Chapter 53

Chapter 53: They Arrived

A white outer garment even bulkier than a spacesuit, possibly due to his bloated figure, a transparent bubble headgear resembling an upright fish tail, Adrian wasn't sure if these high and mighty Celestial Dragons had a different sense of aesthetics from regular people, but to Adrian, this guy was just extremely ugly.

Adrian and Artoria stood behind the crowd, silently observing the Celestial Dragon.

This Celestial Dragon was quite young, his face looked stupid and arrogant. Instead of walking, he sat on a slave.

The slave crawled forward on all fours, wearing tattered red clothes with a skull logo on his hat. His face bore numerous scars, indicating he had suffered during his time as a slave, probably from the captain of a pirate ship.

Next to him was a person dressed in a black suit, resembling a butler, followed by four guards covered in armor.

The simple entourage showcased the immense intimidation the Celestial Dragons held in this world; no one dared to have any ill intentions against them.

Soon, a person rushed out of the auction house and knelt before him, saying, "Respected Saint Charlos, thank you for your presence. In order for the auction to proceed smoothly, could we exempt the kneeling ceremony inside the hall?"

Saint Charlos sniffed and responded slowly with a foolish tone, "I permit it."

"Much appreciated. Please proceed to the VIP area."

"This time, I'm buying a sturdy slave. This guy is utterly useless," Saint Rosward kicked the slave's shoulder one after another.

The unnamed captain's face contorted in pain, but he didn't dare say a word, only gritting his teeth and crawling forward.

Seeing the scene, Tom felt frightened and instinctively tried to hide behind Adrian, completely forgetting that he was in stealth mode.

Adrian sensed the grip on his wrist tightening and quickly held her hand, whispering, "He's just a pirate, no need to sympathize."

"Yeah, I know, but..." Artoria didn't finish her sentence.

Adrian could guess what she wanted to say, but this situation felt wrong. Pirates deserved punishment according to their crimes, either execution, penalty, or imprisonment.

Watching him being tormented by the nobles at their whims, Adrian initially found it somewhat satisfying, but on second thought, something felt off.

"It's still better for pirates to suffer than regular people," Adrian tried to convince himself. In this world where Celestial Dragons held absolute authority, expecting the law enforcement to be effective was unrealistic.

As Saint Charlos entered the venue, the people outside stood up, some leaving directly, while some nobles and merchants followed inside to bid on slaves.

"Why's that guy so ridiculous? He's even wearing a bubble on his head?" Today, Tom seemed to enjoy poking fun at the eccentricity of Saint Charlos.

"Because they disdain breathing the same air as commoners. Once they leave the Holy Land, they wear those bubble headgear," Adrian explained with a touch of malice, thinking that maybe it was because their brains lacked oxygen that they needed to wear those things all the time.

"Let's go back." Having seen the ugliness of the world's nobles, Artoria's enthusiasm waned.

As for whether there were thoughts of overthrowing the rule of the Celestial Dragons and saving the people of the world, Artoria certainly had such thoughts but wouldn't act on them, as she believed she couldn't even protect a single Britain, let alone save the entire world.

She believed that even if she established a country and claimed a piece of land with her abilities, it would eventually perish due to her inadequacy.

Little did she know, many kings in this world were actually just competing with each other, and if she were to become a queen, she would be much stronger than those guys.

Adrian didn't know exactly what Artoria was thinking, but he could sense the disappointment in her tone and guessed that she felt uncomfortable being held back from intervening in such situations.

After some thought, Adrian said, "Since we're already here, why don't we do something before we head back?"

...

2nd GR, in front of a shop with a sign that read "Human House."

"This place is..." Artoria looked at the shop with confusion.

Adrian explained, "This is a human trafficking shop, similar in nature to the human auction house."

Through the wide-open doors, one could see that the shop had many small booths, about the size of public telephone booths, with glass windows. People wearing slave collars were displayed inside, much like commodities. Their faces bore either numbness or despair, and each booth had a label attached.

Due to the auction today, the shop had few customers, as the quality of slaves in regular shops couldn't compare to those at the auction.

Passersby showed no interest in the existence of this shop, either accustomed or indifferent. Most of the slaves here were from non-affiliated countries, some even being outlaws like pirates.

"While the invisibility effect is still active, I want to discreetly deal with the shop owner and free some slaves." Influenced by the incident involving Commodore Kadar, and driven by sympathy, Adrian wanted to do something for these unfortunate people.

Directly involved in slave trafficking wasn't a good deed, and those who ran shops to "procure" and sell them weren't good people either. Artoria and Tom agreed with Adrian's plan.

There was only one shop owner and one shop assistant in the shop, the rest being slaves with collars and chains. Strangely, there weren't any security personnel present.

Suddenly, some of the slaves saw something incredible. They rubbed their eyes, and a few even let out small gasps.

Thinking that some slaves weren't behaving, the shop owner and assistant turned their heads, one seeing a baseball bat floating in front of them, and the other spotting a golf club.

[Tom's Baseball Bat: Sturdy and durable, one hit can knock down Spike the big dog.]

[Tom's Golf Club: Hole-digging artifact, with a single golf club, Tom can dig through a golf course.]

Just as the shop owner and assistant showed astonishment, the bat had already landed on their heads with two thumps. They fell to the ground and didn't get up, red envelopes even popping up above their heads.

The slaves showed expressions of joy, lying against the glass with anticipation.

A bunch of keys flew out from the shop owner's pocket and hung in the air for a few seconds before unlocking the collar of the first slave in front of the booth.

Clang! The sound of the collar and chain hitting the ground caused a glimmer of hope to burst in the eyes of all the slaves. The one whose collar was removed even directly fell to the ground, tearfully expressing gratitude.

Although they didn't know who these unseen individuals were, they had heard of Devil Fruit users and were certain that kind-hearted users had come to rescue them!