Kept Their Lives

Kept Their Lives

He closed the treasure chest and handed it to Ran beside him, then asked with a complicated look, "William, why didn't you eat this fruit?"

"Well..." Great Bay Blade William took off his captain's tricorn hat and scratched his greasy hair. Looking troubled, he said, "This Devil Fruit is worth over a hundred million. If we sell it at an auction house, it'll fetch at least two hundred million. After commissions, we'll still have at least a hundred and fifty million. With that money, we can all go home and get married."

Leo could not help but laugh. No wonder they had been unlucky enough to enter the Calm Belt, then run into the Spade Pirates at the worst possible time and get wiped out, and now encounter one of the Shichibukai—the Kuja Pirates.

With such a tall, gleaming flag planted here, who else would be unlucky if not them?

"I understand. For now, let's leave it at that." He turned to Ran. "How do we hitch their ship to ours?"

"Don't worry." Ran's round face was full of smiles. Two hundred million had just fallen into their laps—how could she not be happy? Besides, these pirates probably had quite a few financial records on them. "We have ropes specially made for towing captured ships. We just need to hook them onto the prow of their vessel."

Most pirates stored their savings on some island, then made a map so they would not forget the location. Still, even if pirate ships did not carry treasure, they never set sail empty-handed. There had to be spoils from this voyage aboard.

That was how the Kuja Pirates survived: they constantly plundered pirates who had themselves gone out to plunder, taking supplies and necessities from them. Naturally, the pirates' ships were also spoils and wealth.

Moreover, these pirates were their prisoners. Even if they did not kill them, they would still strip the pirate ship's hold clean.

Even the crew called the Cutlass Pirates could neither deny nor resist that fact.

But since the enemy had not been completely killed off this time, they might as well make them do the carrying. When they needed to eat, they could use lifeboats to ferry the supplies back from there. It wasted the pirates' strength and energy, which was itself a means of control—like paying wages in cash instead of depositing them into a bank account.

Leo had even been the one to suggest it.

Ran and the others thought it was a bit troublesome, but the Empress liked Leo, so they agreed.

As he watched the pirates carry sacks of grain out of the hold and onto the Kuja Pirates' deck, Leo studied them closely.

He noted who was honest, who was cunning, who kept looking around to gather information, who kept their heads down and worked without daring to look about, who was audacious, and who was blinded by lust.

Great Bay Blade William stood beside Leo, introducing the Cutlass Pirates' situation. The entire crew had numbered over a hundred and twenty men. Their ship had been built using a special South Blue method, in the style of a Carrack-style sailing ship. It could carry many people, haul plenty of cargo, and possessed a certain amount of firepower.

However, they had fought a battle before entering the Calm Belt, leaving only a little over one hundred and ten men. Later, illness had reduced them to fewer than one hundred and ten. More than thirty had been shot dead during this boarding battle, leaving fewer than eighty.

Besides their dozen or so cannons, the Cutlass Pirates relied even more on boarding actions. Their usual tactic was to use grapeshot to shred the enemy's sails, slow them down, catch up, and board them. That saved a great deal of ammunition and supplies.

They were a somewhat poor and stingy pirate crew.

Still, with their numbers, Great Bay Blade William's large build and formidable strength, plus several officers, most enemies in the first half of the Grand Line were no match for them.

A crew like the Straw Hat Pirates was already an exceptionally elite lineup, the kind of pirate crew with bounties exceeding a hundred million.

Great Bay Blade William's bounty was only forty million, while his officers' bounties combined did not even reach twenty million. Naturally, they could not possess the Straw Hat Pirates' strength or ambitions. (It was truly baffling that the Straw Hat Pirates had never wanted to find Devil Fruits to strengthen the weaker members of their crew.)

So it was understandable that Great Bay Blade William and the others wanted to return home and get married after earning over a hundred million from an auction.

In the Four Seas, the Marines only had a handful of military bases controlling the more important routes. Most of their real fighting force was concentrated in the early, middle, and latter sections of the Grand Line, especially the latter half, where the Four Emperors had become nearly impossible to contain.

Once they got their money from the auction house, they could head straight home, hole up in some village, and live quietly. Who would ever come looking for them?

That was perfectly normal. Otherwise, after witnessing Ace's strength during the Marineford War, Doflamingo's arena would never have seen anyone willing to sell them the Flame-Flame Fruit.

Many people set out to sea intending to make one big score and return home to live peacefully. They could never earn hundreds of millions of Beli at once in their hometowns. Take a gamble, turn a bicycle into a motorcycle—no wonder countless people risked their lives at sea.

It was just like the old Age of Exploration. Nearly ninety-nine percent of people sought wealth, not Devil Fruits so they could become Shichibukai.

Much less become One Piece.

In the end, true ambition was possessed by only a small minority. Leo had finally gotten a deep look at the pirates at the bottom and learned what they truly thought.

Leaving them alive had indeed been the right choice.

Leo glanced at the pirates who had returned to their own ship and were now staring longingly from the rail.

Not only had all the food and financial records aboard been taken away, even their weapons and cannons had been confiscated.

It could be said that they truly had nothing left.

But Leo had promised to return those things after they left the Calm Belt, so they reluctantly chose to believe him.

What else could they do if they did not believe him?

Were they really supposed to die?

The Kuja Pirates' tower-like warship continued onward, dragged by Yuda. The thick hawser at its stern stretched taut, slowly pulling the Cutlass Pirates' vessel into motion. Loud cheers erupted from the Cutlass Pirates' ship behind them. They had already despaired, then found hope upon seeing the Kuja Pirates, despaired again upon learning they were Shichibukai, and found hope once more when Leo agreed to accept their surrender.

Now, they were finally and completely aflame with hope. Though they had lost everything, they had truly gained a chance to live. At the very least, they had kept their miserable lives!

PS: Second update. Please send recommendation votes!

PS1: Another 300 votes, and there will be a third update!