Chapter 1217: Is Kaidou a Fool or a Bastard?

The fighting fish in the water are dangerous, but not impossible to deal with; Diamante’s reputation is still quite high today.

Seeing Diamante fall into the water, many soldiers of the Donquixote family jumped in and, under alternating cover, rescued Diamante from the water, preventing this devil fruit user from drowning to the bottom.

“Mr. Diamante has been defeated! His previous battle instead became a cloak for others, which is really a pity. The unnamed old man Ledfield and the cursed princess Rebecca ultimately advanced. The competition in Zone C is about to start, so please don’t worry.”

Although there was a chorus of boos from the audience, who were very dissatisfied with Rebecca’s advancement, Gatz still loudly announced this result, which had become a fact.

Had it not been for Rebecca being so unpopular here, Gatz might have congratulated her.

Though Rebecca’s advancement was decided by Redfield, she also showcased her Backwater Sword Dance in the previous fight, not getting injured by anyone nor injuring anyone else from start to finish.

This was enough to earn the respect of Gatz, the host.

And precisely because of Rebecca’s fighting style, in this arena that revered blood, Rebecca became an anomaly. The audience, who originally came to see killing, was very dissatisfied with this, indirectly causing Rebecca’s reputation to further decline.

Even though Rebecca had grown accustomed to curses and insults, she still felt uncomfortable hearing those voices, but not this time.

[Helping you to take down Doflamingo is not out of the question either…]

The playful battle, easily overpowering Diamante in seconds, made Rebecca realize that the words earlier were not mere jests; the old man before her truly had that ability.

“Let’s go. What are you standing there in a daze for? Since I said the ones advancing are you and me, then it won’t be anyone else. Let’s leave the place for the younger ones; any matters can be dealt with afterward.”

“Old man, who exactly are you?”

“Who am I? Just an old man abandoned by the times. You can call me Led. But decades ago, the Sea knew me as Redfield.”

Redfield detected a hint of desire from Rebecca’s heart; earlier, it could be understood as disbelief, so she had no thoughts. Redfield was curious to see what change would occur in Rebecca after witnessing his prowess.

However, from Redfield, it was certain that from Rebecca’s inner thoughts, she didn’t recognize him, making such allegiance much less effective.

…

“No… Impossible, that guy is… that guy is Redfield; how could that Lone Red come to participate in such a competition!”

Apart from the audience stands, on the prep seats one could also see the battle on the field; besides Marco and Katakuri, there was another person of broad experience—Buggy.

For Rebecca, a young princess who hadn’t heard of the Red Earl’s name, it was different for Buggy.

“Lone Red? Captain Buggy, what’s that?”

“That’s when I was an intern on Captain Roger’s ship. Even back then, he had interactions with Captain Roger and Uncle Rayleigh; a very troublesome monster…”

The threat that Redfield posed was unique; being solitary without a large fleet wouldn’t trigger large-scale battles, yet his carefree actions without attachments frustrated the World Government.

Buggy still remembers that when the Oro Jackson encountered the Red Earl, there was a brief skirmish between the Red Earl and Roger, but it wasn’t long before they announced a ceasefire.

Additionally, the Red Earl briefly participated in a feast on the ship. Though he only chatted with Roger for a few moments and had a drink, he disappeared without a trace, leaving no sign afterward.

Just one look made Buggy feel as if he had no secrets in front of the other party, which left a deep impression of Redfield in his memory.

“Maybe withdrawing from the competition is the best… Hey! What are you doing?!”

Watching his subordinate toss a stack of documents into the registration box, Buggy’s eyes immediately widened.

“Ah, sorry, Captain Buggy. I got too excited. This sort of thing should be done by you personally.”

“Yeah, yeah, after all, you’re the one challenging legends, but with the number of legendary characters you mentioned, like the Pirate King, Dark King Rayleigh, and the Lone Red, I got too excited and just threw them in.”

The Bullfighting Arena didn’t enforce compulsory participation. If he wanted to, Buggy could choose to run away, but the problem was that doing so would mean losing face.

At this moment, he perfectly demonstrated what it meant to save face at the expense of suffering, having no choice but to prepare for the battle.

Meanwhile, after the competitions in Zone A and Zone B concluded one after the other, Yamato and her group wrapped up their rough journey in Dressrosa and arrived at the Bullfighting Arena.

When they arrived, they happened to witness the end of the competition and saw Redfield’s final strike.

“This old man is so strong. That move must’ve had the power of about two or three Thunderous Hakke, right? Looks like this competition is more interesting than I thought. This way, it’ll be easier to deal with that damn old man when I get back.”

Most contestants wished for the participants to be weaker, but Yamato was an exception. Only if the quality of this competition was high enough could she better complete her mission.

Simply thrashing weaklings, even if she secured the Quake-Quake Fruit, would likely just be seen by Kaidou as a pretext for special training.

“You’re actually feeling smug after defeating those weaklings, it seems you’ve already fallen!”

Yamato could imagine Kaidou saying these words while swinging the Hassaikai with force.

If we can make it into big news, maybe we can rest for a couple of days.

“No, I don’t think there’s any difference.”

It wasn’t Robin who refuted Yamato, but Ulti.

“My dear daughter, it seems you’ve grown stronger again. Let’s practice anew, Thundering Hakken!”

Ulti pinched her throat to mimic Kaidou’s tone, then threw a punch at Yamato.

The height difference caused Ulti’s punch to land only on Yamato’s belly; while it didn’t hurt Yamato, it shattered her dreams.

“Damn, can’t reality stop crushing me?! Can’t I deceive myself just a little?!”

“It’s useless, that idiot Kaidou won’t let you go, you know that.”

Besides Yamato, Ulti is one of the few who dared to call Kaidou names directly, but Kaidou’s reaction varies.

He doesn’t care about Ulti, the child of an old friend, but for Yamato, he always finds a way to enforce his ‘education.’

“He’s not an idiot; he’s a jerk!”

“Is there a difference? Whether idiot or jerk, he’ll always find a reason to beat you.”

The usually triumphant tsundere faced defeat and it was Robin who ended their pointless argument, as her cunning nature topped the hierarchy of control.

“Alright, here are the main contestants for this tournament worth paying attention to, take a look.”

During Ulti and Yamato’s playful scuffle, Robin wasn’t idle either; numerous arms donned with eyes appeared in hidden corners of the Bullfighting Arena, thanks to Robin using her Flower-Flower Fruit to scout the enemy’s situation.

“As for that old fellow… he should be a major opponent, Red Earl Redfield, a pirate from Roger’s era. Honestly, if he were a few years younger, even Kaidou might be interested in him.”

Though it seemed cruel to say, even if they added Speed and Sorlithia, comparing six people’s intelligence to Robin’s might still fall short.

Robin had a deeper impression of these known strong figures; through Redfield’s umbrella pattern, she quickly identified him.

Then she briefly explained his background to Yamato, reshaping the shattered dreams caused by Ulti.

“Alright, it’s decided. Just need to fight a good match in the finals, and that’ll keep things peaceful for a few days.”

“I still think you should master your internal power soon. Given your current situation, unless you completely defeat Kaidou, or reach a level that satisfies Lord Arceus, you can only delay the inevitable.”

“That’s not so easy; godfather’s behavior has been weird these years, sometimes lax, sometimes stricter than that jerk father. Reshiram is hard to communicate with too, sigh, it’s tough.”

While Yamato lamented her challenging future, Speed and the others completed their task.

“Young lady, it’s done, you’re in group H, Lord Ulti and Lord Page One are in group G, and the three of us are in group E. If today’s matches maintain this pace, it won’t take long for our turn.”

Entering as spectators, Yamato and the others didn’t attract much attention from the crowd, as everyone’s focus was on the contestants; Redfield and Diamante’s attacks had just destroyed half the arena, newly rebuilt through Pika’s abilities.

Diamante’s failure was unexpected for the Donquixote Clan; Doflamingo was busy handling Law-related affairs, leaving his officers to deal with the result and initiate plan B.

No chance to obtain the fruit themselves, they’ll hand it to the Hundred Beasts, minimizing losses as allies.

This is why Speed and her team were split into three groups, maximizing advancement probability.

Among the promotion zones, only Katakuri noticed Yamato’s arrival; he had seen Robin’s scouting arms earlier and traced them to their source.

“Hundred Beasts’ Ghost Princess… this tournament is more complex than I expected…”

BIG MOM and Hundred Beasts don’t have a true alliance; their fragile relationship is as thin as paper, sharing tea when there are no conflict points, but no one would voluntarily give up when valuable interests are at stake.

Katakuri didn’t know Redfield’s current strength, merely considering him an aged opponent, thinking he could manage with delays.

To Katakuri, the young Yamato poses a greater threat than the aging Redfield.

“That young girl is worth your attention? Charlotte Linlin’s son?”