Calling In a Backer

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The body's original family had been wiped out, and the culprit was Capone Bege's gang.

If Wolf Rat had not brought it up, Corvin would never have made the connection.

After all, the memories left by the body's original owner contained nothing about Bege.

Corvin had no desire to waste energy confirming whether the matter was true.

True or false, Capone Bege was a high-quality hunting target to him.

Corvin suddenly gave a sharp snort and slapped one hand hard against the bar.

The sound drew Wolf Rat's and Tatamu's attention.

When they looked over, they saw Corvin speaking with clear anger.

"Bege's gang really is a plague. They don't just swallow other people's businesses. They wipe out entire families."

"They do."

Tatamu rarely chimed in.

He agreed with Corvin.

But the world was like this. Things darker than that were everywhere.

See enough of them, and they became harder to stir real ripples.

As if he could feel Corvin's emotions, Wolf Rat also slapped the counter and denounced them angrily.

"Putting the liquor aside, Bege's gang truly has no humanity. They do every rotten thing imaginable, and they leave people no way out."

Corvin turned sharply toward Wolf Rat and said with relief, "As expected of my friend. We see things the same way."

Wolf Rat sensed something was wrong, but his face still showed anger toward the gang's crimes. He did not dare say another word, afraid Corvin would set a trap for him.

Corvin did not care about Wolf Rat's sudden silence. With practiced ease, he placed a hand on Wolf Rat's shoulder.

Wolf Rat's body stiffened slightly. He slowly lowered his head and stared at the hand on his shoulder, then fell into thought.

Corvin said solemnly, "Wolf Rat, since Bege's gang is so inhuman, why don't we..."

Wolf Rat immediately shivered and was about to refuse.

Then Corvin continued.

"I'm joking. An organization like that should be left to the righteous Marines."

With that, Corvin smiled, withdrew his hand, raised his glass, and took a small sip.

Wolf Rat was briefly startled, almost too quickly to notice. He smiled and echoed, "Right."

After speaking, he also raised his glass and drank, hiding the trace of unnaturalness that had slipped out.

Corvin slowly set down his glass and continued thinking about Capone Bege.

He had considered making Wolf Rat act as hired muscle again, but the target was Bege's gang. There was no convincing reason to drag him into that fight, so he dropped the idea.

Then he thought of Sol, the powerful backer sitting right behind him.

After he began learning marksmanship from Sol, Corvin had considered asking Sol to take him out for hunts. But after spending time with the old man, he decisively abandoned that unrealistic idea.

Doing something like that would only weaken Corvin's value to Sol, and Sol was the kind of person who valued usefulness very heavily.

Besides, if he wanted Sol to help with something like this, he needed at least one reasonable, proper justification.

And it could not happen too often.

Now, finally, he had the most proper justification imaginable: revenge for his family.

If he wanted to hunt Bege, the most troublesome part was not Bege's strength, but the gang behind him.

As the strongest underworld organization in the West Blue, Bege's gang could create a barrier Corvin could not cross through numbers alone.

But if he brought out Sol as a backer, he could create the conditions for a direct hunt on Bege.

Once his thoughts were clear, Corvin's interest sharpened.

Before carrying out this plan, he needed to gather intelligence on the gang.

Gathering intelligence always took time.

Corvin did not want to waste precious time on that, and right in front of him was a suitable channel.

"Tatamu, do you accept commissions to gather information on Bege's gang?"

"I do, but it's expensive."

Tatamu accepted without asking why.

"How much?"

Corvin was short on money for now, but the streets outside were full of walking wallets.

A few pleasant rounds of robbing robbers, and his wallet would naturally swell again.

"Depends on the content."

"Names and abilities of the gang's cadres. Especially abilities. The more detailed, the better. Also the gang's rough scale and Bege's movements when he travels. That's all for now. Can you do it?"

Corvin gave the commission details on the spot.

Tatamu did not answer immediately. He calculated the difficulty and feasibility of the job, as well as a reasonable price.

A moment later, Tatamu quoted directly, "Four and a half million."

"All right. I'll bring the money in a few days."

Corvin nodded.

Since the discussion had gone straight to price, it meant Tatamu could take the job.

And intelligence deals did not involve haggling.

The price was the price.

After settling that, Corvin asked briefly about the current situation in Mad Hatter Town.

In two months, the town did not seem to have changed much.

The only thing worth attention was probably the Demon Sheriff, Laffitte, who had been causing trouble like mad while no one dared provoke him.

Wolf Rat said that in just two short months, more than three hundred pirates and underworld people had died by Laffitte's hand.

Among those three hundred victims were even two big pirates with bounties over thirty million, as well as many pirates whose bounties ranged from five million to fifteen million.

Listening to Wolf Rat list those named victims one by one, Corvin felt only a pang of loss.

Even if Mad Hatter Town did not lack prey, it still could not withstand Laffitte stealing kills at that pace.

Even so, Corvin would not go looking for trouble with Laffitte over something like this.

At this stage, the farther he stayed from such a dangerous person, the better.

Aside from Laffitte, only two other things were worth Corvin's attention.

One was a clash between Kid and Killer, still in Mad Hatter Town, and a well-known pirate crew.

The other was Aibe, whose injuries had fully healed.

About a month ago, Aibe had almost completely recovered.

From that point onward, almost as if venting, the members of Aibe's crew went to the black market nearly every day to buy young male slaves whose looks and bodies met her standards.

Then they cleaned them up and sent them to their Captain Aibe.

Normally, it was one young man a day. A few times, they bought three in a single day.

As for those young men's final fate, it went without saying.

In other words, Aibe's crew was keeping both the slave traders and the undertakers in business.

After understanding the situation, Corvin did not stay any longer.

He paid for his drinks. Before leaving, he offered to buy all the bounty posters with money.

Since they had just agreed on a deal, Tatamu had no reason to refuse Corvin's odd request, but he did not take any money either. He gave the posters directly to Corvin.

Corvin accepted gladly, then left Nightfall.

After Corvin left, Wolf Rat drank several glasses of Ashford white rum in a row, not stopping until the last drop in the bottle was gone.

He sat silently at the counter for a long time before going upstairs to his room.

The words Corvin had said unintentionally, about leaving it to the righteous Marines, were like a fishbone stuck in Wolf Rat's throat.

It did not exactly hurt.

But it was deeply uncomfortable.

After returning to his room, Wolf Rat took out a Den Den Mushi.

No matter what, the fish had taken the bait.

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