The warehouse really wasn’t a suitable place for conversation, so the group moved to the deck. At this mont, the appearance of the thief was fully revealed before Sherwin eyes.
Hmm, she was definitely a beauty.
She looked older than Sherwin, probably in her twenties, and quite tall—about the sa height as him.
Her tall and slender figure, combined with a black won suit in the distinct style of the West Blue, made her already fair skin stand out even more.
Her jet-black hair was tied into a high ponytail, giving her a sharp and capable appearance. Most importantly, her figure was seriously wow...
But won in the world of pirates tended to have wow-worthy figures anyway—especially those who hadn’t yet fallen victim to the "Oda curse." Even if they weren’t particularly pretty, their figures could still hold their own.
"My na is Ottilia, a maid of the Buono family." After a brief self-introduction, Ottilia explained why she was here.
"The Capone and Simtern families suddenly launched an attack on the Buono family residence.
I escaped during the chaos. To avoid being captured by them, I hid on this ship... Not long after I escaped, I heard that the owner of this ship had given the Capone family a serious loss.
I figured hiding here would be safe—those people wouldn’t dare co search it."
"Um... could you take in? I’m very capable." Ottilia bowed and pleaded, "I don’t want to fall back into the hands of the mafia!"
"Sherwin-nii, why don’t we help her, ow? This big sister looks so pitiful, ow."
Although Klee ow had tried (rather unconvincingly) to scare Ottilia earlier, that was only because she had mistaken her for a thief. Deep down, Klee ow was a kind and innocent good child.
But Sherwin wasn’t as easy to fool as the little ragdoll. Rubbing his chin, he questioned, "If you’re just a maid, why would the Capone family go to such lengths to catch you? Sure, you’re pretty, but not enough for them to go all out hunting you down."
"That because..." Ottilia bit her lip and replied, "I overheard a secret. The Buono family downfall is partly related to that secret."
"Oh?"
Sherwin raised an eyebrow, a bit suspicious... Could it really be such a coincidence? Could it have sothing to do with Uncle Cody identity?
Before he could ask Ottilia for confirmation, she spoke up on her own. "This secret involves your previous employer and is tied to several powerful forces... Are you sure you want to hear it?"
So it really is...
Sherwin clicked his tongue out of habit, then nodded.
He hadn’t originally intended to dig into Uncle Cody identity, but now that the secret was right in front of him, he naturally wanted to satisfy his curiosity.
Besides...
He glanced at the two Felynes, whose ears were already perked up high.
Even if he didn’t want to listen, the two curious cats probably wouldn’t agree to let it go.
"Well then..." Ottilia took a few deep breaths before solemnly saying,
"The Buono family has been trying to turn Gules into a mber nation, and the key figure in their plan is that rchant nad Cody. His real identity is an agent of CP4, a secret espionage unit directly under the World Governnt."
"Huh?!"
Now Sherwin was truly shocked—Uncle Cody always acted like a kind old man. He didn’t look like a secret agent at all...
Wait, Rob Lucci and the others were also trusted companions of the Water 7 shipwrights before their identities were exposed.
While Sherwin was reeling from the revelation about Uncle Cody, Klee ow, who was being held in his arms, began smacking his nose with her tiny paws in protest. "Sherwin-nii, what an agent, ow? Hurry up and explain it to Klee, ow!"
"An agent, huh..." Sherwin snapped out of it and tried to explain in a way Klee ow could understand. "It kind of like Kabuto Yakushi."
"Ah! So Uncle Cody is a bad guy, ow?!"
"Well, how should I put it... Even though these agents often do shady things, they are technically part of the official organization. So calling them good or bad isn’t really that straightforward."
Sherwin scratched his head in frustration, unsure how to explain sothing this complicated to the innocent Klee ow.
From the perspective of what CP agents had done, they definitely weren’t the good guys—but officially, from the standpoint of the ruling powers, they were considered part of the "justice" side, even if that "justice" had long since been twisted.
"What there to explain, ow? Uncle Cody an agent, but that got nothing to do with us, ow." As usual, Sanji ow saw straight to the heart of the matter and said bluntly,
"Aren’t we heading to the East Blue next, ow? We might never even see him again."
"True." Sherwin patted Klee ow fuzzy head in agreent. "It not really our business anyway. Besides, he treated us pretty well before, so there no need to overthink it."
Klee ow nodded her head in half-understanding, then obediently tossed the matter aside.
Although Uncle Cody true identity was hard for Sherwin to wrap his head around, it did explain why Buono John and Capone Bege had treated him the way they did.
However, there was still one question Sherwin couldn’t figure out...
"Do CP agents really have the power to influence the World Governnt decisions?"
"That, I’m not sure about," Ottilia shook her head.
"I only overheard their conversation. Before that, I didn’t even know what CP agents were."
Uh... well, that made sense. The CP organization always worked in the shadows. Let alone a civilian like Ottilia—even the royalty of minor nations, if they weren’t high-ranking enough, might not even know such an organization existed.
After figuring out the origin of the "thief" and also learning Uncle Cody secret, Sherwin scratched his head and said to Odelia,
"There no problem with letting you stay for now. But as you just heard, we’ll be on the move constantly, which doesn’t make it very suitable to keep you with us the whole ti.
Still, I don’t intend to change my voyage, so once we reach a suitable island, how about we let you disembark there?"
Although Capone Bege would one day beco one of the five major mafia bosses in West Blue, Sherwin didn’t think he’d rember an insignificant maid for long.
So long as Odelia didn’t deliberately draw attention to herself, the Capone family likely wouldn’t bother to co looking for her.
"Of course, no problem! Thank you so much!" Odelia bowed repeatedly in excitent, then added,
"Back when I was with the Buono family, I also received so combat training. And I’m fairly well-versed in navigation too. I’m quite familiar with the nearby seas, so I definitely won’t hold you back."
She actually that capable... Sherwin even briefly considered keeping Odelia on the ship. But in the end, he gave up on the idea.
The main reason Sherwin gave up on keeping such a competent beauty aboard was because... they had too many secrets on them.
Even things like spatial equipnt were a minor issue—he could still pass that off as so kind of Devil Fruit ability.
There were all kinds of bizarre items like Sky Shells on the Grand Line, after all. But when it ca to summoning a new Felyne, he couldn’t possibly be hiding from Odelia every single ti, could he?
Although, thinking back to when Klee ow was first summoned, maybe he didn’t need to completely avoid her? Still, there were just too many unpredictable variables.
Another issue was that eventually, they were bound to head for the Grand Line. Although Odelia claid to have undergone so combat training, the Buono family had already been wiped out—just how strong could a re maid be? She’d be better off living as an ordinary person in West Blue in peace...
While it true that even ordinary people in this world live under constant threat, it was still far safer than the Grand Line. Worst case, he could send Odelia to Uncle Cody hotown—under the protection of the Marines and a CP agent, she probably wouldn’t face any more danger.
Besides, Odelia identity was sowhat questionable too. Rather than a maid, Sherwin suspected she might be an important mber of the Buono family. He wasn’t afraid of the Capone family coming after them for revenge—he just wasn’t interested in sheltering a mafia mber.
Most crucially... it was obvious that she had no intention of following him around forever.
So Sherwin smiled at Odelia and said, "Then, welco aboard the Felyne Investigation Team—for now."
(So clever readers already guessed that Cody is CP. Also, of course I know that CP agents are just lapdogs of the Celestial Dragons. Most CPs don’t have the authority to influence the World Governnt. That’ll be explained in the upcoming plot, don’t worry.)
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