Capone Bege

The venue of the trade fair was a bit high-end, surprisingly located right inside the royal palace at the very center of Gures, though considering that the organizers were actually the real rulers of this country, the whole thing almost seemed quite normal.

And the process of entering the palace was also very simple; Cody handed over the invitation letter and then easily led Xie Wen and the others through without any inspections, body searches, or demands to surrender weapons... Perhaps to put the invited merchants at ease? Or out of absolute confidence in their own strength.

After crossing the gate and walking into the palace, Xie Wen dragged Klee Meow to keep her from running around while looking all around.

Even though it was just a puppet king, the entire palace was still built quite resplendently, with the only discordant note being that the guards on duty were all mobsters in suits and sunglasses, most of them with cigarettes or cigars hanging from their mouths, giving the upper and lower reaches of the palace a somewhat unserious aura.

Led by the black-suited guide, the group arrived at the banquet hall of the palace, where the overall layout inside was like a self-service cocktail party, and the invited merchants gathered in twos and threes, chatting in low voices about something.

Cody also found someone he knew among them, leading Xie Wen and the others forward to strike up a conversation.

Actually, Xie Wen had been wondering about what on earth this so-called trade fair was all about.

If they were merely inviting merchants from various places to do business here and incidentally collect protection fees or the like, their goal would actually have already been achieved; these past few days when he strolled around the city, he had seen plenty of specialty goods not found in neighboring regions, as well as scenes of gangsters coming around to collect protection fees.

It was not until he overheard a snippet nearby just now that Xie Wen finally figured out what was going on.

The three families invited these merchants here with two objectives: one was to hope they would set up industries on the island rather than just making one- or two-time short stays, meaning they wanted Gures to become something like a trade center rather than a temporary bazaar, while simultaneously transforming the matter of collecting protection fees from them into a long-term business.

The other objective was... since they had established industries on the island, how to distribute the affiliation of these merchants and the division of their respective territories was a matter that required maneuvering among the three major families.

In fact, during the period before the trade fair started, the three families had already contacted quite a few merchants, pulling out all the stops with coercion, inducement, and various other tactics just to get these merchants to agree to be assigned under their respective banners.

Well, it was very fitting for the style of the mafia.

And for most of the invited merchants, nominally joining the three families was not necessarily a bad thing; none of these three families were weaklings among the mob forces across the entire West Blue, and since they had to pay protection fees to the mafia anyway, who they paid didn't really matter.

Actually, this model was somewhat similar to those great pirates in the New World... The most typical one was Charlotte Linlin, who was not yet called one of the Four Emperors at this time; whether it was the "lifespan tax" of Totto Land's residents or the "dessert tax" of her affiliated territories, it was no different from what the three major families of Gures wanted to do right now.

As for why no one came to approach Uncle Cody in advance... Probably because his business wasn't big enough yet and his priority was low?

Anyway, Xie Wen didn't think this matter had a single bit to do with him.

After a while longer, a middle-aged man with a rather imposing aura appeared on the central stage of the banquet hall; he was also wearing a suit, except the color finally wasn't black, but rather a slightly flashy checkered suit, with his blonde hair combed back into a slicked-back style very fitting for a mob identity, and leaning on a black cane in his hand, the top of which was inlaid with a huge sapphire that echoed the diamond ring on his finger.

"This is Buono John, who only became the godfather of the Buono Family in recent years," Bax introduced to Xie Wen in a low voice.

"Everyone, everyone, welcome to our Gures trade fair..." Buono John gently tapped the microphone a few times, and after attracting the attention of the whole venue, he leisurely began his speech.

Stripping away those meaningless pleasantries and the undertones of coercion and inducement, the content of what he said was actually the main purpose of this trade fair.

"...You can all give it careful consideration, and when the banquet ends, I hope everyone can make a wise decision."

Buono John smiled as he swept his gaze across the entire venue, then put down the microphone and walked off the stage, surrounded by his subordinates, walking toward a merchant, while beside that merchant, a similarly surrounded mafia bigshot was already standing there.

"That's the staff officer of the Shimento Family, and also the second son of the patriarch," Uncle Cody introduced once again.

Right while he was speaking, that early-bird second son chose to retreat with a frustrated expression after confronting John for a moment.

Clearly, this trade fair itself was also a battlefield for the three families to poach people.

Xie Wen withdrew his gaze and continued looking around; people from the other two families had been seen, so where was Capone Bege, the ultimate victor?

Soon, Xie Wen found Capone Bege in the crowd, or to be precise, found his subordinates Vito the Weird Gun and Gotti.

In a West Blue where most people's builds were relatively normal, these two-especially Gotti-stood out way too much; if Vito was merely tall among normal people, then Gotti was at above-average height even if dropped into the second half of the Grand Line.

Of course, that was without factoring in the race of giants.

As for Capone Bege... his build was too short, and he was blocked by other people so he couldn't be seen.

Xie Wen carefully sized up the two figures not far away; their traits weren't very different from what he remembered, except that Gotti's right hand wasn't fitted with that huge triple-barreled machine gun.

Yet come to think of it, had these two really been following Capone Bege for this long?

Since Xie Wen hadn't concealed himself, Vito the Weird Gun quickly noticed the gaze fixed on him, and upon turning back to find that the person staring at him was actually Xie Wen, Vito was clearly stunned for a moment, and then he immediately turned around, bent down, and muttered a few words to the blocked Capone Bege.

Right after that, Vito and Gotti parted the crowd together, bringing Capone Bege's figure into Xie Wen's view...

Well, visually estimated, his height should be under one meter seven; this stature, which was considered short even in the West Blue, was no different from a dwarf in the New World.

Yet considering that even a normal human build was just at the level of a halfling in the New World, Xie Wen didn't seem to have any ground to laugh at Bege.

Just as Xie Wen was zoning out, Capone Bege had already walked over with his right- and left-hand men, and some people in the know cast schadenfreude-filled glances toward this side one after another.

"Hello, Mr. Capone." Uncle Cody stepped forward first quite loyally to greet Bege.

Bege stopped in his tracks, looked at Mr. Cody meaningfully, piled a fake smile onto his face, and said, "Sorry, the person I'm looking for isn't you, Mr. Cody. Could you please step aside?"

Cody's expression shifted back and forth a few times, and ultimately he chose to step back to the side, intending to observe the situation first.

"You're Xie Wen?" Biting on a cigar, Bege walked up to Xie Wen, raised his head to blow a puff of smoke right at him, and asked with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Puff- Xie Wen slightly puckered his lips to blow away the smoke in front of him, and only then replied with a beaming smile: "Yep, that's me. I wonder what advice Boss Capone might have?"

Seeing Xie Wen's slightly provocative action, the smile on Bege's face grew even deeper instead; he glanced at Klee Meow, who was currently draped over Xie Wen's shoulder and making faces at him, and continued to ask, "Are these two Mink Tribe really not for sale?"

"They're my companions, not pets." Xie Wen rubbed the cat heads of Klee Meow and Sanji Meow to placate the huffy pair, and then pointed at the two big guys behind Bege, "If someone wanted to buy those two from you, would you sell them?"

Although in the manga Capone Bege had also shot his own subordinate over a trivial matter, that person was merely cannon fodder under him; Vito and Gotti were clearly different, and Gotti even ended up becoming brothers-in-law with Bege later on, marrying Chiffon's younger sister Lola.

"I see..." Capone Bege reined in his smile, and then said pointedly, "Then you'd better watch your companions well, because after the trade fair ends, Gures won't be as peaceful as it is right now."

Having said that, he walked away with his two tall subordinates.