Of course, the murlocs had no doubts.
No creature other than the Sea God could possibly have so many hands!
With his identity as the "Sea God" established, everything that followed became easy.
Rhode appointed a new murloc chief.
Bumpelba!
After all, the black murlocs and white murlocs were two hostile factions. Choosing either side to lead would be inappropriate, whereas a neutral murloc like Bumpelba, who had stayed out of the fighting, would be easier for both sides to accept.
And that meant Lilia's pet was now the chief of a murloc tribe!
Wouldn't that make her the power behind the throne?
How impressive.
More importantly, it also meant she had suddenly gained several hundred adorable baby murlocs as pets!
Lilia practically floated with delight.
Watching the lovely, adorable Lilia dart excitedly through the murloc crowd, Rhode felt as though he were seeing Huang Rong become the leader of the Beggar Gang.
And Rhode had a bold idea for putting this "Beggar Gang" to real use...
Southshore's docks.
The sailors who had enjoyed a wonderful evening at Southshore's tavern the night before were lining up to board small boats and return to their ships.
The diligent Nat Pagle was already fishing beside the docks, and the fish in the little bucket beside him proved that today's catch was as good as ever.
Sheriff Redpath stood with several soldiers in the open space behind the docks, watching the sailors board their boats.
Although these sailors were generally fairly well behaved, it never hurt to be careful.
Just then, they saw Rhode approaching from the beach with Lilia.
"The great mage Rhode is here!" The sailors immediately cheered, and some even began applauding.
"Hey, where's your baby murloc?" Captain Sander greeted Rhode with a smile. "You really took it home, huh?"
Rhode smiled, then snapped his fingers.
Everyone heard a rush of splashing water beside the docks, accompanied by cries of "Oolala!"
Then they saw one... fish head after another emerge from the water!
Murloc heads!
The murlocs gave Captain Sander's sailors quite a fright, while Sheriff Redpath and his soldiers drew their swords, all but ready for battle.
One murloc posed little threat, but so many appearing at once was certainly unnerving.
Yet Rhode waved casually at everyone. "It's fine. They're on our side!"
As Rhode made strange noises like "Oh-la-ga-wo," the murlocs climbed ashore one after another, strode onto the docks with their peculiar gait, and even lined up in neat ranks.
Before long, a dense mass of murlocs had "occupied" the entire dock.
Last came a blue-skinned murloc, who stood at the front of the ranks, seemed to salute Rhode, and said a few words of "Gula-wala."
It probably meant something like, "The Southshore murloc tribe has assembled. Awaiting your orders!"
Though the onlookers could not understand the words, they understood the gist.
The sailors murmured in amazement.
"Good heavens! Master Rhode actually subdued the murlocs?!"
"One or two would be one thing, but this is an entire tribe! There must be hundreds of them!"
"What's he planning to do? Surely he isn't making fish-head soup for us?"
Sheriff Redpath also took a few steps toward Rhode, apparently hoping to get an explanation.
Rhode raised his hand, and the sailors' discussion stopped abruptly.
He was about to speak.
Mages probably disliked people making a racket while they were talking.
"Sheriff," Rhode said to Redpath, "as you can see, I used certain means to subdue the murloc tribe near Southshore. They're quite willing to contribute their efforts to expanding Southshore's docks."
"Docks? Expanding? Murlocs?" Redpath looked rather bewildered.
"Yes. If we expand our docks into a harbor, goods from all over can move smoothly through here, and our townspeople can prosper!" Rhode said with a smile. "I'll report my plan to Mayor Marebu."
"The mayor's out of town for a few days. He's gone to Durnholde Keep on business."
"Then we'll wait until he returns to begin work," Rhode said. "But I can tell you about it first."
By now, many townspeople had heard that Rhode had assembled an army of murlocs at the docks and rushed over to watch.
If the murlocs had come alone, they probably would have fled in terror.
But with Rhode leading them, it probably wasn't anything bad.
Rhode glanced over the crowd.
Among them were Vyrintan the blacksmith, Bondes the foreman, and Baturo the tailor. Even Gixil the goblin had squeezed into the crowd and was jumping with all his might, craning his head to see.
Explaining things clearly to the townspeople was necessary, too. Winning public support was what mattered most. Otherwise, this would just be forced demolition, creating unrest in the community.
"Once Southshore Harbor is complete, it will accommodate merchant ships of greater tonnage and handle more cargo," Rhode continued. "For example, to transport tin ore from our Jade Mine to Menethil Harbor, we currently have to travel overland, heading east to the Arathi Highlands, then south across the entire Wetlands. The journey takes a full week, and it's extremely dangerous. In the future, a large merchant ship following the southern sea route will get there in about a day."
Foreman Bondes nodded.
Although Rhode had beaten him up before, what could he do now? Forgive him, of course. (?)
Mostly, Rhode's words had struck a chord with him.
Menethil Harbor was a major customer for Southshore's mining industry, but transportation was terribly inconvenient.
At present, shipping ore by sea meant first using small boats to carry it out to the shallow waters beyond the bay, loading it onto a larger ship, then transporting it onward.
And "larger ship" was a relative term, because truly large vessels of greater tonnage still could not enter.
That made both the time involved and the operating costs so high that traveling overland was preferable.
"More importantly, outside merchant ships will be more willing to bring their goods here." Rhode gestured toward Baturo and the others. "Yeti hides from Loch Modan, materials for machinery from Booty Bay, and mithril ore from the Badlands can all be shipped here to meet our commercial needs. With a little dock like the one we have now, no merchant is willing to trade at a loss."
Baturo was the first to smile, and he even began applauding.
That was his business partner for you!
There was hope for his Yeti Hide Cloak!
"So I will lead the murlocs in expanding Southshore's docks into a true harbor, making this one of the most important ports in Azeroth!"
"Not only that, the murlocs themselves can supply goods. Pearls, coral, and seafood from the seabed will all become Southshore specialties, attracting more business opportunities."
"Furthermore, they will be our loyal protectors. Not only will the murlocs refrain from attacking you, they will protect you from attacks by other sea creatures."
"That's the plan. Who's in favor, and who's against?"
Rhode's impassioned speech set the townspeople's hearts ablaze.
What a wonderful mage he was.
He devoted himself wholeheartedly to ensuring the people could live happy lives!
The arrival of so many murlocs would not only give Southshore a huge new workforce, making construction of a harbor possible, but also provide more job opportunities for townspeople who had previously been unemployed.
Murlocs could do many things humans found difficult, such as working underwater, but they were less adept at certain finer tasks-laying foundations, marking out lines, and so on. Those jobs would require the townspeople.
"I'm in favor!" Gixil the goblin had already jumped up.
Strictly speaking, he was not a Southshore resident, but no one cared about that now.
"I'm in favor, too!" That was Vyrintan the blacksmith.
"Agreed!" Hackett the miner.
"Let's do it!" Kent the farmer.
"I'm with Master Rhode!"
"I love murlocs!"
"..."
Before you continue