Clang! Clang!
The prison bars were cleaved apart, and Shiryu leaped straight out through the opening.
"Heh heh heh! Captain, you handle things here. I'm going upstairs to find something, then I'll wait for you all up there!"
"Gyahahaha! No problem!"
Shiryu followed the hole Shiki had come down through, using Geppo to quickly reach the floor above. He found the staff-only passage and hurried straight toward the storeroom.
Besides wanting to reclaim his sword, he also wanted to get some antidotes. As Magellan's colleague, he knew him all too well.
After Shiryu left, Shiki continued farther inside, intending to see whether there were any more talents like Shiryu—people with both strength and potential.
Suddenly, Shiki stopped in front of a cell and burst into laughter. "Gyahahahaha! Red, I've come to see you!"
Inside the cell was Shiki's fellow inmate, a powerful man from the same era as Shiki, known as Red the Aloof—Redfield!
In the previous era, Red the Aloof alone had been a match for mighty pirate crews like theirs.
To improve his strength, Redfield had often come to their pirate crews alone to challenge Shiki, Roger, Newgate, and the others.
"Shiki!" The man in the cell—no, he should be called an old man—slowly emerged from the shadows.
"If you're just here to mock me or recruit me as one of your men, I suggest you don't bother!" Though his body had grown old and frail from malnutrition and other problems, Redfield's gaze and bearing were as aloof as ever.
"Gyahahaha! I know your temperament, Red." Shiki paid no mind to Redfield's quirks. He knew that was simply what he was like.
"I'm not letting you out to recruit you or anything like that. I just want you to owe me a favor!"
"A favor that means you'll