With Nereus’s arrival, the conflict in the bar came to an abrupt end.
The others seemed entirely unfazed, as if this sort of thing happened all the time.
They simply split the betting pool and went back to drinking.
Kaido appeared to be suffering from a double dose of headache—first, the physical aftereffects of sobering up, and second, the problem of figuring out how to repair the damage to the place.
Nereus, meanwhile, sat alone off to the side.
His eyes drifted toward the wall calendar.
The year 1503 was clearly marked.
“Thirty-two years already…”
After leaving the orphanage and encountering a truck accident that sent him to this world, Nereus arrived in the year 1471 of the Sea Calendar.
He was born in Fish-Man Street.
Originally, it was a place on Fish-Man Island meant to house orphans—ironically, a return to his “origin point.”
However, due to poor governance, Fish-Man Street soon became a gathering place for illegal organizations on Fish-Man Island.
Still, its original function hadn’t entirely disappeared.
Nereus himself grew up there, struggling to survive.
It was also there that he took on his current name—a symbol of a new beginning.
During those early years, a few residents of Fish-Man Street had helped him more than once.
Before long, he realized exactly what kind of world he had come to.
He only had a partial understanding of what would happen in the One Piece world.
His knowledge stopped around the Egghead arc, with everything beyond that reduced to fragmented information.
To survive in such a dangerous world, he trained himself in combat.
Years later, he left Fish-Man Island with several companions from Fish-Man Street and began his journey across the outside seas.
He intended to change everything—from the root.
That meant overthrowing the World Government and ending the rule of the Celestial Dragons.
And for that, he needed power.
Slave trading was common across the seas.
Even before the Great Pirate Era officially began under Roger, Fish-Man Island had already suffered heavily from it.
Merfolk, in particular, were considered premium “goods” by slavers.
After destroying a World Government slave transport ship, Nereus was placed on a Marine bounty list.
Now, his bounty had multiplied countless times compared to its original amount.
Even slave traders shuddered at the mention of his name.
“Nereus, boss.
Your little princess went into town.
Want me to check on her?”
A tall fish-man pushed open the door while Nereus was deep in thought.
He was Sebastian—a former member of Byrnndi World’s pirate crew in the original timeline, a hybrid of fish-man and giant.
Now, however, he served under Nereus.
This was partly due to Nereus’s own nature.
Being a fish-man himself, he naturally inspired trust among fish-men and merfolk, and most of his subordinates were drawn from those races.
Sebastian was one of his top executives.
“No need.
Big Pan is with her, and she’s going to see her mother anyway.”
Nereus remained calm.
Big Pan was also a fish-man/giant hybrid, recruited after Nereus left Fish-Man Island and ventured into the open sea.
In the original timeline, he had been just another subordinate of Foxy’s crew.
But under Nereus’s training, his strength had improved dramatically—enough to earn a place even in the New World.
More importantly, Nereus was reassured by the identity of the girl’s mother—his ex-wife, Charlotte Linlin, the future Yonko Big Mom, the only female among the Four Emperors.
If something serious happened, Charlotte Linlin would handle it.
If it was minor, Big Pan could manage it.
At this stage, Linlin was not yet the crazed, violent old woman of the future, nor the naive child who didn’t understand power.
She was still a bold and rational warrior woman with a strong sense of judgment.
Their relationship was simple.
Linlin, due to her views on other races, had formed a relationship with a powerful and handsome fish-man like Nereus.
Their daughter, Nanamo, was their first child—the true eldest daughter of the Charlotte Family, born even before Perospero.
However, their relationship did not last long.
Ideological differences soon created a rift, and they separated.
Even now, they still disputed custody of their daughter.
After the breakup, Linlin continued as before and went on to have many more children.
Nanamo’s existence slightly delayed Perospero’s birth and even indirectly prevented the birth of Charlotte Compote.
Otherwise, the Charlotte family remained largely unchanged.
Although they separated, it was not a messy divorce.
There was no dramatic “split the assets in half” situation.
Linlin still valued Nanamo highly, as she was currently the only child who inherited her “Iron Balloon” physique.
What annoyed Linlin the most was that Nanamo was closer to Nereus and usually lived with him.
Given Nereus’s strength, Linlin’s usual method of “taking the child and getting rid of the father” simply didn’t work here.
As a result, she preferred to influence Nanamo through her other children—such as Katakuri—hoping to gradually pull her closer to the Charlotte family.
“Got anything else?”
“Nothing major.
The sea outposts reported that a group of people with grudges against us are heading toward Hachinosu…”
Before Sebastian could finish, Kaido, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, suddenly stood up.
“I’ll send someone later to fix this place.
I’ve got something to deal with—leaving now.”
Destroying buildings was Kaido’s specialty.
Even before he had a Devil Fruit, wrecking the place was easy for him.
Repairing it, however, was not.
Fortunately, Hachinosu was a place where constant conflict was the norm, and there were even crews specifically responsible for repairs.
Otherwise, no one would want to sleep in ruins every day.
Without waiting for Nereus’s reply, Kaido charged out.
Nereus didn’t stop him.
The issue was not compensation—it was that fighting here would violate his own rules.
A warning was enough.
Kaido wasn’t the type to ignore that anyway.
After Kaido left, Nereus turned back to Sebastian.
“How are the sea beasts doing lately?”
“They’re doing well.
Not as obedient as the battle fish, but they’re mostly trained.”
“Take them out.
Test their combat capability.”
“Yes.”
Battle fish and sea beasts were unique species of the ocean.
For ordinary human sailors, they were disasters at sea.
But for fish-men, they were no different from domesticated hunting dogs—beasts that could be trained into combat assets.
In fish-man culture, there were even traditional methods for taming sea beasts.
The ones Nereus referred to had been captured and trained recently.
Now was the perfect time to test their strength.