Chapter 233: The Power Of the Flag

Ian didn’t forget the purpose of his trip, so he asked Ace who was supporting him in a low voice, “Ace, have you met Teach?”

At this time, Marshall D. Teach didn’t seem to have the title of the Blackbeard. He announced it after he betrayed the Whitebeard group, so Ian said his name directly.

“Teach?” Ace was stunned when he heard the name, and then said, “Oh, I remember him, it’s that unique guy, I’ve seen him on the ship in multiple occasions, he seems to be a good guy.”

Ian nodded, confirming his own guess. Teach showed up with the Whitebeard, which means that he had been summoned back after the incident of Mainspring Island, by then Ace had definitely met him.

However, from Ace’s answer, Ian found that Teach was still disguised. For a long time in the whitebeard Pirate group, Teach always pretended to be honest and heroic, and his ambition was deeply hidden.

Not only has he deceived others, but even Ace, a newcomer who had just joined, seemed to have a good impression of him.

“Ian, have you met Teach?” Ace asked as he helped Ian walk.

“Yes, we come across when I went to Mainspring Island!” Ian said in a low voice, feeling pain all over his body.

Ian was supported by Ace, so he whispered to Ace: “Listen to me, Ace, you have to be careful of this guy, he is not as kind as you all think!”

Ace frowned and said, “But, I feel that he’s good just like the others. I also like the atmosphere in the whitebeard family…”

Ian shook his head and said, “Ace, have I ever harmed you in any way?”

“Huh… no!” Ace said with a smile: “You and I are brothers, how could you harm me? By the way, if we got a chance to meet Luffy in the future, I have to introduce you to each other, I believe he will also like you very much!”

Ian smiled and said, “Let’s talk about this latter, but Ace, I’m dead serious, you have to listen to my words, you must pay attention to Teach!”

“All right!” Ace nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Hearing what he said, Ian was a bit relieved, but when he calculated carefully, knowing that they would probably have to spend two years together, the scheming Blackbeard, during this time would use his performance to gradually eliminate Ace’s vigilance against him, maybe in the end, Ace would think that Ian was wrong…

Thinking of this, Ian could not help but frown, thinking about how to solve this problem.

It is impossible for him to join the Whitebeard Pirates. Joining this group means to recognize the Whitebeard as a father, but Ian has his own parents, even after he came to this world, he still met two masters, Koshiro and Rayleigh, he also has a sister, Kuina, and a younger brother, Zoro, and his loved ones are still alive, so unlike Ace, which lacks paternal love, Ian can’t accept such thing…

Ian admits that the Whitebeard is a great person. He really treats Ace and the others as his sons. If Ian was in their shoes, it would be a great destination to follow the whitebeard and treat the other members as family…

The problem is that Ian wasn’t like them…

If there is no big deviation in history, then two years later, that is, the time when Luffy starts sailing on the sea, Teach will kill the fourth commander Thatch, steal the dark-dark fruit from him, and then flee.

Two more years, since Ian was unwilling to join the Whitebeard Pirates, it was impossible to stay by Ace’s side for this long.

Moreover, Ian didn’t know when exactly the Dark-Dark Fruit would appear, so it was impossible for him to return at that point in time.

There was only another way to solve this matter. Ian glanced at the whitebeard who was walking in front of him. He felt that it was not the time to talk with Ace in detail, so he could only leave it out for now.

As for the idiot Ace, he didn’t know that Ian was so worried about him, and he happily told Ian about the weird things he had encountered during this period…

When everyone left the port and entered the city, the location of the previous battle was silent and empty, the trainee reporter Pritz stood up shivering, and ran away quickly.

Today’s event was too overwhelming for him, a novice journalist. Fortunately, he was a nobody, so no one would bother him, and because of this once-in-a-lifetime broadcast, he will take off and turn into a legend in his field.

Pritz left happily, but what he didn’t know was that just after he was gone, another figure appeared in his place.

This figure looked very mysterious. His whole body was shrouded in a green cloak, and the hood of this cloak covered his head tightly.

He stood on the spot, looking around at the mess caused by the fierce battle, and under the hood, a smile was shown…

“Huuh, Kuma… it seems that you were worried for nothing. This little guy was more eligible than we thought…” The mysterious man whispered to himself, and then walked away slowly.

A slight sea breeze blew his hood, revealing part of the mysterious man’s face. On the left side of his face, there was a strange tattoo…

……………………………………

After entering the city, Ian knew how prestigious the Whitebeard Pirates were in this country.

The propaganda of the Marines tells how terrible the whitebeard pirates are… However, this refers to a situation that only occurs in some countries that are members of the world government. In Salamis, the situation was reversed.

The Whitebeard has been sailing the sea for decades. He has met people of all kinds, and he is not a man of bad temper and arrogance. Therefore, he has made many friends in his journey, the King of Fishman Island, Neptune, was not the only example.

Of course, the so-called whitebeard’s friends were almost the same age as him. They were all old men.

Under the escort of the Salamis Principality Guards, the Whitebeard was seen on the streets of this city, and after being discovered by people hiding at their homes, a crowd suddenly flooded out.

“Oyaji!? Look, it’s really him!”

“The Whitebeard Pirates! It’s the Whitebeard Pirates!”

“My God, Salamis is really saved!”

“Marco, look the Phoenix Marco came with him this time!”

“Is that the new guy, Fire Fist Ace? He is now a member of the Whitebeard Pirates, Wow!”

Although the people of Salamis were still in awe of the whitebeard, they were warmly greeting the arrival of the whitebeard pirates. They kept shouting the names of the commanders that follow him as well as the name of the legend himself. Their loud voices filled out the entire island and rushed straight to the sky.

Ian looked at this scene with astonishment, he couldn’t believe that this was the welcoming for such a great pirate, and then he noticed the smiles of the old people around the street, and the excited and shrieking expressions of young girls. It seemed like they were welcoming heroes!

“Strange?” Marco noticed Ian’s expression and said with a smile, “No doubt that for this country, Oyaji is a hero!”

“What’s going on?” Ace just joined, he didn’t know the history of this country, so he was curious.

“The Principality of Salamis was originally an ally of the world government.” Marco explained: “but as the amount of tribute demanded by the Celestial Dragons got higher and higher, the country seems to be overburdened. You should know that the tribute is different from taxes…

In other words, the countries that pay the tribute to the Celestial Dragons were still going to pay the usual levy. His majesty, King Carlo of the Principality of Salamis is a good king, seeing that his country has become poor because of such a system, he resolutely decided to withdraw from the participating countries. Without these tributes, he reduced the taxes on his people, which slowly revived the country.”

“In that case, there are other participating countries that continue to levy taxes regardless of the impact?” Ian asked.

“Of course!” Marco nodded. “And there are still quite a few Kings that pays tribute to Celestial Dragons, but it is not from their own pockets. They pay everything needed from them with the heavy taxes they impose on their people, squeezing the life of their folks. Therefore, whether it is tribute or taxes, these kings don’t care.”

Ian shook his head. No wonder at the world conference, many countries proposed to abolish the tribute system. It seems that wise people have realized that this will lead to national unrest.

Excessive taxes and levies have always been the source of turmoil…

“What happened next?” Ace asked.

“After withdrawing from the alliance, Salamis went through a dark period.” Marco said: “at that time, the Marines withdrew the defense forces stationed in this country, which made it an easy target to the greedy pirates, so they took the opportunity to plunder everything in Salamis. The army of this country was unable to resist the endless stream of pirates. So in the end, King Carlos looked for Oyaji and asked him to make it one of his territories.”

“King Carlos met Oyaji when he was traveling abroad many years ago, but he hasn’t seen him again for many years!” Marco smiled and said: “But when he came up, Oyaji recognized him at a glance. Then he came to the island without hesitation and hung his banner. Since then, no pirate group dared to mess around on this island. That’s why the people of Salamis welcome him with such warmth.”

After hearing this, Ian couldn’t help but feel a little excited. Although the whitebeard was old, he was still at the peak…

‘When will I be able to reach this point, and only by hanging the flag of the Dragon Hunter Pirate Group, I can protect a whole country?’