“Whether he agrees is another matter entirely!
Don’t forget—we’re pirates, and he’s a bounty hunter who specializes in hunting pirates.”
“It’s fine.
I’ll make him agree, just like when I got you to join the crew!”
“Me…”
A trace of nostalgia flashed through Karl’s eyes.
“Captain, don’t make things sound so simple.”
“Everyone has their own will.”
“What you should do isn’t force your will onto others.”
“It’s to guide their wills so they’re moving in the same direction as yours.”
“Only then can you truly bring them aboard your ship.”
“Will?”
Luffy scratched his head.
“There you go saying things I don’t understand again.”
“Whatever.
We’ll deal with it when we get there!”
Time passed quickly, and before they knew it, evening had arrived.
With Koby’s help, Nami’s work progressed surprisingly smoothly.
After reviewing the reports she’d compiled, Karl came to a conclusion.
The pirates aboard this ship weren’t actually the worst of the bunch.
Their crew mainly focused on robbery rather than murder.
Compared to pirate crews that slaughtered entire ships without hesitation, these guys still had some conscience.
Not much.
But some.
A handful of them did have blood on their hands.
Most of those deaths involved merchant guards who had resisted or Marines who had pursued them.
Karl immediately assigned those pirates the dirtiest and most exhausting jobs available.
As an added bonus, he sentenced them to half rations for the foreseeable future.
As for the captain of the crew—
Iron Mace Alvida— she was a completely different story.
According to the testimonies, many of the people she’d killed were actually her own subordinates for failing to show her sufficient respect.
A smaller number were victims encountered during robberies.
Based on the statements collected from the pirates, Karl had Nami organize every individual’s crimes into detailed records.
His goal was simple:
When they reached the Marines, he wanted to see if all this evidence could be used to raise Alvida’s bounty value and earn him a little extra money.
After all, Karl felt that Alvida’s bounty of 5,000,000 Berrieswas ridiculously cheap.
He needed to find a way to sell her for a better price.
As for the pirates who didn’t even have bounties, Karl naturally wasn’t going to let them go to waste either.
Following his principle of Squeezing every last drop , he had Nami prepare a value assessment for each pirate.
Taking into account their crimes, abilities, physical condition, and useful skills, he assigned values ranging from 50,000 Berriesto 500,000 Berries
When added together, the forty-four pirates were actually worth more than Alvida’s five-million-Berriesbounty.
Which was clearly unreasonable.
That only reinforced Karl’s belief that Alvida’s bounty was too low.
Would the Marines recognize these valuations?
Karl figured they probably wouldn’t object.
After all, buying a pirate for fifty thousand or a hundred thousand Berrieswas far cheaper than purchasing a slave.
Throw them into a labor camp and you’d make the money back in no time.
Granted, Karl’s line of thinking was somewhat dark.
But at the end of the day, these were still living people.
Once they were handed over to the Marines, what happened afterward wasn’t his concern.
The Marines could use them for construction projects, ship repairs, manual labor, skilled crafts—whatever they wanted.
The investment would pay for itself within a year.
Everything afterward would be profit.
More importantly—
Karl suspected he could probably charge even more if he sold them to someone ambitious.
As for the pirates themselves?
Who cared?
Karl’s responsibility ended the moment he handed them over.
Whether the Marines executed them or sent them to work in mines had nothing to do with him.
After all—
They had chosen this path themselves.
Even Luffy had accepted the possibility of risking everything before setting sail.
Surely these small-time pirates could accept the possibility of spending the rest of their lives in a mine.
What?
Wasn’t all this manipulation?
Of course it was.
Did anyone seriously expect Karl to sit down and reason with a bunch of pirates?
Looking over the report Nami handed him, Karl nodded with satisfaction.
He was becoming increasingly impressed with her work.
Then his gaze landed on one particular entry.
No.
1
The estimated value field was blank.
Karl thought for a moment.
Then he casually picked up a pen and wrote a number.
“W-WHAT?!”
Nami nearly jumped out of her skin.
“Ten million?!”
“That’s right.”
Karl nodded.
“The treasure you tried to steal earlier was worth at least a million Berries”
“Charging you ten million doesn’t seem unreasonable, does it?”
“When you’ve worked off the debt, I’ll honor our agreement and hand you over to the Marines.”
“Otherwise, you can work for me for the rest of your life.”
“Then what about the wages I earned today?”
Seeing her exhausted appearance, Karl generously replied:
“You worked pretty hard.”
“I’ll credit you with ten thousand Berries”
“Ten thousand?!
That’s it?!”
“That’s not enough?”
Karl looked offended.
“At that rate, you’ll earn the equivalent of an Alvida in only two years!”
“Do you know how long it took her to reach a five-million-Berriesbounty?”
“Five years!”
“Five years!”
“Do you understand how impressive that is?”
After being thoroughly lectured, Nami immediately fell silent.
“Oh, right.”
Karl suddenly remembered something.
“Koby helped you.”
“Half pay.”
“Five thousand Berries”
Nami froze.
“…What?”
“YOU CAN’T DO THAT!”
“You demon!”
“Thank you.”
Karl smiled politely. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“Where’s my money?
I want cash!”
“No cash.”
Karl pulled out a small notebook.
He wrote something on the inside cover.
Then he recorded:
Debt: 10,000,000 Berries
Below it he added:
Payment Received: -5,000 Berries
Only then did he toss the notebook to Nami.
“Keep it.”
“This is your payroll book.”
“When that ten-million-Berriesdebt reaches zero, you’ll be free.”
He paused.
“Well…
free inside a Marine prison, anyway.”
“You…”
Nami stared at the notebook in disbelief.
“Oh, and don’t try cooking the books.”
Karl pointed at her.
“I recognize my own handwriting.”
“If I discover any discrepancies, whatever amount is missing gets doubled.”
“Why?”
“Check the inside cover.”
Nami opened the notebook.
There, written in large letters, were the words:
Final interpretation rights reserved by Karl.
Nami: “…”
“I’m sorry.”
Karl raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?
You’ve realized your mistake?”
“No.”
Nami took a deep breath.
“Demons aren’t even qualified to be compared to you.”
“You’re ten million times worse than a demon.”
“Actually,” Karl corrected, “nine million nine hundred ninety-five thousand times worse.”
Then he threw himself back into a deck chair and burst out laughing.
Nami turned and stormed away.
Just as she was leaving, Karl called after her.
“Wash some fruit for me.”
“Do it yourself.”
She gritted her teeth.
“Do your hands not work?”
“Five hundred Berries”
Nami kept walking.
“One thousand.”
Her footsteps slowed.
“Five thousand.”
Nami’s breathing immediately quickened.
She had worked all day just to earn that amount.
And now…
Maybe I can push it even higher…
“Then forget it.”
“I’LL DO IT!”