After that, Valthior asked more questions about Harald's situation.
But obviously, there was no way Spandine could get information about the movements of the Holy Knights.
He had no idea Harald and the Marines had already formed a fleet and were currently heading back to Elbaf.
So Valthior never learned that news.
Still, he wasn't too surprised.
If Spandine could really expose all the Holy Knights' secrets, then even Valthior would have to admit the guy was incredible.
"We'll stop at Firs Island soon for supplies," Valthior instructed. "Handle it the usual way. Send up some alcohol, cigars, and cigarettes."
"I recently saw a brown-black suit in a magazine. The size is... Anyway, it looked pretty good. Order one for me too, then contact Alfred for reimbursement."
"Firs Island?" Spandine immediately replied, "No problem. Everything will be prepared before you arrive, Young Master."
If the supplies weren't so ridiculously expensive, costing tens or even hundreds of millions of Berries each time, Spandine would've offered to pay himself as tribute to Valthior.
Actually, Spandine loved these kinds of tasks.
There were many benefits.
He could easily take some kickbacks while getting extra benefits for himself.
This kind of thing was an unspoken rule.
Valthior naturally knew about it and allowed it.
And it wasn't only the Jaygarcia family.
The same happened in every Celestial Dragon family.
After all, the prestige of the "Creators' descendants" was there.
If they asked subordinates to do errands without giving rewards, wouldn't that make the Celestial Dragons look poor?
After hanging up the Den Den Mushi, Roger—who had been listening nearby—immediately grinned and said,
"Lord Valthior is so generous. I've basically sold my life to you already!"
"Jokes aside for a moment," Rayleigh said seriously. "If Harald joined the Holy Knights, does that mean he has immortality like those guys now? That'd be terrifying. With his strength plus an immortal body, who on this sea could even beat him?"
They were only stopping at Firs Island for supplies; the ultimate goal of this voyage was Elbaf.
If they really got unlucky and met Harald there—and Harald also had immortality—
How were they supposed to fight him?
Fight him with what!?
Valthior smiled after hearing that.
"Devoted Blades members of the Holy Knights are basically the same as apprentice crew members on our ship. They sign Shallows Covenant(Shallow Sea Contracts) and don't have immortality."
"That's a relief," Gaban sighed.
None of them worried too much after hearing that.
From their point of view, just because they were heading to Elbaf didn't mean they would definitely meet Harald.
After all, Harald rarely returned to Elbaf over the years.
Most of the time he stayed outside helping the Marines suppress pirates.
He even frequently appeared in the Florian Triangle in the first half of the Grand Line—the place where Moria would later hide.
"Speaking of Elbaf," Spencer suddenly said while biting a cigarette, "I saw an interesting article recently. There's a giant named Panz Fry who's famous in the New World for his cooking."
"His specialty is called Volcano Cooking. The article said even Whitebeard praised his cooking as 'Heavenly Cuisine.'"
"Our ship happens to lack a proper cook. If we run into him in Elbaf, why not invite him aboard?"
"Oh?" Roger's eyes lit up. "That's actually a great idea!"
"I disagree," Gaban immediately objected. "We should find a beautiful giant woman chef instead. Elbaf is a whole country. There's no way they don't have pretty female cooks!"
He fully supported beautiful giant women joining the crew.
But ordinary rough-looking giant men?
No interest at all.
Valthior curled his lips and said,
"Forget it. How could the Oro Jackson even carry giants properly? If you really want a good cook, I can just arrange for my family to send over a couple."
"Forget it then," Roger immediately refused. "If you treat them like servants, how are we supposed to treat them? People on the ship should be comrades!"
After a short pause, Roger added,
"According to the Poneglyphs, Elbaf's shipbuilding skills are also incredible. If we really find a cook we like, we could just modify the Oro Jackson."
"Better to just form a new fleet instead," Rayleigh shook his head. "We can't casually mess with the Oro Jackson. Tom would get angry."
...
While the Roger Pirates discussed cooks—
In another sea area of the New World—
There was a secret land called Merveille.
A lonely island that pierced the clouds and reached the sky itself.
It was also the famous headquarters of the Flying Pirate Fleet.
At this moment, Shiki was on Merveille.
Not long ago, he had found a new companion—
A scientific genius named Dr. Indigo.
Indigo had originally submitted his resume through the Underworld network, hoping to find a way into the increasingly famous MADS research group, which had even won the Nobel Peace Prize.
But halfway through, Shiki intercepted him.
The two got along extremely well, and after meeting, they immediately reached a cooperation agreement.
Because of that, Indigo became Shiki's chief scientist.
The reason Shiki wanted a scientist was because he recently discovered many strange and powerful beasts appearing on Merveille.
Inside a forest laboratory on the island, Shiki looked at Indigo and asked,
"So? Did you figure it out? Where did these beasts come from? Can they be used by me?"
To be honest, Shiki really did have the qualities of a great ruler.
After the World Government announced that the Roger Pirates were trying to revive the Ancient Weapons, Shiki started searching everywhere for information about them.
And surprisingly, he really found some clues.
The most valuable one was information about Poseidon.
Somehow, Shiki learned that the Ancient Weapon Poseidon could control Sea Kings and turn them into soldiers.
This made Shiki extremely interested.
Unfortunately, he couldn't find any more information, so he increased his efforts to hunt down the Roger Pirates.
Then recently, after discovering the mutated beasts on Merveille, Shiki suddenly had an idea.
Poseidon was called an Ancient Weapon because it controlled Sea Kings.
So if he could tame these beasts—
Or even mass-produce them—
Wouldn't that be basically the same thing!?
That would be a power equal to an Ancient Weapon!
In fact, in the original story, Shiki really did use these creatures to destroy several countries in the East Blue.
In some ways, mass-producing monsters really did resemble the power of an Ancient Weapon.
"It's because of a special herb found on this island," Indigo explained. "This herb seems to contain hormones that accelerate biological evolution, which caused many beasts on Merveille to mutate."
"Is that so?" Shiki asked. "Then can we make use of it?"
"In theory, yes," Indigo answered. "But it'll require a very long time. First we need to mass cultivate the herb, then conduct complex clinical testing—"
Indigo started rambling endlessly with scientific terms.
Shiki couldn't understand most of it and impatiently interrupted him.
"Just tell me how long it'll take."
"At least twenty-five years," Indigo replied after hesitating. "And that's assuming we have enough funding."
"Twenty-five years!?" Shiki froze.
Clearly, this country bumpkin never paid attention to scientific research and had no idea real results usually required long periods of time.
Still, after thinking for a while, he said,
"Fine. We'll follow your plan. I'll provide all the funding you need."
He planned to handle both sides at once.
On one hand, continue searching for Roger to obtain information about the Ancient Weapons—or maybe even cooperate with him.
On the other hand, develop his own power.
At that moment, one of Shiki's pirate subordinates hurried into the room.
"Boss Shiki! We found information about the Roger Pirates' whereabouts!"
The moment Shiki heard that, he instantly became interested.
He turned sharply and demanded,
"Where are they!?"
"Not long ago, news spread from the Whitebeard Pirates that their First Division Commander, Polo Gram, encountered the Roger Pirates and got robbed. We followed that lead and investigated further."
"We learned that the Roger Pirates boarded the legendary Zunesha. And recently, someone spotted Zunesha near the northern Calm Belt…"
The subordinate kept rambling.
Shiki impatiently cut him off.
"Get to the point. Where are Roger and the others going!?"
"Elbaf!" the subordinate answered immediately.
Shiki paused after hearing that.
A trace of nostalgia flashed through his eyes.
Elbaf…
The last time he went there, he was still together with Rocks.
In the blink of an eye, things had changed so much.
Life truly was unpredictable.
But a moment later, Shiki snapped out of it.
A wicked grin slowly spread across his face.
"Good. Good! Elbaf, huh?"
"Pass down my orders! Prepare the ships! Notify Fierce Kyo and Babel!"
"We're going to Elbaf too and join the fun!"
...
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