A Big Job

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'He recognized me?'

Corvin felt a quiet jolt of alarm, but his face stayed calm.

He sat on his chair, facing Tatamu, and acted as if Laffitte had not been speaking to him.

Seeing no reaction from Corvin, Laffitte's blood-red lips curved faintly. He raised one hand to press down the brim of his hat while tucking his cane behind his back with the other.

"My apologies. Perhaps I should call you Mr. Usopp."

Fine. Since he had been named directly, Corvin could only show his cards.

He turned his head toward the smiling Laffitte and asked blankly, "Are you talking to me?"

"I am."

Laffitte's expression did not change.

It was as if he did not take Corvin's feigned confusion seriously at all.

Corvin looked puzzled.

"Do I know you?"

Laffitte answered honestly, "We have not exchanged names, so technically, no."

"Oh. Then we're good."

Corvin withdrew his gaze, faced Tatamu again, and picked up his glass, pretending to drink.

Laffitte did not mind Corvin's coldness in the slightest. He continued on his own.

"I heard a little about what happened at Battleaxe Tavern a few days ago. Unfortunately, I was not there at the time, so I missed quite the show."

Corvin stayed silent, thinking that everyone there had been trying to get as far away from the trouble as possible. If Laffitte had been present, he probably would have thought the situation was not chaotic enough.

Laffitte kept smiling at silent Corvin and said calmly, "For Mr. Usopp to walk away unharmed from that kind of situation, and even make the Sharp-Horn Pirates and Aibe's crew turn their weapons on one another... I must admit, I found it admirable."

Corvin still could not figure out what Laffitte wanted, so he continued to say nothing.

Seeing that Corvin had clearly decided not to respond, Laffitte remained unbothered. Then he shifted topics without warning.

"This really is a fine place."

When he said fine place, his tone carried a strange satisfaction.

After speaking, he gave Corvin a slight nod, then walked toward the door.

At the entrance, Laffitte stopped with his back to Corvin.

"Mr. Usopp, my name is Laffitte. The next time we meet, I suppose we will be acquainted."

The moment he finished speaking, Laffitte pushed the door open and left the bar.

Only after hearing the door close did Corvin look toward the entrance and frown slightly.

'What is that guy thinking?'

Never mind that he had recognized a disguised identity.

He had connected Corvin's undertaker identity from the auction night with the Usopp identity from Battleaxe Tavern a few days ago.

If Laffitte had not paid special attention to him, Corvin would never believe it.

The thought of being watched by someone so strange and unreadable gave Corvin a headache.

'I haven't even provoked him, have I?'

If he had to name something, then on the night of the auction, to eliminate risk, Corvin had taken the initiative and shot two people who had come seeking revenge on Laffitte.

But surely that should not have mattered this much.

Could Laffitte be like Wolf Rat, another man badly in need of friends?

Corvin could not understand it.

"Achoo!"

A sneeze suddenly came from the alley outside the bar.

"Who's thinking about me?"

Wolf Rat's self-muttering voice drifted in from outside.

Inside the bar, Corvin's expression tightened.

If not for Laffitte, he would already be on his way back to the weapon shop.

With a silent sigh, Corvin placed Dark Crow on the chair beside him.

Creak.

Wolf Rat pushed the bar door open and walked inside.

When he saw Corvin, Wolf Rat was overjoyed.

"Usopp, you finally came."

As he spoke, Wolf Rat shut the door behind him, strode to Corvin's side, and sat down.

"I've wanted to tell you about the Sharp-Horn Pirates and Aibe's crew these past few days, but I didn't know where you lived. It almost drove me crazy."

At that point, Wolf Rat looked at Tatamu and asked, "Tatamu, did you give Usopp the note I left?"

"I did."

"Good."

Wolf Rat nodded, then turned to Corvin and sighed.

"Usopp, our luck wasn't bad. After we escaped that day, Kazt and Aibe both ended up badly injured. They shouldn't have time to trouble us for a while."

"Yeah."

Corvin answered without much enthusiasm.

Seeing that Corvin was not as relieved as he had imagined, Wolf Rat turned back, raised a finger toward Tatamu to ask for a drink, and then said, "Tatamu, I saw Laffitte just now. Did he come to buy information?"

Tatamu nodded.

Wolf Rat had no professional ethics as a fellow information worker. He asked curiously, "Tsk. Which poor bastard has he set his sights on this time? Give me a hint."

"No."

Tatamu refused.

"Tch. Stingy."

Wolf Rat waved a hand and continued, "That Laffitte really is dangerous from top to bottom. Since he arrived in Mad Hatter Town, at least a hundred people have died by his hand."

When Wolf Rat mentioned Laffitte, Corvin's attention sharpened.

Speaking of poor bastards being targeted, he wondered whether he counted as one.

With that in mind, Corvin joined the conversation on his own.

"Why?"

Seeing Corvin lean into the topic, Wolf Rat grew more animated and explained.

"Laffitte was once exiled from his country for excessive violence. For him, killing probably doesn't need much of a reason. Most of the people who died by his hand had nothing to do with him before that."

"There are people that unreasonable?"

Corvin pretended to know nothing about Laffitte and looked surprised, as if he could not believe such a person existed.

Wolf Rat looked at him and had to keep his own face under control.

'Isn't that exactly what you are?'

He had specifically investigated the pirates Corvin had killed, including the navigator from the Sharp-Horn Pirates and the fish-man slave who escaped the auction.

At first, Wolf Rat had thought Corvin killed those people because of personal grudges.

The results, however, showed no connection at all.

That conclusion had left Wolf Rat unable to understand it for a while.

But whether it was Corvin or Laffitte, even if they killed people for no reason, as long as the people they killed were pirates, Wolf Rat would only cheer after his confusion passed.

Especially in a pirate den like Mad Hatter Town, Wolf Rat wished there were more people like Corvin and Laffitte.

He picked up the glass Tatamu pushed over and sighed at the right moment.

"This place is full of unreasonable people. Laffitte just stands out more than most."

Corvin nodded in agreement.

"True. Still, a dangerous person like Laffitte, who kills without reason, is someone we should stay far away from."

Wolf Rat's expression tightened again.

'Do you have no self-awareness at all?'

He had no way to answer Corvin's words, so he chose silence.

Corvin did not notice Wolf Rat's inner turmoil and suddenly asked, "Wolf Rat, how much do you know about Kazt's and Aibe's injuries?"

Wolf Rat raised his eyebrows.

"Basically everything."

"How serious are they?"

"Kazt took sword wounds. Most of them are on the inside of his thighs, but he's a Zoan user, so he'll recover in less than half a month."

"As for Aibe, she took one of Kazt's hooves head-on. Her internal injuries are severe. She probably won't be getting out of bed for a month or so. Why are you asking?"

Wolf Rat looked at Corvin in confusion.

Corvin smiled faintly.

"Well... Wolf Rat, are you interested in taking on something big?"

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