Noah dealt with Cat Claws Brian in the same way.
Then he had Ray open a wormhole, and the group returned to the underground cavern on Rum Island.
Only then did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
If the Noah Family had not had the advantage of numbers this time, along with the battle plan Noah had drawn up at the start, the result might have been a pyrrhic victory.
Uncle Joseph and Vic, for example, both had glaring weaknesses. They had no control skills or wide-area attacks. That was not much of a problem in the East Blue, but once they reached the Grand Line, enemies might exploit those weaknesses.
Noah told some of his companions to rest first.
He took Mary and Lilith with him and released the dwarf sealed inside a card.
As soon as he was released, the dwarf, as if waking from a dream, was startled by the sudden change in his surroundings.
"What should I call you, Mr. Dwarf?" Noah asked with a smile as he toyed with a tarot card in his hand.
Gulp! The dwarf swallowed and hurriedly answered, "My name is Ludan. I'm the navigator of the Money Pirates."
"Did Barton change your appearances for you?"
Ludan nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, Barton used his ability to alter us."
"What's the situation with King Rum?"
"King Rum is one of our crew. The original king is already dead. The current King Rum is Barton in disguise, using his fruit ability."
"How much do you know about the Swap-Swap Fruit's abilities?"
Ludan knew what was good for him and told Noah everything about how Barton used his fruit ability.
From Ludan's account and the scattered details in the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, Noah quickly figured out the Swap-Swap Fruit's abilities.
The core principle of the fruit was "equivalent exchange."
Of course, this "equivalence" was relatively subjective. After all, everyone valued things differently.
One man's meat was another man's poison. That was the principle.
Thus, several conditions had to be met when the Swap-Swap Fruit's ability was used.
First, both parties had to agree to the deal verbally.
Second, the user could not attack the other party while the deal was in progress.
Third, if either party could not pay what they had promised, a portion of the defaulter's organs or life force would be forcibly taken at random and given to the other party.
Fourth, if the other party died before completing the deal, the user could choose to take a portion of their organs or life force.
That unlucky king had listened to Barton's lies and let Barton help him seize the throne. In the end, he had overreached, and Barton had pulled a Steal the Heavens and Swap the Sun on him.
After all, there were far too many loopholes in those so-called rules of exchange.
For example, Barton could not attack the other party during a deal, but his subordinates were under no such restriction.
That was also why Barton had kept trying to lure Noah into agreeing to join the Money Pirates. As long as Noah agreed, Barton could forcibly prevent Noah from attacking him and then set traps for him through deal after deal.
From Ludan's explanation, Noah also learned about Barton's strength.
After the blow dealt to him by Sakazuki, Barton had fled to the East Blue and reflected on his painful experience. He had decided to use his fruit ability to obtain enough life force, then use that life force to train his body continuously.
The reason he imposed heavy taxes and levies throughout the Rum Kingdom was to drive its commoners into bankruptcy, then use a secret underground loan shark operation to make deals with those who had nowhere else to turn.
Through this method, Barton had obtained a vast amount of life force and money in the Rum Kingdom. His ambition had gradually grown, and he had even planned to become the true king of the Rum Kingdom.
If he had not run into Noah and his companions, he might well have succeeded.
Noah was also very glad he had been cautious.
Barton's physical combat skills were extremely powerful, and with the vast life force stored in his body, Noah might not have been able to defeat him in a head-on fight.
This also showed just how terribly seawater restrained Devil Fruit Users.
Even an expert like Barton, whose physical combat strength had reached the level of an Elite Vice Admiral, was reduced to a weakling the moment he touched seawater.
"When Barton came over, did he say anything to that fake king?"
Ludan shook his head. "No. As soon as he received your letter, he hurried over with us. He didn't notify the fake king."
Seeing Noah remain silent, Ludan hurried to profess his loyalty. "My lord, if you need me to, I can help control that fellow. Barton has plenty of dirt on him. I also know where Barton's money is hidden."
"Sorry for the trouble, then." Noah smiled.
Beside him, Lilith took out a syringe and, under Ludan's uneasy gaze, inserted it into a vein in his arm.
Noah reassured him with a smile. "Don't worry. As long as you don't betray me, you'll naturally be given the antidote when the time comes."
"Heh, heh! I understand, I understand." Ludan did not dare show anything else.
When Lilith took Ludan away to rest,
only Mary and Noah remained in the room.
Mary told him what she had sensed earlier. "Big brother, he probably only knows about the dirt on that fake king. As for Barton's money, judging by what he was feeling just now, I don't think he knows."
"That's to be expected. He deliberately made himself seem more valuable so we wouldn't discard him once he'd outlived his usefulness."
At noon that day,
inside the underground loan shark operation hidden beneath the slums in the northwest of Rum City,
more than a dozen people in charge were already lying on the ground. Lilith and Noah took a thick stack of documents and looked through them for several minutes.
Noah smiled and patted the documents in his hand. "Ludan, well done!"
"It is my honor to be of help to you, my lord."
The next second, his eyes widened. Lilith's poisoned dagger had pierced his heart from behind. "Cough, cough... Why?"
"Because I never believed you! Only the dead can keep secrets."
Looking at Ludan, who had died with his eyes open, Noah took out and released a card called the Pool of Aqua Regia, then casually tossed Ludan's body into the pool.
"Ahhh..." Ludan screamed the moment he was thrown into the pool of aqua regia.
Noah asked with a smile, "You've trained your Life Return well. Unfortunately, I don't like leaving my enemies' corpses intact."
"You... won't die a good death... Aaaah!"
In the end, Ludan dissolved into a pool of bloody water in the aqua regia.
"Lilith, Mary, I'll leave this place to you two. Just make them obey for now."
Lilith and Mary nodded.
The two soon began bringing the lenders to heel.
The fake king still did not know that Barton and the others were finished, nor did he pay any attention to Chief Minister Powell. He knew he was only a puppet and could simply live in idle luxury while waiting to die.
After returning to the underground cavern, Noah released Cat Claws Brian from the card that held him captive. Looking at the unconscious Brian before him, a hint of thought appeared in his eyes.