"F-Fist Demon…"
"I actually brought Fist Demon Kai back here as a fat sheep?"
Lilith felt her scalp go numb.
She had gone too far.
This was bad.
That was Fist Demon.
A top-tier powerhouse whose name had already shaken the sea.
One of the most terrifying monsters on the Grand Line.
The strongest genius in Marine history.
And she had treated someone like that as prey.
Just thinking about it made chills crawl down her spine.
"Kai…"
"So this monster told me his name from the very beginning."
"I was the idiot who didn't realize it."
"I was the fool."
Regret flooded Lilith's heart.
Of course she had heard the name Fist Demon Kai.
He was the monster who had defeated Whitebeard Jr.
A five-year-old child with combat power on the level of pirates worth hundreds of millions of berries.
And now, she had brought that monster straight into the Beck Pirate Alliance's headquarters.
Lilith felt despair.
The Beck Pirate Alliance was large, but only in scale.
If they ran into a true monster of the sea, the entire alliance would become frighteningly fragile.
And in front of Fist Demon Kai, the Beck Pirate Alliance was no different from a nest of ants.
There was no comparison at all.
At that moment, Kai stood by the sailboat's railing and looked down at Lilith with a faint smile.
"So, you know who I am now?"
Lilith's lips parted.
For a moment, she could not speak.
Now that she knew Kai's identity, her fear of him grew even stronger.
She did not even dare to meet his eyes.
"R-Rear Admiral…"
"I was blind. I failed to recognize Mount Tai."
"Please spare us."
"I swear, we have never slaughtered innocent people. The ones we have killed were vicious pirates, never civilians or ordinary people."
"Also…"
"Most of the treasure we have taken over the years has been used to help ordinary people in need."
"If you do not believe me, you can investigate it yourself."
"As a Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral, you must know something about the Beck Pirate Alliance. Everything I said is true. Not a single word is false."
Lilith took a deep breath and forced herself to speak.
At this point, she could only brace herself.
Otherwise, she was afraid she would not even get the chance to explain.
She knew very well what kind of terrifying existence stood in front of her.
If Kai wanted to attack the Beck Pirate Alliance, they would not be able to stop him.
That was beyond doubt.
Their only chance was to ask for mercy.
"I have heard of the Beck Pirate Alliance."
Kai's voice was calm.
"Otherwise, do you really think you would still be standing there talking to me?"
"If not for the fact that you people haven't slaughtered innocents, all of you would already be lying on the ground."
Kai had naturally heard of the Beck Pirate Alliance.
They were indeed as Lilith described.
A strange group of pirates.
They had not committed the usual evils.
At most, they robbed merchant ships.
They did not hurt civilians. They did not massacre villages. They did not raid towns and burn everything to the ground like most pirate crews.
On the contrary, they had killed quite a few pirates who preyed on the weak.
Strictly speaking, although the Beck Pirate Alliance carried the name of pirates, their actions were closer to wandering outlaws with a crooked sense of justice.
Kai did not want to judge too much.
He could not say whether what they did was good or bad.
But he truly had no intention of arresting them.
For one thing, he still had to go to Alabasta and did not have much time to waste here.
And even if he had the time, with his personality, he probably would not have captured all of them.
The sea was already rotten enough.
Pirates who could restrain themselves from slaughtering innocents were rare.
If even people like this were wiped out, the sea would only become even more extreme and dull.
"My lord, we truly had no intention of provoking you. I simply didn't know who you were."
"If I had known, I never would have dared deceive you."
Lilith's voice was full of unease.
"I remember saying something earlier."
"If I brought you safely back to the Beck Archipelago, I would need proper compensation."
Kai smiled.
Lilith froze.
Clearly, she had not expected him to bring that up.
After a moment, she gave a bitter smile.
"My lord, what do you want? As long as we can provide it, we will do our best to satisfy you."
She was full of regret.
She should never have provoked a monster like Fist Demon Kai.
Now she had truly invited a god into her home.
And as the saying went, inviting a god was easy.
Sending one away was hard.
A great figure now stood inside the Beck Archipelago, and every pirate there felt as if a blade hung above their necks.
Until he left, none of them would dare sleep with both eyes closed.
"What price do you think you should pay?"
"After all, I saved your life."
Kai's smile carried a trace of amusement.
Of course, even without him, this so-called "shipwreck survivor" would not have died.
But since he had taken action, he would not leave empty-handed.
Had Lilith not invited this trouble herself?
Surely she did not expect him to waste the trip for nothing.
"My lord, I am willing to offer you a Devil Fruit."
"I hope it can resolve the misunderstanding between us."
Lilith gritted her teeth and slowly took out a small wooden box, presenting it to Kai.
"A Devil Fruit?"
Kai was slightly surprised.
They actually had such a treasure?
It seemed he had underestimated the Beck Pirate Alliance.
Over the years, after robbing so many ships, they had clearly kept a few precious items.
That was reasonable.
"Explain it."
Kai spoke directly.
Any Devil Fruit had extremely high value.
Even the most ordinary Zoan-type fruit could be sold at auction for tens of millions of berries.
As for rare and valuable Devil Fruits, they were priceless.
Take the legendary Op-Op Fruit, for example.
A treasure that could not be bought even with money.
At one point, people had offered more than a billion berries for it, yet no one could find it.
"This is the Paramecia-type Wax-Wax Fruit."
Lilith introduced it carefully.
"The Wax-Wax Fruit?"
Kai's eyes flashed.
Unexpectedly, this linked back to Crocodile's future organization, Baroque Works.
If he remembered correctly, this fruit would later belong to the man ranked Mr. 3 in Baroque Works.
Who would have thought Kai would intercept it here first?
The Wax-Wax Fruit was not overwhelmingly strong.
But it was definitely not weak.
Kai was fairly satisfied with it.
At the very least, it was far more valuable than an ordinary Zoan-type Devil Fruit.
Although Kai had no intention of eating a Devil Fruit himself, that did not stop him from selling it, storing it, or giving it to someone useful in the future.
He had merely escorted a "shipwreck survivor" along the way, yet he had received a Devil Fruit as payment.
Naturally, he was not dissatisfied.
Of course, this Devil Fruit had not been willingly offered at first.
It had been given because the Beck Pirate Alliance feared his strength and wanted to preserve their lives.
But what did that have to do with Kai?
All he knew was that he had obtained a Devil Fruit for free.
That was enough.
Kai took the wooden box.
Opening it, he saw a strange fruit lying quietly inside.
It resembled an apple, but its surface was covered in mysterious spiral patterns.
Those patterns were strange and almost mesmerizing.
There was a faint sense of mystery around it.
Vaguely, it was as if a devilish whisper was tempting him to take a bite.
"The voice of the devil?"
Kai smiled faintly.
He paid it no attention.
This level of temptation was far from enough to make him eat the fruit.
If it were the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, known as the strongest Paramecia, then perhaps it might be worth considering.
Of course, even if the Tremor-Tremor Fruit were really in front of him, whether he would eat it was another matter entirely.
"I'm satisfied with this gift."
"It was not a waste for me to go through the trouble of saving your life."
Kai put away the Wax-Wax Fruit and looked at Lilith with a bright smile.
Lilith could only smile bitterly.
She had picked up a stone and dropped it on her own foot.
This time, she had truly suffered a heavy loss.
A priceless Devil Fruit had just been handed away.
But if she had not offered it, she had a feeling the Beck Pirate Alliance might really have been destroyed today.
In her eyes, exchanging a Devil Fruit for the survival of the entire Beck Pirate Alliance was still a very worthwhile deal.
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