Part 3 The Traveler Chapter 12 The Fishman on the Tongue
With the red moon high in the sky, Klein walked over to Donna and Denton’s siblings and crouched down next to them.
Cecil, Cleves’ female companion, visibly breathed a sigh of relief, picked up the rifle on the deck, half-bent her body, and walked briskly in the other direction, still a good ten meters or so from the peppered pig and cow offal.
”Uncle, is it going to start ……” The young girl with playful freckles, Donna, was suddenly a little nervous, but curiosity and anticipation were written on her face.
Klein raised the index finger of his left hand and pressed it against the front of his mouth, signaling the two underage little ones to keep quiet.
At times like this, he always couldn’t help but thank Rossel, it was because of the efforts of this traveler’s predecessor that some of his habitual gestures were able to become the prevailing body language of the Northern Continent without misunderstanding.
I heard that at the beginning of the Fifth Age, the gesture of “don’t talk” meant insults in Rune, and in some parts of the Southern Continent, it meant “Kiss me”…… Klein’s thoughts were a bit scattered for a moment. Dangerous.
Donna and Denton didn’t dare to open their mouths again, and crouched quietly, intently watching Krivis make preparations for the battle.
The ex-adventurer picked up a boom and tossed the silk line with a portion of pig and cow entrails hanging over the side of the ship.
With a plop, the bait went into the water.
Unperturbed, Krivis scattered the remaining entrails, and taking his own weapon, he took one step back and ducked into the shadows opposite Cecil, the two of them forming an angle of about 60 degrees with the line connecting them to the side of the ship where the boom was set up.
Leaning back against the triple-pronged spikes and other weapons, he lifted his rifle and tried the feel of his aim.
There was complete silence on deck, only the roar of the steam engine running and the movement of the waves lapping against the ship.
As time passed, Donna and Denton couldn’t help but switch from squatting to sitting, leaning their backs against the cabin planks to soothe the paralysis in their legs.
Just then they saw the boom on the side of the ship sink a little.
A muffled scuffling sound flew upward, closer and closer, and suddenly a figure leaped onto the deck.
It was a monster bathed in scarlet moonlight, covered in dark green scales and dripping with greenish slime.
It didn’t bear much resemblance to a human, like a huge fish growing robust limbs, while the seams of its hands and feet had visible webbing.
Standing over a meter nine, with round bulging eyes and gilled cheeks, the fish-man had the appearance of a legendary demonic monster, and looking at it, Donna reached up and covered her mouth to prevent herself from instinctively screaming.
At the same time, she also covered her brother Denton’s mouth.
Awareness is good …… Klein laughed darkly, seriously examined the fish man.
Unlike the “sailor” runaways he had seen before, real fishmen didn’t have human-like heads, they were pure monsters.
The fishman looked around the room in a slightly wary manner before squatting down, picking up the pig and cow offal scattered on the ground and quickly stuffing it into its mouth, making a distinct chewing sound.
Within its predominantly white eyes, its demeanor gradually laxed, as if it had fallen into a funk.
The IQ is not high …… Klein shook his head and gave his judgment.
Bang!
Clevis pulled the trigger, and a bullet flew out of the rifle, instantly hitting the fishman between its chest and abdomen, shattering the scales and splattering blood.
”Wow!” The fishman let out a scream like a child’s harsh cry, and with both hands braced, lunged at Krivis in the shadows, as fast as a steam train.
At this time, Cecil in the other position opened fire.
Bang!
The rifle bullet struck the fishman in the side ribs, bringing with it a scattering of many fragments and a staggering of the tall figure.
The pepper-eaten fishman showed a visible sluggishness, and it stopped, not knowing which direction to tackle the enemy first.
And this gave Cleves and Cecil the opportunity to load their guns with ease.
They took aim again, and with a forward and backward motion they pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
Two blood flowers bloomed one after another, and the pain restored clarity to the fishman’s eyes.
It flipped and lunged, dodging the subsequent shots, and approached Crivis as if he were uninjured.
Crivis methodically lowered the rifle in his hand and picked up the three-pronged spike leaning against the side.
Instead of dodging, he leapt forward and rolled to the side of the fishman, the three-pronged spike in his hand sinking hard and precisely into his prey’s side ribs where the scales had broken.
The fishman whirled around with a violent gust of wind, hard enough to fling the three-pronged thorn along with Krivis, sending the former adventurer crashing to the deck with a thud.
The fishman shook its head, as if it felt the intense discomfort in its body, it didn’t attack Crivis and Cecil again, and took a big step, running towards the ship’s side, trying to leap into the sea.
Bang!
Cecil’s bullet hit it once again, creating blood-colored flowers, but it still didn’t incapacitate it.
Stomping twice, the fishman ran to the right place, knees bent, about to jump.
However, its body was so weak that it didn’t even manage to launch itself, and the distance it jumped was obviously not enough, so it could only fall on the inside of the ship’s side.
Bang!
The fishman hardened itself against the rifle’s damage and tried to roll over the side of the ship.
Seeing that its escape was in sight, Klein took out his revolver.
Just at this time, a loud bang came from the other direction!
The fishman’s left eye then turned into a blood-colored hole, allowing one to vaguely see the pale gelatinous substance writhing inside.
It wasn’t dead yet, and slumped over in its cabin position, crawling as hard as it could in an attempt to get back on its feet.
After a few seconds, the poison erupted and it convulsed and died completely.
Klein looked around and saw a middle-aged man come out of the shadows on the other side leading to the cabin.
The middle-aged man was wearing a thick dark red jacket, white baggy pants, and the standard boat-shaped hat of the era.
In his hand he carried an iron colored hand cannon that lagged behind the times, and white smoke was coming out of the thick, dark and deep muzzle.
Klein had been introduced to the man by the waiter before and knew him to be the captain of the White Onyx, Erland Karg.
Aerlan, who had visible wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, forehead, and mouth, walked towards Cleves and smiled slightly:
”As a captain, I have to make sure there are no surprises.
”Forgive me if I’ve been watching from the sidelines.”
Crivis had long since risen to his feet, with little outward show of emotion:
”This is your ship.
”As is customary, you have the right to share in the spoils.”
Aeran glanced sideways at Klein and the others with a smirk:
”The next replenishment of fresh water and food is in two days, and you’ll still have to figure out how to preserve the fishers’ corpses yourselves.
”How about this, sell it to me cheaper and count the difference as the payment I should get.”
”That’s the best way.” Crivis and Cecil exchanged glances and agreed to Ailan’s request, “For 130 pounds, it’s yours in its entirety.”
The extraordinary materials on a fishman’s body, the market price is between 150 and 200 pounds, taking into account the other spiritual parts, 130 pounds is indeed very cheap …… However, Crivis and the others can only do so, this is Aerlan’s ship, there is a large group of armed sailors and crew members to help him, if the negotiation really breaks down, in a minute, you can sink all the people present into the sea …… Of course, provided that I do not get involved …… Well, I can see that Crivis and Cecil are not extraordinary, at least not in the field of fighting and shooting extraordinary, but it is Aerlan a little suspicious … …Krynn stood up, listening to the transaction from the sidelines.
”No, you seem to misunderstand something, I’m not threatening you, 150 pounds, that’s a fair price.” Erland Karg called out to a sailor and gave him the key to the safe.
”You are the ‘Just Ailan’?” Cecil seemed to recall the other man’s nickname at sea just then.
Aerlan gave a laugh and said:
”Yes.”
At that moment, Donna and Denton’s siblings, who had been stunned by the fierce battle and the living monster earlier, jumped up and ran over to the fishman’s body with excitement and fear, leaning in close.
”Is it, is it really dead?” Donna kicked the fishman’s body with her toes, then jumped away as if she was afraid of the other’s resurrection and hid behind her brother.
”It really is a monster!” Denton sucked in his breath and widened his eyes.
”In the sea, there are a lot of monsters, in fact, this shouldn’t be called a fish man, it doesn’t have the same thing as a human except that it has limbs and can stand, I prefer to call it a fish monster.” Ailan laughed gently.
He then squatted down, took out a small knife, and cut open the cheek below the fishman’s eye, revealing the white and tender meat inside that was stained with some red color.
”The most delicious part of the fishman’s body, suitable for eating raw.” Erland carefully cut a slice off and handed it to Donna, “You remind me of my daughter, unfortunately, she has grown up and has her own family.”
”I, I don’t dare to eat ……,” Donna said as she looked at the thin slice of meat poking out of the tip of the dagger.
”Haha, which one of you wants to try?” Aeran laughed and looked around the circle.
After confirming that his psychic intuition hadn’t alerted him to anything, Klein nodded:
”I’m curious.”
Aerlan instantly handed him the dagger:
”Try it, on land, even nobles don’t always have access to it.
”This is not a fishman, this is a fish monster, which can be interpreted as a mutated fish.”
He was allaying the siblings’ fears.
Klein wanted to ask if there were any condiments like mustard or soy sauce, but seeing that the other party didn’t mention it, he couldn’t open his mouth for fear of appearing uneducated.
He took the dagger, bit into the tender piece of blood-stained flesh, and swallowed it into his mouth.
It was a melt-in-your-mouth feeling, the fishy flavor of the blood was light with just the right amount of saltiness, perfectly setting off the fresh sweetness of the meat.
Klein chewed twice, only to realize that the fish was as tender and delicious as he had ever seen in his life.
”Excellent.” He gave an unstinting thumbs up.
Donna watched the whole process with curiosity, suddenly taking a strong interest in the flesh of the cheeks under the fishman’s eyes.
It overpowered her feelings of fear and nausea, so she floated the idea of trying it.
Aeryn fulfilled her request, smiling as she watched her eyes close tightly and her face scrunch into a frown as she bit into the meat.
Donna’s expression gradually relaxed, and she soon opened her eyes, excitedly praising it:
”Indescribably delicious!”
With her leading the way, Denton, Cecil, and the others partook of the already small amount of under-eye cheek meat, eating with satisfaction and dissatisfaction, satisfied with the flavor and dissatisfied with the portion size.
Crivis, seeing Aeran eat the last piece, pointed to the fishman’s body and said:
”The meat of the two ribs is good for frying, the belly meat is fire roasted, and the other parts are hard to eat.”
”Same idea as mine.” Ailan laughed, “I let the chef do it immediately, such a night, enjoying food together, savoring wine together, exchanging legends of the sea, is a very pleasant thing.”
Looking forward to it …… But why did a good hunting event turn into a food exchange …… Klein swallowed.