"The favor owed by the Roger Pirates is truly massive," Whitebeard remarked after taking a sip from his sake bowl.
"Now that we've dealt with Roger's matters, what's the issue concerning me that you mentioned, Nicholas?" Whitebeard asked, his tone intimidating as he placed the sake bowl on the ground.
Unlike Roger, who was nearing the end of his life, Whitebeard was at the peak of his life. His body was in perfect condition, so he was curious about what Nicolas had to say, especially if it involved him.
"Ah, it's about your matter, Newgate," Nicolas replied with a smile after running his hand through his hair. "I also want to find someone from your ship, but rest assured, I won't take her away. I just have some questions to ask her."
"Oh, so you're also interested in my family members?" Whitebeard's aura began to gather as he stared down Nicolas, his expression fierce. Unlike Roger, who was willing to negotiate, Whitebeard was known for his protectiveness over his crew and family.
"Who?" Whitebeard finally spoke, knowing that if Nicolas mentioned someone, he would go to great lengths to accomplish it. Though he didn't trust Nicolas entirely, it was challenging to guard against someone with lightning speed like him.
"You'll find out once you call her over," Nicolas said confidently, meeting Whitebeard's gaze without fear.
"Hey, Nicholas, what do you mean?" Newgate asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
"If you want to know, just call her over," Nicolas replied calmly, seemingly unfazed by Whitebeard's imposing presence.
"Whitey-chan, do you have any business with us?"
After a moment, Oden, who was somewhat tipsy, walked over with Toki. Obviously, he was quite happy with the exchange meeting of the Roger Pirates, as he had heard many interesting things about the sea from them and had seen many things he had never seen before.
"Not me, it's him."
With that, Whitebeard pointed to Nicholas sitting there.
Following Whitebeard's finger, Oden and Toki also looked curiously at Nicholas, wondering why this person who knew Roger and Whitebeard suddenly came to find Toki. And Roger, Rayleigh, and others were also assessing the two, as Oden was crucial for their upcoming voyage.
The woman next to him seemed to be from the same country as Oden from her appearance, and she was quite good-looking. They were also curious why Nicholas was looking for this woman. Could it be?
Seemingly realizing something, Rayleigh, Roger, and Gaban exchanged glances, revealing a gossiping expression.
"I wonder what business you have with us, sir?"
Oden asked Nicholas in a serious tone.
"Toki."
As Nicholas spoke, the expressions of Oden and Toki changed suddenly. Then Oden directly stepped in front of Toki, placing his hands directly on the two swords on his waist, as if they were about to go to war at the slightest disagreement.
"Who exactly are you?"
Oden asked again, this time with his swords already drawn.
With Oden drawing his sword, the atmosphere between the two parties became even more tense. Even because of the sudden burst of aura from this side of the island, the original exchange meeting between the two parties also stopped, all looking towards the position of Whitebeard, Roger, Nicholas, and others.
"Hey hey, Shanks, let's discuss something?"
Seeing the somewhat eerie atmosphere, Buggy whispered to Shanks on the side.
"Haha, are you suggesting that if they fight later, we should find an opportunity to take out that guy?"
Before Shanks could finish, Buggy directly covered Shanks' mouth with his hand.
"Don't you know anything about planning in secret? Anyway, that guy gives me a bad feeling, just like Teach. I even feel that guy will bring us huge trouble in the future, so it's better to kill him in advance."
Buggy frowned and said, apparently feeling quite bad about the guy on Whitebeard's ship, even worse than Teach, who had approached the Roger Pirates not long ago.
Of course, this was when Teach had something to deal with and wasn't on the ship. Buggy dared to talk back only then, otherwise, with Teach's character of not putting anyone but Roger in his eyes, Buggy wouldn't dare to say anything even if he had ten guts.
"Hey, Buggy, are you crazy? Don't you know how protective Whitebeard is? If we take out that guy, Whitebeard Pirates will probably declare full-on war against us."
Shanks couldn't help but say, as he knew that if he and Buggy really took out the monster Buggy mentioned, facing the furious Whitebeard, Captain Roger would definitely rush forward with his sword without a second thought.
In terms of how protective he was, Captain Roger was no less than Whitebeard.
"It doesn't matter who I am. I just want to know what happened back then, what are the World Government's trump cards? And how did Joyboy fail back then?"
Nicholas' words puzzled everyone, but Toki's pupils suddenly contracted.
Although she didn't know the specific details of that battle, it was undoubtedly a disastrous defeat for them. In fact, the reason why she kept using the Time Fruit to constantly travel to the future was because one of Joyboy's partners, the mermaid princess, had been told by a fortuneteller at the time that she hoped for the future.
But now Nicholas had almost blurted out the secret she had been hiding in her heart for so long.