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[Start of the chapter]
After getting the information he wanted, Ronan and the others left.
Inside the bar, Shakky watched the backs of Ronan's group as they departed, an intrigued expression on her face.
"Did you hear that, Rayleigh? This little prince… is a lot more interesting than we thought."
"A prince who openly says he hates the slave trade, and then personally goes out to catch pirates and trade them in for bounty money just to get a Devil Fruit."
Rayleigh shook the bottle in his hand. "That kid's bodyguards aren't simple at all. Leaving aside that pair of twins, that other bodyguard who didn't show up in the newspaper… even this old man feels a bit wary of her!"
"Oh? Even you find her tricky?" Shakky hadn't expected Rayleigh to say something like that.
"That's right. Her eyes never once fell on this old man, but there was a presence locking onto me the whole time. It's been a long time since I've felt something like that. Today's youngsters are really terrifying!" Rayleigh had already firmly etched Teresa's appearance into his memory.
"Looks like our little prince-kun is getting more and more remarkable." Shakky said with a smile.
After leaving Shakky's bar, Ronan immediately led Beth and the others to act on the intel about those pirates. Ronan didn't want to wait; he was worried that if too much time passed, those pirates might no longer be in the same places.
30GR.
The largest underground casino, Golden Dice. The 38-million-berry pirate "Giant Axe" Jason was in the middle of a hot streak at the tables when, all of a sudden, the casino doors were blasted open by a powerful force, and Beth walked in with her greatsword strapped to her back.
Beth swept her gaze across the casino hall, and her eyes instantly locked onto Jason. After all, that massive axe beside him already clearly announced his identity. While everyone inside was still reeling from the shock of Beth's sudden appearance, the casino attendants finally came back to their senses and were just about to step forward to ask what was going on.
However, Beth simply sidestepped the attendants and headed straight for Jason. Before Jason could even react, Beth was already standing in front of him. Her fist slammed heavily into his gut. Jason's eyes bulged wide as if all the strength had been sucked out of him, and his body collapsed hard onto the floor. Then Beth grabbed Jason by the body and dragged him out of the casino.
The entire process took less than thirty seconds. No one in the casino had even seen clearly what had just happened, and all that was left behind was a wrecked mess.
At the same time, Teresa and Alicia were, respectively in 25GR and 59GR, capturing "Poison Scorpion" Sara and "Wavebreaker" Hawk. The whole process went off without any real trouble; after all, these were pirates whose bounties didn't even exceed fifty million. To Beth and the others, they were far too weak.
After that, Ronan himself personally escorted these pirates, who were tied up so securely they couldn't move and were still unconscious, swaggering all the way to the gates of the Marine base in 60GR!
The Marines on guard duty saw this bizarre scene and, once they recognized those blonde women who had caused such a stir in the newspapers, they were so frightened they nearly misfired their guns. The officer in charge of the base, a Marine colonel, almost ran out in a rush. He looked at the pirates on the ground, who counted as minor celebrities among the pirates in the Sabaody Archipelago, then looked again at the calm-faced Ronan and the three bodyguards behind him. His voice even trembled when he spoke.
"This is…?"
"Collecting bounty money." Ronan pointed at the pirates who were still lying on the ground. "These people are all wanted pirates. I should be able to claim the bounty on them, right?"
Faced with Ronan's question, the Marine colonel could only nod vigorously, but the cold sweat beading on his forehead betrayed his inner panic.
He couldn't quite figure out what Ronan was aiming for. All he could do was have his men verify the pirates' identities while urgently reporting the situation to his superiors.
Marine Headquarters, Marineford.
Sengoku looked at the emergency report from the Sabaody Archipelago. His expression was extremely complicated, with a deep doubt mixed in.
"He… brought those two bodyguards of his, took down several pirates with bounties in the tens of millions on the island, and then… took them to the Marine base to claim the bounty?!" Reading this, Sengoku felt like his brain couldn't quite keep up. "A prince of a kingdom runs off to Sabaody and… works as a bounty hunter?! Is he that short on money?!"
Garp just burst out laughing. "Puhahahaha! Interesting! That brat is way too interesting! With the kind of power that can take down Shiki, and he goes to catch small fry with bounties of just a few tens of millions? Is he doing it for the 'experience'? Or does he just have so much money he doesn't know what to do with it?"
"The problem is that he definitely isn't short on money!" Sengoku jabbed a finger at the report. "No matter how small the Lulusia Kingdom is, feeding one prince isn't an issue. And with that kind of power at his disposal, if he wants money there are countless ways to get it. Why use the most 'labor-intensive' way?"
His brows furrowed tightly. "What on earth is he trying to do? Is he trying to show goodwill to us Marines? Or deliberately demonstrating his strength? Or is this… some kind of disguise?"
Garp stroked his chin. "Why do you even care what you call it? Catching pirates is a good thing to begin with. Since he came to claim the bounty, just give him the bounty and be done with it. Does that really need so much thought?"
Sengoku felt that what Garp said made sense. These past few days he himself had started to feel overly suspicious, seeing hidden motives in everything others did. He immediately gave orders for the Marine branch in the Sabaody Archipelago to pay out the bounties to Ronan.
At the same time, in 1GR of the Sabaody Archipelago, in the backstage area of the Donquixote Family's auction house—
Doflamingo also received a detailed report from his subordinates about Ronan catching pirates to exchange for bounty money. He sat on the sofa as if he'd just heard a joke.
"Fufufufufu… Catching pirates and trading them in for bounty money?" Doflamingo laughed. "This Prince Ronan… his behavior really is impossible to read."
Trebol said from the side, "Doffy, is he short on money? Or does he just want to catch pirates?"
"Short on money?" Doflamingo's mouth curled into a grin. "A prince who has bodyguards capable of killing someone on Shiki's level, and you think he's short of this bit of bounty money? But if he's really only targeting pirates, I'm afraid the other pirates hiding in the Sabaody Archipelago are already getting restless."
"Keep watching him. Whether he's really short on money or just pretending, as long as he doesn't interfere with my business, it's fine. Otherwise, if they want to leave this island… they might not get the chance." In Doflamingo's view, right now the auction was what mattered most.
In fact, whether it was Marine Headquarters or those guys in the Underworld, they were all overthinking it—because Ronan really was short of money.
(End of Chapter)
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