Chapter 234: The Power of the Beards

When Ian followed the Whitebeard to the palace of the Principality of Salamis, he finally met King Carlos there.

Originally, he thought that to be a friend of the whitebeard, he should be a wise and powerful king. In addition, he heard about the king’s deeds from Marco. So, Ian imagined that he would be the perfect king.

However, to his surprise, after seeing Carlos, he found out that his majesty was a short fat man.

He was less than 1.4 meters tall (four feet tall), he has a small head and short legs. If he was not wearing a cape and the crown, Ian wouldn’t believe that such a man could be the king of such a country.

If there was anything praiseworthy about the king, it may be the beard on his chin, which was very unique. His beard was very curled, and his mustache was tilted up from a side and inclined down from the other side. Looking at it from a distance, it looked just like a seesaw.

So when he saw the whitebeard laughing, squatting down, and hugging King Carlos, Ian even thought that the reason why they became good friends was because of the beard, right!?

When they reminisce about the past, Ian and the others didn’t interrupt them, so they kept looking around the palace with boredom.

The Royal Palace of Salamis was not so majestic, but it was a palace after all, and it was quite large. Ian and the others were in a carpeted hall with bright and clean corridors on the left and right, but there seem to be no guards around…

When Ian was walking along, he suddenly noticed that in the corridor on the right, behind a statue, there was a girl hiding there. She was showing half her face and secretly looking at the guests.

This girl looked like she was only thirteen years old, but she seemed like a big Loli. Ian saw that she was dressed gorgeously, not like maids, so he was a little confused, thinking that she could be the princess of Salamis, right?

Although only half of her face was seen, Ian still felt that this girl was very beautiful. However, he didn’t know why, but a part of her face made her look familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere.

Especially after noticing that this girl has been looking at him with her big eyes, full of excitement.

Just when Ian wanted to get closer and take a look at the whole figure of the girl, he suddenly heard a burst of laughter, saying: “Where is the captain of the Dragon Hunter Pirates, Mr. Ian?”

Ian turned his head to see who was talking, only to find that it was Carlos who just asked about him. So he walked forward and stood side by side with the Whitebeard. Although this man was very short, his voice was very loud.

Entering the royal palace, of course, wasn’t a thing that everyone was allowed to. So only the Whitebeard, Marco, Ace, Ian, and Fujitora went in. The Whitebeard probably explained to Carlos why the Marines came to Salamis. So he had to introduce Ian to the king, however, although Carlos asked to meet the guy named Ian, his eyes were full of joy while looking at him.

Upon seeing this, Ian had to temporarily put down the matter of this girl, stepped forward, came in front of Carlos, and said: “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I’ve brought you a lot of troubles.”

After all, the Marines came here to hunt down the Dragon hunter pirates. Because of the battle between the two sides, the port of Salamis was completely destroyed. Although this was not Ian’s intention, this apology was a necessity. Ian and the others were not vicious pirates, and they weren’t planning to run from the consequences.

Fortunately, Carlos was a friend of the Whitebeard. Oyaji brought Ian to the castle to solve the problem. Ian knew that the king would not scold them, at most he would ask for some compensation.

Sure enough, when Ian apologized, Carlos said with a smile: “No, you don’t need to apologize. In fact, I’ve always been curious to see what kind of person you are. You know, there are not many people who dare to rescue slaves from Celestial Dragons’ hands.”

Ian was surprised to see that king Carlos didn’t come after the Dragon hunter pirates at all. Although the Marines started the battle, the two sides fought furiously, but Ian also caused considerable damage to the port. In Carlos’ point of view, a verbal apology was enough?

Ian looked at the Whitebeard with amazement. Is his friendship with Carlos that deep?

However, in the next second, Carlos revealed his true intentions. He smiled and said to Ian: “In fact, I want to thank you in person!”

‘Huh, is this short fat man crazy? He wants to thank me!? For what!!?’

“Sally, come out and meet your benefactor.” Carlos said with a smile.

With this sentence, the girl who had been peeking out walked to the crowd. She was very ladylike and bowed to the Whitebeard, saying, “Hello, Uncle Edward!”

The Whitebeard looked at Sally in surprise, he noticed that she was excitedly looking at Ian: “Benefactor, don’t you remember me?”

Ian scratched his head and said, “You are…!?”

“Oh, yes, you may not remember me!” Sally said: “Benefactor, you are the one who rescued me from Marijoa!”

After that, he immediately realized that this girl was one of the slaves he had rescued. However, after reacting, he took a cold breath and said, “You… you are the princess of Salamis? How… Why…”

“Huh, it’s surprising, isn’t it!” Carlos’s face turned gloomy, then he shook his head: “Salamis has been plundered and attacked by pirates repeatedly since we withdrew from the alliance. My only daughter, Sally, was captured by pirates during an invasion. I have been searching for her whereabouts over the years, but I didn’t expect that she was sold to Celestial Dragons by these bastards and turned into a slave. If it were not for you, Captain Ian, I am afraid I won’t see my daughter for the rest of my life!”

After that, Carlos actually bent down and bowed deeply to Ian, saying: “Thank you for saving my princess!”

Ian was still a little dazed at this time, but he hurriedly helped Carlos up and said: “This… I really didn’t expect that even the princess of such a country could turn into a slave by the Celestial Dragons…”

He was really surprised, because he had no idea that he would meet one of the slaves he rescued here, especially the country’s Princess.

After hearing Ian’s words, Carlos gritted his teeth and said: “I didn’t know about this only when my daughter came back. These damn nobles, they will pay for it one day!”

Glancing at the princess in front of him, Ian asked, “It’s… Sally, right? How did you come back? Jinbe brought you here?”

“Yes!” Sally nodded. Although she was still young, she seemed very smart and said, “It was indeed the Fishman pirates who brought me back, but big brother Jinbe didn’t disembark. My father wanted to thank him, but he was gone.”

It seems that the task assigned to Jinbe was done faithfully.

“So Captain Ian, you don’t have to apologize to us!” Carlos said with a smile: “You saved the princess of this country. Instead, we should thank you.”

When it came to this point, it was completely understandable that even Ian could not help praising himself for being a good person, who helps others in need. (Not all the time tho xD)

“Gurararara!” the Whitebeard laughed and said: “This is really interesting!”

But then, the whitebeard glared at the king and said, “But seriously, Brother Carlos, am I an outsider… Why didn’t you tell me about the disappearance of my niece? Do you think this old man can’t help you get her back? “

“Not so!” Carlos stretched out his hand and patted Whitebeard’s calf, and sighed: “It’s not like this, I didn’t expect that my princess became a slave of the Celestial Dragons…”

“These world nobles are really…” Even Fujitora, after hearing this story, couldn’t help speaking up, but he didn’t finish his sentence respecting the people around him…

“All right! Let’s stop talking about these unpleasant events!” Carlos said: “Now the two benefactors of this country are gathered here. This is a happy day. Please stay here for a while and let us treat you well.”

As his voice fell, music filled the palace, greeting their special guests, and well-dressed waiters brought out and laid down a large amount of delicious food on the long banquet table.

This was the beginning of the welcoming party…

………………………………

And when Ian and the others were enjoying themselves happily in the Royal Palace of Salamis, at this time, Sengoku, far away near the Red Line, was in a very gloomy mood.

“What a joke!” Sengoku smashed his desk with anger. He seldom lost his temper, but he could not help it anymore: “Two Marine Admirals went out and couldn’t deal with a pirate group!”

A marine intelligence officer, standing not far from Sengoku’s desk, was shocked by the burst of anger, so he hesitated to report: “Fleet Admiral, Sengoku, the Admiral Borsalino has just sent a document, which … which contains the details of the battle, he said…he said that it was because of the instructor Zephyr’s Kairoseki bullets, which were used by the enemy, that they…”

However, before these sentences were finished, Sengoku stood up, stared and shouted at him: “Shut up!”

“Huh! Yes, sir!” The marine intelligence officer was shocked and quickly stood upright, saluting.

Sengoku sat back in his chair. He found that it was a mistake to dispatch Kizaru and Zephyr together. Originally, he just wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to fix the relationship between the two. However, the development of this matter was beyond his expectation, the gap between them has not been repaired, but got deepened a lot…