The Vinsmoke Family really was down on its luck. Enel and the others had set their sights on them.
Seeing the sorry state Vinsmoke Judge was in, Enel and the others burst out laughing.
They were no strangers to the Vinsmoke Family. The first batch of airships had been built in partnership with them, and even as their operations expanded and their technology improved, they had maintained considerable business ties with the Vinsmoke Family.
The Vinsmoke Family had made a fortune through its partnership with the Asura Pirates.
They should have been grateful to their customers. Instead, they had skipped the banquet celebrating the completion of the Asura Pirates' headquarters, and word had spread that they were working with the Asura Pirates' sworn enemies, the Big Mom Pirates, with plans for a marriage alliance.
When the news reached Rogge, he had cut off all cooperation with the Vinsmoke Family and handed the entire underground mercenary business over to Buggy, letting him reap the profits.
The Asura Pirates had blacklisted the Vinsmoke Family, and even in the North Blue, Donquixote Doflamingo's return had put them under pressure.
The Vinsmoke Family already had a bad reputation in the North Blue, where many kingdoms shunned them. For a time, they could only hole up and wait for their marriage alliance with Big Mom.
What they had never expected was that Charlotte Linlin harbored vicious ambitions. She had no intention of forming a marriage alliance; she only wanted the Vinsmoke Family's technology.
After her last battle with the Asura Pirates, Charlotte Linlin had recognized her crew's weakness: the disparity in numbers.
The Asura Pirates had over two hundred thousand members. What about her? Her combat personnel totaled only a little over ten thousand. Most of the rest were homies, there to swell the ranks