Chapter 17: A Place So Disastrous

Chapter 17: A Place So Disastrous

Three days have passed.

They've been in the Island's Food City for three days.

The original target, Zaga Lido, has disappeared without a trace... no, to be exact, he's completely vanished.

Charlotte was sitting in the captain's room, leaning back in frustration.

Then she straightened up, "Come on, tell me! How can we find him?"

This left Beta and Barrett, who had temporarily joined to repay a debt, perplexed.

That Barrett had joined the Hiberfield family was a complete surprise to Charlotte when she found out.

Of course, Charlotte had no reason to refuse someone with so much potential.

However, asking these two for advice was crazy, as both were just muscle-bound fighters.

So when she asked that question, Charlotte immediately regretted it.

Seeing their silence, Charlotte didn't insist further.

Now she really needed an intelligent subordinate.

For example... the brilliant Ivan.

At that moment, Lina entered, dressed in a short black women's suit with a V-neck, black shorts, and a tight black cape.

Her long, slender white legs were quite striking.

"Charlotte, I found out that Zaga Lido disappeared five days ago."

Lina spoke slowly.

Charlotte was delighted, "Lina, can you track him?"

Lina nodded.

"Through Hill Palen's network, I found out that Zaga Lido was last seen in the civilian area."

Hill Palen?

Charlotte knew he was a foreign merchant who had established a maritime transshipment station on Isla Ratti and worked for the Warehouse King, Gilbertson.

Charlotte had to admit that these shady underground organizations really had powerful intelligence skills.

Their forces couldn't be underestimated, their intelligence work was impressive.

She didn't expect that in the end, Lina would have to take charge; men were unreliable.

"The civilian area?"

Charlotte pondered for a moment, having a bad feeling.

In the world of One Piece, anything related to the civilian area almost always brought indescribable troubles.

Charlotte shook her head, pushing away her confusing thoughts, stood up, and left.

She had a natural consideration about this.

She had no time to waste there, and now that they had a concrete location, she needed to go personally to understand the situation and solve this matter as quickly as possible.

"Beta, you and Barrett take good care of the ship, wait for us to return."

Beta stood firm, "Boss, don't worry, as long as I'm here, the ship will be safe!"

"Good!" Although Beta was a brute with a hot combat mentality, when it came to orders, he was never negligent.

Beside him, Barrett, with a low profile, also stood straight, without saying a word, showing a bit of pride.

Charlotte didn't pay attention to these details, she was focused on finding Zaga Lido.

Seeing Charlotte and Lina leave in a hurry, Beta breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you afraid of Charlotte?" Barrett asked curiously. To him, Charlotte was quite nice, strong, humble, and kind.

Beta's heart skipped a beat, young, so young, who would understand how hard training under Charlotte's orders was! Someday you'll cry, you'll see!

He responded indifferently, "Do you have any idea? You call that fear? That's respect, you silly kid!"

Barrett frowned, he hated being called a kid, and roared, "Damn it, I've told you many times, I'm not a kid, I'm Douglas Barrett!"

"Understood, kid." Beta responded carelessly, scratching his ear.

Barrett blushed with rage and shouted, "I'm not a kid, I'm Douglas Barrett!"

"Ah, kid, what's your name?" Beta replied, with a mocking smile.

"You're an idiot, I'm Barrett!" Barrett shouted.

"What Barrett?"

"Douglas Barrett!"

"What Barrett?"

...

Barrett was furious, if it weren't because he couldn't beat him right now, he would definitely make Beta regret coming into the world.

"Hey, kid! Kid!"

Barrett's face twitched, feeling worse, he turned and walked away, ignoring that crazy guy.

"Hey, don't go! Angry? I'll treat you to some meat."

Beta followed him, with a mischievous smile, completely immature, looking like someone who could use a good beating.

...

In the Island's Food City, District 54, civilian area.

Old, crowded, ramshackle, and low buildings, hard to imagine.

The prosperous Island's Food City had such a disastrous place like this.

In a dark alley.

A boy lay on the ground, looking at the dirty piece of bread he held in his arms, with a genuine smile on his scarred face.

That smile was full of an indescribable charm.

"How nice, Mitya, today we won't go hungry!"

The boy endured the pain in his body and got up shakily.

He carefully stored the piece of bread in his chest as if it were a treasure.

After cleaning some of the blood off his face, he limped out of the dark place.

He walked slowly and with difficulty, but with incredible determination.

Soon he left the dark place and entered another darker, closed, and narrow place.

This place looked more like a poor area than a civilian area.

Here lived 40% of the island's original population, but the civilian area didn't even occupy a thirtieth of the Island's Food City.

It was such a cramped place that it was suffocating.

But this was the boy's home.

The tired boy limped for about half an hour.

Finally, he arrived at a house that looked extremely humble even in the "civilian area."

Instead of a house, it was more like a shelter built with discarded cardboard and a half-collapsed side.

The boy took a deep breath, patted his face to cheer himself up, and smiled, lifting the torn fabric curtain that served as a door.

"Brother... you, you've come back... cough cough...!"

A weak and broken voice came from the house, it sounded very young.

Hearing the voice, the boy hurried, ignoring the pain of his wounds.

In two or three steps, he reached an improvised bed made of broken boards.

On it lay a girl with a pale face, the boy's sister...

"Mitya, today I earned 30 beli more, don't worry, your illness will be cured soon."

The boy forced a smile, then took the bread from his chest and, ignoring the noises from his own stomach, offered it to his sister Mitya.

"Brother, you eat too..."

The girl broke the bread in two, taking the smaller part and offering the larger one to her brother.

"Mitya, your brother already ate, go ahead, eat it." The boy forced a smile.

"Really?" Mitya asked with doubts.

"Of course, don't worry."

Then, enduring his hunger, he looked away and stored the 30 beli he had worked so hard to earn in a rusty box.

His sister's illness needed more food, he could endure the hunger to save for her treatment.

The boy got up and went out in search of more work to earn money.

(End of the chapter)