Maelstrom

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Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

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For the past two days, Kazt had been unhappy.

Very unhappy.

First, his important navigator had been killed without warning.

Then Ragren, the capable cadre he had left behind to deal with the matter, died as well.

After that, the auction he had been looking forward to collapsed into disaster.

The fish-man slave he had successfully won was shot dead in an alley, and even the brothers he had left outside the auction house lost more than half their number in the riot.

One incident after another left Kazt seething.

He could not even understand what he had done wrong to be targeted like this.

Not even the successful raid on Bolkin's merchant ship a few days earlier could ease what he felt now.

Afterward, carrying that heavy mood, Kazt began settling accounts.

Based on the information he had obtained from Wolf Rat, the first target was naturally the killer: the boy from the weapons shop.

Kazt wanted to catch the boy as quickly as possible, torture him, and ask why he had decided to go against him.

However, Ragren's strange death kept him from acting rashly.

Kazt had always built his actions around caution.

Even for something as major as raiding Bolkin's merchant ship, which should have required only one pirate crew of similar strength as an ally, he had brought in a third crew to guarantee success and had not minded splitting away another share of the profit.

Because he was that careful, Kazt did not go straight to the weapons shop after the auction ended. Instead, he and his men spent a great deal of effort investigating the shop's background.

That was how he learned that Sol, the owner of the weapons shop who usually kept a low profile, was actually a very troublesome old man.

But that was all.

If he had not lost more than half his fighting strength the previous night, Kazt might not have thought too much. He would have followed his anger and taken his men to destroy the weapons shop outright.

Now, after judging that the risk might exceed what his current situation could bear, Kazt decisively gave up on destroying the shop.

But he was still a pirate, and he had gone to sea in the first place to do whatever he wanted.

If he did not take something back after this series of attacks, the hatred in his chest would not settle.

So Kazt sent a subordinate skilled at surveillance to watch the area around the weapons shop.

He could avoid the risk of destroying the weapons shop, but at the very least, he had to kill Corvin.

What Kazt had not expected was for the opportunity to arrive so quickly.

After his subordinate returned with the report, Kazt treated Corvin as a serious threat. He led all his brothers straight to Battleaxe Tavern.

The violent way they opened the door and the sudden arrival of so many people drew every eye in the tavern.

When Wolf Rat saw Kazt leading a crowd inside, his face tightened.

Not because he feared for himself.

He feared for Corvin.

The night before, he had first handed Kazt free information. Only afterward had he accidentally run into Corvin killing those three pirates, realizing that Corvin might be his entry point for approaching Sol the Phantom Gun.

Thinking of that, Wolf Rat felt miserable.

He had severely underestimated Kazt's ability to measure the situation.

'Usopp, Usopp. If I'd known this would happen, I never would have sold you out last night. Now you have Aibe in front and Kazt behind. Bad luck is all I can call it.'

Faced with a maelstrom that would kill him the moment he was dragged in, Wolf Rat gave up on that entry point without hesitation.

If it were only Aibe, he might have used the situation, stepped forward, and earned Corvin's goodwill.

But now there was also Kazt, who had come for revenge.

Step forward?

Step forward, his ass.

As for the entry point he had finally found?

To hell with the entry point.

Protecting himself mattered most.

In only a few seconds, Wolf Rat weighed every angle.

Having decided to stay out of it, he suddenly felt grateful that his earlier mistake, thinking Aibe had called for him and walking forward on his own, had become the key to distancing himself from Corvin.

It truly felt like fate.

Before Kazt's attention reached this side, Wolf Rat quietly moved farther away from Corvin's table without hesitation.

Because there was already some distance between them, the movement did not look strange at that moment.

In Wolf Rat's view, Corvin was basically dead.

If Phantom Gun were present, the outcome would be different.

After all, that was a man even the Hero of the Marines would love to tear apart.

Pirates on the level of Aibe and Kazt would only take two shots for Phantom Gun, as long as he did not mind exposing himself.

But Phantom Gun was not here.

As for Corvin, judging by what Wolf Rat had seen the night before...

'Don't die too horribly, Usopp.'

With his back to Corvin, Wolf Rat thought silently.

Corvin was still thinking about how to escape Aibe. He did not notice Wolf Rat's movement, and he naturally had no idea that Wolf Rat, who had wanted to be his friend one second earlier, had decisively sold him out the next.

Kazt and his men made a loud entrance.

When Corvin heard the commotion, he could no longer keep his head down in front of Aibe. He and Aibe looked toward the tavern entrance almost at the same time.

He immediately noticed Kazt's distinctive horned helmet and thick beard, and recognized him.

Kazt, with a bounty of thirty-two million Berries.

"Finally seeing him in person."

Corvin memorized Kazt's appearance, utterly unaware that Kazt had come for him.

As the person behind the attacks, by pure coincidence, he had become the only one left in the dark.

That was something he could not have imagined.

Aibe fixed a cold look on Kazt, who had clearly arrived with bad intentions. As pirates with bounties over thirty million, she and Kazt had never been on good terms.

On the surface, they had no real conflict.

But if given the chance, either would happily crush the other.

'This black ox is charging in with a whole crowd. Did someone kick him in the head and send him here to make trouble for me?'

Aibe considered the possibility.

After all, her group had entered only moments earlier, and Kazt had followed with many people.

In this place, Aibe believed the only person worth Kazt gathering men to confront was herself.

For the moment, she no longer cared about Corvin's pretty face. She signaled to her subordinates and prepared for battle.

At the entrance, Kazt scanned the pirates inside and naturally noticed Aibe's undisguised hostility.

He did not pay it much attention. Guided by his subordinate, his gaze passed over Aibe and slowly landed on Corvin.

With hatred right in front of him, rage flooded through him at once.

The pressure of his fury rolled toward Corvin like a tide.

The first to react to that pressure was not Corvin, but the white skunk Aibe had brought.

'A chance to run!'

Without another thought, the skunk dove under the table.

The second to react was Corvin, who stood directly in its path.

'They're here for me?'

Corvin's heart shook.

In that flash, he instantly guessed the reason.

The matter of Red's death had been exposed.

He did not understand why the other party had taken so long to find him.

He had no time to think about that.

Corvin stood abruptly and took two steps forward, stopping just inside the edge of Aibe's protective range.

He neither crossed too far nor stayed too distant.

Then--

"Boss Aibe!"

Corvin deepened his voice and called out with forced respect.

Then he looked toward Wolf Rat's back.

"Brother Wolf Rat!"

Hearing those two calls, Aibe froze.

Her subordinates froze too.

Kazt froze.

His men froze as well.

Wolf Rat, who had already prepared to stay out of it, was shocked.

"Usopp, you little bastard...!"

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