"Thunder Swordsman Werther... I think I've heard that name before."
Luffy searched his memory, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't place Werther.
"He's the man who fought Whitebeard at the Summit War. He carried two swords."
Boa Hancock's hint made it click.
A man appeared in Luffy's mind, two swords at his waist, sitting atop a heap of corpses and drinking. Cold, sharp, and reeking of blood—that was Luffy's impression of Werther.
"I remember now. That guy was pretty strong. I wonder if I could beat him now."
Boa Hancock nodded and went on.
"That's the man who started the Gold War almost single-handedly and nearly destroyed the Blackbeard Pirates."
"Blackbeard!" Luffy sprang to his feet at the name.
"He's the guy who sent Ace to prison."
Anger flared in Luffy, but after a moment, he sat back down.
"It was a brutal war. I'm very glad I didn't take my people to fight over the gold."
Amazon Lily, which Boa Hancock led, was rather poor. It was nowhere near as prosperous as outsiders imagined.
The women's hostility toward outsiders, coupled with Amazon Lily's location in the Calm Belt, formed two natural barriers that cut off its trade with the outside world.
Without trade, money couldn't circulate. To cover the costs of running a country, Boa Hancock had no choice but to take her people out to sea to plunder.
But Boa Hancock only robbed Pirates, so the Marines had always looked the other way.
"According to those who kept count, at least tens of thousands died in the Gold War. It was far more brutal than the Summit War."
Luffy's mouth fell open. Boa Hancock's words had stunned him.
He couldn't picture tens of thousands of deaths, but the number alone told him how bloody that