Chapter 207: The Way Of The Pawn
“Miss La, I wonder if the Beasts Pirates have any excess gold internally. I’m willing to buy it at a price ten percent higher than market value.”
Du Field shook his wine glass and came close to La, bending down with a smile, speaking in a sincere tone.
“Heh~ Why does a moneylender like you need so much gold?”
Umit rolled up his sleeves and also came to La’s side.
“Just buying it to hold as reserves. We who do paper business need some things besides Belly to feel secure~”
“But you, who should be running ships, why come join the fun?”
“Hmph! I’m of course here to talk business too.”
After Umit finished speaking, he turned his head, and when facing La, he immediately switched to a kindly tone.
“Miss La, after the Beasts Pirates cooperate with the Big Mom Pirate Crew this time, Beasts Heavy Industry’s business will soon spread across the Four Seas. Let me congratulate you in advance.”
“Now that I have some connections in sea transport, I can provide the most favorable prices for you. I wonder if I could have the honor of cooperating with the Beasts Pirates?”
As expected, this one was also here to show goodwill and talk business.
“And my organ trade business, the Beasts Pirates can come to me for any organs they need…”
“My funeral business too…”
……
After Aoxi’s earth-shattering ‘beating’, these underworld bosses, as long as they’re not fools, all know it’s time to show goodwill to the Beasts Pirates.
After all, based solely on the potential Aoxi has shown, she’ll surely be another Sea Queen in the future…
And moreover, they are three sisters.
The Third Child Obei is a genius who can develop a super weapon that takes down a Big Mom Pirate Crew executive with one shot.
The Second Child Aoxi just directly one-shot Oven, then went head-to-head with Big Mom, a proper little overlord of the sea.
So what about the Eldest Sister La?
You know, those two big shots above are still honestly sitting at the kids’ table right now, but she sat directly next to the host Big Mom from the start.
Big Mom even personally portioned out cake for her just now, which means something obvious to these shrewd people.
Deepening ties with these top factions and top figures, best to establish some symbiotic relationships, so that when these ‘players’ discard them, it’ll cause them real pain—that’s the secret for an excellent ‘pawn’ to stay on the board.
These people are all old jianghu veterans who deeply understand the way of the ‘pawn’.
As for La, facing the overtures from various factions, she responded with a smile.
Ignoring the last two for now, the Beasts Pirates do currently need cash and sea transport—after all, it’s not sustainable for Ember to keep running to the black market trip after trip.
Moreover, as factory scale expands, demand for raw materials like steel ore is growing sharply, and the Beasts Pirates’ own transport capacity is already stretched thin.
Leave professional matters to professionals, let others earn the money they should earn generously, never think of swallowing all the profit alone… La knows this principle well.
In short, the Beasts Pirates do need to strengthen cooperation with these factions.
So after quietly listening to the terms these people offered, she gave out Wright’s Den Den Mushi number.
Though she knows what to do, she really has no interest in these matters, so she simply handed it all over to Wright, the executive secretary’s executive secretary.
……
“What’s wrong, in a bad mood, Mongol No. 2?”
Looking at Aoxi propping her head with one hand, lost in thought about life, Obei teased while savoring the cake on her plate.
It seems she’s not the only one; the other clearly got kept in the dark too.
Obei nodded in relief—it looks like she won’t have to pull away precious experiment time to manage human relations.
“Eh~”
“Obei… Suddenly I feel, the more people I know, the more I like dogs.”
After a moment of silence, Aoxi finally blurted out this line.
“…”
Obei stopped her actions upon hearing this and asked faintly:
“Just to ask, do Big Sister and I count as ‘people’ in your words?”
“Eh~”
Aoxi didn’t answer directly, instead poking at the cake in front of her randomly with a fork while continuing to sigh.
“You say Boss Kaido looks like such an honest guy on the surface, but inside he’s sly as a monkey.”
“You can’t judge a book by its cover~ Why didn’t I see through him before?”
Thought everyone was pure attack-damage berserkers, but you secretly invested in intelligence?
“Heh~”
“I remember Big Sister told you right from the start: Kaido is rough but meticulous, looks like a brute on the outside but has more schemes than anyone in secret.”
“Eh~ Sister La really sees through everything.”
Aoxi pushed the untouched but poked-to-pieces cake directly to the opposite side, where Buggy and Shanks were still eating and drinking carefree.
“Woo~ Sister Aoxi, you’re not eating?”
“Not eating, no appetite.”
Though this cake didn’t have soul fragments mixed in, Aoxi still didn’t want to eat Big Mom’s stuff.
“Sigh~”
She leaned back fully in her chair, head tilted up gazing at the sky, lost in thought.
Creak~
Suddenly, the chair next to Aoxi was pulled out, and a stranger sat beside her.
“Haha! Little girl, still hung up on losing to that Big Mom woman?”
“No need at all—with your potential, surpassing her won’t take years.”
It was Hainar; he couldn’t hold back anymore and started proactively chatting up Aoxi.
“Exactly, heroes on this vast sea are as numerous as carp crossing the river.”
“Kaido, who rose so quickly, is one of the top ones.”
“If he only had martial prowess, he wouldn’t have reached his current position.”
Rayleigh, sitting by the two kids, also shook his wine flask and spoke up.
He didn’t dare let Shanks and the others out of his sight now.
“Hey, Rayleigh. Why hasn’t a guy like you left yet?”
Hainar was annoyed hearing the other mention Kaido—he was planning to promote his own boss.
When it comes to top ones, who on this sea can compare to his own boss Golden Lion?
He’s the true man standing at the top of pirates.
As for Kaido… at best a newcomer rising by chance, with some skill but ultimately shallow foundation.
“Hehe~ I haven’t properly thanked Miss Aoxi yet, how could I just leave?”
Rayleigh ignored the sarcastic Hainar, put away his silver flask, and said solemnly to Aoxi:
“Miss Aoxi, thank you this time for saving Shanks and Buggy’s lives. The Roger Pirates owe you a favor.”
“Whatever request or thing you want, just say it—we’ll try our best to fulfill it.”
Rayleigh spoke very seriously, and the content was shocking enough.
This was a favor from the Roger Pirates, the most mysterious and powerful pirate crew on this sea!
Absolutely something countless New World kings dreamed of!
Didn’t Fish-Man Island become off-limits to all pirates and Navy just because Whitebeard said, “This island is my territory from now on”?
Many kings dream of getting a flag from Whitebeard or Roger and the others.
But Aoxi just looked up at the sky indifferently, let out an ‘oh’, then said resentfully:
“Then can you help me go beat up that guy Boss Kaido?”
“…”
“Ah?”
“This, this…”
Beating Kaido was no difficulty for the Roger Pirates—not to mention Captain Roger, even he and Jabba alone matched current Kaido in strength.
But beating up someone’s captain because of a favor owed to their crew member… that was…
Faced with words like a child throwing a tantrum, Rayleigh was stuck—neither agreeing nor refusing felt right.
“Eh~ Forget it, I’ll handle it myself when I get back.”
“Anyway, let’s talk about these two brats—what exactly were they planning to steal?”
“That Pink Big Mom seemed extremely concerned but vague about it… must be something quite important, right?”
Aoxi sat up straight again, hands crossed on the table, staring straight at Rayleigh as she spoke:
“I’m very curious.”
Actually not that curious—Aoxi just wanted to figure out what Big Mom wanted, to see if she could cause some trouble for her.
“Oh? You’re actually interested in that thing…”
Rayleigh glanced at Hainar nearby and Morgans and others perking up ears at another table, choosing not to say it on the spot.
“If you want to know, wait till we get back and ask Captain Roger.”
As the benefactor who saved Buggy and Shanks, Roger would surely thank her personally, and whether to tell her would be up to him.
After all, no one truly knows the value of this secret yet.
……
