Biscuit, Menchi, and Buhara set out the next morning, leaving Greed Island to negotiate over the protection of a single All-Curing Herb.
Gelman had brought the Greed Island Management Team to an agreement—or, more accurately, he had encouraged Doon, who had already been eager to make sweeping changes to the game, to persuade the other members to commit to that path.
But, as he had every time before, he left behind his "seed" and then washed his hands of the matter like a deadbeat, leaving the "major Greed Island version update" for Doon and the others to handle.
Gelman knew nothing about game design. He only needed to achieve his goal: transform Greed Island into a back garden better suited to selecting future team members.
Like Gelman, Leol took no part in the meetings about designing more game elements or modifying the existing main and side quests.
However, his reasons were different from Gelman's. Gelman didn't want to take work away from the experts, while Leol stuck to his own principles—and to the limits he had set for himself as a death-row inmate.
"If every death-row inmate in the world were like you, that would be wonderful," Gelman told Leol during a casual chat.
"Most death-row inmates are those bastards over there." Leol smiled with narrowed eyes and pointed with his thumb at the members of the pirate crew from Coastal City Shufurabi, who wore white shirts.
On the surface, he was the captain of this pirate crew. In reality, he held the lives of these unruly pirates in his hands. He was their tyrannical King.
The pirates watched from a distance. They were drinking at the bar, but didn't dare raise their voices. They had already suffered countless times before, and could only silently swallow their bitter drinks.
Every