Chapter 99 – The Old Doctor's Deal and the Truth About Brook
"Nani?!"
"He's really the doctor from the Pirate King's crew?!"
"That lighthouse grandpa?! No way!"
Nami, Carina, Kaya, Kuina, and Tashigi—all native to this world—gawked in unison.
Their eyes darted between Aike and the flip-flop-wearing, slightly scruffy old man.
The legendary doctor from Roger's crew… was the random lighthouse keeper at the entrance to the Grand Line?!
Why would someone like that be tending a lighthouse?
Did Roger leave treasure here?!
Nami and Carina's eyes instantly turned into beli signs.
Tashigi's hand instinctively went to her sword—then she remembered she wasn't a Marine anymore. Her shoulders slumped and she stepped aside, dejected.
"I have my sources," Aike answered Crocus calmly. "Secrets of the sea are my specialty. Roger's crew included."
Crocus nodded slowly, realization dawning.
"No wonder your bounty calls you the 'Devil Merchant.' Information is one of your wares too."
"Exactly!" Aike snapped his fingers. "So, old-timer, care to make a trade?"
"I'll pass."
Crocus shook his head.
"I'm a retired man. Nothing much I want these days."
"That's not necessarily true."
Aike's smile turned mysterious.
"How about intel on the Rumbar Pirates?"
Crocus's expression instantly turned serious.
"You know what happened to them? That was over fifty years ago…"
"Of course. And just like you feared—they were wiped out in battle with another crew."
Aike tossed out the hook first.
"They were completely annihilated… except one survivor. Thanks to the Revive-Revive Fruit, their musician Brook came back."
Crocus's eyes widened.
"His shadow was stolen. He's been trapped in the Florian Triangle ever since."
"Shadow stolen… So Moonlight Moria and the Shadow-Shadow Fruit?"
"Exactly. So it's not that he broke the promise. He physically can't return."
Crocus exhaled, a weight lifting and settling at the same time.
He knew he was caught.
"Fine. Name your price."
"And don't expect me to be rich—I've been retired forever."
"Your medical knowledge. That's all."
Medical knowledge?
Crocus blinked.
He hadn't expected that.
Knowledge inside the brain… could be traded?
A few seconds later, when golden scales appeared and copied his entire lifetime of medical expertise straight out of his head,
Crocus finally understood why the bounty called him the Devil Merchant.
'He can even copy knowledge… Then the rumors about stealing lifespan probably aren't rumors either.'
A complicated look crossed his face.
For the first time, a thought formed:
Maybe these kids… are the ones Roger was waiting for.
The ones who will push this era to its peak.
Aike handed the freshly copied medical knowledge straight to Kaya.
Then delivered the full story.
"Fifty years ago, the Rumbar Pirates were destroyed. Brook revived, but Moria stole his shadow. He's been drifting in the fog ever since—waiting."
==============================================================
Support me and be 100 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/inkshield