Chapter Ninety-Two: The Daughter of the Sea and a Good Man

Although they belong to the same race, there is a clear difference between merfolk and fish-men, especially in appearance. To put it simply: not every mermaid is cute, but anything cute is surely a mermaid.

A fish tail below, a graceful and full figure above, delicate features, soft arms, slender fingertips... creatures that can be described with words like these are mermaids.

Or, to be more precise, female mermaids.

As for fish-men, when they grow up they are usually fierce and grotesque. The Sun Pirates, now roaming the seas in all directions, are typical examples. The handsome one among them is the "Knight of the Sea," Jinbe; and fish-men handsomer than Jinbe... there are none.

Unlike the fish-men, whose mobility is off the charts, mermaids with pleasing looks usually remain in Fish-Man Island, ten thousand meters beneath the sea. They are almost never seen on the surface, which makes them extremely difficult to capture and thus exceptionally rare treasures.

For that very reason, the price of a mermaid is enough to drive traffickers mad... whether openly or in secret, at any auction the opening bid for a female mermaid is never below seventy million, and the average final price ranges from one hundred fifty million to two hundred million.

So the value of the eleven mermaids before Qiu Bai was well over a billion, beyond any doubt.

Because their kind is scarce and collectively discriminated against by humans... more than a century ago, under the World Government's classification, fish-men and merfolk were both placed under "fish," and so they are a remarkably united race. Most of them, even those fish-men who are absolute villains to humans, cherish their kin deeply.

So Qiu Bai truly could not imagine what method those traffickers had used to capture so many mermaids. No matter how much he wracked his brain, he could not figure it out, and they certainly would never tell him such a thing.

Had the mermaids been duped by a fake travel group? Was that possible?

In the end, it was nothing more than "people die for wealth." It was easy to foresee that once their actions were exposed, the fish-men would tear them to pieces.

A fish-man's physical strength is ten times that of a human, and in the deep sea, humans are utterly helpless against them. No matter how capable a person may be, they still cannot breathe underwater, while fish-men can. For them, killing humans who venture into Fish-Man Island is as easy as breathing.

As for why this gang of traffickers had not "sold the goods" themselves, but instead had packed the mermaids up and handed them over to Donquixote Doflamingo, Qiu Bai could understand that well enough.

Auctioning mermaids could bring immense profit, but not just anyone could handle it. In market terms, this was probably called production being unable to keep up with distribution.

Yes. Distribution reigns supreme.

As long as one set aside comfort, humans, or mermaids, actually did not take up much space at all. Exactly how many could be crammed into a cramped enclosure, one really could not say without seeing it for oneself. Qiu Bai made a show of inspecting the mermaids in the cage, and after declaring that there was nothing wrong with them, the traffickers' ship fled at full speed.

"You foolish pirates," Qiu Bai said, contemptuously and venomously spitting into the sea as he watched the vessel recede. "Didn’t you know that abducting women and children ends badly?"

He had forgotten, however, that not long ago he had done the same thing himself, and therefore stood within the range of that very curse.

Still, that was neither here nor there. In this age, anyone who went to sea had already prepared themselves for a bad end, Qiu Bai included, reckless as he was.

After cursing them out and confirming that they had truly gone, Qiu Bai turned back. Then he reached his hand toward the cage, his movements entirely in line with the professional standards of a veteran lowlife.

As expected, his wrist was stopped by Ain.

"Ahem, curiosity. Pure curiosity."

Such a feeble excuse would only make others despise him more. But in truth... well, Qiu Bai really was only curious. He had never seen such a mysterious creature as a mermaid, so from the standpoint of physiology and biology, he wanted to feel the difference between a mermaid's scales and a fish's scales—whether they were just as slick and pleasant to the touch.

It was much like someone wondering how mermaids went to the bathroom. A purely academic exchange.

But in practice, it was the same as walking up and touching a girl's thigh. Come on, did you even discuss the price first?

In any case, Qiu Bai's action left the mermaids, who had not dared make a sound, panicked and at a loss. They kept shrinking back in the narrow cage... and only at such a moment could one truly feel that they were alive.

By Qiu Bai's judgment, these mermaids were between fourteen and twenty-four years old, and their fate could be called tragic.

From their own perspective, what awaited them next could only be even more tragic.

Among them, however, there was one who acted quite out of the ordinary. She looked a little older, and though she too was retreating, she insisted on standing in front of all her kindred, shielding them behind her... It was clear she was afraid, but she chose to do it anyway.

"Oh? And what is your name, mermaid lady?" It was good to have someone willing to take responsibility for something, and Qiu Bai immediately asked her name.

"...Lily. My name is Lily." Her voice was beautiful... after all, mermaids were not famous only for their looks, but for their enchanting songs.

"Then, Miss Lily, do you know the Sun Pirates?" Meeting a mermaid was a dream for many men, even if he was neither a gentleman nor a gentleman-in-training. But this was hardly the time for jokes, so after some thought, Qiu Bai decided to be direct.

The mermaid named Lily shook her head. She did not know why Qiu Bai would ask such a thing, but she truly did not know the Sun Pirates. When they were captured, Fisher Tiger probably had not yet successfully climbed the wall.

Qiu Bai reached back, took the newspaper and map Ain handed him, and spread them open. The newspaper showed a fish-man's photograph.

"You should know Fisher Tiger and Jinbe from Fish-Man Street, right? The Sun Pirates are the pirate crew of your kin, and according to these reports, they should now be operating between the waters west of Water Seven and Gourmet Island. What you need to do next is find a place to hide, then figure out a way to pass the message to Tiger and the others. After that, I'm sure your kin will come to rescue you."

Qiu Bai pointed at several places on the map as he spoke.

The first half of the Grand Line has five routes. Qiu Bai and the others were now on the middle route, while Gourmet Island lay on the far-left route, the one closest to the Calm Belt.

The distance did not seem absurdly far, but the problem was that due to magnetic fields, once one chose a route at the entrance to the Grand Line, one could not change it midway.

As for Water Seven, it was a rather special place. First, from that island onward, the routes merged again; second, it was the starting station of the Sea Train, and in the future would become a transfer hub connecting islands along different routes... The Sea Train was already nearly complete, and at this point the "Rocket Man" was probably entering its final stage of preparation.

Still, that would not stump the Sun Pirates. That pirate crew absolutely had the ability to cross routes. In fact, even if their ship were destroyed, the fish-men alone could swim across.

As for the means of relaying the message... that was not a problem either. Mermaids and fish-men basically all had the ability to control schools of fish over long distances.

So although the sea was vast, if one cast a net and searched using fish schools, one would eventually find the Sun Pirates. Humans and merfolk differ by several orders of magnitude in their abilities at sea. From that perspective, the fish-men's evolution really did surpass that of humans.

"Remember, you must hide well. If you don't want to be captured again, don't try to run around on your own, and don't trust anyone. You should have learned that much already. And as for returning to Fish-Man Island... you'd best not try it by yourselves. Do your best to contact your kin."

"W-what do you mean?" Lily could of course understand what Qiu Bai was saying, but she simply found it hard to believe.

A turning point? Could there really be such a good thing?

"Yes... what do I mean?" Qiu Bai repeated the question, then, without warning, brought down a blade and split the cage apart.

The mermaids shrieked.

"Hm, have you ever heard a saying? 'Mermaid in writing, righteousness in reading'... in the end, I'm still a good person." Qiu Bai once again tried to reclaim his humanity.

"But after this, will you develop something called Stockholm syndrome? I'm a little curious."

But then he exposed himself again.

This matter... how to explain it to Doflamingo was the real problem. He certainly would not laugh and say, cheerfully, that ten billion had just flown away and that was that.