Ugly as Hell

"Walking slowly lets you properly appreciate the scenery around you!" Miming shouted.

"Come down, Sandersonia." Hancock leaped onto Sandersonia's back and quietly told her the truth.

"People are pushing from underneath?" Sandersonia was horrified. Along this road stretching for dozens of miles, and throughout the countless moving walkways in the Holy Land, slaves were desperately pushing from below. They could not make the slightest sound.

Mary Geoise was not without advanced technology, nor was it incapable of using machines to accomplish this. Rather, it was about enjoying that superior feeling of stepping on top of other people.

Several Celestial Dragon children were bouncing vigorously on the moving walkway, laughing gleefully. The adults pinched their noses as Saint Jalmack's Son's procession passed by, snorted disdainfully, and turned their heads toward the sky to show that they refused to exchange greetings with him.

Yet Saint Jalmack's Son actually pointed brazenly at their tall topknots. "Tell me honestly—aren't those topknots hideous? Hahahaha! And everyone wears them that high. You all look exactly the same. Ugly as hell! Hahahaha!"

Cairns gave an awkward laugh. All the agents' faces twitched, and none of them dared answer the question.

"Shut up!" A Celestial Dragon child rushed over. "How dare you! You—you!"

"What about me?" Miming dug a booger out of his nose, then flicked it onto the child's topknot. "Why don't you hit me?"

"Eek!" The booger struck the topknot like a bullet. The child let out a shriek as the topknot came apart, pulling painfully at his scalp. Most importantly, there was a booger in his hair!

The Celestial Dragon who had originally held his head high and ignored them immediately ran over and dragged his child away. "Saint Sanming! Don't go too far! You freak!"

"I just think that hairstyle is ugly. Are you unhappy? If you think I'm dirty, why don't you cut off that topknot with my booger on it?" Miming said outrageously as he dug into his nostril.

The Celestial Dragon child immediately began wailing. The other party had wanted to explode in anger, but when he saw Miming picking his nose again, he instantly fled several yards away with the child.

"I flicked a booger because you came over! Do you think you can get away?" Miming flicked his finger. A lump of dried mucus shot several yards away with a whoosh and struck the Celestial Dragon in the face with a crisp smack. The other party nearly fainted on the spot, while the agents who had failed to protect him were kicked again and again.

Miming watched the other party jumping furiously yet helplessly, and felt absolutely delighted inside. As a Celestial Dragon, he could not defeat the Gorosei or those CP0 agents, but as long as he was stronger than these stinking pigs, he could run rampant through Mary Geoise.

After coming into contact with them, Miming had already understood that although the Gorosei represented the Celestial Dragons' interests and were their leaders, they did not like those useless troublemakers who refused to improve. Every time those fools caused trouble, the Gorosei had to clean up after them. Aside from spending money, all they knew was how to cause problems.

The fact that Miming had not received any punishment this time already said a lot. Although the matter of the few slaves was so minor that it could not have been more insignificant, it showed that the Gorosei were willing to let Miming knock some sense into those descendants who caused trouble all day.

Especially since they were so satisfied with Miming's progress in cultivation. It was very likely that there would not be another child this hardworking and talented in the next several centuries.

After they arrived at the new residence, a CP0 agent directly subordinate to the intelligence agency carried a Camera Den Den Mushi around, taking pictures so he could report Saint Sanming's living conditions to the Gorosei.

"The necessary supplies will be delivered immediately." Cairns asked, "Should we apply to have a moving walkway built?"

Originally, this was merely a formality. Based on Cairns's understanding of Miming, his master clearly disliked this product used to abuse slaves and should have refused.

"Yes. Why wouldn't I?" Miming said instead. "The moving walkway is a symbol of status. My residence as Saint Sanming must of course have a direct walkway! Build it for me. Not only that, extend it all the way into the courtyard, just like at the main family residence. Wahahaha!"

A moving walkway was actually just a tunnel. Perhaps it would have an unexpected use.

Cairns was somewhat surprised, but he felt much more at ease.

"Yes. The application will be approved tomorrow."

Naturally, this was also recorded by the Visual Den Den Mushi and filed quite naturally in CP0's records. Although Saint Sanming liked slaves and even treated the slaves he favored especially well, it was obvious that he did not like all slaves, much less sympathize with them. Everything was merely a matter of Saint Sanming's personal preferences and capricious stubbornness.

Celestial Dragons were allowed to act however they pleased to begin with. Saint Sanming's personal tastes simply did not follow the mainstream.

What happened next further dispelled the doubts of the CP0 agents secretly investigating him.

"Saint Sanming is beating his three female slaves?" The Gorosei received such a report during afternoon tea.

"Yes. He's using them as punching bags for training. They haven't been beaten to death, but... the beating was quite severe." The agent reported, "That's why Saint Sanming requested a large quantity of controlled medicines among the supplies he needed."

"I get the feeling this boy is plotting something interesting again." Saint Ichi lifted his teacup and took a sip.

"That's how high-quality slaves should be used." One of the Gorosei voiced his support. "Good slaves need to be properly trained before they can become useful. Those idiots nowadays don't even know what they're pursuing."

"It's not as if he lacks money." Another Gorosei spoke. "Just give him whatever he pays for. The rules cannot be broken."

The rules could not be broken. To the agents, the unspoken meaning was perfectly clear: as long as it conformed to the rules, Saint Sanming could do anything.

The Celestial Dragons also had a hierarchy. In particular, after the incident in which the Donquixote Family left the Holy Land out of sympathy for slaves, stricter regulations had been imposed on the purchase of slaves, Devil Fruits, powerful medicines, weapons, and other controlled goods. Only the heads of the direct descendants of the twenty kings were qualified to purchase powerful criminals as slaves. In addition, each Celestial Dragon was limited in the number of slaves they could buy, preventing another situation like Saint Homing's, in which sympathy for slaves led him to take in more than a hundred escaped slaves.

The strictest rule was that slaves could be killed, but never released.

Once the "Hoof of the Soaring Dragon," the mark of slavery, had been branded onto someone, that person would be a slave forever. If anyone outside the Holy Land was found bearing the mark of a slave, they had to be killed or captured and sent back to Mary Geoise.

"Fight." Miming stood before the three Boa Sisters, who lay sprawled in disarray.

"As long as you can awaken Life Return, you can remove the Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. Only then can you completely forget these painful days and stop waking from nightmares."

Hancock, Marigold, and Sandersonia's faces were filled with hope. No matter how covered in wounds they were, they desperately struggled to rise.

"Master, Sandersonia's face can be restored too, right?" Marigold asked.