Chapter 263: Punishment for the Apprentices
Dragon, the leader of the Revolutionary Army. Before Louis, he was considered the greatest threat by the World Government.
Gaban, the left hand of the Pirate King Roger, one of the "Iron Triangle" of the Roger Pirates. His strength was certainly no less than that of the Dark King Rayleigh.
Below Loki, the strongest legendary warriors of the giant race, the two powerful captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates.
And Katakuri, who was rumored to have been missing for a long time, had mastered Conqueror's Coating, future-sight Observation, and the awakening of his Paramecia Devil Fruit. Although, according to his conversation with Louis on Terra, he had once been miserably defeated by Garling, his strength was absolutely not to be underestimated.
Not only that, but almost all of these people were mortal enemies of the Celestial Dragons.
And for a mere member of the God's Knights to encounter this lineup all at once... besides "unlucky," Louis couldn't find a suitable adjective to describe this person.
After a moment of silence, Louis composed the strange expression on his face and reached out to close the wooden box containing the head. Then, after a moment's thought, he tossed it to Baby-5, who was nearby. "Get rid of it."
"..."
"Okay, I'll go and get rid of it right away." Baby-5 took the box and strode toward the door.
Kuma and Dong Yi left the main hall and walked along the garden path, preparing to board the Mist Ship and return to the 6th branch of the Adam tree, where the Buccaneers were.
Along the way, they passed Kyros, who was carrying his greatsword, and the brother and sister, Ulti and Page One, who were following behind him with their heads down, not saying a word.
Immediately after, they saw, at the edge of the hanging garden, Baby-5, in her maid uniform, with a cigarette in her mouth, casually toss the wooden box in her hand into the air.
Under their watchful eyes, she transformed one of her hands into a jet-black cannon barrel and aimed it at the box, which was being pulled by gravity.
"No way—"
Dong Yi saw this, and a subtle change came over his expression. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
The next second, a black cannonball, accompanied by a splendid burst of fire, left the muzzle. It let out a piercing whistle and struck the wooden box.
BOOM—
The light from the explosion lit up the sky, and the shockwave and hurricane made the flowers and plants in the hanging garden shake violently.
After doing this, Baby-5 acted as if nothing had happened. She ignored the two dazed men and returned to the castle.
A few minutes later, she returned to the castle, passed Kyros and the two siblings, who had just returned, and reported directly to Louis. "Lord Captain, that box has been taken care of. If there are no other missions, I'll return to Violet's side and continue my tasks."
The giant lake under the Treasure Tree Adam was about to welcome five million citizens. Violet and the other non-combatants had, a long time ago, begun to make the corresponding preparations. From the shape of the town, to the roads leading to the other cities, to the infrastructure, etc., there were many professionals who were thinking and solving these problems. And a skilled assassin like Baby-5 had also been dispatched to help.
"Go ahead." Currently, there were no special missions that required an assassin like her to carry out, so Louis let her leave.
After she left, Louis turned his gaze to Kyros. "Thank you for bringing them back, Kyros."
As soon as Ulti and Page One had taken a ship and left Terra without permission, Yelena had come to Louis to inform him of this. After that, Louis had contacted Kyros, who was at that time visiting the Prodence Kingdom with his family, and had asked him to make a trip to bring the brother and sister back after the incident was over.
Kyros heard this and shook his head calmly. "Lady Yelena's training ability is very strong. In just a few short years, Ulti and the others' strength is already sufficient to serve as executives. When I arrived, the two of them had already defeated the pirates who had attacked and seriously injured Hanafuda. I just brought them back."
In fact, when Kyros had arrived on the battlefield, he had also been surprised by the siblings' performance. The entire beach, which had been the battlefield, was covered in a blizzard. Many pirates had been frozen to death or torn to shreds by sharp claws. Although those pirates were just cowards who only dared to come for revenge after Hanafuda was seriously injured, they were still, in the end, great pirates with bounties of several hundred million Berries. Ulti and her brother's performance was undoubtedly very impressive.
Hearing this, Louis shifted his gaze to the brother and sister. It was clear that they also knew what they had done was wrong. Therefore, the two of them were now standing with their heads down, as if waiting for his punishment. Even Ulti, who usually didn't care about anyone and would snap at whomever she pleased, said nothing.
Ulti's pink eyes were fixed on the tabletop. Her legs were pressed together, and her slender, pale hands were nervously twisting the hem of her blue skirt. As if sensing Louis's gaze, the two of them subconsciously shivered.
Just as the two of them were in a state of terror, Louis's voice sounded. "Kyros should have relayed my words to you, right?"
Hearing this, Ulti and Page One silently nodded. "We know. We will continue to be apprentices in the future."
Hearing this, Louis knew that the two of them also understood they had done wrong, and did not pursue the matter further.
Seeing that Louis did not continue to speak, the two's hearts became even more tangled. Just as Ulti was about to reach behind her back and take out a wooden box, Louis's voice sounded again. "Those pirates... they didn't hurt you, did they?"
Louis calmly watched the two of them who, although quite strong, were still too naive in his eyes. He had never been angry about the fact that they had gone to rescue Hanafuda, who was one of Kaido's men. What he really cared about was that Ulti, who was usually quite sharp, had not informed him or Yelena of this before taking action.
Although Hanafuda was one of Kaido's men, he was, in the end, their father. Since it concerned the family of his subordinates, Louis would not just ignore it. And these two, just because of their own one-sided speculation, had thought that he would stop them.
Louis didn't know when he had left such an impression on his subordinates. He had clearly been quite good to them, and had never required them to target the World Government as he did. Even if his subordinates failed, he was not as cruel as Big Mom, who would just eliminate them. On the contrary, he would speak words of comfort.
Therefore, Louis couldn't understand why these two siblings had done such a stupid thing.
"..."
Hearing Louis's words of concern, Ulti and Page One were momentarily stunned. They had never thought that after they had done such a thing, he would instead be concerned about them. This was a little different from the underlying logic of pirates that their father had told them about.
After a long while, the two slowly raised their heads and mustered the courage to look at Louis. "No. Those pirates were our father's defeated foes. They were only good at running."
Then, Ulti took out two wooden boxes from behind her back and handed them to Louis. "Lord Louis, these are two Ancient Zoan Devil Fruits that we got from our father."
"Hanafuda gave them to you?" Louis took the wooden boxes from her hand and said thoughtfully.
However, a hint of embarrassment appeared in Page One's eyes. He looked away and scratched his head. "No... we found these on his ship. We took them right in front of him. My sister even said... this was the price for saving him."
"..."
Hearing this, Louis's expression became wonderful. He had never thought that Ulti and the others would be so... filial.
In the main hall, Louis and Kyros couldn't help but turn to look at Ulti. However, she seemed quite calm about it. "We all snuck out, you know! If we didn't bring something back, we'd be scolded by Yelena!"
Ulti had originally planned to bring these two Devil Fruits back and hand them over to appease Louis and Yelena's anger.
Her calm appearance left even Kyros, who was watching, speechless.
"Ancient Zoans?" Louis put away his strange expression and changed the subject. "What about Hanafuda? Where did you settle him?"
Hearing his question, Page One felt a little reserved. "After we treated him, we ran into Queen the Plague and a fish-man who had come looking for him on the way. In the end, father chose to return to the Land of Wano with them."
Page One clearly remembered that his father had mentioned that the World Government had found out about the Devil Fruits he had collected appearing in the Beasts Pirates. Therefore, the World Government already seriously suspected that he had close ties with them. Even if he wasn't kicked out of the Warlords, he would probably be dealt with. Therefore, he had decided to go to the Beasts Pirates' territory.
Louis heard this, then turned to look at Kyros, who was standing with his greatsword. "You also ran into the Beasts Pirates?"
"That's right." Kyros nodded, his face complicated. "They looked as if they had just fought someone. That fish-man was covered in a lot of bandages. You could smell the thick scent of blood from a great distance."
Kyros had a very deep impression of this. Because on that day, Hanafuda, who had once attacked him, had, under everyone's watchful eyes, done something that he had never expected. As he was boarding the pirate ship, which was decorated with a Brachiosaurus, perhaps because Kyros had specially come to prevent Ulti and Page One from meeting with a mishap, or perhaps for some other reason, Hanafuda had actually, very sincerely, apologized to him for attacking him several years ago.
Kyros clearly remembered Hanafuda's sincere attitude at that time, and the astonished looks of the others around them.
"He's joined the Beasts Pirates, has he?" Louis fell into a brief thought. "I'm not too surprised by this news."
"..."
After a moment, Louis turned to leave. As he disappeared around the corner, he left behind a short sentence: "You two apprentices... remember to clean the entire castle—"
"Clean the entire castle?!"
Hearing the words Louis had left behind, Ulti and Page One were instantly unsettled. "If I remember correctly, this castle is giant-sized, isn't it?!"
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