"You can ask Prince Nalandesheng to confirm it. Besides, would I take someone away if he weren't my friend? I have principles, you know. And when you've been friends for decades, forgetting a name for a moment is only natural."
As soon as Ye Chen finished speaking, Hannibal and Domino fell silent. Even Magellan, the warden of Impel Down, probably wouldn't dare ask Nalandesheng to confirm it.
After all, Nalandesheng was a Celestial Dragon, far above them. Ye Chen had told them to check because he knew they wouldn't. Who would dare trouble a Celestial Dragon?
Besides, the handwriting on the letter and the Flying Dragon seal were symbols of the Celestial Dragons' supreme authority. Who would dare claim they were fake?
"I think we should tell Chief Warden Magellan about this."
After a moment of silence, Domino looked uneasy. The look she gave Ye Chen was more astonished than ever.
Ye Chen kept claiming the Celestial Dragons were his friends, and Domino didn't believe a word of it. But there it was in black and white: the Celestial Dragons acknowledged Ye Chen as their friend. That carried considerable weight.
Ye Chen's own claims could easily be exaggerated—he was hardly an impartial judge of himself. But if the Celestial Dragons had said it, they clearly thought well of him. And given how quickly he had joined the Shichibukai, his relationship with them seemed all the more intriguing to Domino.
Little did she know that Ye Chen and the Celestial Dragons were anything but friends. They hated each other so fiercely that both sides would have gladly killed the other on the spot.
His appointment to the Shichibukai and the letter Nalandesheng had written had both been forced out of them by Ye Chen.
When Nalandesheng wrote that letter, Ye Chen