The Vampire's "Mind Reading"

Robin's eyelashes fluttered as she slowly opened her heavy eyelids. She raised her hands in a daze; they were the hands of an adult woman.

"Could it... actually be true...?"

Her fingertips brushed over her arms, her shoulder line; her bones had expanded, and her muscles were symmetrical—she possessed the mature physique of someone around twenty years old.

Suddenly, she snapped back to her senses.

The sheet slipped down, leaving her feeling empty and bare without a shred of fabric on her body.

Robin immediately pulled the blanket tight to wrap herself up snugly, carefully checking her physical condition. Aside from the lingering soreness brought on by growth, everything was normal.

Her hanging heart finally dropped a little—that man really hadn't done anything.

The cabin door was pushed open. Lucas had just finished his morning workout, electric arcs that hadn't entirely dissipated still winding around his fingertips. He strode in and had just called out "Robin" when a pair of hands abruptly appeared right in front of him, firmly blocking his eyes.

"Get out."

Lucas very cooperatively raised both hands, turned, and retreated, pulling the door shut behind him.

Before long, Baccarat walked in carrying a stack of brand-new clothes. She handed a white shirt and trousers over to the bedside:

"Try these. They're all new, I haven't worn them yet. The size should be about right."

"Thank you."

Robin took the clothes. Once she was dressed and sitting by the edge of the bed to comb her slightly curly hair, she spoke as if casually:

"Can you tell me what kind of person he actually is?"

Baccarat pulled up a chair and sat down, twirling her Red-Hair around her fingertip and speaking at a leisurely pace.

At dinner, Robin walked over to the table and paused slightly at the sight of the Sandwiches, toasted waffles, and vegetable salad laid out upon it.

These were all her favorite foods, yet she had never mentioned them to a second person.

She raised her head, meeting Lucas's gaze just as he cast it her way.

"Mr. Vampire, spying on other people's privacy with mind reading is hardly a gentlemanly act."

Lucas shrugged, picking up a Sandwich and devouring it like a storm sweeping through clouds:

"We'll be family sooner or later. Aside from me, who else would dare have you? Don't you think we're a great match?"

He neither admitted nor denied it, wearing an air of absolute certainty.

"I don't think so."

"I hate men who make assumptions. Please have some self-respect, Mr. Vampire."

Lucas quickly polished off the food on his plate and stood up, walking over to the doorway. He rested his hand against the doorframe and tossed back a sentence without turning his head—his voice wasn't loud, but it exploded in Robin's ears like a thunderclap:

"Jaguar D. Saul didn't die. Invited by current Elbaf king Harald, he's working as a teacher in Elbaf.

He also took away all those books the scholars sank into the lake back then."

With that, a blast of air erupted beneath his feet, the afterimage of Soru flashed, and he had already vanished at the end of the corridor, leaving no chance for any further questioning.

Robin froze entirely in place, the Sandwich in her hand dropping back onto the plate with a clack.

She abruptly covered her mouth, a stifled sob leaking through the gaps between her fingers.

Tears welled up from her eyes without warning, slamming onto the wooden tabletop and spreading a dark, damp patch.

Saul...

Was he still alive?

And those books... the legacy of the Tree of Knowledge...

Enormous ecstasy and a stinging ache intertwined, pressing down so hard her chest felt stuffed.

She slumped over the table, her shoulders trembling slightly. The tears she had suppressed for two years finally broke their dikes at this moment.

Nearby, Baccarat leisurely chewed on a piece of Elephant-Nosed Tuna meat, waiting until Robin had cried for quite a while before handing over a handkerchief.

Robin wiped away her tears, looking toward her with reddened eye rims, her voice still carrying a sob:

"Does he... really not read minds?"

Once was a coincidence, but twice?

Though they had never met before, he knew her preferences and knew the deepest secrets she kept hidden in her heart. Aside from mind reading, she could think of no other explanation.

"I don't know either."

Baccarat took a bite of the fish meat, saying vaguely, "He's always been mysterious anyway. Even if he really can, it's nothing bad."

Meanwhile, on an island in the West Blue, in an underground meeting room.

The dim basement was thick with smoke, the burnt stench of cigars making people's throats tighten.

Four people sat around a round table; they were none other than the four remaining underworld bosses of the West Blue.

"This is going too far! Killing people is one thing, but bleeding them dry and torturing them to death? This completely ignores us in the West Blue underworld!"

"Such brutal methods have crossed the line! We must make him pay in blood!"

The other three bosses slammed the table and roared, spittle flying everywhere.

Capone Bege sat in the corner with a cigar clenched in his teeth, not uttering a word. He tapped his fingers lightly against the tabletop, his gaze calm to the point of near-indifference.

Jason's death had already spread across the West Blue underworld yesterday; all of his family members had turned into withered, dried-out corpses, their deaths bizarre and miserable.

They could accept losing a turf war, but they could not accept this sort of "torture-killing."

In their understanding, this meant the killer was a psychological deviant who deliberately bled people to torture them. As for a "Devil Fruit that absorbs blood"?

Things like that, which exceeded their comprehension, weren't even within the scope of their considerations.

Aside from Germa, most forces entrenched in the four seas had this flaw: they could learn about fresh events across the grand seas through News Coos, but high-end goods like the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia were out of their reach.

The limitations of their horizons destined their judgment to be wrong from the very start.

"Jason is dead." Bege exhaled a puff of dense smoke.

"Do you lot think you're so much stronger than Jason?"

A single sentence instantly extinguished the clamor.

The three of them looked at each other, their complexions turning alternating shades of blue and white, unable to argue back even half a word.

Jason's strength was on par with theirs, yet even he had died in unclear circumstances. If they rushed in, the result would be much the same.

"My men went to Jason's territory to ask around."

"A silver-haired, blue-eyed man appeared that day, accompanied by a Red-Hair woman. The commoners kept as livestock saw it with their own eyes."

The mob did not produce goods themselves, and keeping commoners like livestock in their jurisdiction to supply provisions was the norm.

Lucas hadn't harmed the commoners, so he naturally left a trail behind.

"Silver hair, blue eyes... Red-Hair woman..."

One of the bosses abruptly slapped his thigh, his face instantly piling up with wild joy:

"It's them! It must be them! Lord Du Feld's underground bounty! These are the exact two people who sacked the casino on Resort Island!"

"That's fantastic! With the Loan Shark King making a move, these two are dead for sure!"

"How could Lord Du Feld's influence ever compare to Jason's?"

The three instantly looked like they had been injected with chicken blood, radiant and animated as they seemingly already foresaw the fate awaiting Lucas and his companion.

After the Resort Island vault was plundered, Du Feld had directly issued an all-underworld bounty using footage from a surveillance Den Den Mushi.

With such a mountain supporting them, they felt utterly fearless.

"To be safe, we'll hire an assassin ourselves too. A double insurance is the only way to be foolproof."

"Makes sense. Who is the strongest assassin in the West Blue right now?"

"Daz Bonez, a brat who's only eleven, but he's eaten an extremely hard fruit; bullets and cannonballs can't pierce him. Since his debut, he's never failed a single job."

"Then it's him!"

The few of them hit it off instantly. On one hand, they would use Du Feld's influence to hem the targets in, while on the other, they would hire a top assassin for an ambush—launching open attacks and hidden arrows all at once.

(PS: Bege is the only one among the five bosses worth writing about in detail, so I won't bother naming the other three.)