Beauties Everywhere

Julian heard the voices from the second floor and knew Beatrice and his fellow countrywoman, Alice, were talking. He instantly recalled how they had looked when they first met: one was a blonde girl covered in dust, her hair and face filthy. In Fat Pig Count's dungeon, Alice and Beatrice had been the first two women to follow behind him.

Alice and Beatrice were both residents of the same small island, which had been invaded by pirates. Alice was also a highly skilled doctor and had trained in Body Techniques and swordsmanship. She excelled at boxing and had single-handedly taken down several pirate officers, only to be defeated by the Sea Dragon Pirates Captain's Devil Fruit ability. To torment her, he threw her into the slave ranks and sold her to that fat pig noble, intending for her to live in humiliation.

When Alice and Beatrice had boarded the ship with him, they had been far too dirty for Julian to notice Alice. His attention had been entirely on Beatrice, so he sent Alice to help Rose's medical team. It was only the day before yesterday that he finally noticed her.

Julian then realized how absurd it was. After Alice bathed, changed clothes, and put on light makeup, she had both looks and a figure. She was 1.9 meters tall, half a head taller than Beatrice, and looked somewhat like a younger Nami. Both had oval faces and incredibly impressive figures. Their twin peaks were comparable to basketballs, two huge balls on their chests. Alice had shoulder-length golden hair, making her look exceptionally beautiful. A smile always rested on her face; she was the kind of girl with a genuinely pleasant personality.

Julian grumbled, "There may not be much in the pirates' world, but there are plenty of beauties. Beautiful women are everywhere. I'm not even bragging—if you casually picked people from my ship, you could grab a whole bunch of beauties. It takes me ten hours every day just to look at them all. I just have a certain immunity to beautiful women, so I don't like looking."

Why did Julian feel so drawn to Alice? Because one look told him that she had an exceptionally forthright personality. She had a pair of bright, watery eyes. Back then, he had not paid attention to that filthy blonde and had only looked at the pink-haired Beatrice. Could someone named Alice possibly be ugly?

Alice was now following Herbert in practicing swordsmanship. She wanted to improve her strength and eventually kill pirates to avenge her fellow villagers. Julian let Herbert handle it himself and did not intend to interfere. Since Alice came from a family of doctors and possessed generations of medical knowledge, Julian felt it would be a waste of her talents to make her a swordswoman. Rose was the only person aboard who knew medicine, but Rose was really only half-trained. Julian often cursed Rose as Chopper.

Herbert had been so pestered by Alice that he had no choice but to teach her swordsmanship, though he also told her not to give up medicine. Alice often brought Beatrice with her to Mud Dragon to find Herbert and study swordsmanship. Why did she bring Beatrice along? The elite crew all knew that Beatrice was almost certainly going to become the captain's wife, so everyone treated her very politely. Some people often gave Beatrice gifts to curry favor with her, but she always declined them tactfully.

All the Division Captains, out of admiration and loyalty toward their captain, also treated Beatrice with great courtesy. Whenever they had good food or fun things, they would offer them to her. Naturally, Beatrice politely refused and said everyone was family, so there was no need to be so formal. Beatrice was also an extremely gentle person, and all the Division Captains liked her personality very much. Thus, everyone got along well.

This was also Pierre's Magnet-Magnet Fruit ability. As long as someone said they wanted to go to a certain ship, a steel plate would fly over. Standing on it allowed them to travel to the other ships, making the ability extremely convenient. The two girls had just returned to the Mud Dragon from Herbert's ship. Watching them float over from Mud Dragon, Julian could not help praising Pierre. He had turned a Magnet-Magnet Fruit ability into a courier service. He truly lived up to the title of Head of Logistics. Julian had never placed any restrictions on the Division Captains; whichever ship they wanted to go to was no problem.

The Division Captains, however, believed that Julian assigning those ships to them and letting them guard them was proof of the captain's trust. After all, ships were people's means of transportation in this world. Not everyone had the money to build a massive ship, nor did everyone have the strength to sail upon the Sea. Therefore, the Division Captains were all extremely conscientious.

Every morning, they inspected the brothers in their own divisions, then had Pierre use his ability to send them to Mud Dragon to learn Sword Skills from the swordsmanship expert Herbert, or to spar there. Herbert was unquestionably the strongest. Every time, he hacked George's thick-skinned Great White Bear until he was covered in wounds. After going through that incident, Herbert's sword intent had become even more solidified. He was recognized by all the Division Captains as the strongest among them. His Dual Sword Style Swordsmanship was enough to make everyone else miserable, especially after cultivating Gale Style Swordsmanship. His sword speed had become incredibly fast, and he could already cut through iron.

The second strongest was George. His Dog-Dog Fruit, Ancient Zoan, Great Bear Form had been developed extremely well, and his Body Techniques were formidable too. Brute Force Bear Paw Impact and Savage Giant Strength Fist were moves with extremely high damage. Great Bear Form itself offered high attack and defense. At 2.8 meters tall, George was more than fifty centimeters taller than Julian. He trained like mad every day, and his physique was nearly as muscular as Bullet's, packed with hard muscles.

Next was Pierre. His Devil Fruit was truly absurdly powerful. He could fight in the air, launch Steel Assault and Steel Lockdown with his Magnet-Magnet Fruit ability, or stand on steel and fly. It was practically cheating. He could even turn the scrap metal around him into flying swords like those of the Sword Control Technique, controlling them with his Devil Fruit ability in battle. He would even shout, "Myriad Swords Return to Origin!" However, the Magnet-Magnet Fruit consumed a great deal of stamina. It offered many combat methods, but its stamina expenditure was huge.

White Wolf Allison had it rather rough. Despite being a pirate worth ten million, he had been knocked unconscious by George's bear paw, sent flying by Pekki, and knocked out by Herbert's blade. Leo had even kited him with his flying ability. Even Pierre, his fellow countryman, had utterly crushed Allison with his Devil Fruit. Allison had been thoroughly humiliated by the other Division Captains, so he privately asked Julian how he could grow stronger. Julian gave him his improvised version of Soru.

There was also a second method: trade Momonosuke, that little bastard's five-hundred-year dog life, for an increase in strength. Julian also said he would steal the Marine Rokushiki from a South Blue Marine base as soon as possible and give it to the crew so they could improve their strength quickly. Although Allison was learning the improvised version of Soru, he had considerable talent, and his speed improved rapidly. Many elite crew members also learned Julian's bootleg version of Soru. Either their legs cramped up, or they accelerated without any ability to turn, then slammed headfirst into something before stopping. They were literally braking with their faces.

Even Julian laughed at the sight. "That's some real skill. Braking with your face is damn impressive." Julian had some vague memories of the other five Marine techniques, but he could not use them. Especially the legendary Iron Body—he only remembered its name and did not know how to train it. Julian told the other Division Captains to learn the low-spec, version 0.5 Soru for now.

Learning even one technique was better than none. Julian himself was also learning the low-spec version, and his speed had improved. His mud-powered jumping start was already twice as fast as before. Julian intended to become a six-sided warrior with high attack, high defense, and high speed. If possible, he also planned to eat another Devil Fruit. He wanted to try that Artificial Dragon Fruit himself. He had ideas about the other Devil Fruits too. At worst, his body would explode and he would die.

Julian had already died once. Although only a tiny fragment of the original owner's remnant soul remained, it was merely a mass of unconscious memories. If Julian fused with those memories, he would only gain an extra set of memories, which would be of no use to him. He might as well leave them alone. Maybe, if he gambled correctly, he could gain another Devil Fruit. Even eating a version 0.5 Dragon Fruit could increase his stamina and combat power. Most importantly, the Dragon Body's defense was incredibly monstrous, even if it was inferior to Kaido's Azure Dragon Body.

That Dragon Fruit could also fly and wield many powers, including lightning, storms, flames, and dragon breath. Even if Julian did not eat it himself, he would never leave it for Momonosuke, that little bastard, to eat. Moreover, this Artificial Devil Fruit seemed not to possess any Devil Fruit consciousness. As for other Devil Fruits, Julian really was not confident about them. But he was not afraid of dying. Julian thought, I'll take things one step at a time. I already have a Logia Devil Fruit, and I don't act recklessly. What is there to fear?