Chapter 220: “The New Crew”

Chapter 220 “The New Crew”

Duncan returned to the ship with a bountiful hunt.

With a heavy muffled thud, a large fish, almost as tall as an adult, was thrown to the ground by him, and several smaller, uglier fish were crackled next to the large fish.

“These fish are really struggling today, fortunately I’m still the better man in terms of strength,” Duncan said in a pleased and cheerful tone, raising his hand to wipe his forehead – he wasn’t actually sweating at all, but as a fishing man who had come back with a bunch of big fish to show off, it was a good time to wipe his forehead. But as a fishing man who came back with a bunch of big fish to show off, wiping his forehead at this time is the most basic respect for the prey, “Come and take a look at it, this can be considered a specialty of the depths of the Infinite Sea, don’t look a little bit ugly, but in fact, it tastes quite …… Why do you all have that look on your face?”

Duncan finally took his eyes off his prey and looked up to spot Shirley, Maurice and Dog, who were hiding far away in the cabin, while Maurice and Shirley clearly didn’t look quite right, except for Dog’s expression, which was a bit more difficult to figure out.

Only Nina ran over and greeted them as she always did, “Uncle Duncan!”

Then she looked curiously at the fish that had been thrown on the floor.

It really was fish, ugly as it was – but it was indeed the kind that Uncle Duncan had taken home earlier.

“Really ugly ……” Nina exclaimed in amazement, “Did they turn out to be even uglier before they were made into dried fish? And how did they get like this ……”

“How do a couple of them look like that?” Duncan couldn’t help but inquire as he looked across the hatch at Shirley and Maurice who looked like they had seen a ghost.

“They were frightened by the movement when you caught the fish, uncle,” Nina immediately replied, followed by what seemed to be a moment of reflection, her face also revealed a somewhat embarrassed expression, “In fact, I was also startled …… when you caught the fish the movement is really quite loud ……”

“Did I make a lot of noise when I caught the fish?” Duncan frowned suspiciously and seemed to vaguely notice something, looking up at Maurice who was sitting in the distance, “Did something happen just now?”

It was only then that Morris carefully got up from his chair, and then cautiously came over to the ugly monstrous fish, looking down and surveying them again and again, confirming that these things had really turned into fish before he hesitantly spoke up, “Mr. Duncan, do you …… have a bad relationship with the deep-sea scions? So much so that you have to twist them into this …… appearance.”

Duncan was instantly stunned, finally noticing what was going on with this dissonance from the beginning to the end, he slowly turned his head to look at Nina and spoke thoughtfully, “…… In your opinion, isn’t it fish that I’m catching?”

“It is now, but not just now,” Nina replied in a small voice as she poked her tongue out, “Just now we saw you wrestling with something very huge, something that looked like …… this… …”

Nina stretched her hand out as hard as she could, trying to gesture to the massive sea beast that would never appear to human reason, and followed it up by describing what she had just seen, on the deck, and as she recounted it, Duncan’s expression became a little more serious, followed by a thoughtful pause.

“That’s pretty much it,” Nina finally finished speaking, and she turned her head to look at the monstrous fish again, incredulity in her tone, “but we didn’t think that thing would actually turn into …… a fish. ”

Duncan, on the other hand, fell into silence for a while, and only after a long time did he mutter his breath softly in a thoughtful manner, “That sounds like a really huge octopus ……”

Shirley, who had been hiding to the side without interjecting, finally dawdled over, sniffing, unable to hold back her curiosity, “An octopus? What’s that?”

“It’s actually edible,” Duncan explained, “It looks rather scary, but it tastes alright.”

As soon as those words came out of his mouth, the looks on Shirley and Maurice’s faces went back to being wonderful.

Duncan, however, didn’t care about their reactions at the moment, he just looked at his quarry in deep thought.

It turns out that the “fish” he caught …… was not a fish in the first place.

The children of the deep sea, the dreadful “monster” in the boundless sea, the sea monster that made the captain and the sailors afraid of fear – after being “caught” by himself, they became fish.

Why did this change happen?

Duncan first felt surprised and confused, but in the end, these surprised and confused or converge into a more fundamental question:
This fish, can it still be eaten?
Duncan was a bit torn for a moment, but after a few seconds of being torn he had an answer – it’s not like he had never eaten it before, besides being a bit ugly, the flavor of these fish was still good.

This is the infinite sea, there are countless strange things in the infinite sea, compared to those really big and unnameable horrors, the monsters of the deep sea become ugly fish after coming ashore, so what is worth making a fuss about? Although the words “deep-sea heir” sounded quite bluffing, if you think a little more freely, isn’t a deep-sea heir just a kind of sea monster? Throughout human civilization, how many things that were once regarded as horrible beasts have ended up on the table?

Duncan thinks the essence of this whole thing is really that one ingredient became another on the Lost Country ……

The words “I’ve eaten it anyway” dispelled all the doubts and tangles in Duncan’s mind, and he decided to forget about it, and consider it as unveiling the secret behind the ingredient’s delicious flavor – if he was really worried, he might as well go back and ask Alice to cook it for a while longer.

Shirley and Maurice just watched as the expression on Duncan’s face became pleasant again, and heard the other man’s arrangement, “Without thinking about it so much, I’ll take these fish to the kitchen first.”

Shirley couldn’t be bothered to be cautious at this point, “Really?!”

“It’s not like you haven’t eaten it before,” Duncan looked at this girl with an odd expression, “Didn’t you eat it quite favorably last time?”

Shirley: “……” Regardless of what kind of mindset the several visitors had, this special dinner on the Lost Country was finally served.

And for Duncan, today was also destined to be a special day.

After such a long period of inactivity, the Lost Country finally had a day that could be considered “lively”. The long-closed dining room, located in the mid-deck cabin, was reopened, with bright whale-oil lamps dispersing the darkness of the cabin, and the long table, polished and shining, was topped with the most sumptuous meal the ship could offer today! —

Freshly baked bread, vegetable soup, pea stew, jam with mashed potatoes, two low wines and a spirit, and fish.

And, of course, Aye’s chips and ketchup.

Duncan sat at one end of the long table, with Nina sitting beside him, Alice, who had come over to make up the numbers, on the other side, and Shirley, Dog, Maurice & Aye on either side of the long table.

To be fair, compared to the large dining room and the long table, the few people in front of them weren’t really “lively”, and technically there wasn’t even a real “normal human” here, except for Maurice, but even so, this was going to be the most vibrant atmosphere Duncan had ever had on a ship. But even so, this was going to be Duncan’s most atmospheric meal since he’d arrived on the ship.

After all, usually he ate next to either goat head or Alice, the whole ship can not come up with two people to eat meals, it is not easy to have a Ai, the recipe is still only fries ……

For the several “visitors” who boarded the ship today, it seems that this will also be the most incredible and impressive meal they have ever had.

Maurice looked at the plate in front of him, Alice’s hand cut the grilled fish was placed in the center, after cooking, the heir’s flesh and blood is no longer difficult to see any weird and horrifying elements – it is just like real food, and even exudes a tantalizing aroma.

Sitting on the Lost Country, communing with the shadows of subspace, partaking of the blood and flesh of the scion of the deep.

Maurice couldn’t even resist the urge to whisper the holy name of Rahm, the God of Wisdom – but was afraid that the god would actually rain down bestowal upon him, causing him to accidentally look at something he shouldn’t.

The atmosphere around the table seemed a bit formal, and Duncan noticed this, so he was the first to raise his glass, “First of all, once again, I would like to welcome you all – it was a bit of an unexpected process, but you are all now part of the Lost Country, so let’s use this glass of wine as a welcoming ceremony. ”

The nagging and nervousness in his mind quickly gave way, and Maurice scrambled to raise his glass and rise, followed closely by Shirley and an exemplary Nina – though Duncan quickly glanced at the two girls, “Just juice for you two.”

“I’m almost an adult!” Sherry spoke up subconsciously at once.

“I …… I’ll just sip a little,” Nina whispered along, “Fruit wine is fine ……”

“…… Then you two are only allowed to drink a little,” Duncan said with a serious face, “I’ll have Alice keep an eye on it from the side.”

“Oi! Good uncle/good Mr. Duncan!”

Maurice watched the exchange between Shirley, Nina and Duncan with a bit of amazement, a scene that seemed a bit too grounded suddenly relaxing his taut nerves a bit.

It wasn’t just Maurice’s nerves that relaxed a little.

After Nina took a giddy sip of fruit wine but still choked and coughed, the entire atmosphere in the restaurant seemed to relax along with her.

Duncan felt that he could now talk about his next thoughts and arrangements.

“After dinner, I will arrange for Aye to return you to the city-state,” he said in a relaxed and calm tone as he looked around the table, “Mr. Morris, you can go straight home, and Shirley, Dog, and Nina, you can return to the antique store.”

Nina was slowing down from a cough brought on by a mouthful of fruit wine when she heard Duncan’s words and suddenly thought of something, “Ahem …… Uncle …… Ahem, so you… …”

“I’ll be waiting for you over there, of course,” Duncan smiled, his gaze falling on Sherry as well, “It’s always been that way, actually – I’m here as well as in the City State.”

“Uh ……” Shirley fumed a bit and froze for a few seconds kind of before blinking suddenly, “I thought …… that after settling the matter of Prand, you stopped paying attention to that city-state, and just …… like the story goes, the captain continued on his adventure ……”

“Of course the captain went on to embark on adventures, the Lost Country still sails the infinite sea,” Duncan looked at Shirley with a wry smile, “but the captain also remains concerned with the civilized world, and the crew of the Lost Country …… you will return to the the land life you know so well, but do not rule out re-embarking when the situation calls for it.”

“…… We have to come back?!” Shirley was stunned for a moment, suddenly reacting.

Nina reacted as well, “We’re still coming back!?”

(End of chapter)