Chapter 208: Traitor, Pursuer, Flag, Captive
Paradise, on the sea,
The massive raft-type warship was advancing, with the Blackbeard Pirates’ flag fluttering in the wind.
“Captain, the newspaper says the Golden Lion is dead, and it was that Black Prince guy who did it.”
“Golden Lion? Didn’t that old guy hide away? How did he run into the Black Prince?” Blackbeard was stunned for a moment. Back when the Golden Lion escaped from prison, he had gone to find Whitebeard. He had been tempted by the Float-Float Fruit at the time. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret. “What a pity for the Float-Float Fruit… That’s a pretty good Devil Fruit!”
If he could get his hands on the Float-Float Fruit, it would save him the trouble of scheming for other options.
The power of the Dark-Dark Fruit was what he pursued, but just one Dark-Dark Fruit wasn’t enough to give him the confidence to surpass Whitebeard. Dual Fruit ability user… that was truly what he was after. As for options beyond the Dark-Dark Fruit… he had naturally considered them carefully.
There were no shortage of targets he coveted, but unfortunately, most of them were already claimed, and none of them were easy to deal with.
For example, the Navy’s generals, the Revolutionary Army’s leader, the Pirate Emperors… As long as they were ability users, without exception, they all had extremely powerful abilities. The problem was… they were very hard to obtain! Of course, his targets weren’t all focused on those guys. The Float-Float Fruit was one of his predetermined targets, provided he could find the Golden Lion…
But now, he could cross that option off. Killed by the Black Prince—who knows when the Float-Float Fruit will show up somewhere.
“Captain, we can talk about Devil Fruits later. What about our next… action?”
Lafitte toyed with his cane.
His eyes were fixed on Blackbeard.
The search for companions was complete. The sniper known as “Van Oka” had already joined the Blackbeard Pirates. According to the previously agreed plan, the next step was to find a way to join the Seven Warlords. However, the specific action plan had not yet been determined.
After all,
Times change, and plans must adapt accordingly.
“Let’s look around first. Best to catch a big fish, so we can make a deal with the World Government. This… Monkey D. Luffy is a pretty good choice!” Blackbeard flipped through the newspaper in his hand and laughed heartily, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth.
“A 30 Million Beli little guy… Isn’t that not heavy enough?”
The newly joined Van Oka raised the question.
“Hahaha!! 30 Million Beli is just a starting point. Give him a little time… and he’ll surprise everyone.” Blackbeard let out a loud laugh. Monkey D. Luffy—this surname… was destined to make this young man extraordinary.
After all,
Everyone’s name has a [D] in it!
“Heh heh heh, then let’s wait and see.” Poison Q let out a sinister laugh.
————
Drum Island.
The howling blizzard visited this newly born country once again, but unlike the previous hardships, His Majesty the King who had just taken office had orderly mobilized resources from various villages on the island for mutual support, and transported supplies stored in the Royal Palace to make up for the shortages.
Although it couldn’t be called a very comfortable life, at least no one had to worry about freezing or starving to death in this blizzard.
Long Horn Village’s restaurant,
“Hey, what’s the deal with that guy? He eats way too much! He’s gonna eat up all the food!”
“Shh! Quiet down, that’s a pirate.”
“What? Pirate, hurry up and notify His Majesty the King…”
“I said quiet down. His Majesty the King already knows. He’s not that irredeemable bad guy. Don’t look at how much he eats—didn’t you see that Sea King outside before you came in?”
“That’s exactly why I came over to ask.”
“That pirate hunted it. He was eating halfway when he heard there wasn’t enough food on the island, so he went out and caught such a huge Sea King, saying it was to cover the meal cost… Not all pirates are bad guys. It’s just like how among all those kings, there aren’t many good ones. Same reason.”
“Oh, I see… Uh! I didn’t expect there to be pirates like that… Huh? Is that… did he fall asleep?”
“Don’t worry, just watch.”
“…He’s awake again? And eating again… What the heck… is this guy? Eating and sleeping at the same time…”
“Right? I’ve learned something new too.”
The villagers’ chatter didn’t disturb the guest’s meal. The guest with the terrifying appetite ate and slept at the same time, astonishing the villagers who had never left Drum Island. They even called friends over to see the spectacle. The restaurant, which had no business due to the blizzard, suddenly became crowded.
“Ahh! An unexpected windfall! I thought business would be terrible for a while, but today alone I’ve almost made a month’s worth…” The restaurant boss rubbed his waist while talking to His Majesty the King.
Only now did he dare to do this. If Wapol were in power, let alone speaking so casually to the king, even standing up rashly might get him labeled an assassin and killed on the spot.
“By the way, Your Majesty Dalton, how did you know that guest wasn’t a bad guy?”
The restaurant boss was a bit curious.
“This? Just ask around and you’ll know. The Drum Kingdom has been isolated for seven or eight years—it’s time to connect with the outside world. Otherwise… we’ll fall behind the times.” Dalton sighed deeply. The Great Pirate Era was changing so rapidly; in just seven or eight years, the world had undergone massive changes.
And it was foreseeable that the changes ahead would be even more intense.
This point,
Just looking at Prince Elus made it clear. According to Doctor Kureha, Prince Elus was not one to stay idle. In the future, this prince would surely be one of the sources of world changes.
“Mr. Ace, I am the new king of the Drum Kingdom, Dalton.”
Dalton came before Ace, who had finally eaten and drunk his fill.
“Your Majesty Dalton, hello hello. I enjoyed this meal very much—thank you for the hospitality.” Ace politely greeted Dalton. This was thanks to Sabo’s influence; though not perfectly standard, the courteous demeanor was genuine.
In just one glance, Dalton confirmed that the intelligence from Prince Elus was correct. Indeed, the Whitebeard Pirates were not like ordinary pirates.
“Mr. Ace, I know the purpose of your visit to Drum Island. No need to beat around the bush—I’ll say it straight here. We don’t know Blackbeard’s intelligence. The Blackbeard Pirates passed through Drum Island, but at that time Prince Elus happened to be helping us drive out the old king. He personally drove away that pirate crew. That’s… pretty much all we know.”
Dalton got straight to the point.
“Oh, right. Prince Elus once said that if anyone came asking about Blackbeard’s whereabouts, I should pass on this message—Blackbeard’s crew should still be in Paradise, though the exact location isn’t clear. Also, Blackbeard is now a Logia Dark-Dark Fruit ability user who can forcibly suppress Devil Fruit powers like Seastone. Unless you’ve learned Conqueror’s Haki infusion or trained Armament Haki to the extreme, don’t underestimate him. That’s what Prince Elus asked me to pass on to you, the guest.”
After hearing this,
Ace was silent for a moment, then finally smiled.
“Thanks! I appreciate Prince Elus’s kindness, but… some things must be done. Your Majesty Dalton, thank you for telling me the truth—it saved me a lot of time.”
“I was just passing on a message.”
Dalton didn’t think just saying a few words warranted thanks.
————
New World, on the deck of the Moby Dick,
Another day of enduring his alcohol cravings with difficulty. Whitebeard, as always, had preemptively used up the month’s alcohol quota and now had to endure the craving for alcohol, trying to focus his attention elsewhere and ignore the alcohol bug stirring in his belly.
“Old Man, big news!”
Vista waved the newspaper in his hand and jogged over to Whitebeard.
“Oh! What happened?”
Whitebeard perked up a bit and took today’s newspaper from Vista.
“Golden Lion, that Golden Lion guy was taken out by the Black Prince.” Vista was clearly agitated. He was one of the crew members who had followed Whitebeard the longest and had once fought alongside Whitebeard against the Roger Pirates and the Flying Pirates. How terrifying the world-shaking Golden Lion was—they ‘old-timers’ knew best.
He never imagined that Golden Lion would just… die like that!
It felt like all the figures from his era with Old Man were slowly fading away… Tsk! Damn it! He shouldn’t have told Old Man this news. Vista suddenly regretted his impulsive action. He knew how hard it was for Old Man to endure his alcohol cravings lately, so he thought to distract him…
He shouldn’t have been so hasty!
Vista annoyed himself enough to want to punch the him from three minutes ago.
“Shiki… is dead, huh?”
Looking at the grayscale photo of the Golden Lion in the newspaper, Whitebeard was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter: “Gurahaha! That bastard Shiki is finally dead! That jerk stirred up trouble his whole life… Settled down for nearly twenty years, and I thought he’d seen the light and would die quietly in some corner of the sea… But in the end, he still wouldn’t behave!”
“…Beheaded in Loguetown by the Black Prince… That’s a pretty good end for you!”
Contrary to Vista’s expectations, Whitebeard wasn’t downcast by the news of Golden Lion’s death; instead, he seemed quite happy.
“Vista, Ace… been in touch lately?”
Whitebeard rallied his spirits. The matter of Golden Lion had indeed temporarily distracted him from the alcohol bug, and he asked about Ace’s situation.
“Contacted once five days ago. Still hasn’t caught up with… that Teach guy. Ace was in Water 7 at the time, saying he was preparing to investigate in the Drum Kingdom. No new contact since.” Vista honestly recounted the call with Ace.
“Water 7… I remember their Watery Meat tastes especially good. Haven’t had it in many years…”
Whitebeard patted the armrest of his chair. “The Moby Dick was built with help from Water 7’s shipwrights. Tom the Shipwright was executed by the World Government?”
“Yes, about seven or eight years ago? Tom the Shipwright was executed by the World Government. The charge was building ships for the Pirate King… The newspapers covered it for quite a while back then. Tom the Shipwright was the world’s top shipwright at the time.”
“…I see!”
Whitebeard nodded lightly and said no more, just quietly gazing at the distant ocean.
————
“…This is the standard Log Pose used in Paradise. It records the magnetic fields between islands to correctly guide navigators to the next island… This is an Eternal Pose. Unlike the Log Pose that gets overwritten, the Eternal Pose will always point to a specific island…”
“What about this one? How do you use a three-needle one?”
Nami asked.
“This is the Log Pose for the New World. The New World’s climate and geography are much more complex than Paradise, but using the Log Pose isn’t much different. Once you master the Paradise one, you’ll naturally know how to use this in the New World…”
The old navigator, young at heart, was spilling all his knowledge to Nami. If she hadn’t refused, he’d have given her his underwear too.
The innate navigator girl’s talent in this area was once-in-a-century. In just two days, she had drained the old navigator’s lifetime of knowledge and, relying on her god-given talent, quickly surpassed him, commanding the warship to safely escape from storms and tsunamis multiple times without incident.
“Tell me, what exactly do you want by capturing me?”
After enduring for several days, Miss Nami finally couldn’t hold back.
She stormed into the lounge and found Fran grinding coffee.
“What? I don’t know!”
Fran answered straightforwardly, nearly choking Nami.
“Don’t know? What do you mean don’t know? You guys captured me, right? Why don’t you know why you captured me?”
“This is His Highness’s decision. What His Highness wants to do isn’t something we little maids can understand.”
“His Highness? You mean the Black…”
The snow-white, delicate fingertip pressed to her throat stopped the unspoken words. Fran said softly: “Miss Nami, you’re a guest invited by His Highness, so I won’t restrict your actions on the ship. But please remember, don’t casually use that unpleasant title, or I won’t mind giving you a little lesson.”
“…So, has Prince Elus said anything about how to deal with me?”
The crafty little thief cat, knowing when to adapt, calmly changed her wording and continued pressing.
“His Highness never said anything about dealing with Miss Nami. Other than not leaving our jurisdiction, Miss Nami, you are free to do whatever you want.” Fran continued grinding coffee; all the coffee used in Prince Elus’s coffee milk was ground by her own hands.
“Freedom in this tiny space?”
“Don’t underestimate this freedom, Miss Nami. If I were you, I absolutely wouldn’t miss this chance to get stronger. To put it bluntly, isn’t the reason Miss Nami ended up like this because you’re too weak? If you were stronger, maybe… you wouldn’t drag your companions down like this time in the future.”
“…Miss Fran, please tell me, what can I do?
