Sweating Bullets

Carina spread her hands. "Can't be helped. Everyone slips up sometimes, and before I made my move, I had no idea the random target I picked would turn out to be someone like him."

"But don't worry, Nami. I'm not stupid enough to make an enemy of someone like that. I've basically handled the problem already. At the very least, we won't end up becoming enemies."

"I won't make things difficult for you. After all, that man should count as your benefactor, right?"

Carina winked at Nami and spoke in a deliberately casual tone.

That was what she said, anyway.

Beneath her outwardly composed facade, Carina felt a chill creep through her body.

The pirate crew with the highest bounty in the East Blue had been wiped out by a single person. And he had crushed them with absolute strength—not a scratch on him the entire time, not even the slightest change in expression until the very end.

It was as if he had simply crushed an overconfident bug beneath his foot.

Li Mingyuan himself knew that bringing Carina into Arlong Park with him was partly to prevent her from escaping. But more than that, he wanted to use this chance to act together to show off his personal charm and take advantage of the suspension bridge effect to raise her favorability a little.

Nami's unexpected appearance was the only reason that original plan had fallen through.

Besides, Li Mingyuan had plenty of reasons not to tie Carina up back on the cargo ship. For one, he worried that the sailors, who had old and new grudges against her, might hurt her. For another, even if they did not seek revenge, he was concerned they might get handsy with her. Yet if he did not restrain her, he was certain Carina would choose to run away. So he had no choice but to keep her by his side.

But from Carina's perspective, unaware of the full story, none of it looked that way.

In fact, after watching Li Mingyuan obliterate the Arlong Pirates with overwhelming force, Carina was the one panicking the most.

After all, Li Mingyuan had already dealt with the Arlong Pirates. That meant the man finally had time to start dealing with her.

It would have been fine if she really had twenty million Beli for the ransom.

But she did not.

The reason was the same as before. She stole mostly because she enjoyed it, completely unlike Nami. Whenever she wanted to splurge, she did so without hesitation. Her savings were nowhere near as substantial as people imagined.

Still, looking at Nami before her, Carina decided not to tell her the bad news.

"Getting news like this on such a happy day would only put her in an awkward position."

"And this is my own problem. It has nothing to do with Nami. She only just managed to resolve the issue with Arlong, and now she might have to face an even more unbeatable enemy. That would be too cruel for her."

"I shouldn't drag her into this."

Carina thought silently to herself.

Hearing that, Nami still had some doubts, but after hesitating for a moment, she let out a long sigh.

"Since you put it that way, Carina, I'll take your word for it."

"But if it wasn't a job, then that person really came purely for Arlong's head...?"

Nami lowered her head and looked at Arlong's head in her hand—the face she had hated so fiercely that it had driven her nearly mad countless times.

"I never thought Arlong would actually be defeated."

Nami murmured, "Could a miracle like this really happen to me?"

It did not feel real at all.

Even though she was holding Arlong's head in her hand, Nami could not feel the reality of the fact that Arlong was truly dead.

It was too unreal. So many of her past plans had failed, and she still had even more methods prepared for the future. Yet today, on such an ordinary day, before she had even done anything, Arlong had simply died.

At that moment, Nami looked dazed, unsure of what she should do for a while.

Everything that had happened felt like a dream.

She was even a little afraid. Somewhere deep inside, she wondered whether this reality was merely a hallucination brought on by too much stress. When she opened her eyes, perhaps she would discover that nothing had changed, and that hellish world was still waiting for her.

"Whew! No, I have to face reality."

She stared blankly at Arlong's head for who knew how long.

Then Nami suddenly slapped her cheek and vigorously rubbed her slightly aching face.

"I need to get the news from here back to Cocoyasi Village as soon as possible. The whole island needs to hear it too."

"The Arlong Pirates are gone, but this is only the beginning! I can't be the only one celebrating here!"

Holding Arlong's head, Nami looked at Carina again and said seriously, "Carina, I'll leave Arlong Park first and tell the nearby residents what happened here."

"Since that man will not do anything to you for the time being, you should stay with him for now. If any remaining Fish-Men come back, he should protect you. Besides, while you're here, you can find a room for him to rest in."

"There's still the Arlong Pirates' treasure in Arlong Park, along with plenty of things that can be sold off. When I get back, we can sort it out together. Those are that man's spoils of war. If he really is a bounty hunter, he should care a lot about money. Helping him will save him a lot of trouble, and it might improve his impression of us too."

As she said that, Nami suddenly seemed to remember something and slapped her forehead.

"Ugh! I've been so careless... I've been calling him 'that man' this whole time."

"Carina, you should know that man's name, right?"

Nami looked at Carina expectantly.

Hearing Nami's question, Carina gave a somewhat guilty little chuckle.

"His name?"

"Of course I remember. Something that minor."

Back when they were on the cargo ship, Carina had not cared about Li Mingyuan at all, so she had not remembered his name in the slightest. Even though he had spoken with her quite a bit, she had thrown all of it out of her mind the moment she was about to leave the cargo ship.

But after Li Mingyuan caught her red-handed, Carina began paying attention to the other crew members' private discussions. Especially when the first mate brought the boatswain to thank Li Mingyuan, the nearby sailors whispered constantly, often mentioning that name.

"If it isn't a fake name, he should be called Li Mingyuan."

Carina said.

"Li Mingyuan?"

Nami repeated Li Mingyuan's name, looking somewhat puzzled. "It's a little hard to say. It doesn't sound like the naming habits around here."

"Could he be someone from another sea?"