Boom!
A pirate ship attempting to rob a merchant vessel suddenly suffered a violent explosion beneath its hull.
The terrifying blast blew the pirate ship to pieces.
The merchant ship, having escaped disaster, quickly set full sail and departed.
The Nautilus, hidden beneath the sea, had no intention of surfacing. It silently sailed off into the distance, claiming neither credit nor fame.
Five hours later.
In Sugarcane Town on Rum Island.
Noah and his companions, disguised as members of a trading company, landed in Sugarcane Town.
They had come ashore mainly because they had not spoken with anyone else for several months and needed a break. Sailing could be extremely monotonous, and they needed regular psychological counseling, or they could easily develop mental illnesses.
Inside a restaurant.
Several servers were bringing out dishes in quick succession, yet the food on the table never seemed to increase.
Uncle Joseph held a bottle of locally produced rum, savoring it.
Vic was demonstrating how to eat a whole pig in three bites, while Lilian was pondering how to reproduce the restaurant's food.
Noah leaned back in his chair, silently watching the pedestrians on the street outside the window.
This was a small island nation that survived on its rum and sugar industries. With the arrival of the Great Pirate Era in particular, rum, an indispensable consumable for sea voyages, had made the place increasingly prosperous.
Yet Noah noticed that many of the pedestrians passing by showed no signs of prosperity.
Quite a few were skin and bones, with sallow faces and clothes covered in patches.
Noah called a server over.
He placed a silver coin in the server's hand, and the middle-aged waitress immediately beamed. "Sir, what can I help you with?"
"I'm a merchant from the Goa Kingdom. I've only just arrived and don't know much about Rum Island. Would you mind telling me about it?"
The waitress glanced around before replying quietly, "Sir, anyone doing business on Rum Island needs Minister Powell's approval. I hear you have to pay a large sum before you can purchase rum and sugar here."
Noah looked thoughtful, then asked, "Are those people outside all locals?"
The waitress glanced at the pedestrians Noah was pointing to and lowered her voice again. "Those people are all atoners. They broke the law and had no money to pay the atonement fine, so they can only atone by doing work arranged by the kingdom."
"Your country's laws seem very strict!"
"Sir, you must never say that on the street. If the disciplinary knights hear you, you'll be fined."
"Does your establishment have a book of the Rum Kingdom's laws?" Noah asked, handing her another silver coin.
The waitress nodded. "The owner has one. I can borrow it for you, but you can't take it away or damage it."
"No problem."
Before long, the waitress furtively handed him a thick book.
Just then, Anthony, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and Vic pushed the door open and came in.
After taking a sip of coffee, Anthony said in a low voice, "Boss, this is the local business investigation report."
Noah took the booklet and flipped through it, reading ten lines at a glance.
Only after reading it did he understand the state of the Rum Kingdom. The densely listed taxes and the various harsh punishments seemed designed to squeeze every last copper coin out of the common people.
As he understood it, the World Government's more than 170 Affiliated Nations were divided into three tiers, and the Heavenly Tribute they had to pay each year was likewise divided into three tiers.
The first tier paid 50 billion Beli a year.
The second tier paid 30 billion Beli a year.
The third tier paid 10 billion Beli a year.
A small country like the Rum Kingdom was usually a third-tier Affiliated Nation, needing to pay only 10 billion Beli a year, or an equivalent value in treasure, secret treasures, and the like.
The entire Rum Kingdom had a population of 200,000, so each person had to pay an average of 50,000 Beli a year. That amount was not actually very high.
After all, the Arlong Pirates had demanded a monthly fee for sparing people's lives in Cocoyasi Village: 100,000 Beli per adult and 50,000 per child.
Cocoyasi Village could hardly compare with the Rum Kingdom in prosperity.
According to the investigation, the entire Rum Kingdom earned no less than 100 billion Beli a year, nearly ten times its Heavenly Tribute. Why squeeze the people dry like this?
Noah fell into thought.
Unable to make sense of it despite thinking it over, he drew his tarot cards.
The cards soon gave him a prophecy.
[False scales, the sin of greed.]
Noah directed his Observation Haki at the pedestrians on the street. Though they were working, their expressions were numb and pained.
He called Mary over and gave her a few instructions in her ear.
Mary casually went to the fruit shop across the street and bought some fruit.
When she returned to the restaurant, her expression was rather troubled.
"Boss, those people are in terrible pain inside. If they don't work, their whole families might starve to death."
"Are they all the same?"
"Those so-called atoners are all the same."
Putting that together with the tarot cards' prophecy, Noah seemed to have guessed something.
After eating and drinking their fill, the group checked into an upscale inn nearby.
As night fell.
Three dark figures quietly left Sucrose Town.
Rum Island had four towns in all: Sucrose Town in the south, which was open to outsiders; Sugarcane Town on the small southeastern plain; Mackerel Town on the northwestern coast; and Rum City on the plateau in the island's center.
Rum City was the capital of the Rum Kingdom.
With their Observation Haki active, Noah, Mary, and Lilith avoided the soldiers patrolling the Rum Kingdom.
In less than an hour, the three crossed more than eighty kilometers and reached the wooded mountains on the outskirts of Rum City.
"Big brother, there are even more atoners packed in here than in Sucrose Town." Mary, whose Observation Haki could perceive emotions, was very uncomfortable. This was also the fundamental reason the Red Count did not trust others. This type of Observation Haki really could easily drive a person mad.
Fortunately, Mary had the care of her family, and with intensive training, she could now control her Observation Haki at will.
For someone like the Red Count, whose Observation Haki had awakened naturally, the information pollution he had experienced from childhood, combined with his unfortunate experiences when he was young, left only the loneliness of seeing through people's hearts and a twisted mind.
"Let's pay a visit to Minister Powell's residence."
Lilith directly altered the minute structure of her surface and quickly vanished into her surroundings.
Mary slid the light around her body aside and likewise became invisible.
Noah, meanwhile, used his Observation Haki to predict what was happening around him and swaggered into Powell's residence.
The potbellied Powell was currently engaged in the business of human reproduction.
Suddenly, the five people in the room felt their eyelids grow heavy. Before Powell could call out, they went limp like dead pigs.
Wearing a gas mask, Noah pushed the door open, picked up a quilt, and tied Powell up in it. Then he took out a Den Den Mushi.
"Ray, come pick me up."
The jeweled badge on Noah's inner waistcoat flashed faintly.
A circular hole opened in the air before him. Noah carried Powell through the wormhole and arrived in a cave in an instant.