Habit!

As Rainer watched Merlin walk towards the wooden ladder, his tensed body slowly relaxed.

Fortunately, he wasn't held accountable; otherwise, he wouldn't have known how to handle the situation.

Abyss, who had been dealt with in just two encounters, was someone even stronger than him, yet now his head had been severed.

Unless there was no other choice, he truly didn't want anything bad to happen with Merlin. After all, no one present knew what type of Devil Fruit Ability Merlin possessed.

All they knew was...

That Abyss had died horribly.

However, Merlin wasn't dwelling on his mistakes and pursuing him, which made Rainer sigh in relief.

At this moment, looking at the pirate ship next door engulfed in flames, a hint of regret flashed in Rainer's eyes, "This ship is worth more than Abyss's bounty!"

Just then, a sneaky sailor approached and asked Rainer in a hushed voice:

"Boss, that guy took a suitcase from the pirate ship..."

However, at that very moment, before he could finish speaking, Rainer grabbed him by the neck.

Rainer looked at the imprudent fellow with icy eyes, tightening his grip. He coldly watched the man's face turn increasingly red with pain:

"Kaby, if you don't want to die, then remember this. There are things you shouldn't just blurt out.

Think carefully about how Abyss died.

Never pry into things that don't concern you. Otherwise, if you offend someone you can't afford to offend one day, don't drag us down with you."

With that, he roughly threw Kaby to the ground. Ignoring Kaby's violent coughing, Rainer's gaze coldly swept over everyone present:

"My words aren't just for this idiot.

All of you listen up: it's important to know yourself. What isn't yours, never covet it.

All of you think carefully. If it weren't for Mr. Merlin this time, even if we could repel these pirates, who here can guarantee they would have survived intact?

Use your brains and think!"

After speaking, Rainer indifferently glanced at the idiot who was now slumped on the ground, not daring to move.

He had already made up his mind; once they docked, he would expel Kaby from the passenger ship.

Leaving such a brainless idiot on the ship was a menace.

Now in middle age, he just wanted to earn money peacefully, get married, and have children. As a former Bounty Hunter in his youth, he had seen plenty of these fools. They had little useful skill but were first-class at causing trouble.

It was best to stay away from such brainless, idiotic teammates. Every Ability User was complicated.

Didn't you see how cautiously he was trying to appease him? What an idiotic fool with no discernment.

Without another word to him, Rainer turned and walked towards the ship's cabin, preparing to discuss with the captain about preparing what Merlin needed.

The sailors nearby all looked at Kaby with disdain, and some even spat at him.

Kaby silently lowered his head, a glint of malice flashing in his brown eyes.

Then, like a stray dog soaked by the rain, he hunched his body and quickly scurried away.

Merlin was unaware of what had happened on deck and had no interest in knowing.

Returning to the doorway of the third-floor corridor of the ship, he opened the cabin door.

Merlin's expression turned somber.

He saw a young man collapsed on the floor, blood flowing from his nose and mouth. There was a clear indentation on his right chest, around the ribs, and he was currently unconscious.

"What happened here?"

Merlin frowned slightly. Seeing Merlin, Yol sighed and began to explain:

"When the chaos broke out on the ship earlier, this guy ran up here alone. He kicked open the door and tried to make a move on me as soon as he entered.

The result was obvious; I dealt with him in a few moves."

Yol's expression was a little awkward.

She couldn't exactly say that the guy had impure intentions towards her. If she said that, wouldn't it imply she was attracting trouble?

However, Lami said unhappily at this moment, "When this bad guy came in just now, he was shouting that Yol-jiejie should be his woman from now on, and that if she followed him, the pirates wouldn't kill her.

Merlin-ge, is he a pirate?"

Merlin's eyes narrowed as he looked at this "acquaintance," Gerard, the gloomy-faced sailor from not long ago.

"Oh! I understand now."

Merlin said calmly. He then placed the suitcase he was holding on the floor by the door, bent down, grabbed Gerard by his black hair, and dragged him out of the cabin.

Drawing the dagger from his thigh, he plunged it into Gerard's shoulder blade three times. Gerard woke up from the intense pain, letting out a shrill cry.

However, in the next moment, Merlin grabbed him under the armpit and lifted him up, throwing him directly off the ship.

A few seconds later, smack!

A splash of water rose from the sea's surface.

Gerard's desperate cries echoed from the water, while Merlin's gaze silently fixed on him.

Since he had already done what he shouldn't have, he had to pay the price. Merlin didn't care who he was or what his intentions were.

Yol came to Merlin's side, standing before the third-floor railing, her eyes full of apology.

"I'm sorry for causing you trouble!"

Merlin shook his head, looking down at the sea where sharks, attracted by the scent of blood, were now swimming over:

"Why apologize?

It's not your fault. There are always people in this world who have brains but don't seem to use them.

And such people, once they provoke someone they can't afford to offend, usually, without fail, end up losing their lives because of it.

So, you don't blame me for my ruthless methods?"

At this moment, the sharks in the sea had surrounded Gerard and begun to tear at him.

Gerard's struggling, miserable howls were incredibly grating.

Some of the sailors on the ship had also noticed the situation. Though they didn't know the reason, the way they looked at Merlin had shifted from admiration to a kind of fear.

Merlin glanced at them but offered no explanation or acknowledgment.

Watching the sea stained red with blood, Gerard sinking into the bellies of the fish, Yol let out a wry smile. Though there was a hint of reluctance in her eyes, it was only that:

"A life just passed away. May he be a good person in his next life."

Clasping her hands together before her chest, Yol habitually prayed softly for him, "This is all I can do."

Saying this, Yol turned her head to look at Merlin and said softly:

"Earlier, he harbored ill intentions towards me, but I didn't choose to kill him decisively. Nor did I throw him out of the room before you returned. If I had thrown him out, he might not have died like this.

But, I couldn't guarantee whether he would hold a grudge after leaving, whether he would lurk in the shadows like a venomous snake, watching us, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

I couldn't gamble, nor did I want to. I couldn't bear for you to be targeted by a dangerous person because of me.

So, I hesitated, and I evaded. I wanted to leave the choice to you."

Lami wasn't here, so Yol spoke her heart.

In her past life, she had been an ordinary Church nun. Killing? It was something she had never dared to even think about before.

But in Frevanz, that night, when those children fell to cold gunfire, she... had beaten three soldiers to death with her bare fists.

Later, after Merlin saved her, during those few days, she still personally executed quite a few soldiers with a rifle.

But those days were under the pressure of survival. She had to abandon the principles she had built in her past, with everything premised on the three of them escaping alive.

Afterward, they spent a peaceful half-month together in the deep forest. But during their leisure time after daily training, Yol would always ponder whether she would eventually get used to killing, used to taking lives.

Then, one morning, she happened to witness Merlin sitting on a bluestone, piercing his own body with a dagger. Blood flowed freely, flesh turned inside out.

She saw his brow furrowed, his body trembling, his blood soaking the bluestone, yet she couldn't step forward to stop him.

She knew he was cultivating, accumulating "bullets" of calamity, but her heart still trembled. The intense pain was from his body, forcing himself to adapt.

Adapt.

Yol turned her head to look at Merlin, a barely perceptible heartache appearing in her eyes. She said apologetically:

"I'm sorry for shamelessly pushing this task of getting my hands stained with dirty blood onto you. I can't be decisive in killing yet, but I will make myself get used to it as quickly as possible.

Don't leave me... can you?"

A trace of apprehension appeared in Yol's eyes at that moment. She knew clearly that if there wasn't some compatibility between people, they would eventually part ways.

Merlin didn't know what she was thinking at that moment, but he knew she was feeling lost.

Hadn't he felt the same way before?

But with the integration of his two lives.

His mindset had shifted.

At this, Merlin said softly:

"I used to work at a newspaper office.

Therefore, I accidentally overheard some information, whether true or false.

A respectable Marine, who protected civilians, fought Pirates, and apprehended criminals, but never resorted to killing. Because of this, one day, those criminal associates who harbored resentment towards him somehow found his home.

They cruelly murdered his wife and children.

Was the Marine wrong? Were the criminal associates wrong for seeking revenge on the Marine who arrested their brethren? Were the Marine's wife and children wrong?

I don't know.

But I believe the Marine would live the rest of his life in regret.

So, I think if someone bares their fangs at the person I care about, then no matter who they are, as long as I have the ability, it's best to just kill them.

I don't want a moment of soft-heartedness now to lead to a lifetime of regret later.

I don't know if there are any time-manipulating Devil Fruits in this world that can allow one to travel back to the past.

So, to avoid any potential future regret, I won't let my enemies run rampant in front of me when I have the ability to stop them."