Unlike the Robin from the original timeline who was navigating through various powers at the age of eight, the current Robin has experienced a bit less. There are some things that are hard to grasp without firsthand experience.
The enterprises under the Hundred Beasts Fruit are all registered as legal companies with the World Government. However, while the companies may be legal, the businesses they conduct are far from simple, with too many blackmarket dealings involved.
Nowadays, any company that can rank in Mary Geoise operates this way, each with its own trading partners. Robin was arranged to learn under Tesoro for a while first and then take action by herself once she became familiar with these matters.
Apart from some clothes and books, all she brought along were gifts from friends and that Sobble.
Elizabeth had no particular feelings towards her descendants and handed it over to Robin without any worries.
At first, Tesoro didn't take it seriously, treating it as merely training an intern. Although sixteen is barely adulthood, both Baccarat and Anta managed well, so he assumed that handling an adult Robin wouldn't be too challenging.
"By the way, pay more attention to that tattoo on your shoulder. Don't let it be exposed. If someone discovers it, tell me, and I'll take care of them."
Some things are better left unsaid, even if people know that the Hundred Beasts Fruit is a front for the Hundred Beasts Pirates, the huge profits still allow its development.
Just as the World Government tolerates Morgans, as long as the profits are big enough and don't upset their balance, then it can exist.
However, they still have to keep up appearances. Having the same name could be coincidental, but they won't tolerate anyone freely carrying a Pirate Flag in and out of the Red Earth Continent.
That's why the Hundred Beasts Fruit has its unique logo, and people with Pirate Flag tattoos won't expose them openly.
"Don't worry, it won't cause any trouble."
Saying this, Robin covered the area with a sleeve guard, even demonstrating her ability: petals danced around her shoulder, a layer of skin covered the original tattoo, showing that even if the sleeve accidentally fell off, she still had a way to conceal it.
This was her extra application of the Flower-Flower Fruit ability, which inherently allowed her to produce more body parts like blooming flowers. Besides the usual hands, feet, and facial features, skin was also within her range of creation.
This wasn't difficult and was part of the basic abilities of the Flower-Flower Fruit. Previously, she hadn't had the time to develop her Fruit Ability, but with some guidance, she had some additional development.
For instance, generating skin to cover something, since it was her skin, there wasn't much difference noticeable.
However, activating the ability required time and energy, so most of the time, she chose to use sleeve guards to cover that area.
In the following period, Tesoro noticed something unusual about Robin. It wasn't that she was learning too slowly but too quickly. Initially, she merely followed behind Tesoro, listening in on his negotiations with various people.
No one found it strange for Tesoro to appear in such settings with a new woman. More precisely, it was strange that Tesoro had only ever had Stella alongside him before.
Though Baccarat also followed Tesoro, their status difference was evident, lacking that kind of relationship. However, Robin didn't show undue respect to Tesoro, acting more like a collaborator.
For men in these circles, changing female companions was routine. This version of Tesoro was more familiar to them, but after just a few months, they no longer wanted to see Robin.
Her negotiating skills were even more frightening than Tesoro's, with her cunning sometimes making her more troublesome than Tesoro.
Tesoro could only rely on Anta's ability to estimate opponents' habits, but Robin directly eavesdropped on their conversations, with them unaware that an ear had appeared in their blind spot.
Having worked as a secretary at Hundred Beasts Fruit for a few months, Tesoro had to admit he had nothing more to teach her, so he let her act as she pleased.
This identity served her well outside, making it very convenient for her to operate on the Red Earth Continent.
However, there were no ruins on the Red Earth Continent that she wanted to investigate. The places she wanted to explore were generally places that archeology teams dared not enter; those that did were often illegal organizations.
This was the influence after the Ohara Incident, where the World Government's strategy of killing the chicken to scare the monkey had a certain deterrent effect, making many archaeological island explorations need careful consideration.
She needed to infiltrate an illegal organization to find opportunities to explore ruins, so with Tesoro's arrangements, she temporarily left Hundred Beasts Fruit.
She then slightly altered her appearance and joined a sham company of an organization as an accountant who cooks the books, for according to the intelligence gathered by Hundred Beasts, this organization had been quietly exploring a ruin.
She was just a secretary, not a wanted criminal, so no one knew her exact identity, allowing her to easily infiltrate the organization and follow their people to a ruin on an unknown island.
...
"Hey, Robin, make those accounts look good, or if those guys notice, we'll be in for a big loss."
"I know, it's already done."
Their voyages were merely a means of laundering money. The objective was to make the money they possessed appear cleaner. This was also the purpose of exploring the ruins. Finding treasure would be ideal, but if not, it wouldn't be a big deal.
"What a pity, there's only that broken piece of stone on this island. The remaining bit of treasure isn't even enough to share."
One person complained about this issue. However, division of things has always had a strange division method since ancient times. If the resources to be divided could not be increased, then the number of people getting a cut would be decreased. Thus, internal strife erupted within this organization.
"Do we really have to do this?"
With a gun pointed at her head, Robin didn't panic at all. Instead, she calmly asked the other side.
"Well, although the treasure isn't much, it's already enough for just a few of us. While you did a nice job with the books, as long as you're alive, the higher-ups might find us out, so we can only bid you farewell.
Get used to it in your next life, betrayals in this type of organization are just everyday occurrences."
"Thanks for the reminder, but let me return the favor. I've betrayed you all from the start, actually, we were never on the same side."
As Robin's words trailed off, the other party felt something was wrong. He wanted to pull the trigger, but his fingers wouldn't respond. A thin, blade-tipped tail had already severed his arm.
Elizabeth had appeared at some unknown point, and on the coast, the Shadow Fox revealed itself...