Chapter 79

[Rainbase, Alabasta]

Dan stood with a horrified expression on his face, watching Carmen's crazed behaviours that unfolded in front of him. On his right, Cavendish was seen standing with visible jealousy on his face.

"Kyahaha, move! Move faster or burn!!" With crazed eyes, Carmen ordered the marine soldiers and Baroque Works agents to transport the goods from Crocodile's private casino to many numbers of the carriers situated on the outside. As for those carriers, they found them within the casino, which were probably used to transport the Dance Powder.

Carmen was seen holding a whip on her hand and a mask on her eyes. She was standing on top of a platform, whipping whoever was nearby her.

"Yo Cavendish. I think..." Dan winced as Carmen whipped one Baroque Works agent.

"Ah, Empress Carmen, whip me more!" The agent cried in bliss, causing Dan's expression to turn into disgust.

"I think we just awakened something from Carmen, something that should've been locked forever." Judging by the jovial expressions on the marines and agents who were getting whipped, he could see that Carmen was a genius in this department.

"Tch, how dare she steal the spotlight from me?!" Cavendish complained with his arms crossed, completely ignoring Dan's words, "I can be a sadist a thousand times better than her!!"

'Isn't this practically slavery?' Dan thought within himself as he continued to stare at the scene that just felt so wrong. What freaked him out even more, is how the marine soldiers and agents, who were repelled by Carmen's whips at the beginning, grew to love those.

"Commander Dan!"

All of a sudden, a voice calling Dan in a formal manner was heard. Dan turned around with a dumbfounded expression on his face, and was met with one Baroque Works agent, saluting at him, "We moved all the valuables onto the carriers! Please give us an order!"

Hearing this, Dan's eyes widened, before he had to cover his mouth, which was trying to curl up into a smile, with his hand. 'Hmm, commander Dan... I like it.'

"Well done, my henchmen! Relax and take a break for three hours! Afterward, we will move out with the help of Yasa Camels!" Dan said in a deep voice and his arms crossed, with his face full of seriousness. 'Heh, I think I was kinda cool right now.'

The Baroque Works agent saluted before walking back towards Carmen, who was keep whipping towards the marines and agents who purposely lied down, showing their backs.

"Et tu, Brutus?!!" Cavendish's face darkened and fists clenched hard, as he couldn't believe that Dan, the plainest guy in their crew apart from Rowan, managed to hoard attention before he did.

Dan immediately noticed Cavendish's distress and spoke out with a grin, "Hey, what's wrong with you, commander Cavendish?"

Cavendish lifted his head back up with a surprise, before he raised his head haughtily, "Haha, yes! I am Cavendish, the greatest commander of the Grimheart pirates!!!"

"Yeah yeah." Dan waved his hand at Cavendish, who was back to his usual self, and thought within himself, 'commander Dan... how do I make this come true?'

Overall, the scene in Rainbase was chaotic. The Baroque Works officer agents were all gathered in one corner, cowering at crazed Carmen and similarly crazed marines and other agents.

"S***, is this the Impel Down?" Zala whispered fearfully. They were caught, they were forced in a labour, and they were whipped. If this wasn't a prison already, then what could it be?

Mr. 3 was frantically looking left and right, still trying to look for a way to escape. However, whenever he would attempt to sneak out, he would find Cavendish intensely glaring at him.

"T-the only way for me to survive..." Mr. 3 gulped as he looked at Carmen, "Wax and f-flame can be combined for torture. If I don't latch onto her, I have no chance..."

"I can help you out if you want." Miss Goldenweek spoke up to Mr. 3 with a monotone, holding up a brush in her hand. She was the only one who looked unscathed; Dan allowed her to be exempted from the labour, with her small body frame and under-aged appearance.

The rest of the officer agents were too tired to speak; they simply slouched down on the wall behind.

Mr. 2 seemed to be the only one away from the other officer agents, as he was together with his Newkama friends, dancing together from some distance away.

Disregarding the scene in front of him, Koza and his group, along with Igaram, were seen to be leaning on the other building, with Toto, his father, now awoke and treated by Dan.

"Koza? What happened? Why are you here—this isn't Yuba!" Watching how Koza and the others were around him, Toto looked around in confusion. "I remember the heavy sandstorms crashing upon Yuba, and now, I'm here!"

"Haa..." Koza sighed in relief as his father seemed fine, "Everything is over. Crocodile was the one behind all the troubles, but he died."

Hearing this, Toto raised his hand up and pointed at Koza with joy, "I told you that king had nothing to do with all this!! Haha, what did I say?!"

"Toto, I'm glad to see that you are fine." Behind Koza, Igaram spoke up.

Toto's eyes widened as he immediately noticed Igaram, "Captain Igaram, what a pleasant surprise! It's an honour to see you again!"

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[Alubarna, Alabasta]

"A miracle." Within the throne, Cobra muttered in disbelief, with his two head guards, Chaka and Pell kneeling in front of him. "The abnormal turns of events that kept defiling my public image and led the kingdom into chaos—all of them were resolved at once."

He had just received Igaram's report, who, along with Vivi, infiltrated into the Baroque Works couple of years ago, which was an organization unknown to him up until now.

He originally viewed the Grimheart pirates as the threat, and was worried that Crocodile may fail to defend Alabasta against the former, for having the Grimheart pirates run a rampage on Alabasta during this period of time, will surely result in an unrecoverable situation.

However, it turned out that the defeat of Crocodile solved all problems that revolved around the kingdom. Similar to the rebels, the royal armies found the spies within their rank, who turned out to be the agents from the Baroque Works.

Sighing in relief, Cobra asked the head guards, "Are the Grimheart pirates a threat to us?"

"According to captain Igaram, the Grimheart pirates are found neutral! However, he pleaded not to offend them, for their strengths are not something that we can dare to oppose against!" Chaka responded respectfully, with his head crouched down. "And as per the request of captain Igaram, we swiftly sent a ship toward Little Garden, in order to retrieve Princess Vivi and her benefactors!"

"Vivi... yes, well done." Cobra nodded, "She did call me before; she was with the pirates from what I recall. With the marines surrounding Nanohana, it was indeed a wise decision to make."

"My king, if I may speak," Pell spoke up with a stern voice, "the hard times seem to be over, however, I advise the king to minimize the interactions with the Grimheart pirates. Regardless of whether they were of a big help or not, we cannot afford to strain ourselves politically."

Cobra shook his head with a smile on his face, "Your advice is indeed plausible, Pell. However, since when was the Alabasta kingdom so petty? Pirates or not, don't you think they deserve some degree of hospitality from us?"

At the next moment, Cobra stood up from the throne in a serious manner, "But let us think about such matter later. What's more important is to completely resolve the conflicts with the rebels." Cobra closed his eyes momentarily, before opening once again, "Pell, I will send you as a messenger. Go to Tamarisk and inform them that I won't issue any punishment, and that I simply ask them to return and take part in rebuilding the kingdom."

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Prominence was seen to be sailing calmly, following the edge of the Sandy island up north, to Alubarna.

Before Rowan realized, the night has arrived. It felt strange to him, for just a night before, he had a life to death battle against Crocodile.

Carina brought a lamp from the inside and placed it on the table, where two hostages, Hina and Shu, were seen to be sitting on the chairs. Robin was sitting at some distance away from the two.

For the past hours, Rowan was trying to get Hina and Shu to talk, to acquire the information regarding the marines. However, they shut their mouths tight, refusing to let out a slightest sound. Eventually, Rowan had no choice... but to resort to the series of Alfred's torturing techniques.

"How are you guys feeling?" Rowan spoke up with an evil smile, facing HIna and Shu, "Do you feel like talking now?"

Shu didn't seem to be listening properly, closing his legs with sweat all over his body, "I... need to go.... to washroom... p-please..."

They were currently going under a new torturing method of Alfred: no access to washroom after lots of water. It was a horrifying experience; Hina and Shu were wondering what they did to deserve this.

Robin was seen perfectly fine however, since she did not receive the same treatment. With the situation with Crocodile resolved, Rowan found no reason to force the same treatment on her.

"Have I told you about Alfred's level two?" When Rowan mentioned Alfred's Farul dung treatment, Robin's face turned pale immediately. Watching Robin's frightened expression, Hina became increasingly nervous, while Shu couldn't be bothered with it.

"Just... just... kill me..." Shu's whole body was trembling, having reached his limit. Rowan nodded towards Alfred, who lifted Shu up and instantly placed a large bowl under him. Carina immediately passed masks to Rowan, Alfred and Farul, before putting one on herself.

Unable to contain any longer, Shu completely soaked his pants. and the stench of ammonia engulfed the proximity, causing Hina and Robin to frown.

Shu looked as if he lost the world. As he looked up with hollow eyes, the tears were streaming down and soaking his veil.

Hina was absolutely horrified. She thought when they said the word 'torture,' she expected painful procedures such as cutting off the fingers, not this.

The worst thing was, unlike the physical tortures involving pain, this kind of methods didn't allow her to fall unconscious, and since very little effort was required from the Grimheart pirates, she was forced to endure for half the day without a stop. Additionally, the situation will simply become increasingly torturous as time goes on.

Now, trying her hardest to prevent herself from ending up in the same situation as Shu, who was in a mix of shame and depression, Hina gritted her teeth while speaking up, "What... do you want?"

"Thought we went over this." Rowan said with serious eyes, while wearing a mask on his face, "Information. Ins and outs of the marines. Who's in the rank, what's their strengths and weaknesses, everything that you know of."

Hina's eyes wavered. She too was nearing her limit. She was trained for pain endurance, but not something like this.

"By the way, nothing will change even after you soak yourself." Rowan informed while staring at Shu, "Until you spill everything, you are stuck with the clothes that you are currently wearing."

"I..." Hina knew that once she began to speak up, there was no coming back; she would be betraying her own organization. Even if she were to soak herself, it sounded better than betraying the marines.

Then, Alfred stepped up from behind, holding a large brown dung on his gloved hands.

'F-f***...' Hina swore within herself, watching whatever lied on Alfred's hands in a fright.

"Just saying," Carina spoke from Rowan's right, "that's only level two. There's level three, four, and you know, a lot more."

As of the current moment, Hina found herself facing the hardest choice in her life.