Watching Merlin head toward the wooden stairs, Rainer's tightly wound body finally began to relax.
Fortunately, Merlin hadn't pressed the matter. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known what to do.
Abyss, who had been dealt with in just two exchanges, had been even stronger than him. And now? His head had been chopped off.
Unless he had no choice, he really didn't want anything bad to happen between him and Merlin. After all, no one present knew what type of Devil Fruit ability Merlin had.
They only knew this:
Abyss had died horribly.
But Merlin wasn't holding his mistake against him, and Rainer couldn't help feeling relieved.
Just then, looking at the pirate ship next to them as flames rose from it, a trace of regret flashed through Rainer's eyes. "This ship's worth more than Abyss's bounty!"
A sneaky sailor came over and asked Rainer in a low voice:
"Boss, that guy took a briefcase from the pirate ship..."
But before he could finish, Rainer grabbed him by the throat.
Rainer stared coldly at the fool. His grip tightened, and the man's anguished face grew redder and redder.
"Kaby, if you don't want to die, remember this: there are things you can't just say out loud.
Think carefully about how Abyss died.
If something isn't yours to covet, then don't covet it. Otherwise, if you offend someone you can't afford to offend, don't drag the rest of us down with you."
With that, Rainer flung him to the ground. Ignoring Kaby's violent coughing, he swept a cold gaze over everyone present.
"What I said wasn't just for that idiot.
You'd all better listen up. A person needs to know their place. If something isn't yours, don't even think about it.
Think about it. If it weren't for Mr. Merlin, even if we'd managed to drive off those pirates, who here could guarantee they'd have made it out alive and well?
Use your heads and think!"
After speaking, Rainer glanced coolly at the idiot slumped on the ground, too afraid to move.
He'd already made up his mind. Once they reached shore, he'd kick Kaby off the passenger ship.
Keeping a brainless fool like that aboard would only cause trouble.
He was middle-aged now. All he wanted was to earn a little money in peace, find a wife, and have kids. Back when he'd been a bounty hunter, he'd met plenty of idiots like this one. They were useless at anything worthwhile but experts at causing trouble.
It was best to keep away from brainless teammates like him. No Ability User was simple.
Hadn't Rainer been careful to stay on Merlin's good side? What a fool, with no sense at all.
Without another word, he turned and headed into the cabin, preparing to discuss with the captain what they needed to get for Merlin.
The sailors nearby also looked at Kaby with contempt. Some even spat at him.
Kaby silently lowered his head, a trace of resentment flashing in his brown eyes.
Then, like a stray dog soaked by the rain, he hunched over and hurried away.
Merlin had no idea what had happened on deck, and he wasn't interested in finding out.
By the time he returned to the entrance of the third-floor corridor, he opened the cabin door.
Merlin's expression turned somber.
A young man lay sprawled on the floor, blood trickling from his nose and mouth. His right chest was visibly caved in around the ribs, and he appeared to have passed out.
"What happened?"
Merlin furrowed his brow slightly. When Yol saw him, she sighed and explained:
"When things got chaotic on the ship just now, this guy ran up here alone, kicked the door open, and came in intending to lay hands on me.
As you can see, I took care of him in a few moves."
Yol looked a little awkward.
She couldn't exactly say that the guy had impure intentions toward her. Wouldn't that make it sound like she was attracting men wherever she went?
But then Lami said unhappily, "As soon as that bad guy came in, he started bragging that Sister Yol would be his woman from now on. He said that if she went with him, the pirates wouldn't kill her.
Merlin, is he a pirate?"
Merlin narrowed his eyes and looked at the "familiar face." Gerard was the gloomy-looking sailor from not long ago.
"Oh, I see."
Merlin said mildly, then set the briefcase in his hand on the floor by the door. Bending down, he grabbed Gerard by his black hair
and dragged him outside.
He drew the dagger from his thigh and stabbed Gerard three times through the shoulder blade. The pain jolted Gerard awake, and he let out a shrill scream.
But in the next instant, Merlin hooked his right arm beneath Gerard's armpit, hoisted him up, and threw him straight off the ship.
A few seconds later, there was a splash.
Gerard struggled in the seawater, crying out. Merlin watched him in silence.
He'd done what he shouldn't have, so he had to pay the price. Merlin didn't care who he was or what he was after.
Yol came to Merlin's side and stood by the third-floor railing, her eyes full of remorse.
"Sorry for the trouble!"
Merlin shook his head and looked down at the sharks drawn over by the blood in the water from earlier.
"Why apologize?
You did nothing wrong. There are always people in this world who have brains but act as though they don't.
And people like that,
once they provoke someone they can't afford to offend, usually end up losing their lives.
So, do you blame me for being ruthless?"
The sharks had already surrounded Gerard and begun tearing into him.
His desperate, miserable screams rang out piercingly.
Some of the sailors on the ship had noticed what was happening. Though they didn't know why it had happened, the respect in their eyes when they looked at Merlin had turned to fear.
Merlin glanced at them but neither explained nor paid them any mind.
As the sea turned red with blood and Gerard sank beneath the waves, Yol gave a bitter smile. There was some reluctance in her eyes, but that was all.
"A life has ended just like that. I hope he'll be a good person in his next life."
She clasped her hands before her chest and habitually offered a quiet prayer for him. "This is all I can do."
At that, Yol turned her head toward Merlin and said softly:
"Earlier, he had bad intentions toward me, but I didn't kill him decisively on the spot. I didn't throw him out of the room before you came back, either. If I had, maybe he wouldn't have died like this.
But I couldn't be sure whether he'd leave with a grudge, or hide away like a venomous snake, watching us and waiting for a chance to strike.
I couldn't take that gamble, and I didn't want to. I couldn't bear the thought of a dangerous man holding a grudge against you because of me.
So I hesitated, and I avoided making the choice. I wanted to leave it to you."
Lami wasn't here, so Yol spoke from the heart.
In her former life, she'd been nothing more than an ordinary church nun. Killing someone? It had never even crossed her mind.
But in Flevance, on that night, when those children fell beneath the cold gunfire, she had... beaten three soldiers to death with her bare fists.
Later, after Merlin saved her, she had still executed quite a few soldiers herself with a rifle.
But in those days, under the pressure of survival, she'd had no choice but to cast aside the beliefs she'd built up over the years. Everything had been focused on one thing: the three of them escaping alive.
Afterward, they'd spent half a month living peacefully together in the forest. But during the quiet moments after her daily training, Yol often wondered if she would get used to killing, if she would get used to taking lives.
Then one morning, by chance, she saw Merlin sitting on a blue-gray stone, plunging a dagger into his own body. Blood drenched him, and his flesh gaped open.
She watched his brows knit, his body tremble, and his blood stain the stone. But she couldn't bring herself to step in and stop him.
She knew it was training, and that he was building up "bullets" for his calamity ability, but her heart still trembled. The agony he felt in his body—he was forcing himself to get used to it.
Getting used to it.
Yol turned her head toward Merlin. A trace of heartache surfaced in her eyes, too subtle to notice. Apologetically, she said:
"Sorry for shamelessly making you do something that left your hands stained with filthy blood. I still can't bring myself to kill without hesitation, but I'll make myself get used to it as soon as I can.
Don't leave me behind... please?"
A trace of unease appeared in Yol's eyes. She knew all too well that if two people weren't suited to each other in some way, they would inevitably part sooner or later.
Merlin didn't know what was going through her mind, but he could tell she was confused.
He'd been no different before.
But with the memories of his two lives now unified,
his outlook had changed.
Now Merlin spoke softly:
"I used to work for a newspaper.
So I once happened to hear a story, though I don't know if it was true.
There was a Marine worthy of respect. He protected civilians, fought pirates, and arrested criminals, but never killed anyone. Then one day, the accomplices of some criminals who hated him somehow found his home.
They brutally murdered his wife and children.
Was the Marine wrong? Were the criminals' accomplices wrong to take revenge on the Marine who'd arrested their brothers? Were the Marine's wife and children at fault?
I don't know.
But I believe that for the rest of his life, that Marine would be haunted by regret.
So I think that as long as someone bares their fangs at the people I care about, then no matter who they are, if I have the ability to do so, I'd better kill them without hesitation.
I don't want my moment of softness now to make me regret it for the rest of my life.
I don't know whether there's a Devil Fruit with the power to send people back through time.
So, to keep myself from regretting it someday, I won't let my enemies prance around in front of me when I have the ability to deal with them."
Before you continue