Chapter 71: Who Lost?
Sunset transformed into the bright moon, and by nightfall, the Marines from the warship that had crashed near the port edge, along with those lying unconscious near the port, all began to wake up.
Waking up along with them were the attacking pirates, and then… they had no 'then'.
In the brightly lit port, seawater seeped out from the cracks in the ground, a chaotic mix of raised and sunken areas. A section was empty, forming a pit collecting seawater. Upon this devastated ground, groups of pirates, hands bound by ropes and iron chains, were escorted away by the Marines.
On the other side, Zephyr sat on a rock, the Marine medical team wrapping bandages around his body. Around him stood a group of Marines with ashamed expressions, heads bowed low.
They were the personnel Zephyr had brought on his warship. They hadn't expected to faint without being of any help, only to wake up and find their commander already seriously injured.
"Chief Instructor Zephyr!"
The Loguetown base Lieutenant Commander jogged closer, standing at attention and saluting before Zephyr.
Zephyr waved his hand. "This old man is no longer the Chief Instructor. I retired long ago. Now I'm just the commander of the Pirate Pursuit Force under the Marines. Just call me Zephyr."
"Chief Instructor, you…" The Lieutenant Commander didn't dare address him directly by name.
Zephyr ignored this and asked directly, "What's the tally? How many casualties?"
The Lieutenant Commander pursed his lips. "This time, the Natural Disaster Pirates and the surrounding dozen or so pirate crews attacked, plundering a large amount of property from Loguetown's wealthy district and commercial area. The amount is too large; we can't tally the exact loss yet. As for casualties, seven people."
Zephyr paused. "Seven people?"
"Yes, all nobles in the wealthy district. People nearby said they were killed by pirates while resisting the Natural Disaster Pirates' plunder."
He paused again, looked around, and lowered his voice, "These nobles didn't have a very good reputation. It wasn't necessarily..."
"Those aren't words you should be saying!"
Zephyr glared sternly at him. "Don't look for trouble!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Lieutenant Commander straightened his body rigidly and continued, "A large amount of property cannot be recovered. Intelligence suggests local black market merchants were involved, but we haven't found any evidence. However, people saw figures going door-to-door selling goods. The property seems to be in the hands of the local populace... But no one is admitting anything, so we're at a dead end."
Zephyr subconsciously looked towards the sea surface, his brow tightening. "Only property damage?"
Seven deaths seemed too few for a pirate raid of this scale.
But for the experienced Zephyr, it also seemed somewhat normal.
Some pirates on the sea disdained attacking the weak, or rather, they didn't even consider the weak worth their attention.
If they chose targets, they would only go after the relatively stronger existences among the weak, whether in status or wealth. Those different from common civilians were their targets.
Was that kid that kind of pirate?
Zephyr reached up and touched his chest, saying fiercely, "Wanting this old man's life? It's still too early for that, kid!"
The power of that strange martial art was not small. Once hit, it possessed the force to destroy the body, akin to internal destruction.
But Haki techniques themselves included internal destruction. Adding that kid's strength, it became double the destruction. Even compared to internal destruction, that power felt even more special.
Truly a troublesome kid.
Letting him go back to the sea like this...
"And Garp's grandson too. None of them rest easy. The sea is always lively."
A sigh echoed through the port. Meanwhile, far from the port, in a house down a dark alley, a group of people had gathered.
"How much did we make?"
Link, chewing on a cigar, scanned the circle of surrounding black market merchants. On the ground before them were piled large amounts of Beli!
One merchant finished stacking the last pile of money and said excitedly, "The tally is done! We made a total of 1.2 billion Beli! We're rich!"
"1.2 billion…" Link's mouth curved into a smile. He was about to speak when he suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait, 1.2 billion? Doesn't that mean we only made a profit of 200 million Beli?! What's so great about getting rich like this!"
"But we sold the goods on the spot! From noon when the Natural Disaster Pirates started robbing until midnight now, we just finished distributing the last batch. In less than twelve hours, we recovered our costs and made a profit. That's already very good," a black market merchant said.
"But there are eighteen of us!" Link shouted. "That's only a little over eleven million Beli each!"
"Wh-what's wrong?"
The other black market merchants looked weakly at Link. "That amount isn't low."
Two hundred million Beli, divided among them, meant about eleven million per person. This amount was certainly a huge sum for civilians, and for them, it wasn't a small number either.
Ordinary black market merchants, receiving a batch of goods and reselling them, sometimes made a profit of several million, sometimes tens of millions, even twenty to thirty million Beli. This was normal. But the higher the profit, the longer it took them to sell.
Sometimes it even took two or three months or longer to move a batch of goods. So, earning over ten million in just a dozen hours was certainly not low.
But Link wasn't satisfied.
"If we had enough time with that batch of goods, each of us could have made at least a hundred million Beli! Absolutely!"
Link roared, "Sag sold it to us at fifty percent of the cost! Such a good money-making opportunity, ruined by Zephyr! Damn Zephyr, why did he have to come at this time!"
When Sag wanted to rob Loguetown, he was naturally afraid of the risk. But now that the goods were secured, he was dissatisfied again. The small amount of money earned now, compared to the potentially huge sum of Beli, felt like a loss!
No matter how much they earned, it felt like a loss!
"It's very good, Link. Don't think too much. An operation this big will definitely attract accountability. Have you forgotten? The Marines came looking for us just now. But we sold the goods to the townspeople. Once dispersed, those people can't investigate. We took no risks."
A black market merchant picked up a stack of Beli, inhaling the scent of the banknotes, and said blissfully, "Think about it: we made money, the property was returned to the populace, that Natural Disaster also got his loot and left, the Marines caught other pirates to report mission complete. Everyone has a beautiful future!"
"Yeah…"
A black market merchant nodded, then thought of something and asked foolishly, "Then who lost?"
Everyone: "..."
Then they all adopted thoughtful expressions, seemingly pondering this question deeply.
Finally, one black market merchant stated firmly, "No one lost!"
The others looked at him. The man continued, "The goods are still in the town. Those medicines and items were eventually going to be sold to people anyway. There's no difference whether we sell them or someone else does. Ultimately, they're still in this town; they haven't disappeared. So..."
He declared emphatically, "Everyone profited!"
"Oh! What a remarkable statement!" The black market merchants applauded one after another in agreement.
"Idiots!"
Veins popped on Link's angry forehead. He took a deep breath and walked towards the door. "Pack my money properly. Everyone disappear for a while, keep a low profile!"
If he stayed with these people any longer, he'd die of anger sooner or later.
But…
Walking outside, Link looked up at the stars revealed in the night sky, thought for a moment, shook his head, and sighed, "Seems there might be some logic to it…"
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