"Hide in the Forest of the Sea?"
The Flying Dutchman Pirates' officers advised their captain to lie low for the time being.
The situation was still unclear. They did not know whether the captured fish-men would reveal their gang's base, nor did they know whether the Marines at Marineford would act after learning of their pirate crew's existence.
To be safe, leaving their base in the Fish-Man District first was the better choice.
But if they did that, they likely would not be able to take the "cargo" imprisoned in the dungeon with them.
In broad daylight, the Fish-Man District was already densely populated. Although a large portion of its residents had sided with their pirate crew, bringing along that "cargo" might leak the news ahead of time.
That was the real reason Vander Decken IX had lowered his head and appeared conflicted.
There might have been "only" a dozen or so pieces of cargo in the dungeon, but if they were successfully smuggled out of Fish-Man Island and sold, they could easily be worth over a hundred million Beli.
Mermaid girls could effortlessly become the centerpiece "product" at any auction house. There was no shortage of wealthy noble lords in this world, and those dozen or so pieces of cargo were hot commodities at sea, valuable yet impossible to find.
Just because those useless subordinates had been captured, Vander Decken IX was supposed to give up several hundred million Beli that was practically already in his hands. He truly found that hard to accept.
The more Vander Decken IX thought about it, the angrier he became. Rage surging through him, he sprang from the sofa and viciously kicked the coffee table several times.
Only after he had kicked the table apart and warped it out of shape did he