"Do you mean him?"
Bai Yu casually tossed something out.
After rolling several times across the floor, it struck a treasure chest.
The wide-open eyes on the severed head were filled with disbelief.
Nami and Carina were dumbfounded.
The wooden crate they were carrying fell to the floor with a thud.
"I-it's Black Axe, the Black Axe with an eight-million-Beli bounty! Y-you actually killed him?"
Nami's face paled. She dropped onto her backside and hurriedly spoke.
"D-don't kill us! We'll give you all the Beli here! As long as you don't kill us, we'll do anything you ask!"
"We're just ordinary civilians!"
As she spoke, Nami hurriedly opened the four half-meter-wide wooden crates piled on the deck.
The gold, silver, and jewels inside immediately bathed the cabin in golden light.
Bai Yu raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. The treasure here was worth at least tens of millions of Beli.
Black Axe was not as notorious in these waters as Krieg or Arlong.
For him to possess so much treasure clearly defied all reason.
Moreover, if Bai Yu was not mistaken, the sky-blue-haired girl beside Nami should have been the dancer aboard Tesoro's ship in the original story.
Phantom Thief Carina, who had once been Nami's partner.
With the two of them appearing here, there was probably a story behind it.
"Sorry, I'm not very interested in Beli."
Bai Yu casually took a swig of liquor and spoke.
"But I forgot to tell you, I'm a trainee Marine. If I'm not mistaken, you're the East Blue's thief duo, Phantom Thief Carina and Cat Burglar Nami, right?"
A Marine?
Carina and Nami were stunned.
One side was a Marine, the other pirates.
Most importantly, their identities had been exposed in a single sentence.
Wouldn't they be unable to escape even if they sprouted wings?
As chaotic thoughts flashed through her mind, Carina gripped the dagger hidden in her sleeve and charged straight at Bai Yu.
"Nami, I'll buy you time! You have more burdens to bear than I do. Find a chance to run!"
The gleaming dagger stabbed straight toward Bai Yu's chest.
Nami froze, never having imagined that Carina would do something so crazy.
Clang!
The dagger struck Bai Yu's chest and snapped on impact.
The atmosphere in the cabin instantly plunged to freezing point.
Was he even human?
The dagger could not even pierce half a layer of skin. This was far too terrifying.
Carina showed a smile more bitter than death and spoke.
"S-sir, I-I only wanted to test your strength just now. With that blade-and-bullet-defying bearing, you're sure to become a Marine Admiral someday."
"But Nami and I are just thieves without any bounties. Please let Nami go. I'm willing to go back with you and do anything."
As her partner, Carina did not know just what Nami was hiding.
But every time she saw that almost pathological love of money etched into Nami's very bones.
Carina knew full well that even Nami, who loved money to such an extreme, had something she would risk her life to do.
That was why she pleaded for mercy over and over.
"Carina, have you gone crazy? We said we'd share the sweet and the bitter! How could I abandon you?"
"If we die, we die together!"
Nami's eyes reddened slightly, and she bit down on her red lips.
"Enough! Both of you, shut up!"
Bai Yu reached out and delivered a sharp flick to each of their foreheads.
The pain of that head-on blow immediately made both girls suck in a cold breath and cover their foreheads, their faces full of resentment.
However, faced with Bai Yu's rebuke, they clearly settled down and dared not act out again.
"Relax. I told you, I'm only a trainee Marine, not a real Marine yet."
Bai Yu took a swig of liquor and spoke.
"Neither of you is worth much Beli, so I'm not planning to arrest you."
"But while you can escape death, you can't escape punishment. For the time being, you're both conscripted."
"Nami, you'll serve as my navigator for now."
"Carina, you'll take the helm and handle my daily needs and meals."
"As for nighttime, the weather at sea changes its face faster than I do, so you'll take turns warming my bed."
Warming his bed?
Nami and Carina immediately blushed.
In the world of the Sea King, becoming aware of such things early was only natural.
Even if they had never eaten pork, they had seen pigs run.
At the mention of the skilled work of bed-warming, pictures surfaced in their minds, their imaginations filling in the details.
"What is it? If you have objections, speak up."
Bai Yu glanced at them, but his gaze settled on an old wooden box in the corner.
His instincts told him there was something unusual about this seemingly inconspicuous wooden box.
"N-no objections! Rest assured, sir. I'll make sure everything is done as well as possible."
Carina hurriedly agreed.
Following Bai Yu's gaze, she quickly remembered something important.
"Sir, you should be interested in what's inside this wooden box."
"I heard there's a Famous Sword inside."
A Famous Sword?
Bai Yu raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise appearing on his face as well.
Quite a few Famous Swords had appeared in the original story.
But that was also because the many protagonists' halos had drawn them over.
If one really looked into it, Famous Swords were scarce even in the New World, let alone a Weakest Sea like the East Blue.
Now something that might be a Famous Sword had appeared before him.
This truly made Bai Yu marvel that his luck seemed rather good.
Zoro, who had just arrived in the cabin, also froze.
He was a Moss Head, directionally challenged, and a native.
But as a swordsman, he also knew what a Famous Sword was.
Watching Carina and Nami carry the wooden box onto the table, he could not help showing a trace of eagerness.
Bang!
The wooden box opened with a bang.
The first thing that met their eyes was an old-fashioned sword, blood-red throughout, from its scabbard to its hilt.
Mottled patterns resembling reddish-brown clouds intertwined across the entire scabbard.
A wave of baleful energy rushed toward them, abruptly dropping the temperature throughout the cabin by several degrees.
The instant their gazes landed on the ancient blade, Carina and Nami cried out in terror and instinctively retreated two steps.
Even Zoro was no exception, recoiling half a step in fright.
In that instant, they seemed to have seen a vicious ghost roaring as it struggled to break free of the blade.
Had that illusion not vanished so quickly, they would probably have made an even more embarrassing spectacle of themselves.
"This is a cursed sword!"
Bai Yu revealed a faint, bloodthirsty smile.
He had not expected to encounter a high-quality cursed sword so soon after setting out to sea.
Even through its scabbard, it could release such powerful, sinister energy.
It was far stronger than the Sandai Onikiri in the original story.
That meant the cursed sword before him was definitely not one of the Fifty Skillful Grade Swords, but more likely a Famous Sword ranked among the Twenty-One Great Grade Swords.