Watching Merlin walk towards the wooden stairs, Reiner's tense body slowly relaxed.
Fortunately, he wasn't held accountable; otherwise, he wouldn't know how to handle it now.
Abis, who was taken care of in two exchanges, was a stronger character than him, but now? He had his head chopped off.
Unless absolutely necessary, he really didn't want anything bad to happen between him and Merlin. After all, no one present knew what type of Devil Fruit ability Merlin possessed.
They only knew.
That Abis died miserably.
But since Merlin wasn't holding onto his fault tightly now, Reiner couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
At this moment, looking at the burning pirate ship next door, a trace of regret flashed in Reiner's eyes. "This ship is worth even more than Abis's bounty!"
Just then, a sneaky sailor came over and asked Reiner in a lowered voice:
"Boss, that guy took a suitcase from the pirate ship..."
However, just then, before he could finish his sentence, Reiner grabbed him by the neck.
Reiner looked at this guy with no eyes coldly, the strength in his hand increasing constantly, watching coldly as his pained face became redder and redder:
"Kirby, if you don't want to die, remember this. Some things cannot be said casually.
"Think carefully about how Abis died.
"Don't pry into things you shouldn't pry into. Otherwise, if you offend someone you can't afford to offend one day, don't drag us down with you."
With that, he threw him heavily to the ground. Ignoring Kirby's violent coughing, Reiner looked coldly around at everyone present:
"My words are not just for this fool.
"Listen well, all of you. It's valuable for a person to have self-knowledge. If it's not yours, never think about it too much.
"Think about it carefully. If it weren't for Mr. Merlin this time, even if we could repel this group of pirates, who here could guarantee they would survive intact?
"Use your brains and think carefully!"
Reiner finished speaking and glanced coldly at the idiot sitting paralyzed on the ground, daring not to move.
He had already made a decision in his heart. Once they docked, he would expel him from the passenger ship.
Keeping such a brainless idiot on the passenger ship would be a disaster.
Reaching middle age, he just wanted to make some money steadily to marry a wife and have children. Having been a bounty hunter in his youth, he had seen many such fools. They didn't have much useful skill, but their ability to cause trouble was first-class.
It was better to stay away from such brainless pig teammates as soon as possible. As long as they were ability users, none of them were simple.
Didn't they see him carefully ingratiating himself? Idiot with no eyesight.
At this moment, ignoring him, he turned and walked towards the cabin, preparing to discuss with the captain about preparing the things Merlin needed.
The sailors on the side also looked at him with disdain now, and some even spat at him.
Kirby lowered his head silently, a trace of resentment flashing in his brown eyes.
Then, like a wild dog soaked in rain, he huddled up and left quickly.
...
Merlin didn't know about what happened on the deck, nor was he interested in knowing.
Returning to the entrance of the aisle on the third floor of the ship at this moment. When he opened the cabin door.
Merlin's face became silent.
He saw a young man slumped on the ground, blood dripping from his nose and mouth. There was a clear depression on his right chest, obviously at the ribs, and he was currently in a comatose physiological state.
"What's going on here?"
Merlin frowned slightly. Seeing it was Merlin, Yol sighed and explained:
"This guy ran up alone when there was chaos on the ship just now, kicked open the door, and tried to make a move on me as soon as he entered.
"The result is obvious. I took care of him in two or three moves."
Yol looked a little embarrassed.
She couldn't just say this guy had impure motives towards her. If she said it, wouldn't it obviously mean she was attracting bees and butterflies?
However, at this time, Lami said with an unhappy face, "This bad guy shouted as soon as he came in just now: he wanted Sister Yol to be his woman in the future, and said that as long as she followed him, she wouldn't be killed by pirates.
"Merlin-niichan, is he a pirate?"
Merlin narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at this "acquaintance," Gerard, the sinister-looking sailor from not long ago.
"Oh! I understand."
Merlin said lightly, then placed the suitcase in his hand on the floor at the door, bent down, and grabbed a handful of his black hair, dragging him outside the door.
Pulling out the dagger from the side of his thigh with his right hand, squelch, squelch, squelch, he gave him three stabs in the shoulder blade, creating six holes. Gerard was awakened by this intense pain and let out a miserable howl.
However, in the next moment, Merlin grabbed his armpit with his right hand, lifted him up at once, and threw him straight off the ship.
A few seconds later, splash!
A splash of water rose from the sea surface.
Gerard struggled and shouted in the seawater. Merlin stared at him silently.
Since he had done what he shouldn't have done, he had to pay the price. Merlin didn't care who he was or what purpose he had.
Yol came to Merlin's side, standing in front of the protective railing on the third floor, her eyes full of apology:
"Sorry to cause you trouble!"
Merlin shook his head, looking at the sharks swimming over, attracted by the smell of blood in the seawater below:
"Why apologize?
"You didn't do anything wrong. There are always some people in this world who have brains but act as if they don't.
"And such people,
"Once they provoke someone they can't afford to provoke, usually, unsurprisingly, they will lose their lives because of it.
"So, don't you blame me for being ruthless?"
At this time, the sharks in the sea had surrounded Gerard and began to bite.
And Gerard's struggling, miserable howls were incredibly piercing.
Also, some sailors on the ship had discovered the situation here. Although they didn't know the reason, the gaze they directed at Merlin had turned from admiration just now to somewhat fearful.
Merlin glanced at them but didn't explain or pay attention.
Watching the sea surface dyed red with blood as Gerard sank into the belly of the fish, Yol smiled bitterly. Although there was some unbearableness in her eyes, it was only unbearableness:
"A fresh life passed away just like that. May he be a good person in his next life."
Clasping her hands in front of her chest, Yol habitually prayed softly for him, "All I can do is this."
Speaking of this, Yol turned her head to look at Merlin and said softly:
"Before, he had malice towards me, but I didn't choose to kill him decisively. Nor did I throw him out of the room before you came back. If I had thrown him out of the room, he might not have died like this now.
"But, I couldn't guarantee whether he would harbor resentment after leaving, whether he would hide in the dark like a poisonous snake watching us, looking for a chance to deliver a fatal blow.
"I couldn't gamble, nor did I want to gamble. I couldn't bear the thought of you guys being secretly targeted by a dangerous guy because of me.
"So, I hesitated, and I escaped. I wanted to hand the choice over to you."
Lami wasn't here, so Yol spoke her mind.
In her previous life, she was just an ordinary church nun. Killing? That was something she never dared to think about before.
But in Flevance, on that night, when those children fell under cold gunfire, the her of that time... beat three soldiers to death with her bare fists.
Later, after Merlin saved her, during those few days, she still personally executed many soldiers with a rifle.
But those few days were under the pressure of survival. She could only abandon the concepts she had built in the past. Everything was premised on the three of them escaping there alive together.
Afterward, they spent half a month of peaceful life in the deep forest together. But in the leisure time after daily training, Yol would always wonder if she would get used to killing people and taking lives in the future.
And one morning, she accidentally saw with her own eyes Merlin sitting on a bluestone, piercing his own body with a dagger, blood dripping, flesh turned outward.
Seeing him frown, seeing his body tremble, seeing his blood stain the bluestone, yet she couldn't go forward to stop him.
She knew that was cultivation, and also accumulating Calamity "bullets," but her heart still trembled. The severe pain from the body—he was forcing himself to get used to it.
Habit.
Yol turned her head to look at Merlin, a trace of imperceptible heartache appearing in her eyes. She said apologetically:
"Sorry for shamelessly pushing this kind of thing that stains hands with dirty blood onto you. The current me still can't be decisive in killing, but I will make myself get used to it as soon as possible.
"Don't leave me behind... okay?"
A trace of apprehension appeared in Yol's eyes at this moment. She knew clearly that if there wasn't some compatibility between people, they would separate from each other sooner or later.
Merlin didn't know what she was thinking at this moment, but he knew she was confused in her heart now.
Wasn't he the same before?
But with the integration of two lifetimes.
His mentality had changed.
At this moment, Merlin said softly:
"I used to work in a newspaper office.
"Therefore, I accidentally heard a piece of intelligence, not knowing if it was true or false.
"An admirable marine protected civilians, fought pirates, and arrested criminals, but never killed. Because of this, one day, the accomplices of those criminals who held a grudge against him somehow found his home.
"Cruelly killed his wife and child.
"Was the marine wrong? Were the criminal's accomplices wrong for seeking revenge for the marine arresting their brothers? Were the marine's wife and child wrong?
"I don't know.
"But I believe the marine will definitely live the rest of his life in regret for himself.
"So I think, as long as the other party shows fangs to someone I care about, then no matter who he is, as long as I have the ability, it's better to just kill him simply.
"I don't want a moment of soft-heartedness now to potentially make my future self regret for a lifetime.
"I don't know if there really are time-type Devil Fruits in this world that can allow people to travel back to the past.
"So, in order not to let me possibly regret in the future, then, I won't let my enemies jump around in front of me provided I have the ability."