238 Pathless?
“So, what was the name on the contract this man found?” Ynosuke asked, curious, after Luke told everyone how the investigation after Vinigo’s arrest went.
In that living room, everyone stared at the half-wolf with anxious stares, waiting for his answer. Then he got up from the couch with a serious expression from the couch and pulled the yellowish paper from a pocket of his pants.
“Unfortunately, in this contract there is not the information we all expected, there is no mention of Erick Smakusa, nor any other member of his Family.” Luke clarified.
At that moment, the sketches of smiles on everyone’s faces instantly vanished. All they needed was the slightest proof of a connection to the Patriarch of the Smakusa.
“Hey, so why did you tell them that Namor claimed there was a signature that could generate scandals? We need Erick’s signature or some family member of his, otherwise the investigation at the Academy will have been useless.” Shiro stated.
The Berserker was obviously confused, as their main goal was to take down the head of the Smakusa Family and thus take the sea of the Broteforge Empire from the clutches of the demons.
In fact, they were almost running against a deadline they didn’t know what it was. At any moment, the Melki could strike war without even a formal declaration, and since the Emperor of Broteforge was not available for hearings at the moment, they had to do everything to weaken the Demons and their allies in the Broteforge Empire.
When questioned by Shiro, Luke turned the letter over and showed it to everyone. “It’s certainly not news not to be the signature of the Patriarch of the Smakusa, but we’re not totally bewildered either.” Luke stated.
At the bottom of the yellowed page, everyone could see Vinigo’s signature and next to it a stamp illustrating the shape of a hat.
Nathalia, Shiro, Martha and Alexis didn’t recognize that signature, but Ayumi and the rest of the half-wolf gang recognized that on the spot.
“Straw Hat.” They stated simultaneously.
At that moment, everyone who didn’t understand what was so alarming about the stamp finally understood, after all there was no way, they couldn’t recognize the title of one of the most dangerous men in all of Oukiwa, one of the crime bosses and one of the foundations that supported the black market.
“He was the one who sold the slaves to Vinigo, I don’t claim that it was personally, because even I who lived my entire life in the Lower Town didn’t see him even once. Maybe you were a henchman of his, but since Vinigo seemed to be a repeat customer, there is still the possibility that they were partners.” Luke pleaded to continue the discussion, since everyone was tense just hearing the title of the notorious criminal.
“Wait a second… now it all makes sense.” Ayumi stated, getting up from the couch with a startled expression. “Straw Hat is one of the biggest slavers in the entire continent, and the City Guard has tried several ways to find him. Although they have found many depots in many different locations and therefore freed many slaves, they have never been able to find the way he kidnapped these people to sell… The sea, the sea is the answer.”
“That makes sense! And now that I remembered, there were a few paragraphs about it in Vinigo’s Diary, he described that he used to go to the East Port of Oukiwa to buy his slaves!” Meredith recounted, not believing that she had almost forgotten such a crucial piece of information.
“Okay, okay. But are you trying to say that Straw Hat has involvement with the pirates who sold the slaves?” John inquired, because to him Straw Hat lived in Oukiwa, since he had quite a bit of influence and henchmen transiting in a specific part between Middle and Lower Town.
“Involvement? I wouldn’t doubt it if Straw Hat was a pirate. I mean, that would explain why people never see him in Oukiwa.” John fantasized as he always did.
“No, I think he lives in Oukiwa. He just doesn’t appear in public much, after all, he needs to run his business around town and doing that from the high seas is impossible.” Luke sat down in the armchair behind him and spoke.
Ayumi crossed her very long legs and began to analyze the scenario they were set in.
“Well, in the end all the factors in the demon letter are really connected, not in the way we expected, but somehow yes. As much as Vinigo and Erick Smakusa didn’t come into contact with each other with this Arzen guy as an intermediary, the Sick Doctor who was studying Chimeras still had indirect relations with the Patriarch. That is, assuming Erick is even allowing pirate slave-trading ships to enter Oukiwa’s maritime territory.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what’s going on.” Meredith stated as she threw her arms back and lounged on that couch.
“All right, but we only have the location of the East Port as the place where these things occur, don’t we? We have no schedules and no dates as to when these slave activities occur. How do we move forward in this situation?” Nathalia stood up from the couch and asked everyone.
The white-haired Elf raised her hand to answer. “I believe I speak for everyone that we have two options: partner with the city guards or set up a vigil at the port until we intercept this slave trading scheme. In Vinigo’s journal weren’t there descriptions of what these purchases were like?” She asked Meredith and Luke, the only two who could see some of the diary.
The half-wolf read a few pages of the diary while he was in a carriage escorting Vinigo to the Guild in the Upper City, which was where he would stay until his transfer to death row was done, which was supposed to take six months.
Upon questioning, Luke and Meredith tried to search their memories about this part, but there was nothing more than bizarre descriptions of how Vinigo chose the people he would buy.
So, the two half-beasts simply denied Ayumi with their heads.
Just then, Martha raised her right hand to speak, surprising everyone. “Excuse me, sorry to disturb your all-important meeting. But I wanted to ask you something, have you guys ever thought about dividing forces and focusing on two different plans, two fronts of action? I dare say that although this is an unusual group, we have some really great people here, it wouldn’t be hard to act with the city guards and set up a vigil at the same time.”