Chapter 175: Departure, and How to Distribute the Fruits
At the border between the city and the wilderness.
Pedro stood on a tall tree, one hand on the trunk, gazing at the King's Plateau rising high in the distance.
Beneath the tree, Zepo sat on a giant rock, his arms crossed, a hesitant look on his face. "Pedro, what do you think that Archangel wants from us? Will he really let Serena leave with us?"
Pedro lit a cigarette, slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, and said with a frown, "I don't know. The choice is not in our hands. But we can't just ignore Serena. Besides, we've already hidden the Vivre Card that leads to Zou. Even if we all die here, it's no big deal."
Zepo heard this and fell silent. After a long while, he looked up at the sky and sighed. "Yeah... the choice is not ours."
Soon, a series of footsteps sounded nearby, attracting their attention. Immediately after, a figure that was somewhat familiar to them appeared from the direction of the street and came running toward them.
"Big Bro Pedro! Big Bro Zepo!"
A joyous smile appeared on Serena's furry face as she pounced straight at Zepo, who was sitting on the giant rock.
THUD. Zepo couldn't dodge in time and was tackled to the ground by Serena, his head hitting the earth with a dull thud.
By the time Pedro came to his senses, Zepo was already seeing stars, the world spinning around him.
...
Then, Pedro shook his head, jumped down from the branch, and landed beside Serena. However, just as he was about to say something, Serena, hearing the noise, got up with a happy face and pounced on him again.
BANG. Another dull thud sounded.
A moment later, a dizzy Pedro struggled to sit up. He then pushed away Serena, who was clinging to his head and rubbing against him affectionately, and gasped for air.
Nearby, Zepo also sat up again. Seeing this familiar scene, a long-lost smile appeared on his face.
Soon, Pedro completely broke free from Serena's "death grip." "You almost killed me again, Serena!" he said with lingering fear.
To this, Serena, as if feeling a little embarrassed, scratched her head and gave an awkward smile. "Ehehehe—"
Then, as if she'd thought of something, she turned to look at the tall figure who had arrived at some unknown point. "Lord Louis! They are Big Bro Pedro and Big Brother Zepo!" Serena pointed at the two, introducing them to Louis one by one.
Pedro and Zepo saw this and were shocked. They hadn't noticed the Archangel's arrival at all! But they were, after all, people who had been in the New World for a long time. Pedro and Zepo quickly regained their usual calm demeanor.
"Lord Archangel, thank you so much for saving Serena's life!"
To this, Louis, while sizing up the two Minks, replied casually, "It was nothing. I was also quite curious about the Mink tribe, so I went to the trafficker's base to try my luck."
Louis's answer made Pedro and Zepo's hearts sink. The thing they had worried about most had happened: the extremely powerful Archangel had taken an interest in the Mink tribe.
After exchanging glances, Pedro braced himself and asked, "Lord Archangel, when you say you're interested in the Mink tribe, what do you mean by that?"
"Simply put, I want to win you over. But the difficulty of winning you over is even higher than that of the giant race, so I'm not in such a hurry." After a brief moment of thought, Louis frankly stated his thoughts.
Ever since considering the relationship between the Mink tribe and the Kozuki Family of the Land of Wano, Louis had realized that it was no exaggeration to say the Minks were die-hard loyalists of the Kozuki Family. With the Minks' character, the difficulty of poaching them from the Kozuki Family was not just great. Therefore, the priority of the Mink tribe had dropped again and again in his mind, from a "must-win" to a "build up some goodwill first and figure out the rest later" level.
Pedro and Zepo heard this and were taken aback, falling into thought. And Serena herself looked completely unsurprised. She had long since learned of his purpose from Lord Louis.
After a long while, Pedro was the first to come to his senses. "Lord Archangel," he said with a complicated expression, "on behalf of the entire Mink tribe, we thank you for saving Serena. We will definitely keep this kindness in our hearts!"
Louis did not refuse this thanks.
Then, Pedro glanced at Serena and said in a deep voice, "Let's go! We should go and find Pekoms and the others!"
Serena heard him and smiled as she said goodbye to Louis. "Lord Louis, I will miss you all!"
To this, Louis did not have much of a reaction, but simply said, "If there's anything you can't solve, you can contact me. I will do my best to help you."
The three of them were taken aback. For a moment, they didn't know what to say. In the end, they did not refuse this kind offer from such a great figure.
Meanwhile, Daz Bonez, with the two fish-men and the mermaid, arrived at the place where the eighth division ship of the Whitebeard Pirates was docked.
The eighth division commander, Namur, saw the kinsmen following behind Daz Bonez, completely unharmed, and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, a look of gratitude flashed in the shark fish-man's eyes. "Thank you very much, Archangel Pirates, for saving the citizens of the Ryugu Kingdom," he said in a deep voice.
"Fish-Man Island is not only Pops's territory, but also my hometown. The fish-men there are all my family. Therefore, I hope to be able to meet that Archangel and express my gratitude to him in person."
To this, Daz Bonez replied in an extremely cold tone, "Captain has other guests to meet. If you must see him, I can report it to him."
Namur heard him, a hesitant look on his face. In the end, he still shook his head. "In that case, then let's forget it." After seeing the Golden Lion in his peak state, a special idea had risen in Namur's heart: to ask Archangel Louis to treat Pops's illness. But the situation the assassin had just described made him temporarily suppress this thought. He absolutely could not, because of himself, let that Archangel have a bad impression of the Whitebeard Pirates, causing his Pops, who originally had a chance to recover, to lose this rare opportunity.
Then, Namur turned around and issued a new order to his division members. "Set sail! Target, Fish-Man Island!"
Soon, the pirate ship, with the flag of the Whitebeard Pirates, raised its sails and headed for Fish-Man Island.
Louis folded his wings and slowly landed in front of the castle on the King's Plateau. Then, a girlish figure puppet pushed open the heavy gate, letting Louis return inside.
The main hall was empty at this moment. Hajrudin and the others had already gone to the Corrida Colosseum to brawl. Kuina had returned to the dojo inside the castle and had once again begun her endless, high-intensity training. The others also had their own things to be busy with. Only Louis himself was quite free.
Louis sat on the sofa and fell into thought. Since healing Shiki, he had obtained four Ancient Zoans and one mysterious fruit from him. If these fruits were distributed properly, there would be no problem in cultivating a powerful executive with a bounty of several hundred million Berries. Therefore, Louis was thinking about how to distribute the fruits he had obtained this time.
Currently, the people Louis had who had not eaten a fruit were only Goldberg, Road, and Gerd. As for Kuina, to let a person who was determined to become the world's greatest swordsman eat a Devil Fruit would undoubtedly be an insult to her. Although Kuina's current efforts might not necessarily make her the world's greatest swordsman in the future, it was certain that if she ate a fruit, she would have completely lost from that moment on.
After a brief moment of thought, Louis had the puppets retrieve all five Devil Fruits from the warehouse. Soon, five treasure chests containing Devil Fruits were placed in front of him.
The Short-Faced Bear, the Cave Lion, the Carcharodontosaurus, the Carnotaurus, and an unknown fruit that Shiki had seized from a World Government fleet. Without a doubt, this unknown fruit was the strongest. Because something that the Celestial Dragons valued would either be a top-tier Paramecia or a powerful Mythical Zoan. And at this moment, Louis was more inclined to believe it was a Mythical Zoan that only the World Government knew of, because powerful Paramecias were extremely rare, and the God's Knights and the Five Elders were mostly Mythical Zoan users.
Excluding this unknown one, among the four fruits, the Carcharodontosaurus was undoubtedly the strongest, followed by the Carnotaurus, then the Short-Faced Bear, and the worst was the Cave Lion. And these four Ancient Zoans... if there were no surprises, Goldberg and the others would most likely choose the first three. The Cave Lion would most likely be ignored.
Suddenly, Louis remembered that Doflamingo might still have a warehouse in Dressrosa for storing Devil Fruits and valuables, and that the Tontatta Kingdom also seemed to have a precious Paramecia Devil Fruit and several rare Bug-Bug Fruits.
Then, Louis immediately took action.
On the sea where many islands had fallen.
A pirate ship furled its sails and came to a stop. One after another, thick iron chains were lowered from the ship, falling into the deep sea. Under the guidance of a group of pirates in diving suits, they headed straight for a specific direction.
The Warlord of the Sea, Hanafuda, stood at the bow, his hands gripping the railing, his brow tightly furrowed. Soon, a specific signal was transmitted from the iron chains. The pirates on the ship, after receiving the signal, operated the lifting machinery and pulled up the chains.
Seeing this, Hanafuda breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn't crushed under the islands at the bottom of the sea, it's fine. If Kaido was crushed at the bottom of the deep sea, it would be really difficult.
As time passed, the figure bound by the iron chains also surfaced.
The next day, countless News Coos left the various branches of the World Economic News Agency, bringing the news of everything that had happened yesterday to every island.
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 400 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 30+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you!