Chapter 56:

Within Range

One Piece: The Black Ledger

New chapter is live.

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

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About fifteen minutes before the agreed time, Corvin arrived at Nightfall.

When he entered the bar, Wolf Rat was already prepared.

Seeing Corvin fully armed, Wolf Rat suddenly felt the urge to put on a weapon of his own.

"Ready?"

Corvin asked.

Wolf Rat nodded and rose from his seat.

Behind the counter, Tatamu removed his uniform, revealing a strikingly muscular body.

First, he pulled on a black short-sleeved shirt. Then he walked out from behind the counter.

"Tatamu?"

Corvin looked at Tatamu in confusion.

Wolf Rat explained, "I asked him to come. With Tatamu watching my back, I can draw fire without holding back. Of course, it costs money."

"I see."

Corvin glanced at Tatamu's rock-solid muscles and thought his physical skills were probably not weak.

Inside this small, unassuming bar were people like Wolf Rat and Tatamu.

By contrast, out on the noisy streets were pirates who were not especially strong, yet acted far more loudly.

When placed side by side, Wolf Rat and Tatamu's quiet restraint made them seem much more like people from the underworld.

Wolf Rat had not originally planned to pay Tatamu for support, especially since it required an IOU.

The main reason was that Corvin had tricked him badly enough to make him wary. With Tatamu nearby, he could at least feel a little safer.

The late-night alley was silent, with only the faint sound of rats scurrying past.

The three left Nightfall and walked through the alley toward the docks.

Every pirate crew that reached Mad Hatter Town left a team behind to guard its ship before going ashore.

That was standard practice.

After Aibe was badly injured in Battleaxe Tavern, she had not returned to her ship. Instead, she was recovering in the largest hotel in town.

The fact that she still dared split her forces under those circumstances showed some flaws in her personality.

By comparison, Kazt, who had honestly stayed on his ship to recover, seemed far steadier.

Until his injuries healed, he had concentrated all his people on the ship's defenses.

On the Sharp-Horn Pirates' ship, inside the captain's cabin.

Candles burned brightly. Kazt lay on his back on the bed, his expression cold.

Nearly his entire body was wrapped in white bandages.

The cabinet beside the bed was piled with medicine jars, and the cabin was thick with the smell of medicine.

During the fight that day, Aibe's fast sword had held a clear advantage. She had pierced a good number of bloody holes into Kazt's lower body, and his upper body had not escaped either.

An ordinary person stabbed like that would have fallen and waited to die after only a few holes.

Kazt had relied on his Devil Fruit ability to withstand Aibe's countless attacks, then found one opening and used a single Black Hoof to take Aibe out of the fight.

However, he had also lost too much blood and was left unable to fight.

Some reckless passing pirates had witnessed the evenly matched battle that left both sides wounded.

Compared with Kazt's miserable state after being stabbed again and again by Aibe's foil, the boy named Usopp had dodged Aibe's storm of thrusts and even slapped her.

Sometimes comparison did the most damage.

Because of that, the name Usopp had spread through those spectators.

Especially among pirates, anyone who suddenly appeared out of nowhere often became drinking gossip.

Just like Ace, the rookie pirate who had made the headlines two days earlier, had become the main topic in every tavern.

And pirates had always enjoyed tearing one person down to raise another up.

One path for a rookie to rise quickly was to defeat a famous old hand with his own hands.

Under that strange trend, what happened in Battleaxe Tavern naturally became a classic example of one name falling while another rose.

The chaos-loving onlookers talked freely over drinks, belittling established pirates like Aibe and Kazt to raise Usopp's reputation.

Beyond the usual belief that strength ruled everything, doing this also satisfied some kind of hunger in them.

As for how badly the Usopp they lifted up might fall later, that was not something they cared about.

Kazt was already used to this atmosphere, because he had stepped on older names the same way to reach his current position.

But having his face ground into the dirt like this still left him in a terrible mood.

Because of Kazt's temper, the members of the Sharp-Horn Pirates did not dare provoke him.

As one of the cadres, Wells was the same. But he carried the duty of reporting, which made him the person who saw Kazt most often during this period aside from the ship's doctor.

Wells pushed open the cabin door and walked in. Under Kazt's expressionless stare, he came to the side of the bed.

Kazt looked at Wells and asked coldly, "Anything?"

"After strengthening patrols, the number of watchers sent by other crews has clearly dropped. We've basically found their positions. Should we..."

Wells made a throat-cutting gesture.

Kazt's expression was icy.

"No. But if they cross the line, don't be polite."

"Understood."

Wells nodded. After finishing his report, he did not stay long. He left the captain's cabin and returned to his post.

Kazt stared coldly at the closed door and suddenly let out a harsh snort.

The earlier raid on Bolkin Trading Company's armed merchant ship had certainly brought Kazt a measure of fame, along with a handsome profit.

At the same time, it had attracted envious peers.

After all, Bolkin was one of the West Blue's famous trading companies. Swallowing even one shipment meant profits in the hundreds of millions.

Before Kazt was injured, those peers could only envy him.

After he was injured, they gathered like scavengers smelling blood.

But even weakened, the Sharp-Horn Pirates were still dangerous. After their serious recent losses, they still carried enough weight to make others hesitate.

That was the foundation of a high-bounty pirate crew.

On top of a dockside warehouse.

Corvin and the others hid in the shadows beyond the reach of the lamps, watching the Sharp-Horn Pirates' ship from a distance.

From this position, they could barely make out the crew members patrolling the deck. They were spread through almost every corner, forming a tight defensive line.

After watching for a while, Wolf Rat said quietly, his voice grave, "That defense is tight. How are we supposed to start?"

Corvin did not answer. He carefully studied the deck defenses while judging the distance between their position and the pirate ship.

Watching the direction the ship's flag fluttered, Corvin suddenly said, "Target practice."

"What?"

Wolf Rat looked at him, not understanding.

Then Corvin unfastened the long gun from his back and set the muzzle toward the deck of the Sharp-Horn ship.

Wolf Rat immediately understood what Corvin intended.

He knew Corvin was a good shot, but this distance had already exceeded the effective range of a smoothbore. Without other factors helping him, even excellent marksmanship would have an extremely low hit rate.

Under these circumstances, attacking from so far away would only expose their position and motive.

Even so, Wolf Rat did not speak up to warn him.

Tatamu looked at Corvin's smoothbore. Even with its modified, lengthened barrel, he did not think it could do much at this distance.

"It won't reach."

"It will."

Corvin aimed at a figure on the distant deck and said calmly, "An older man once told me that blind confidence isn't always a bad thing for a gunman."

He felt the hidden help in the wind direction and factored in the height.

Before the final step, a vague feeling rose inside him, telling him that this was enough.

Then Corvin pulled the trigger.

The lead ball cut a straight line through the night, crossed nearly one hundred and fifty meters, and struck a moving member of the Sharp-Horn Pirates with precision.

Right in the head.

The man collapsed without a sound.

The sudden change instantly made the rest of the crew tense. One after another, they looked toward the direction of the gunshot.

But they could see nothing.

As the ship's sniper, Wells suddenly realized what had happened and shouted, "Find cover!"

At the same time, on the warehouse roof.

Tatamu and Wolf Rat looked at Corvin in shock.

After a moment, Tatamu said with genuine admiration, "Impressive."

Wolf Rat stayed silent.

He knew very well how important a skilled sniper could be before a boarding battle at sea.

And yet, most skilled snipers came from pirates.

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