When the ship drew close, Ronglin realized that everyone had minor injuries. As expected, they were all subordinates he had recruited himself, but their numbers seemed a little low.
"The Captain is back!" Some of the original sailors spotted Ronglin and immediately shouted happily, "Boss Jinbe and Boss Jazz are back too!"
Quite a few people followed their gazes. They immediately stopped their noisy chatter and all turned toward Ronglin.
Ronglin boarded his small ship, then instructed a sailor to fetch money for the fisherman.
At that moment, a recently recruited man with minor injuries asked in confusion, "Captain, why give him money? As pirates, eating without paying and hitching rides without paying are perfectly normal! Sparing his life and not taking his ship is already generous enough!"
Ronglin looked at the newcomer and said coldly, "Perhaps I didn't make this clear before, so I'll say it again now. I'm not a pirate, I won't do pirate business, and I strictly forbid my subordinates from doing pirate business."
The crowd immediately erupted in commotion. Everyone present was a pirate, yet Ronglin had simply declared that they would stop being pirates and abandon their profession altogether. The shift was so sudden that they could barely process it.
"But we were pirates to begin with!" someone said to Ronglin in confusion.
Please Help Me? I'm Expensive!
"We'll discuss that later. If you want to join my ranks, there are plenty of rules to follow!" Ronglin swept his gaze across the injured crowd, then looked at Caesar, whose head was also wrapped in bandages. "But what concerns me right now is why so many people are missing. And where did all these injuries come from?"
At that question, the crowd began clamoring again, and everyone started recounting the series of events that had