In a world where the temperature had dropped to seventy degrees below zero, even breathing was painful. The freezing air tore through their bodies as if it might freeze their organs solid.
Snow stretched endlessly in every direction, turning the whole world white and making it easy to lose one's way.
"No... I can't take this anymore. If we keep going like this, we'll freeze to death before we find the village." Luffy was shaking violently from the cold, and everyone else had drawn their bodies in tight. Of them all, Nami was holding up the best, thanks to her ability to adapt to all kinds of environments.
Nami might not have seven hearts pumping blood through her body like Muzan, but she wasn't suffering too much in this climate. She did feel a little cold, of course...
But all she felt was a slight chill. Compared with Luffy and the others, who were trembling from head to toe, she was doing much better.
"What a bunch of wimps." Nami mocked them. "You were all so excited when we set out that nobody could stop you. Now that we're actually here, you're all curled up like turtles."
"Nami... why don't you turn me into a demon too?" Usopp begged.
"Idiot! How could I do something like that?" Nami snapped.
The fact that she could survive in sunlight didn't mean that everyone else could. After all, even Muzan Kibutsuji couldn't do that. Besides, she couldn't turn other people into demons. If she did, how would she be any different from Muzan Kibutsuji?
"Big Brother Sanji... how about you carry me again?" Ben Tennyson followed behind Sanji and spoke weakly after sneezing.
"Walk on your own!" Sanji shouted back.
Perhaps in weather like this, they had to speak loudly just to get their bodies moving.
"If the entire island is covered in ice and snow like this, can anyone really survive in this country?" Zoro couldn't help asking.
"Yes. Although this island has been cursed by the Ice Witch, the people of this country never left for some reason. About two years ago, the Cross Church sent a rescue team to take the civilians away, but they all refused to leave."
Ben answered while huddling against the cold. "The Cross Church had no choice but to leave, but quite a few kind priests and nuns stayed behind because they couldn't bear to see the people here suffer. They brought large amounts of food and water, and most importantly, fire. Those things are what have allowed the Drum Kingdom to keep going."
"They really didn't want to leave?" Nami couldn't understand the villagers' way of thinking at all. Even Luffy and the others could barely stand the cold here, yet the villagers had refused to leave with the Cross Church's rescue team and chosen to stay?
"Look! There's a church over there!"
Usopp suddenly pointed it out, his eyes lighting up. "And I can sense souls there!"
As a Quincy, Usopp could detect the presence and color of various souls. However, this wasn't a passive ability that was always active. He had to consciously use his powers to see them, making it somewhat similar to Observation Haki.
At that moment, he saw quite a few souls there—nearly a hundred, perhaps.
A church that wasn't especially large stood ahead of them. The falling snow had covered it completely, making it blend into the white world around it. It was so hard to notice that they hadn't seen it at first.
There were people there!
If there were people, they could ask about the doctor and the Log Pose. Once they dealt with everything, they could go home! They could leave this damned place!
The group hurried excitedly toward the church, but just as they were about to reach it, Usopp suddenly stopped.
"There are two people up ahead."
In the white world, they saw a patch of woods. Every tree was covered in snow, and using the trees as cover, they spotted two people standing in front of a freshly cut tree stump.
A man and a woman. They looked somewhat alike. They were probably brother and sister.
But the scene before them was strange...
The man sat in front of the stump with one hand resting on it. He had turned his head away, as if he were looking at something else to distract himself.
Beside him, the woman held an ax in her hands.
What were they planning to do?
Could they really be about to...
Nami's eyes narrowed, and she stepped forward first, shouting, "Stop!"
Her voice seemed to startle the two people ahead, especially the woman. In her shock, the woman brought the ax down!
Thud!
Blood sprayed everywhere. There was no need to imagine what would happen when a sharp ax struck a person's flesh. Nami had just been about to stop her when she saw the severed arm fly through the air and land right in front of her.
The sight of the severed limb made Nami's eyes widen in shock, and endless anger suddenly surged through her soul.
"What are you doing?"
The others rushed over as well. Luffy rolled up his sleeves, Zoro drew his swords, and Usopp materialized a bow and arrow, aiming it at the little girl holding the ax.
The girl's face instantly turned deathly pale, and tears began spilling from the corners of her eyes. Seeing this, Sanji stepped in front of her.
"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? That's no way to treat a cute little girl!"
"Even if you want to play the hero, you need to pick the right moment," Usopp complained. "This cute little girl is..."
But when he reached the word "is," Usopp's eyes suddenly widened, and he could no longer speak.
The others reacted the same way. Sanji had no idea what their expressions meant until a man's voice came from behind him.
"What are you planning to do to my sister?!"
Sanji turned around and saw the man lifting the crying woman into his arms.
Lifting... her?
Sanji stared at the man's hands and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at the severed arm lying in front of Nami before carefully examining the man's arm.
Was the cold making him hallucinate?!
Or was it...
"A demon?" Nami asked cautiously.
She remembered Muzan saying that there were other demons in this world besides him. As far as she knew, only demons could regenerate a severed arm so quickly.
"What demon?" the man shouted angrily. "We're the Blessed! Who are you people? How dare you bully Luna!"
"Wait! We saw her holding an ax..." Usopp quickly explained what had happened from the beginning. By the time he finished, the man finally understood.
He let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks for worrying about us, but I'm one of the Blessed. I have Limitless regeneration, so losing an arm doesn't hurt me. By the way, my name is Agnes. What are your names?"
The group introduced themselves one by one, with Nami going last. Afterward, she complained, "Even if you're siblings, and even if you can regenerate, you shouldn't play such a terrifying game!"
Before Agnes could respond, Ben had already walked over to the severed arm. He picked it up and said calmly, "I don't think this was a game."
"Huh? What do you mean?" everyone asked, confused.
Ben shook his head without answering. Instead, he suddenly asked them a question.
"In a world like this, what do humans eat to survive?"
He had a point. They hadn't seen a single animal along the way, and hardly any plants could survive in a world seventy degrees below zero. So what did the people here eat?
They had heard that the Cross Church provided aid, but could the Cross Church endlessly supply food and drink for an entire country?
That meant...
They thought of a horrifying possibility and looked at the brother and sister with uneasy expressions.
Did they eat people?!
Agnes noticed that the group looked upset and grew angry.
"This is how we survive. It's none of you outsiders' business!"
He was about to take the severed hand from Ben, but Luffy got there first. Under everyone's horrified gaze, he casually took a bite out of the severed arm.
His face immediately turned as red as liver.
"Blegh! That tastes awful!" Luffy looked like he was about to throw up.
"Idiot! Who told you to eat it raw?" Nami exploded. "No, wait—even cooked, you can't eat that!"
"Every place has its own way of surviving," Zoro said, seeing the situation more clearly. "They didn't kill someone just to eat them. This kid has Limitless regeneration, so he probably uses that ability to provide food for everyone else, right?" Zoro was also more accepting of the idea of eating human flesh, since they weren't really eating a person.
Agnes's expression softened a little, though he still took his arm back. He returned to Luna's side.
"Come on. Let's go back to the village. The priest should be waiting for us."
He left as if he were running away, clearly unwilling to talk with people who now knew that they ate human flesh. Nami could see the faint shame on his face.
Of course. If they had a choice, who in this world would want to eat someone's arm?
And the pain on the boy's face when his arm was chopped off had been real. Being able to regenerate Limitlessly didn't mean he felt no pain. He used his own flesh and blood to feed the people in the village. That took tremendous courage...
She shouldn't have treated him that way.
Feeling guilty, Nami looked in the direction they had gone and shouted, "What are you waiting for? Follow them!"
She ran after them first. The others were confused by Nami's sudden change in mood, but they followed her anyway.
"Why are you following us?" Agnes soon noticed that they had caught up and asked nervously.
"Don't be nervous. We can give you some food." Nami smiled kindly. "We're looking for a doctor and a Log Pose."
Agnes relaxed slightly. "I know where there's a doctor nearby, but I don't know what a Log Pose is."
"There is a doctor! That's great!" Nami said happily. She pulled a chocolate bar from her belongings. "Here, have this as a reward. Eat it!"
Agnes accepted it suspiciously. After opening the wrapper, he found a dark brown lump inside.
"What is this?"
"Chocolate. It's delicious." Nami smiled.
Agnes put a small piece in his mouth to try it. His eyes immediately lit up, as if a ray of light had burst inside them.
"Luna! It's really good!"
Agnes immediately gave the rest of the chocolate to his little sister and stuffed it into her mouth without giving her a chance to refuse.
Luna had been watching him eat the chocolate curiously. She never expected that her brother would eat only one small piece and give the rest to her. Before she could react, her mouth was already full.
Nami was deeply touched by the sight. Watching the two of them reminded her of herself. Her family had been very poor when she was young. Once, Bellemere had brought her and Nojiko a piece of chocolate, and Nojiko had eaten only a small piece before giving the rest to Nami.
But Luna was much more sensible than Nami had been at that age. At least her eyes were filled with trust and admiration for her brother. When Nami was little, she had often thrown tantrums instead.
"By the way, Agnes, what are the Blessed?" Luffy asked, coming over.
Perhaps because they had given him chocolate, Agnes had become much friendlier toward them.
"After the Ice Witch placed her curse on this country, some children born here began to have a chance of being born with the ability to perform miracles. People call them the Blessed."
"According to legend, the Ice Witch was also one of the Blessed. She covered this country in ice, hunger, and madness."
"Why would the Ice Witch do something like that?" Nami asked, puzzled. "Did the Drum Kingdom do something to anger her?"
"Who knows?" Agnes's eyes filled with hatred. "But no matter what, I'll kill that witch one day!"
There was pity in Nami's eyes. She could completely understand Agnes's hatred. If the Ice Witch had done something like this to her village, she would feel the same way.
"But hasn't anyone ever seen the Ice Witch?" Ben asked, confused. "If she's a demon, the Black Order would definitely take action. And if she's human rather than a demon, the Marines wouldn't just ignore what's happening here."
"And the Cross Church even came to organize an evacuation. If there really were a demon here, the church's strongest fighters would have come too, wouldn't they?"
"They're completely useless!" Agnes said, struggling to hold back his anger. "They can't do anything about the Ice Witch!"
"Then why don't you leave?" Nami asked, unable to understand. The conditions here were so terrible that the people even had to eat human flesh to survive. Why didn't they leave with the Cross Church?
Agnes shook his head without explaining and continued forward.
They had reached their destination.
A small village appeared before them. It had been built around the church they had seen earlier. A bonfire burned in front of the church, driving away a little of the cold for the people there.
The villagers were gathered around the bonfire to keep warm, and every one of them looked exhausted.
"Uncle Dalton! We're back!" Agnes called out happily.
His voice carried through the village. A man who looked fairly strong compared with the other exhausted villagers stood up. He seemed a little flustered when he saw Luffy and the others, but he still came over to greet them.
"Agnes, Luna, thank you so much."
----
You can read 30 chapters ahead on patre on
patr eon.com/JYouyi