Who Would Sell Out Their Own Organization?

"A whole chest of Devil Fruits... pero, pero, are you crazy? Where are we supposed to get you a whole chest?"

Afraid that the idiot Samael wouldn't understand, Perospero had to explain further: "When a treasure like a Devil Fruit is discovered, most of the time it's eaten immediately. Only a very small number make it onto the black market. Unless..."

Here, his tone turned mocking. "Actually, you could go to the Celestial Dragons. They have plenty of Devil Fruits. Our Charlotte Family certainly can't produce 'a whole chest'!"

Any normal person hearing that would have understood that a whole chest was impossible.

But Samael was clearly no normal person. He wasn't even human.

"What's that got to do with me? You can go rob the Celestial Dragons."

"..."

Perospero fell silent on the spot. After a long while, he said, "We can only give you two Devil Fruits at most. In fact, we only have one on hand right now. We'll have to steal the other one from somewhere else. Two hostages, two fruits. That's fair."

The Charlotte Family was large and had many mouths to feed, with so many younger brothers and sisters clamoring to be fed. Any Devil Fruits they had would have already been prepared for family members.

The one they currently had was originally intended as a reward for a family member.

Samael dismissed this with disdain and was just about to curse him out when the air in the room vibrated, and Ain's voice rang out of nowhere:

"Master says: agree to his terms."

Samael froze, forcibly swallowing the words he had been about to say.

"Understood. My lord is truly too kind. Praise my lord!"

With a reverent expression, Samael made a series of devout prayer gestures toward the ceiling before speaking to Perospero again.

"Two it is, then. Hurry up and send them over."

Hm?

Perospero was surprised. The contrast was stark, and his thoughts raced. He immediately realized that the change in attitude had most likely come from someone higher up.

The one they called "my lord"!

Who was this person?

Someone capable of commanding the Seven Deadly Sins was probably no weakling...

"Pero, pero, sorry, but we can't do that."

Perospero chuckled. "You know perfectly well what happened yesterday. If anyone from the Big Mom Pirates shows up in the Sea of Paradise, the Marines will immediately take a keen interest. So please come to Whole Cake Island yourselves to make the exchange."

"Can't you send a lackey to deliver them?"

"If we sent an ordinary person to transport two Devil Fruits, there would be a huge risk of losing them."

"I guess that makes some sense..."

Samael seemed persuaded. He conjured a hand of flame to scratch his head, then cursed angrily:

"Do you take your grandpa for an idiot? If I went to your turf, wouldn't you kill me the moment I got there?"

"Of course not. There's just been a little misunderstanding between us." Perospero gave a strange laugh. "Don't tell me you're too scared to come?"

"Grandson, you think your grandpa's afraid of that?"

Samael's voice was full of mockery. He didn't understand the tactic of provoking someone into action, but the word fear wasn't in his dictionary.

"Wait there. I need to ask my lord."

"Could I speak to your lord? I admire him greatly. He actually thought of using Lola to make a 'deal' with our Charlotte Family."

Perospero quickly made the suggestion. They had no information whatsoever about the mysterious "my lord" the Seven Deadly Sins' members spoke of, and this was a chance to obtain some.

"Scram."

Samael gave a one-word reply, then made another series of prayer gestures toward the ceiling.

"Great and wise..."

The words had barely left his mouth when Dimon's voice came through Ain's ability.

"Refuse him."

At the inn.

Dimon stopped training and kept his attention on Samael's conversation with the Charlotte Family.

Getting two Devil Fruits was already more than he had expected. His original plan was to get one, which would have been good enough.

After all, they really were rare.

Only the Celestial Dragons kept a large stock of Devil Fruits year-round. Those world nobles were capable of treating Devil Fruits as toys for their amusement and forcing slaves to eat them.

The current Pirate Empress, Boa Hancock, had once been a slave. That was how she had gotten her Love-Love Fruit.

Unfortunately, the Celestial Dragons rarely descended from on high. Otherwise, kidnapping one and demanding a ransom from the World Government would have been an easier way to strike it rich.

"Master, they definitely want to wait until I go to their home base, capture me, and then exchange hostages."

"You're not so stupid after all."

"Jie, jie, jie, Master, you underestimate me. I'm just too lazy to think, not an idiot."

Dimon fell into thought. A ten-year-old could have guessed what the Charlotte Family was planning. That was the extent of pirates' strategic thinking.

As a Logia Devil Fruit come to life, Samael was far beyond the strength of an ordinary commander of the Four Emperors. But if he faced one of the Four Emperors in person, victory couldn't be guaranteed.

Besides, Whole Cake Island was Big Mom's home base. If her whole family swarmed him, they might actually be able to capture Samael.

As for killing him... that was impossible.

The concept of death didn't apply to Devil Fruits.

That was also why Dimon dared to extort an Emperor of the Sea. The only question was whether he would win a little, win a fair amount, or win big. There was no possibility of losing.

Two Devil Fruits barely counted as winning a fair amount. At first, he had only wanted one.

"Give him this reply..." After thinking for a moment, Dimon slowly instructed, "When the time comes, go to the exchange and retrieve the Devil Fruits. That's all."

Whole Cake Island, Whole Cake Chateau Castle.

In a lavishly decorated dining room, Charlotte Perospero put down the Den Den Mushi with an ugly expression.

Beside him, an exceptionally tall woman raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like they won't fall for it so easily."

"Indeed. This is a little troublesome."

Perospero rapped his candy palm against the floor in displeasure and sneered. "Pero, pero... it doesn't matter. In the end, they still agreed to come to the New World for the exchange. They merely changed the location.

"As long as they dare to come, everything is going according to plan!"

The Charlotte Family didn't want to go to the Sea of Paradise, and the Seven Deadly Sins weren't willing to force their way onto Whole Cake Island.

In the end, the two sides agreed to find a mediator and conduct the exchange on that person's turf.

The mediator they chose was one of the current Shichibukai, the head of the Donquixote Family, known as "Heavenly Yaksha" and "Joker"-

Donquixote Doflamingo!

"I'll contact him."

The woman picked up a Den Den Mushi and dialed a number.

The New World, Dressrosa.

The royal castle, at the outdoor pool.

Wearing a pair of floral shorts and pink sunglasses, Doflamingo lay on a lounge chair, happily soaking up the sun.

"Fufufufu... unlike the great upheaval Loki and Red-Haired stirred up last year, the Grand Line really is peaceful this year."

His leisure lasted less than three seconds.

A lackey came running over with a Den Den Mushi, speaking in a panic.

"Young Master, a call from the Big Mom Pirates!"

"What?"

Doflamingo's expression changed. A call from one of the Four Emperors didn't sound like good news.

Had he had any business dealings with the Big Mom Pirates recently?

Doflamingo quickly reviewed his actions over the past few months and confirmed that he shouldn't have provoked them.

He grabbed the Den Den Mushi. Before long, he slammed down the receiver, veins bulging on his forehead, and punched the chair beside him.

"Bastards!"

"What Seven Deadly Sins? Big Mom?"

"You decided this on your own. Did you even ask me what I thought?!"

Chapter 44: Who Would Sell Out Their Own Organization?

A mysterious organization and Big Mom, one of the Four Emperors, were going to make a secret deal, yet they had chosen to conduct it on his turf.

Just hearing about it sounded wrong.

Clearly, this was no ordinary deal. Neither side trusted the other, and in the end, they had set their sights on him.

The more Doflamingo thought about it, the angrier he got. Couldn't they at least ask what he thought?

He had no interest in getting involved. If the deal fell through, they might end up fighting a major battle and wrecking the Dressrosa Kingdom he ruled.

Doflamingo flew into a rage, and that was all he did.

One of the Four Emperors was someone he couldn't afford to provoke...

But he seemed to have seen the name Seven Deadly Sins somewhere before.

Doflamingo frowned deeply and said to the lackey beside him, "Go get yesterday's newspaper."

"Yes, Young Master!"

Before long, the lackey brought the newspaper.

After seeing Big Eye's wanted poster, Doflamingo's doubts not only remained unresolved, but the whole thing seemed even stranger.

One thing he could confirm was that Charlotte Cracker of the Big Mom Pirates had been sent to the Sabaody Archipelago for some reason and had fought the Seven Deadly Sins. He had most likely been captured.

These mysterious people had even managed to prevent Garp from landing. Their strength was extraordinary.

"So what's the deal? Hard to guess. Fufufufu... interesting."

Doflamingo chuckled, his curiosity greatly piqued by the Seven Deadly Sins, who had appeared so suddenly.

The situation before him was no longer one he could refuse. Whether it was one of the Four Emperors or the Seven Deadly Sins, he wanted to offend neither side.

In fact, the Big Mom Pirates hadn't given him a chance to refuse. They had merely informed him as a matter of "courtesy."

The Seven Deadly Sins were even worse. They hadn't even bothered to notify him.

"Go tell the people under you to gather every piece of information on the Seven Deadly Sins."

Doflamingo ordered his men to investigate the Seven Deadly Sins, but after a full day, they came up empty-handed.

This was a mysterious organization that had appeared out of nowhere, with no trace of it in the past.

Doflamingo didn't give up. In his identity as the Underworld broker "Joker," he sought information from the major dark forces.

Meanwhile, it was late at night on the Sabaody Archipelago.

After an extensive search, the Marines still hadn't found any trace of the Bad Kid Pirates. In the end, they concluded that the pirates had already fled and dived deep toward Fish-Man Island.

By evening, most of the Marines had withdrawn, leaving only a few agents to investigate the Seven Deadly Sins in secret.

Naturally, none of these movements escaped Ain's Listening to All Things.

After learning that the Marines had withdrawn, Dimon took advantage of the darkness, put on a cloak and mask, and headed once more to the black market in Area 3.