"Well done, Robin! We finally caught this little guy."
Seeing this little creature scattering cotton being caught, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The volume of cotton in the room had far exceeded that of the Whimsicott, and the scholars found it hard to comprehend how this had happened.
After all, such a thing wasn't scientific. In fact, it wasn't scientific at all; strictly speaking, it belonged to theology.
The caught Whimsicott felt a sense of defeat and stopped scattering cotton, understanding that losing meant no more pranks for now.
"What do we do with it?"
"What else? We send it over to them; it even has a tag on it. On the plus side, we're not running out of cotton anymore. We can make a few more quilts for sure."
They weren't just useless researchers. These scholars had past experiences exploring history and had mastered some survival skills.
Some life hacks wouldn't trouble them either.
"Producing cotton and generating electricity, these creatures are really peculiar."
"They're called Pokemon. There's even an island below where they produce cream," Robin shared her experiences from Ghost Island, which piqued the scholars' curiosity about Pokemon even more.
The Whimsicott didn't stay long and was soon taken back by the people from the ranch, and after helping to clean up the cotton, Robin returned to her residence with Olvia.
After a two-day delay, Kaidou also returned to Ghost Island with Queen and Emboar. Everything was as usual, and there were more Pokemon on Ghost Island and in Wano Kuni.
Arceus or Kaidou periodically set sail in search of plates, and the operations of the subordinates had not stopped, although they hadn't found anything for the time being.
After the escape of the Golden Lion, which made the Navy lose face, they finally had a chance to regain some honor. Patrick Redfield, captured!
The event made headlines for three consecutive days, with the Navy and the World Government tirelessly promoting it.
"The Solitary Red," "The Red Earl" was on par with the likes of the Golden Lion and Whitebeard, renowned pirates of Roger's era.
Solitary, without companions, which made capturing him a challenging task for the Navy.
After all, it meant he had no worries about his back, and a failed capture might lead to his revenge; insufficient combat power couldn't take him down, and too much might not wait for him.
However, having fewer people also had its drawbacks; he couldn't withstand a war of attrition. After considerable effort by the Navy, they finally found traces of Redfield.
Then Navy Admiral, known as Steel Bone, engaged in a days-long battle with him; both were exhausted, but Redfield was alone, while Steel Bone had the entire Navy behind him.
Eventually, the accompanying Garp successfully apprehended Redfield and sent him to prison, which was a rare victory for the Navy lately.
However, the achievements weren't great; the rise of pirates hadn't been curbed. Without solving the root problem, capturing more people was futile.
Among them, the number of power-wielding criminals was on the rise; not only the Navy, but some great pirates and local kingdoms started purchasing Seastone from the Black Market, as they also had a demand for it.
Now, the price of Seastone in the Black Market had tripled, and Black Market merchants had no morals - whoever paid more was right, making Kaidou, the largest Seastone supplier, increasingly important.
According to the intelligence department's analysis of Kaidou, they finally turned their attention to the Heavenly Celestial Dragons in Mary Geoise.
...
Mary Geoise, the city where the Heavenly Celestial Dragons reside: a Heavenly Celestial Dragon was strolling around, mainly to show off his newly acquired slaves.
With dark green hair styled in the way favored by the Heavenly Celestial Dragons, he wore what looked like a spacesuit, though without a helmet.
They only wore helmets because they disdained breathing the same air as ordinary people; it was different here.
"Saint Mjosgard, an official from the World Government is here to see you."
A World Government agent bowed at 90 degrees beside Mjosgard, explaining the situation very humbly. It's Saint for males and Palace for females, as a term of respect among the Heavenly Celestial Dragons.
Working here was no good task; currently, they were still officials, but they might end up dead or enslaved if things went wrong.
"Huh? What does that group want with this young master? My slaves recently died, and I'm about to replenish them."
"It's like this, Saint Mjosgard, they happen to have brought what you need."
"Is that so? Then let's go and check it out, you waste, get up quickly!"
He said, whipping the slave beneath him. Using strong people as mounts was also a hobby of the Heavenly Celestial Dragons; lives in this city were mere consumables with slaves dying from play every day and new ones brought in.
Then Mjosgard met the official, who had a member of the Knight Order of God behind him, ensuring the official's safety there.
Ordinary staff could be replaced at will, but it wasn't easy to replace someone with a certain status within such a department due to the mess involved in assessing their credibility.
The Knight Order of God was a special protective force for the Heavenly Celestial Dragons, led by one of them. They were responsible not only for the Dragons' safety but also for handling any Dragon breaking internal discipline.
Mjosgard wasn't particularly happy to see them.
"What do you want from this young master?"
"It's like this, Saint Mjosgard, we heard you are collecting fishman slaves, and we happen to have a batch of high-quality fishman slaves. We'd like to exchange something with you for them."
This was one of Mjosgard's interests; he had a special fondness for fishman slaves. Of course, mermaid slaves were even better, but he hadn't seen any of those this time. However, he was satisfied with the number of strong fishmen.
"Hmm, not bad, this young master is quite satisfied. So what do you want? How about two hundred million Belly?"
"Saint Mjosgard, through our investigation, it turns out that a mysterious stone was in Honagu's Treasure Vault. After he gave up his status as a Heavenly Celestial Dragon, that portion of his assets was divided among other members of the Donquixote family, and that stone is in your possession."
"Oh? That, it's probably in the Treasure Vault. You can find it yourself; it's not much use anyways. Exchanging it for these slaves seems reasonable."
Mjosgard didn't make things difficult in this regard, easing the World Government officials' tension...