He could tell that this fellow truly didn't know where the samurai was being held, nor did he know the location of the SMILE factory.
"Makes sense. It's normal for a small-fry errand boy like this not to know where the factory is," Merry said, nodding.
The manager: ???
Being called that by a little brat made him feel very unpleasant.
However, out of fear of Luffy and the other two, he didn't dare say anything useless, simply lowering his head honestly.
"This is a problem," Luffy said. "To think even their own comrades don't know these things."
"Then this guy probably won't know where the Diamond-Diamond Fruit is hidden either," Franky said, rubbing his head. "Looks like we'll have to find someone truly in charge."
"You're here for the Diamond-Diamond Fruit?" the manager suddenly spoke up.
"Oh?"
"You know where the Diamond-Diamond Fruit is?"
Franky immediately looked interested. If this guy knew where the Diamond-Diamond Fruit was, it would mean one of their objectives for this mission was as good as finished.
"Who wouldn't know about that?" the manager grinned. "After all, that thing is the final prize at the Bull Colosseum today!"
"Bull Colosseum?"
Several question marks popped up over Luffy's head. What was that?
Franky was also somewhat puzzled. What colosseum?
Seeing the confused looks on their faces, Meiser asked, "Did I not tell you guys about the colosseum before?"
He remembered Ace mentioning it to him. Had he not brought it up when he was chatting with Luffy and the others later?
"No."
Meiser: ...
Fine, perhaps time had been too tight then, so he had missed it.
"Forget it, that's not important now."
Franky shook his head, then fixed his gaze on the manager and continued, "Tell us where that colosseum is."
"Over there."
The manager turned and pointed to a massive building in the distance. "That is our Bull Colosseum."
"This colosseum is a staple of our Dressrosa; there are matches almost every day."
"But today is a special event, so there will be quite a lot of participants."
"And the officers you're looking for will also be heading there today."
Although he didn't know who these people were, since they asked, he might as well tell them about the Diamond-Diamond Fruit. This way, he would be fulfilling the task assigned by the Young Master.
As for these people?
Heh, whether they lived or died was none of his business.
"Bull Colosseum..."
Meiser turned his head to look at the building the man pointed to, narrowing his eyes as he said, "Is the Devil Fruit Ace wants hidden there?"
Earlier, he had been thinking that if he could find the location of the Devil Fruit ahead of time, he wouldn't participate in that duel tournament.
But now it seemed it wouldn't be that simple.
Makes sense. If the location of this Devil Fruit could be found so easily, Doflamingo's plan wouldn't be so easy to implement, Meiser thought to himself.
However, upon hearing Meiser's words, the manager's expression changed instantly.
"Who exactly are you people?"
Why did they mention Fire Fist Ace's name?
Could they be Fire Fist Ace's men?
If that were the case, he might be silenced to keep the secret!
"It seems you're being dishonest, fellow," Franky said with a cold sneer, looking at the manager. "Are you intentionally hiding something? Speak!"
This time, the manager didn't speak, his face looking grim as he stared at them.
"Speaking of which..." Meiser suddenly spoke up. "You didn't seem very afraid of that Marine just now."
He remembered that when it was mentioned that the man might be a Marine Admiral, this man hadn't shown any sign of fear.
This was clearly illogical!
After all, Doflamingo was no longer one of the Royal Seven Warlords of the Sea. Under normal circumstances, they should be afraid. But based on this man's performance, there was clearly something wrong with him.
"How... how could that be?" The manager averted his eyes and said, "I'm actually quite scared, because..."
"..."
"That way of lying is really..."
Watching the manager struggle to come up with an excuse, Meiser didn't even know how to criticize him for a moment.
How stupid would one have to be to be fooled by this?
"Oh, so you weren't lying to us!" Luffy said.
Meiser: ...
Fine, he had indeed overestimated this guy's brains.
After a speechless complaint in his heart, Meiser turned and placed Merry on the ground.
Then he said, "Luffy, you can't even see through something this simple. Your brain really is..."
"Hey, Meiser, talking like that will expose us!"
"Huh?"
"Do you think saying that won't expose us?" Meiser rolled his eyes.
That was true, but Meiser wasn't very worried. After all... from the very beginning, he had no intention of letting this guy go.
Listening to the two men talk to each other, the manager's face turned green.
What did he just hear?
Luffy?
Was it that Straw Hat Luffy?
Then what about this "Meiser" the Straw Hat Boy was calling?
Meiser?
Blood-Eyed Ninja Meiser?
Ōtsutsuki Meiser?
In other words... this legendary man wasn't dead!
Thinking of this, the manager's pupils shrank to their limit, his heart filled with horror.
Then, he remembered something—the Young Master seemed to be quite interested in this Blood-Eyed Ninja!
Thinking of this, he thought: If I can tell the Young Master this news, he will surely reward me!
Realizing this, the manager suddenly became excited.
Without hesitation, he turned and ran toward the distance, clearly intending to get away first.
This move immediately caught the attention of the group.
"Trying to escape?" Merry said. "That won't do!"
With that, she raised her hand and unleashed the power of wind, easily pinning the man to the ground.
This change also made the manager realize one thing—he wouldn't be able to leave this place alive.
In this moment, fear suppressed his greed.
"Everyone, could you spare my life?" the manager said with a grim face. "I definitely won't tell anyone what I heard today."
To this, the group only snorted, not answering the question.
Clearly, they didn't believe a word he said.
Seeing their attitude, the manager immediately shouted, "Someone save me! The Blood-Eyed Ninja is alive! He's still alive!"
"Someone, help!"
But to his despair, no one on the street more than ten meters away heard his cries, as if the sound couldn't travel out at all.
This made the manager feel utterly hopeless.
"Don't waste your energy," Merry said. "I won't let your voice carry out."
Realizing what he intended to do, Merry had already used the wind to seal off the surrounding space.
This way, even if he wanted to shout, it was impossible to reach anyone.
"How could you possibly do something like this?!" the manager cried out in terror.
"The power of wind indeed can't completely seal off sound, but it can make it extremely quiet," Merry explained. "This way, even if someone hears something, they'll just think they misheard."
Furthermore, they were more than ten meters away from the street, so it was normal for no one to hear the sounds here clearly.
The manager: ...
In other words, he was truly dead this time?
Dying pointlessly without even being able to pass on the information...
Thinking of this, the manager felt despair.
"Merry, bring him over," Meiser said.
"Okay!"
Understanding what Meiser wanted to do, Merry immediately used the wind to bring the manager over, placing him in front of Meiser.
Meiser took off his sunglasses and looked at the manager calmly, saying, "Come, look into my eyes."
Hearing Meiser's words, the man subconsciously looked up at him, and a thought surfaced.
Are these the eyes of the legendary Blood-Eyed Ninja?
No wonder he has such a title...
With that thought, the manager lost consciousness.
"Now, we ask, you answer."
"Yes."
The manager became very obedient, his expression somewhat wooden.
"Do you really not know where the samurai is being held?" Meiser asked.
"I don't know."
The manager shook his head and said, "What I said before was the truth. I wasn't the one who led the capture of the samurai, so I don't know where he was taken."
The subsequent imprisonment wasn't his responsibility either, so he was unaware of the location.
Hearing the manager's words, Franky showed an "as expected" expression.
It seemed his previous assessment was correct; the man hadn't been lying before.
Meiser didn't seem surprised either, continuing his questioning, "Then what about the factory?"
"I haven't heard of any factory in our Dressrosa."
"Looks like this guy really doesn't know," Luffy said, scratching his head.
"It's normal for a small fry like him not to know," Franky said. "After all, this matter is very important to Doflamingo."
According to Law, the SMILE factory was where the Artificial Devil Fruits were made—a place that absolutely could not be easily exposed.
So it was normal that very few people in the Donquixote Family knew about it.
"Then I suspect the people managing the factory have been the same group from start to finish," Meiser said, stroking his chin. "This would minimize the risk of the factory's location being exposed."
It seemed Doflamingo was even more cautious than he had imagined.
"It's fine, we'll find it sooner or later," Franky said.
With their abilities, they would find the factory's location eventually, so Franky wasn't in a rush.
Meiser nodded, then continued asking, "Then do you know where the Diamond-Diamond Fruit is?"
"I'm not sure," the manager said, shaking his head. "But I suspect that Devil Fruit is in the colosseum."
"Oh?"
Franky raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why do you say that?"
"Isn't it normal for the prize to be kept inside the colosseum?" the manager said. "After all, today is the date of the competition."
Franky was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "That makes sense."
Although he didn't know when the competition would start, since it was the prize for the tournament, it was logical for it to be kept in the colosseum.
Then, Franky turned to Meiser and continued, "Then don't we have to go into that colosseum and take a look?"
As soon as he said this, Luffy immediately looked interested and said, "I want to participate in the colosseum!"
If he could win the championship, he could seize the Devil Fruit that Ace wanted!
"But this clearly looks like a trap," Merry said worriedly.
She even suspected that Doflamingo had already stationed people at the colosseum to wait for them.
"I know, but we must get that Devil Fruit," Luffy said.
This was something they had promised Ace; naturally, they had to keep their word.
Merry pursed her lips upon hearing this. That was true, but they couldn't just walk into the trap exactly as the opponent intended.
Thinking of this, Merry turned to look at Meiser.
Meiser stared at the manager for a while, then asked, "Did your Young Master say anything else?"
"Yes."
The manager nodded and said, "The Young Master once instructed that if we encounter unfamiliar faces, we should find a way to leak information about the colosseum."
"Of course, that includes the relationship between the Diamond-Diamond Fruit and Fire Fist Ace."
Hearing this, Franky suddenly showed a look of surprise. There was such a thing?
Meiser said somewhat helplessly, "In other words, even if we hadn't mentioned it to you, you would have found a way to tell us the information?"
"Not necessarily."
The manager shook his head and said, "Although the Young Master did give those instructions, I found the Straw Hat Boy very annoying, so I planned to kill you all."
His previous thought was that this group didn't look like strong individuals, so he might as well finish them off.
After all... who told them to cross him.
What he hadn't expected was that before he could even move, he would be defeated by that blind person.
"What?"
Merry looked at the manager with dissatisfaction and said, "Clearly you were the ones doing something wrong, why would you try to deal with us?"
"Little girl, you're too naive," the manager said seriously. "In a place like ours, how could we possibly reason with you?"
This Straw Hat Boy had come out of nowhere to ruin their business; how could they just let it go?
So it was perfectly normal to have the idea of dealing with them.
Merry fell silent. She now understood what Meiser and Franky meant by their words earlier.
The other party indeed had no intention of being reasonable from the beginning.
Thinking of this, Merry showed an expression of disgust, clearly detesting these bad guys.
Seeing this, Meiser rubbed the little girl's head and said, "Merry, the evil in this world is even more than you imagine."
This time, the little girl only nodded and didn't say anything else.
Just as Meiser had once said, she still had much to learn.
So... take it slow.