Werther glanced at the nearly unconscious Carmensen Silver Fox, then paid her no further attention.
He stood before Zank and waited for his answer.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Three minutes.
Zank's lips began to tremble, as though he wanted to say something.
"Even if you refuse, I'll find someone else. They won't be as stubborn as you. The outcome will be the same, so why keep fighting?"
Zank could feel the devil before him tempting him. He could no longer bear the agony of being neither alive nor dead, and he nodded.
Zank had known all along that even if he refused, the others in the Blackbeard Pirates would never withstand this man's interrogation either.
Werther dispelled the Thunder Needles. Zank's expression relaxed, and a smile even appeared on his face. Simply feeling nothing at all was such a blessing.
It was like being gravely ill and suddenly becoming healthy again, a joy beyond words.
"Who's on this island? Are any of the Blackbeard Pirates' key members here?"
Zank fell silent for a moment, then described the situation on the island in detail.
They had seized the island six months earlier from a Family with considerable influence in the New World.
After the Summit War, Blackbeard had recruited so many people that he was nearly broke. He had tried every way he could to raise money, to no avail. That was why he had set his sights on this island.
At first, Blackbeard had bought large numbers of slaves cheaply to mine the island. But he soon discovered that ordinary slaves could not survive its bitter cold for long, so he turned to pirates who had fallen on hard times.
Those pirates had been hardened by the first half of the Grand Line and had at least some strength. Once