Yuba, the bar.
The exiles were still drinking, but the noise had stopped, and their attention was all on the bar.
There, their leader, Hocka, was toasting with a human.
And that human, just a few minutes before, had said something they couldn't forget –
"If you want, this place can be your home."
...
Was he serious?
Fish-men don't like to guess, so after drinking half his beer, Hocka asked directly:
"Are you serious?"
Rowan nodded, "You can stay, and build a village of your own around here."
Hearing this, Hocka was stunned for a moment, then said with a bitter smile:
"You're strong, but you don't understand us. We're not ordinary refugees..."
As he said this, a painful expression appeared on Hocka's face, as if he had made up his mind.
Then, he lifted his shirt, revealing the mark of the Celestial Dragon's hoof branded on his chest.
It was a shameful mark representing their status as slaves of the Celestial Dragons, and it was never shown easily.
The fact that Hocka did this showed his complete trust in the human before him!
"Taking us in will be troublesome."
Hocka said seriously, "You might be a high-ranking official in this country, and an honest human, but you can't withstand the pressure from the Celestial Dragons."
Rowan shook his head with a smile.
"No, I can handle it."
Hearing this, Hocka's heart suddenly trembled.
For some reason, the human's words always gave him a sense of belief, no matter how exaggerated they were.
Thinking about this, Hocka suddenly realized that he didn't even know the other person's name.
"May I ask your name?"
Before he could finish speaking, the big guy in charge of the Yuba militia suddenly rushed in.
He was looking for Crocodile.
"Mr. Crocodile, it's great you're here. Please help us, pirates are here!"
"Hmm?"
Crocodile, sitting in the corner, raised an eyebrow.
He was keenly thinking about Rowan's purpose, and was about to figure it out, but his thoughts were interrupted, making him slightly annoyed.
But on the surface, he was still Alabasta's national hero, so he could only get up and say:
"Understood, I'll go take a look."
Seeing this, Rowan turned his head towards Hocka, "I'll go take a look too, are you coming?"
Hocka thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
After all, the residents of Yuba had taken them in, and Hocka always remembered this kindness.
Wall and a few other fish-men heard this and followed out as well.
...
Outside the bar, at the Yuba pier.
There, a fully armed warship appeared, docked next to the broken sailboat.
A group of people dressed as pirates jumped off the warship.
The bearded leader held a machete in his hand, kicked over a nearby shelf, and shouted.
"Go!"
His pirates then began to loot.
The old town chief was directing the residents to evacuate while also feeling curious.
The pirates' purpose was very strange.
Yuba was just a poor fishing village with nothing to loot, at most some supplies.
For pirates, looting Yuba was not only pointless, but also likely to provoke the giant that was the Alabasta Kingdom, making it a completely unprofitable deal.
But the pirates' goal wasn't supplies either. They rushed into house after house, seemingly looking for something.
Suddenly, a pirate found the town chief and dragged the old man in front of the bearded captain.
The bearded man grabbed the town chief's collar, his drunken breath reeking in the old man's face.
"Where are they?"
The old man was stunned, "Who?"
"Don't play dumb with me!"
The bearded man pointed to the broken sailboat on the pier, "Those fugitives, they should be in your village, right!"
The old man understood that the pirates were looking for the fish-men and the humans.
Although the bearded man called them "fugitives," the old man clearly didn't trust the violent pirates in front of him.
"They landed yesterday and left that same night in a small boat!"
"Left? Where did they go?"
"I don't know, the sea is so big, they could have gone anywhere."
Hearing this, the bearded man released the town chief and waved to his men.
The old man thought it was a signal to retreat, but to his surprise, the surrounding pirates continued their looting.
In desperation, the old man shouted:
"Take whatever supplies and money you want, just don't hurt the people here!"
The bearded captain raised an eyebrow.
"Old man, for us, 'people' are the most valuable goods!"
The old man's face instantly changed.
He had lived for so long that he naturally understood what the bearded man was referring to.
These people were indeed pirates, but unlike pirates who looted money, they looted "people."
These people were slave traders!
"Grab all the young men and women, and take them away!" the bearded man called out.
The town chief stood in front of the bearded man, "This is Alabasta, a member state of the World Government, the Marines won't let you get away with this!"
"Oh, right, right, you're right!"
The bearded man slapped his head and said with a sinister smile:
"'A peaceful town was brutally attacked by escaped fish-men criminals, and none of the residents survived' – that reason should be suitable, right?"
"You... what did you say?"
The old town chief understood what the bearded man meant. He wanted to put all the blame on the exiles.
The old man watched as the bearded man raised the machete in his hand, aiming it at himself.
"Killed by a cruel fish-man, how tragic!"
The bearded man grinned and brought the knife down!
Whoosh!
Just as the blade was about to hit the old man, a cyan-blue fist suddenly appeared in front of the bearded man's eyes.
Bang!
It struck the bearded man's face squarely.
The bearded man let out a miserable scream, and flew backward, knocking down several of his subordinates.
The chaotic pier became quiet for a moment.
Everyone looked up and saw a face twisted with extreme anger.
It was the fish-man Hocka!
He clenched his fists tightly, his teeth grinding.
"You, I've seen you at the slave trading market..."
Hocka walked towards the bearded man step by step, his heart filled with fury.
This anger wasn't just from seeing a group of slave traders, but more importantly, the slave traders were trying to turn these innocent residents into slaves as well!
"Why?"
Hocka grabbed the bearded man's collar and lifted him into the air.
"Why would you do this as humans?"
The bearded man struggled, recognizing Hocka as one of the fish-men he was hunting.
His previous words were just an excuse for looting.
He never expected that the town would actually take in a group of escaped fish-man slaves!
But in desperation, the bearded man thought of a way to escape.
He shouted, "Let me go, or all these commoners who took you in will die!"
Hocka looked around and saw that many pirate subordinates had already placed their blades on the necks of the Yuba residents as a threat.
"Hurry up and let me go, you damn slave!"
The bearded man hit Hocka's arm hard, shouting.
Hocka bit his teeth, his brow furrowing even more, torn between possible actions.
The next second, an unexpected change occurred.
A huge sandstorm swept across the pier, sand filling the surroundings, and the visibility dropped to less than half a meter in an instant!
"What's happening?"
"Who? What is it?"
"Aah!"
After a brief moment of panic, constant screams followed.
After a few breaths, the sandstorm gradually subsided.
The residents were surprised to find that the sharp blades that had been on their necks were now lying on the ground.
And the bodies of the pirates who had been holding the blades were now withered, becoming dry corpses.
Crocodile's figure appeared behind Hocka and the bearded man, the sand scimitars above his elbows gradually disappearing.
He held a cigar in his mouth and looked back at Hocka.
"Hey, fish-man."
The sand returned to Crocodile's body.
He frowned and flicked off some ashes.
"That guy, I saved him especially for you."
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