Complete an E-Rank Defeat

The Holy Land, Mary Geoise.

"Huff, huff, huff!"

Stella braced both hands on the table, her lips pressed tightly together.

She lowered herself into a shallow squat, stood again, and repeated the motion rapidly. Sweat dripped onto the floor.

After a long while, Stella seemed to run out of strength. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed limply onto the table.

At that moment, even moving a finger was difficult for her.

E-rank defeat complete!

"Not bad. I like it."

Ross's voice came from behind her, his breath brushing softly against her ear.

A smile never left his face. When he saw the traces of blood on the floor, his excitement only grew.

He hadn't expected that slave shop to have taken such good care of Stella. They must have treated her as their showpiece.

Fortunately, he had arrived in time and become the one to claim her.

Ross scooped Stella up with ease. Her body felt light and supple in his arms. She was already tall, well over six feet, and usually carried herself with a commanding presence.

Yet beside Ross, who stood over six and a half feet tall—the average height for a Celestial Dragon—she suddenly seemed small, like a docile kitten nestled in a giant's arms.

Ross had always been willing to show tenderness afterward to a woman who had pleased him.

Holding Stella, Ross sat on the newly delivered thirty-foot bed and let her lean against him.

"Stella, have you met the owner of that slave shop?"

"A few times."

Stella spoke between breaths. With no experience and Ross having gone on for so long, she still hadn't recovered.

"He's a tall, thin man covered in slime. I heard the manager call him Trebol."

Stella held nothing back when Ross asked her a question.

After spending so long in the slave shop, she had known her fate would depend entirely on whoever bought her.

Becoming a Celestial Dragon's slave had advantages and disadvantages.

She lacked the knowledge or ability to weigh them. She only wanted to serve Ross well.

Ever since she had realized freedom was out of reach for a woman like her, her only hope had been to stay alive and live comfortably.

"Trebol... So it was him. I was wondering who had the vision for this."

Ross raised an eyebrow. That explained a few things.

Trebol was one of Doflamingo's officers. In the future, Doflamingo would have a hand in nearly half the slave trade on the Sabaody Archipelago.

That was still more than a decade away, though. Ross hadn't expected Doflamingo to be laying the groundwork there already.

Then again, given Doflamingo's ruthless ambition, it wasn't surprising.

Ross actually admired Doflamingo. The man had both cunning and ability. If Luffy hadn't interfered in the end, he would have done quite well for himself.

Unfortunately, this world ran on strength and birth. Doflamingo had been born into privilege, but his foolish parents had cost him his status as a Celestial Dragon.

With his talent and the relatively weak String-String Fruit, becoming a Shichibukai and ruling an Affiliated Nation like a king was about his limit. Becoming one of the Four Emperors was impossible.

At this point in time, though, Doflamingo could be useful. At the very least, his connections were good.

Ross held Stella in his arms as he considered working with Doflamingo.

Celestial Dragons could have almost anything in the world, but it all came through World Government channels.

If the Five Elders or Imu ever took that away, the Celestial Dragons would be lambs waiting for slaughter. Ross had no intention of living at their mercy.

Now that he was a Celestial Dragon, he couldn't let himself end up worse off than the Four Emperors who had started as pirates.

He needed influence, and he needed strength.

He had a long road ahead.

Three days later.

Ross was practicing his swordsmanship.

The system had given him technique and physical ability, but he still had to work out for himself which moves to use and when.

Besides, he had no intention of relying entirely on the system. Any improvement he could make on his own was worth pursuing.

Just then, Stella hurried in, dressed as a secretary in a fitted outfit and a black skirt.

"Master, CP0 instructor Zephyr requests an audience."

Stella bowed respectfully, a trace of unease in her voice.

Her long, stocking-clad legs were straight and striking. The snug cut of her outfit accentuated her figure.

"Let him in."

Ross looked pleased to hear Zephyr had arrived. He stood and gave Stella a casual pat.

After three days with him, Stella was even more alluring than when they had first met.

"Yes, Master!"

Stella flushed and hurried out of the palace.

Over the past three days, she had become Ross's messenger and had tried on all sorts of outfits—something she would never have dared imagine before.

Before long, Stella returned with Zephyr. Behind them, a dozen or so women struggled to drag several large chests inside.

"Leave those there and stand to the side," Zephyr said. The women quickly set down the chests and stood aside, their every movement tense.

They were the families of the Marines Ross had bought. Now they worked as cleaners in his palace.

"Here's five billion Belly. I brought the people, too."

Zephyr wore a white CP0 suit. He spoke to Ross in an ordinary tone, without much deference.

Ross didn't mind. The status of a Celestial Dragon only mattered to people who followed the rules. Strength was what truly made others bow their heads.

"Leave it there. The Marines must have made a good haul this time too, right?"

Rozward alone had spent 4.1 billion Belly. If the Marines were willing to add another 900 million to make it an even five billion, they must have earned far more.

"About three billion Belly in cash. Most of it was slaves of various kinds. If we hand them over to the World Government, they should be worth around four billion Belly," Zephyr said calmly.

Zephyr showed no guilt at all when he spoke about slaves.

Ross had found that hard to understand at first and had worried it might cause friction with the Marines. But after sorting through his memories, that concern disappeared.

The Marines represented justice, and Zephyr undoubtedly believed in it.

But moral standards in this world were hardly high.

In a world where strength decided everything, talk of equality was a joke.

To almost everyone here, the buying and selling of slaves was simply a fact of life. They saw no question of justice in it, any more than they would in working themselves to the bone for a boss.

That view had endured for centuries.

To most Marines, justice meant fighting pirates, stopping large-scale murder and pillage, and upholding World Government rule—not going after slave traders or building an equal society.

It was much like an ancient magistrate's office dealing with murder and arson but taking no interest in an ordinary person buying a concubine or a maid.

Standing among the people of the Pirate World, who had no modern sense of morality, Ross felt like a model of virtue.