Rescuing People from the Palace

The next morning.

Beli looked anxiously at Ryan and asked, "Kid and Killer haven't come back all night. Could something have happened?!"

Ryan said uncertainly, "Probably not?"

"Besides, you don't really like that kid Kid anyway, so why are you so worried about him now?"

As he spoke, Ryan put his arm around Beli's shoulder and looked at him with a teasing gaze.

Beli's face instantly turned red!

Fortunately, Ryan knew Beli well. If anyone else had seen Beli blushing like that, there was no telling what kind of bad thoughts they would have.

"Kid and Killer are our crewmates now, so it's normal to worry about them."

"Then let's go out and look for them together. I know their auras."

"I'm coming too, I'm coming too," Lory shouted from the side.

Lory felt that tagging along with Ryan and the others to look for people this time would lead to something interesting.

Ryan activated his Observation Haki to sense the surrounding auras. By now, the range of Ryan's Observation Haki could cover a radius of about one thousand meters around him.

As long as it was someone Ryan had interacted with, he could track their aura using Observation Haki combined with breathing techniques to find them.

Searching for two people in this city was indeed quite difficult, so the three of them went from weapon shop to weapon shop asking around to track down the pair's movements.

Finally, they got news of the two from a weapon shop.

According to the shopkeeper's description, the two had bought two swords there yesterday afternoon and then headed back, never showing up again after that.

"So the trail is broken again. Could they be in there?" Ryan murmured.

Hearing Ryan's whisper from the side, Beli hurriedly asked, "Did you discover something, Ryan?"

"Yeah, I found a few things. I kept my Observation Haki active to look for them the whole way over here, but I couldn't sense their auras at all."

Ryan paused and continued.

"There's only one possibility: they're in the Inner City!" Ryan pointed at the walled inner city in the distance.

The areas Ryan and the others had been active in were all in the Outer City, while the Inner City here had been ordered built by the previous king of the Goth Kingdom.

The purpose was simply not to live in the same city as ordinary people.

The previous king of the Goth Kingdom was an admirer of the Celestial Dragons, and his biggest dream was to join the Celestial Dragons.

But that was an impossible thing.

Although he was a high-and-mighty king on the outside, in the eyes of the Celestial Dragons, he was nothing more than a servant with a little bit of power.

In the end, that king died without ever fulfilling his dream, but he left behind this city—an inner city that completely separated ordinary people from the nobles.

Heard that the current king was also working hard toward this goal.

"Then let's go in and find them," Beli said.

Ryan and Beli walked together toward the direction of the Inner City.

Lory hesitated for a long time on the edge without speaking. Ordinary people were not allowed to enter the Inner City, and up until now, anyone who had broken in had never come out alive.

But Lory also knew that even if she told Ryan and the others all this, it wouldn't change their minds.

After spending this time getting along with Ryan and the two of them, Lory had figured out their personalities and tempers.

Although their personalities were different, they shared one point: once the two of them made a decision, they would definitely carry it out. These two men feared nothing.

Watching the two walking further and further away, Lory hurriedly followed after them.

"Halt! Take one more step forward, and you die!" The soldiers guarding the inner gate shouted sternly right at Ryan and the other.

Ryan still stuck to his principle of being polite before resorting to force, stopping in his tracks and smiling at the two.

"We're going in to find a couple of people. We'll be right back out."

"No entry. Those who enter die," came the soldiers' cold words.

"Well, nothing we can do then." Without paying attention to the soldiers' warnings, Ryan continued to walk forward.

The soldier had guarded the city gate for six years. Over these six years, all sorts of people had challenged the rules here, but they had all died at his hands.

From the soldier's perspective, Ryan and the other were no exception.

The soldier sighed, "Someone's going to die again. I'll have to find someone to collect the bodies later. What a pain."

The soldier's body began to swell continuously, his limbs turning into claws, and a tail unexpectedly growing out from behind. Only his head remained unchanged.

Seeing the soldier's transformation, Ryan looked surprised. "A Devil Fruit user, of all things."

"You figured it out too late. I'm a man who ate the Dog-Dog Fruit! You're going to die right here today."

With that, his limbs hit the ground as he started running, charging straight at the three of Ryan.

Ryan was left speechless. Why did you tell me what fruit you ate before I even asked!

Beli just wanted to draw his twin axes from his back to engage in battle, but Ryan said instead.

"Don't move, leave this to me!"

After all, even the smallest mosquito was still meat. Slaughtering the entire Marine Headquarters last time had given Ryan nearly forty thousand attribute points.

Especially Rong, who alone had contributed twenty thousand points.

Ryan adjusted his hairband and slowly drew the sword at his waist.

Seeing Ryan's action, Beli knew Ryan was about to show off, so he hurriedly pulled Lory to the side.

Sure enough, Ryan was seen holding his sword in one hand, positioning it behind his left side while leaning his upper body slightly forward.

"One Sword Style. Iai. Slaughter Dog"

The figures of the two crossed paths in a flash, and a wound deep enough to reach the viscera appeared on the soldier's chest, where his shattered heart was faintly visible.

Without looking back, Ryan continued to walk forward.

"What kind of sword technique is this?!" A voice came from behind.

"Slaughter Dog."

"Pfft..." The soldier could no longer hold on. After vomiting a mouthful of blood, he fell backward.

Beli looked skeptically at Ryan. Should this be considered being killed by Ryan or being angered to death by Ryan?

Actually, Ryan hadn't meant to disgust him on purpose. There was a pack of somewhat mutated large canine beasts on the uninhabited island, and to deal with them, Ryan had created this move himself.

Seeing the opponent's transformed appearance, he had used it instinctively. Could Ryan be blamed for that? He could only blame the soldier for having poor psychological endurance.

After getting rid of the soldier, Ryan and the three strolled around the Inner City. The Inner City was completely different from the Outer City; its streets had very few people, with only a few individuals out and about.

Moreover, the environment of the Outer City simply couldn't compare to the Inner City. A glance across revealed not a single speck of trash, which was probably due to the low population.

There weren't many houses, but they were all of the very large variety. Setting aside personal factors, the Inner City was indeed much, much better than the Outer City.

Suddenly, Ryan stopped in his tracks.

Seeing Ryan's action, Beli asked, "Did you find something?"

"Found them. They're right up ahead." Ryan reached out his finger and pointed toward the palace in front.

"The palace!" Lory swallowed hard, a bad premonition rising in her heart.

Beli remained carefree, saying, "Found them? Then let's go."

Lory hurriedly said, "Let's still not make such a big commotion. After all, we're just here to find people."

Hearing Lory say that, Ryan thought about it and figured she was right; after all, they were just here to find people, and he didn't feel like stirring up trouble.

Ryan said to Lory, "Then let's do this: Beli and I will sneak in to find them. You wait here and don't run around."

"Then hurry up. Being here alone, I'm scared~"

Without another word, Ryan and Beli vaulted over the wall. Guided by his intuition, Ryan evaded the palace patrol squads several times.

Finally, they found Kid and Killer in a side hall.

Walking in, they saw Kid and Killer tied to the pillars of the palace, looking quite humiliating.

After taking a closer look, Ryan noticed that the two people who had tied them up were quite professional.

Seeing that Ryan and Beli had actually found their way to the palace to rescue them, both Kid and Killer lost their composure, their expressions practically spelling out the word "touched."

"Useless, actually getting yourselves caught," Beli mocked from the side.

Kid's expression instantly shifted from the previous touching moment to gloominess. Probably only the face-changing art of Sichuan opera from Ryan's past life could rival Kid right now.

"Alright, stop arguing for now and let's get out of here first," Ryan scolded the two when he saw Kid looked ready to fight Beli for three hundred rounds.

Killer, standing beside them, told Ryan about how they ended up getting captured here.

It turned out that yesterday, on their way back after finishing buying swords, the two had run into the Seventh Prince of the Goth Kingdom, who was "inspecting the people's livelihood" in the Outer City. The moment the seventh prince saw Kid, he recognized him as the person who had previously stolen his Devil Fruit.

The outcome was self-evident. The two were subdued by the seventh prince's guards and locked up here.

The seventh prince was planning to personally punish Kid, the thief who stole his fruit. Fortunately, all the princes and princesses had been summoned to the main hall for a meeting today.

Otherwise, it was uncertain whether Kid and Killer would even be alive in this world right now.

At this moment, the topic being discussed by all the princes and princesses of the Goth Kingdom in their meeting actually had a bit of a connection to Ryan and Beli, because Rong was dead and there was now no steady stream of slave sources.

Therefore, the king was preparing to select someone else to take over Rong's work. After all, nobles were always in great need of slaves, and the mortality rate of slaves in their hands was extremely high.

It was much like how a female slave handed over to a noble would basically be played to death in less than ten days.

Thus, this matter was still extremely important, and the king had specially convened a meeting to discuss it.

As Ryan and the others were planning to leave, Killer suddenly cried out.

"Ah, where are my swords?!"

Then he dragged Kid off toward the seventh prince's quarters to look for the swords.

Ryan wasn't in a hurry either, sitting leisurely with Beli at the palace entrance to wait.

Suddenly, Beli asked, "Do you think there'll be good wine here?"

Ryan's eyes lit up instantly. Actually, Ryan didn't have many hobbies; he only liked strong liquor, beautiful women, and good food.

"Then let's go look for some."

At this moment, the seventh prince, whose home had been ransacked, was riding his horse back in a rush. Having finished the meeting, the seventh prince was riding his beloved white horse toward this side hall.

Before long, Killer and Kid came out carrying several swords.

Ryan and Beli also came out, each holding several bottles of liquor that looked aged.

The four of them met face-to-face.

Ryan spoke up first.

"I left a few bottles of wine here earlier and just found them."

Kid looked at Ryan and the other with an expression that screamed, "If I believe you, I'm an idiot."

Killer also chimed in to explain, "I didn't find my sword, and when I saw only these in the room, I just took them all."

By unspoken mutual agreement, all four of them stopped talking.

Just as the four of them were about to leave the palace, the seventh prince finally arrived.

Looking at the things in the four people's hands, the seventh prince instantly understood what had happened and immediately rode his horse charging toward them.

Seeing the white horse beneath the seventh prince, Ryan's eyes went straight. How well this white horse would match him.

Unfortunately, the hotheaded seventh prince miscalculated his own strength. Without even needing Ryan to make a move, Beli acted with quick eyes and fast hands, cleaving the seventh prince and his horse in two with a single swing of his axe.

After finishing, he gave Ryan a twitch of his brows as if saying, "Praise me quickly."

"The Seventh Prince!"

"The seventh prince is dead! Someone come quick!"

A startled scream interrupted Ryan, who was just about to teach Beli how to behave.

"Trouble." Ryan sighed softly.

It turned out to be a servant who had gone to the meeting with the seventh prince, running back and thus arriving slightly later than the seventh prince.

That startled scream was like a thunderclap on flat ground, drawing all the nearby guards rushing over.

"I told you not to go look for swords, but you went anyway. Now we're in trouble," Ryan scolded Killer and the two.

Killer stared at the wine in Ryan's hand with an innocent little look in his eyes.

It was as if he were saying, weren't you doing the exact same thing!

Watching the palace soldiers continuously gathering toward this side, Ryan's gaze also turned sharp.

"Let's go. I'll take you guys to kill some people!"

Ryan's calm words reached the ears of the three.

Kid and Killer instantly grew excited, filled with the sensation of getting ready to do something major.

Beli remarked that as expected of Ryan, able to be so... even at a time like this.

The death of the seventh prince had thoroughly detonated this long-tranquil palace.