bucket, we could hear the clattering sound of the clams alone.

Lettie would have picked as many as I did, so there was no point in picking just a lot of clams.



So, I decide to pick different shells.

My next target is a shell attached to a stone. These shells are difficult to pick with bare hands, so I put on gloves.

I find a large stone and turn it over to find many black and brown bivalves attached to it.

They are called funil shells, which are like small mussels in the previous life. They have a slight odor, but they have a rich taste and are delicious when sauteed in butter or olive oil.

I remove the funilid clams that are stuck to the stones by hand. They stick to the stone so strongly that I have to exert a lot of force to pick them off.

Wearing gloves is a must because you may cut your hands on the shells or stones.

I peel them off one by one from the stones and put them into the bucket.

Like the mussels in the previous life, funilid clams look completely like G when you look at them like this. They even have the same coloring.

But because they are delicious shellfish, they are easily accepted. Humans are a mysterious thing.