Bounty Increase (Please Keep Reading! Please Keep Reading!)

Although Corazon had no idea how Officer Sengoku had learned about this, he still honestly reported everything he knew.

After hearing him out, Sengoku fell into a long silence.

"Officer Sengoku?"

" sigh..."

With a deep sigh, Sengoku finally understood the reason.

Since the two boys were survivors of the White Town, Freyvans, it was only natural that they would hate the Navy and the World Government.

All the people of Freyvans had been victims of those enormous profits!

But from another perspective, Sengoku actually felt relieved.

Even though both boys were dead set on staying with the Donquixote Family.

For even the most terrifying genius would be nothing more than a pile of dirt if he never lived long enough to grow up.

How long could the two of them live with Lead Sickness? Three years? Five?

There was no point discussing anything further.

So, while lamenting their fate, Sengoku completely gave up on the idea of having Corazon take that risk and decided to let things run their course.

Besides, this news would put Tsuru's mind at ease.

What Sengoku hadn't expected was that Corazon would pick up on the subject and ask, "Officer Sengoku, is Lead Sickness really incurable? Is there nothing even Marine Headquarters can do?"

"Marine Headquarters truly doesn't have the means to treat Lead Sickness. But the world is vast. Perhaps there's a highly skilled doctor somewhere who can cure it."

Sengoku first dashed Corazon's hopes, but out of compassion, he didn't close the door completely.

He had a vague idea of what Corazon wanted to do, but he didn't stop him.

Whatever the outcome, it was a choice made by fate.

A few days later, after docking, Doflamingo finally returned with his crew. They had won the battle, but he couldn't bring himself to feel happy.

The first thing to change, however, was everyone's bounties.

The Donquixote Family had wiped out four formidable pirate crews in one fell swoop. On top of that, during the pursuit that followed, Doflamingo had killed several Marines, making the nature of his crimes especially serious. As a result, the bounty on Donquixote Doflamingo rose straight to 130 million Beli.

Even in the first half of the Grand Line, that figure belonged to someone who couldn't be ignored—let alone in the North Sea.

With this wanted poster out, there would hardly be anyone in the North Sea who dared oppose the Donquixote Family from now on—unless Germa 66 suddenly showed up.

But the truth was, even a bounty that high didn't come close to matching Doflamingo's true strength or the crimes he had committed.

It was just that he rarely took action, and most of those crimes lacked evidence, so nothing ever came of them.

The other officers' bounties had also gone up by varying amounts.

Of course, no one cared about any of that.

The Donquixote Family wasn't exactly a group of ordinary pirates, and Doflamingo was more like an anomaly among pirates.

He ran an underground black market and dealt in all kinds of illegal business.

The enterprises he had established in the North Sea were only a starting point. Doflamingo had even greater ambitions he had yet to realize.

So he didn't care about the fame his bounty brought, and didn't particularly want it, either.

If those reckless fools hadn't kept challenging him, he wouldn't have taken action in the first place.

At least now, things ought to finally quiet down.

One other thing worth mentioning: for some unknown reason, none of the children, including Abel, had appeared on the wanted posters.

"Abel, did your operation go well? How many people did you kill?"

As soon as he saw Abel return, Luo eagerly asked him.

"It went pretty well. The other officers took care of the tough opponents, so Baby-5, Buffalo, and I mainly dealt with the weaklings."

"Even the weaklings were tough! Each one could take on three people—no, five, Luo!"

Buffalo hurriedly corrected Abel, then raised his chin with pride.

Luo rolled his eyes, so furious his teeth nearly ground together.

He knew his talent wasn't great and that he improved slowly, but he didn't think he'd done so badly that he couldn't even handle a few weaklings.

"It's all that bastard Corazon's fault. If he hadn't stopped me, I would've proved myself this time!"

For some reason, though, he still didn't tell Abel and the others about Corazon.

Just as Abel didn't share every secret with Luo, some things were meant to be kept to oneself.

Under Luo's envious gaze, Abel had no choice but to exaggerate a little as he described how he'd slaughtered his way through the enemy ranks.

With Buffalo and Baby-5 chiming in from time to time to add details about how amazing they had been, they finally managed to fool Luo completely.

He swore that he would join them on their next operation!

Abel only chuckled in response.

With Corazon around, you can forget about that for the rest of your life.

He could even guess where the Marines had gotten their intelligence.

Corazon had probably stopped Luo from going because he was afraid he'd get hurt.

Abel didn't think much of it. After all, he wasn't a member of the Clan of 'D', so Corazon wasn't nearly as worried about him.

By comparison, he'd much rather spend time with a real man like Senor.

At least he wouldn't have to deal with so much pressure.

At dinner, Abel unceremoniously devoured a whole table's worth of food by himself, most of it calorie-packed meat.

This time, even Jora merely twitched the muscles in her face a couple of times and said nothing.

She had already heard about Abel's performance during the operation.

To be able to unleash Flying Slashes one after another at such a young age, with such terrifying swordsmanship talent—if they could find a way to cure his illness, he would surpass her sooner or later and become the Young Master's right-hand man!

Given all that, he was merely eating a little more than usual, day after day.

If she nitpicked over something so trivial, even Doflamingo would probably get angry.

So she pretended not to notice. She even wondered if she should try to smooth things over with him sometime. After all, there wasn't much conflict between them.

That was the sort of thing only a clever person would think of!

Even Diamante had stopped giving Abel and Luo a hard time.

He clearly didn't want to make things difficult for Doflamingo.

"I'm going to train in the back hills. After that real combat, I've had some new insights into swordsmanship."

After finishing his meal, Abel offered an explanation for what he was about to do, then left.

His words left quite a few people exchanging glances, looking somewhat surprised.

"Fufufufu, it seems our family really will have another Great Swordsman someday."

Doflamingo laughed heartily. There was a touch of teasing in his voice, but also a hint of hope!