"This is already the fourth pirate crew we've taken down since setting sail. Add the four pirate crews that came knocking on our door earlier, and that makes eight pirate crews dealt with in total."
This Thorn Rose sea area really has shallow waters—there are simply far too many pirates packed in here. Could the Thorn Treasure really contain that much wealth?
Outside Seagull Town, Vane and the others were enjoying wine brought by the townspeople as thanks.
"In the past, the Thorn Rose Kingdom might not even have eight pirate incidents in an entire year. But now, just us alone have already cleared out eight pirate crews."
Based on all the information combined, setting aside the eight pirate crews they had personally eliminated, there were still at least a dozen pirate crews active in the Thorn Rose sea area. And because more and more pirates were gathering, a herd effect had begun.
The pirates along the main sea route saw so many pirates heading this way and assumed the Thorn Rose sea area really had plenty of good stuff, so even more pirates kept getting drawn in.
These pirates came to the Thorn Rose sea area with a "might as well try my luck" mindset, and all of them caused massive damage to the region.
Tant spoke up, "Boss, life really isn't easy for ordinary people in Thorn Rose. I just asked around in town—people on several islands were attacked by pirates. Their houses and property were all burned down."
"If they want to live and rebuild houses, they need money. But their money was all robbed, so they can only borrow from the gangs. Without anything valuable enough to use as collateral, they can only mortgage themselves, working for the gangs in exchange for some money."
"Lots of people have left their hometowns and gone to Rose Island. Fortunately, Rose Island is relatively safe, so there's no need to worry too much about pirate attacks there."
Did the gangs on Rose Island have some massive cluster of black-hearted factories to need so many people?
Vane had captured eight pirate crews, and more than four hundred pirates had been sold off to the gangs.
That number was no small matter. If these people were loyal, it wouldn't be impossible for the gangs to spark internal conflict on Rose Island and directly take over the Thorn Rose Kingdom.
Vane said, "I suspect… the gangs are trafficking people."
What he traded to the gangs were pirates. Anyone who could go out to sea as a pirate was relatively strong, and pirates had no human rights to speak of. Selling pirates might even have more supporters than opponents.
But selling civilians was different. The vast majority of people in this world were civilians, and everyone feared becoming one of those sold.
Selling pirates was considered eliminating evil and reusing pirates.
Many pirates were even temporarily willing to be sold, because once pirates fell into someone else's hands, there were basically only two outcomes: one was being sold and used as a slave, the other was being hanged.
Between becoming a slave and being hanged immediately, many people were willing to choose the former first. After all, if they truly couldn't endure it anymore, dying was still easy. Better to endure for a while—maybe they'd make it through.
Civilians were different. They lived honestly within their country, endured pirate plundering, and now they might even be sold as slaves. As long as there was even the slightest possibility, they would never support such actions.
The gangs of the Thorn Rose Kingdom were very likely doing exactly this.
Pirates plundered and burned down the townspeople's houses. The gangs then stepped in with usurious loans. With no collateral, people were directly taken away as collateral under the guise of working in factories—when in reality, there was a very high chance they were being sold as slaves.
It was quite possible that several batches of people had already been shipped out of the Thorn Rose Kingdom.
So pirates and gangs colluding—one side looting, the other offering usurious loans and even trafficking civilian populations.
Vane even suspected that some of the pirates were actually gang members pretending to be pirates. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why arson happened so frequently—because arson itself was one of the main objectives.
To force residents into ruin, to make them "willing" to be traded by the gangs.
"I need to tell Martha about this."
If the gang problem wasn't resolved, the pirates in those sea areas would never decrease. He had no interest in endlessly chasing a bunch of gang members with no bounties.
...
Martha received the message Vane sent back. The gangs were very likely playing the role of pirates, setting fires everywhere to inflate high-interest loans, forcing civilians to sell themselves to repay debts—and these people had most likely already been sold as slaves overseas.
It was horrifying.
The pirate problem alone had already pushed the citizens to the brink of suffocation, and now the gangs were actually profiting from it.
She had entrusted Vane with combating pirates. Vane, actively or passively, had taken down eight pirate crews—an extremely outstanding result.
Yet despite eliminating so many pirates, the chaos in Thorn Rose hadn't eased much at all. Now it seemed the real culprit was the gangs.
"Lena doesn't seem to know about this."
Lena was aware of dealing with pirates, and of course she wouldn't feel any pity for pirates. But once it involved her own citizens, the nature of the matter changed completely.
Martha thought to herself that Lena might not know about this. Lena held a mid-level position within the gangs, which made her suitable to investigate their crimes and rescue civilians who hadn't yet been shipped out.
...
Lena rubbed her temples with a headache.
She didn't know what Martha was thinking. She herself was a mid-level, nearly upper-level member of the gangs. The gangs were the organization she depended on to survive.
She could handle the previous matters out of old ties, since they didn't have much impact.
But now Martha was actually asking her to investigate the very gang organization she relied on to live? What on earth was this woman thinking?
"Trafficking civilians?"
She was well aware that the gangs were involved in human trafficking. Among the pirates brought back before, those with bounties were likely taken to Marine bases to cash in the rewards, while the rest were certainly sold off by the gangs.
But trafficking civilians was something she truly didn't know about. She wasn't responsible for the usurious loan operation.
"I can investigate a little. As for whether to tell Martha… I'll decide based on the situation."
If this incident was likely to affect the entire gang and shatter the environment she depended on, there was no way she'd blindly stand on Martha's side.
...
The Thorn Rose sea area.
After two months of pirate turmoil, many pirates had poured in, but all of them had bounties below 30 million Belly.
Calder, this Devil Fruit user, already had the highest bounty among them. In Vane's eyes, they were all just small fry.
Until today, when reliable news arrived: a major pirate from the West Sea with a bounty of 70 million, the Suit Pirate Jane Erkoya, had entered the waters of the Thorn Rose Kingdom.
A bounty of 70 million was absolutely considered a big fish in the West Sea. For ordinary pirates to reach such a high bounty, they usually had to venture into the Grand Line.
The Suit Pirate's objective was also very clear—the strongest island of the Thorn Rose Kingdom, the location of the royal capital: Rose Island.
In their view, the smaller pirate crews had already swept through all the other islands without finding the Thorn Treasure. That meant the treasure could only be on Rose Island.
Using his 70 million bounty as a rallying call, he gathered the pirates of the Thorn Rose sea area into a pirate alliance to jointly attack Rose Island.
"With the reputation of the Suit Pirate Crew, at least half of the pirates in the Thorn Rose sea area will answer their call… So, Mr. Vane, I would like to ask that you and your team come to Rose Island to help its citizens resist the pirate alliance's attack."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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