Sleuth of Hiding

Lagron was killed by a bullet from an unknown source.

After the incident, Wolf Rat had been on edge, but no matter how hard he racked his brains, he still couldn't figure out why that weapons shop had killed the Sharp Bull Pirates' navigator, thereby causing the series of problems that followed.

As far as he knew, the two sides had no connection whatsoever.

If he had to force a connection, it was that one of the deceased had lived not far from the weapons shop.

Of course, none of that mattered anymore.

Because the main party involved had come knocking.

Wolf Rat calmly watched Kazt, who prided himself on disliking beating around the bush.

His expression was as steady as an old dog, and his casual fiddling with the wineglass, which faintly revealed killing intent, all displayed the bearing of a master.

It was as if the thirty-odd people led by Kazt were nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs before him.

Listening to Wolf Rat's offhand reply and sensing the seemingly turbulent power beneath his calm exterior,

Kazt finished filling in the blanks in his mind. His eyes narrowed, and alongside his caution, a hint of fighting spirit emerged.

The atmosphere abruptly turned murderous.

"Captain of the Sharp Bull Pirates, Kazt, right?"

Seeing that Kazt had fallen silent, Wolf Rat remained composed, though he felt rather helpless. If you don't respond, how am I supposed to smoothly reveal the identity of the culprit?

"Looks like..."

Kazt's gaze turned icy as he slowly activated the power of his Devil Fruit.

The black beard around his mouth spread toward his cheeks and forehead like branches growing wildly.

In the blink of an eye, thick black hair covered his entire face. A pair of yellow beast eyes shone through the fur like lamps in the night, carrying unmistakable killing intent.

Wolf Rat suddenly spoke at lightning speed. "Anything you want to know, Captain Kazt, I will tell you everything I know. I won't even charge you."

"...?"

The mood took a sharp turn. The killing intent Kazt had been building suddenly stalled.

Ten minutes later, Kazt and his men left the bar with the "complete" information in hand.

After Kazt and the others had gone, Wolf Rat slowly wiped away his smile and turned gloomy. Looking coldly at the doorway, he said, "I only provide free services to the dead."

Tatam glanced at Wolf Rat and said calmly, "That was dangerous."

"It was nothing. I'm not some easy-to-deal-with piece of trash, and besides, aren't you here?"

"..."

Tatam really wanted to say that if a fight broke out, he would first find a way to run.

Wolf Rat had no idea what Tatam was thinking and continued,

"With just the two of us, we can't escape, but we could still barely manage to kill them until only scraps remained. Kazt may look like a bull, but he knows how to act with restraint. He won't charge recklessly like one."

"So long as I cooperate honestly, I can be certain he won't cause trouble at a time like this, when the auction is about to begin."

Wolf Rat turned the glass wine cup upside down. Watching the remaining wine slowly run down the side of the glass at close range, he revealed a trace of coldness at the corner of his mouth.

"As for what happens afterward, I only hope they don't die too miserably."

Tatam remained taciturn throughout, making it seem as though Wolf Rat were talking to himself.

Wolf Rat had long since grown used to his way of interacting with Tatam. He knew that because of his voice, Tatam avoided speaking whenever possible.

"Tatam, tonight is going to be lively. Aren't you interested at all?"

Wolf Rat turned the wineglass upright again and gestured for Tatam to pour another drink.

Tatam shook his head to indicate that he wasn't interested, then poured Wolf Rat another cup.

"I really want to go."

Wolf Rat tipped his head back.

"But damn it, I don't dare!!"

The Sharp Bull Pirates left the alley and headed toward the Mad Hatter Auction House on Cape Street.

Wells, one of the crew's officers, walked beside Kazt and said in a deep voice, "Only information extracted through torture has any weight. That rat was far too cooperative. Should we believe what he told us?"

He was an officer of the same rank as Lagron, but unlike Lagron, who was skilled with blades, he specialized in firearms.

Kazt stared ahead and said coldly, "The auction is about to begin. I don't want to cause trouble. We'll deal with these rotten matters after the auction."

"Understood."

Wells said no more.

Their group returned to Mad Hatter Town almost exactly on time.

When they came back, they heard that Lagron had been assassinated inside a tavern and immediately realized that a tough opponent had targeted them.

Otherwise, that person would not have killed their navigator first and then Lagron, who had stayed behind to handle the matter.

Although Kazt advocated cautious growth and avoiding trouble, that did not mean he was afraid of trouble.

It was just that he had his eye on several items at the auction. One of them was a fish-man slave, which was one of the guarantees that could help them successfully pass through the Reverse Mountain Current.

To compete for the items he wanted, he had used the sale of information as the basis for cooperation, joining forces with two other pirate crews of comparable strength to swallow Bolgin's fleet and obtain enough funds for the auction.

After putting so much effort into preparing, how could he let other matters disrupt his plans?

Besides, investigating several times before finding Wolf Rat had already been a race against time. If they delayed any longer, they might miss the auction.

The Sharp Bull Pirates moved extremely quickly and soon arrived at the entrance of the Mad Hatter Auction House.

There were still about thirty minutes before the auction began, but most potential buyers had already entered ahead of time.

Even so, the entrance to the auction house was still teeming with people.

Because of the auction house's rules, Kazt brought only two officers with him.

He had not chosen to hand over the money he had brought to the auction's cooperating keeper of hidden goods. Instead, he carried the money directly into the venue.

A keeper of hidden goods could generally be understood as someone whose profession was storing items for others. Naturally, most of their clients were pirates.

In this world, there were tens of millions of islands, large and small, and many of them were uninhabited deserted islands.

Pirates used many of these deserted islands to hide treasures, liquor, and other things that were extremely valuable to them.

The problem with doing so was that there was absolutely no guarantee of the safety of their property. They might hide their hard-won treasure one moment, only for another person in the same line of work to stumble upon it and take it away the next.

Under such circumstances, keepers of hidden goods came into being. By charging a reasonable service fee, they provided paid storage services to pirates at large, much like banks.

For keepers of hidden goods cooperating with the auction, their main task at this time was to safeguard buyers' funds.

Once a buyer chose to entrust their bidding funds to a keeper of hidden goods temporarily, they would not need to go through slightly troublesome handover procedures after successfully winning an item. They could take the item away directly at the venue.

If the item being bid on happened to be a Devil Fruit...

Then, of course, eating it on the spot would be safer.

In short, based on their own considerations, some buyers chose to entrust their money to a keeper of hidden goods, while others chose to bring their funds into the auction house.

Kazt belonged to the latter group.

Inside a tavern near the auction house in Mad Hatter Town.

"A keeper of hidden goods, huh? The professions here really are varied."

Wearing a mask, Maud occupied a table by himself and silently listened to the information provided by the "concerned citizens" chatting around him, learning quite a bit about Mad Hatter Town.

As for why he could occupy a table by himself, it wasn't because he had fought for it with his fists like Kid.

The fundamental reason was his Undertaker's attire.

In the eyes of the pirates in Mad Hatter Town, an Undertaker was, to put it nicely, someone who collected corpses; in a more neutral description, a cleaner of the streets; and in an unpleasant one, a janitor.

Such an unlucky profession naturally made no pirate willing to share a table with Maud.

Maud was more than happy to enjoy the peace and quiet.

He had ordered wine and food but hadn't touched them. Whenever he heard a conversation involving names, he would swiftly glance over, then retract his gaze without leaving a trace.

Every pirate who was rapidly "scraped" by his gaze would inexplicably shiver.

Amid their confusion and puzzlement, they remained completely unaware of what had happened.

Time passed bit by bit.

Some pirates occasionally rose and left, while others occasionally pushed open the door and entered.

Every time the tavern door opened, Maud would cast an inconspicuous glance over.

Creak—

The door opened again.

A blond youth wearing a black top hat entered the tavern.

He stood by the door and swept his gaze over the occupied seats. In an instant, he locked onto Maud's relatively empty table.