"What's wrong?" King Riku asked quickly upon seeing Violet's expression.
"It's... it's the Gugu Pirates..." Violet's voice trembled slightly, but she still forced herself not to release her power and continued to observe.
"Are they very close to our Warrior?" King Riku asked anxiously.
"Very close, but... they're all dead." This was the reason Violet's voice trembled; the scene was simply too gruesome.
It was clearly a knife used, but many of the corpses looked like they had been smashed to pieces!
"Dead? Was it Admiral Zephyr?" King Riku a slight sigh of relief. Although he had recently become somewhat resistant to the Navy because of the Celestial Gold incident, at least Zephyr wouldn't harm King Riku.
"No, it's not the Navy! It's... there's only one person, no, only two people still on the Gugu Pirates' ship!"
Meanwhile, on the deck of the Gugu Pirates, the big, seemingly goofy-looking guy scratched his head and said, "Mom, it looks like someone's watching us?"
"Huh? Are you being careless? There are still survivors? Smash the boat!" a short, heavily made-up old woman said irritably.
"Oh," the big, simple-minded man nodded in response.
Meanwhile, the little old lady also directed the Sailor to board the ship and unload things...
These "Sailor" could only be described as having a bit of a "bandit" air about them; they were more like thugs. It would be rather pathetic for them to want to be pirates in the New World.
"Hurry up, all of you! Stop dawdling! Didn't I pay you?" The old lady, who still called herself "Miss," was extremely irritable with the Sailor.
Well, these people are clearly just desperate criminals "hired" for a hefty sum, only doing odd jobs.
Although they were being scolded and felt unhappy, no one dared to retaliate.
First, there was the old woman's mentally challenged son, who appeared to be simple-minded, but they knew he was a "Monster";
Secondly, despite the old woman's thousand kinds of wickedness and hundred kinds of shamelessness, she has one good point—she keeps her word. As long as they survive to reach the next island, they can take the money and leave.
This uncompromising attitude is well-known in the New World's underworld, which is why many outlaws are willing to take on this job.
Anyway, they don't need to fight. They just need to do hard labor and fight against the bad weather. Those who are unlucky will die from the strange weather on the sea in the New World.
While they might kill you if you're unlucky, or if the Monster or the Monster old lady is in a bad mood, most of the time you don't need to worry about them breaking their promises.
However, this old lady was really gossipy, constantly insulting these people for being clumsy and wasting her money. Fortunately, those who were willing to be hired were all shameless.
This little old lady was none other than the Whitebeard's "rumored girlfriend"—of course, even "Miss Buckingham" herself didn't dare to spread this rumor openly at this time; she simply dressed her son up as Whitebeard and gave him the surname "Edward."
As for her son, Edward Weevil, he was really dim-witted and simple-minded; he did whatever his Mom told him to do.
Judging by appearance...
Actually, apart from the beard and hair, there's not much similarity between him and Whitebeard. They are both very tall, though. Weevil is even slightly taller than Newgate, who is Whitebeard, standing at nearly seven meters.
However, while Whitebeard's upper body was more muscular, his lower body was at least not short or thin, whereas Erwin Weevil's physique was entirely characterized by a strong upper body, with proportions close to Oz '!
If his upturned, crescent-shaped beard isn't faked with hair wax and is truly hereditary, then it's not impossible that he could be the son of Whitebeard.
In the original work, Marco also vaguely knew that Miss Buckingham had once been on the same ship as Whitebeard.
Before the Sailor had completely left, Weevil had already crushed the entire ship with a single blow—though it was described as a "slash" from a blade, it was like a giant hammer falling from the sky, shattering the ship into pieces.
Miss Buckingham continued her tirade, "Foolish son, the treasure hasn't been searched yet, why are you in such a hurry?"
"Mom, didn't you say you wanted to..."
"Shut up, you idiot!"
Violet wasn't idle either; she continued to move her view around and soon spotted Zephyr's warship. Judging from its direction of travel, it was heading towards the "scene of the incident"!
King Riku breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, "That's good... Admiral Zephyr was just tracking the Gugu Pirates, so it's not surprising that he caught up with them. Hopefully, he'll be quick; those guys are probably even worse pirates than the Gugu Pirates!"
Edward Weevil has now risen to fame—although his situation is different from Hawk Eyes's, everyone generally considers him a "one-man pirate crew."
Mihawk usually lives alone, without even Sailor. Weevil is different; with his intelligence, he might not survive alone. However, his crew are all temporary hires, and he is the only one capable of fighting.
However, the fact that a single person could stand out in the New World with outstanding strength, and have their name appear in newspapers and squeeze into the margins of the giants' pages, speaks volumes!
Furthermore, Weevil was a brainless man. His brain, "Miss Buckingham," was driven by self-interest, and Weevil himself had no sense of "benevolence" or "moral" constraints.
Not only are they ruthless towards their enemies and willing to attack anyone for treasure, but they also show no concern for harming civilians, often causing large numbers of civilian casualties.
It would undoubtedly be dangerous for him... or rather, for Miss Buckingham to discover the perished King Riku.
In contrast, King Riku would much rather Zephyr kill him and his mother!
But just then, Violet exclaimed, "Oh no! They're starting to approach the rocky islet; we might run into them!"
Upon hearing this, King Riku broke out in a cold sweat.
"Father, I'm off to rescue them!" Violet said hurriedly.
"Wait!" King Riku stopped him.
Although King Riku usually treated his soldiers like his own children, Violet was, after all, his biological daughter and even the heir to the kingdom. More importantly, what use would she be now?
"What can you do now? If Weevil discovers King Riku's army, can you stop them?" King Riku countered.
"I...at least I can negotiate with them. Miss Buckingham is incredibly greedy, isn't she? She might kill the kingdom's Warrior without hesitation, but if we're willing to pay the ransom..."
"Of course we can get a ransom, but it's too late for you to go now. It would take at least two days to get there, wouldn't it? We can only hope they don't find the Reef Island. Even if they do... we'd better demand a ransom from them!" King Riku said helplessly.
Violet was about to speak again when she seemed to hear something, paused for a moment, and then said, "Father, I have a friend who can get there for me within an hour..."
King Riku:???
Could you ask your friend to stop meddling?
Dongdong: Went out for my birthday, so I'll only be posting two updates today.