The sudden appearance of a baby left the Roger Pirates at a loss.
"What do we do?" Gaban squatted in front of the chest, looking at the babbling Shanks, completely unsure.
The ship was full of rough men. Ask them to fight and kill—no problem at all. Ask them to take care of a baby? Not a single one had any experience.
"Why don't we send him back? Find a place and hand him over to the Marines? We're pirates, sure, but kidnapping a baby is a bit low—even if he's a Celestial Dragon," Spencer pondered.
Hearing that, Gaban seemed somewhat tempted and turned to Valthior. "What do you think?"
"This child's mother… was killed by his own father," Valthior raised a brow and said.
The moment those words fell, the entire crew froze.
Rayleigh spoke first, "His father killed his mother?! That's inhuman!"
"And if we send the kid back, what kind of life would he have?" Gaban added.
"Is that kind of thing normal among you Celestial Dragons?" Spencer asked curiously.
As the intelligence officer, he was naturally interested in such matters. Information about Celestial Dragons was usually very hard for him to obtain.
"I wouldn't say 'normal,' but it's not exactly unheard of," Valthior said calmly. "For example, my own mother—when my father died before I turned two, she and a large number of his wives were all buried with him. Ever since I became aware, I've had no parents."
That sudden reveal made everyone feel a bit uncomfortable.
"You Celestial Dragons are truly terrifying…" Shakky sighed first.
At that moment, Roger—who had been silent—seemed to make a decision. Looking at Shanks in the chest, he slowly reached out and picked him up, grinning:
"This might sound strange, but I feel like this kid has some kind of fate with us. Like destiny brought us together here. What do you say—should we raise him? Let him grow up on the ship?"
"Hey, don't forget what we're here for. We're pirates, not babysitters," Gaban scratched his head.
"Yeah, Captain Roger. And none of us have experience raising a kid. Who's going to take care of him—you?" the helmsman, Donquino, said with a pipe in his mouth.
"Isn't Shakky here? Let her handle it for now. We'll learn along the way. By the time she leaves the ship, we should've figured it out," Roger said, glancing at Shakky.
A chorus of objections followed, but Roger was as stubborn as ever—once he made up his mind, nothing could change it.
Truth be told, the moment he said that first sentence, everyone already knew this outcome was inevitable.
Their captain was stubborn and never listened to persuasion. Once he decided something, all they could do was follow him through to the end.
And so, Shanks was kept on board.
As for Shakky, she planned to disembark at Amazon Lily, but there was no rush. Whenever the Roger Pirates passed by, they'd drop her off.
In the meantime, she intended to enjoy her time on the ship with Rayleigh.
Thanks to the unique culture of Amazon Lily, even though Shakky had never been a mother, she had plenty of experience with childcare. So for now, Shanks would be under her care.
After Shakky carried Shanks into the cabin, the crew quickly began tallying their spoils.
The treasure from God Valley was extremely valuable—after all, they were Celestial Dragons' possessions. Ordinary goods would never have been used as prizes.
Just one chest of gold and jewels was worth at least a billion Berries.
This haul made the Roger Pirates incredibly rich. A rough estimate put their total gains at over 20 billion Berries.
"Hahaha! We're rich!" Roger laughed excitedly, tossing gold coins into the air and watching them rain down.
"With this much money, we could spend a lifetime without running out!" one crewmate said.
"Let's disband! There are only seventeen of us—split it up and each of us gets over a billion. That's enough to live the rest of our lives in luxury!" another chimed in.
At its peak, the Roger Pirates had thirty-two members, including Douglas Bullet, Kozuki Oden, Shanks, and Buggy.
But right now, including Valthior, there were only seventeen.
Captain Roger, first mate Rayleigh, navigator Gaban, tactician Moon Isaac Jr., intelligence officer Spencer, gunner Petermoo, musician Jackson Banner, shipwright Blumarine, scholar Valthior, and several combatants.
"Is a billion or so really enough for the rest of your life?" Rayleigh stroked his chin thoughtfully.
The moment he said that, everyone stared at him in disbelief.
We were joking… and you're actually considering it seriously?
"You bastard! If you marry into Shakky's family, you'll basically be royalty on Amazon Lily—why would you care about money? You don't get a share!" Roger cursed.
"This guy really wants to run off into the sunset with Shakky, huh? Trying to ditch us!" Gaban fanned the flames.
"A billion or so? That's nothing. You bunch of country bumpkins—have some ambition, will you? Back in Mary Geoise, I could spend over a billion in just a few days…" Valthior leaned against the mast, looking smug.
Not every Celestial Dragon could spend money like Valthior.
But he was special—the heir of the Jaygarcia family. Saturn didn't bother managing things, and Valthior, who had long planned to leave Mary Geoise, spent money recklessly like it wasn't his.
If he suddenly felt like eating giant shrimp from the North Blue, he'd casually spend a few million Berries to have them delivered fresh at top speed.
His monthly expenses on tea and alcohol alone exceeded a billion Berries.
The lifestyle of the "heavens" was something Roger and the others simply couldn't imagine.
"You can spend over a billion in a few days?!" Roger jumped up, staring at Valthior in disbelief. "Do you usually eat gold rice and drink silver water?"
"Drink what?" Valthior was startled by that phrasing and waved his hands quickly. "Don't say such nonsense, I'm not that twisted."
Still, he couldn't resist showing off.
Pointing at the silver clasp in his neatly styled hair, he said, "This hairpiece was a tribute from the royal family of Visanalia in the West Blue—worth around 900 million. This brooch was crafted by Master Baronia, known as the 'Divine Artisan'—worth over 3 billion Berries. This black noble knight outfit was handmade by my family's tailor—hard to price, but probably worth 3 to 5 billion if sold. And these boots…"
As Valthior went on and on, the Roger Pirates slowly fell into a dazed, slack-jawed state.
"A… a…" they mumbled, utterly stunned.
After a while, Gaban finally snapped back to his senses and looked at Valthior.
"So you're saying… all the treasure we risked our lives to steal at God Valley isn't even worth as much as what you're wearing?"
"Probably not? Most of what I'm wearing is custom-made and not even on the market, so it's hard to measure in Berries," Valthior smacked his lips.
"Damn it… rich people are the worst!" Rayleigh said with envy.
"So a tiny fraction of people rule the entire sea and control most of the wealth…" Spencer sighed. "I never really felt it before, but now I've seen it firsthand."
Just as Spencer said—ordinary people might work their entire lives and still not earn enough to match the cost of a single drink Valthior had in Mary Geoise.
That's how unfair the world was.
And maybe not just this world.
What had moments ago been excitement over 20 billion Berries now felt strangely hollow after Valthior's display.
Soon, several crewmates began packing up the treasure into chests, preparing to sell it off at the next island.
Meanwhile, Roger, Gaban, and Rayleigh gathered around Valthior.
"Even though we don't think you're lying, this is important to us," Roger said. "Come with us and decipher some ancient scripts we've found recently. Prove your abilities. No problem, right?"
Valthior grinned confidently.
"No problem. That's exactly my specialty."
...
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