In a certain sea area of the New World—
The corpse of a Sea King floated on the ocean surface.
The surrounding seawater had turned red with blood.
There was a smooth cut across the giant Sea King's body, as if someone had chopped its head off with a single slash.
And beside the corpse floated the Oro Jackson.
Clearly, the Roger Pirates had just been attacked by a Sea King not long ago.
"Good thing we didn't stay on Zunesha any longer," Roger said while putting his sword back into its sheath. "Otherwise that thing would've carried us all the way to the North Blue."
It had only been one night, but Zunesha moved unbelievably fast.
It brought them straight to the edge of the northern Calm Belt in the New World.
After getting off Zunesha's back, they personally watched the giant elephant walk directly into the Calm Belt without hesitation.
From the looks of it, it was heading toward the North Blue.
"Yeah," Rayleigh laughed. "No wonder it's so hard to run into Zunesha. That thing doesn't just wander around the New World—it travels all over the world."
Holding his twin axes, Gaban stood at the edge of the deck and looked at the best meat on the Sea King's body.
A sharp light flashed in his eyes.
His axes spun rapidly, and several slashes flew out.
In an instant, the Sea King's belly was cut into neat chunks of meat.
"Quick, Valthior! Pull it up so we can try something new!" Gaban shouted. "This bull-looking Sea King is my first time seeing one. Hope the meat tastes good!"
This clearly wasn't the first time something like this happened.
Whenever they encountered Sea Kings, sea beasts, or giant fish, the Roger Pirates would turn them into extra meals.
Valthior stepped forward and threw out his chain axe, hooking onto a chunk of meat.
Frost spread outward, freezing several nearby pieces together.
Then he pulled hard, dragging up a giant block of meat big enough to cover half the deck.
The smooth movements and skill looked professional enough for him to work on a whaling ship.
"I'll cook lunch today," Rayleigh said while smashing the thin ice on the meat. He poked the meat with his finger and nodded in satisfaction. "This kind of meat tastes best grilled."
Up until now, the Roger Pirates still hadn't found a proper cook to join the crew.
So everyone took turns cooking.
Of course, Valthior never joined the cooking rotation.
He had absolutely no cooking skills and always used the excuse:
"I am a noble scholar."
Considering he was originally a Celestial Dragon who grew up surrounded by luxury, how could he know how to cook?
To avoid wasting ingredients, Roger and the others never forced him.
"Speaking of which, we're almost out of alcohol," Roger suddenly said after hearing about grilled meat. "Valthior, contact your people and have some delivered to the next island. We need more good booze."
Before Valthior joined the crew, these guys drank anything and never cared about quality.
But after he boarded the ship, he directly called their alcohol "pig swill" and even said slaves in his family wouldn't drink garbage like that.
At first, Roger and the others laughed at him for being "spoiled."
They said pirates should drink rough alcohol because it gave them the feeling of freedom and conquering the sea.
But later, after reaching Sabaody Archipelago, Valthior arranged for Lincoln to buy supplies for the crew.
That was the first time Roger and the others tasted truly high-quality alcohol.
After that, things got out of control.
The alcohol they once thought tasted great became impossible to drink.
Now whenever they were running low on supplies, they immediately pushed the job onto Valthior and told him to hurry and prepare good alcohol for pickup at the next island.
It was only because Spandine handled things efficiently and never delayed deliveries that the Roger Pirates' alcohol quality stayed guaranteed.
"Damn it," Valthior cursed. "Even Rocks and Whitebeard make their crews split the bill for drinks. But you bastards never pay me back! Over the years, you've probably drunk more than twenty or thirty billion Berries worth of alcohol from me!"
"Hey!" Roger replied confidently. "You think we call you 'Lord Valthior' for nothing? If we couldn't eat and drink well following you around, who'd bother calling you that?"
"Lord Valthior is rich beyond imagination," Rayleigh laughed. "Would someone like you really care about such small money? You probably wouldn't even bother picking it up if it fell on the ground."
"Every sip we drink is a blow against the World Government's finances," Gaban joked. "Once I think about it like that, I can't help drinking even more!"
"To fight the World Government, we must contribute our strength!" Spencer and the others also laughed loudly.
Valthior was helpless against these "poor relatives." He turned to Gaban and asked, "Which island is the next supply point?"
"Firs Island," Gaban answered immediately.
Valthior nodded at first, but then he suddenly remembered something. Firs Island... wasn't that one of the rumored "Three Endpoints Island" in the New World?
According to rumors, beneath the New World was a massive magma pool.
The pressure inside it was controlled through three volcanic islands.
Whenever the magma became unstable, the volcanoes would erupt and release excess pressure.
But if all three islands were destroyed—
The magma pool would fully erupt.
A sea of lava would swallow the entire New World, destroying every island and sea in the region.
This story was widely known across the seas.
Even the World Government never denied the rumor, but nobody really believed it.
However, in the original story, Zephyr eventually went mad and wanted to destroy the New World to wipe out all pirates.
That was when he started targeting those three islands.
Only then did people realize—
The rumor was actually true.
Shaking off those thoughts, Valthior didn't dwell on it too much. As the saying goes, it isn't easy for such natural disasters to kill top-tier powerhouses. In the end, the ones truly harmed would only be ordinary pirates and general civilians.
Taking out his Den Den Mushi, Valthior was about to contact Spandine, his "logistics manager."
But suddenly the Den Den Mushi rang first.
And what a coincidence—
It really was Spandine calling.
"Don't tell me something happened to Olvia and my precious daughter…" Valthior's expression darkened.
Thinking that, he quickly answered the call.
Honestly, in the past, he only answered calls depending on his mood.
But now, Spandine's calls had become his highest priority.
No matter what, he had to answer.
From this point alone, Spandine had truly latched onto a powerful backer.
"What happened?" Valthior immediately asked after answering. "Does it involve the scholars?"
Spandine nearly choked on the other end before hurriedly explaining,
"Young Master, please rest assured! Lady Olvia and Lady Robin are perfectly safe. I called because I received new intelligence and wanted to report it to you."
"Is that so?" Valthior finally relaxed a little. "What information?"
"You also know that CP9 often handles classified missions from Mary Geoise," Spandine explained first. "Because of that, we maintain information exchanges with many Celestial Dragon families and the Holy Knights so we can quickly understand the needs of the nobles."
Valthior naturally knew this.
Back when he still lived in Mary Geoise, he often gave small tasks to Cipher Pol agencies himself.
Many of those jobs were handled by CP9.
Compared to the Marines, Cipher Pol had much closer ties to the Celestial Dragons.
People often called them "the strongest shield of the Celestial Dragons."
For example, Figarland Garling had once asked Spandine's now-deceased superior to investigate his missing child.
"This morning," Spandine continued, "while reporting routine work matters to the Holy Knights, I suddenly noticed that the name of the Giant King, Harald, had been added to the Holy Knights roster."
"Considering your previous conflict with Harald at Whole Cake Island, I immediately thought I should report this information to you, Young Master."
"What!?" Valthior froze in shock. "Are you sure?"
From what he remembered, Harald was only allowed to join the Holy Knights many years later.
At that time, even Shanks had returned to the Holy Land to "reclaim his roots."
"Absolutely certain," Spandine replied firmly.
Valthior frowned slightly.
"What rank did he receive?"
Looks like something had changed unexpectedly.
Maybe the Whole Cake Island incident had caused a butterfly effect because of him.
"At the moment, he holds the rank of Devoted Blade," Spandine answered.
Only then did Valthior relax slightly.
Devoted Blade rank… that was still manageable.
Members at that level didn't possess immortality, and the level of control placed on them wasn't too deep.
Just like Shanks in the original story.
He had also been a Devoted Blades member and signed a Shallows Covenant (Shallow Sea Contract).
Later, he likely "bet" his arm away in the East Blue, breaking free from Imu's weak contract and regaining his freedom.
What Valthior didn't know was—
Although Harald only held the rank of Devoted Blade, he had actually signed a Depths Covenant (Deep Sea Contract).
Because only a Depths Covenant user could independently construct a pentagram array.
In other words—
He had received treatment beyond his actual rank.
...
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