Chapter 85: The Death of Roland Gale
Roland Gale walked along the main street of Bibbico Island, critiquing every restaurant he passed along the way.
To live up to his noble status, Roland Gale was carefully selecting a restaurant. The ambiance had to be elegant, the decor luxurious, the waitstaff beautiful—these were all conditions for his choice of dining.
This was what you'd call showing off despite being broke. Even in a foreign place, he was still putting on airs about his status...
However, Roland Gale forgot that most of the restaurants on this island catered to pirates. What good was luxurious decor? So after searching for a while, he still hadn't found a satisfactory restaurant.
Just as he reached a corner of an alley and was about to turn, a pair of hands suddenly reached out from the side. One hand covered his mouth, while the other grabbed him and yanked him hard, pulling him into the alley.
At first, Roland Gale didn't realize what was happening. But when he saw more than a dozen ugly, ferocious-looking men gathered in the alley, even an idiot would understand the situation!
"Y-you... what do you want?" Roland Gale was so frightened by their malicious stares that he nearly wet himself. He knew he had run into pirates.
Instinctively, he clutched his backpack tightly.
Inside his backpack, aside from the strange fruit he had fished out of the sea earlier, there was only money—the portion of his earnings left after selling his goods. When danger struck, his first thought was to protect his property.
This was a natural human reflex, but what he didn't know was that this very action made the eyes of the Pike Pirates surrounding him light up.
"Did you catch him?"
A voice came from the alley entrance. The pirates surrounding Roland Gale immediately made way. When a fat, ugly man appeared in front of Roland Gale while picking his nose, the surrounding pirates respectfully addressed him: "Captain!"
This fat man was the captain of the Pike Pirates, Pikes, a Porcupine Fruit user.
At the moment, he hadn't activated his Devil Fruit power, so the sharp quills on his back weren't visible. Zoan-type fruit users typically had several forms: the basic three being human form, half-human-half-beast form, and full beast form. Pikes was currently in human form. Wearing a dirty captain's coat, he walked over, crouched down with some effort, and grinned at Roland Gale, who had fallen to the ground in terror.
The strong odor from Pikes' mouth and his yellowed teeth nearly made Roland Gale faint.
Reaching out with a hairy hand, Pikes patted Roland Gale's face a few times and asked, "You're from that fleet at Reverse Mountain, right? Not bad, dressed so cleanly—you must be some kind of leader, huh?"
Pikes was a true pirate—dirty, treacherous, cunning, and highly experienced in robbery.
The real reason their pirate ship had fled earlier was to avoid a direct confrontation. They had immediately recognized that fleet as a merchant convoy. Since someone capable of flying slashes appeared on such a fleet, they were clearly a guard. Although Pikes was a Devil Fruit user, his crew members weren't. Engaging in battle might result in heavy casualties for his pirate group.
So Pikes decided to lie low for a while. He knew that the guards hired by merchant convoys were temporary; they might leave at any time. Once the guards were gone, the convoy would be like a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered in Pikes' eyes.
Of course, Pikes couldn't be sure whether the skilled swordsman on that ship would return with the convoy. But as luck would have it, the route the Pike Pirates chose happened to be the same as the convoy's, and they arrived at Bibbico Island a bit earlier.
Because of this, the Pike Pirates' members were freely roaming the island. When Ian's fleet docked, they were immediately spotted by the pirate crew.
Recognizing this fleet as the one they had clashed with at Reverse Mountain, the pirate members quickly reported this to their leader, Pikes.
What followed was predictable. Pikes immediately arranged for men to keep a distant watch on the convoy, instructing them to kidnap one or two crew members if possible to gather information about the convoy.
Unfortunately, while the other sailors left in groups, the ostracized Roland Gale left the ship alone.
Who else would they kidnap but him?
Lacking any understanding of the outside world, how could Roland Gale know the dangers of this place? Without even basic common sense, he dared to go ashore alone. If he had been strong enough, it might have been fine, but he was just a spoiled noble brat. So when the Pike Pirates kidnapped him, they didn't waste any effort—they caught him that easily.
So simple that even the pirate members found it hard to believe...
When he realized the person before him was from the vicious pirate group he had encountered at Reverse Mountain, Roland Gale panicked. He no longer cared about his money and stammered, "I-if you want money... I can give it to you... just... just let me go!"
But instead of answering, Pikes suddenly produced a sharp quill in his hand. The quill easily pierced through Roland Gale's leg, pinning his thigh to the ground.
"Ah!!!" Roland Gale screamed in pain, but Pikes remained unmoved, sneering, "Who said I'd take it from you? We're pirates—can't we just take it ourselves?"
The surrounding pirates burst into laughter. They loved watching their captain torture people.
Blood gushed from the pierced spot on his thigh. Roland Gale was drenched in sweat from the pain. He now felt nothing but regret: he should have gone with Bill and that pirate hunter! If that pirate hunter had been there, how could he have been caught by these pirates?
Just as he was thinking this, he felt a tug and his backpack was snatched away.
A Pike Pirate grunt grabbed Roland Gale's backpack, threw it on the ground, and began rummaging through it roughly.
"Hey? What's this?" The grunt pulled out a strange fruit from the backpack and muttered in confusion.
"We saw this guy fish something out of the sea earlier—this must be it!" explained the two pirates who had been watching earlier.
The grunts were discussing among themselves when Pikes suddenly lunged over and snatched the item from the grunt's hand.
For most pirates in the Grand Line, they had heard of Devil Fruits, but hearing about them was one thing—many had never even seen what one looked like. Moreover, how Devil Fruits appeared remained a mystery. Only those who stumbled upon them by chance and ate them would know what they had consumed.
But Pikes was different. He was a Devil Fruit user himself, having eaten one, so he naturally knew what a Devil Fruit looked like.
After grabbing it, Pikes examined the fruit carefully and finally confirmed: no mistake, this was a Devil Fruit!
However, just by looking at the outside, it was impossible to tell what power the fruit contained. Pikes didn't know the name of this Devil Fruit either, but that was enough.
"Hahaha! It really is a Devil Fruit, it really is!" Pikes exclaimed ecstatically. "I knew it—deciding to venture into the Grand Line was the smartest choice I ever made, Pikes! We've only just entered, and we've already hit the jackpot!"
Hearing this, the pirate grunts' eyes lit up too. They had only planned to rob someone, but they ended up with a Devil Fruit!
"This Devil Fruit is worth at least several hundred million, even billions of Berries!" Pikes said, holding the fruit lovingly. He told his grunts, "If we sell it, our pirate group won't have to worry about anything for the rest of our lives!"
Pikes wasn't stupid. He wouldn't reward this Devil Fruit to his subordinates—who knew what kind of power it might grant? If someone challenged his authority as captain, that would be bad. And since Pikes was already a Devil Fruit user, he knew he couldn't eat a second one. So he steered the conversation toward the fruit's value.
Sure enough, upon hearing how valuable the Devil Fruit was, all the surrounding pirates' eyes turned green with greed.
Roland Gale's backpack was then searched further, yielding over twenty million Berries in cash. But Pikes was in a good mood, so he waved his hand and gave it all to his men as a reward, further exciting the grunts.
Today was definitely the Pike Pirates' lucky day!
After quickly dividing the money, they finally remembered Roland Gale on the ground. One of them asked Pikes, "Captain, what do we do with this guy?"
Pikes grinned widely, crouched down again, and said to Roland Gale with a smile, "I'm in a good mood today, so..."
Seeing Pikes' smile, Roland Gale breathed a sigh of relief, thinking he would be let go. But then, a sudden sharp pain shot through his body.
Several sharp quills appeared simultaneously, piercing through various parts of Roland Gale's body. Roland Gale stared at Pikes in disbelief, as if asking why, but he couldn't speak. Blood gushed from his mouth, clogging his airway.
"I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you a quick death!" Pikes finally finished his sentence.