Drum Kingdom.
The soldiers of Drum Kingdom all busied themselves, going door to door and knocking.
At first, the villagers were startled when the fierce-looking soldiers knocked their doors open, but once they learned the soldiers had only come to ask whether they had any medical books or materials at home, everyone relaxed.
As a major medical nation on the Grand Line, most households in Drum Kingdom knew a little medicine, so they had kept some medical materials around.
Those books were not worth much money to them either.
So, to avoid trouble, everyone obediently handed over the books they had at home.
From noon until the sun was about to set in the evening, a whole warehouse's worth of books had already piled up at Drum Kingdom's harbor.
But even so, compared to the mountain-like heap of gold beside them, these books and materials looked rather shabby.
At the pirates' request, the surrounding villagers were called over to sort the books by category while removing duplicates.
This was not an easy task, but the villagers were very enthusiastic.
For one thing, compared to manual labor, this was clearly much easier, and for another, they were actually getting paid for it. The villagers had even less reason to refuse.
Everyone worked with great enthusiasm, except for one person, who was growing more and more anxious.
The young Prince Wapol watched helplessly as the warehouse full of books, under everyone's sorting and removal of duplicates, began to shrink more and more. He was so anxious that sweat kept streaming down his face.
"No... It can't go on like this. My gold... Chess... Kuromarimo, hurry up and think of something for me..."
The man called Chess was a man who looked like a circus clown, with thick wavy lips, very long arms,