"I see."
After hearing Conis's explanation, Kalifa secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Although this was only Conis's side of the story, judging by her demeanor, Kalifa found herself inexplicably willing to believe her.
"Let me ask you something first. You have a diary too, right?"
Raki nodded. "That's right. I do."
Kalifa nodded as well, then summoned her voyage diary copy.
"As expected. You have one too."
Conis smiled. "That means we can talk freely without having to worry about anything."
"Can we really?"
Kalifa raised a hand to her chest. Even though some time had passed, she still remembered the terrifying palpitation she had felt when she tried to talk about the diary copies earlier.
Conis immediately understood what was worrying her.
"Don't worry, Miss Kalifa. Captain is having dinner with Mayor Iceburg right now. We can talk about anything related to the diaries without any problems."
"That's right. More importantly, can you tell us where you stand? As a CP9 agent, are you still on the side of the Marines and the World Government, or are you planning to abandon them after seeing what happened to us?"
"Do you really need to ask? I have no intention of continuing to work for the World Government. Since you both have diary copies, you should know that the World Government will betray me in the future."
Conis and Raki nodded slightly.
That was precisely why they were willing to have this conversation with Kalifa.
Just as Ain had wanted to leave the Marines and seek power aboard Arton's ship after learning about Zephyr's future, Kalifa had also seen her own future. There was every possibility she might choose to board Arton's ship as well.
"That's great."
Conis clasped her hands together, delighted.
Arton clearly cared about Kalifa, and if Kalifa herself was willing to join them, that could only be a good thing.
"Don't celebrate just yet, Conis. We still don't know whether Miss Kalifa sincerely wants to join us."
Raki's expression turned serious. As a warrior, she wasn't about to trust Kalifa based solely on a few words.
"If you don't believe me, I can offer myself to Arton. That should be enough to convince you, shouldn't it?"
Kalifa pointed at herself with a completely serious expression.
"Wow. That's quite the resolve. Do you like Captain?"
Raki crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"No. My feelings for him are nothing more than ordinary."
"Still, the fact that he can make us stronger is something I genuinely like about him."
Kalifa pushed up her glasses.
"That's a surprisingly sincere answer."
Raki smiled. For some reason, she found herself liking Kalifa a little more.
"Then may I approach Arton and offer myself to him?"
Kalifa was quite confident in her own charms. As long as she could make contact with Arton, she believed he would inevitably succumb to her allure.
Once that happened, joining Arton's crew would practically be a done deal.
...
Chapter 813: A Distracted Captain Can't Write in His Diary
Kalifa's eyes lit up as she began imagining herself obtaining a mold from Arton, gaining tremendous power, and slaughtering enemies left and right.
The more she pictured it, the more she wanted to join Arton's crew.
"Even if you put it that way, getting Arton to accept you won't be easy."
Raki shook her head.
"Why? In the works he drew with me as the model, he clearly likes doing intimate things with me. Why would you think he wouldn't accept me?"
From Kalifa's perspective, the fact that Arton had drawn those kinds of scenes with her in his derivative works meant he obviously fantasized about her.
If she was now willing to deliver herself straight to his doorstep, why would Arton refuse?
"Do you remember Gion? What happened after she first found Arton?"
Kalifa fell silent.
When Gion first found Arton, she had very much wanted to invite him over and had even planned to seduce him herself.
Arton, however, had suspected her motives and simply ignored her while she wasn't paying attention.
Although Arton ultimately hadn't completely gotten rid of Gion, that was enough to show that throwing herself at him might not work.
At the end of the day, Arton was an extremely cautious man.
Even if he had once been very fond of someone, when he actually met that person, he wouldn't necessarily treat her the way he had before.
Kalifa knew exactly what her own identity meant. She was a CP9 agent, and Arton would probably be just as wary of her as he had been of Gion.
If that was the case, simply offering herself to him wouldn't work either.
"What am I supposed to do, then? Do you have any way to get Arton to accept me?"
Kalifa bit her thumb, unable to think of a good solution herself.
"Even after everything you've said, we don't really have one either..."
Raki sighed and scratched her head.
Clearly, she couldn't come up with anything particularly good at the moment.
"What if... after Captain deals with Spandam, Kalifa joins us?"
Conis suddenly spoke up.
"What? You're planning to deal with that idiot Spandam? Wait—are you going to Enies Lobby to capture him?"
Kalifa's eyes widened in shock.
"That's right. There's no harm in telling you. Captain went there to rescue Hina, and he happened to run into Spandam while Spandam was trying to humiliate her. So Captain brought him back too, and he plans to deal with him on Enies Lobby."
Raki nodded.
"Something like that actually happened? I didn't hear a single thing about it."
Kalifa stared at the two women in astonishment.
From what she knew about Arton, if he had gone to Enies Lobby, he should have written about it in his diary. And something as significant as rescuing Hina and capturing Spandam was even more likely to end up recorded there.
Yet her diary copy hadn't shown so much as a hint of it.
Kalifa could only conclude that Arton's companions had been keeping him distracted whenever he tried to write, using their own charms to draw his attention away.
Everyone knew that once Arton got distracted, there was very little chance he would open his voyage diary and start writing.
...
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