Sabaody Archipelago, inside the slave auction house.
On the display platform behind the curtain, the mermaid girl Camie frantically beat against the barrier of her transparent glass enclosure.
In front of the curtain, Disco, the auction house's manager,
stood onstage, using an exaggerated tone to play up the rarity of his "merchandise."
Yet cold sweat kept seeping from the palm gripping his microphone.
A mermaid... I've gone too far this time... His heart pounded wildly.
Ever since "Heavenquake" had declared Fish-Man Island part of G-10's sphere of influence, a territory under "Calamity's" protection,
the human traffickers and slave auction houses of the Sabaody Archipelago had almost overnight abandoned the capture and sale of mermaids and fish-men entirely.
No one wanted to provoke a man capable of gravely injuring even the Four Emperors. That was tantamount to suicide.
But as the saying went, the brighter the sunlight, the deeper the shadows.
The more strictly forbidden and difficult to obtain a piece of "merchandise" was,
the more precious and enticing it became in the eyes of certain privileged elites.
Enormous profits were enough to make desperate men risk their lives.
Kidnapping Camie this time had been a reckless gamble.
At the same time, Disco knew perfectly well that on Sabaody now, there was only one kind of buyer who dared take possession of a mermaid slave-and had the power to "absorb" the consequences.
The World Nobles, the Celestial Dragons!
And this time, he had done it for one particular customer.
Shalria, who had an obsessive love of "rare collectibles" and harbored lingering resentment toward Marine Admiral Gern because of her family's past!
He hoped this "one-of-a-kind" gift would win over the new head of the Rosward family, earning him immense rewards and protection.
(Do not underestimate the status the Celestial Dragons had