One Piece: The Legendary Pirate

At the auction's end, Darvy and the other slaves were brought out of the dome.

Surprisingly, it wasn't to a dark cell that he and the others were sent to. Instead, they were brought into separate rooms with beds, tables, and other facilities that made those rooms into a fine one. For sure, they weren't the rooms given to slaves.

Thrown into one empty room, the metal door slammed shut, and Darvy knew that it would be impossible for him to open it. Disregarding this fact for the moment, he decided to look around more carefully—half fascinated and half lost.

'What now?'

Darvy eventually sat on a bed as he thought of the events that happened on that day.

The introduction of Mary Geoise. Auction. Him being sold to a young Celestial Dragon named Topman Vallerina. Really, many things happened today.

His stomach growled, but Darvy didn't bother; perhaps the sensation of hunger dulled after his prolonged starvation.

'...Hoof of the Soaring Dragon. Celestial Dragons. That island. Loris, Lyon—'

Darvy stopped thinking. Thinking of them would lead him to nowhere, and there was nothing he could do about them anyway.

All that was left to him now was the titles of 'slave' and 'gladiator'. He understood that this relatively luxurious treatment unfitting of a slave was to keep them in good condition, enough to engage themselves in a life-threatening duel considered entertaining to Celestial Dragons.

Darvy's back fell to the bed. Looking at the ceiling, he reached the metal collar on his neck and felt its cool sensation.

...In the end, none of this mattered at this moment.

To Darvy, who had nothing to lose, his goal remained the same.

Become strong.

Strength. He needed power to protect himself. To him whose mind was steeled and shaped by many adversities since his birth, the notion of 'slavery' was too weak to invoke any feeling of negativity.

__________

The next day, Darvy was brought out of his room-cell to elsewhere by the soldiers. With them holding a chain connected to his collar, really, there was no way to resist but follow.

Then led to the surface, Darvy wrinkled his eyes upon receiving the bright sunlight. As they continued walking on the hard surface atop the cloudy platform below, Darvy noticed that they were heading to a mansion, one that seemed even more luxurious than the ones it was surrounded by.

The huge doors—wooden and carved aesthetically—opened, allowing them to enter. Beyond, Darvy saw the red carpet laid straight across the hall which was lightened by chandeliers made out of crystals. By the sides, there were many artworks.

Walking across it, Darvy saw these and got to understand just how wealthy the Celestial Dragons are.

Walking up the huge stairs, they walked and stopped in front of one room. Leaving Darvy behind, one of the soldiers knocked on the door after a slight hesitation, as softly as he could.

There wasn't a word of response, but instead, the door opened from the inside, revealing a girl wearing a maid outfit, holding onto the door. Darvy was pulled inside by the soldiers, and there he saw—the very girl who was now his owner... supposedly.

Topman Vallerina. The girl of brown hair with curls in a ponytail. Putting down a cup of tea in silence, she resumed her activity impassively as Darvy's legs were kicked to bring him down into a kneeling position.

She then raised her violet-colored eyes, gazing at Darvy nonchalantly.

"..."

Taking a sip of tea, she formed a smile, revealing her amusement as she silently observed Darvy's demeanor.

She then snapped her finger. Upon her signal, the table that contained the cup of tea that she had just drank from and a couple of deserts were brought to the side by the girls in maid outfits. Their bodies trembled from the weight of the table, but they completed the task without a grunt nonetheless.

Darvy, though revealing a fearful demeanor on the outside, had to resist an urge to frown. Those girls—their ages were similar to this Celestial Dragon and Darvy in terms of appearance. Just the idea of this left a bad taste in him, for he knew that this setup was intentionally done by this Celestial Dragons' family to 'educate' her.

After the table was set aside, Darvy got to see the girl in her full form. Dressed up in more comfortable-looking clothes than the ones that resembled a space suit, she had her legs crossed and her arms rested on the armrests of the chair.

That's when Darvy realized—that she wasn't wearing the glass dome on her head. It was a strange scene, especially since Darvy knew that the Celestial Dragons wore that glass for the purpose of not sharing the air with slaves.

"Quit the act."

Not knowing these thoughts of Darvy, this Celestial Dragon girl, Vallerina, spoke.

"You may have fooled some, but not me."

Slowly, Darvy raised his head and looked back at her—only to have his head slammed to the floor by a soldier behind him at the next moment.

"Who gave you the permission to lift your head?!"

The soldier growled, pushing Darvy's head with enough strength to draw pain.

Then, a sound of click. Darvy's eyes widened as he recognized the sound.

A bang was heard. Blood burst out of a hole in the soldier's temple, and with his grip over Darvy's head loosened, he fell to the side, dead.

"What even..."

Darvy couldn't help but mutter as he raised his head.

The dead soldier's head was oozing blood on the carpet. Turning, Darvy saw Vallerina wiping a pistol's tip in her hand with a handkerchief casually. By the sides, the girl-maids were trembling with their faces completely pale.

"Now, where were we?"

She acted as if nothing happened. To her, the act of killing this soldier was akin to squishing an ant to death.

Darvy was at a loss of words. Witnessing a girl around 10 in age firing a headshot without an ounce of remorse—he felt the disparity, wondering if she was the same human as him.

Silently, the soldier by Darvy's side was lifted and brought out by other soldiers. As Darvy unconsciously looked at Vallerina, no one stopped him this time around.

The metallic smell of blood entered his nose, but no one commented.

"Ah yes, about this 'mask' of yours."

She walked out of her seat, causing some to flinch. Leaning down in front of Darvy, she grabbed his face by the cheeks and looked directly into his eyes.

"Acting all fearful and passive... such characteristics do fit your superficial appearance, but no amount of acting will ever be capable of fooling me."

"..."

"Tell me, who are you?"

She dropped her hold over Darvy's face.

"I've seen many kinds of bugs. Some were big, some were small. Some were men, some were women. Some were strong, some were weak. However, regardless of their characteristics, they always shared one trait in common: fear. They all feared me without an exception... except you, that is."

Darvy narrowed his eyes. As if shedding, his face lost its fearfulness, revealing a dull and impassive expression contrary to the trembling figures of the maids and soldiers.

"Then tell me..."

He asked,

"Why must I fear you?"

Vallerina's eyes widened, clearly not having expected that answer. Then, she burst out laughing, one which Darvy didn't respond to.

"Why, you ask?"

Her eyes—they looked mischievous to Darvy. At this moment, she seemed like a girl around her age for once.

"Because I can kill. I have power. I can inflict all kinds of pain unimaginable on you... through a simple wiggle of my finger. Those below me, be it the slaves or the fellow Celestial Dragons, feared, fears, and will continue to fear me."

However, the words that came out of her mouth were more devilish than ever. And words spoken by someone like her have strength. As if having been reminded how the soldier was killed just before, one of the maids seemed to be on the verge of letting tears out of their eyes. The soldiers too gulped, feeling Vallerina's words as a threat.

Darvy didn't bother, however. His eyes, still on Vallerina without any emotional response, seemed to be speaking that he was truly different from others.

And he couldn't bother anymore. Chuckling, Darvy muttered,

"Yes, of course."

"Yet, you don't fear me?"

Darvy grinned, revealing a glimpse of insanity within him.

"You'll never be capable of making me afraid of you. Who do you think you are?"

This time, Vallerina seemed to be at a loss for words. What Darvy just spoke was simply ridiculous. The confidence within him, it wasn't something that a slave like him was supposed to have.

His words contained many meanings. It meant that whatever Vallerina was capable of doing to Darvy, he couldn't be bothered. He wasn't afraid of pain, and he surely wasn't afraid of death.

"You..."

And it was the first time that she found someone like this except her family, someone whom she could consider to be of an equal standing.

"You're different."

She whispered in a shaky tone, which stemmed from that of an exhilaration. Her breathing quickened and her body trembled—it was almost as if she was aroused.

This reaction left Darvy confused, but his response no longer mattered to her.

Slowly, she returned to her seat and calmed herself down. When the blush on her cheek dimmed, she finally spoke again,

"Soon, you'll be fighting. In there, prove to me that you're special. That even with that useless body of yours, you can win. And if you were to win... I will give you a small reward."

Darvy narrowed his eyes at that.