Was He Ready to Bet His Life?

Miming's hand was lightly sliced by Shalria's knife, and blood began to flow. Ignoring the musket Charlos was pointing at him, Miming simply licked the blood running down his arm.

Of course it was a real fight. Did you think it was fake? Three against one, sure, but not one of those three idiots had ever considered that someone might actually fight them!

Cairns and another CP0 agent panicked and hurriedly tried to break up the fight from the side. "Saint Charlos, you can't fire! Saint Miming, please show mercy!"

Charlos, his face swollen and bruised, was a little flustered. Holding a musket was one thing—shooting a slave to death was one thing—but blowing Miming's head off was an entirely different matter! And what was wrong with these people? Why weren't they stopping Miming? Why were they only trying to persuade him?

In his impression, Miming had always been a coward. Why had he suddenly charged over with a spiked club? He had never expected those offhand remarks to make Miming so angry. If he had known, he never would have said them.

Miming suddenly whipped his head around and glared viciously at Charlos.

"Since you've drawn your gun..." Miming took a deep breath and shouted, "Charlos! Then you must have prepared yourself to bet your life, right?"

Everyone present was stunned. Ignoring the musket and making such a bold declaration—was this really Saint Miming?

"No, I didn't prepare! I don't want to bet my life!" Charlos was scared witless. He dropped the musket onto the ground and fled in a panic. "Don't kill me! Imperial Brother Miming, I was wrong, I was wrong!"

"Get the hell out of here!" Miming swung his spiked club with all his strength and slammed it into Charlos's enormous buttocks. Charlos fled for his life.

"Help me stop him! Stop him!"

A group of bodyguards and agents formed a human wall. Bowing and kowtowing to Miming, they tried to hold him back.

Cairns also pleaded, "Saint Miming, please show mercy now that you've vented your anger!"

Miming snorted and turned to glance at Shalria, who was still sitting on the ground.

Shalria's mouth hung open as she stared at Miming in shock. For some reason, her face had flushed crimson, and her expression had turned one of utter adoration.

"Imperial Brother Miming, what you just said was so cool! Can you say it again?" Shalria had completely turned into a lovestruck fool and had already forgotten that she had been beaten.

"Hmph!" Miming arrogantly presented her with his cold, proud back.

That line... Wasn't it something Red-Haired Shanks had said in the story of One Piece? The gun's bullets had already been fired into that captain-slave's body, hadn't they?

The rallying cries from One Piece still echoed in his heart, and Miming was filled with heroic spirit.

Yes, in this world, I currently possess neither overwhelming martial skills nor incredible powers. All I have is my identity as a Celestial Dragon. But this identity lets me do something even those Marine Admirals, those great pirate Shichibukai, and even the protagonist Luffy can't do—namely, beat up Celestial Dragons without suffering any punishment.

"Imperial Brother Miming is so cool!"

Shalria's lovestruck voice came from behind as Miming left proudly with the spiked club over his shoulder.

Cairns followed behind him with a fawning expression, bent nearly double as if he had already chosen his master. "Saint Miming, please ride on me!"

"Cairns, I've decided to become stronger. So I'll walk this stretch myself."

Miming continued showing off.

Two minutes later, This spiked club is way too heavy! And Mary Geoise, damn it, is way too huge! You can't even see the end of a single street or palace. Just looking at it is utterly despairing.

"Cairns." Miming took a deep breath and stopped. "I think I'll have to ride you until I become stronger."

Cairns: "..."

Seeing this powerful CP0 agent bowing and scraping before him, Miming felt extremely pleased.

Being a Celestial Dragon had its advantages. He could throw his weight around with the World Government, use CP0 as a mount, and, if he felt guilty about it, beat up other Celestial Dragons to uphold his own sense of justice. Of course, there was also the most important benefit—Boa Hancock!

His beloved Empress, Boa Hancock, had been captured by the Celestial Dragons and enslaved for four years before becoming the empress of Amazon Lily.

Right, if there was still enough time, he could save her, and then the empress would offer herself to him. Hahaha! Whenever he thought of that, Miming let out another evil laugh. How shameless. Even he found himself a little disgusted.

But wasn't this what he most wanted after coming to this world? Not only Boa, but also Robin, Nami, Vivi, and all those beloved collectible characters—he wanted every one of them to become his wife! No, he had to have them! Otherwise, the agony of watching them flirt and fawn over someone else would be too much for his fragile heart to bear.

"Saint Miming seems to be in a very good mood," Cairns flatteringly remarked. "I feel that after what happened this time, Saint Miming is different from before—more magnificent than before."

Miming was full of confidence and blurted out, "I really am different now. Cairns, do you believe I can dream of the future?"

Cairns chuckled foolishly inwardly. Everyone can dream. But aloud, he flattered Miming with utmost seriousness. "Saint Miming's dreams are the missions this subordinate is destined to complete!"

"Really?" Miming said solemnly. "In my dream, I met four beautiful women! They're my soulmates. Do you understand what that means?"

Cairns shook his head.

"It means they're more important to me than my own life."

Cairns thought, So basically, you mean I have to find them for you. Why put it so euphemistically?

Miming clenched his fists and declared resolutely, "I must find all of them. Cairns, your mission is to help me find them."

So it really is that kind of dream. Cairns cursed inwardly. The women in those dreams won't be easy to find.

It was perfectly normal for seeing Saint Charlos to make one think of collecting beautiful women. Every Celestial Dragon had different tastes in slaves. Saint Charlos particularly enjoyed collecting beautiful women from the common people. He did not even call them slaves, instead making them his wives. In reality, however, once these common women became the wives of Celestial Dragons, their status was no different from that of slaves. Saint Charlos assigned them numbers and could not even remember their names.

Miming was five or six years younger than Charlos. At the very least, Charlos could tell the difference between a dream and a woman he saw on the street. Miming, however, was in the troublesome adolescent phase and actually believed his dreams without question.

"My first soulmate comes from Amazon Lily!" Miming shared his dream without holding anything back. "Her name is Boa Hancock! I believe I came to this world because of her!"

"So Saint Miming is such a deeply devoted man!" Cairns looked reverent. Only a Celestial Dragon could make such shameless words sound so dignified. "As long as I know where she is, this subordinate will immediately search for the First Lady!" he declared, while thinking inwardly, Amazon Lily is doomed.

"You don't necessarily need to go right away." Unexpectedly, Miming did not issue such an unreasonable order. Instead, following a certain line of thought, he asked, "Tell me again—which year is it now?"

"1504 of the Sea Circle Calendar," Cairns added, "February 1." It was hardly surprising. Any Celestial Dragon who remembered the date had to be a fake Celestial Dragon.

"Well..." Miming scratched his head. Even if he knew the year, he could not match it up properly. But since Zephyr was still in the Marines and Black Cage Hina had only just debuted, the timing should be roughly right.

"Don't go looking for Amazon Lily. Just quietly investigate which family in the Holy Land has slaves from Amazon Lily." Miming's expression was solemn. You have to treat this as a major undertaking and handle it properly! If we accidentally miss her, Hancock will have to endure a great deal of inhuman torment.

"Huh?" Cairns understood a little. "Is the First Lady from your dream someone's slave?"

Could Saint Miming have seen someone's female slave somewhere and decided he liked her? Seeing Miming nod, Cairns hurriedly asked, "Are your other ladies slaves too?"

"No." Miming solemnly announced, "My second soulmate is a girl named Nico Robin. She should be about seven, eight, nine, or ten years old?"

"That would make her an old lady, not a girl, wouldn't it?"

"I don't mean seventy, eighty, or ninety. I mean seven or eight, nine or ten. I can't calculate the time precisely."

"Oh!" Cairns understood.

"She's destined to become a historian. Her mother is also a historian, but the entire island they were researching was destroyed by a Buster Call."

"You mean the incident on Ohara at the end of 1500 of the Sea Circle Calendar?" Cairns tried to explain why Miming might have had such a dream. "That happened more than three years ago. You even went to watch the fireworks. You may simply have remembered it in your dream."

"What?" Miming's eyes widened in shock. I actually watched the bombardment that destroyed Ohara as if it were fireworks?