The Undertaker

Mad Hatter Town was a den of thieves and cutthroats, infamous throughout the West Blue as a pirate's paradise for squandering gold.

At the same time, forces from the underworld had sunk their roots deep into Mad Hatter Town like tangled roots, allowing every shade of black-market industry to bloom in riotous profusion.

The immediate cause of this thriving scene was the words Pirate King Roger spoke before his death, which kicked off the Great Pirate Era.

But the root cause was a simple, clear chain of cause and effect woven from human greed and desire.

For example, lawless pirates plundered money wholesale from honest citizens of the world.

So the underworld bosses schemed to coax that money back out of the pirates' pockets.

And thus, Mad Hatter Town—a lawless haven for squandering gold—spawned every kind of industry.

Slaves, Organs, Weapons, Flower Street, All the things that could easily set a normal person's nerves on edge were available here in abundance.

Among the many shady professions in Mad Hatter Town was that of the Undertaker.

His main job was collecting corpses, and depending on the situation, he'd occasionally moonlight as a doctor, maintaining a fairly direct cooperative relationship with organ merchants.

Arthur, whom Sunny had called in to collect a body, was one of the Undertakers in Mad Hatter Town.

Not top-tier in skill, but still among the front ranks.

When Saul brought Maud back with his front half caved in, it was Arthur who handled the treatment.

And now, as the one responsible for that treatment, he was genuinely surprised to see Maud awake.

"What do you mean, 'actually woke up'?"

Saul caught a whiff of something wrong and glared at Arthur with hostility.

Back then, Arthur had sworn up and down that after treatment, Maud's chance of waking up was over fifty percent—that was what made Saul consider it.

At the time, he figured even if the treatment didn't wake him, he could still sell Maud on the black market to cut his losses, so he'd agreed in the end.

Now it was clear that Maud's actual odds of waking up had been far below fifty percent.

Having been caught out by a single slip of the tongue by the old fox Saul, Arthur was shameless enough to just spread his hands and admit it.

"If I hadn't said that back then, how could I have landed your business?"

"You swindler, you'll die a dog's death!"

Saul immediately started cursing.

"Tit for tat."

Maybe it was the mask, or maybe he really had thick skin, but Arthur remained perfectly calm.

"Anyway, you made a profit. A human slave's starting price is five hundred thousand, and you only spent fifty thousand on treatment fees. You should be satisfied."

"Maud is not a slave."

Sunny suddenly corrected him.

She had another sentence she didn't say out loud—Maud was a laborer.

Arthur glanced at Sunny, didn't respond, but dropped his current work and walked toward Maud.

Seeing Arthur approach, Maud went on alert.

This guy was obviously bad news.

Arthur was tall and broad-shouldered, standing in front of Maud and looming half a head over him.

He looked down at the bandage wrapped around Maud's forehead, then suddenly reached out to grab it.

But Maud was ready. The moment Arthur made his move, he stepped back several paces in time, dodging the grab.

"Oh?"

A flicker of surprise passed through Arthur's eyes.

His move had been fast and sudden—he never expected Maud to dodge it.

Based on his original diagnosis of Maud, he'd been certain that even if Maud woke up, his motor control would be impaired, and he definitely wouldn't recover to this level in such a short time.

But the facts were right in front of him.

Setting everything else aside, just his healing ability alone was already abnormal.

The surprise in Arthur's eyes faded quickly, replaced by a gleam of interest.

This was prime merchandise—exactly the kind those special clients loved. Not only would it sell easily, but the price could easily exceed market value.

With that thought, Arthur stepped forward, wanting to further confirm Maud's physical condition.

The next instant, he suddenly stopped.

He turned his head to look at Saul, who was sitting behind the counter smoking a pipe with a blank expression, and felt that the gaze fixed on him was truly piercing.

At the same time, he realized that the seemingly ordinary kid before him had likely already caught Saul's eye, making it impossible to pry him away as merchandise.

A pity, really.

But he could only silently snuff out the thought of negotiating a deal with Saul.

"My apologies, my apologies. Seeing a patient I personally treated wake up got me a bit excited—I nearly forgot my current identity is the Undertaker."

Arthur casually fabricated a reason for his earlier transgression, then returned to the corpse's side, resuming the work he had interrupted.

Only then did Saul's gaze soften.

Though being played by Arthur was unpleasant, he never doubted Arthur's professional integrity, knowing every coin spent had truly gone toward treatment.

Otherwise, he could make Arthur walk in and be carried out, and that would be the end of their years of acquaintance.

Maud watched Arthur's back.

Arthur, huh...

Beside him, Sunny tilted her head to look at Maud's profile, a flicker of doubt in her eyes.

By the corpse, Arthur examined the wounds, pulling a threaded needle from his collar.

"The heart got stabbed a few times, so I can only give you 60% of the market rate."

"Fine, hurry up and get it done, then scram."

Saul exhaled a puff of smoke, his tone impatient.

Arthur said no more. The right hand holding the needle flickered through a series of shadows over the corpse's wounds.

In just a moment, the messy gashes were stitched up tight as a drum.

Maud watched the technique Arthur displayed, unable to help recalling a woman from his past life who used a needle and thread as a weapon—someone extremely formidable.

Damn.

Even this guy, who didn't even have a name in the original story, could pull off a technique like this?

And Saul—though short, his strength was definitely no joke.

And this was only in the West Blue...

So, what was the Grand Line and the New World like?

Maud's mood grew slightly heavier.

It seemed he'd have to be more careful in choosing his prey.

He couldn't afford to be careless—hunting "men" only to end up being "hunted" himself.

In truth, Maud was overthinking things.

Birds of a feather flock together; how could anyone who hung around with Saul be a pushover?

And how many old pirates like Saul, retired from the previous era, could you find in a backwater like Mad Hatter Town?

After sewing up the corpse's wounds, Arthur dropped a small stack of money, then picked up the body and left.

Once Arthur was gone, the shop door closed again, ending the day's business early.

As for the bloodstains all over the floor, naturally, Maud had to clean them up.

Though hungry and thirsty, given his situation, Maud had no choice but to go along with it.

Fortunately, Sunny already treated him as a colleague and proactively gave him a flatbread and a cup of hot water.

He swallowed the bread and downed the water, barely filling his stomach, then grabbed the tools and started cleaning the blood.

At this point, Saul went upstairs to his room, while Sunny stayed behind.

Behind the counter were two stools—one tall, one short.

The short stool was for Saul to stand on; the tall one was for sitting.

She sat on the short stool, propping her cheek on her hand, watching Maud clean the floor.

Only after he finally finished cleaning did she voice the question that had been bothering her.

"How did you dodge it?"

"Huh?"

Maud looked at Sunny, confused.

Pork is so expensive these days, dear readers, won't you hurry up and invest~!!!

Also, daily plea for recommendation tickets!