Chapter 109: Mischia Asie!

Asa, who had been sleeping, felt a small animal nibbling at him. Its baby teeth hadn't fully grown, so it wasn't doing much damage.

Too lazy to move his hands, Asa continued sleeping soundly, unfazed by the disturbance.

After a while, someone gave him a hard shove and whispered into his ear, trying to wake him up…

"Hiss…"

Asa inhaled sharply and opened his eyes, only to feel sore all over. It was clearly the result of overexertion—his body completely drained.

"Huh? What the hell is this place?" He was startled upon opening his eyes, thinking he had been captured again. But after taking a closer look, he realized he was in a cave filled with the scent of wild animals.

"Are you awake?"

A mellow voice from a middle-aged man rang in his ears. Asa shook his head and turned toward the voice.

At that moment, he nearly threw a punch on reflex—standing in front of him was a dinosaur roughly his size. But upon closer inspection, the outer "skin" had been patched multiple times—clearly man-made—and the voice...

"What are you…?"

Asa frowned. Then, it all came rushing back. Mischia Asier—the man who discovered pure gold—had been swallowed by Alchemy and trapped inside the lantern fish's body, hunted by dinosaurs within the massive beast's gut.

He had lived as a fake "dinosaur" for over two hundred years.

"How rude!" Mischia Asier said, slowly removing the dinosaur costume.

He had a chubby face, a round body, long unkempt blond hair, and worn-out clothes.

You could vaguely recognize the once-handsome features under his now bloated appearance—an unfortunate result of two centuries spent eating only dinosaur meat and suffering from malnutrition.

"I don't know what happened to Mr. Lantern a couple of days ago. He started rolling around like crazy—I think he ran into some Sea Kings out there. That's probably when you got swallowed, right?" Mischia Asier scratched his head, asking curiously.

"You saved me? How long was I out?" Asa raised an eyebrow and asked in surprise, ignoring the question.

"Thanks in advance for saving me from being corroded by stomach acid!"

As he spoke, he twisted his sore neck and slowly stood up.

"Hahaha! I should be the one thanking you. I haven't talked to another human in nearly two hundred years! Spending all day with these dinosaurs almost made me forget I'm still a handsome human being—hahaha!" Asier laughed, scratching his chubby cheek in amusement.

"You were unconscious for about half a day. But actually, it wasn't me who saved you—it was the dinosaurs!"

He pointed toward the group of dinosaurs outside the cave.

When drastic environmental changes don't lead to instant death, life finds a way to adapt—evolving to survive in new conditions.

The pirate world is full of miracles, so it's not surprising that two hundred years was enough for them to adjust.

Having lived in the lantern fish's stomach for generations, the dinosaurs had long adapted to its highly acidic environment. That's how they were able to find Asa in the acid ocean and bring him back as potential food.

"So, my saviors were those dinosaurs?" Asa rubbed his belly, momentarily speechless.

If not for them, he might've been captured by Vice Admiral Tsuru or Akainu and thrown back into Impel Down.

"I was planning to fill my belly, but I guess... I'll let you guys live a little longer, hahahaha!" Asa looked at the little dinosaurs playing outside the cave and laughed.

After his battle with Garp, he'd lost track of time. It could've been a day or two—or three to five days. But now that the energy sealing him in Impel Down had dissipated, he felt more at ease than ever. His decisions now came entirely from his own will.

"Your name's Mischia Asier, right?"

Asa stretched a couple of times, trying to ease the soreness in his muscles. Pushing his body to the limit hadn't been pleasant.

"How do you know that?" Asier was stunned. "I mean, sure, I was famous—but that was over a hundred years ago! Does anyone still remember me? And... my appearance now is just depressing."

Once hailed as a successful and attractive scientist, time had certainly wielded its butcher's knife on him.

"No matter what you look like, as long as pure gold isn't lost to history, your name will be remembered. I also happened to meet a little girl named Mischia Olga."

Asa glanced at him, speaking casually.

Pure gold—an object that should never have existed—was found by Asa purely by chance. This proved just how deep Asier's understanding of metal truly ran.

Someone like him should be working alongside Vegapunk, crafting seastone weapons or building Pacifist bodies of steel.

It wasn't surprising that Asa knew about pure gold—two hundred years ago, the discovery had shocked the world like a magnitude-18 earthquake. Everyone, from the World Government to the pirates, had tried to seize it. His wife had been killed in the chaos.

"Olga... Olga is my daughter. She's alive?! Where is she now?" Asier's body trembled with emotion upon hearing the name he had never forgotten. His eyes welled with tears as he grabbed Asa's hand tightly.

Two hundred years apart—and then, suddenly, hope.

A stench of rot wafted toward Asa's nose.

"She's…"

Asa pushed him away, wrinkling his nose. Focusing his mind, he instantly located Olga.

At that moment, Olga—riding the green lizard dragon Elizabeth—was resting behind a stone in the lantern fish's second stomach. She had no idea that Vice Admiral Tsuru had been tailing her for days.

"She's in stomach No. 2 of your big ol' Lantern! Now that I've told you that... I'm just letting you know, I won't hesitate to take the pure gold from Alchemy in stomach No. 3!"

"If you want that cursed thing, go ahead and take it. But please... please bring my daughter back to me!" Asier pleaded, moving with difficulty.

Over the centuries, his legs had mostly atrophied. He could manage short distances, but long treks were out of the question.

"Bring your daughter here... that's not impossible."

Asa pondered for a moment. A scientist like this was a rare treasure—it would be a waste to leave him behind.

Once he claimed territory in the New World, he could use a metal-savvy scientist like Asier to develop his island and manipulate electromagnetic forces more efficiently.

"I'll bring your daughter here. But once I do, you're leaving the lantern fish and working for me. Deal?"

Asa asked with a calm smile.

(End Of Chapter)

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