The ice passage was carved open to let two ships sail out of port. For now, very few ships traveled to and from Sleeping Island. After those two vessels departed, no other ships entered or left until the ice had completely melted.
Later on, the first ship to arrive was Strawberry's Marine vessel. They brought back another group of people, steadily increasing the island's population.
...
More than half a month passed.
Vane selected a portion of his crew, along with Meowth, and prepared to secretly leave Sleeping Island.
After extensive reconnaissance by the Fish-Man Pirates, they confirmed information about a fleet transporting a large number of slaves.
It was the Slave King's fleet. Last time on Octagon Island, the Slave King and the Loan Shark King had fled in a hurry, running straight back to Paradise in the first half of the Grand Line.
They didn't dare linger in the second half at all, afraid that Vane—the madman—would chase them down and cut them apart.
The Slave King had behaved himself for a while. Once he confirmed that Vane had settled down on Sleeping Island and wouldn't be able to focus entirely on causing them trouble, he resumed his slave business.
During this period, the Celestial Dragons repaired the lift port that Vane had blown apart. Restless as ever, they went straight to the Sabaody Archipelago to capture slaves. In the past, they only seized slaves of exceptional quality.
But after going without slaves for so long, they were practically suffocating. Now they grabbed anyone they saw—quality didn't matter. They'd capture a few first and torture them for fun.
The people of Sabaody were completely stunned. The clever ones had already foreseen this day when they saw Mary Geoise emptied of slaves, and had left the archipelago in advance to take refuge elsewhere.
They understood the Celestial Dragons' behavior all too well. If you encountered one at a time like this, even the Marines couldn't stop them…
No, rather, at any time—if a Celestial Dragon truly wanted to do something, the Marines could never stop them.
And the Marines did choose to tolerate it. Only after hundreds had already been tortured and captured did the higher-ups protest to the World Government.
Why not protest earlier? Because it would have been useless. There was no stopping the Celestial Dragons from venting their frustration. Moreover, the Marine Fleet Admiral was in the middle of a transition, and the number of Admirals was being restructured from two to three.
The Marines didn't want to offend the Celestial Dragons and jeopardize the Admiral restructuring.
At the same time, they couldn't let the Celestial Dragons run wild forever. That would damage the Marines' public reputation. Striking the right balance was crucial.
With pirate overlords in the New World rising one after another, the Marines' role remained vital. Seeing that things had gone far enough, the Five Elders finally stepped in to restrain the Celestial Dragons.
The large-scale public slave raids at Sabaody disappeared. Of course, they didn't stop in secret. Such activities had never truly vanished to begin with.
With open slave raids halted, the underground slave trade became active once more.
Vane's assault on Mary Geoise had, in fact, created a huge business opportunity for the Slave King.
The slaves grabbed indiscriminately in Sabaody were of mediocre quality. If they were only meant to be tortured and killed, that was fine—but the Celestial Dragons had higher standards for their slaves.
The Slave King specifically gathered a batch of higher-quality slaves from the Four Seas and the first half of the Grand Line—enough to satisfy the Celestial Dragons' various twisted preferences.
To prevent accidents, he divided this batch into three shipments for transport…
"This is going to make me a fortune."
The Celestial Dragons were vile—but to the Slave King, they were extremely generous clients. An ordinary slave could sell for several hundred thousand Belly. Slightly better quality? Over a million.
Special races were even more expensive. Selling to Celestial Dragons often brought in two to three times the profit compared to selling elsewhere.
Previously, business had been limited because the "market" was saturated. The Celestial Dragons didn't accept just any slave. But now, with such a massive shortage, their standards had dropped.
The Slave King had prepared over 1,400 slaves. If he sold them all to the Celestial Dragons, he could earn nearly a billion Belly in one go.
Hiding inside his dim, gloomy room, the Slave King fantasized about how to spend this fast fortune… Hire a few powerful bodyguards. He'd need at least two fighters on the level of Vasco Shot. And they'd better have solid reputations—not the type to run off at a critical moment.
Bulu bulu! Bulu bulu~
The Den Den Mushi in front of him stuck out its tongue and began ringing. He hurriedly picked it up.
Though magical, the Den Den Mushi was primitive—there was no caller ID. You only found out who it was after answering.
"Hello~"
The voice on the other end sounded urgent.
"My lord, it's Aren."
"Oh, Aren."
Aren was one of his trusted subordinates, responsible for escorting the first shipment of slaves.
"Where are you now? Haven't lost too many of my slaves, have you?"
"We—we ran into—"
Puchi!
The Den Den Mushi suddenly displayed an expression of extreme terror—then its mouth twisted into a different grin.
Since the Den Den Mushi mimicked the holder's expression, such a shift meant someone else had taken control of it.
"Who are you? Everyone in the underground world knows Aren is my man! You dare attack the Slave King's people?!"
"Slave King…"
The Slave King was certain he had never heard this voice before. It didn't sound like any of his old rivals—but the speaker clearly knew who he was.
Who could it be?
He didn't immediately think of Vane. After all, the New World was far away. A great pirate of that level would be watched closely wherever he moved.
There was no reply. The Den Den Mushi closed its eyes—the line had been cut.
"Damn it! You'd better hope I never find out who you are!"
...
In the waters near the Sabaody Archipelago, a slave ship lay motionless on the sea.
The slave traders were sprawled across the deck in disarray.
A plump Dragonite sat atop several of them, its massive body pinning them down so completely they couldn't resist.
"We've finished counting. Five hundred and thirty-two people. Their living conditions are dire."
Tiger and Jinbe emerged from the lower hold. The rest of the Fish-Man Pirates were still inside, removing the slaves' shackles.
If it had only been about attacking the ship, the Fish-Man Pirates would have been enough. The real difficulty came afterward—properly settling the rescued slaves.
In the original story, Tiger had been ambushed by the Marines while trying to escort Koala back to her homeland.
Tiger looked at the man standing by the railing. He hadn't expected the other party to arrive so quickly. From the moment of the call to his arrival had taken only two or three hours.
Dragonite's speed was truly astonishing—worthy of its name.
"Meowth, put everyone into the castle space."
With Dragonite's speed and the Fish-Men gathering intelligence from the far side of the sea, large-scale slave trades like the Slave King's would only serve to increase the population of his territory.
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