Why had Kurogane Ren, broke as he was, still tossed a gold bar to that guard outside?
Simple.
Out of everyone at the entrance, only that one guard had tried to warn him with genuine kindness.
Ren had always lived by one rule:
If you show me respect, I'll return it tenfold.
Besides, that gold bar hadn't even come out of his own pocket.
He'd just taken it off those pirates.
In fact, he'd taken more than one. The piece he gave away was the smallest one. The rest were already safely tucked into his own stash.
As for how he noticed the gold on them in the first place...
Ren could use Observation Haki to count millions of Beli in seconds. Picking out a couple of hidden gold bars was child's play.
And why was he so good at that?
Only one answer.
Practice.
Over the past few years, Ren had done all kinds of "special training." One of them involved blindfolding himself while over a hundred beautiful women hid little objects on their bodies. Then he had to rely only on Observation Haki to find and grab them.
It had been... an extremely effective training method.
Absolutely effective.
Definitely not because he got to take advantage of the opportunity and get handsy.
Definitely not.
With that righteous thought in mind, Ren strolled deeper into the auction house.
The moment he stepped inside, a wave of noise hit him head-on.
"Four hundred thousand Beli!"
"I bid four hundred fifty thousand!"
"Hah! You think you can take it for that? Five hundred thousand!"
Ren looked toward the center stage.
A jeweled necklace glittered beneath the lights, its gemstones sparkling brilliantly. The bidders below were going red in the face over it.
"Six hundred thousand, going once!"
"Six hundred thousand, going twice!"
"Six hundred thousand, sold!"
The auctioneer slammed his gavel down and beamed.
"Congratulations to this gentleman for winning the Rainbow Heart Necklace for six hundred thousand Beli!"
"Next up, we have a special item from Caninga Island—its famous premium beer! A total of ten barrels!"
At his signal, ten wooden barrels were rolled out onto the stage.
The entire auction hall instantly grew louder.
"Finally! I'm taking this batch no matter what!"
"Dream on. You got it last month. This time it's mine!"
"Anyone who dares bid against me is asking for trouble!"
"Try me!"
Ren stared blankly at the crowd.
They were about to start a war... over beer?
He looked at the barrels again.
They were just ordinary wooden beer casks.
Was it really that serious?
Then a loud, booming laugh rang out from somewhere ahead.
"Kuahaha! I'm getting those barrels no matter what! Old man's birthday is coming up, and I'm giving them to him as a gift!"
Ren's eyes narrowed slightly.
That voice...
He looked over and instantly spotted a very distinctive figure sitting in the crowd with his back to him.
Pink hair.
A hanging tongue.
A black spider tattoo on his head.
Ren recognized him at once.
Squard.
One of Whitebeard's allied captains.
That immediately piqued Ren's curiosity.
Squard was active in the New World. He normally had no reason to appear in the first half of the Grand Line. For him to show up here just for a few barrels of beer...
This Caninga Island brew had to be something special.
The auctioneer raised his voice again.
"Ten barrels of premium Caninga Island beer! Starting bid—one hundred thousand Beli! Each raise must be no less than ten thousand!"
"I bid two hundred thousand!"
"Three hundred thousand!"
The room exploded into another bidding frenzy.
Ren's mouth twitched.
These people were insane.
One hundred thousand Beli for ten barrels was already outrageous.
And these lunatics were doubling it without blinking.
That wasn't just overpriced.
That was criminal.
Now even Ren was getting curious. He kind of wanted to try the beer himself.
Then he remembered the state of his wallet.
...Forget it.
Still, the name Caninga Island sounded strangely familiar. Ren was sure he'd heard it somewhere before, but no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't place it.
While the auction carried on, inside the auction house office, the mood was completely different.
A group of employees were frantically digging through stacks upon stacks of bounty posters.
A sharply dressed man in a fine suit sat nearby, sipping red wine while watching them work. Beside him stood the same guard who had received Ren's gold bar.
This man was Harry, the manager of the auction house.
A short while ago, the guard had reported that a terrifyingly strong man had entered the auction house—someone who had knocked out a pirate worth fifty-five million Beli with a single punch.
The problem was, none of the guards recognized him.
Fortunately, the man had left behind one clue.
Check the bounty posters from three years ago.
That was enough to make Harry nervous.
A powerful figure had been blocked at his door.
If that person chose to make trouble, things could get ugly very quickly.
Thankfully, so far, the man seemed easygoing.
"Found it!"
One of the staff suddenly shouted.
Harry immediately looked at the guard.
"Take a look. Is this him?"
The guard hurried over, glanced at the poster, and nodded at once.
"It's him, Manager. That's the one."
"Bring it here."
Harry took the poster and compared it with the surveillance image.
The face was a little leaner now.
A little darker too.
But it was definitely the same person.
Then Harry looked at the bounty amount.
Five thousand?
No.
He blinked and counted again carefully.
Fifty thousand Beli.
He counted a second time.
And a third.
Still fifty thousand.
Harry almost spat out his wine.
A man who could one-shot a fifty-five million pirate... had a bounty of fifty thousand Beli?
Did that even count as being wanted?
At that price, anything in his auction house was worth more than the man's head.
Harry stared at the monitor again.
On-screen, Ren suddenly lifted his head, smiled toward the surveillance Den Den Mushi, and even gave it a little wave.
Harry froze.
The hidden surveillance system was one of the auction house's greatest secrets. Those Den Den Mushi were carefully disguised and installed in concealed positions. In all the years this place had operated, no one had ever discovered them.
And yet this man had noticed one at a glance.
Harry felt a cold sweat run down his back.
He lowered his eyes to the old poster again.
"Worlds Pirate Crew Captain... Lucky Ren... bounty fifty thousand Beli..."
"Worlds Pirate Crew..."
That name tugged at something in his memory.
Harry's face suddenly changed.
He threw aside his wine, rushed into the pile of bounty posters himself, and began flipping through them at frantic speed.
"Manager! What are you looking for? Let us—"
But Harry ignored them.
His hands moved faster and faster.
Then, finally, he found what he wanted.
Two posters.
He stared at them, and his lips trembled.
"Two hundred and fifty million..."
"Four hundred million..."
The posters in his hands were Ren's updated bounty and Teresa's.
Harry swallowed hard.
Then he spun around and shouted, "Bring that gentleman to the VIP section immediately! Treat him with the highest courtesy!"
The employees were stunned for a second.
Harry roared, "Move! If he's offended, don't think any of you will be the only ones punished. I'll be dragged down with you!"
That lit a fire under everyone.
They sprang into action.
Back in the auction hall, the beer bidding had finally ended.
"Five million two hundred forty thousand Beli—sold!"
Squard won the ten barrels.
The moment the gavel came down, he brought his men up at once, collected the barrels himself, and left like someone was about to rob him.
Ren could only shake his head.
Ten barrels. Maybe a thousand jin total.
For monsters who could drink hundreds of jin in a single meal, that was barely enough to last a day.
And yet it had sold for 5.24 million Beli.
More than five thousand Beli per jin.
That wasn't beer.
That was liquid gold.
The auctioneer's expression turned mysterious.
"Ladies and gentlemen... next comes the slave auction segment."
The entire hall erupted.
A wave of excitement swept through the room.
Then the first slave was brought out.
And, strangely, the excitement died just as fast.
"Tch..."
"A lousy old man?"
"What a waste."
The crowd was visibly disappointed.
But Ren's lips slowly curled into a smile.
On the stage stood an old man with glasses.
Ordinary clothes.
Ordinary posture.
Ordinary face.
But Ren recognized him in an instant.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he murmured under his breath—
"The Dark King... Rayleigh."