Before Nereus could finish speaking, Nanamo had already opened the bundle.
Countless gold coins and all kinds of things immediately piled up across the nearby beach, glittering even under the dim moonlight.
For someone with a money-grubber personality, even counting money could bring a different kind of joy; bank employees being the exception.
When an interest turns into a job, as time goes on, that interest may gradually become a burden.
"So… so much treasures…"
"Of course there's a lot. This is the result of contributions from the entire world's affiliated nations; it's almost the power of the world.
Don't forget to check those chests. I hear each one is worth a billion Berries."
"A billion?! Don't worry, Dad, I won't miss a single coin!"
Nereus wasn't worried about Nanamo doing anything strange. Although under certain circumstances she might pad the accounts a bit, like when she made Kaido reimburse pub funds, this was an internal activity, and she wouldn't screw over her own people.
"Don't rush into counting just yet, there's one more thing."
Seeing Nanamo rubbing her hands together, ready to dive into the sea of gold to check the treasures, Nereus pulled her back and shifted her focus to three other boxes.
Compared to the billion-Berry treasure chests, these boxes looked much more exquisite, immediately catching Nanamo's attention.
By common sense, something so luxurious couldn't possibly contain anything ordinary.
"What are these?"
"Devil Fruits. This one is the Bird-Bird Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Model: Phoenix. The other two aren't confirmed yet, but I can say for sure they're very high-quality Devil Fruits."
Aside from the Phoenix Fruit, which resembles a flaming pineapple, one of the remaining fruits looked like a pair of cherries, with two fruits on a single stem; similar in appearance to the Love-Love Fruit.
Their colors, however, were one black and one blue, with patterns resembling waves.
The last fruit looked like a banana with bizarre coloring. Nereus did have a rubbing copy of the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia on hand, but it wasn't complete, and neither of these two fruits were recorded in it.
"Nope, I still want to swim. You can't expect me to try making a waterproof membrane outside my body with acid, Dad. Our abilities aren't the same."
Her reason for refusing was similar to Sebastian's. For Fish-Men, giving up the ability to swim in exchange for a Devil Fruit ability really did take a lot of courage.
"But if you absolutely insist on giving me one, Dad, it's not completely impossible…"
"These aren't for auction. Even with money, you might not be able to buy fruits like these. If you're not interested, let's store them for now and take them out when there's someone suitable."
"Heehee… Princess, your little scheme's already been seen through…"
"Big Pan, stop laughing for now. The things I told you to practice before I left. How's that going?"
At those words, Big Pan suddenly clamped his hands over his mouth, as if trying to pretend he didn't exist, but that was completely useless.
Nanamo snapped her fingers, and Hermes immediately understood what she meant, promptly adjusting the internal spotlights and shining all the light onto Big Pan.
"Boss… it's too hard… I'm still practicing…"
"Keep at it. I've already taught you all the techniques you need. If you still can't learn it, then I'll have no choice but to punish you by making you learn how to read."
"?!"
Hearing that, Big Pan shuddered all over and immediately ran to the shallow bay to start practicing.
What Nereus wanted him to learn was none other than his own waterproof membrane technique.
Because Big Pan was a loach-fish giant, his body surface could also produce mucus, though it differed greatly from Nereus's.
The mucus produced by Big Pan's body focused more on slipperiness, to the point that—like a low-grade version of the Slip-Slip Fruit—it could cause attacks that hit him to slide right off.
Precisely because of this ability, Nereus had him practice that technique.
As for learning to read…
Among the officers, Big Pan was the youngest. When Nereus first picked him up in the outer seas, Big Pan was still a silly kid, and Nereus had taught him many things himself.
He was fairly decent in combat, but when it came to education…
Simply put, no matter what Big Pan did, he could never shake Nereus's position, but by his own power alone, he could ruin Nereus' reputation in the education world.
Making Big Pan learn to read was more painful for Big Pan than killing him, and over time Nereus gave up on it; having one more illiterate person didn't really matter much.
By now, it had become a punishment method used specifically against Big Pan.
The next day, after a brief rest, Nereus and the others boarded their ships again. Along with them, quite a few people who had come out of God Valley also boarded the two large vessels, planning to head to the island Nereus had mentioned.
Dragon and a small number of others stayed behind. Dragon still wanted to return to Headquarters. There were some things he wanted to go back and ask about face to face.
As for the rest, they had their own considerations.
The medium-sized warship was left to Dragon. After Nereus's shipwrights inspected it upon returning, they found the keel had suffered some minor damage. Sailing in the Four Seas would be fine, but entering the Grand Line would not be suitable.
In any case, Nereus's group wasn't used to handling a medium warship, so they simply left it to Dragon, and the two groups set off in different directions.
Because of the terrain, traveling from West Blue to South Blue required crossing the Red Line. Nereus and the others had to first return to the New World, pass by Fish-Man Island, and only then could they reach South Blue smoothly.
Several days later, while Nereus was still en route, a News Coo suddenly flew onto the ship.
As birds specialized in delivering newspapers, these birds were widely distributed across all seas except the Calm Belt, and could usually deliver newspapers to all parts of the world at the earliest possible time.
Now that the God Valley Incident has been over for several days, its aftermath has begun to unfold, with various news reports constantly emerging in the newspapers.
Recently, a newspaper called World Economy News Paper had begun to rise to prominence.
Although the name of the newspaper seemed intimidating, it was originally just an obscure local tabloid, and its president was none other than Morgans.
Earlier, he had received intelligence sent out by Ginny from a Marine transport ship, and then passed that information along to Fullalead Island.
News itself is all about timeliness. Relying on the lead provided by this intelligence, Morgans successfully made his newspaper famous across the world.
As for the content of the paper… it contained a large amount of fabrication, which was nothing unusual. Every time, the World Government would spend a huge sum of money to have newspapers report altered versions of events.
And in today's paper, Nereus saw a rather interesting article.
[The Lone Wolf Returns In Triumph! Unknown Recruit Single-Handedly Recaptures a Warship! Headquarters Shocked!]
Marine photographers were, as always, incredibly capable, always managing to capture all kinds of unbelievable photos in all kinds of places.
For example, the warship battered by the flames of war and the soldier in tattered clothes formed a compelling composition in the newspaper, provided one ignored the extremely awful expression of the person involved—Dragon.
Please support on pat*eon for extra chapters; there is date to date subscription enabled on patreon. [There is a 7-day trial version availabe on patreon.]
https://www.pat*eon.com/dmtranslations
You can read ahead upto 20 chapters on my pa*reon.