Lin Yuan said nothing. He turned toward the two who had spoken. Inside a cage, two identical girls who looked fifteen or sixteen were huddled together, gazing at him with eyes full of longing to live.
Lin Yuan gently set Stella on the ground, then stepped forward, opened the iron door in front of them, and casually snapped the chains binding them.
"If you want to live, show me your resolve. Otherwise, even if I take you out of here, you won't make it out of Mary Geoise."
With that, he tossed two swords he had casually picked up onto the ground and looked at them coldly.
Freed from their chains, the two looked at Lin Yuan gratefully, but his words made their bodies stiffen.
"Whether you live or die is in your own hands now."
The twin sisters stared at the swords on the ground in terror, trembling all over. When they heard that their lives were in their own hands, both visibly reacted.
The girl on the left looked at her younger sister, gritted her teeth, and picked up a sword from the ground before handing it to her.
"Emile, take it!"
"I'm scared, sis!"
"Don't be scared. I'm here. Stay alive with me, and then we can go home!"
A hint of excitement appeared on the younger sister's face when she heard that. The other girl hurriedly picked up the remaining sword and led her sister toward Saint Rosward and his son.
The twins were visibly afraid as they watched Saint Rosward and his son writhing on the ground.
What they had suffered here over the past few days had undoubtedly been the darkest time of their lives. Though they hated the two enough to want them dead, when the moment actually came, they were still afraid.
"Hurry up. I don't have time to wait for you. This place could be discovered at any moment."
The sisters trembled again at his words, nearly dropping their swords.
Lin Yuan sighed, stepped forward, grabbed their small hands, and thrust them forward.
"Pfft, pfft..."
With two soft sounds, wounds appeared on the necks of Saint Rosward and his son, who had spent their lives committing evil. Blood gushed out.
Watching the two men convulse on the ground, the girls were so frightened they nearly dropped their swords.
"All right, you can still walk, can't you? Follow me!"
With that, Lin Yuan went back to Stella, picked her up, and headed outside. She, too, wore a look of fear.
Just as he was about to leave the room, Lin Yuan sighed and swung his sword several times, destroying every cage in the room and every chain on the girls.
"Mary Geoise may descend into chaos in a little while. If you want to escape, that will be your only chance."
Though Lin Yuan said that, he already knew the answer. These people were beyond saving.
Just as he had expected, even with all their chains severed, they remained kneeling on the ground without making a move.
"Bang..."
Lin Yuan did not leave immediately with the three. Instead, he kicked open a room next door.
He had taken a discreet look when he first came in. This was the collection room of Saint Rosward and his son. Besides a vast amount of treasure, it contained many valuable things.
Lin Yuan did not even look at the treasure. He walked over to a mural with several swords hanging on it and picked them up to examine them one by one.
"Two Grade Blades and a Skillful Grade Sword. I don't know their names, though. Still, this is what you'd expect from a Celestial Dragon's collection."
As he spoke, Lin Yuan took all three swords down and handed the two Grade Blades to the twins.
"These two swords are for you. Hold on to them for now."
He naturally kept the Skillful Grade Sword for himself. It was, after all, the same quality as Yubashiri, while the Grade Blades he gave the sisters were comparable to Tashigi's Shigure.
After collecting the swords, Lin Yuan fetched some food from the room next door. At the sight of it, the eyes of all three girls, Stella included, lit up.
"Eat quickly. We only have five minutes."
The sisters immediately took the food.
"Thank you, my lord. My name is Erza, and this is my younger sister, Emile."
Erza, the older sister, did not eat right away. Instead, she took some food that was easy to swallow and fed Stella first.
Lin Yuan nodded and committed their names to memory, especially the older sister, Erza. She was a very clever girl who had probably realized what he had come here for.
While the three girls wolfed down their food, Lin Yuan looked at the five boxes before him, and an excited expression appeared on his face for the first time.
"This is exciting. I knew that trash didn't care about Devil Fruits, but to find so many left here is a huge haul."
Celestial Dragons often picked strong slaves and fed them Devil Fruits, then made them fight to satisfy their twisted pleasure.
These fruits were unlikely to be particularly precious, and Logias, Ancient Zoans, and Mythical Zoans were out of the question. Even so, Devil Fruits themselves were valuable.
Lin Yuan eagerly opened the boxes one by one. Inside were Devil Fruits of different shapes and colors, along with descriptions of each one.
Lin Yuan guessed that Saint Rosward's subordinates had deliberately put the descriptions there to avoid losing their lives. If the two pieces of trash suddenly asked for the fruits' names and they could not answer, death would be their only fate.
In Mary Geoise, no lives counted as lives except those of the Celestial Dragons.
"Three Zoans and two Paramecias. Not bad."
Lin Yuan looked at the fruits, then at Stella, who had recovered somewhat. He picked one up and walked over to her.
"Eat this!"
The fruit in Lin Yuan's hand was gray and white and shaped like a floating cloud. It was called the Zoan · Swift Fruit.
Lin Yuan had chosen it specifically. Even he had not expected to find a fruit like this here.
Swifts had an ability: they flew exceptionally fast. The fastest, the white-throated needletail, could even reach three hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.
If Lin Yuan had no other choice, he would have eaten this fruit himself.
Although Stella did not know what it was, she trusted Lin Yuan. She took it and bit into it without a second thought.
"Blargh..."
Stella threw up. She had never imagined anything in the world could taste so awful. Even the leftovers she had eaten as a slave were a hundred times better.
"Eat all of it. Don't leave a single bit!"
Lin Yuan barked. Although one bite was supposedly enough to gain its power, who knew? Any transmigrator would swallow the whole thing, no matter how awful it tasted.
Stella's face was covered in tears, and her whole face was twisted. But she did not dare disobey Lin Yuan. She could only keep eating between bouts of vomiting, until she finally collapsed on the ground.
Lin Yuan watched Stella in amusement, but he did not explain anything.
"How could this be?"
Just then, Stella, who had needed someone to feed her only moments ago, suddenly felt a great deal of strength in her body and slowly stood up.
"Amazing! I feel so much stronger. What did you give me? Was it one of those magical fruits from the auction?"
"That's right. It's a Devil Fruit, a secret treasure of the sea. I chose the Zoan · Swift Fruit for you."
"This fruit can not only improve your physique, but also let you develop more skills. More importantly, it gives you the ability to fly. Feel it carefully."
Stella's mouth fell open in surprise. She closed her eyes to sense the information the fruit brought her, while Erza and Emile looked at her enviously.
"Amazing! So that's how it works!"
Suddenly, Stella opened her eyes. With a thought, she underwent a visible change. Under the shocked gazes of Erza and her sister, Stella's body transformed into a swift a meter in size.
"Whoosh... bang... ow..."
Stella flapped her wings and vanished from where she stood. Then disaster struck. Although the room was large, a swift was incredibly fast, and Stella crashed into the wall before she could react.
The corner of Lin Yuan's mouth twitched. What's wrong with this woman? Stella, who had changed back, was red all over her face, with a conspicuous red mark on her forehead.
"All right, if you've eaten your fill, let's get out of here quickly."
Lin Yuan hung the Skillful Grade Sword at his waist, then put the remaining Devil Fruits in a backpack and slung it over his shoulders.
As for the other things, Stella and the girls put some gold coins and food in their pockets, but Lin Yuan did not touch anything else.
The man and three women soon arrived inside the castle. There was no disturbance outside at the moment, and Lin Yuan could not help letting out a sigh of relief.
"Follow me. I'll take you out first."