'Maybe I should have just fired a laser spell and cut the titian lobster in half the moment I saw it.' Marcus thought, seeing how angry the captain was.
Naturally it was pretty clear why he was so upset.
A very dangerous high level rare grade magic beast had just surfaced and attacked the ship under his command.
It was not only disruptive but very dangerous.
Every guest had to be evacuated to the designated shelter areas onboard and it would make plenty of high-ranking individuals quite upset to have their day interrupted.
The captain of course was going to have to deal with this and was looking for someone to blame.
'Looks like that crew member just informed him that it was sort of my fault.'
Seeing the captain turn his anger his way Marcus could easily guess that he had just found out the details of what had happened.
"You! Why did you bring something like that up to the surface? You should have released the line!"
Walking up to Marcus and practically shouting at him in anger, the captain had lost most of his sensibility.
In terms of threat the titan lobster was likely the second most dangerous creature that he had ever had to deal with during his time as commanding officer of the Ascension.
"By the time I was told to release the line it was already coming up to the surface. I did make sure to deal with it though and it never even touched the ship." Marcus said in his defense.
He had no intention of allowing the captain to push the blame on him when something like this could have happened even without hooking it acting as a catalyst.
"So, it was you who beat that thing. Why would you protect it from our attacks? You put up a massive barrier that kept our volleys from hitting it." The captain said accusatorially.
"Well, it did come up on my line. It was my catch and since I could not bring it onboard in one piece I went out and prepared it." Marcus said, giving his reasoning.
However, this just made the captain furious, and it was clear that he wanted to throw Marcus overboard as he was one-sidedly attributing the incident to him.
"Captain Desmond, I think you are being too harsh to one of your guests. Had I been the one to bring in such a beast would you be directing this much anger at me?"
Stepping in and helping Marcus out was Domovoi.
He had also been fishing alongside Marcus and Mrazivy and just as easily could have brought up the titan lobster.
"No I would never think to-"
Being confronted by Domovoi, Captain Desmond became flustered and could not get his words out.
Certainly, he was considered the highest authority onboard the Ascension, but that was not exactly true.
A high ranking noble and general like Domovoi could have him demoted or even lose his position on the Ascension entirely if he made a big enough fuss.
"It was just an unlucky encounter. Only those here know that the beast was brought up by being caught on a line, so you need only announce that the attack was random chance. Which happens from time to time no matter how careful one is on the open ocean. And to smooth things over, I am sure that Marcus would be willing to provide a large portion of the titan lobster which you could serve to all of the guests for free as a means to calm them down." Domovoi said, showing his experience as a leader.
"Sure, I do not mind. I am sure that between the claws, legs, and tail there is more than enough meat to give everyone onboard a generous portion." Marcus said.
A beast like the titan lobster naturally had several tons of edible meat, and Marcus figured that the pieces of its shell could also be used to make a delicious stock.
"I see you are right. It was just an unfortunate accident. A creature like that is not even supposed to be in these waters. It must have recently migrated, and we just got unlucky to run into it." The captain said after calming down.
He then apologized to Marcus for losing his cool and asked that he share the meat he had taken off of the titan lobster.
With that settled he left to give an announcement to the entire ship, while mumbling things like, "If I spin this right, I can use it to boost the Ascensions prestige. Even the strongest beasts are easily repulsed by our defenses. Yeah that sounds good."
"Thanks for your help with that." Marcus said to Domovoi.
He was actually pretty grateful since the captain seemed intensely heated and was unlikely to listen to reason from him.
"Don't mention it. We may not know each other well, but I have grown to like you. You may have rebuffed my invitation to join my kingdom, but that does not mean I should not be friendly. And if you want to make it up to me, you can at least come and visit my kingdom at a later time. I will make sure to welcome you and your wife with open arms. No strings attached."
After receiving Domovoi's second pitch, Marcus looked towards Mrazivy for her opinion on the matter.
'Go ahead and agree. There was a good chance we would go there eventually on our tour around the world and having a high-ranking individual to accommodate and show us around could not hurt. He does not seem the type to do anything underhanded.' Mrazivy said to Marcus with telepathy.
"Very well, it sounds like a plan. We will stop by sometime. Though how would we get in contact with you?"
"Oh, you can just send a message through the adventurers guild. That will probably be easiest for the both of us." Domovoi said with an ecstatic expression.
Things soon began to settle down, and after the captain made his announcement, Marcus went over to the preparation station not far from the fishing platform and unloaded all of the pieces of the titan lobster for the crew to begin disassembling.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel