"The Gale Emperor Pirates" are in the sea area on the Eternal Gale, their ship.
At this moment, by the ship's side, Carnes is sitting on the railing, holding a fishing rod and fishing.
Suddenly, a senior crew member with a long sword hanging at his waist approaches, carrying a newspaper and a wanted poster.
He is the captain of the elite crew members who emerged victorious from the selection process and is also known as Inouk, the captain of Carnes' "Guardians."
Standing beside Carnes, Inouk hands him the newspaper and wanted poster and says softly, "Captain! Today's delivery from the News Seagull has arrived, and your wanted poster is included."
Carnes turns his head upon hearing this and replies, "Let me see."
Taking the wanted poster, Carnes looks at his own first.
The background of the portrait is on a ship, probably taken when he was boarding a naval vessel. However, Carnes doesn't pay much attention to it.
However, when Carnes sees the bounty amount on the wanted poster, he can't help but chuckle.
"150 million berries? Is that all? Any bounty hunter who comes will be disappointed, huh?"
Saying this, Carnes can't help but burst into laughter.
He remembers that back when he was just a regular crew member in the Rocks Pirates, he encountered such situations.
At that time, his strength was not considered very strong but not weak either.
But the bounty on his head was very low, only a few hundred million berries.
Then a hapless bounty hunter targeted him and ended up being fed to the fish by Carnes.
He flips to the next wanted poster.
And the person depicted there is none other than Demiurge.
However, when Carnes sees the bounty on Demiurge, he is somewhat surprised.
"Only 37 million berries?"
"Is it that low?" Carnes mutters in a puzzled tone.
---
Meanwhile, on the other side.
At the Navy headquarters.
As usual, Aya has brought documents that require the old man's review.
Compared to the previous batch of documents, this time there is much less.
Because it won't take long, Aya chose to wait on the side for now.
She can tell that the old man's complexion has improved a lot these past few days.
And this has raised a thought in her mind.
She really wants to ask why the old man's expression turned so grim after seeing that document that day.
Even more so, she wonders why the old man changed the originally requested bounty of 50 million berries for the branch to 150 million berries.
However, despite being on the tip of her tongue, Aya ultimately refrains from asking.
And she will never know.
The reason why the old man adjusted Carnes' bounty from 50 million berries to 150 million berries is simply because his name is "Carnes" and he is suspected to be "Carnes II."
---
Time passes, and several days have gone by.
Due to having a considerable number of crew members and the lack of supplies replenished during their last island visit, Carnes' "Gale Emperor Pirates" had to once again change their original course and head to the nearby Kingdom of Bulgaria to restock supplies.
This time, they will stay on the island of the Kingdom of Bulgaria for a day.
Carnes finds a nearby hotel to stay in.
Noon.
Carnes, Demiurge along with Inouk, Lacey, and Lydia, three members of the "Guardians," come to a restaurant to have their meal.
This time, Yuta is not by Carnes' side, as one can assume he went shopping with Rika.
Lacey and Lydia:
Lacey has short black hair and wears a cross-shaped earring on his left ear. He has a handsome face.
Lydia is a woman.
She has golden wavy long hair and carries a Western-style sword that differs from most of the crew members, hanging at her waist.
A slender sword.
After ordering their respective meals, Carnes and the others wait quietly.
The restaurant is crowded, so it sounds a bit noisy.
Amidst the noise, a commotion suddenly erupts.
"Someone... someone's dead?!"
"What the heck is going on! Scared the hell out of me!"
"Hey, hey, am I seeing things? Is he... sleeping? While eating?"
"Phew~ luckily, he just fell asleep. It was a sudden collapse, really scared me. I thought he was dead."
"Uh... he can fall asleep like that. He's really something."
Amidst the commotion, Carnes also becomes curious and looks in the direction of the disturbance.
However, due to the crowd gathering there, Carnes couldn't see what was happening.
"Do you want me to turn these noisy bugs into ashes?" Demiurge suddenly says.
His unexpected remark causes Carnes to be slightly taken aback, but then he shakes his head and laughs.
"No need, let them be. We're just here to eat."
Saying that, Carnes no longer pays attention to the sudden commotion.
And the instigator surrounded by the crowd, causing the commotion, is still soundly asleep.
He is shirtless, wearing an orange cowboy hat with badges of "smirk" and "sorrow" on the brim. He wears a red bead necklace around his neck and has a dagger hanging at his waist.
There is a tattoo on his left arm with the letters "ASCE," with the "S" crossed out!
On his back, there is also a huge skull tattoo, and the white beard in the design stands out prominently!
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