Garbage Collection
“Alright, shall we go now?”
I swam alongside the people of the Blue Waters Shrine for a while. After passing through a barrier similar to the one in the Blue Waters Shrine, a crystal castle with a green tinge appeared before us.
So that’s the Cerulean Shrine, huh? It looks similar in structure to the Blue Waters Shrine but with a different hue, yet it’s still quite impressive.
“”Oh~ this is beautiful too~””
(It’s a bit green, just like its name suggests.)
(Even though they’re made of the same kind of gem, it’s a bit strange that the colors are different, isn’t it~?)
The children exclaimed in admiration.
“Welcome, please come in.”
I was welcomed by an elderly man, about Gard-san’s age.
“My name is Takumi. Um… I’ve come here on a request introduced to me by the Miko Himesama of the Blue Waters Shrine.”
“I’m Finn, the Chief of the Cerulean Shrine. Thank you for making the journey. Would it be alright for you to meet our Miko Himesama first?”
“Y-yes, of course.”
We parted ways with the guides from the Blue Waters Shrine here, and under the guidance of Finn-san, we entered the Cerulean Shrine.
“Miko Himesama, I have brought them.”
“You must be Takumi-sama, right! I heard that you’ve accepted our request. On behalf of the merfolk of the Cerulean Shrine, I would like to express my gratitude. Thank you very much.”
The Miko Himesama of the Cerulean Shrine was older than the Miko Himesama of the Blue Waters Palace, roughly the same age as Mirena-san, with green hair and green eyes.
“No, no, it was a simple request, so it’s no trouble at all. Can we take care of the request right away?”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“No at all.”
“I see.—Finn, please show them the way.”
“Understood.”
So, I was guided by Finn-san to quickly complete the garbage collection request.
“”Do you think there are any pearls~?””
“N? Kids, what are pearls?”
“”Jewels!””
“Fumu, do merfolk throw away jewels?”
“Kaiser, don’t get the wrong idea! Pearls aren’t considered jewels for merfolk. Pearls come from seashells, and the round and shiny ones are considered jewels by humans.”
I hurriedly explained to Kaiser to prevent any misunderstandings caused by the children’s explanation.
“Seashells? Humans consider them jewels~? That’s strange.”
“Well, if you call them seashells, it does sound a bit strange.”
As we talked, it seemed we had arrived at the cave that served as the garbage disposal area.
“”Ah!””
Allen and Elena noticed something and rushed over.
“”Found pearls~””
“Ah~ it looks like we did find some after all.”
“”Kaiser~ take a look.””
Sure enough, there were pearls here as well, and Allen and Elena picked up several and showed them to Kaiser.
“So, these are pearls, huh? Well, these don’t have that feeling of translucency, but if you look closely, they’re quite beautiful.”
“”Yeah! They’re beautiful!””
“It seems there are a lot of large pearls here~”
“”Plenty of souvenirs!””
“… Well, we can only take the smaller ones as souvenirs, we can’t gift the larger ones~”
Even if there were many pearls, there wasn’t much use for them, so I preferred smaller ones for souvenirs. That sentence might have sounded a bit extravagant, though.
“Allen, Elena, do you remember the size of the pearls we used to make jewelry for Rebecca-san?”
“”Remember~!””
“In that case, could you gather pearls of that size with a nice shape? We can use those as souvenirs.”
“”What color~?””
“They can be all white or in various colors, it doesn’t matter.”
“”Understood~””
Before stashing them all in the Infinite Storage, we sorted out pearls for souvenirs.
“There are quite a few big ones here~”
Ironically, there were some golf ball-sized pearls rolling around. Perhaps it would be best to crush the larger ones into powder? I think there was a product called “pearl powder,”… but I have no idea what it’s used for.
“”Is this size okay?””
“Yeah, that should be fine. Now, after this…—”
Once we finished picking pearls, the rest could be quickly put into the Infinite Storage. This would complete the request. I casually checked what we had collected, and it was mostly seaweed for medicine, shells, stones, and bones that could be used for crafting. Very little of it was truly trash. We could easily dispose of the small amount of actual garbage by burning it when we returned to land.
“This went so smoothly…”
“We relied heavily on our abilities.”
Finn-san seemed astonished as he observed our actions. There might be very few individuals with the aptitude for time-space magic, making it a rare sight among the relatively small merfolk population.
“So, can we consider the request complete?”
“Y-yes! Oh! What should I do?!”
“Eh, what’s the matter!?”
“… We didn’t discuss the reward for the request.”
“Ah~…”
Come to think of it, I had assumed that “the garbage itself is valuable to us” and considered it the reward. But it seems that’s not the case.
“Umm… no need for a reward. We can make use of various items we found here, some of which can be sold, so we’ll profit sufficiently.”
“That won’t do! What we had here may be useful to you, but that’s separate from the reward.”
“Ehh~”
It looks like this situation won’t be resolved without a further discussion about the reward.
“Takumi, you did the job, right? So, shouldn’t you receive compensation?”
“Even though I said it’s a job, all I did was store it.”
“But it’s something the others couldn’t do, right? In that case, I believe you deserve a compensation for this labor.”
“……”
It was quite unusual to see Kaiser, who seemed to be the least interested in matters like labor and compensation, advising me. Quite strange.
“Well, um… how about you rest now that the matter is done after we report to the Miko Himesama? Yes, let’s do that! We can discuss the reward after you rest!”
“… Yes, that sounds good.”
Perhaps noticing the awkward atmosphere I was creating, Finn-san nervously suggested our future plans. So, we returned to the Cerulean Shrine to report to the Miko Himesama.
“Oh my! Is it already done!?”
The Miko Himesama was very pleased, and the discussion about the reward came up once again. As for that, the matter was settled by receiving magic tools that the Cerulean Shrine had in storage after our rest.