251 Crazy
As he felt the cold blade touch his neck, Straw Hat heard someone say in his left ear:
“Game over.”
Immediately, he looked into his spacious room, which was being illuminated by the faint glow of torches. There was no one else in the room, just him and the person threatening him. This surprised him, because he always made sure he was never alone, precisely so this kind of thing could never happen.
At that moment, he realized that he had let his guard down too much because of his desire to want to see an exciting S-Class fight, and this desire did not let him notice that he was in the middle of a chess game.
Letting an eccentric smile appear on his face, the Straw Hat held up both his arms. “All right, all right… I am surrendered, you win. What do you wish? I know you have no desire to kill me, otherwise you would have already torn my throat out, so don’t blackmail me.”
“Ha! You are shrewd.” Luke gave a slightly teasing compliment and started to turn around on Straw Hat’s throne to look him in the eye.
Seeing the fuzzy ears of the half-wolf, and his yellow eyes, the Straw Hat was surprised, but tried to suppress his expression. He could not even imagine what the herald of the Strogueher Family might wish from him, other than his death.
“Let me guess, you will imprison me in Death Row like you did Vinigo?” Straw Hat asked. In a few moments, he could only associate the half-wolf and the ambush in the Cage with a dismantling of the human trafficking network. This made sense, because there was a rumor that the half-wolf was the one who defeated Vinigo, and Vinigo was one of Straw Hat’s most loyal customers.
Standing in front of the red-eyed, unshaven man, still with the obsidian sword at his throat, Luke laughed a little. “Are you kidding? You think I’m some kind of good hero or vigilante? No, I’m not.”
At this point, the Straw Hat raised his eyebrows, confused. “So, what do you want?”
“I’m glad you asked… I heard through a friend that you and the Smakusa have been doing business for some time. I want to overthrow the Family Patriarch, and you will give me the tools to do it.”
Straw Hat didn’t even dare deny Luke’s statement, because of the confidence Luke had in his intonation he had already made it clear that it wasn’t just a suspicion, but a fact.
“You know I can’t do that.” The Cage King immediately dismissed.
“You know what I really know, I know how all your schemes work: human trafficking, underground fighting, fake betting, counterfeiting coins, money laundering, drug trafficking and thousands more. You have nowhere to run, nowhere to occur, because you know that you are not capable of even scratching me. You are a strategic, shadowy, clever mind, but any moment you dare to do, I have already foreseen.”
Knowing how correct the half-wolf’s words were, the Cage King just crossed his fingers and sighed, as he always did when he was stressed.
“Okay, I will, but you will owe me a favor.”
“Okay, I will owe you a favor, but only if you can promise never to go after anyone close to me.” Luke agreed, as he already had something planned.
The Straw Hat was surprised to have his request granted, after all he was at a total disadvantage and it would not be strange for the half-wolf to refuse.
“You wish only to know about Erick Smakusa?” He confirmed with Luke, before he began to speak.
“If you want to open your mouth so badly, tell me all about who burned down that shed in Oukiwa’s West Port, and also about who spread the rumors about ‘The Beast’.”
“Why, you started with just one request and I’ve already jumped back?” The Straw Hat looked seriously at the half-wolf, once again revealing his face hidden most of the time by the shadow of his hat.
Luke merely shrugged and stated, “You had the audacity to try to negotiate with a sword around your neck, and I had the shame to give in to your request, answer anything I ask.”
Somewhat surprised, Straw Hat nodded. “Okay, I will answer your requests, not because I am afraid of you, but because I find your motives for wanting Patriarch Smakusa noble.”
“And do you even know my motives?”
“Oh! Of course I know. A famous enemy of the demons that inhabit this continent, and a hero of the shadows who is trying in every way to stop a catastrophic war.”
At that moment, the half-wolf could not find the words to show his surprise.
“How do I know so much, you wonder? Well, being an experienced criminal has its rewards. Now, let’s get down to business…” The Straw Hat continued, and finally made a sign with his right hand, stretching out his long fingers and then putting them together like a war.
In front of the Straw Hat’s bust, a gray, semi-transparent square appeared. In this square, Luke could perfectly see item icons similar to those of his <Normal Inventory> skill, but he found it strange that the crime boss didn’t utter the name of an inventory skill, just a sign. Still, he didn’t care much and focused on what was happening in front of him.
Right after the inventory window was opened, Straw Hat quickly looked for a specific item with the icon of a silver-stamped scroll. All the icons were reduced representations of the stored item, so it was not difficult for him to find what he was looking for.
Before clicking on the item, Straw Hat realized that the half-wolf was snooping through all his items, despite the Skill leaving their names hidden.
The Cage King smiled, clicked on the item and said, “These Inventory Skills are useful, no? I just keep in my <Small Inventory> what I would like to take to the grave with me.” Then he tilted the parchment to place to pick up.
“That is, your greatest secrets…” Luke reflected, as he opened the delivered parchment to read it.
So, what the half-wolf read during that minute made him almost laugh, because all he needed to arrest Erick. Besides the signature of the Smakusa Patriarch himself at the bottom of the page, the document was about a series of agreements made between the Straw Hat, his henchmen and some members of the Smakusa Family in the past.
According to Straw Hat, this term had been signed a few weeks ago, when Straw Hat expressed his fear of being eventually betrayed or having his businesses dismantled by Erick Smakusa, as political propaganda.
To Patriarch Smakusa, this was an absurd fear, so he finally signed a document himself, which Straw Hat promised to keep.
“That will be enough.” stated Luke as he closed the parchment, then put it away in his inventory.
“All right, now we will move on to your second request, and believe it or not, this request will directly intertwine with the first and the third.”
“How so?”
“You know, right? The City Guards watch the ports, but they are special and separate divisions from the rest of the City Guards, because their boss is different. The city ones who bankroll it is Ayumi Strogueher, and the port guards who pay their salaries is Erick Smakusa.”
“Yes, I already knew that, go ahead.”
“Right. As I was saying, the port guards who gave all the tools for the civilians to burn the warehouse, as well as ways to cover them up, after all if they tracked the civilians, everyone would discover the corruption scheme behind these guards.”
“You mean to say that these people were killed?”
“Killed? No, of course not. All the civilians were duly captured afterwards, tortured, and by now they are probably being sold on another continent.”
At that moment, Luke grabbed Straw Hat by the collar and almost drove the sword into his chest. “You bastard, who gave you the right?”
“Oh! Are you nervous because they were sold into slavery or because you didn’t get a chance to take revenge with your own hands?” The Cage King asked smiling.
Luke just controlled himself, and threw him back into his throne seat, causing him to slam hard against the backrest. “Hurry up and finish everything, or are you really trying to buy time thinking your friends will arrive?” The half-wolf looked him in the eye, and Straw Hat was startled to have his idea discovered.