Chapter 153
"Wait—fine, we'll talk about the money—but what's the deal with paying off debts using my weapon?"
Whitebeard quickly protested.
Of course, Cong Yunqie meant a lot to him.
A supreme-grade blade like that? Its importance couldn't even be measured.
Kairos Flint, however, replied casually, "It's the spoils of war."
That sentence alone made Whitebeard speechless.
Spoils of war—a simple phrase, yet it carried all the weight of their situation.
The victor takes all.
And the victor… wasn't him.
"How can a supreme-grade sword only be worth 100 million beli?! That kind of weapon should start at a billion, at least!"
Whitebeard gritted his teeth. He had already been handed a 10 billion beli tab by this younger man.
Even if he used Cong Yunqie to pay off some of it, he'd still be massively in debt.
"One billion? Fine. One billion it is," Kairos shrugged. "That means you still owe me nine billion more. So, when do you plan on paying it?"
As the question dropped, a strange silence washed over the crowd.
Marco and the others exchanged glances—then slowly turned their eyes to Whitebeard.
"Dad… how much is left in your private vault?" Marco finally asked.
Even if the crew pitched in to help pay, they'd first need to know whether their captain would allow it.
After all, if people heard the infamous Whitebeard was relying on his sons to bail him out, he'd be a laughingstock.
Still, if their captain truly didn't have the funds, they wouldn't hesitate to help him.
Whitebeard raised a hand and slowly extended a single finger.
Seeing that, Marco and the others frowned.
"Only 100 million?" Marco muttered.
Compared to the 9 billion they still needed, that was a mere drop in the ocean.
Which meant the rest… would have to come from them.
But—
"Not 100 million—10 million beli," Whitebeard corrected them with a sigh.
Marco and the others visibly deflated.
They had expected their father to have some reserves tucked away.
But only ten million?
That was disappointing, to say the least.
"Let's all pool what we've got," Marco suggested. "I've got 800 million saved. What about the rest of you?"
As the eldest son of the crew, Marco spent freely—but he still managed to save a decent amount.
One by one, the others began to speak up.
"I've got 200 million."
"I've got 150 million."
"300 million here."
"…"
Soon, the crew had calculated a rough estimate.
Altogether, the captains managed to gather 3.01 billion beli.
Still far from the 9 billion they owed.
"Can we get some time to gather the rest?" Marco asked, stepping forward.
Kairos Flint raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously? The Whitebeard Pirates—one of the Yonko crews—can't even put together 10 billion beli?"
He sounded almost disappointed.
Marco and the others turned slightly red from embarrassment.
Kairos continued, "Well… since you clearly can't gather that much cash, I'm willing to give you a chance."
"I mean, I'm a bounty hunter. I make money by turning pirates in to the Navy."
"So, let's do it this way. You owe me 9 billion. Go out and catch pirates with bounties totaling that amount—and deliver them to me."
"Oh, and just to be clear—I want them alive. No corpses."
With that, Kairos laid his plan bare.
Rather than waste his own time hunting down high-value pirates, why not let the Whitebeard Pirates do it for him?
After all, with their strength, it'd be much faster and far more efficient.
For Kairos, the payoff wasn't just in the bounty—each captured pirate also meant potential ability crystals.
Like the one he had just handed over to Whitebeard earlier.
He could earn that back in no time—probably even double or triple his investment.
After all, pirates with bounties in the hundreds of millions usually had powers comparable to Navy Admirals.
Killing them almost always dropped multiple crystals.
If you gathered enough of those pirates, their combined value could match or surpass even the Whitebeard Pirates.
That's why Kairos saw them as a gold mine—ripe for the harvesting.
And with the right bait…
There was no doubt Whitebeard and his crew would move.
Just wait until he presented them with a new target.
At that point, the Whitebeard Pirates would become his very own scythe, harvesting bounties across the sea.
Whitebeard, Marco, and the others were briefly stunned by the proposal.
On one hand, it was incredibly generous.
On the other—it was weird.
Still, Kairos was a bounty hunter. Wanting to exchange pirates for money made sense.
But the "alive only" condition?
That was rare.
Normally, the World Government accepted corpses or heads for bounty collection.
"Alright," Whitebeard finally agreed.
As difficult as it would be to raise 9 billion beli in cash, if they could repay the debt this way, it was more than acceptable.
After all, letting his sons foot the bill would've damaged his pride.
"By the way," Kairos added suddenly.
He unsheathed his Third-Generation Ghost Blade, flashed behind Whitebeard, and swung.
"What are you doing?!"
Marco and the others shouted, panicked, thinking Kairos was betraying them—planning to kill their captain after all.
But halfway through their shouts, their words froze.
Because in their view…
Whitebeard stood perfectly still. Unharmed.
Except for one thing.
His iconic crescent-shaped white mustache—was now completely gone, sliced clean off and lying on the ground.
Whitebeard's signature look… vanished in an instant.