Buggy remembered that Kaya had mentioned Ivan before, and he had wanted to borrow the adventure book to read the stories inside, but since Kaya had left it at home, the matter was left unresolved. Now that she brought it up again, Buggy couldn't help but ask curiously, "This Ivan... what era is he from?"
Kaya thought for a moment and said, "I remember this book was published a hundred years ago, so he must have been a person from that era..."
"I see... Looks like they were just lucky to be on the same flight route as us." Buggy nodded. "So, what was the meaning of that line in the story?"
"I'm not entirely sure either. This book is deliberately vague in many places, leaving too many gaps. It's probably written this way to encourage us to experience the joy of adventure firsthand without revealing everything..." Kaya said, not entirely sure either.
"Yeah."
Buggy didn't ask any more questions, turning to look at Mikuru: "Little cat... how long will it take to store the magnetism of the next island?"
Mikuru lay comfortably on the sand, his ears twitching. "According to the nautical chart, the next island should be the Sabaody Archipelago. If you're talking about a magnetic island, then it should be Fish-Man Island. Storing Fish-Man Island's magnetism will probably take a long time, meow~"
"So... we're almost at the midpoint of the Grand Line, Sabaody Archipelago!" Buggy, somewhat dazed, sighed inwardly before replying, "I see."
He then looked at the exhausted Cabaji and the others, "I'll keep watch tonight. Since there's no rush, we can go for a stroll in town tomorrow morning."
In the center of Crown Island, along the walls of a palace ruin that has been abandoned for hundreds of years, several torches are now stuck in the ground, and a few guards stand around patrolling. With the guards' permission, two men in black coats cautiously enter the palace.
Inside the palace, the candlelight slightly illuminated the surrounding darkness. On the throne that once belonged to the king, a person was now sitting, and on each of the two rows of high-backed chairs, two people sat.
"Commander... Commander!"
Two men, one fat and one thin, dressed in black overcoats, walked in from outside the palace and bowed their heads toward the throne.
Who are you...?
The man on the throne had green hair, and a sharp triangular scar on his right cheek extended all the way to his cheekbone, giving him a rather sinister appearance.
The first woman seated on the left, a woman of striking beauty, looked up at the man on the throne. "They are my subordinates, Commander Tiro."
"So you're one of your subordinates, Inia." Tiro, then his gaze fell on the two princes. "What brings you here?"
The fat man hesitated, too afraid to speak, and desperately tried to signal to the skinny man with his eyes. The skinny man had no choice but to step forward and say, "When we were on a mission on the West Blue, we seemed to see someone use some kind of weapon to split a giant Sea Kings in two... and we also saw a pirate ship..."
Tiro frowned. "Pirates?"
The bald man sitting second from the right asked coldly, "Did you guys see clearly what their pirate flag symbol looks like?!"
"They..." The skinny man and the fat man exchanged a glance, then said hesitantly, "They were too far away from us at the time; we couldn't even see the pirate flag's symbol..."
The bald man sneered, "Useless idiots, you two are useless... you can't even do something this simple."
The beautiful Inia couldn't stand the bald man reprimanding her subordinate. She said in a disgruntled tone, " Javen, it's not your place to lecture my men."
Javen snorted coldly, "It's because of cadres like you who only know how to dress up as streetwalkers all day that we have such incompetent subordinates!"
Inia flew into a rage and jumped up, yelling, "You bald bastard, who are you calling a streetwalker?!"
"Who's bald? I'm a sexy bald guy, you peacock girl!"
"A 360-watt light bulb? Believe me or not, I'll kick you to death!"
The two started arguing at the drop of a hat, their voices growing louder and louder, threatening to escalate into a fight. The man sitting in the first seat on the right, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, by more than ten centimeters with his middle finger before slowly speaking, "This isn't the time to argue, you two. Isn't it rather foolish to let something as simple as foreign pirates cause you to become at odds...?"
But his words had no effect on stopping them. During their fight, their high heels, tattered clothes, decorative chokers, and sunglasses were all thrown at his face.
He threw the various things off his face onto the ground, coughed, and suddenly yelled, " Jesse, wake up! Wake up!!"
The man sitting second from the left suddenly woke up, his snot bubble bursting open. After looking around blankly, he immediately shouted, "I have no objections!"
"Alright, alright, Inia, Javen, sit back down!"
Seeing the mess below, Tiro, on his throne, finally reprimanded.
"Hmph!" Javen and Inia snorted simultaneously, sat back down in their seats, and straightened their clothes.
Tiro looked at the man wearing gold-rimmed glasses and asked, " Rodifei, what's your opinion?"
As the strategist of the group, Rodifei's words carried considerable weight with Tiro.
Rodifei extended his middle finger, straightened his gold-rimmed glasses which had slipped down more than ten centimeters from his nose, and looked at the two figures, one fat and one thin, and calmly said, "I want to know everything that happened back then."
The fat man and the skinny man didn't dare to hide anything and recounted everything they had witnessed. After listening to them, Rodifei pondered for a moment, "That Sea Kings wasn't killed in close combat, but by a long-range slashing gust of wind. Because of the sea fog, you couldn't see the pirate ship clearly... which means the ship was at a distance of about 300 to 400 meters, or even further. To be able to deliver a fatal blow to Sea Kings at that distance, only those monsters from the New World could do it. These people might not be ordinary pirates, but..."
As he spoke, Rodifei looked up at Tiro.
"It must be an assassin disguised as a pirate sent by Joker..." Tiro leaned on the throne, propping his head up with one hand. "No wonder he's the number one middleman in the Underworld; his reach is truly extensive..."
"It's because you, Captain Tiro, didn't agree to cooperate with him that he's resorting to this method to deal with you."
Rodifei straightened his slipping gold-rimmed glasses again. "It's understandable that he would do such a thing. This is the legendary Rainbow Fish... No one can resist such a tempting offer."
"Hmph, who cares if they're assassins or pirates..." Javen slammed his hand on the chair and stood up abruptly. "As long as we kill them all, that'll be enough, right?"
Jesse, who had almost fallen asleep, was startled and quickly shouted, "I have no objection!"
" Javen, don't be impulsive," Rodifei said calmly. "Even if those assassins are skilled, as long as Joker doesn't come in person, they're not a big threat to us. We should be focusing our attention on that energetic dog the Navy sent. Even if you kill those assassins, it won't make any difference. It will only expose our strength and make the Navy pay more attention to our presence. That's not what we should be doing right now."
"Hmph, that's perfect. I'll just go and take those assassins' bodies to the Marine Base. That way, they'll know who they can't afford to offend!"
With that, Javen strode out of the palace.
Rodifei stood up to stop Javen, but heard Tiro's calm voice, "Let him try. Perhaps it's not a bad idea..."
Rodifei adjusted his glasses, a glint of light flashing in the lenses. "I understand."