"You have my word"
And with that debacle out of the way, Daniel set the cube in his pocket, stuffing the palm-sized cube into his pocket.
As Daniel finally turned around from his position, he was face-to-face with Bismarck, who was giving him a cross face, who was right next to Prinz Eugen, who was trying to hold in hysterical laughter.
Something told Daniel that they'd stopped arguing a while ago and likely got an earful of his conversation.
"How much of that conversation did you hear... uh heheh?" Daniel asked, laughing slightly
Bismarck sighed,
Clearly she was disenchanted with him about SOMETHING.
Likely Prinz Eugen commenting about him in her super-loopy state,
Daniel started to get uneasy, mainly because he hadn't heard much anything about what Eugen and Bismarck were talking about while he was conversing with his cube,
However, it surprisingly wasn't about anything romantic, or at least in the way that Daniel was thinking.
"Just what we're you saying about me earlier?" She asked.
"Uh, just having to remind my cube that you are just a comrade-in-arms." Daniel said, trying to relieve the tension
"Heeeeees lyiiiiiiiinnngggggg! Hehehe!" Eugen shouted.
"I never recall asking you!" Daniel shouted back
"Hehe! I don't care, Now you two lovers keep arguing, it's cute~" Eugen said.
"Ulp..! Daniel dry-heaved,
Bismarck blushed a GLOWING red, like she was hyperventilating or something.
After regaining his breath, Daniel shouted at the top of his lungs,
LOVERS?!" He shouted
"Hehe~ I can tell when two people are attracted." Prinz Eugen said.
The bridge of Daniel's large nose immediately became a sea of wrinkles, with Daniel's already very narrow eyes then becoming mere slits, his fat lips creased.
(Be sure to remember that two of these characters are anime characters, while Daniel is still a real person with real facial features, real life people still look human enough to anime people, but still look weird in many ways, especially in term of facial expressions, which look very uncanny, and perhaps somewhat animal-like.)
"What made you think that??" Daniel said.
"Oh, just my intuition~" Prinz Eugen said,
Daniel sighed hard.
"And my leg says that you're pulling on it and it's getting really freaking annoying." Daniel said,
"Oh, well I'm sorry, I can't help but wonder about your very... precarious relationship with each other."
Daniel's slit eyes quickly darted to the side, to still find Bismarck up against the wall, still blushing hard enough to burst a blood vessel.
"Is this like, a normal occurrence or something? Or is she still drunk?" Daniel said,
Bismarck was still blushing extremely hard.
"Vat is going on with your face Frau Bismarck? Afraid to admit something?" Prinz continued
"Oh, she must be shy..." Daniel thought to himself, referring to Bismarck.
And Daniel was right, because she was being more and more of a nervous wreck by every passing second, and Prinz was definitely the girl who seemed to enjoy playing with other's emotions. Especially when she was still completely hammered from the 150 beer bottles she had earlier.
Bismarck would slap the goofy smile right off of Eugen's face had she not been so embarrassed by Daniel standing there, as her whole body was shaking, enough to the point where she basically couldn't even move,
At least it seemed that way to Daniel, who was trying to make out what was happening.
"See? I told you" the cube telepathically said
"Shut it" Daniel whispered
Then, the loudspeaker turned on,
*KrK!
"All refugees and stowaways from Zwishendeck, please come up to the main deck now." The loudspeaker said.
*KsH
"Zwishendeck" was underneath the citadel of the ship, but above the engine and maintenance deck, it was their level, where all of the mess halls, bunks, living spaces were,
So chances are, it was about to get crowded, and fast.
———————
Bridge
A few members of the crew were on bridge duty.
The Captain and XO were both down in the hull trying to straighten up the situation down there, as seemingly way too many refugees made themselves way too comfortable in Zwishendeck, and didn't want to leave.
Or so they thought, perhaps they were way too drunk to leave, based on how much local beer was rolling aboard,
Trying to keep the stream of refugees on the ship in order was about as easy as herding cats, especially for a bunch of sailors drunk out of their minds, attempting to cope with the crippling homesickness that was so prevalent aboard.
So, coping mechanisms and distractions were the only thing keeping the crew together.
"Hans! Is that burn coming off!" A voice shouted
"Why don't you try and clean this off with a rag Herr Arno!" Hans shouted back.
Who else could be put on impromptu bridge-cleaning duty other than Hans, and who else to manage him other than Arno of all people.
"If God wished to sentence me to eternal damnation than the least he could do is keep me away from Arno." Hans thought to himself.
*MEOW!
"ARGH! OSKAR! That's my leg!" Hans shouted.
The cat couldn't leave him alone, and was CONSTANTLY begging for attention.
Or at least Hans thought that, he never owned a cat before.
As a result of his lack of attention however, he ended up climbing up Hans's poor leg on more than one occasion.
"Can you chase something?" Hans asked.
Oskar just sat down right next to him in a very polite manner, observing what Hans was doing.
That being scrubbing burn marks from the recent siren scuffles with a brush, or when that brush got filthy from soot, a rag.
Other sailors were luckier, in that they only had to simply stand guard as the refugees slowly got off the ship.
Some kids were crying, along with the un-synchronized sound of footsteps across the deck,
Just how many made it aboard the ship before they escaped?
After they piled out from the superstructure, they were taken onto small ferries, and taken ashore.
(One of the small ferry boats, in comparison to the hull) ⬆️
Naturally, the small amount of deck space between the superstructure and the small catwalk to the tiny little ferry boats, meant that there was a massive bottleneck of refugees gathering on the deck in this slow an egregious process.
The docks were built far too small to accommodate a vessel of this size, so this was the only practical method to get things on and off the ship.
Other than that, the deck was basically clean of anyone but sailors trying to do their routine work around the ship, working as normal
And Hans, and some others, are still on cleanup duty.
By now, Hans had gone down towards the deck, and was cleaning the soot lined barrels, which is is no easy task.
Hans bent down onto his knees, and Oskar began to play with the ribbon on his sailor cap,
"Who left their watch down here?" Hans said.
Hans got back up,
"Can't believe I found a whole watch, it doesn't look cheap either." Hans said, to himself, examining the watch closely,
It was lined with either gold or brass, and made of some very shiny gemstones,
The words "House of Schmekelberger" were engraved into the watch, along with what appeared to be a family seal on it as well.
Whoever had this either spent money unwisely, or was extremely wealthy, likely the latter, considering the owner was part of some really powerful house of some kind.
"Ohhh! Oh! Sorry!" A voice shouted.
One of the refugees basically tripped himself over trying to get over to Hans.
A relatively short (and obese) man with a large beard.
"Oh! Oh thank you for finding my watch! I was wondering where this was!" The short guy said.
He did NOT look wealthy at all, having some relatively worn clothing, and nothing particularly fancy or regal. Which was quite unbefitting of someone from the "House of Schmekelberger"
"C-can I have my watch back now young man?" The old guy said.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....
Are you from this House of Schmekelberger that this watch says it's from?" Hans said,
"Yes! Yeeeeees! That watch is mine! Now give it back!" he said, reaching for it
The short man tried to snatch the watch from Hans's hand, but Hans wasn't exactly feeble, and he didn't drop it.
However, it still surprised him a whole lot, and Hans dropped it onto the deck.
And Oskar was sitting right there, likely about to ask for attention, and the watch clonked him right on the head, before falling right smack in front of him.
Oskar then launched like a rocket, and latched his claws onto the old man's pants sleeve.
"AGH!! What the?!?" The old man shouted, looking down to see Oskar clung onto his pantleg
"Mrowwwwwww......"
"GET OFF!!"
Oskar then immediately looked around frantically, before using "Schmekelberger's" leg like a launchpad, and zooming across the deck and immediately running inside.
"Useless cat!" He shouted.
"Now where's my watc-"
The watch was nowhere to be found.
"Schi**e! That watch was personalized!" He said.
He looked around for his watch in a frenzy, Until he finally found it!
Right next to...
Hans scooped it up.
"You know, I have a feeling that you do not own this.." Hans said, referring to the watch.
"I AM THE GRAND ADMIRAL OF THE IRON BLOOD! AND THAT WATCH.... IS MINE!" He shouted,
Hans stared at him blankly for five seconds.
"I AM COMMANDING YOU TO GIVE ME THAT WATCH!"
"...
...Ahaha, AHAHAHAAAAAA!" Hans said, bursting into laughter, smacking his leg
This short man, with his little mustache was practically ranting his lungs out, pretending to be a figure in an admiralty with civilian clothes on,
and said civilian clothes were not even anything good, especially for what someone of a status that high would wear.
"Well, if no one owns it, then I guess I'll put it with the other things."
"HEY! GIVE IT BACK!" The "grand admiral" said.
But Hans was too tall, and he couldn't reach the watch, so he kept trying to grab it, much like a kitty cat trying to grab a dangling string.
A few other sailors were getting quite a kick out of the old man's plight, watching as Hans basically played with him.
"Olé!" Someone shouted,
getting an immediate roar of approval.
Some of the others sailors started clapping in sync
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" They roared.
So Hans, with his newfound popularity, started getting creative.
He dangled the watch down,
"JUST HAND IT OVER!" The old man shouted, lunging for Hans's hand.
*swipe!
And Hans yanked it away just in time.
"Olé!" One of the onlookers shouted
"Still want the watch?" Hans said.
"HAND IT OVEEERRRR!"
*swipe!
"Finders keepers." Hans said.
——————
XO Oels, returned aboard the ship with both captain Lindemann and Admiral Lüjens, just as more and more of the refugees were being taken off of the ship.
They were offloading more than 1,400 refugees, which had been crowding the ship for almost a whole day at sea now, and receiving upwards of 500 tons of food and drinks (the majority of this was beer).
"Olé!" A voice echoed out in the background
"What the **** is that?" Captain Lindemann said.
"Ugh.... Probably just more drunkards...
*sigh*
I'll take care of it." the XO said.
——————
A little while later...
The XO approached a small group of sailors that were cheering and shouting while looking down at the floor deck.
"What is going on her-"
And at that very moment, Oels got an excellent view of Hans dangling something shiny from his hand, and some elderly guy trying way too hard to grab it.
"What is going on here?!" The XO shouted.
"I don't know sir!" One of the sailors said.
"Then why are you staring at it??" The XO said.
"I don't know. It just looks like fun."
The XO sighed
"Matrose Hans! What do you think you are doing over there!?" Oels shouted at the top of his lungs
Hans immediately stopped, as if he was frozen in place.
The atmosphere got cold.
Really cold.
"Uhh..... trying to boost morale sir!" Hans said.
The XO stomped down to the floor deck.
"Please allow me to explain si-"
"Alright. Now before I order you to clean the whole deck on your lonesome, Tell me what is happening, from start to finish, right... now." The XO said.
"Uh, well, I found a watch on the ground near the-"
*snatch
The XO immediately grabbed the watch into his hand,
"Give... *huff* my watch... *puff* back!" The old man said, now starting to pant
"I don't think it is his watch, uh, sir...." Hans said.
"NO! THAT IS MINE!"
The XO then glanced at the "grand admiral"
His icy look practically froze him in place.
The XO stared at the watch, as well as Hans just standing there, face paler than a blizzard
"Are we CHILDREN?!?" The XO roared.
"GET TO YOUR DUTY STATIONS! ALL OF YOU!" He shouted.
Immediately, all of the sailors that were watching the whole thing unfold scattered in all directions. Returning to their duty stations as ordered.
"If no one can peacefully have the watch, then I'll just take it." The XO growled, stuffing it into his pocket.
"What?! This is! THIS IS?!-" the "grand admiral" began
"Hans, get this clown off of the ship."
"NOOOO! I WILL BE BACK YOU HEAR ME! BACK!!" He said
Hans then dragged him by the ear away.
And right as the "grand admiral" got dragged away, he could only see Oskar giving him the stare, sitting politely in the corner.
———————
"Gott, imagine acting like a parent rather than an officer." The XO huffed to himself.
*bzzzzzzzzz
"Hmm?" He said, gazing up at the sky
"Sir!" A lookout shouted, pointing to the sky from his elevated platform he was on
"What the..."
And then he recognized the British roundels.
"ENEMY AIRCRAFT!" Oels shouted.
Instantly, alarm across the whole ship was raised.
*RIIINNNGGGGGGGGGGGG
"ENEMY AIRCRAFT SPOTTED!" The loudspeakers blared,
Men dashed across deck with ammo cases, running to their battle station, and fumbling their helmets on.
One by one, guns started opening fire,
*THOOOM *THOOOM!
*BUM *BUM*BUM*BUM!
The sound scared the refugees that were currently on deck, who immediately dove for cover in all directions, smashing their hands over their ears to shield from the loud noises.
Small puffs of black smoke stared forming in the sky around the enemy aircraft.
But none of them could land a hit, their fire solutions didn't have enough time to create an accurate trajectory before it dove behind cover, out of sight.
They'd been spotted.