Chapter 142

"Like I said, it doesn't matter," I replied with a shrug as I stepped on his neck with a cold expression. "Because you'll be dead soon," I added as I took out my gun, pointing it at his forehead.

"Stop it, you brat," a voice sounded from behind me as the sound of flapping wings I picked up earlier stopped, replaced by what sounded like a heavy object hitting the floor, disturbing the snow and making it fly everywhere.

"Tche," I clicked my tongue unmindful of the voice as I kept my gun aimed at Wapol's head. "If I let him live now, he'll cause trouble again, sooner or later," I said while giving the overweight king a wintry glance.

"Let me kill him and save yourself the future headache," I added as I pulled the hammer of my revolver, causing Wapol to pale as he began stuttering.

"I know as much, but that quack wouldn't have wanted things to end this way," the voice sounded again, right behind me this time as a hand settled on my shoulder, causing me to turn around and sigh upon seeing Kureha's aged face.

"The people of Drum island will deal with him if he tries something again," Kureha remarked with a careless expression as she lifted her hand off my shoulder.

"And this decision isn't yours to make in the first place," she concluded, shaking her hand and taking a swig from her bottle of plum sake.

"It looks like you'll get to hang on to your miserable life," I said with a sigh as I put my revolver back into its holster. "I guess it's your lucky day," I added as I delivered a kick to Wapol's head, making him faint on the spot.

"Sorry, captain, but this old lady-" Byron said with an apologetic expression, suddenly pausing as Kureha sent him a dirty look. "Cough, I mean, this lady was very persuasive..." he added while sending Kureha a nervous look as he rubbed his red ear.

"It doesn't matter," I said with a sigh, shaking my head. "Well, the castle is now yours to do with as you please, Dr. Kureha," I said as I turned to look at Kureha, who was carelessly sipping plum sake.

"And it comes with this piece of garbage," I added, giving the unconscious Wapol a kick, causing him to wake up and groan in pain, only to faint again as I stomped on his head.

"So it seems. You did good, brat," Kureha replied, not sounding enthused at her new property one bit. "But I think I'll stay in my treehouse until I finish treating your friend, at least," she added with a smile.

"What about him?" I asked, kicking Wapol again just for the hell of it, causing him to wake up again, squirming in pain.

"We'll let the people of the island decide his fate," Kureha replied with a shrug as she made her way towards Wapol, giving him a kick of her own and making him faint.

Suddenly the first guard to drop their weapons made his way towards us and stopped in front of Wapol, kicking the latter in the guts and causing us to look at him with raised eyebrows.

"I don't have anything to say, but you guys seemed to be having fun with kicking this rotten bastard..." the soldier said with a sheepish expression, jumping backward as Wapol tried to nite his leg off.

"You bastards, stop kicking me-" Wapol said, suddenly stopping in the middle of his sentence with a twitching face as I kicked him again, causing him to faint.

"Anyway, it looks like my work is done here," I said with a smile. "So I'll be making my way back to Bighorn to inform the rest of my crew about what happened," I added with a shrug.

"Byron will stay here and help you with whatever you need until I bring our other crewmates to Gyasta," I concluded, flying into the air as I made my way towards Bighorn.

...

I smiled as I flew over Bighorn upon noticing my crewmates all gathered near the inn they were staying at, seemingly enjoying their time.

Elly seemed to be having the most fun as she worked on building a snowman with a big smile on her face as she patted the pile of ice in front of her, giving it shape.

Laffite wasn't far away, sitting on a table and having a cup of tea with a leisurely expression, as he seemed unphased by the cold weather, with Kozue sitting next to him as she buried her head into one of her smut novels.

Bob was standing not far away as well as he instructed Bepo while the latter practiced his martial arts, and it seems that Wilson was the only one missing, but I'm sure he's close by somewhere.

Elly, as usual, was the first to notice my arrival, and she turned to look at me. "The captain is back!" she exclaimed with a smile, causing everyone else to stop what they were doing and make their way to me.

"Welcome back, captain," Laffite said with a cheerful smile as he stood in front of me while I landed. "How did things go?" he asked, likely saying what was in everyone's mind as they looked at me with a curious expression.

"More or less," I replied with a shrug. "I might have had to kick the ass of this island's king to make sure everything goes smoothly, but it all worked out in the end," I added with a chuckle.

"You sure seem to have had a day and a half, captain..." Elly said with an exasperated sigh. "Should I even ask?" remarked with twitching eyes.

"You already did," I replied with a smirk. "But yeah, this is how it went..." I proceeded to inform my friends about the happenings of the past ten or so hours while avoiding the topic of Doc's Lunarian origins, as it was his story to tell, not mine.

'Huh, so all of that happened in ten hours... felt longer for some reason..' I shook my head, dismissing this useless line of thought after my explanation.

"Uhm, captain?" Bepo tugged on the sleeve of my long coat, mouthing the word, captain, unconfidently, as if he wasn't used to it just yet.

"What is it, Bepo?" I asked as I turned to look at him with a smile.

"What about Law?" he hesitantly asked as he let go of my sleeve with a nervous expression.

"He stayed to help Dr. Kureha," I replied with a smile. "She'll need his help to cure Doc," I added while gesturing with my hand to the side.

"Oh, can I, um, go there too?" he asked after a second's pause as he looked up to me with puppy, or teddy, eyes in this case.

"That's what I came here for," I replied with a nod. "It looks like the treatment will take a while, so I came to tell you about it," I added with a smile.

"I'll get back to Gyasta tomorrow, and I can take you with me if that's what you want," I said as I made my way to the table in the middle of the inn's courtyard and sat.

"That goes for the rest as well," I said as I took out my whisky bottle. "Alternatively, you can stay here or explore Drum Island. It's up to you guys..."