Chapter 48 - Discussion (1/2)

When Elene and the rest made it up to the ship by the help of the whitebeard crew, they started noticing how everybody on the deck was eying them with a scared look on their faces. But it was not overly visible, it was just that they were highly perceptive and noticed it.

One of the crew of Whitebeard, stepped up to show them to a room they can stay in inside the ship.

Elene and co shared a look. All of them had puzzled looks on their faces due to the weird sequences of events.

"So this is how the strongest pirate in the world crew is?" Bert muttered to himself as he followed the rest inside. He no longer hid himself in a cloak as Ian had told him that he has no reason to hide anymore. And since he believed in his captain he did as he said, besides it didn't feel bad for him that his captain cared about him.

Robin was just beside him, and she too was taking a look at the whitebeard crew while staying silent.

"But doesn't it feel like they are scared of us, Are you sure they are under the same 'Whitebeard' I know of?" Stella responded skeptically. After all their nervousness was pretty obvious for her.

"Hey now, that is not a nice thing to say." Bert admonished her softly. Even if he felt things were wrong too. But he sure knew how to give respect to them, unlike Stella who spoke in a voice the other side could actually hear.

"Bert is right Stella, you should show some respect to them even if a bit." Elene too added after him as they finally reached the room and started relaxing in it.

"I think it has something to do with Ian." Robin said, finally entering the conversation. The way the crew were behaving suggested to her that Ian had done something perhaps. But she didn't dwell on it much as it was not really important.

Elene gave a short nod too.

"Mn, most likely, Yeah" Elene said. It was due to that, that she admonished Stella earlier. Since the whitebeard crew were probably intimidated by Ian, it didn't give her and the rest the right to look down on them for that. After all she knew how strong Ian was.

"Hmph!" Stella just gave a short snort, as they reprimanded her. But to herself she understood what her bigger sisters were saying.

Meanwhile the rest of whitebeard's crew who were still on the deck finally understood Ian's threat since all his crew except the one Mink guy were stunningly gorgeous females. They all shared the same thought.

'So that's what he meant'

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Back to Ian.

He was led to a room big enough to fit the massive frame of whitebeard quite easily. Since whitebeard was about to explain things up, Ian couldn't help but tremble from anticipation.

He had been waiting for this ever since he got to know about it. And now the one person who possibly knows about it is going to explain, he just couldn't wait for it.

"Brat, that name, how did you know about it?" Whitebeard after he sat nearby on the single bed in the room, turned to Ian as he asked him, going straight to business.

"Like I told you before, I don't know. All I know is that a voice, containing massive power and authority spoke in my head and said somethings, along with saying that I should deliver a message. I have told you what it said already." Ian replied after a few seconds of contemplation.

"Then what else did this voice say?" The way he said the words, told Ian that he believed him and that he quite possibly knew the voice's owner.

Still he looked at the two other staying in the room, and wondered if he should say such things just like that.

"If you are afraid they would spread things up then don't be. My sons are trustworthy." He said with a tinge of pride oozing out of him. And following that his two 'sons' puffed their chests in pride.

After a few seconds of silence, Ian finally sighed as he spoke in details.

"It said, that a danger high enough to destroy the world is nearing us. It told me that 'they' had been waiting for someone like me to help them. Then when its voice was fading off, it spoke its last words to me, the exact words being to seek you for answers and deliver the message." Ian mixed in some lies as well, after all nobody needs to know that Ian is not from this world originally.

"Hmm…" Whitebeard closed his eyes as thought things through in his head.

After what felt like an hour, but was only a couple minutes in truth, whitebeard finally opened his eyes.

"The diávoloi. I'm sure you were left wondering what it is or rather what they are. I'll tell you. But first of all, Marco, Jozu, I need you to keep what you hear here in this room to yourselves my sons." Whitebeard said to Ian before he addressed his son's at the end.

When they nodded he finally said.

"I know of them as being 'three', absolutely horrendous malevolent devils full of malice and cruelty." He finally said.

Ian was quite surprised, although he prepared himself beforehand that the diávoloi would end up being a race or some sort of evil beast, he was still surprised in the end. Especially since they didn't exist in the original manga and anime. And three at that.

"Back in the days, that same voice you spoke about had spoken something similar to Roger. He then came to me and told me about them and we joined hands to take care of them. We got the help of that voice and had gotten a bit stronger. So we were overly confident in ourselves. This was after all in the days when we were in our peak conditions. The prime of our strengths. But unfortunately reality proved otherwise." He spoke with a tone filled with pride before sighing bitterly at the end.

"Each one of us went on to hunt one. And let me tell you even as I had gotten even stronger than before, it still took everything out of me to just dispose of that particular diávoloi. Later when Roger and I regrouped, I found out that he went through the same process and difficulty too. As such we decided that we will not underestimate the third one, and joined hands as we searched for him until we found him. But in the end we still almost lost our lives fighting him. He was in fact some sort of leader to the other two, and with the strength we saw with our own eyes, it was quite understandable" Whitebeard spoke with hazy eyes as if he was remembering the very things he was speaking about.

"Then, you would be wondering, why the voice said that they are awakening right?" Whitebeard addressed Ian after a bit of silence and reminiscing.