“Brother Mandrell, haven’t you figured out what to do yet?”
Jack looked at the worried Mandrell and asked. This has been happening frequently since the end of that day’s battle.
Although he was still learning Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu from Hack, he was full of energy. In Jack’s eyes, Hack’s intense training seemed as relaxing as holidaying.
Regardless of the combat skills, stamina was the most crucial, and his stamina has been honed by Kaido to be exceptionally robust.
Moreover, he now has a bit of what Yamato enjoyed in her childhood, although it was somewhat limited compared to Yamato’s unlimited supply.
With the trained physique, coupled with Copperajah’s enhancement, his body was now similar to Zoan Users. Even without transforming, his ability has a certain enhancement on the body, making his physique much stronger than that of some adult Fish-Men.
So, he cut straight to the point. However, due to his living environment, he was currently experiencing water currents to gradually learn how to use them. [TN: Author has written this paragraph without context, so i don’t understand what is happening here.]
“Jack, this is an adult matter, you won’t understand. Since you’ve grown up among so many girls, you probably won’t understand this dilemma.”
After evolving, Mandrell freed himself from the awkward situation of having subordinates much taller than himself. However, it wasn’t too awkward, as many things within the Beasts Pirates showed a polarized state.
The same applies to height. With Kaido at the helm, King and others were towering figures beyond the average, while there were also slightly shorter members led by Zeraora and Olga.
The genetics in this world were strange, so unless in specific situations, no one cares about height issues.
Jack had also never given this issue much thought, but he didn’t consider growing up among so many girls as a joyful experience.
Hardly anyone could understand his emotions when he saw Page One.
“Phew, alright Jack, wait for me here. What will happen, will happen.”
Saying this, he ruffled Jack’s hair, then knocked on the door, bent down, and entered the house. He believed that Jack had a unique charm with women and intended to borrow some of his luck.
“Kaido II?”
In the house, looking at the newspaper brought over by Mandrell, Rusalka looked at his title in confusion.
“Is Kaido your father?”
She isn’t very interested in the outside world’s news, so she wasn’t familiar with what was going on among the humans. Many Fish-Men and Merfolk were like this. Although they are not as isolated from the world as Zou Island, their contact with the outside world is still quite rare.
Many children didn’t even understand what land was, what humans were, so their perception of humans depended on what they had seen with their own eyes. This was also a reason why many of them harbored resentment towards humans.
Otohime’s daily speeches were aimed to educate Fish-Men children about humans and the situation on land.
“No, I don’t know why the World Government came up with this title. Kaido is the Governor-General of my pirate crew, uh, that is, the captain.”
He had already told her that he was a pirate. Because of the Whitebeard Pirates, Fishman Island’s attitude towards pirates wasn’t as hostile.
“Captain… like Uncle Whitebeard?”
“Yeah, but the Governor-General is definitely stronger than Whitebeard. He’s definitely the one who will become the Pirate King.”
Considering Whitebeard’s current status on Fishman Island, he didn’t say much more, but he firmly believed that Kaido wouldn’t lose to Whitebeard.
All the current emperor’s crews had this kind of personality cult, or rather, most pirates had this belief in their captain. The title of Pirate King was the goal for many pirates when they first set sail.
However, whether it changes in the course of their journey is uncertain.
Speaking halfway till here, Mandrell suddenly stopped. This seemed strange to Rusalka. In the past, he couldn’t shut his mouth at all, so this silence was quite unusual.
After a moment of silence, Mandrell finally decided to get straight to the point.
“Alright, Rusalka, I’m sorry. There’s something I’ve been lying to you about.”
Saying this, Mandrell flipped a page of the newspaper, showing a comparison between his human appearance and his appearance when using his ability.
“Actually, I’m a human.”
As he spoke, the blue scales on his body gradually faded away, his figure shrinking, finally returning to his real form.
However, Rusalka’s reaction was completely different from what he expected. She didn’t get angry or anything; instead, she burst into laughter.
“Haha, you finally admit it?”
“You knew all along?!”
“I can’t really say I knew. I just felt something was off. You told me you were from the Fish-Man District, and a few years later, you became a pirate, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“But you don’t have any basic knowledge about Fish-Man. Although I’m not familiar with the Fish-Man District, Fish-Men who grew up there shouldn’t be completely ignorant.”
Initially, Mandrell would only meet her when passing by Fishman Island, and he always brought some novel things from the land, so there were no issues.
But as Mandrell stayed on Fishman Island for a long time, their time together increased, and some inconsistencies began to surface.
“From that time, I began to feel you weren’t a Fish-Man. But I could sense your kindness back then. I just wanted to see when you’d tell me the truth.”
This statement from Rusalka also had a bit of a falsehood. The truth was, she had dropped various hints to him. If he were a Fish-Man, even a block of wood would have understood her intentions, but Mandrell didn’t understand anything.
This was similar to humans not understanding the meaning of Mink’s Garchu. Zeraora had learned about Mink’s habits bit by bit from Setsuna.
Back then, Setsuna was very young, and Minks are also naive, so she didn’t discover any problem.
But Rusalka was different. In a sense, Mandrell, who didn’t know what to say, put off his love life for a while.
“I…you.”
“You used to be quite talkative. Why can’t you speak now? When you asked about my views on humans, didn’t I tell you?”
“Although I don’t really like them, I am not particularly hostile towards them either. Anyway… are you a devil fruit user? Why can you swim then?”
This was also why Rusalka didn’t confront him directly. She had suspected that Mandrell wasn’t a Fish-Man, but she wasn’t certain, and the main reason was his ability.
Fishman Island is not as isolated as Wano Country, where people are not even aware of what devil fruit users are. In fact, there are many people here who have eaten devil fruits and do not know that they are devil fruit users.
Therefore, the fact that Mandrell could swim shattered Rusalka’s preconceived notions.
“Oh, this is the divine power of that Lord. Let me explain…”
As Mandrell began to promote the Arceus Cult, Jack, who was outside, witnessed the passage of time. This talkative Mandrell was completely different from the one he knew.
While he waited in boredom, a royal procession appeared outside.
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