Ch20: Bounty proceedings

Two days went by with Caden exploring the ship of the marines, while they all sailed to their base.

He was allowed to enter most places, but some were forbidden, like the armory and captain's quarters.

Sometimes he listened as the marines told some stories, but he noticed that they all mostly acted like soldiers on a mission, not daring to displease their superior and doing most things like robots.

'Damn, that seems sad. Worse, the only action they get is when fighting pirates, which can result in death.'

Looking at their long faces, he confirmed to himself that not becoming a marine is a great choice.

'Of course, there are those who enjoy this job, but to do it they need to enjoy either defeating pirates or saving the normal people. I bet most of them do this because pirates hurt them, or they were saved by marines and decided to join them.'

Having these types of thoughts, Caden's time went by.

Finally they reached the marine base.

"Is this the main base of your branch?" Caden asked a marine working around.

"Huh? Oh, it is not. This is like our 3rd or 4th biggest base around this part of East Blue." He said, before receiving a slap on the back of his head by another marine.

"We aren't supposed to be saying that to civilians, idiot!" After reprimanding him, he left alone the previous marine, who started rubbing his head.

"Young man, please keep what this moron said a secret, we don't want problems."

"Sure, no problem."

Hearing that, he got relieved and went ahead to finish the rest of his tasks.

Reaching the port, the ship slowly docked with most marines working to make this happen smoothly.

After stopping, Caden was approached by the second in command of this ship and taken to the Commodore.

"What is the Commodore doing in this base actually?" He asked, looking around the base.

It was mostly gray in color, with blue and green accents around. The base itself was situated on a small island with a big hill in the middle. It was built into the hill, looking like a bunker all things considered.

On the way there, Caden saw at least two ports, with one where they stopped and one further to the side.

"Hmm? The Commodore was there for his routine inspection. The fact that a pirate base was found not too far away, it made some commotion and a few people got demoted by him. Overall, in your place I would avoid angering the workers here." He said, not really showing any emotion.

He was clearly uninterested, most likely his position was secure enough to not feel threatened by the demotions he spoke about.

Listening to him, Caden decided to remember the way back in case of being attacked, maybe he could escape?

Having those foolish thoughts, they arrived at the office area in the inner part of the base.

It turns out the hill in which the base was built into had a massive hole right in it's center, going from the highest point to the sea level. That allowed light to reach every part of the base, especially the inner part.

Looking at the hole in the ceiling, Caden thought about how the base would be invisible from the outside if they didn't have the ports around. A perfect place for a secret base. Alas, it was already taken by the marines.

'Unlucky.'

Reaching the head office, the marine knocked on the door. They both waited a moment before hearing a soft voice. "Enter."

Going inside, Caden saw what the marine looked like and was surprised at how much the man resembled his anime counterpart.

Commodore Pudding Pudding had light purple hair, shaped into ponytails in various places, with the most striking one on the front of his forehead. His goatee was also light purple.

Seeing them, he stood up, which showed his average height and white marine uniform and coat with a green scarf.

"Hello young man, you must be Caden." He said, reaching with his hand for a handshake.

Bewildered at how friendly he seemed to be, Caden shook his hand.

Patting Caden on his shoulder, Pudding praised the boy.

"The fact that you are alive is great. I mostly expected that you would have died, but it turns out I was wrong. Did you also save those women I heard about?" He asked, going back to his chair, while pointing at the one on the other side of the desk, inviting Caden to sit.

Understanding that the man wants to talk with him, Caden sat down.

"Yes I did, it was pretty hard, but we managed to escape together."

"I see, did you also fight Kaeru, Puki pirates captain?" He asked, bringing his hands under his chin, with only the tips of his fingers touching together.

'Hmm, admit or try to lie. I don't really have an option here.'

"Yes I did, I had to distract him from attacking the girls." He said with a calm face.

"I see, we could use someone like you. With your talent, after going to the marine academy you could become a great fighter of justice." He said, looking with some expectation at the young man who defeated a zoan fruit user in one on one combat.

They already found out almost all they needed from the pirates. Kaeru wasn't really a full fledged devil fruit user. He only ate the fruit around two weeks ago, which makes it that they fought with him having only a week of experience with it.

Of course, it is still impressive that Caden managed to beat him, so Pudding wanted to recruit him early and maybe help him grow into a formidable marine.

Caden thought about it, but he already made his decision long ago.

"I'm sorry, but I don't want to be a marine." He informed the Commodore, lightly avoiding his stare of displeasure.

*sigh*

"Well, we can't have everything. Getting a notorious pirate crew out of the sea is already a good enough achievement." He said, before continuing. "Now for the next part. According to the law, for technically defeating the pirate Kaeru, you should be awarded with his bounty."

Hearing that, Caden got a little excited.

"How much is it?"

"The last issued bounty for Kaeru was 2 million berry. It should have become at least 3 times bigger, but you defeated him before it was increased." Said the man, looking for any reaction from Caden.

He saw what he wanted, with the young man turning from happy to devastated in a matter of seconds.

*sigh*

"Whatever, at least it's still more than I could have gathered in a few years."

"Good that you understand. Now we only need to announce that you were the one to defeat him and you can receive the money."

"Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean to announce it?"

"You didn't know? After a pirate with a bounty gets defeated, the one who manages it is issued a monetary reward and written about in the newspapers. For this smaller bounty, you will only enter the local newspapers, but if you someday defeat someone greater, you might be written about in the world newspaper."

"Can I avoid that?"

"You don't want fame coming from this?"

"Not really, I'm too weak for that."

"I see, in that case you will only receive a fraction of the bounty."

"How much is this fraction?"

"Around 30%, which should be around 600,000."

"So little?"

"What do you mean little, it's still more than an average family makes in 5 years!"

"Eh, I guess you are right. Anyway, can you guys take me somewhere?"

"Yes, we intended to do that. Where do you want to go?"

"Do you know about Shimotsuki Village?"

Knocking at his chin with his finger, Commodore thought for a bit. "Hmm, I seem to remember the name from somewhere. So that's where you are heading?"

"Yes, I would be grateful if you guys took me there."

"No problem, I will send for somebody to help you with the logistics involving that. For now, I guess you would want to meet up with the other people who escaped ahead of you?"

"Oh, they are still around?"

"Yes, almost all of them are still there, waiting for transport to their villages. Some already left, but it was only around 10 people."

"Sure, I would like to meet them."

Hearing him agree, Commodore turned to the marine who all this time waited on the side, listening to their talk.

"Take this young man where his comrades are resting." Seeing him nod, he turned back.

Looking back at Caden, he gave him a handshake. "It was good to talk with you, remember that marines would love to have you in our ranks."

"I will, Commodore. Thank you for your help."

With that, Caden and the marine left. Going through the base again, they arrived at another location, where he saw something like a housing unit and a bar at the bottom. Some marines were sitting there, but he also immediately saw the people with whom he spent the day underground.

They sat around a single table. Thomas, Handro, Forland and Bonzo. The four of them were drinking something and chatting together.

Handro, who sat facing the entrance, saw Caden walking in. He stood up and went to him, before giving him a friendly hug.

The others noticed it, also coming and greeting Caden. They all were glad that he managed to escape. They got even more surprised when he said that he rescued the others too.

Sitting and chatting, they spent the rest of the day like this.

Finally, Caden had some breathing room where he didn't have to worry about anything. Their talking reached a late hour. The bar was open 24h per day, since marines worked in different shifts, they needed the bar at almost every part of the day.

During their talk, the topic of the future was mentioned.

Handro said that he will go back to building and repairing ships with his father, who is probably worried sick about him. After asking how he got kidnapped, he said that he was on a ship going for new materials to use, when the pirates attacked.

Turns out the others had similar stories. Forland was working as a merchant on a ship when he was kidnapped, Bonzo also was the same. He worked for his sister, who had some hotels around the sea. He was supposed to check up on one when his ship got attacked.

Looks like the pirates preferred the passing ships rather than land villages, maybe that's how they managed to function for so long. Who knows.

Anyway, they all told Caden that they owe him one, so if he ever needs them, they are glad to help.

He, of course, accepted that. Having people owe you a favor is very important, since you never know when you would need help. Especially in a world like this, where fighting and catastrophes aren't that rare.

They ended talking for the day, with the boys showing Caden where he could stay. Going to sleep, Caden was happy for the first time in days.

With that behind him, a few days went by and finally a ship with the course involving Shimotsuki Village appeared.

On the same day he was boarding it, his money also was processed. He got a big check from the marines, which he took with a smile and hidden in his pants.

After saying goodbye to the last few people who were waiting for their ship, Caden left for his destination again.

It didn't take him too long, only around a week. They stopped by some bigger islands on the way. In one of them, Caden went and opened a bank account.

Who would have thought that banks existed here? Anyway, it was supported by the World Government, so it seemed pretty legit.

After showing the beautiful attendant the check he got, she smiled and happily processed it, moving the money into his account.

Seeing all that money she tried to flirt with him a bit, but he didn't respond romantically, treating her like a normal friend. Noticing it not working, she gave up and proceeded with his requests.

One of them was to withdraw 500,000 berry. After getting the money, he left and went back to the ship.

Although he took so much money, it all fit into a single bag not much bigger than a woman's handbag. It was mostly thanks to the fact that berries have banknotes going up to 10,000. With that being the case, he was only holding 50 small papers.

Being glad that money is so convenient here, he waited for the ship to sail again.

The seven days went by and he finally arrived at the village.

~2159 words