The sudden appearance of a baby left the Roger Pirates at a loss.
"What do we do?" Gaban squatted in front of the box, looking at the babbling Shanks with a helpless expression.
Everyone on the ship was a roughneck. Asking them to chop people up was no problem at all, but taking care of a baby? None of them had any experience.
"Should we give him back? Find somewhere to dump him on the Marines? We may be pirates, but kidnapping a baby is still kind of beneath us, isn't it? Even if he's a Celestial Dragon's child..." Spencer pondered.
Hearing that, Gaban was somewhat tempted and turned to Vikengam. "What do you think?"
"This child's mother was killed by his biological father..." Vikengam raised a brow.
The moment he said that, every member of the Roger Pirates froze. Then Rayleigh said, "His father killed his mother?! Isn't that monstrous?"
"If we send the kid back, would anything good come of it?" Gaban could not help saying.
"Is this sort of thing normal among you Celestial Dragons?" Spencer asked curiously.
After all, he was the intelligence officer and was naturally interested in such matters. In the past, it had been difficult for him to obtain information about the Celestial Dragons.
"I wouldn't call it normal, but it isn't particularly outrageous either. Take my mother, for example. My father died when I was nearly two, so my mother and his large number of wives were all buried with him. Ever since I became aware of things, I have had no parents," Vikengam said softly.
His sudden revelation about his past left the others feeling rather uneasy.
"You Celestial Dragons really are terrifying..." Shakky was the first to sigh.
At that moment, Roger, who had remained silent, seemed to have made up his mind. Looking at Shanks in the box, he slowly reached in and picked him up. Grinning, he said, "It may sound strange, but I feel like this kid is destined to be with us. It feels like fate brought us together here. What do you say? How about we adopt him and let him grow up on the ship?"
"Hey, hey, don't forget our real business. We're pirates, not babysitters." Gaban scratched his head.
"Exactly, Captain Roger. Besides, we don't know how to raise a child. Who's going to take care of him? You?" helmsman Don Chino said around his pipe.
"Isn't Shakky here? Let Shakky look after him first, and we can learn from her. By the time Shakky gets off the ship, we'll probably have learned enough," Roger said, glancing at Shakky.
A crowd immediately began objecting, but Roger was stubborn as a mule and had made up his mind to keep Shanks aboard.
In truth, the moment he said those first words, everyone already knew it was unavoidable. Their captain was a stubborn man who never listened to advice.
Once he had truly made a decision, no one could change his mind. They could only follow him to the bitter end.
And so, Shanks stayed aboard. Shakky planned to disembark at Amazon Lily, but there was no rush. Whenever the Roger Pirates passed near there, they could simply give her a ride.
For the time being, she also intended to spend some quality time showing off her affection with Rayleigh aboard the ship.
Because of Amazon Lily's unique history and culture, Shakky had plenty of experience caring for children despite never having been a mother. Shanks would temporarily be under her care.
After Shakky carried Shanks into the cabin to look after him, the others quickly began taking stock of their gains.
The treasure seized from God Valley was extremely valuable. It had belonged to the Celestial Dragons, after all. How could they possibly have used ordinary goods as prizes?
The gold, silver, and jewels in just one treasure chest were worth at least one billion Beli.
The Roger Pirates had struck it rich this time. By rough estimate, their haul was worth at least twenty billion Beli.
"Hahahaha, we're rich!" Roger tossed gold coins into the air, watching them clatter down as he spoke excitedly.
"With this much money, we could never spend it all in one lifetime!" one crew member said.
"Let's disband! There are only seventeen people on this ship. If everyone gets over a billion Beli, we can live in comfort for the rest of our lives!" another crewman said.
At their peak, the Roger Pirates had thirty-two crew members in total, including Douglas Bullet, Kozuki Oden, Shanks, and Buggy.
But they clearly had not reached that point yet. Including Vikengam, who had just joined, the Roger Pirates had only seventeen members.
They were Captain Roger, first mate Rayleigh, navigator Gaban, tactical advisor Enm Isaac Jr., intelligence officer Spencer, gunner Pitam, musician Jackson Bana, shipwright Bulmarin, scholar Vikengam, and a number of combatants.
"Is a little over a billion really enough for the rest of your life?" Rayleigh stroked his chin doubtfully.
The instant he said that, everyone stared at him in surprise.
No, we were just talking. It was a joke. You old bastard actually took it seriously?
"You bastard, once you marry into Shakky's family, you'll be Amazon Lily royalty. Why would you care about this little bit of money? You don't get a share!" Roger cursed.
"This bastard really does want to fly off with Shakky. He's trying to ditch us!" Gaban added fuel to the fire.
"What can a little over a billion buy? You country bumpkins, can't you have a little ambition? Back when I was in Mary Geoise, I could spend over a billion in just a few days..." Vikengam said smugly, leaning against the mast.
Not every Celestial Dragon was as absurdly wealthy as Vikengam, able to spend over a billion in a few days.
The main reason was that he was special. He was the young master of the Jaygarcia Family. Saint Saturn, the family head, did not concern himself with affairs, and Vikengam had long wanted to descend to the lower world. Squandering the Jaygarcia Family's fortune without a shred of regret, he spent money however he pleased.
If he felt like eating giant North Blue prawns that day, it was common for him to spend three to five million Beli to have fresh ones delivered as quickly as possible.
His monthly expenses on tea and alcohol alone exceeded one billion Beli.
Roger and the others simply could not imagine the lifestyle of the Heavenly Palace.
"You can spend over a billion in a few days?!" Roger sprang up and stared at Vikengam in disbelief. "Do you eat gold for meals and drink silver for water?"
"Drink what water?" Vikengam was startled by Roger's outrageous words and hurriedly waved his hands. "Don't say something like that. I'm not that perverted."
Still, he could not resist showing off. Pointing at the neatly groomed end of his silver hair behind his head, he said, "This hair clasp of mine was a tribute from the royal family of Visalia, a relatively wealthy kingdom in the West Blue. It is worth around nine hundred million Beli. This brooch was made by Master Baronia, known as God's Craftsman, and is worth over three billion Beli. This black noble knight's outfit was sewn stitch by stitch by the family's tailor. It has no fixed price, but if it were put up for sale, someone would probably be willing to pay three to five billion Beli for it. These leather boots of mine..."
As Vikengam kept boasting, the Roger Pirates gradually wore blank, dazed expressions, their mouths hanging open in wordless stupor.
After a while, Gaban came back to his senses and looked at Vikengam. "So you're saying the treasure we risked our lives to seize at God Valley isn't even worth as much as the things you're wearing?"
"Probably not. The main thing is that most of what I have on me is custom-made and not sold outside, so it's difficult to measure their value in Beli," Vikengam said, smacking his lips.
"Damn it, filthy rich people!" Rayleigh said with a face full of envy.
"A tiny minority rules the entire sea and controls the vast majority of the wealth... Tsk. I never had much of a real sense of it before, but now I've truly seen it for myself," Spencer said with emotion.
Just as Spencer said, ordinary people across the seas could work hard their entire lives and still fail to earn enough wealth to match the value of a single drink Vikengam had in Mary Geoise.
This world was simply that unfair.
Of course, perhaps it was not only this world.
Everyone had been thrilled about seizing over twenty billion Beli, but after Vikengam's display, it all suddenly felt rather meaningless.
Soon, several crew members began packing up the treasure scattered across the deck, preparing to sell it off and convert it into cash when they reached the next island.
Roger, Gaban, and Rayleigh gathered around Vikengam as well. "We don't think you'd lie, but this matter is important to us. Come with us and decipher some ancient documents we found recently to prove your abilities. No problem with that, right?"
Vikengam grinned confidently. "No problem. That's exactly my specialty."
Before you continue