“Isn’t this Boss Shakuyaku? What is it this time? Another group of pirates trying to wreck your place?”
“You could say that. Handle it the usual way.”
At the Ryugu Kingdom’s office on Sabaody Archipelago, the Neptune Army personnel stationed there skillfully accepted the captured pirates from Shakuyaku. The remaining procedure was simple: exchange them with the Marines for their bounties and then take a certain percentage as commission.
Everyone involved in the bounty business operated this way. The only difference was the commission rate. Veteran Underworld brokers charged higher fees, but they also had better reputations.
Double-crossing clients or running off with the money was hardly uncommon. After all, the Underworld was full of every kind of person imaginable. Since they were already engaged in illegal businesses, nothing they did was particularly surprising.
For Shakuyaku, exchanging pirates for cash through the Ryugu Kingdom was actually more convenient and far less troublesome.
Moreover, the Marines did not enter the territory managed by the Ryugu Kingdom. Unless Headquarters issued specific orders, the Marines stationed in the Sabaody Archipelago would patrol only the outer perimeter.
Such an environment made both Shakuyaku and Rayleigh feel considerably safer.
This was not her first time doing something like this. Even before Roger turned himself in, before the Great Pirate Era had begun, similar incidents had occurred at Shakuyaku’s Rip-Off Bar.
After all, “Rip-Off” was written right on the signboard. Such blatantly obvious bait naturally attracted its share of trouble.
Fortunately, Shakuyaku and Rayleigh had clear targets. Pirates who had only just arrived at the Sabaody Archipelago from Paradise were no match for either of them.
Rayleigh’s strength had always remained top-tier, while Shakuyaku herself, as the former Empress of Kuja and captain of the Kuja Pirates, possessed formidable combat power as well.
Kuja’s inheritance had never been based on bloodline. Strength was what mattered. Anyone capable of becoming the Kuja Empress was, by definition, exceptionally powerful.
After doing this sort of thing so many times, they had naturally become proficient in it. After checking the latest bounty listings, the Ryugu Kingdom side even advanced the payment ahead of time.
It was precisely because of this model that after conflicts occur between bounty hunters or other pirates, they also choose to come here to cash out.
The commission was slightly higher, but the service was trustworthy, and they could receive cash immediately without waiting. To them, that was a worthwhile trade-off.
“It looks like things are pretty stable around here.”
Shakuyaku glanced around. The pirates who had come here were all lining up in an orderly fashion. Minor frictions occasionally occurred, but everything remained within the established rules.
“Of course. The very act of coming here means they’re willing to follow our rules. Their choice is to pay the fee and cross peacefully. Even if some of them have other ideas, they won’t show them here.”
Barbell, who had been meditating quietly nearby, suddenly stood up and walked over to Shakuyaku. At the moment, there was none of his usual lovestruck demeanor or any signs of pent-up frustration. He looked surprisingly normal.
“You have a point.Come by my bar sometime when you’re free. We go way back, after all. I can at least buy you a drink.”
“Way back, huh… Quite a few of the people from back then have already left the stage. These newcomers setting sail nowadays, quite a few of them are troublesome people.”
Barbell made no effort to lower his voice. The troublesome people he was referring to were not actually here. Those pirates had chosen not to follow the rules.
Pirates attempting to cross illegally never came to the office in the first place. Instead, they sought out unauthorized craftsmen to coat their ships before secretly diving beneath the sea.
Unfortunately for them, such pirates usually met miserable ends.
“The times are changing. More than ten years have passed. We’re not the young people we once were.”
“So you’ve started admitting your age? The Shakuyaku I knew wasn’t like that.”
“People change. Things like continuing to sail… that’s something for the younger generation now.”
Shakuyaku crushed the cigarette butt in her hand, waved casually, and headed back toward her bar.
As for Rayleigh, he was off somewhere coating some pirate’s ship. She still had to get back to tend the bar.
Barbell said nothing. He merely swept his gaze across the nearby pirates.
From a work perspective, it was better if these people behaved themselves.
But on a personal level, Barbell hoped some overconfident rookie would show up. That way, he could remind these people that the people of the “old era” had merely grown older, not died.
The current seas were not yet theirs to rule.
At that moment, a large number of bubbles suddenly emerged from the water in the distance.
There were wide channels between the mangrove islands of the Sabaody Archipelago, but the gaps between the inner islands were too narrow for large vessels. Pirate crews with bigger ships generally anchored on the outer edges.
Only small boats could navigate through those passages.
Air did not simply appear from nowhere beneath the sea. The air inside the bubbles of Fish-Man Island was also stored by the Ryugu Kingdom after being transmitted through Eve.
The Ryugu Kingdom even maintained dedicated air stations for refilling gases.
The appearance of bubbles like these often indicated that a ship descending beneath the sea with a coating had encountered trouble.
And that was exactly what had happened.
On the northern side of the Sabaody Archipelago, around the outer edge of the lawless area, many pirate ships were anchored.
Their crews were replenishing supplies while waiting for their coating to be completed before setting sail for the New World.
“Hey, Hodell, I heard you actually paid the transit fee like a good little boy? A pirate paying transit fee just to pass through? If word gets out, people will laugh themselves to death!”
On two neighboring pirate ships, one pirate was mocking the other, clearly looking down on anyone willing to hand over money.
Pirates weren’t some clean government offices*. Treasure hunting, plundering, and slaughtering all brought spoils. Any pirate crew that had reached the Sabaody Archipelago would have accumulated a fair amount of wealth aboard their ship. [TN: It is an idiom used to describe a government department or workplace that has no opportunity for corruption, bribery, or generating extra financial benefits.]
Even so, getting pirates to willingly pay money was no easy task. There had always been plenty who looked down on the idea and intended to force their way through instead.
“Drey, you reckless fool who’d rather die than part with your treasures. My goal is to obtain the One Piece, not to risk sinking my ship in a place like this!
That’s ten thousand meters beneath the sea. Trying to fight an aquatic race in that environment, which one of us is the real joke?”
Drey and Hodell had known each other for a long time. Throughout their voyages, they had been rivals, yet neither could ever get rid of the other. Eventually, their relationship evolved into one of pure competition.
Glub… glub…
At that moment, a sudden sound of bubbling came from the water’s surface. Accompanied by a growing shadow, a broken pirate ship enveloped in a bubble slowly surfaced.
Pop!
The moment the ship broke the surface, the bubble membrane burst apart. Freed from the bubble membrane’s restraint, the broken ship began to break apart across the sea surface, and along with it, a shipload of hideously distorted corpses was gradually swallowed by the waves.
As Drey looked at the flag washed ashore by the waves, his face turned deathly pale.
He recognized that flag.
It belonged to one of this year’s undisputed Super Rookies, a pirate whose bounty was many times greater than his own.
Relying on his strength, that man had seized Drey’s place in line for ship coating and descended ahead of him. Who would have thought that in no time at all, his ship would be destroyed and his crew dead.
As far as Drey knew, that pirate hadn’t paid the transit fee either…
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