Chapter 205: Stella
"I don't know what you mean by that," Brad said, forcing himself to stay calm as he faced Osborne. "How could I do something like that? I have no reason to."
Axel watched Brad's reaction and quietly remarked in a voice only those nearby could hear.
"The outcome is already decided."
The moment he said that, Binz immediately asked, "What do you mean?"
"Osborne was bluffing him," Axel said. "Based only on the few points he mentioned earlier, there's no way to confirm that Nikler disappeared here. The sea is vast. Sending people underwater to search for a body isn't realistic. It was only a threat."
He glanced at Brad.
"But Brad exposed himself."
Binz still looked confused.
Was Brad's reaction strange?
To him, Brad's response had seemed perfectly normal. How could it be considered a flaw?
Although Ain kept a calm expression, the corner of her eye still drifted toward Axel.
She was curious as well.
"People are contradictory sometimes," Axel continued. "The more they try to hide something, the harder it becomes to truly conceal it. Brad is doing exactly that right now."
He looked toward Osborne and Brad.
"If what Osborne said wasn't true, then it would be a false accusation. A normal person would usually have three possible reactions. The first is anger. That happens when both sides are roughly equal in status. If someone falsely accuses you, you naturally won't just accept it."
He raised a second finger.
"The second is confusion and fear. That's usually the reaction of the weaker party."
Then a third.
"The third is indifference. That usually belongs to people who aren't shaken by such matters, or to the strong looking down on the weak and choosing to ignore them."
Axel did not say what Brad's reaction had been.
Ain and Binz could see it for themselves.
Brad was clearly in the weaker position, so he should have shown confusion and fear.
Yet his expression was too calm, while his words were all trying to clear himself.
In other words, he had already assumed the stance of someone who had something to explain.
"There's another reason," Axel said. "Us."
"Us?" Binz repeated.
"Have you ever seen children carrying weapons?"
Axel pointed casually at himself.
"Me carrying a wooden sword is still passable, but one child carrying twin blades and another carrying a long katana? Just judging by the style of those weapons, they're not something you can dismiss easily."
He looked at Ain and Binz.
"And have you ever seen children act completely natural in a situation like this? Maybe such people exist, but at the very least, it proves one thing. They're not simple."
Earlier, when Brad mentioned them, Axel had noticed the slight curve at the corner of Osborne's mouth and the faint trace of triumph in his eyes as he looked them over.
Osborne's later threat had only confirmed Axel's thoughts.
Ain and Binz understood what Axel meant.
But for swordsmen, blades were inseparable from the body. It was almost instinct.
Even if their weapons became a flaw, neither of them could truly bring themselves to hide them.
"So, Nikler really did disappear here," Osborne said calmly. "Those people are Marines, and Nikler was killed?"
Although phrased as a question, he had already reached a conclusion.
Since things had come this far, further concealment was meaningless.
Brad admitted it frankly.
"That's right. So what are you going to do?"
"Nothing."
Osborne's answer shocked everyone.
He had exposed the truth, but he had no intention of acting.
"What do you mean?" Theodore asked impatiently.
"I am only here to convey my master's intentions," Osborne said. "As for Nikler, he was only a hired hand. Whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with us."
If Nikler were still alive, those words would probably have chilled him to the bone.
But Osborne was right.
Whether Nikler lived or died was irrelevant to them.
"My master means that he is not currently engaged in any illegal activity, nor does he wish to become enemies with the Marines. As long as you do not spread what happened here, you may name any price."
"Really?" Axel, who had been standing in the corner, stepped forward with a trace of mockery in his voice. "Any price?"
"Yes," Osborne replied confidently. "Any price."
It was indeed tempting.
Axel could easily demand an outrageous sum.
But to him, resolving this matter was more important. Otherwise, the enemy he might end up facing would be the so-called Whitebeard Jr., Edward Weevil.
Compared with the Golden Emperor Tesoro, who had not yet fully matured, the already formidable Edward Weevil was clearly a far more troublesome problem.
"The terms are tempting," Axel said. "But I have business to discuss with your master, Tesoro."
Osborne's expression changed slightly.
He did not know how Axel had learned Tesoro's name, but that was indeed the name of their current boss and master.
"May I ask who you are?"
"I am a Marine captain," Axel said. "You only need to relay a message for me."
Then he leaned closer and whispered a few words into Osborne's ear.
Osborne's face shifted subtly.
"I will convey it. Whether he agrees to meet is up to the master."
After saying that, Osborne led his subordinates away without hesitation.
Clearly, he intended to report the situation to Tesoro at once.
After they left, Ain frowned.
"Tesoro is the reason the Marines can't conduct training normally?"
"In a way, yes," Axel said. "But even if we know that, there isn't much we can do. What he's doing counts as normal consumption. He hasn't committed any obvious crime."
"Hiring pirates doesn't count?"
"No," Axel replied. "The work he hired them for was supervising ship construction, not committing illegal acts. He can easily say he didn't know they were pirates and wash himself clean."
He paused.
"That's also why I need to meet him."
Perhaps Tesoro could be charged with one crime.
But in this world, that crime did not exist.
Privately minting gold.
From a certain perspective, it was a form of money laundering, yet it did not technically count as a crime because he exchanged gold for Berries through others.
Moreover, Tesoro was not merely someone who produced gold.
His business instincts and boldness were extraordinary.
In the future, he would build Gran Tesoro, the world's largest entertainment city, a massive golden ship ten thousand meters long.
It would even become an independent country and non-military zone recognized by the World Government, an absolute sanctuary where even the World Government could not act recklessly.
He would also control twenty percent of the world's circulating Berries.
Any one of those achievements was enough to prove his courage and capability.
"But what did you ask his subordinate to relay just now?" Ain asked.
Axel only smiled silently.
He did not answer.
What he had said was one name.
Stella.
The woman who changed Gild Tesoro.
Tesoro had met Stella in a human trafficking market and fallen in love with her. After working hard and saving Berries for three years, just when he was finally about to buy Stella's freedom, a Celestial Dragon bought her instead.
Driven by his feelings for Stella, Tesoro had even dared to attack that Celestial Dragon.
Axel was certain that the moment Tesoro heard Stella's name, he would come to meet him no matter what.
Although Axel felt somewhat ashamed of using another person's emotions like this, it was currently the best method.
Once again, Axel had chosen to be cryptic.
Ain could only sigh.
Because she had already grown somewhat used to it, she did not say anything more.
For a brief while, the shipyard returned to calm.
…..
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