Bacchus Island, outer harbor, commercial port district.
Unlike the Primeval Forest inland, with its raw, bloody stench, this place was a den of indulgence and extravagance. Luxurious restaurants lined both sides of the street, and the air was rich with the heady scents of fine spices and roast meat.
"Make way! Get out of the way, all of you! If you damage this cartload of premium rum, you couldn't pay for it even if I sold you all!"
Wearing sunglasses and pulling a rope over his shoulder, Buggy trudged along, dragging a heavy flatbed piled high with enormous barrels of liquor as he cursed his way through the bustling streets.
"Back when I served under Captain Roger, I'd seen the wider world. And now look at me, reduced to hauling cargo for two little brats from the East Blue. What a miserable life." Wiping sweat from his brow, Buggy habitually muttered his old-timer's complaints under his breath.
Carina, walking ahead, completely ignored his grumbling.
She wore a fitted trench coat and held a small abacus in her hand as she skillfully haggled with the owner outside a spice shop.
"Sixty percent of the market price. If you won't sell, we'll go to the next shop." Carina tapped her abacus with practiced precision. "These ancient leaves are used to mask the sour taste of giant prehistoric beast meat. Ordinary merchant ships have no use for them. Only lunatics like us, who dare to venture into the deep mountains, would buy them. You don't want this stock rotting in your warehouse, do you?"
The spice shop owner wiped away his cold sweat and could only smile wryly as he accepted the deal.
Standing nearby, Sabo lowered the brim of his hat and didn't interfere with Carina's shopping. His gaze seemed casual as he surveyed the bustling port town.
Having grown up in the Goa Kingdom, Sabo had a far sharper nose for this kind of distorted prosperity than most.
He noticed that the laborers serving food, carrying heavy loads, and even washing dishes like livestock, chained up outside the restaurants' back kitchens, all wore crude animal hides. Identical black brands marked their skin, and their eyes were dull and vacant.
"This island's prosperity has a filthy foundation."
Sabo looked away, his gaze turning cold.
"Filthy, and wildly profitable." Carina paid and came over to Sabo, speaking in a low voice. "I made a few inquiries. This island is called the City of Gourmet and Hunting because its true ruler is Gluttony Baron Truff."
"I hear he's an underworld big shot with an 85 million Beli bounty. He's also an Ancient Zoan user."
Carina opened her small notebook. "He seized this island and captured all the natives to use as slaves. On top of that, he caters to World Government nobles with twisted appetites, capturing the prehistoric beasts inland in huge numbers."
"The rarer and more cruelly treated the prey, the more it fetches at those nobles' tables." Carina closed her notebook and shook her head. "No wonder the outer harbor is so prosperous. It's a black-market industry built on the ecosystem and human lives."
The coldness in Sabo's eyes deepened as he listened.
Deep down, he detested nothing more than this sort of behavior—trampling on lives to indulge corrupt nobles.
Just as the three of them were about to take their cart full of supplies back to the Eclipse—
"Out of the way! All of you, get out of my way! Are you blind?!"
A string of exceptionally arrogant curses suddenly rang out from farther down the street.
Amid the pounding of hooves, a squad of burly men in matching black uniforms and full armor rode several tamed raptors, charging recklessly through the crowded street.
Merchants and passersby scattered in fright. Several native slaves who failed to get out of the way were struck by the raptors and sent flying. They crashed to the roadside, coughing up blood, but no one dared go to their aid.
The scar-faced brute at the head of the squad had a massive wild boar skull tattooed on his chest. He brandished a spiked whip, driving the crowd aside with impatience.
"Move it! The Baron's main hunting party went into the mountains today to capture that Ancient Kong that's lived for hundreds of years! If we're late delivering their supplies, we'll all lose our heads!"
The scar-faced man roared as he rode his raptor straight toward Carina and the others.
The street, which had been wide enough, was now cramped by Buggy's flatbed loaded with a hundred barrels of rum.
"Hey, Red Nose! Hurry up and shove that junk cart into the gutter! You're blocking the Baron's Guard! Are you looking to die?!" The scar-faced man arrogantly raised his whip, about to lash Buggy across the face.
Buggy stopped at the sight of the spiked whip.
He didn't dodge. Instead, he slowly adjusted his sunglasses, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
Ace had already ordered him around like a pack mule today, and Buggy was seething. Now some nobody had the nerve to tell him to dump the rum he'd worked so hard to haul into the gutter?
"You blind, stupid pig."
Buggy drew a deep breath. His hands, wearing Seastone Knuckles, clenched with a series of sharp cracks, and a long-forgotten pirate's vicious glint flashed in his eyes.
"This is the Eclipse's rum!"
"Bara Bara Cannon!"
Before the whip could fall, Buggy's right hand shot away from his wrist like a bowling ball launched down a lane. It streaked through the air and slammed into the scar-faced man's face.
"Thud!"
A dull crack of breaking bone rang out.
The scar-faced man didn't even manage to scream. His nose was crushed in an instant, and he flew off the raptor's back, crashing through the glass display window of a high-end restaurant.
The sudden turn of events plunged the entire street into silence.
Passersby and the arrogant guards alike stared in shock.
"You dare attack someone working for Gluttony Baron?!" The remaining dozen or so guards came to their senses, drew pistols and cleavers from their belts, and glared furiously at Buggy.
"You're the ones who dared tell us to dump what we paid for into the gutter. You've got more nerve than that so-called Baron."
Carina had somehow retreated to a very safe distance. Arms crossed, she let out an amused laugh as she watched the show. For a treasurer who valued money above all else, touching her cargo was the same as touching her money.
"It seems your Baron never taught you manners."
Sabo stepped forward and stood in front of the flatbed full of rum. He adjusted the brim of his top hat, his blue eyes alight with undisguised, icy anger.
These lackeys, throwing their weight around to curry favor with nobles, had hit Sabo's exact sore spot.
"Die, you little brat! Shoot him full of holes!"
The guards roared and pulled their triggers.
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!"
A hail of bullets screamed toward him.
Sabo didn't even try to dodge. His right arm transformed in an instant into dazzling orange-red flames.
The bullets passed through the fire without leaving a trace. They didn't even graze his clothes.
"A Logia?!" The guards' eyes widened in terror.
"Since you're so fond of hunting..."
Sabo's Alloy Staff struck the ground with a heavy thump. Wrapped in Armament Haki and flames, it swept through the air, tracing a blinding ring of fire.
"Then you can find out what it feels like to be hunted and roasted alive."
"Boom!"
A raging pillar of fire burst from the end of Sabo's staff like an enraged dragon, sweeping across the middle of the street. The dozen or so guards on their raptors didn't even have a chance to flee before the terrifying heat engulfed them and their mounts, reducing them to charred husks.
Clean and swift, without the slightest hesitation.
The merchants and wealthy patrons nearby fled in every direction. In an instant, the vast street was left with only the three members of the Eclipse.
Sabo put away his staff, walked over to the scar-faced man lying in the restaurant's wreckage, barely clinging to life, and planted a foot on his chest.
"You said your main hunting party went into the mountains today? And its target was an Ancient Kong?" Sabo looked down at him, his voice cold.
"Cough, cough... You're dead..."
The scar-faced man coughed up blood and threatened them viciously all the same. "Lord Truff is a great pirate with an 85 million Beli bounty! He took five hundred elite fighters and the strongest Poison Gas Bombs into the Primeval Forest. When he gets back, you're all dead!"
Before the scar-faced man could finish, Sabo pressed down slightly with his foot and knocked him out cold.
Sabo turned toward the inland forest, hidden beneath its vast canopy, and furrowed his brow slightly.
"An Ancient Zoan with an 85 million Beli bounty, plus five hundred poachers armed with heavy weapons?"
Carina came up beside Sabo and glanced toward the forest with concern. "Do you think our captain might run into trouble hunting out there alone?"
"Trouble?"
Buggy, who had been raging just moments earlier, now expertly took hold of the flatbed's rope. Hearing Carina's concern, he rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"The one who ought to worry about trouble is that stupid pig of a Baron."
Buggy pushed up his sunglasses, his voice carrying a complicated mix of awe and confidence. "Picking a fight with our captain means this island's ecosystem is in for a complete shake-up today."
Sabo smiled at that and adjusted the brim of his hat.
"Come on. Let's get the supplies back to the ship first."
Sabo looked toward the depths of the forest, his expression softening again.
"If I'm right, the captain's already found the 'prey' he's after."
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